HouseSight Attracts Homeowners and Contractors Alike

By Mark J. Donovan

HouseSight continues to attract new members everyday who are posting pictures and descriptions, and even embedding videos of their home improvement projects. Why not you? See HouseSight to register today and start showing off your home remodeling projects and skills. Its fast, fun and free.

Not only does HouseSight allow you to post information about your home remodeling projects, it's also a social networking website that allows you to communicate with other fellow members to ask questions about their home improvement projects. In addition, you can vote on the projects you like best to let everyone else know what are the coolest home improvement projects on HouseSight. You can also rank your own home remodeling contractor to let the world know who to hire and who to avoid.

So again, sign up today and start sharing your home improvement experiences. Readmore »»

Google’s “Farmer” Search Engine Update Killing Quality WebSites

By Mark J. Donovan

Last week Google updated its search engine algorithm to the detriment of many popular and successful websites including HomeAdditionplus.com. HomeAdditionPlus.com lost 25-30% of its traffic virtually overnight, while other folks like AsktheBuilder.com, and Ezinearticles.com have lost over 50% of their traffic. Hundreds of other quality websites have lost much more. The news was so negative that the Wall Street Journal wrote two articles on this subject earlier this week.

Google’s latest Search Engine Optimization (SEO) update is referred to in the industry as the “Farmer” SEO update. Google has communicated that the main purpose of this update was to clean up the high number of giant content farm mills out on the internet that scrape, copy and put out hundreds and thousands of low value content webpages each day. I commend them for wanting to do this. Unfortunately, however, some of the same websites that use these tactics survived this SEO update, while other quality and long established websites got the shaft. See Google’s webmaster forum to see the hundreds of webmasters that have been filing complaints and pleading for reconsideration over the past few days.

Companies are now laying off employees and online businesses are going bust all due to one company, Google. The true winners in this shuffle of the deck chairs appear to be the big companies such as Sears, Google Shopping division, Amazon, Ikea, HGTV, Britannica, Facebook, MarthStewart, etc. Unfortunately these sites, with the exception of Facebook, are exclusively about selling you products rather than providing you with free information and answers that save you time and money such as HomeAdditionPlus.com. Don't expect Google Shopping, Amazon or Ikea to respond to your email questions unless you have a credit card in hand.

Even more amazing is that some of the websites that are notorious for puttting out low value content survived this Google Cyclone, such as eHow.com. What really galls me is the fact that ehow.co.uk has almost a 1000 useless back-links to HomeAdditionPlus.com (rel=nofollow links) as a referenced source for their watered down content on a sujbect that I wrote about. To that I say, thanks for nothing eHow.com and Google!

I urge Google to wake up and realize what they have done. Its a travesty to both the consumers and hard working people who have spent years trying to provide quality help to people.

I hold out a glimmer of hope that Google will do the right thing and reconsider what it has done. As a matter of fact, I have some evidence that suggests that this may already be happening. I have been using Google Adsense since 2005, and low and behold two days ago when I log into my blogger account I get a Google Pop up saying this blogsite looks pretty popular and that maybe I should consider using Adsense. Its ironic on two levels. First this blogsite and HomeAdditionPlus.com have been using Google Adsense for years, and second this is the first time EVER that they have sent me anything about signing up for Google Adsense.

Maybe even Google is feeling the hit in their wallet for their latest actions. They appear so desperate they can't even take the time to figure out what publishers are using Adsense on their own blogging service before sending out a spam advertisement. Readmore »»

New FaceLift on "Installing Crown Molding" Ebook

By Mark J. Donovan

I finally got around to using some new tools to create good looking Ebook covers. The Installing Crown Molding Ebook has been a popular product over the years at HomeAdditionPlus.com, but maybe with this new cover look even more potential customers will agree!

Actually the new tool was an old tool that I've been using for years, Photoshop. I just found some useful online tips to create professional looking Ebook covers using Photoshop, and a couple of ebook cover templates that I downloaded for free. In less than 3o minutes I was able to create this ebook cover, and most of that time was playing around with the creative artwork.

For more information on how to install your own crown molding see: "Install Crown Molding Ebook"

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HouseSight Attracts Home Building and Remodeling Contractors

By Mark J. Donovan

Since the launch of HouseSight last month, many home building and remodeling contracors have signed up and begun showing off some of their projects. I was initially surprised by their participation, but after thinking about it a bit it became obvious. They're using HouseSight as yet another vehicle for selling their services. And why not, its free and in this down housing market builders and contractors need to employ every method possible to attract buyers. The fact that it also serves my main object for HouseSight, which is to provide a web destination for homeowners to get and share home improvement ideas, makes it a win-win situation all around.

If you haven't checked out HouseSight yet, I recommend you do. HouseSight registration is quick and easy, and best of all membership is free.

So check it out and see what the home builders are showing off, and even better, post some of your own home remodeling and home improvement projects. Readmore »»

Home Building Up and Building Permits Down In January

By Mark Donovan

The Good News - The commerce department reported that home building construction starts were up a healthy 14.6% in January, compared to December.

The Bad News - The commerce department reported that home building construction permits were down 10.4% in the same period.

Though the news was a mixed bag, it's possible that the sagging number of new home construction permits pulled last month was in part due to the heavy snow and cold weather that blanketed much of the country in January. It's also possible that with the significant increase in actual construction starts that builders were too busy focusing on actual building than planning.

One month of data doesn't set a trend, so we will have to wait until spring to see if there is indeed a positive direction in the beleaguered housing construction industry. Readmore »»

Why Become a HouseSight Member

By Mark J. Donovan

HomeAdditionPlus.com’s recently announced HouseSight service is seeing rapid adoption as it has attracted scores of homeowners and home building contractors alike. Many new HouseSight members are posting their own home remodeling or construction projects and others are simply joining so that they can interact with other members. With HouseSight’s internal member messaging, commenting, and project and contractor ranking utilities, it creates the perfect environment for homeowners and contractors to share home improvement knowledge, ideas and opinions.

So what is HouseSight?

HouseSight is a free home improvement themed social networking web service that attracts homeowners, building contractors and others interested in anything home improvement related. HouseSight members can post and manage their home improvement projects, interact with other members, and share home remodeling experiences, photos, and knowledge. Members can even embed videos and include a link to their websites.

Why are Building Contractors becoming HouseSight members?

Many building and home remodeling contractors have become HouseSight members for one main reason, business opportunity. HomeAdditionPlus.com and HouseSight, combined, receive nearly 500,000 visitors per month from all over the United States and world. That’s a lot of potential customers, and in today’s housing construction environment, any new way to market your business can’t hurt. Particularly when it’s free! Yes, there are no costs for becoming a HouseSight member.

Also, many of the new HouseSight project pages created by building contractors are seeing phenomenal Google and Yahoo search engine results, due to HomeAdditionPlus.com’s huge popularity in the home improvement web world. Do a Google search on any HouseSight project and more than likely it will be on page one of a Google search results page. For example, when an interested home buyer is looking for a contractor to build a custom home in Sherman Oaks, guess who is going to come to the top of a Google Search result, the HouseSight member who created the HouseSight Project Page with that title (Custom Home in Sherman Oaks).

So Why are Homeowners Signing Up for HouseSight?

Homeowners are registering for HouseSight so they can communicate directly with other members who have either completed, or are in the process of doing, home improvement projects that they are interested in. In addition, HouseSight provides them a venue for getting home improvement ideas due to the plethora of projects and their associated pictures, videos and project descriptions.

So whether you are a homeowner, builder, or a contractor in the home construction industry, register today and start getting great home improvement ideas and driving customers to your business. HouseSight registration is fast and simple, and again, it’s Free!! Readmore »»

Shoveling Snow off Roof and Around Foundation

By Mark J. Donovan

With all the snow we’ve received in New Hampshire over the past month, I finally had no choice but to go up on the roof yesterday and remove the snow from much of it. There was 2 feet of heavy compressed snow on the roof, as well as 10 inch ice dams that needed to go, before either the roof collapsed or we had water coming into the house.

The only problem after shoveling the snow off of the roof was the fact that I had massive piles of snow to then shovel out from around the home’s foundation. My concern was that the snow that was all piled around my home’s foundation would someday begin to melt and end up seeping into my basement. I’ve never had a water problem in the basement however I’ve never seen so much snow at one time.

After shoveling snow off the roof I also placed ice melt socks every 5 to 6 feet along the roof edge where the ice dams were. Hopefully they will begin to do their work and melt drain channels into the ice dams. Otherwise I may end up seeing water dripping down the inside of my home’s exterior walls.

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