Some web users might find it surprising that online video sharing was only the 10th most popular web activity, and that social media only ranked 12th. Downloading music and online gaming are two rather popular internet activities that turned out to be not quite as popular as one might have thought, as they ranked only 27th and 30th, respectively.

On the other hand, searching for general information and facts is the second most popular internet activity than, well, using an internet search engine. No matter what you are looking for, it seems like the web is saturated with online articles, online reference dictionaries, and other types of reference material online. In fact, there is so much of it that it is difficult for some people to determine credible sources from dubious ones.

While older adults often wonder how we survived so many years without the internet, prior generations had one significant advantage. It may have taken one thousand times the time and effort to find the answers to our questions, but after climbing over the dusty library stacks, we at least new that our sources were credible and fact based. Today, teachers and professors have to train students to identify factual sources from questionable ones.

The next time you find yourself searching for reference material online, just remember that genuine, fact-based online information comes from sources such as scholarly journals, encyclopedia, and from official university or government resources. One last thing, if you are a student charged with writing an important research paper, remember that not everything on the internet is true.

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First, the value in using reference material online is from their distribution and linking capabilities. When you create your online reference you are doing two things. First, you are telling your story to a wide audience of consumers, bloggers and industry professionals. That alone can help you tell your story to an even bigger or better targeted audience, but you are also providing content that will be published and posted around the internet at participating sites that acts as fuel for your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

SEO is essentially the process by which you can improve your search engine rankings so that more searchers find, and hopefully follow, your online info. In turn, you will gain traffic and prospects that can be converted to clients. This constant flow of traffic can be very dependent on your search engine rankings. For example, the first organic, or unpaid, search result gets over two thirds of the search traffic. So, the more you can get your content published across the internet, the better your chances for improved search results rankings.

In fact, as you create more links to your site, using the links embedded in your online info, you stand to increase your Google Page Rank. This measurement that Google established looks at how many relevant sites are linking to your site as one of the criteria for higher Page Rank. As your Page Rank increases, so to does the frequency that you appear in search engine results. Combine that with other SEO efforts and your site can potentially climb on the results pages of relevant searches.

While the SEO effects can be tremendous, there is also the ability to engage bloggers and prospects through use of free article reference sites. In regards to getting that additional interest in your story, as you publish more articles, you also increase your chance of attracting writers that would like to interview you or use your story for a piece they are publishing. This is generally more effective if you can use your published content to target specific writers in your area or niche. Even if they did not specifically pick up your article, you can still forward it to them for possible consideration. To see more, read this: bestonlinestuff.com

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