Sabtu, 29 Agustus 2009

Add Amazon Product Links to Blogger Posts

In this tutorial you will learn how to deep link a specific Amazon product directly into your Blogger posts so that the link will appear either on every post page or alternatively only on a selected post page. By deep linking a targeted Amazon product directly to your Blogger blog you can expect to increase your Amazon sales and to make extra money from Blogger. If you wish to learn more about adding Amazon widgets to your blog please refer to my earlier tutorial Make Money Add an Amazon Widget to Blogger


This tutorial provides you with a complete walk through of the process of adding Amazon product links to Blogger. I have rated the tutorial as moderate as it involves setting up the Amazon product link, converting the code and adding a block of code to your Blogger template. All these steps are within the capabilities of the average Blogger user provided you follow the step by step instructions below.

How to Deep Link an Amazon Product to Blogger Posts
This tutorial will show you how to add an Amazon Product Link at the foot of every post in your Blogger blog. If you want your link to appear only on a specific individual post page see Tips and Troubleshooting below for instructions.

Difficulty Level: Moderate

  1. Sign in to your Amazon Associates account. If you are not a member sign up is free to both Amazon.com and Endless.com

  2. Click on the Links and Banners tab

  3. Under the Product Links heading choose the Add Product Links Now link

    Add Amazon Product Links to Blogger Tutorial - Choose Add Product Links
  4. From the Product Links page choose your Product Category from the drop down list and enter your search keyword phrase to identify the product you wish to link to. Hit the Go button.

    Add Amazon Product Links to Blogger Tutorial - Search for Desired Product
  5. From the search results choose the individual product you will linking to by clicking on the Get Link button on the right hand side of the product

    Add Amazon Product Links to Blogger Tutorial - Get Link for Specific Product

  6. You will now be taken to the Customize and Get HTML code page.

    • Select Link Type
      By default both the product image and text link will display but you can customize it to display the image only or the text only by checking the box alongside these options

    • Customize Link
      Choose the appearance of your product. With or without a border. Choose color options to suit your blog. I suggest you keep the default setting for the link opening in a new window. Amazon lets you see a live preview of your product on the right so that you can make any adjustments before embedding the code into your blog.

    Add Amazon Product Links to Blogger Tutorial - Customize Link
  7. Once you are satisfied with the product's appearance click on the highlight code button at the foot of the page and copy the HTML code for the Amazon Product Link.

  8. Open a Javascript to HTML converter such as Centricle. Paste your code into the content window and press the Encode button

  9. Highlight and copy the code that has been converted

  10. Login to Blogger if not already logged in

  11. Navigate to Layout > Edit HTML

  12. Back up your Blogger template as a precaution

  13. Check Expand Widget Templates box

  14. There are several places you may wish your product link to appear. I have assumed for the purposes of this tutorial that you want it at the bottom of your post. Therefore find the following code in your template:

    <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'/>

  15. Directly below this line paste the converted Amazon HTML code

  16. Click on Save Template

  17. Click on View Blog to view your link at the foot of every Blogger post including the home page view.



Tips and Troubleshooting
If you are writing about a lot of different products on your blog you may need to place targeted Amazon product links on your Blogger individual post pages. To have the Amazon Product Link only appear on a specific post page follow these steps.

How To Add an Amazon Product Link to an Individual Blogger Post
Before you get started you will need to know the full URL address of your Blogger post. To get this navigate in a new window to the specific post page of your Blogger blog and copy the address from the address bar at the top of your browser

  1. Follow steps 1 to 13 as per adding an Amazon Product Link to the foot of every Blogger post.

  2. Find the following code:

    <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'/>

  3. Directly below this line paste the following code:

    <b:if cond='data:blog.url == "your blog post URL including http://"'>
    Paste your Amazon code here
    </b:if>

  4. Replace "your blog post URL including http://" with the URL address of your blog post

  5. Paste over "Paste your Amazon code here" with your converted Amazon HTML code

  6. Click on Save Template

  7. Click View Blog and navigate to the individual post page to see your Amazon Product Link at the foot of your Blogger post (Blogspot post)


In this tutorial you have learned how to add an Amazon Product Link to your Blogger posts (Blogspot posts). I have also shown you how to embed an Amazon Product Link directly into a specific Blogger post. By adding targeted Amazon product links to your Blogger blog you can expect to make extra money from your blog. I would love to hear from anyone about their experiences of adding Amazon widgets or product links to their Blogger blog so if you have the time please let me know how you get on.




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Jumat, 28 Agustus 2009

Ranch House Invitations

We are excited to feature our newest expansion at RHD -- Invitations! For many of our loyal clients who've been with us for a few years, you might be thinking -- this isn't new....you did invitations for me 5 years ago! Well it's new and it's not. True, we have been designing custom invitations since we opened our doors. We've done lots of moving cards, holiday cards, party invitations, etc for lots of our friends for the past 10 years.

We've been searching and we've teamed up with two of the leading nationwide invitation suppliers...Tiny Prints and eInvite.com.

We are now able to offer thousands of personalized invitation examples at a price that can't be beat. So whether you're looking for a birthday party invitation, save the date, birth announcement, holiday card or more, we hope you'll visit Ranch House Invitations and browse through the exciting assortment of choices.

Of course, we'll still offer our custom designs just like always, we're just able to now offer a lot more options at a very affordable price. And for our high rolling friends, check out the choices at eInvite.com -- they are a little more pricey but they are really cool!

Selasa, 25 Agustus 2009

Update-A-Thon

It's that busy time of year where we're burning the midnight oils with updates in the web division. Yesterday we put up 40 new videos on Jeff Miller's site, and over 100 new photos of calves for sale this fall. Mondays are always fun since we get the rush of updates sent in over the weekend.

Updating your site - and letting people know it's updated - is crucial this time of year. Whenever you start updating your web site, your traffic is going to dramatically increase. Here are just a few examples of sites and the traffic they are getting:

Great Shorthorn Revival - They have been posting sale previews over the past few days, and their daily traffic has increased 4 TIMES OVER for the month of August. On August 1, they were averaging 60 visits per day. Yesterday, after posting thier 2nd sale preview, they had 286 visitors. GSR is one of our most well listed sites, as they do a great job of promoting their URL in their advertising. When reviewing their web site traffic, GSR is getting hits from showsteers.com (purchased link), shorthorn.org (free link), cattle.com (free link), etcow.com (free link if you are their client), showtowin.com (free link for RHD clients), humphreymarketingsolutions.com (free link for their clients), and ranchhousedesigns.com.

Jeff Miller has been continually updating throughout the last few weeks. On August 1, he was averaging 15 visits a day. Over the weekend, his site averaged 250 visitors per day! Jeff is also listed on several directories and getting lots of hits from showsteers.com (purchased), clubcalves.com (purchased), showtowin.com (free), facebook (free), http://www.maximumexposurephotos.com/ (free to his clients), ranchhousedesigns.com, and http://www.theshowcircuit.com/ (free to their advertisers)

Here are some more tips to build web site traffic:

1. Put your web site address on everything.... your ads, signs, e-mail signature, etc.

2. Send your friends and past clients a quick email letting them know that your site is updated. People love to see new things! Social networking sites are also great ways to announce that your new photos are up. If you have a facebook profile, post your calves there in a photo gallery too. And don't be afraid to call up your friends and tell them too. I would put money on the fact that Steve French (Great Shorthorn Revival) has made more than a couple phone calls to his friends letting them know the sale preview is up on his site!

3. Consider purchasing links on outside web sites. RHD isn't affiliated in any way with any of these sites, so we just make our recommendations based on the sites that have proven to give our clients the most traffic in the past 10 years we have been doing sites.

We recommend choosing one of the paid directory sites, and then purchasing a link there. Of course, if you are a show cattle breeder it's a given that you need to be listed on showsteers.com. This is "THE" directory. If you aren't listed, e-mail becky@showsteers.com right away to get listed. The cost is $250 and that'll be the best $250 you spend promoting your web site. Once you are listed, let us know so we can notify them whenever your site is updated.

Two others to consider are clubcalves.com and EDJEcattle.com. These sites don't generate as much traffic as showsteers, but our clients that are listed here averaged about 100 hits a month from these two sites.

4. Get listed on any and all FREE sites.

The Show Circuit also has a breeder's directory, you can email roland@theshowcircuit.com to get listed. I believe they charge a small fee or sometimes they offer links as incentives to their advertisers. If you advertise with other magazines, check and see if they offer free links.

Before spending additional $$ to be listed on these sites, I recommend checking out their actual traffic. Don't just fall for the bogus line of "we have the most visited site on the internet". Cattle.com does great research on what sites actually get traffic. Their top ten sites for August is available at http://www.cattle.com/webmasters/marketshare.aspx. They do full research on all cattle related sites, but their show cattle related ones are:

  • Cattle Today Sites 17.55%
  • Cattle.com 8.73%
  • Cattlegrower.com 7.00% (9)
  • Showsteers.com 5.18% (7)
  • Cattlepages.com 3.21% (8)
  • Steerplanet.com 2.09% (>10)
Others close but not quite in the top 10 were: Clubcalves.com, Cattleconnections.com,
EDJECattle.com, and Showtowin.com.

And, remember, all RHD clients get a free detailed web site statistics program through us. If you want information on this or need a reminder about how to access your stats, let us know.

Minggu, 23 Agustus 2009

Make Money With Adsense Keywords and Blogger

If you are new to blogging with Blogger (Blogspot) and wondering how to make money with Adsense this article is for you. If you have Google Adsense on your blog but are disappointed with the revenue generated so far then read on. Even if Google Adsense is performing well for you I am going to give you some tips that will mean you will earn extra money from Google Adsense.

Why Are Keywords So Important for Bloggers?
In order to make money from blogging with Blogger it is important first to understand the significance of keywords and keyword phrases. Via Google Adwords, the sister of Google Adsense, advertisers bid for keywords and keyword phrases. The more frequently these keyword terms are searched for the higher their value. That is why keyword phrases like make money or make money online which receive a huge number of monthly searches are top paying keywords and are worth so much to advertisers.


To make money with Google Adsense all you need do once your blog is receiving traffic is sign up with Google Adsense, receive a unique code and then place Google Adsense ads on your Blogger blog. These ad units are targeted automatically based on the keywords and keyword phrases which appear in the content of your posts. You get paid for every click on one of your Google Adsense ads. The amount you get paid is determined by the value of the keyword or keyword phrases used.

As a webpublisher it is important to be mindful when crafting your content that you use Google keywords and keyword phrases relevant to your blog's content. This does not mean that you stuff your posts with Google keywords to generate higher Google Adsense payments. In fact having too many keywords is known as keyword stuffing and could mean your blog is penalized by Google. A good rule of thumb is to have 3-5% of your content made up of your blog's keywords. A keyword density over 7% is too high and risks penalty.

For help with adding Google Adsense ad units to your Blogger blog please refer to my article Blogger Guide to Google Adsense Placement

Find The Best Google Keywords for Your Blog
These days many bloggers wanting to make money with Adsense build their blogs based on Google keywords. Their plan is to achieve first page positions on Google search pages for each of these keywords and keyword phrases. However, adopting this strategy from the outset would not be the case for most bloggers. Most of us start a blog about something we are interested in and then decide that we would like to make money with Google Adsense.

If Google keywords for your blog is not something that you have paid much attention to up to now then you may be surprised at what a difference it will make to your Google Adsense earnings and SERPs (search engine results page). Just by figuring out your keywords and emphasizing them in your blog posts you can expect to earn extra money with Google Adsense and Blogger. I did an exercise recently where I edited one of my earlier posts and added about 10 more keywords to the content. Not only did I move my article from about 60 in Google searches to 10 the revenue earned from Adsense for this article increased markedly too.

To determine what your keywords are for your blog you will need to conduct some research. Go to Google Adwords Keyword Tool and type in the topic of your blog. For instance if your blog is about making money online you would type in this phrase to receive other keywords that are related to your blog topic.

Try to identify about 10 to 15 Google keywords and keyword phrases that fit with your blog content. Print out this list and keep it handy so you can refer to it often when writing content for your blog.

Write an article around each of these Google keywords or keyword phrases. These 10 to 15 articles will become the backbone content of your blog. Research these articles by performing Google searches and reading what other bloggers who make it to the first couple of pages in the search engine results are writing about. Notice their keywords and keyword phrases, and the tags they have used. This research will help you identify two things:

  • Any gaps not so well covered by fellow bloggers but relating well to your keywords. That will give you a nice opportunity to write a series of articles on the topic

  • How other bloggers in your niche are tailoring their content for success and which keywords are performing well for them

Always write original content. Never copy another bloggers material. Despite being unethical to plagarize duplicated material is easy to identify and can mean that you get penalized by search engines like Google and run the risk of being banned from Google Adsense. My take on what is known as blog scraping is that if you need to copy what some else has written clearly you don't understand your blog topic well enough and you are probably better to write about something you do know something about. Your readers will see through you very quickly if you don't fully understand the depths of your blog topic.

Google Adsense Tips for Blogspot Bloggers (Blogger Bloggers)

  • Add Your Main Keyword to Your Title Tag
    Make sure that your main keyword for each of your 10-15 articles forms part of your title tag as this is important if your article is to rank highly in search engine results. If you can use two keywords or keyword phrases all the better. You will note that I have added three keywords in my title: make money, Google Adsense and Blogger.

  • Use the Main Keyword in the Body of Your Posts
    Make sure you use the main keyword throughout the body of your article. Ensure that your main keyword appears in the first and last paragraph of your post. There are keyword density tools available to help you check the ratio of keywords used.

  • Make Sure You Tag Your Main Keyword
    Tagging your main keyword and other keywords and keyword phrases is also important if readers are to find your article. Your posts will do better in search engine results if they are appropriately tagged. And of course the better your blog is search engine optimized the more traffic your blog will receive and the greater the potential for Google Adsense revenue.

  • Make Sure Your Blog is Search Engine Optimized
    Optimize your Blogger blog by adjusting your title tags and adding meta tags for better SEO. SEO is important as it generates search engine traffic and building traffic is paramount for high earnings from Google Adsense.

  • Develop Backlinks for Your Blog
    Some of the factors that determine how high your articles will appear in search engine results are backlinks and the age of your blog. If you have some good backlinks to highly ranked websites your blog articles are likely to be promoted in search engine results. Use blog directories, forums, and comment on other blogs in your niche to build a good range of backlinks. Submit your best articles to article directories to generate traffic and links. Also submitting your article to social bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon can provide backlinks and boost traffic at the same time

  • Give Your Old Blogger Posts a Keyword Makeover
    Go back through your previous blog posts and identify posts that are not receiving a lot of traffic. Read through them and look for opportunities to rewrite small portions of the content to insert keywords and keyword phrases. Check the tags too and add any keywords and keyword phrases that may help to boost traffic. Identify any posts that need to be rewritten from a slightly different angle and with more scope for the addition of keywords

  • Publish Posts at Least 250-300 Words Long
    Check the number of your articles Google has indexed. Shorter articles can often be missed out particularly if your blog is only recently created. Plus shorter articles do not give enough scope for Google Adsense to necessarily know what keywords to target when serving ads.

  • Optimize Google Adsense Placement, Size and Appearance
    Some locations for Google Adsense work better than others. Make sure you read up on Google Adsense placement as this will ensure you make the most money from your Adsense ads.

    Some Adsense ad unit sizes are better performers than others. My personal favorite is 336x280 ad unit which I use successfully on most of my blogs.

    Consider the appearance of your Adsense ad unit. Blend it in or make it stand out the choice is yours.

In today's article I have discussed how to make money with Google Adsense and Blogger. I have paid close attention to the use of keywords and keyword phrases in your content as these are the basis for the ads served up by Google. Included in this article are tips on how to locate and identify your keywords, increase your keyword density and use keywords effectively along with other Adsense tips.

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Jumat, 21 Agustus 2009

Meet Stacey!

This blog is long overdue, but it's time to introduce our latest addition to the RHD creative team....Stacey Shanks! Stacey has been working at RHD since early this summer actually, but we have been so busy working on ads and projects that we kept procrastinating getting a fancy photo and doing her bio! The ladies in the print division have been coming in to work early and leaving pretty late for several months now, and it's somewhat hard to get motivated to get all fixed up for an "official" staff photo when you're so swamped.

BUT....procrastination ended, and finally today we got Stacey's photo so we can add her to the web site! I'm sure many of you have had the pleasure of working with Stacey in the past few months as she has been working on many print ads, email blasts, and business cards.

Stacey is a tried-and-true Brahman cattle girl, so she fits in PERFECTLY here at the RHD office! In fact, she and her sisters showed Brahmans the same time I did, so we have known each other for several years. It just so happened that she moved to Boling a few years ago with her darling husband, Brandon Shanks.

So here are some fun facts about our latest awesome graphic designer, I'm sure everyone will enjoy working with her as much as we do.

  • She has two little sons, Sullivan (Sully) and Rayne. Sullivan is named after her grandfather, and Rayne is named after the town her dad was born in. How unique huh!

  • She is an avid photographer. That's actually how we initially made contact with Stacey because she had lots of Photoshop experience with her photography business. Stacey does photography and is a local favorite for senior photos, family photos, etc.

  • Stacey was one flat out awesome Brahman showman! She and her sisters (the Reiners family) all showed in Louisana and won all kinds of bull shows, heifer shows, and showmanships.

  • Before joining RHD, she was a vet tech for 3 years.

  • She is EXTREMELY organized. Probably the most organized person on our staff. This girl takes meticulous notes when she talks with clients and keeps a written record of everything she does on projects.

  • She's a computer specialist. When our Adobe software crashed recently, she figured out how to restore all the files and get the programs back up and running --- without having to call our local computer tech. This problem has happened to all of us in the office, and usually involves our computer being out for 3 days while it's at the shop. She fixed hers in a couple of hours.


Anyway, WELCOME Stacey!!! Oh, yeah, she's a HUGE LSU tiger fan. Let's not put her and Christa together in the same office....they may end up re-painting things gold and purple.

Kamis, 13 Agustus 2009

Make Money Add an Amazon Widget to Blogger

In today's tutorial you will learn how to place an Amazon widget on your Blogger blog (Blogspot blog) to enable you to add a further income stream to your existing Blogger earnings.

Adding an Amazon widget to Blogger is not difficult. No change or very little change to your Blogger template is required. There is some time involved in setting up the widget itself and choosing the products to link to and customizing the look to match your blog however. This tutorial will walk you through the steps involved but first a few need to know facts about Amazon's affiliate program.


Important Details For Bloggers About Amazon's Affiliate Program
  • Amazon have 2 referral structures: Classic Plan and Performance Plan

    • For the Classic Plan - A flat rate commission of 4% is paid

    • For the Performance Plan - A sliding scale between 4% and 8.5% commission is paid on general product items shipped. Consumer electronics is paid at a flat rate of 4%. Kindle, MP3,video on demand and game downloads are at the rate of 10%. View fee structure for Performance Plan

  • Sell 7 items in a month and you will receive 6% commission on sales. Sell in excess of 30 items and receive referral fees at the rate of 6.5%

  • Affiliates earn commission on the total of items shipped not just the first product bought

  • Payment options are direct credit, check or Amazon Gift Certificate. There is a $15 charge for the issue of a check.

  • Payment of referral fees is made once your account reaches $10 provided you have opted for the direct credit or Amazon Gift Certificate option. Otherwise it is $100 for a check (cheque)

  • Amazon offer a choice of 17 different widgets

  • Amazon also offer links and banners and an astore option


Earning Money from Amazon Widgets
Linking to Amazon products on your blog can generate significant income depending on your blog topic and the type of links you choose. I personally find that my sales are not always related to blogging despite the Amazon widget on this blog linking to books about blogging. However I would strongly suggest that you try to match the products offerred to the general content of your blog so that your links are targeted to your blog's audience. Another option is to add a generic Amazon widget such as the Deals Widget to snag those bargain hunters and impulse buyers from your readership.

Placing Amazon Widgets on Blogger
There are 17 different Amazon widgets to choose from. The decision about which widget is best will partly be determined by the type of blog you have and where you want to place the widget.

I have had some success with the Carousel Widget that I have on Blogspot Blogger Guide - another of my blogs. I have found under the header to be a prime location for this gadget and as it is displayed on every page the widget is getting maximum exposure. I have also had moderate success with a sidebar location using the I Recommend widget. I think it is true to say that you will need to experiment a bit to find the best type of widget for your blog.

How to Add an Amazon Widget to a Blogger Blogspot Blog

Difficulty Level: Easy to Moderate

  1. Join Amazon's Referral Program and create an affiliate account at Amazon. You will need to supply your direct deposit details as Amazon charges to issue affiliate checks (cheques)

  2. Once your affiliate registration is confirmed (this is a fast process) you will then be ready to start to create an Amazon widget for your blog. So go ahead and login to your affiliate account at Amazon and click on the widgets tab

  3. Now comes the fun part - choosing a widget. Amazon currently have 17 different widgets to choose from. The Amazon help section is good and I suspect will answer most of your questions if you get stuck.

  4. Choose your widget. For the purposes of this demonstration let's choose a Recommended Product Links widget. Click on the Add to Your Webpage button

  5. From the drop down select a product line eg Cameras and Photo. Select a subcategory eg General Bestsellers. Click the Continue button.


  6. Select the size of widget according to the location where it will be placed on your blog eg 160x600 in the sidebar of Blogger. Click on the Select This Size button at the right of the example widget


  7. Now you will need to customize your widget. Click on Customize Link Appearance and enter link and text colors to suit your blog. Ensure that the widget opens in a new window unless you are quite happy for your readers to leave your blog. Leave this window open in the meantime as we will be returning


  8. In a new window login to Blogger if not already logged in

  9. Navigate to Layout > Page Elements

  10. Click on Add Gadget in the sidebar and choose HTML/Javascript from the list of available gadgets

  11. Copy the widget code which contains Amazon's tracking code and paste it into the content area of the gadget. Add a title if you wish. Click the Save button

  12. Use the drag and drop feature to reposition your widgets in the sidebar in the order that you want them to appear. Save any changes

  13. Click on View Blog and admire your new widget in the sidebar of your blog

Tips and Troubleshooting
Some placements of Amazon widgets will require tweaks to your Blogger template. For instance the Carousel widget which I mentioned earlier I inserted under the header in my blog. To place an Amazon widget or for that matter any widget below the header and above the first post in Blogger do the following:

  1. Login to Blogger if not already logged in

  2. Navigate to Layout > Edit HTML

  3. Find the following line of code

    <b:section class='crosscol' id='crosscol' showaddelement='no'/>

  4. Replace the no with yes and click the Save button

  5. Navigate to Layout > Page Elements

  6. You will see that you can now add a gadget below the header

In this tutorial you have learnt about adding Amazon widgets to a Blogger Blogspot blog in order to earn cash from referral fees. Most bloggers earn around 4 to 6.5% in commission for items shipped from Amazon. While not the best affiliate scheme Amazon referral fees can add up to tidy sum at the end of the month. I would recommend giving it a try. You will need to experiment to get the best fit of location and widget. Good luck and let me know how you get on.

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Selasa, 11 Agustus 2009

1 Hour Web Turnaround in July!

Big news from the web updates division! In the month of July, we completed over 150 client web updates with an average turnaround of 1 HOUR! Just when we think we can't get any faster, Jessica and Dollie continue to do it again. But seriously, I don't see how we can get any faster than a 1 hour turnaround on updates, so I'm thinking this is going to be the top turnaround.

Our Grand Champion Web Updater Awards have become very popular among clients. Which is great....because we encourage everyone to update their site as often as possible to keep things fresh.

We have some new faces in the July Update Top 10 list.

Grand Champion July Updater: Washington County Fair
As the oldest county fair in Texas, and one of my personal favorites, the staff at the Washington County Fair are working hard to prepare for their 141st Annual County Fair. This year's dates will be September 16-19, so you can see they are updating quite frequently with all of their upcoming information. This client is averaging 2 updates per week.

Others in the Top Ten web updaters for July include:

Jumat, 07 Agustus 2009

Update on the telemarketing....

After posting yesterday's blog, we got this e-mail from another one of our clients complaining about these solicitations.

Rachel,
I just read your message and blog regarding the 3rd party repeated sales calls. My hats off to you for making a point to explain your position and view point on the issue. After I read your message I checked my cell phone and counted 9 times in the last 25 days I have been contacted by the individual you are talking about. I have talked to him twice and indicated to him that I was not interested to link my website to his directory. At first I didn't think much of it until he kept calling and never leaving a voicemail. Although I never suspected that Ranch House was distributing my contact information, I respect your decision to clearly explain your views on the issue. I also found it interesting that during one of the phone calls that I answered he actually mentioned your name, like it was part of his sales pitch "just let Rach know to link your site to our directory". I guess you can look at it as a compliment that other people in the industry know your product/service is premier and they are willing to risk their own credability in order to get ahead.

Just thought you would like to hear my view.
Thanks,
XXXXXXXX

Kamis, 06 Agustus 2009

Livestock's do not call list....

This week we have had several of our RHD clients calling us complaining about a specific 3rd party livestock directory web site has been making numerous, repeated sales solicitation calls and e-mails to our clients, almost to the point of harassment.

Nobody likes telemarketers, and nobody likes harrassers.

RHD values your privacy and has not, NOR WOULD EVER, distribute our clients contact information to outside sales vendors. What appears to have happened is that this directory stalks our web site, and then calls or e-mails every single person that has a web site done by RHD.

We apologize for this nuisance and assure you that RHD values your privacy just as much as we value your business.

We do encourage our livestock clients to consider purchasing a link on livestock-related directories to help boost their exposure. There are several different sites who claim to offer the "best results" by purchasing a listing on their site, but after researching which sites provide the best results for our livestock clients, we only recommend ShowSteers.com, ClubCalves.com, Cattle.com, and SteerPlanet.com for our cattle clients, and ShowPig.com for our swine clients.

Additionally, Ranch House Designs maintains ShowToWin.com, and as an added bonus, all livestock-related clients will receive a free link on this site at no additional cost. Most all of the purebred breed associations (national and state) also offer free links on their website to their members as a benefit of joining your breed association.

If you receive a sales or solicitation phone call from a web site directory or listing service trying to convince you to purchase a listing in one of their directories, please exercise caution. Feel free to call our office at 979-532-9141 to discuss whether or not it would be worthwhile to invest your money in directories other than the ones listed above.

Meanwhile, maybe someone will develop a do not call list for livestock people. We realize you have a lot better things to do this time of year than trying to dodge annoying phone calls from people trying to sell you links on their web site.

Rabu, 05 Agustus 2009

Add Social Bookmark Buttons to Blogger

In today's Blogger tutorial (Blogspot tutorial) you will learn how to place social bookmark buttons in the sidebar, footer and below each post in a Blogger Blogspot blog. This is a social bookmarking script for individual buttons or icons rather than the Add This all-in-one solution that I have previously written about. These free social bookmark buttons will encourage social bookmarking SEO by having your visitors save their favorite content and hopefully share it on social media sites such as Digg, Technorati and Stumble Upon thereby helping to grow your blog traffic.

I personally prefer to use an Add This social bookmark button because individual buttons can create a cluttered busy look. However, I also realize that the Add This social bookmarking button is not necessarily that recognizable to visitors who may have otherwise bookmarked your pages had the button been more recognizable to them.

YahooTwitterTechnoratiStumble UponRedditGoogleFacebookDiggDel.icio.us

Diggdel.icio.usMySpaceYahooTwitterTechnoratiStumble UponReddit



How to Add Social Bookmark Buttons to Blogger Sidebar or Footer

1. Login to Blogger if not already logged in

2. Navigate to Page Layout > Page Elements

3. Click on Add Gadget in Sidebar or Footer

4. Select HTML/Javascript gadget from the list of available gadgets

5. Copy and paste the social bookmarking button code into the content box that is available for free download below. Note you will only be able to add the small social bookmarking buttons to the sidebar unless you only want a few of them.

Download Code for Large Buttons (48x48)
Download Code for Small Buttons (24x24)

6. Add a title such as Bookmark and Share if you wish

7. Click on the Save button

8. Use the drag and drop feature in the sidebar to reposition the new widget if necessary and save again

9. Click on View Blog to admire new social bookmarking buttons


How to Add Social Bookmark Buttons Below Every Post in Blogger

1. Login to Blogger if not already logged in

2. Navigate to Page Layout > Edit HTML

3. Back up your template as a precaution by downloading it to your computer

4. Check the Expand Widget Templates box

5. Find the following line of code using CTRL + F

<p><data:post.body/></p>

or

<data:post.body/>

6. Paste the button code below directly below this line

Download Code for Large Buttons (48x48)
Download Code for Small Buttons (24x24)

7. Click on the Save Template button to save

8. Click on View Blog to admire your new social bookmarking button set at the bottom of your blog


Tips and Troubleshooting
  • To center the social bookmarking buttons
    <p><data:post.body/></p>
    <div align='center'>
    Your social bookmarking button code goes here
    <br/>
    </div>

  • To have your social bookmarking buttons only appear on post pages you will need to enclose the code in an if statement

    <p><data:post.body/></p>
    <b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
    Your social bookmarking button code goes here
    <br/>
    </b:if>

  • To center the social bookmarking buttons and have them appear only on post pages
    <p><data:post.body/></p>
    <b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
    <div align='center'>
    Your social bookmarking button code goes here
    <br/>
    </div></b:if>

  • To center the social bookmarking buttons and have them appear only on post pages
    <p><data:post.body/></p>
    <b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
    <div align='center'>
    Your social bookmarking button code goes here
    <br/>
    </div></b:if>

  • To add extra social bookmarking buttons to this set download the Aqauticus Icon Set

  • To change the social bookmarking buttons for another set simply do the following:

    1. To find other social bookmarking buttons please do check out my article Best Free Social Bookmark Button Sets for Blogger first as very likely you will find something suitable in that collection. Download your preferred icon set. These will be in a zip file so you will need to unzip them and take a look at what sizes are on offer. Most icon sets come in at least several sizes.

    2. Upload your button images to Blogger or to an image storage site like Photobucket or Flickr. One easy way to upload to Blogger is to create a post called images that you never publish. Then upload the images you want individually (that's the drawback). Copy the URL address of the button image and paste it into the social bookmarking button code replacing existing URLs

    3. Change the URL address of each button in the button code I have supplied. That's the code beginning with scr='


In today's tutorial you have learned how to add social bookmark buttons using a social bookmarking script to the sidebar, footer and below each post in a Blogger blog (Blogspot blog). I have supplied you with the code for a small and large social bookmarking button set to get you started. I suggest you download the codes first and install them on your blog. Then it is just a simple matter of changing the URL address of the social bookmarking buttons if you wish to substitute these for a new set of social bookmarking buttons. Also in this tutorial I offered you some tips and troubleshooting suggestions for adding your social bookmarking buttons to Blogger. If there are other issues that crop up for you as always please ask. I am interested in hearing from anyone about how they got on installing these social bookmark buttons.


Related Articles
List of Blog Know How Tutorials for Blogger Blogs
Add a Social Bookmarking Button to Blogger
Best Free Social Bookmark Icon Sets for Blogger

Selasa, 04 Agustus 2009

Free Social Bookmark Buttons for Blogger

One way to get your blog to grow is add social bookmarking buttons to your Blogger Blogspot blog. In an earlier article I wrote about the simplest way to place social media on a Blogger blog - that is to add an all-in-one Add This social bookmarking button.

However, as one size doesn't fit all situations there may be lots of times when you would prefer to add individual social bookmark buttons to your Blogger blog. That's why I have put together this list of useful free social bookmarking button sets. All are free to use on a personal blog and most have no restrictions for commercial use either but please do double check the license when you download them if you want to use the buttons commercially.

Best Sources of Social Bookmarking Buttons for Blogger Blogspot

128 Completely Free Icons Set
128 Icons available in 48×48px. Includes Social Media Icons such as: Design Float, Digg, Delicious, Furl, Technorati, Flickr, Stumble Upon, Twitter & more…

Web 2.0 Icons (23 icons)
23 freeware “iPhone-like” icons sized from 512X512 to 16X16 pixels. Includes Blinklist, BlogMarks, Delicious, Digg, FaceBook, Favorite, Feeds, FeedBurner, Flickr, Furl, Google Magnolia, Misterwong, Myspace, Newsvine, Netvibes, Reddit, Simpy, Stumbleupon, Technorati, Twitter, Youtube.

Socialize (12 icons)
12 high quality, free icons in these sizes: 16x16px, 32x32px, 48x48px, 64x64px and 128x128px and 32-bit transparency PNG file format.

Free Social Bookmark Icons for Blogger - Socialize Icon Set

Handycons (12 icons)
Handycons is a free, hand drawn social media icon set containing 12 icons. Package contains icons for del.icio.us, Digg, Mixx, DesignBump, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Developer Zone, DesignFloat, Technorati, Twitter and RSS feed & Email icon, of course. All icons are available in four sizes: 16x16, 24x24, 32x32 and 48x48 pixels.

Free Social Bookmark Icons for Blogger - Handycons


Handycons 2 (20 icons)
20 more hand drawn icons following on from the first Handycons set. Package contains Facebook, Blinklist, Feedburner, Flickr, FriendFeed, Furl, Gmail, Google, Heart icon, Last FM, Linked IN, Magnolia, Newsvine, PayPal, Skype, Sphinn, Twitter, Vimeo, Yahoo and You Tube icons. All icons come in four sizes: 16x16, 32x32, 64x64 and 12x128px.

Free Social Bookmark Icons for Blogger - Handycons2


Social Media Icons (26 icons)
26 clean looking free social media icons available for personal or commercial use.

Aquaticus Social (30 icons)
30 Web 2.0 social media icons in 4 sizes. Free to use on blogs. List includes popular icons like: Blogger, Delicious, Digg, Facebook, flickr, furl, Google, Ma.gnolia, Mixx, MySpace, NetVibes, NewsVine, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Twitter, Yahoo!


Aquaticus.Social by ~jwloh on deviantART


Social Me Icons (30 Icons)
30 free iPhone-inspired icons that can be used on blogs and websites without restriction. 4 sizes up to 60x60px, 48x48px, 24x24px, 16x16px. List includes popular icons like: Blogger, Delicious, Digg, Facebook, flickr, furl, Google, Ma.gnolia, Mixx, MySpace, NetVibes, NewsVine, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Twitter, Yahoo!


Social.me by ~jwloh on deviantART


Social Bookmark Iconset Pt I
Free Social Bookmark Icons for Blogger - Social Bookmark Iconset

Social Bookmark Iconset Pt II

Free Social Bookmark Icons for Blogger - Social Bookmark Iconset Part II

Ok so that's my current list of some of the best free social bookmark icons available on the net suitable for a Blogger Blogspot blog. This is a pretty extensive list to get you started but I will add more as time goes on and I come across other great sets. If you find what you are looking for here please let me know and if not I would be interested in that too.


Related Articles
List of Blog Know How Tutorials for Blogger Blogs
Add a Social Bookmarking Button to Blogger

Senin, 03 Agustus 2009

Add Affiliate Banner Below Post in Blogger

In today's Blogger tutorial you will learn just how easy it is to place an affiliate banner at the end of each post of a Blogger blog (Blogspot blog). This is a relatively easy task but does require adding a short snippet of code to your Blogger template. For those new to Blogger or without much technical knowledge don't worry as I have broken down the steps so that anyone can follow them even virtual beginners.

For instructions on how to add affiliate banners to other areas of a Blogger blog (Blogspot blog) please consult these tutorials:

Add an Affiliate Banner or Adsense Above Blogger Header
Add an Affiliate Banner to Blogger Header
Add an Affiliate Banner to Blogger Sidebar

How to Add an Affiliate Banner Below a Blogger Post
The instructions below will place an affiliate banner below each post in your blog. The banner will appear on all pages including the home page. If you want faster loading times and the banner to appear only on individual post pages see tips and troubleshooting below for instructions on how to restrict the banner display to post pages only.

1. Login to Blogger if not already logged in

2. Navigate to Design > Edit HTML

3. Back up your Blogger template as a precaution by downloading to your computer

4. Check the Expand Widgets Template box

5. Find the following lines in your Blogger template with CTRL + F to bring up the search box

<div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'/>
</div>

6. Paste your affiliate banner code between these two lines

<div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'/>
Place the affiliate banner code here
</div>

Once you have finished your code should like something like the following which places a horizontal banner (468x60) in the post footer but any size banner can be inserted below each post provided your template is wide enough to accommodate it:

<div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'/>
<a href='https://chitika.com/publishers.php?refid=XXXXXX' style='text-decoration: none;' title='Get Chitika | Premium'><img alt='Get Chitika | Premium' border='0' src='http://scripts.chitika.net/eminimalls/logos/468x60.png' title='Get Chitika | Premium'/></a>
</div>


7. Save Template

8. Click on View Blog to see your new affiliate banner in action

Get Chitika Premium

Tips and Troubleshooting
  • If your template does not have these lines it may only have two post footer lines in which case you can do one of two things

    1. Add these lines to your template:

      <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'/>
      Place the affiliate banner code here
      </div>

    2. Or place the affiliate banner code between the following lines:

      <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'/>
      Place the affiliate banner code here
      </div>

  • If you would like the banner to appear below your post only on the post page and not the home page then you will need to add an if statement to the code as follows:

    <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'/>
    <b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
    Paste affiliate banner code here
    </b:if>
    </div>

  • If you are having problems adding the affiliate banner code to the template make sure that only single quotes are used. The Blogger template code is sensitive to this and usually doesn't accept double quotes

In today's Blogger tutorial you have learned how to place an affiliate banner at the bottom of a post in a Blogger blog (Blogspot blog). This banner will be the same for each post and only displays on the individual post page. If you would like to know more about adding banners to Blogger please consult the list of tutorials below.

Related Articles
List of Blog Know How Tutorials for Blogger Blogs
Add Chititka Ads to Blogger Blogspot Blog
Add an Affiliate Banner or Adsense Above Blogger Header
Add an Affiliate Banner to Blogger Header
Add an Affiliate Banner to Blogger Sidebar
5 Ways to Make Money from Blogger
Blogger Guide to Google Adsense Placement

Karate (空 手 道) adalah seni bela diri yang berasal dari Jepang. Seni bela diri karate dibawa masuk ke Jepang lewat Okinawa. Seni bela diri ini pertama kali disebut "Tote” yang berarti seperti “Tangan China”. Waktu karate masuk ke Jepang, nasionalisme Jepang pada saat itu sedang tinggi-tingginya, sehingga Sensei Gichin Funakoshi mengubah kanji Okinawa (Tote: Tangan China) dalam kanji Jepang menjadi ‘karate’ (Tangan Kosong) agar lebih mudah diterima oleh masyarakat Jepang. Karate terdiri dari atas dua kanji. Yang pertama adalah ‘Kara’ 空 dan berarti ‘kosong’. Dan yang kedua, ‘te’ 手, berarti ‘tangan'. Yang dua kanji bersama artinya “tangan kosong” 空手 (pinyin: kongshou).



Karate

(空手)


Hanashiro Chomo
Nama lain Karate-dō (空手道)
Fokus Striking
Tingkat kekerasan Kontak penuh
Negara asal borderBendera Jepang Japan (Ryukyu Islands dan Seni bela diri Cina kenpō dan kemudian dikembangkan di Jepang)
Pencipta Sakukawa Kanga; Matsumura Sokon; Itosu Anko; Gichin Funakoshi
Seni pendahulu Seni bela diri China, Seni bela diri asli dari Ryukyu Islands (Naha-te, Shuri-te, Tomari-te)
Olahraga Olimpiade Tidak
Karate (空 手 道) adalah seni bela diri yang berasal dari Jepang. Seni bela diri karate dibawa



Menurut Zen-Nippon Karatedo Renmei/Japan Karatedo Federation (JKF) dan World Karatedo Federation (WKF), yang dianggap sebagai gaya karate yang utama yaitu:

  1. Shotokan
  2. Goju-Ryu
  3. Shito-Ryu
  4. Wado-Ryu

Keempat aliran tersebut diakui sebagai gaya Karate yang utama karena turut serta dalam pembentukan JKF dan WKF.

Namun gaya karate yang terkemuka di dunia bukan hanya empat gaya di atas itu saja. Beberapa aliran besar seperti Kyokushin , Shorin-ryu dan Uechi-ryu tersebar luas ke berbagai negara di dunia dan dikenal sebagai aliran Karate yang termasyhur, walaupun tidak termasuk dalam "4 besar WKF".

Di negara Jepang, organisasi yang mewadahi olahraga Karate seluruh Jepang adalah JKF. Adapun organisasi yang mewadahi Karate seluruh dunia adalah WKF (dulu dikenal dengan nama WUKO - World Union of Karatedo Organizations). Ada pula ITKF (International Traditional Karate Federation) yang mewadahi karate tradisional. Adapun fungsi dari JKF dan WKF adalah terutama untuk meneguhkan Karate yang bersifat "tanpa kontak langsung", berbeda dengan aliran Kyokushin atau Daidojuku yang "kontak langsung".

Latihan dasar karate terbagi tiga seperti berikut:

  1. Kihon, yaitu latihan teknik-teknik dasar karate seperti teknik memukul, menendang dan menangkis.
  2. Kata, yaitu latihan jurus atau bunga karate.
  3. Kumite, yaitu latihan tanding atau sparring.

Pada zaman sekarang karate juga dapat dibagi menjadi aliran tradisional dan aliran olah raga. Aliran tradisional lebih menekankan aspek bela diri dan teknik tempur sementara aliran olah raga lebih menumpukan teknik-teknik untuk pertandingan olah raga.





Teknik Karate

Teknik Karate terbagi menjadi tiga bagian utama : Kihon (teknik dasar), Kata(jurus) dan Kumite (pertarungan). Murid tingkat lanjut juga diajarkan untuk menggunakan senjata seperti tongkat (bo) dan ruyung (nunchaku).

[sunting] Kihon

Kihon (基本:きほん, Kihon?) secara harfiah berarti dasar atau fondasi. Praktisi Karate harus menguasai Kihon dengan baik sebelum mempelajari Kata dan Kumite.

Pelatihan Kihon dimulai dari mempelajari pukulan dan tendangan (sabuk putih) dan bantingan (sabuk coklat). Pada tahap dan atau Sabuk Hitam, siswa dianggap sudah menguasai seluruh kihon dengan baik.

[sunting] Kata

Kata (型:かた) secara harfiah berarti bentuk atau pola. Kata dalam karate tidak hanya merupakan latihan fisik atau aerobik biasa. Tapi juga mengandung pelajaran tentang prinsip bertarung. Setiap Kata memiliki ritme gerakan dan pernapasan yang berbeda.

Dalam Kata ada yang dinamakan Bunkai. Bunkai adalah aplikasi yang dapat digunakan dari gerakan-gerakan dasar Kata.

Setiap aliran memiliki perbedaan gerak dan nama yang berbeda untuk tiap Kata. Sebagai contoh : Kata Tekki di aliran Shotokan dikenal dengan nama Naihanchi di aliran Shito Ryu. Sebagai akibatnya Bunkai (aplikasi kata) tiap aliran juga berbeda.

[sunting] Kumite

Kumite (組手:くみて) secara harfiah berarti "pertemuan tangan". Kumite dilakukan oleh murid-murid tingkat lanjut (sabuk biru atau lebih). Tetapi sekarang, ada dojo yang mengajarkan kumite pada murid tingkat pemula (sabuk kuning). Sebelum melakukan kumite bebas (jiyu Kumite) praktisi mempelajari kumite yang diatur (go hon kumite) atau (yakusoku kumite). Untuk kumite aliran olahraga, lebih dikenal dengan Kumite Shiai atau Kumite Pertandingan.

Untuk aliran Shotokan di Jepang, kumite hanya dilakukan oleh siswa yang sudah mencapai tingkat dan (sabuk hitam). Praktisi diharuskan untuk dapat menjaga pukulannya supaya tidak mencederai kawan bertanding.

Untuk aliran "kontak langsung" seperti Kyokushin, praktisi Karate sudah dibiasakan untuk melakukan kumite sejak sabuk biru strip. Praktisi Kyokushin diperkenankan untuk melancarkan tendangan dan pukulan sekuat tenaganya ke arah lawan bertanding.

Untuk aliran kombinasi seperti Wado-ryu, yang tekniknya terdiri atas kombinasi Karate dan Jujutsu, maka Kumite dibagi menjadi dua macam, yaitu Kumite untuk persiapan Shiai, yang dilatih hanya teknik-teknik yang diperbolehkan dalam pertandingan, dan Goshinjutsu Kumite atau Kumite untuk beladiri, semua teknik dipergunakan, termasuk jurus-jurus Jujutsu seperti bantingan, kuncian, dan menyerang titik vital.

[sunting] Pertandingan Karate

Pertandingan karate dibagi atas dua jenis yaitu :

  1. Kumite (perkelahian) putera dan puteri
  2. Kata (jurus) putera dan puteri

[sunting] Kumite

Kumite dibagi atas kumite perorangan dengan pembagian kelas berdasarkan berat badan dan kumite beregu tanpa pembagian kelas berat badan (khusus untuk putera). Sistem pertandingan yang dipakai adalah reperchance (WUKO) atau babak kesempatan kembali kepada atlet yang pernah dikalahkan oleh sang juara. Pertandingan dilakukan dalam satu babak (2-3 menit bersih) dan 1 babak perpanjangan kalau terjadi seri, kecuali dalam pertandingan beregu tidak ada waktu perpanjangan. Dan jika masih pada babak perpanjangan masih mengalami nilai seri, maka akan diadakan pemilihan karateka yang paling ofensif dan agresif sebagai pemenang.

[sunting] Kata

Pada pertandingan kata yang diperagakan adalah keindahan gerak dari jurus, baik untuk putera maupun puteri. Sesuai dengan Kata pilihan atau Kata wajib dalam peraturan pertandingan.

Para peserta harus memperagakan Kata wajib. Bila lulus, peserta akan mengikuti babak selanjutnya dan dapat memperagakan Kata pilihan.

Pertandingan dibagi menjadi dua jenis: Kata perorangan dan Kata beregu. Kata beregu dilakukan oleh 3 orang. Setelah melakukan peragaan Kata , para peserta diharuskan memperagakan aplikasi dari Kata (bunkai). Kata beregu dinilai lebih prestisius karena lebih indah dan lebih susah untuk dilatih.

Menurut standar JKF dan WKF, yang diakui sebagai Kata Wajib adalah hanya 8 Kata yang berasal dari perguruan 4 Besar JKF, yaitu Shotokan, Wado-ryu, Goju-ryu and Shito-ryu, dengan perincian sebagai berikut:

  • Shotokan : Kankudai dan Jion.
  • Wado-ryu : Seishan dan Chinto.
  • Goju-ryu : Saifa dan Seipai.
  • Shito-ryu: Seienchin dan Bassaidai.

Karateka dari aliran selain 4 besar tidak dilarang untuk ikut pertandingan Kata JKF dan WKF, hanya saja mereka harus memainkan Kata sebagaimana dimainkan oleh perguruan 4 besar di atas.

[sunting] Luas lapangan

  • Lantai seluas 8 x 8 meter, beralas papan atau matras di atas panggung dengan ketinggian 1 meter dan ditambah daerah pengaman berukuran 2 meter pada tiap sisi.

  • Arena pertandingan harus rata dan terhindar dari kemungkinan menimbulkan bahaya.

Pada Kumite Shiai yang biasa digunakan oleh FORKI yang mengacu peraturan dari WKF, idealnya adalah menggunakan matras dengan lebar 10 x 10 meter. Matras tersebut dibagi kedalam tiga warna yaitu putih, merah dan biru. Matras yang paling luar adalah batas jogai dimana karate-ka yang sedang bertanding tidak boleh menyentuh batas tersebut atau akan dikenakan pelanggaran. Batas yang kedua lebih dalam dari batas jogai adalah batas peringatan, sehingga karate-ka yang sedang bertanding dapat memprediksi ruang arena dia bertanding. Sisa ruang lingkup matras yang paling dalam dan paling banyak dengan warna putih adalah arena bertanding efektif.

[sunting] Peralatan di dalam pertandingan Karate

Peralatan yang diperlukan dalam pertandingan Karate

  1. Pakaian Karate (karategi) untuk kontestan
  2. Pelindung tangan
  3. Pelindung tulang kering
  4. Ikat pinggang (Obi) untuk kedua kontestan berwarna merah/aka dan biru/ao
  5. Alat-alat lain yang diperbolehkan tapi bukan menjadi keharusan adalah:
    • Pelindung gusi (di beberapa pertandingan menjadi keharusan)
    • Pelindung tubuh untuk kontestan putri
    • Pelindung selangkangan untuk kontestan putera
  6. Peluit untuk arbitrator/alat tulis
  7. Seragam wasit/juri
    • Baju putih
    • Celana abu-abu
    • Dasi merah
    • Sepatu karet hitam tanpa sol
  8. Papan nilai
  9. Administrasi pertandingan
  10. Lampu merah, hijau, kuning sebagai tanda waktu pertandingan dengan pencatat waktu (stop watch).

Tambahan: Khusus untuk Kyokushin, pelindung yang dipakai hanyalah pelindugn selangkangan untuk kontestan putra. Sedangkan pelindung yang lain tidak diperkenankan.

[sunting] Falsafah Karate

Rakka (Bunga yang berguguran)

Ia adalah konsep bela diri atau pertahanan di dalam karate. Ia bermaksud setiap teknik pertahanan itu perlu dilakukan dengan bertenaga dan mantap agar dengan menggunakan satu teknik pun sudah cukup untuk membela diri sehingga diumpamakan jika teknik itu dilakukan ke atas pokok, maka semua bunga dari pokok tersebut akan jatuh berguguran. Contohnya jika ada orang menyerang dengan menumbuk muka, si pengamal karate boleh menggunakan teknik menangkis atas. Sekiranya tangkisan atas itu cukup kuat dan mantap, ia boleh mematahkan tangan yang menumbuk itu. Dengan itu tidak perlu lagi membuat serangan susulan pun sudah cukup untuk membela diri.

Mizu No Kokoro (Minda itu seperti air)

Konsep ini bermaksud bahwa untuk tujuan bela diri, minda (pikiran) perlulah dijaga dan dilatih agar selalu tenang. Apabila minda tenang, maka mudah untuk pengamal bela diri untuk mengelak atau menangkis serangan. Minda itu seumpama air di danau. Bila bulan mengambang, kita akan dapat melihat bayangan bulan dengan terang di danau yang tenang. Sekiranya dilontar batu kecil ke danautersebut, bayangan bulan di danau itu akan kabur.

[sunting] Aliran Karate

Seperti telah disinggung diatas, ada banyak aliran Karate di Jepang, dan sebagian dari aliran-aliran tersebut sudah masuk ke Indonesia.

Adapun ciri khas dan latar belakang dari berbagai aliran Karate yang termasuk dalam "4 besar JKF" adalah sebagai berikut:

[sunting] Shotokan

Shoto adalah nama pena Gichin Funakoshi, Kan dapat diartikan sebagai gedung/bangunan - sehingga shotokan dapat diterjemahkan sebagai Perguruan Funakoshi. Gichin Funakoshi merupakan pelopor yang membawa ilmu karate dari Okinawa ke Jepang. Aliran Shotokan merupakan akumulasi dan standardisasi dari berbagai perguruan karate di Okinawa yang pernah dipelajari oleh Funakoshi. Berpegang pada konsep Ichigeki Hissatsu, yaitu satu gerakan dapat membunuh lawan. Shotokan menggunakan kuda-kuda yang rendah serta pukulan dan tangkisan yang keras. Gerakan Shotokan cenderung linear/frontal, sehingga praktisi Shotokan berani langsung beradu pukulan dan tangkisan dengan lawan.

[sunting] Goju-ryu

Goju memiliki arti keras-lembut. Aliran ini memadukan teknik keras dan teknik lembut, dan merupakan salah satu perguruan karate tradisional di Okinawa yang memiliki sejarah yang panjang. Dengan meningkatnya popularitas Karate di Jepang (setelah masuknya Shotokan ke Jepang), aliran Goju ini dibawa ke Jepang oleh Chojun Miyagi. Miyagi memperbarui banyak teknik-teknik aliran ini menjadi aliran Goju-ryu yang sekarang, sehingga banyak orang yang menganggap Chojun Miyagi sebagai pendiri Goju-ryu. Berpegang pada konsep bahwa "dalam pertarungan yang sesungguhnya, kita harus bisa menerima dan membalas pukulan". Sehinga Goju-ryu menekankan pada latihan SANCHIN atau pernapasan dasar, agar para praktisinya dapat memberikan pukulan yang dahsyat dan menerima pukulan dari lawan tanpa terluka. Goju-ryu menggunakan tangkisan yang bersifat circular serta senang melakukan pertarungan jarak rapat.

[sunting] Shito-ryu

Aliran Shito-ryu terkenal dengan keahlian bermain KATA, terbukti dari banyaknya KATA yang diajarkan di aliran Shito-ryu, yaitu ada 30 sampai 40 KATA, lebih banyak dari aliran lain. Namun yang tercatat di soke/di Jepang ada 111 kata beserta bunkainya. Sebagai perbandingan, Shotokan memiliki 25, Wado memiliki 17, Goju memiliki 12 KATA. Dalam pertarungan, ahli Karate Shito-ryu dapat menyesuaikan diri dengan kondisi, mereka bisa bertarung seperti Shotokan secara frontal, maupun dengan jarak rapat seperti Goju.

[sunting] Wado-ryu

Wado-ryu adalah aliran Karate yang unik karena berakar pada seni beladiri Shindo Yoshin-ryu Jujutsu, sebuah aliran beladiri Jepang yang memiliki teknik kuncian persendian dan lemparan. Sehingga Wado-ryu selain mengajarkan teknik Karate juga mengajarkan teknik kuncian persendian dan lemparan/bantingan Jujutsu. DIdalam pertarungan, ahli Wado-ryu menggunakan prinsip Jujutsu yaitu tidak mau mengadu tenaga secara frontal, lebih banyak menggunakan tangkisan yang bersifat mengalir (bukan tangkisan keras), dan terkadang menggunakan teknik Jujutsu seperti bantingan dan sapuan kaki untuk menjatuhkan lawan. Akan tetapi, dalam pertandingan FORKI dan JKF, para praktisi Wado-ryu juga mampu menyesuaikan diri dengan peraturan yang ada dan bertanding tanpa menggunakan jurus-jurus Jujutsu tersebut.

Sedangkan aliran Karate lain yang besar walaupun tidak termasuk dalam "4 besar JKF" antara lain adalah:

[sunting] Kyokushin

Kyokushin tidak termasuk dalam 4 besar Japan Karatedo Federation. Akan tetapi, aliran ini sangat terkenal baik didalam maupun diluar Jepang, serta turut berjasa mempopulerkan Karate di seluruh dunia, terutama pada tahun 1970an. Aliran ini didirikan oleh Sosai Masutatsu Oyama. Nama Kyokushin mempunyai arti kebenaran tertinggi. Aliran ini menganut sistem Budo Karate, dimana praktisi-praktisinya dituntut untuk berani melakukan full-contact kumite, yakni tanpa pelindung, untuk mendalami arti yang sebenarnya dari seni bela diri karate serta melatih jiwa/semangat keprajuritan (budo). Aliran ini juga menerapkan hyakunin kumite (kumite 100 orang) sebagai ujian tertinggi, dimana karateka diuji melakukan 100 kumite berturut-turut tanpa kalah. Sosai Oyama sendiri telah melakukan kumite 300 orang. Adalah umum bagi praktisi aliran ini untuk melakukan 5-10 kumite berturut-turut.

[sunting] Shorin-ryu

Aliran ini adalah aliran Karate yang asli berasal dari Okinawa. Didirikan oleh Shoshin Nagamine yang didasarkan pada ajaran Yasutsune Anko Itosu, seorang guru Karate abad ke 19 yang juga adalah guru dari Gichin Funakoshi, pendiri Shotokan Karate. Dapat dimaklumi bahwa gerakan Shorin-ryu banyak persamaannya dengan Shotokan. Perbedaan yang mencolok adalah bahwa Shorin-ryu juga mengajarkan bermacam-macam senjata, seperti Nunchaku, Kama dan Rokushaku Bo.

[sunting] Uechi-ryu

Aliran ini adalah aliran Karate yang paling banyak menerima pengaruh dari beladiri China, karena pencipta aliran ini, Kanbun Uechi, belajar beladiri langsung di provinsi Fujian di China. Oleh karena itu, gerakan dari aliran Uechi-ryu Karate sangat mirip dengan Kungfu aliran Fujian, terutama aliran Baihequan (Bangau Putih).