Essay on Computer Forensics

Introduction Computer forensics is a growing branch in the field of computer science and information technology. Occasionally, organizations, big or small, would require an audit of their information systems (Carrier, 2005). This is where the computer forensic experts come in. This paper is meant to give a clear understanding of some of the tasks involved in computer forensics. Description of activities and tasks involved in investigation, documentation as well as reporting has been captured in the paper. The last part of the paper is a brief analysis of expert witness’s challenges as well as a sample courtroom scenario. Types of equipment that should be packed in a field tool kit and the rationale behind the choices The tool kit for the task should include a number of software and hardware devices. One of the most important equipment is the forensic laptop and power supply. Forensic laptop would definitely contain very important software for carrying out the task while the power supply would serve as an emergency source of power incase of power outage (Vacca, 2002).   Digital cameras, case folders, and blank forms are also important. The stated equipment would be used for interview recording of staff as well as other observations made in the field.   Cables for data transfer and blank hard drives for storages of data as well as hardware write blockers would be essential for the task ahead. Hard drive duplicators for forensic imaging and data acquisition are also needed for the task (Kruse, Heiser, 2002). Some other tools that would prove more valuable would include password removal software and equipment. It is important to do have these tools to counteract cases of sabotage or uncooperativ eness from staff. Additional questions for the Supervisor before the operation begins Who are the people who are in charge of safeguarding the safety of the explosives? Who authorizes the release of explosives to be used in the field? Is there a mechanism for explosive acquisition by the company? Could I get the list of the names of all individuals handling explosives in the company? Do the company use IT systems in the management of explosives and substances circulations? Who manages system user accounts in all the company systems? When is the company allowed to release explosives for use in the field? Does the company keep all the records pertaining to explosive use? Who are some of the officers that will be working with me? Is the suspect found with the cache of explosives an employee of the company? Brief address to police officers The operation will begin shortly therefore, I call upon your cooperation as we undertake this task. In order for the success of this task, and to ensure that the culprits are brought to book, I call upon you to cooperate fully and offer any information that might come your way. Take note that in order to get information from the suspect, use of force or harassment might not prove fruitful. I urge you to handle the situation with dignity. Report to me immediately any activity that is suspicious crops up. All computer systems, devices, storage media and any other records should not be touched and should be left as they are until checked by the investigating officer. In case of file deletion that can be noted in any machine, kindly report it to me immediately so that appropriate action can be taken.  Ã‚   Ensure that no company staff are in access to computer systems during the investigation. Secure the data centers and ensure that no company staff gets access to the machines there.   If not sure of any activity in progress, report the same to me immediately. Pieces of potential evidence in the scene and evidence that it might contain From the office picture shown, many devices and documents can be sources of evidence in the investigation.   First is the USB flash drive on the desk. The flash drive could contain data that shows payments made or donations of explosives made by the manager to the culprit captured with the explosives. On the hand phone, records might show calls made by the suspect to various people in the last couple of hours or even days. Following of the leads might lead to resolving of the matter. The memory hard drive might also contain important data with regard to explosive records distribution or acquisition by the company. In the same category as the memory, hard drive is the DVD device and note pads on the desk. In addition to be checked are the sticker notes on the computer. The notes might contain some important information that would contribute to the entire task. Hard drive, DVD, USB flash drive are some of the electronics storage and transfer devices used. The same devices can be used in the storage of company data, such as records of explosive distribution. It is due to this fact that it is important to check them. Sticker notes are also some of the quick reminder objects that can provide valuable information. Methods employed to â€Å"capture† the scene in situ The first method that could be used to capture this scene is to video tape it.   Capturing a video of the scene is advantageous in the sense that the scene can be captured from all angles therefore giving the most accurate scenario of the scene. Video recording of the scene allows sound recording too, therefore audio explanations can be included in the process (Kruse, Heiser, 2002). The real picture of the scene can therefore be captured in the process and understood clearly. Photographing the scene is another method that can be employed in the process. Photographs just like video records provide first hand information of the scene, however photographing the scene has a disadvantage in that it is hard to capture all of its angles. Some objects might be blocked by other objects and therefore bring confusion during review. Describing the scene by taking down notes, is another method through which the scene can be captured. The method is not desirable though due to the variability with which various people can describe an object or a scene. It however has a desirable advantage in that it can offer extra informative information that is hard to comprehend by looking at a photograph. Step of action on seeing the above window Considering the speed of the process, the approach taken would vary. If the clean up speed is faster, the first task would be to cancel it in order to prevent the clean up of important documents, or browser histories.   However if the process of clean up is slow, the first activity would be to make prove of the same. This can be done by photographing the screen of video recording it. Evidence of such an activity could be useful in reporting and provision of expert opinion to authorities.   Whichever task comes fast, the most important thing to do is to stop the process before much data is deleted. Evidences that can be collected thereafter After stopping the clean up process, the first task is to check the documents that were being deleted by the system. The evidence that can be collected include temporary internet files, cookies, web browser history which would show the sites visited by the suspect, last download locations, will give an insight on the locations from which the suspect obtained what data. Recent documents can also be used to verify what one has been working on in the last few days or weeks. If the suspect was running any activity or using any document with relation to the case at hand, then the same information can easily be obtained. Purpose and importance of a chain of custody document for the evidence A chain of custody events refers to a chronological dcocumentation of actions that depict activities involved in the seizure, custody, control, and analysis of evidence (Carrier, 2005). Chain of custody document is important in the sense that it is used to show the order in which tasks were done in the field. It is used to determine whether any tampering of evidence might have occurred during the process for the purposes of evaluation evidence accuracy. It helps to establish that the seized evidence is in fact related to the crime in question and hence remove doubt associated with fraudulent planting of evidences. The document can be used to avert or withstand any challenges that can be raised with regard to the authenticity of the evidence collected (Carrier, 2005). Potential digital evidence not in the office There is need to check the server logs at the server room. It is important to check also the database logs and user logs in the server room or data center. It is important to check this in order to determine the times at which the suspect might have accessed the company systems. Not only will the time of access be known but also the activity done by the culprit. An example is a task such as changing the records in the database. The logs will provide useful information for examination of these activities. The activity done by the suspect can be used to link to any suspicious release of explosives or unauthorized release of consignment to a particular destination. Some of this information can be very useful in determination of a case. Questions to ask the System Administrator Who is in charge of user accounts management in the organization? Is there any way one can access someones account without the owner’s knowledge or the accounts managers’ knowledge? Has there been any security breach in your systems in the recent past, if so, what was its extent and how was it contained? Reasons for talking to the suspect It would be very important to ask the suspect some questions regarding to the digital media collected. This is important as it allows for clarification of some unclear parameters in mind. When adequate information is given, and clarification is sought a clear understanding of the situation is developed. Having a clear comprehension of the situation will help in analysis and reporting. Without proper understanding of the scenario, it is most likely to report wrong information to the authorities. Important information that can be obtained from the computer before beginning the forensic examination of the hard drive itself Web browser histories would prove useful indetermination of the sites recently visited by the suspect. The computer stores this information in the history option of the web browser. Opening those sites can be crucial in evaluation what the suspect had been up to in the recent past. Download locations is another place that is necessary to check. If any data was downloaded from a particular site or server, the same will be found. In order to immediately determine what the suspect was up to some few moments before his arrest, the list of recent documents can help. If one had been working on manipulating some records or accessing some form of documents prior to arrest, the same can easily be determined. This information provides an easy and fast opportunity to analyze information at hand and determine its relevancy to the case. â€Å"MD5† and its significance MD5 is a cryptographic function used in cryptography to produce a 128-bit hash value. Its main purpose is to check data integrity (Carrier, 2005). This report is a problem in the sense that it implies an error in the integrity of data in the hard drive. It furthermore signifies failure of data integrity constraints to be met in the data in the hard drive. It could mean that there could have been manipulation of data or some data might have been lost (Carvey, 2005). Purpose of each of the following folders and potential evidence it might contain â€Å"C:\$Recycle.Bin† directory: This folder contains all the data or documents that have been deleted. They are documents that are no longer needed for use; however, the same might be needed in the future and hence can be retrieved. Some of the information that can be found here includes documents that the suspect might have deleted from the main folders of other partitions in the hard disk. This information might include records of transactions, reports, draft reports or even letters and memos. â€Å"C:\Program Files† directory: The program files directory contains program files. These files are used in running out applications that are essential in the task performance. Such programs include office applications programs and other software. The same will be instrumental in determination of the software applications that are mostly used by the suspect. It will aid in the general reporting and determination of a standing point with regard to the investigations. â€Å"C:\Users\Roberts\Desktop† directory: This folder is a folder that contains all the information stored on the computer desktop. Just like the folders, the information that can be gathered here include documents such as reports, Memos or any other documents that might have been stored in the folder. â€Å"C:\Users\Roberts\Documents† directory: The folder named above is used to store documents. It contains all the documents saved by the client or just automatically saved by the system. Examination on the document in order to determine its owner In order to determine the owner of the spreadsheet, the first thing is to check the name associated with. In as a much as the name might give some lead, the same cannot be prove enough that can withstand legal challenge in a court of law. It is therefore necessary to determine when the spreadsheet was created. After determining the time it was created, a visit to the system log is done. This is to identify the person who was logged into the system at the time the document was created. By use of user name and password associated with the logged user at that particular time the owner of the document can be identified. Checking of the file metadata can help in determining the time of creation and the associated user who created it. Metadata and its importance in computer forensics Metadata is a term used to describe information about data (Carvey, 2005). It actually is data about data. It describes the containers of data and furthermore any individual instances of data. Metadata is important to computer forensics because it gives a clear indication of the environment and particulars associated with any data.   The contents and quality of data can be determined by description of the same. A good example is a description describing the language in which data stored in a database is written in, the tools that were used to create files and when the files were created.   Metadata also provides information relating to rights and administrative access to documents and data. This is most useful in determination of the people who has access to data any particular time (Carvey, 2005). Report on the spreadsheet Upon investigations on the suspects’ computer having obtained consent from him, a spreadsheet document was recovered from one of the folders. The spreadsheet document was created by use of Microsoft Office Excel, version2007.   Upon opening the document, information regarding to the distribution of explosives were indicated. Some columns were marked pending while others delivered. It was noted that the location of delivery was however not indicated against each column. One striking discovery made was the fact that in one of the columns an indication had been made to the effect that the consignment of the explosives had been delivered. The particulars of explosives in question matches the same particulars seized from the terrorist suspect who had earlier been arrested during the week. Investigations were done in order to determine the owner of the document and the time the document was created. This was done by checking on the file metadata, which contains a description of da ta contained in it. System logs were also checked to verify the person who was logged in at the time the file was created. This investigation led to the revelation that at the time the file was created and any other time it was updated, Mr. Roberts was logged in to the system. The file metadata also showed that the spreadsheet document is owned by Mr. Roberts. To this point, it is my subjective assessment that Mr. Roberts created ad managed the document. Difference between expert and fact witness An expert witness is a witness who is admitted by virtue of proven skills or education in particular field and is believed to have expertise in that particular field beyond the comprehension of an average individual and can therefore offer reliable scientific or technological opinion on the matter. A fact witness on the other part is a witness that testifies only by virtue o things seen, tested, heard, touched or smelled. No expertise is needed in any field in order to testify as a fact witness. Expert witnesses are important in this case because the evidences that would largely be depended on come from the expert. It is to be noted that fact witnesses play little role here because electronic and digital information can be changed without, seeing or application of all other senses that play large role in factual witnesses. Importance of looking at the jury when answering questions Facial expressions play an important role in determination of the level knowledge displayed by an individual. Facing the jury will not only help them gauge the leave of confidence they should have on the expert but will also increase confidence ratio in whatever is said. Direct eye contact while expressing oneself can signify deep understanding of whatever is being expressed by the expert witness. Reason for challenges faced in testifying on digital evidences Many lawyers and judges are not familiar with computer technology. Previous evidence that held a lot of value in a court of law were evidence that could be seen with the naked eye. However, digital forensics cannot be seen with a naked eye in a court of law. It becomes difficult therefore to explain to the jury the meaning of terms used in the reports presented as well as how some technologies work. Answer to question about blogs posed by the defense lawyer To insinuate that my political opinions about the government and the governance of this country influenced my judgment is totally misplaced. I just reported what I found out in the system. The same facts can be attested by any other expert if another investigation is done. Systems logs will always show changes that are made in the systems at any particular time. Any attempt to change any document including the system logs themselves will always be recorded in the system logs. That is what I used in my reporting. To add to that my professional code of ethics as well as my own moral principles does not allow me to use my knowledge to disadvantage others wrongly. Reference Carrier, B. (2005). File system forensic analysis. New York, NY: Addison Wesley Carvey, H. (2005). Windows forensics and incident recovery. New York, NY: Addison-Wesley. Casey, E. (2004). Handbook of computer crime investigation: Forensics tools and technology. Academic Press. Kruse, W. Heiser, J. (2002). Computer forensics: Incident response essentials. New York, NY: Addison Wesley. Vacca, J. (2002).Computer forensics: Computer crime scene investigation. Charles River Media.

Chinua Achebe s Things Fall Apart - 916 Words

Bria Kirkland Essay 1 â€Å"Things Fall Apart† by Chinua Achebe Imagine your favorite TV show, and think about the characters. Which character is your favorite? Most of us would say it is the main character, the one that is the most relatable. That character is called the protagonist, and it is often the one that we identify with the most. In contrast to the protagonist, a character we think about less often is the foil character. This character is the complete opposite of the main character. Usually, a foil goes through the same events as the main character however he will see things differently and have a different opinion. The purpose of this character is to shed light on the main character, and to show how things could work out differently†¦show more content†¦He had no patience with unsuccessful men. He had no patience with his father (3, 4).† This vastly different contrast between Okonkwo and his father really shows how impressive Okonkwo’s success is. He was able to ove rcome the stigma of his lazy father, and became one of the most successful men in the village. Even from the one single line, that Okonkwo did not have patience for anyone who was not successful, and no patience for his father, we can see that Okonkwo is nothing like his father. Unoka’s lazy characteristics are used to emphasize Okonkwo’s desire throughout the book to be a hard worker, and to be successful. Ikemfuna, a boy sent to live with Okonkwo and his family, is not a foil for Okonkwo, but for Nwoye. If it were not for Ikemefuna, we would not be able to see Nwoye’s connection to his grandfather, Unoka. As Okonkwo’s oldest son, Nwoye is expected to be strong, and hardworking like his father. But when Ikemefuna joins the family, he becomes like the son Okonkwo never had. Ikemefuna and Okonkwo form a bond, a bond that Nwoye and Okonkwo were never able to have, and Ikemefuna even begins to call Okonkwo â€Å"father.† On the other hand, Okonkwo considers Nwoye to be weak and lazy because even though â€Å"Nwoye knew it was right to be

LEGALIZATION Essay Example For Students

LEGALIZATION Essay Dont you think that cannabis should be made legal? Well it is my opinion thatCannabis should be made legal. It is also my opinion that Cannabis is the one and onlyreplacement for tobacco as a cash crop. It is undeniable that Cannabis is a great andwonderful way to make life better for all of mankind. The undeniable fact remains that Cannabis is probably the single most versatile andbeneficial agricultural product known to man. Its direct applications and by-producteffects on the environment are well documented. Only an obsolete and narrow-mindedpoint of view stands between the general public and their enjoyment of its rewards. Cannabis possesses many virtues in regards to industrial usage. Contrary topopular belief, Cannabis fiber is not limited strictly to rough fabrics such as burlap. Thefiber of the Cannabis plant can produce a wide range of textiles, from the consistency of afine linen to that of a heavy sailcloth. Hemp fiber is softer than cotton, warmer thancotton, more water absorbent than cotton, possesses three times the tensile strength ofcotton, and requires virtually no pesticides. I bet you didnt know that roughly half of all the pesticides used in the U.S. areused on cotton. Also, Cannabis cultivation is not at all as detrimental to the soil as iscotton production. As an added bonus, Cannabis fiber is great for paper production- thefirst two copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Gutenberg Bible were bothprinted on Cannabis paper. Additionally, production of Cannabis for paper requires onlyone-fourth of the amount of land required of production of timber for the same use. Plusthere is not as heavy a reliance upon chemicals to prepare the fibers for paper productionas is the case with wood based paper. The seeds, which can be produced in abundance,possess a high nutritional value, and if pressed for oil, that oil is of great value in theproduction of all kinds of paints and varnishes, which could lessen our reliance uponpetroleum products in this area. There are several other useful products which can be made from this plant. Forinstance if one was very sick (i.e. cancer, HIV or other major illnesses) you could dry andsmoke Cannabis to relive pain. This is because of its psychological properties or THCSome people think that legalizing cannabis would make it easier for people tomisuse it. Or that it would make it more available to minors. But the fact remains thatcannabis is very easy to get right now. It is even easier to find than alcohol or cigarettes. People even think that legalizing cannabis would increase the crime level. I think that if itwas made legal crime would decrease because it wouldnt be illegal to purchase ordistribute cannabis, therefore people would not have to lie, cheat or steal to obtaincannabis. And on these grounds alone its stupid to continue its prohibition . Bibliography:

Formal Models of Operating System Kernels

Questions: 1. An operating system that does not support multithreading cannot simultaneously utilize multiple processors (CPUs).Do you agree? Please provide reason(s) to support your answer.2. A process that is waiting for access to a critical section does not consume CPU time.Do you agree? Please provide reason(s) to support your answer.3. Windows 8 Thread can be in one of has 6 states (Figure 4.11 on Textbook page 76); whereas UNIX/Solaris Thread can be in one of 8 states? Answers: 1. Yes, I agree with the statement that an operating system that does not support multithreading cannot simultaneously utilize multiple processors (CPUs). In case of an operating system that supports multi-threading, threads from same of different processes can run simultaneously on the kernel. The programs are designed in such a way that the execution of no two threads interfere one another. A multi-processor system will have more than one processor. It is up to the OS, that all CPUs are utilized simultaneously or not. OS interacts with the hardware through kernel. Thus the kernel need to support simultaneous execution or more than one thread. If the OS does not support multi-threading, then at a time the kernel will be accessed by one thread or process only. Even there is multiple CPUs, at a time, only one will be used. So, it is true that the operating system needs to support multithreading to utilize multiple CPUs simultaneously. 2. No, I dont agree with the statement A process that is waiting for access to a critical section does not consume CPU time. A critical section is the section in the code of a program that contains shared information. Thus two or more process can try to access critical section at a time. But to avoid discrepancies, no two process will have simultaneous access to critical section. One have to wait for another two complete its execution. Now, there are different time to optimize this waiting time. In general, when a process is waiting to enter into some critical section, then the process is checking continuously that whether the critical section is available or not. This process is called busy waiting. It consumes CPU time. Ant this CPU time is just wastage. There are other mechanisms that optimizes these busy waiting. For example, blocking the waiting processes for some time, refrains those from continuous checking of the availability of the critical section and saves CPU time. Thus, it is not true that a waiting process does not consume CPU time while waiting for the critical section. 3. A ZOMBIE process is common in UNIX and LINUX OS based systems. It is a process that has been terminated by calling EXIT function call but the OS has kept information about the process in the process table. This is true for the child processes. The parent process wants to have some information about the exit status of its child. Thus the OS keeps information about the terminated child processes. Such processes are in Terminated state. When the parent process of the ZOMBIE process reads the exit status of the ZOMBIE child process, then the OS reaps out the information about the ZOMBIE process from its process table. So, a terminated child process will be in ZOMBIE state as long as its parent does not read the exit status as requested. So, in UNIX and LINUX process has 8 states including ZOMBIE state. If there is a ZOMBIE process in a system for quiet longer period then there may be system errors and resource leakages. ZOMBIE processes are different than other processes. Thus the KILL command cannot delete it from the system process table. In case of Windows 8, a buggy driver will be there from a ZOMBIE process. To deal with the errors and issues related to ZOMBIE process, the OS cleans the ZOMBIE processes from the system automatically. Thus there is no need to add some explicit state for ZOMBIE process. References Craig, I. D. (2007). Formal Models of Operating System Kernels. Springer. Deitel. (2004). Operating System. Pearson. Fox, R. (2015). Linux with Operating System Concepts. CRC Press. Godbole. (2011). Operating System. McGraw-Hill. Haldar, S., Aravind, A. A. (2010). Operating Systems. Pearson. Naghibzadeh, M. (2005). Operating System. iUniverse. Silberschatz, A., Galvin, B. B., Gagne, G. (2013). Operating System Concepts. Addison-Wesley. Sosinsky, B. (2012). Windows 8. Peachpit Press. Stallings, W. (2012). Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles. Prentice Hall.

Anne Frank essays

Anne Frank essays The Diary of Anne Frank Journeying back to the early nineteenth century, when Nazi forces occupied Germany during World War II, the lives of those living in this territory was spent in constant fear and anxiety. The Diary of Anne Frank leads readers through the harsh times of a family trying to escape imprisonment in concentration camps by Nazi soldiers, where death was almost certain. Born on June 12, 1929, Anne Frank was a German-Jewish teenager who was forced to go into hiding during the Holocaust. She and her family, along with four others, spent 25 months during World War II in an annex of rooms above her father's office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. During the two years in hiding which Anne refers to as "a time when the ideals are being shattered and destroyed, when the worst side of human nature predominates, when every one has come to doubt truth, justice and God (pg.327)." Anne kept a diary that was given to her by her father, Otto Frank, on her birthday. Between June 1942 and August 1944, from Anne's thirteenth birthday until shortly after her fifteenth birthday, Anne recorded her feelings, her emotions, and her thoughts, as well as the events that happened to her. "...Ideas, dreams, and cherished hopes rise within us only to meet the horrible truth and be shattered...yet in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart (pg. 327)." The diary is an accurate record of the way Anne grows up and matures, in the unfortunate situation she found herself. Given the circumstances in which the novel is written Anne gave a very vivid description of her surroundings and the feelings she encountered throughout her ordeal. The novel displays the grief and frustration that is experienced throughout the time spent in hiding. The emotions of the situation are captured in the text and gives validity to the pain and frustration encountered. Despite the amusing and enlightening side of the diary, that documents the...

How Will Outreach Marketing Make You More Successful

How Will Outreach Marketing Make You More Successful The story of the â€Å"great† blogger with â€Å"great† content but no traffic is a common one. Your excuse may be that youre blogging as a hobby, maintaining an online journal just for fun, or not in it for the money. But who are you kidding? Be honest with yourself- if you wanted to journal and didn’t care about having an audience, it would have been easier to write in a diary or Word doc. If you didnt care about an audience, you would have written a diary. #blogoutreachSo, you want traffic, right? Even if you aren’t blogging with the intention of building a million-dollar blog, it’s nice to have your ideas, words, and hard work appreciated. The unfortunate thing is that this idea of â€Å"content is king† has got you believing that, if you write amazing content, the traffic will somehow find you and because of this, you’ve been producing a post or two a day for the last 6 to 12 months. While you haven’t wasted your time, this strategy is incomplete. Whether or not you run your blog like a business, you need to strategize like a business. Focusing on your â€Å"product† with no investment in marketing is like a business sourcing materials, manufacturing 100,000 widgets, storing the inventory in a warehouse, and then wondering why the customers haven’t been buying the product. Not all is lost, however. You have tons of great blog posts already published and now you need to find the right bloggers or audience to share it with. Link Building Strategies: Guest Blogging And Outreach Marketing Unless you’re already recognized as an authority or have thousands of readers a day, a passive form of content marketing isn’t going to work. Instead, your link building campaign must take two forms- guest blogging and outreach marketing. For purposes of link building in this article, let me define guest blogging and outreach marketing: Guest blogging is contributing a blog post to a publication. Outreach marketing is requesting that a blogger link to your content from an existing or upcoming post. Any effective link building campaign should, at the minimum, incorporate a combination of these two tactics. But how do you decide where to leverage each one? Guest blogging Guest blogging should be reserved for highly-relevant, powerful authority sites. This is because, as an individual blogger or one part of a small team, you don’t have the resources (time, energy, money, opportunity cost, etc.) to contribute to every single guest posting opportunity. You have to pick and choose where your resources will yield the greatest results. The obvious example is that you would make a concerted effort to contribute to the Blog, whereas a smaller, lesser-known blog might get a pitch to be included in next month’s roundup. Prioritize your guest blogging opportunities. #marketingtipsFinding guest blogging opportunities. To evaluate a blog, you must find relevant ones. This is really the easiest task of all because whose job is it to return relevant blogs? Google’s! However, you need to be specific. If your blog is about â€Å"personal finance†, you wouldn’t try to reach out to CNN, Yahoo Finance, Wall Street Journal, or Bloomberg, which happen to be some of the top results for that keyword search. Instead, pick a related, niche topic such as â€Å"how to become financially independent† and open up every website in the first 300 results (maybe not all at once). Just remember that, as you work through this guide, it will benefit you to repeat the following process multiple times with different keywords to find the greatest number of bloggers to contact. To find the best guest blogging opportunities, search for one that is relevant and in your niche.Evaluating blogs. To determine if a website is worth guest blogging, don’t bother with the standard PageRank and domain authority (DA) metrics. PageRank hasn’t been updated since December 2013 and doesn’t seem to have the weight it once did in Google’s algorithm. Furthermore, as a third-party metric developed by Moz, DA is easily manipulated. For example, I’ve come across dozens of penalized sites with high domain authority, and I view penalized sites as essentially useless for SEO purposes. If Google penalizes a site and takes away its traffic, it is effectively stripping the strength of that domain, so why get a link from one? Beware of link sellers and SEO’s selling links on crappy high DA sites. Forget DA  and PageRank to find guesting opps. Organic traffic is  better.Ultimately, the best indication of a blog’s strength is the amount of traffic Google sends to it via organic rankings, making SEMrush my favorite SEO tool. Just enter the blog you are interested in contributing to, choose â€Å"Positions† under the â€Å"Organic Research† tab on the left, and click on â€Å"All time† in the â€Å"Organic keywords† section. If you find a level or upward trend, the blog is trusted by Google. Here’s a blog that ranks for nearly 10,000 keywords and is one you would likely be interested in earning a link from: This is a great blog to prioritize for guest blogging opportunities. Note that this  blog has been around for at least 4 years and enjoyed gradual growth until recently exploding with traffic. That’s the kind of blog you should want to be featured on. However, if this blog only had a 6-month history, now that might be a red flag indicating black hat SEO. And while you may get a temporary boost in rankings by guest posting on a site like that, it might be short-lived and thus a waste of your time because the goal is to build a strong, sustainable, long-term business model even if it takes more time and energy. An example of a blog to avoid may have a chart like this: Google penalized this blog, so it's probably not worth your time to send them a guest post. As you can see, this blog was hit by a penalty in late 2011 and has slowly been losing its keyword rankings. Not all penalized domains will demonstrate an obvious trend like this one, but anytime you see a huge drop in traffic and no recovery, the blog is in decline. This doesn’t necessarily make it unworthy of contributing to, assuming the traffic hasn’t finally reached 0; it just means it isn’t a priority right now. Save it for a lull period when you want to tie up loose ends. Guest blog vs. outreach: How to decide? Once you’ve decided a blog is worth reaching out to, you must determine your approach. There aren’t strict rules for pitching a specific blog; it really depends on a number of factors, such as: How many keywords is the domain ranking for? How relevant is the blog to my target audience? Is there a â€Å"Guest Post†, â€Å"Contributor Guidelines†, or â€Å"Write For Us† page? If so, how demanding are the guidelines? Does the author link out often? If so, are the links dofollow? How commercial does the site look? For me, a domain needs to rank for at least 300 keywords or have a large, loyal following (subscribers or social media) to be worth investing hours writing content. The bigger the blog, the more time you should invest in making your contribution absolutely memorable because eventually, your portfolio of work will be your future credentials in email pitches. Guest blogging guidelines:  Blogs must rank for 300 keywords or have  loyal following.On the other hand, if a blog is weak, you’re better off pitching the blogger on giving you a quick link by asking them to check out your content. Here  is a template of the email pitch I use: Here's a template you could follow for outreach marketing. Ask a fellow blogger to include a link to your relevant content. To make this feasible, the page you ask them to check out and possibly link to must be impeccable. Your content has to be extremely unique and insightful, your graphics need to be beautiful and vibrant, or you need to find some way to make a strong emotional connection with the blogger. The page must offer exceptional value to the blogger’s readers to convince him/her to share your resource; otherwise, you are wasting your time. Choosing the right content to promote. I’ve never been a prolific blogger. In fact, I probably don’t build â€Å"blogs† the way traditional bloggers do because I don’t develop content on a daily or even weekly basis. Since I create and grow so many websites, I focus on writing content where it makes strategic sense. There isn’t an exact formula for that, but I’ll use my latest project as an example. After 5 years of being a full-time Internet marketer and SEO expert, I finally thought it was time for me to start sharing my Internet marketing and SEO knowledge. I created StartABlog123.com to teach beginners how to start a blog. Given that the competition in the all-encompassing â€Å"blogging† niche is intense, it was important that I make my content stand out. This meant comprehensive non-commercial content, useful guides and resources, custom images, infographics, etc. For instance, I noticed a lot of solo bloggers discussing burn out, not knowing what to write about anymore, and linking to other resources that helped blog owners come up with new ideas. Knowing there was a â€Å"market† for this type of content, so I created the â€Å"Ultimate List of Blog Post Ideas†.

Definition of Progressive and Examples of Progressive Thinking in Essay

Definition of Progressive and Examples of Progressive Thinking in Terms Of History - Essay Example According to Lawson (357), progressivists tried to expose corruption and injustice in the government and undercut political machines. They wanted the citizens to have a direct rule through the power of their vote as well as including women in the political voting arena. In education there was a need to move from rote learning into child-centered and experiment-based learning. Parker argued that it was pointless to acquire knowledge without understanding it. Reforms The progressive era is basically the period between1895-1925. It was marked by social activism and reforms. Examples of reforms during the progressive era include the initiation of direct primary elections by the legislature. This gave voters the right and freedom to choose primary candidates instead of limiting it to party officials. This was a tool of reducing the power of political machines and bosses. This was accomplished by the progressive movement under La Follette’s governance. At this time also state forest s were preserved, monopolies were broken up and railroad taxes doubled. The government started to defend small farmers and small business holders by intervening on their behalf. This was through trade control which ensured that there was competition and free enterprise. In 1911, the first national workers’ compensation program was instituted, cooperatives were encouraged, laws governing factory safety were passed and state income tax was established. The income tax was directed to high incomes alone. Limited labor hours for children and women were also instituted. These were achieved under the governance of Francis McGovern (Lawson 421) In 1913, ratification was done to the Seventeenth Amendment. The ratification required that all senators be directly elected by voters instead of the state legislature. This served to reduce their power and ensure they served the interests of the people not particular individuals who put them in office (Lawson 364). Women were allowed to enjoy their rights to vote. This was achieved through the Nineteenth Amendment of the constitution of the US in 1920. There was a widespread formation of labor unions. These were meant to protect the rights of workers. A restriction in immigration was also passed to control the influx of foreigners into the US at this period. In terms of local governance, many cities instituted municipal reference bureaus to look into the local government’s administrative structures and budgets. Major reformations of state government were done in many states for example Illinois. In terms of educational reforms, a new curriculum was developed at the Lincoln School. This curriculum was meant to eliminate obsolete material while integrating material that could be adapted to the changing needs of modern living. The new curriculum was build on ‘units of work’ which reorganize subject matter in the previous curriculum to a design that considered development of children and their future rol es as adults. Major figures that advanced progressivism Some of the major figures that advanced progressivism include Robert La Follette. He was sparked into action when Philetus Sawyer, a Republican leader wanted to bribe him as an attorney so as to fix a court case. He spends the rest of the decade traveling around the state while making a stand and speaking against corrupt railroad interests, powerful lumber barons and crooked politicians.