As our site grows every day we want to share some information with you on the way we are operating the project. We call this section «Business Blog» as it is similar to doing a log book where data is recorded in a chronological order. «Blogging» is gaining popularity with more and more people picking up the habit of publishing their experiences and thoughts on the Internet. Our Blog covers various topics — from TOEFL, TOEIC, MBA, GMAT, ESL/EFL test preperation to cultural traditions and current political events.
There will also be some Internet marketing terminology and if you have any questions regarding the information simply let us know.

The Business Blog is written by Torsten Daerr and edited by Alan Townend.

2004 — September 07
Do you know what a «letter of complaint» is? Well, it's a document you write to a company or organization to tell them that you are dissatisfied with their products or services. It can be hard to compose such a letter in English because you might feel angry and disappointed and that makes it difficult for you to concentrate. That's why Alan is writing some tests containing essential vocabulary you need when you want to write your own letter of complaint. The tests are also good TOEIC exam preparation. Click here to jump onto the first three tests:
ESL test Letter of Complaint (1)
ESL test Letter of Complaint (2)
ESL test Letter of Complaint (3)
You soon will also be able to read Alan's latest newsletter which is rich in idiomatic English expressions and also refers to the differences between British and American English. As usual I'm glad Slava has created a system that allows you to read every single back issue of Alan's newsletter. In addition you can download his texts as PDF files in the «Titbit» section of the download area. By the way, «titbit» is British while most Americans would spell the word «tidbit» and it refers to a delicious bite of food as well as a pleasant item of news or information.

2004 — September 06
What is new about our electronic diary? Well, we've changed the name from «netlog» into «esl blog» for one obvious reason: According to Overture which provides the search results of Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista, CNN and Infospace, more than 132000 people looked for the term «blog» whereas «netlog» generated only a very small number of searches. When you browse a website quickly your subconscious mind decides within a split second whether or not it should send a signal to your finger to click on your mouse button. So, the likelihood that someone recognizes the combination «ESL BLOG» is many more times higher than the chances that someone would be inclined to click on «netlog». Certain words and word combinations have more «weight» (more value) on the Internet than others. You can see this principle in action with Google's AdWords/Adsense advertising program. If you start an Adword campaign you have to «bid» on the words you use in your ad and depending on the supply-and-demand situation for that particular word, Google charges you a certain amount of money. It'll be interesting to see how many people will read our diary now that we have changed its name…

2004 — September 05
You might wonder if we do anything in addition to working on english-test.net The answer is we do. Our website has been online for a little over a year which means we still have to add quite a number of content pages and features until we can make a living from it. We know that we will reach this point within the next couple of years and we invite you to accompany us on this journey.

So, apart from english-test.net we do also teach English to a variety of groups and we also cooperate with education providers on several projects one of which is called «EvoLearn». Its purpose is to create an e-learning system that provides a high level of flexibility and is easy to use. It will be our responsibility to write instructions and contents in English and maybe in Russian. As our contract partner is a German based education provider we will also have to do a substantial amount of translations — a job that requires various skills. Sometimes it is easier to read the original text and create the English version using your own words and phrases while maintaining all the meanings and concepts expressed in the German source document. As the project is EU funded there is also some red tape involved — something you can't avoid when it comes to dealing with authorities on a EU level.

2004 — September 04
During August 2004 about 4000 people from all over the world found our pages by typing the terms «TOEFL» or «TOEIC» into the search engines. Now, it's high time for us to offer information about the two most important English language tests. You soon will be able to read all about the TOEIC here as we are going to implement this TOEIC-Site into english-test.net

As for the TOEFL — as of today you can read a description of the test here: TOEFL Description Our plan is to constantly add materials, tools, books and tips as well as software and other useful sources that help you prepare for the TOEFL.
It goes without saying that the demand for information on ETS examinations is rising: More and more young people go abroad to study because a university degree obtained at a North American or European university can have many benefits for your future career. Quite recently we have had the following discussion on our forum: Where to study? I have problem and I need your help As most universities in the US and Canada require a certain TOEFL score for admission, the Test Of English as Foreign Language has reached a tremendous level of popularity. According to the Yahoo owned search engine Overture the abbreviation TOEFL alone was searched for almost 36.000 times. You have to bear in mind that there are literally hundreds of additional search string combinations that would have to be added to the 36.000 searches as well those queries performed at Google. Here are some of the most popular TOEFL search term combinations:

• toefl
• toefl score toefl test
• free toefl test
• toefl exam
• free toefl
• toefl preparation
• toefl essay
• toefl practice
• toefl practice test
• sample toefl test
• toefl online
• toefl registration
• toefl test center
• free toefl practice test
• ets toefl