Ever seen a police car parked illegally? Well, no one is above the law according to this brave traffic warden in Liverpool, England:

With no thought for his own future safety, the attendant leapt into action to make his move on the vehicle.

After noting down the offence, he boldly slapped the penalty charge notice on the windscreen before making a calm getaway, showing that not even the long arm of the law is safe from the scourge of the hawk-eyed wardens.

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If you enjoyed this post please use the logos below to add it to StumbleUpon, Delicious, Digg or Reddit.

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If you enjoyed this post please use the logos below to add it to StumbleUpon, Delicious, Digg or Reddit.

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Tata Motors is set to roll out the world's cheapest car next year, enabling those at the bottom of the traffic pecking order to move up a notch.

And it will put the Indian dream of owning a new car - a symbol of status in a status-obsessed culture - within reach of tens of millions of people.

The car maker Tata Motors has not divulged many details about the car other than its shockingly low sticker price of 100,000 rupees, or 1 lakh in Indian currency. That's just over £1200, less than half the price of the lowest-priced cars on India's market today.

The car's rollout comes as India's economy expands at a faster-than-expected rate of 8% a year, second only to China. In this country of 1.1 billion people, sales of small cars are expected to double to two million in the next three years, as the country's emerging middle class expands from 50 million people today to an estimated half billion by 2025.

Supposedly, the 1 Lakh Car - Tata has yet to release its official name - will be a 4-door as big as a Volkswagen Rabbit, much of it will be plastic, and it will have a rear-mounted 30-horsepower engine. By comparison, a Rabbit has about 150 horsepower.

Tata is counting on it being a mega hit. It better be, analysts say. A huge volume of sales is necessary to make up for the car's tiny profit margin of less than 3%.

But its success could spell trouble for India's urban planners and environmentalists who say a drastic increase in car ownership could overwhelm the country's already crowded roadways and worsen its air quality.

The need for more affordable cars is sometimes glaringly obvious. In India, it is not uncommon to see entire families of four or five, precariously balanced on a motorcycle, weaving through traffic.

Environmental groups have already expressed "great concern" about India's air quality, especially in most of the country's largest cities, where they say the air quality is already at "critical levels."

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The secretary of transportation announced this morning that the federal government will provide New York City with $354 million to implement congestion pricing, if the State Legislature acts by March 2008 to put in effect Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s proposal for charging traffic fees in Manhattan.

The announcement is a major step forward for Mayor Bloomberg’s plan, but it does not guarantee that the congestion fees will pass muster with Albany and the City Council. The transportation secretary, Mary E. Peters, singled out the mayor for praise at a 10 a.m. news conference in Washington:

The average New York commuter now spends 49 hours stuck in traffic every year, up from 18 hours in 1982. While some may be content to accept growing gridlock as a way of life, Mayor Bloomberg is not going to let traffic rob the Big Apple. He has stepped forward with a plan as brass and bold as New York City itself. New Yorkers must understand that we must stop relying on yesterday’s ideas to fight today’s traffic jams.

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The WebConfs website has a very useful list of “Best and Worst Practices for Designing a High Traffic Website.” Basically they collected all the major factors that might affect the search optimization of your site, attributing a score to them. The score ranges from -3, which is very bad for your site, to +3, which is very good. Below you will find a summary of the most important factors:

Keywords

    * Keyword in title tag (+3)

    * Keyword in URL (+3)

    * Keyword density in document (+3)

    * Keyword in H1 and H2 headings (+3)

    * Keyword in the beginning of document (+2)

    * Keyword in ALT tags (+2)

    * Keyword in Meta tags (+1)

    * Keyword stuffing (-3)

Links

    * Anchor text of inbound links (+3)

    * Origin of inbound links (+3)

    * Links from similar sites (+3)

    * Links from .edu and .gov sites (+3)

    * Anchor text of internal links (+2)

    * Many outgoing links (-1)

    * Outbound links to bad neighbors (-3)

    * Cross-linking (-3)

Meta Tags

    * Description Meta Tag (+1)

    * Keywords Meta Tag (+1)

    * Refresh Meta Tag (-1)

Content

    * Unique content (+3)

    * Frequent updates (+3)

    * Age of content (+2)

    * Poor coding or design (-2)

    * Invisible text (-3)

    * Doorway pages (-3)

    * Duplicate content (-3)

Other factors

    * Site accessibility (+3)

    * Sitemap (+2)

    * Site size (+2)

    * Site age (+2)

    * Top-level domain (+1)

    * URL length (0

    * Hosting downtime (-1)

    * Flash (-2)

    * Misused Redirects (-3)

 

1. How to Write Magnetic Headlines

In my view, headlines are the most important aspect of blogging both from a reader standpoint and an SEO standpoint. Brian Clark has written the authoritative guide to Headline writing, and if you haven't read it yet, let me just suggest that you should easily be able to double your readership and search traffic just by following his suggestions.

2. How Can 10 Simple Articles Change Your Life?

This article is all about creating a long-term vision for becoming an expert blogger. Chris Pearson introduced me to the idea of how a blogger can establish authority with 10 killer posts. In fact, Chris had probably established his authority before he got to 10 (somewhat due to his design skills, I'll admit). Nonetheless, it's 100% true that you can enter from under the radar and dominate a niche just by writing long (seriously long), well organized, authoritative articles on your topic. Of course, they need to be good articles. And they need to provide unique analysis and information. And you probably do need to be an expert. But you'd be surprised by how many experts are out there trying to rise above the crowd with short little 300 word newsy posts. Not going to do it.

3. Scannable Content

This is perhaps the one article that will make the biggest immediate difference. Visual display is to blogging like curb-appeal is to real estate. Bloggers should be constantly thinking about the curb-appeal of each article. It really makes a difference.

4. 10 Killer Post Ideas

Here's an experiment I've run several times. Setup a blog. Tell the blogger how to use WordPress. Don't give any article hints. See what comes out the other end. If your experience is like mine, then you know that most of the time you'll see two very bad habits form. One, the article titles will not be specific enough (and they'll be dull). Two, the blogger will develop a one-dimensional article style. To avoid this situation, make sure you read Chris Garrett's suggestions for 10 Killer Post Ideas.

5. 7 Steps to Being Recognized as an Expert

Liz gives you seven effective ways to build an expert reputation. As a blogger, building a reputation in a specialized niche should always be your goal. Start by following Liz's methods and you'll be on the right track.

6. Converting One off Visitors to your Blog into Regular Readers

Getting visitors is not enough. You want your visitors to stick. I don't know how many times I've found one of my blogs the beneficiary of a massive traffic surge, only to find three days later that the surge hadn't been sticky. A blogger constantly looking to convert visitors into regular readers. Darren Rowse's classic post gives you the essentials for building a long-term relationship with your new visitors.

7. 5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog Post With a Bang

Catching and keeping your reader's attention is critical, especially for realing in new readers. Brian Clark gives us five of the best ways to get your readers to bite from the very beginning.

8. The Art of Linkbaiting

Nick Wilson's article rocked my world when I first read it. Just as in the academic discipline of Logic there are "forms of argument" The Art of Linkbaiting helped to define "forms of blogging." What's most impressive is that it gives the blogger a way to be very intentional about her content. "What purpose does this post serve in the overall scheme of my blog? Will it help attract a sticky readership?" While not all blog posts need to be linkbait, blogging should be about giving the reader what the reader wants. And in the end that's all that linkbait is about. Be the first or the best at giving the reader what she wants, and you're golden.

9. Before You Begin Blogging: A few things you should know

The worst thing you can do is give a new blogger false hopes. DebNg provides a completely accurate and sobering look at the reality of problogging. This is the first article that I show to all of my potential bloggers before they even get started. False hope is the number one killer of new bloggers aged 15 to 85.

10. 5 Surefire Steps To Increase Readership 300% (or more)

Ok. Here's my little contribution to the list. Once a blogger has gotten the hang of writing quality, linkable content, it's time to add those little things that can take a blog to the next level.

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SEOMoz released a very detailed document titled “Search Engine Ranking Factors V2”, which outlines the views of 34 SEO experts regarding how Google’s algorithm works. Below you will find the Top 5 positive and negative factors on the study:

Top 5 Positive Factors

   1. Keyword Use in Title Tag

   2. Global Link Popularity of Site

   3. Anchor Text of Inbound Link

   4. Link Popularity within the Site

   5. Age of Site

Top 5 Negative Factors

   1. Server is Often Inaccessible to Bots

   2. Content Very Similar or Duplicate of Existing Content on the Index

   3. External Links to Low Quality/Spam sites

   4. Participation in Link Schemes or Actively Selling Links

   5. Duplicate Title/Meta Tags on Many Pages

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By finding out who is linking to your competitor's website you should be able to drive some traffic to your own website.  If a website linked to your competitor's website they should be happy to link to you.

Backlinkwatch.com allows you to get complete detailed information about quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to your competitors website.

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MyBlogLog is a community of bloggers who own blog websites.   All of the users are very tech savy and own their own blogs and websites.

By signing up to the MyBlogLog community you can visit new and exciting blogs as well as interect, leave messages and join other blog communities.  Wherever you visit on the site your profile appears and users will click on your profile to see your details and the blogs you write for.

Join the popular blogs and leave comments, visit the user's profiles and add them as your friends.  As you appear in more communities and interact in the community you will receive many new users to your website. MyBlogLog is also a very good way to network with influential bloggers and become known in the industry.

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Feedburner is a web-based tool that helps bloggers, podcasters and commercial publishers promote, deliver and profit from their content on the Web.

By signing up your blog at Feedburner you can allow your users to subscribe t your content. By subscribing to your content your users can view youre content from other applications and websites.

An example of our feed can be seen on the right of this webpage.

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Write something controversial on your website or blog, users love controversy.  Once written leave the first comment on your blog.

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A high organic listing has been proven through multiple studies to be more effective and beneficial than paying the search engines for a sponsored link position usinga pay per click methodology.

In fact, a recent study showed that the eyes of over 80% of those involved in the research gravitated to an organic listing first while only 6% chose to click first on a sponsored link.

Another important benefit of a highlyranked organic listing is that the consumer tends to perceive those companies listed organically as being the leading authorities in their market space which of course is invaluable and highly sought after by any company in a growth mode. ........................................................................................................................

eMarketer via Searchengineland reports that more than 65 million adults in the United States are already spreading the word about their favorite products and services. 27 million of them are doing it online.

Word of mouth marketing is still one of the best way of getting your products and services out to your audience. As more people become familiar with interacting with the Internet we can expect word of mouth to increase. This is shown above with the number of people who will act as key world of mouth influencers.

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