Archive for July, 2009

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Make Cents of Adsense

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

Piggy Banks
What is Google adsense? Adsense is Google’s affiliate program that allows you to advertise for related site products and services. You have probably seen the people who have the scanned picture of the BIG paychecks they have received from Google. Well, I’ll tell you one thing is for sure. I don’t have one.  But in my research, I have learned more and more about the best practices for earning money from Google. And it’s working! Here are 7 of the best sites I have found to help me work on my adsense etiquette.
1. http://itstechsense.blogspot.com/search/label/adsense

2. http://infodigest-infodigest.blogspot.com/2009/05/make-easy-money-with-adsense-niche-blog.html

3. http://onlinemoneywithgoogleadsense.blogspot.com/2009/01/make-money-from-your-blog.html 

4. http://myearningtips.blogspot.com/2009/05/can-i-earn-from-adsense.html

5. http://pakearngoogle.blogspot.com/

6. http://googleadsensebigearnings.blogspot.com/

7. http://smart-life-tips.blogspot.com/ - This last page is not for google adsense alone, but it has some really informative reviews for many many other alternatives to google adsense for money-making online.

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Posted in Web Site Tools, Work at Home | 7 Comments »

My Cute Pets

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaw they are so cute! And they are the kind of pets that don’t make messes or smell funny. ;) heehee totally kidding. I wish I had a puppy.





Posted in Girlie Games | No Comments »

101 Reasons to Work at Home

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

A special dedication to stay at home moms and stay at home dads.

virtual office

  1. Because you don’t want to miss out on raising your kids.
  2. Because of all the resources available on this fabulous internet, you can really start for free.
  3. But you should have the option to stay on your career path.
  4. Have the control to live a healthy, balanced life.
  5. It’s good for business people to outsource work to brilliant people like you.You can add a few hours to their over-booked days.
  6. So you can work whenever you like.
  7. So you can work wherever you like.
  8. So you can stay connected to the “outside” world.
  9. Because you have to prove to your past & future employers that you can be a great parent, and still do a heck of a job.
  10. Because you already have a computer and an internet connection. (XP speed up tips)
  11. You already know where to get a free logo! 
  12. You know that you need to decide between setting up a website or a blog.
  13. You know how to get traffic to your website.
  14. You know where to setup a free email address for your business.
  15. You already know what type of jobs you can do online.
  16. You know where you can set up a free web site or blog.
  17. You don’t want to spend 260 hours a year (almost an entire 24 hr day per month) commuting.
  18. Your skills don’t have to get rusty.
  19. Your kids will appreciate it. As long as you can keep a balance of work and family.
  20. You know that you should NOT work longer than 2 hours a day!
  21. You want to go to college and finish that degree you planned on finishing before you had kids.
  22. You need more than 5 hours of sleep every night.
  23. You want to eat healthier than the take out food you always get with your coworkers (and you know you have to out with your coworkers when invited, otherwise you are viewed as either stuck up or just boring! hehehe)
  24. You can sit down and write out a business plan for yourself.
  25. You have to come first in your life, even if you’re a parent.
  26. You know that if you aren’t happy, you aren’t going to be the best parent you can be.
  27. Or the best spouse or partner.
  28. Have a better sex life. (Hey, when you aren’t so exhausted, great things happen!)
  29. You know why a social network is important.
  30. So you can help people
  31. So you can get paid for helping people.
  32. You know where to find work at home jobs.
  33.  You know NEVER to give out your credit card or bank account numbers to someone who is hiring you for work at home. (If they are asking for money from you, it’s a SCAM)
  34. A balanced life is the only way to live.
  35. So that you can live in the moment. . .
  36. Not live getting to the moment.
  37. You OWN twitter (not really but), you do have access to all the best twitter tools.
  38. You know better than to over promise your time.
  39. So you can fully appreciate the very high tech machines that roll up the toilet paper at the toilet paper factory, when your 2 year old unravels it almost every time he goes potty. You can never roll it back up as neatly as it was.
  40. You miss too many little things.
  41. First steps.
  42. First words.
  43. And too many other firsts to count.
  44. You know this is what life is all about.
  45. You are honest.
  46. Your goal is to stay on your career path.
  47. Business professionals need people like you to outsource your talents.
  48. You can stop and go to the park whenever you want to.
  49. So you can learn what it is to just “be where you are“.
  50. Watch Dr. Phil or Oprah and work on something tedious at the same time, when doing repetitive work, it can be helpful to add background noise in the room.
  51. You have one spot in your house that can be dedicated to your physical workspace.
  52. Listen to your favorite music.
  53. Make up your own rules.
  54. Do the work that you want to do.
  55. You can either Live to Work or Work to Live.
  56. You have access to some creative advertizing possibilities.
  57. Enjoy working with whomever you want to work with.
  58. Become an Expert.
  59. You can google free online training on almost any online job.
  60. Work in your pjs or a business suit, whatever you feel like putting on.
  61. Even if you are on disability, you can still share your values and experience with the business world.
  62. You will have increased productivity if you don’t have to worry about where your child is.
  63. And you know to keep all your work stuff on one computer and to back it up weekly at least.
  64. No more over paying for pop machine drinks.
  65. Keep your kids away from daily doses of the germs they’ll come in contact with at day care. Let’s be honest, they get enough virus and bacteria exposure at the park, library and grocery store.
  66. Keep your office at a temperature that is comfortable for you.
  67. You don’t have to work for hours on end. Everyone knows that your attention span is NOT 8 hours long.
  68. You don’t have to restrict yourself to one employer.
  69. Job security is difficult to measure in an economic recession.
  70. Stop paying thousands of dollars a year for daycare.
  71. Save the mileage on your vehicle.
  72. You shouldn’t have to choose career over kids.
  73. Find your mission in your professional life.
  74. Pay the bills.
  75. Take a vacation.
  76. You can stock your fridge with your favorite healthy snacks and drinks.
  77. As working parents, we never get to take sick days for ourselves. In fact we are used to working when we are sick, but now if you get the sniffles it’s not so miserable.
  78. You don’t have to send your kids to school or daycare when they are sick. (You know how it is, hearing them say they don’t feel good yet hoping you can get through a meeting before you get the call from school.)
  79. Have dinner ready on time.
  80. Have time for your friends, your parents, your in-laws and grandparents.
  81. So parenthood doesn’t have to be just your part time job.
  82. You can network with other stay at home parents. (In fact visit my profiles and add me!) You’ll never have to be lonely.
  83. I read somewhere “I am my best person when I don’t have too much on my plate.”
  84. Appreciate what it that feels like.
  85. Stop and play an online game until your afternoon caffeinated tea kicks in!
  86. Peace of mind that you have found a solution.
  87. No more cubicles – at least till your kids go to elementary school.
  88. It is more rewarding than you can imagine.
  89. You have the “know how”, you can setup the “how to”.
  90. Become free.
  91. Become strong and healthy.
  92. You only live once.
  93. You are the only one in control of your life.
  94. You are the only one to blame.
  95. You are the only one to esteem.
  96. Live your life to your fullest potential.
  97. Choose your hourly wages.
  98. You can decide when you are ready to rejoin the real business world. And since you have stayed connected to it virtually, it won’t be a difficult re-transition.
  99. Your kids will motivate you, and enrich your life more than you can understand as an 8-5er.
  100. So you can eat all the plastic food and drink as much tap water out of tiny teacups as you want. ;)
  101. And finally, among all the decisions you make in a lifetime, you won’t regret this one.

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Posted in Work at Home | 2 Comments »

Blog Sites vs. Web Sites

Friday, July 17th, 2009

Expert’s Advice About:

A lot of businesses are adding blogs into their websites. As the technology is constantly advancing, a variety of effective marketing tools are becoming available for any business that has one. Many companies are also installing blog site templates from WordPress and TypePad as websites. As you know, I am a professional web designer, but I will often order templates to build on from a site that offers some of the best templates. (I love their templates because they use clean code, and the pages load quickly!) I interviewed:

Revka

Leading Web Template Design Expert, Revka Stearns. 

Since there are so many features becoming available, I decided to call in a WordPress Specialist to clear up a few questions we have about business blogging and help you decide which solution will work for you!

 

Amber: Hello Revka, thank you for taking the time to do this interview today. I would love to ask you some specific questions about your blog design business!

Revka:  Hi, Amber!  I’m honored that you asked to interview me, and I’m happy to be able to answer your questions.  I hope that you and your readers find my answers helpful.

Amber: First, I think that a lot of people know what a web log or blog is, but we would like to know: “Why does a business web site need a blog?”

 Revka:  That’s a great question that I believe all businesses should be asking.  It is important for a business website to have a blog for the following reasons:

  • Connecting with customers – Blogging is all about building relationships.  Business blogs can and should be used to build relationships with potential and/or existing customers.  Tip: Don’t make your blog strictly business-like.  Be yourself, allowing your visitors to see your personality.  This helps visitors feel like there is a real person behind the business, which creates a stronger connection and often makes people more ready to do business with your company.
  • Communication – A blog offers you a fast and easy way to advertise sales, promote new products, and make other announcements intended for public dissemination.  I highly recommend offering a way for visitors to subscribe to receive blog updates both through a feed reader and through e-mail.  These subscribers are a goldmine for you business, and your blog will help you capture and keep these valuable leads.
  • Authority – Businesses can write how-to and commentary blog posts.  If well-written and informative, these posts will help position your business as being an expert authority in your niche, which can translate into more sales.
  • Accessibility – Because readers can leave comments, a blog creates the illusion of instant accessibility.  Even if you don’t respond to the comment quickly (which you should), the commenter feels as though they are interacting with you as soon as they have left their comment.
  • Branding – Consistently updating your blog with interesting and/or informative information leads to repeat visitors.  Each time a visitor stops by your blog, your brand is stamped in their mind yet another time.  The more times people see your company name and branding, the more likely they are to think of your business when they need the product or service you provide.

Amber:  Is a web site that is built on a blog service like Wordpress better than an ordinary HTML website?

Revka:  Before I answer that question, let me explain that I do not work solely with blogsites (sites built on a blogging platform).  I have set up and design standard HTML websites as well.

Having said that, my experience has shown that building a website on a blogging platform (like self-hosted WordPress) often leads to more desirable outcomes than would have been achieved using a standard HTML website:

  • Ease of management – once a WordPress blogsite is set up, posts and pages can easily be added, edited, and deleted without the user having to have any HTML knowledge.
  • Flexibility – WordPress alone is a powerful platform, but there are also numerous WordPress plug-ins (small programs that can be added to customize the functions of the site).  In contrast to HTML websites where adding functions can mean hours of programming and coding, adding functions to WordPress is nearly always a simple task of installing a plug-in, activating it, and possibly customizing a few settings.
  • SEO – search engines love fresh content, and regular blogging will keep the spiders coming back to crawl your site.  Additionally, you can easily incorporate keywords into your blog posts, which can make search engines consider your site more relevant for searches for which you wish to rank.  There are also SEO plug-ins, which will allow you to easily customize the title, description, and keywords for every single page and post on your site.

Amber: Which blog services do Berries and Cream Blog Design create templates for?

Revka:  Berries and Cream Blog Design can work with any blogging platform that allows you to customize your design’s code.  We have already worked with many blogging services, including Blogger, Typepad (Pro or Plus), WebNode.com, SquareSpace, Wordpress.com, and self-hosted WordPress.

Amber: Can you design a website to enable visitors to post messages, pictures or even video?

Revka:  Yes, we can design a site that lets visitors of the site post their own content.  In fact, I just set up and designed a website that allows visitors to add their own blog posts, recipes, and videos.  The site is built on WordPress, and these functions are possible because of the plug-ins that I added to the basic platform.

Amber: Can your clients really post to their blogs from their cell phones?

Revka: With our ever-increasing dependence on mobile devices, it’s nice to know that you can, indeed, update your blog directly from your cell phone.  There are several ways to do this.

  • Using your cell phone, you can browse to your blog, login, and post using the normal posting interface.
  • The WPhone plug-in (or a similar plug-in) can be added to a WordPress installation to offer an admin interface designed to be used through a cell phone.  This allows site administrators to write blog posts directly from a cell phone.
  • You can also setup a private e-mail address solely for blogging purposes.  After adjusting some WordPress settings, you can send an email from your phone to that address and have it automatically post to your blog.
  • If your phone takes videos, you can upload the video to a third-party service, like Qik.com, and adjust the settings to have the video automatically post to your blog.

Amber: Why should a company invest in a professional blog design and installation?

Revka: The set up and design of a business blog is especially important because your blog is a reflection of your business, and its look and functionality (or lack of) will create a lasting impression on your visitors.  You want to make sure that impression is a positive one and that your design effectively communicates the personality of your business.

While many people can install and design for blogs, a professional designer is an invaluable asset for a business.  A professional will be able to work more quickly than someone who has less experience.  A professional will also be able to draw upon their experience to offer suggestions and make recommendations pertaining to your blog’s functions and appearance.  And a professional will be able to create a high-quality design that doesn’t make your business appear to be amateur operation.

While it is important to invest in a professional blog design, I believe selecting a designer is even more critical.  You need a designer who understands your needs and can create a design to will satisfy those needs.  Do your homework before choosing to work with a designer.  Get recommendations.  Browse through designer portfolios.  Contact the designers you are considering and ask them about their design process, their satisfaction guarantee, and any other questions that pertain to your needs.

At Berries and Cream Blog Design, customer satisfaction is our #1 priority.  We back up our commitment with the following policies:

  • No-limit revision policy – request as many changes as are needed for you to love your design and pay no extra money.
  • 100% satisfaction guarantee – if we cannot create a design that you love, we will refund your money, minus the cost of anything purchased specifically for your design.
  • Free customer care for life with every order – if you have questions or need advice, just ask us; it won’t cost you one cent.

Amber: Do you design custom logos for the website headers?

Revka:  While most clients provide us with logos, illustrations or other images to incorporate into their designs, we have created completely custom logos as well.  We are hoping to be able to offer custom illustrations in the very near future.

Amber: What are some features of your blog designs that most people don’t know a blog is capable of?

Revka: I’ve had the opportunity to work on several exciting projects, and I have found that self-hosted WordPress can function in surprising ways.  Here are a few functions many people of which people are not aware:

  • Improved search engine rankings – we talked about this earlier, but many people don’t realize how much search engines like blogs.  Blogs are often indexed by Google and other search engines in days rather than in weeks, the frequently-updated content means the spiders crawl the site more often, and the blog’s structure is also natively search-engine-friendly.
  • Drop down navigation – this is becoming more common-place, but I think many people don’t know that WordPress allows you to have child and parent pages.  Using that format, then navigation can then be coded to only show the child pages when the parent page is clicked or hovered over.  This makes the navigation much cleaner and more user-friendly.
  • Pages in addition to post – pages are static (they stay in the same place and don’t change unless you go in and edit them); posts are dynamic (readers can comment on posts, and the posts pile up on top of each other, eventually disappearing from the front page as new content pushes older content down).  WordPress allows you to create both pages and posts, meaning you can create a complete and easy-to-maintain website from your WordPress dashboard.

I am always intrigued by the many ways that a WordPress blogsite can be used:

  • Social network – a plug-in suite is available that can turn a WordPress installation into a social networking platform similar to Facebook.
  • Photography website and portfolio – WordPress makes an excellent website for professional photographers.
  • E-commerce – another plug-in turns a WordPress installation into a fantastic, easy-to-manage e-commerce store.  You can accept payment through Google Checkout, PayPal, and several payment gateways, such as Authorize.net.  You can also create coupon codes, feature specific products, and put individual items on sale.
  • Squeeze pages and sales pages – you can have multiple page templates using multiple designs.  Every page could have a different design if you wanted to do that.  You can have different sidebar configurations on different pages or could eliminate navigation altogether.  The possibilities are virtually limitless.

Conclusion:
There you have it! You now know the value that a well-designed website and blog can bring to your business! Remember technology changes all the time, stay on top of it! Berries and Cream Blog Designs offer terrific templates and services!


Affiliate Link

Posted in Web Site Tools | 25 Comments »

Create Favicons in Gimp

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

What is a favicon?

Setup a favicon using Gimp

1. If you have an image or icon you’d like to use, save it as a .bmp or .gif

2. Create a 16px X 16px, preferably with a transparent background.


3. Copy your image, paste into your new 16px X 16px and scale down to fit into your space.

4. Save as favicon.ico

Make sure you save the icon details like this:

If you preview the icon with windows:

It may look fuzzy, but when you upload it, the browser will shrink it to look right.

Save your favicon on your website:

Browsers look for the favicon icon in your root directory for you website. (The same place you save index.html or index.php or whatever else you might be using as your home page.) Upload your new image there.

Then add

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.domain.com/favicon.ico">

https sites:

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://www.domain.com/favicon.ico">

in between the <head> </head> tags of your page.

Happy Branding! :)

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Posted in Web Site Tools | No Comments »

SEO Power Tools

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

SEO – Search Engine Optimization

It is so important to make sure your site has the best possible SEO. This provides the major search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo) with accurate information about your site content. This will help your web pages to appear in relevant searches. It’s time to learn about how to improve your website traffic volume and quality hits!

j0232815[1]

1. Sitemaps

You can upload your XML, HTML, or txt sitemap to almost any search engine and make indexing your pages more efficient! Generate one for your website at: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

2. Robots

A robots.txt file will allow search engines to “crawl” your site and see what pages you have! You need a robots.txt file in the same folder as your homepage index file. If you don’t have one, you can copy the following text and paste it into notepad. Save the file as robots.txt. (Don’t forget the s in robots!)

#Allows all robots
User-agent: *
Disallow:
Sitemap: http://www.TYPEyourURLhere.com/sitemap.xml

Robots Generator

Or you could go to this site and choose which search engines you want to allow to crawl your site: http://www.mcanerin.com/en/search-engine/robots-txt.asp – they will generate the text for you.

Robots Validator

Make sure you verify that your robots.txt is VALID!
Valid Robots.txtRobot.txt Validator

3. Keywords

Keywords are extremely important web site tools that also let search engines index your website by content. And online profiles sometimes utilize them as well. Wherever you can use keywords, USE THEM.

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ - FREE Online Keyword Suggestion Tool

web ceo Download a free keywords tool here (You will have to create a free account)

4. SEO Analyzers

1. Search Engine Optimization Analyzer – type in your web page address and see how SEO friendly your site is.

2. This Website Grader is great too, it’s more in depth than the analyzer.

Website Grader

5. Other Resources

Free SEO Tips and Tricks - a blog dedicated to SEO

Even ecademy.com has an SEO guide for members:

LinkedIn profile

___________________________________________________

If you have any information to add to this site, leave a comment and let me know! Your comments add value to this site, you will get the credit for it and a live link will be added to your website or blog post as long as it is relevant to the material in this site.

______________________________________________

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Posted in Web Site Tools | 5 Comments »

Work at Home

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Where to find it.

craigslistcraigslist

Start with finding your country, state, then the city located closest to you. Look under jobs, and you’ll find lots of great virtual job choices under “Gigs”. If you don’t see anything you are qualified to do, then look in other cities in the state or surrounding states. After all, working from home doesn’t require looking for work within commuting distance. Right? When you find your niche or your groove, you will be capable of having clients all over the world!

elance

Freelance writing and coding jobs galore!

guru

If you have a specialty, go post a profile.

If you need someone with a specialty, go post your project.

odesk

This has really earned a sort of bad rep from established professional online consultants, virtual assistants and freelancers. The reason is because it is known as the “online clearance section” for people who want to offer their services at something like $3.00 an hour! Which is really too low for anyone to do work for considering basically half our income goes to taxes so that’s really $1.50 an hour. The only thing I have to say is that this may be a good place to start. But after you get your first client’s work completed, make sure you ask for a reference and don’t sell yourself short anymore.  Your time is worth so much more than $1.50 an hour.

And on a side note, thanks to Virtual Assistant Forums, I also learned that oDesk offers Free Testing here to see where to qualify you for certain jobs. And if you pass these tests, then you can become “certified” through their site and prove you are qualified to employers. I am planning on looking into it further to see if it is (quality or not) something I may want to blog more about.

My Advice:

1. Be honest.

2. Work hard.

3. And keep track of everything.

4. Listen to your client, they’re always right.

If you have any information to add to this site, leave a comment and let me know! Your comments add value to this site, you will get the credit for it and a live link will be added to your website or blog post as long as it is relevant to the material in this site.


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Posted in Startup Business, Work at Home | 1 Comment »

Social Network

Sunday, July 12th, 2009


VA Business profiles:
Squidoo.com lens: Click Here
Virtual Assistant Forum profile: Click here
My NetVibes Click here
Blogspot bloggerClick here
Technorati technoratiClick here

Posted in Social Networking | No Comments »

Free Logo Creators

Friday, July 10th, 2009

So, you’ve named your business. What’s next? Get a logo! Professional logos can really get expensive.

So try one of these two great websites, they offer free online logo creators. I posted 2 samples from each site.

 

LogoEase.com 

These 2 are from logoease.com. This site offers you free little clipart that you can customize your logo with. Edit fonts, colors of the little pics etc. Good setup. :)

1.

logoeaseSampleOne

 2.

logoeaseSampleTwo 

 

CoolText.com

And these 2 are from cooltext.com. CoolText is great because, it’s fast and you don’t have to sign up to use the app. But there are no pictures to include in your logo. This one is kind of my favorite ;)

1.

cooltextSampleOne

2. 

cooltextSampleTwo

 

Business Cards

And when it’s time to get it printed on business cards, PrintsMadeEasy.com has very competitive pricing for business cards and more. . .

www.PrintsMadeEasy.com

PrintsMadeEasy

This is just an example of one of PrintsMadeEasy.com  Free Business Cards offered under “Learn More about Business Cards”

 

Affiliate Link

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Posted in Startup Business, Startup Website | 3 Comments »

WebSite Traffic

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

Search Engines

After make sure your site has the best search engine optimizers, add your website to the top search engines.

google
http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

  bing
http://www.bing.com/webmaster/WebmasterAddSitesPage.aspx

yahoo
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit


50 top search engines This site allows you to submit your site to the web’s 50 top search engines for free and all at once.

Directories

http://www.dmoz.org/

Then check out the following options for generating website traffic .

Link Referral

If you have a website and would like to generate traffic, then sign up for this service:

Link Referral

You, check out a few of there sites and leave them comments or suggestions and your rating goes up. Then others visit your site and leave you comments and your rating goes up more! ( Unless you have a site that is irrelevant to the topic you posted it under, or it needs a lot of work. In either case, someone will let you know! ) Here are the requirements:

  • visit 30 sites (they are grouped by categories.)
  • review 5 sites
  • post 1 post to their forum
  • and finally choose one favorite

It e-mails you reports of visits to your site, it’s working great so far!

Vine Fire

So far, darkbluesun.com hasn’t received a lot of traffic from this site. But I think it is important to post due to the global traffic it generated for http://www.XtremeBaking.com – another wordpress site I support.

Join Vinefire!

As you can see, I made 12$ the first day because you get 10$ to start, but I haven’t been back. And it’s not really clear HOW you get your money! LOL, the only reason I am leaving it up is because of the 20 hits I got on the xtreme baking blog. . . It has potential, but if I never see my 12$ I’ll let you know. It’ll be a new post. . . SCAMS & Time Wasters!

I will keep you posted on the effectiveness of these little traffic generators so stay tuned . . .

If you have any suggestions to add to this site, leave a comment and let me know! If you add value to this site, you will get the credit for it and we will link to your website or blog post that is relevant to the material.

More free traffic sites, click here.

For twitter traffic tools, click here.

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Posted in Web Site Tools | 4 Comments »

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