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Rosetta makes final home call

November 14th, 2009 |

Author: JYDC Admin

Article Source: The Only Yard For The Internet Junkie

By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News

Earth (Esa)

Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft has made its third and final flyby of Earth, a manoeuvre designed to position the probe to chase down a comet in 2014.

The spacecraft’s whip around the planet will have given it the extra speed it needs to take it out to the rendezvous location near Jupiter.

Launched in 2004, Rosetta had already flown by Earth twice and Mars once.

The journey out to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will also take the probe past an asteroid in 2010.

Rosetta was expected to be moving at some 13km/s as it swept over the Indian Ocean, just south of the Indonesian island of Java.

At closest approach it reached an altitude of just 2,480km, well inside the orbits of geostationary telecoms satellites.

Journey ahead

Engineers say the gravity-assist will have increased Rosetta’s speed by almost 4km/s with respect to the Sun.

Scientists used the flyby to test the health of some of Rosetta’s instruments by making observations of the Earth and the Moon.

Steins (Esa)

Osiris, the main scientific camera system, took a series pictures.

Engineers will assess the probe’s trajectory to see if any course corrections are required. Any changes will be easier and lighter on fuel if they are made as early as possible.

The mission is expected to make a flyby of Asteroid Lutetia in July 2010, but apart from that one event the long journey into the outer Solar System should be a quiet one.

Indeed, for much of the time, the spacecraft will be put in a hibernation mode.

Long history

Rosetta’s meeting with Churyumov-Gerasimenko is set for the May of 2014.

The probe will go into orbit around the 4km-wide ball of ice and dust and place a small lander called Philae on its surface.

As the comet moves into the inner Solar System, radiation from the Sun will cause the comet’s ices to sublime – they will turn straight from a solid to a gas. Material will be ejected at supersonic speeds.

Gas and dust will be thrown out around the comet to form a coma, and away from the comet to form tails.

The Rosetta orbiter and lander will watch and record these events as the comet hurtles along at speeds up to 135,000km/h.

Scientists are keen to study comets close up because they are thought to contain materials that have remained largely unchanged since the formation of the Solar System 4.6bn years ago.

Rosetta milestones:

• Launch: 2 March 2004

• First Earth swingby: 4 March 2005

• Mars swingby: 25 February 2007

• Second Earth swingby: 13 November 2007

• Steins flyby: 5 September 2008

• Third Earth swingby: 13 November 2009

• Lutetia flyby: 10 July 2010

• Comet rendezvous manoeuvres: 22 May 2014

• Lander delivery: 10 November 2014

• Escorting the comet around the Sun: November 2014 – December 2015

• End of mission: December 2015

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Go to SES Berlin or SES Chicago for Nine Trainers Training

November 9th, 2009 |

Author: JYDC Admin

Article Source: The Only Yard For The Internet Junkie

During the past seven weeks, I’ve shared seven compelling reasons for going to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. For those of you who want to join in the chorus, they are “eight days a-learning, seven tracks amazing, six booths astounding, five brand new things, four keynote themes, three key trends, two early birds, and a ranking in the top three.”

This week, I’ll share an eighth great reason — and it isn’t “nine ladies dancing.”

You should attend these events for “nine trainers training.”

As I mentioned back in September, training is one of the three key trends. If you type “SEO training” into Google Insights for Search, you’ll see that web search interest has grown steadily since 2004 — and is forecast to continue growing in 2010. So, it’s not surprising that more time is being added to the schedules of search engine conferences for training workshops.

Tim Ash teaching workshop at SES New York 2009.jpg But I often wonder if “in-depth training” is the right term for the “radical reorientation” that takes place in these intensive workshops. The small class setting ensures participants that their instructor is accessible for informal one-on-one or small group discussions of “why” as well as “how.”

As Columbus discovered, training the crews of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria how to sail west was a relatively straightforward task. The real challenge was convincing Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand that they wouldn’t fall off the edge of the world.

Fortunately, the instructors of the SES training workshops are experts who know how to handle both ambidextrously.

So, what can you learn by participating in one of these training workshops?

SES Berlin offers a “Workshopsprogramm” on 23 November, the day before the “kongress.” The program includes:
• Link Building 2009 Workshop, which will be taught by Christoph Cemper, General Manager, and Melanie Arko, Project Manager CEMPER.COM.
• Web Analytics Workshop: Data Into Action, which will be taught by Timo Aden, Gründer und Geschäftsführer, Trakken GmbH.
• Best Practices der Suchmaschinenwerbung, which will be taught by Oliver Zenglein, Head of Online Marketing, be2.

Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009 offers SEM training on December 10, the day after the conference. The half-day workshops include:
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Workshop, which will be taught by Shari Thurow, Omni Marketing Interactive.
• Landing Page Testing Hands On: Developing Your Action Plan, which will be taught by Tim Ash, SiteTuners.
• Advanced Keyword Research, which will be taught by Ron Jones, Symetri Internet Marketing.
• Social Media and Your Business, which will be taught by Sage Lewis, SageRock.com.

On December 11, SES Chicago 2009 offers partnered training. The full-day workshops include:
• Search Engine Optimization Training, which will be taught by Bruce Clay, Bruce Clay, Inc.
• Integrating Search Across All Online Marketing Efforts, which will be taught by Aaron Kahlow, Chairman & Founder, Online Marketing Summit; Ray “Catfish” Comstock, Senior Search Strategist, BusinessOnLine; Paul Sherman, President Emeritas, Usability Professionals Organization (OMI Professor); Jennifer Wessenmeyer, VP Analytics, Stratigent; Debbie Qaqish, Partner, Pedowitz Group (OMI professor); and Kevin Espinosa, Director eMarketing, Caterpillar.

Next week, we’ll look at more reasons for going to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. In the meantime, just keep singing “nine trainers training, eight days a-learning, seven tracks amazing, six booths astounding, five brand new things, four keynote themes, three key trends, two early birds, and a ranking in the top three.”

How To Select A Search Engine Optimization Company

November 4th, 2009 |

Author: JYDC Admin

Article Source: The Only Yard For The Internet Junkie

A search engine optimization company can be an invaluable asset in your Internet Marketing campaign. They specialize in knowing how to raise your search engine positions, monitoring those positions on the regular basis, and adjusting their strategies to account for undesirable results in any given month. Since this takes a lot of time, effort, and specialized knowledge, it can be in your best interest to go to an outside source rather than try to maintain high search engine positions on your own.

However, like every business, there are good companies and there are lemons. Knowing the right questions to ask and the criteria to look for will help you in choosing an affordable, effective search engine optimization company.

When looking at different companies, begin by considering the approach they employ to raise your search engine positions. Steer clear of companies that use cloaked, doorway, or bridge pages to raise your positions. These techniques violate most search engine policy, and in the worst case scenario, will only get your website severely penalized, if not removed entirely from a search engine’s index.

A cloaked page is a page that is created which is invisible to the regular visitor to your website. The cloaked page is coded to detect a search engine spider and divert them to this special page, which is set-up to artificially boost your search engine position. Doorway or bridge pages utilize the same concept, but often reside on an entirely different server. Google, one of the largest and most important search engine on the Internet, will remove your website from their index if they detect you have cloaked pages. Never, never employ any company that uses this technique!

Another important element is to get a guarantee that the company you hire will not work with your competitors while they are working for you. Obviously, this would seriously compromise the effectiveness of the search engine optimization campaign. Be aware that some companies will use the success they achieve for your website to sell their services to your competitors. So get your guarantee in writing, and make sure it is legally binding.

Of course, one of the most important factors you want to check out is the company’s track record of results. However, don’t take the company’s word for it. They will undoubtedly be slanting their results in order to sell their services to you. To go beyond their simple statement of success, ask them a few pertinent questions, and verify their answers.

Ask them which engines they have achieved the best results on. The ones that are important are the most popular engines, and these are the ones you want to see good results on. Since the popularity of search engines can change with the landscape of the overall Internet, check out the Nielsen NetRatings page at Search Engine Watch.

Next, find out what keywords and phrases they are claiming great results with. It’s easy to get high rankings with unpopular words. For instance, the keyword “cat leashes” will get high popularity ranking because no one else would think of using it. What you are looking for is good results using popular keywords. Check out the software Wordtracker, available at www.wordtracker.com. You can order a free trial, or a subscription ranging from 1 day to 1 year. This software rates the popularity of keywords and phrases based on actual search engine use.

Next, look for good results over an entire site that the company claims to have successfully worked for. You want to see a wide range of positions over a number of different search engines using different keywords or phrases for the entire site. Request a report for any client the company claims to have done well for. This report should show good positions on a number of the most popular search engines for a variety of different, popular keywords and phrases.

When you are checking out search engine optimization companies, make sure they have actually done the work they are claiming to have done. Some companies will use other company’s results in order to get you to sign on with them. If you are in doubt, call the company they are showing you results for, and ask for the name of their search engine optimization company.

It’s important to keep in mind that a successful search engine optimization campaign will result in maximum exposure across a wide range of popular search engines using a variety of keywords and phrases. This is the formula for a successful campaign, and you should always keep at it in the forefront of your marketing strategy.

Ask the search engine optimization company you are considering for a report that shows you rankings across a number of popular search engines for a period of at least six months. Remember: search engine marketing is a process that is continual, and you need a company that not only understands this, but keeps constant tabs on your search engine positions. That company must also be able to adjust its strategy in the event that search engine rankings drop.

Since search engine marketing is an ongoing process, your positions must be constantly monitored. If you want your search engine optimization company to do this for you, request a sample of a monthly report. It is essential that this report should show rankings for the most popular search engines. Don’t be impressed by a report that only shows great results for a limited number of small search engines. These are fairly easy results to acquire. Also confirm that the popular search engine results they are showing you are indeed the popular search engines currently.

Be sure the sample report the company shows you is in a format that you can easily understand. For example, it could be in the form of a chart that covers a period of at least six months and presents data such as the top 50 positions broken down on a monthly basis or the top 5 pages each month. Then, ascertain that the company you are considering actually monitors these positions or pages every month, and that the sample report they show you includes findings and recommendations for the specific site. This insures that the company will actively monitor and make adjustments to their strategy on a continual basis rather than simply gather statistics on your positions. You need a company that is actively participant in your search engine marketing campaign, not just an information gatherer.

Obviously, your finances have to figure into your choice of company, but bear in mind that a search engine optimization company is crucial the success of your marketing campaign. It is not just a casual accessory. If you cannot afford a company that will do a thorough and reliable job for your website, you might consider waiting until you do have the finances in place.

If you have to find a company and can’t wait for your finances to catch up, you may be able to find an affordable company that will also be able to supply quality, reliable work, such as a fairly new company. Just remember that there are risks involved with using a company without a proven track record—and that risk is your money! Don’t take that leap unless the company can supply you with a least a few references.

References are the most reliable indicator of a good company. Don’t use a company that won’t show your references because of any reason, confidentiality included. Remember—even doctors will provide references! The firm you choose should provide you with a minimum of two references, one that is from the past, and one that is current.

When you contact these references, be prepared to ask precise, specific questions so that neither of your time is wasted. Ask them what their experience was like with the company, such as their availability to answer questions and deal with problems and their ability to meet deadlines. Ask the reference to rate the overall performance of the company.

Find out if the company requested that the reference make significant changes to their web pages that affected the visitors coming to their site. You are looking for a search engine optimization company that can balance the needs of both search engines and site visitors without compromising either.

The most essential question to ask is whether the work of the search engine optimization company resulted in higher profits for the reference. Without profits, it doesn’t matter whether your positions are at the top of the list or not.

Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

How To Select A Search Engine Optimization Company