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Agent Tom
The Weekly Roundup
0 Comments | Posted by Agent Tom in making games, Puzzle Retreat, weekly roundup
Settling In!
We moved into our new office in Collingwood last week and we've been settling into the new space. We've had to deal with all kinds of things such as a brilliant coffee machine, a bit too much sunlight, and everyone having to work out how exactly to get to work.
The new space is great. We have a lot more room to move and it's closer to home for most of us (except for Sam… sorry Sam) and it's right near Melbourne's funky Smith St. Maybe we need to start being more funky so that we all fit in?
Levels! A whole bank of levels!
We've been making a lot of levels for our next game. So many in fact that just managing all of them has become quite a chore (hundreds and hundreds of designs that could make their way into the final game).
To deal with these numbers, Agent Sam has made a really nifty tool that allows us to easily sort and structure our levels, give them ratings, and easily view information about each level. This was all done using Google Spreadsheets and some nifty Google Apps Script. We'll have to write a full feature-blog post describing how great Google Apps Script is for making simple tools as it's proven to be a very versatile weapon we can use in our quest for making better games.
Another cool thing we've made by hacking Google Spreadsheets is to create nice reports about who is actually playing our games and how long they are sticking around. This info is great because it helps us make our games a lot more fun, but it can sometimes be hard to really read the graphs that Flurry make. So we made our own graphs!
Even more awesomely, we were able to use Google Sites to automatically pull these graphs from the Spreadsheet, and display everything in a somewhat nicer format.
Leveraging Google's services has proven to be a really great way for us to rapidly create useful tools that enhance our ability to make games. More on this in a future blog post feature.
We made some really hard levels, couldn't solve them, and so made the computer do it for us
When designing levels, it's often very difficult for the level designer to be able to keep all the variables and permutations of the level in their mind at once. It's possible for us to make much higher quality levels if we have an automated "solver" that can solve our levels for us, as well as providing very useful information about a level (such as the number of possible solutions). We're also kind of lazy.
So we made a "solver". This has actually been a work in progress for quite some time, but it only just recently became awesome.
This tool was made by extending Unity through it's great editor features. We really strongly recommend that other Unity developers get in on this and start making wicked tools by extending Unity.
And then we made it even more awesome
The next step, of course, was to make it automatically show us the possible solutions in a way that was highly readable to a level designer. Agent Sam is doing a more detailed write up about this, but basically we can learn so much about how our levels are structured through this tool and it makes it much easier to make great content.
We quietly started a beta test
Agent Henrik began work on a beta test for our new game. It's a closed beta at the moment and I am sorry but it is now closed.
Sorry about that.
On the bright side this means that our new game is getting close. We still don't have a definite launch date but it will definitely will be released sometime.
We also started thinking: "What's Next?"
The new project is in it's final stages so we've started thinking about our next project. We have some new IP that we want to develop further into a new game, and so we'll definitely start work on that.
But we also see a lot of potential to improve Train Conductor, so we're going to explore that. It's still early days so we don't have totally concrete plans at the moment, but we're thinking of making the newer "Challenge Mode" the focus of the game since that style of play seems to be much more the kind of play we were trying to create with the original Train Conductor.
Voxel Scrum: How we plan our sprints
2 Comments | Posted by Agent Tom in making games
Agile Development is a well known production methodology for software development. It has been used for around two decades to give structure and organisation to the iterative development process. It has many benefits, but is difficult to successfully apply, especially to a small games studio such as The Voxel Agents. The major difficulty we've faced while using the Scrum methodology is the ability to write effective stories.
Scrum provides many rules about what an effective story can contain, but scrum is also about personalising the process to suit your own development requirements. Over the past year, we've gradually improved the way we write stories so that what we are writing is appropriate for us. I'll describe our rules for story creation here.
What is a story?
A "story" is a small chunk of development that brings benefit to the user. For example, "As a player I want helpful hints to appear in the early levels to help me understand the rules".
This short story tells me quite a lot about what the required outcome is. It tells me who the feature benefits ("as a player"), it tells me what the benefit is ("I want helpful hints to appear in the early levels"), and it tells me why that benefit is important ("to help me understand the rules"). I know that simple debug text isn't suitable in this situation because that only benefits me, the developer, and not the player. I know that the ability to view the "helpful hints" should occur while playing a level, and I know that the helpful hints should be relevant to the rules that the player is learning.
This story does not tell me how to make this feature. It does not say "Place some red text in the bottom left corner that says 'Slide a block to interact with the game' ". It simply describes the required outcome which leaves the implementation of the feature up to the developers – who are, after all, the experts at making this game (one would hope).
Acceptance Tests
Now that have our story which describes a specific benefit to a specific person for a specific reason, we now need to communicate to the team what the minimum requirements of this story are. The minimum requirements are known as "acceptance tests". They are a list of criteria that must be met for the story to be considered complete. An example of an acceptance test is "when the player is playing an early tutorial level, a legible message that explains the rules to the player must be displayed". Another could be "the hints must be set on a level-specific basis".
Ideal acceptance tests are more specific than the general story, but they still don't tell me to use a specific implementation. Acceptance tests assume that I am smart enough to determine the best implementation in the given situation.
What the acceptance tests should do is constrain the possible outcomes to what is desired by whoever requested the story. For example, it is clear from these acceptance tests that it would be unacceptable to show a randomly selected message during the loading screen. These acceptance tests make it clear that the hint should be relevant to the level that the user is playing and should be displayed while the user is playing the level.
Acceptance tests are important because they describe what the done state of the story is. A story is done when, and only when, all of the acceptance tests have been met. If I do anything more than what the acceptance tests require, then I'm probably just gold-plating this feature and I should instead request a new feature rather than adding functionality that is not yet necessary.
Acceptance tests and Stories are quite standard in scrum. One of the innovations we've added to improve the process for ourselves is to write a "Spirit" for each story. The spirit is kind of like an acceptance test but it isn't binding. A story's spirit is used to add colour to the acceptance test and to suggest possible implementations that better illustrate the desired outcome.
An example spirit is: "We want to show a helpful hint at the start of each tutorial level that explicitly explains the rule being taught in that level to the player. This will assist the player to understand what they are learning and hopefully speed up the learning curve. For example, we want to show some text at the bottom of each screen that prompts the player to do an action such as 'don't be afraid to use undo'".
This spirit has suggested an implementation to me, the developer. The suggested implementation is what the requester of the story had in mind when they wrote the story. I don't have to use this implementation, but it helps me to understand the intention so that if I think of a better way of doing it, I can be sure that it still fits the original requirements.
We invented the spirit because we quickly noticed that when we wrote stories we had a misleadingly clear idea of what we wanted. We'd write terrible stories like "At the end of a level show a heap of particles to make the player feel good!", but then after implementing that feature we realised, for example, that it made levels take too long to finish up so another way of making the player feel good was required. Writing the spirit of each story down allows us to give a quite specific example of what is desired, but still gives us sufficient flexibility to iterate on an idea further during development.
Level Of Done
In typical scrum, each story is brought to a potentially releasable state. Ideally, at the end of each sprint, a release candidate is produced that is just that little bit more feature packed than the last release candidate. This is great for typical software development (release early, release often), but doesn't necessarily work for games development.
Quite often, we only want to test an idea out in the cheapest way possible. We don't care if there are red blocks on the screen or if there is debug text all over the place, we just want to see how an idea plays without needing to polish off the edges to make it nice and neat for the players. For this reason, we often don't want our increments to be release worthy. If we're just prototyping, it would be a complete waste of resources to make it good enough for a player.
To get around this problem, we specify a Level Of Done for each story. The level of done lets us know how much effort to put into polishing up the feature.
For example, if we're just making a rough prototype of a half-baked idea, we describe the level of done as "first working". First working means that it doesn't matter really matter if it crashes a lot, or if you need to hold down the shift key for some weird reason, we just want to see it up and running as fast as possible. It also means that we don't want it taken any further than that until another story has been made. This prevents a small prototype from being gold-plated before we know if we actually want it. Therefore if a story requests a "first working" prototype and the developer delivers something beautiful that is ready for the App Store, then that developer has done the wrong thing and loses brownie points.
If we want to take an idea a bit further and see how it plays with the rest of the game, we would say it has to reach "prototype" state. The difference between prototype and first working is fairly subjective, but generally speaking a prototype should be good enough for us to put in front of other people for play testing (i.e. no crashes, no arbitrary keys or insider knowledge). A prototype is not release worthy though. Again this Level Of Done means we only want so much effort put into a story, and any additional effort is potentially a waste of resources.
On the other hand, if we really do want a feature to be good enough for users, we say that it must be "releasable". Releasable means that we'd be happy selling this bit of functionality. It doesn't imply that the game is ready to release since other features might not have reached a releasable state yet, but it does mean that if the whole game was of a similar level of quality, then the game is ready. Releasable is a very high standard for us, so we use it sparingly.
This is how an Indie studio records bugs…
0 Comments | Posted by Agent Tom in inspiration, making games, Top Secret
We were doing QA in the office, and we needed a way to record some of the particularly hard to reproduce bugs.
Solution: masking tape of course.
The result? Well we still can't work out what was causing the bug, but now I can capture me beating Agent Simon's high scores on video which is ultimately much more satisfying.
The Badgers of Fury 161
0 Comments | Posted by Agent Tom in 48 hour game comp, award, Game Ideas, Games, inspiration, making games
Last weekend, we competed in the #fab48hr game making competition in Brisbane, Australia… and what a wild weekend! We won! That was great, but more importantly I was absolutely blown away by the quality of games made by the other teams. I was particularly impressed with the level of quality and polish that was developed in "indie" / student room. There is an enormous amount of talent in Australia and I'm sure we're going to see more from those awesome young developers.
In the #fab48hr competition, each team must concept, design, and create a game based on three keywords that are provided at the beginning of the competition. This year, those words were "suit", "key", and "badger", provided by Yug, Hex, and Jinx.
We made this:
Download the game we made here [WINDOWS] or if you use a Mac, try this link [MAC].
How to Play: Without giving too much away, if you have a couple of XBox controllers, plug them in for the best experience, using "A" as your action button. If you have to use a keyboard, you can use the arrow keys for player 1 and WASD for player 2, with "shift" as the action button. Also be aware the the glowing yellow floor (which totally looks like lava) will kill player 1 and the swirling blue circles (evidently poisonous gas…) will kill player 2. That's all you really need to know… oh yeah one more thing: the badgers aren't nice and they will eat your face.
The Badgers of Fury 161 was developed by the Alliance of Indie. This team was composed of developers from a number of Australia's top Indie studios including yours truly Agent Tom (The Voxel Agents), Liam Hill (Defiant Development, 3 Blokes Studios), Cratesmith (Cratesmith,Defiant, Strange Loop), Matt Ditton (Queensland College of Art, Defiant), and the incredibly talented Milenko (Strange Loop,Defiant).
But really, kudos where kudos is due:
As proud as we are of the game we managed to make in 48 Hours, the real winners of the competition were the indie team Rockin Moses (read about them here: http://making-games.net/48/?p=2916) who made a really fun game called The Fifth Suit.
This game was great fun to play. For me, their game evoked "Smash Brothers Brawl". While playing, I was less concerned about winning and more concerned about trying to make life difficult for my opponents. It was a strong social experience and quite a polished product for just 48 hours of work! You can grab a PC version of their game here [WIN] but it's best played with XBox controllers. If you're lucky enough to have some XBox controllers then I strongly suggest you get this version [WIN – XBox Controllers].
The Alliance of Indie: Australian game studios team up for the Fab 48 Hour Game Jam!
0 Comments | Posted by Agent Tom in 48 hour game comp, Games, making games
Last years winners, Cratewerks, which included Matt Ditton and Cratesmith, are combining forces with one of 2007 and 2008 winners, Agent Tom Killen, of the teams sif90 (2007, 2008) and The Voxel Agents (2010). They will be joined by the exceptionally talented Liam Hill, Mark Filippelli, and Milenko.
The 2010 event saw close competition between both Cratewerks and The Voxel Agents. Both teams made great games and in the final community voting round, Cratewerks won by a crucial single vote.
About The Alliance of Indie
The Alliance of Indie are Liam Hill (Defiant Development, 3 Blokes Studios), Cratesmith (Cratesmith,Defiant, Strange Loop), Matt Ditton (Queensland College of Art, Defiant), Milenko (Strange Loop,Defiant), Mark Filippelli (Strange Loop), and Agent Tom (The Voxel Agents).
Blog: http://allianceofindie.wordpress.com
Twitter: @48hrgamecomp
Web: http://48hrgamecomp.com
Follow the action with the hashtag #fab48hr
The mobile market place: how does it look today?
6 Comments | Posted by Agent Tom in business, making games, Marketing
We spend a lot of time being all creative and fuzzy and nice here at The Voxel Agents, but often we need to stand back and have a good hard think about what's actually happening out there in the mobile games space.
To make sure we are all still on top of everything, I spent all of last week researching the mobile market space. I forgot everything I knew about iPhone and Android and had a good hard look at the information that is out there. Some of my findings certainly will be old news to you, and some might change what you thought you knew. So, if you're interested in the business (pronounced "biz-niz") side of being an indie game developer, check this stuff out:
You may think the iPad is a mobile device, but you'd be wrong.
- 43% of iPad owners use their iPad more than their desktop computer
- 28% say it's their primary computer
- 34% use it more than their TV
- 83% use it primarily while at home. Only 11% use it on the go.
Developers are flocking back to the iOS platform
Even though iOS has more Apps, Android has more free Apps
iOS has served 15 Billion downloads compared to Androids 4.5 Billion
Android App installs per day may be reaching parity with iOS installs
500,000 Android devices are activated every single day
and most importantly of all…
Carbon Neutral Agents
0 Comments | Posted by Agent Tom in Misc
So we've done it again. We've purchased 25 tonnes of CO2 offsets to negate the environmental impact of our business over the past year. Two years in business, and zero carbon impact with the bonus that there are now more trees in the world!
If you want to support Greenfleet, head on over to http://www.greenfleet.com.au/ and find out how much carbon your business or lifestyle produces and consider purchasing carbon offsets. It's a good thing to do.
New Agents have been recruited
1 Comment | Posted by Agent Tom in making games, Misc, Top Secret
So now that 2011 has rolled around, we decided the time was right to grow our team. We're very, very, happy and proud to announce Henrik Pettersson and Yangtian Li as the latest additions to our secret service / games development studio.
The Fab 48 Hour – The Voxel Agents game plan
1 Comment | Posted by Agent Tom in 48 hour game comp, Games, making games, melonauts
We're loud and proud of the fact that it was the 2008 48 Hour Game Competition that inspired us to start our own games studio, and so it is with a sense of purpose and trepidation that we are preparing for the 2010 challenge. Over the next 48 hours we're going to laugh, we're going to cry, we certainly aren't going to sleep very much, and we're going to make a game.
We have a lot of respect for everyone entering the competition. It's not a small undertaking to start with nothing but a blank canvas and the need to turn three obscure words into a workable game concept.
Indeed coming up with an initial concept is one of the hardest parts of the competition (second only to the stamina that is required) so we thought we'd share the process we employ to turn those three keywords into a set of game mechanics.
To begin with, we get away from the computer. The core game mechanics are vital. We need to get our core concept worked out. So we resist the urge to fire up Photoshop and instead welcome pen and paper as our first set of tools.
For our 2008 entry, Melonauts, we had a big piece of butcher's paper and on this we drew three columns. At the top of each column we wrote one of the keywords. In each column we extracted any verbs (action words) related to the keyword that we could think of.
For example, in 2008 the keywords were "watermelon", "astronaut", and "summertime". Beneath summertime we wrote dozens of keywords including "seasons, summer, cycle, heat, sun". Beneath "watermelon", there were "smashing, growing, planting, harvesting, juicy". Astronaut had concepts of "gravity, spacesuit, planets, and travel".
We then started combining the keywords. There is an obvious link between "planting, growing, harvesting" and "seasons, cycle". This link immediately suggests a game mechanic based on growing a watermelon crop.
Another potential concept was to combine astronaut with planets and sun. These concepts are related in a thematic way in that a game could be about an astronaut exploring different planets with different suns that affect the way plants grow.
So we had two concepts. One was a highly mechanic based game of growing and harvesting crops in cycle with the seasons, the other involved an astronaut going on a journey and exploring how watermelons would grow on different planets.
To decide between these concepts we looked to our strengths as a team. We were able to rapidly create game mechanics and we had experience in developing mechanic's based games, but no one in the team had experience or significant ability in creating story driven exploration games.
We also considered what we were making the game for. It was the 48 Hour Game Comp and so the judges had a bunch of games they had to play. They would only have a few minutes to play each game so whatever we created had to be instantly pick up and play, and needed to express its concept within the first two minutes to be effective.
For those reasons, we chose to play to our strengths and we developed the concept where watermelons needed to be planted and harvested in cycle with the seasons. At this point astronaut was doing little more than contribute a theme to the game, and the planting and harvesting needed a purpose, and so we took the inevitable decision to make our astronauts space marines who needed to fight and needed watermelons to do so.
And so Melonauts was born. The words "summertime", "astronaut", and "watermelon" became distilled into a set of game mechanics based on planting and harvesting, watermelon fuelled space combat, and a relentless cycle of seasons.
To summarise our process, it is focused on producing actions words and verbs. It is the actions that translate directly to gameplay and game mechanics. We avoid exploration or story driven gameplay because that isn't our strength and because it's very difficult to make a story driven game compelling within just two minutes of gameplay.
There are different approaches to take. "My Mechanical Romance" by Curious Bear won in 2009 and that was largely a story driven game where they elegantly expressed a complex concept through simple game interactions. It was a beautiful game and so we don't mean to say that being exceptionally focused on mechanics and action words is the only or the best way to approach the keywords.
We follow our mechanics driven approach because it suits our strengths. If you have a team that is great at producing concept or narrative driven gameplay, make that type of game. If you have a brilliant artist who can produce content rapidly, make a content heavy game. Play to your strengths, and us that means producing a set of simple mechanics and refining those mechanics into a short sharp game that is instantly understood and endlessly replayable.
Massive props to the SIF90 team. Simon, myself, and Matt (the three on the back right) owe a debt of gratitude to Joe Gatling (back left), Jon McEwan (front left), and Michael Szewczyk (front right) for working with us to create Melonauts. It's a game we can all be proud off.
Andrew plays Train Conductor USA
2 Comments | Posted by Agent Tom in Games, Train Conductor
Our number #1 fan, 4 year old Andrew of the U.S., has been waiting MONTHS for the chance to play Train Conductor USA.
He is a massive fan of the original Train Conductor Australia, and back in March we got an email from him wanting to know when he'd have more levels to play.
Well, after the release of Train Conductor USA today, Andrew got his chance and he was kind enough to record himself playing. Andrew, I have to say that you made my day.
Click here to listen (Warning! Incredibly cute!): Andrew Plays Train Conductor 2
We're glad you love the game Andrew and we'll get some more levels made for you to play soon.


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Bournemouth/Leeds Preview
The Fitness First Stadium
Having lost a league fixture for the first time this season in a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Carlisle. Dennis Wise's men look to bounce back against AFC Bournemouth this evening.
Vital Quotes:
Leeds United boss Dennis Wise has kept his head firmly screwed on as his side went 13 games unbeaten. Following defeat, Wise has continued the sensible approach in his pre-match interviews.
Speaking to leedsunited.com he said: 'Carlisle stopped us in our tracks, now it's up to us to go on another run.'
'We want a result as soon as we can, we don't want to go too long. It's Important we are professional at Bournemouth. The lads are well capable.
'When you get beat you want a game straight away. I said after the Carlisle game 'we've done fantastic, but we've made mistakes today and it's cost us'. We've lost one in 14, now we have to start performing again straight away.'
The Leeds boss is no stranger to his Bournemouth counterpart Kevin Bond either, and knows that the former Newcastle United assistant will have his side all fired up for The Whites trip to Dorset: 'I know Kevin Bond well and he likes to play football, they'll try and pass it,' Wise added in his interview.
'It'll be interesting to see how they go about it. They like to play five in midfield and one in front. They might change that on Tuesday, but it'll be interesting how they line-up at home.'
Midfielder Andy Hughes echoed the sentiments about requiring another match soon after defeat, impatiently waiting for this evening to come to get back to winning ways: 'It's going to be massive, they're struggling near the bottom, but maybe they're in a false position. We need to get a result.
'We've got a big week now, we've got Bournemouth then the FA Cup. First, it's Bournemouth away on Tuesday night and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
'We've got to grind away and go at it again.'
Meanwhile, over in the Bournemouth camp, manager Kevin Bond believes that his side will respect the 'fallen giants' but they are not afraid of the League One powerhouses:
'We are massive underdogs but it's a game to look forward to. Hopefully, we'll have a full house, which would be great for a league game, and it would be nice to be able to do ourselves justice if we can.'
'We know we need to respect them but we can't be playing with any fear.'
AFC Bournemouth Team News:
Vital Bournemouth are expecting loan signings James Henry and Alex Pearce to feature in the game having impressed during Bournemouth's victory over Bristol Rovers on Saturday.
Jo Kuffor has suffered a knock and may be a doubt for the game.
The Bournemouth official site have announced that there will be an unchanged squad for the match.
Player to watch: Darren Anderton
He's old, he's slow, he gets injured a lot.
However Darren Anderton can still quite happily pull the strings at this level, and will definitely be the one that the defence and midfield need to look out for.
Leeds United Team News:
Leeds United are unlikely to make any changes from the squad that lost away to Carlisle at the weekend.
Kishishev, Thompson and Flo are all long-term injury problems, however Leeds have welcomed back Leon Constantine to add some much needed cover for the front two.
Player to watch: Casper Ankergren
admittedly I only saw the (atrocious) highlights served up by Virgin Media this week, and I felt that Ankergren was perhaps at fault for 2/3 goals.
Casper can quite easily do better than that, an improvement needs to be made else he will be a ghost of his former self.
Match Facts & Stats
In a rare move away from the useless facts, Vital Leeds is to provide some more useful facts for one week only!
* AFC Bournemouth haven't beaten Leeds United in all 7 of their league and cup fixtures.
* Bournemouth have been dismal in front of a home ground, picking up just 2 points from 7 games.
* It's also not the best place to see home goals, with The Cherries scoring just 4 times.
* Darren Anderton has played for 5 clubs in a career spanning 17 years.
* The tallest living woman (as listed in the Guinness Book of Records) is Sandy Allen who lives in the U.S.A. Sandy was was last measured to be 2 m 31.7 cm (7 ft 7.25 in).
There had to be one useless fact, sorry!
Ref Watch:
Leeds United have yet again been graced by the presence of a Premiership referee for this match.
Unfortunately however, it happens to be Steve Bennett.
Mr Bennett is well and truley in the Christmas spirit early, managing 48 yellow, and 6 red cards in his 14 fixtures so far this season.
Funnily enough, the last time he was in charge of a Leeds match, he sent someone off! Brad Jones, on loan from Middlesborough was dismissed as a David Healy penalty sealed all 3 points for Leeds in a 1-0 victory away to Sheffield Wednesday.
Match Prediction:
Leeds will bounce back (lets face it, they have to) tonight with a resounding 3-0 victory. Kandol & Beckford to share the goals.
Next Fixtures:
It's FA Cup time for Leeds United next in the televised fixture against Hereford United on Friday evening (9th) kick off 1945hrs.
Sky will be showing the game so get the beers in early for this one!

subset: commoncrawl


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With the first excerpts released last week at an Atlas Society event, Atlas Shrugged movie speculation has surged and opinions are heating up websites all over. A week after the event, I spoke with John Aglialoro, producer of the movie Atlas Shrugged.
His optimism about the message and the quality of the film is crystal clear. The message is not just consistent with the novel in a passive sense; Rand's philosophy has motivated Aglialoro from the very beginning. By Aglialoro's reckoning, Rand's message demands a quality production: one that is driven with the speed and precision of a Taggart locomotive on tracks of Rearden Metal. Talk with him and you see why John Tamny of Forbes Magazine calls Aglialoro "A Name to Know in 2011."
Not surprisingly, people who have been impacted by the novel–the second most influential book in people's lives, according to a Library of Congress poll–have strong opinions about how the characters in the movie will be portrayed. I sense the passion surrounding Ayn Rand's philosophy every time I read a new post. Rand's protagonists rally in the face of insurmountable barriers–economic, political, and ethical–that read like today's headlines. None of this is lost on Aglialoro. A life-long proponent of rational self-interest, his work surrounding the production of the movie has been an extension of his passion for her message. Rand's message resonates with everyone who sees the parallels in the situation that we face today in the economics, politics, and ethics of the Western world.
That's why I agree with the moderator's reference to Tea Partiers–a mix of secular and Christian political conservatives–as supporters of the movie's message. Tammy even compared the movie to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, not because it has a religious message, but because its message is clearly outside of the Hollywood mainstream.
Become a fan! Visit http://www.soulofatlas.com


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SEATTLE — A federal judge has ruled a group called Veterans for Peace should be allowed to march in Auburn's Veterans Day parade.
The ACLU of Washington had filed a lawsuit on the group's behalf saying Auburn officials were violating their free speech rights by denying their application to march. The group had participated in the parade since 2006.
U.S District Court Judge Marsha Pechman agreed that city officials were discriminating against the group of veterans because organizers disagreed with their point of view.
The city had said he would choose only those applicants that most closely met the purpose and goals of the parade. But the ACLU pointed out Auburn had accepted applications from a motorcycle club and a Daffodil Festival float, among others.


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Puritii - Plastic Water Bottle
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Manufacturer: SuperHappyMe
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The Puritii bottles are available in a sweat-less stainless steel or durable, flexible plastic. When used together, the Puritii Bottle and Puritii filter combine the power of science with the purity of nature to ensure a safe supply of drinking water anywhere in the world.
Customized, ergonomic design provides for easier handling
Eco-Friendly: reduces empty water bottle waste by offering a re-usable bottle
Custom base molding is cup-holder friendly
Leak free, high flow, customized lid keeps out dirt & dust
Toxic chemical free (BPA free & Phthalates free)
The bottle comes without the separate filter, the filer(s) needs to be ordered separately
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Author has written 5 stories for Twilight.
Hey there! If your reading this then hopefully it means that your interested in my story. Which pleases me to no end!
But let me tell you a little about myself.
I love to read way too much.
Some of my favorite authors are : Stephanie Meyer, laurel k. Hamilton, Charlene Harris, lisa kleypas, gena showalter etc...
Besides reading. Singing and writing are my next two passions.
|Unexpected Twilight
|General: All Categories


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The "figure piped" Christmas Tree cupcake is cupcake #2 in…
"The 25 Days Of Christmas Cupcakes Challenge"
Yummy Yummy Yummy… and Oh So Easy!!
So simple and easy to make, these darling Christmas tree cupcakes are sure give your family and friends a smile. If your one those that LOVE icing, this will definitely do the trick. Personally I am one of those girls that always want's the end piece of the cake. 🙂
These are fantastic for bake sales and Christmas parties.
What You Will Need To Make The Christmas Tree Cupcakes:
- Pre~baked cupcakes
- Cupcake Liners
- Decorators or Buttercream Icing
- Leaf tip: {you can cut one out if you do not have a leaf tip}
- Border Tip #4b
- Green Food Coloring
- Christmas Sprinkles
- Cinnamon Imperial for the top of the Christmas Tree
How To Make The Christmas Tree Cupcake:
Start by icing the top of your cupcake. "Just a thin layer…"
On the outer edges, pipe wispy frills for the base.
After you iced the outside border; using the same tip #4b, start creating the base for the tree.
Next; using your green icing and leaf tip, begin creating the needles for your tree. Here, we used wax paper and cut the leaf tip out.
Keep working your way from the bottom to the top of your Christmas Tree.
Until you get to the tip top of your tree…
Add your Christmas Sprinkles and a cinnamon imperial on the top! You are now ready to enjoy and devour this yummy Christmas Tree Cupcake!


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"An uprising is on the way here in Palestine"
Mazin Qumsiyeh writes:
An uprising is on the way here in Palestine despite Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's promise and futile attempts to prevent it.
The rampage by colonial settlers started with the arson attack on the Dawabsheh family home several weeks ago (mother, father and child martyred, second child still in hospital).
Reactions were expected and the settlers are now getting the green light to massacre Palestinians and attack their holy sites.
The arrogance of Binyamin Netanyahu unleashing his settlers on Al-Aqsa mosque and then staring down the United Nations and lecturing them about Iran was like a Greek myth: tragic and theatrical.
This theatre of the absurd would be comical if it was not so devastating. The silence of the US validates the widespread belief here that this theatre is intended to hide a deal struck between Netanyahu and Obama whereby the US will let Israel proceed with its plans to Judaise Jerusalem and annex other areas of occupied territories.
All politicians played their assigned role and Mahmoud Abbas continued to beg from the position of weakness he created (by weakening his people).
Yet, freedom is coming sooner than most people believe.
If you are interested to learn more about why I say so and the relationship between resistance and hope, please read my book, Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and Empowerment, available in many languages.


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A sky-diving training video ended with the following dedication:
"To those who dare to dream the dreams, and then are foolish enough to try to make those dreams come true."
This definition explains the gist of entrepreneurship in the simplest terms. Entrepreneurs are essentially dreamers, but a special kind of dreamers – with passion, dedication, discipline and willingness to work terribly hard.
Speaking about dreams, I believe that the dreams are not too different from goals. I read somewhere that "A goal is a dream with deadline." Entrepreneurs truly understand the importance of timeliness. They view their dreams as goals and work passionately towards achieving them.
I am an entrepreneur. After having started Securamed, I am currently working as a Program Manager at Microsoft. I've barely seen the real excitement of Web1.0, but have closely experienced the aftermath of the so-called "dot com" days. I've never regarded the dot-com days as a "bubble". Although a whole lot of respectful entrepreneurs and investors did make some impulsively irrational decisions during those days, I consider the dot-com days as ebb and tide. As we've seen, it's all cyclic after all.
Today is the age of Web 2.0. I believe firmly that a lot of impact is to be made by the upcoming Web 2.0 technologies and companies. I am certain that a significant amount of wealth will be generated by Web 2.0 startups in the next two years.
I am currently working on three different ideas, and plan to finalize on the top idea to spend my time on. Whether I will start a new product group within Microsoft or branch out on my own again is not certain at this moment. It depends greatly on the finalized idea. I love Microsoft for two main reasons:
1. Passionate, supremely smart and hard working team members.
2. An ability to make a significant impact through technology.
So, it is more likely that I might be more inclined towards Microsoft. But, that decision depends on a gamut of factors. I'll write more about it, when the time comes.
I've decided to write about technology, entrepreneurship and design for two main reasons:
1. I am super-passionate about t.e.d and I believe firmly that their confluence can lead to extra-ordinary creations.
2. Out of all the people I've met in conferences, planes, school, work or society, the most interesting people have always been involved either in technology, entrepreneurship or design (I haven't met a lot of people in the entertainment industry, but I bet they are quite interesting!!)
After having discussed entrepreneurship with more than 55 successful entrepreneurs, I've been amazed to see the thought-process that goes within an entrepreneur's mind, during the early stage. There are so many (almost life-changing) decisions to be made with so little information. It is always intriguing to see the impact of those decisions. I will share my thought-process with my mentors, friends, peers, fellow entrepreneurs and other smart people ( I believe that the blogosphere is a small world and blog readers are usually smarter than the average population!! ). Please do comment, advise, complain, whine or just say a sincere hi. But, please do not spam.
Let's go out and change the world.


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About fleeing-the-scene media blogger John Landsberg…
First a quick reminder, I too will miss his "reporting" on the comings and goings of local television newsies. Landsberg's takes may have been fuddy-duddy at times (and they were), but Bottom Line did its best filling a niche nobody else has really attempted to fill since the women folk in FYI at the Star ran off media dude Barry Garron in the 1990s.
Let me go on record here that I too will don a black armband when Landsberg moves his grandpa sweater collection to South Carolina.
As a going away gift to readers however, he opened up with some departing shots and explanations about local media and himself.
Let's take a look.
For starters Landsberg gives a nod to former Channel 9 news director Brian Bracco now hard at work transforming Channel 41's Gary Lezak and Who? newscasts into a contender. I'll second Landsberg's praise and add that insiders have their fingers crossed that Bracco will be the one to finally pull the plug on the wooden soldier known as Mark Clegg and hire a real deal male news anchor.
My prediction: Count on it!
Landsberg's take on why he screens comments is a good one. Tony and I used to joke about how he was waaaaaaay too thin skinned to allow comments. For years he would post one here or one there that he apparently received in the form of an email or phone call.
However, a year or more ago when he finally redid his website, the new baby arrived comments ready and one by one they began to appear. Screened of course, to weed out ones that struck a nerve or hit too close to home. Here's what Landsberg says now:
"Why do I screen comments on stories? Because some people are idiots. The vast majority of the people who visit this site are top-notch, but those few who cross the line with their comments will have them deleted. Really, no one cares if you would like to have sex with an anchor or reporter."
Funny guy.
I never posted on Bottom Line that I wanted to have sex with anybody, but a few weeks ago I attempted to set the record straight on comments made by former radio newsman Scott Simon. Incorrect comments attributing the axing of Royals broadcaster Fred White to former Entercom news director Bill White. Having confirmed with Entercom's general manager that the decision was well above White's pay grade and rested largely with then Royals GM Herk Robinson, I posted as much in the comments section. A simple correction verified on the record with KMBZ management.
Funny thing, my comments never saw the light of day. I must have been day dreaming and drifted off into wanting to have had sex with somebody.
As Tony and I discussed, Landsberg doesn't have the stones to allow any but the mildest criticism. Look, we all screen comments at times, but readers of this site have seen me and just about everybody who has written here take it up the you-know-what time and again.
So allow me to call bullshit on that one.
Let's continue.
"For some reason, former KC Star TV/Radio writer Aaron Barnhart never liked me. He actually insulted me while I was buying his stupid book, and it really irritated me. I do think he fashioned himself as some kind of a national media reporter and did not cover KC media goings-on very well."
This surprises you, John?
When I first left the Star and mentioned Bottom Line briefly on KCC I got a message from Aaron telling me what a faux journalist and flake he thought Landsberg was, and encouraging me to burn him at the stake.
I'm pretty sure the 13 to 18 bucks he spent on Barnhart's book was not about to change his estimation of Landsberg's skill set.
Here's another doozy.
"It has been great to see how KMBZ's Darla Jaye has thrived despite being banished to the tough evening talk show period. She can sometimes come across as tough as nails on the air, but she is a very nice person. I will miss her."
I'm going to let that one stand while you guys go thru SMH motions (remember that one?)
Here's where I show up!
"My mother always told me that if you can't say something nice about someone then don't say anything. I will apply that to Hearne Christopher, Jason Whitlock and Nick Wright. Enuf said."
Two things…
First you'd be better served with "nuff said." Second, your mom's words ring about as hollow as I can imagine, given that you've gone as far out of your way as possible to trash me and Nick over the years. Until I outed you a few years ago and you email begged me to enter into a truce.
As for following your mom's advice, you still aren't doing it, given that what you wrote here is obviously a slam. I mean, on behalf of Jason, Nick and I, we welcome the publicity but would ask that people consider the source. Just don't pretend to take the high road…
"One of the strangest media relationships I have ever had was with the Star's Joyce Smith. To this day I do not know if she cares for me or not despite us being close friends at one time."
Hoo boy, welcome to The Club, John Boy.
Joyce Smith is about as mentally unstable a reporter as imaginable and I can't think of a single soul that's ever sitteth on her right hand that didn't get godsmacked eventually by her left. Usually to the point of being permanently scarred and hating her guts. The name Will Gregory comes to mind on the latter.
Joyce and I were quite close prior to my joining the Star. And for a period of time afterwards as well. I used to go down to the business desk and joke with her about who scooped whom on some kick ass business story.
Until the time I scooped her on Ralph Gaines Lobster Pot moving to Manor Square in Westport. Joyce totally lost it. And when I had my come to Jesus with then FYI head Ellen Foley and told her that Joyce and I were pals, she said – and I quote – "Trust me, she is not your friend. Stay away from her."
Anybody have room for dessert?
Then check out this comment left on Bottom Line by PR dude Will Gregory: "Class. I'm a better person for knowing you, John. Congrats on standout career and a blog not to be missed. Cheers!"
I probably shouldn't do this but I can't resist.
Wanna know what Gregory told me time and again that he thinks about Landsberg and Bottom Line? Not much.
Gregory told me that when he left the Fairmont Hotel (now the Intercontinental) several years back, Landsberg advised him that if he wanted to put his new PR company on the map, he should lie to the Kansas City Business Journal about how much actual business he had – inflate the numbers – to make it into the mag's Top 25 list – like Landsberg told Gregory that he did.
Hey, that's all folks!


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Letter from Sri Lanka: The Empty Chair
The Sri Lankan government says it freed Tamil civilians from the clutches of a terrorist movement. Human rights groups say the state army perpetrated war crimes, and has since ruled punitively over the north.
Soldiers at Your Service
After defeating the Tamil Tiger insurgency, in 2009, the Sri Lankan government has resisted calls to drawdown its massive security force. Instead, it has steered the military directly into an expanding range of businesses, perhaps none more conspicuous than tourism.
Burma's Rohingya Muslims Targeted by Buddhist Mob Violence
The conflict in western Burma's Rakhine State erupted last June, when reports spread that a Buddhist woman was raped and murdered by three Rohingya men. Shortly after, a mob of Buddhists exacted retribution by pulling over a bus carrying Muslims and beating 10 passengers to death. The incidents ignited sectarian violence throughout the state. ...
Thailand's Buddhists Arm Against Insurgency
A few hours' drive from the white-sand beaches of Phuket, a deadly insurgency is terrorizing Thailand's south. The separatist movement, made up of mostly ethnic-Malay Muslims, roils the region with daily threats of sectarian violence and has prompted many Buddhist villagers, and even some monks, to take up arms in self-defense.
Thailand's Deep South
Since 2004, drive-by shootings, IED bombings and point-blank assassinations have claimed some 5,000 lives in Thailand's three restive southernmost provinces that border Malaysia, making the insurgency one of the world's deadliest.
East Timor: Regulating Land Ownership "Key to Stability"
From 1975 to 1999, Timor-Leste was ruled by the Indonesian army, which frequently confiscated land and forcibly relocated communities to break up resistance networks. When Timor-Leste achieved independence in 1999, most of the land was occupied without official title deeds.
East Timor: Occupation-era Crimes Forgiven, Not Forgotten
Some 180,000 people in Timor-Leste were killed during the Indonesian occupation from 1975 to 1999. More than a decade after Timor-Leste achieved independence from its much more powerful neighbour, accountability for the mass crimes of Indonesia remains contentious.
Deadly Clashes as Thai-Cambodian Temple Tensions Reignite
Cambodian and Thai troops squared-off for the fourth consecutive day on Monday, the latest in a series of deadly clashes over small but symbolically valued sections of territory along the Southeast Asian countries' shared border.
The Disappeared: No Peace for Victims of Nepal's Civil War
While visiting home in 2002, Rajendra Tharu awoke in his parent's house surrounded by childhood classmates. They had not come to welcome him back. Since finishing school, Tharu had joined the police; the others, from the same farming village in Bardiya, had become supporters of the Maoist revolutionaries fighting against the government.
The Ghosts of Nepal's Disappeared
A decade-long civil war claimed thousands of lives. More than four years after it ended, though, official silence means some families can't move on.
Nepal's Restive Revolutionaries
"Weapons are not powerful—powerful are those who have strong ideas and humanity," says Budha. But, ultimately, it is as much their weapons as their populist ideology that makes the Maoists potent.


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The Ultimate Link Building Guide
When it comes to link building I have been around the block a few times. I know just about every little trick or tactic that exists. The following article lays bare my entire link building strategy. Bookmark it, share it, or even print it out to read on the toilet. This content is remarkable. Enjoy!
Whenever I launch a new site there are a base set of links I aim to get. These are links that virtually anyone can get. Below are the links that I build for my homepage on every site that I launch:
Directory Links
When it comes to directory links there are three different types. The first type are the directories I submit to manually, the second type are directories that I submit to using automated software and the last type are niche related link directories.
Manual submission: The three big web directories are Dmoz, Yahoo and Best of the web. I find the fee for submitting to Yahoo and Best of the web to be more than the value of the link in most cases. Unless I have an exact match domain, I usually don't bother paying to submit. Here is a list of web directories that you can manually submit too. My advice is that it's up to you to decide whether a link is worth the submission fee. My opinion is that you could use this money for greater effect by purchasing other link building tools/services. However, if you're already "making bank" you might see some value in submitting.
Automated submission: I use GSA Website Submitter to automatically submit my site to over 14'000 web directories. This is by far the best directory submission software I have ever used. Alternatively, you can use a directory submission service but I have found a lot of them to be untrustworthy and not show a good ROI on the submission price. If you plan on launching multiple websites in the coming years you will likely see a ROI on a directory submission tool like GSA Website Submitter. They have a one month subscription option for $52, you can easily sign up and submit all of your websites for that price.
For those of you on a tight budget, you can use the DigiXMAS Directory Submitter tool. The submitter is a semi automated directory submitter that has both free and paid versions. The free version allows you to submit your site to 150 directories.
Niche directories: Go to Google and use the search command "YourNiche+links" or "YourNiche+directory" and manually submit to these links pages or website directories. Some sites will require you to link back to them. To get around this, create a page on your WordPress blog called "links" and place the required links on this page. Make sure the page is not linked to from any page on your site and exclude it via robots.txt
High PR Dofollow Blog Comments
By default, All WordPress blogs put a nofollow tag on blog comments. However, there are certain plugins that allow blog owners to change their blog comments to dofollow. I have found a variety of dofollow blog comment lists for you to use. If you do some research you will also be able to find more of these lists.
I have been able to get links from pages that have a SEOMoz page authority score of 70 and above. These are valuable links that shouldn't be sniffed at. Nowadays, I get one of my Filipino staff to build these links on my behalf. However, if you are starting from scratch, this is a link building method I recommend. I get my staff to use the manual poster tool in Scrapebox to speed up this process.
High PR Forum Profile Links
Virtually all forums on the web allow users to create a profile. Within this profile you either get a signature section or an about section where you can place your links.
My strategy when it comes to high PR forum profile links is this:
– Make a short contextual post. Usually around 100 words. Spin it using The Best Spinner.
– Find a list of High PR forum links and make profiles on these sites, remember to include links back to your site in each profile. Alternatively, use Big Boards as your forum list.
– Ping your URL's by submitting them to hundreds of RSS services using Scrapebox.
– Use automatic tools to send massive quantities of low quality links to each profile. More on this later!
Remember, whenever you get any link to your site, it's much more valuable to get a link from within a contextual post than a link that's just sitting on its own with no surrounding text content. I have also found that you increase the odds of a forum profile getting indexed if it has "unique" or spun content within it. Take that as you may.
Also, forum profiles are usually deep within a sites linking structure and get relatively little link juice to them. I boost the link juice of each of my profiles by sending massive quantities of low quality links to them. My low quality link strategy is discussed in detail later.
High PR Web Properties
Just like forum profiles, you can create profiles on many big websites and insert your link. Some of these links are nofollow, however I still think it's worth your time to sign up to these sites just to get the link.
– Facebook page
– Google profile
– Slideshare profile
– Twitter profile
– Crunchbase page
– Scribd profile
– Reddit account
– Linkin company page
– Wikipedia profile
– Quora profile
– Stumbleupn account
– Youtube account
– About.me page
– Stackexchange account
– Crunchbase page
Similarly to high PR forum profiles, you can send low quality links to your profiles to boost up the link juice that is sent your way. Although, these domains are so strong, the profile will usually get some juice and be indexed by Google relatively quickly.
Megafoo Links
Along the same lines as the links mentioned above, you can get automatically generated Megafoo links for your site. You will have trouble getting these links indexed without doing anything, so it's best to send low quality links to these pages in order to get them indexed and provide some link juice. However, because the content on each of these pages is automatically generated and not unique, it's debatable how worthwhile these links actually are. Again, I am just telling you that you can get these links, use your own judgement.
My Tiered Link Building Strategy
After getting a large quantity of links using the methods mentioned above, I start to generate links on a daily basis to my homepage and other money pages on my site.
The way I do this is by using a tiered linking strategy. What I mean by this is that I have two tiers. I have an inner tier that is mostly medium and high quality links that link to pages on my site. I then have an outer tier which is lower quality links. These lower quality links are made automatically by various link building software programs I use. I then point these low quality links to my inner tier.
Sounds complicated? The graphic below better illustrates my point.
Tier 2 – Low Quality Links
I like to think of Tier 2 links as optional links. You can be successful without implementing any of my Tier 2 link building methods. That being said, each of these types of links are at least somewhat effective, however when combined together, you will definitely see results. Like most tools and services i promote, the value you get depends on how you use the tools and how often you use them.
Profile links: I run Xrumer on a VPS server to get low quality profile links to pages that link to my site. Xrumer is an expensive piece of kit and is something that I don't recommend beginners use. The learning curve is fairly steep, the software is expensive but if you can figure out how to get the most from the software, you will see a ROI on your investment. I would only suggest that you invest in this if you are a very serious link builder and not a newbie.
You can blast money pages directly on your site if you want; I have seen results by doing this. However, be warned, this can cause a new site to sandbox, especially if you do not know what you're doing and it's the only type of links you are getting to that page. Whenever you send low quality links at a page, the risk can be negated by having a really strong backlink profile with links from high quality pages or from varying types of sources.
Social bookmarking: I use Bookmarking Demon to get mass social bookmarking links to my website. In terms of the quality of links it produces, it's similar to Xrumer links, very low quality but in high volume. Don't buy this software if you are not going to use it in volume. If you just use it to create a few accounts to bookmark your own content you will not see as good results as if you scale it out massively and create a huge network of bookmarking links.
Failing that, you can do a lot of what Bookmarking Demon does manually by using a free website called SocialMarker.
Comment links: I also use Scrapbox on a regular basis. The key to being successful with any automated software is having a good list and having good proxies. I use private proxies and have my own private blog lists. Sorry, I can't share those. However, if you're looking for Scrapbox or Xrumer lists, many are available to purchase from forums like Blackhatworld. Again, the links are very low quality; I use these links to boost pages that link to my site only.
Mass article submission: One of my favourite pieces of software is Article Marketing Robot. I use this to submit spun articles to thousands of article directories. I can incorporate Article Marketing Robot links in to tier 1, tier 2 or both. The links generated are of a higher quality than other tier 2 links.
I am literally running Scrapbox, Xrumer or Bookmarking Demon 24-hours a day on my VPS server. I use a VPS instead of running these programs on my PC for two reasons. 1) Privacy reasons. 2) Because my ISP will cut me off if I run these programs 24/7. The service I use for my VPS is Blackbox RDP, they allow you to run SEO programs 24/7 and you don't have to worry about getting banned from your ISP. I highly endorse Blackbox RDP and haven't had any problems with them. If you are looking to scale up your link building using automatic programs, this is what you need.
Tier 1 – High and Medium Quality Links
Guest posting on authority blogs: Depending on what type of niche you are in, Guest posting will either be marginally useful or the most effective method in your link building arsenal. If you can find authoritative domains where you can either provide good content in exchange for a link, or pay a site owner to allow you to guest post, you should see some good results from these types of links.
Some niches for example, Gambling and Poker, there are very few blogs in which you can guest post on for free. In these cases you will either have to adopt other link building methods or open up your wallet. Whereas in niches like the Make Money Online niche and internet marketing niche, there are hundreds of blogs to guest post on.
What makes guest posting so valuable is that these are links that not everyone can get. Whenever I launch a new site I try to get at least a few of these high quality links right at the start. Furthermore, links from within a blog post are links that I cannot see Google ever wanting to devalue (Hence the rise in popularity of blog networks), the reason for this is because this is exactly how natural organic linking occurs. IE, someone with a blog sees a piece of content they like and link to it within a post.
In terms of domain relevancy I have found it not to be a huge factor. What I mean about this is that if you get links from high authority blogs that are outside of your niche, they will still be very valuable links. A mistake I see a lot of people make is thinking that they are only allowed to get links from sites that are topically related. This is simply not the case right now. The authority of the page/domain is much more important than the topical relevance. This could change in the future, however right now, this is how it is.
Sites like Sponsored Reviews allow you to buy posts on other people's blogs. Prices start from only $5 per post. Obviously this is greyer hat than other methods since Google is particularly at war with people who buy links. That being said, if you're smart about it and do it in moderation, you should be fine.
Both Postrunner from The Keyword Academy and Build My Rank are methods of guest posting. Each site requires you to write an article (A 150 word snippet in Build My Rank's case) in order to get a backlink. Postrunner has a database of hundreds of blogs that you can manually submit to. Unlike other backlink networks, you get to choose which site you post too and they have a number of highly authoritative sites that you can get a link from.
Furthermore, I do not build tier 2 links to my guest posts. The reason for this is that the links will already be valuable and there is no need to "boost them".
My Article Submission and Blog Network Strategy
Manual article and web 2.0 submission: Each day I write at least one unique article to distribute to article directories, web 2.0's and blog networks. Nowadays, I usually get one of my staff to write these articles for me. I then get the article spun by hand using the best spinner. After that I usually submit the original article to one of the top article directories or web 2.0 sites manually. I then submit spun versions of my article to all of the other article directories listed below:
– Ezine articles
– Hubpages
– Squidoo
– Infobarrel
– Go Articles
– Amazines
– Article blast
– Article rich
– Article base
– Ezine mark
– Self growth (Health related)
– Idea marketers
– Sooper articles
– Bukisa
– Snipsly
– Article factory
– Upublish
– Article feeder
– Article compilation
– Article world
In case I missed any article directories or this list becomes outdated, check out this great list of article directories. Even with spun content, I have 90% accept rate from these top article directories.
Submit to blog and article networks: I spend way over $500 a month on various article and blog networks. These networks vary in quality and price. For those of you that don't know, these networks are private networks of sites that allow you to post an article (In many cases a spun article) to a network of many different sites in exchange for a monthly membership fee. Right now I am a member of all of the following sites.
Blog networks
– Build My Rank – $59 per month.
– The Keyword Academy (Postrunner tool) – Free for 30 days, then $33 per month.
– Link Farm Evolution – Onetime payment $297
– Private Networks – Build your own from expired high PR domains or pay to use someone else's. (Hint: Search on link building forums)
Article networks
– Article Ranks – $39.99 to $89.99 per month.
– Article Marketing Robot – $97 one off payment.
– Unique Article Wizard – $67 per month.
If I was to endorse any one particular network, I would endorse Build My Rank. Build my rank is probably the highest quality network out there. They don't accept spun content so it's more labor intensive to get links, however the results are definitely better than a number of other networks.
Remember, I can afford to spend this amount of money on link networks because I see a return on investment on my spending. This is because the keywords I rank for generate more than enough passive income to cover the cost of these services. I don't test each of these sites individually anymore; all I know is that when I put in the effort to churn out a lot of content and submit to all of my networks, the search results move in my direction.
There are a lot of people (Particularly white hat SEO's) who hate on automated software or backlink networks like this. I see where they are coming from; they think that these low and medium quality links are not sustainable. And in some respects I agree with them, but let's be truthful, these tactics have worked for at least the last 5 years, particularly when you combine them with getting high quality authoritative links.
The way I see it is this, I am creating awesome quality content. If Google can't automatically place my content up high on its own merit, then that is Google's fault and I am going to do what it takes to put my content up there in the rankings and get that visibility. There are some niches where good content will naturally get links. However, with anything competitive, it's up to you to build links, otherwise you will never rank anywhere. That is something Google fails to tell you and will never tell you.
Do you know how much money you can make in a competitive niche by ranking #1 for a number of big terms each year? The answer is a lot of money. Basically, what I am saying is that it's all about risk. All of these strategies have worked for me. I have had sites banned and penalised before and I've also made websites that make 5 figures a month using these methods. I have also built high quality websites that never attracted any organic links; if I left these websites to sit they would simply never make money.
It's possible to get good results without being a member of any blog or article network, I am not going to say that these are compulsory to join. You can start out bootstrapping it and reinvest whatever money you make back in to getting these tools and services. My personal recommendation is that you try out a number of these networks and if you don't see any results after a couple of months quit using them. My method is one way to make money online; it's not the only way but it's pretty damn effective.
Other Tier 1 Link Building Methods
Create and post to free blogs: There are many website that allow you to create your own blog. Generally I submit the same spun content from my article submissions to a number of free blog websites. I then build tier 2 links to all blog sites so that I get my content indexed. Here is a list of blog sites I currently post to.
– WordPress.com
– Tumblr
– Blogger
– Livejournal
– Blogetry
– Insane Journal
– JournalFen
– Blogsome
– Edublogs.org
– Blog.com
– Bravenet blog
– Opendiary.com
– Tblog.com
You can also employ the same strategy with WordPress Multi User blogs. For those of you who don't know, WPMU sites are sites where anyone can sign up for a WordPress blog. In order to find WPMU blogs, do a search in Google for "inurl:wp-signup.php", this will give you a list of the signup pages of WPMU blogs. You can do this manually or use Link Farm Evolution like me. Again, I then build tier 2 links to each of my WPMU blogs in order to get them indexed and provide some kind of link value. I also use link farm evolution as a tier 2 link building method to build links to other articles and blog posts. Remember, there are lots of different ways to skin a cat.
Free hosting websites: There are many websites that offer free webhosting. You can use these webhosts to create contextual pages that link to your own site. Most of the time I am just creating contextual pages to get extra linking root domains to my site and I build up their value by getting tier 2 links to them.
Create your own blog network: This is something I am starting to do now, although I haven't done it on a mass scale. So far the results have been very good but it's not a cheap strategy to implement. What I do is use websites like DropDay and Godaddy auctions to look for newly expired domains. I use link analysis tools like Majestic SEO and Open Site Explorer to evaluate the link equity of a domain. After I evaluate the strength of the domain, I attempt to purchase it. After purchasing the domain I then stick the site on a unique IP using a SEO Host and throw up a WordPress blog on the site. I then use Article Marketing Robot to post my spun content to these blogs. What makes this strategy valuable is that these are links your competitors cannot get since it's your site network and you own the domains.
Press release submission: I have had some decent results doing press release distribution. You can use PR Web to do this but it's expensive. You can do the same thing but with less distribution using Magic Submitter which I highly endorse as an all-purpose submitter. The one thing you need be aware of with PR Web is that all press releases use the exact same content. IE you do a press release and you get 200 copies of the exact same press release. I have seen this trigger an anchor text filter before when using an anchor text rich link within a press release. To get around this, I usually use the URL as the anchor text when writing my press releases.
Additionally I usually send tier 2 links to the list of press release links I get.
Article Spinning
There's lot of debate about the effectiveness of article spinning and whether it's really necessary in order to rank. I feel that having links from "unique" spun content is more valuable than having links from duplicate content. I haven't personally tested this but that is just my general gut feeling. Either way, many article sites and blog networks require you to submit "unique" spun content to them.
The article spinning software I use is called The Best Spinner. Each day I write a number of unique articles. These articles are either for content on my site or for link building purposes. I then place the article in The Best Spinner and manually spin it.
I then submit the spun articles manually to the top article directories; I get a 90% plus approval rate. Your approval rate is really down to the quality of your spin. Spinning a 500 word article well will take me about 20-30 minutes to do. I spin to a 50-65% uniqueness in The Best Spinner; I have found that this level of spinning is enough to appear unique to the search engines but is not spun to a level that makes it unreadable. I never mess around with automatic spinning; you need to take the time to manually spin each article by hand, otherwise the output you get will not be very readable.
I then distribute the articles and try to get as many tier 1 links as possible. I will submit my spun articles basically anywhere that will take them. For example I will submit too: Article marketing robot, Article Ranks, Unique Article Wizard, My Link Farm Evolution Blogs, My private blog network, my other free hosted blogs etc.
All in all, it might take me 1-2 hours to write a unique article, spin it by hand and distribute it everywhere. The end result is me getting contextual links from thousands of properties.
In order to get the most out of the services above you need to do a number of submissions each day. Nowadays I outsource a lot of this work but I originally did this myself on a daily basis to test that it worked. After I figured that it worked, I scaled it up via outsourcing. I now do many submits a day.
Other Link Building Strategies
Copy your competitor's links: For backlink analysis I use two tools. Open Site Explorer and Majestic SEO. Majestic tends to offer a more complete and accurate set of links. However, I am a bigger fan of the metrics SEOMoz uses with open site explorer for evaluating the strength of links.
There is not much else left to be said about this strategy. I often download all of my competitor's links in to excel documents and go through them one by one, figuring out which links I can get and which links I cannot get.
Buy links/guest posts: I don't do much link buying anymore; however I have done it a bunch in the past. I don't really look at it from an ethical perspective, paid links work; I just look at it from a ROI perspective. Nowadays, link prices seem to be heavily inflated, especially in competitive niches where everyone understands the value of a link. I would rather spend my time and money building links that are permanent, not paying a monthly leasing fee.
As far as my sources, I've used Text Link Ads before, however I don't use the site much anymore. I have also used industry related webmaster forums to buy links or have contacted webmasters directly to purchase them. If you are going to engage in this practice, NEVER send out emails using a Gmail account or send emails to someone else who's using a Gmail account. This should be self explanatory.
Exchange links: When it comes to reciprocal link exchanges I don't do it much. I make sure I only do them with the biggest players in my industry. If I cannot get links from those sites I won't bother with link exchanges. There are two reasons why I don't do much reciprocal link building. First of all, reciprocal links are obviously partially devalued compared to one way links. Secondly, it's not a scalable link tactic. What I mean by this is that there isn't the scope to get thousands of links using this method. No one has a thousand long blogroll on their homepage!
Widget bait: I have to admit that I've never done widget bait before, although I have seen some good examples of it. If you can create some kind of widget that people would place on their website which links back to your site, all power to you. I'd imagine you need a decent user base of traffic to even get something like this off the ground, or something incredibly viral. Because of this, I think this is something you should bear in mind for once your site already has a lot of traffic and use this as a further tactic to develop your link profile. Some ideas for different widgets include:
– Quizzes and polls where users can link back to your poll or display their results.
– A small piece of software that fulfils some kind of purpose.
– A badge or some kind of award.
High quality / viral content: High quality content should be a given. I have had lots of success in getting organic links by creating content that is of a very high value to my visitors. Take AffiliateFYI.com for example, many of my posts are 2000 words or longer and contain significant quantities of information. Most of them aren't designed to be viral but when you create something that is extremely remarkable people just have a tendency to click that beautiful Facebook like button. Hopefully you're in a niche that you are passionate about, if you're not you will really struggle on the remarkable content front.
When it comes to viral content, I am just simply not that clever and you don't have to be either. There are tons of strategies like ego baiting (Where you praise, diss or interview someone) but these strategies aren't mandatory in order to get editorial links. Creating something awesome is enough.
Remarkable content doesn't just have to be written content. Videos, Podcasts and info graphics are all acceptable ways to distribute your message. I think it all depends on your DNA, I don't profess to be an expert writer but I find it a lot easier writing articles than doing a video or presentation. If you love presenting and creating videos, do that. There is lots of traffic to be had on Youtube. You could even kill two birds with one stone by getting your videos transcribed; now you have an article to go along with your video.
Video submission: Talking about video marketing, many of the video websites allow you to place a link within the description of your video. So not only can you generate traffic by creating video content, you can also build links to your site that can help you rank. Definitely a win win. If you want to get in to the "video game" I would recommend that you get Magic Submitter. It allows you to submit your video to a bunch of tube video sites all at once. It also has the added feature to do press release distribution, article distribution, social bookmarking, RSS feed distribution, web 2.0 and blog distribution. It's basically like SE Nuke but a lot cheaper. I highly endorse Magic Submitter right now. So check that out!
Software submission: Did you know that you can get hundreds of links from turning your content in to a .PAD file and submitting it to thousands of software directories? I use PAD Submit Worker to do this. In terms of a ROI on this software, it costs $49.95 and you most likely won't recoup that investment from one submission. However, if you launch multiple sites and do multiple submissions you should see a return on your investment.
The best approach to get software site links is to convert your existing e-book in to a .PAD file and then use software like PAD Submit Worker to do distribution.
Charity links: Many organisations and charities have links pages for people who donate to their cause. It's possible to find many of these pages in Google by using some of the following footprints: "Please visit our sponsors" and "Thanks to the following donors". You can switch up the footprints to find more sites. I have found a handful of good links using this method but the majority of sites I find using these footprints are trash. I have however found a number of pr5 and pr6 links which I got for only $5 each using variations of this method.
Ask for links: In virtually every niche you will find some non profit websites, even in niches as competitive as online gambling. These non profit websites are often resource sites and are usually operated by hobbyists. To get links from these websites all you have to do is make sure your site is a high quality and linkable resource. Then just flat out ask the webmaster for a link. Being polite, courtesy and respectful always increases your odds of successfully getting a link.
Forum posting: This is completely different to creating forum profiles and embedding a link within the about section. The forum posting strategy is simple. Find relevant forums with traffic, engage in discussion on the forum and then leave a link back to your site in the signature or within a post. The key to getting away with this tactic is to not be spammy with your posts. Really contribute and add value to the forum. Don't just add tons of "me too" posts.
Footer links: If you look at the footer of a WordPress blog you will often see something like this: "Theme sponsored by XXXXX". Did you know that it's possible to buy these links? In order to get these links you have to either create your own theme or contact theme owners and pay them to place your link at the bottom of their theme. I know for a fact that these links work but you have to be very smart about how you go about doing it. I know that getting too many of these links and not enough types of other links can lead to a penalty. That being said, if you already have a very strong site, these links can definitely help you. There is a lot of talk in the SEO industry about footer links being devalued. And frankly, I agree. These links have been devalued, but they are still working to some degree right now. My advice is not to use this as a primary link building strategy. I suggest using it to boost high authority sites that have already got a lot of age, link equity and trust. Getting these types of links will most likely sandbox/lead to a penalty on a new site.
Website review links: Many webmaster forums have a website review section. A crafty little link building tactic is signing up to these webmaster forums and make a post asking for a review of your website. In order to find these forums search in Google using: "website review forum" or similar footprints.
Design portal links: Have you seen those design portal websites that provide links to inspirational website designs? It's possible to grab hundreds of links from these types of sites, providing that your design is actually inspirational. In order to get accepted to these sites you will have to have a custom design. If you're using any kind of purchased or free WordPress theme, don't bother submitting, you won't get in. In order to find these design portals search Google for: "css design gallery" or similar footprints.
Budget Link Building
I appreciate that many of my readers are starting from scratch and do not have a large budget to invest in to link building. I recommend the following approach to you guys.
– Build dofollow blog links via commenting. Cost = $0.
– Look for authoritative blogs within your niche and offer to guest post. Cost = $0.
– Manually create profile links on the most authoritative websites and forums. Cost = $0
– Use The Best Spinner to spin articles so that you can increase the number of links you can get from writing a single article. Cost = $77 per year.
– Submit your spun articles to the top article directories manually. Cost = $0.
– Create free blogs and add your spun articles to them. Cost = $0.
– Use Article Marketing Robot to submit your spun articles to thousands of article sites. Cost = $97 onetime payment.
– Use Build My Rank to build blog post links. Cost = $59 per month.
– Use Open Site Explorer and Majestic SEO to steal as many of your competitors links as possible. Cost = $0.
– Use Magic Submitter to do video distribution, press release distribution, social bookmarking, web 2.0 submission and blog post distribution. Cost = $4.95 for a 30 day trial and then $67 monthly.
I guarantee that if you build a high quality website, select the right keywords and then build these types of links every day, you will see results within 3 months. I would be very surprised if someone did link building every day for like this for 3 months and saw no results.
The results you get will depend on how hard you work the quality of your keyword selection and niche selection. There is no reason you can't be earning $100-$500 a month within 3 months. If you further invest that money back into your business in the form of purchasing new tools, outsourcing article writing and submission, there is no reason why you can't be earning $1k-$10k a month within a year. After that, the sky is the limit.
Using all the tools in the method above it would cost you only $59 per month for Build my Rank and then an initial outlay of $174 for Article Marketing Robot and The Best Spinner. Granted, if you get Magic Submitter that will bump the price up a little bit. But let's be honest, where else can you start a real business for under $120 a month?
The key to seeing results is actually doing the work on a daily basis in order to get these links. If you are not writing, spinning and submitting one article per day as well as doing a handful of Build my Rank posts; you are not working hard enough on your link building.
We all know that ranking in Google is about getting tons of links. This book has taught you at least a dozen methods in which you can get links. You literally have no excuse to not take action. The people who will see results are the ones who don't give up and the ones that adjust their approach if they don't see results. I am sure some people will start down the right path, not see results quickly and just give up because it is hard.
In order to see results you have to be willing to put in the effort, it really helps if you're passionate about the website you are making. If you are not you will probably just give up somewhere along the way because it's hard work with little reward in the beginning.
I know a lot of people don't want to hear this; it's not good marketing on my part because everyone is looking for a way to get rich quick. Sadly there are very few ways to get rich quick. The method I endorse works but it will not make you rich overnight or even in 3 months. However if you stick it out you will be making a modest income within 6 months and an income that could allow you to quit your job and do what you love within a couple of years. This method has allowed me to make low 5 figures with my gambling affiliate websites and a small 4 figure income with a website I made in the health industry. I am confident that if you work hard and apply the link building strategies mentioned above you will be able to build a successful, high ranking website in virtually any niche.
The key thing that allowed me to get to 5 figures per month was scaling up my business. The metrics you have to scale are simple. I realised that the work I did on a daily basis built me X amount of links, X amount of content, got me X amount of traffic and made me X amount of money. To increase my income all I had to do was increase the amount of links that I made and the amount of content I built. By increasing links and content I got more traffic. More traffic = more money.
In order to profit from outsourcing, the outsourcing has to cost less than the income that is generated from the traffic and links that are created by such outsourcing.
With all of that being said, I outsource both link development and content development.
1) Link development outsourcing: Usually this means getting cheap foreign labor to write and spin articles, manually build links and use automated software to build me links.
2) Content development outsourcing: I hire writers to create high quality content for my websites. These writers are paid more than the cheap foreign labor.
I get my labor from a variety of sources. I have had some success hiring cheap foreign workers from both Odesk and OnlineJobs.ph.
When it comes to outsourcing high quality written content it is most important for me to find an expert on that individual topic. I would rather have high quality content that is written at an average level than poor quality content that is crafted perfectly. In order to find these experts I usually look for people who post a lot on industry forums and appear to have a deep knowledge on that topic. I have even made posts on different forums saying that I am looking for a writer on X topic and give the requirements for the job and information on how people can apply. Depending on the forum, you may get away with it or you may have your post deleted. I have met some great writers this way.
Niche Loopholes
I believe every niche has a number of link loopholes. For example, in the Gambling and Poker niche it is very hard to get natural links. It is next to impossible to find high quality blogs to guest post on without paying the owner. In this niche though there are however maybe 50 webmaster blogs in which you can get a post on. I have received some very authoritative links by writing to webmasters and offering to write a guest post on their gambling related affiliate marketing blog in exchange for a link. I also created my own "gambling affiliate blog" and traded links and guest posts with other webmasters. Ultimately this was purely a strategy to get more links to my money site.
Now I know this isn't a huge secret that I am giving away, but it illustrates an important point. If you just think a little outside of the box there is often a number of extra links that you can get to your site.
I have several more "loopholes" that I am not prepared to give away for the gambling niche but I am convinced that virtually every niche has these loopholes. For example, the internet marketing and make money online niche loopholes are obviously forum posting and guest posting. Both of these niches have hundreds of blogs and dozens of forums that other niches simply do not have.
Satellite websites
When I enter a niche I usually build one authority site and a number of smaller satellite websites. These satellite sites are usually small niche websites with exact match domains that are designed to rank for just one term or modifications of that term.
When launching a satellite site I get the same easy to get links as I do with my authority site. I will then use all of the other link building strategies in my arsenal to rank a particular website.
The advantages of building satellite websites include:
– Spreading the risk from having one website that makes money to having multiple sites.
– Getting more total link juice to your network of sites.
– Using exact match domains to get a boost in the search results.
– Pushing link juice back to your authority site by linking to it.
When setting up a network of niche sites I use SEO Hosting. I set up all my domains using private WHOIS and stick the sites on a new class C IP block in my SEO Hosting account. That way Google can't link your websites together and the links passed from your satellite sites to your authority site pass full value.
Link Building Conclusion
When it comes to link building there is no right way to do it but there is definitely a wrong way. Webmasters need to be careful when they launch their site that they don't get too many low quality links too quickly. I know that it's possible to launch a site, get tons of low quality links and rank quickly. I have done it before, but I have also had my sites sandboxed before by engaging in these practices. That is why I recommend that you don't start out too aggressive.
My biggest piece of advice when it comes to link building is to spend some time trying to get some high quality authoritative links. These links will be hard to get but will definitely be worth it in the long run. After your site is a few months old you can start to ramp up the aggression and build links quicker.
Follow Me on Twitter @AffiliateFYI for Even More Affiliate, Business and SEO Updates!


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Outdoor Living Find a Trusted Contractor to Help
Impress Your Friends With These Patio Changes
Summer is a wonderful time for getting together with friends. You might even have thoughts of hosting an outdoor gathering at your place. But those notions are quashed once you really look at your bland, bare, uninviting slab that only a delusional realtor would call a "patio."
Maybe you should remodel your patio space before you start planning parties. Here are some suggestions that will get your friends talking:
- Build out your grill area. Construct a platform, run a gas line to it (and maybe even plumbing), and build in space for counters, cold beverage storage, and of course a grill that's ten times better than that cheap little charcoal unit from a big box store.
- Think water. A fountain, water feature, koi pond, or even a mini-moat would be a signature accent for your patio. Water elements define your patio space and make it more tranquil and decorative.
- Cover it up. A pergola (also called an arbor) is a freestanding wooden structure with horizontal crossbeams to support shade cover and/or foliage. It's more durable and effective than a sun shade or umbrella.
- Wall it in. Consider building a low wall around the border of your patio. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing, it can double as counter or seating space for your patio guests.
- Add a hint of fire. Fire pits are now available in a wide variety of colors, sizes, and styles. Or you can create your own using small boulders, flagstone slabs, or similar materials.
Add a fireplace so the party doesn't have to end when the sun goes down
- Add fire. To extend your party-hosting capabilities, why not install a full fireplace on your patio? Then you can have friends over even when there's a nip in the air.
- Take the stairs. If your patio or yard is sloped or dual-level, carving out some stylish stairs will help your patio stand out. Plus, it can divide your patio space in two, giving it the illusion of more space.
- Be curvy. Most patios are square or rectangular. Think outside the "box" by fashioning curved borders. Curves are visually appealing, and they help portray your patio as a place to relax and unwind.
- Focus on the home itself. More specifically, your windows and doors that face the patio. Upgrading them or swapping them out for more decorative components will add some pop to your patio.
- See the light. Don't just settle for that single weak bulb in your patio light fixture. Run some wiring to other areas for more illumination, or choose solar-power landscape lighting for charm and glow.
- Cement the look of your concrete. Simply staining your concrete in a fashionable hue can breathe life into that boring slab. It's also something that can be done in a few days or a weekend.
- Furnish it right. No more plastic chairs and dollar-store tables. Invest in some heavy-duty furniture that is comfortable for your guests and will last a long time.
It's great to spend time with friends during the summer. It's even better to impress your friends by having the smartest and most inviting patio on which to congregate.
NEXT STEP: Contact a trusted home contractor today to create the patio of your dreams!
Chris Martin writes about home improvement, auto insurance, consumer finance and many other topics. End
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