When I started blogging, a bit over a year ago, I soon stumbled across the SEO (search engine optimization) term and among the SEO advices were adding your site to web directories. Since I wanted to get my blog listed in search engines like Google and Yahoo as fast as possible I started to add the blog to web directories. The reasons to add your blog or regular website to web directories are many and here are my personal two main reasons to use web directories:

1. Link back
When you add your site to a web directory you get a back link and this will make your site more visible on world wide web. Back links are also important for Google Pagerank as the amount and quality of back links to your site determine the Pagerank you will get. Thus adding your site to web directories will get you more back links.

2. Traffic from web directories
I actually get quite a deal of traffic from various web directories. This traffic both comes from people using search engines (finding my site via the web directories) and people browsing the web directories directly.

I would definitely advise all blog owners to add their site to a free website directory or two. Who doesn’t want more traffic and back links?

A couple a days ago I wrote about some depressing news that many shark species are facing extinction.

Today I found some good news from Ireland about our oceans. According to an article on Yahoo the Irish Sea Fisheries Board will start to clean up “ghost nets” in northeast Atlantic Ocean.
Ghost nets are abandoned and dumped fishing nets that are catching big amounts of fish and other marine life. The amount of deepwater sharks has declined rapidly because of these ghost nets (I would think because of overfishing too).

A study made by Irish, Norwegian and British scientists estimates that 1,254 kilometers (620 miles) of 600 by 50 meter (1,970 by 164 feet) sheets of nets are lost each year. That is a mind numbing amount!

I hope the Irish Sea Fisheries Board are successful in cleaning up the northeast Atlantic Ocean and that other governments will do the same time. The fishing industry should also look into their practices and stop dumping fishing nets.

When I walk along the coastline here in Northern Norway it is very sad to see the enormous amounts of trash that has been washed ashore. A good deal of this trash seems to be coming from fishing boats, like parts of fishing nets and rope. Trash like this can entangle and kill marine life. Smaller plastic parts are also known to be eaten by fish and sea birds thus bringing toxins into the ecologic system.
It is time to clean our oceans and stop treating them like massive waste bins!

Nouveau Riche University were featured in the January 2008 edition of Your Business at Home Magazine. This magazine features only one company per month so this is quite an achievement for Nouveau Riche University. The magazine can be bought from bookstores in United States including Borders, Hastings, Books-A-Million, Barnes & Noble, B. Dalton, and Staples.

Nouveau Riche is a school that specials in real estate investments with classes such as Short Sales, Wholesaling, Foreclosures, Buying and Holding, Lease Options, Tax Strategies and other classes. The classes has been attended by thousands of students at various locations around the United States.

You can read articles from authors like Suze Orman, Tom Hopkins, Irvin Wilson, Stephen R. Covey and others in the January 2008 edition of Your Business at Home Magazine, but excerpts of the articles can also be found on the website.

On this site, from Nouveau Riche, you can read a blog post with an excerpt of an article written by Robert Lucas Savage. The article explains how Nouveau Riche University can make your dreams come true by making big money from attending their classes on real estate investments.
I would not mind making some more money to make my main dream come true: Buying a small organic farm in the Norwegian countryside.

Since this blog is called “Musings from a male knitter” I will to write about other issues than knitting that I care about. One issue that I care about is the environment as most of my life I’ve lived in the countryside very close to the nature. Anyways, enough about me and on to the issue that worries me today.

I just read an article on BBC News (best news site on the net BTW) about some shark species that are close to extinction.
According to specialists at ICUN (formerly the World Conservation Union) more than half of the world’s sharks are in danger of extinction with 11 species on the high-risk list and 5 more showing strong signs of decline.
Shockingly there are no international catching limits for sharks so the fisheries on sharks are pretty much free for all. There has also been more pressure on sharks since stock of other fish likes tuna and swordfish are on the decline, making fishermen looking for other species to catch.

So what can done about this? Obviously some kind of international regulation needs to be come into force as soon as possible! Stronger regulations are also needed for most fisheries as the fishing we are doing today are far from being sustainable.
But this up to the different governments to decide so it is hard for you and me to make a difference. One thing we can do is to join environment friendly organizations like WWF and Greenpeace that put pressure on our governments. The more members they get the more power they are able to yield.
We should also check if the fish we eat are caught from sustainable fisheries.

A stylish workplace can be very important for the working environment in your office. One thing that might help your office is to purchase some modern furniture to get an office with better design and better feeling. A modern looking office can also look more professional when you have business meetings and similar happenings in your office.

Two Deco is an online store that offers a wide variety of commercial furniture from brands such as J. Persing, Gressco LTD, Bass Industries, Gordon International and Valore Furniture. Among the types of furniture that Two Deco sells you can find tables in various sizes and types, different types of seating, outdoor furniture, various kinds of rugs and furniture designed for kids that might fit your office.

Two Deco offers free shipping to all the 48 contiguous states in United States and if you live in United States you do not have to pay any sale taxes, except for citizens in Missouri. Two Deco also offers a 30 day return policy if you should not be happy with the furniture (check their website for more details).

If you are looking for modern commercial furniture Two Deco might be the right place for your shopping needs and the furniture might be perfect for your office.

As a follow up to yesterdays post here is another picture of ragg socks that I have knitted.
Most of these ragg socks has been sold on eBay for various prices. The crazy ragg socks with all the different colors definitely fetch the best prices on eBay, but are also way more time consuming to knit than “regular” ragg socks with only a couple types of yarn.

I wish I could be more productive and blog and knit at the same time 😉

As a male knitter people sometimes think that I am gay as knitting is still seen as very feminine and not very manly.
Although I am not gay I support the gay and lesbian communities out there 100% and I think we need to fight against all the stupid prejudice that is still out there.
In my country (which is Norway) we have come a pretty far way in the fight against prejudice and the government will soon make gay marriage legal. About time, if you ask me!
But there is still much work to be done so the gay and lesbian communities got my solidarity.

In other countries the situation for gays and lesbians might be different. The internet can be a great way to fight prejudice and in Romania there is a blog called Gay Romania that writes about gay and lesbian issues.
One thing that Gay Romania write about is the Gay Fest 2008. Gay fest’s are a great way to celebrate the gay lifestyle.

Another thing that Gay Romania writes about is a contest called Miss Travesti. Like the name of the contest inclines this is a Miss contest for transvestites. From the pictures on the blog it seems like the “beauty queens” are judged not only by looks, but also how they dress and sing.
Looks like a lot of fun 😉