The 5 Best Ways to Get Free Website Promotion

The thing to remember about free website promotion is that nothing is ever truly free. If you don’t spend money promoting your website, you’re going to have to spend time. So why waste time trying to market your website using methods that will only bring you minuscule returns, if any? If you're prepared to work on them, these five free website promotion techniques 

1. Work on website SEO.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimizationand it's the best thing since sliced bread for promoting your website because it's easy to learn and apply the basics to your own website(s).

Through working on website SEO, you can improve the page rankings of your web pages and drive more traffic to your site. And isn't that the ultimate goal? Get started with my 7 Basic Rules of Search Engine Optimization.

Tip: If you are using non-text content on your web page(s), such as photos, image maps or JavaScript, include text in the ALT tag so the search engines have something they can read.

2. Reciprocal linking.

Having other people put a link to your site on their site is a great way to get free website promotion. 

Be aware though that getting inbound links to your website is not a numbers game; it's the quality of the links that really matters. So you want to focus your linking efforts on relevant quality sites. 

3. Write articles.

The basic theory of article marketing is that you write an article and then offer it for free to various websites, blogs, magazines etc.

Your article, of course, ends with a resource box or 'blurb' that promotes you and your website.

The beauty of this website promotion strategy is that if you get your articles published on popular, long-lived websites or in well-known magazines, they can be sitting there promoting your website for a long, long time with no further effort on your part.

However, there are catches. First, you have to be able to write well on a topic or topics that other people will want to read and/or publish. Second, you have to find the quality places for your articles to be published and persuade the people making the decisions to publish them.

Tip: Find the websites or magazines you want to be published on first, and then spend some time reading the content to see what type of material they might want and if there are any obvious holes in their content that you could cover. Then tailor your material to that particular site or magazine's needs.

4. Use social media.

Social media isn't just a great place to connect with friends and family; it's also a great place to promote your website and/or business as so many people are using it. For instance, a Nielsen study found that Internet users spend 21.3% of their time on social networking sites while PQ Media found the average U.S. Internet user spends around 33 hours per month on the Internet and about 8 of those hours on social media (5 Social Media Tips for Finding and Engaging Your Target Audience: New Research, Social Media Examiner).

Participating in social media can be a great way to get free website promotion as it can give you high visibility at low cost. To successfully market your website using social media, though, you’ll need a plan. Learn How to Create a Social Media Plan for your small business.

Tip: Different social media attracts different types of people. Before investing time in using a particular social media and building up a group of followers, make sure you've chosen the right social media for your marketing purposes. See how to pick the social media that's the best fit with your business.

5. Create/present quality content.

This is the catch – none of the techniques above are going to work very well for you if you don’t have quality content on your site – the kind of content that other people want to read and promote on their own blogs/websites and on social media.

So somewhere on your website, you need to have a blog and/or articles presenting content that is relevant to your target market.

Where will you get such content? Basically, you are either going to write it yourself or get someone else to write it. The "someone else" might be staff, hired writers or guest bloggers. Which approach you choose depends on your budget as well as your time and talents.

Writing your own blog can be a very effective way to market a website because by blogging about your subject, you'll get the chance to become an active member of the blogging community, building a web of relationships and links. And of course, your blog will be keyword rich, increasing your Search Engine Optimization.

Tip: Most blogs include the facility to make comments on posts. When you're reading another blog that's relevant to your topic, take the time to comment on a post (making sure that your comment says something that's equally relevant). It's another opportunity to promote yourself and your website for free – while getting known in the blogging community.

Consistency is Key

These are not the only ways to get free website promotion of course. But these are the best, and if you select several of these and concentrate on doing them consistently over a period of time, they'll yield the return in increased site traffic that you're looking for.

Bitcoin Dips Lower as Swings Continue

Bitcoin closed lower in today’s trading session. On BTC-E prices opened at $237.09, then rallied a bit to $239 flat. The second half of the day saw heavy losses however, with BTC falling almost $10 dollars to $229.72. We eventually closed the day at $231.19, about $5.81 below the opening price.

The chart above shows the price action for the past two weeks. Notice how after a sizable move higher of $25 dollars we have retraced almost $16 dollars. This indecisive, zig-zag behavior is typical for ranging markets. Until bitcoin breaks one of the crucial support or resistance levels, expect more of the same.

Here are some of the levels we’re watching. On the top end, weak resistance can be found at $239 dollars on BTC-E. But the important threshold will be the $250 figure. This was former resistance turned to support and now back to resistance. A clean break above this level should start a new BTC rally. Higher up, more resistance can be found at $269 (BTC-E) and $272 (OKCoin).

Meanwhile on the lower end, we find some support at $231 (BTC-E) and $235 (OKCoin). This was the breakout point for the mini-rally to $245 dollars. The $231 figure also acted as support on BTC-E just few days ago on September 10th. The bounce at this level led to another mini-move higher to $239. But in the grand scheme of things these moves are nothing to write home about, so while the $231/$235 level qualifies as support, it’s not a very strong one.

Below here we find the former double bottom at $210 (BTC-E) and $214 (OKCoin). This is a slightly stronger support level. But to generate a new downtrend, the bears will need to push prices much lower and break the swing low at $192 (BTC-E) and $195 (OKCoin).

- See more at: http://www.forexnews.com/blog/2015/09/12/bitcoin-dips-lower-as-swings-continue/#sthash.3UqZqMKG.dpuf

New “spider car” offers disabled access

 A new electric car equipped with four arms that move independently allowing it to tackle the toughest off-road terrain is set to hit the market.

Known as the “spider car”, the Swincar is made in southern France and will go into production at the end of October. Its makers say it can navigate slopes with an inclination of up to 70%.

“This is an entirely electrical vehicle, compared to the vast majority of quad bikes that have combustion engines – so there is no air or noise pollution with the Swincar. And it can handle extreme terrain, which means you can do things with the Swincar that you can’t do with vehicles with ordinary kinematics,” says Thierry Jammes, of Mecanroc, the company that produces the Swincar.

Swincar’s agility is made possible by each wheel having independent motors and suspension. This means the body of the car remains vertical and the driver upright even on steep slopes.

The vehicle, which can reach a maximum speed of 30 to 40 km/h, can be assembled easily and adapted to the driver’s size.

“It is particularly interesting for disabled people, because it can be adapted,” explains Thierry Jammes. “This means people with reduced mobility can access the vehicle because the arms on either side, which the wheels are attached to, can open up to allow wheelchair access.”

So far, the majority of orders have come from North America for recreational use. Its makers are planning to develop variations of the “spider car” to be used in industries such as defence, civil security, agriculture and farming.

Intelligent Machines: The truth behind AI fiction

By Jane WakefieldTechnology reporter

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the science of making smart machines, and it has come a long way since the term was coined in the 1950s.

Nowadays, robots work alongside humans in hotels and factories, while driverless cars are being test driven on the roads.

Behind the scenes, AI engines in the form of smart algorithms "work" on stock exchanges, offer up suggestions for books and films on Amazon and Netflix and even write the odd article.

But AI does not have the greatest public image - often due to sci-fi films that display dystopian visions of robots taking over the world.

Over the next month, the BBC will be looking into all aspects of artificial intelligence - from how to build a thinking machine, to the ethics of doing so, to questions about whether an AI can ever be creative. Read more in our Intelligent Machines special report.

For many, the only reference point they have for AI comes from films. So what is the reality of where we are with the technology, and is it anything like the fictional future we have created?

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The all-knowing machine

Image copyrightALAMY/IBM

Hal is perhaps the most famous AI turned bad. Created by Arthur C Clarke for the book and film 2001: A Space Odyssey, Hal stands for Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic Computer.

Designed to control the systems of the Discovery One spacecraft, on which much of the film is set, as well as interact with the crew, it quickly starts taking its own course - one that does not involve humans.

Perhaps the closest we currently have to Hal is Watson, IBM's supercomputer, which can understand natural language and read millions of documents in seconds.

In 2011, it beat the world's two best players of the Jeopardy quiz show.

Unlike Hal, it is currently working in harmony with humans, in diverse fields such as the research and development departments of big companies such as Proctor and Gamble and Coca-Cola - helping them find new products.

It is also being used in a dozen US hospitals, helping oncologists find treatments for cancer.

It has even been incorporated into a toy dinosaur, allowing children their first taste of communication with an AI. They can ask the dinosaur questions and Watson will help it answer them.

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The killer robot

Image copyrightALAMY and Boston Dynamics

T-800, the Terminator robot from the films of the same name, has living tissue over a metal endoskeleton and is programmed to kill on behalf of Skynet, an artificially intelligent system that has taken over the world's computers in order to destroy the human race.

No AIs yet being developed have self-awareness and all are programmed to help humankind. The exception to this is military robots, which are increasingly being developed for deployment on battlefields, where their role could be more contentious.

The US military unit Darpa is developing lots of robotic kit, such as exoskeletons to give soldiers superhuman strength and access to visual displays that will help their decision making.

It is also using Atlas robots, developed by Boston Dynamics, intended for search and rescue.

Although there are currently no killer robots, there is a campaign to stop them ever being produced, and the UN has said that no weapon should be operated without human control.

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The helpful robot

Image copyrightALAMY and Softtbank

C-3PO is a humanoid robot from the Star Wars films. He is designed to serve human beings and boasts of being fluent in over six million forms of communication.

His main job is to assist etiquette, customs and translation so that meetings of different cultures run smoothly.

In the real world, companion robots are really starting to take off.

Pepper is a humanoid robot, developed by technology firm SoftBank, that went on sale in Japan this summer and sold out almost immediately.

Its big selling point is that it can supposedly recognise human emotions. So if you look sad when you get home from work, it will suggest that you play some music.

It has learnt about human emotions by watching videos showing facial expressions.

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The cleaning robot

Image copyrightRex and iRobot

Wall-E is a little robot from the Disney film of the same name, left to tidy up after humanity leaves the planet in a mess.

Short for Waste Allocation Loader Lift Earth-Class, Wall-E is the ultimate in loveable machines.

Although not as cute as Wall-E, vacuums programmed to clean up are probably the first example of domestic learning robots.

The company iRobot makes the best-known brand, the Roomba, which, as of February 2014, had sold more than 10 million units. It automatically guides itself around home via onboard sensors which also detect obstacles. At the end of cleaning it takes itself back to its docking station to charge.

Anecdotal evidence suggests some people become as attached to them as pets and take them on holiday.

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The human-looking robot

Ava - the lifelike android from 2015 science fiction film Ex-Machina, is the ultimate in AIs.

Able to conduct a conversation on any topic, show empathy with humans and look entirely human herself, she also has her own agenda, and it is one that does not involve humans.

This type of AI is the one that people fear the most, and while the cleverness of Ava is very far from being achieved, a few people have experimenting with creating robots that look entirely human.

Robotic engineer Hiroshi Ishiguro made a robotic copy of himself, dubbed Geminoid, to study human-robot interaction.

Image copyrightALAMY and ATR Hiroshi Ishiguro Lab

He used silicon rubber to represent skin - but cosmetic company L'Oreal recently teamed up with bio-engineering start-up Organovo to 3D print human skin, potentially making even more lifelike androids possible.

Prof Chetan Dube, chief executive of software firm IPsoft, has developed a virtual assistant called Amelia, and he firmly believes robotics and AI are about to come together.

He believes Amelia will be given human form indistinguishable from the real thing at some point this decade.

read on:"http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33629465"

Microsoft to strengthen cloud security with latest acquisition

Microsoft has acquired security company Adallom in a bid to give IT departments more control over application access and data stored across cloud services.

The growing popularity of cloud services and the move of critical apps from in-house data centers is putting pressure on vendors to offer more advanced management tools. With the acquisition of Adallom, Microsoft is addressing the security part of that puzzle.

[ Also on ITworld: 10 tips for mastering Microsoft cloud SLAs. Don't miss a thing! Sign up for ITworld's daily newsletter. ]

Adallom expands on Microsoft’s existing identity offerings, among other things adding a cloud access security broker, to give customers visibility and control over application access as well as critical data stored across cloud services, Microsoft said in a blog post on Tuesday.

Adallom promises that SaaS applications can be as secure as on-site applications. The software offers the ability to monitor privileged user accounts, prevent data leaks and protect the sharing of confidential corporate data. The company's platform can also help with regulatory and compliance mandates for data in the cloud, according to the company's website. 

In addition to Office 365, Adallom's software can also be used to protect cloud applications including Salesforce, Box, Dropbox, ServiceNow and Ariba.

Microsoft doesn't provide many details on what its plans are for the company, only saying that Adallom will complement existing offerings that are part of Office 365 and the Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS), including the recent Advanced Threat Analytics release. 

Adallom also works with Amazon Web Services. It may continue to do so, since Microsoft under CEO Satya Nadella has become more open to working with vendors it also competes with.

Adallom, which was co-founded in 2012 by Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak and Roy Reznik, will continue to evolve, build technology, sell solutions and work with customers as the integration is completed, Microsoft said.

"This is just the beginning and we’re excited for what the future has in store. We look forward to having you join us for this next chapter," Rappaport said in a blog post.

Adallom is an abbreviation of the Hebrew saying “Ad Halom” which literally means “up to here” and in game theory lingo means “the last line of defense,” according to Adallom's website. 

Mikael Ricknäs — London Correspondent (from http://www.itworld.com/)

Hidden gems of the Webby Award nominees

The Humans of New York site, which featues photos of everyday New Yorkers, has been nominated for a Webby Award.

(CNN) -- The annual Webby Awards are always a treasure trove of fascinating sites and apps. The organization behind the awards, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, announced thelatest, lengthy list of nominees on Tuesday.

The awards started in 1996 and over the past 17 years have expanded to include categories such as mobile apps, ad campaigns and online videos. For the final Webbys list, the academy narrowed down 11,000 applications to find five nominees for each category, as well as some honorable mentions. Though the official winners will be chosen by academy members, anyone can vote for the People's Voice Awards.

Big names and major brands with sizable marketing budgets tend to dominate the nominations. Nike nabbed the most nominations, followed by Google and The New York Times. But the list is also an excellent place to find some cool and unusual projects that you may have missed over the past year. We dug through to find some our favorites.

Milwaukee Police News

A website for a local police department seems like an unlikely place to find inspirational Web design, but the official page for the Milwaukee Police news is a stunner. Look through crime stats, browse photos of the most wanted criminals, and check out a timeline of the department's history, all on a background of amazing photos of the department.

The Space

Take a break from the usual streaming (Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, YouTube) and enjoy some free on-demand video and content about dance, opera, music, art and more on the The Space, a site from the Arts Council England and the BBC. Start with one of the five short films about David Bowie or flip through the site's sizable photography collection.

Gallery of Lost Art

The Gallery of Lost Art from Tate is an interactive online exhibit tracing the stories of missing art. Some pieces were stolen, others destroyed or thrown out. The site combines art history and intriguing mystery using high-resolution images, essays and videos.

Humans of New York

This photography site is based on a straightforward premise: capturing photos of everyday New Yorkers. Luckily, there seems to be an inexhaustible supply of interesting New Yorkers, making the site an addictive time-suck. Photographer Brandon Stanton also includes captions that capture bits of his subjects' lives.

Clouds over Cuba

This expertly crafted interactive documentary on the Cuban missile crisis from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library has archival video footage, documents, audio clips, and fresh interviews. You can watch from beginning to end or skip around on the timeline.

Bloomberg Billionaires

Ever wonder who the richest people in the world are? This collection of dossiers lets you search for billionaires by age, gender, country, industry and source of wealth. View the index on a map to find the billionaire nearest you and invite him or her over for tea. Each person has a colorful profile page that includes a biography, summary of net worth, and a slideshow of possessions. The index is updated daily.

First men on the moon

Relive the 1969 moon landing with this minute-by-minute re-creation that puts you in mission control. It uses real audio clips from the Apollo 11 landing with photos and names indicating who's talking. The center of the screen shows video from the landing and graphics at the bottom show the lunar model's angle.

Chaos to perfection

If you can't make it to France to see the stunning Versailles grounds in person, this site is the next best thing. A fully realized 3-D model of the royal palace, it takes you through areas like the Grand Canal, the Hall of Mirrors and the King's Bedchamber, where you can explore every angle. This project is a collaboration between the Chateau de Versailles and the Google Cultural Institute.

Lumosity

A workout for your brain, Lumosity features training exercises developed by neuroscientists to help improve your memory, problem-solving skills and concentration. Researchers can then mine the data collected by Lumosity to learn more about human cognition. The service has over 35 million users.

REI 1440 Project

One of many marketing campaigns among the nominees, the REI 1440 Project is a soothing, crowdsourced collection of travel photos from outdoorsy types around the world. The images are organized according to their time stamps to make up a 24-hour timeline of shots.

Chrome Web Lab

Google projects are spread throughout the Webby nominations, and with good reason. The experiment-happy company has created the Chrome Web Lab projects to show off the browser's processing power. There's an interactive orchestra, live videos from around the world, and a real robot that will draw your portrait in sand at the Science Museum in London.

Beatbox Academy

Ever been at a party and thought, "If I only knew how to beatbox I could really kick this event up a notch, maybe make some friends"? Head over to Beatbox Academy and get started mixing your own tunes with the interactive beatbox machine. The site is promoting a DVD that teaches you how to beatbox in the comfort of your home.

FixYa

On this site it's possible to get help fixing pretty much anything, including computers, fax machines, hair driers, cars and tattoo guns. Look up your broken device to find manuals, issues and solutions from other members, or ask your question and hope an expert comes back with a helpful answer.

Sitegeist

Tap into your smartphone's location features to learn more about the world around you. This app shows stats like Census Bureau facts (age, gender), weather, Foursquare favorites, average rents and recommended places to grab food. Another app for discovering information based on your location, History Here, finds historical facts for your area.

The Silent History

This is a book, but it's also an app that mixes in user-generated feedback and location-based participation. The serialized piece of fiction draws the reader in with interactive elements, creating a new kind of narrative that could be the future of e-books.

Facebook uses offline purchases to target ads

Facebook is allowing advertisers to target individual users based on offline purchases.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

If you head to a department store to buy a pair of jeans, you might start seeing a lot of ads for pants on Facebook.

For the first time, Facebook ads will target specific users based on their past buying history -- even if the purchases happened offline. Facebook unveiled the new feature for advertisers, called "Partner Categories," on Wednesday.

The feature works with information from massive consumer data companies Acxiom (ACXM), DataLogix and Epsilon. These are companies that know all about you: your income level, your online activity, your Social Security number, what you've bought recently, and even whether you've served time in prison.

Facebook (FB) Partner Categories matches the social network's user-generated data with the information from the data companies to create dossiers on its users. Facebook then groups those specific users into categories like "people who are heavy buyers of frozen foods," and advertisers can serve ads to those curated groups.

Previously, advertisers could target only general groups based on user-supplied information: for example, women in California who list surfing as an interest.

In a blog post about the new product, Facebook was quick to note that the data are anonymized on both sides. That is, while advertisers can target groups of specific users, they never know the identities of the users they're advertising to.

Partner Categories advertisers see only the size of the group, and details about why these users were grouped -- for example, they're customers with a grocery store loyalty card who buy three times as much cereal as the national average.

The pairing of these data sources is sure to incense critics of the company's data practices, though Facebook also noted in its post that "companies have long used this type of targeting off of Facebook."

"We think that this new type of targeting is both more relevant for people and can be even more effective for advertisers," said Elisabeth Diana, spokeswoman for Facebook. "We think we can serve both in a privacy-safe way."

At launch, advertisers can choose from 500 of these "partner categories," and further refine by data like gender or age. Facebook said users will be able to see how and why they were targeted for a certain ad, and they have the ability to opt out of ads from certain advertisers or from partner categories altogether.

By adding this type of highly targeted advertising capability, Facebook clearly wants to create more value for advertisers -- which could result in more revenue for Facebook.

The social network has over a billion users, but in 2012, the company's average revenue per user was just $5.32. That's only a 6% increase from 2011, and it's far lower than other companies that report the metric.

Still, advertising remains Facebook's bread and butter. Ads accounted for 84% of Facebook's revenue in 2012, and the company has continued to release site updates that toe the line between calling attention to ads and not annoying users. For example, last month's News Feed revamp centered around a more visual design that also includes bigger graphics for ads in users' news feeds.