Using Tineye.com

If you have images on your site and you are concerned that someone else is using them, tineye.com is a service that you can use to search the Web for your images. When you’re ready to use Tineye, you simply upload the photo that you want to check to the service. At that point, Tineye convert your picture into a type of digital fingerprint that it can use to search through photos. It currently has a database of over 700 million photos that are featured online. It searches through its database and then determines if your photo is found anywhere else online.

One of the cool features of the service is that it not only finds images that are exact copies of yours, but it also finds images that were yours originally and have been altered in some way. For example, if someone crops the photo and adds some text to it to make it different, Tineye can still find the photo online.

Protecting Your Images

If you are interested in Protecting the images that you put on your site, there are a number of different tools that you can use. For example, you could use DMCA as a tool to put watermarks on your pictures. This way, you can easily identify the photos that are yours, even if they are altered in some way. DMCA also makes it possible for you to mask the image URL so that someone else cannot access it.

Another tool that you can use to protect your website images is CatchLock. CatchLock is a service that makes it possible to put a watermark or a digital stamp on your pictures. If you use a digital stamp on your images, you can make it so small that you can’t see any difference in the picture unless you zoom in. This means that your images will look normal, but if it came down to it, you could tell if a picture was yours or not.

When using this service, you simply put a piece of code on your website and the pictures on your site will then be transmitted through the CatchLock server before they are made visible to viewers. This means that your images will be protected on another server before they go to the viewer. You only have to pay on a per-stamp basis instead of paying so much per month.

Duplicate Content

If you are not that worried about someone ripping off your photos and other content, you should be concerned about the implications of duplicate content. When search engines see duplicate content, they will discount all of the sites that have it except the original one. In some cases, the search engine may not be able to ascertain the source of the original content. This could hurt your chances of ranking highly in the search engines. Because of this, you should spend some time figuring out if people are stealing your content and then make every effort to protect it.

Richard, a writer, WordPress webmaster and SEO consultant. Currently working for http://www.newyorkstatedivorce.com. Always looking for new ways to improve himself, on business and personal plans.

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But working from home comes with fantastic responsibility.  People who understand this may find much success and personal enjoyment.  For those looking to improve their work-from-home practices, we talked with Meredith Haberfeld from the Institute for Coaching and had her help us compile 5 great tips to help the stay-at-home employee remain productive, efficient, and happy.

• Make sure you have a clean dedicated space for work

It’s easy to just lie in bed or lounge on the couch with your laptop, but research shows that individuals who do this are consistently less productive than those who do not.  Reasons that could lead to this may stem from the relaxed mindset that an employee may have starting and continuing their work day in this fashion.

Furthermore, it’s important to have clear boundaries when working from home.  For instance, if you have children, they should know that when you are at work, you should not be disturbed unless there is a very important reason.  This can aid in keeping interruptions to a minimum.

• Dress as if you are going to the office

For very similar reasons as making sure you have a dedicated workspace, it’s very important to not go to work in your pajamas or lounging clothes.  Putting yourself into work mode and dressing as such can lead to increased productivity.

However, we are not suggesting that it is necessary to wear your best suit in your house. One of the perks of working at home is that you shouldn’t have to do this.  Just wearing something business casual or whatever is relevant to your industry each day can increase your effectiveness substantially.

• Follow a set schedule

It’s actually very easy to get caught in a lull either from not working enough or from working too much if you don’t follow a set schedule.  Keeping an organized schedule helps you understand when you should be working and when you shouldn’t.

Furthermore, make sure that when you are not supposed to be working you don’t.  For instance, when you get up in the morning, do what you would normally do before going to the office.  If that means working out, eating breakfast, or taking a shower, do it.  Getting up and going straight to work can lead to a lower quality of life and in turn, can affect your productivity.

Finally, you should track your productivity/efficiency during your schedule.  For instance, do you work better in the morning or evening?  Do you work better from home or at a café?  Find out where you are at your best and create your schedule accordingly.

• Keep a task list that you will follow

Make sure that you have a list of tasks that you plan on getting to throughout the day.  This will help you meet deadlines, keep focused, and remember important calls/meetings.  Make sure to mark off when you do complete items.

By keeping this list, studies show that you are more apt to do what you put down in writing.  Thus, this should be a daily task to follow.

• Maintain your diet
  

This item is a bit more obscure, but it’s much easier to eat anything you want when working from home.  Individuals who work from home have a tendency to eat less desirable food and eat more frequently.  Maintaining unhealthy practices can lead to obesity, depression, and have an impact on your work and personal life.

With these few tips, we hope that you find working from home a more productive and enjoyable experience!

Michael Molligi is representative from the Institute for Coaching.

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If creating smart, engaging content on topics that will get your visitors excited is important to you, take in these five ways to create buzz-worthy content that will earn traffic before you make your next post:

1. Is Your Topic Trending?

Focusing your writing efforts on topics that are of current interest to readers generally is an excellent way to begin your efforts! Keeping your niche in mind, identify topics that are currently making the rounds on search engines and social media platforms, narrow down your selection using tools like Twitter and Google Insight and prepare to get down to the nitty gritty of writing.

Here’s the example search for “Megan Fox plastic surgery” which, as you can see, gives you lots of great ideas to guest post about:

2. Be Compelling

No matter what topic you choose to write about, your writing style itself should help you to stand out from the crowd. Reporting on stale news or rehashing an opinion found in every corner of the world wide web are sure ways to bore readers; instead, focus on making your piece one that stands out from your competitors by being unique in tone, opinion and delivery. So long as you are being sincere, don’t shy away from strongly-worded rants and other provocative methods – you’ll find that readers appreciate and respond best to pieces that strike a nerve in them, whether they personally find it an agreeable one or not.

3. Make Your Content Keyword-Rich

Pleasing your readers is one thing; pleasing search engines like Google and friends is another!

If you’re using Google Insight to inspire yourself to write on article-worthy topics, you’ll also find that it gives you an excellent overview of exactly what words and terms people have been searching for. No matter how you identify your focus keywords, be sure that they appear throughout your article, making appearances in strategic spots like headings, all in an effort to attract the attention of the most important traffic source your website will ever know: search engines.

4. Be Engaging

Being provocative, whether in topic or tone, is an excellent way to engage your readers from the moment they visit your site but that effort must continue throughout your piece in order to achieve maximum results. Use your piece as a means of starting a conversation by asking a question, seeking opinions or simply being so one-sided on a given issue that readers with differing opinions cannot possibly resist leaving a reply.

Remember also that a clean, smooth and fully functional commenting system is required if you’re hoping to see on-page feedback from readers. While most modern blogging platforms offer this out of the box, it’s always worth reviewing every facet of your engagement strategy in order to get the most out of every reader.

5. Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Whether you’re the type of writer who finds themselves inspired over and over throughout each day or the type who sometimes has to fight to make each word stick, becoming known as a blogger who posts new, high-quality content on a regular basis is imperative if you’re interested in engaged subscribers. Follow these tips to continuously create new, buzz-worthy content for your visitors and reap the well-earned rewards of being a blogger with a compelling edge!

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Whether you’re new to the realm of small business or an old hand looking to build onto an already impressive toolkit, check out these eight free resources for small business education and training:

1. Visit Your Local Chamber of Commerce

Throughout much of the world, local Chambers of Commerce exist to help small business owners to grow and succeed and a wealth of resources can be found there. Benefits of membership include networking events intended to bring local entrepreneurs together, legal backing if disputes rear their ugly head, a head’s up on local marketing programs and more, all controlled by you and your fellow businesspeople from the community.

2. Open Forum by American Express

Filled with articles that offer teachings and guidance on making the most of every aspect of your small business, the Open Forum by American Express is a website boasting more insight than you could possibly find time to implement.

3. Study to Become a Certified Public Accountant

There is no mind better suited to crunch the numbers pertaining to your business than you and obtaining the credentials necessary to delve into your finances with ease and comfort isn’t as difficult as you may think! The Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination is offered throughout the United States, allowing you to tackle not only your financial statements and taxes, but those of others if a profitable opportunity presents itself!

Fast Forward Academy offers some indepth material and cpa study to make it easier for you to get certified.

4. Inc Magazine

With both a paid print edition and a free online home supported by advertisements, Inc Magazine is the ultimate destination for reading material aimed at taking any small business to new levels of success. With articles aimed at real-life, easily implemented solutions to everyday problems, Inc stands as an unbeatable resource among entrepreneurs and small business owners.

5. SCORE

Operating most prominently in the United States but available to business owners from many other regions of the world as well, SCORE is a non-profit organization aimed at helping startups and small businesses succeed through training, continued education and a unique and highly lauded mentorship program that aims to brings those in need to those with answers and guidance.

6. More Business

The More Business website offers small business owners free resources including legal and insurance forms, tax and financial advice and examples and question and answer opportunities, all alongside a wealth of valuable information.

7. Small Business News From Small Business Brief

Staying up-to-date on the latest goings-on in your industry in particular and the business world in general can easily mean the difference between staying on the cutting edge or falling behind and one excellent source for news and updates from the world of small business is Small Business Brief. News stories are complemented by interestingly written idea pieces and tutorials in order to give any small business owner a well-rounded resource.

8. Small Business Wiki

Offering the ultimate in collaboration between small business owners with the goal of educating one and all, the Small Business Wiki presents visitors with access to news, tutorials, guides, forms, tips and tricks and much more, all in an environment that allows you to give back with content additions of your own! Local business groups and directories can also be found here, giving you the ability to more easily seek out resources and networking opportunities in your particular area.

Image Credit: 1.
cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo shared by Dave Dugdale

However, working from home can also mean sitting in a chair that’s really not meant for working in or lounging on the couch instead of sitting upright. No matter where you’re sitting, a long day at a computer can cause back pain and distract you from you work.

Our spines move in three planes: side to side (frontal plane), forward and back (sagittal plane), and twisting side to side (transverse plane). When we sit at a desk blogging all day, we only use the sagittal plane. Therefore all day without doing any other physical activity is not healthy for you.

However, by doing a few quick and easy stretches each day in each plane, you can loosen up your tight back muscles and get back to your blogging.

In this article, I will show you a few moves every blogger can do to prevent weight gain, stretch muscles, and be mentally more productive.

Low Back

Your lower back is the muscles around the lower part of your spine. Bad posture or poor sitting while you blog can cause these muscles to wear out.

Here is what you can do: Stand up with your feet about as wide as your hips. Slowly bend forward with a slight bend in your knees. Men tend to have tighter hips than women, so if you find you can’t reach down very far, bend deeper into your knees.

Grab for opposite elbows and gently sway side to side. Hold for 5-10 deep breaths. This will help release your low back and send blood to your brain, leaving you energized and refreshed.

Now sit in your chair and spread your legs as wide as you comfortably can. Bend forward and touch the floor. Hold for 5-10 deep breaths.

Mid Back

Stand with your feet a little wider than your hips. Place your left hand on your left hip and reach your right arm out to the side at shoulder height. Reach your extended arm out as far as you can, bending at your waist.

Hold for five breaths and come back up to standing. Bring your right arm to your right hip and extend your left arm out. Bend sideways and reach out as far as you can. Hold for five breaths, then come back up to standing.

Upper Back

This includes your neck and shoulder muscles. That’s where most of your stress accumulates. Neck muscles also get tense by bending your head in front of your laptop.

Here is what you can do: Stand a few inches in front of a doorframe. Grab the opposite side of the frame with your hands and slowly lean back. This will open up your shoulder blades and upper back. Take 5-10 deep breaths.

Sit upright on the edge of your chair and clasp your hands behind your back. Touch your chin to your chest and roll your shoulders forward, opening your upper back. Take 5-10 deep breaths.

Make sure you use big monitors at eye level and avoid the use of laptops or iPADs when you blog for many hours a day. This will prevent bending of your head and stiff necks.

Jane blogs mainly about blogging but also love to write about blogger fitness.

Being a part time blogger, Jane loves to write about blogger health. If you are a blogger with health concerns, coupon code Medifast and Nutrisystem codes will certainly help you save some bucks on your health plans. You can also find similar great discounts at www.weightlossdiets4women.com.

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There are many ways that social media can be used to increase the reach of your business. This is one of the easiest ways to not only reach your present customers but also the prospects all over the globe.

Presently Face book, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube are the most commonly used social media sites. It is very easy to source the origin of the clicks you are getting with these social networking sites. Creating a profile/page and updating it with useful information and facts can do the trick for you, giving you an edge over your competitors.

Here are some ways that social media can be used for business:

1. Quick Feedbacks – With social media you can get quick feedbacks from your customers. Getting quick feedbacks can also help a business change its strategies as per its customers need. You can also ask the followers to comment on what they think of a particular product or invite suggestion for the ways to improve operations.
2. Generate Demand – With the use of social media; you can generate demand for a product before it is launched in the market, by highlighting its key features on the various sites.
3. Updating Customers – Social media is also a good way to keep the customers updated on the latest happenings and occurrences in the organization.
4. Offer Discounts – To increase your following on the various social media sites, you can offer deals and discounts for those buying through these sources.
5. Get Clients – Social media is a great way to build new clients. With many businesses and individuals using these sources, you have all your chances to get the ones who would be interested in your business.
6. Help you Build Links – This is one of the best advantages that social media offers.
7. Know About the Competition – If your competitors are using social media, you can watch their steps and plan your strategies accordingly.
8. Publicity – Social media is also used to get publicity. Press releases and giving news to bloggers can get you publicity that you could have never imagined of.
9. Get Employees – LinkedIn is one of the best sources to get competent and qualified employees. You can get a fair bit of idea about the candidate as well as the candidate can also look through your profile for the better understanding of your business.
10. Watch Trends – With social media, you can also watch the latest trends going on in the industry. You can check out what is generating the demand and where. Some tools are available for the purpose.

Social media is the need of the hour. The possibilities and the challenges of social media are needed to be studied to remain profitable as well as to be in line with the ever increasing social world.

Abhishek Khandelwal is a SEO consultant and article writer. He offers his services to a number of clients offering products and services such as portable buildings, IT Consulting etc.

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1. Create a “Hire Me” page

This is a page that you must create in order to attract clients for your service. If you don’t create this page, people won’t know whether you are providing any service or not. In your “Hire Me” page, the information that you should provide includes your name, your expertise, your past works, and your sample works. You can also include pricing if you want fixed price for your service, but you can always negotiate the price with your clients later. Make your “Hire Me” page as professional as possible.

2. Post good content related with your service

If you are a website designer, be sure to create good content related with website design and post it regularly to your blog. You want people to know that you are an expert or at least have good experience with website design. So, by writing content related with your service, you are adding more trust to your service. People will be more attracted to hire you if you can show them that you know about your stuff.

3. Showcase your sample works

Sample works is important to persuade potential clients to consider you as their partner. It is better for you to create separate page to show your sample works to your potential clients. You can also give your potential clients free sample for your service. This will be better for you. With sample works, your potential clients will see the quality of your work and make proper decision.

4. Display testimonials in your sidebar

It is better for you to display testimonials from your past clients in your blog sidebar to motivate other people to use your service. This is something that most service providers don’t do. Testimonials will make your service more interesting. So, don’t forget to put your clients’ testimonials in your blog. The sidebar area in your blog is the best place for your testimonials because it is an area that people usually see. In this case, you are exposing the “goodness” of your service in proper place.

5. Build mailing list

Do not let your past clients disappear from your business. That’s why you need to create mailing for your service. Create two separate mailing lists. First, you will create mailing list for people who are interested with your service. Second, you will create mailing list for your clients. For the first mailing list, you can send relevant content as well as discounts and special deals. For the second mailing list, you can remind your past clients to re-use your service again or offer them a discount for the next use of your service.

Those are 5 tips that you can follow to advertise your service on your blog effectively. If you have a service that you would like to offer to your audience, the best way to advertise it is to build a blog. Then, you will advertise your service on your blog. You can follow the tips above to effectively attract your clients.

Denis Bitson is a freelance writer that likes to cover everything related to internet marketing. He also contributes to carinsurancecomparison.org where you will be able to compare various insurance policies.

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All is not lost however, with a number of big players in the insurance world choosing to find out what benefits social media can reap.

Below we look at three insurance and social media success stories.

American Family Insurance & YouTube

To this date, YouTube has been viewed as primarily an entertainment tool. Yet this overlooks what YouTube actually is: a search engine dedicated to video. For this reason, YouTube stands to be far more than just an outlet to watch badly made home videos; used correctly it can be a powerful advertising and marketing tool too.

Increasing numbers of businesses are catching onto the level of social engagement that is achievable through video, and the insurance sector is no exception.

American Family Insurance; providers of products in auto, business, home, and life, are no strangers to the YouTube for business phenomenon.

Having utilised YouTube’s promoted videos (a facility very similar to Google’s AdWords) the company sought to see what benefits an established social media agency could bring to the table.

Teaming up with media and marketing experts Mindshare, American Family Insurance sought to increase their viewer base and subscribers to their YouTube channel.

How they did it:

First and foremost, Mindshare set about establishing what people were searching for on YouTube, and how they were locating the insurance firms’ existing video library.

Unsurprisingly, general terms such as ‘car insurance’ or ‘health insurance’ turned out to be largely fruitless. The key appeared to lie with more controversial topic terms such as ‘identity theft’.

Next, Mindshare sought to redirect people from an individual video’s page to American Family Insurance’s YouTube Channel. This meant that rather than watching a solitary video and then heading elsewhere, viewers were more inclined to watch further videos, subscribe to the channel or further investigate the products available from the firm.

Lastly, Mindshare utilised YouTube Insights to find out how and where from people were viewing their client’s videos. The conclusion was that many people watched via their mobile phone – something that will be taken into consideration in the future.

The result:

• Between October 2010 and January 2011 the number of video views the insurance firm’s channel received catapulted from 5,967 to 44,467.
• American Family Insurance were able to reach potential customers earlier in the decision making stage – vital considering the size and market share of some of their competition.

Allstate Insurance

Also having made the successful leap onto the social media for business bandwagon is car insurance specialists Allstate Insurance.

With the help of Allstate’s in house marketing manager, Marcia Hansen, the firm set about targeting the social media market using a number of avenues including:

• The launch of a spin-off site, Vehicle Vibes. Edited by Marcia herself the site incorporates tips on car repair and maintenance along with a number of social features including videos, games and quizzes.
• The release of a series of car maintenance videos to be featured on Vehicle Vibes.
• The launch of Vehicle Vibes radio station to include topical radio shows, all kept online for on-demand listening.
• The introduction of a Twitter and Facebook page.

To ensure the success of their venture into social media, the company ensured to state their approach with absolute transparency. They were to:

• Aim for the publication of only ‘remarkable’ content.
• Take an informal approach to video.
• Mix up the content by branching out into other popular topics.
• Make it simple, but professional.

Farmers Insurance

Playing on their name and the history of the firm, Farmers Insurance embraced the power of social media gaming by partnering up with the ultra-successful Zynga game, Farmville.

Why would this benefit them?

Like many, Farmers first thought that the largest demographic of Farmville players were teenagers – certainly not the company’s target market. However, a bit more research revealed that it is in fact stay-at-home moms who have embraced virtual farming the most.

The stay-at-home mother was found to often be either solely or jointly responsible for making financial decisions such as buying insurance, making Farmville the perfect outlet for this creative marketing stream.

Is there more?

Yes, Farmers weren’t just relying on the power of in-game advertising. The game linked into a campaign on Farmers own Facebook page: by clicking on an in-game ‘Farmers airship’, players would be taken to the Farmers Facebook page from which they could enter a competition to win a ride in the real Farmers airship.

The result:

During the competition period, the number of fans of the Farmers Facebook page rose from 6,500 to over 37,000. Although not all of these fans would be of instant monetary value to Farmers, it’s safe to say that publicity campaigns such as this will reflect positively on the company, and ensure that potential customers will give more consideration to their brand when purchasing insurance in the future.

Kate Snow is the social media blogger for SR22 insurance company providing detailed information on SR22 insurance cost around the US

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by The U.S. Army

Some projects may seem daunting and overwhelming when looked at as a whole. However, they can me much more manageable when broken down into several separate tasks. Most everything can become easier when you work smarter. You can even do something useful when in the airplane. This graphic will provide you with tips to help organize tasks so that they get done without a lot of stress or hassle. Just take a deep breath first – you CAN do this. After all, you’re a mom and that in itself makes you amazing.

From: Best Masters Degrees

For ‘larger’ small businesses this might come down to letting staff go or cutting wages, but if you are a freelancer or sole trader or work from home mom and you are at the small end of the market, where can you make those savings when you are already cutting corners? For you it is time to think out of the box and time to learn how to be thrifty. Try the following tips to bring a bit of old school thriftiness to your small business:

(1) Cut Down On Snacks, Food and Drink: This will trim both your waistline and your bottom line. Bring in home cooked meals or sandwiches to your office and a flask of tea or coffee. Forget unnecessary trips to the deli round the corner from the office. If you want to eat a mid-morning snack or nibble on something in the afternoon, bring some fruit with you.

(2) Go Thrift Shopping: Second hand stores aren’t just for hipsters. If you need a second or third business outfit  try looking in the local second hand shops before heading off to buy another designer number. Keep one good suit for meeting clients and try to find a couple of decent ones second hand for everyday office use. You’ll be surprised at just what you will be able to pick up in these stores. Here’s a tip – head to the rich neighborhoods to explore the second hand stores. Also, keep an eye out for decent office equipment in the second hand stores. Again, you’ll be amazed at the quality of stuff you can pick up in there.

(3) Rummage in the Rubbish: Not literally, obviously, but keep an eye out on hard rubbish days as well as checking out any yard sales you might drive past. People are always chucking out chairs, desks, monitors, computers, printers. You might just find an incredible bargain.

(4) Take Advantage of Free Wi-Fi: If you’ve got free wireless hotspots near you, whether in coffee shops or in your local library, then why not consider using them instead of your own broadband. If you only conduct a small amount of business online then this could be cost-effective. Just don’t spend all your money on coffee and cakes!

(5) Get Rid of your Landline: If you’re thinking about ditching the broadband, why not get rid of the landline instead? Keep the broadband but get rid of your old landline phone and use voice over the internet communication methods again. It will save you a small fortune in line rental and charges.

(6) Visit Trade Events for Free: Bit sneaky this one, but no one ever bothers checking your ID once the trade event is under way and everyone has registered. Just walk in a little later and enjoy all the benefits of the trade event without the massive costs!

(7) Embrace Video Conferencing: Instead of spending a large part of your budget on business travel, encourage your clients to deal with you via Video Conferencing instead. It will save both of you time and money.

(8) Hot Desk: Why rent a whole office when you can share one? These days it is possible to rent a desk space in shared offices for only a small amount of money – and you might only need to rent one when you have to deal with clients. In addition these hot desk offices are normally excellent places for networking with other businesses.

(9) Work from Home: Continuing on from the hot desk idea, why not ditch office rental altogether and build a home office? If you have a suitable space and are in a business that involves consulting or design, PR or marketing, then there is no reason why you cannot have a smart office at home. What’s more the cost of setting it up, equipping it and the use of utilities at home for business are all tax deductible.

Esther is a small business blogger and writer. She covers everything from business loans to marketing, SEO to social media. She also maintains a blog for a payday loans UK site.
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Alan Cleaver