If you haven’t heard of Yahoo! Pipes, you’re missing out on an incredibly powerful, multi-purpose Web 2.0 service that you should seriously consider for your blogging research and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) toolbox. Here are just seven reasons to do that.

1. Feed mashups.
   The fundamental purpose of Yahoo! Pipes appears to be the ability to take numerous RSS feeds from endless sources and mashup them up. This includes filtering (which doubles as search), sorting, and data transformation. Of course, since Pipes outputs results in RSS format, you can subscribe to the results of any Pipe. They have subscribe buttons for several feed readers, or you can copy the auto-generated RSS URL.

2. Data analysis.
   At the time of this writing, Pipes just released eight new modules, many of which allow transformation and/or analysis of input feed data. They’ll likely be adding more modules in the future, possibly until the point that Pipes’ operators rivals XSLT - a poorly supported, standard XML querying language. (RSS feeds are a form of XML - eXtensible Markup Language.)

3. Plug and play Web 2.0 components.
   Not only can you take the output of a Pipe and send it to a compatible Web 2.0 application, you can pull information into Pipes from numerous Web 2.0 services. There are both custom and generic modules to do this. Or you can simply take the output of a pipe and feed it to an HTML badging, to display a block of snippets on your website.

4. Visual interface.
   Pipe-building is done on an empty, visual canvas, with drag-and-drop blocks that you drag-and-connect up with “tubes”. Pipes is sort of the visual equivalent of XSLT, which requires learning a whole ‘nother language.

5. No need to be a programmer.
   Photographers that I know managed to learn Perl and PHP web programming. But with Pipes, there isn’t any regular programming. There is the visual equivalent of programming operations, but if you understand their functionality, you can learn to string the modules together to do what you need.

6. Complex applications.
   Multiple Pipes can be snapped together like blocks to build complex Web 2.0 mashups.

7. Resusable applications.
   Each Yahoo! Pipe has one of two modes that it can be in: published or unpublished (default). Once you publish a Pipe, someone else can use it, either just to run it, or they can clone it and tweak it to customize. You can also clone and tweak your own Pipes, even if they’re not published. Cloning saves a great deal of time for Pipes development.

Yahoo! Pipes is still in beta mode, so on occasion there’s quirky behavior, unresponsive servers, and changing modules. And yet, it is arguably one of the most powerful Web 2.0 services to date. It’s free, although you do need to be signed up for a Yahoo! Mail account.

Watch this blog for custom Pipes, as well as the occasional video screencast tutorial explaining how to to build a Pipe.

We’ve previously discussed general visual tweaks for your website. As well, there are there are several types of visual content that can be included in the body of your articles, to add visual texture or eye candy. Here are five visual types, along with options for simple and fancy variations.

1. Images.
   A single image can help break up the density of longer text article, adding visual texture that draws in the eye.
   • Simple: Images from Flickr, a stock agency, or your own camera.
   • Fancy:
     • Lightboxed images. Lightboxing is the use of Javascript and CSS code to overlay a larger, partially transparent image when a thumbnail is clicked.
     • Use a slideshow player such as SplashCast or Slideshare, with or without background music. Examples of Slideshare’s Slidecasting can be seen on David Armano’s Logic + Emotion blog.
2. Diagrams.
   When an image isn’t suitable, try a diagram.
   • Simple: A simple schematic drawn using Gliffy.
   • Fancy: Infographics are a step beyond diagrams, sometimes relaying some data characteristics. Information Aesthetics has many great examples.
3. Charts + graphs.
   Charts and graphs are an old mainstay, great for representing numeric information without using a table.
   • Simple: Pie charts, bar charts, trendlines.
   • Fancy: Check out Swivel’s embeddable graphs, or various Sparklines options. Sparklines were named by Edward Tufte and are a nice compact form of charts and graphs that can convey a great deal of related sets of data in a minimal area.
4. Video.
   Video can convey so much more than a single image can, and with all the video sharing sites available, you don’t always need to spend money producing original content.
   • Simple: A single video.
   • Fancy: A channel full of videos using SplashCast Media’s SplashCast player.
5. Maps.
   Maps are obviously ideal when your article has some sort of geographic focus.
   • Simple: A static image of a map suffices for a general “view” of a region.
   • Fancy: Need to draw attention to points of interest on a map? Maybe you want to embed rich media (audio, images, video) into a point of interest. There are far too many web-based mapping options to list them all, but two that are customizable are Google Maps (My Maps) and Platial.

In later posts, I’ll give detailed examples of each of these types of visual content.

One on the most important things that you need to know about your client base is that for a significant percent of him or her - this is luxurious hobby. That said; look at your boat finance logo. Does it reflect style? Does it reflect simplicity? Does it reflect responsibility? And most importantly do you even have a boat finance logo design? A logo design is one thing that can make your customer base without a lot of output on your part. Boat finance logos will pull your clients’ minds right back to your company when he finally makes that purchase that had been in the planning for a long period of time.

There are many barriers to overcome when financing a luxury item. Many of these obstacles come directly from the patron. Various misgivings range from mistrust to fear of the unknown. Having a logo design for your boat financing will show customers that you are a reputable company that is going to be around for a while. Companies that do not last in business are not very likely to spend the necessary time to incorporate a logo design into their advertising campaign or business plan.

Thus far we have been referring to the hobbyist with expendable income. What about those weekend boaters that have one lifetime opportunity at buying a new boat? How do you, as a boat financier, attract those consumers to your business? Once again, the logo design comes into play. These weekend sailors will have many of the same concerns, but more than that, these buyers will want a company that is local.

A business with a name and logo design that they can be remembered effortlessly. The financing should come easily. This customer should easily speak the logo design if not the name of you boat financing when asked who he wants to do business with.

Finally, think about those ‘good ole boys’ who buy used boats once every one – two years. How do you reach them with just a name? The answer is that you cannot do so. You must have an eye catching logo design to put out there for them to see your boat finance company. Having your boat finance logo design out there in the form of business cards, stationery and newspaper ads will plant your name in the minds of everyone.

When a consumer needs your boat finance company, although he may not have seen your logo design, someone he knows may have and will pass it along via word of mouth. This is an added plus of logo designs – they can be described with vivid details!

Whether you are trying to reach a hobbyist with expendable income or a one time buyer or a customer that purchases used every one – two years, having your boat finance advertised with logo design will enhance all revenue. The biggest advantage of a logo design is the ability to be around in the mind of people as long as people are around.

Linkbaiting - a term not everyone likes - is one facet of link building. There are several types of linkbait articles (lists, resources, tools, etc.), but all serve to improve your website.

With list-style linkbait, aka listbait, readers get some valuable (or fun) information and you might, if you bait well, induce some links back to your website. These links come from other bloggers who enjoyed your listbait. Here are seven elements of a good linkbait.

1. Scannable structure.
   Listbaits should be easy to scan. This makes information easy to absorb. They can be fun or informative or both, and are influenced by two main sources:
   1. Magazine list articles (25 Easy Barbeque Recipes, 12 Ways to Please Your Boss).
   2. David Letterman’s Top 10 lists.
2. Catchy title.
   A good title has to descriptive yet brief, and has to tell the potential reader the benefit. Instead of saying more, I’ll refer you to a master of titles/ headlines.

3. Brief intro.
   Lead into your list with a brief introductory paragraph that summarizes what the article offers. Visually speaking, the intro should take up less vertical space on the web page than the list.

4. Numbered bullets.
   Listbaits are lists, plain and simple. Make it convenient for your readers by numbering your list’s bullet items.

5. Subheading.
   Each bulllet should have a bolded word or phrase summarizing the bullet. The full effect is a list that is easy to scan and absorb.

6. Summary.
   Follow up your bullet list with a summary paragraph to wrap up the article. You can do any number of things with a summary:
   1. Remind the reader what the article was about.
   2. Point out anything missing.
   3. Offer references to additional reading.
7. References.
   Without hyperlinked references, all you have is a list. When possible, try to link to a relevant article for each bullet item in your list. Link to both your archived articles as well as articles at other websites and weblogs. Doing so serves multiple purposes:
   1. Tells the reader, even just subconsciously, that you took the time to find supporting articles for them to look over, should they wish to. If they’re bloggers, that might earn you a link back from them. On social media sites, good links in a listbait improve your chances of being voted up.
   2. Increases the chances that the authors of the articles you linked to will link back to you.
   3. Increases the chances that a search engine’s ranking algorithm will attribute a higher rank to your article because you have linked to relevant articles.

There is of course more to linkbaiting than just these seven elements, including using writing hooks, offering truly valuable information, promoting your articles and more. But you can start practicing with these seven elements.

Generally speaking, writing an article is more valuable to your readers on a long-term basis than writing a simple blog post. While some old-school web usability experts say that a business weblog is reduced in quality by having anything other than articles, many of us professional bloggers disagree. There is much value in topic summaries, as there are busy readers who enjoy the fact that you’ve “filtered” many discussions and provided the gist.

If you do summarize well and can add some sort of unique perspective or additional information - or tie together two or three discussions about a currently hot issue, you will have satisfied readers.

That said, even if you have produced an editorial calendar for the feature articles for your weblog, you still want to find timely references. Here’s a shortlist of resources I like to use to either generate blog post ideas or as reference sources for larger articles.

1. DailyHub.
   DailyHub has not officially launched at the time of this writing, and is still lacking many “social network” features. However, it is an article voting site similar to Digg, but focused on business topics. Note: because DailyHub is being upgraded, you may not be able to access it from time to time.
   
   
2. Del.icio.us.
   Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site where you can store URLs you enjoyed or want to explore further. You don’t so much vote as “save” a bookmark, and you can befriend other members and they you.
   
   
   
   
3. Digg.
   Digg is a great source of hot topics, though the old-guard members have a very specific interest - mostly Apple Computer products, gaming, and Linux. That doesn’t mean this social media does not have breadth. Just be prepared for heated arguments, on occasion, in the comments section of some threads.
   
   
4. Google News + Alerts.
   Google News draws content from a selection of websites and weblogs Google has picked out. If you look carefully at the left hand navigation menu, you can see a link for News Alerts, or RSS/Atom for the web feed URL. First search for the topics that you are interested in, using standard search term notation. Then choose your delivery (Alerts or feed). News Alerts are delivered by email, feeds are subscribed to in your favorite feed reader.
   
   
5. Megite.
   Megite is fantastic for showing current discussion threads. Using a select list of weblogs, much like Google News does for websites, Megite displays a story headline, as well as links to articles elsewhere that either link to the main story or are related topically. If you’re stuck for what to write, Megite can often help you break your block.
   
   
6. Reddit.
   No disrespect intended, but Reddit is like a simplified Digg. And that’s a good thing, especially if you don’t want to wade through all the categories in Digg. Or don’t feel like reading the venomous comments that sometimes appear there.
   
   
   
7. Sphinn.
   Sphinn is brand new, as of this writing, and is modelled on social media voting sites like Digg. The difference is that Sphinn was launched by an SEO/SEM (Search Engine Optimization/ Search Engine Marketing) firm, and keeps its topic set to that broad category, as well as some related topics. If you want to learn about online promotion and building a web presence - or have articles of that nature - this is the place to go.
   
   
8. Stumbleupon.
   Stumbleupon, recently purchased by eBay, is fairly unique in social media (to the best of my knowledge). Install a “stumble” button into your browser, and when you land on a page you really like and want to share, click the “I Like it!” button. Stumbleupon is said to also be a great way to drive traffic to your website. Check out this beginner’s guide [via Sphinn].
   
   
9. Techmeme.
   If there’s a significant difference between Megite and Techmeme, I haven’t spotted it. Techmeme is architected much the same in terms of main story link and related stories. On the off-chance that there’s a different story at Techmeme than Megite, it’s worth a look.
   
   
10. Yahoo! News.
    Yahoo! News is based on the same principle as Google News. The major difference is that Yahoo! doesn’t have an equivalent to Google Alerts by email. You can, however, subscribe to search results.
    
    

The list is by no means exhaustive and is only a starting point. Whether you use these sources for your blog posts or longer articles, remember to always give credit - in the form of a hyperlink - to an article that you quote or borrow heavily from.