According to Google’s official blog, the new search indexing system was built because of the way the web is growing. With the advent of videos, images, news and real-time updates as well as higher user expectations, it has to keep up with such evolution of the web.

While the old index had several layers, of which the main layer or web Google needs to analyze every couple of weeks, Caffeine analyzes the web in smaller portions, updates its search index on a continuous basis, globally and also index web pages on an enormous scale. Hence, fresher information will be available to the public, and much faster too.

Mashable did a test on the new Google Caffeine, taking the developer version and comparing it to not only the current version of Google, but also to Bing as well. While the test was not scientifically correct, it found that the new Google was indeed faster, relies more on keyword strings to produce better results, and it is on par with Bing to get real-time information on breaking events.

Having said these, how is Google Caffeine going to affect your website rankings? Mainly, the speed at which Google will be able to update rankings due to website changes will be much faster. You or your SEO consultant will need to make sure that your website’s design is clean-cut, has no broken links, no spam elements or invisible text in the background, and the navigation from one page to another is well organized. You must also review the social bookmarks in your website. The more bookmark links you have to and from trusted websites, the better it is for your website. Lastly, sites with fresher content or updated news every day will be ranked much higher. This still holds true for Caffeine, as it does with the old Google index.

Overall, Google Caffeine is not going to have a huge effect on how you conduct your SEO, although it varies from site to site. Definitely, Caffeine will only get better as more updated features are developed, and while we wait to see that happen, just continue to do what you have always been doing for your website, and more aggressively – link building and content organizing – and the result will be a better experience for your users.

Meanwhile, if you want to know in detail how the old Google index works, here is a graphical representation, thanks to ppcblog.

1. The first Glance
Visitors to your website usually look at the top left hand corner of any website. Therefore, it is important to put your essential information there, such as your offers and promotions, and how your customers can benefit. Some visitors are at your website only for a little while, and it is vital to engage them as long as possible, or better still, engage them until they are ready to make a purchase. You should be able to let your visitors know what you are selling or offering for services right away, instead of having them search for it. Be mindful of how long your site takes to load too. It might just annoy some visitors who are inpatient.

2. Navigation
If your customers are looking for more information, they will loiter longer on your website to search for it. In this case, make sure that your information are easy to find. Place your information in the usual places, and make it very obvious what your visitors need to click on in order to find what they need. Never have more than 5 choices in your main navigation. Although creativity is a plus, follow the rules strictly when it comes to navigation and usability.

3. Contact Information
Will your customers, or rather, the search engines such as Yahoo or Google be able to find you when they need you? You must put your contact information very clearly and accurately so that they can be easily found. Usually, visitors will visit your website a few times before they decide to purchase, and when they do, make sure it is easy for them to contact you. It should be easy for them to complete an order through your website or get more information. Include a clear call to action.

4. Above the Fold Focus
Most of the time, your visitors will not bother to scroll down your page, unless you have already convinced them, in your first few lines, that it’s worth their while to do so. Hence, make sure your most vital information and propositions are above the fold. Visitors who have reached your FAQs page or your blog will be interested enough to continue to read what they have found.

5. Inviting Content
Give your visitors something they can look forward to every time they visit your website, and this means updating your website frequently. You need to give them something of value so that they will return, and this can be a blog, your latest events, or your new products or services.

6. Well-Organized Pages
Make sure that your page layout is clear, concise, and is able to give your visitors exactly what they want without them having to search for it. Visualise yourself as the customer, and try navigating your own website. Decide what you want the customer to know, and plan before you write, so that you can be sure  of coherent paragraphs.

7. Visual Appeal
While content is very important, so is an attractive website. Research on the colours that will work well for your target audience, and remember to leave some open space so that your site does not look too cluttered. Engage a professional website designer if you can afford because it is worth it.

8. Portraying Sincerity and Trustworthiness
People usually buy when they trust the supplier, and if you can ensure that your website is trustworthy, people will be more likely to buy from you. The search engines also base your web rankings on how trustworthy they think your pages are, so it is important to take this into consideration when you build your website.

9. Social Media Functions
Social media such as Facebook, DIGG and de.li.cious are getting more and more popular, and you may want to be sure each page on your website has a button that enables your visitors to share it with their friends easily. This will help you promote your products and services.

10. A Polished Finish
Finally, before you promote your website, make sure all your information are correct, and all your links are working. Check your spelling, layout, and grammar, in different browsers like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, the three most popular browsers nowadays. Visitors will have more faith in you if you have an error-free and up-to-date website.

We have reviewed Facebook in detail, and the following are some ways that it could make your business experience better sales and profits.

1. Facebook Pages
Facebook Pages give businesses their own profiles on the social networking site, giving your business or brand an identity on Facebook. With such a Page, interested fans or customers can become “fans” of your business or brand Page, and when they do, all their friends will see this and perhaps become interested too. You are able to store photos, videos, company information, and also custom applications on your Page. All the activities which you post on your Page will be posted to your mini feed for all your friends to see.

2. Groups
Groups on Facebook are similar to Pages, but these are meant to be built around a group of people rather than an individual business or brand. There are no “Become a Fan” feature here, and groups do not share as much information with the users’ friends as users interact.

Many groups on Facebook can provide useful information and professional connections for your business. Each group features a Wall (like a guestbook with messages) and threaded discussion lists. Rather than trying to search for groups, watch the groups that your friends are joining, and if you find them interesting for your business, join them!

3. Advertising
Facebook has an advertising platform that enables businesses to specify a particular demographic group to target for their products and services, and then broadcast their advertisements to this particular group. You can also choose to narrow your target audience by age, sex, gender, the groups or fan Pages they join, or even specific keywords.

4. Applications
You can ask your developers to write software for the Applications in Facebook. This can help promote your business on Facebook. Applications give you full power to say or promote anything you want about your business, and use the social tie-ins provided by Facebook to do this. For example, Visa created the “Visa Business Network” application which extracts information about users and allows them to better network with other small business owners. They even integrated with Facebook advertising by offering those that install the application a credit towards advertising on Facebook.

On a personal level, if you blog, twitter, or read feeds, there are Facebook apps available for all these services. If you have already used these tools professionally, you can integrate them into your Facebook page.

After you add the respective app, you simply do what you were already doing and let the app do the work. You can see the Twitter updates from your Facebook contacts without necessarily following their updates in Twitter itself. If your business’ blog is on WordPress, you can add the WordPress app and your posts will automatically be pushed to your Facebook profile, along with recent comments. If you don’t host your blog with WordPress.com, you can easily use the built-in Notes application to post your blog feed as you publish. It will let your contacts know through your mini-feed when you have posted a new entry.

5. Polls
Facebook Polls are excellent for marketers looking to get a quick answer about a particular feature they would like to implement, or just to find out information and opinions from a specific demographic group. 

6. Facebook Connect
This feature enables a business website to easily integrate with Facebook. Businesses can integrate Facebook into users’ login process, retrieve users’ friend information, and even post data back to users’ mini feed so all their friends can see their activities. Learn more about this feature here.

7. Others
Here are several other ways to reinforce your Facebook business experience:

1. Post professional or business photos to reinforce your brand.
2. Post your newsletter subscription information and archives somewhere in your profile.
3. Add your Facebok URL to your email signature and any marketing collateral (business cards, leaflets, etc.) so prospects can learn more about you.
4. Post business updates on your wall. Focus on business activities, such as “Working with ABC Company on project K.”
5. Share useful articles and links to presentation and valuable resources that interest customers and prospects on your wall, to establish credibility.
6. Before traveling, check contacts locations so you can meet with those in the city where you’re heading.
7. Research prospects before meeting or contacting them.
8. Upload your contacts from your email client to find more connections.
9. Use “Find Friends” for suggestions of other people you may know to expand your network even further.
10. Look for mutual contacts on your contacts’ friend lists.
11. Find experts in your field and invite them as a guest blogger on your blog or speaker at your event.
12. Market your products by posting discounts and package deals.
13. Share survey or research data to gain credibility.
14. “Suggest Friends” to clients and colleagues — by helping them, you establish trust.

15. Post upcoming events including webinars, conferences and other programs where you or someone from your company will be present.
16. Update your group or fan page on a regular basis with helpful information and answers to questions.
17. Join network, industry and alumni groups related to your business.
18. Use search to find groups and fan pages related to your business by industry, location and career.

With so many possibilities, if you haven’t already use Facebook for your business, consider giving it a try using some of the tools mentioned above. Although this networking tool still has a long way to go, they will continue to grow too alongside your business. Have fun!

First, find a photograph of a picture that is compatible with your other chosen photographs. When you blend you must pre-visualize and feel the design.

Second, select a background then right click and select inverse to close on the subject. Background is preferably white.

Third, select the Move tool and click inside of the selection and drag it over to your desired image. Dragging will create a new layer on the new document which is a replica of the original selection.

Fourth, create a layer mask on the layer of the object you drag over. Click on Layer > add Layer Mask or click on the Add a Mask icon in the layers palette. Choose the linear gradient tool with foreground to transparent and black as the foreground color and swipe. The longer the swipes you create the smoother the blend will be. Gradient layer masking allows you to create professional blends.

To add more character to the final image, you can create a gradient fill layer on the adjustment/fill layer icon on the bottom of the layers palette. Choose the settings in the dialog box. To see scale the possible output, change the blending modes and opacity. After those easy steps, you can now have a glimpse of your blended masterpiece!

To be properly guided, you can view rubylith by toggling the “|” key or going on the channels palette onto the layer mask channel. Click the eye on and off. For the beginners, the rubylith will teach you the right thing to do. To bring back your original pixels on the layer mask, select white but you can use any level of grey in between.

To practice with blending images, what you are advised to do, is take a picture of a subject and drag it over to different backgrounds like sunset, beach or other significant backgrounds. Make a good layer mask to cover the rough edges and put the blending mode on screen, lighten or overlay. You can use layer masking if you did not make selections beforehand. You can also use the star gradient tool to create starburst effect. Open your mind to other possibilities and enjoy the blending power of Photoshop!

Master The Basics Of Adobe Photoshop tutorials with the 2 Hour Easy To Use Adobe Photoshop tutorials for beginners.

1. Create a blog and submit it to free blog directories.
2. Submit your website address to the major search engines such as Google and Yahoo.
3. Optimize each page of your website for a particular keyword or search phrase.
4. Add a link in your email signature to your website.
5. Leave comments or feedback on other people’s blogs with a back link to your site.
6. Answer people’s questions on www.answers.yahoo.com.
7. Write a press release and submit it to the press releases sites on the web. 
8. Advertise your website in the appropriate category on CraigsList.com.
9. Provide a testimonial on a product/service that you have used in exchange for a back link to your site.
10. Make a custom 404 error pages for your website redirecting people to your home page.
11. Use PPC search engine advertising.
12. Add a “bookmark this site” or “Share this site” link on all pages of your website.
13. Have a tell-a-friend form on your site.
14. Send articles to ezines publishers that include a link to your website.
15. Give away a freebie to keep people coming back to your site.
16. Add an RSS feed to your blog.
17. Submit your site to any related niche directories on the net.
18. Participate in a banner or link exchange program.
19. Create a software program and give it away for free.
20. Purchase the misspellings or variations of your domain name, or those of your competitors.
21. Buy a domain name related to your site that is already receiving traffic and forward it to your site.
22. Pass out business cards with your domain on them everywhere you go.
23. Start an affiliate program and let your affiliates send you visitors.
24. Start a page on social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace.
25. Submit a viral video to youtube.com, myspacetv.com, dailymotion.com, etc.
26. Conduct and publish surveys to your website.
27. Find joint venture partners that will send you traffic.
28. Start your own newsletter or ezines.
29. Use an autoresponder or email campaign to keep people coming back to your site.
30. Send a free copy of your product to other site owners in exchange for a product review.
31. Buy and use a memorable domain name.
32. Deep-link your webpages with high page ranks.
33. Submit reviews to Amazon for books and other products that you have read.
34. Use a traffic exchange.
35. Get referrals from similar but non-competing sites.
36. Create and sell a product with resell or giveaway rights.
37. Email your list. If you don’t have one, get one.
38. Participate in forums with page rank of 6 or higher, with an active link in your signature.
39. Ping your article’s website address using Pingomatic or Pingler.com.
40. Sell or place classified ads on www.eBay.com with a link to your site.
41. Post free classified ads on any of the sites that allow them with a link to your site.
42. Exchange reciprocal links with other related websites.
43. Network with other people at seminars or other live events.
44. Purchase advertising in popular newsletters or ezines.
45. Advertise on other product’s “thank you” pages.
46. Create a free eBook and list in on the “free eBook” sites.
47. Create a site map and include a link to the site map on every page of your website. 
48. Use hubsites such as Hubpages, Xomba and Squidoo to get more attention.
49. For SEO, use relevant keyword phrases (two to three words) rather than single keywords for your website.
50. Content is king, and most importantly, fresh content. Keep them updated.

You can download this free report called “Make Money with Digital Photography.” If you’re still undecided, this might change your mind. Here are 18 reasons why digital photography makes a great home career:

1. Minimum equipment required

To make money with digital photography, all you need are: a digital camera, a computer, and Internet access. In fact, you may already have all three.

2. No need for special training

Anybody who can take decent pictures can make money by selling digital photos. You don’t have to have formal training, or so many years of experience. You can be young or old, male or female.

3. Low start-up costs

Aside from the equipment required, you don’t need to make any other investments. This means you can get started immediately.

4. No need to leave home

If you like, you can do sell digital photographs completely from home. Yes, that includes taking photographs.

5. Money in your hard drive

You may already have pictures in your computer that you can sell right away. In fact, you should begin with those.

6. Make money when traveling

If you like to travel, you can make your trip pay for itself by taking pictures on your trip and selling them online.

7. Location independent business

You can have sell your digital photographs from anywhere, as long as you have your equipment (see number 1). This means you could be a nomad and still make a living.

8. Flexible hours

Work when you want, as much as you want. Do it full time or part time. It’s up to you!

9. No need to build websites

Although you’ll be selling digital photographs online, you absolutely don’t have to build a website – unlike other online marketers.

10. Stock photo sites do the marketing for you

You don’t have to do any marketing, either, because stock photo sites do it all for you. All you have to do is take high-quality photographs. (More on that in “Make Money with Digital Photography.”

11. No fees to sell online

You don’t have to pay any fees to sell in stock photo sites. It’s completely free to become a member and start selling your photos.

12. No need to set up a shopping cart

Again, stock photo sites take care of processing payments for your photographs. You will have to be able to accept payments from stock photo sites. A PayPal account should be enough.

13. Enhanced creativity

This business forces you to become more creative, such as in the way you choose the subjects of your pictures, to how you edit them.

14. Sharper photography skills

You have to improve your photography skills if you want to succeed in this business. The longer you keep at it, the better you’ll become.

15. Build your portfolio and expertise

Selling digital photos online helps build your reputation as a photographer. You can easily build a portfolio based on your best-selling pictures.

16. Profit from passion

You can easily combine this home business with a hobby or special interest you have. Because of the wide range of subjects that are in high demand, you don’t have to take pictures that you don’t care about.

17. Steady demand

As more and more stock photos are sold and bought, the demand for fresh photos increases. Marketers always want unique pictures for their materials, which further increases the demand for more digital photos.

18. It’s profitable

Because of low overhead costs, it’s easy to earn a full-time income from selling digital photography. University students are doing it, stay at home Moms are doing it, and you can do it too.

However, you have to know some insider secrets. Which types of photographs sell easily online? How do you avoid legal problems? How do you work with stock photo sites? How can you sell more photos?

You’ll find the answers in “Make Money with Digital Photography.” It’s completely free, so go and grab it now.

Using Save for Web

When your image is ready to be put onto your web page, select “Save for Web”… from the File menu. The “Save for Web” dialog appears:

This dialog box allows you to tell Photoshop how you’d like to optimize your graphic for the internet. You have the ability to select the file format to produce (GIF, JPEG or PNG), what size palette you’d like to use, how to cut down the colors to fit the chosen palette size, how much to dither the optimized image (if at all) and how much image quality to sacrifice in order to produce a smaller file size.

Image views

You will see four tabs above the image view pane on the left side of the screen. These options allow you to view the original image, the optimized version (this is the default), the original and optimized versions side-by-side (“2-Up”) and the original, optimized and two variations on the optimization all together (“4-Up”).

You can use the Zoom tool to zoom in and out of the image; the Hand tool to move the view around; and the Eyedropper tool to select a color from the image which can be used by various color options on the right of the dialog.

Presets

There are many options in the Save for Web dialog, and the choices here can be quite bewildering! Fortunately, there are lists of presets you can choose from to make it easier. Select the Settings: drop-down list, which is located just below the Cancel button, to bring up the list of presets

Three basic image formats exists in the presets – GIF, JPEG and PNG. The rule of thumb is to use JPEG’s for photos and GIF’s for all else. For a full guide on choosing the right image format.

Optimizing GIFs

If you’re creating a GIF you will want to start off with a preset such as GIF 32 Dithered, which works well for most GIFs. From there you can fine-tune the optimization to suit your needs.

Colours

This is where you choose the size of your GIF palette. A palette of 32 colors is often sufficient for web images, but if your image has loads of detail and looks too fuzzy/blurry/banded with 32, up it to 64, 128 or 256. If your image has very few colors in to start with, or doesn’t look too bad with fewer colors, select 16, 8, 4 or even 2! This will make the GIF file size smaller.

Optimizing JPEGs

If you’re creating a JPEG you will want to start off with a preset such as JPEG Medium, which typically works well for most JPEGs. From there you can fine-tune the optimization to suit your needs. Some of the important optimization options are as follows:

Quality

Two ways to alter the compression quality include the Low/Medium/High/Maximum list (for quick access) and the Quality slider (for fine control). The lower the quality setting, the more blurry and bitty the JPEG will appear, but the resulting file size will be smaller.

Progressive

A progressive JPEG is similar to an interlaced GIF. The image loads gradually on the Web page – a low res image first and then the full, high-resolution image. Again, this is great for keeping your viewers on slow modems from getting bored, but it does mean a slightly larger file size. Please note that older browsers don’t support progressive JPEGs.

Matte

If your Photoshop image has transparent areas, you can fill them with a specified matte color with this drop-down box.

Optimizing PNGs

Your options for optimizing a PNG-24 are much the same as those for optimizing a JPEG. Similarly, the options for optimizing a PNG-8 are very similar to those for optimizing a GIF. See the GIF and JPEG sections above for details.

And, if you really can’t be bothered…
…you can always allow Photoshop to optimize the image for you! Select the little arrow just to the right of the Settings… box and select Optimize to File Size.

In the dialog that pops up, choose Auto Select GIF/JPEG then enter your desired file size. Click on OK and Photoshop will do the rest for you! If you’re not pleased with the results you can tweak the settings as described in the sections above, or just choose a slightly larger file size and try again.

Saving the image

Once you’re happy with your optimized image, click OK to save it to disk. The file saved will be a copy of your original image, unless you specifically overwrite the original with the optimized file.

Both are excellent software for manipulating digital photographs and images. In this article, I’ll discuss some of the ways the two software are different. Hopefully, after reading this, you can make an informed decision.

Keep in mind Adobe’s intentions when you consider each one. In their website, Adobe says that Photoshop CS4 (the latest version) is ideal for “professional photographers, serious amateur photographers, graphic designers, web designers.”

Unfortunately, Adobe doesn’t tell us whom Photoshop Elements is ideal for. It does say you can “get creative,” “enhance your photos,” “share and protect all your memories” with Elements. This hints at a more consumer-level (rather than professional) user who manages images for personal use.

With this in mind, Photoshop and Photoshop Elements differ in three main areas: price, ease of use, and features. Let’s go over each one.

1. Price

Adobe Photoshop costs a whopping $699, while Photoshop Elements is $99.

For many, the price will dictate their choice. Keep in mind, some professionals use Elements even for their work. They use workarounds such as add-ons and other tools to get Elements to do what they need to accomplish. But more on that later.

2. Ease of Use

With Photoshop geared towards professional image users, you can expect it to be more difficult to use. Elements has a more intuitive, more user-friendly interface.

However, if you’re already familiar with photo editing software, such as earlier versions of Photoshop, then this won’t be much of an issue.

3. Features

As you might have guessed, the differences in price and ease of use stem from differences in features. Photoshop has functionalities which Elements doesn’t have, and vice versa.

For example, Photoshop has more robust features for manipulating the finer details of a digital image. Here are just some features in Photoshop, which aren’t in Elements:

- CMYK and LAB colour modes
- ability to work with 16-bit and 32-bit images
- Layer masks and layer comps
- Adjustment layers for colour balance, curves and selective colour
- Advanced text formatting, including putting text on a path

But don’t ditch Elements yet. It also has features you won’t find in Photoshop, such as:

- Automatic red-eye removal
- Cookie cutter tool, background templates and artwork
- Photo Organizer, which lets you tag photos and later find them quickly through tags. Photo Organizer also lets you share your photos by creating online galleries, slideshows, photo books and more.

As mentioned earlier, many Elements users find they can do with Elements a lot of the things Photoshop can do. Some of the functionalities are there but need to be “unlocked.”

Add-ons and tools for Photoshop Elements are developed by users of both software. Some are free, while others you need to pay for. These will enhance Elements to be able to do more of the things Photoshop can do.

Whichever software you choose, you have to know how to use it in order to achieve the images you want.

If you decide that Photoshop is for you, check out this link. Its video tutorials is like looking over the shoulder of a seasoned Photoshop user.

Should you go with Elements, Learn Elements Now will help you master the software in a short time.

Photoshop or Photoshop Elements? Both are powerful software for perfecting your digital images. Choose the one that best meets your needs within the resources you have.

If you want a step-by-step guide to monetizing your digital photos through stock photo sites and other ways, check out ‘Turn Your Photos into Cash’.  Meantime, you can get started right now. But do make sure you don’t make these 10 mistakes when you submit photos in stock photo sites:

1. Submitting low-quality photos. Don’t waste your time and energy. Nobody wants blurred, under-exposed and other types of low-quality photos.

2. Not doing keyword research. The right keyword list can make or break the profitability of your photos.

3. Submitting photos that you don’t own. You can get into real big trouble for doing this.

4. Submitting photos of people without a “model waiver.” Know when you need a model waiver and always get one when necessary.

5. Submitting photos of objects owned by other people without a “property waiver.” This is another legal requirement you should be aware of to avoid future headaches.

6. Submitting photos that don’t meet the stock photo site’s standards. You may think your photo is perfect but each site has its own standards, including minimum size, etc. Double check before submitting.

7. Submitting photos that have unwanted elements. Some items are simply unacceptable in photos. Find out which ones they are and either edit them out or avoid them altogether.

8. Submitting photos to stock photo sites which require exclusive contracts. Don’t submit to these sites.

9. Submitting photos of mundane objects. Why bother when demand is low and they’re all over the web already?

10. Submitting over-edited photos. Over-editing can drastically reduce the quality of your photos, causing them to be rejected.

Aside from making money on stock photo sites, this fact-filled e-book teaches a number of other ways you to turn digital photography from a hobby to a home business – a profitable one at that.

The following are just a few of the special effects you can do in Photoshop.

a) Black and White

Everyone loves black and white photography. In the past you had to use separate film if you wanted black and white images. In digital photography all images are typically photographed in color and the converted to black and white on the computer. This means that you can experiment by turning your photos to black and white.

b) Sepia Tone

Transform your photos into works of art using sepia colouring.

c) Color/Black and White Mix

Mixing black and white with color has become a popular effect among wedding and artistic photographers. Typically, most of the image will be black and white while only certain objects in the image are in color. This can create a striking effect. You can easily learn this technique in Photoshop and amaze your family and friends with your photo creations.

d) Drop Shadows

This is an excellent effect to use on text, logos, and graphic art.

e) Watermark

It is easy with Photoshop to create a custom watermark on your photos.

f) Soft Focus

Soft focus is a popular effect used by professional photographers for years to enhance portraiture.

g) Blur the Background

Pictures of people and other objects will really stand out when the background is blurry. Photoshop allows you to only blur certain areas of the image while leaving other areas in perfect focus.

h) Frame

There are unlimited ways you can put frames around your photos in Photoshop.

i) Vignette

Vignette is a popular effect that involves a soft fade, usually in oval shape, where the photograph is light in center and fades gradually into the background where it gets darker.

j) Vibrant Colour

By adjusting the saturation you can turn an otherwise dull photograph into a masterpiece of vibrant colour. You can even work with particular color channels while leaving others alone.

As you learn Photoshop and start experimenting with adding special effects to your photos you will learn many more techniques as well as different ways to achieve the same effects.

Happy Photoshopping! To get more free tips, click here.