Shimon Sandler is an SEO consultant who can help them find that sweet spot.

Shimon who?
After working with two successful agencies, Did-it.com and DigitalGrit, Shimon Sandler struck out on his own as an SEO consultant where he applies his marketing knowledge to help companies zero in on what they need to know and do to achieve online results they’re looking for.

He’s worked with such clients as Kohl’s Department Stores, a variety of Loreal brands, Wendy’s Restaurants, US Army, and Intel Corporation. Articles he has written have been highlighted on several websites and is a columnist for Mediapost.

What can Shimon do for you?
In addition to the content, I usually look for the following things in a site to help me evaluate whether the owner knows what he’s talking about. The number of RSS subscriptions can be a telltale sign of credibility, and with 908 subscribers as of this writing, I’d say Shimon’s pretty credible.

The site’s layout is another hot point of mine. Shimon’s site passes my test on that because all you need to know is neatly laid out in the left nav and organized by categories.

And speaking of categories, there are quite a few: Adsense, Black Hat SEO, Domaining, Email Marketing, Keyword Analysis, Mobile Search, and on and on.

Did you notice that reference to “Black Hat SEO”? That’s not something I would have expected on an SEO consultant’s site given the controversy surrounding the topic. However, I like that he’s included it because it tells me he knows the “dont’s” of the industry. Knowing that is as important as knowing the “do’s”.

If I were to hire a consultant to help me increase my chances of getting noticed in the SERPs, I’d expect that consultant to not only tell me what to do, but when I’m headed down the wrong path as well. I don’t want that consultant to just take my money because I “heard on the Net that it was a good idea to blend text into the background color” or whatever. No, my money would go to someone who can help me protect my interests and Shimon strikes me as someone who would do that.

What else does his site have?
From novice to seasoned bloggers, all could benefit from the tools they’d find on Shimon’s site. Naturally, most are SEO-oriented, but you can find others that will help you validate your site/blog, find broken links, and count characters. (One tool that caught my eye was Mr. Ploppy’s Internet Marketing Tools. You’ll have to check it out yourself.)

Don’t you hate it when you go to a store’s site and they don’t tell you something as simple as their hours? Or a restaurant’s site that doesn’t tell you what they have on their menu? Well, it must bother Shimon as well because he tells you on his site what it is he’ll do for you, so you don’t have to call him up and and worry about some sales pitch. He lays it out there for you to decide, which I’m sure has the side benefit of allowing him to focus more on his current clients until you decide to become one yourself.

All in all, I like what Shimon has done with his site. It’s informative and neatly organized. I recommend paying this SEO consultant a visit.

This has been a sponsored review.

Related posts:

1. I’m Guest Blogging For Garry Conn My buddy, Garry "How to make money online" Conn, opened...
2. WebAsyst: A Collaborative Tool With Punch There are a lot of online offerings out there that...
3. Submit Your Favorite To-Do List For Review I've been trying out a few to-do list services...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

John runs the blog DNXpert which is a regular read of mine. It focuses on domains and the industry. What he writes on his blog is useful already, but I think he really out did himself on his book. It’s full of great tips and resources enabling you to procure the domain(s) of your dreams while protecting yourself from scam artists.

Being a domainer, someone who specializes in the business of buying and selling domains, can be tough. But it can also be very rewarding if you have the stamina to learn from your mistakes and keep at it.

Rewind back to when domain names were still an untapped resource. If a lot of us knew then what we know now about how valuable domain names can be, I’m sure we would have done things a lot differently by getting into the biz a lot sooner. It’s not too late though, and John shows you how to get into the game and earn money.

Domaining Manifesto takes you step-by-step through finding a domain you like, researching it to assess its value, purchasing it, and if you like, sell it later once its value grows. John reveals to you the tools he uses and recommends to others. These tools can help you generate your ideas for a domain and test to see if it’s available.

Not all registrars are created equally and sadly, some of them are not ethical either. But John shows you how you can protect yourself from the scammers. And if you’re looking to buy or sell a domain, you’ll benefit greatly from his sample letters for each scenario. From the buyers perspective, he explains how to approach the owner in a non-threatening manner and maximize your potential for buying the domain you’re inquiring about while minimizing your cost. Well done!

Even if you’re only interested in buying one, two or hundreds of domains, this book can help you find ones you’ll be happy with, turn a tidy profit if you want to sell and protect yourself in the process.

The list price is $47, but if you use the promotional code “dnxpert” you can get $10 off. Click here to purchase.

Related posts:

1. 62 Spectacular Prizes At DNXpert Just when you think you've seen the last of the...
2. Boost Your Traffic With Blog Adrenaline Whether you're a seasoned blogger or new to blogging, read...
3. How Domain Shopping Can Make You Happy Over the past few months I've been domain shopping. I've...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Israel, a.k.a. Fat Man Unleashed, has written a short and very enjoyable book designed to get us into shape. It’s called Blogger Proof Work.

His approach is very practical and I must say funny to some extent. Among the titles he’s given to exercises, my favorite is “Weirdo Walking With Chair Routine”. Just picturing it in my head cracks me up! Other exercises include:

• Chair toss squats
• Paying the piper of information technology
• Laptop twists
• Laptop presses
• Laptop skulls crushes
• and others

While these may sound humorous, when you put a little effort into them, I don’t think you’ll be laughing much because they do present a challenge.

Looking at Israel’s efforts over all, I have to say that I think he has shown yet again you can differentiate yourself from other bloggers with a little desire and creativity. He picked something he knew and he knew it well. He was into weight training a number of years ago and fell off the band wagon, as it were. So he took the desire to get back into shape and molded it into something he could share with others. In so doing, he generated enough excitement to get other well-known bloggers to respond, like ProBlogger, ShoeMoney, and many others.

He continues to offer his advice and unique approach by providing useful posts on his blog that I recommend checking out.

So while you’re blogging away looking for something that will help get your blog to the next level of exposure, consider what Israel has done…and do a few laptop twists.

Related posts:

1. Wow-Pen: The Mouse That Acts Like A Pen This past week and a half has been very busy...
2. Drummin’ Up Some Link Love #33 Let's start with a joke, shall we? Little Nancy was...
3. A Thoughtful Thing To Do I just got a double whammy of an award from...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The top navigation is built to handle sub-navigational links as well. Currently, my pages (black bar) don’t have child links, but some of the category links (red bar) have them. Most blogs have them everywhere you go (including my previous theme), but these encourage exploration in my opinion.

There’s a main sidebar with two mini ones beneath it. And there’s a breadcrumb added to the top of each page. Another bit of new-ness is the featured video. That area is something of an experiment for me right now as I’m not certain how reliable it will be to have something from YouTube posted there only to have it taken down without notice. But we’ll see. I hope you enjoy it.

To be honest, it took some effort to figure my way around the code, but in retrospect, it wasn’t that bad. It actually helped me learn something more about PHP and CSS. It’s a new way of running a blog and so requires a new way of thinking. Once you have the concept down, you make your posts as you normally would, while keeping an eye on the categories so they fall into the right place on the home page.

While there is a place to refer to for help with understanding how the theme works on his site, I would like to have seen a file included in the download to have everything together. Kudos goes to Brian, though, for making himself available to answer my questions. (I do plan on writing another post where I’ll share what I’ve learned about the inner workings of the News theme so that future users may benefit from it.)

As of this writing, any one of the Revolution themes can be purchased at a reduced rate of $79.95. If you’re looking for a feature-packed and professional looking theme, consider Brian’s designs.

I’m very interested in knowing what you think, so please drop me a comment to give me your opinion.

A big high-five goes out to Kyle and Mike for their assistance.

UPDATE: And another big thanks goes out to Garry for his assistance, too.

Related posts:

1. 3 Magazine WordPress Themes You Don’t Want To Miss It seems magazine style WordPress themes show no signs...
2. New Digs’em WordPress Theme There's no rest for Garry Conn, a.k.a. The Blog Father....
3. WordPress Themes You Must See By Solostream When I was searching for a new WordPress theme,...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Since I plan on using this laptop a lot, I wanted to get a good mouse because I don’t like the track pad — as neat as they are, they’ll never replace the mouse for me. I finally decided on buying the Wow-Pen ECO.

Actually, I didn’t have any idea this the Wow-Pen existed until I saw it on the shelf. Its unique shape caught my eye. As I looked over this optically driven mouse I thought I’d give it a try. I was, after all, looking for something different like a vertical mouse anyway.

As you can see, it’s meant to be held like a pen. If you were to lay it on its back, it would be about the same length as a regular mouse.

It has left- and right-click buttons that are placed vertically. To the right of these buttons is the scroll wheel. Of all its other features, if it didn’t have this, I would not have bought it. I gotta have my scroll wheel!

What I like about it:

• It keeps me from having to rest my wrist on the table like I would if I were to use a mouse.
• It feels pretty comfortable in my hand (more on this later).
• The scroll wheel.
• Stores easily.
• It’s optical.

What I dislike about it:

• It’s too light. It takes some getting used to, but I think adding some weight to it while keeping its size would definitely improve the overall user experience. For the first few days I used it, I kept having to focus controlling with my hands what could have been controlled by weight, if that makes sense. In other words, if you’ve ever driven a car with very sensitive power-steering, you’d know you have to compensate with smaller movements. It’s the same with this thing except without the power-steering.
• I mentioned the comfort above. It doesn’t fit my hand exactly the way I’d like it to, but it’s something I’ve worked around.
• I wish it were wireless.
• The buttons are just a little shy of giving you that solid “click” feel.

It comes in four different colors and can be used on Mac and PC. At a cost of $40, it averages out to what most other mice cost. After you train your hand that this is just a different type of mouse, you’ll get the hang of it.

They have another model that’s wireless and rechargeable. Plus, its RF receiver doubles as a flash drive. That’s a pretty neat combination.

Related posts:

1. Save Money On Your Cell Phone Plans Cell phones are getting cheaper and coming out with new...
2. Reviewing Blogger Proof Workout Let's face it -- being a blogger is not going...
3. Video Blogging? Try CuePrompter.com CuePrompter.com is a free online teleprompter and incredibly easy to...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Image Capturing
Granted, there are a lot of choices out there when it comes to screen capturing utilities, but this one is different by far. You have your choice of capturing an entire window, a region of it, or capture part of your screen within a polygon or ellipitcal shape. But what I found remarkable is the fact that you can add to the region your capturing.

For example, let’s say you want to capture the upper left corner of your browser’s window right now AND the lower right corner without all the stuff in between. You can do that by dragging the selection rectangle in the first area, then pressing the “+” key and select the other area. Want more areas? No problem, just keeping adding to your heart’s content.

What you get is something like this:

Before (entire image)

After (only portions selected, but in the same session)

Menu Capturing
If you’ve ever tried capturing a menu as part of your overall screen capture, then you may know just how difficult it is. But with ACA Capture Pro, it’s a breeze. What’s more, you can capture independent of the surrounding area.

Fixed Selection
Now this is pretty cool. Sometimes when I want to capture just a fixed area of the screen, I usually have to capture more than I need, then take it into a program to edit it to the size I need. But with this utility I can configure it to only capture the size I’m interested in. Just enter the width and height, click OK, then move the box to where you want to capture and you’re done.

This can be useful when you want to fit an image into your blog that’s a specific width — a real time saver!

Video Capture
Sometimes it’s necessary to provide a visual demonstration of something rather than just describing it in words. With ACA Capture Pro you can capture the movements you make on your screen. You can even include sound.

A fully functional FREE trial can be downloaded and used for 30 days. After that, the software becomes locked. But to unlock it won’t cost you an arm and a leg. Right now, they’re offering it for $39.95. Considering all the features it comes with and comparing it to other higher priced alternatives, that’s a pretty good deal.

[tags]screen capturing, software, application, utility[/tags]

Related posts:

1. Compare Suite Makes It Easy To Compare Files Comparing the content of multiple files can be a tedious...
2. The MAMD Desktop Buddy-extraordinaire, Brown Baron, has tagged me with the "What's on...
3. Video Blogging? Try CuePrompter.com CuePrompter.com is a free online teleprompter and incredibly easy to...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’ve looked for jobs a number of times in my life, and the thing that I always kept an eye out for was advice on how to improve my job search and shorten the time it took to find a job. There is no shortage of job hunting advice on this site as is depicted by their Latest Career Headlines section, which leads you to all sorts of articles that help give you an edge.

Whether or not you’re visiting their site for a job listing, you’ll no doubt be interested in the resource center, which is also found on their home page. For example, want to know how to answer the tough questions you’re likely to face during an interview? Find it in their Interview Centre. And have you ever wondered about what you’re worth compared to the marketplace? Using their Salary Wizard can definitely help you see what others in your position are making, thus preparing you for when you work out a deal on your salary.

From practically every page I visited, they had a quick job search form with which to search for a job. I appreciate consistency when it makes sense and this definitely makes sense because that’s Monster’s bread and butter.

Monster has made the process of hiring effortless for employers by providing a well-detailed section of the site that explains step-by-step what to do to post a job. Post jobs in bulk or one at a time, search resumes, manage candidates applying to your jobs — it’s all there.

Related posts:

1. 7 Tips for Successful Job Hunting A few years ago I went through a rather tough...
2. Steps To Success With Career Ramblings I posted an article here a couple of months ago...
3. What Affiliates And Ad Networks Work Best For You? I've been pondering which affiliates I should focus on lately....

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Wirefly enables you to compare cell phone plans among cellular carriers, thus enabling you to know if you’re getting competitive pricing and features. By using their wizard, you answer these simple questions:

• How many minutes do you use each month?
• Who is your current cell phone provider?
• How much do you spend per month?

As of this writing, they have the following carriers to choose from: Alltell Wireless, Ampd Mobile, AT&T, Cingular Wireless, GoPhone, Nextel, Sprint PCS, T-Mobile, T-Mobile To Go, U.S. Cellular, Verizon Wireles, Virgin Mobile, and Other.

When you make a comparison, the results are broken down into two categories: Featured Rate Plans and Rate Plan Results. Then within those two sections you’re given the information you’re most interested in: carrier, plan name, monthly cost, anytime minutes, night/weekend minutes, annual savings, market coverage, and ratings from J.D. Power And Associates.

I gave it a shot and entered a few random bits of criteria: 700 minutes, Cingular Wireless, $107/month. Upon entering a few more pieces of information, the result I got told me that T-Mobile had a 2-year plan for a monthly cost of $39 with 600 anytime minutes. Totaly annual savings came to $804.12. AT&T, on the other hand, had a 2-year plan for $59 and 900 anytime minutes. Total annual savings was $564.12.

The whole comparison thing is just a part of what they offer. They also offer great deals on cell phones, calling plans, accessories and even ringtones.

To sweeten the deals they deliver, they also include a money-back guarantee. So even after you’ve done all your homework and receive your new phone, if you decide that it just doesn’t feel or work right, you can return it for free and get your money back.

Related posts:

1. Recycle Your Cell Phone At CellForCash Cell phone usage in the U.S. has sky rocketed to...
2. Free Cell Phone Games - Play Anywhere! I thought I'd divert from my usual online game findings...
3. Reach Mobile Users Anytime, Anywhere BUZmob is for user, corporate, and media content publishers who...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Compare Suite is a file compare utility that makes these tasks very easy, allowing you to spend less time making comparisons and more time being productive.

As an example, I pulled content from an article on a website and saved it as my original. Then I made a copy of it and made a few changes.

As you can tell from the image above, my edits are easy to spot by their coloring. I know right where to go to see how the two files differ. Words in green are commonly used words that can be found in both files. Those in blue are unique words — ones that only exist in either the left or right document.

And while I can’t demonstrate this, I can tell you that by scrolling horizontally on one window at the bottom of the screen, both windows scroll simultaneously making it easy on me to read the content and do analysis. Notice how the lines that are modified are also outlined, so in case changes fall beyond your purview, you know to scroll over and spot them. If I wanted to, I could make edits to either file, so it’s more than just a text file compare utility, it’s a text editor, too.

If you’re interested in more than just the differences between two files, you’ll be pleased to know that the information panel (pictured above) can give you more. It tells you which file is older, how many lines were affected, and the similarity between the two in the form of a percentage. Compare Suite really does the work for you when you want to do a file compare.

But there’s more it can do. For example, you can run reports to get even more out of the comparison.

The colors are defined as follows:

• blue = added line/text
• red = deleted line/text
• green = modified line/text

So as you can see, it placed my changes side-by-side, word for word so I can really tell what’s going on. It can even go down to the character level if I wanted it to.

Compare Suite also offers you the flexibility of comparing formats beyond just text: Microsoft Word, Excel, binary, and even PDF. Additionally, you have the option to compare entire folders of content.

Now, what if you actually wanted to commit to the changes you’ve found? Copying and pasting from one document to another would be cumbersome, but with Compare Suite you can select the text in one file and right-click to give you the option to apply, delete or insert the change into the other file.

This is a pretty powerful utility and you can download a free 30-day trial to see it for yourself.

Related posts:

1. WinZip Offers New Service The maker of WinZip, the popular file compression utility, has...
2. Free Text Editors That Fit Your Writing Habits There are a gazillion text editors available, which is amazing...
3. A Firefox Add-on Coders Shouldn’t Be Without From casual bloggers to advanced programmers, the Firebug add-on for...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

ProWorkflow is a web-based project management solution for small- to medium-sized businesses and designed to help employees stay on top of mission-critical projects. It’s clean and intuitive design is only part of the reason why users will find it so easy to work with.

Regular readers will attest to my liking free things. While ProWorkflow is not free, the makers do offer a 14-day free trial accounts, so you can make a well-informed decision before buying it.

The billing department will like the way this software can handle invoicing. Or even better, if you don’t have a billing department, your life just got easier.

Managers will like its ability to run reports on their employee’s progress. Additionally, ProWorkflow gives them the ability to glean from the data it’s tracking so efficiencies can be made to increase productivity and cut costs.

You’ll find from the screenshots (go ahead, click on them to enlarge) that everything’s grouped intuitively. I particularly like the way the Gantt charts can be easily read giving the reader a bird’s-eye view of progress.

Here’s a sampling of the features you’ll find in this product:

Timesheet page:

• Live Timesheet View
• View Week
• View Month
• View Range

Project details page:

• Project Description
• Project Contacts
• Detailed Project Report
• Detailed Task Report
• Project Tasks/Subtasks
• Resources (files)
• Project Timeline
• Project Invoices
• Communication
• Bookmarks
• Shared notes
• General Expenses

Invoice page:

• Current Invoices List
• Multiple Invoice Types
• Date Range Invoices
• Email Invoices
• Export Invoices to XML
• Invoice Settings

That’s just a fraction of the information you’ll find provided on their site.

Pricing depends on several variables: number of users, whether or not you want to purchase at a monthly subscription additional disk space, and if you want to add plugins. To give you a benchmark, a single-user license, as of this writing, is $15 a month, $30 a month for two licenses, $45 for three, and so on. Disk space is reasonably priced at $50 for 250MB per month, $100 for 500MB, and $200 for 1000MB.

Their company website provides news and updates including a blog from their CEO dealing with online business, which I would encourage you to visit.

Related posts:

1. Recycle Your Cell Phone At CellForCash Cell phone usage in the U.S. has sky rocketed to...
2. Keep Track Of Your Time With WR Time Tracker If you need a fast and easy way to keep...
3. Free Cell Phone Games - Play Anywhere! I thought I'd divert from my usual online game findings...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.