Ensuring visibility in network traffic

EVER FACED a problem in retrieving data after the system recovers from a crash? If a company has robust Network Management in place, there are little chances of losing data. Similarly, recklessness towards network and information that flows across a network cannot only impede the speed of the work, but also can affect the progress of a business.
In addition to this, the apathetic behaviour of a network is exasperating for the users connected to the network, but what it is that actually causes the network to become passive and torpid?
Network Traffic
What happens when one is stuck in bumper to bumper traffic while going back to home from office? The vehicles move at a snail’s pace and it takes a lot of time for the person to reach his destination. The same situation occurs along with some other glitches when there is an information/data overload on the network. The data or information that travels across network in the form of packets constitutes network traffic, which is the major reason behind unresponsive network.
Rather, it is a weakness of network monitoring that raises visibility issues, but why it is important to ensure visibility and what can be done to achieve visibility?
Steps to Ensuring Visibility
There are three ways by which greater visibility can be created: accessing network traffic; monitoring of activities; data analysis. To ensure visibility in the network traffic, it is important to have access to data or packets that are being sent and received across network. By having access to data, it is possible to identify and distinguish data that is flowing with no commotion and the data, which is causing upheavals, but what are the ways to access data and are they all risk-free and reliable?
TAP and SPAN have been found as the two main methods of accessing data, TAP being more reliable. Initially, SPAN is inexpensive, but it becomes costly when packets drop in the mid-way before reaching the monitoring tool. This situation further aggravates that problem and makes it impossible to troubleshoot. SPAN almost fails in case of amplified internal traffic. TAP, however, allows continuous visibility in the network and rate of disruptions is lowest.
Access to data just helps in seeing and keeping an eye on the type and number of data flowing through and across the network. It doesn’t help one in knowing how the bandwidth is being used and who is guzzling more of it. Nevertheless, if the data and activities are monitored, it becomes easy to find this out. Moreover, it allows one todetermine if users are using file sharing programmes and one can also detect the presence of Trojan that is clandestinely passing on the information in the background. However, selecting a most appropriate network monitoring tool is the job of network administrator. Monitoring of data leads to capturing and analysis of data, but what if analysis of all captured data is not required?
Monitoring actually helps in filtering the data. Once it is filtered, it becomes easy to analyze data that requires analysis.  The analysis helps in identifying the underlying causes behind less visibility and network issues and leads to solutions.
The communication in the form of packets travels from user to server via router and the server then responds back to the user through router. The problems creating visibility issues can be solved either through replacing servers or increasing bandwidth i.e. the speed of the network. Bandwidth seems a skimpy hitch yet it is not that is why many companies, quite frequently, are found switching to fastest and most reliable internet connections. Actually, the process of flow of packets is affected by the speed of the type of connectivity. Simply putting ISDN cannot work in a large enterprise as it engages telephone lines and its speed ranges between few Kpbs. DSL is a better option as it doesn’t employ telephone lines, but wireless connection is the most in concept these days. It allows always-on connection, but in order to have access to it, it is must to be within a network coverage area geographically.
What does visibility yield?
Achieving visibility implies achieving cost savings and return on investment. The presence of malicious software, error counts, and identification of which protocols are using greatest bandwidth are valuable information gained through network monitoring. In short, monitoring helps in uncovering problems in network and allows provision of more network resources to the users connected to the network, thus yielding savings and more return.
A business relying on network needs to have a simple yet robust network. In the present times, where every company is making efforts to protect and safeguard their systems and information, it is important to ensure enhanced visibility in the network traffic. Even a small negligence can lead to serious repercussions such as data loss, slow processing, silent transmission and leak of the information, and business failure, which no firm wants.

Tsunami foresight Normative science perspectives

 
SINCE THE day humans came to being and started thinking about new techniques to survive on earth, the only planet we know has life, we humans have been doing foresight of some sort. We try to avoid the upcoming hazards in one way or another e.g. we try to keep ourselves safe from diseases, we try to keep ourselves healthy through stockpiling the food, we hoard luxuries by calling them necessities e.g. oil, gold, silicon etc. Humans are clever beings as they are observed to be the only ones manipulating the nature. They try to come up with sophisticated technologies to gear up their joy and security needs through different tactics of invention and innovation in addition to consensus with no regards to laws of nature. Often we hear this that we do we put on clothes, why do we do what our forefathers been doing for ages, why women take care of babies at home and men working outside, why do we give charity for the ones who suffer are only because of their wrong doings….
We humans have more tendency to think about the future for securing the things which we fear about and to giving ourselves liberty from fears and restrictions. Tsunamis are one of our fears which haunt us and we think how to take care of these which are completely unpredictable. The tendency to plan for secure future is motivating us to do foresight about these natural hazards though there is common belief that it can’t be controlled by humans but God. Still being the second to God on earth efforts are on to control and foresee the things we can’t see.
Tsunamis are earthquakes which are due to the movement of the tectonic plates deep down in earth’s crust. The movement is always for a reason but how to predict that now it is going to happen. Can we really foresight the future Tsunami or earthquake thus accordingly taking actions to avoid the damage? Do we have a technology in our mind which keeps track of these movements ultimately resulting into a simulation which results in a model demonstrating the damage which may occur due to it? Or is it just for the sake of taking actions to avoid all those actions which result in Tsunamis and earthquakes? The very common person will say that we need to overcome the damage by living a simple life, keeping away from sea, always living like a traveler so that damage, if occurs, should be minimum. Some would be there who will try to make their buildings like ships so that if it ever happens then some transformation of ship like homes may occur to save from damage by going under the ground or transforming into a vessel which is submarine like.
We have strong faith persons who believe that it is because of our deeds. We do good and the result is to have good. For bad ones, troubles and issues are always ready to happen just in a moment. These believers may have assumptions but science needs to come up with a reasoning for that. Do we have a bad impact on our environment due to a bad deed which somehow impacts our earth’s crust thus making the plates to move to at least generating a potential to make them move in near or far future? Is there a linkage between the deeds and our natural hazards? Can we come up with a research project that a common type of deed resulted into a disaster which was all natural and was out of control of human beings? May we not the study the deeds or common habits of a place where these natural disasters occur? Its all meta-physics which is based on spirits. Religions do have space for this but can science come up with a proof or a linkage between the two: Tsunamis’ Science & Normative Science.

Naltar valley

Naltar valley is very close to Gilgit and Hunza. It is 40 km (25 miles) from Gilgit and can be accessible by jeeps. Naltar is a forested (pine) village recognized for its flora and fauna and terrific mountain scenery. Now a days the communication is obtainable by the efforts of Pakistan army signal corps (SCO special communication organization). There are ski lifts under the ‘Ski Federation of Pakistan’. Transportation facility is there from Gilgit to Naltar but during a specific time after that one can arrange on his own.
In the Naltar valley there is a lake known as ‘Bashkiri Lake’. It is at a distance of 32 kilometers (20 miles) from Naltar Bala. This lake gives a breathtaking and amazing look both in the summer and as well as in winter. The road from village to “Lake” is nonmetallic and narrow along with a stream throughout this road coming from the mountains. A lot of attractive scenes are there along this road. In winter it is almost impossible to reach the lake through any vehicle due to the snow (10 to 15 feet high) on the road.

Anchor Text(SEO)

Anchor Text

Simply getting links from many other websites is not enough for your website to rank well in the search engines. The quality of your anchor text will play a huge factor in ranking your pages for specific keywords, especially competitive ones.

What is Anchor Text?

Anchor text refers to the words that make up a link; they are the words that turn your mouse cursor into a finger-pointing hand. For example, in the sentence, "I really like to go to this store," "this store" is anchor text for the link.

Why is Anchor Text Important?

Search engines gather data by traveling around the web via links, jumping from page to page. Links are the lifeblood of a search engine and are used as key indicators for identifying the topics of the pages they're about to go to. If 100 sites link to a site with the link "Texas Architect" or similar words, the search engine can be fairly confident that the site is about an architect in Texas.

Targeted Keywords

If you want a page to rank for a keyword that is particularly difficult, be sure to focus on getting the keyword in your anchor text. Many newbies will request links to the page they're trying to boost and forget about the anchor text. While getting links to the page is most certainly going to help, you should try to get at least part of your keyword into the anchor text whenever you get the chance.

Varying Anchor Text Slightly

Imagine this scenario: you know which keyword you want to target, and you're starting to get links with the desired keyword. That's great, but you should be careful about getting too many links that look exactly the same. If you have 99% of the links that are pointing to your page with "Rocky Mountain Oysters," that will send up a red flag at Google that these links probably are not normal links. This is bad! You don't want to make Google suspicious.
Instead, when you request other people to link to your page, ask for variations of that keyword, such as: "Rocky Mountain Oyster", "Alternative Oysters," "Rocky Mountain Festivals," "Rocky Mountain Foods," and so on. It is because people have exploited anchor text in the past that you have to be careful about the way you do it today.

Keywords and URL Alignment

When getting all of these links with the desired anchor text, make sure that you're linking to the correct page, as a very common mistake to simply link to the homepage (www.example.com) instead of the page that should be getting the link (www.example.com/rocky-mountains/oysters.php).

SEO Internal Linking Structure

The honest fact is, if company owners knew how important that the internal linking structure of a site was to a site's performance on the search engines, they'd have multiple dedicated staff working just to make sure they had it optimized 100%. This topic is a little advanced, but it's helpful to break the inner linking structure down into three parts:

1. Page depth
2. Quantity of Internal Links
3. Quality of Internal Links

Page Depth

Page depth refers to the number of required clicks to get to a page from the homepage. Pages that are available in one click are deemed more important than those that are nearly hidden and require more than 3 clicks to reach. It might seem a little strange, but if you can visualize your website in a tree graph, you will easily notice why certain pages are performing poorly in the search engines.
By organizing your site in this format, you can see which pages are getting a lot of page depth love and which are hurting. If you have a lot of worthless pages and few important product pages, you might take this opportunity to restructure your site.

Quantity of Internal Links

This point is simple; the more internal links you have that point to a certain page, the more important search engines believe that page to be. A common page that ranks well on almost every site is the homepage. This point will continue to be true for many years because nearly every webmaster programs their site so that every page has a link back to the homepage.
So how do make your other pages benefit from this? Does that mean you should have every page on your site include a link to EVERY SINGLE PAGE in your site? No. That's an obvious red flag to search engines, and you'll be seen as a spammer if your site has a couple of paragraphs and then 500 links to every other page on your site.
A better strategy would to have a "Top Products" section that includes a link to pages you want to receive the most link love. Another strategy is to have a link for each of the major areas of your site. This will help give those areas a lot of link love, and in turn, they'll be able to get more link love to the pages contained within them.

Quality of Internal Links

Just including a bunch of internal links to an important page is not enough; they also need to be high quality links. For your most important pages, make sure the links they receive have as many of the following criterion as possible:

1. Anchor Text - If you're targeting a certain keyword(or keywords) make sure the internal links have the keyword in the anchor text. Also, bonus points for using slightly altered anchor text throughout your site.
2. Link Position - The higher a link occurs in the HTML, the better. If you link to "cowboy hats" at the top of the page, but "sombreros" towards the bottom of the page, search engines are going to view the link to "cowboy hats" as more valuable than the link to "sombreros."
3. Link Zone - The best scenario for link love is to link from one page to a highly-related page. The closer the subjects of each are in topic, the higher the amount of link love that will be transferred. For example, it is better to link form a page about "cowboy boots" to a page about "cowboy hats" than it is to link from a page about "tacos" to a page about "cowboy hats." This doesn't mean you shouldn't include links on pages that are different, but just keep in mind that the link love will not be as strong as it could be.

SEO Keyword Use

So you've researched which keywords you want to target, but just putting the keywords in your <title> and <h1> tags is not enough. If you stop there, you're not going to be able to cover all the bases or pull in as much search traffic as you could. When doing on-page optimization for your selected keywords, there are three things to take into consideration:

1. Keywords Density - How many times is your keyword mentioned on your site? If it's too much, you'll look like a spammer; if it's too little, you won't look like a relevant match and the search engines won't consider your site.
2. Keyword Variation - Altering versions of your keywords will help you capture hidden search engine traffic.
3. Similar Keywords - These are closely related topics to your keywords that will aide the search engines in correctly categorizing your traffic.

Keyword Density

Although some SEOs will talk about aiming for an exact proportion (e.g. the number of times your keyword appears divided by the total number of words on the page), it's a little too much work for something that will take care of itself as long as you know how to write well! Use your keyword frequently on your site, but not so much that it makes the page look weird or a sentence sound awkward. If you just use the keyword once at the top of the page and then reference the keyword as "it", for the rest of the article, you'll definitely be using it too little.
If you want some numbers, you should use your keyword at least three times on the page. This does not include keyword variations.

Keyword Variations

You may have found a couple of high traffic keywords using a keyword research tool, but those estimates often group similar keywords, alternate spellings, and plurals into a single word. Valuable traffic is hidden when using those tools. This hidden traffic lies in all the subtle variations of your keyword that someone may search for.

• Plurals - The easiest way to optimize your site is to include the plural version of your keyword at least a couple of times on your page. Nearly every keyword can do this (instead of "free hat", try "free hats").
• Misspellings - Although it may make your site look a little unprofessional, including a very common misspelling of your keywrod is one of the easiest ways to rank #1 for that exact spelling and get some free traffic. This is one of the fun things to experiment with after you've optimized the rest of your site.
• Acronyms - If your keyword is an acronym like SEO, write out the words completely (Search Engine Optimization) so that you can target those people who do not know the acronym.

Similar Keywords

If you're making a page to target "big hats," consider changing up the adjective "big" to its synonyms, like "huge," "giant," "large," "humongous," or "oversized." You can also use the names of specific words that relate to "big hats," like "cowboy hat" and "sombrero." By using this tactic, you give yourself a chance to rank for those similar keywords, plus you let the search engines know more about your page and what it's about. The more a search engine knows about your page, the better off you're going to be!

What is PageRank?

PageRank is a ranking system that previously was the foundation of the infamous search engine, Google. When search engines were first developed, they ranked all websites equally and would return results based only on the content and meta tags the pages contained. At the time, however, the PageRank system would revolutionize search engine rankings by including one key factor: a site's authority.
To determine how important, or authoritative, a site was Google chose several big sites, such as cnn.com, dmoz.org, and espn.com. These sites were clear authorities, and Google figured that if these websites chose to link to another site (let's say site B), then site B would receive a piece of that site's authority. If site B were to link to another site (how about C), then site C would also receive a piece of authority, though much smaller.
Using this system of passing authority, Google would then count up how much authority a site had and give it a PageRank from 0 to 10. The PageRank system has become more complicated since then, but this is how it all started.

What's my PageRank?

If you would like to see what PageRank your site has or other sites have, install Google's Toolbar. Google has made a small green bar that starts at 0 page rank (a blank bar) all the way up to 10 (a full green bar, which is 100% authoritative). It should be noted that the PageRank shown in the toolbar is an estimate released by Google, and it is only updated every 3 months or so.

Who Uses PageRank?

When PageRank first came out, only Google was using the technology, but as other search engines have seen how much it improved Google's accuracy, nearly every search engine has added the PageRank system in to be at least part of their algorithm. In the past, while many of the search engines were still working on adding PageRank to their search algorithm, some couldn't wait to make their own and instead signed deals with Google to have them power their results (Yahoo did this for quite some time).
Apart from search engines, SEOs (Search Engine Optimization specialists), link buyers, webmasters, marketers, and anyone interested in a site's value will often look to the Google PageRank when trying to quickly determine the importance of a site.

How Important is PageRank?

When Google was in its childhood, PageRank was the single most important factor for ranking well. However, as soon as the SEO community caught on to this, there was a great deal of people who found ways to artificially boost their clients' PageRank. Those sites became more authoritative than Google thought they should be. Since then, Google and other search engines have constantly refined how important PageRank is, and its importance has definitely declined through the years.
One tactic Google uses is to update Google Toolbar PageRank values four times a year instead of every week, making it difficult for SEOs to know a site's real PageRank. Another tactic is to prevent a site that has been known to sell links from passing any of its PageRank (authority) on to sites that it links to. However, Google can't use that tactic too much because then they run the risk of preventing good sites from being ranked as they should be.
This is a battle between Google and SEOs that will not be ending anytime soon!

Where do I Get PageRank for my Site?

Now we've come to the part where you actually have to do work! It's tough, but getting a high PageRank for your site should definitely be part of your longterm SEO strategy.
The only way to get PageRank is to get a link from a site that already has PageRank. This means that getting a ton of links from PageRank 0 sites will not help your score. However, a single link from a site with a PageRank 6 can immediately boost your site to a PageRank 5 if the site is trusted by Google and is not linking to a massive amount of other sites.
The process of increasing your PageRank is directly tied to link acquisition. Link acquisition is getting links from other sites, be it via natural or through link purchasing. We cover both of these topics in greater detail, and you should read each lesson to learn more about the benefits and drawbacks of each.

Final Thoughts: PageRank

Although not nearly as important as it used to be, PageRank can still be the deciding factor that bumps your site to the top of the search engines. Not only that, but it is also a good indicator of which sites you should spend your most time trying to get links from. Sites with a PageRank 0 are either being punished by Google, or just have an authority of zero, nada, zilch, bupkis, and generally not worth your time.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Keyword Research

Keyword Research

Before you can start optimizing your site for the search engines, you must first know which terms you want to target. A good start would be to choose 3 or 4 keywords you would like your website to rank well for. With these keywords in your mind you can then set a goal to rank in the top 10 results on Google for each of them (we refer to Google because if you can rank well there, you'll rank well on the other search engines). These keywords can be either broad or specific, but you'll want to study our list of pros and cons of each before choosing.

Broad Keywords

A broad keyword is one that many people search for, because they may only have a vague idea of what they're looking for. Broad keywords tend to be very short and aren't very specific (e.g. "shoes" or "sports"). These keywords are difficult to rank #1 for because so many other websites might have an article or two that mention shoes. However, if you can rank well for a broad keyword, you will be receiving a great deal of traffic.
Summary: Hard to rank for, but worth it in the long run. We recommend that beginners only choose a broad keyword if their industries are not very competitive.

Specific Keywords

A specific keyword is something that contains many adjectives or words that make the search very targeted. The people doing these types of searches know exactly what they want (e.g. "used black high heel shoes"). These keywords are much less competitive and are easier to rank for on search engines. The downside is that they receive a great deal less volume of searches per month. In terms of traffic, you will need to have several #1 rankings for specific keywords to equal one #1 ranking broad keyword.
Summary: Easier to rank for and it's highly targeted traffic. The only downside is that the number of visitors you will receive is relatively low.

Unique or Branded Keywords

These are the words that are specific to only your company. They are one of the most easiest ways to get traffic. However, some companies will release a new product, with a unique name, and then forget to optimize for that keyword on their website. Their SEO savvy competitors can then pick up the slack and take over the top rankings for these terms. If you have a popular brand or product, make sure that you have optimized for these freebie keywords.

Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research tools are 2 parts voodoo magic and 1 part hard statistic. This is partly due to Google not releasing actual numbers and partly due to overeager SEO Tool developers trying to sell their products. Because there is such a sizable uncertainty in all keyword research tools, it is best to use as many different sources as you can,. Even with multiple sources, you should only take the information you gather as a recommendation, rather than a fact.
Yahoo has been releasing their keyword search information for years, and many tools are based off of this specific data. We've collected a wide variety of helpful tools that will give you a general idea of which keywords you should target when making and optimizing your websites.

Picking a Short List

To put the optimizing tactics that we teach to good use, we recommend that you try to target no more than 2 or 3 keyword phrases per page. A common mistake by many SEO beginners is to stuff 500 different keywords on one page and wait for the #1 rankings to roll in. That might have worked 10 years ago, but the algorithms that search engines use these days are much more sophisticated and are not tricked by this. That's why it's best to start small, and be concise with the keywords that you choose. New sites in particular will find it nearly impossible to rank well for many keyword phrases upon first starting out.

 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Beginners

You've finished your web design, uploaded your files, and set up your blog, but you're still not getting as many visitors as you hoped for. What gives? Chances are you haven't started working on one of the most important ways to market your site, Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

What SEO Is

Search Engine Optimization refers to the collection of techniques and practices that allow a site to get more traffic from search engines (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft). SEO can be divided into two main areas: off-page SEO (work that takes place separate from the website) and on-page SEO (website changes to make your website rank better). This tutorial will cover both areas in detail! Remember, a website is not fully optimized for search engines unless it employs both on and off-page SEO.

What SEO Is Not

SEO is not purchasing the number #1 sponsored link through Google Adwords and proclaiming that you have a #1 ranking on Google. Purchasing paid placements on search engines is a type of Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and is not covered in this tutorial.
SEO is not ranking #1 for your company's name. If you're reading this tutorial, you probably already know that ranking for popular terms is darn near impossible, but specific terms, such as a company name, is a freebie. The search engines usually are smart enough to award you that rank by default (unless you are being penalized).

Who Uses SEO

If a website is currently ranked #10 on Google for the search phrase, "how to make egg rolls," but wants to rise to #1, this websites needs to consider SEO. Because search engines have become more and more popular on the web, nearly anyone trying to get seen on the web can benefit from a little SEO loving.

All about Himalayas

A Magnificent Monument of Nature
Being the world's highest mountain chain, the Himalayas is characterized by its great height, complex geologic structure, snowcapped peaks, large valley glaciers, deep river gorges, and rich vegetation.
Himalayas is a magnificent monument on the Earth. It represents the awe-inspiring power, beauty, and grandeur of Nature. It constitutes the greatest attraction to adventurers, climbers and trekkers throughout the world.
Geography:
The Himalayas extend from west to east for about 2,500 km in a curve, from the Pamit Knot in the northwest to the valley of the Brahmaputra River in the east. And with a width of 100 - 400 km. The Himalayas range covering an area of 612,021 sq. km. 
It passes through Nepal, Indian (5 States: Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim), China (Tibet), Bhutan and Pakistan. 
.Click to view larger map
The Himalayas are divided into several parallel ranges from south to north:
- Sub Himalayas. (With an average altitude of 900 - 1,200 meters.)
- Lower Himalayas. (With an average altitude of 3,700 meters.)
- Great Himalayas. (A single range rising above 6,000 meters with nine of the 14 highest peaks in the world, including Mt Everest.)
- Tibetan Himalayas. (Tibet Plateau, with an average altitude 4,000 - 4,5900 meters, well known as the Roof of the World.)
The Karakoram Range in the northwest is also sometimes considered as part of the Himalayas system.
History:

The Himalayas are relatively young folded mountains. According the Theory of Continental Drift, there were several phases in the genesis history of the Himalayas:
About 250 million years ago, there was a single super continent (Pangea) on Earth. It was surrounded by a large ocean.
About 200 million years ago, the super continent (Pangea) started to split into different land masses and moved apart. An extensive sea (Tethys) stretched along the latitudinal area presently occupied by the Himalayas.
The two land masses, the Eurasian (Angara) and the Indian sub-continent (Gondwana) moved closer and closer,  then the collision happened and uplifted the highest & youngest mountain ranges on the Earth.
There were several phases in the Himalayas building process:
Phase I - Upper Cretaceous Period. About 70 million years ago, when the Gondwana plate and Angara plate began to converge and collide. The sea-bed was folded and raised into longitudinal ridges and valleys.
Phase II - Upper Eocene Period. About 65 million years ago,  the collision was much more powerful. The Tethys bed was raised high enough to cause the final retreat of the sea and its sedimentary deposits were elevated into mountain ranges and intervening basins into large river valleys. The Great and Tibetan Himalayas were uplifted.
Phase III - Middle Miocene Period. About 25 million years ago, the Lower Himalayas were formed.
Phase IV - About 2 million years ago, the fourth Himalayan paroxysm occurred. Along with further elevation of the Himalayas ranges, compression forces squeezed and pushed southwards, The Sub Himalayas also raised and folded.
Phase V - Only 600,000 years ago, the final phase more or less determined the present geomorphic form of the Himalayan system.
However the India Plate continuously moving north at the rate of about 2 cm per year. The Himalayas are still geologically active and structurally unstable. For this reason, earthquakes are a frequent occurrence in the entire Himalayan region.
The Himalayas region is an important model for the study of geology and continents tectonics.

Ecosystem:

Himalayas have had profound influences on the climate, environment and population distribution etc on the Earth. An example is showing here - a scientific synergy acquired by Terra sensors in March 2000:

True color image draped over surface topography of the Earth	Himalayas (white) divided the Tibet (World's Roof) and the India sub-continent. The growth of dense vegetation (darker greens) in the true color image.	High concentration of water vapor, or humidity, appeared just south of the Himalayas.
The lush landscape attracts about a billion people reside there. indicated by the reds and yellows in this false-color image.	industries produce a thick layer of haze, or aerosol particles (brown),	High levels of carbon monoxide (reds and yellows,)  But these pollutants were not allowed to spread northward to the Tibetan Plateau.

The Himalayas range is the originate of numerous glaciers and many important rivers in Asia.
 
There is great variation in the Himalayan soils. The dark brown soils are well suited for growing fruit trees. The wet, deep, upland soils with high humus content are good for growing tea. Himalayan vegetation is based on altitude and rainfall and can be classified into four groups:

Tropical zone - Up to 1,000 - 1,200 m (3,280 to 3,940 ft) . Tropical ever green forests, Rose, chestnut, bamboo, alder, pine, laurel, and palm etc.
Subtropical zone - Up to 2,200 m (7,220 ft). Deciduous forest with sal, oak, and magnolia temperate forests of cedar, birch, hazel, maple, and spruce
Alpine zone - 2,200 to 2,700 m ( 7,220 to 8,860 ft ). With juniper, rhododendron, mosses, lichens etc
Several kinds of flowering plants are found from 2,700 to 3,600 m (8,860 - 11,800 ft). Alpine meadows are found up to  5,000 m (16,400 feet).

Elephants, bison, and rhinoceroses inhabit the forested lower slopes of the Outer Himalayas.
The snow leopard, brown bear, red panda, and
The black bear, languor monkey, clouded leopard, and goat antelope live in the foothills. Tibetan yak are living above the tree line--above 3,050 m (10,000 ft).
Endangered animal species, such as the rhinoceros, musk deer, and Kashmir stag, or hangul are now under protection.
There are catfish in most Himalayan streams, and butterflies are extremely varied and beautiful.
While one are enjoying the miracle of the Nature, one must not forget how to protect the vulnerable ecosystem of the Himalayas.

Major Peaks of the Himalayas:

Mt. Everest
The Himalayas is the world's highest mountain range comprising all top ten of the world's highest peaks. In fact, the Himalayas includes 14 peaks more than 8,000 meters high and some 200 more than 6000 meters.
Listed here are the panoramic sequence from East to West of over 7,000 meters major peaks in Himalayas :
NAMCHA BARWA  HIMAL
China (Tibet)
Namcha Barwa- 7,782m (25,531ft)
Jailabaili Feng - 7,151 (23,460ft)

THAR DESERT PACKAGES 2011~2012

Thar Desert one of unique Deserts of the world in addition the Kaaroonjher Mountain, Runn of Kutchh, ancient historical temples of Jeen era, centuries old worship and prayer places of Hindus and Muslims streams, fountains, dunes and forts.
Thar Desert spreads over 22000 square kilometer, is mostly desert except for a small portion of hills situated in Taluka Nagarparkar and small part of barrage terrains where livelihood of above one million people depends on rain fed agriculture and livestock rearing. While the local crops and wild foods of this desert are totally organic as the area is yet free from corporate farming.

Thari organic foods can also be arrange for our guests according to the requirements of  season. In this regards the menu includes of pure honey, butter, Desi Ghee, loaves of millet with vegetables of mushroom, Chibher, water and musk-melon, (gidro and chhanhio) amaranths (mariro), Raita etc
Thar Desert is also widely known for folk music and melody, its soil has given birth to renowned singers including Murad faqir, Mai Bhagi, Mohan Bhagat, Saroop Bhagat, Budho faqir, Hussain Faqir, Saluram Bhagat and others, their voices yet add to the beauty of this Desert.
Where to stay:
At Guest House situated in Mithi City, The location is clean, attractive and away from noisy atmosphere. The Guest House provides the facilities of quality lodging and boarding.
Guest House is also fully equipped with all basic facilities including Telephone, Standby Generator, Air Conditioned Rooms, TV, Computer, Internet, Transport facilities, Dry Cleaning and humble Guides for visit of Thar.
Note: Booking minimum 15-days before departure date.

Terms & conditions Apply *

3 Things Beginner SEO Specialists Should Be Good At

Whether you’re looking to do online marketing for a company in-house, hoping to snag a job with a leading internet marketing agency like SEO.com, or even looking to hire someone to do SEO for your business there are a few basic, yet important skills a successful SEO specialist should have to begin with. Here’s a look at three:

1. Exceptional Writing Skills

A bright future for someone looking into doing SEO will undoubtedly be tied to how well they can produce quality digital content. Today we focus more heavily on a blogging style, though with all types of content it really comes down to the ability to create original, authoritative and thought-provoking writing.
They say “content is king.” This saying couldn’t be truer in the SEO world as Google and other search engines are continually placing more and more importance in their algorithms on quality, authentic website content. In order for a website to rank well in search engine results, SEO teams should be providing this type of ongoing content in several forms such as:

• Blog posts
• Guest blog posts (writing for someone else’s blog)
• Blog commenting
• Google+ micro posts (content for Google+ posting, usually 2-3 paragraphs covering a certain topic, incorporating a few keywords)
• Facebook and other social media posts
• Website page copy

Beyond these types of content, beginner SEO specialists will also need to be capable of writing quality e-mails in order to reach out to blogs and news sites. Reaching out via email is a significant part of an internet marketer’s job and will help you make sure your winning content doesn’t go to waste. Simply put, the more solid your set of writing skills, the easier it is to market a website and build connections anywhere on the Internet.
In the past, SEO writers wrote with the search engines in mind as their audience. They used certain keyword phrases over and over in their writing in order to match the keywords people were using to search for websites. This is no longer how search marketers should write if they are looking to impress the search engines. The most searchable, well-ranking websites aim their content at real-life humans! Good news for all of you who write stuff you want to be read. The more useful, credible, interesting and shareable your writing is, the more success you’ll have with website rankings and ultimately in your career as a search marketer. Be sure to incorporate this advice whether you’re writing a spotlighted blog post or just commenting on someone else’s work. Be genuine and add true value.
Here are some blogs that I love to read and might give you ideas about what great content is:

• Seth Godin’s blog – short, yet powerful and original daily posts to a targeted audience
• http:/www.gereports.com/ – not just out there to make light bulbs, they host a wealth of interesting articles that tell gripping stories
• http://www.blogsouthwest.com/ – unique blend of honesty, humor and travel advice through blog posts, video and podcasts
• The infographic below is a starting point for someone looking to write in the SEO sense – mapping out four important writing characteristics that make for great content:

Infographic Source

2. Deep Social Media Knowledge

Another increasingly crucial skill companies and agencies look for is social media savvy. If you are already active and competent when it comes to the major platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube, you’ve got a good start. If not, don’t let social media intimidate you! Having a social strategy is now essential in building interactive relationships and trust with customers. Your personal network of connections will greatly benefit your company or agency as you create buzz among your own friends and acquaintances. Here at SEO.com, we leverage the social media connections of our employees to spread links to our infographics, blog posts, press releases and upcoming events.
The amount of love your website gets from the online world determines how much Google and Bing love you. Because search engines are placing more weight on how interactive, influential and fresh a website is, naturally they will be looking at social media activity. The more social signals a webpage is sending to search engines (“likes” on Facebook, “+1’s on Google+”, “pins” on Pinterest, customer reviews, etc.), the more likely on the search results page they will rank above competitors who aren’t staying active or engaging their audience when it comes to social media. For this reason, companies and SEO agencies look to recruit people who love and excel at creating buzz about products and services over social networks.
One platform to keep a close eye on is Google+. Many companies and websites are not currently including this network in their social media strategy, but as the platform continues to add users and innovate, an active Google+ business profile will play an important role in helping users share and discover brands and products. From a business perspective, Google+ is not only a place for customers to post and comment, but hosts and advertises event information, business locations and reviews, live video chat “Hangouts”, and attractive company photo layouts. Check out The Meatball Shop’s Google+ page for a visual of all of this. Become proficient on Google+ and tout this valuable knowledge when talking to recruiters.
Major social media platforms to master:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google+
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Pinterest
• StumbleUpon

3. Analytical Interpretation

If you’ve got a knack for web analytics, you’re in business, especially if you’re well-versed in Google Analytics (GA). The numbers behind the website and its traffic are a significant driving force behind marketing teams’ strategies and decisions as online marketing is eclipsing traditional marketing. Whether you are doing SEO in-house or at an internet marketing agency, reporting will be an essential part of every SEO campaign. When upper management is asking for measurable results from the marketing team, you will be their go-to person for this valuable data.
Not only do you want to measure website traffic as a whole, but marketers want to really drill down and see who is visiting their website, how they got there and what they’re viewing most.
Depending on your realm of job responsibilities, you’ll want to learn how to:

• Segregate by visitor demographics
• Gauge referral traffic
• Find out which digital channels account for the most conversions and revenue
• Monitor social media activity
• Determine the value of specific keywords
• Measure paid search and display advertising campaign success
• Manage Google Alerts if you are using Google Analytics

Although Google Analytics is not the only analytics tool out there, it is definitely the most popular. Thankfully, there are a number of good tutorials out there to help you learn GA quickly. If you’re like me, you may need some measurable motivation to become an expert. You can become formally certified by passing the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ) test . Getting familiar with this tool leaves you with better chances of fitting into an organization’s online marketing team. TechCrunch reports that 55% of the top 10,000 websites use GA, and here is the breakdown of analytics tools used among the Fortune 500 according to e-nor.
There are many skills that help make a successful SEO specialist. After mastering writing, social media and analytics the technical skills should be easy to acquire with on-the-job training. Wondering more about what an SEO specialist does on a day-to-day basis? SEOMoz created a stellar comprehensive beginner’s guide here.
If after finishing this post you’re interested in becoming an SEO specialist with SEO.com, be sure to visit our job description page and fill out an application!

Read more: http://www.seo.com/blog/3-things-beginner-seo-specialists-should-be-good-at/#ixzz27MOqmod2

Increase Website Visibility Through Online Marketing

With more than 87 billion online searches every month and social media sites that rival populations of large countries, there’s unlimited opportunity. But to take advantage of this activity, it is vital to rank high in the search engines, leverage social media and pay per click advertising, and to make sure your website converts visitors into leads and sales. If you don’t understand how to successfully apply these strategies, then your customers will go to your competitors instead.
At SEO.com, we believe in results that deliver a significant increase in traffic and a Big ROI.
We form a strategic Internet marketing plans around organic search, pay per click advertising, social media marketing, search optimized web design, and conversion optimization. Then, we tenaciously go to work to dominate your online competition.
Start dominating today. Request a proposal from a top SEO company and let’s set up a chance for high search engine rankings, more customers and a big return on your investment.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization is a method of getting your website to rank higher in search engines—such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. A search engine optimization campaign pairs on-site optimization with off-site tactics, which means you make changes to your site itself while building a portfolio of natural looking back links to increase your organic rankings. When Internet users search for your products or services, your website needs to be the first one they find. SEO helps the search engines recognize your relevance to specific keywords that people search for online. The search engine optimization process includes researching keywords, creating content, building links and making sure your website is visible in the search engines.

SHANDUR POLO FESTIVAL

SHANDUR POLO FESTIVAL

The Highest Polo Field of the World

Polo is known as the King of the games. Gilgit is the home of this spirited game where the British rediscovered and promoted it. Today polo is played in Gilgit and Chitral enthusiastically in its original trilling form. For the last few years, a polo tournament is organized between the traditional rival polo teams of Gilgit Region and Chitral at the high plateau of Shandur Pass (3734 m) every year in summer. This week long festival coupled with folk music and dance at the height of 3700 meters in the back drop of Hindukush mountains, is an event not to be missed.

Itinerary: 

Day-1 Arrival at Rawalpindi. 

Day-2 Fly to Gilgit. 

Day-3 Sightseeing of Gilgit. 

Day-4 Jeep to Phander Lake. 

Day-5 Jeep to Shandur Pass. 

Day-6-9 Participate in the thrilling Polo games, dancing and singing festival.

Day-10-11 Back to Gilgit or drive onward to Chitral. 

Day-12 Transfer to Rawalpindi. 

Day-13 Embark home bond flight

Slowly, slowly to the Kili top

Slowly, slowly to the Kili top
A hiker trades in money for happiness at Africa’s highest mountain Kilimanjaro
By Usman Hayat

It’s 5,895 meters high, it’s majestic, it’s Africa’s highest mountain — it’s Kilimanjaro. I felt a mix of joy and exhaustion on the Uhuru peak, the highest point on Kilimanjaro on September 26, 2011 — we were on the top, breathless after the long hike but mesmerised by the views all around us; clear blue sky, glaciers and barren valleys… The wonderful experience of hiking Kilimanjaro overpowered us.

Ours was a small but diverse group of five tourists: an American from New York, an English couple from Birmingham, a Brazilian studying in the UK, and me, a Pakistani living in London. To hike up to the 5,895 meters (19,341 feet), we had to brave the high altitude, suffer freezing nights, and endure scorching days. Of the different routes to the summit, we followed a variant of the Rongai route.

The hike had its contrasts — one day we were filled with dust and next day soaked in rain water.

Kili challenges most people, particularly the urbanites who think the hike is too easy or those, who, like me, have a ‘less-than-great’ sleeping bag in the freezing nights at 4000 meters high.

Yet, Kili is kind. Unlike most other peaks of similar height, Kili allows hikers to reach its summit without any technical climbing or life-threatening risks.

So, what’s the secret to successfully hike Kili? Apparently, “pollaepollae” to put it in Swahili, meaning “slowly slowly”, our porters told us.

Kili was not going anywhere and we were in no rush either. By hiking at a slow pace, we stayed calm, did not exhaust ourselves — and acclimatised better.

After spending four days hiking up to a place called the School Hut, we started the ascent to summit past midnight. It was so cold that the water froze inside my hydration pouch and blood seemed to freeze in my limbs. The altitude, the darkness, the steep slopes, and the long hike all got together to make our life difficult. Soon we were dragging our feet in a dazed state. Every step made us breathless. Every metre was a struggle. Our guide calmly told us there was nothing to worry because, “This is normal on Kili”.

I noticed that most of the hikers looked like zombies though some looked zombier than the others! Those who looked the zombiest had to give up and in a few cases were rushed down on stretchers.

If being a professional means being good at what you do, the Kili porters were indeed professionals. They were polite — and surprisingly some were females too. Some of them spoke English. I saw one walking up the mountain carrying a stretcher that, he said, weighed 50 kg. Now that’s a lot of kilos for one man to carry at above 3000 meters.

Well-trained and experienced, the Kili porters knew all the right things to do at the right time. When we were exhausted, they cheered us up with a song; when the water froze in our hydration pouches, they pulled water bottles from their packs; when we were thinking of having a picture, they readily took one for us; and when we seemed set to reach the summit, they pulled out Pringles and Red Bull to celebrate. What more can you ask for?

I turned vegetarian during the hike. It was good for faith and stomach. But I was the only vegetarian in the group and it made cooking a bit difficult for our cook. One of our porters who suspected I craved for halal meat introduced me to the cook — who had a distinct Muslim name. He told me, with a generous use of ‘inshallah’ and ‘mashallah’, that he buys meat from Muslim butchers in Arusha town, therefore, it is ‘halal’ by default.

Satisfied, henceforth, I ate everything that was on offer. Most of the meals were tasty but there were some unusual dishes as well, such as banana and beef stew, not a combination I had come across ever before.

It is a long and tiring five hours hike from Kibo Hut (4703 meters) to Stella Point (5745 meters) before you make the final ascent to the summit. But on the way back, you can come down in just about half an hour. This is how it works.

Kili is covered with scree from Stella Point to Kibo Hut. As soon as we walked down the steepest part, a porter grabbed each of us by one arm and started running downhill as if we were skiing. The slope was littered with rocks and a fall was bound to hurt. In the beginning we were fearful of what was happening but the porters knew what they were doing and soon our fear gave way to fun. Despite being tired, we went with the flow and were glad to get back to our camp well in time.

Most other hikes, including some of those that are longer, such as the one to the Everest base camp, tend to cost less than the Kili hike. This is surprising because Tanzania is even poorer than Pakistan, labour and food is cheap and the mountain is free. Our guide explained to me that a significant chunk goes to a foreign company that sells the package to westerners and the national park which levies a seemingly exorbitant fee. For the porters, despite the hard work, the money they make on Kili remains much better than what other professions offer. I asked our guide if Tanzanians could earn more by dropping the prices. He laughed it off, and told me the national park jacked up its prices because it gets more hikers than there is space in the camps. He added that even with the record high prices, hikers just keep on coming.

So, it’s ‘pollaepollae’ for the Kili tourist and ‘hakunamatata’ for the Kili tourism!

As we were finishing the hike and getting back into the bus to Arusha, the lasting feeling I had was that a hiker trades in money for happiness at Kili — and that’s not such a bad bargain.