Craig McGinty

Cheapflights in the US

ONE of the reasons I came back from France was to work on a project for the travel website Cheapflights.

It is a blog-style site that offers advice and information to travellers in the US, take a look at http://news.cheapflights.com

The site has also received a write up from Dan Bricklin who is involved with the US side of the company.

Displaying ads at the foot of articles

IF you are looking to earn some money from running advertising on your website then you need to get your adverts in front of people.

One of the best ways is to place the adverts close to the footer of your articles as it then gives people something to click on, and so earn you some pennies.

I use this feature on my French site, for example, on this article about preparing your house for winter if you go past the list you will see the ads.

Search Engine Optimisation tips

I WAS recently speaking to someone about the importance of the title, or headline, you give a page, as well as the actual words on the page.

Well here is a very useful article about Search Engine Ranking factors written by a number of people with experience in the field.

Some of it is a bit technical but it is clear that the most important things that influence search engine results are titles and the words in your published document.

You are also sure to learn quite a few other important points as well, I know I did.

Jakob Nielsen highlights blog design errors

JAKOB Nielsen is a leading reference point when it comes to designing a website that is easy for your readers to navigate around.

And he has now taken a look at the Top Ten Design Mistakes Made by Blogs and his points are well worth considering, not only for blogs but general websites.

One of the biggest mistakes he notes is the lack of an About Page which I agree is key, although you can learn a lot from words on a page, some background and a photo of the author really makes a difference.

Getting the long tail

I WROTE recently about the Long Tail and how publishers can hook into it to ensure they establish themselves within a particular niche.

Well here is another example of the principle in action, Seth Godin tracked down an advert on eBay he produced many years ago.  He saw it and bought it for $5.

Now think, just how big is the marketplace for an advert from an old magazine about a software company?  Not that big I'd have thought and in days gone by it would not have been worth establishing a business that sells pages from magazines.

But that's where change is occurring.  The cost of the listing on eBay is very small when compared to the price that Seth was willing to pay and the only storage problem you have is somewhere to put your magazine collection.

What is also important is how people find you on the internet, because as search engines improve writing a good description of your product, that hooks into what your potential client is looking for, is going to be worth spending some time on.

And that's before we even approach the impact that RSS feeds will have.

Blogging interview

I HAVE been writing my thisfrenchlife website for close on two years now and firmly believe that people can use blogging software to help their business.

If you want to hear a little about how I use blogs, and how a writer in Saigon runs his website, then check out this interview I featured in on The Angel Blog.

And if you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment below.

A nomad worth watching

ONE of the ways to earn money from the internet is to run a site about something you have a passion about, then plug in some advertising.

Well the Working Nomad is taking it to the extreme and intends to fund a trip around the world by writing about it and so earning his money as he travels.

This is a brave plan and is sure to keep him occupied, but as long as he keeps tight hold of his spending and up to date with his sites then it could prove succesful.

He is clear about how he intends to do this and definitely is talking from experience on earning through affiliate schemes and Adsense.

An RSS feed to subscribe to there I think and the best of luck.

The speed of the video iPod

I AM no gadget fan myself but I can see the buzz and excitement that the video iPod has brought to the nation is sure to make it a must have once it arrives in the UK.

One of the things that did pleasantly surprise me was that the launch of the thing made this morning's BBC Breakfast news - it even had its own featured five minutes.

Considering the news was all over the internet only yesterday this was a speedy move from the BBC about an item that is clearly aimed at younger people.

Good to see the BBC reaching beyond its regular news agenda.

Paper thin TV screens

SIEMENS has developed a paper thin screen that will display images in the same way that computers and televisions do now.

The first examples are likely to be used on packaging allowing different languages to be displayed.

The screens are flexible and could also be used to display news stories on the front page of a magazine. They gain power from printable batteries and should last a few months.

Displaying categories differently in Typepad

ONE of the things I get asked quite often about Typepad is how to change the display of categories from the default alphabetic way.

You can order them by the time they were created, through the configuration tab, but it's a bit long winded.

Another way is to create a Typelist which allows you to feature your own text, HTML and links etc.

To do this click on Typelist and create a list, on the type option pick 'Notes' then give it a name. Maybe Sections?

Then in the window you can enter regular HTML so it could be something like this:

<a href="http://websitename.typepad.com/foldername/
cottages/index.html">Cottages</a>
<a href="http://websitename.typepad.com/foldername/
pool/index.html">Pool</a>
<a href="http://websitename.typepad.com/foldername/
guestbook/index.html">Gardens</a>

Each category is just an index page for the articles you place in it so you can create as many as you want - but I'd try to stay to less than ten for ease of use.

Then make sure that 'Sections' is featured when you go into design and drop the Categories from the column.

Make sure you keep the option to organise articles in Categories, you are using the feature but just setting them out differently.

Promise it isn't as difficult to do as it sounds!