Posted by Lima A

Writing for online freelance writing sites can often feel like playing a game of "Goldilocks". Some places just don't fit, while others are just right. Jennifer Walker, an experienced freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous places both online and off,recently shared the results of her own comparison. Walker's list includes popular sites such as Associated Content, Examiner.com, Helium, eHow and Suite101. To find out the results of this comparison check out her blog post over at "Jennifer Gets Bloggy".

Posted by Lima A

Chris McLaughlin never thought she’d land a book deal through her online writing. Now, not only does McLaughlin have a whole portfolio of online articles, she has landed a dream book deal thanks to some of her “Suite” friends.

Posted by Lima A

The concept of revenue share has been the cause of much skepticism in the online industry. But as "Masthead Online" discovered in their article, Suite101 is one of the few companies that has capitalized on the opportunity to build "a business around Google Ads" and met with great success!

Posted by Mark Magnusson

Recently I attended Convergence 2009 hosted by CossetteWest. Convergence is a conference that brings together thought leaders in marketing to focus on emerging trends in digital media.

Some of the key digerati included Barack Obama’s Campaign Manager, Lululemon’s Community Manager, Warner Brothers' VP of Technology, and Manager of the multi-platinum band “The Killers”. All of these speakers had a very common thread when leveraging social media:

• Have a solid strategy and stick to it.
• Understand your audience.
• Share your brand story.
• Be tactically transparent.
• Engage in authentic conversation.
• Know your key brand influencers.

The keynote speaker was David Plouffe, the Campaign Manager and the "silent" force of Barack Obama’s presidential victory. During that two year journey there was a groundswell of support that reached inside communities and tapped into young voters like never before. Mr. Plouffe, a rockstar in his own right, leveraged social media to bring a bottom-up message of "change" that rocked his boss all the way to the White House. Even at one point in his speech, to make a point, he pumped up his hand with the rock-hand gesture.

Plouffe leveraged the core principles of crowdsourcing: taking tasks traditionally performed by employees, contractors, and vendors and outsourcing or relinquishing control to a larger online audience – the crowd.

Voters participated on YouTube generating videos for the campaign, like "Obama Girl" or Facebook fan pages. The Obama campaign attributes its success to the people and not to technology alone. In other words, as Plouffe said, "the people are the train, we’re just the caboose."

Technology such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr allowed the Obama campaign to have touch points for the conversations at a very grassroots level. A key ingredient is empathizing with your audience and their needs through authentic dialogue. Building trust with people requires a bottom-up approach, where influencers in every community are empowered to have a stronger voice and reach out to their constituents.

The power of reaching out to audiences at a grass roots level can especially work in fundraising efforts. As Plouffe noted, this kind of outreach encourages community participation; fundraising efforts then became successful as voters felt privileged enough to be a part of the process that they made multiple small contributions. I can see how facilitating a sense of pride in the process can lead to extraordinary results.

The Social Media phenomenon is not just limited to the "Obama factor". I like to compare it to an audience of die-hard rock fans; the outpouring of genuine thrill can’t be faked. Indeed, Plouffe said a similar thing about voters, "You can’t fabricate the enthusiasm or passion of people!"

What this comes down to is that whether you’re a musician, a politician or a business, the secret lies in people. The technology is only secondary. I think there’s a misconception that the focus of marketing efforts is to continue shouting down the marketing funnel, when in reality the most successful efforts require a much simpler approach: authenticity, transparency, listening and participation.

Posted by Lima A

Recently Britta Stromeyer Esmail was invited to join our league of Suite101 Dual Citizens. I asked her to weigh in on the cultural differences she anticipates encountering as a writer for Suite101.com (English) and Suite101.de (German). Here are her insights:

“I’d say that a lot of German writing probably has more of an academic undertone as many writers and journalists have graduate degrees. When writing specifically about diversity and cross-cultural management, which is one of my expertise areas, the emphasis of the article will vary.

For example, in North America diversity issues frequently have a greater emphasis on ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. In the European context the emphasis is more on gender diversity and maybe to some degree on generational diversity but there is less focus on ethnic diversity.

Another cultural difference that will affect my writing approach for .de versus .com is the difference in social structure between German culture and American culture. German businesses are more task oriented while American businesses seem to be results oriented. This means that I have to adjust some of my writing to either emphasize the ‘how’ angle, which will appeal to German audiences, as opposed to the ‘why’ angle, which is more important to American audiences. “

We’d like to extend a big thank you to our Suite101 Dual Citizens and welcome Britta to this growing team!

Posted by Lima A

If you haven’t already seen our “Tweet” then you’ve missed out! Suite101 received a glowing review from dedicated freelance writer Willow Sidhe.

Sidhe, freelance writing expert and herbal enthusiast, is the creator of “The Freelance Home Writer”; a blog she created because she “was tired of wading through the plethora of websites out there that promise to provide resources and freelance writers jobs”.

Playing the role of guinea pig, Sidhe researches these sites by actively becoming a writer for them and then sharing her experiences with her readership. If it sounds like a scam, she’ll tell you- this writer has nothing to hide.

Thanks for the great review Willow! We hope Suite will continue to provide you with a positive, not to mention lucrative, freelance writing experience.

Posted by Lima A

You don’t need a passport to become a Suite101 dual citizen, just the ability to write for two popular content sites in two different languages!

Meet Monika Fuchs, Renate Oetjens and Simone Preuss – three writers who relish the challenge of writing for Suite101.com and its German counterpart Suite101.de. Apart from balancing a heavier workload, these writers share some interesting insights on the cultural differences between writing for European and North American audiences.

Fuchs and her colleagues maintain that there is "a difference in subjects that interest the readers."

Preuss explains that a large reason for this is the difference in acceptable social norms and behaviors in each region. Sensitive issues such as sexuality are discussed more openly among European audiences than in North America.

“What might be considered okay in the German context may be deemed completely inappropriate in North America.”

Likewise, travel writer Fuchs faces similar challenges in her efforts to research topics that will provide both audiences with the detailed, specific information they are searching for.

“It is hard to find subjects for both .com and .de that all my readers are familiar enough with to search for. The readers of the English version are clearly much more familiar with subjects concerning American and Canadian travel and thus these articles get a much higher click rate on .com. On the other hand, articles on European travel destinations are much more familiar to European readers.”

So what’s the solution to writing for two vastly different cultural audiences? Oetjens simply takes a moment to assess her topic and ask: “is it good for .de or .com or for both? Using it for both means making the most of your knowledge and research. But you have to come to terms with the fact that some topics are not of universal interest.”

Oetjens points out that Suite101’s dual citizens are not dealing with a simple matter of translating texts; rather, if there happens to be a topic that works well on both sites, they must take the added step of rewriting the articles “possibly emphasizing different aspects.”

Indeed, these writers must take additional care in their writing to assess not only the differences in languages but also the differing needs and concerns of each cultural background. So, while no passports have been issued, these three writers certainly deserve to hold the title of Suite101 Dual Citizens.

Posted by Lima A

Now that you know how to conduct an interview with a subject matter expert, what do you do if that expert isn’t physically there to participate in the interview? Lisa Nichols, editor of the “Business & Finance” section here at Suite101 shares some tips on interviewing SMEs from out of town.

“Let’s say you’ve got a great opportunity to interview a subject matter expert, but she’s in London and you’re in Arkansas. Can you organize and effectively interview an out-of-town SME? Most definitely – Suite writers are conducting interviews all the time with SMEs located in other towns, states or countries.

Consider the following to get the interview you want from an out-of-town SME:

If you have a computer and a microphone (available beginning at about $8 at office supplies stores), and your SME has the same, you can conduct the interview using Skype.

If the first option isn’t an option, you can use AIM or one of the other chat programs to conduct an online interview. Be sure to change your settings to save your IM logs.

If computer-to-computer calls and IMing isn’t an option, consider email. This method of interviewing can be truly advantageous, as it has been many times for our own Suite writers.

Let the SME know upfront that it may take a couple of back-and-forth communication to the get the information you need. List your top questions, number them, and ask that the SME respond in kind, with a numbered list of answers.”

Stay tuned for more great tips from Lisa Nichols and some examples of the best SME interviews conducted by our Suite101 writers.

Posted by Marc Bitanga

As predicted by many in the internet marketing field, social media is about to cause major ripples in the search engine industry. Twitter, the latest social media phenomenon, has announced plans to launch a search engine to rival Google.

CNET broke the news recently, where Twitter Vice President Santosh Jayaram announced that Twitter will soon begin to crawl the links included in tweets and begin to index the content of those pages. Twitter has also hinted that their search algorithm will contain elements of a reputation ranking system. I believe this means that Twitter will begin to evaluate Twitter accounts based on trust and reputation. If a trusted Twitter account tweets about a website, this could be beneficial for the website’s rankings. This is analogous to Google anointing certain websites with a level of trust and authority which helps their web pages rank well.

Search marketing insiders also believe that Twitter’s true strength will be its ability to provide real-time search results, something that Google hasn’t been able to address in its current form.

What does this news mean for those who want to be on the cusp of social media marketing and search engine optimization? Create a Twitter account today and network with like-minded professionals. Your Twitter account could soon become a trusted source.

Posted by Lima A

Suite101.com writers have produced a bounty of wonderful gift ideas designed to celebrate every kind of mom on Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 10, 2009). Suite101 articles range from practical gift ideas for the “travel mom” junkie, to sympathetic gifts for expecting mums, to special gift ideas celebrating birth mothers and grandmothers.

Here are some ideas on how to celebrate the special mom in your life:

• Mother’s Day in A Blended Family

• Mothers Day Gifts for Twin Moms

• Mother’s Day Gifts for Travel Moms

• Mother’s Day Gift Ideas for Grandmothers

• Best Gift Ideas for a New Mom on Mother’s Day

• Mother’s Day Gifts for Expectant Mums

• Mother’s Day Gifts for Stay-at-Home Mums

• Celebrating Birth Mothers Day (Saturday, May 9th, 2009)

Happy Mother's Day from the staff at Suite101.com

Posted by Lima A

Last week, Business & Finance Section Editor Lisa Nichols shared with us some valuable insights on how to get the interview you want when you don’t know what to write about. This week, Lisa follows up this advice by giving us tips on how to approach an interview when you’ve already decided on what you’d like to write about.

“Scenario #2 How to Get the Interview You Want: You Know What You Want to Write about Already.

A more efficient way to approach an interview is to have a specific idea in mind of what you want to write about before you contact the subject matter expert (SME).

I usually approach it like this: write the article and then leave some spots that say ‘insert quote here.’ Contact the subject matter expert and let them know the angle of your article when you set up the interview. During the interview, ask questions that will help you fill in the blanks in your article. This is more than fine to do and in fact it’s expected – SMEs are wise to the fact that you have an angle and they’re usually more than willing to work themselves into your writing however you see fit.

It’s a simple way to approach getting the interview you want – and it works.

Since I posted the first interview tip on the Suite101 writers' forum, some Suite members kindly stepped up to the ‘share your favorite interview tip’ plate and offered some additional thoughts on interviewing SMEs.

Mia Carter, Suite101’s Mind & Soul Editor, suggests that writers ‘learn how to take notes at the speed that people speak. This will make your life so much easier. You can practice while watching TV, especially if you have DVR, which allows you to rewind if you want to check your accuracy.’

Christiane Birkett, Suite101’s Eastern Europe Travel Feature Writer, often finds interviewing SMEs challenging since they frequently speak different languages! Christiane shared her favorite tip for getting the interview she needs: ‘I compiled an interview sheet – three pages of standard questions with big gaps between them for the answers. I find that people really like that because it's so very professional. It's also a reminder to me not to forget important questions!’”

Posted by Lima A

Lisa Nichols, Section Editor for Business & Finance at Suite101, recently shared some tips on how to “Get the Interview You Want” over in the writers’ forum. We’ve asked her to share her expertise on this matter right here in the Limelight Blog. Over to you Lisa!

“If you’ve been going along, writing informative articles, you’ve got house style down to a T, and you’re feeling good about your SEO efforts, congratulations! Consider stretching yourself as a writer and exploring new territory by conducting interviews with industry experts.

When you need to interview someone for a print or online magazine, getting the information you need out of your subject can be tricky – if not downright impossible. I’ll be sharing a few tips on how to handle certain interviewer/interviewee scenarios in this short series.

Scenario #1 How to Get the Interview You Want: When You’re Not Sure What You’re Going to Write.

This situation happens all the time, It’s perhaps not the most efficient or ideal way to interview someone, but here’s a tip on how to get the information you need.

‘John, I understand that your role in the junk bond scandal was pivotal to many of the high profile arrests in the late 80’s. I’d like to ask you some questions about that time period. But first, why don’t you just tell me what happened in your own words. I think that will answer a lot of my questions. And then if I need more information, I’ll follow up with questions after you’re done.’

Then, I take notes like mad the whole time they're talking. If I’m interviewing them in person, I assure the subject that they shouldn’t worry about my frenetic writing; I’ll only use pertinent information in the magazine. If we’re on the phone, I’ll turn on the speaker and just keep writing.

Usually, when you give people the opportunity to speak, they’ll talk. And talk and talk and talk. So this method is a little madcap, but it should get you the key points you need for your article.

When I’m interviewing a subject for an article, I usually already know what I want to write about. A simple outline is all you need to stay on track and to prevent cumbersome follow-up calls and emails. And if your subject matter expert is light on details, you can go back and ask them topic-specific questions, to lead them in the right direction.”

Stay tuned for more of Lisa’s helpful tips and scenarios on how to “Get the Interview You Want” right here in the Limelight Blog.

Posted by Marc Bitanga

SEOs like myself are always trying to anticipate the changes that Google makes. As a publisher of a site with over 14 million unique visitors per month, Suite101 not only stays current in its product development and training efforts but also endeavors to stay ahead of the curve by watching emerging trends – all in an effort to bring as many readers to our articles from search engines.

One of the mainstays of Google’s algorithm is its reliance on links between websites. Google uses these links to:

• discover new websites and web pages
• figure out whether your website is a trustworthy source of information by analyzing who links to you and how many websites have linked to your web pages

However, this link-based part of Google’s algorithm may be affected by some pretty monumental changes in the social networking world over the past couple of years.

Facebook

Facebook has reached 200 million active users, many of whom share links within the walls of this social network. These links are inaccessible to search engines; without access to those links, Google can’t gauge the true popularity and relevance of a website.

Twitter

Twitter has experienced a meteoric rise in popularity. In March 2009 worldwide visits to the site increased by 95%, from 9.8 million visits to 19.1 million visits. Some bloggers have noted that Twitter could be the reason bloggers are posting fewer articles and fewer visitors are commenting on posts. Fewer blog posts translate into fewer links being shared.

URL Shortening Services

With the rise of Twitter has come an increase in use of URL shortening tools such as tinyurl.com, bit.ly, is.gd, etc. Some URL shortening tools aren’t using 301 HTTP redirects and they definitely don’t use anchor text, both of which are signals that Google has used in its algorithm.

So what has Google done to compensate for this change in user behavior? So far, we haven’t seen any shifts to signal that Google is using social networking behavior in its ranking algorithm. But then again, Google doesn’t exactly telegraph its next move.

What we do know is that social media and social networking is a bigger part of the Internet’s ecosystem today than it was a few years ago. With so many users flocking to social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, Google will have to consider changing its formula to adjust to this new reality.

Posted by Lima A

Suite101 is everywhere! Or at least this seems to be the case with our writers who attend numerous conferences, trade shows and exhibits about everything to do with journalism, writing, and publishing. We’ve invited some of our writers to chime in here on the Limelight Blog to tell us about their experiences.

Beverly Hill, Hobbies Feature Writer, shares with us her experience at this year’s Emerald Coast Writers Conference:

“I got the opportunity to attend the 6th Annual Emerald Coast Writers Conference in Fort Walton Beach, Florida this year, and was pleasantly surprised by what I experienced, hence the article ‘What to Expect at a Writer's Conference.’

If you're a writer trying to break into the industry, you can learn a lot at one of these conferences and I highly recommend it. I had the opportunity to mingle and talk with agents, publishers, aspiring writers and established authors, all of whom were personable and very east to talk to. In fact, I became fast friends with one author who turned out to be from my home town, and I also made a number of new local friends at the conference.

Among some of the people that I got the chance to talk to was best-selling author, Stephen Coonts. With 15 New York Times best sellers under his belt – including his 1986 novel Flight of the Intruder, which resulted in a 1991 movie of the same name – Coonts had a wealth of information to share with everyone at the conference and was even around later that afternoon to sign autographs.

Attending the workshops and talking to fellow writers is a great way of getting your head out of a current project and interjecting it with some fresh ideas. There's a part in one of my 'works-in-progress' novels that I've been stuck on for some time, and I now have the tools that I need in order for my hero to save the day.

For the amount of information that I came away with, attending the writers’ conference was definitely worth it. I certainly look forward to the next one.”

Posted by Lima A

What better way to celebrate Earth Day than to turn to an online magazine for tips, tricks, and tools on how to "Green" your life. Our Suite101 writers, who range from city-slickers to tree-huggers, share some great ideas on how to conserve energy whether at home or on the go.

Check out these six eco-savvy articles:

• Spruce up communities by building green spaces.

• Shop for natural, non-harmful cleaning products to use at home.

• Organize community events around protecting the environment.

• Consider an Electric Bike to save energy and money.

• Save Gas by Driving Green.

• Travel the Eco-Way by researching eco-friendly hotels before planning a vacation.

And remember, don't print this list when you're done!

Posted by Lima A

Twitter’s increasing popularity gives way to new opportunities for creating Web apps. Enter Tweetdeck , Twhirl, and Hootsuite – three desktop Twitter tools that make it easy for users to organize and search their Twitter following. Which one will be crowned the ideal tool for Twittering? Time (and Twitter) will tell.

Posted by Emma Worbeck

Suite101 launched its Twitter profile in February 2009 to share our editorial musings with our social-media savvy writers and readers. The response has been positive: we're gaining an ever-increasing following and are enjoying the opportunity to connect with our audience on a more personal level.

David Wetzel, Feature Writer for Continuing Education, shares his thoughts on how Twitter can also be advantageous as a way to connect in other work environments.

“Twitter is a Web 2.0 tool teachers can use to support teaching and learning, 140 characters at a time. Twitter works best when teachers or students organize a trusted network of other teachers and students to share information and collect data.

The value of Twitter is real-time networking for teachers, by allowing teachers to communicate beyond their classroom walls for support from other educators. This can occur when a teacher requests assistance for curriculum support or shares a teachable moment with colleagues.

One example of how students used Twitter was writing a collaborative story with other students around the world and country. This was a progressive writing exercise where students agreed to take turns contributing to the story.

Biz Stone, a co-founder of Twitter, stated in an interview with Steven Colbert, ‘Twitter is the service we didn’t know we needed until we had it.’ (Steven Colbert Show, April 2, 2009)

Using Twitter to Break Down Classroom Isolation provides additional information and applications of Twitter in education.”

Posted by Peter Berger

...and here is further proof that the web loves great writing: A year ago, we were #5, and today we surpassed the CBC (ranked by global traffic). We are now officially Canada's largest original content website!

Here are the top 5:

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/suite101.com

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/cbc.ca

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/canoe.ca

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/canada.com

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/thestar.com

Happy Easter egg hunting to you all...

Posted by Peter Berger

“Why don't you pay me upfront per article?"

Writers who join our team often ask us why we pay royalties (aka "revenue sharing") and not upfront, per-article fees like many other media. This is a great question, and I love to share the answer because we really do this for the benefit of our writers.

• We don't want to underpay. The revenues an article will generate are not easily predictable. Online publications that offer flat, per-article fees have to pay conservatively and can only offer a handful of dollars per article so they can stay on the safe side (and pocket the long-term upside). We don't want to do that—successful articles deserve successful payment.
• We care for good articles, income or not. While some writers' objective is to attract a large audience or significant revenues, other writers have joined Suite101 for its quality-minded reputation and want to write articles on topics they deeply care for in an editorially supportive environment. We love to help writers to achieve their personal goals, but cannot pay more than we earn.
• We don't want to cross-subsidize. Writing popular articles requires learning, experimenting and dedication, and writers who have mastered web-writing skills should receive the full benefit of their training. If we were to pay inexperienced writers who weren't yet able to attract traffic and revenue extra, we would then have to distribute pay unfairly to those who had invested the time to hone their skills.
• We want to attract writers who want to partner with us in the long run. Here at Suite101, we don't gamble on future performance to pay for today's fees. We guarantee all writers that Suite101 will be around for some time—thus enabling our writers' articles to pay dividends, time and time again, for years and years to come. The residual income of some writers on the site amounts to thousands of dollars per article. These are high-quality articles targeting niche audiences and earning their writers a great reputation.

We give our writers the best tools and guidance possible to meet their objectives, and the revenue share model guarantees that writing for Suite101 remains a gainful partnership for the long run.

Posted by Marci Hotsenpiller

This might sound funny but we have an "active inner life” here at Suite101. This isn’t always apparent if you’re simply surfing the site or thinking about joining us as writer.

By “inner life” I’m referring to our community of writers. Imagine inviting 2,000 very eloquent wordsmiths from around the world to a large, ongoing dinner party. This is what the Suite101 Writer Forums are like. Some of the conversations at the table are inspiring, some are humorous, and some are super-helpful to other writers. (For a seat at the table consider applying to write for us.)

Some of the best discussions happen when writers help other writers. For example, new writers often ask questions such as ..."When will I start making serious money writing for Suite101?"

Angela England, our Feature Writer for Plants & Bulbs recently offered her straight-up thoughts on the topic. She did such a great job that I asked her to stop by the Limelight blog to explain it from a writer’s point of view. So over to you Angela! Thanks for stopping in to chat ...

"After a recent exchange on my personal website (http://angengland.com) I wanted to clarify some of what I shared about Suite101's potential for writers. It has a lot to do with the benefits of long-term, residual income. Like book royalties or compound interest, residual income from web writing can have profound effects on your monthly income.

Let me be very clear – no one is going to get rich from a single article on Suite101, or any other website for that matter. But after two and a half years of contributing to Suite101 I can say with confidence that the income is better for me here, than any other single site I have experience with. I make enough with Suite101 to pay the mortgage on my three-bedroom home.

How does residual income through Suite101 work?

When a freelance writer starts working with Suite101 they might get only a few pennies per article each month. However, as the amount of articles increases, the amount of payment per article increases. And since Suite101 continues to pay writers forever, that source of income never ends!

I found this out firsthand when I took a month off to have a baby last fall. Even though I didn't contribute any additional articles, I still got paid – enough to cover the mortgage bill. For articles I wrote a year ago. Or two years ago.

And two years from now I will still continue to earn income from these articles. Even if I quit and never contribute another article to Suite101 I will still continue to collect income each month. Like a tiny raindrop, each article contributes its small amount to your monthly income. Yet with just over 260 articles posted here, those raindrops have come together to create quite a healthy deluge each month.

The freedom to write across a wide variety of topics, keeps me interested and motivated. The increase in payments each month helps benefit my family. I love that I do the work once, and continue to earn money on that work forever. By writing when I am able, I create the potential for income during those times in the future when I might not be as free to write on a regular basis.

Like compound interest, residual income on Suite101 adds up slowly and inexorably, increasing the power of your writing as your articles become more valuable each and every month."

Posted by Lima A

I use Google nearly every day, from finding out which restaurants provide late-night delivery to performing more important research like tracking down necessary contact information. A few days ago I came across a new feature that Google has added to their repertoire: Semantic Search.

I’m sure most avid googlers know exactly what I mean (no pun intended), but for those of you who don’t google just about every question under the sun, Google has augmented their search feature by supplying a list of related keywords and subjects that the searcher may be looking for. These appear on the bottom of the results page, but recently, keyword suggestions also appear in a drop down menu as the searcher types in the term on the Google homepage. What’s the point? Well, it’s a question of semantics really.

According to the definition on Wikipedia.org this type of search seeks to “disambiguate queries and web text in order to generate more relevant results.” This means that if I type in “Brighton, MA,” for example, the algorithms should be able to identify the meaning or interpretation of what I am trying to search for, and offer me further keywords and terms that may guide me to better, more accurate results.

I decided to perform my own test to see how well this new type of search works. I chose to use the example “Brighton, MA” for a few reasons. “Brighton, MA” is ambiguous because it has multiple meanings: it’s a town in Massachusetts and it is also the name of an indie band—which is what I was searching for. It’s common for me to search for indie bands/artists to find out about show listings, tickets etc. so I wanted to stay true to my own particular search habits to better evaluate Google’s Semantic Search. I was curious to see if the semantic search could “disambiguate” my search term and determine that I was looking for results related to the indie band and not just the location.

At first I plugged in “Brighton”. The search results didn’t even yield anything to do with Massachusetts, let alone the band. When I specified the search to read “Brighton, MA” Google read the algorithm to mean anything from “brighton map” to “brighton massage therapy”. The term “brighton mass” showed up in relation to the town but that search result was sixth on the list. And the indie band? They weren’t on the list of search items at all.

Ian Paul’s conclusion over at PC World is that while “the same old Google [is] an excellent first stop for finding information … Google is flying the semantic search flag without really delivering a noticeably different experience.” Indeed, though Google isn’t the first search engine to launch innovations in Semantic Search (Microsoft is launching their own new semantic technology, possibly named “Kumo”, later this year), I had hoped that Google would be ahead of the game.

The great news is that search engine providers are recognizing the importance of intelligent search and are attempting to address these issues further. However, perhaps Google should have performed a semantic search on the term “innovation” before releasing a feature that really only yields the same results as before.

Posted by Marci Hotsenpiller

When I want to visit the medieval past or take a stroll through a New York museum, I simply look for the latest article by Stan Parchin, our Art Galleries/Museums Feature Writer here at Suite101.com.

Stan is a true renaissance writer who happens to live in modern-day New York. The last time we spoke via e-mail, he mentioned he was helping to curate an exhibition on the Dutch Royal House of Orange. And next month, he's delivering two illustrated lectures on the definition of the word "masterpiece" and Leonardo da Vinci's Europe.

I shouldn’t be surprised! Stan has worked in various departments at the world-renowned Metropolitan Museum of Art, among them Educational Marketing and the Program for Art on Film, a joint venture with the J. Paul Getty Trust. As a writer, he was the Assistant Editor of The Village Press, The Village Moneysaver and Regis Alumni News and previously was the Contributing Editor and Senior Correspondent for Museums and Special Exhibitions for Art History at About.com of The New York Times Company. His specialties include Egypt's Old and New Kingdoms; the Italian and Northern Renaissances; Church history; and witchcraft, heresy and social dissent in late medieval and early modern Europe.

I recently spoke with Stan about his latest projects and asked for his perspective on how writing for Suite101 compares to writing for other online sites:

MH: Hi Stan, how are things in your world these days? What are you working on?

SP: I’m pretty excited about being contacted by a production company that's developing a documentary on Leonardo da Vinci for cable television. I'm still in shock! I'm happy to say they found me through my feature articles and blogs on Suite101.com. It's interesting to see who reads what you publish online.

MH: What are the most important things that experienced web writers look for when considering whether to write for a site or not? SP: The ability to write across disciplines; clear and easy-to-follow guidelines and style book/manuals; and positive and supportive interaction with editors, administrative staff, fellow writers and technical support staff.

MH: You've written for About.com and currently write for Suite. What are the main differences?

SP: The writer's ability to contribute to different categories is a stand-out feature of Suite101.com. My editor at Suite, Sarah B. Hood, interacts with me regularly and provides helpful suggestions. The sense of collegiality at Suite101 is remarkable. When I suggest a change or improvement to the site, it is seriously considered and usually implemented.

MH: What is your experience when you tell people you write for Suite101.com?

SP: When I tell people I am a Feature Writer at Suite101.com, they visit the site and then send me their reactions. All like what's offered, especially the variety of categories and subcategories. They find Suite101.com's pages very easy to read. The museums I deal with are all very pleased with the coverage they get at Suite101.com. That's due in large part to our experienced writers stationed all over the world. They're a great group with very diverse interests.

(I have to add too, that the Editor's Choice Awards that Suite editors use to recognize writers for excellence are an invaluable incentive. My award-winning articles are always pointed out to me by museum professionals when I'm in the field.)

MH: How is the weather in New York today? Has Spring arrived yet? (It’s grey here in Vancouver…)

Posted by Marc Bitanga

Why Should Writers Consider Forecasting Seasonal Demand?

Timing is everything.

For retailers, marketers and writers on the web, forecasting seasonal demand is essential. Demand for certain products, services and even information ebbs and flows with seasons, holidays and recurring events (e.g. tax season, back to school, etc.). Until recently, marketing experts had to rely on their own historical sales data and shared information from trade associations to determine when to start stocking inventory or when to begin a sales promotion.

In a similar light, online writers and journalists had to rely strongly on intuition to forecast when their articles might attract the most readership. For writers, a well-timed article can be the difference between hitting "the sweet spot" and attracting hundreds of readers or having a lackluster response in terms of traffic.

Today, Google exposes this information to anyone who's savvy and creative enough to tap into Google's search trends tool, Google Insights. We've talked about Google Insights on Suite101 but let's dig into the details of how to use this tool to forecast when an article should be published.

Can Google Really Forecast Seasonal Demand?

Let's quickly walk through why we should rely on the data that Google provides.

Google is undeniably the most popular search engine in the USA and for many international regions.

• Google has 36 datacenters worldwide
• In 2008, Google had a 69.5% market share of searches performed in the USA
• Experts estimate that Google has over 200,000 servers
• Google processes 235 million searches per day

With all this computing power, data collection & market share, Google is well equipped to forecast seasonal demand and to tell us not only what the world is searching for, but more importantly, when!

Forecasting to Determine When to Publish an Article

Let's imagine you are about to write an article related to Christmas Shopping.

Based on the 2008 Google Insights query for the keywords "Christmas Shopping" (also see graphic below), people in 2008 started to search Google for phrases including the words Christmas and Shopping beginning in September. Since you're a savvy writer and you want to take advantage of seasonal demand, you determine your article has to be published 2-3 weeks in advance of this demand. In this case, it means you should consider publishing your article in August.

Why publish a Christmas article 2-3 weeks before demand, so early in the year? For your article to have the best chance of success during the holidays, your article has to:

• Be discovered by Google and added to their index. Depending on the website, it could take a matter of a few days or more than a week.
• Build up the number of quality inbound links. Remember, Google's algorithm see's relevant inbound links as a major factor.

Since demand for Christmas Shopping articles begins in September, it would be best if your article was published before the rise in demand.

Three Quick Examples of Seasonal Demand

It's arguable most writers intuitively know when they should write and publish an article. "I know when spring starts, therefore I should publish when the weather starts to warm up after winter. Right?" Wrong. Remember the content requires a period of some to get indexed by search engines and also build some relevant inbound links. Publishing it at the point when perceived demand starts is probably too late.

Data is really helpful in debunking assumptions. For example:

• Back to School; demand in the US begins at the start of April
• Summer Vacation Ideas; surprisingly, demand begins after Christmas for this popular search query
• Spring Gardening; demand in the US begins at the beginning of February

Using "Summer Vacation Ideas" as an example, if a writer were to publish her article in June, she would miss potentially thousands of readers searching for this article way back in December!

So you don't need to be a marketing analyst to determine when people want to view your content the most. With tools like Google Insights, it only takes a bit of web savvy and creativity to tap into data that could really increase your readership.

Posted by Aaron Park

Algorithm:

"Algorithm" is a mathematical term that means a finite set of rules or instructions. What this means in "tech speak" is that computers are embedded with specific algorithms--specific patterns of instructions, set in a specific order--that they need to perform in order to accomplish a given task. So basically, every computer program has a set of algorithms that tells it what to do, and what order to do it in.

Posted by Lima A

Last week we talked about online journalism as a game of “Survival of the Fittest”. Here at Suite101, we understand that the switch from print journalism to online may be difficult to get accustomed to as it does require major changes in a writer’s mode of operation.

Writing for print publications is a fairly clear-cut process. The writer’s responsibility is virtually over once they’ve done the research and submitted the piece; leaving things like marketing and sales for a separate department of specialists. In the world of online journalism, writers take on new roles as they are forced to champion their own works.

In a discussion with Suite writers about this paradigm shift, Renee Carver, Children’s TV Feature Writer, reveals that “the biggest thing to keep in mind is that writing for the web is different than writing for print because [online] we don't necessarily have a built-in audience: we have to attract them from search engines.” So, other than building good SEO habits, how does this attraction work?

Thankfully, there are loads of great resources out there dedicated to helping online journalists better understand how to market their work- here’s a sampling of some of the most helpful resources on the web:

- Suite101- You didn’t think we’d leave our own resources out of this one did you? Also make sure to check out previous Limelight blog posts by our resident Search Marketing expert Marc Bitanga.

- Copyblogger.com- We’ve mentioned this site in previous posts, but it was worth another mention in case it was missed the first time around. Copyblogger offers easy-to-follow advice without too much technical mumbo-jumbo.

- Content Marketing Today- The best thing about this site is that they don’t just tell you how content marketing works; they show you. Content Marketing Today offers up numerous success stories from how to write eye-catching headlines to sharing “The Secret of Online Marketing in the 21st Century”

- Influential Marketing Blog- Here, Rohit Bhargava, author of the very successful marketing book Personality Not Included, writes candidly and humorously about how to market oneself successfully.

In the field of online journalism the old adage certainly rings true: “It’s not just what you know, it’s who you know.”

Posted by Peter Berger

It's that time of year again: budgeting season at Suite101. While this tends to be a painful time to some degree (because it leaves me a little less time for other exciting projects underway, such as planning our next expansion step into Europe later this year!), it’s also a rewarding time, allowing me to reflect on the successful past twelve months.

And there are always interesting little nuggets in the flow of numbers such as the idea of "good” costs. Yes, good costs exist, even in a business, even in challenging times. These are costs that measure our success more reliably than traffic or even revenue. I keep mentioning to our financial team that we are actually in the business of increasing our writer payouts: the continuous and ever increasing stream of royalty payments that we pay our writers each month. In my opinion, this is a perfect example of a “good” cost.

On that measure we have been quite successful, tripling these payments (or “costs”) in the year. Over the past few months our best writers continue to make over $2,000 each, month after month. What continues to amaze people is that these writers would have made that much even if they had taken the past few months off: most of the royalties come from popular articles they wrote awhile ago. Try that feat in your current job!

I'll head back to my budget spreadsheets and will look forward to our first writers who can not only quit their day job to write full time, but who can opt to do so on Suite101 royalties alone.

Posted by Marci Hotsenpiller

If you live in Seattle, buy the paper tomorrow. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is closing its newsprint "doors" tonight after 146 years of publication. The paper will move online entirely on Wednesday. Watch news history unfold in this moving video address (released this morning), from Editor and Publisher Roger Oglesby...

Posted by Lima A

Let's face the facts. Everyone knows the journalism industry is undergoing a complete dismantling of tradition and routine. No longer fixed to print-driven deadlines and paper distribution, modern media is evolving at breakneck speed. With this in mind, publishers and journalists are turning to online publishing and they may feel pressure to quickly master the web--particularly the subject of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The question is: can anyone truly become a “master” (not to mention quickly) in an ever-changing medium?

Poynter Media business analyst Rick Edmonds interviewed Paul Steiger, editor of ProPublica and former editor of the Wall Street Journal. Edmonds wrote that, while Steiger continually faces the challenge of “getting the web right” in order to maintain high quality journalism standards, there is also a strong sense of “learn-as you-go” when using the web as a new frontier for journalism.

I spoke with Suite101 Feature Writer Mia Carter about web writing in general and SEO issues in particular. Mia is dedicated to learning everything she can about good SEO practices and sharing the information with her colleagues in the Suite101 Writer Forums. She has some wise words to share about a topic most writers find a bit mystifying:

“SEO isn't something you can really figure out per se. It's not an exact science of ‘do x and y will occur.’ It's much more complex than that. So I'm hesitant to say that any of us ‘get it’ entirely. There are SEO professionals who research this stuff for a living who would probably say that even they haven't figured it out!

Part of the problem is that search engine optimization standards (what's good SEO, what's bad SEO, etc.) tend to evolve very quickly. A couple weeks ago, I was speaking with a couple of Suite101's SEO experts and he offered an example of how an SEO standard changed in a matter of six hours! So what's good SEO today may be entirely obsolete six months down the road, which is why I'd argue that no one ever ‘figures it out’”.

These changes are almost Darwinian in nature and as Mia points out, there may never be a time when anyone has got the best SEO practices absolutely pegged. Gaining a steady online readership includes a dedication to identify, and re-examine, the best ways to get a reader’s attention and to have your words “found” by search engines. It’s a classic example of “survival of the fittest”, where only those writers who are willing to constantly adapt their web strategy will survive.

Posted by Marc Bitanga

I recently came across a Los Angeles Times article titled "It's Web 101 for Experienced Intern" that highlighted how Lois, a 55-year old accomplished magazine editor, had lost her position due to downsizing and was now starting anew with an online startup as an intern.

The article focused on Lois' experience of transitioning from a traditional print media background to the online world. And how she had to learn and adopt new web writing skills & techniques in order to write articles that both appealed to her online audience as well as followed web writing best practices in order for her piece to be found & perform well in search engines.

Through her internship, Lois discovered new research tools such as Google Trends, which allowed her to identify the amount of demand and timing for her subject matter. She also had to construct her articles in a particular way by emphasizing the predominant keyword phrases in the title and subheadings. Most importantly Lois had to shift her thinking from her old print days; instead of writing titles & copy that was quirky she had to be mindful of the type of phrases that her readers would use when searching for her articles...and use that same language within her content.

The biggest hurdle for writers with a similar background as Lois, is to understand that in the traditional print world readers purchase the package (the magazine or newspaper) not a specific article. Readers are fairly loyal to certain magazines & newspapers and will pick up their favorite publication and discover articles within this package. In the online world, readers are much less loyal. They tend to go where they are able to find what they were looking for. Readers discover content mainly through search engines, which makes the discoverabiltiy and effectiveness of an article extremely important. As an example, 90% of Suite101.com's traffic is from search engines such as Google, Yahoo & MSN. Much of this traffic is directly to our articles.

As more newspapers begin to feel the economic crunch, and journalists begin exploring online writing jobs and opportunities, journalists must adopt the concept of writing for the web in order to be successful online.

Posted by Marci Hotsenpiller

A few posts ago I wondered if any of our well-travelled Suite101 writers might be in Dubai for their first writers' festival. The answer was...YES! Meet Beverley Ann Cruz, one of our contributing writers at Suite101.com

Beverley lives in the United Arab Emirates, and works as an editor for a food and lifestyle magazine based in Dubai. She attended the festival and sent us this written “postcard” from Dubai:

"The first Emirates International Festival of Literature had a successful run last week (February 26 – March 1) at the InterContinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City. Although the temperature was severely warm, it didn’t deter the city’s residents – both expatriates and locals - from braving the heat (and the partial sandstorm on the weekend) to attend the events.

The festival hosted over 60 international authors – including writer Wilbur Smith and business lecturer Robin Sharma – and held more than 50 events with panel discussions and Q&A sessions in Arabic and English. Even though Canada’s Margaret Atwood pulled out due to censorship issues, she still contributed by participating in a debate on cultural preconceptions and censorship via video link.

As a food lover and curious about the cuisine of my adopted home of Dubai, I attended the discussion, ‘The True Taste of Arabia’ with award-winning cookery book author Claudia Rosen, Taste of Arabia author Jessie Parker and Leah Fielding, senior editor of food and lifestyle publication Spinneys FOOD. The session was chaired by Jane Hodges and was attended by a crowd of mostly western expatriates who keenly listened to the panel chart the evolution of Arabian food.

Some of the main influences on the cuisine that were pinpointed was the spread of Islam, limited availability of fresh ingredients due to the harsh landscape and the high use of non-perishable foods like pulses and dried lime, as they were easier to preserve in the extreme temperatures. As Parker, who has dined with Bedouin families in the UAE explained, “It was quite a rustic cuisine dictated by circumstances.”

It was interesting to note that traditional Arabian cuisine was actually more influenced by India rather than the Levant region, with staple meals consisting of rice, curries and vegetables. However, today eating Arabian food in Middle Eastern restaurants equates to hummus and tabbouleh, which is an influence of Lebanon and now part of the cuisine, but doesn’t do justice to its veritable feast of flavours and traditions.

During the Q&A session, a common questioned raised was where one could actually indulge in true Arabian food in the UAE. Although Parker said it was almost impossible, unless you visited the home of a local, she held out hope that the demand for authentic Arabian food would encourage Arab chefs to cook and promote their cuisine on a larger scale. As a food writer, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the same!"

Posted by Marci Hotsenpiller

Yes it's true: we jumped onto the Twitter-mobile last week with the launch of two Suite101.com twitter feeds. Colin Smith, our editor in chief will be sharing his editorial views and musings from our flagship Twitter feed account @Suite101 starting next week. He’ll also be tweeting about the best Editors' Choice articles, those shining gems of stellar Suite101 writing, as selected by our team editors.

Feel free to follow along whether you’re a Suite101 writer, an avid Suite reader, or simply curious about what the Suite101 network of writers is all about.

As for news and updates on what Suite101 is up to in the larger world (hint: has anyone checked out the international job postings on our Careers page lately?), follow our second Suite101 Twitter feed: @Suite101_news.

And if Twitter is a totally new concept that you’d like to learn more about, here's a great overview from Suite101 writer Mia Carter in her article “What is Twitter?”

Posted by Marc Bitanga

As part of my role with Suite101 I help monitor the buzz about our online brand. I keep my eye on what people are saying and the general opinion that's posted about Suite101 on blogs, websites & social networks.

While searching Twitter, a relatively new yet very popular social network, I came across this Tweet from Michelle Devon who has written for Suite101 in the past. Michelle has also written for Helium and is currently a writer for Associated Content.

She gave a rather fair review in her blog post about Suite101 with both good points and areas we need to work on. But one of the things I found interesting is she also was candid about the earning potential of each website. One of the more popular questions we hear from prospective writers is regarding potential earnings. "How much can I make with Suite101?".

Here are some of her comments:

"[Suite101 is] hands down the highest payer of them all on average..."

"...Suite101 is the real deal. I would imagine if I hadn't quit writing for them, that average would be higher, since older articles would get more views from new visitors."

To be fair, she did mention that Associated Content has a different payment structure and ultimately chose to write with them because of personal preference. However this illustrates that Suite101 can be profitable for writers who are willing to write and contribute over the long-term because they receive earnings for the life of their article.

Posted by Aaron Park

A couple of good articles for writers and publishers everywhere, on the challenges faced by traditional publishing. Read on for some new and novel approaches borrowed from the tech world on how promote books...

http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/02/26/how-publishing-can-learn-from-valve/

http://www.edrants.com/the-publishing-industry-an-economic-thought-experiment/

Posted by Lima A

A few weeks back, I received an interesting comment on a blog post I wrote about journalism moving towards a primarily online basis. It hadn’t really occurred to me (as it did to my commenter), that doomsday warnings surrounding the death of print may indeed stir up fears that audiences will no longer be receiving facts, but will be subject to various points of view from untrained citizen journalists and anyone else in possession of a digital camera or cellular phone.

While this fear is certainly valid, I can’t help but think the advent of digital media only suggests that we need to look at how we have been presenting these “facts”. In a tumultuous world, audiences seem less inclined to simply believe what they are told. They’re seeking new ways to communicate about the events that unfold around them.

Nikki Usher follows this lead in her latest post over at the Online Journalism Review stating that although citizen journalism can be threatening for professional journalists, “the reality is that once something is published (usually on Web sites), it belongs to the audience of readers and becomes part of a conversation about the news.”

Indeed it is this “conversation”, as Usher astutely points out, that digital media encourages. Not the death of print, or the eradication of traditional news broadcasting. Digital media see the World Wide Web as just that-- a global web that connects people from all corners of the earth. Using the Web as a means of looking at news, we are able to see not only the facts and the many sides of a single story, but we are able to converse about it in a new way via comments, blogs and social networking.

Abating these fears will undoubtedly take some time and some getting used to. But perhaps we can accept that some changes are good-- especially those that facilitate conversation and interaction between communities. There are many different voices making up the news today. Professional journalists have two choices: sit back and lament the demise of “news as we knew it” or take the lead in this new conversation.

Posted by Marci Hotsenpiller

A new year, a new round of book festivals! Personal favorites include the Vancouver International Writers Festival, the esteemed Edinburgh Festival of Books, the Paris Salon du Livre and even the unlikely-located LA Times Festival of Books. (Though I have yet to check out the Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival...) The new addition this year is the Emirates International Festival of Literature starting next week in Dubai but not without its share of controversy. It looks like censorship has raised its head with several authors (including Canada’s Margaret Atwood) pulling out in protest. Follow the story in The Bookseller and the London Guardian.

I know we have a group of internationally-roving Suite101 writers who continually surprise us with notes from their travels around the world. Anyone planning to attend Dubai? Drop us a note if you do…

Posted by Marc Bitanga

For many of you who have worked with us here at Suite101 over the past couple of years this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Recent findings of Alexa.com (a leading website that tracks the visit rate to top websites) reveals that Suite101.com is now one of the top 5 most visited Canadian websites. Figures were compiled using Alexa traffic data for the month of January.

Below is the list of the complete list of Top 15 Canadian Websites, including their Alexa rankings.

1. Metro Lyrics - 419 - Song Lyric Database
2. Plenty of Fish - 459 - Dating Community
3. Government of Canada - 597 - Government
4. CBC - 1,352 - Content
5. Suite101.com - 1,641 - Content
6. Canoe.ca - 1,642 - Content
7. Canada.com - 1,645 - Content
8. The Weather Network - 1,650 - Content
9. TD Canada Trust - 1,749 - Commerce: Banking
10. Rogers Communications - 1,943 - Content
11. Spintop Games - 2,229 - Commerce: Games
12. The Toronto Star - 2,631 - Content
13. The Globe and Mail - 2,720 - Content
14. CTV - 2,756 - Content
15. TSN - The Sports Network - 2,836 - Content

Among the Top 5 Canadian websites, we share the honors with the likes of Metro Lyrics, Plenty of Fish, the Canadian Government & CBC. Rounding off the Top 15 are well known websites such as TSN, CTV, Canada.com & Canoe.ca.

As you can imagine, upon hearing the news we here at Suite101 are ecstatic and are looking forward to updates to this new index as we track our progress. This news is also an excellent indicator that Suite101 has great content, and most importantly helps freelance writers attract more readers to their articles.

Posted by Marci Hotsenpiller

One thing we see at Suite101 is the holiday “rush.” Leading up to popular holidays such as Valentine’s Day, Mothers Day, and Halloween we see an increase in the number of people searching for holiday-related information. (No surprise really!)

For online writers who earn revenue when people read their work, this “rush” presents obvious opportunities. Some of the most successful Suite writers start posting holiday articles months in advance. Curious online searchers find them, as do editors looking for experts to quote about holiday topics. In some cases, print and online news publications ask Suite101 writers if they can republish their work.

Michael Vyskocil, our Suite101 Recipes Feature Writer, knows about this. An editor in Detroit read his Valentine’s Day recipes and asked permission to reprint them. Michael was thrilled. How else does this holiday “rush” influence his writing? Here’s what Michael said:

Do your holiday articles get the most interest on Suite, compared to others?

I've noticed they receive a fair amount of traffic, but any articles that are seasonal-based also receive interest. The caramel apple pie recipe is one seasonal article that receives a large number of page views in the autumn. I've also noticed Halloween articles generate a significant amount of interest.

Where do you get your story ideas?

From a variety of sources. I have a comprehensive recipe file at home, and many times I'll find inspiration by flipping through recipes I've collected. Other times, I'll read about a subject in a book or magazine and get the desire to find out more. This happened with the recipes I shared on Suite last October from Lynne Rossetto Kasper. Lynne is the host of The Splendid Table, a radio program broadcast in the U.S. on National Public Radio. I saw Lynne years ago on television demonstrating her Italian recipes. One advantage of the Internet is that contact information for individuals like Lynne is more accessible than it used to be. It was so much fun chatting with Lynne last June about her new cookbook and radio program. And since I also photograph many of the recipes that appear on Suite101, I had great fun preparing some of the dishes featured in the article series

In your opinion, what would be the ideal meal for Feb 14th?

For Valentine's dinner, it would be a simple meal the whole family can enjoy. Penne Pasta with Sausage and Peppers is a great dish with splashes of red provided by the peppers. A favorite side salad featuring red bell peppers cut in the shape of hearts with a cookie cutter is also appropriate and easy to prepare. Finally, for dessert, a rich chocolate soufflé is elegant and delicious, but if you have kids and want to involve them, you can have them help prepare Valentine Heart Sandwich Cookies.

How long have you been writing for Suite101?

Since 2003, so about 5 1/2 years. Thanks to my experience writing for Suite, I've landed writing assignments for national and local magazines. It's a privilege to be part of this dynamic site.

Posted by Lima A

In a recent meeting with search expert Marc Bitanga, I learned of a unique tool called Google Insights. The beta version of Insights was released on August 5th of 2008 and is aimed at analyzing keyword trends.

There are two specific purposes behind this new tool in the Google family. The first purpose is to analyze trends in the seasonality of a search term, which is roughly how long a search term redeems high results, and the geographic distribution of the term, which is where in the world that term redeems the highest results.

A good example of how this tool works is to track the volume of search on a seasonal topic. A search for 2010 Olympics showed that interest in this topic started to rise in 2006. Incidentally, this is the year that Vancouver’s Mayor, Sam Sullivan, was passed the Olympic flag at the end of the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. Meanwhile search for this topic drops but picks up in 2008 as the Olympic games get closer. It will be interesting to see the volume of search for this term come 2010 and beyond.

Finding out the geographic distribution of a term also rendered interesting results. Australia, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Canada yielded the highest results for the word “neighbourhood” spelled in British English. Yet when spelled as “neighborhood” the search yielded highest results in the United States. These results show that high search volume can be affected by as simple a detail as regional spelling; an insight that more online writers and search marketers need to take into account when researching keywords.

What Google has created here is a sophisticated tool that reveals that the nature of a successful search isn’t just reliant on what keywords are used, but when and where those terms are used.

Posted by Aaron Park

This week's "tech two seconds" asks: does printing the New York Times on paper cost more than sending subscribers a Kindle e-reader? Here's a post to ponder:

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2009/1/printing-the-nyt-costs-twice-as-much-as-sending-every-subscriber-a-free-kindle

Posted by Marci Hotsenpiller

In our ongoing look at the shift in traditional newspapers, we’ve been curiously watching the New York Times. Long considered a news institution around the world, the Times has joined other media companies in recently announcing significant revenue declines.

The idea that the Times as we know it—the newsprint edition—could disappear altogether has recently been mentioned. Michael Hirschorn, contributing editor at The Atlantic magazine provided the starkest look yet at this possibility in the January issue.

Hirschorn suggests that the Times could live on in an online-only format but laments that this would mean the loss of the “civilized ritual” of going out to get the Sunday morning edition of the paper.

"It will also mean the end of a certain kind of quasi-bohemian urban existence for the thousands of smart middle-class writers, journalists, and public intellectuals who have, until now, lived semi-charmed kinds of lives of the mind."

To equate the loss of a newsprint edition with the loss of opportunities for writers shows a gap in an understanding of the Internet. At Suite101 and other online publishers, we see the possibilities for online writing expanding, not contracting. We see the gates to entry opening rather than closing. And while we applaud citizen journalism sites and blogging, we see that most online readers are still interested in knowing that certain sites maintain editorial standards and publish writers that follow journalistic principles in their work.

While I can join Hirschorn in lamenting the possible loss of the paper (though not in the airport, where I might celebrate NOT having to carry around the 4lb/2kg Sunday edition) I can’t join him in worrying about the future of news. Not while great options exist for writers to keep publishing their best work online, where it can be easily found and respectfully read by millions.

Posted by Lima A

The current state of economic uncertainty has recently monopolized the bulk of online and offline media coverage. We’ve been following one aspect of this storyline quite closely: the demise of traditional print media. While it’s tempting to focus on this alone, it’s also interesting to look at how the Internet is taking the place of print media as the new global standard for communication.

A recent Gallup poll run by Gallup.com has confirmed that use of the Internet has almost doubled over the past five years. The results show that 48% of Americans now use the Internet for more than an hour each day, a staggering increase from 26% in 2002. Not only that, but it seems that the demographics of Internet users are changing. According to the same study, gaps in Internet use between formerly infrequent users, like non-working, unmarried and post-graduate users, boast double-digit gains with an increase by 13% of the non-working demographic, 10% of unmarried and 12% of post-graduates, all between 2007 and 2008.

On a global scale there has been an increase in Internet use. In 1995, a mere 0.4% of the world population reported using the Internet. Now, according to statistics reported by Internet World Stats, an estimated 23.3% of the population uses the Internet on a regular basis; a trajectory that will likely only rise over time.

In short, while communication tools such as newspapers, magazines and print media may be facing serious challenges, the Internet continues to flourish. Good news indeed for journalists and writers everywhere who are making the transition to writing for the web.

Posted by Marc Bitanga

Click here for a larger version of the presentation.

Posted by Dirk Westphal

Thank you, Marci, for the opportunity to be a guest in the Limelight Blog all the way from Berlin. And we truly have some exciting developments here:

Our success is really only due to our great writers – we currently have about 350 on Suite101.de. It's wonderful to see how they just keep getting better and better attracting more and more readers. Suite101.de is fast becoming the largest independent, German general interest online magazine. With new features and several editorial specials planned, 2009 will be an exciting year.

So we really have some good news in times of the global media crisis. Suite101.de attracted 1.04 million unique visitors in December 2008! With that Suite101's German site now has almost five times as many readers as we did six months ago. That's much earlier than we had ever expected. And January is starting 2009 off with a good start too.

Also in terms of articles we have something to celebrate: a few days before Christmas, Judith Weibrecht, travel journalist from Fürth (a lovely city in the heart of Bavaria), published Suite101.de's 10,000th article. The title being: Tschechien: Per Rad von Bad zu Bad (Czech Republic: By Bike from Spa to Spa).

We're not quite yet as big as Suite101.com, but we still plan to take you over in March 2027 ;-)

Posted by Marci Hotsenpiller

Q: What goes from zero to one million in ten months?

A: Suite101.de!!

We're popping champagne corks on both sides of the Atlantic today as the news is official: the German writers' network launched by Suite101.com Media in February of last year, broke through the important one million mark in December. Suite101.de attracted over one million unique visitors during the month of December.

Was it the great articles?

The quality of writers?

Let's ask Dirk Westphal, our editor-in-chief in Berlin...

Posted by Lima A

Every year, professional journalism faces increased challenges and opportunities as traditional media organizations struggle to embrace the online world.

Case in point: The internet provides the general public with exceptional opportunities to become journalists themselves. Popular sites, like YouTube, have given rise to the media phenomenon known as Citizen Journalism: a type of journalism requiring no professional accreditation, that allows users to assume a journalistic role simply by being in the right place, at the right time.

With no way of controlling massive amounts of people-generated content on the internet, the practice of traditional journalism is forced to adapt itself to contemporary "free-for-all" media coverage. Yet with every challenge, comes opportunity.

In an article written for iMedia Connection, Bennett Zucker recognizes that “tools and applications are the new editorial bundles.” Proof of this concept lies in the fact more and more news organizations elect to support user-generated content by embracing, rather than condemning, this new brand of media.

CBC.ca, a Canadian news company, hopped on the bandwagon with a feature called “Your Story” wherein people can document what’s important to them and "what counts in [their] community".

The site supports citizen journalism by allowing individuals to upload video, text or email submissions from cell phones or computers. The stories may have originated within the community, and/or they may also include images, tips and comments “enhanced” by professional journalists.

With the global economic crisis in full bloom, traditional media can no longer ignore the inevitable trajectory. Bennett Zucker’s bold conclusion may indeed ring true: it's time for the journalism industry to "lead with technology, or die."