In addition to today's Internet Marketing Monitor coverage, we felt these stories were worth pulling out of the multitude of news items for April 2, 2007: 

  Blog Contests for Fun and Profit  [ProBlogger]

We've talked about running contests on more than a few occasions in the past.  But I have no problem admitting that our discussions about contests here at the Internet Marketing Monitor don't scratch the surface of what Mark Shead has covered in this ProBlogger guest post.  He covers everything from deciding how to enter to choosing prizes, announcing the contest… and everything in between.  Excellent, excellent read.

  Content is King, and Why This is True for Search  [10e20]

Good reminder post of what we should all know by now:  content is what matters.  Yeah, yeah.  You hear that all the time, right?  And you see posts like this all the time, right?  But you know what?  I hope you continue to see posts like this all the time.  We all get wrapped up in SEO: optimizing our code… our navigation… our tags… keywords… etc.  And sometimes the thing that gets pushed aside is the content.  It's good to be reminded about the importance of great content on a regular basis.

  Ask.com Patent Application Discusses Responding to User Queries  [SEO by the SEA]

According to the patent, Ask.com is exploring ways of routing the correct answers to user's search queries using a system of databases.  A number of factors relevant to the search query would be examined, weighed, and used to return a correct answer.  As pointed out in the post, this would be especially useful for specific searches in which a number of answers might be correct.

  Blogging Is About Writing  [ProBlogger]

Lorelle VanFossen (of Lorelle on WordPress) has written an excellent guest column that deals with "the written word".  But I'll expand on her title and apply it to all websites.  Visual richness is nice and all.  But every website, regardless of its topic, purpose, or design should spend a significant amount of time concentrating on the writing that accompanies those visual elements.  Language is one of the pinnacles of human development.  Make sure you're putting that development to use.

  Top Twenty Sites:  Most Downtime  [TechCrunch]

While this isn't really an Earth-shaking bit of news it is interesting.  Of particular interest is Google and its properties.  While Google.com seems to be pretty stable, YouTube and Blogger top the list with the most downtime.  Hmmmm….

My apologies for the lack of Headlines of Note on Thursday & Friday last week.  I had to jet in a hurry both days.  But things should be status quo now.  See you all tomorrow!