Sleep Over in Asheville

When we travel, we usually do so to destinations within driving distance. Sure, it takes a lot longer, but the trip is a lot more interesting too. So, I like to check out spots that are a little different from what we’d do here at home. I found somewhere really interesting I’d like to visit.

In North Carolina there’s an Asheville bed and breakfast called The Lion and The Rose. It’s a lovely pink, Georgian neo-classic that has retained it’s original beauty and warmth. There are only 5 bedrooms to choose from, so it’s not over crowded and you can enjoy the vacation in peace- no need to worry about loud neighbors keeping you up at night. It’s located close to historic downtown Asheville, so shopping is within walking distance. It’s also very close to the Biltomore Estate.  I’ve never been to the Biltmore, but it’s most definitely a stop I’d like to make.

The only meal offered at The Lion and The Rose is breakfast. You can choose stuffed french toast, Belgian waffles, Eggs Benedict and so on. There’s no buffet style breakfast here. Everything is made to order. According to the site, they do honor special dietary requests. I’m sure that’s not at all difficult considering that there’s no overcrowding. The dining room is a traditional style room, where guests can sit at a long table and enjoy their meal in a home-like setting.

Because of the small number of rooms available, it’s best to call ahead to reserve a spot. They prefer that you reserve at least two nights so that they can remain full. On weekends rates are a little more expensive, so if we choose to go here we’ll probably go during the week. Monday and Tuesday of our journey, perhaps. Who knows?

Argus Finally Unveiled!

Tonight was very exciting. Though I didn’t get to go to PostieCon in Las Vegas, I was able to watch it courtesy of Andy Beard. He was nice enough to embed live video and a chatroom on his blog. So, not only was I able to watch the unveiling of Argus, I got to chat with other posties. That was pretty awesome for me, because I’m so new and I’m a little shy with a new group of people.

Argus was unveiled to be SocialSpark. It’s a social network, similar to MyBlogLog and Blog Catalog, where bloggers and advertisers can come together in an environment that promotes personable interaction. Everyone who signs up gets profile pages for themselves and their blogs, which makes it easier for each side to see if someone on the other side (meaning bloggers/advertisers) is right for them and their needs. Bloggers and advertisers can leave each other feedback, similar to the seller/buyer feedback you see on Amazon or eBay. That’s something that I’m particularly excited about. Not so much because I want to leave the feedback, but because I’d like to see how advertisers feel about me and what I write.

On that note, advertisers can search the site to find a blogger that they particularly like or search for someone with a more specific demographic profile. They can log in and look through profiles to find a, for instance, non-traditional college student like myself. Or they can find young men interested in gaming. It’ll be more user friendly than the set up now.

Something else that I found particularly noteworthy was the fact that if advertisers are asking for a particular promotion but aren’t getting any takers, the price for the promotion can go up. That means that we don’t have to continually see the same promotions for months at a time in our dashboard. Everything will be clean, neat, and ready to go.

There will be a flash welcome screen for some promotions. So, if an advertiser would like to sponsor my whole blog, there would be a “welcome ad” on my blog before anyone would be able to access the content. I was a little leery of this at first, but because it’s basically an unobtrusive kind of ad, optional, and visitors aren’t forced to keep looking at it, I kind of like the idea. Again, the exact times and terms would be discussed between the blogger and advertiser, but I believe it can be for as little as a day or as long as, well, forever, I guess. I’m a little unclear on the time length, but it still really interests me.

Live site stats will be available to anyone signed up with SocialSpark. They’ll be able to go into a blog’s profile and see the amount of traffic that blog gets and the amount of time visitors stay. That’s especially important because of the Big Google Smackdown. A PR1 blog, for instance, might get tons of traffic, but would normally not qualify for big opportunities. With SocialSpark, advertisers can see the traffic and totally discount PR. Also, bloggers can contact advertisers directly when they (adverts) are offering a promotion that the blogger doesn’t qualify for normally but feel they should be considered for the opp. On another note, advertisers can contact bloggers who aren’t even registered with PPP to offer them opportunities (I’m pretty sure that could get ugly, but don’t quote me).

Overall, I’m pretty psyched about the whole thing. I’m not sure it’s because I like a little competition or because I got to watch the unveiling. Either way, January is going to be a really exciting time for blog advertising and I can’t wait.

Of course, Andy has an excellent rundown of all the features, as he pretty much live blogged the event. I would like to say “Thank You!” to him one more time. As far as I’m concerned he’s an A-lister who deserves the title.

More about SocialSpark:

• Jim Kukral
  almost had an exclusive (unfortunately Colleen beat him by minutes) My bad. Techie and Colleen were racing to get the story out. I guess I saw Colleen’s link first, but didn’t check the time. My bad! Sorry, Techie!!
• Colleen broke the story
  Showed up her link first(before the unveiling, I might add)
• Smuggle Me followed shortly thereafter
• Broken Perfection has a nice post up too

I Finally Found an SEO Glossary

There’s a lot of buzz around the blogosphere right now about Google and the Big Smackdown (that seems to be ongoing at this point). Many people are concerned and rightfully so. Many of the blogs that are feeling the pinch are blog from which people make a living- the money for which comes from paid posting. With a little knowledge and planning, though, blogs and other websites can continue to be profitable even while following Google’s rules.

One of those ways is through white hat SEO. What is that? According to Apogee Search, which has an extensive glossary on terms related to Search Engine Marketing, white hat refers to those who believe that manipulating search engine rankings is unethical. Basically, that means following all of Google’s rules down to the dot at the end of the last sentence. Buying and selling links would not fall into this category. Neither would keyword stuffing. White hat SEOs take the time to learn all of the “ethical” ways to rank well in search engine searches and so probably won’t fall victim to a Google slap. It takes more time to rank, but theoretically once they do rank they’ll rank well.

Apogee Search offers a service to help webmasters get the best and most solid ranking possible. They will help you get to the top of the SERPs and make more money. If you’re overly worried about what Google is doing right now, they can help ease your mind and get you solid results.

One of the features of their site is their SEO glossary. When I first started learning about SEO and SEM, I felt really lost because of the jargon on a lot of the blogs that talk about this kind of thing. I spent a lot of my time trying to figure out definitions of such things as CPC (Cost Per Click) and ROI (Return On Investment). These are common terms in SEO and SEM, so I was seeing it a lot. Because I’m still new and still a little lost, this glossary has helped me define other terms and get a better grip on what I’ve been reading. I think that anyone interested in monetizing their site should go to that glossary and make familiarize themselves with the terms listed there.

The Apogee Search website also has a resource page that is extremely useful for anyone like me. And best of all, it’s FREE! But if you have the resources, hiring them to do the optimization would probably be better. Learning this stuff is so time consuming and takes away a lot of the joy of blogging. Why not let someone do the hard stuff for you while you do the fun stuff? It’s a win-win.