Linux System Administration Training - What is Linux? Introduction to Software Programs & Desktops

Linux is an operating system (OS), like Windows.

Think of there being two general types of software: operating system and "other".
The "other" software consists of several types, including: applications (like word processors, spreadsheets and email programs), utilities and servers.
And all of this runs "on top of" an operating system, such as Windows or Linux.
Linux Commands Training Tips: The Linux OS System Administration concepts, programs and tasks covered here apply to ALL other Linux distributions, including: Red Hat, Fedora, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Slackware, Debian, SUSE and openSUSE.

Windows and Linux Operating System (OS) Functionality

When you boot a computer with an OS, it allows you to do tasks like:

run application software programs, like a word processor, spreadsheet or email program
save data files to your hard disk, like a letter, memo or report
retrieve files so you can edit them
send your work off to print

Windows and Linux Software Programs

 In Windows, you can run lots of different application software programs. There are custom programs and off-the-shelf (common) programs. These allow you to do everything from running your bowling league to typing up a letter.
The same is true for Linux. There are thousands of custom and common Linux software programs.

Linux Training Tips: You can download several Linux distributions (versions), including thousands of software programs and get them free! Then you can run the OS to get training and as part of your training, you can watch training videos - to learn how to use Linux the easy way!

The Windows Office Suite and the Linux OpenOffice Suite

 Windows has a very popular and common collection of programs named the Office Suite. This suite consists of several programs, such as a word processing program called Word, a spreadsheet named Excel and a presentation program named PowerPoint.
Linux also has a popular and common suite of programs called OpenOffice. The word processor is named Write, the spreadsheet is named Calc and the presentation program is named Impress.

Linux Training Tips: You can download the free Linux OpenOffice suite of programs and run these programs in Windows!

Using Windows and Linux Desktop Systems

 On a Windows computer system, you boot to a desktop. From there, you use menus to select and run software programs and there are icons you can double-click on to run programs.
The same is true of Linux. You can also boot to a Linux desktop and use menus and icons to run Linux software programs.

Linux Training Tips: There are several Linux desktops to choose from, such as the GNOME and KDE desktops. Each one has the same functionality (menus, icons and organization), but has a different "look and feel".

Linux training videos, podcasts (mp3 files) and ebooks are an excellent way to continue to learn. Just use these materials to learn a popular Linux concept or command being described - and then do the steps you've just seen - to work with Linux yourself!

And now I would like to offer you free access to my Linux Commands Training Mini-Course, a 7 Lesson, Daily Mini-Course, including the free Linux Commands ebook and Linux audio podcasts - showing you how to get started learning how to use Linux commands.

You can get your instant access at: http://www.LinuxCommandsTrainingCourse.com
From Clyde Boom - The Easy Linux Training Guy - Easy, self-paced Linux training - In Plain English!

By Clyde E. Boom

Search Engine Optimization And Positioning - I Know How To Make Your Competitors Fear You

It has always been the thought that surfing the web is as easy as emailing someone, online chatting, etc. Very few have wondered how all these stuffs came about. Even so, the search engines are one of the coolest, most interesting and important tool online business owners should learn about. This is simply because search engine optimization and positioning are the key to driving massive amount of free traffic to the online business's website.

Why Are Search Engine Optimization And Positioning So Important?

Search engine marketing tools are meant to assist business owners to position their websites in such a way that it will get ranked amongst the top results of major search engines when terms relating their website's niche are sought after or typed into the search bar.

Let's say your website sells security equipments. Your website is very well optimized. It has a high position in the list of websites that appears on the search results when your target customers type in the keywords, 'consequence for safety equipments'. Being listed on the first pages of the search results, this has the impact of attracting more site visitors to your website, thus enabling you to make more sales!

The Old Days Of SEO

Earlier on, when search optimization and positioning was not yet popular, online business owners did not know the make-money-online potential SEO had to offer. Thus, they did not make good use of it.When the search engine's awesome potential was finally realised, no one knew exactly how they can get high ranks to drive in massive traffic.

Win Over Your Competition And Dominate Your Niche With SEO

Nevertheless, internet marketers later realised and discovered that the BIG secret to getting a high rank and to be enlisted on major search engines was that they had to insert and sprinkle targeted key phrases and related keywords in their niches.

Although this is true, it is unfortunate that in an extremely competitive situations, other online business owners (your competitors) who know how the search engine works can easily benefit and win over the rankings, thus conquer that certain niche.

To maximize your search engine optimization and positioning opportunities, consider the combination of website designing and SEO optimization. This is undoubtedly a very strong tactic to win over your competitions. SEO takes time and cautious planning because you have to select the correct key phrases to sue and integrate them into your site. This key phrase must also contain phrases which are often times be used or searched for on the web.

Successful SEO campaigns require a lot of planning, time and effort. Exchanging website links with other sites, the development of unique and useful contents, and attention-grabbing headlines are great methods to interact and create awareness of the existence of your website to targeted customers.

Don't simply sit around and hope to pay someone to help you optimize your site if you already know what must be carried out from the above SEO methods mentioned.

"Who Else Wants to Learn The Secrets to Make $1000s of Dollars Per Day to Quit Your Day Job?"

Discover the proven secrets to Search Engine Optimization and Positioning starting today.

Get hold of your FREE video case-study on how to generate long lasting wealth on autopilot through the internet that will enable you to quit your job within the next 30 days: http://www.AffiliateMaxima.com

By Elle Wong

How to Get Top Search Engine Optimization and Placement Results With Google Caffeine

Since its debut in 1996, Google has experienced countless updates and revisions. But none of those revisions have fundamentally changed the architecture of the Google search algorithm as much as Google's latest update, codenamed Caffeine.

While recent reports put Google's market share at around 65 percent, a massive update to its search technology makes sense at this point. Microsoft's new Bing search service showed some resiliency in late 2009, while Web 2.0 services like Facebook and Twitter have done a lot to change the way people search for content on the Internet.

For Google to remain the most popular search service, it will have to counter Bing's claims of technical superiority. It would also have to more effectively incorporate "real-time search," the term used for finding information and content-like tweets from Twitter and breaking news stories-that have just been posted.

That means a radically different Google search engine. And it also means that those who care about Website search engine optimization and placement may have a lot of new rules to learn if they want to earn high Website rankings on Google. Because Caffeine is a significant departure from previous versions of Google's search engines, Website owners and marketers could see dramatically different results for their search engine optimization and placement efforts.

But the good news is that Google has offered Webmasters and online marketers a taste of Caffeine's unique algorithms. SEO and placement specialists have been able to test their Websites against an early version of Caffeine. And while it's a nice gesture by Google to offer the chance for Webmasters and marketers to do some preliminary research, it would be wrong to draw any hard and fast conclusions at this point. It's more than likely that Google will continue to tweak and refine Caffeine and its search engine optimization and placement for months after its official release.

So are there any search engine optimization and placement tips and tricks that we can learn from Caffeine? Yes. Google has hinted that several new things will have a major impact on search engine optimization and placement.

Here are the most important changes:

1. Website speed: Google will now place more importance on how quickly a Website loads. That means Websites that load fast will be given prominence in search engine optimization and placement over Websites that are slow and clunky.

2. Broken links: Links that go nowhere aren't just annoying, they'll soon count as a strike against a Website's SEO and placement efforts. It's already an accepted rule that any good website shouldn't have broken links. Now it's even more important for Website owners make sure that every link goes somewhere relevant.

3. Penalties for linking to bad neighborhoods: Currently, linking to spammers and obtaining incoming links from known spammers is not a good way to achieve the best search optimization and placement results. Look for Caffeine to place even more importance on staying away from link farms and other malicious online practices.

4. Overall website quality: Some canny Website owners have gotten good search engine optimization and placement results by ranking high in a single factor that Google assesses, while ignoring other aspects. Under Caffeine, the overall quality will be under closer inspection. Having just one or two key SEO and placement ranking factors won't be enough.

So what will you have to change it you want to achieve great optimization and placement results under Caffeine? If you already have a Website that subscribes to Google and SEO best practices, then there probably isn't a lot you'll have to tweak.

Here are some steps you can take to make sure that you're Website is primed to get good results under Caffeine:

1. Eliminate all spam elements from your Website: Any part of your Website that could conceivably be considered spam will likely have a negative effect on your SEO and placement efforts. Spam elements include Website text that's the same color as the background, Website cloaking, and automated linking.

2. Reevaluate your Website design and structure: Make sure your Website looks great and is user-friendly. Users should be able to easily navigate through the Website and search engines should be able to understand and categorize a Web page just by reading its title and meta tags.

3. Get links from social bookmark and other social media sites: Links from social bookmark sites like Digg and Delicious are already important to gaining good search results and placement. The importance of links from these types of sites is likely to increase under Caffeine.

4. Check your Website links: Make sure that you aren't linking to any Websites that could potentially be labeled as spammers. Having a selection of quality links is far better than gathering as many links as possible.

By following the above tips and tricks, your Website should have no problem adjusting to Google's new search engine. And you'll have a crucial advantage when it comes to getting great SEO and placement results.

Wendy Suto is president and CEO of Search Circus, Inc., an ethical SEO firm specializing in top search engine optimization. The company also offers blog marketing, Website copywriting and article submission solutions. As a certified search engine optimization consultant, she teaches SEO seminars throughout Cleveland, Ohio.
wendy@searchcircus.com

By Wendy Suto

The Search Engine Optimization Advantage

With billions of web pages in existence but only 10 spots on each of Google's search results page for a given keyword search term, it can be tough to get your website found on the Internet.

Of course, if you have created a website for the benefit of yourself and a few friends or colleagues, you really don't care whether your site is ranking well on top search engine sites like Google, Yahoo!, Bing, or MSN. That's because, if people already know your web address, they can easily get to your site. No problem.

However, if you are like most website owners, you do care about how your website ranks on top search sites. You care very much, in fact.

That's because, as mentioned above, the competition is fierce. For any given keyword search term, there are usually at least 10,000 other web pages that feature that term. More commonly, there are 1,000,000 or more competing web pages for the same term. And, studies show that most information searchers do not look past the first page or two of search results, which means the top 10-20 positions. In essence, the difference between a #40 ranking and a #5 ranking could translate to a 100-fold difference in site visits for that keyword term.

The question, then, is just how do you go about getting your site to rank well on search results pages? If you want to rank well for search terms that are desirable to other website owners, you need to learn search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.

SEO is the art and science of getting your site to rank better than other sites for a given set of keyword search terms. In actuality, search engine optimization is more science than art: there are a number of nearly-universal, identifiable actions you can take to help your site improve its rankings. However, each top search engine site uses a slightly different set of data about each website it indexes to determine how that site will rank.

Here's how a search site works: the search engine sends out indexing bots to scan and collect certain data about all of the sites it can find on the Internet. A given search bot may collect 20, 50 or 100 pieces of data about each web page it scans. It then sends all of this data back to its servers instantaneously, which then apply certain algorithms to combine the data on a web page-by-web page basis. In this way, it determines which sites should rank better for which keyword search terms.

The "art" of all of this is the following: no major search engine actually makes public their algorithm that combines all of these factors together and determines ranking order. Rather, they purposefully avoid releasing this information because they do not want SEO practitioners to try to "game the system, artificially tweaking their websites to meet optimal search conditions. After all, what these search sites really want is to serve up the best, most relevant content to a searcher at any given moment. That's why they don't want anyone to know their algorithms.

That's why a good search engine optimization practitioner avoids the latest fads, instead focusing on the tried-and-true techniques to get the sites they are promoting. Their goal is to get first-page rankings on top search engine sites. That's the the search engine optimization advantage: better search engine site rankings and more site visits, without having to pay pay-per-click or banner ad fees.

Get FREE hot search engine optimization tips at: http://www.jcjinteractive.com/blog.

What Is SEO?

What is [SEO] or search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines via the natural or un-paid organic or algorithmic search results.
Basically in layman s terms it is getting your website to the top of search using the correct techniques that search engines like to see.

SEO Basics

Content

The most important factor of Search optimization [SEO] and getting to the top of search engines is quality content.
Content should always be original and wrote by yourself do not be tempted to copy other peoples content because your website will penalise you for this.

How do you find the right content for your site? 

Well that is easy write about something that you know about and are interested in,do your homework and find out as much information as possible about your niche.

Keywords

Adding keywords to your sites pages and posts are also a great for SEO.You should have relevant keywords in your websites title description and also in every page and post your writing, where do you find keywords? There are keyword tools to help you Google themselves have a great keyword tool and also other products that can help you choose the right keywords for your website.

Getting Indexed by Search Engines

Getting your new website is easy to do all you need to do is submit it to search engines for submission Google Yahoo and Bing all have their own submission services also there are webmaster tools to help you to get indexed use these tools they are very resourceful.

Back Links

Getting Quality back links is also a major factor in getting to the top of search engines,when I say quality that does not necessary mean high ranking back links,what it does mean is getting relevant back links to your niche,if you are writing about SEO it is no good getting back links from websites that write about oranges, you should be asking for SEO back links.

There are many ways to get relevant back links to your site here are a few tips how to get them

1. Ask for them
2. Social bookmarking sites
3. Blog & Forum commenting
4. Writing Articles
5. Write a blog
6. Make a Squidoo lens
7. Classified Adverts
8. Email Marketing

The list can go on forever but you get the general idea.
I will be covering more topics over the next few weeks and months about SEO, please feel free to comment on these posts.

Micheal Allen Author http://www.seotopofsearch.info

The Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals in 11 Steps

Introduction

People use search engines to find things. Although you should avoid making your business depending entirely on free traffic from search engines, so is it still important to consider search engines in your overall internet marketing strategy. Ignoring search means leaving a big chunk of business on the table, which will make it much harder to stay competitive depending on the industry you are in and what your competition is doing. SEO isn't rocket science and to a certain degree technical. It has nothing to do with magic and fairy dust will do nothing to help you with it. It also requires a long term strategy and commitment in order to become and remain successful. There is no silver bullet and no shortcuts.

Because of its long term commitment necessary, is a well formed strategy key to success, a strategy that is followed and verified and scrutinized along the way.
While all 11 steps below are part of a repeating cycle over the time while you are doing business on the internet, so are only step 6 to 11 task that need to be on going on a much more frequent basis. Due to the fact that steps 1 to 5 are not repeated very often, is it necessary to give them special attention and care to get them right at the beginning. Errors made there will affect all the others in a negative way and hurt your efforts along the way.

1. Keyword Research

Keyword research is the most important first step that should not be taken too lightly. While you can easily test and change hundreds of keywords in paid search campaigns, so is this not possible for organic search optimization. You usually concentrate on one to five key phrases for the whole site (theme) and one to three phrases for a single page. For large sites with thousands of pages is it hard to optimize every single page to the full extend due to the limits in time and other resources.

2. Competitive Intelligence

Know you competition! What are they doing? Where do they rank, for which terms? Who is linking to them and why? The things you have to do depend on what your competitors are doing. The less competitive your vertical is online the easier is it for you to outperform your competition. This is important to determining cost and resources for your SEO efforts.

3. Web Design and Development

Fixing something that is broke is always harder than building it right from the beginning. If you are in the process of creating a new website, make sure to consider search engine friendly design and architecture before and during the actual development of the website. This will save you a lot of time and money and in most cases put you already ahead of a considerable number of your competitors. Search engine friendly design is not rocket science and search engine friendly design does not have to be ugly. Search engine friendly design is for the most part user friendly design as well, but there are some exceptions where compromises have to be made.

4. Get Your First Inbound Links

Don't submit your new site to search engines and by no means pay anybody to do it for you. There are many cheap services and software products out there that offer for less than $100 submission to and #1 ranking in thousands of search engines. Don't do it. If you see an offer like that, hold your wallet and run. Your site should be found by search engines naturally and they will find your site if a page that is already in their index links to you. Why? Because this is what search engines do, following links to discover content. There are plenty of methods to get your first inbound links. Some web directories are recognized by search engines and a listing there will do your site good. Most recognized directories are commercial in nature and charge a fee for reviewing your site. Also check with vendors or good customers (B2B) who have a website for the opportunity to have them place a link to your website.

5. Sitemaps

The larger search engines allow webmasters to submit a sitemap to them via a webmaster console. The search engines also provide reports and other useful information, such as technical problems with your websites you might not be aware of via their console. Even if you decide against the submission of a site map to the search engines, is it advisable to create an account and register your website with them for the reports and statistics they provide for free and which are invaluable for your internet marketing efforts.

6. Web Analytics

You can't determine success or failure of any of your internet marketing activities if you do not track and measure their effectiveness. Engaging in any type of marketing campaign online, be it SEO, paid search, display advertising, email marketing, social media or affiliate marketing is like fishing in the dark without any type of web analytics solution in place. The options range from free services to very expensive and heavily customizable package. You have to determine what solution will work for you, but you have to start with one so don't put it off. Web analytics helps you to determine where to improve your site and your marketing campaigns to channel your resources and money to the things that work and pull it away from the things that don't work. Web analytics is not a cost center if it is done properly.

7. Content Building

A website is never done. It has to change and grow over time. This is a natural process to adjust to changes in the market, with maturing in this type of medium and your normal business growth. Providing good quality content that is related to what you do, but not necessarily aimed to sell something directly is the best opportunity to increase traffic and exposure of your business. Most people do not link to pages that only serve the purpose to make a sale.

8. Link Building

The internet wouldn't be a "net" without links. It would only be a collection of independent pages that are not connected to each other. Disconnected pages cannot be found and that defeats the purpose of them, wouldn't it? Inbound links and internal site linking is important for organic traffic, meaning people seeing and clicking on those links to get to your website, but they are also important for SEO. Inbound links play an important role in virtually every search engine when it comes to ranking pages in their search results. This is a never ending process and while it happens naturally. Be a bit more pro-active to get more and good inbound links. There are plenty of sites out there that should link to you, but don't know you and your content.

9. Engagement, Trust and Community Building

Social media and Web 2.0 might be buzz words, but the underlying core elements they are made of are much more elementary and fundamental. Don't live in a bubble and talk to people without allowing people to respond and to interact with you. People will talk about you, with or without you being around. Take the opportunity to become part of the discussion to build trust and deeper relationships with your customers or potential customers. Listen to what they say and learn about their wants and their needs. Hear what they say about you and your products, especially the criticism and improve on them.

10. Ranking and Traffic Analysis

Check where you are today to be able to compare it with data in the future. Look for trends and evaluate the success of your goals, which you should have specified before you engaged in any type of marketing campaign. You did set goals that are measurable I hope. Improving ranking is important for SEO, but more important than the ranking is the traffic that comes with it. Does the change in ranking yields in the traffic you expected? Does this traffic actually convert?

11. Conversion Analysis

No matter what you do, everything will come down to one critical factor at the very end. What is your bottom line? Did you make profit or did you lose money. While losing money in the short term for strategic reasons is okay, so Is losing money in the long run deemed to failure and the end of your business altogether. Whatever you do, it has to contribute directly or indirectly to a positive Return of Investment. Web Analytics is part of the process of making this determination among other tools and methods. Expand the things that work and help your bottom line and rid yourself of the things that don't. Improve of details to increase conversion. This requires testing. Don't reject anything upfront without testing it first. Things that work for others might not work for you, but the same is true the other way around.

Carsten Cumbrowski is an internet marketer, entrepreneur and internet marketing strategy consultant. You can find tons of resources to the various channels and topics in internet marketing free at Cumbrowski.com including further details about the SEO fundamentals that were discussed in this article.

What Is SEO Marketing?

In the early days of the Internet finding something could be a hassle. The systems by which search engines operated had not yet been perfected. Relevant information was often hidden away in obscure user groups or sparse online directories. Thankfully those days have long since passed. The chaos of the primordial net has given way to an army of aggregators and search services. The algorithms that these services use have likewise evolved. This development presents an opportunity for marketers, opening the door for a phenomena known as SEO marketing. 

So what is SEO marketing?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. Simply put SEO marketing is the mechanistic calculation of the internal workings of a search engine, thereby allowing a business to utilize these workings. Most search engines sort returned articles in order of relevance, that is their relative weight in relation to a search term. 

So what is SEO marketing's main goal?

SEO marketing allows a business the opportunity to cement their relevance within a given series of search terms. The ramifications of this are obvious: higher order relevance leads to organic exposure. We define organic exposure in this sense: exposure by which a customer searched for a company and got a result. This is similar to other organic methods, which have come to fall under the blanket expression "viral marketing."

Let's examine a hypothetical company: Tom, Dick and Harry Marine, a relatively successful boat and Maritime equipment dealer. Looking to increase their market share the owners elect to examine a number of different approaches to increase their exposure. Conventional marketing is always an option, billboards, radio and television advertisements, sponsorships and events, all of these can increase exposure. Unfortunately most, if not all of the aforementioned can be expensive. The larger the desired exposure, the more expensive this can be in the end. Let's say that our intrepid entrepreneurs instead decide to employ SEO marketing, through a keen understanding of the way in which search engines determine the most relevant items. So in this circumstance what is search engine optimization marketing's effect?: instant exposure for a bargain basement price.

SEO Marketing may very well prove to be as effective as more traditional forms of advertisements. As more people turn to the Internet as their primary source for information, the influence exerted by search engines dramatically increases. As these search engines become more and more important to a person's day to day life, understanding how to effectively utilize them for the purposes of marketing becomes critical. 

So what is search engine optimization marketing? 

SEO marketing provides the tools to reach a wider consumer base, tools to grow, to expand.

So what is SEO marketing? 

In the right hands, understanding how search engines work, and tailoring your approach to maximize your exposure in an increasingly net reliant world can only be a boon to your business, leading to better exposure, and through that, a better market share. In today's interconnected world, can your business afford not to capitalize on such an opportunity?

Jimmy Balcum
http://jimmybalcum.com/