How to Easily Clip Web Pages to Evernote Using Your iPad

If you are one of the millions of new iPad owners, and you want to use it as useful tool, I recommend using the Evernote application to help you take notes and keep them online. The Evernote application works best if you can both cut and paste content of a web page as well as write notes.

One weakness of the iPad is that it is hard to select, copy, and paste large blocks of text, or an entire web page. The folks at JoeTaxpayer.com have solved that problem in an elegant way. The Evernote application on the iPad acts as a mini-browser in combination with Google.

It is a simple process. First, make a new note and type in the Google home page URL and save the note using the 'Clip to Evernote' option. The next time you need to copy entire pages into Evernote, open up that Google note and select the Google URL and go to Google's home page. Navigate to the page you want, and when you find it, open up the option menu in the lower right and choose the option to safe the page. When you are done, you can quit or you can go back to the Google page and do it again.

By the way, this technique will work with any search engine.

Google vs. Bing and Real Time Search

When it comes to search engines, the two most important resources are Google and Bing. Both perform well when it comes to traditional search, but only Google currently has a useful option for real time search. While I knew that from following various news and information sources about search engines, sometimes it takes a real world problem to understand the what those differences really mean.

In my case, I was at the SMX Advanced conference in Seattle earlier today, at a presentation titled SEO For Google Vs. Bing: How Different Are They? As is the case for many Internet-related conferences, many attendees were furiously updating Twitter during the presentation, and using the hashtag #smx, anyone could follow the comments coming from the presentations.

Regular visitors to this site may recall my article from last December when I discussed how much I used search.twitter.com to follow fast breaking news items, and for a few minutes, I was able to follow the sometimes insightful comments from the other attendees. Suddenly, we were all frozen out of the service because Twitter saw too much search traffic from one location and apparently suspected that there was some kind of a problem.

With my favorite Twitter tool out of action, my first reaction was to go over to Google to see if I could do the same thing. I typed in the #smx tag, selected the "Latest" option, and I was able to see the stream of tweets. Since the session was about comparisons with Bing, I went there and tried to do the same. No luck.

Later, after I spoke to Danny Sullivan and others, I realized that Bing had not real time search capabilities, at least not yet. I'd read articles earlier about the Bing real time search situation, but I never gave it much of a thought because I normally only used search.twitter.com. Now that I know Google has it, I'll use that option more. When Bing gets around to adding that capability, I'll try that too.

The Creator of Dilbert on the Future of Free Content

Scott Adams, creator of the long-running comic strip Dilbert, earlier this month posted an article on the future of content where he proposed what he calls the Adams Theory of Content Value, that the value of content will approach zero as our ability to search for media content improves. It is worth your time to read, since it touches upon many of the issues faced by content creators, especially those who combine information or content from many sources to create web sites, blogs, online videos, and podcasts. He also talks about the role the iPad may play in making it harder to charge for online content.

At AirSafe.com and AirSafe Media, our response to this reality is to invite sharing rather than fight it. While all material we create is copyrighted, we've embraced the Creative Commons concept, allowing everyone to use the material any way they want, so long as they do so in a noncommercial way and allow anyone else to also reuse their modified material.

How to Keep Your Emails Short and Effective

In AirSafe Media's online marketing business, customers and vendors are located around the world, and email is the most effective way for everyone to communicate. Since a particular advertising deal may be active for months or even years, it helps everyone if emails have a similar and predictable style and format. By following a few basic rules, AirSafe Media staff and affiliates can ensure that their emails provide clear and concise information. Even if you are not involved with AirSafe Media, you can use these basic guidelines to make your own emails more effective.

Use a AirSafe Media email account
This is one of the easiest rule to follow. By using an AirSafe Media email account (ending in airsafemedia.com), it makes it much easier to go back and reconstruct a conversation. If for some reason this account is not working, it is likely that the problem is only temporary. Send a copy of any email to that address so that it can be recovered once the account is working again.

Use a consistent subject format
Because many email programs display only the subject line of an email, make sure that the subject includes the following key pieces of information:

• A web site URL (if the email deals with a particular web site)
  
  
• The date the email was sent (using the format DD MM YYY, for example 16 May 2010)
  
  
• One or two keywords that describe what the email is about
  
  
• The words "AirSafe Media" to indicate the source of the email

An example subject line might be "New advertising offer for mortgage311.org - AirSafe Media 16 May 2010"

Include only key parts of previous emails
Often, there could be several emails going back and forth on a particular subject. For example, negotiating the placement of a particular ad, or dealing with a technical problem with a web site. When replying to an email, most programs attach the body of the previous email. After a few exchanges, you could have a two page email where only about four or five lines have all the information that you need. Take a little bit of time to cut out what you don't need. Leave in enough to say what needs to be said, and leave out the rest.

How acceptable is online gambling? - ask Ellen DeGeneres

A common issue for many web site owners is what kinds of advertising are acceptable to their audience. Most sites would not even consider for a moment advertising that promotes something that is illegal or that they consider immoral. Sexually oriented advertising, as well as ads promoting the consumption of alcohol or illegal drugs are rejected outright by most.

Less clear for many are advertisements for products or services that are legal, but that are largely rejected by traditional advertisers. Gambling related advertising is clearly in this category. Gambling online, and even gambling online with money is legal in most parts of the world, and with rare exceptions is legal in the US. However, a combination of public perception, strict laws in the US against using electronic banking transfers to fund gambling accounts, and severe restrictions on gambling ads by Google and other major online advertising providers give most web site and blog owners the perception that accepting advertising is risky or potentially damaging to the site's reputation.

Perceptions can change, especially if if a well-know and well-regarded web site leads the way. Enter Ellen DeGeneres.

On a recent show, a pop-up on the side of the TV screen invited viewers to play games at her web site at http://ellen.warnerbros.com/games/poker/. The biggest graphic on the page was inviting viewers to play online poker:

Below the graphic were several options for either playing poker online or learning how to play online poker. While there were many non-gambling or casino related games on the site, the most prominent links were to poker, blackjack, and Texas hold-em links. Also, it was clear that several of the links were associated with some of the biggest names in online poker such as Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, and Mike Caro.

What should a site owner do?
As was pointed out on the site How-to-Bet.com, playing a gambling type game online is legal, so web sites and web site visitors are not a legal risk when they place ads or follow those kinds of links online.

There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to placing advertising for legal products and services. Whether a site owner wants to accept this kind of advertising will depend on several factors, including how an owner would answer the following questions:

• Would the links or the content be useful or entertaining for your audience?
  
  
• Do the links go to a site that is offering legal products or services?
  
  
• Do the links go to a site with content that is in conflict with your site's goals?
  
  
• Is the destination site associated with any controversy or suspicious business practice?

It will be interesting to see if Ellen's web site becomes the norm rather than the exception--a non-gambling web site with significant and prominent gambling content. If you want to join this club, take some time to think it over before you make a move.

How to write newsletter and blog articles using a few basic templates

Writing articles for a newsletter or a blog is easy if you are really motivated and enthusiastic about the subject. But even the most motivated and knowledgeable person on a subject can use some guidelines to make the process of writing the article a little smoother.

One way to do that is to use a template to give you a basic structure for writing your article. Just as you can use the format of a recipe to describe how to make thousands of different dishes, a template can give you a basic structure that will make it easier to create many different kinds of articles. To take the recipe example a bit further, you don't need to use a recipe to bake a cake, but if you don't use one, you have a greater chance of missing a step and messing up the final result.

The blog for the site Ezinearticles.com provides several different templates for making different types of articles, including how-to articles, year in review articles, and articles with a holiday themes. If you write articles on a regular basis and you want to avoid making basic mistakes that may make your article less useful for our audience, take the time to check it out.

Learn from good examples
In addition to checking out some of the templates offered by Ezinearticles.com, you can visit their main site and check out their archive of thousands of articles in dozens of subject areas. If you come across an article in an area that interests you, and the article seems to be very well writing, then use that article, in addition to an appropriate template, to guide your own writing.

US National Archives Channel as a Resource

One of the great things about most of the output of the US federal government is that it is in the public domain, meaning you can use it without cost and without asking permission. One of the great resources for this kind of material is the US National Archives, which also has a YouTube channel featuring a number of films going back to before WWII. If you see something that you want to use, for example some audio or video content to add to your project, go ahead and take it.