The SEO Effects of Posting 1 article for 60 days

In my attempt to post 1 article per day for 100 consecutive days to increase online visibility, I fell short and had to stop at the 60^th article because of some more important matters in school and at work. In my blogging hiatus, I rarely thought of my blog because of my busy schedule. The next opportunity I had to open my Google analytics account at around mid April, I was surprised at what I saw. The numbers began to rise consistently from my last post on February 8. As expected, the days that followed February 8 had a decrease in visitors but in the days that followed, the numbers began to grow. Here is a diagram to summarize the visits by month:

The stats may not look much but I was ecstatic to see a steady growth of traffic. Because most of my traffic came from the Google search results, my best guess to explain the traffic increase is that at the time when I left, most of the pages with newer content were not indexed yet. I never submit web pages individually because in my opinion, submitting your website URL was enough to increase traffic through search engine indexing. The consistent flow of traffic may have followed after the pages have been crawled and indexed. It just goes to show how powerful the number of content is in SEO. In my observation, there are a number of fortunate events that led to the increase of website traffic and a bit of increase in GreedyBen.com profits. These are the things that I fortunately accomplished before going to hiatus:

1.             Posted a lot of articles
2.     Made some keyword research in those articles for search engine optimization purposes
3.             Submit site details to Google and Bing to be indexed
4. 4.   Placed ads from the GoDaddy affiliate program

All these ultimately increased search engine visibility in my selected keywords, brought the right people to my blog and the last one increased my income. Even without any help from the social networking websites the contents and the keywords in them were able to drive site traffic and maintain  the traffic flow for two months and counting. I never thought that posting a lot of content could be so effective in search engine marketing.

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The GreedyBen Second Start

This is my first blog post since February 8, 2013. In the past, I set too much blogging goals for me to handle considering that I am doing this as a hobby. Just like for many other bloggers, the biggest problem with blogging for me is to blog regularly. It is just impossible to keep blogging when your other priorities require a lot from you. But I am not giving up that easily.

My goal in the past was to post 1 article a day for 100 days. I failed to continue at around my 78^th day. The amount of articles I created contributed a lot to improve my SEO but the quality of the articles needs improvement. In my second start at blogging, I have narrowed down the topics I am posting about. The general topics that I will write about are online business in the Philippines and related SEO. I will touch some other topics from time to time like the Philippine Stock Exchange index and financial management topics. I will no longer post daily because that will just lead me to burn out but I will post 3 articles every week and more if the other areas of my life are not too demanding.

Thank you to those who have been reading my articles. 

“The GreedyBen Second Start” begins today.  

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Here’s a Quick Way to Find a Job Using Sulit.com.ph

By +Chris Benedict Valencia 

Looking for the right job can be frustrating. I know. I’ve been there.

Waiting long lines in government offices to gather all the necessary requirements for the job, and then you realize later that you got hired in a job you hate. When you are already in that situation, you have no choice but to carry on with your present job to avoid hurting your records.

To avoid the same mistakes I did, you should be careful and bring you’re A-game even in the job selection process. You can’t just apply to the next job that seems appealing. You must scrutinize every detail of the career opportunities to know if you are the right person they need and if they are the right company for you.

The same principle applies when you are looking for a job online or offline. One of the most popular classified ads posting websites in the Philippines; sulit.com.ph, has a job board where job openings can be seen. There are thousands of sulit jobs to choose from with contact numbers to the employers for further questions.

Even in this controlled setting however, the need to be careful in choosing a job is at its peak. To avoid choosing the wrong sulit.com.ph jobs, here are the aspects you need to check:

How to choose the right Job in Sulit.com.ph?

Have a copy of a resume by your side

If you are about to browse for a sulit job, you should have two copies of your resume; one hard and one soft copy. The hard copy is for taking down notes on where you need to add information to your resume. The soft copy is for those employers that require a copy of your resume as soon as possible.

Stick with the job you want

When browsing for a job in sulit.com.ph, you will notice that there are many legitimate jobs and there are also a lot of spam posts for Multilevel Marketing Schemes, and click-to-pay income opportunities. These are not real jobs. Because of all the distractions, you should already have a clear picture of the job description you want. You will not find a job that will exactly fit your dream job but you will increase your chances of finding the next best thing if you know what to aim for.

Don’t settle for significantly lesser positions

I’ve heard from a Department of Labor employee once that job seekers should not be choosy when looking for a job. That’s easy for them to say because it’s not their time and years of service that they are sacrificing. If you are a nurse by profession, look for a job that fits your career choice. Otherwise, you will be working for hours without contributing to your career development.

Use the search box

To find the right jobs, enter your profession in the query box in the sulit.com.ph jobs section. You could include words like job, career, or employment together with your profession to narrow down the search result.

Don’t be blinded by the inviting keywords

When your search result comes, scan the results for the jobs you want. Remember that the people who post on sulit.com.ph are professionals (some of them anyway) in copywriting titles that will catch their target audience’s attention. If you are a structural or civil engineer for example, an ad title stating “Urgent Hiring: One More Civil Engineer Needed for Canada” may be very tempting to apply to but don’t be hasty. Great employment opportunities don’t just take the next applicant; they screen for the best.

Check the Description

Before you can check the job description, you still need to separate the real jobs hiring ads from the spam. The presence of the picture is one way to know. The ad must at least have a company picture to make it credible. The title is another factor to consider. If the title the ad is for work abroad, it is more likely that the job hiring ad was posted by a recruiter for a manpower agency. Very few employers abroad know about sulit.com.ph.

When you do find the title that you like, it’s time to check the job description. 

The description that you want to see should:

• Be concise and straight to the point

            Spam posts are usually filled with unnecessary keywords for keyword density for SEO purposes.

• Have all the necessary details

            Job title with detailed job description, salary, qualifications, a link to their company website( Not a recruitment website), and most importantly contact information and instructions on how to apply

            E-mails are not a good sign especially if the email address is personal and it is from a free email service like yahoo or gmail. Telephone numbers are great but check first if they work. The most important factor to look for is the address of their office. See if you can go there and ask about their job openings.

• It must be dated recently

            Spams are usually dated for long periods of posting. Real jobs get filled up easily so they are deleted once they are no longer needed.

The Publisher's feedbacks

If all the parts of the ad suggests that the company seems legit, you should check the next and most important part of the sulit job listing; the ad publisher’s feedback. Scammers usually get low feedbacks.

If you are satisfied with the ad’s and the ad publisher’s integrity, you can now contact the employer or follow the instructions for application if there is one.

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Affiliate Marketing review: Is Amazon Associates for You?

By +Chris Benedict Valencia 

Should you join Amazon associates?

I asked myself the same question when I began monetizing this blog. There are a number of ways to monetize a blog and one of the most popular ones is through ads like adsense and chitika but I don’t personally like the appearance of these kinds of ads on my blog. I think the clutter of ads on products you don’t believe in make your blog looks cheap.

I prefer using affiliate marketing and the best one out there is Amazon Associates.

Why choose Amazon Associates?

There are many online shopping websites out there but the great majority of online shoppers prefer shopping in Amazon because of their track records. They generally have great service and saying that they have a lot of items in their inventory is an understatement. The bottom line is Online Shoppers trust Amazon.

What special features does Amazon Associates have?

Amazon Associates has a unique interface that you can use. You can post banners, and text links to any part of the Amazon website that you think will sell through your content marketing. You can’t do this in other affiliate programs where you can only link to the parts of the website that they are promoting. In Amazon, you can promote any specific product as an affiliate which increases the likelihood that you will sell something to your reader.

Aside from links and banners, you also get to ad widgets to your site for your side bar. These are great but they aren’t really personally recommended so I don’t find them effective in this blog.

Tiered commission rates

Amazon Associates’ commission uses a multi level structure which means that as you sell more stuff, your commission rate also increases. This is a great program for people who sell more than one item. It also helps affiliates who sell many low priced items. The level you are in resets monthly. Every month you begin at the lowest level where you get 4% commission for the sales you brought to Amazon.

Front row seats to Amazon Promotions

One of the best parts of being a part of Amazon Associates is that you get to be the first person to see the best offers they have. There’s a constant list of promotions and great deals in forms of online coupon codes and promo links.

How do you get paid?

There are three options on cashing out; check, direct bank deposit and through Amazon gift check. Bank deposit is only available to US affiliates so the only options for non-US affiliates are check and gift check. There is a $15 fee for US affiliates that choose to receive checks but this fee is waived for non-US affiliates. The minimum amount that you can cash out via check is $100 and $10 via the other two means.

Should you join?

My advice is to join Amazon associates because regardless of who your viewers are, Amazong always offers something they need. The only downside of Amazon is that it is not as popular in Asia yet as in Europe and the Americas. If you receive a lot of traffic from those continents then it might be a good idea to promote Amazon products.

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Pinoy Online Affiliate Marketing Comparison: Amazon, HalloHalloMall, Zalora

By +Chris Benedict Valencia 

There are a lot of Filipino bloggers and if their blogs become successful, they are bound to monetize it. If you are a blogger and you have been thinking of monetizing your blog, you may already know about affiliate marketing. In simple terms, affiliate marketing is when you sell other people’s product through your website. The most popular affiliate marketing program in the world is Amazon Associates but is it the best program for your business?  

Amazon

Amazon is one of the best affiliate marketing programs around. They have been running for a while and they have a reputable name in the industry of online shopping. The best part about Amazon is that almost anything you want to buy online can be found there. 

They also have regular Amazon coupons and promos that make them more attractive to online shoppers. If you have online bargain hunters as your audience, you can send them the coupons you find in Amazon through newsletters to help them find the best deals.

If you have read a lot of materials about blogging from professional bloggers, you will notice that many of them have Amazon affiliates on the top of their lists of the affiliate programs that they recommend.

Should you sign up with Amazon affiliates?

If the majority of your blog or website visitors are from the United States, then you should. Sadly, for Asian bloggers, Amazon is not as popular here compared to the west. Don’t despair thought because there are other options to choose from.

Find Amazon's Deal of the Day. Click Here

The commission of the Amazon Associates Program is tiered which means that the more stuff you sell and more deals you close the higher your commission rate will be. You start at 4% per sale and you move up the ladder if you sell more. If you have a blog and you are reviewing some product, check if it is sold in Amazon. If it is, you can provide your readers coupon codes about the product.

Once you're signed up as an affiliate, you can also use links and give out free coupons for other affiliate programs for amazon like Amazon Wireless and Amazon Supply.

Zalora

One of the most popular among the many online malls that are emerging today is ZALORA. If this is not your first time here at greedyben.com, you may have noticed that I have been using ZALORA banners on my online shopping articles. That’s because ZALORA and its sister website LAZADA are becoming really popular in Asia. You should note however that the items that are sold in ZALORA are limited. The stuff they sell are mostly related to fashion and fashion accessories.

Should you promote zalora?

Zalora is great because they cater to Filipinos and other Asian bargain hunting shoppers. They have Pinoy friendly payment systems and they offer free shipping which beats everybody else. If your target market is likely to buy from zalora then you should become a member.

Their affiliate program however is not as well polished as Amazon’s. Because Zalora uses Commission Junction to handle their affiliate marketing program, their links are limited to general links. You can’t link to a specific product you want unless they add links of product deals with discounts in the future.
Most of their links mostly lead to shopping categories such as Men’s and Women’s clothing. This will limit your affiliate marketing options because you will not be able to pitch specific products. 

ZALORA Philippines Womens Clothing  

The commission rate is fixed at 8% per sale. As mentioned earlier, affiliate program is handled by commission junction, which means that, for non US publishers, your commission could only be sent through check which has a minimum cash out of $100. US publishers can use their bank transfer option.   

HalloHallomall

HalloHallomall.com’s approach to affiliate marketing is a little different. They know Filipino buyers a little more because they allow publishers to post ads for them in facebook. Even if you don’t own a blog or a website you can advertise for HalloHallomall through your facebook account. There are also banners available for those who own websites. There are no text links at the moment but there may be some in the future.

You get 1% for the sales you facilitate and your earnings are counted as points. There may also be online coupons available in the future. The points you earn can be used to purchase items. Other points from games and welcome bonuses expire but points gained through affiliates don’t.

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Little Known Ways to Save Money when Online Shopping

By +Chris Benedict Valencia 

Online shopping is convenient and easy but it also has some drawbacks. If you are not careful in online shopping, you can actually lose money unnecessarily. The worst part is you will not know that you’ve been scammed until the credit card bills arrived. Of course most of it you can get back if you call your credit card company but it’ll be a waste of your time; so much for convenience.

To avoid the possibility of being scammed, buying overpriced items and becoming a victim of hidden charges, follow these tips:

Improve your PC’s security

When shopping online you will be required to provide personal information and this puts your financial information at risk of being accessed by hackers. This is the reason why you need to update all the security features of the computer you are using. The most basic protection tools that you need are an updated browser and premium antivirus software. The security features of both will monitor your device constantly and it will prevent access to web pages where threat has been detected.

Don’t use other people’s computer in making a transaction

Make a habit of limiting the devices you use for online transactions. This will also limit the chances of having your online identity stolen by hackers. If you make a transaction with devices that aren’t yours, the security features of that device may not be up-to-date of there may be key logger software that can save your password in the device’s memory. 

Avoid using public wireless connection networks when making online deals

            
Another situation where your online information could be hacked is when you are connected to a public network where many other users are connected to. Firesheep may not function well in updated browsers, but it won’t be long before similar software will show up.

Find the right price comparison app for your needscomparison websites and apps. This is a must-have tool if you do a lot of 

Online shoppers especially Filipinos are oblivious of the existence of cost online shopping. When comparing prices, don’t just focus on the price; take note of the websites and the sellers too to be used for more research.

Stick with trusted online wallets

There are perks of using credit cards like the legal advice given by banks and the feature that you will not be held liable for fraud transaction but if you don’t have credit cards or if you don’t want your information to be in many places online, it’s wise to make use of trusted online wallets like Paypal and Google Check out. Your accounts will represent you in payments and all transactions can be traced as easily as when you use a credit card directly.

Never buy online without reading reviews of the product and the seller

Reviews and comments about a product will give you a good picture of the satisfaction ratings of the previous customers towards a product or a seller. Not all reviews though, could be trusted. Some reviews are commissioned by the sellers to increase the possibility of a sale. One way of knowing if a review is paid is if it has nothing bad to say about the products, services or the sellers. 

Always hunt for coupons in the blogs and websites you visit

Many of the established online sellers have exclusive promos that bargain hunters can use. Try to find online coupons in blogs and websites every time you browse online. If you find one that you like, take note of the date when the coupon will expire, the coupon codes, and the URL of the page where you found the coupon. This will help you to go back to the coupon if you plan to use it in the future or if you want to share it to someone you know who needs it.

If you are looking for online coupons, there are other names for it like promo codes, or discount codes that you can use in your query. These promo codes will help you get great deals and let you save a lot. Two of the most popular websites that regularly have coupons are GoDaddy and Amazon.

Shop Amazon - Holiday Gift Cards - Instant Delivery or Free One-Day Shipping

Always check the shipping costs

Before adding anything to your shopping cart, check the total amount for the product together with the shipping fee. There are some with free shipping offers which really means that shipping costs are already included in the price. When calculating the total cost of your purchase, make sure to include shipping cost because this fee can end up being more expensive than the item in some instances.

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What to Include in your Small Business Blog?

By +Chris Benedict Valencia 

A business blog is your small or medium enterprise’s representative online. We’ve learned in 2012 that relying on other people’s community like facebook for your business marketing is not entirely secure for your business.  That’s why all your content should have a headquarters on a piece of cyberspace that you control.

If you already have a business blog, check if its contents are really beneficial for your business.

Business Photos and other images

Your chances of winning the search war are increased if you have more photos in your blog. Your blog will have a lot of competition when it comes to text queries but the number of competition is significantly decreased in image searches. Make it a habit to have at least one photo on every blog post.

            

Make sure however that your photos are related to your business. If you sell cupcakes for example have as many cupcake photos, computer generated images and illustrations in your blog. This will increase the chances of receiving targeted traffic.

            

Other types of photos that you could include are updates about your establishment’s activities. If your business organized a medical outreach program recently, place the documentations on your website and blog. The types of events that you place there depend on the type of image or reputation you want your business establishment to have on your readers and your community.

Your Blog's about page

Tell the people what your small business is about by providing an about page. Make the tone of writing appropriate for your business. If you want your business to be viewed as a fun and bright place, you can make your about page more humorous. If you like to attract no-nonsense type of readers, make your about page sound professional.

            

Your about page is very important because this is where people will go if they want to know more about your bloggers, your website, your blogs and your business. This page gives you a chance to throw a business pitch to your readers.

The bloggers’ profiles

Your blogger or bloggers should have a profile linked to your blog. It is their writings and other contents that interact with your viewers. The type of bloggers you have for your small or medium enterprise will say a lot about your business. Having a part of your blog dedicated to building your bloggers’ reputation will also give credibility to your business especially to the people who don’t know much about your business yet.

How to videos and articles

Providing learning resources is a great way to find traffic and the more useful your learning resources are, the higher the chances that you will have audience engagement. How-to videos and articles will be helpful to your audience and it will make your website memorable to them.

The How-to articles and videos must be related to your industry to generate targeted traffic. If you have a bakery for example, you can teach people how to bake some basic pastries.

Frequent posts

Updates on your blog must be frequent. IT doesn’t have to be daily but it should be at least twice a week. This will help you improve your rankings all over the world and it will also be good for you SEO. Think of your posts as free ads that online customers can search. It should be properly optimized for the popular search engines to be found by your audience.

Contact information

This should include all the contact information that your business has. It could be placed in your about page. Some people limit their contact information to emails but you should also include your local phone number because many local customers may want to look for your phone number online through their mobile devices.

Call to action page

This is where your best sales pitch should be. Your call to action page will depend on your business blog’s objectives. Some of the common objectives that need a call to action page are increasing the numbers of subscribers and increasing the number of sales.

            

It may take some time before your website can actually convince people to take action. Just like in every aspect of blogging for business, rushing its success may affect the quality of the results.

Your very own domain name

A domain name that can be connected to your business should be included in your blog. You may not have the freedom to get exactly the domain name you want because most of the short abbreviations and catchy phrases have already been taken. There are ways however to make your domain name closer to your business name.

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Who should Blog for your Business?

By +Chris Benedict Valencia 

I’ve emphasized on my previous posts the importance of a blog for your company. It’s not a secret that a blog can be used as a major part of a business’ marketing plan. International and local businesses alike use blogs to connect with their current audience, fans and even target market who haven’t heard of their business before.

Because your blog is a great factor in making your online presence improve, you shouldn’t take for granted the qualities of the person blogging for your small business. That person must fulfill some requirements that will help you know if he or she will make your business blog a success. Here are some of them:  

Your business blogger must know how to blog

The first requirement is that obviously that person must know the basics of blogging. Small businesses usually have few employees and having a lot of employees to represent your company in the blogosphere may cost the company money. You should limit the number of employees for this task because once the blog is set up; there will be few things that need to be done other than content addition. If you don’t have an employee that has blogging savvy, you could have local IT professionals help you out in setting up the blog for you.

Your business blogger must believe in your business

Passion is what drives bloggers and it’s also a factor that makes people follow blogs. Your blogger must be passionate with what you are selling. The blogger should be master at pitching your products or services. He or she must know by heart what you are selling and believes that you are the right people to approach for the job. Your blogger will stand as your business’ biggest fan and cheer leader.

Your business blogger must not be hot headed

The internet can be a hostile place. As much as you want to gather comments to build communities, there will be some comments that are aimed only to harm your business or start trouble. If your blogger don’t know how to keep his or her cool and acts on impulse, the trolls may just get what they want. Have a blogger who know how to act responsibly on behalf of the company.

Your business blogger must be an excellent copywriter

Copywriting has nothing to do with intellectual rights. It’s the act of writing for the purpose of marketing. Part of copywriting is being able to know how to make a content engaging but also not sound like spam. Your blog content must sell your products in a subtle way because your followers don’t really want to read only “buy now” articles. Your business blogger must know how to make a blog useful by including the right information but also must know how to leave some information out to give some room for readers to comment about.

Your business blogger must know how to analyze statistical data

When you have a blog for your business, the statistical data of apps like Google analytics will let you see if your blog is able to connect to your target audience. Reading blog posts and knowing what different parts of the statistical data means can be learned through the internet from the vast sea of information about blogging.

These are some of the most important requirements that you want your business blogger to have. If you are the person with the most beliefe in your business’ importance in your industry, then you can be the one to blog and ad comments two to three times a day. But if your busy schedule will not allow you to make such a commitment, you could have one of your long term employees do it for you. Make sure though that the person you choose have the above mentioned qualities.

Do you know of other characteristics that a business blogger must have?  Share your thoughts in the comments below. 

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Business Website Promotion: The Secrets to Reaching your Target Market

By +Chris Benedict Valencia 

So you built a website for your business. It survived the alpha and the beta stages and you are confident that your current customers and prospect customers will like it. It is well organized and you have tested how easy it is to navigate. What now?

If you don't have a website for business, click here to know why you should have one.

If your website is ready for the public, make sure that you do enough so that you will reach the people you want to reach. As with any business, your first task is to know who your target market is online. If you are not sure on who your target market are online, just find out who your offline market are and think of a portion of your target market that hangout online.

If you already know who your target market is, it’s time to promote your website to reach your target market.

Organic SEO

            To have a detailed idea of about SEO you should check out Wikipedia.

Many people who need something go to search engines and type in a query. Google has even become a verb because of the search engine’s popularity in daily life. Optimizing your website is not just one task but is a collection of tasks that all lead to having your website on the top of google’s or bing’s search results. 

People who use search engines use keywords to find what they are looking for. And these keywords are used by the search engine to deliver the websites that it thinks the searcher needs.

A large part of site promotion is researching what keywords to use. It must have low competition and it should be searched a lot by people. There are tools that you can use to find out which keywords you can use; some free and some are bought. 

The most popular among the free version is Google Adword Keyword Tool. There are also apps that you can use to know what your competitor businesses are using but to be able to use its maximum potential you must use the paid versions.   

All these tools help you find the right keywords that your customers use to search for what they need. If you know the keywords they use, you should use those keywords often in the content of your website. This will get you targeted traffic from Google and Bing assuming that you website is listed on both search engines.

Read about making a blog increase in value. Click Here.

The Value of a Business Blog

Having a blog for your business helps your business website in many ways. A blog is basically a website like this one. It has a niche, content is added regularly, and it is an informal way of providing information about the niche. 

One of the advantages of having a blog in your business website is the constant input of information. Search engines love new content and blogs always have new content. You can also increase the use of keywords in these contents increasing the chances of being on top of the list for a certain keyword.

A blog also has a lot of different content types which makes useful to people who are not looking for text. This is the reason why you should have videos and photos in your blog.

Youtube

Many people like video blogs or vlogs better. They are very useful for how-to’s. if you have this kind of content, you will increase the chances that your website will be seen . You can also use the keywords you researched about on the title and the tags of the video.

Get unique photos

Original, high quality photos and images are valuable for image search features of the search engine. Make sure the your photos have captions, and descriptions to help the searchers find it when they enter a query on the search engine image search.

Social networking websites

This is where may webmasters focus on at the moment. Facebook and twitter are the leading communities that you can use because this is where a lot of people are but you should also consider smaller communities with your targeted traffic. If you provide equipments for restaurants for example, it may be a good idea to join online forums with restaurant owners as the members.

            

The important part of promotion via social media is that you don’t appear spammy. People will flag your links and it may end up damaging your site’s reputation. You actually need to interact to people in order for them to trust you. If they trust you they will also trust the products and services you offer.

            

Some of the things that you could do to interact with your audience in social network is sharing interesting content like memes and quotations or asking questions that a lot of people can relate to. This will make your online posts more engaging and therefore improve your post’s visibility in social networking sites.

Social bookmarking

Social bookmarking websites are usually second choice for most online content marketers but for me they are just equally effective in driving traffic to your website if used effectively. Some of the popular social bookmarking websites are digg.com, stumbleupon.com and pinterest. 

The idea of a social bookmarking website is to have all the things you want to remember online stored on a personal online profile. If you think many people will like your blog post, image or video promote them using social bookmarking websites.

Wordpress & Go Daddy Hosting - A Winning Combination For Your blog!

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