29 May 2013

Google's Penguin 2.0 Update Has Arrived





(credit: national geographic)


Google Penguin 2.0 Update Background:


May 25 saw the implementation of the long-awaited Google Penguin 2.0 update.

Google started cleaning up the quality of content pulled into their search engine going back to the Panda update in 2011 which targeted low quality websites; ones with duplicate content, thin content, scraped content.

2012 heralded the blackhat spam update, Penguin, targeting those websites which were full of spammy links and redirects, and the ones where users were served pop-ups and pop-unders and redirects to porn websites and websites offering Viagra pills.

Penguin 2.0 update leads on from this, in an aggressive way, detailed below.


What Are The Main Factors?

The Google Penguin update is a fairly standard update that was aimed at reducing the webspam within the Google results. There have however been some highly documented factors that the Google Penguin update specifically targeted.

Google have publicly stated that the update was aimed at reducing web spam techniques utilized by many SEO’s, and the factors above clearly demonstrate that they have tried to attack web spam and low-quality content. 

About 2.3% of English-US queries are affected to the degree that a regular user might notice.


What can you do to improve your sites Page Rank post-Penguin if you notice your rank has dropped significantly?



>>Clean up your website. Remove old, duplicate ads, broken links, photos that are too big and load slowly.

>>Check the backlinks you have - do they help or harm your ranking? Use the Google disavow tool to remove backlinks which do not serve you in a positive way.

>>Avoid having too many ads above the fold.

>>Verify your website with Google by using an exact-match domain (for example, make sure you have an email address which matches your domain name, such as info@mydomainname.com from http://www.mydomainname.com) and get verified now.

>>Have a responsive website design: if your site takes a long time to load, revise this to make sure it loads faster. One way to do this is to use CSS to ensure that whichever device a visitor uses to view your website is an optimised experience.

>>Stop using paid links that pass PageRank - you will receive a penalty notice from Google if you continue to use paid links to make your PageRank higher.

These are just some of the Google Penguin 2.0 updates. Even if you do just one of the suggested improvements your PageRank will thank you.

Ruby Binns-Cagney is a successful self-published Author at smashwords.com and at Amazon.com for Kindle.





22 May 2013

Lay Lady Lay - The Detective Macaulay Murders Trilogy #2




Published now at smashwords.com and amazon.com for Kindle



***IT’S HERE! The 2nd book in the Detective Macaulay Murders Trilogy!!***



Fast paced, sexy, and exciting !!!!




"Lay Lady Lay" - The Detective Macaulay Murders Trilogy #2 

picks up the pace right where "One For The Money - book #1" ended.  


A relentless sadist has put a target on Detective Macaulay's back. 

The clock is ticking. 


Will time run out for Detective Macaulay?




Overview of "Lay Lady Lay"



One dead blonde. 

One bomb. 

One sadist. 

Detective Macaulay is not about to quit.


Available to own at amazon.com for Kindle and Smashwords.com for Apple iPad, iPhone, Barnes and Noble Nook or Kobo Books now.

Ruby Binns-Cagneyis a successful self-published Author at smashwords.com and at Amazon.com for Kindle.

18 May 2013

Smashwords - Latest Self-Publishing News




10 Trends Driving The Future of Self-Publishing Books


10 Trends Shaping the Future of Publishing from Smashwords, Inc.

Mark Coker has spent years analysing the self-published ebook market, and has produced compelling results for the effectiveness of the platform, with real-time results, which can also be viewed online via SlideShare.



Latest Survey reveals sales tactics for newly self-published

Follow the link below to read the results of the latest survey:

Smashwords: New Smashwords Survey Helps Authors Sell More eBooks





Related Articles:


One For The Money is now available at smashwords.com for iPad Nook and Kobo ebook readers and at amazon.com

If you are still thinking about launching a self-published ebook, use the contact us form to get in touch. We can help.


Ruby Binns-Cagneyis a successful self-published Author at smashwords.com and at Amazon.com for Kindle.

16 May 2013

One For The Money - The Detective Macaulay Murders Trilogy #1 - smashwords.com



One For The Money is now published at smashwords.com for iPad, Nook, Kobo, Sony Reader, Kindle Apps, Apple iBookstore and at amazon.com for Kindle and Kindle Cloud Reader




Newhall Yard Police Detective Finkel Macaulay is up against her old adversary, Bo Harknett, only this time she may have taken on more than she can handle. 

With her partner, Detective Baines, she hunts down the notorious serial killer, Bo Harknett to the darkest crevices of New Jersey, where he remains at large.

His latest victim's flesh was branded with a mark which simply read "XIII"

leaving Detective Macaulay even more determined to catch him.

Up against the clock, Detective Macaulay knows she has four hours left to catch Harknett before he skips town forever, and she is adamant that she's not going to let him escape.

Not after he tortured her, and left her for dead.

Has time run out for Detective Macaulay?


Will Harknett's final victim be Detective Macaualay ?

Ruby Binns-Cagney is a successful self-published Author at smashwords.com and at Amazon.com for Kindle.



10 May 2013

This Month's Writing Challenge - May and June






 Available at amazon.com for Kindle


This month was always going to be tough. The weather has become warmer, nicer, more enticing, the beer garden is now open and ice cold bottled beers are calling my name. Temptation is all around. Add my birthday to this mix. Double temptation. How to deal with it all?

Take time off from writing, one day off will not damage any credibility I have as an author. Go for it. I went for it, and it was a wonderful day, great sunshine, lots of ice cold drinks and fun with family and friends.

Back to writing now.

This month I have already completed two out of three stages of promoting my new novel. Perhaps you need to read this sentence again:

I have already competed two out of three stages of promoting my new novel. 

One thing you need to do when you are planning to publish a new book is let people know. Use social media but bear in mind sometimes one of the rules is not to self-promote products on your social media profile. Check before you do anything, and avoid being banned by the platforms you use. 

Weeks ago, when I planned my novel from start to finish, I also planned my marketing strategy to create interest in this book, PRIOR to my novel being published. 

This works well no matter the genre, and once you have a plan you can add to it or change it as much as you like. Things you can do to create interest in your yet to be published book includes tweeting out a link to preview copies, asking questions and providing the answers for prospective readers to comment on, and participating in forums in advance so that it does not look like you are sending spam by constantly commenting on your posts with endless links to your new book. 

My final challenge for May and June included publishing on time.

This has been a real challenge for me given all the distractions this month has presented. 

Once I had advertised the publication date I was pretty much tied to it. This is one of the advantages of pre-selling your new book by marketing pre-publication, you can create advance interest in the book, and carry the momentum through to the publication date.   

Now it's published, I'm ready for the next writing challenge!


Ruby Binns-Cagney is a successful self-published Author at smashwords.com and at Amazon.com for Kindle.

 


5 May 2013

[MOVIE REVIEW] "After Earth" - Peter David - Now A Movie Starring Will Smith & Jaden Smith







 "After Earth"  Will Smith, Jaden Smith; Dir: M. Night Shyamalan - Watch the trailer below:







"After Earth"

Sony Pictures Entertainment presents "After Earth" - starring Will Smith and Jaden Smith. Set one thousand years into the future, after earth has been destroyed by an environmental apocalypse and Humans call another planet - Nova Prime - their home. The action scenes are fast, and truly scary, and will leave you cheering for the underdogs to prevail. This movie delivers on all levels, and leaves you breathless, and in awe of the beautiful scenery depicted in high resolution. The only downside is the stiffness of Will Smith's character, and inability to emotionally connect with his screen son. Sophie Okenedo also features.. [9 out of 10]


Story written by Will Smith, and screenplay written by Director M Night Shyamalan and Gary Whitter. Check your local listings for showings near you.

"After Earth" is a screen adaption of the brilliant Sci-Fi novel, written by acclaimed author Peter Davies; who is known for writing the most loved 'Star Trek Next Generation' series, and has a diverse body of work including reviving 'The Incredible Hulk' comic; and is a writing contributor to 'Babylon Five' as well as several tv screenplays.

After Earth - the novel Peter David is available to buy from all good book retailers.

Product Details


  • ISBN-13: 9780345543202
  • Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 5/28/2013