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Posts Tagged ‘Optimization Seo’

Did you ever wish there was a Tumblr Pro? Try ZooLoo instead

When pushbutton-simple free blogging site Tumblr launched in 2007, friends of mine with a lot to say but no interest in tinkering with HTML jumped onto it. Not only did they create their own personal blogs, they spun off temporary joke blogs for topics of the day. A coworker of mine at Valleywag created fakepaulboutin.tumblr.com, where she posted my wisecracks from Valleywag’s private chat room.

But if you want your own personal domain rather than _____.tumblr.com, you have to set it up yourself. It’s a multi-step process: Buy domain. Get domain’s A record registered in DNS, whatever that means. Deal with technical problems. Deal with more technical problems. Forget to renew domain. Lose domain to squatter in Ukraine.

Wouldn’t you pay to have someone else deal with this stuff for you?

ZooLoo sells subscription blogging services for as little as $1.99 that includes a custom domain and backups, email for the site, plus a dashboard for managing your blog. ZooLoo’s Graffiti blog platform is a lot like Tumblr: Simple, attractive, easy to use because it’s not complicated.

For $4.99 a month you can remove the ads from your ZooLoo site and double your storage capacity to 2 gigabytes. (There’s no limit on image uploads, which aren’t stored on your personal space.) For $8.99 monthly, you can run your own ads and use ZooLoo’s search engine optimization (SEO) tools.

You can use ZooLoo for free, if you’re happy with just a blog, a dashboard, and the ability to check and update your status on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Linkedin.

The company, founded in Scottsdale, Arizona in May 2008 by CEO Jeff Herzog, is privately funded. The one-minute video below shows how ZooLoo works for beginners.

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Elance Index: Online Contract Work Shows Growth

The other day, National Public Radio (NPR) featured a tech worker who has been out of work for some time. He spends his days in San Francisco coffee shops looking for work.

His job search may improve if the “Elance Work Index,” proves true. Elance reports that they are seeing a 46% increase in hiring for contract work, compared to a year ago.

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Contract work is always hot during a recession as employers look to get their work done without hiring people full-time. In other words, it’s a great time to be in consulting.

The “Elance Index,” looks at the top 100 skills in today’s online job market. The results arrive from more than 100,000 jobs posted on Elance in recent months, making it a credible barometer of online hiring trends.

Tech skills carry 11 of the top 25 spots in the index. And marketers look like they have better prospects, with skills in graphic design, social media and search engine optimization (SEO) being the kind that employers want. Writers are also in demand

First, let’s look at the top ten on the Elance Index:

Some tech highlights:

• Knowing PHP is still a great bet for getting a job. It remains the #1 sought-after skill by prospective employers.
• HTML skills jumped two notches to the #4 slot.
• People with Java skills have some reason to be optimistic. Their skill advanced 36 slots to the #24 position.
• Joomla! rose 15 spots to #6.

In marketing:

• Graphic design is a hot skill to have. It rose to the #5 slot.
• Illustrator is in the #8 spot.
• Social media marketing came in 14th on the index.
• SEO skills are still in demand, ranking #15 in the index.

In writing:

• Content Writing moves up 6 spots to #2.
• Article Writing came in the #3 spot.
• Copywriting and Creative Writing move up to the #12 and #13 spots, respectively.

Contract jobs are not a reality for many people. Health insurance costs can be steep for contractors. On the upside, skills in web development, online marketing and writing may be signs that the overall web technology market is rebounding, with employers focusing more on those types of projects.

Discuss

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