Five Star Albuquerque

When someone mentions the phrase “Organic SEO”, they mean the optimization of a website to appear in the non-paid, search algorithm driven results in search engines. However, it is useful to understand that there are two “clans” for organic SEO experts, and these two clans use very different strategies in getting results.

The first clan is called white hat SEO, the other one is called the black hat!

Here are the differences between the strategies used by the two clans.

Quality Content versus Exploiting Algorithm Loopholes

White hat SEO experts build quality content. As the adage goes “Content is King” on the Internet. Quality content is the best bait for targeted incoming links - people who find your article informative and interesting will recommend you by putting a link on their site.

The Black hats SEO clan, instead, constantly looks for technical loopholes in the search engine algorithms to “game” the search engines, such as cloaking sites, nasty redirects, keyword stuffing and many others. When the search engines algorithms are reviewed, these site are very often kicked out of the index, but these black hat SEO experts simply get though this by searching for another loophole.

Attracting Links versus Participation in Linking Schemes

As we all know the number of incoming links to a particular website is one of the key factors that determine the success of the website. When you have more incoming links, it would mean to the search engine that you “have been recommended” by more people, so naturally you should appear higher in the search listings.

However, again the two clans use different strategies to get their incoming links. The white hat SEO experts often looks at a website and ask themselves “How do I get people to link to want to link to this site willingly?” The eventual result can be the using the best link bait as mentioned above - using quality content, or more applying a more creative strategy by providing a viral service that people would want to recommend to friends.

The black hats, on the other hand, simply thinks of “How do I get links to the site?” They pay no consideration to whether the links provide value to the visitors and readers. The eventual strategy that emerges usually turns out to be schemes like link farms and reciprocal link schemes.

Learning about the search algorithms to follow them versus learning about the algorithms to exploit them

Both clans of SEO expert do a massive amount of research, except that they do their research for different purposes. Search engine algorithms change frequently, and research is done to learn about the changes in algorithms - which strategies work, and which doesn’t.

The white hat SEO clan uses this way of thinking - “How can I use the algorithm to help me rank well?” The black hat SEO clan thinks using - “How do I bypass this meddlesome algorithm and rank well?”

Again, because the search engine algorithms change very frequently, the black hat clan will find their rankings to drop once the algorithms change to cover the loophole. White hat SEO techniques will often stay high in rankings.

So, are you wearing white hat or a black hat? Will your rankings continue to stay where they were if you stopped optimizing it daily, or will it drop drastically?

Tan Kian Ann is an advocate and mentor for creating sustainable home based eMarketing businesses. To claim your free eCourse worth $147 on how to get create a sustainable eMarketing business, and live the “money rolling in while you sleep” lifestyle, check out Kian Ann’s eMarketing Lifestyle project

High Page Rank Domains

A question that gets asked a lot by clients and those interested in search engine optimisation (SEO), is whether there is any point or indeed any value in including meta-data on pages in their site. The short answer is “yes”!

What is meta-data?

Meta-data is information about the page. It’s not necessarily meant for human users and it serves to tell search engines and web browsers more about your page. This data is found within the section of each webpage. There are various meta-data elements. The ones that are most important to SEO’s are the title, description and keywords tags, however there are a number of others that can also be included on each page.

The language tag for example specifies the natural language of the document, and the meta-robots tag for Google instructs the Googlebot (the Google spider that crawls the web) on how to crawl your site. This tag includes commands such as noindex, nofollow and noarchive. If this tag is used - you can cause the Googlebot not to index, follow links or archive certain pages on your site.

Why bother with meta-data?

It is true that many search engines, in fact most of the major engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN place little value on the meta-keywords and meta-description tags when it comes to ranking pages and relevance. However, the title tag does carry a fair amount of weight in ranking algorithms - and it’s important to have unique, relevant and keyword rich title tags for each page.

This aside, it’s considered a best practise to use meta-data and a number of smaller search engines still do use meta-data as part of their ranking algorithms. Other than the added advantage of possibly netting additional traffic from more obscure search engines, meta-data does have role to play in attracting traffic your site. The meta-description for example is the information or excerpt that is displayed below the link (which is the title-tag) on the Google search results page (SERP).

To maximise value in the description make use of keywords that apply to the page and include a description of the page’s content and, where applicable, a call to action. Bear in mind that most search engines bold the search terms in the SERPs so it’s worthwhile including these in meta-data for added emphasis.

Some general guidelines to writing meta-data

The best rule of thumb is to keep the information in your meta-data as short, concise and descriptive as possible, while still including keyphrases. Brevity is key, otherwise you wind up diluting your important keyphrases with superfluous keywords. Remember that meta-data is often displayed in the SERPs, so make sure that the meta-title and meta-description are well written and appealing. It’s also best to use the main keyphrase first in your meta-data - and to avoid repetition, you don’t want to look like a spammer.

AlterSage is an internet marketing consultancy based in Cape Town, South Africa offering a wide variety of tailor-made e-marketing solutions to clients. Online marketing services include search engine optimisation (SEO), pay per click advertising, social media marketing and affiliate marketing.

high pagerank

Work in an Office or own a company? Get the Alexa toolbar or SS Firefox extension installed on all computers and set your website as the homepage for all browsers. Perhaps it will be useful to note that this may work only when dynamic or different IP’s are used.

Install the Alexa toolbar or Firefox’s SearchStatus extension and set your blog as your homepage. This is the most basic step.

Get friends to review and rate your Alexa website profile. Not entirely sure of its impact on rankings but it might help in some way. Flaunt your URL in webmaster forums. Webmasters usually have the toolbar installed. You’ll get webmasters to visit your website and offer useful feedback. It’s also a good way to give back to the community if you have useful articles to share with others.

Write content that is related to webmasters. This can fall in the category of domaining and SEO, two fields in which most webmasters will have the Alexa toolbar installed. Promote your content on social networking websites and webmaster forums.Post in Asian social networking websites or forums. Some webmasters have suggested that East Asian web users are big Alexa toolbar fans, judging by the presence of several Asia-based websites in the Alexa Top 500. I suggest trying this only if you have the time or capacity to do so.

Get Dugg or Stumbled. This usually brings massive numbers of visitors to your website and the sheer amount will have a positive impact on your Alexa Rank Naturally, you’ll need to develop link worthy material.

http://www.thefivestarblog.blogspot.com

The best Way to Get High Google Pagerank

We all love immediate gratification - and when we’re starting a marketing plan for our websites, such as one including article marketing, we would certainly love to see the fruits of all our hard work right from Day One! Realistically though, this is usually not the way it works, and that’s true of any online marketing strategy, not just article marketing. While it is possible that with one article submission you may see a huge surge of traffic right away if a major ezine picks up your article for publication, for the most part article marketing has a “delayed gratification” element to it.

Fortunately, as with most instances of delayed gratification, the wait is worth the payoff!

When you hear successful article marketers talking about how much traffic they get from the articles they submit or how they’re dominating the search engine rankings thanks to their article submissions, you have to keep in mind that they didn’t get there overnight. Using articles to drive traffic back to your website isn’t hard, but there are a few things you should know if you want to position yourself for success:

1) How many articles should I submit?

Article marketing is one of those tools that almost anyone can do. You don’t need to be a SEO junkie or a technically advanced internet user. All you need to be able to do is write educational articles in relation to your website’s niche and submit them consistently over the long term.

How much is “consistent”?

While you don’t want to inundate publishers with your articles, you do want to submit a steady amount of articles. I would recommend submitting at most 1-8 articles a month. That number is pretty doable - most of us can find the time to write at least one quality article a month, and even more if we put our minds to it! If you submit at least one article a month, you can see great results, and the more articles you submit (up to a point), the more exposure your website receives.

I wouldn’t exceed 8 articles a month though, because in my experience most quality publishers don’t like to be bombarded with articles from single authors, simply because in general the higher the quantity, the lower the quality of each article.

By submitting a limited number of articles a month, you can focus on quality, rather than quantity - the results from a few quality articles will generally always far outweigh the results from lots of low quality articles.

2) How long does it take to see results?

When you start article marketing consistently (submitting 1-8 articles a month), you can expect to see results within 3-4 months. Why does it take that long? Google doesn’t update their rankings on a daily or even a monthly basis–usually their ranking adjustments are done every 3 months or so.

So, no matter what link building or traffic driving method you’re using, if you were hoping to see an increase in search engine ranking and more traffic from Google, you need to be a little patient.

Don’t submit one or two articles, and then a week later say, “Ugh–this isn’t working! I quit.” Take a clue from the experts who are seeing the results you’re after–commit to doing your article marketing consistently over a long span of time (ideally over the entire lifetime of your website), and know that it will likely take 3-4 months to see results from your efforts.

3) How can I measure my results?

There are 4 main ways to measure your results with article marketing:
*An increase in traffic to your website.
*An increase in backlinks
*An increase in PageRank
*An increase in your search engine ranking for your keyword terms

Obviously, in order to measure your results using these factors, you want to take a baseline of each of these stats before you start article marketing, so you’ll have a basis of comparison.

Remember though, when you take your initial baseline of these 4 elements, you will not see a change right away. It will take 3-4 months from the time your article marketing campaign begins to see changes in your baselines.

The biggest obstacle I see with folks not seeing the results they were looking for with article marketing is not the actual writing and submitting of articles - it’s managing their expectations.

It’s natural for people to want to see results right away, but you know better now!

Article marketing is an extremely effective way to build links and drive traffic to your website over the long term, so don’t let unreal expectations spoil your ability to stick with it.

Now that you know what to expect, how many articles to submit, how long it takes to see results, and how to measure your results, you’re light years ahead of the pack and are right on track for following in the footsteps of other expert article marketers!

Another habit effective article marketers have is that they submit their articles automatically, saving time and increasing their article exposure. Steve Shaw created the web’s first ever 100% automated article distribution service, SubmitYOURArticle.com, which distributes your articles to hundreds of targeted online publishers with the click of a button. Get the full story and reap the rewards TODAY at=> http://www.SubmitYOURArticle.com

High Pagerank - SEO

When you look at search engine optimization for your website, keep in mind that search engine robots look at how your pages are linked together and how your site is linked to other sites. When you place a link on your site, this is an OUTBOUND LINK; the site of the link benefits.

INBOUND LINKS is what the search engine robots look for; you want sites of related content and high traffic to place a link to your site on their site.

The fastest way to accomplish this is to write informative articles that link back to your site and have them published on other websites. The signature line in your forum posts that include your website address create links to your site as well as directory listings.

The more pages of VALUABLE CONTENT you have on your site, the more inbound links you can have pointing to your site. The exception to this is “Free For All” (FFA) pages which are also called “Link Farms” which can have the opposite effect and get you banned from search engines.

Find out who is linking to your site by using the three advance search commands:

link:www.yourdomain.com

inurl:yourdomain

allinurl:yourdomain

There are several Link Popularity Checker online; the Webmaster Toolkit and Marketleap has two of the most reliable.

Search engine optimization is a combination of four major factors, your keywords, your keyword optimized content, submissions to search engines and inbound links. Each one of these factors are important and together as a unit they can give you good search engine rank.

Find out what it takes to get better Search Engine Optimization Results

Discover new ways to get massive amounts of traffic with a little extra effort and Monetize your Website

step to get high page rank

When you decide if your employer is a good fit, you may want to look deeper than the company name, you may want to “investigate the boss!”

The importance of a good fit in your career is an understatement. As you put your career in the hands of your employer, you must know what you are stepping into before you begin. In this series of articles we will explore some of these issues:

1. Should you put your career in anyone’s hands but your own?

2. Is it better to be a big fish in a little pond or a little fish in a big pond?

3. Private company or public company?

4. Corporate Executive or Entrepreneur?

The culture of an organization is many times created from the top down. For you to decide if a position is a good fit, it’s important to understand the culture within an organization prior to accepting a position. The culture in many ways is influenced by the history of its leadership. An entrepreneur creates a completely different culture than his or her corporate executive counterpart. Let’s see if we can understand these two personalities.

What is an entrepreneur? You know, you see them all the time, the guy with the great idea who is quick on his feet. Next thing you know, he has turned that idea into a fast moving product you notice on the shelf at your local store. This person is great to work for. The entrepreneur is so energetic and full of enthusiasm, full of quick answers to get the business ball rolling. The entrepreneur is filled with a passion and drive for his company.

What happens to so many of these exciting entrepreneurs as their ideas take shape, take off - their business grows faster than they can handle. They find themselves short of a very important resource - qualified management assistance. This happens for several reasons:

1. “I’ll hire competent (expensive) help once I get some return on my investment” or

2. “I’ll train those young, enthusiastic people who were here in the beginning - maybe they can handle managing the business” or

3. ” I’m not sure what all the fuss is about, I only need someone to count the money and pay the bills - I can do everything else myself!”

Whichever the case, or maybe its all of the above, the entrepreneur will sell the business short as they avoid the hiring of competent managers in many facets of the business.

In all cases that entrepreneur is the boss; he is the one with the ideas and the money. If you don’t want to work for one, you can put the money up and become one yourself. Why do I say this? I say this because you have to respect the person who is willing to put up their own funds to bring their idea to fruition. That level of respect is necessary for you to begin to do the right job for this type of employer.

Now, you could be working for a corporation that is managed by a Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer, President, as well as a long list of upper management staff with titles such as Vice President of Operations, Chief Operating Officer, Director of Administration and on and on and on. Sometimes these organizations seem very top heavy, but if you belong to one, everyone seems so busy attending meetings, creating reports and directing projects.

Does this mean all these positions are necessary? Maybe yes and maybe no. How can you tell? How can you impact this organization in such a way as to eliminate waste while not upsetting the delicate balance that is that Company’s culture? In this case the corporate culture can be buried in bureaucracy, paperwork, meetings to discuss the structure of meetings, documentation to support the documentation and if you are lucky, a product line that somehow sells itself in spite of the corporate overhead and overwhelmingly slow moving progress.

Passion for the “mission” is hard to find in many large corporate environments. If you are looking for a challenge or to make a difference, the corporate executive who sets the culture may not be ready for all that upheaval. Be ready for change to occur slowly and your dedication can and will be tested.

So, keep your focus no matter what personality you work for, the structured CEO or the wildcat entrepreneur. The focus is on quality, knowledge, a high level of interpersonal skills and the most important; the highest level of integrity.

Once you understand the environment, you can and will be ready to face the challenge.

This series is presented by Diane Dutton, CPA, Speaker, Business Strategy Consultant and author of “A Woman’s Ladder To Succes Is Paved With Broken Glass Ceilings”, available at Amazon.com. For more information on this and the other factors facing your career decisions, read the rest of the story at http://www.writebookstoday.com or contact ddutton@writebookstoday.com.

Pagerank

Ski Vacations are becoming more and more popular, since they provide a great total body workout and the thrill of adventure, all in a serene setting. One of the most popular ski vacations resorts in the United States is Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe is one of the most popular freshwater lakes located in the Sierra Nevada between California and Nevada. Lake Tahoe and surrounding areas cater mostly to tourists and boasts of a highly diverse tourist industry that can satisfy the whims of visitors from all age groups. Most notably, skiing remains the most popular attraction that Lake Tahoe offers. Thousands of people visit Lake Tahoe each year for what they claim to be some of the best ski slopes in world. Its renowned ski resorts have played host to winter sporting events including the winter Olympics.

Travelers who plan their Lake Tahoe ski vacations must consider the size of the resort that they prefer to go to. There are large ski resorts that boast of world-class facilities and excellent ski slopes that expert and novice skiers may ski on. Heavenly Mountain and Squaw Valley are the two largest ski resorts that a lot of tourists visit when they spend their vacation in Lake Tahoe. There are medium sized ski resorts as well that provide superb service and world-class facilities but in a smaller space. Still, those who prefer intimate Lake Tahoe ski vacations may visit smaller resorts that are more secluded and cozy, yet still provide excellent service. Travelers are sure to find the right ski resort to spend their vacation with the vast variety of ski resorts available in Lake Tahoe. Tourists must also be aware that there are particular areas in Lake Tahoe that get more snow than other areas. This point may be of great importance to serious skiers.

There are quite a few popular peaks excellent for skiing found in Lake Tahoe. Some of the more popular peaks inlude Mt. Tallac, Mt. Pluto, Rubicon Peak, Genoa Peak, and Freel Peak.

Lake Tahoe ski vacations are guaranteed to satisfy the demands and the expectations and demands of serious skiers as well as first-time skiers due to the countless slopes that are ideal for everyone to enjoy skiing and staying at resports that fit every lifestyle and budget.

Lake Tahoe Vacation Rentals provides detailed information on Lake Tahoe Vacation Rentals, South Lake Tahoe Vacation Rentals, North Lake Tahoe Vacation Rentals, Lake Tahoe Vacation Home Rentals and more. Lake Tahoe Vacation Rentals is affiliated with Lake Tahoe Lodging.

Pagerank

While there may be some gems that in certain sizes are more valuable, diamond is simply the most important and famous of all gemstones. It is easily the best known of all gems, having a long and colorful history throughout the civilized world. Because of its great hardness, for many centuries, diamonds were considered nearly impossible to cut or polish. Even its name derives from the Greek word adamas, which means “invincible”. Only after much experimentation were the techniques necessary to polish a diamond developed. For many years this secret was kept among a limited few individuals.

Even comparatively small diamonds with good quality have significant value. Its value derives from three important properties: its hardness; its brilliancy which results from its high index of refraction; and his fire which results from its strong dispersion. Because of its value and durability, the purchase of diamond jewelry has become associated with weddings, anniversaries, and other major milestones.

When making an important diamond purchase, many individuals are confused by the apparent wide range of prices for what seem to be similar stones. The prices of diamond gems are greatly affected by the quality of the stone. It is entirely possible to purchase a one carat loose diamond gem for less than $1000. The quality of such a gem of course, is nothing less than awful. It will have many large visible inclusions, and be badly off-color - perhaps with visible cracks as well. On the other hand, a fine quality diamond of a full carat size may well be priced in excess of $15,000. This huge difference in price between the two is due to the difference in quality.

Understanding The Four C’s of buying a Diamond

In order to help the diamond buying public better understand the quality of diamonds and how they are priced, jewelers developed to four C grading system. This system has been taught to the diamond buying consumer for decades. The four C’s on which diamonds are rated are the following: Carat weight, color, clarity, and cut.

Carat weight -

The carat weight is the size of the stone. Prices are commonly giver per carat, even when the stones are less than one carat. Prices per carat increase as the stones become larger, as larger stones are rarer. There is a significant price increase at round number carat breaks - so stone of 0.99 carats is notably less costly than a stone of 1.01 carats, even though the buyer may no be able to see the difference.

Diamond color -

The preferred color is white and any increase in coloration results in a less valuable stone. Common pale colors found in diamonds include yellows, browns and grays. Good values can sometimes be found in near white stones that appear white to the eye, but under careful scrutiny are actually very pale colored. Stones with deep color are called fancy colored stones and are more valuable than pale colored stones that are not white or near white. Such light colored stones, mostly from Australia, have been promoted in recent years as “champagne” colored diamonds.

Diamond clarity -

Any flaws within the stone greatly detract from the value. Flaws run the full range from tiny white specs that cannot be seen without magnification, to large black inclusions that severely mar the appearance of the gem. Most diamonds have at least slight inclusions, and better prices can usually be obtained on stones with slight inclusions, but are still so small that they cannot be seen without magnification to assist the human eye.

Cut and Polish -

A diamond needs to be properly cut and polished to show its maximum brilliance and fire. Stones that are cut too deeply or too shallow do not reflect the full amount of sparkle and brilliance. Improper polish also reduces brilliance.

For More information in diamonds, including a photo f a rough diamond from Arkansas, Check out the author’s diamond webpage at: http://nevada-outback-gems.com/Encyclopedia_pages/Diamond_info.htm

For more information on gems of all types, check out the author’s Encyclopedia of Gemstones at: http://nevada-outback-gems.com/Encyclopedia_pages/Gemstone_Encyclopedia.htm

Chris Ralph writes on small scale mining and prospecting for the ICMJ Mining Journal. He has a degree in Mining Engineering from the Mackay School of Mines in Reno, and has worked for precious metal mining companies conducting both surface and underground operations. After working in the mining industry, he has continued his interest in mining as an individual prospector.

High Page Rank Domains

As the cost of business travel soars, companies are continually looking for ways to set up group meetings that don’t involve airplane tickets. Conferencing can help to meet this need. Enhanced technology has dramatically lowered the cost of audio, video and web conferencing. Depending on the services that your business requires, it may be possible to find a surprisingly affordable conference call provider. If your business is in the market for conference call services, let’s look at how you might go about finding the best conference call provider and what factors you should consider.

One of the first things you’ll need to consider when choosing a conference call provider is whether you know ahead of time when your conference calls will be or if most of your calls happen on the spur of the moment. Some conference call providers only work on a reservation basis You’ll need to set up in advance with them the specific time and date of your call, the type of call it will be, the number of lines you’ll need, and how long you expect the call to last.

The alternative to setting everything up ahead of time is to use a reservation-less conference call provider. They will normally set up an account for you in which you always use the same telephone number and the same passcode. In this sort of arrangement, you have the capability of putting together a conference call at any time during the day. You simply have to invite your participants and they’ll use the standard telephone number and passcode. However, you should ensure that you have enough lines to meet your needs. Reservation-less conference call providers often allocate lines on a first-come, first-served basis. That means that in the midst of a busy business day there might not be enough lines available for all your participants to join.

Another consideration that should be part of your decision is how much operator interaction you want or need. There are three basic levels of service. In operator-dialed calls, a human operator actually calls each one of your conference call participants and connects them to the meeting. Another method is to have each participant call a telephone number that is answered by an operator, who then connects them to the appropriate call. Finally, there are fully automated systems in which your participants call a telephone number and key in a passcode that connects them to your meeting.

What sort of optional services might you want from your conference call provider? There are a variety of optional services that can make your conference call more efficient or more effective. Examples of these optional services include a roll call that tells you exactly who is connected. Does the conference call provider record the call? Is this recording available later on CD or as a digital audio file? You should verify whether these additional services are included in the price quoted or if they’re only available for an extra charge.

Sometimes the deciding factor for choosing a conference call provider is the billing support that they offer. One of the main reasons for choosing a conferencing solution is to control costs. So it only makes sense that she would want as much detail in your invoices as possible. For example, do they allow you to mark specific conference calls with particular cost center account numbers? One good way to check this is to ask each prospective conference call provider to provide a sample invoice.

Find out if the conference call provider is capable of handling special events. It may be tempting to choose a low-cost provider for your daily needs and a different provider for special events. But if you can find a conference call provider that’s capable of handling everything, then you have a better chance of accessing volume discounts. Working with the same provider also helps them learn more about your corporate culture and provide better services over time.

When searching for the optimum conference call provider, you need to consider reliability, customer support, their billing structure and their rates. As is the case when you purchase most services, there is always a delicate balance between customer service and pricing. If you want the best price, you may have to give up some customer service. If customer service and assistance is more important, then you’ll have to pay for it. So ultimately, choosing the best conference call provider will depend on your familiarity and comfort level with conference call procedures and technology.

This conference calling article was produced for http://www.call-conference-services.com

High Page Rank Domains

As a criminal defense attorney, I regularly encounter women, mostly, and sometimes men that have been arrested in a police “sting operation” that focused on targeting prostitutes and/or johns. In case someone reading this article does not know, a prostitute is one who exchanges sexual favors for some form of compensation, usually money. Johns are those who pay for the sexual favor-usually men, but as you can imagine, the roles could reverse. I believe that conducting these police sting operations reduces the quality of life in our society and that the only persons “harmed” by prostitution are potentially the actors. Not to mention, it is a waste of police time and resources to prosecute these “victimless” crimes.

Legalization improves neighborhoods and promotes safety

Consider this: if places where prostitution would naturally occur are forced out of business, like brothels, some motels, or apartments, police action drives the activity into the streets of neighborhoods where it otherwise may not exist. Thus, residents of the neighborhoods are exposed to the activity against their will.

Also because of prostitution being forced into the streets, the dangers to many prostitutes greatly increase. Prostitutes whose jobs involve working at night and getting into cars with strangers can be, and often have been, easy pickings for serial killers and other sociopaths. Some criminal justice studies have shown that prostitutes are the most frequent targets for serial killers.

A sensible solution to these problems would be to follow the example of some European cities, where prostitution is allowed in certain designated areas. People who are interested in the activity go to places where it’s permitted, and they leave alone the neighborhoods that don’t wish to be associated with it. Not only are the prostitutes working in a safer environment, but the residents of neighborhoods are not bothered with the traffic, cat-calls, or other related behaviors that they may find reprehensible.

Legalization reduces crime

Another problem with prostitution arrests is that they cause long-term increases in crime and drug abuse in society. Margo St. James, a former social worker and a leading advocate of legalizing prostitution, believes that when a woman is convicted of prostitution that it acts much like a brand or negative stigma, like the “A” in The Scarlet Letter. This could make it much harder for the female to find gainful employment, which then begins a cycle of arrests for more prostitution or other criminal offenses.

Keeping prostitution illegal also contributes to crime because many criminals view prostitutes and their customers as attractive targets for robbery, fraud, rape, or other criminal acts. The criminals realize that such people are unlikely to report the crimes to police, because the victims would have to admit they were involved in the illegal activity of prostitution when the attacks took place. Also, there is a belief that prostitutes may have large sums of cash on them, which makes them an attractive target for other criminals.

If prostitution were legal, these victims would be less reluctant to report to police any criminal acts that occurred while they were involved in it. This would significantly improve the probability of catching the criminals and preventing them from victimizing others. In many cases, it could deter them from committing the crimes in the first place. That view is consistent with the experience of the European countries where prostitution is legal. They have far lower crime rates than the U.S. overall.

Studies have been conducted in the Nevada counties where prostitution is legal and the results were similar: those counties that provide legalized methods for prostitution to exist are quite peaceable and have lower crime rates. Interestingly, in November, 2004, in Churchill County, Nevada, a ballot proposal to outlaw prostitution was rejected by a 2-to-1 margin, even though the county is primarily Republican and supported George W. Bush for president.

Legalization promotes liberty and privacy

Laws against prostitution violate Americans’ fundamental rights of individual liberty and personal privacy. Thomas Jefferson and other founders of the U.S. envisioned a society where people can live without interference from government, provided they don’t harm others. Lest we all forget, when the founders of the United States fled Europe, they were fleeing the very intrusions and governmental oversight that has developed in this country over the past thirty to fifty years, but especially in the the post 9/11 era under the watch of the Homeland Security Act.

As Jefferson said in his First Inaugural Address: “A wise and frugal Government,which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement.” Or as Arthur Hoppe wrote about consensual acts in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1992: “The function of government is to protect me from others. It’s up to me, thank you, to protect me from me.” Combined, these two statements demonstrate the very principle that I described above-that government should protect its citizens and not try to dictate their very lives.

Similar to issues such as birth control, abortion, and the right to death with dignity, this issue involves people’s fundamental rights to control their own bodies and decide the best way to conduct their lives.

In a free society, it makes no sense for the government to be telling persons - particularly the poor - they cannot charge a fee for harmless services they otherwise are at liberty to give away. To paraphrase George Carlin: Selling is legal, and sex is legal, so why isn’t selling sex legal? The simple answer is that some people are offended by this act and want to impose their “moral authority” on others.

Sex isn’t just for the handsome: some side benefits of legalization

Likewise for the customers, there’s no reason their freedom should not include the right to purchase the companionship and affection they may want but do not find in other aspects of their lives.

For example, one disabled man told researchers he was lonely and visited prostitutes because “I’m ugly, no women will go out with me. . . . It’s because of my disability. So prostitutes are a sexual outlet for me.” Another man reported that he did the same for a number of years due to being “anorexic and very reclusive. There was no chance of forming a relationship.” A physically unattractive man added, “I pay for sex because that is the only way I can get sex.” Another person said his experiences with prostitutes and other sex workers helped him overcome an extreme aversion to physical intimacy, which had resulted from years of physical and emotional abuse while growing up. He explained: “I very likely would have died a virgin if I hadn’t somehow gotten comfortable with physical intimacy, and sex workers enabled me to do that. At least for me, it’s been a healing experience.”

Consider this: in some ways alleviating the sexual need that we all have could be a form of therapy with a paid professional. It’s perfectly legal to meet with a psychologist to discuss sexual concerns, but it is not legal, in most places, to meet with a prostitute to work out that tension on your own… if you pay for it. Through prostitution, someone may be able to meet a need that would otherwise be unfulfilled, which could result in more violent criminal behavior, like sexual assault (aka “rape). In other words, I believe that the sexual drive becomes so strong at times, that some people are unable to control it and will obtain that release they desire, even against the will of the other participant. This behavior should not be condoned and must remain illegal, but consensual sex between adults, even for money, hurts no one but the “moral police”.

What about Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)?

Many who oppose the legalization of prostitution argue that STDs would spread and that some unsuspecting person may contract a STD if prostitution were legal. However, it is my contention that just like alcohol sales, which are regulated as to time, place, and quantity in some instances, that if prostitution were legalized, and monitored by the government, much like in some European cities, the government could require registration and testing for the prostitutes. Granted, this would be more governmental oversight, and while I am not a fan of “Big Brother”, I think this would be far less intrusive and more logical than the current system in place with criminalizing two already legal behaviors: sex and sales.

Consider this: the government could collect a registration fee from anyone seeking a license for prostitution, it could require testing every six months or whatever period of time was prescribed, and it could contain the behavior to registered facilities. All in all, it appears that the government would benefit by having an increase in its revenue stream, and the public would benefit because they who choose to participate in sexual encounters with prostitutes would be better protected by the registration and testing. Communities would benefit by the containment to a given area. And under this system, criminalization would occur for those not following the system put in place.

Legalization puts law-enforcement resources to better uses

Numerous legal commentators point out that using law enforcement resources against prostitution substantially diminishes the resources available to fight other crimes committed against persons or property. This nation desperately needs more efforts applied to solving those crimes, because arrests are being made in connection with only about 20% of them. And, if you look around to your local law enforcement agencies across the United States, most of them are desperate to find new recruits to fill in the already thinned lines of officers. By removing officers assigned to “sting operations” and special divisions like “Street Response Teams” more officers could be available to answer calls or follow-up on more serious reports currently on file.

While I do not have statistics to support this, though I am confident they exist, I believe that the damage inflicted on society by corporate crime and white-collar crime far exceeds the harm caused by all the street crime combined. Just ask the victims of the Enron and WorldCom scandals - many of whom lost their life savings….

As for white-collar crime, the police undoubtedly know that their jobs and careers are safer by making prostitution arrests than by investigating criminals who cause serious harm but either wield political power or have strong connections to those who do. And when the corruption involves others in the police force, the notorious “Blue Wall of Silence” leads all too many officers to ignore and protect the wrong-doing of badge-wearing criminals too.

Conclusion

Our society would be better served if the police directed their efforts away from the activities of consenting adults and toward preventing and solving real crimes involving clear victims and injustices.

Dax Garvin, Attorney and Counselor At law is an experienced Austin DWI Attorney.

I graduated from Texas Tech University School of Law in May, 2002, and was licensed to practice law in Texas that November, following the July, 2002, Texas Bar Exam. Prior to that, I obtained my Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from the University of Texas at Tyler and my first years of undergraduate work were spent at Austin College in Sherman, Texas, where I learned the true passion of humanity-recognizing we are all part of one great society.

I worked in the Travis County Attorney’s Office from August, 2002, until October, 2003, when I entered into private practice with a mid-size Austin civil litigation firm, where I enhanced my skills for legal research, writing, motion practice, and working with insurance companies from the defense perspective.

http://www.daxlegal.com

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