Short and sweet today - Google has introduced quite a few products recently - this article explains them.

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During our trip to Lexington we also stopped at Build a Bear. What a concept - you get to create a toy - and customize it so that it is unique. Of course Haley had to get one, it's her fourth. As we were checking out I got something interesting though - a book by the creator of the company. "Bear Necessities of Business". A quick glance showed that it may have some things of interest - and if it has only one nugget in it then it was well worth the price. As we finish reading it I'll share any thoughts that we glean from it.

We had a few days off and took a trip to Lexington - on Friday we decided to watch a movie which I rarely do (at the theater anyway). The movie we watched was great - I'll take a bit about "Cars" later this week - but the experience was something to be desired. I think I'm beginning to understand why the movie industry is in the duldrums. To me going to the theater should be a unique experience. These days many people have the big screen TV's, and surround sound systems that sound nearly as good as when you go to the movies.... and you don't have to battle the crowds, interruptions while watching the movie.... or watch commercials at the beginning of the movie along with a hundred previews.

I'm sure they added commercials because the movie folks wanted to earn a buck or two more, but don't they realize that this is one of the reasons we stay at home - so we can not have to deal with advertising....

It was a good thing that the movie we went to see made up for things - I can now however more fully understand why fewer people are going. What I think they should do and will do is release movies both at the theater and maybe on a premium DVD version. Or maybe the theaters can clean up their act and try to make the experience something to remember... anyhoo just some thoughts.

Applying to your business - how can you make your customers experience better. I bet if you took some time today you could think of a couple ways to do this. Think on it and I'll give you another example tomorrow.

A nice forum post that lists the number of "things" Google uses to rank sites - some interesting reading.

http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?threadid=12170

Optimizing your blog - some good notes on this are below.

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Ralph Wilson has updated his promotion list - always some good stuff.
http://www.wilsonweb.com/articles/checklist.htm

If you want to add some umpff to your web copy then check this out.
Click Here

Had a stormy Sat / Sunday night here. Lots of thunder, lightning and wind.

A good article on growing your list -

http://www.demc.com/artman/publish/article_138.shtml

Links from other sites to you can't hurt - see the link below for details.

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060530-082217

A good article on doing things to help you build your business during the Summer -

http://www.smallbizresource.com/growth-strategy/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=188700242

We just got back from vacation - we had an "interesting" time. We got a tornado warning while visiting a mall - that is the first and last time I want to see the basement of a store. It didn't actually touch down but we did see some minor damage around the city. We visited Chicago and I'll put their cab drivers up against any of the Nascar racers. The skyline there was definitely something to see. Haley (our daughter) really enjoyed visiting the American Girl Store.

I will say this though I really enjoy living in my small town.

Interent marketing newswatch is a nice site if you want to feel the pulse of some things that are happening.

http://www.imnewswatch.com/

An excellent article explaining Google Sitemaps and what you can learn from utilizing it on your site.

http://www.webreference.com/programming/sitemaps/

We should now be on a semi-regular posting schedule.