Hello Dave,

Thanks for an interesting forum jammed packed with useful information!

I was especially interested to read the differences on the way that  how surfing and  posting affect peoples's sites. 

One thing that was new to me was the following comment

This brings us to a VERY important point about posting!! Do NOT use cut and paste, generic, meaningless, thoughtless, LAZY methods to reply on forums you visit! Some search engines will actually drop you way down or right off, if you do this. The search engines are always looking for FRESH content, and that means you need to think about every post you make if you want to get noticed.

I knew that forum community posts are "googled" including the signature links - which I know from the results of my own ad tracker - but i didn't know that copy and pasted posts and "bad" posts are picked up and "punished" by the robots.

The importance of fresh original or quality content makes sense if you wish to have any kind of credibility on the places you are seen - but to know that the robots also can make these judgements is en eye opener to a non - internet professional like me!.

Thanks for the valuable lesson

Saludos
Jenny

Hi Norm, You are definitely coming up on the internet, and you are one of the few who has some REALLY interesting stories to tell. I just Googled norm clark and found you listed on page one. While that may not seem like an accomplishment, since very few will be doing a search for Norm Clark, you are numbers 6 and 7 out of 98,700! The reason for this is that you have done enough online writing for a big search engine like Google to notice you and place you that far ahead of everyone else who has a name that is similar to yours. (I also have a very common name!!) As you continue to post on places like Adlandpro and others, and of course, always attach your signature, your links will rise as well. Your writing, whether it is a reply on a forum like this, or an article about traveling on exotic back roads in Vietnam, is exactly the kind of unique content that the search engines are looking for. Keep on writing and posting, Norm. You have so much to offer and a great way of communicating. God bless, Dave

Hi Jenny, Yes, a lot of people still don't realize that they can get penalized by the search engines for even the appearance of spam. One of the things that search engines (and email programs) look for is repetition. God bless, Dave

Dear Dave,

Good Grief -  I am astonished!   I never thought anyone took too much notice of my babbling on - apart from a few masochists here at Adland Pro.

I was talking to my wife over the weekend (it happens on occasions), and I was also astonished to realise that living deep in the heart of the French countryside had one downside.  I have not spoken to anyone face-to-face - other than her, for more than four months!  Isn't that astonishing?  Further checks revealed that I have not spoken to anyone on the telephone for more than 6 months, and that I have used Skype as my means of communication to more people than anything else - and to nobody local at all.

No wonder I get upset now my daytime companion - Scruff, the feral cat, has decided to go bush again!

Interesting life? Not sure about that - on reflection is seems a weird one.  Maybe that's why I write a lot (too much?) on Adland Pro?

I have just been talking with Jenny and she is about to help me sort out this signature and downloading pix situation, as ever since my Vietnam special(?) version of XP Pro bought for one euro four years ago has now been replaced by a legal XP Family version, I seem to have far more problems with it than ever before.  Makes one think doesn't it?

Cheers,

Norm

Dear Dave,

I am now about to give one completely unabashed plug for my book 'Brothels, beans & in-betweens - or 50 years an international Ad-man'. 

The book could be of interest -

IF - anyone is interested in hearing about someone being thrown out of a country for being a spy (which he wasn't), and not for being a gun-runner (which he was).

IF - anyone is interested is hearing about life in Eastern Europe just after the Russians left.

IF - anyone is interested in how someone came to write a report on how to set up a security company for members of the KGB.

IF - anyone is interested as to how many times someone has had a gun stuck in his face - from Libya to Manila.

IF - anyone is interested in how it feels to be in minus 35 degrees in deep-midwinter on the frontier of Latvia and Lithuania in the steps of Napoleon's Great retreat from Moscow.

IF - anyone is interested in someone receiving daily death threats in the Middle East.

IF - anyone is interested in how an ill-educated early school-leaver (15 years old) in after WW2 England found himself a Professor in European and Vietnamese Business Schools.

IF - anyone is interested in someone who married three times and lived in 12 different countries.

If - anyone is interested in visits to weird and wonderful places like Petra in Jordan, when no-one was going there or really knew it existed.

IF - anyone is interested in a life full of cock-ups, hilarity and odd-ball activity, and really want to know about the 'Brothels' bit in the book title -

Then maybe - just maybe they should read my memoirs - available as a book or incredibly cheap download from http:www.lulu.com/norman-clark.

There's lots more beside all that as well!

There you go - and thanks for the space!

Cheers,

Norm

http://www.lulu.com/norman-clark