Hi folks,

Our Mission…
At StatCounter, it’s our mission to help webmasters, bloggers and other interested parties to grow and improve their websites, blogs and online businesses.

While we already have members in over 200 countries worldwide, we want to reach out to an even wider audience…

To achieve this, we have been working on translating StatCounter. This means that many current members will soon be able to access StatCounter in their native languages AND we will also be able to reach many non-English speakers for the very first time!

Going Hungarian…
This is why we are delighted to announce that StatCounter is now available in Hungarian! The Hungarian translation of StatCounter acted as a “trial” for us and allowed us to set up all the systems required to translate the site into numerous other languages.

Going Global…
Now… we need YOUR help. We are looking for volunteers to help us translate the site into other languages. Volunteer translators must be native speakers of a non-English language but also have strong English skills.

What Languages?
This is entirely up to you, our members! Translations will be prioritized based on the demand for the different languages… so let us know your preferences!

Volunteers
If you would like to volunteer to help with this project, then please accept our sincere thanks. We are so grateful to each and everyone of you for considering this request and for your support for StatCounter.

For administrative reasons, the number of translators per language will be capped, so please accept our sincere apologies if we are unable to accept your offer of assistance at this time.

Please feel free to leave any questions, comments or feedback below. Thanks!

Continuing our series of SEO blog posts, today we consider HOW to write good content for your site.

Please remember that we do not consider ourselves to be SEO experts. In this Beginner’s Guide to SEO we are simply aiming to demystify SEO for our members and to pass on some tips and information that we have picked up over the years.

(i) Content and SEO - how are they related?
To explain how Content and SEO are related, let’s take a traditional example… Let’s think for a few minutes about two writers, Sam and Jess, who are both publishing BOOKS on the topic of “Beginner’s Guide to Computers”.

Background

Sam (Poor Content, but Great SEO)
Sam puts no effort into the book. He repackages old and out-of date information that will not be useful for anyone. However, he launches a fantastic marketing and publicity campaign for the book. He has a snazzy modern cover for the book designed which disguises the old information the book contains.

Jess (Good Content and Good SEO)
Jessica writes a good beginner’s guide book and launches a complementary marketing campaign to launch the book. Jessica’s book does what it says it will do!

Results?

Sam (Poor Content, but Great SEO = DISASTER!)
Many people may pick up Sam’s book in the store, but if they flick beyond page 1 it’s unlikely that they will purchase it. That said, Sam may achieve some sales due to the heavy marketing campaign, but his readers will soon realise that there is no substance to the book. They will NOT be fooled into buying Volume 2!

Jess (Good Content and Good SEO = SUCCESS!)
Jessica, on the other hand, has combined a well-written guide WITH a solid campaign to let the public know about her book. People who buy Jessica’s book are also likely to consider buying any future books she publishes too!

Conclusions

The above example illustrates the importance of good quality content. In the same way that a badly-written book won’t hold your interest, a poor quality website won’t keep your attention either.

If your website is poor, the best SEO in the world won’t help you.

Sure, you may manage to get a temporarily high listing in the Search Engines, but it won’t last. In addition, listing highly in the search engines won’t help you increase conversions on your site. For example, your visitors won’t buy something on your site just because your site is #2 in Yahoo! Your visitors will only convert on your site if your site is useful and helpful to them.

Remember, in trying to fool the Search Engines with SEO tricks, you really only end up fooling yourself…

(j) Search Engines - What do They Think of Content?
As far as Search Engines are concerned, the more basic TEXT content the better. Search Engines love text because this is what they analyze.

The more text on your page, the easier it is for Search Engines to figure out what your page is about; the more confident the Search Engines can be that the content is useful; the more chance you have of relevant visitors finding you.

IMPORTANT! The text should, of course, be relevant and easy-to-read for your visitors too.

Listing reams and reams of keywords on your webpages in small or invisible text is not a good idea. It makes your site look shoddy and cheap and counts against you if the Search Engines find out about it too. After all, if your site is good and of value, why do you need to resort to tricks to promote it?

(k) But Adding Lots of Text Content will ruin my Website Design!!
If you have a very clean, minimalist-style website, you may not want to add extra text to it… That decision is, of course, entirely up to you but you should note that by using images only you are not giving the Search Engines much to work with.

After all, what good is a beautifully designed site if no-one visits it?!

If you fall into this category, you COULD consider keeping very little text on your homepage, but including plenty of text content on the inner pages of your site for SEO purposes.

(l) Ok, so HOW do I Create Good Content for my site?
If your site is “informational” (e.g. a database of recipes and cooking techniques) it is relatively easy to focus on content and creating it.

What do you do however, if like Carol’s (fictional) site, you sell woodcraft products?

(You can read about Carol’s site in section (f) of our previous SEO: Content 1 post.)

All that is required is come creative thinking!

Almost any topic you name can be written about and since your site is an extension of you or your business, you should be well-qualified to write about it!

First, Carol could make sure to write detailed descriptions of all the products on her website. (Remember Carol’s visitors can see the pictures on her site, but Search Engines can’t!)

Next Carol should consider writing other articles for her site. For example:

• how best to care for and protect wooden furniture;
• explanation of the different types of wood and the climates they suit;
• woodworm and how to prevent it;
• sustainable forestry;
• removing stains from wood;
• how to conduct simple repairs;
• the history of wooden furniture;
• the different woodworking techniques available;
• how to prevent wood from warping….

With a little effort, Carol could put together a helpful and valuable resource for visitors to her site, which will also act to help her site move up the Search Engine rankings. It’s a win-win situation.

And if Carol can do it… you can too!

(m) Good Content - TOP TIPS!

1. Focus on creating the best site you possibly can. Create quality and the rankings will follow. To quote John from our Good Content example (see section (e) of our post entitled SEO: Content 1), if your content is GOOD, people will want it … and if people want it, then the Search Engines will want it (and list it highly) too.
2. Try to regularly add new content to your site - the more often your content is updated, the better. (Make sure the content is relevant and good quality though!) Think about it. A site that is regularly updated is almost bound to be more useful and relevant to visitors than a site that hasn’t been updated since 1996!
3. Remember that Search Engines can (generally) only see text! Use a text based webpage viewer to see your site through the eyes of the Search Engines. This will help you to establish if you are telling the Search Engines everything they need to know about your site. Make sure to describe your site and what you do. Here’s one viewer you can try.
4. Think about the phrases that people would associate with your site and make sure to USE these phrases early and often in your content - but don’t overdo it! Think of Carol in the example above - initially her site didn’t actually mention the products that she sells anywhere! This meant that the Search Engines had no idea what her site was about. (You can read about Carol’s site in section (f) of our previous SEO: Content 1 post.) In the revised site content, Carol used “limited edition wood creations”, “wood creations” “handcrafted wooden products”, “furniture”, “bowls” - these are all terms that people might use to search for a site like Carol’s. Now the Search Engines can tell what Carol’s site is offering! (We’ll be covering more about keywords in a later SEO blog post)
5. Use your creativity to turn your site into a useful resource which will be valued by your visitors and hence by the Search Engines - write as much useful content as you can! See section (l) for ideas. Aim for 250 - 1000 words of relevant, useful text content per page.
6. Do NOT forget that rankings are NOT your aim, a more successful site is! (e.g. more sales, increase sign-ups etc)
7. Do NOT get caught up in trying to work out SEO tricks. Your time would be far better spent creating more content for your site.
8. DO use headlines, bolding and italics to emphasize relevant parts of your content. Your visitors and many Search Engines will consider highlighted text to be important and so will place greater emphasis on it.

Related Posts:
(1) SEO: Intro
(2) SEO: Content 1
(3) SEO: Content 2

Further to a number of queries, here are the steps to follow to install StatCounter on a myspace profile.

With StatCounter you can track hits to your myspace page and learn about your myspace profile views.


First Things First…
In your StatCounter account, you MUST generate HTML-only code for your myspace profile. This is really important, so don’t forget! (This is due to policies imposed by myspace.)


Step 1
Log into your myspace. Go to the “Profile” menu and click “Edit Profile”.



Step 2
Paste your StatCounter code into the “About Me” section. Click “Save Changes” and that’s it!



Your StatCounter will now begin recording visitor information and, if you chose the visible option, your counter will be visible on your myspace page! (The image below shows a sample StatCounter)

To assist you further, we’ve also put together a video tutorial which you can see below…

As always, comments, questions and feedback are welcome!

UNICEF
Our donation to UNICEF will be put towards providing bikes to help health care workers reach children in remote villages, vaccines to protect children from measles, blankets to bring comfort and warmth to families and children caught in emergency situations plus other items.

Concern Worldwide
We’ve made a donation to Concern to provide water filters, mosquito nets, chickens, HIV counseling, small business loans and other items to those in need.

Trocaire
The Trocaire donation will be used to provide school lunches every day for a year to a number of children, seeds and tools to vulnerable households and goats to offer families a source of milk, food and trade.

Plan
In the West African country of Togo, girls often miss out on education. The donation we made to Plan will be put towards the “Girl Friendly Schools Project” - this is designed to make schools more accessible to girls by the provision of separate girls’ toilet and washing facilities and community child-minding facilities to relieve girls from child-minding duties.

Hi folks,

If you have 3 minutes to spare, you may be interested in watching the below footage of Aodhan Cullen (StatCounter founder) receiving his recent Internet Hero award.

For anyone who’s curious, you can also find out just how to pronounce the name “Aodhan” too!

Did you know that when you generate your StatCounter code, you can choose a “Counter Image” or a “Text Counter”?

Counter Image
With a “Counter Image”, you can choose the digit and background color of your StatCounter within your StatCounter account. You can also set the minimum number of digits to be displayed and choose a font style. Here are a few examples of the Counter Images available with StatCounter:

Sometimes though, members want to be able to further customize their StatCounters…

Text Counter
If you would like to format your StatCounter to your own specific requirements, you can choose a “Text Counter” when you generate your StatCounter code. With a Text Counter, you can format your counter using HTML. This way you can change the font, use borders, add background colors and images and create your very own unique StatCounter. Take a look at some of the examples that we created here…

The Basics
Here are some simple HTML codes you can use to customize your StatCounter. Note that there are several different ways to achieve the effects that we describe - we’re just showing a selection of techniques here.

Note also that while we are using HTML codes, formatting your website using CSS usually produces a better result. It’s generally accepted that CSS is a more powerful and efficient method of applying formatting to a website.

Further, some of the tags we are using here such as <font> have been “deprecated” - this means that these tags have been superseded and are no longer recommended for use by the W3C. That said, these tags (currently) continue to be generally recognized and supported globally.

Change the Counter Font Color
Add the following code to the source code of your website, on either side of your StatCounter code:
<font color="#0C4908">StatCounter Code</font>

#0C4908 is the hexadecimal code for a dark green color - use any of the following hexadecimal codes to format your StatCounter:


#0C4908   #f3b044
#e3007b   #acacac
#648dc7   #412700

Check out this link or this link for more hexadecimal color codes.

Change the Counter Font Size
Add the following code to the source code of your website, on either side of your StatCounter code:

<div style="font-size:25px;">StatCounter Code</div>

25px indicates the size that you want for your counter in pixels. Here are some examples of pixel sizes:


10px  15px  20px  25px

You can experiment with different text sizes to find the most appropriate one for your site.

Bold the Counter Font
Add the following code to the source code of your website, on either side of your StatCounter code:

<b>StatCounter Code</b>

Italicize the Counter Font
Add the following code to the source code of your website, on either side of your StatCounter code:

<ins>StatCounter Code</ins>

Center/Left-Align/Right-Align your StatCounter
Add the following code to the source code of your website, on either side of your StatCounter code:

<center>StatCounter Code</center>
Example - Center

<div style="text-align:left;">StatCounter Code</div>
Example - Left-Align

<div style="text-align:right;">StatCounter Code</div>
Example - Right-Align

Change the Font of your StatCounter
Add the following code to the source code of your website, on either side of your StatCounter code:

<font face="arial">StatCounter Code</font>

You can experiment with various fonts to find which suits your site. Here are some examples:

arial   verdana
helvetica   arial black
courier   courier new
georgia   impact
palatino   times new roman
trebuchet ms   garamond

Full Examples
You can experiment with the following sample codes to create your very own unique StatCounter!

	<div style="font-size:32px;"> <font face="Verdana" color="#800080"><b> <!– Start of StatCounter Code –> <script type="text/javascript"> var sc_project=4296912; … …</a></div></noscript> <!– End of StatCounter Code –> </b></font></div>
	<table background="snow.jpg" width="75px"> <tr><td align="center" valign="middle"> <font color="#000080"> <div style="font-size:30px;"><b> <!– Start of StatCounter Code –> <script type="text/javascript"> var sc_project=4296912; … …</a></div></noscript> <!– End of StatCounter Code –> </b></div></font></td></tr></table>
	<table border="1" bgcolor="#9781b7"> <tr><td align="center" valign="middle"> <table border="1" bgcolor="#d2a6c7"> <tr><td align="center" valign="middle"> <table border="1" width="45px" bgcolor="#aa99c5"> <tr><td align="center" valign="middle"> <font color="#5c3e90"><b> <!– Start of StatCounter Code –> <script type="text/javascript"> var sc_project=4296912; … …</a></div></noscript> <!– End of StatCounter Code –> </b></font></td></tr></table> </td></tr></table> </td></tr></table>
	<table background="molly.jpg" width="100px"><tr><td align="right"><font color="#ffffff"><b> <!– Start of StatCounter Code –> <script type="text/javascript"> var sc_project=4296912; … …</a></div></noscript> <!– End of StatCounter Code –> </b><br/><br/><br/></font></td></tr></table>
	<table border="10" bordercolor="#0C4908" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><font color="#0C4908" face="impact"> <!– Start of StatCounter Code –> <script type="text/javascript"> var sc_project=4296912; … …</a></div></noscript> <!– End of StatCounter Code –></font></td></tr></table>
	<table border="3"><tr><td><div style="font-size:8px;"><font face="courier"><b><ins> <!– Start of StatCounter Code –> <script type="text/javascript"> var sc_project=4296912; … …</a></div></noscript> <!– End of StatCounter Code –></ins></b></font></div></td></tr></table>
	<table align="left" valign="middle" bgcolor="#ed717a"><tr><td><font face="comic sans ms" color="#ffffff"> <!– Start of StatCounter Code –> <script type="text/javascript"> var sc_project=4296912; … …</a></div></noscript> <!– End of StatCounter Code –> </font></td></tr></table>

If you have any suggestions or comments (or if you spot any errors in our codes!) please post below…

Folks,

We’re delighted to let you know that Aodhan Cullen (founder and CEO of StatCounter) has been chosen as this year’s Internet Hero at the eircom Golden Spider Awards! The award, sponsored by Business and Finance, was created to recognize an individual who has made a significant contribution to the development of the internet.

Aodhan was honored to receive the award from last year’s Internet Hero, Dr. Denis Jennings.

Here’s a transcript of the speech given by Aodhan last night as he accepted the award in the Burlington Hotel in Dublin…

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who lived in Castleknock [residential area in Dublin, Ireland]. Although small for his age and quite shy, this young chap was also very determined… he wanted to earn some extra pocket money [allowance] and he wanted to earn it NOW!

So, despite being just 10 years of age, he put an ad in the Golden Pages [telephone and business directory] for typing services… “£2 / page & a free copy with that!”

Although he counted doctors, professors & other highly qualified people among his clients, I can assure you that 10 year old had absolutely no idea that 15 years later he would be standing here tonight before his peers to accept such a prestigious award.

“Business Link” that first typing business is no more but these days I work on StatCounter – a free online visitor stats tool that helps 2 million website owners and bloggers worldwide understand and optimise their websites. If you haven’t yet got a StatCounter on your website, then you need to get one! Look us up tomorrow!

I am thrilled & humbled to be the recipient of this year’s Internet Hero Award. Tonight I’m being presented with some big shoes & I hope I can fill them.

I’d like to thank a few people:

• The judges for choosing me.
• All the team at eircom and Business & Finance for organizing tonight’s event.
• All my family & parents – who still to this day, get calls asking about CV [résumé] typing!
• And of course my wife Jenni who is thrilled to be Mrs Internet Hero 2008!
• Thanks also to my colleagues on the StatCounter Team and all the StatCounter members worldwide – without their loyalty & support I wouldn’t be here tonight.



Finally, I want to thank all of you sitting here tonight, my friends & peers in the internet industry – many of you have offered advice & support to me over the last 15 years, in some cases just via email or message boards so that we have never actually met in person. To one and all – thank you!

And I look forward to trying to live up to my new title in the next 12 months.

Goodnight and God bless!

We, the StatCounter Team, don’t think Aodhan will have any trouble living up to the new title… look how well the suit fits?!

Some StatCounter members have recently shared with us their stories about they used StatCounter to help identify and prevent Click Fraud. You can read about one case here.

As a result of this, we decided to put together this guide to Click Fraud and explain how StatCounter can help you too…

First let’s explain Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising…
PPC advertising is offered by many ad networks. With this type of advertising you pay each time your advert is clicked. The cost of PPC advertising can vary considerably from less than 10 cents to over $25 per click.

Advertisers often have a budget per month for PPC advertising.

For example, if you have a budget of $500 per month for PPC advertising and pay $1 per click, this means that in any month, you can pay for a maximum of 500 clicks on your adverts.

If you get 500 clicks on Day 1, then your budget is spent and your site will not receive any more advertising for the remainder of the month.

What is Click Fraud?
Click Fraud occurs when individuals or automated computers click on an advert without having any interest in the product/service advertised. Click Fraud is performed, instead, simply to generate a cost for the advertiser (without any chance of making a sale) and consume the advertiser’s budget.

Who would commit Click Fraud and who benefits?
Here are some examples of the people who might commit Click Fraud:

The Competitor
It’s possible for your competitors to search for and click your adverts in order to use up your advertising budget.

If you have a budget for 500 clicks per month, for example, one of your competitors can “use up” any number of these clicks. Your competitor is hoping that this will mean less business for you and more for him. The end result is that you pay for 500 clicks per month, but only some of these are valid. The earlier case study we mentioned is a prime example of this kind of Click Fraud.

The Publisher
When you sign up with an advertising network, your adverts may be shown on numerous different websites. These websites are known as “publishers” as they “publish” adverts. These publisher websites are often paid more if they can secure more clicks on the adverts they display. This can entice some publishers to (dishonestly) click on the adverts they display on their sites or even employ third parties to click the ads on their behalf. They do this in order to boost the advertising revenue that they, the publishers, earn. The end result is that you are paying for adverts that are NOT going to bring you any sales - instead your hard earned cash is being fraudulently obtained by the publisher.

Disgruntled Employee
Unfortunately, some people who find themselves dissatisfied with their job/working conditions/salary look for ways to “get back” at their employer. One way they can do this is to continuously search for and click your adverts in order to use up your advertising budget. The end result of this is that you are again paying for advertising that can never bring you any sales. You may be paying for 500 clicks per month in the hopes of reaching 500 potential customers… but, taking out the fraudulent clicks, you may only be making contact with a much smaller number of potential clients.

Click Fraud - what YOU can do about it
If you use PPC advertising, it is vital that you monitor the visitors to your website and watch for indicators of suspicious click activity. Otherwise, you may be spending your hard earned cash on advertising that won’t be of any benefit to your business.

The first step in trying to identify Click Fraud is to understand the usual stats that you can expect from your visitors. Get to know the normal level of activity on your site by frequently reviewing your StatCounter stats and watching for patterns and trends. When you know what to expect in general from your stats, it becomes much easier to identify any unusual activity.

Here are some important points to watch if you are worried about Click Fraud, together with examples of how you can use your StatCounter stats to protect yourself from this cybercrime.

• Repeat Visits from Same IP Address
  This is the FIRST thing to look for if you are trying to identify Click Fraud. Repeated visits from the same IP could be legitimate e.g. several visits from different people in the one organization… but they could also be indicative of suspicious activity e.g. a competitor repeatedly clicking your adverts.

  Use the Recent Visitor Activity information from your StatCounter stats to identify repeated instances of the same IP hitting your site.

  

  When you review your Recent Visitor Activity, keep the following points in mind.

  (1) Look at the Number of Entries for each visitor. This tells you the number of times that this IP appears in your detailed log file. If one visitor regularly takes up an unusually large portion of the slots in your log file, then this may be an indication of suspicious activity.

  (2) Look at the number of Returning Visits. An unusually high number of returning visits may indicate suspicious clicks on your site.

  (3) Look at the information about the IP Address of your visitors. Depending on their computer/internet set-up, you may be able to identify what corporation or organization your visitors are from. Repeated visits from a competitor may signify Click Fraud.

  (4) Use the StatCounter Label IP Address function to label any IP addresses about which you become suspicious. This will help you to keep track of future activity from this same visitor on your site.




• Time Spent on Site
  Looking at the time visitors spend on your site can also help you identify instances of Click Fraud. For example, automated bots designed to commit Click Fraud will generally only spend a very short time on your site. If you establish how long the average visitor spends on your site, then you can identify and monitor suspiciously short visits. Use your StatCounter Visit Length stat to track the time visitors spend on your site.




• Country Breakdown
  As we mentioned earlier, some unscrupulous publishers have outsourced the task of committing Click Fraud to fraudulently increase their profits at your expense. Many of these third party Click Fraud operations are located in countries such as India, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, Romania and Russia. If you get an unexpected number of clicks from any of these countries, this could mean that you are a victim of Click Fraud. Use the StatCounter Recent Visitor Map to identify the geographical breakdown of your visitors.

Click Fraud - The Conclusions
No-one is immune to Click Fraud and, although the advertising networks can and do screen out some instances of this practice, they do not catch all illegal activity. It’s up to all of us who pay for PPC advertising to make sure that we don’t fall victim to this crime.

The methods employed to commit Click Fraud are becoming ever more sophisticated and it probably isn’t even possible to identify all instances of this activity, but using the suggestions in this article you should be able to better protect yourself from this fraudulent practice.

Please feel free to share any other ideas about how to detect and prevent Click Fraud in the comments section below!

UPDATE: How NOT to be a Victim of Click Fraud

Also, if you can identify that a competitor is committing Click Fraud, then make direct contact with them. The possibility of legal action is usually enough to prevent them from engaging in Click Fraud at your expense in the future.

As I write this post, I’m sitting in an office in Dublin, Ireland. The weather is miserable outside… but we’re warm and protected indoors. The bad weather means that it’s really dark, even early in the day… but we fix this by switching on the lights. Even looking out the window makes me shiver… so I pull my comfy sweater a little closer around me. If I feel thirsty… I can help myself to a drink from the fridge. When lunchtime comes, we will all make our way down to the canteen for some food to keep us going for the few hours until we head home for dinner.

In recent weeks I have found myself worrying about my bank account, my savings, my mortgage, my job… My mind has been filled with thoughts about unemployment, repossessions, stock markets plummeting, banks going bust… As more & more bad news hit the headlines I began to wonder… can this get any worse?

Then it hit me… Yes.

Despite the financial turmoil, despite the credit crisis, despite house prices falling, despite everything… I AM one of the lucky ones.

• I don’t have to worry about feeding my family tonight.
• I don’t wonder where my next meal will come from.
• I don’t worry about my baby drinking dirty water.
• I don’t have to sleep outdoors tonight or any night.

I have access to food, shelter and warm clothing. I have clean water on tap. I can visit a doctor if I need to. I have access to heat and electricity at the flick of a switch. I have access to education and training. I have job opportunities and leisure time. I even have the privilege of having some savings to worry about in these economic times…while many people don’t have even enough money to survive, never mind save.

At the moment many of us are cutting our spending… this is leading to a fall in charitable donations… there is a real fear that this may result in many of the world’s poorest people suffering even more than they already do.

So, despite the economic downturn, I have decided to make a small but determined effort in favor of those much less fortunate than me. Out goes the weekly treat of Hot Chocolate with extra marshmallows & whipped cream… in comes an extra weekly donation to charity. It may not be much, but it’s a start. If you think about it, by foregoing one tall latte, you could contribute $3 to someone in dire circumstances.

As a part of our contribution to Blog Action Day 2008, StatCounter has decided to sponsor a child via the charity Plan Ireland.

Plan is an international development agency which works to implement programs at a grassroots level in health, education, water and sanitation. Children are at the heart of all Plan activities and their projects directly support more than 1,500,000 children and their families.

By becoming a sponsor with Plan, StatCounter, together with thousands of other donors worldwide will help to improve the quality of life of children living in poverty.

Plan’s active support for child development over a long period of time aims to improve the healthy development of children from before birth, through to an adulthood in which they can be valuable and productive members of their community.

If you would like more information about Plan, please click here. To sign up as a sponsor follow this link, or click here to make a single donation to Plan. Remember - every cent counts and every donation is appreciated.

Togo is a small country in West Africa. Annual income per head is just $350 and the mortality rate for children under 5 is over 10%.

Plan is currently working on various projects in this area including:

• erecting clean water points
• training teachers
• building and modernising schools
• establishing voluntarily manned crèches to release younger girls from the responsibilities of child minding so as they can attend school

Plan are also working to tackle the stigma and discrimination associated with disability by establishing and equipping community based rehabilitation centers. It is hoped that, following this project, disabled children will no longer be locked away in homes, but instead be given the opportunity to be active participants in society with the opportunity to live their lives to their maximum potential.

Positive results are already emerging as communities are beginning to recognise that disabled children have an important role to play. As one community leader put it ‘this project has helped us re-find our children’.

We were delighted to be invited recently to take part in Blog Action Day on October 15th 2008!

Each blogger brings their own perspective and ideas to their blog post, and each blogger engages their audience differently.

On Blog Action Day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue. Out of this discussion naturally flow actions, advice, ideas and plans.

In 2007 on the theme of the Environment, bloggers ran environmental experiments, detailed innovative ideas on creating sustainable practices and brought attention to organizations and companies promoting green agendas.

Blog Action Day is about mass participation and anyone is free to join in! There is no limit on the number of posts, the type of posts or the direction of thoughts and opinions.

StatCounter will be taking part in Blog Action Day on October 15th, and we encourage our members to think about participating also.