Googleกs New SEO Rules

Googleกs New SEO Rules

by: John Metzler

Google has recently made some pretty significant changes in its ranking algorithm. The latest update, dubbed by Google forum users as กAllegraก, has left some web sites in the dust and catapulted others to top positions. Major updates like this can happen a few times a year at Google, which is why picking the right search engine optimization company can be the difference between online success and failure. However, it becomes an increasingly difficult decision when SEO firms themselves are suffering from the Allegra update.

Overoptimization may have played the biggest part in the dropping of seoguy.com from the top 50 Google results. Filtering out web sites that have had readability sacrificed for optimization is a growing trend at Google. It started with the Sandbox Effect in late 2004, where relatively new sites were not being seen at all in the Google results even with good keyword placement in content and incoming links. Many thought it was a deliberate effort by Google to penalize sites that had SEO work done. Itกs a few months later and we see many of the กsandboxedก web sites finally appearing well for their targeted keywords.

With 44 occurrences of กSEOก on the relatively short home page of seoguy.com, and many of them in close proximity to each other, the content reads like a page designed for search engine robots, not the visitor. This ranking shift should come as no surprise to SEO professionals as people have been saying it for years now: Sites should be designed for visitors, not search engine robots. Alas, some of us don’t listen and this is what happens when search engines finally make their move.

One aspect of search engine optimization that is also affected in a roundabout way is link popularity development. After observing the effects of strictly relevant link exchanges on many of our clientกs sites recently, weกve noticed incredibly fast #1 rankings on Google. It seems Google may be looking out for links pages designed for the sole purpose of raising link popularity and devalues the relevance of the site. After all, if a links page on a real estate site has 100 outgoing links to pharmacy sites, there has to be a lot of content on that page completely unrelated to real estate. Not until now has that been so detrimental to a siteกs overall relevance to search terms. It goes back to the old rule of thumb: Make your visitors the top priority. Create a resources page that actually contains useful links for your site users. If you need to do reciprocal linking then keep it relevant and work those sites in with other good resources.

Keeping up with the online search world can be overwhelming for the average small business owner or corporate marketing department. Constant Google changes, MSN coming on the scene in a big way, and all the hype around the new Become.com shopping search function can make heads spin. But just keep things simple and follow the main rules that have been around for years. Google, as well as other search engines, won’t ever be able to ignore informative, well written content along with good quality votes from other web sites.

About The Author

John Metzler is the cocreator of Abalone Designs, Inc. www.abalone.ca, a Search Engine Optimization company in Vancouver, Canada. He has been involved in web design and web marketing since 1999 and has helped turn Abalone Designs into one of the top SEO companies in the world.

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 28

by John Metzler

HowTo Refill Your Ink Cartridge

HowTo Refill Your Ink Cartridge

by: Marisa Pellegrino

Forget about emptying your wallets every time you see the blinking light. Quit worrying and start doing it yourself! It’s an easy process that won’t take you more than five minutes.
The following is included in a typical ink refill kit: ink bottles, syringes and detailed instructions. Some kits include an air balance clip for balancing the air inside the cartridge to ensure proper ink flow. Some kits also include handdrill tool to make a hole in the top of your empty cartridge.
Refilling Process
1. To start the refilling process, fill the syringe with one of the ink colors over the sink or several sheets of scrap paper to prevent any mess. Different printers hold different amounts of ink. In most Epson printers, the black cartridge holds approximately 17 ml and the color cartridges hold approximately 8 ml. See the instructions with your refill kit to see how much ink your cartridges can hold.
2. Before inserting the needle, make a small hole in the top of the cartridge (one for each color chamber). The hole is at the top of the cartridge near the label. Simply push the needle through the hole and press to the bottom of the cartridge towards the outlet hole. It’s important to fill the cartridge slowly so as to avoid the ink from foaming and introducing air in the chamber.
3. You do not need to seal the refill holes since there are already breather holes on the top of the cartridge.
4. Any unused ink can be put back in the bottle. You should clean the syringe with water and dry it properly to do the same process for the other cartridges or for future use. You can also label each syringe for the different colors so that each syringe is only used with one color.
5. Once you place the cartridge back in the printer, run the cleaning cycle 1 to 3 times. If there are any gaps in the printing, run the cleaning cycle again.
Don’t Forget
There are a few things to remember when refilling your cartridge. It should be refilled before the cartridge is completely empty to avoid the chamber from drying out and clogging. Also, it is a good idea to let the printer cartridge sit for a few hours (or overnight) so that the pressure in the cartridge will stabilize.
Some printers, like newer Epson models, have a green chip on their ink cartridges which is visible by looking at your cartridge. They are often referred to as ขIntellidgeข cartridges. The chip keeps track of how often the cartridge is used and lets the computer know when the cartridge may be low or empty. As long as you reset the chip, refilling the cartridge with ink from a refill kit will not be a problem. A resetting tool can be used to reset the memory on the chip. This allows the printer to recognize the cartridge as being full which makes printing with a refilled cartridge possible.
Refilling your own ink cartridge is easy, good for the environment, and very good for your pocket.
Marisa Pellegrino

About The Author

A recent grad from Concordia University’s English Department, Marisa uses her computer technology skills along side her writing skills to be the webmaster for www.printpot.com. Sharing her interest and expertise about ink jet refill kits has helped convince many of the advantages of refilling rather than discarding empty cartridges. Marissa can be reached at [email protected].

This article was posted on June 22, 2004

by Marisa Pellegrino

The Team Process

The Team Process

by: Ray Cooney

We live in very progressive times, one only has to look around at the changes on the internet each day to see that this is true.

We see changes also happening within the world around us as well, sometimes for the better sometimes not. We sometimes can feel frustrated in that it appears that we can do nothing to make the changes that we would like to see.

It is only through banding together that we can make our influence felt, when you look back over the history of mankind it would appear that all the significant changes came about by team effort.

>From the first groups that gathered together in caves for mutual protection against the forces of nature and the dangers of the wild, to today with groups working together to help our journeys towards the stars.

While most of us may never be going on journeys to stars, nor have to fend off the forces of nature, there are exceptions to every rule, we can find ourselves in a situation where being independent doesn’t help.

It is in these times of need that we find that being part of a team and cooperating as a team with a single purpose creates a greater good.

So when we go looking for an online business that we can participate in, we need to look at the existing teams within that business. How well do they interact? How well do they assist newcomers?

Unless these factors are thoroughly researched one can find yourself struggling not only to work out what you should do to work this business, but can actually find that others may be negatively impacting the way we work.

Now I know that it is easy to say find a group to work with, however not all personalities can work well together and so you not only need a good program, you need people that you are comfortable to work with and that you get along with.

This all takes time which is a significant reason why nearly every GETRICHQUICK scheme fails, this type of program is an individual domain not a team effort. It is only in the team oriented system that true value is placed on individuals and their worth to the team as an integral part of a well oiled machine.

Our planet requires this team effort as well, it is no good trying to do things by yourself. You need like minded individuals to create significant change. Although a single spokesperson may be associated with an event it is the team that is behind that person that achieved any of the successes.

I am not taking away from the individual, some are born entrepreneurs and if you can find one who is willing to mentor you then by all means latch onto their coat tails, I am sure that journey will be worthwhile.

However if you were to remove the team behind the one I can say without any fear that the results would be thousands of times less then with them.

So being part of a team is really a prerequisite for a successful business on the internet, but how do you find that team? How will you start? What do you need to do?

The first step is to work out if there is an existing program that already has a team in place and whether this group meets your expectations of what you want to do.

If not move on find one that does, now I am not suggesting that you jump from one idea to another not at all, do your homework on the program prior to joining, talk with those already involved, find out what makes them and this particular program tick.

Once you are satisfied make a commitment to stay with this program for a sufficient amount of time to give it a fair go, we are not talking weeks or months here but a long term commitment of at least 12 to 36 months.

This is the only way that you will establish your own niche in any program.

The next step and I am sure that you have heard this many times before, start to build your own list of people to share with, people that can like yourself become part of your team.

There are many ways that you can go about building your lists, and being a newbie myself I am still learning, however one very good method that I have found is by having my own newsletter. http://oneperfectday.net/newsletter.htm

You can build a list using this method within a few months from 10 or 12 to over 400. In time you can build this list into the 1000กs that you see others creating.

One thing I will mention here if you do go this path, you must have something of value to offer your subscribers, so that they will keep coming back to hear what you have to say in your newsletter/ezine.

Other methods of creating optin lists are in creating reports or eCourses and offering these free to anyone that wants them, of course you need to make sure that they have a perceived value or else you will not have any one join.

You could also create capture pages and offer a something of value for your subscribers name and email address, this works well but I have found that the other methods are superior in my own experience.

Another way is to do this what I am doing now write an article about something that you know about and submit it along with your resource box, the part in your message that contains the details of your own business.

eZine and Newsletter editors are constantly looking for new articles that are of value to their subscribers and could supplement what they are doing on the internet, it is this cross sharing that can also help build your optin list.

Especially if what you have written is helpful to others, one thing that sticks in my mind is a saying กYou can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.กZig Ziglar

This is so true, in fact you can virtually guarantee that if you help sufficient people along the way you too will grow in your business acumen.

So go out there and find your Team to work with, begin creating your list and create and share your wealth, whether that is in the form of money or knowledge.

About The Author

Ray Cooney has been involved in online marketing for over five years now. He has worked in many areas of the IT arena and is currently part of the administration for the Permaworld Foundation.

http://permaworld.org/members/join/

He also publishes his own newsletter to assist people in their online marketing efforts.

http://oneperfectday.net/ezine

He is also a supporter of the Feeding Kids Organisation through the promotion of the PermaSHARE Program.

http://permaworld.org/members/helpingkids/

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 20, 2004

by Ray Cooney

Offline Promotion For Tourism Business

Offline Promotion For Tourism Business

by: Davdi Kan

This artilces has 6 part. Click here if you want to read all: http://www.tourisminternetmarketing.com/offline_promotion/tourism_offline_promotion_davidkan1.htm

Part 1

No business can survive the long run without some form of consistent advertising. As advertising result, most business owners will eventually consider using advertising to promote their business.

Online parties are hot right now. The internet is hot, getting hotter, and the same person that may no pick up the phone to call you for your services, can’t wait to check out your website and see what you are offering before they check in.

Although we focus on internet marketing for our tourism business, but remember that no matter how many prospects are online, they still spend the majority of their time offline, so how you can attract that target market where they spend most of their time… offline? Therefore, a part of your online marketing strategy is…offline marketing, in order to find that offline traffic and getting them to our website.

In fact, on many occasions, advertising website marketing budget can be spent just as effectively using offline method as it can be using online methods. Offline marketing method provides a cost effective way to gain new customers, and website branding seems to be much more successful using offline method such as TV and Radio.

OK you’ve ready to do some offline promotion for your website. What’s next?

Think about the ขwhyข. Why do you want to promote offline? Do you want to make sale? Or do you want people to visit you site? Personally, I think getting people to your site is going to be the most realistic objective of most offline promoters.

Think creatively. You’ve known why you are doing it. Now how can you get your URL out to the offline masses in a creative way? Before read the next part of this article, try to build your own list!

Think cheaply. Look for low cost or no cost ways to promote your website offline. They are out there.

Online and offline must be integrated for maximum effect.

Online + Offline = Complete Traffic Building Effort!

Now, we will go across all the helpful techniques which is being used successfully by different tourism – related business in their website offline promotion strategy.

How to choose a Domain Name for offline promotion

Your URL is maybe is most important one demands to promote. The basic rule behind any offline promotion campaign for your website is, of course to get your website visited more often and if your sale message is good enough to get more sales from these extra visitors. This can only be done by getting the address of your site ขout thereข and visible to lots and lots of people. It’s for the reason that your URL is very important, it’s your core ingredient in the offline world, and the amount of exposure it receives will make or break your offline campaign.

Alan is the lead developer for InfoServe Media, LLC (www.infoservemedia.com), a Web development company that specializes in Web site design, hosting, domain name registration, and promotion for small businesses.

ขTo begin with, there are two main classes of domain names, gTLDs (general Top Level Domains) and ccTLDs (country code Top Level Domains).

The seven original gTLDs are .com, .net, .org, .mil, .edu, .gov, and .int. As of the writing of this article, seven new gTLDs are in the process of being launched by ICANN, the governing body of TLDs. They are .aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum, .name, and .pro.

The gTLDs were developed to represent specific types of entities, such as commercial organizations (.com), educational institutions (.edu), or cooperatives (.coop).

The ccTLDs were developed to represent entities from specific regions, such as the United States (.us), France (.fr), or Japan (.jp).

In most cases, if you find the right registrar, you can register a domain name with any extension, no matter why you need the name or where you are based.

Does this mean you should though? Unless you need to protect your intellectual property rights in a name, probably not. The best choice by far is a good solid กdot comก.

Why? Because people are familiar with it, and itกs what people associate most with Internet addresses. This is very important in offline advertising, because if a potential customer sees your Web address, he or she will likely have to remember that address when itกs time to pull up the old Web browser to visit the site.

So generally speaking, a domain name ending in .com is most desirable for offline advertising.

Several other important issues to consider are the domain name length, use of hyphens in the domain name, and the nameกs overall ‘readabilityก.

The domain name length can have a direct impact on how effective that name is at driving traffic to a site. As you can probably imagine, the fewer the characters in a domain name, the better.

The use of hyphens in a domain name can have a negative impact on a nameกs effectiveness, so they should be avoided if offline advertising is planned. A nameกs readability should also be taken into consideration when planning offline promotions.

Do the words run together confusingly?

Are the letters positioned in such a way that the name might be misread? If so, capitalization can be used in print to eliminate some of the confusion.

So what if youกve already registered a name and you find another name that you think would work better for offline advertising? Thatกs simple. Register the new name, and get your host to set up an กaliasก that will direct any traffic the new address receives to your existing Web siteข.

One thing we must consider is: our website should have a banner (a standard 468×60 or larger banner works best) at the top of every page with your website address clearly visible on it.

The reason behind it is that many prospect prefer to print out larger web pages with your tour itinerary, services list, helpful guidelines and soon…and read them later and then keep them for reference rather than read them online as they’re surfing.

They will do the same thing with other website of your competitors, so they often have a list op printed pares to do the comparison. Without your URL on your banner people may reread your content but seldom revisit your website due to them simply forgetting the website address and you may have lost a customer.

You can see my www.tourisminternetmarketing.com banner as a good example.

Read the second part.

http://www.tourisminternetmarketing.com/offline_promotion/tourism_offline_promotion_davidkan1.htm

About The Author

David Kan is the CEO of TIM.com. He and his staff has spent long time to assist the development of tourism industry in the internet global market. He highly welcomes the contribution from all tourism partners to create a useful tourism community at the website www.tourisminternetmarketing.com. Quickly join in the website to enhance your internet sale as well as help other partners.

TIM.com is the largest global Free tourism internet marketing resources with 57 & more online tools and forum to help tourism industry enhance their internet marketing result.

Want to enhance your internet marketing strategy. Download FREE ebook of: ‘tourism internet marketing: Hidden Techniques Revealedก

http://www.tourisminternetmarketing.com/ebook/tourism_internet_marketing_ebook_download.htm

All articles of David Kan published can be reprinted or posted on other website as well as the author กs biography keep intact.

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 11

by Davdi Kan

Seven กMust Followก Rules While Participating In M

Seven กMust Followก Rules While Participating In Message Boards

by: Radhika Venkata

Participating in message boards (forums) discussions is a great way of self promotion. It costs you nothing. Not even a penny. All you have to do is allot sometime for this type of promotion.

Before you getting started you need to know some must follow principles. You want your time to be profitable for you. Right? So what ever time you are gonna spend should bring you some profits.

What are those principles?

***1. Target your promotion:***

If you are search engine optimization expert, then you will be benefited by search engine forums. People coming to those forums need help in their web site optimization. If you are willing to share your knowledge with those people, you will gain their confidence and needless to say few customers too.

***2. Always follow the forum rules:***

In some forums or some areas of forums self promotion is not allowed. At the same time, some subforums are alloted to post your product advertisement. So read carefully before posting your product details anywhere on the forum.

***3. Use signature files:***

Almost all the forums allow signature files. These may be less than 4 lines or less than some 250 characters. This varies from forum to forum. So be concise with your wording.

Most IMPORATNT advice is always offer something free in your signature file. Free report on how to increase sales, free email course on how to design a web site that pulls orders or any topic that focuses on your web site theme. This always beats keeping your product price in your signature file. You can built your optin list too.

In signature files DON’t hide URL with กClick hereก as link text. Let people accustom to your web site name or your product name. If you just use as กClick hereก instead of กSEO tips and tricksก, it looks dull and less interesting.

***4. Change the heading while answering a question:***

If somebody ask a question like กWhat are web site promotion methods?ก.

In reply you can change the heading to what ever you want instead of ‘re:What are web site promotion methods?ก

You can keep an interesting heading to make your post prominent from others. Like กFOUR best methods to start with…ก or กAdvertising with out spending a penny.ก etc. These type of headings certainly attracts peopleกs eyes.

***5. Give respect to others opinions:***

Don’t say harsh words even though you know what other person saying is wrong. Be polite. What you want to say tell it clearly and concisely.

If you don’t know a topic still you want to comment on that, add กin my opinion…, as far i know…ก etc. Point out to resources if you know any.

***6. Follow up the thread:***

If you start participating in a thread, then check the box that says กEmail Notificationก. When ever somebody replies your question, email will be sent to you. So you can post a reply or follow others answers and opinions.

What is the use of this? =You may end up with learning something from that discussion =It could be a topic for your next ezine article or ebook or a report =You can get to know of people of that thread

***7. Every day allot some time:***

Save the forum URLs in your favorites folder. Everyday try to visit them regularly. By this you can know the what is going on around you. You may know good resources and free information links that are useful to you. If you come across any information that is useful to you save them on your computer.

About The Author

Radhika Venkata Subscribe to กEbookBiz Magazineก which is completely focused on ebook business and Internet Marketing. Receive FREE Ebooks with Resale rights every month!

http://www.ebooksworld.com/freetosell.shtml

Webmaster Resources: List Your product, ezine or web site free! http://www.webmasterscentral.com/

This article was posted on November 14, 2003

by Radhika Venkata

Are You Busy Living or Dying?

Are You Busy Living or Dying?

by: Esther Smith

If you are not busy living, then you must be busy dying. Most of us do this subconsciously and are unaware of which side of this equation we reside on. It must follow then that if you have lots of money, you are probably busy living and living well. Everybody wants more money. But is it the money itself or is it the freedom it buys? Lots of money = lots of freedom.

On the opposite side are the people busy dying. It must follow then that their income falls short of the mark. They cannot meet their obligations, their debts are growing, and there is more month at the end of their money. Yet fuel prices, housing costs, taxes, even groceries keep rising. How do you budget an inadequate income? So they add on a parttime job to make up the deficit. Lack of money = lack of freedom.

In one month alone, nearly 400,000 people went to Search Engines for ขself helpข.

1,324,817 for help with depression

910,029 for help coping with divorce

355,077 for help with anxiety

276,647 for help with an addiction

131,850 for help with anger management

73,183 for help with panic attacks

So, how do we correct this? More money is the only solution and there are many ways to do this. For most, it is not how much they earn but how much they are able to keep. This is the single most important difference between becoming wealthy and staying poor. Spending more than we earn leads to certain financial disaster, yet most people do just that.

The poorest people would never think to buy knowledge or invest in their greatest asset – their brain. Certainly the easiest way to gather financial knowledge is through educational publications on the subject. Yet the ones who desperately need this knowledge almost never read it. They think poor and so do nothing to change it.

All too often we entertain the thought that there may be a shortcut to wealth. We dream about winning a lottery, or investing in a popular trade, or jumping into an Internet wonderbusiness that promises you a license to print money – (been there, done that).

I’m sure by now you think I’m going to come up with the perfect solution to this problem and I wish that were even possible. But I’ll offer my two cents for what it’s worth. Let’s start a new generation with one parent staying home with the kids. Like the old days we seniors like to say. And it doesn’t always have to be the athomemom; plenty of dads can fill this need and do a superb job; I happen to know a couple of them first hand.

We live in a new millennium where dotcom millionaires are made every day. So I will make earning a living online my solution, because it is the only way a parent can stay at home without fracturing the family budget. And I’m not talking about paid surveys, stuffing envelopes, secretshopper, or (godforbid) telemarketing! Usually this is too little, too late.

To realistically run a business from your home, you must set aside some funds for startup costs. Free is swell, but in the end it will not pay the bills. Compared to a brick and mortar business $1000$2000 is not unreasonable. Currently, a McDonald franchise goes for 3.5 million! And what good are profits if you are imprisoned by your business. There is no freedom in the food business (been there done that too).

You will need some tools to run your business proficiently. Don’t start out with a handicap like some onearmed paperhanger. You will need everything going for you if you are to succeed. Properly equipped, you will appear to be a serious business person but more importantly, you will feel like one.

Start with a domain name, a hosting company and unlimited phone service. A lot of your time will be in conference and followup calls. You will need a tollfree number if you want prospects to contact you – most will pass on a long distance call. You should automate your business as much as possible because you will be splitting your time between home and office duties. A Lead service and Autoresponder would be beneficial. A secluded place for your new business would be ideal and should be labeled ขofflimitsข during your scheduled worktime.

Working at home can be challenging if you don’t have discipline. You have to resist morning TV shows and learn to say ‘no’ until friends and relatives realize that you do have a job with a schedule to keep. A structured day is almost mandatory, especially with small children. It does get easier when they are in school. Your day can match school hours and the many campoptions can eat up the summer months. And oh yes, you will be able to afford it by then.

So the next step is to search for the perfect homebusiness. Personally, I like independent sales so I don’t have to share my profits with several upliners. I also like residual income to be the larger part of my earnings. What is residual income? It’s when income continues to flow automatically as a result of your efforts months ago. It takes no further effort on your part and rewards you generously.

Put high priority on a company’s product. If you’ve never claimed to be a 5star sales person, you will need a superior product at an irresistible price. But once you discover what works you will stop doing what doesn’t, and never look back.

© 2005 Esther Smith

Reprint Permission Granted

About The Author

Esther Smith publishes a syndicated Newsletter every Sunday: [email protected]?subject=subscribe. More articles by Smith here: www.thepermanentventure.com/articles.htm

She is a proud member of the Profit Masters Team – www.execlivestyle.com the power and simplicity of this business earns $3k $5k weekly in a very short time. Creating wealth is fun if there is no struggle attached to it, and this team shows you how.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 16

by Esther Smith

Common Website Mistakes

Common Website Mistakes

by: Tony Valle

Is your website ailing?

It used to be that simply having a website meant that your organization was ahead of the curve. Those days are long gone. Today more that ever, organizations need to fuel business and their bottom lines through savvy internet tactics.

What separates the savvy from the just getting by? If any of these symptoms are true of your organization or your website, you may need to rethink your strategy, or better put, start using a strategy in the first place.

Symptoms:

You cannot quantify your website’s traffic statistics even in general terms. This should be as common knowledge as your last year’s revenues or your mission statement. How can you make smart decisions about internet marketing dollars if you don’t know how much traffic you are getting?

Your website has not changed in any way in 6 months. If this is the case, it probably indicates that your site is not an active part of your marketing plan. Be careful not to neglect your site to the point that potential customers will be turned off by a lack of attention to detail.

Your site is not generating leads of any kind. Does your site provide an easy way for customers to contact you? Can they submit questions online? Are you in the habit of asking walkins ขhow did you hear about us?ข

Your site is rarely, if ever, mentioned in meetings and planning sessions. This one is pretty selfexplanatory. Is your site the big white elephant in the living room that nobody talks about?

If your organization displays any of the above symptoms, don’t despair. But do commit to doing something about it. Many times the best way to begin is to find sites that you do like and incorporate the best qualities of those sites into your own. Now get surfing!

About The Author

Tony Valle is owner of Promethius Consulting, LLC a web design and marketing firm since 1998. Learn more at http://www.promethiusconsulting.com

This article was posted on January 19

by Tony Valle

How to Work with Light and Dark Edges in Photoshop

How to Work with Light and Dark Edges in Photoshop

by: Lala C. Ballatan

Want your images to have effects that’ll make it stand out more and show up well on every background tones? With Photoshop, you could achieve these effects for your images by its features that work on light and dark edges. These allow you to work on bringing out the best edges of your image – lighten or darken it, anyway you please to match on background tones and make it stand out more.

Through highlighting edges of your photo, you also highlight its details. The method of unsharp mask and others like the difference of Gaussians increase the change in brightness close to each step. This technique’s standard version adds a bright halo along the bright edge of the step and a dark halo along the dark edge. Depending on what effect you’d like for your image, there are advantages in just using one or the other. Using both may not do very much to improve your image, though.

There are several advantages of using any of the effects for the edges on real images. One is that it reduces interference between steps or detail and the haloes from other, nearby steps. Another thing, the light or dark haloes make other features of the image stand out better from the background.

Start doing this effect on your images using Photoshop by following several procedures:

1st step is duplicate the layer holding the image

2nd step apply the conventional unsharp mask

3rd step set the layer blending mode to ขDarkenข or ขLightenข.

However, you must understand that this only works for 8 bit per channel images – those that can be put into layers but it could function also on 16 bit per channel pictures with Optipix plugin that allows direct selection of dark or light edges.

If you are not sure about which edge halo to use, there are general rules regarding such:

1. On light background tones, light edges don’t show up well and vice versa on dark ones.

2. The halo should lie on the background, not on the foreground. This technique helps the feature stand out without having to change its brightness values.

Sometimes the following rules are in conflict. It is necessary, then, to try several combinations to decide which is best. You can try both edges, light edges only, dark edges only. You can experiment since different regions of your image may call for different answers.

As you experiment for the best results, you’ll come to know that using unsharp mask filter may drive you to add too much additional local contrast. Understand that though adding some local contrast can make a bland image turn into a good one, adding too much creates a disaster. Take care not to add too much and make the image appear more like caricatures than photos. Remember that what looks best on the computer screen may not be the same in print since the process somewhat compresses contrast and blurs detail.

About The Author

Lala C. Ballatan is a 26 yearold Communication Arts graduate, with a major in Journalism. Right after graduating last 1999, she worked for one year as a clerk then became a Research, Publication and Documentation Program Director at a nongovernment organization, which focuses on the rights, interests and welfare of workers for about four years.

Book reading has always been her greatest passion mysteries, horrors, psychothrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

Her writing prowess began as early as she was 10 years old in girlish diaries. With writing, she felt freedom – to express her viewpoints and assert it, to bring out all concerns imagined and observed, to bear witness.

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This article was posted on March 11

by Lala C. Ballatan