Dream Merchants

Strategies to Popularise Your RSS Feed

2005-11-21T05:04:00.000-08:00

RSS is here and it has taken the internet by storm. The number of webmasters becoming a part of this online revolution is growing on a fast pace. The reason is, RSS feeds have proved to increase traffic in a big way. And creating your own RSS feed would surely be a step towards tapping in a new source of traffic.

However, just publishing your own RSS feed and waiting for miracles to happen won't work. In order to get those most wanted subscribers, RSS feeds need to be promoted and marketed in the right way. With a good dose of quality traffic directed towards your feed, long term subscriptions will definitely start pouring in.

The following ways will not only help you get the word out about your RSS feed but also help you retain a fresh flow of targeted visitors to your website.

Create an individual webpage for your RSS feed

The most important part of your promotion should be creating a webpage dedicated to your RSS feed. Since RSS is still new to most of the online users, you can give your readers an introduction and explain how beneficial it is to subscribe to your RSS feed. You can also have a small FAQ section about RSS here answering any questions and doubts your readers might have. Most of the time, the key here is to give your potential subscribers more than one option to add your feed. Different subscription options like "My Yahoo!" "My MSN" and "Newsgator" allow your visitors to add and subscribe to your feed with their own convenience.

Add the Auto-Discover code to your RSS feed webpage

Browsers like Mozzila Firefox have added a lot of new features in the past few years and made browsing a different experience. One of the good features offered by Firefox is subscribing to RSS feeds. It acts as an aggregator and lets readers add feeds directly into their browser. The browser automatically detects RSS feeds on the site and asks the user, while he's surfing the site, if he or she wishes to subscribe to the feeds. In other words, it makes it very easy for users to centralize information of their choice. However, for Firefox to detect your feed on the webpage, you need to have the "Auto - Discover" code on it. So that the browser can automatically detect the feed, alerting the user. Simply include the following code in the Head section of your web pages:

link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="ENTER_YOUR_RSS_URL"
eg.
link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://www.dreammerchantsindia.com/Dream-Merchants.xml"

This should set you up for some automatic subscriptions to your feed!

Write and distribute articles

Writing and distributing articles is a well known and a very respected method of driving traffic to your website. It has been effectively used by thousands of webmasters over the years to bring in some quality visitors.Therefore, it's an excellent idea to promote your RSS feed through articles written by you. There are many benefits that you'll experience once your start writing your own informative articles. First of all, you'll be recognized as an expert in your field. Secondly, you will gain the trust of your readers even before they subscribe. Your article doesn't have to be very long in length. It can be anywhere between 500 -1000 words. A "resource box" in the end should follow your completed article. The resource box usually is a short bio of the author. Here is where you can promote your RSS feed and give a link to it, explaining about it in brief. Once you are done with the article, you can go ahead and submit it to online article directories like ezinearticles and goarticles. You can also go ahead and contact individual ezine publishers for publishing your article, as they are always on a look out for fresh content. It's really not a big deal to write an article on the web. If you know your expertise, then I'm sure you can come up with an article worth reading.

Submit your RSS feed to directories and search engines

Submitting your RSS feed to online directories will certainly draw in visitors who are actually interested in what you offer. In the past few months a lot new directories have come up. For example, Syndic8 and 2RSS are thriving with thousands of RSS feeds on different topics with many more being added daily. Your feed can very well find its place in these ever growing directories.There are even feed specific search engines like Feedster, which index only RSS feeds. These search engines get visitors who are searching for RSS feeds on a specific topic. So getting listed in them could convert to more targeted traffic and give your feed a good subscription rate. These niche directories and search engines always tend to bring out the best out of your promotions. They don't cost you anything, so are definitely worth a try!

Promotion through email

Promoting your RSS feed via email is one of the most under - used methods. However, email promotion for your RSS feed usually yields in a higher subscription ratio. If you are already running a newsletter, then you should consider including a section introducing your readers to your RSS feed. Since, RSS is growing rapidly, you can expect a large number of your email subscribers turning to your RSS feed. You can also strike joint venture deals with other ezine publishers and swap ads promoting each other's RSS feeds. This can mutually work wonders for both the publishers. You can even try promoting your ezine on the "thank you" page of your email subscription or your joint venture partner's page. Lastly, don't forget to promote your feed in your email signatures. As your day-to-day correspondence can get you new subscribers for your feed.There are many creative ways you can use email to promote your feed. You just need to come up with your own, which compliment your business in a positive way.

Update your content regularly

Keeping your RSS feeds fresh and updated is very important if you want repeat visitors and new subscribers. Just like content oriented websites are updated regularly, content-wise, your RSS feeds are no different. RSS is meant to deliver new and up to date information, as it directly goes to the aggregators. Your readers really don't have any reason to be subscribed to your feed, if it doesn't deliver new updated content. RSS feeds aren't just meant for new visitors but also your old subscribers. You have to keep it updated for people to keep coming back to your feed.

On a finishing note, RSS feeds are an absolute way of turning the cards in your favor when it comes to building traffic and a loyal subscriber base. You need to keep on experimenting with new promotional methods and test new marketing techniques.

Turning Visitors into Clients

2005-11-14T08:19:00.000-08:00

You are getting traffic, but no . . . orders, e-mails, requests, inquiries. Even the best looking, properly developed, cross-platform Web site will not produce results if it does not relay the product or service offered in such a manner as to cater to what a visitor needs to know. From the verbiage to the price to the calls to action (that do not exist on many sites) you need to be able to properly describe, lure, and cajole your target visitors into wanting, better yet needing your product/service and contacting you.

All Web site owners have to understand that just because you put products/services on a Web site, visitors will show interest or place orders. So much of having a Web site has to do with your marketing plan and ability to run your site as a business, which includes how to market your product or service in such a way that produces results. Traffic is the first battle that you need to tackle which has to do with your on and off-line marketing efforts. But if you are not turning those hits into clicks to contact you or buy your product you need to look at the basics of your site again.

So you have this great site and you're getting hits galore but no results. What could be the reason?

Content/Verbiage. Unfortunately, many site owners do not have command of the written word. Their language skills are so anemic they couldn't describe themselves to save their lives. Creative writing, proper use of adjectives and grammar go a very long way to your perception of credibility online and successfully selling what you have to offer. When showing up at a site, why would someone contact you if there were typos, grammatically incorrect use of words or phrases - a clear indication that the person behind the site possibly didn't make it out of the 6th grade? There are tons of wonderful books on writing, tune your writing skills or hire a pro.

With all the noise online, clarity in your writing that caters to what your target market wants to hear is very important to your getting a response. So many sites do not talk TO the site visitor; they talk AT them. It is the site owner's version of what they want the site visitor to know - which many times is of no interest at all to the person showing up at your site. People visit sites on a mission; they are looking to fill a need / get information / buy some particular product. When they get to a site they want to see that site talking to them about how that need will be filled, what the benefits are to them in working with you or buying your product over someone else's. If you don't refine these points - there is no reason to do business with you. Those who land at your site don't know you, they don't know how great you are or your products/services are. Having calls to action such as "Find out how we can help you now..." or offering incentives such as "FREE gizmo when you fill out my survey or purchase my widget..." also go a long way to enticing a click.

Well, there are allot of visually respectable sites out there that stink when it comes to the site's navigational scheme. Lack of consistency in navigation between pages being all too common. Inability to clearly allow a customer to find quickly what they are looking for with intuitive links or verbiage is evident on many sites. So many sites want to try and control what the site visitor has to see or click through to get to the crux of the matter that many times visitors won't play that game and leave. Here again, don't try and force what you want them to see or do just to contact you or order your products! If they are on a mission for your widget, let them be no more than two clicks away from finding the info, asking a question, getting pricing or a button to order. Two clicks!

Quality Images. Display of example products and site graphic quality are critical to reflecting that you have a quality product or service to offer. Graphic and photo display online is a skill in of itself. Digital cameras are great but if you do not learn how to use them properly or are unable to create images specifically for the Web you loose the quality that your digital camera can offer. Poor quality images such as clip-art or scans of catalog pages will lend to the perception of poor quality products or worse yet a lack of attention to quality. Think of it his way; if someone where to have a Web site with obviously low standard images, who knows what else they are not paying attention to or don't care about? Hmmm....

Security - E-commerce enable sites that are not truly secured may take advantage of a few who do not realize the risk involved but not all. You need to ensure that your site is secured, that you get your business and the server certified by companies like Verisign or Thawte. Check with your hosting company about what certificates they support. These companies go through the process of confirming your server is in fact SSL encrypted and that you are who you say you are. This goes along way to adding that warm fuzzy for customers to give out their credit cards and it prevents browsers from producing generic warnings which send most Netizens running away from your site. No security, no orders.

Contact Forms - Customers will understand that any business would desire some basic information from them in order to respond to their request. But when you make the inquiry form require they give you information that has nothing to do with what their question may be or is irrelevant to purchasing your product or service - they're out of there! Make your inquiry forms short and sweet. Give visitors drop down selection boxes and check boxes so they don't have to do allot of typing just to ask you a simple question. Keep your contact form no more than 10 fields. You can work on getting additional information as the relationship develops. Or, offer a survey with some sort of incentive to get all that other information you feel you need - don't make customers have to give their shoe size just to ask you a question that may turn into an order - that is unless you sell shoes.

Pricing - If you have an item that is easily found at other sites you'd better make sure you are competitive in pricing. If you have a unique item that is not as readily available make sure that your pricing is realistic. Don't assume you can ask any price. This is business. You need to be competitive and you need to show that the price you are asking is one that is based in some reality and offers quality and value - or you won't get orders.

Policies, Procedures, Terms and Conditions - You need to be very clear about these issues on your site. Including the appropriate addresses and phone numbers to maintain the perception of credibility. For eCom sites you need to have your return policy, your security and privacy statement, your shipping costs up front and visible. If customers do get into your order system and you whack them for shipping that is ridiculous (shipping should not be a profit zone, it should recoup your costs and compensate you for your time and materials but no more) they will abandon and not complete the transaction. Outrageous shipping charges are one of the main reasons customers will go order the very same product from a competitive site. If your site is not eCom, you better have at the very least a Privacy Statement clarifying your position on the distribution of the information visitors will provide to you. Make it clear you are not selling them down the pike by just asking you for info.

Customer Service - For all intents and purposes, orders, e-mail, inquiries are pretty instantaneous. To think that you have days or that you can get around to responding to your visitor's inquiries when convenient will simply hand over your potential new customer to your competitor who responds promptly and courteously. Respond with an e-mail wrought with lack of punctuation, formality and errors means you probably will not hear back from your potential customer. Visit: www.NetManners.com to make sure that you have all these issues firmly in practice.

All of the above is useless unless you review your Web site's statistical data minimally once each month to allow you to become comfortable with that data and to ensure you are able to decipher what is happening or not happening for that matter on your site. You need to see where visitors are entering, what their natural paths through your site are, and where they are exiting to refine your program. Without becoming intimate with this data you simply are not in a position to make logical business decisions moving forward that will require you tweak the above issues. Whether you "like" it or not.

If you don't have the items above covered - get to work. Review your stats - your stats are your friend! This is not a build it and they will come and buy environment based on the fact that you've uploaded files on to some remote server on the Internet. This is business, where fundamentals of knowing what is successful for your niche, which requires the flexibility to change and an openmindedness to embrace sometimes frustrating new things will determine your level of success.

Important Ingredients of Internet Marketing

2005-10-31T03:20:00.000-08:00

The internet is a place where people often throw themselves into the darkness hoping that someday, somehow they'll strike riches. Most people nurture a mistaken notion that a huge amount of traffic will build a good business without paying any attention to what sort of people are coming to the website.

This is the worst kind of Internet Marketing. No matter how revolutionary your product or service is, unless it is backed by a well thought out Internet Marketing strategy, it is as good as being non-existent. You have got to be as sure as any of the conventional brick and mortar businesses in order for your internet marketing business to succeed.

Breaking the wall of non-presence is the biggest challenge one faces while trying to set up an online internet marketing business. When you set up your online business, you don't know your visitors and they don't know you. You need to make your presence felt; you need to set up an identity for yourself that tells your visitors that you are not an unemployed weirdo trying to scam them.

Your website should to represent a genuine business that can really deliver.

How can you do that?

Here are a few of the essential guidelines you should follow in order for your internet marketing home business to be a long-term success:

HAVE A WELL BUILT WEBSITE

A good website is essential to your online business. It is your online office; people come there and draw an impression. Even the first glance can make or break an internet marketing business. Your website should be neat, clean, and provide quality relevant information for your visitors. It should be accessible to people of all abilities and it should have a well-structured navigation system. There should be no broken links and all the essential pages should be there.

CONTENT IS KING

Having a decent website is important, then so is having the right kind of content on your site. Your website represents you amidst the vastness of the Internet. Since you are not there to directly talk to your visitors, your website accomplishes that task. Make your content, whether graphic or textual, as convincing as you can. Great care should be given to the language and the tone to make sure your visitors get all the right information they need to take their visit to the next level. You should update your content regularly and continuously. Internet marketing is not as simple as throwing up your website and leaving it there untouched for eternity. In fact, that is about as far from the reality as you can get. There must be a reason for visitors to return to your website. Adding quality relevant content on a regular basis will bring them back for more. There are many websites where you can find articles to reprint but writing your own content is the best way to go if you have the time.

KEEP PERSISTENT CONTACT

Establishing an identity takes time, and this is not just unique to the internet. Companies invest millions of dollars on establishing their brands. On the Internet, you need to establish your identity, you need your name to sound familiar, and you need to be there almost all the time. You should be accessible to your present and future customers and clients; you should always be in a constant conversation. A good way to carry out a regular conversation is publishing a regular newsletter, ezine, or blog where you post regular updates about your business. Finally, although there are numerous "killer" reports being sold that claim to make you millions, but there really is no substitute for a thing called good old hard work. As in any form of business, online or offline, hard work is needed to build trust, to initiate a two-way communication, to render an online presence your customers can relate to, and to deliver goods and services that set you on a path of long-term profitability.Follow the above guidelines as closely and consistently as possible and you are sure to have a very successful internet marketing business up and running in no time!

Website Traffic from Sources Other then SEO

2005-10-30T22:12:00.000-08:00

Does your web site clearly tell your prospects why they should do business with you instead of your competitors? Does it have a clear "call-to-action"? Are you set up to track your visitors and conversion rates? And lastly, do you know what a visitor is worth?

If you've done all this, you're ready to bring traffïc to your site. If you haven't, go back and do those things or you'll be wasting money.

Everyone wants "organic" or "free" traffïc, but it's a full time job to try to keep on top of the search engines changing rules. Instead, if you build a good content-rich site and do the things on this list, you'll get traffïc from these things and help your ranking at the same time.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) – Get traffïc in an hour with PPC. Google and Overture (now Yahoo) are the primary ones, but you might also want to consider FindWhat.com.
know your visitor value, bid on hundreds of keywords and phrases that are not too competitive, and track each keyword or phrase separately.

Distribute Your Content – write articles of value to your target market. Distribute that content for other webmasters to use on their sites as long as they keep the link back to you in a "resource box" at the end of each article. Distribute your articles through article directories, ezines, and your blog.

Submit Press Releases – submit electronic press releases frequently with news of interest to the media and your target market. Since press releases are news, if they get picked up, it will be quickly and you can get hundreds of links back to your site this way. Write 300 – 500 word releases, include a link back to you, and have them written and distributed by experts who know how to optimize each release for keywords (not typical PR firms).

Set Up a Blog with RSS – to be effective blogs must have frequently updated content. Base yours on information helpful to your customers, not sales pitches. Don't do it unless you can commit some ongoing time to it. Make it interesting to your visitors, submit to all the blog directories, ping the search engines when you post, distribute your content with RSS (others can use on their blogs or web sites without the hassle of negotiating permission and distribution doesn't get caught in sp@m filters like email).

Get One-Way Incoming Links – All the above will create incoming, one-way links, but you can also buy links from other sites and from text link brokers. Don't bother with reciprocal linking, it's dead. Make sure you get links from pages with a Google page rank higher than 0. A site Google rates as 0 maybe because they are penalizing it for some reason and if you link to it, you will get hurt as a result. Make sure links have your keywords in the anchor text and make sure they are text, not graphical links. Make sure they are from other relevant sites, not link farms or FFA sites. Best is links from pages without many other links.

Give Other Sites Your Testimonial – let them publish it on their web site as long as they link back to you. This can get you a one-way link from a site that would otherwise not give it to you.

Email Promotions - Advertise in Ezines, place ads in someone else's email newsletters that reach your target market. Track everything carefully.

Joint Ventures – Get promoted to your JV partner's customer database by your JV partner. Know your visitor value and have a tested and proven sales page that converts well BEFORE you contact JV prospects.

Get Affiliates – If selling a product, offer a commission to affiliates to sell for you. Each affiliate's link to your sales letter conversion page will bring you traffïc and a better search engine rank too. Make it financially attractive to your affiliates, provide all the promotional and sales materials, give them as many tracking codes as they want so they can track each thing they do at their end, do the work for them and make it easy to sign up. Provide tested emails, banners, and other tools for them to use.

Buy Other Web Sites – Find web sites that already rank high on your keywords, verify their traffïc with the site owner and buy their site. Make sure to get ownership of the domain – you can let them still use their content elsewhere. Check deleteddomains.com to see what domains you register for a few dollars that their owners have let expire. Check Google page rank, Alexa rank and number of back links for any site before you buy it.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Lots of technical issues and you should hire an expert to do it for you. Anyone who guarantees high rankings is a fraud because no one can guarantee Google or Yahoo will do anything and the rules change constantly. (They will guarantee some key word like your company name, but not a competitive word that would do you any good). How your site is designed is the key to this.

The big 3 of SEO are:
Content
Relevant one-way incoming links with good Google PR
Proper site design.

Everything listed in the 10 points above helps with content and providing one-way links, so all you need to add is proper site design.
Don't think one page site, think a site with hundreds of optimized pages all tightly themed and relevant to one target market.

Explode Your Response Rate

2005-10-13T23:47:00.000-07:00

Small changes to a web site can make huge impacts to your bottom Site preformance. Below are some simple changes that can make a dramatic difference in your own profïts.

Headline
A change in your headline alone can produce a 1,900% increase in your income. This is one of the most crucial parts of your sales page and can pull in 80% of the orders if done correctly. Your headline should concentrate on the biggest benefit of your product. In addition, it should create enough curiosity to compel the reader into the salës copy.

One of the most powerful words in sales copy is the word "you". This is also true for headlines. Using the word "you" or "your" in your headline and sales copy transfers ownership and makes your writing much more personal.

Color of Your Background
The color of your background is a very simple change that can raise your sales by up to 30%. The most effective color is dark blue, but grey, black, and white also work pretty well. All aspects of your sales letter must be tested because different market segments respond differently.

Audio Marketing
Adding audio to your order page could catapult your sales by 437%. Audio makes your message much more personal and adds to your credibility. People also like to associate a face with a voice. Place a small picture above your recording and see how this affects your sales conversions.

Pop-Ups
Pop-ups are a powerful tool for collecting the email addresses of potential customers. It is also a good way to catch your visitors by the tail before they leave your site. You don't want any of your web site visitors to go to waste. So, before they leave, grab them with a pop-up. With a pop up you can introduce them to your other products, subscribe them to your newsletter, or find out why they didn't buy your product. It is crucial to know exactly what your visitors are looking for. When you know what your targeted visitors want, you can target your marketing and catapult your conversion rates.

Font Colors
Colors play a big part in online marketing. You can crank up your conversion rate by using red font for your heading and subheadings. Yellow highlighting can also rev up your response rates. Make sure that your copy is fast and fun. Use yellow highlighting, underlining, and bolding for things that you want to emphasize. All readers on the internet are scanners. Your sales letter will not be read word for word. Because of this, you must make sure that your most important points stand out.

Number and Text of Your Order Buttons
Long sales letters have proven to be the best for online sales letters because they limit a visitor's navigation choices, they are focused on one product, and they provide potential customers with every bit of information they could want about a product. However, if you only have one order button at the very end of your sales page, you are probably losing out on a number of sales. The key is to place multiple button links that direct the user to the order page. Place a red border around your order buttons to increase your conversion rates, but remember to keep testing. You never know when you might hit upon something that doubles your profïts.

Another important factor influencing click-through rate is what text you use for your order buttons. Some of the most effective text that have been used on the internet are below.

Clïck here to order
Clïck here to grab your copy of _____________

There are so many sites that still do not include a call to action. You must clearly explain to your visitors what you want them to do. Marketers have proven that you will increase your sales by at least 80% simply by asking for the order.

Newsletters / Autoresponders
Unfortunately, not everyone that comes to your site will be ready to buy. Actually, this is usually 90% or more of the visitors that arrive at your site. However, to be successful, you must be able to stay in contact with potential customers. In order to do this you must capture their email address by offering a newsletter or autoresponder. You can do this through a pop-up or subscription förm. Some of the best places for a subscription förm include the top-left hand of your sales page and the very bottom of your sales copy.

Limited Choices Limit your visitors to a single choice. Your sales page should have one main goal: to sell one, individual product. You may have a secondary purpose of subscribing visitors to your newsletter, but this is not the main point of the page. The more choices you give people to surf around your site, the more confused they become and many will often just clïck away to somewhere else. By focusing your potential customers, you can crank up your conversion rates.

Web Site Copy
Strong testimonials can increase your sales by a phenomenal 250%. Gaining credibility is crucial on the internet where there are no sales reps on hand to talk to personally. When your visitors see that other people have risked doing business with you and have been pleased with the results, you gain trust that cannot be bought. However, when lost, it is nearly impossible to gain back.
For a testimonial to be effective, it must contain the following elements:
- A good testimonial is descriptive! Avoid using one and two word testïmonials. People will be much more influenced by longer testimonials that contain solid numbers and facts about the benefits they experienced.
- List the customer's full name, business name, and URL.
- Do NOT edit your testïmonials. This is an unethical practice. However, correcting the spelling would be acceptable.

So, how do you go about collecting these powerful testïmonials? There are a couple of options. You may ask current customers for testïmonials. Many times, you may have many very happy customers who just never really thought about sending in a testimonial. They are very likely to be responsive if you approach them and explain to them how both of you stand to benefit.

Another option is to give a couple of your products away for free in exchange for a testimonial. This has proven to be very effective in some cases.

Nevertheless, be sure to incorporate testïmonials into your overall marketing plan. Research has shown that they work best when placed right below the headline.

A strong guarantee helps alleviate any anxiety the customer may be feeling about ordering from you. Your guarantee shows that you have confidence in what you are selling. Did you know that the longer your guarantee is for, the fewer returns you will receive? This is a simple solution that will increase your bottom line and reduce the headache of filing returns. So go ahead and give your customers a one year guarantee. If you want to gain their trust even further and lower your return rate, give them a lifetime guarantee. Remember, your first-time customer is often worth much more than just their initial purchase. Your current customers are the most valuable sources of repeat sales. Always keep this in mind when marketing to a lifetime customer.

No matter what you are selling online, you can increase your conversion rates by using pictures of your products. This is especially true for ebooks.

People are visual. A three-dimensional picture of your product can:

- Increase your pageviews by 300%
- Increase actions (clickthroughs, downloads, responses, signups, subscriptions, telephone calls, emails, and sales!) by 200%.
- Increase time spent at your site by 50%. Any time people stay longer at your site, your chances of making the sale are higher.

Another important feature of a good sales page are bonuses. A bonus that is related to your product increases the perceived value of your offering. People are always looking to get more bang for their buck. A bonus can be one of your best source for closing the sale.

By making the bonus a "limïted time offer", you create a sense of urgency. Anticipation is one of the most powerful tools in online marketing. When used appropriately, it can drastically increase your response rate.

You are now coming near the end of your sales letter. Add some personalization with a handwritten P.S. Some online marketers even use a P.S.S. and a P.S.S.S. Test a combination to see what works best for you.

Now it's your turn to put these strategies to the test. If you decide not to, you will lose out on thousands of dollars. Think about it....

- You make a few changes to your headline: 1,900% increase in income.
- You use dark blue or black for your background: bump your sales by 30%.
- You add audio to your order page: Your sales shoot up by 437%.
- You ask for the order and place multiple links to your order page: boost your salës by 319%.
- In that short list you've already multiplied your profïts by over 2,500%

DefenseAgainst Spyware and Parasites

2005-10-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows about spyware, parasites and other malware. I won't review them all hëre -- but what you may not know about is a Proven, Four-Step defense that will virtually guarantëe that your computer is protected in a practical, simple manner.

1. Install a Good Anti-Virus Program.

If you are running any computer without a good anti-virus program these days -- you're committing cyber-suicide!
It doesn't really matter which one you use. There is such stiff competition between companies to keep up -- every one is pretty much about the same -- or at least -- it will be very quickly. So don't sweat it. Use any one you want -- but just be sure to use one!

2. Install Spybot Search and Destroy.
I don't generally recommend products, but make the exception in this case because this program Really Works -- and is Frëe! (I DO encourage you to make a donation!)
Get it at: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/

Another tip: Do Use the "Tea Timer" continuous protection. It is turned off by default -- so when you see the prompt to enable it -- please do! It is much easier to Prevent a problem, than to try and cure it later.

3. Install Microsoft Anti-Spyware.
Many people believe that just because they have one particular anti-spyware program, that they are covered.
Definitely Not! Spyware is one case where you absolutely Must use both a belt and suspenders.
You will find that there are many bits of malware that Spybot S&D catches, but Microsoft doesn't -- and vice versa.
Also, one product may catch the parasite, but only the other one can successfully remöve it.
Microsoft Anti-Spyware is available at:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/
If you have a Legal copy of Windows, the download is Frëe! (But be warned that they Will Chëck your windows, and you must download and install the checking too. No big worries.)

4. Keep Everything Up To Date!
Last, but certainly not least, you absolutely must keep your operating system, anti-virus and anti-spyware products updated.

Microsoft releases patches and updates to all currently supported versions of Windows almost weekly. Use the "Automatic Update" feature to make sure you get them, or chëck manually at least once a week through Internet Explorer's >Tools >Windows Update menu option.

Don't forget about keeping the other products updated also. In previous versions of Spybot Search and Destroy, you needed to do this manually.

Removal and Cleaning

Ideally, these four steps should be done just after the system is first set up and before it ever hits the Internet -- but if this isn't the case, don't be surprised at all the viruses, parasites and malware you may find.

If this is the case, my recommended removal and cleansing method is a 'top-down' approach -- from the simplest and safest method -- down to the more difficult and dangerous.
(Legal: Everything in this article is "At Your Own Risk".)

1. See if the application has a menu entry or an "Uninstall" or "Remöve" option anywhere. Most legitïmate software (but ones that may carry parasites as extra baggage) may be able to be removed (at least partially) this way.

2. Under the Windows Control Panel, select the "Add/Remove Programs" applet -- look for, and "Uninstall" anything that may be related to the malware. Be aware that many "innocent looking" applications carry spyware, malware and parasites. Remöve anything in any way resembling problems exposed through either of the anti-spyware programs.

3. Use the removal features of the anti-virus and anti-spyware applications. I recommend doing this After the previous two steps, because sometimes the applications will be removed more 'cleanly' by reversing their original installatïon process.

Note: After performing any step, be sure to repeat the scan with the anti-virus and/or anti-spyware program to see if the problem was really fixed. You should continue trying to remöve the problem until the scan comes up clean. This may also mean rebooting your computer between removal attempts.

Spybot Search and Destroy will prompt you to reboot and attempt removal during the reboot if it encounters a particularly stubborn bug.

4. In some cases, no amount of scanning/cleaning/rebooting can remöve the malware. In this case, you have two options:
a) Boot the computer into "Safe Mode" and re-attempt the Spybot and Microsoft scan/removal process. (To get your computer to boot into Safe Mode -- press just after restart -- and select "Safe Mode" from the boot menu.)

This may allow you to remöve applications that are run automatically at start-up, but that protect themselves by preventing the file from being deleted while the bug is running.
b) Boot the computer into Safe Mode, Run "Regedit" or "Regedt32" and try to clean the parasite by searching the registry for strings that the anti-virus programs have found.

Note: I won't provide detailed instructions on registry editing -- because if you don't know how to do it already -- you'd probably better not try! It can mess you up.

About - Marty R. Milette - All My Best Hotels

Chasing the SearchEngines' Algorithms...

2005-10-05T09:03:00.000-07:00

SEOs often spend countless hours trying to 'break" a search engine's algorithm.
"If I could just crack Google's algo, my pages would soar to the top of the rankings!"

Let's look at some flaws in this way of thinking.

1. Picture the Google engineers and tech folks turning the algo dial as soon as you "think" you have "cracked" the algo. Your rankings may fall, and you would have to figure out what's working with the engine right nöw. In other words, your rankings may nevër be long term.

2. Instead of spending all of this time trying to impress a search engine with a perfect page, why not impress your true target audience... your customers. Has Google, MSN, or Yahoo! Search ever bought anything from you? They're not your target audience. Your customers are your target audience. Write your pages and content for them.

3. When you expend so much of your energy chasing algorithms, you often focus on only a few elements that influence ranking – those elements that are working right nöw and that you hope will give your pages the best chance for success. It is said that Google has over 100 ranking elements that influence ranking and relevancy. Some are more important than others. But focusing on just one or two "main" elements and discounting the rest can prove disastrous to a Web site.

A different approach . . .

Wouldn't you rather achieve top rankings and keep them there, and have those rankings equate to salës and monëy in your back pocket?

After all, isn't it ultimately the salës you're after, as opposed to just the rankings? If those rankings don't equate to traffïc that equates to salës, you löse, any way you look at it.

Five Basic Steps for Achieving Top Rankings without Chasing Algorithms

1. Forget about the search engines. Yes, you heard me correctly. The search engines aren't and nevër will be your "ideal target audience." They don't buy your goods and services. They're not who you should be trying to please with your Web pages and site. Instead, write your Web page content for your target audience.

2. Don't ever forget the basics. No matter what's happening in the algorithms, continue using your main keyword phrase prominently in your title tag, META description and keyword tags, link text, body, heading tags, and so forth. That way, when the algo dial is turned, you won't have to make changes to all of your pages. You'll always be ready.

3. Focus your keyword-containing tags and body text on one keyword phrase only. Each page should be focused on one keyword phrase, and each page should have its own unique tags.

4. Write well-crafted content for your Web pages, and add new content on a regular basis. If content is king, context is queen. Focus on your keyword phrase, synonyms and related words, and surrounding text. Use a program like ThemeMaster if you need help determining those supporting words.

5. Remember that both on-page and off-page factors are important. Don't sacrifice one for the other. On-page factors are your tags, body text, prominence, relevance, etc. Off-page factors are link popularity (quality and number of your inbound links) and link reputation (what those inbound links "say" about your Web page when they link to you).

What about search engine research? Isn't it important?

It's crucial.

Let me give you an example. At the beginning of this year, pages began falling out of Google's index. The forums were alive with speculation and what to do about it.
Through research, we determined this was a compliancy issue. By having compliant code, the search engine spiders are more easily able to spider the content.

The solution? Make sure you use a DOCTYPE tag and an ISO Character Set Statement at the top of every Web page.

If you didn't know about the compliancy issues, you could have made changes to your Web pages that didn't need to be made, wasted countless hours trying this or that, all to come up dry.
Research helps to make sure you remain on top of what's happening in the search engine industry. It's what sets you apart from other SEOs. You make your decisions based on research and facts, versus speculation and theory.

Conclusion...

"Take it from someone who has been in this business for nine years and studies the algorithms closely - don't chase the algorithms. You say that you have a #2 ranking for a certain keyword phrase that alone is bringing your site 550 visitors per day? Great. In the time that you have spent gaining that ranking, I have written 285 pages of unique content, obtained 821 links, etc., and collectively I am getting over 1,300 visitors per day," says Jerry West of WebMarketingNow.

In other words, by focusing on more than just chasing algorithms, you have the potential of having a much more successful Web site.

Author - Robin Nobles - http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/

Add a Search Engine to Your Site

2005-09-26T00:27:00.000-07:00

When visitors arrive at your web site you want them to find the information quickly otherwise they will losë patience and move on. A great way to achieve this is to add a search engine or search box to your web site. Since most visitors are already familiar with using search engines such as Google, they can easily use the search feature on your site.

A. Benefits of Adding Search Engine and Types of Sites Where It Can Be Used

1. Ecommerce sites - your ecommerce site usually has many different types of products so the navigation menu is not focused enough to rapidly find the specific product your visitor is looking for. Adding a search engine to your ecommerce site will help the visitor to easily and quickly zoom in on the product by entering their keyword in the search box.

2. Dynamic sites - search engines have difficulty spidering dynamically generated web pages. These are pages often generated from a database, so the information on your pages will not appear in the search engine's index. Add a search engine to each page of your site. If a visitor arrives on that page from one of the large search engines, they can then do a quick search from that page instead of searching elsewhere.

3. Small sites - web sites that contain 5-10 pages don't need a search engine because visitors don't have to search through many pages to find the information. Instead, make sure you create a simple navigation menu at the top or side and bottom of your web pages.

B. Types of Search Service Providers

1. Atomz - Atomz Express Search is a frëe service where you can integrate basic search capability on your personal web site or on one of your commercial sites. It can be used on sites with 750 total pages or less and allows customization of look and feel to match your site's design. Some third-party text ads are shown above and below the search results. You can use it for as long as you like for there is no trial period.

2. Freefind - features include the ability to customize search and results pages. The frëe accounts are limited to 3,000 pages or 32MB of storage. Site search is hosted on FreeFind's server. It generates a site map for you, tracks visitors searches and indexes password protected pages.

3. Google Frëe site search service - searches only the specific domain(s) that you list when you create your search box. You can customize your results display to include background, text and link colors you select. The search box itself will reside on your web site. The search results page will be served by Google with the customized look and feel you specify. Google may serve ads on the results page. You can do an unlïmited amount of searches. You must display the Google logo on the web pages that contain the search box.

C. Where to place the search engine on your site?

1. Place the search box in a prominent location on your web page...preferably top center or top right.
2. Place the search box on all pages of your web site. Visitors may enter your site from any page. 3. Make the search box large enough to accommodate all search terms the visitor would use to find the information.
4. The search box should be a type-in box, not a link so visitors don't have to wait for another page to load.
5. Limit the search results to 50 per page. Visitors losë their patience if they have to scroll through long lists of results.

D. How Does the Search Engine Work?

It works similar to the major search engines that search the web, however instead of crawling the web the search engine spider will search your site. The results of the crawl are stored in a database that resides on the search company's server.

The company provides the necessary code to add a simple förm to your web page. This usually consists of a search box for inserting your keywords and a send button. When you clïck the button it sends the query to the search company. They process the query to create a search results page. This shows those pages in your site that match the visitor's query.

The quality of the search results the search engine spider collects depends on how much information is contained in your site. Therefore take time to correctly optimize your site i.e. provide lots of good content that includes your keywords. Optimize your meta tags, images and create an accessible navigation structure.

Optimizing your site will not only provide focused results from your internal search engine but also boost your rankings in the major search engines.

Author - Herman Drost iSiteBuild.com

Defacement of Websites

2005-09-23T04:43:00.000-07:00

A valid fear every webmaster faces is the defacement of their site. According to the Computer Security Institute (CSI), 2005 Computer Crime and Security Survey, web site defacements are the “fastest-growing” area of incident. A check of Zone-H.org seems to validate the finding with a display of over 750 sites defacement for a single date (8/15/2005).

To address defacements, it is first important to understand how defacements occur and what can be done to prevent them. Generally, sites can be vulnerable due to undisclosed vulnerabilities in vendor software, a missing security patch, misconfiguration, and/or bad site programming. Any of these vulnerabilities could permit an attacker to gain access that would allow defacement.

While not much can be done concerning undisclosed vendor vulnerabilities, the other causes are correctable. When vendor security patches are released, install them quickly. When patches are released, many attackers are reverse engineering the patch to discover the vulnerability being addressed. It is not uncommon to find exploit code published on the internet within 48 hours of a patch’s release.

Verify your server and site configurations. Specific areas of concern are normally FTP upload rights, site publishing rights, server login privileges, open ports and passwords. Delete or seriously restrict the ability of people to anonymously upload files. Check for the use of default passwords and for ones that can be easily guessed. Double check your systems open ports and the publishing rights of your web server software. Numerous companies offer free products or free initial vulnerability scans that can confirm your system settings. Using the search engine term “free vulnerability scanning” will yield dozens of companies and products.

Check your site code to verify errors and unintended data are being dealt with correctly. Regardless of what a visitor does, input should be validated and all errors should return a graceful message. A few areas to check: are your pages vulnerable to buffer overruns due to incorrect data being entered; are your pages vulnerable to SQL or scripting code injection; does your error messages reveal sensitive information such as connection strings, passwords, or system information?

Establish a schedule and process to monitor system changes, configurations, and code. While researching this article, I noticed a Zone-H posting that a Microsoft United Kingdom site was defaced. While the attacker did not publish how the attack was executed, it is safe to assume configuration played a large role. Software features change with each patch applied, mistakes happen and code changes.

The CSI report points out that the dollar losses caused by web site defacements are actually very low in relation to losses suffered by viruses and the theft of proprietary information. The report goes on to state that “losses (such as the lost future sales due to negative media coverage following a breach)” were not largely represented in the cost figures. I believe that most victims of site defacements will agree that embarrassment far outweighs the dollar loss suffered.

When considering defacement strategies, web site monitoring services should also be considered. Many monitoring services offer the ability to check for the existence of keywords or page changes. While monitoring services will not prevent defacements, site monitoring will at least alert you of the event. Hopefully, before you suffer negative media coverage.

Author: Lew Newlin - http://www.siterecon.com

Does GooglePenalize Innocent Websites

2005-09-22T08:16:00.000-07:00

Whether you like it or not, Google is the place to be ranked well. Yahoo! and MSN can offer their share of traffïc, but nothing serves up traffïc like a top ranking in Google. Unfortunately, no search engine is quicker to hand out a penalty either.

As the clear leader in the search engine market, it is hard to blame Google for being quick to hand out a penalty on a website. There are hundreds of 'black-hat' SEO techniques and tricks that all aim to 'crack' Google and give a website owner a top ranking without them doing as much work to achieve that ranking. If one person discovers a hole in Google, it takes very little time for an entire drove of website owners to start changing their sites to take advantage of this hole.

But is Google too quick to hand out a penalty? They have claimed in the past that it would be unlikely that a legitïmate site would receive a penalty. However, with all the confusion on the Internet about what good SEO really is, is it possible that a legitïmate site owner accidentally employs a technique that is shared by spammers? The site owner may have no intention of defrauding Google, but they may receive the penalty all the same.

Google Plans to Alert Site Owners of Potential Problems

There is some great news for website owners who fear they may have been penalized by Google. Matt Cutts, the owner of this quickly growing blog and employee of Google, confirmed on his website that Google is piloting a new program which will proactively alert website owners of potential problems on their website.

This is definitely exciting for website owners who do not know if they have been penalized, but it should not be taken for something that it is not. Keep in mind the following points:
1. This is a pilot program. It is not a full fledged program that guarantees everyone will be contacted who has been negatively effected. Chances are, you will not be contacted at all.
2. It is an automated program. Google will not have any one person sending out these emails, but a bot that will have to 'discover' your email address. If it can't find one, it will try to guess an email address. If you are good at protecting yourself from sp@m, you may not get a message from Google even if they want to contact you.

There may be a day in the not-so-far future where Google is able to contact legitïmate website owners who made an honest (or maybe not so honest) mistake. That day is not hëre yet, so the responsibility is still that of the individual website owner to make sure they have a legitïmate website in the eyes of Google.

The Many Ways to Get Penalized by Google

There are many ways to get accidentally penalized by Google. Preventing your site from being penalized takes a lot of attention to detail. Even if you have hired on a professional SEO firm, you should be mindful of the problems that can arise from a simple mistake. Below are several things to look out for on your site.

Duplicate Pages

This is a common problem, and a problem that can be difficult to avoid, especially if you have a large website. Duplicate pages are pages that have essentially the same content; it is an old trick employed by search engine spammers. Search engine spammers would use the same page over and over again, but change keywords at the bottom of the page to create some variance and to focus in on different niches.

Accidentally recreating this sp@m technique can be very easy to do. Below are a few ways in which you could have duplicate pages without even knowing about it:
If you use different landing pages in your advertising campaigns to measure ad effectiveness, you are essentially building duplicate pages. If Google discovers these different landing pages, they may think that you are using duplicate content.

Sites that offer the ability to print pages often create two pages that have essentially the same content.
Using mod_rewrite to create search engine friendly URL's can create duplicate pages. When you use mod_rewrite the server will serve up the same page regardless of whether you use the search engine friendly url or the regular url.
These are just a few examples of how duplicate pages can creep into your website. You should look for more ways that duplicate pages could have creeped into your website.
If you find that you do have duplicate pages within your website, you should use the robots.txt file to exclude the duplicate pages.

Redirecting Users

Another favorite technique of search engine spammers is to use redirects to create doorway pages (otherwise known as cloaking). The idea hëre is to present one page to a search engine spider that is optimized for the search engine and present an entirely different page to the user. Search engine spammers use all different types of redirects, from complicated javascrïpt redirects to simple http-refresh commands.

There are many valid reasons to redirect users on your website to a different page. Whether you are changing the name of your website or changing the structure, your website pages may not always be in the same place and you nevër want to löse a visitor to an ugly 404 page (even Google does not like 404 pages).

Google does recognize that you may need to throw in a redirection from time to time. If you need to do so, you should use a 301 redirect. There are several ways to employ a 301 permanent redirect. Below are two examples:
Example 1 - Using mod_rewrite
Options +FollowSymLinksRewriteEngine onRewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yourdomain\.comRewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourdomain.com/$1 [R=permanent,L]
Save this in a file called .htaccess and upload it to your server.
Example 2 - Using an Apache Redirect
Redirect 301 / http://www.yourdomain.com/
Save this in a file called .htaccess and upload it to your server.

Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is the oldest search engine spamming technique known. All this entails is using your targeted keywords over and over and over again on your website. Keyword stuffing can happen throughout the content of your website, in hidden text, in the alt property of your images, in the meta tags of your website, in HTML comments, or a variety of other ways. To see an example of keyword stuffing, take a look at this thread over in our SEO Tips and Tricks portion of our forums.

The example above is an exaggerated example of keyword stuffing, but it happens a lot with website owners. The desire to rank high in the search engines often leads a person to put their keywords in their site much more often than they would do so normally. As a general rule, if the text on your page appears unnatural to you, it will appear unnatural to the search engines.

Be Vigilant and Be Natural

So far Google has done a decent job of keeping sp@m out of their index. It still finds its way into their results, especially for less competitive keywords, but when Google does find sp@m they tend to develop new methods to detect that sp@m and remove it from their index. Unfortunately they will inevitably affect website owners who really do not know that they are doing something wrong.

Google has taken a very positive step in starting their pilot program aimed at notifying website owners who may be innocently doing something wrong, but the responsibility ultimately will always reside with the website owner. If you are having troubles ranking well for your targeted keywords, take the time today to review your website. Ask yourself if you have duplicate pages, if you have any hidden text or are possibly stuffing keywords on your page. Do you have any redirects which could be misinterpreted? Take the time to re-read Google's webmaster info and familiarize yourself with it.

Getting to the top of Google is hard work, but it is well worth it when you reach the top.
About The AuthorDoes Google Penalize Innocent Websites was written by Mark Daoust

Hit The Bulls Eye With Your Advertising

2005-09-22T01:02:00.000-07:00

To help make your online business a successful venture you need to take advantage of targeted advertising as frequently as possible. Targeted advertising means that you are advertising primarily to those who may actually purchase your product or service. This means that instead of spending your advertising dollars on trying to reach everyone, you only reach those that may already be interested in what you have to offer.

One way to achieve targeted advertising is to use free reprint articles or custom written articles that will ultimately reach your targeted audience. There are numerous examples of targeted advertising. One example would be that children's toys are advertised on television during Saturday morning cartoon instead of during episodes of the People's Court or Judge Judy. You will also see ads targeted at men and women. For example, men's products are heavily advertised during sports shows such as football and NASCAR. Yet another example is that the Wall Street Journal carries different advertisements in it, than does the National Enquirer, because these two publications usually reach very different audiences. These are just some generalized examples of what is meant when I talk of targeted advertising.

Why have advertisers been doing this for years? Because it is shown to be effective and cost efficient. It would be silly to advertise children's toys during the overnight hours when most of the children are sleeping. It would also not make sense to advertise products targeted towards senior citizens during cartoons. Advertisers want to advertise to those who may actually have an interest in their product or service. Billboards have long shown to be very ineffective and expensive. A billboard advertises to everyone that drives by it instead of focusing on a target audience.

How does all this apply to your online business? You need to start hitting your targeted audience with your advertising. One easy, effective, and inexpensive method of doing this is through free reprint articles. Free reprint articles are articles that you write and then have distributed in ezines and newsletters. You write the article offering information that the reader will find useful or entertaining, and the hope is that the reader will then use the authors text box at the bottom of the article to visit your website. A distribution service can help you get one of these free reprint articles placed into dozens of ezines and newsletters if the article is well written. You will include a small text box at the bottom that offers information about yourself and a link back to your online business website. These free reprint articles will go out to all of these ezines and newsletters and the publisher of each of those will decide whether or not to use your article. This is where the targeted marketing comes into play. A publisher will determine if the article is relevant to his or her subscribers. If the publisher decides that it is relevant, the publisher will include it in their next publication. For example, lets say that your online business deals with pet care and you write an article about the best diet for a certain breed of pet. This will not be picked up by a computer technology publisher, but will be picked up by all of the publications that have to deal with pets and animals. This is a very easy way to reach your targeted audience. It is also relatively cheap considering that all you have to pay for is the distribution service if you write the article yourself. Some people do not feel comfortable with their own writing or simply do not have the time or energy to do the writing. If you are one of these people there are always ghostwriters for hire who will do the work for you. You can then publish this work as your own, with your information in the text box and the link back to your online business. Ghostwriters know that you will be placing your name or a pen name in the article as the author, and they agree to surrender to their client's any and all copyrights to the article. If you want to reach your targeted audience in an easy, inexpensive, and effective manner then consider the use of the free reprint articles to reach your potential customers. Whether you write the articles yourself or pay a ghostwriter it will be a worthwhile investment. Even paying a ghostwriter and the distribution service, you will still be getting more bang for your buck than if you were to simply place an ad that is targeted to everyone. Remember, these ezines and newsletters that carry your articles will be going to people who are already interested in the topic that you deal with. Get started today and watch the new customers roll in.

Trey Pennewell is a ghost writer at http://thePhantomWriters.com

Pull Visitors to Your Site Instead of Pushing them Away

2005-09-12T12:18:00.000-07:00

As the Internet continues to populate with websites trying to Generate Money, two drastically different forces have developed on how to advertise online - 'Push' and 'Pull.''Push' advertising involves the use of 'in-your-face' advertising tactics such as pop-up windows and direct email. 'Pull' advertising entails using search engines and posting articles that literally 'pull' interested consumers to a website on their own terms.

As web surfers revolt against pushy advertising, site owners who understand how to pull consumers to their sites will come out the long-term winners.

'Push' advertising tactics worked in the past because they had not reached a saturation point. Since not everyone used pop-up windows, a site owner could use them without fear of backlash.

Now it seems pop-up windows hit consumers from every angle and even multiple times from the same sites. The cycle of events with online advertising always unfolds the same way.

Someone finds something new that works and people immediately jump on the bandwagon. As a technique saturates the 'Net and loses effectiveness, instead of finding an alternative, site owners just do it more!

Result: instead of pop-up windows going away, many site owners just run more pop-up's - more often!

Well, if recent developments indicate anything, they show that consumers have said 'enough' to pushy advertising.

AOL, infamous for their pop-up ads, has agreed to cut down on the intrusions. Major ISP (Internet Service Provider) Earthlink even offers a 'pop-up killer' feature on their new service.

Almost all email programs come with filters to fight unsolicited email and many email add-on services have sprung up to help consumers eliminate the unsolicited offers for pornography, business opportunities, and promises of instant riches.

This 'anti-spam' sentiment has also caused an unintended consequence for legitimate marketers. Many major newsletters have found their emails blocked by spam filters intended to stop unsolicited email. Through no fault of their own, legitimate email marketers have found themselves casualties of the war on spam.

The future of the Internet lies in 'Pull' advertising driven by consumer wants and needs. The successful Internet companies of the future will invest in search engine promotion and in providing valuable, on-demand information consumers receive only when they ask for it and want it. When a web surfer goes to their favorite search engine and enters the keyword phrase 'MP3 Player' or 'tax advice' that means they are receptive to information on those subjects. If they read an article about using vitamins to improve health and click a link for more information, only then they will they be truly receptive to a marketing message about vitamins.

Consumers have taken back control of Internet! Not with laws or more regulations, but simply by flexing the muscles of their wallets. By pulling money away from advertisers who annoy them and putting it with those who meet their needs, the average web surfer has brought the Internet powers to their knees and will continue to reshape the Internet into an effective, consumer-driven communications vehicle.

Any site owner who wants to have a thriving online business and survive the next year had better take this fact to heart!

Build SEO Links & WebTraffïc With Good Content

2005-09-07T09:51:00.000-07:00

Many website owners and SEOs (search engine optimizers) believe that trading links is the most effective way to build the hundreds of links necessary for good search-engine ranking. But there's another way to build links that deserves your attention: content distribution.

A time-honored way of getting one-way inbound links to your website is to distribute content, usually articles, for other websites to publish in exchange for a backlink. Most often, the backlink is included in an "author's resource box," which is a brief "about the author" paragraph promoting the author's site.

Content distribution has usually been thought of as a website promotion strategy rather than an SEO or link-building strategy. But there are good reasons for adding content distribution to your SEO toolkit.

SEO Benefits of Distributing Content vs. Reciprocal Linking Alone

Links come faster.
You send an email with your article to a relevant website owner. That's it. No adding links to your site and then checking and re-checking for compliance. That means you can get more links from the time and resources you spend on link-building.
Links are not always available through reciprocal linking. Many website owners simply refuse to do reciprocal linking. Content distribution is one way to reach this large segment of website owners.

Links are one-way.
Many SEO experts believe that reciprocal links may be "dampened" by the search engines; i.e., they will not help you rank as high as one-way links. Of course, reciprocal links are still valuable, there's a just a question of how valuable they really are.

Links per page are fewer.
Many SEO experts believe that the higher the number of links per page, the less SEO value each link has. When a website publishes an article, the author's backlink is often the only live link to another website on that page.

Distinct Non-SEO Benefits of Distributing Content
What makes content distribution a truly special method of link building is that it's the only method where the non-SEO benefits may even outweigh the SEO benefits:

Website building.
If you create special content for your link-building campaign, you can publish it on your site. As a general rule, the more content your site has, the more search engine traffïc it will receive. Just publish the article and get it indexed in search engines before distributing it, which should help you to outrank your republishers in search engines for that same content.

Traffïc generation.
The links in distributed content generate traffïc in the förm of highly qualified leads: people who liked what you had to say. Distributing content gets you traffïc even when it doesn't get you a link. If your article gets picked up by a large-circulation email newsletter, you will get a flood of highly qualified traffïc.

Authority.
Distributing content is the only linking campaign method that can make the recipient website and its owners appear authoritative. There are thousands of internet gurus who owe their lucrative reputations entirely to the articles they've distributed.

Mindshare.
Distributing articles is the only linking campaign method that can help you spread an idea. This makes article distribution invaluable for launching new products or services.

Drawbacks of Content Distribution
Of course, nothing good ever came easy. Any website owners who are looking for SEO magic beans will be disappointed by content distribution:

Desired anchor text is not always available.
Unfortunately, the content management systems most widely in place today make it easier for website owners to accept content as text rather than HTML. This means that many website owners simply have their content management system convert a URL into a live link, rather than taking the time to code in the anchor text. Still, an experienced content distributor can usually find ways around this problem to make sure that many if not most of the links use anchor text.

Results are variable.
Content distribution is not quite as sure a thing as reciprocal linking. The site that publishes your article has to like not only your site, but also your article. This is especially true for the passively-generated links that come from content clearinghouse websites. But results can vary the other way, too: an article that catches on will yield more links than you ever could have gotten through the same investmënt in reciprocal linking. In order to minimize the risk of content not catching on with website owners, you should make sure your content is high-quality, and also plan for a large content distribution campaign: the more content you try, the more likely you are to find a wïnner.

Requires significant investmënt.
You need high-quality content, expertise in content distribution, and quite a few work-hours to distribute the content and track the results. Of course, the cost has to be weighed against the cost of reciprocal linking, which is also significant. These costs can be mitigated by outsourcing the entire process from soup to nuts to a content distribution specialist. Costs of outsourcing content distribution compare favorably with costs of outsourcing reciprocal link building.

Requires special expertise.
There are numerous newbie pitfalls to distributing content, from improperly formatting articles to writing a bad introductory email to accompany content submissions. You generally have to have done numerous campaigns to truly get the feel for it. Again, this requirement has to be weighed against the real-world requirement of special expertise in other link campaign methods. Again, this drawback can be mitigated by outsourcing your project to a specialist.

In short, there are benefits to both reciprocal linking and content distribution. All things being equal, you should use both. Still, content distribution is the only one method that carries substantial non-SEO benefits as well. Plus, a professionally managed content distribution campaign may even yield greater SEO results than reciprocal linking would for the same investmënt.

Is It Possible To Make A Living Being An Affiliate Marketer?

2005-09-05T01:25:00.000-07:00

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to earn money online. This internet business involves a revenue partnership between a web merchant and one or more affiliates, whereby the publisher or affiliate gets a commission for referring clicks, lead or sales to the merchant’s website. Once you are an affiliate marketer, then you are in business.

And you should take it seriously, like what successful entrepreneurs did for their business. But there’s one question that usually bothers an affiliate marketer wannabe: Is it possible to make a living being an affiliate marketer? The answer is YES! It can even bring you to the elite level or super affiliate stardom if you really focus and work hard on it.

An affiliate marketer is a website owner that is usually engaged in promoting one or more merchants and their affiliate programs. As mentioned, an affiliate marketer receives a commission every time his/her site visitor clicks the merchant’s site, sign-up, or buy the product or service offered by the web merchant. Most often, affiliate programs give a commission per sale. This affiliate commission can be a fixed dollar amount or a fixed percentage. Commission payment based on a fixed percentage level per sale can be more gratifying for the affiliate marketer if he/she is promoting and reselling high priced merchandise.

Affiliate marketing can provide a full-time profit for the affiliate marketers and it is among the few work from home opportunities that is fully automated. In other words, affiliate marketing makes you enjoy the flexibility of working for yourself and a choice to enjoy your life while making an income. The work of an affiliate marketer is uncomplicated – you just have to refer people to someone else’s offer or you simply just need to promote the products and services offered in your merchant’s web site. If the merchant gain a profit from that customer, then a portion of that profit will be given to you as a commission.

But you should remember that aiming for successful online business like this one is not an easy task to accomplish. And it can’t be achieved overnight. If you want to make a living being an affiliate marketer, you need to find out and embrace some tactics and put everything in their respective place. It requires hefty time commitment and of course, blood and sweat. There are three important traits that you need to develop if you want to do well in this field, these are patience, persistence and thirst for knowledge.

Since it is your role to introduce possible buyer to the seller, you need to be equipped with some strategies and be engaged in some activities that will surely increase you affiliate commission. Join in chat rooms that are related to the product and services you are promoting. Make a free ebook containing advertisements and link of your affiliate website.

You can also start your own affiliate program directory and you can make your own affiliate program ads. Using a testimonial and personal endorsement ad can also help. Try to use a signature file in advertising the product you are promoting. Involve yourself in a web ring and join on web discussion board. Moreover, you can create your own private website and use it as a free bonus for those who purchase the product or service that you are promoting.

These are only few ways that will help you enhance your money making experience in the internet. You still need to know more tactics if you want to make a living being an affiliate marketer. Don’t forget that you have to be a great email marketer for you to promote your merchant’s goods and services. In fact, some successful affiliate marketers resort to bulk email marketing or they may employ email marketing software that can even lead to spamming.

Make a newsletter or free ezine and use it to advertise the affiliate program you are promoting. Super affiliates do this; they send this newsletters and ezines to customers with or without their approval. Aside from email and newsletter marketing, you also need to be good in search engine optimization and in link exchanges. The latter take the most important part in assuring that your website ranks well in search engines.

Equipped with expertise and necessary traits, you are more likely to generate more income from your website. Bear in mind that in affiliate marketing, you can gain income without a limit. Though not all affiliate marketers earns a big profit, still, it proves to be correct that you can make as much or as little as you want. So, who said that you can’t make a living being an affiliate marketer?

SEO According to Google's Webmaster Guidelines

2005-09-05T01:09:00.000-07:00

Every SEO expert has their own set of rules as to how they believe Google ranks websites. Most of the time, these rules tend to vary slightly from one another. But what does Google tell us? Fortunately they gave us all the guidelines we need. Google Guidlines.

Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.

Your website's navigation is the foundation of your entire website. It binds all the pages together into a common theme and provides a clear vision to your website visitors.

Clear navigation is extremely important for search engine spiders. Spiders want to find as many pages on your website as possible. However, if your navigation is confusing, or worse, incomplete, search engine spiders will not discover your entire website.

It is also important to remember that search engines learn what a page is about partially by the text used to link to that page. In this regard, the anchor text you use in your navigation can help you rank better for your targetted keywords. This is why Google also heavily recommends that you use text links on your website.

Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages

Having a sitemap is crucially important. When a spider visits your website one of the first things it will look for is a file called sitemap. Search engine spiders have millions of pages to visit in a very short amount of time, they want to work as effeciently as possible. A sitemap will allow the spider to know what pages are most important to your visitors, and therefore, the most important to the search engines.

Even if you don't have a sitemap you can still get your pages indexed by Google if you have a solid navigation system. Placing a sitemap on your website will simply make life easier on the spider, which is something you should strive for.

Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.

You've certainly heard everyone talk about how content is king. It is important to note, however, that not just any content is king...unique content is king.

Undoubtedly you have heard experts touting hundreds of sources for free content, from RSS to free reprint articles. Although RSS and free reprint articles can be very useful for your website, nothing will ever replace content that is developed by yourself or your company.

It is said that nearly half of all searches performed on a daily basis include combination of words that have never been searched on before. If users are searching using unique combinations of words, what are the search engines looking for?

Of course, RSS and free reprint articles are useful, especially if the information in the articles or feed is pertinent to the subject matter of your website. You should not be afraid to use free reprint articles or RSS feeds (in fact you probably should us them), but you should also be sure to have a significant amount of unique content on your site as well.

Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn't recognize text contained in images.

This is an extremely important point that many, many website owners tend to ignore. They miss great opportunities to place heavy hitting keywords in great spots within their website. Instead, they place an image in that spot solely for the purpose of appearance.

Fortunately the web and most browsers have adapted CSS. With CSS you can format the style of your links and present important text in a stylish manner. Using CSS you can also present an image to your visitors while keeping important text in your code for the search engines.

The general concept is one that is being used more and more in well-designed websites. Search engines read HTML code. When they read this HTML code they will see the text inside of the <h1> tags and realize that these are important words for this site. Visitors will just see the background image, which should be your logo.

This is just one way CSS can be used to keep your site looking nice while providing the search engines a powerful, well laid-out map of what keywords are important for your webiste.

Make sure that your TITLE and ALT tags are descriptive and accurate.

The title tag is the single most important part of SEO that you can optimize. The title tag is included in the head portion of every HTML page. The tag is intended to tell your visitors and the search engine what the subject of that specific page is.

Many website owners make a number of mistakes with their title tag. Many times they'll stuff the title with a list of keywords. Other times they will not change the title from page to page. All of these things will hurt your rankings and drive the search engines away from your website.

A good title tag should be relatively short and highly descriptive. It should contain your most important keywords for that page, and it should make sense to a human reader.

When chosing your alt tags you should try to be descriptive and brief of the image. Alt tags are not an opportunity to stuff your page with your targeted keywords. Search engines are smart enough to know when a website owner is trying to take advantage of image alt tags.

Of course, using CSS, it is possible to design a good looking website without using any images.

Check for broken links and correct HTML.

This is a simple step to take, and extremely important. This goes back to the concept that we want to make life easier on the search engine spiders. If a spider comes across a website with broken links it may think that your website is incomplete. Worse yet, it may consider your website not worth visiting as it wastes the spider's time.

Fortunately there are several link checkers available. You can use the Site Reference site link checker.

Correct HTML can be a little more difficult, especially if you use an HTML editor such as FrontPage and do not know HTML. As the owner of a website, however, you should take the time and effort to make sure the site is written in valid HTML. This will make it easier for a spider to find out what your site is really about.

To validate your website, visit the World Wide Web Consortium's HTML Validator. If you have any mistakes in your HTML, the validator will tell you what they are and what you need to do to correct them.

If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a '?' character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few.

The larger a website gets, the greater the need for it to get some sort of content management system. If you own a shopping based website or a content based website that generates its pages dynamically, you should be aware of the implications to the search engines. Dynamic websites often employ the use of query strings. Below is an example of a query string:

http://www.somesite.com/index.php?query_string=this-is-the-query-string

Query strings can employ a wide range of characters which make it difficult for search engines to spider your website. They are able to spider sites with simple query strings, however, it is generally not a good idea to do so.

You can easily change your website URL's to be search friendly by using a tool called Apache Mod_Rewrite. Using Mod_Rewrite you can turn a URL from looking like this:

http://www.somesite.com/index.php?query_string=2932&name=some+name

to this:

http://www.somesite.com/2932/some-name.html

Increase PR By Getting External Links

2005-08-30T22:56:00.000-07:00

Getting links from other websites pointing to your site can sometimes seem very hard and time consuming. There are several ways to get people interested in your site, you've just got to be creative with it and think more in terms of putting yourself in the other webmaster's shoes- figure out what the advantages are for them to be linked to you!

One thing that you often hear is that to attain a high Page Rank thru Google, that you have to link to other high PR sites. This is not necessarily true. No one is 100% on the relevance of PR rank affecting a link exchange.

Link to as many non-link farm sites that are similar to your site as you possibly can, because the more inbound links pointing to your site that you have, the more search engines will look at your site as an important site in the business or opportunity that you are promoting or selling.

So don't look down on sites that have a low PR, everyone at one point or another has a zero PR, doesn't mean that they don't get traffic, you just never know. Just because someone has a low PR doesn't mean that they don't get monster traffic to their site, whether it's through pay-per-click advertising, or other means, so no one should turn their nose up at anyone who doesn't have a great PR.

If you are a new webmaster and have just started a new website, sell the fact that you're new, and that you're going to be focusing on putting quality CONTENT on your site.

Because, a Number 1 as far as Google is concerned is to have relevant content on your site relating to your business or opportunities. Making a business grow and succeed is based solely on the ability of a webmaster to make his/or her site relevant to search engine spiders, whom look every day for great content.

Another idea is to promote what you are advertising to a webmaster, showing that the product/or opportunity is viable and is something that makes your website worth linking to. Either by having testimonials, or by having them sign up as an affiliate to see results for themselves, showing how much you believe in your opportunity might show a webmaster that you are committed to making your site everything it can possibly be, and thus, possibly giving their website more exposure.

Even with the hassles that go along with linking to other sites it really is a great way to show that your site does have importance. Being partners through links with others in your online business makes for long lasting business relationships, and support for others that are getting started.

There's room for everyone to succeed online, and helping others along the way is as important to the growth of online business as anything else.

Easy Selling with Persuasive Ads

2005-08-26T00:36:00.000-07:00

The first impression that the people get from your ad decides if they click or skip. This shows that writing really persuasive ads is not easy. Writing irresistible internet ads needs some skills. You can acquire these skills, if you follow some rules.

Simplify Your Message

Focus on your customers need! What are they looking for? What is special on your website for your customers? Write a simple language with common words. Use verbs more often than nouns. Using verbs makes your texts dynamic. Propagate a positive message and avoid hype.

Follow these Pointers -

Attention:

Your ad needs to catch the attention of the audience. The title has to be determined with caution. Look at the title of this article as example. Why have you clicked to view this article? Does it exactly offer what your are looking for? Your ad title has to meet the people’s need. You can use a question to awake the curiosity of the audience. You can use Overture and Google Adwords in order to find out popular phrases for your ad title.

Interest:

Your ad text should be convincing. You praise your produce or your website. Why should the people use your produce? What is special? How does your offer differ from others? What is your USP = Unique Selling Proposition? You may describe your produce with strong words, e.g. amazing, ultimate, superior, incredible, guaranteed.

Decision:

The audience has to be lead to a decision. Some advertisers give the impression of urgency. Here are some examples: “Join today and get a free ebook.” “Sign up and receive a bonus.” “Be among the first 500 to join.” “Limited time offer!” All these kind of phrases try to persuade the customers to make up their minds.

Action:

Every ad has to call for action. The people should know what to do. Following phrases might help: join now – sign up today – click to view – visit the homepage – etc. It is recommendable to address the audience directly with “you”. This makes the readers feel that the message is written to them.

Repeat And Repeat

The people usually do not join or buy if they see your ad the first time. Your ad has to be displayed again and again. Some people visit your website several times, study your offers and deliberate before they decide. Look at TV advertisements! Even the famous brands with great marketing budgets have to repeat their ads again and again. The people have to get familiar with your ad, they need to gain confidence. Do not forget: Your ad text should be credible.

Better Business with Podcasting

2005-08-26T00:17:00.000-07:00

The phenomenon of Podcasting has been getting a lot of press, lately. It seems everytime you turn around, someone else has a new podcast. Should you have one, too? Perhaps. According to Forrester Research, by 2010 podcasting may have as many as 12.3 million listeners. Somebody's got to create content for all those listeners -- maybe you're one of the "somebody's".

Now, you may think Forrester's numbers are about entertainment podcasts -- music, talk, and other audio distractions. What's the point of *your* business getting into *that* business? Actually, podcasting offers you the opportunïty to do more than entertain. And it's a lot more powerful than a simple personal online broadcasting platform.

When properly used, podcasting can -- and will -- take prospect contact and customer care to a whole new level... with the sound of the human voice, not just the code from a keyboard. Podcasting lets you put a human touch on your customer contacts -- and it's delivered to your subscribers' computer for you.

10 Ways Podcasting Can Help You Do Business Better

1) Reach exactly the people who ask you to

When someone subscribes to your podcast, it means they are genuinely interested in what you have to offer. They're not a "cold call" -- they're an interested prospect (or an existing customer) who has taken the time to subscribe to your podcast with the expectation that they will hear from you regularly. This model is quite different from the e-mail model, where people often opt-ïn with their e-mail as a reflex, and then don't bother to read the messages they receive. It's also a complete departure from direct mail, where recipients are often "hapless victims" who resent the intrusion of too many unsolïcited messages.

2) Bypass the restrictions of e-mail communications - you won't get blocked by sp@m filters

One of the (many) beauties of podcasting, is that it's a great way to communicate with a receptive audience without being blocked by sp@m filters, or getting lost in an in-box. Podcast clients (or "podcatchers") can automatically pick up the latest and greatest podcast you have available, without subjecting it to a filter. iTunes does have restrictions on "explicit" content, but if you're using podcasting for business purposes, this is a non-issue. Your message will get through to people who want to hear it.

3) Tailor your message to literally speak to your prospects, for a more personal touch

The human voice is far more expressive, than an e-mail or a web page. Podcasting lets you connect with people and communicate with much more than words. Intonation, inflection, emotion, all carry on the human voice -- they get through to your audience on your podcast in ways that the written word can't.

4) Give your customers, or another target group, a personalized message they can listen to *anytime*

Another great thing about podcasting, is that your audience can listen to your audio anytime, when they use an mp3 player, like an iPod. They can also download your podcast to their computer and listen there, or burn it to a CD and take it with them. Your message gets to them on their terms, in their time, in the way they want it. Podcasting really is Personal-On-Demand-Casting. It's not just about iPods.

5) Reach your customers in a variety of ways

Podcasting isn't just only about audio, either. With your podcasts, you can include text messages that your audience reads in their podcatcher. Include website urls in your podcast, or add last-minute information they may find useful. Podcasting gives you the best of both worlds in a very small package.

6) Find out what your audience's degree of interest *really* is, with stats reporting

When you send out an e-mail or a direct mail piece, it's impossible to tell if people received it, if they read it, and how they responded to it. With podcasting, you can measure the statistics of your subscriptions and find out how many people each month are picking up your podcasts and downloading your audio. If they keep picking up your podcasts, you know you're doing something right.

7) Get real-time metrics on who's bailing on you

You can also find out if people are unsubscribing to your feeds. If your numbers go down from week to week or month to month, something may need to change. You can find this out immediately with podcasting, whereas e-mail and direct mail responses may take much longer to analyze.

8) Keep in closer touch with groups

Podcasting doesn't only have to be for businesses. Social groups can also use it, for re-broadcasting important meetings, or sending out messages to members who need to keep in touch. Recordings of training sessions and workshops can be put into mp3 and distributed via podcast, as can motivational talks. Anything a group experiences 'out loud' can be recorded and placed in a podcast, for all the members to subscribe to and enjoy later at their convenience.

9) Technology does the work for you

Because podcatchers automatically pick up the latest file(s), you don't have to notify people that the audio is available by conventional means -- including e-mail. As long as you update your feeds regularly, and your audience checks their podcatchers regularly, they will get the latest and greatest audio you have, without having to search for it.

10) A potentially huge audience is ready and waiting

Podcasting is big, because there's such a huge audience for it. iPods sell like hotcakes, and they're given away as premiums by many businesses. Gear is amply available for playing mp3s in the car, during exercise, on home stereo systems, and of course, on computers. People download podcasts, they're familiar with the concept - and downloading commercial podcasts from businesses they value and want to patronize is the next logical development in podcasting. When done properly, business podcasting can be fun, entertaining, and a valued service for valuable customers. The only barrier to putting it to good use, is the limits of human imagination.

In sum, podcasting may very well revolutionize the music broadcasting industry, but the *real* power lies in how it will impact the small and medium-sized business community. Whether you own a business yourself, or patronize those who do, there's tremendous potential for podcasting to deepen and enrich customer experience, as well as the ability of businesses to serve their valued clientele.

So, chëck out podcasting as a whole new way to reach the kind of people who want you to reach them. What you don't know about podcasting won't hurt you... but it won't help you, either.

TRAFFIC GENERATION - One Skill That Will Generate Cash Flow

2005-08-22T01:03:00.000-07:00

You've got dozens of gurus vying for your attention and every one of them has the solution to all of your problems. Right? The proliferation of messages that promise a traffic explosion using new techniques can become overwhelming.

If you will focus your energy on a very short list of traffic generation strategies that actually DO work, and commit to continually improving your skills in these few areas, you will be amazed at what you can achieve... WILL achieve.

Websites come in a wide variety of flavors, including...
- Minisites designed to sell individual products
- Portal sites designed to sell a broad selection of products
- Content sites designed to provide information

Of the above site species (minisites, portal sites and content sites), which do you think has the best chance of selling a product and putting income in your bank account?

ANSWER: Minisites.

Let's talk about web traffic.

Imagine 5 different internet users going to Google, MSN, Yahoo or whatever their favorite search engine happenes to be, and each individual enters one of the following search queries:

Search #1: hazards
Search #2: household hazards
Search #3: chemical household hazards
Search #4: chemical household hazards for infants
Search #5: protecting infants from chemical household hazards

If you had a website that sold a device that guaranteed the safety of infants by locking cabinets containing hazardous household chemicals, which of the above visitors do you think would be most likely to buy what you're selling?

We want internet user #5 most. We may also want #3 and #4. Do we want #1 and #2? Maybe... Maybe not. The answer to that is going to depend on what it takes to get them to our site. But before we attempt to answer that question, HERE'S SOMETHING CRITICAL...

If you were assured that you could get visitor #5 to your website, where would you send them?

Let's say that your website had a variety of home safety products available. You sell everything from fire extinguishers to first aid kits to carbon monoxide detectors to child safe locks.

Your site's home page has just a little bit of information on each of your home safety product lines. Would you send visitor #5 to your home page?

Or...

Since visitor #5 just did a search for 'protecting infants from chemical household hazards', would you have better results by sending them directly and immediately to the web page where they can order your device that guarantees the safety of their child from chemical household hazards?

Most People prefer to go to the Home Page and check out your site so it is better to have you hoem page properly laid out with short snippets about your various products.

Alrighty then? Traffic time.

There are only 3 ways to get traffic to your website:
1) Buy it.
2) Borrow it.
3) Steal it.

Since #3 is not an option we're going to consider, that leaves us with 'buy it' and 'borrow it'.

Before we go any further, let's talk about the 'Holy Grail' of web traffic. What is it? FREE TRAFFIC! I want it. You want it. Every disillusioned internet marketer wants it.

Here's the truth...
It's a myth.
It doesn't exist.

There is no such thing as free website traffic.

What if you could be #1 in Google for 'Internet Marketing' or 'Website Tools'?'

If you were able to get there or anywhere close, what would be required? What investment in time and resources would be required to land a prized spot such as this? Would you be able to get there for free? Furthermore, how long would you stay there?

Let's face it, neither Google, Yahoo, Altavista nor MSN wants any individual to be able to control the results of their search engines. That's why they spend millions upon millions of dollars every year taking steps to ensure that nobody has the knowledge to control all of the top positions.

Is search engine positioning something to aspire to? Perhaps. Given time. But it will not put any money in your pocket in the short term. That's pretty well guaranteed.

There are only 2 ways to get traffic to your website:
1) Buy it.
2) Borrow it.

Buy it? Yes, buy it. We're not talking about fortunes changing hands. There's no need to take out a second or third mortgage on you home to use this strategy. Traffic can be generated to your site for literally pennies per visitor.

Where will you buy traffic to your website? PPC Search Engines. PPC ('Pay Per Click') search engines give you the best opportunity to find the most motivated buyers and get them to visit your website. This is what you should be considering for your primary method of generating traffic to your website.

Remember above where we considered searcher #1 - searcher #5? We want searcher number five on our website, right? Right. We can and will find searcher #5 on the PPC search engines if we take the right approach. Before we give your a list of PPC search engines to consider using, let's formulate a game plan.

Here's the basics of PPC advertising:

1) We have a product to sell.
2) We determine what the product has to offer and why someone might want to buy our product. (hint: focus on benefits, not features)
3) We do some keyword research to see if people are out there actually looking for the solution that our product offers.
4) Assuming that there's sufficient demand for our product /solution, we make a list of the keywords and keyword phrases that people are actually using to conduct their searches.
5) We write an ad for our product in such a way that it gets the attention of the searcher. This may mean changing ad copy slightly from one keyword phrase to the next. Try to put yourself in the position of the person doing the search.
6) We bid on the keywords that we're targeting with the ad that we've written and...

Wa-la! Traffic.

Is this a viable option? Absolutely. Google Adwords ads can be had for as little as $0.05 per click. Overture traffic can be had for as little as $0.10 per click.

If you're selling a product for $19.95, how many clicks can you buy and still be profitable? One sale out of 199 clicks and you're profitable. At this rate you only made a nickel, but that was at a conversion rate of only 0.5%! What if you had a conversion rate of 3%? 3% (3 visitors out of 100 become customers) doesn't sound like too much does it?

If you did indeed have a 3% conversion rate on a $19.95 product and were able to buy traffic for $0.10 per visitor, here's how the math works:

100 visitors cost you $10.00

3 visitors became customers and spent a total of $59.85.

Subtract your $10.00 advertising cost from your $59.85 revenue, and you have profited $49.85 (or somewhere close after PayPal or other selling fees).

So now, how much can you afford to spend on traffic?

If you've been running the above advertising campaign long enough to feel confident that a 3% conversion ratio is something that you can count on, then do the math backwards.

Your net profit is $49.85 for 100 visitors. Therefore, your 'per visitor' value is $0.50 (rounded up very slightly). Knowing this is a huge advantage.

Can you find more visitors to your site for $0.20, $0.30 or even $0.40? Of course you can, and it will still be profitable! Obviously, the less you spend on advertising, the more you keep. But if you could find a source of automatic traffic that you knew was profitable, wouldn't you buy as much as you could find?

This is exciting stuff! PPC traffic can work for you. Yes, there's a little bit of a learning curve, but that's true with anything new that you do.

Here's a list of PPC Search Engines that you should consider starting with:

Google AdWords
Overture
FindWhat
Enhance Interactive
GoClick
7Search
Kanoodle
ePilot
Search123
SearchFeed
eSpotting
Xuppa

Ezine advertising

Ezine advertising is very much a viable way to pay for traffic, but don't use it until you've formulated a profitable ad in the PPC search engines. It's important that you know you have a winning ad before spending money on ezine advertising. Use something that's proven to get results.

Ezine ads can be purchased at reasonable rates and the cost will vary from one ezine to another depending on the newsletter's circulation, track record of producing sales and the exposure that you'll get.

By exposure, what we are referring to is the type of ad that you buy. Your options typically include solo ads, top sponsor ads, middle sponsor ads, bottom sponsor ads and classified ads. A solo ad is sent in an email with no other distractions. You get all of the attention, and for this reason it's also the most expensive form of ezine advertising. Top sponsor ads allow you between 5 and 8 lines of copy and are included in regular ezine issues near the very beginning of the newsletter. Middle sponsor and bottom sponsor ads will be similar to top sponsor ads with the exception of the position within the newsletter. And lastly, classified ads are usually shown in groups near the end of a newsletter and are the lowest cost.

Do not to advertise in ezines that you haven't subscribed to. If you're considering advertising in any particular ezine, subscribe to it and read it for a few weeks before spending any money there. That way you'll be able to get a feel for the value of the content, the kind of reader that will be interested in the publication and whether or not the advertising opportunity is a good one.

Here are a few sites where you can begin researching ezines that accept advertising:

http://www.gothrive.com/directory-of-ezines-lifetime
http://emailuniverse.com/
http://www.ezineadvertising.com
http://www.ezinehub.com
http://www.ezine-marketing.com
http://www.ezinewizard.com

Borrowing Traffic.

There are 2 traffic borrowing strategies that we'll talk about here.
1) Search engines.
2) Writing and submitting articles.

There's no disguising the fact that the print books, ebooks and reports written on these two strategies number in the hundreds and even thousands.

However, they're both important and worthy of at least a primer. So, let's start with search engines.

If you want to make money with your website today, this week or this year, what is the absolute worst investment of your time?

Search engine optimization.

It's a fact for some of the reasons stated above and plenty of others. The mathematical (im)probabilities of achieving a top ranking for a search phrase that will result in meaningful traffic that includes buyers is… let's just say the odds aren't in your favor.

There are strategies that work with search engines to drive traffic to websites, but one thing they absolutely do not include is any attempt to optimize a sales page or for that matter an entire website that's designed to convert visitors into customers. The strategies that work with search engines offer them what they crave most, which is content.

The next big time waster that's closely related to search engine optimization is submitting your website to the search engines. If your site won't be listed in the top 2, 3 or 4 pages of a search engine, nobody's going to see it anyways. This debate rages back and forth even with SEO experts who make their full time living doing nothing but consulting on SEO. Submit? Don't submit?

Writing and Submitting Articles:

There are talented writers online who have not capitalized on their writing skills yet.

If you're in this group, you need to write and submit articles.

IF YOU'RE NOT IN THIS GROUP, you need to write and submit articles.

You see, nobody is out there grading you. Google does not moralize over your ability (or lack thereof) to write a coherent article. Google will, however, spider the links back to your IBSoftShop if you include it in your article's resource box. The more you do this, the better you'll get.

Writing and submitting articles is a long term approach to generating traffic that you should start right now. Set time aside weekly to consistently get your name and your site's URL out there in various article directories. Can you spare one hour a week? If yes, do this.

Here's a short list of activities and 'programs' that will consume your time with very little if any result:

- Start Page Networks
- Exit Traffic Exchanges
- Safelists
- FFA Pages
- Lurking in Forums

There are others too, but who really benefits from a start page network, exit traffic exchange, safelist or FFA page? The person who owns and runs it. They benefit because they get to market to you and you get to market to other people who want nothing other than free traffic. Remember free traffic? Forget it.

You could spend the next year whiling away the hours on free traffic schemes or you could find PPC traffic that will turn your $10 investment into $49.85 in profit and then duplicate this success 10 times, 50 times or 100 times. Which will you choose?

What is Robots.Txt and how to Implement it

2005-08-22T00:48:00.000-07:00

The robots.txt file is an exclusion standard required by all web crawlers/robots to tell them what files and directories that you want them to stay OUT of on your site. Not all crawlers/bots follow the exclusion standard and will continue crawling your site anyway ("Bad Bots"). We block them by IP exclusion.

This is a very simple overview of robots.txt basics for webmasters. For a complete and thorough lesson, visit Robotstxt.org.

To see the proper format for a somewhat standard robots.txt file look directly below. That file should be at the root of the domain because that is where the crawlers expect it to be, not in some secondary directory.

Below is the proper format for a robots.txt file ----->

User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /images/
Disallow: /group/

User-agent: msnbot
Crawl-delay: 10

User-agent: Teoma
Crawl-delay: 10

User-agent: Slurp
Crawl-delay: 10

User-agent: aipbot
Disallow: /

User-agent: BecomeBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: psbot
Disallow: /

--------> End of robots.txt file

This tiny text file is saved as a plain text document and ALWAYS with the name "robots.txt" in the root of your domain.

A quick review of the listed information from the robots.txt file above follows. The "User Agent: MSNbot" is from MSN, Slurp is from Yahoo and Teoma is from AskJeeves. The others listed are "Bad" bots that crawl very fast and to nobody's benefit but their own, so we ask them to stay out entirely. The * asterisk is a wild card that means "All" crawlers/spiders/bots should stay out of that group of files or directories listed.

The bots given the instruction "Disallow: /" means they should stay out entirely and those with "Crawl-delay: 10" are those that crawled our site too quickly and caused it to bog down and overuse the server resources. Google crawls more slowly than the others and doesn't require that instruction, so is not specifically listed in the above robots.txt file. Crawl-delay instruction is only needed on very large sites with hundreds or thousands of pages. The wildcard asterisk * applies to all crawlers, bots and spiders, including Googlebot.

Those we provided that "Crawl-delay: 10" instruction to were requesting as many as 7 pages every second and so we asked them to slow down. The number you see is seconds and you can change it to suit your server capacity, based on their crawling rate. Ten seconds between page requests is far more leisurely and stops them from asking for more pages than your server can dish up.

(You can discover how fast robots and spiders are crawling by looking at your raw server logs - which show pages requested by precise times to within a hundredth of a second - available from your web host or ask your web or IT person. Your server logs can be found in the root directory if you have server access, you can usually download compressed server log files by calendar day right off your server. You'll need a utility that can expand compressed files to open and read those plain text raw server log files.)

To see the contents of any robots.txt file just type robots.txt after any domain name. If they have that file up, you will see it displayed as a text file in your web browser. Click on the link below to see that file for Amazon.com

http://www.Amazon.com/robots.txt

You can see the contents of any website robots.txt file that way.

Most webmasters instruct the bots to stay out of "image" directories and the "cgi-bin" directory as well as any directories containing private or proprietary files intended only for users of an intranet or password protected sections of your site. Clearly, you should direct the bots to stay out of any private areas that you don't want indexed by the search engines.

The importance of robots.txt is rarely discussed by average webmasters. This should be standard knowledge by webmasters at substantial companies.

The search engine spiders really do want your guidance and this tiny text file is the best way to provide crawlers and bots a clear signpost to warn off trespassers and protect private property - and to warmly welcome invited guests, such as the big three search engines while asking them nicely to stay out of private areas.

Monitoring Site Visibility with SEO Tools

2005-08-15T02:27:00.000-07:00

Here you'll find many tools that any webmaster can use to monitor their site's search engine position, and use to increase the visibility of the site in major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

URL Trends

Most of the coverage seen focuses on the ability of UrlTrends to allow you to "View Any URLs Google PageRank, Alexa Rank, Popular Search Terms and Incoming Links".

And that's a great thing, to be able to see all of that from one place. But one great thing missed about this tool are that you can subscribe to changes to the results via RSS -hands off monitoring of your site.

Fagan Finder's URL Info

This online gadget gives you one-page access to dozens of pertinent check-ups. But monitoring relevant search engine information like your backlinks, or the cached pages in a search engine are just the tip of the iceberg.

You can use URL Info to chëck that your HTML code is validated, translate your page, and if you're a blogger, discover where your site is mentioned in the blogosphere.

Spannerwork's Spider Simulator

Ever wondered what your site looks like to the search engine spiders that crawl the web, looking for information to include in their databases? Go to this page to see what information is seen by the spider and what it skips over.

Spannerworks.com can also help you figure out how to troubleshoot content that seems like it should show up to a spider but doesn't, with its HTTP viewer. They also have a tool that will analyze your keyword density.

GoRank.com's Top Ten Comparison

If you've been banging your head against the wall in an attempt to figure out why you haven't hit the top ten results in Google, GoRank.com has a page that can give you important clues to help you figure it out. One of my favorites, the Top Ten comparison report, will scrub the raw data of the top ranking results for a given keyword.

In studying the results, you may find it easier to understand where your own optimization efforts are going wrong. Don't forget to stop by Google for your API key at http://www.google.com/api as you'll need it to create your frëe account.

Search Guild's Keyword Difficulty Checker

This one's an old favorite of mine. When you find what you may think is an ideal keyword, before you start tweaking your pages, it's a good idea to run it through this tester. Using the Google API, it analyzes whether or not a given phrase will be worth your efforts.

You'll already have to be well-versed in how to find good keywords to plug into the tool, but once you have that nailed, it's pretty reliable in telling you whether it's worth your time to target that phrase. If you use flash on your site, chëck out the flash viewer on their utilities page as well.

The following tools are for monitoring your search results in the three major search engines. It isn't an all-inclusive list, but rather a highlight of some of the tools you can use.

Using Your Google Site Information Page

Open up your browser and go to Google's home page. Type in info:yoursitenameandsuffix. So if your site was dreammerchantsindia.com you'd type info:dreammerchantsindia.com. You can also use site:yoursitenameandsuffix to find out which pages have been indexed by Google's search engine spider.

This search will tell you pages that Google considers similar to yours. It will also show sites that it considered linked to you, and show sites that carry your full url, hyperlinked or not. It's not 100% accurate as far as telling you all the sites that are linked back to yours, but what you can learn from this is which backlinks matter.

From hëre you can also see the last day Google spidered your home page.

To see this in action, clïck on the first group of information links, "Show Google's cache of yoursitename.com" If you look next to the word "cached" on the first line, the date is expressed also.

Sometimes it seems that the cached time for yoursitename.com and www.yoursitename.com are different, so be sure and chëck both.

Finding Information About Your Site In Yahoo

This document will tell you how to find out what sites are linking to you, give you the results for how many pages of your site are in Yahoo, and more. Once you get to the results page, you'll be able to view your cached pages, etc.

Discovering Your Site's Status on MSN

As the page in the help section states, you can use site:www.yoursitehere.com to find out if a document at your site has been indexed. The results page will also give you the date of last caching.

Google Rankings

You'll need a frëe Google API key for this one, and this site has the direct link telling you where to get one. You'll have to enter this key in order to query the site for information on Google.

With Google Rankings, you'll be able to see where you rank within the top 40-1000 results in Google for a given keyword. It also displays results for MSN and Yahoo, with links to each search engine.

They also have some other tools that will track your keywords over time, as well as one they call the "Ultimate SEO Tool" that will measure your site's keyword density.

Google Backlinks Checker

LilEngine.com's Backlink Checker will measure the number of links you have pointing back to your site against competing sites. Handy if you just want a quick comparison of how many links you have versus others, though how much getting more links back will help varies, depending on other factors.

Yahoo Search Rankings

From the same folks who brought you Google Rankings, using Yahoo Search Rankings, you'll be able to see where you rank within the top 1000 results in Yahoo for a given keyword. If you just want to see your Yahoo rankings, it's quite helpful.

You can find more Yahoo tools that use the Yahoo Web API at their developer's site.

PodCasting - Everything You Need to Know to Get Started

2005-08-13T06:36:00.000-07:00

Everywhere you turn online these days you hear the word "podcast" or "podcasting." A Podcast is just an audio file that is syndicated via an RSS feed, that you download and listen to with your computer or a portable device such as an iPod.

What makes it different from an ordinary RSS feed is the audio component included in the "enclosure field." Think of it as a feed that talks to you.

Podcasting is increasing in popularity. According to Forrester Research, by 2010 podcasting should have about 12.3 million listeners. That's a pretty big audience.

Similar to a talk radio show, podcasts can also take the format of an interview. Topics range from business to hobbies; even rants and obsessions. Lengths vary, but a typical podcast will run anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, but we have seen some longer. So far, there are not many music podcasts due to the red tape and cost of music licensing; although musicians and/or small record labels bypass that issue by utilizing their own recordings.

Before you think you need some special device to listen to a podcast, let us assure you that you don't. Most RSS readers have the capability built in to play podcasts. Any software that can play a sound file can play a podcast. If you want to take them with you to listen to while on the road you'll want to invest in a portable MP3 device like an iPod.

Like other RSS feeds, you decide which ones you want to subscribe to and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Online business owners should think of podcasting as yet another avenue for promoting your products and services. Like an ezine or the RSS feeds you already use, it's a simple inexpensive method of syndicating your audio files online. It would appear that a podcast is a bit more personal. Instead of just reading, like an ezine, people can listen to the sound of your voice and make a more personal connection.

You may be wondering "How do I create a podcast?" Well, it's really pretty simple if you follow the easy steps below:

1) First you'll need to use software to record your own audio file. A good frëe one is Audacity which you can download at http://audacity.sourceforge.net. While there, you'll also need to download the Lame MP3 Encoder which allows MP3 exportation.

2) Once your audio is recorded you'll need to create an RSS feed file which is simply a special text file with an RSS extension that also includes a particular enclosure tag. For step by step directions on making a feed file see this site:

Make-RSS-Feeds.com

3) Once your audio and RSS files are completed you'll need to upload both of them to your server/website.

Additionally you can check out softwares that can generate the required code for you.

That's it. Remember, you can't get subscribers if people don't know about your feed, so make sure you add it in a prominent place of your site. You want to make it easy for them to subscribe and add your feed to their news reader.

Audio files are rather large and can take up a lot of space on your server, so make sure you won't run out of bandwidth. If you're tight on space you can always farm it out to a third party service such as http://www.PodLot.com . For only $5.00 they'll give you 150 MB of storage space with no bandwidth limitations. Your domain will look like this: mypodcast.podlot.com

If you think you're going to have a hit on your hands and want to try to generate cäsh from your podcast, chëck out PremiumPodcasting.com. They provide a system that allows you to charge for your shows and also include private access to them, track who is listening and more. You can try them out for a four day trïal for only one dollar.

Once your podcast is live you'll want to make sure you list it with the various directories that exist for just this purpose.

Remember, this is a great tool to add to your marketing mix and if you're a bit on the creative side this might be just the ticket. Have fun with it, experiment and you'll become an expert podcaster in no time.

Discover What You DIDN'T KNOW About Your Favorite Search Engine

2005-08-12T22:24:00.000-07:00

Less than seven years ago, a tiny company of 10 employees launched a web search engine. Today, that search engine attracts more than 81.9 million different visitors each month! Of course, the search engine We are talking about is none other than Google.com.

Visitors can access Google's web site in over 100 different languages (including Klingon, Pig Latin, and, a personal favorite, Elmer Fudd). Search results are generated from over eight billion indexed web pages and one billion images. And over 50% of the traffic to Google.com comes from outside the US.

Google has some impressive financial numbers, too. In mid-August 2004, they went public with their stock opening at $85; less than one year later, it is trading at just under $300 a share. They have been profitable month after month. In fact, in the first quarter of 2005, they made over $1 billion.

Quarterly profits are not what motivate Google, though. Google is very much focused on long-term development and will forego short term revenue for it. In fact, it's widely reported that when Google first launched one of their biggest search products, Google News, they forgot to put advertising on it! They were more focused on developing a high-quality product with the user's best interests in mind.

As you can imagine, it takes a lot more than 10 employees to hold down the Google fort these days. As of the end of 2004, Google employed over 3,000 people.

As the company has grown in numbers, it has also grown in scope. While Google is staying true to its philosophy of "doing one thing really, really well," it has expanded its reach in all kinds of different directions. If you haven't looked beyond the clean, simple interface of Google's main page, you are missing out on a LOT of great services and tools that can help you enhance your own business.

Google has a huge variety of services, tools, labs, and advertising avenues that every online entrepeneur should know about. Yet many people are unaware that Google is so much more than "just" a search engine. So let's look at some of the key resources you can use to benefit your online business.

Enhance your business with Google services

The six most well-known services Google offers are easily accessed from Google's main page. Beyond the main page, there is a wider world of Google services that are less familiar to most people. The "more" link on the main page will give you access to some of them; for others, you'll have to dig a bit deeper...

We'll take a look at the "big six" from the main page, explaining what they are and how you can use them in your business, and then point you towards a few of the other services your business can benefit from.

Web Search: (www.google.com) When people think of Google, web search is what comes to mind first. Google has harnessed the power of many computers to index eight billion web pages and then use a complex (and secret!) mathematical formula to determine the relevance or importance of each page. When you enter a "keyword" or search term into the search box, Google searches for web pages containing those words and lists the pages in order of importance.
As a web site owner, you need to make sure that your own web site is optimized with keywords, high-quality content, and inbound links so that Google ranks you above your competitors in search results.

Use Google search to monitor whether or not changes you make to your web site are helping you beat your competition to the top of the search results list! But don't expect changes to take effect immediately -- it may take days or even weeks for your changes to make a difference to your ranking.

Images: (http://images.google.com) Google caches over one billion images that are searched in exactly the same way web pages are. Typing your search term in the box and clicking on "Search Images" gives you thumbnails of images related to the keyword search term you used. Each of the thumbnail images is linked back to its original page, where you can view the larger size. This can save you tons of time in locating an image that suits your purpose, since you don't need to sort through the standard search results to find a web page that might contain the image you need.
(NOTE: Make sure the image is not protected by copyright before you download it. And, if one of YOUR images is protected and you prefer that it does not come up in Google's search results, you can request that it be removed at http://www.google.com/remove.html.)

Groups: (http://groups-beta.google.com) Within Google Groups, you can find communities of people discussing all kinds of different topics. Any member can join or start a group. This is a great way for you to discover what your potential customers are interested in.
If, for example, your products promote natural and holistic health, you might find some great ideas for new products and markets by reading messages posted in the Natural Health group. You'll read about problems people have, which might spark a great idea for a way that you can solve that problem with a product of your own. You can also get the word out about your products to the targeted audience in the group.

News: (http://news.google.com) Google News is a terrific way for you to stay on top of events. You can customize the news you get so that it comes from a specific region or source. You can also trace a particular story's history to see how it has developed over time. These can be really useful and time-saving ways to do research in your area. Rather than wading through oceans of news, tell Google to give you news on specific topics from your target area.
Unfortunately, unless you are a news organization yourself, you can't add your own news story as a way of marketing your product. Press releases don't show up on Google News either.

Froogle: (http://froogle.google.com) Froogle is a search engine that looks only for products that are for sale online. It helps buyers find a web site that sells the things they want to purchase. The search results are completely "organic"; in other words, online sellers can't "buy" a higher ranking in the search results by paying Google more money than a competitor.
If your web site isn't already listed in Froogle's search results, you'll want to make sure it gets listed because the people who search through Froogle are there to buy something! You can submit your site at https://www.google.com/froogle/merchants/welcome. You can then use Froogle's "Product Feed" to automatically update your listing every time you make a change to your site. You can -- and should -- submit your product feed regularly so that Froogle always has the most current information about the products you are selling.

Local: (http://local.google.com) Google Local is a quick way of limiting your search results to a specific region. When you click on the "Local" link on the Google main page, you get two search boxes labelled "What" and "Where." You can quickly and easily search for things like local suppliers and potential business contacts. In April of this year, Google integrated Local Search with Keyhole, a 3D mapping technology that gives a local business a "flag" on the map that accompanies search results.
The businesses that are included in search results are ones that are already indexed by Google or that exist in one of the databases that Google accesses, like YellowPages. If your business is not showing up in search results, you can submit it to Google here: https://www.google.com/local/add/login.

Now, let's move beyond Google's homepage to the wider world of Google tools and resources.

Gmail: (http://gmail.google.com) Gmail is Google's free web-based e-mail service. It offers 2GB of storage space and the ability to send image files up to 10MB in size, which is much more than any of the other free webmail services offer. Gmail also offers new ways of storing, organizing, and archiving e-mail files.
But the really unique thing about Gmail is that it "reads" each e-mail message it receives and matches ads to keywords it finds in the message. These ads are then displayed alongside the message. This is a great system for advertisers, of course, because their ads are being shown to a highly targeted group. Google's Privacy Policy and sensitivity filters assure Gmail users that their e-mail messages are secure and that the ads placed beside them will not be in poor taste. However, Google cannot guarantee that your competitors' ads won't show up on an e-mail you send to your customers.

Gmail is still in beta, though, and it is likely that the number of people on your e-mail list who use it is very small.

Maps: (http://local.google.com) As mentioned above, Google Maps works in tandem with Google Local, adding an interactive element to searches by location. You can toggle between street and satellite views of an area, and you can get directions simply by choosing "Directions" and typing an address in the search box.
Your customers will easily find your brick-and-mortar business or the directions to an event you're sponsoring with a link to your own Google map right on your web site. All you have to do is navigate within Google Maps to the view you want your customers to see and click "Link to This Page." You'll get a URL that you can add to your web site's HTML. You also have the option to embed the map itself on your site. To do this, you'll need to sign up first: http://www.google.com/apis/maps/. You can then add functionality and interest to the map on your site by overlaying information boxes and directional lines.

Zeitgeist: (www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html) Google Zeitgeist is a way of keeping on top of patterns, trends, and surprises in how people search on Google. It gives you a one-page snapshot of the top-ranked search terms over the past week and month, with links to the search results pages. "Zeitgeist Around the World" gives you similar tidbits organized by country.
If you are interested in tracking keyword use related to the hottest trends online, this is a useful page for you to bookmark. And there are archives that go back to January 2001, too!

PLUS MORE... (www.google.com/intl/en/options/) There are a lot more Google services to explore! Just for starters, have a look at Google Print to search the complete text of books, Google Mobile to search with your cell phone, and University Search to find links to the web sites of educational institutions.

Save time -- and money! -- with Google's free tools

In addition to its many valuable services, Google offers you several really useful --and free! -- tools. You might be using some of them already, but you might not have considered how to really make them work to enhance your business.

Toolbar: (http://toolbar.google.com) Google's free toolbar is a great way of adding functionality to your web browser. It can be a real time-saver as it spellchecks your URLs as you type them, autolinks addresses to maps, and jumps to searched words on a page. It also, of course, puts a handy Google search box right at your disposal, no matter where you are on the Web!

PageRank: If you're familiar with the Google Toolbar, then you know that PageRank is the green bar and number that give you an instant sense of a web site's importance (ranked from 0 to 10). Google determines the "importance" of your site by monitoring how many other sites link to you and how "important" they are. PageRank is just one of the indicators (along with relevant links and high-quality content) that Google uses to place your web pages in search results. By monitoring your PageRank -- and that of your competitors -- you can get a general sense of how well-optimized your pages are for search. PageRank can also indicate the quality of a site you're checking out as a potential link partner.

Blogger: (www.blogger.com) Google's free blogging tool is an excellent opportunity for you to develop a web presence with dynamic content and an RSS feed. The growing importance of RSS will change how new pages are optimized -- news goes out to readers rather than readers coming to look for news. According to a recent issue of Planet Ocean's "Search Engine Watch," in the not-so-distant future, it will become more important to have large numbers of sites pulling your RSS feed than it will to have a high rank in search results. Blogger is an easy way to get the jump on your competition!
Google, itself, uses Blogger for its own blogs -- have a look at

www.GoogleBlog.blogspot.com
www.AdWords.blogspot.com
www.buzz.blogspot.com
www.code.blogspot.com

Code: (http://code.google.com) If you're a bit of a techie, then you'll appreciate Google Code! This is a site that Google has for external developers who want to try their hand at improving Google's products. There are currently several projects that are being featured, all related to different aspects of projects that are actively being developed at Google. Google's engineers decide which ones to release as open source for public development and welcome knowledgeable input.

Desktop Search: (http://desktop.google.com/) Desktop Search is a free tool that you can use to search your own computer. You can locate files, previously visited web pages, e-mail, and more by installing Google's search bar on your desktop. If your business is growing and you want to be able to search several computers, you can use the free Enterprise edition of the Desktop Search box.

Google Earth: (http://earth.google.com) For pure fun, you HAVE to take a look at Google Earth. It lets you swoop around the Grand Canyon, zip over to your old neighborhood, and have a look at the area around that resort you booked online. You can zoom in and out and rotate the view. While you won't be able to see your dog wagging its tail in your backyard, it will give you a great sense of terrain, architecture, and landmarks.

PLUS MORE... (www.google.com/intl/en/options/) Google offers a number of other tools like Hello, which is an instant messaging system with images, and Translate, which lets you view web pages in other languages.
Get a jump on your competition in Google Labs

Google devotes about 70% of its efforts to developing its web search and targeted ads, which are the core of its business, and about 10% on developing products -- like Blogger -- that are fun, interesting, and useful, but only peripherally related to web search. The remaining 20% of their time and energy is where a lot of Google's most innovative development comes from. The company requires its engineers to spend one-fifth of their time developing their own projects -- things that interest them apart from their regular jobs -- and this has led to products like Google's desktop search engine, "search by location," and Gmail.

Unlike many companies, Google is not afraid to let people "look under its skirt." In other words, you can get a good idea of what Google is working on and what direction they might take with the services and tools they offer. Take a look at Google Labs (http://labs.google.com) for some current examples.

This is where Google showcases what its engineers have been up to in their "personal project" time. It is also where Google asks you for your input. You can try out tools while they are still in the development stage and give your feedback on how you think they could be improved or developed -- tools like...

Site Flavored Search Box: (www.google.com/services/siteflavored.html) You can put a Google search box on your web site that will tailor your visitors' searches according to a profile you have predefined. You provide Google with information about yourself, your business, etc., and when your visitors use the search box, Google flags certain results as likely to be more relevant. You have the ability to veto sites from being presented in the search results, too.

Personalized Search: (www.google.com/psearch) Personalized Search orders your search results based on what you have searched for before. This can be a real time-saver for a small business owner who is trying to do market research. You can store and retrieve previous searches, and as your search history grows, so will the efficiency of your searches.

PLUS MORE... (http://labs.google.com) Visit Google Labs to see what else is in the pipeline (or "recently graduated"). There is a ton of useful stuff, and by getting to know how Google plans to make things better for you -- and your customers -- tomorrow, you can be better prepared than your competition to take advantage of all of those tools and services.

Promote your business by advertising with Google

If you're not already advertising with Google, it's time to get cracking! Because of the massive number of visitors to Google each day, it is a HUGE source of potential traffic for you.

Web Search: Just showing up in your potential customers' search results is the easiest way to use Google for free advertising. You'll need to optimize your web site to achieve the highest ranking possible. You may already be aware that you need to spend some time getting the right keywords on your web site and increasing your "link popularity."
You might not have known that Google looks at the first block of text it encounters on your web page and uses that for the few lines displayed about your site on search result pages. So if you want to get listed and also catch the eye of your customers, make your first paragraph of text count: It should be roughly 300 words with about 8% of them being keywords to be most effective.

Sitemaps: (www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps) Google's spiders constantly index web pages, and it is impossible to predict accurately when they will visit your site. If you have paid attention to optimization for search, then they WILL crawl your pages. However, you cannot be sure that they have indexed ALL of your web pages -- they might index just part of your site on one visit. And since they start at the top of a page and work down, they might not even index the entire page before moving on!
One thing you can do to increase the likelihood of your entire site being searchable is to submit your site to Google Sitemaps. (There are several ways to do this; for an overview go to www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/overview.html.) When you do this, Google creates and stores an XML file that allows for instant updates and indexing whenever your site's content changes. This is like having your own data cable running from your computer directly to Google!

AdSense: (www.google.com/adsense) AdSense is one of the two kinds of advertising avenues Google offers. The ads generated through AdSense are third-party ads that sit on your web site. The program is free for you to use AND you make money each time someone clicks on an ad to move off of your web site. In other words, these ads entice your visitors away from your site (bad thing), but you are compensated each time that happens (good thing).
Google matches the ads to your site by finding similarities in the keywords of each. You can set a filter to prevent your competitors' ads from appearing on your web site, and you can customize the appearance of the ads so that their background color is the same as your site's, making them look more like informative content than sales pitches.

Try testing Google AdSense on your site to see if it negatively affects your traffic and sales. If it doesn't, then you've just found a new revenue stream! How much will you earn? That depends partly on how much the advertisers are paying Google for the keywords and partly on how many people click through the ads on your site. You could earn anywhere between $0.03 and $15.00 per click and up to several hundred dollars a day if you have a well-optimized site that draws lots of targeted traffic.

AdWords: (www.google.com/adwords) The second of Google's advertising opportunities is AdWords. These are ads that you create to promote your business and that Google places on other sites for you. There are three main places that you will see AdWord ads --

On the right side of the page next to Google's "organic" search results
On other sites as AdSense ads
Alongside your e-mail messages in Gmail

When you create your AdWord ads, you are in control of how much they cost. You decide how much you are willing to pay for specific keywords in your ads, and each time your ad is clicked you pay that amount. The amount ranges from a minimum of $0.05 to a maximum of $100, and you can set a daily budget that will not be exceeded.

Google uses the keywords you chose to place your ads on sites that have content relevant to yours, so you can be assured that the traffic you are paying for is highly targeted. AdWords reach 80% of Internet users AND you can define their target region and language. If you're wary about using AdWords because of the possibility of your ads appearing on sites that do not convert to sales for you, you can apply a "negative filter" when creating your ad to exclude specific sites.

As with AdSense ads, it's always a good idea to test whether your advertising investment is making money for you. If the click-through traffic is not converting to sales, if your traffic drops off, or if a particular keyword is not drawing the traffic -- and sales -- you had hoped for, it is time to rework your ads.

Monitor Google -- and your site's Google ranking -- with other tools

We shouldn't always take a company's word for it about when it comes to what they offer. It's always wise to get a second opinion or look to the experts to see what the buzz is about a company's products. Using Google is no different, and there are a large number of ways that you can discover who is saying what about Google's plans and products. There are also a lot of people who provide tools and services that supplement Google's, and these, too, are worth knowing about.

Let's look at a few examples...

GoogleAdvisor.org: (http://GoogleAdvisor.org) This is a blog that focuses on AdSense, AdWords, and PageRank strategies. For information, tips, tricks, and strategies related to Google, this site is a good first stop.

Check your Google rank: (www.GoogleRankings.com/ultimate_seo_tool.php) This site gives you a free tool for checking your keywords. You can enter your site's URL and get a report about your keyword density. You can then check how highly Google ranks your site for each of the keywords.

GoogleGuide.com: (www.GoogleGuide.com) This site offers guides for both novice and experienced users. Experienced users can find out about creating a web site, including tips on PageRank, getting listed, and advertising revenue.
In addition, don't forget to "google" for blogs, resources, and news about Google. That's always a sure way of coming up with great ideas!

Final thoughts

You know you've really made it when your company name is turned into a verb. "Let me google that" is part of our everyday speech -- and the verb "to google" has even been added to the Webster's dictionary! From tiny beginnings not that long ago, Google has had a huge impact, not only on how we search the Web, but also on how we talk about it. Google has become synonymous with online information.

And there is much more to Google! In fact, we're barely scratching the surface of some of Google's most recent advancements here -- not to mention the complexities of improving your ranking in Google's search results...

Above all, remember Google's philosophy: "Focus on the user, and all else will follow." Every step of your business should be about solving a problem for your customer. Google's services and tools will help you achieve that.

Content Distribution Linking For Newbies

2005-08-11T05:28:00.000-07:00

The new buzz on the internet is all about getting one-way links by distributing content to other sites in exchange for backlinks. As with every other SEO or website promotion technique ever devised, there are plenty of newbie myths about it that can ruin your chance for success before you even start.

Newbie Myth 1: The "Duplicate content penalty."

Some webmasters worry that if the content on their sites is suddenly on hundreds of other sites, search engines will inflict a "duplicate content penalty." Why is this concern unjustified?

If this were true, every major newspaper and news portal website would now be de-indexed from the search engines, since they all carry "duplicate content" from the news wires such as Reuters and the Associated Press.

Thousands of self-promoting internet gurus have proven that distributing content is an effective method of improving search engine rank.

Even more thousands of content websites have proven that republishing this content does not carry any search engine penalty.
True, the first website to publish an article often seems to be favored by search engines, ranking higher for the same content in searches than higher-PageRank pages with the same content. But the "duplicate" pages do show up in the search engine results, even if lower than the original site. Meanwhile, the reprint content has no effect on the ranking of a site's other pages.

The only duplicate content penalty is for duplication of content across pages of a single website. Meanwhile, there is a sort of "copyright theft" penalty, whereby someone who copies content without permission can be manually removed from search engine indexes out of respect for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. But that penalty is only for flagrant theft, not minor mistakes in attributing reprint content.

Myth 2: The goal is to get in article clearinghouse websites.

There are over 100 popular, high-traffic websites that act as clearinghouses for content made available for redistribution.

Many novice content-distributors are upset when the article clearinghouse websites, with tens of thousands of articles each with a backlink, pass negligible PageRank. But the point of distributing content to those websites is for other website owners to find your content and put it on their websites--not to get a backlink directly from the clearinghouse website (though this is sometimes an unexpected bonus).

Plus, to maximize PageRank-passing links, you also have to submit articles to website owners individually. It's not a small amount of work. But there's no substitute for a polite, individually crafted email recommending a website owner complement his or her existing articles with one you've written.

Myth 3: Any content will do.

Reality: It should be obvious that many website owners, jealous of their link popularity, will only republish exceptionally high - quality content. For articles, this means a unique point of view and solid information that cannot be found just anywhere, ideally presented in compelling language in a web-optimized format by a professional published writer. You can conduct a content distribution campaign with bad content, but you'll be handicapping yourself from the start.

Myth 4: Distributing content is easy. Just hit "send."

Reality: Content distribution campaign requires skillful planning to target publisher websites effectively.

This is essentially a four-step process.

1. You must identify the categories of websites most likely to republish your articles. These categories range from the very broad, such as internet, business, and family, and can go as narrow as family-friendly internet businesses.

It's a careful balance: you need to make your target category narrowly relevant to maximize the value of the link and your chances of getting your article accepted for publication. But if you target too narrow a category, you'll lower the maximum number of links you can hope to get.

For instance, a website on web content writing has to target its content distribution to more than just sites focusing on web content. There are only so many websites devoted to web content as a topic of interest, and besides, many such websites would be competitors. Distribution should target broadly relevant categories, such as web design, webmaster issues, writing, marketing, business, website promotion, and SEO. Yet some broadly related categories, such as internet or publishing, are not relevant enough to yield good results.

2. To maximize success, you must have articles custom-created for each major category you want to submit to. "Incorporating Content in Web Design" and "Marketing with Content" would be possible titles for a web content-writing website owner targeting web design and marketing websites, respectively. An article about web design won't appeal as strongly to marketers, or vice versa, so simply submitting to websites having to do with "the web" would not be as effective.

3. For maximum success, articles custom-written for a category often have to be refined for sub-categories. For instance, "Incorporating Content in Web Design" becomes "Incorporating Content into Flash Web Design," or "Incorporating Content into Accessible Web Design." Sometimes the refinement is just a "find and replace" of one keyword for another, sometimes just in the title. Sometimes, entire paragraphs have to be reworded or removed.

4. Once you've identified sub-categories of websites, you still have to be able to meet the requirements of individual websites. Some sites only publish articles up to 500 words, some only do how-to articles. Owners of high-ranking websites can afford to be choosey. To really maximize results within a sub-category, you need at least three different articles of varying lengths and focus specifically geared toward that sub-category.

In the end, distributing content for website promotion and inbound links is a marvelously effective way of promoting a website. But it's not magic beans. Like anything else having to do with achieving success on the web, it takes hard work and knowledge to be successful.

What is RSS - For Marketers

2005-08-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

RSS is a technology that has the potential of overcoming many of the internet marketing challenges we are facing today and becoming a preferred tool to get 100% of your content delivered to your subscribers, as well as a tool to help you achieve top position search engine rankings.

The simple RSS explanation from the marketing point of view is that RSS is a simple to use publishing tool for marketers and publisher. It allows you to get your content delivered to end-users, without the fear of spam filters stoping your messages, and to other 'content consumers' (other websites, search engines and so on).

RSS gets your content delivered, period. And it helps you increase your search engine rankings and drives new traffic to your sites.

But some marketers are still afraid that not enough internet users are using RSS feeds. Think again …

While achieving not more than marginal penetration, its usage is growing with astounding speed.

Actually, according to a report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 5% (6 million) Americans online consume news and information through RSS aggregators. So the market is already out there!

BUT WHAT ARE RSS FEEDS?

RSS content is delivered through RSS feeds --- simple files structured in a specific way.

These files include some basic information about the RSS feed (such as RSS feed title, logo, description, URL etc.) and the actual content you want to deliver to your readers.

These content items are individual stories or articles (usually just descriptions of articles actually published on the internet publisher’s web site), presented in a linear list.

But RSS is not only about text. You can easily use it to deliver audio content, video content and even PowerPoint presentations and PDF files.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO SUBSCRIBE TO RSS FEEDS?

The point of RSS feeds is to get people to subscribe to them, so that they can constantly receive fresh information from you.

It’s just like subscribing to e-mail newsletters, only that there’s no e-mail involved … and consequently no spam or spam filters.

But to subscribe to your RSS feeds, your visitors need a special tool, called an RSS aggregator.

RSS aggregators are special tools that can take an RSS feed and display it to the end-user. They come in many different forms and flavors, but the most popular are desktop applications and web readers.

In the case of desktop RSS aggregators, end-users need to download them to their computers and install them there. Web-based RSS aggregators on the other hand are websites where users can create their own accounts and then use those websites to view RSS content directly from their Web browsers.

After installing an RSS aggregator or registering at a web-based RSS aggregator web service, the user needs to proactively add the link to your RSS feed in to the aggregator to view your content.

Every time you update your RSS feed by adding new content items to the RSS file, the user is notified of that through his RSS aggregator, making the content immediately available to him, without it having to face any SPAM filters and other barricades on the way.

And, for the best part, most RSS aggregators are free to use, so there’s really no excuse to not get started today. And by the way – so are quite a few RSS publishing solutions!

Yes, RSS is the free way of getting your content delivered every time. Additionally you could check the following site for more In depth detail on RSS Feed - http://www.dreammerchantsindia.com/feed.asp

Affiliate Marketing Pros And Cons

2005-08-10T13:31:00.000-07:00

Want an online business with a win-win opportunity for both the merchant and the publisher? Try investing your money, time and effort in affiliate marketing business and be overwhelmed by the profit you’ll get out of it. It has been written in almost all articles about affiliate marketing that it is among the greatest ways to earn money online.

For those who didn’t know what it is, affiliate marketing is a cooperative effort between the merchants and online publishers or affiliates, whereby an affiliate is rewarded for every visitor or customer provided through his effort. The moment a customer is gained, a part of the profit from that customer will go to the affiliate as a commission. This compensation, otherwise known as affiliate commission may be based on a fixed value for each visit (pay-per-click), registration (pay-per-lead), or a commission for every purchaser (pay-per-sale).

This business has proven to be very beneficial. Among the advantages that you’ll enjoy from affiliate marketing business are you become your own boss, which means no one will dictate you when and what to do; it gives you income 24/7 regardless of your location and what you’re doing; you have the freedom to enjoy your life and flexibility of working for yourself; it can supplement your retirement; you can start even if all you have is a shoe string budget; you can live where you want and stay engage in this business; you can get as much or as little as you want; you can work for a very minimal time; you can work at home; you take a break or a vacation the moment you want it while continuously earning money; and a lot more pros.

However, nothing in this world is perfect is also true in online marketing business.

The Pros of Affiliate Marketing

The Merchant

Affiliate marketing offers the merchant a wider place to sell their product and services. More websites will naturally provide you more customers and will create more sales. This is particularly true if the sites that you have chosen are in their niche marketing.

The only thing that’s left for the merchant to do is to look for affiliate sites where your merchandise is a good fit and where your target customers usually visit. Another advantage that a merchant can get from affiliate marketing is that they can gain more and more customers without spending valuable time in searching out for them. The banner ads on your affiliate website might draw interest and drive the visitor to click on your website. Also, different consumers coming from various websites can provide the merchant a good idea regarding consumer trends and demands.

The Affiliate Marketer

This kind of business has proved to be an easy way to create additional income for their website. The marketing banners that they stuffed under content help in making their site look good. And these banners may create instant sales wherein, they can get a commission.

Above all, the affiliate can have extra income from his or her website without investing something in making his own product and without worrying about customer support, book keeping, and ecommerce. Here in affiliate marketing, the merchant handles it all. The affiliate just needs to promote and resell the product.

The Customers

The benefit that a customer could get out of affiliate marketing is obvious – they get an answer to their problem that they may not have found without the help of the affiliate’s website. That’s if, and only if the merchandise or service gives what it says it will.

That’s how advantageous affiliate marketing is. But lets be aware that this online business also have some disadvantages. Just like any other businesses, this one also involves shady and even illegal practices.

The Advertisers/Merchants

The merchant may suffer from high commission costs as well as costly set up and maintenance fees that are usually caused by lots of affiliate facilitators. And sometimes the affiliates engage in false advertising and misleading the customer in order to get commission. This means that some affiliates sometimes make claims and promises regarding the product and services which are completely wrong or they extremely exaggerate it. When this happen, the merchant usually suffers complaints and they definitely lose potential consumer.

The Publisher/Affiliates

Sometimes unscrupulous and dishonest merchants just close down programs without informing the affiliates. And worse, they leave without paying commissions. There are also some merchants who attract new affiliates by promising high commissions then after a week or two, they dramatically drop those commission rates. Aside from that, when hijackers interfere, affiliates typically don’t get just commission, it goes to the hijacker instead.

Moreover, the shady and illegal practices involved in this kind of business include false advertising, unlawful use of trade names, logos, or other branding, spamming and hijacking.

In spite of those disadvantages, affiliate marketing is still considered as one of the best ways to make money online. We just have to understand that in any thing that human do, especially if money is involved, there will always be cheaters and people who will be engaged in illegal means. And you shouldn’t be one of them. Keep in mind that it is always right and advisable to act ethically and legally; work hard to make your customers and business partners trust you and always see to it that you go beyond your customer’s expectations.

5 Strategies To Boost Your Affiliate Sales

2005-08-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

Are you promoting affiliate products?

The KEY to affiliate marketing is to take action!

1. STOP joining NEW affiliate programs

If you really want to generate more sales, then JOIN a reputable affiliate program and focus your marketing and promotion on a single affiliate product or service.

Unless you receive thousands of visitors a day to your affiliate links, there's no reason why you'd want to JOIN more affiliate programs.

Most do it because they think will make more money.

Others promote an affiliate product for a few days or weeks using weak advertising tactics, give up and then JOIN another 'HOT' program due to the fact the commission is a nice attraction.

That's the wrong way to play the affiliate marketing 'game'!

2. Register Your Own Domain Name
People purchase online from those they like and trust, so owning a domain name is the first STEP to building trust with your Web Site visitors.

Try to register a domain name related to the affiliate product you're promoting. If you promote mobile phones you can register newmobilephones.com.

Where to register domain names?

There are lots of places on the Web where you can register domains for less than $10 a year. Just do a search on 'register domain names' or 'domain name registration' on any search engine.

3. Build Your Own Web Site
You can build your own Web Site using html editors or hire others to build it for you. Just make sure you have a Web Site of your own where you can promote the product you're affiliated with; all TOP affiliate marketers own a Web Site.

If you don't know html, you can use TOOLS that help you create Web Sites by drag-and-drop (WYSIWYG editors).

Having your own Web Site is the second step to building trust with your Web Site visitors and a GREAT Way to boost your Affiliate Sales. The more CONTENT you add to your site, the more FREE targeted traffic you could attract from major search engines like Google.

4. Create Your Own Affiliate Promotion Materials
If you want to boost your Affiliate Sales you must do something different, you must stand out in the crowd.

There are other affiliates promoting the same product like you so you should think of ways to CREATE your own original affiliate promotion materials.

For example:
Create your own articles, ads, courses, ebooks, reports, etc.
Offer EXCLUSIVE Bonuses to any order that came from your affiliate link (e.g. a Special Report or ebook)

5. Get more quality TRAFFIC to your Site
You can't generate any Affiliate Sales if you receive ZERO traffic (visitors) to your Web Site.

You can generate ZERO Sales if you receive lots of untargeted visitors (people not interested in your affiliate product or Web Site).

Want more Affiliate Sales? Get more quality TRAFFIC... visitors that are 100% interested in your Web Site content/affiliate product.

Here's how to GET more quality TRAFFIC:
- register a domain name that is a perfect match for the affiliate product you're promoting;
- use a SIG file (a 3-line text description of your Web Site plus your domain name url) to all posts (answers/questions) in some popular online forums related to the topic of your Web Site;
- send testimonials to others who own Web Sites in the same category of yours and let them know that you like their ezine, product, service or Web Site.

Let them know that you appreciate what they are doing and tell them to include your comments as a testimonial on their Web Site with your name & Web Site link included.

Socializing is the Buzz Word for Internet Marketers

2005-08-10T04:23:00.000-07:00

Secluded Internet Marketing is a critical flaw that will destroy even the best, most creative sales strategies. If you do not build relationships and follow up on them --through personal interaction and automation -- you will spend most of your time either a) repeating trivial tasks that can either be completed exponentially faster with the help of other people or b) plodding away on a course that will never result in sales conversions.

Building and maintaining marketing relationships will help you with the follwoing:

1. Avoid wasting time and money on outdated products and services that are no longer valid in the internet marketing world.

2. Create massive contact lists of people who trust you and want to buy your products and follow your advice.

3. Diversify and maximize your sources and quantities of leads.

4. Setup joint ventures that will generate immediate sales for you and add potential buyers to your long-term customer database.

5. Explode your backend sales from follow-ups.

6. Increase your credibility with potential buyers.

Many internet marketers fail to realize that personal interaction is in fact the catalyst that allows internet businesses to make that jump from expensive to profitable. Rather than seeking this medium to boost their sales, they assure themselves that the internet is an isolated, where people do not need connections to succeed.

Again, this is a critically-flawed system of thinking. Without personal connections, you will not succeed with any internet business.

Here are some ways you can increase your sales conversion numbers by integrating personal interactions into your marketing strategy (you may already use some of these):

1. Keep your reciprocal links directory--but also actively seek links for your main page and your other content pages. You can do this by finding related websites on search engines and then personally emailing the webmasters. Explain what you like about the website -- and how your link would fit in with what they sell. Also include where you plan to link back to their site.

Make sure all of your emails are personal. Do not make it look like you sent out some spam robot to hammer every webmaster with flattering, form-letter reciprocal link requests. This will not work.

One prominent link from a high-PR, high-traffic website can potentially reap more sales conversions for you than 100 reciprocal links that are locked away with thousands of other links in some website's directory. Just think of the time you could save! So do not be stingy, offer partner sites good link positions. If your sales copy is good enough to pull profits, then you do not need to worry about links stealing potential sales from you.

In addition to getting you more productive reciprocal links, this strategy will also allow you to develop important relationships that can later result in profitable joint ventures or even free product exchanges.

2. Encourage your database of customers or mailing list -- or whatever you use to contact potential or previous customers--to interact with you on a personal level when you market a product or service to them. You need to be very honest with your customers if you want them to trust you. It is fair to say that people are generally dissatisfied with programs they opt-in to and information they purchase over the internet. If you have a product that has actual value, then you should have no problem explaining any questions they might have, which will relieve the general queasiness related with internet purchases. If you do not believe in the product you are selling enough to field questions about it, then find or make one you have enough confidence in before you apply the ideas outlined in this article.

Scientific marketing tests have repeatedly proven that an increase in contact (and therefore trust) correlates with an increase sales. The more you personally contact and talk to your potential customers, the better chance you will have to make a sale. In the process, you will also help people who are in your database by giving them more information about the product or service you are providing.

3. Join a large internet marketing community and participate in the discussions. This is hands-down the most effective way to shape a marketing plan. You will get the chance to discuss important issues with people who have succeeded and failed trying the same exact plans you want to use. You will also be able to quickly find out what methods are outdated and which are still valid--which is direly important to know when you own a business in the most dynamic market place in the world.

In addition to this, you will be able to generate sales by attaching a signature with a link to your website or affiliate gateway below each of your posts.

Again, interacting with other marketers--whether it be through emails or forums--can get you involved in joint ventures and free product exchanges, which will cut back your advertising costs and boost your sales. Forums are one of the best places to do this.

So, to reiterate:

1. You greatly inhibit your success by limiting personal contact with other marketers and potential customers.

2. There are three major ways to improve your marketing methods and results through personal contact: personally-emailing webmasters for mainpage links; encouraging your database to contact you--and then following up with any questions they have; and joining a large internet marketing community.

If you follow these simple steps to increase your personal contact with buyers and marketers, you will see an increase in growth and sales.

Reap Incredible Profit with This Simple Strategy

2005-08-10T04:07:00.000-07:00

Why is it some people are incredibly successful at utilizing the power of the Internet in their marketing while others can’t seem to figure out the winning formula?

How often do entrepreneurs and salespeople look for that next magic formula to build their business and increasing revenues, never quite making any of it work? Many people make it much more difficult to succeed than it need be while others know exactly what to do … and they do it.

Ask anyone who has effectively integrated the use of the Internet into their overall marketing strategy and they will tell you success in building your business, both online and off, is about systems. Simple as that.

Developing and utilizing systems is nothing new. Yet, the great search for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and getting rich quick continues.

The place you’ll find more gold than virtually anywhere else is in doing something many people just don’t find appealing. It is in developing and maintaining a solid database. Unfortunately, many people don’t find database management appealing enough. So they continually buy into that next secret formula.

Fact is, with a well-groomed database you can increase your revenues and decrease your marketing costs. You can build customer relations and keep your name fresh in the minds of your market by keeping in touch. This establishes excellent position within your market.

Most people would be amazed at how simple it is to build an incredibly profitable database by applying a few simple strategies. Remember, simple is not always easy. It will take time, commitment and focus.

Bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to your database. Depending on your industry and what you sell you may be well served to focus on the few dozen or few hundred who want to buy from you rather than thousands who don’t care about what you offer.

On the other hand, there will be situations where building a massive list is exactly what you need to do. Especially if you have mass quantity products you are selling at a very low price. Then you may want to go for the numbers.

Driving traffic to your site is an ongoing process as is building and maintaining your database. If you are serious about using the Internet in your marketing you need to lay the groundwork to optimize your opportunities.

Develop a fully operational web site
Have a way to capture contact information such as a sign up form
Give people a reason for leaving their contact information such as an Ezine, free report or ebook, an article of interest to your target market or anything that is of benefit to the reader
Develop a series of content driven messages that address your customers’ needs
Keep your name in front of your market consistently without being annoying
Write and distribute articles to various online resources that are pertinent to your market
Create a byline that contains your web address
Do not make the articles a hard sell. Rather, provide information that positions you as a resource before you are a vendor
Develop a list of forums and discussion groups you can participate in
Commit to the long-term.

By focusing on developing a solid database and providing incredible value to your market you can and will achieve success in your business. Guaranteed!

How to Get 50 High PR One Way Links Each Month

2005-08-10T03:27:00.000-07:00

How?

It involves articles, the google toolbar and a tracking sheet.

All you do is find sites to post your articles on that do a good job of directing pagerank (PR) to their articles pages. Sadly many do not.

Others may but they don't include that coveted live link from your article.

This just means you'll have to look a little harder. Since the crown jewel in your search for sites to submit articles to is to find those with other articles that show live links. And the pages they're on sport at least PR 3 or higher.

You'll typically get the lion's share of that PR. Since unlike a links page, quite often the only external link is to the author's web site.

While others are thrashing around trading links, you're quietly developing high search rankings by simply submitting articles. Nifty seo twist on the idea of article marketing!

Your Tracking Sheet

Setting up your tracking sheet is simple too. You need at least three headings including website URL, PR, Live Link.

What goes in the first should be obvious.

Jot down the PR of the article pages themselves in the second.

The third you simply note 'Y' for yes if there is a live link from the article's resource box back to the author's web site. Or 'N' for no if there is not.

Now for the tedious part - finding sites to host your articles.

Typically article banks, directories and the like are NOT going to be your best bet. Sorry. I'm not saying you shouldn't submit articles to them as part of an overall article marketing scheme. Just don't do so in the hopes of snapping up many high PR one way links is all.

Instead you should use Google to help you find individual web sites that post articles.

One Way to Find Sites to Submit to

Simply search on your 'target keyword phrase + articles'. And don't forget the quotes. Doing so tells Google to return all pages with both the keyword phrase and the word articles on them. This should return a healthy list of sites in that keyword niche that host articles.

Now you should do this search in Internet Explorer with the Google toolbar turned on.

At each site visit a few article pages that have been around for awhile. (Sometimes sites will show the date posted. Other times you just have to kinda guess which might have been there longer.) Keep an eye on the PR of those pages. Checking out three or four such pages should give you an idea of the PR potential. Note the highest PR you find on your tracking sheet.

Also take note if the links in the resource box are live or not.

Once you run through the first list try another focus keyword. Or try a related niche. Just be aware you'll start to see a lot of repeats.

Still don't stop until you've got a nice starter list of 25-30 sites that have higher PR and a live link back.

After you've got your list write the best, most informative, helpful article you can. No self promotion. No affiliate links. No hype whatsoever.

Now Submit it to the list you just developed.

If you've got a better than average article you can expect at least 10 or maybe even 15 out of 30 sites to post it. And you're on your way. Just like that you've got 10-15 higher PR one way links. Which is probably more than most of your competitors have. And that's just one article.

That's right. Once you've got one article in motion, look for more sites. Write another high quality article. Submit it first to those who posted your previous article. They should be your favored class and get first crack at your new one. Then submit it to the rest.

Short Term vs Long Term Marketing Efforts

2005-08-10T03:14:00.000-07:00

In order to create consistent sales cycles and a positive growth trend businesses usually engage in both short and long term marketing efforts.

Short-term marketing efforts tend to cause sudden sales spikes which rarely last. These sharp sales increases are usually the result of a targeted marketing campaign or time limited offer. While short-term marketing produces sales, long-term marketing efforts must be mixed in to sustain sales.

Short Term Online Marketing

Listings
Positive product listings in forums, newsgroups or within trade organizations can result in a traffic or sales surge. Product endorsements and newsgroup conversations are difficult for marketers to control and time, so while product listings in forums are short-term marketing, they lack the organized exposure necessary to maintain sales momentum.

Discounts
Marketing campaigns that involve coupons, discounts or time-limited offers can also generate product interest. It is important to use promotional offers sparingly or long-term sales could be jeopardized by having customers 'wait' for the next offer to purchase.

PPC / Advertising
The easiest and fastest way to generate product interest is, of course, to pay for it. Pay-per-click campaigns are known to drive significant targeted traffic. Sadly, when the campaign funding ends, the traffic and sales generally do, too. Regardless, it is important for marketers to realize that with short-term marketing, sellers can often control sales and infuse cash into a fledgling product, service or business.

Short-term marketing is also useful for test-marketing new products or split-testing to find the appropriate price point. With pay-per-click advertising marketers can control the ebb and flow of site visitors and make a determination about what banners, keywords, text copy and graphics convert at the highest rate. The lessons learned in short-term marketing can then be implemented in the long-term marketing strategy. Marketers can determine the effectiveness of sales copy and landing pages, implementing them in a long range of marketing activities.

Long Term Online Marketing

Search Engine Optimization
Undoubtedly the most time consuming, yet important aspect of long-term marketing involves preparing and optimizing a website for search engines. Currently the majority of Internet surfers seeking a product or information look to search engines. Most Internet surfers use keywords to search for the product, service or information that they are looking for. Knowing your audience and optimizing a site for keywords and phrases that potential consumers would use in their search for a product or service is critical to being found on the Internet.

Search engine optimization pays long-term dividends, but is an ongoing process, as the search engines themselves are constantly evolving their algorithms. The goal of search engines is to provide web surfers the best sites suited to the web surfers' search terms.

Often, changes implemented will not be 'seen' by search engines for several months. It is important to follow search engine guidelines and be patient.

Fresh Content & Communication
A stream of fresh content like newsletters, tips or blog posts will result in long-term quality traffic. Fresh content that is posted and updated on a regular basis will encourage visitors to return. Archived content will build a base for a variety of related keywords.

Syndicated Articles
Related industry articles will result in genuine interest from a very targeted audience. Providing related content articles that are available for syndication will result in links back from websites that contain similar content. Over time, articles can define a company's expertise on a subject area. Ultimately, syndicated articles can build confidence with prospective customers and a level of trust.

When designing a marketing campaign, consider threading long-term and short-term marketing efforts so that sales are stable and consistent. By implementing a marketing plan that involves both short and long-term efforts, sales success can be achieved.

Tips for Successful Pay-Per-Click Campaigns

2005-08-07T13:18:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Pay-per-click (PPC) is by far one of the easiest and quickest methods of driving targeted, consistent traffïc to your website. While this may seem like a daunting method of advertising for some, it's actually quite easy and can end up becoming that one marketing method that you can't live without.

Experimenting With Different Search Engines

There are many PPC search engines, with some being better than others. The top two are Google and Yahoo, which was previously known as Overture. It's a good idea to start your PPC campaigns with a small budget, spreading it out over a few different search engines to experiment and see where your target market may be lurking.

Generally speaking, Google Adwords is better for more technically orientated products or services, including software, hardware, web design etc. Yahoo, on the other hand, is better for general consumer products, including insurancë, toys, music etc.

The previous paragraph is very general, and you should analyze your campaigns carefully to see where they are performing their best.

Selecting the Right Keywords

The keyword selection process is probably the most important of all when it comes to creating your PPC ads. You'll need to select keywords that are specific to your product or service offering, but you need to be careful not to select keywords that are extremely popular, as this may deplete your PPC funds sooner than expected.

The keyword selection process begins by asking yourself just one question:

"If I was searching for a product just like mine, which words or phrases would I search for?"

Using your answer(s) to this question as your base, you can then use a thesaurus and common sense to start building your keyword list with plurals, synonyms, similar words, etc.

To see which keywords your competitors are using, simply try searching for them. If you see a PPC ad along the side for your competitor, then note that keyword down and add it to your list.

Another way of coming up with great keywords is to use the overture search suggestion tool.

Type in a set of keywords and it will list similar keywords, including the number of times that keyword has been searched for on Overture (Yahoo) in the last month!

There's often a fine line between selecting keywords that are either too specific or keywords that are too general. Try to keep away from these, as they can often result in wasted PPC funds.

The term "internet marketing" is searched for 825,674 times per month on Overture alone. Combined with the huge number of different advertisers that target this keyword, the top bid for "internet marketing" on Google AdWords is $13.84 per clïck! With an average of 240 clicks per day, a single day of advertising alone would cost $505!

Nöw, unless you have an extremely high conversion rate of visitors to salës, or you're selling a high priced item that usually has a high customer acquisition cost, we suggest targeting more specific keywords. Not only will this decrease your overall competition with other advertisers, but it will also increase the chances of turning your newly found web site visitors into customers.

It's also helpful to note that taking the top bid is not always necessary, and anywhere in the top 5-10 can generate great leads. This really does come down to budget and analysis.

Attracting People to Your Ad

Nöw that we've selected our keywords, we need to get those searching to clïck on our ad, which in turn will result in them clicking through to our web site and potentially purchasing our product.

One of the simplest ways to get peoples attention is to use their search keywords in the title of your PPC ad. This has been proven to increase click-thru rates on ads by over 50%.

Why? Simple. If the potential customer is searching for "Advertising" and the title of a PPC ad begins with "Advertising", then their attention will be grabbed instantly. He or she doesn't need to know much else, other than that the PPC ad is catered specifically for him or her.

One thing to keep in mind is that you can sometimes create a more relevant title by combining your different keywords into one PPC ad.

Another important technique to attract attention to your ad is to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Now We need to create a description for our PPC ad that will attract the potential customer and let them know that our product is exactly what they are searching for.

Finally, it's good practice to add a "Call to action" at the bottom of your ad. If you're not familiar with this term, its usually an instruction to tell the person to do something, such as "Clïck hëre to view a demo", "Download Nöw", etc.

Marketing experts seem to agree that the average human needs to be prompted to clïck on an ad or take action, so we'll add this line to the end of our PPC ad's description:

Reducing Click-Thru's

Sometimes it's important to reduce the number of clicks your PPC ad is receiving. This could be because you are attracting people who are only after frëe products/services, or even the wrong target market.

The two quickest ways to reduce click-thru's are to make the description of your ad more targeted and to add the price of the product to the ad.

Making the description more targeted can reduce your overall click-thru rate, but potentially increase the likelihood of a clïck resulting in a purchase.

Secondly, by adding the price of the product you are selling to the end of the ad, you instantly eliminate those looking for frëe products, and target those willing to purchase your product or service.

Tracking Your Clicks and Conversions

The fundamental core of a successful advertising campaign -- whether it be a PPC ad, banner ad or even newspaper ad -- is knowing whether or not your ads are actually converting into salës or not.

If your ads aren't making you monëy then you're more than likely better off saving your advertising dollars and adjusting your ads or using your marketing budget elsewhere in your company.

Both Google and Overture have built in tracking and conversion tools that you can use to get a holistic view of your current PPC ad campaigns. You can even use external tools which let you add conversion code to your website to tell you exactly which of your ads are converting into salës and which aren't. This is often referred to as knowing your ROI or Return on Investmënt.

We need to know exactly how much monëy we are making per dollar spent on every PPC ad. If the ROI is positive and we are making more monëy than we are spending, then the ad is working and we can use this knowledge to further improve our other ads or increase ad spending for that particular ad/set of keywords.

If, however, our ads are costing us more than they are returning, then we can reduce our spend, change our approach, or remove these ads altogether. It's a rather simple formula, but frustratingly ignored by many advertisers.

You must track your ads if you want to succeed with any förm of Internet advertising. You should also constantly monitor and adjust your ads according to how they are performing, your return on investmënt, etc.

Website Promotion Through Newsletters

2005-08-07T09:34:00.000-07:00

Website promotion is certainly a main focus of all business owners and their respective Web sites; however it is not something that happens overnight.

This is because once you have a new Web site it takes a bit of time before search engines upload your URL and it becomes part of search results. Also, while your Web page might be returned in the results of free search engines, it will still not relate to the amount of traffic you want. As a result, there is one particular way to increase traffic to your Web site that is inexpensive, and that is web site promotion through newsletters.

Many newsletter editors online are looking for new information from new business all the time. However, they generally do not want to pay for the article you write but rather prefer to trade a byline or a small advertisement for your business or web page. As a result, all you need to do is spend a few hours writing a newsletter that discusses a relevant topic and that also has a plug for your web page. This is a way for you to quickly get the word out about your web page as well as increase traffic and business while you are waiting for the search engines to get your information in the system and part of the search results.

Finding newsletter editors online that need information submitted and will allow you to trade a newsletter for an advertisement plug is not difficult and all you need to do is search your favorite search engine. However, whatever newsletter editor you are writing for, you will want to make sure its subscribers are part of your niche or it might not prove very successful for you.

Make sure, however, you do not transfer the copyright of your article to anyone, but only grant the right to print your newsletter. By doing this, you can submit this one newsletter to multiple ezines and the like and reach many more potential subscribers than you would with only one. Also, it saves you time because you do not have to write new newsletters for every ezine.When you write the resource box for your advertisement, make sure you include your entire web site address so individuals can simply click on the address and be taken directly to your page rather than having to cut and paste. The easier you make it, the more individuals will take a look at what you have to offer. Also, you might consider using different advertisements from time to time in order to rate which ones are most productive at getting individuals to actually click on the link. The one that generates the most traffic is certainly the one you want to use, however you will need to play with your advertisement a little in order to get it just like you want and have it generate the most traffic possible for your new web site.

Converting Visitors Into Subscribers

2005-08-07T09:27:00.000-07:00

Visitor conversion is a challenge faced by every marketer.

If you're spending money to generate traffic, you want to do everything possible to ensure that traffic isn't wasted. This means getting more results for your money spent by convincing more visitors to subscribe to your list.

In other words, conversion improves your return on investment and limits the temptation of spending more money on more traffic.

If your opt-in list isn't converting as well you expected, there are several target elements you can experiment with to improve your opt-in rates:

Web Copy

Is the copy on your site effective? Poorly written copy is one of the first culprits to investigate. Start by evaluating your headline. Is it enticing? Does it pull the reader in? A boring headline can cause people to click away without even reading the rest of the page. Check your main copy as well.

Do you explain the benefits of list membership? People always want to know what's in it for them. Make sure you offer them plenty of reasons to sign up.

Incentives

Incentives provide additional benefits and additional reasons to join your list. If you aren't doing so already, offer a unique course, e-book or piece of software for free as a bonus to subscribers. Many times this will convert hesitant visitors into subscribers.

People love freebies and they also can't resist satisfying their curiosity.

Make it easy to join

Have you placed your subscription box in a prominent place on the page? Some list owners always place their subscription box at the top of the page, while others place it at the very bottom. Either position can work well, but if you have a lot of copy to wade through, you might consider placing the box within the body copy at logical points. Remind your readers why they are there and what action you want them to take.

Watch out for 'bugs'

Sometimes software can fail for no apparent reason. Your server might be experiencing a database issue, your site might be temporarily unreachable or your autoresponder script may be malfunctioning.

It's always a good idea to do periodic tests by subscribing to your own list to check that everything still runs smoothly.

Ultimately, conversion comes down to offering prospects enough benefits to make joining your list an obvious choice. Your copy should get them excited, motivated and curious. Make it as clear as possible that you are offering them valuable information for free.

If your copy is too much of a sales pitch and short on benefits, the visitor will have a hard time finding a compelling reason to subscribe. People are wary of hype these days and too much focus on the "buy my product!" mindset raises a lot of suspicion. Most prospects see that and immediately think "this site will spam me with a bunch of offers I don't want", and quickly click off the page.

Treat your opt-in page as an honest invitation to start a mutually beneficial relationship, and you'll see your conversion rates soar.

Make Your WebSite Sticky

2005-07-30T05:14:00.000-07:00

Read through the hundreds of forums and bulletin boards on the internet and you will find dozens of threads centering on the lack of web site traffic. All the other remaining threads bemoan the difficulty of getting visitors to return long enough to buy something. Then there are the threads about the complexity of getting listed and ranked well in important search engines.

All of these dilemmas have the same cure - CONTENT. Content that is pertinent to the subject of a website and updated regularly makes a site "sticky". Sticky sites drive and keep occupied all the visitors you could possibly handle. Search engines drink from the fountain of fresh and interesting content provided by savvy webmasters who enjoy increased rankings and sales.

You too can enjoy these benefits with just a little effort and a small budget if you create or find content appropriate to your topic. Add some or all of the following types of content to your site and your traffic will increase and visitors will return often.

Articles - There is no doubt that free reprint articles are the best way to populate websites. You can maximize the benefits of articles by writing them yourself or by offering a small fee to writers for customized versions of their popular articles.

Quotes - An interesting set of quotes on topic will help motivate and inspire visitors. Add and delete quotes regularly to keep your site fresh. Find quotes at http://www.annabelle.net/ and http://www.brainyquote.com/.

Puzzles- People love games and puzzles. Appeal to the child that exists inside all of your visitors and they will reward you with their time and attention. One place to get a new monthly puzzle is http://www.archimedes-lab.org/index.html. Consider investing a small sum to have a custom crossword puzzle developed for your site.

Forums- Follow in the footsteps of successful websites by adding free forums to your site. Check out forum software at http://www.webwizforums.com/ and www.phpbb.com Ask loyal visitors to serve as moderators for specific topic threads.

Feedback/Guestbook- Allow visitors to ask questions or comment on an issue raised by your site or your blog. Make this information public (so long as it is in good taste) and searchable by visitors.

Reviews - Unbiased reviews are universally popular. Add reviews of books, software, hardware, scripts, movies, television shows, schools or spas to your site and visitors will return again and again.

Case Studies/Success Stories - Everyone loves a success story. Interview your best customers and add their stories to your website to bolster your credibility and satisfy your content needs. Be careful to make the success story interesting and motivational rather than commercial.

Jokes - A sense of humor is often lacking on the internet. Imagine how impressed you would be by an attorney who has such a good sense of humor that he keeps all the best attorney jokes on his website. Follow in the footsteps of that attorney and visitors will look forward to visiting your site.

Newsfeeds - Does your site cover a topic that frequently generates breaking news? Add current news to your site via feeds available at such websites as http://www.news4sites.com/services/index.php?t=sites and enjoy a higher rate of return visits from your readers.

Resource Directories - Instead of the usual reciprocal link campaign consider adding a resource directory to your site that actually points your visitors to valuable sites that complement your own. List only the sites you choose and do not incur search engine wrath by insisting upon reciprocal links. All links in the directory should open to a new browser window.

Newsletter & Archives - You don't have to recreate the wheel and attempt to create a huge list for your newsletter. Offer regular updates by e-mail or blog to current and potential clients and include links to pertinent articles or resources. Keep archives publicly accessible and search engines will visit often.

Blogs - Why should you jump on the current trend of blogging? Search engines adore blogs and visit them often because they tend to be updated frequently. You can use a blog to replace your e-mail newsletter and to feature your product or service reviews and other bits of pertinent information that do not merit a special e-mail to your customers.

Job Listings - Consider adding fresh job listings to your site that fit your topic. For instance, you could feature telecommuting jobs if your site topic is "work at home." Make sure you have the permission of the employer prior to posting their openings on your site.

Testimonials - Request testimonials form current and past clients and sprinkle them throughout your website. Remove outdated testimonials and add fresh ones on a regular basis. Give your clients live links (opening in a new browser window) to their website within the testimonial.

The internet was conceived as a method of sharing information with people around the world. If we all return to these roots by filling our websites with topic appropriate content then we will be rewarded by search engines. Forums complaining about the lack of website traffic will disappear and be replaced by recommendations of interesting websites to visit.

Back to Basics in SEO

2005-07-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of talk about Google and MSN's new algorithms and Yahoo's search engine changes. When these changes finally do occur, it is always important to remember the number one rule in SEO: Don't Panic!
If there is one guaranteed constant in this business it is that there will always be changes in the search engines' rankings. Our job, as search engine marketers, is to stay on top of the changes and to monitor how the change affects our clients' site's traffïc.

What follows is a "back to the basics" on getting good rankings:

Keyphrases

First things first: Always be sure to research the keyphrases you intend on using. Find out what keyphrases Internet users most often employ to find your product or service. There is no point optimizing your site for "online web marketing" if everyone types in "Internet marketing".

Once you have a list of potential keyphrases with a high amount of Internet traffïc, comb over that list and see which keyphrases best describe your product or service. These are the ones you should consider.

Hëre are some sites that can help you in your research:
Wordtracker
Google AdWords (Click to sign up, it is frëe to do the keyphrase research)
Snap

Competition

Research your competition with these questïons in mind:

What keyphrases are they using (take a peek at their keyword Meta tag)?
What are the titles of their sites?
When you do a search for the keyphrases you are considering, who comes up in the top five rankings?
What is their title/keyphrases?
Are the top ranking sites your competitors or are they industry associations?

Use the keyword effectiveness index (KEI) tool at Wordtracker to compare the effectiveness of your keyphrases. A higher KEI signifies a better ratio of demand-to-competition for a keyphrase.

Do a link search to see who is linking to your competition. In a search engine, type in "link:" (without the quotes) followed by the URL you want to verify. This will allow you to see all the important links to the site that the search engine tracks

Can you get links from the same sites as your competitors?
Are there industry associations or organizations that are linking to the top sites, but not to you?
Get your link campaign going! (see the article about linking for search engines to learn why links are important)

Optimizing Your Web Site
Now that you know what keyphrase you are optimizing for, hëre is how to optimize your site: write good quality content that focuses on your keyphrases.

Above all else, this is the single most important factor.

Sure there are other on-site factors such as:

Getting the keyphrase into the title (this is the second most important factor)
Getting the keyphrase into the Meta description tag, the Meta keyword tag, the headers and sub headers, the alt tags, and into some link text (some of these factors are VERY minor)
Having a good site map so that the search engine spiders can easily navigate your site
Having a robots.txt to include the pages that you want the search engines to include
Don't use frames
Use flash wisely (not the WHOLE site in flash)
Use external files for your java-scripts
Use cascading style sheets (a .css file)
Use dynamic URL's wisely (Avoid using URL's with ? or & in them)

Content is king

You need to write good quality content that focuses on your keyphrases? All of the points above are superfluous if you don't have good content. Content is the food that the search engine spiders like to gobble up with a voracious appetite. The items below are just the side dishes. You need good content to get decent rankings, but you need the side dishes to become a serious competitor in your market.

Write about your keyphrases.
Write extra pages.
Write about your industry.
Write about your product or service's uses.
How will your product/service improve the life of the consumer? Find out, and then write about it.
Why is your product/service better than your competitor's? Think of a reason and write about it.
What is the history of your product/service? Or your industry? Write about it.
Who are you? Everyone always enjoys "about us" pages...
And of course, be sure to serve the search engine spiders with a tasty main dish full of keyphrases!
Whatever you do, be sure that you don't write junk or filler copy and double chëck that everything reads well. Keep in mind that writing about your keyphrase doesn't mean adding the keyphrase unnaturally into the text. If you have any doubts, employ the talents of an expert to do the writing for you!

Links

Start soliciting links today! Get people in your industry to link to you. Contact:

Industry associations and organizations
Web sites about your industry
Sites related to your product or service
Suppliers
Resellers
Competitors who don't compete in the same region
Sites that sell products/services that relate to yours, but don't compete directly
See my article on soliciting links for more information on how to go about it: Linking is Queen

Submissions

Submit to all the directories you can find, so long as they are related (e.g., don't submit to the Abba directory unless your site is about Abba). Submitting to a directory should not be a mindless activity. Read the directory's directions on how to submit Very Carefully. Write your description very well, and tailor it to each directory in order to follow their guidelines. Make sure you submit (and get in) to www.dmoz.org - it is probably the most important directory out there today.

Do research and find "vertical directories" that focus on your industry, and submit to them. These directories are very important because, for example, if you have a dodo bird site, what better potential client than someone who found you through a dodo bird directory!

Search engines and directories are different. Do not confuse them. You can submit to all the search engines you can find, but it usually won't do much because the good search engines will find you anyway. Submitting to random search engines will usually only increase your email sp@m. Don't waste your monëy on search engine submission software for the same reasons.

Hëre is a partial list of the current important search engines:

Google
Yahoo
MSN

Conclusion

Build your web site for your customers, within the guidelines that the search engines set out.
Don't make the site awkward by over-conforming.
The site's first focus should be on what your clients want.
Create good content. Good, quality content that reads well and flows seamlessly.
Update it regularly. An active, living site is healthier than a stagnant, dead one (the search engines spiders like their food alive and full of life).
And remember: Content is King!

What Do Search Engines Want?

2005-07-27T14:15:00.000-07:00

Like it or not, search engine optimization plays an important part for any online business, and more so for new and small businesses. On cash-strapped budgets, we don't have the deep pockets to buy expensive links on high-traffic websites, and extensive PPC spending at least at the start.

So the rest of us are, in the end, left with getting traffic the (free) cheap way – building links, regularly adding content, optimizing our pages and trawling through SEO forums for that next big breakthrough in SEO strategies that will give us the edge over our competition.

In other words, we are all caught up in the SEO rat race. And there seems to be no end in sight.

At times like these, it's a good idea to step back and look at the situation from a more “detached” perspective. Forget about your website, forget about your online business, forget about making money from the Internet while sitting at home.

Instead, Ponder on answering the following question :

What do Search Engines want?

Now…when you reduce search engine marketing to its basics, it is all about doing what is necessary (and acceptable by the search engines) in order to get a high ranking in search engine results (SERPs). So our SEO strategies depend directly on what works best in the search engines.

Now, let's take that thought a bit further – how do you know what works best? Well, the search engines keep their ranking algorithm secret, and no one really understands how rankings “really” work. Sure, we can all approximate, and some of us have made (and will continue to make) millions by getting it “right”. But in the absence of cold and hard facts from the people running the search engine traffic, there's no way to know for sure.

What the search engines do tell us is pretty vague – your website content must be unique, useful, and should be fresh. Targeting your website to a particular industry helps as well. Links? Search engines sure like them. In fact, search engines like them quite a lot. But hey, that's not all to search engines, is it? What about quality content?

The truth is that in the age of super-instant gratification (ever met a cliché you liked? ), links are your easy ticket into search engine rankings. In face of the simplicity of getting other websites to link to yours (made even easier by SEO tools), good content takes a VERY distant second place.

The search engines can be blamed for placing too much emphasis on links, although in the last year or so, led by Google, the search engines have gradually moved away from giving links too much importance and have started looking at relevance and user feedback (read personalized search) Even then, SEO campaigns takes a familiar shape:

Do some keyword research and build a master list of keywords.

Write keyword optimized articles for the search engines.

Build links to your website using keywords in the anchor text (and choosing link partners in the same niche (to win on the relevance factor).
Tip: Use a tool like SEO Elite to build links quickly.

In that formula, somehow, somewhere, people started taking shortcuts. First, there was link spamming to trick search engines into ranking their websites higher. Then, there were content-generating scripts – the poor man's version of obscene levels of keyword stuffing carried out only for manipulating search engines.

Maybe it's unfair to call this tactics trickery or manipulation. After all, there is a system, there's a way of cracking it and getting to the top of it without much effort, so why not take the quick and dirty shortcut and move on?

On the surface, the debate seems to be between ethical and unethical methods (or, as they like to say, between white hats and black hats) of SEO. In reality, your morality, or the color of your headgear, does not matter. At all.

What DOES matter is the question. What do Search Engines want?

What are the search engines looking for?

Search engines, believe it or not, are looking to keep their visitors.

Surprised? It makes sense, doesn't it? Search is as much a business as selling eBooks or owning a resturant, and in a business, getting and keeping your customers (searchers) is your top priority. No searchers = no money, and that's the bottom line.

So how do the search engines get, and keep, their visitors? Once you start thinking of search engines as being businesses, everything falls into place. Building customer loyalty is a crucial factor for any successful business.

Be The Best At What You Do!

For search engines, this means being the best at what they do, and to offer the most complimentary services. Leaving SE accessories (like Yahoo's portal or Google's various services) aside, the only way search engines can get and bring back searchers is by giving them what they want.

Searchers want information. They want it to get to it fast. They want it to be right. Most importantly, they want it be right the first time around. That's a difficult task for the search engines, and they are bound to muck up things along the way.

Now, it suddenly becomes clear. It doesn't matter what “algorithm” a search engine is using, or what particular SEO tactic seems to be working best this month or week. In the end, search engines will always be working towards providing users better results – where better invariably translates into useful and updated information for the searcher. You can go through ten thousand search engine updates, but the end goal remains the same.

This is certainly no revelation. Search engines and many SEO gurus have been saying this all this time. Quality content is the best way to build search engine rankings –it is the only guarantee towards an organic linking campaign, and along with user feedback (personalized search) it has fast become the focus of search engine updates.

That's not to say that link building does not work – in fact, link building still remains the easiest way to get search engine rankings. However, quality content serves your business in so many different ways that it seems almost foolish, and certainly short-sighted, of webmasters to not invest in it.

FACT:

Quality content helps with conversions – people will buy more from you if you help them in their quest for knowledge, and they will come back for more if they like what you are telling them.

Quality content does wonders in search engines – despite the fact that search engine rankings are automated, good writing is written for the readers and thus not over-optimised – over-optimization is a big problem for webmasters and it's something that search engines have been penalizing for a while now.

Quality content is your surest guarantee for building links organically, or naturally – someone comes to your website and likes your website so much that they link to it on their blog, resources page or anywhere else on their website.

Quality content is also the best bet to get one-way links in your link building campaigns without having to pay for them – webmasters are more likely to link to a website that is actually useful than just for the sake of building their links page.
Finally, and most importantly, quality content is what searchers are looking for. It's what search engines are trying to provide to their users. In short, that's what the search engines are looking for: quality content.

Makes sense to do what the search engines are looking for, and THEN build your SEO strategy around that, doesn't it?

So the next time you're stuck in a rut, and are despairing about your search engine rankings, stop what you are doing, take a step back and ask yourself this simple question:
What DO Search Engines want?

Google's Good Writing Content Filter

2005-07-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

Google's Good Writing Content Filter

The web pages actually at the top of Google have only one thing clearly in common: good writing. Don't let the usual SEO sacred cows and bugbears, such as PageRank, frames, and JavaScrïpt, distract you from the importance of good content.
The top-ranking web pages on Google are consistently much better written than the vast majority of what one reads on the web. Yet traditional SEO wisdom has little to say about good writing. Does Google, the world's wealthiest media company, really only display web pages that meet arcane technical criteria? Does Google, like so many website owners, really get so caught up in the process of the algorithm that it misses the whole point?

Apparently not.

Most Common On-the-Page Website Content Success Factors

Whatever the technical mechanism, Google is doing a pretty good job of identifying websites with good content and rewarding them with high rankings.

The top web pages that Randk Hing On Google, all share the following features:

Updating: frequent updating of content, at least once every few weeks, and more often, once a week or more.

Spelling and grammar: few or no errors. No page has more than three misspelled words or four grammatical errors. Does Google use SpellCheck? Before you dismiss the idea completely, keep in mind that no one really does know what the 100 factors in Google's algorithm are. But whether the mechanism is SpellCheck or a better shot at link popularity thanks to great credibility, or something else entirely, the results remain the same.

Paragraphs: primarily brief (1-4 sentences). Few or no long blocks of text.

Lists: both bulleted and numbered, make up a large part of the text.

Sentence length: mostly brief (10 words or fewer). Medium-length and long sentences are sprinkled throughout the text rather than clumped together.

Contextual relevance: text contains numerous terms related to the keyword, as well as stem variations of the keyword. The page may contain the keyword itself few times or not at all.

SEO "Do's" and "Don'ts"

A hard look at the results slaughters a number of SEO bugbears and sacred cows.

PageRank: The median PageRank was 4. One page had a PageRank of 0. Of course, this might simply be yet another demonstration that the little PageRank number you get in your browser window is not what Google's algo is using. But if you're one of those people who attaches an overriding value to that little number, this is food for thought.

Frames: The top two web pages listed for the most searched-on keyword employ frames. Frames may still be a bad web design idea from a usability standpoint, and they may ruin your search engine rankings if your site's linking system depends on them. But there are worse ways you could shoot yourself in the foot.

JavaScrïpt-formatted internal links: Most of the websites use JavaScrïpt for their internal page links. Again, that's not the best web design practice, but there are worse things you could do.

Keyword optimization: Except for two pages, keyword optimization was conspicuous by its absence. In more than half the web pages, the keyword did not appear more than three times, meaning a very low density. Many of the pages did not contain the keyword at all. That may just demonstrate the power of anchor text in inbound links. It also may demonstrate that Google takes a site's entire content into account when categorizing it and deciding what page to display.

Sub-headings: On most pages, sub-headings were either absent or were images rather than text. That's a very bad design practice, and particularly cruel to blind users. But again, Google is more forgiving.

Links: Most of the web pages contained ten or more links; many contain over 30, in defiance of the SEO bugbears about "link popularity bleeding." Moreover, nearly all the pages contained a significant number of non-relevant links. On many pages, non-relevant links outnumbered relevant ones. Of course, it's not clear what benefit the website owners hope to get from placing irrelevant links on pages. It has been a proven way of lowering conversion rates and losing visitors. But Google doesn't seem to care if your website makes monëy.

Originality: a significant number of pages contained content copied from other websites. In all cases, the content was professionally written content apparently distributed on a free-reprint basis. Note: the reprint content did not consist of content feeds. However, no website consisted solely of free-reprint content. There was always at least a significant portion of original content, usually the majority of the page.

Recommendations

Make sure a professional writer, or at least someone who can tell good writing from bad, is creating your site's content, particularly in the case of a search-engine optimization campaign. If you are a SEO, make sure you get a pro to do the content. A shocking number of SEOs write incredibly badly. I've even had clients whose websites got fewer conversions or page views after their SEOs got through with them, even when they got a sharp uptick in unique visitors. Most visitors simply hit the "back" button when confronted with unpalatable text, so the increased traffïc is just wasted bandwidth.

If you write your own content, make sure that it passes through the hands of a skilled copy editor or writer before going online.

Update your content often. It's important both to add new pages and update existing pages. If you can't afford original content, use free-reprint content.

Distribute your content to other websites on a free-reprint basis. This will help your website get links in exchange for the right to publish the content. It will also help spread your message and enhance your visibility. Fears of a "duplicate content penalty" for free-reprint content (as opposed to duplication of content within a single website) are unjustified.

In short, if you have a mature website that is already indexed and getting traffïc, you should consider making sure the bülk of your investmënt in your website is devoted to its content, rather than graphic design, old-school search-engine optimization, or linking campaigns.

The 7 Best Ways to Establish Site Linking

2005-07-22T00:46:00.000-07:00

1. Vary the keywords in your link 'anchor' text
Unless you provide only one product or service the chances are you will want to rank for many key phrases. One way to help achieve this objective is to change the link text you want all new sites to use periodically. Vary the anchor text slightly each time and by doing so you can cover more of your targeted key phrases. This approach can help your site rank for many keywords rather than just one or two.

If you do only provide one product or service on your web site it is still important to vary anchor text. If you sell 'blue widgets' then you could also use link text like 'cheap blue widgets' or 'blue widget store'. This means your links take on a more natural feel and are much less likely to be penalised or filtered out by search engines for being 'fake links'.

2. Set up your link information differently - create a link in context
Typically people set up their link information in a very similar way, however you could offer your link information with the hyperlink inside the description instead of at the beginning.

Imagine this is a description about your web site on a partner's link page. Instead of a typical hyperlink followed by a description you could write a sentence describing your web site and then place "your descriptive hyperlink" inside it.

One reason for doing this is that it reads more naturally and search engines may value the link higher as it reads more like a narrative. Many webmasters will be happy to accept this style even if some do not. To cover yourself offer the link in context as a second option along with your regular link information, that way if some sites can't support the layout you still get your link.

3. Vary where your links point
Try to vary where link partners point to on your site. It's fine to have the majority of links pointing into your home page, however it can be beneficial to have some links pointing to other key pages on your web site as well. Taking this approach balances out your linking and can help raise the profile of more pages on your web site.

4. How to find potential link partners from your competitors
If a web site links to your competitors it may also link to yours, and in order to find these potential link partners you can use search engines. Not so long ago Google was useful for getting a lot of back link information about a site. Recently Google's back link data is a lot less forthcoming and it now tends to show only a tiny percentage of the sites that are linking combined with a lot of internal link data. Whether the few web sites Google shows us are the ones it finds important or whether they are in fact red herrings we cannot say for certain. We would assume the latter.

Currently Yahoo is a better portal to check for backlinks. To generate a list of linking web sites on Yahoo simply go to http://www.yahoo.com and type the following into the Yahoo search bar.

linkdomain:www.mycompetitorwebsite.com

This will deliver up to date link information as read by Yahoo. The only downside with the information is that one site may appear many times if it is giving multiple links.

5. Alternate your description text
This is often overlooked, but there is no real advantage to be had if the description text supporting your inbound links is always identical. To avoid the possibility of a description ever being seen as 'duplicate content' alternate it when you can. If you combine it with varied anchor text [as in tip 1] you're heading in the right direction.

6. Link to good related content from your web site
It seems like an obvious thing to say, but with so many people caught up in link exchanging you sometimes wonder if we're losing site of the basics. If you have something useful to say on your site and can back it up with a useful link to another web site then do so. Not every link has to be reciprocated. This resourceful linking will allow your visitors to read around the subject. Linking to informative related content is useful for visitors and search engines quite like it too.

7. Seek out directory links
Links from good web directories can be some of the best links you can get for your web site. Check Out this directory of directories- at http://www.directoryarchives.com where you will find a great selection of search engine friendly directories. Some of the directories are free to get listed in whilst others may charge a fee.

Learn the Top 12 Things That Can Triple Your Sales

2005-07-13T05:22:00.000-07:00

1: Offer ONE product or service on your homepage
Do you offer a number of products or services on your web site? If so, we strongly recommend you test whether or not this is the most effective strategy for you.

We've found that offering fewer products in one place with more copy describing those products ALWAYS translates into higher sales.

It's all about focus.

Instead of trying to please "everyone" who visits your web site by offering a large range of products with minimal detail about each one, if you offer just one product (or one set of related products), you can really focus on one key set of benefits and answer all of the possible questions and doubts your visitors might have about your product.

And you don't have to stop selling your other products -- you can always offer them to your customers from other web pages or by using follow-up offers.

2: Reposition your opt-in offer to BOOST your opt-ins
and build a bigger list of loyal subscribers!
Your opt-in offer is your tool for gathering your customers' e-mail addresses. In exchange for their address, you might offer them a free report containing valuable information or a regular free newsletter.

Your opt-in is your mechanism for building your e-mail list, which allows you to regularly keep in touch with your subscribers, build relationships of trust and loyalty, and sell them your products or services.

But did you know that WHERE your opt-in offer appears on your site can have a huge impact on how many subscribers you attract?

If you don't use a long salesletter, test placing your opt-in offer in as prominent a position as possible on your homepage -- the top-left of a page is where visitors' eyes are often drawn first.

At the very least, test placing your opt-in in the "first fold" of your salesletter -- the area of screen first visible to a visitor before they scroll down the page.

If you have a long salesletter, you should test placing it within your second "page" of text -- after you've grabbed your visitors' attention by identifying a problem they have and established your credibility by impressing them with your credentials, experience, and glowing testimonials from happy customers.

You should also test placing your opt-in offer on EVERY page of your web site so it's always in front of your visitors, and try using a hover ad. The more sign-up opportunities you provide, the more subscribers you're likely to get. Test it and see!

3: Add impact to your promotions with "Layer Ads"
Pop-ups, the small windows containing a special offer or other information that sometimes "pop up" when you visit a web site.

Love 'em or hate 'em, pop-ups have been a very useful online marketing tool for years. However, because a percentage of Internet users disliked them, Google, AOL, Netscape, and others developed pop-up blocking software to combat them.

Of course, Internet users should be able to choose whether or not they want to view pop-ups. However, much of this software automatically blocked pop-ups, meaning visitors to a site started missing out on valuable information that could benefit them.

But that was before the Invent of Layer Ads, a very impressive technology that actually lets you use ads that BEHAVE like pop-ups, but that are NOT pop-ups -- so they don't get blocked.

You can test placing your opt-in offer in your Layer Ad to see if that boosts subscription numbers.

You can also test how many more people click through to a special offer page on your web site through a Layer Ad versus through a regular link on your homepage.
To Check Our a Sample Layer Ad.

4: Feature different benefits in your headline
Your headline has a HUGE impact on your sales. It's often the first thing visitors to your site see so it must grab their attention and compel them to read your salesletter.

A successful headline should highlight a problem your target audience faces and stress the main benefit of your product or service in solving this problem. Let's look at an example that illustrates how a headline can be changed for maximum
impact.

One of our clients was using the following headline on his site: "Great eBooks at Discounted Rates" The problem with this headline is that it tells you what the
product is, but not what it does for you. It doesn't give a visitor any good reason to continue reading the rest of the page.

Contrast this with "Greate Secrets of Traffic Generating and Money Making compiled into eBooks at Throw Away Rates" This headline presents a major benefit of the product and a solution to a problem.

5: Establish a problem in your copy and show how you can solve it

In the first couple of paragraphs that appear on your homepage, you need to go into more detail about the problem you introduced in your headline -- showing your audience that you relate to them. (Only when your audience feels you understand their problem will they feel confident that you can solve it.)

Once the problem is established, you can then begin introducing your product or service as the solution to this problem. By emphasizing exactly how your product or
service will solve the reader's problem, you are guaranteed to see a boost in sales!

6: Add credibility to your copy... and enhance your visitors' trust in you
It's vital that your salescopy establishes your credibility: It's through this process that your visitors come to trust you and feel comfortable enough to buy from you.

There are several ways you can do this effectively and we'll talk about two of the quickest and easiest ones here. If you're not already using these techniques, revamp your copy and test it against what you're using now. You'll be surprised by the difference.

One of the best ways to establish your credibility is to include customer testimonials in your salesletter. These should be excerpts from genuine e-mails or letters from customers expressing how your product or service helped solve the particular problem they faced.

This last point is important: A customer testimonial that states how your product benefited them is much more effective than one that just says something like, "Your
product is great!"

You can also enhance your credibility by adding a section to your copy that outlines your credentials, experience, and any background information that make you qualified to solve your target audience's problem.

Your aim should be to effectively convince readers that you are the best person to offer them a solution to their problem.

7: Focus on your readers... not yourself
The most successful salescopy focuses on the reader. Too often, business owners neglect this simple golden rule. Look carefully at your salescopy.

Is it filled with references to "I," "me," and "we"? Instead of using sentences like, "I designed my time-management software with the busy homeowner in mind," try "Your new time-management software will free up hours of time for you to spend with your family." See how much more powerful that is?

Try searching on "I," "me," and "our" in your salescopy and replace them with "you" and "your."

8: Instill urgency into your copy -- and convince readers they need to buy NOW!
It's very important that your salescopy instills a sense of urgency in your Visitors, compelling them to buy NOW. The best place to do this is towards the end of your salesletter, near the call to action (when you ask for the sale).

Here are a few of the most effective ways to create a sense of urgency. Try testing each one against your current copy:

- Offer a limited-time price discount offer where visitors must buy before a certain date in order to qualify for the discount
- Offer additional bonuses for free if they buy within a certain time frame
- Offer only a limited quantity of your products or services
- Offer a limited quantity bonus

9: Remove references to "buying" from the first fold
People usually go online looking for free information. If you start your sales pitch too early in your copy, you may end up losing them before you've had the chance to hook them.

You first need to get them interested in what you have to say by relating to a problem they're facing and how YOU can solve it. Once you've accomplished that, you can start to sell to them.

Here's an easy way to improve the tone of your salesletter: Try removing references to "buying," "cost," and "sale" from the first fold, and compare the results to the copy you're using now.

Don't mention anything to do with making a purchase or spending money until after your reader is interested in your product and trusts you enough to buy from you!

10: Boost your product's desirability by adding images
Images of your products make them seem more tangible and real to your visitors and are a powerful sales tool.

But sometimes revealing what the product is too early in the sales process can kill the sale -- you may need to highlight the product benefits and value before you reveal exactly what it is.

Test placing images near the top of the page against placing them near the call to action at the bottom (where you're asking for the sale).

You should also test adding images to your order page, and test the response to using no images at all. By carefully analyzing sales during each test, you'll learn exactly where to place product images for maximum impact.

11: Grab the attention of "scanners" by changing the formatting and appearance of your copy
Very few visitors to your web site will read every word of your salescopy from start to finish. Most will "scan" your copy as they scroll down the page, reading only certain words and phrases that jump out at them or catch their eye.

That's why you need to test highlighting your key benefits to find the right combination that will grab the attention of people who scan rather than read online.

These include :
- Using bold, italics, and highlighting (sparingly) to emphasize the most important benefits of your offer
- Varying the length of your paragraphs so the page doesn't just look like a block of uniformly formatted text
- Adding sub-headlines that emphasize your key messages and compel your visitors to read the paragraphs that follow
- Leaving the right-hand side of your text ragged (as that's easier to read than "justified" text that uses the whole width of the page)
- Centering important -- but short -- chunks of text or sub-headlines to further draw them out of the main body of text
- Use bullet lists (like this one!) to emphasize key points

12: Fine-tune your follow-up process to maximize sales and attract more repeat business
Following up with your customers and subscribers using autoresponders (automated e-mails) is crucial to generating more sales as it often takes several contacts before someone buys from your site.

In your follow-up e-mails to new subscribers who haven't bought from you yet, you can restate your offer and ask for the sale again.

Try sending an immediate follow-up after new subscribers sign up, giving them a reason to return to your site the same day they sign up. You can test this against sending a follow-up three days after subscribers first visit your site
to see which method works best.

Following up with existing customers is just as important. In fact, tests show that 30% of customers will buy again if they're given the chance.

It helps you develop profitable long-term relationships with them and allows you to offer "backend" products relating to their original purchase.

You can test sending a backend offer immediately after they make a purchase against sending one three days afterwards to see which approach generates more repeat business.

Use the Web's hottest new testing strategy to refine your
sales process
When testing, it's vital to only test one thing at a time so that you know what change influenced the results. A method of testing known as "split-testing" does just that.

It allows you to split your audience into two groups and test, for example, one headline with one group and another headline with the second group -- both at exactly the same time!

It's an ideal testing strategy for any online business, but especially for newer web sites with less traffic, as it provides an excellent method for generating accurate test results no matter your level of traffic.

To test a new headline, for example, you need to create another web page that's identical to your best-performing one, but which includes the new headline. Using special testing software, you then redirect half of your customers to the old page and the other half to the new one -- over exactly the same time period.

For example, if you have two customers called "A" and "B", testing software ensures that "A" sees salesletter "A" at the same time as "B" sees salesletter "B" -- both on the SAME URL. Your other customers are likewise split evenly between the two different salesletters.

If you discover -- through tracking how many visitors go to each page and how many sales each page makes -- that the salesletter containing the new headline converts 15% more visitors into sales, you know that the new headline is more effective.

Then test other elements of the salesletter one at a time and gradually fine-tune your sales process.

The software gives you the great advantage of testing the two different letters over the same period. If you instead test one headline over a couple of weeks, then the other headline over the next couple of weeks, what if one of those test periods includes a major holiday like July 4th, while the other doesn't?

Or what if a major television event happens during one test period but not the other? Both of these factors could significantly skew your results if they resulted in fewer people being online during one of your tests.

It's easy to set up a few basic tests, but as your business grows and you become more experienced, you can carry out more advanced testing using software like the following:
-WebTrends 7 offers a range of testing services for a one-time cost or monthly fee, and you can road-test their services for free. WebTrends 7 allows you to go beyond split-testing and start testing a few different things at one time. You can analyze exactly which combination of elements (for example, a particular headline and opt-in offer placement combination) works best.
http://www.webtrends.com
-Offermatica allows you to conduct split testing and multivariable testing. Pricing is based on a per visitor fee, and you can try their services out first through their free demo.
http://www.offermatica.com
-ClickTracks allows you to track the response to your tests and understand where your visitors come from as well as how they travel through your site. You can try their products for free, then pay a one-time or monthly fee depending on your needs.
http://www.clicktracks.com

Conclusion
It's all about constantly striving to be the best you can be, in business as in everything else. Try tweaking your salescopy so you can "transfer ownership" to your reader... or try a new hover ad to collect opt-in e-mail addresses... or try using a new product image on your sales page...

And never stop testing! success will be yours if you test everything... and assume nothing.

Image Optimization for Fast Loading Web Pages

2005-07-07T23:37:00.000-07:00

Image Optimization for Fast Loading Web Pages

Are you losing visitors to your web site due to slow page load times? Is your site being penalized because the images on your site are too large? Are you able to capture your visitor's attention in the first 10-15 seconds that they are on your site?

All of these problems can be caused by an improperly optimized web page. In other words, the page loads too slowly and your visitor leaves before you have had a chance to hook them.

Optimizing a page for quick load times can be broken down into 3 broad categories: the basic coding of the page, scripts that are used on the page, and images. Of these three, images that are too large can have the most significant impact on load times and therefore have the greatest potential for improved page loading times if properly optimized.

A Brief Primer On Image Types

There are many image formats in common use on web sites, the three most popular being GIF, JPEG, and to a lesser extent Flash content. We will be limiting our discussion to GIF and JPEG images, with a specific focus on still images.

Each of these image formats has their strengths and weaknesses. GIF or Graphics Interchange Format was developed by CompuServe before the Internet boom as a way to share images on the CompuServe service. Due to limitations with screen resolutions and color depths at the time, GIF images were limited to showing up to 256 colors, more colors were imitated by Dithering, a process of fooling the eye into seeing one color by using 2 or more sets of color dots spaced too closely for the eye to distinguish separately.

Imagine a chessboard with black and white squares. When viewed closely we can distinctly see the individual squares, but if we back off far enough we will no longer be able to discern the individual squares and instead we will see one large grey square, the black and white squares merging together in our eyes to form one solid color. This is the concept behind dithering.

The JPEG file format on the other hand is a newer format that can handle millïons of colors easily. The initial drawback to JPEG images is that they do contain many more colors, and each color requires some coding for display, making the file size largër.

Speeding Up Image Load Times

The main idea behind making an image load faster is to make the file size smaller. This can be accomplished in two ways, you can either make the dimensions of the image smaller, or decrease the amount of coding that is required to display the image.

The easiest way to reduce an image's file size is to reduce the image's physical dimensions. In other words, the smaller the image, the smaller the file size. Imagine an image that is a square 80 pixels by 80 pixels. The number of pixels contained in the image is 80x80 or 6400 individual pixels. If we reduce the image size by one half to 40 pixels by 40 pixels we then have 40x40 or 1600 pixels. So reducing the image size in half reduces the file size to one fourth of the original.

This is our First Principle of Image File Size Reduction: Use the smallest image dimensions that will work with your layout. And likewise the fewer images on the page, the fewer image pixels, therefore the smaller the page size.

Since GIF and JPEG image formats use different methods of saving image information, they tend to be better at showing some types of images and worse at showing others.

GIF images, since they are limited to 256 colors per image, are better at displaying images with large solid blocks of color and images with very small physical dimensions. The GIF format will produce smaller file sizes than JPEG for these types of images.

JPEG images are better at showing gradients or subtle changes from one color to another. Therefore JPEGs reproduce photographs very well, or any other image with gradations. The JPEG format will produce smaller file sizes for these types of images than the GIF format will.

This is our Second Principle of Image File Size Reduction: Choose the correct image format for the image you are using. Most web pages will contain a combination of GIF and JPEG images.

Decreasing the coding is called image compression. Both GIF and JPEG images can be compressed but the process is different. In GIF images we try to limit the number of colors, in a JPEG image we use software algorithms to remove redundant information from the file.

Whenever we compress a file we will losë some image quality. We have to reach a balance between a small file size and acceptable image quality.

This is our Third Principle of Image File Size Reduction: Find the least acceptable level of image quality. Most images can handle some compression with very little quality loss, and all images can stand more image quality loss and still be acceptable. Your job is to decide how much quality loss you can accept. In other words, the lower the quality, the smaller the file size.

GIF images can usually be reduced from 256 colors to 128 colors or less, the fewer colors used the smaller the file size. JPEG images can almost always be reduced to a quality setting of 80% and frequently can be reduced down to as little as 15-30%. So when you use a higher compression level (smaller number) the file size will be reduced. Experiment with the image, try smaller and smaller settings until you find the smallest setting that still displays an acceptable quality.

The fastest loading page will have no images and the slowest loading page will be completely filled with full resolution images. If you work towards controlling your images using the principles outlined above you will have a very lean web page that will load quickly and be viewed favorably by the search engines.

Index Your Site with Google SiteMaps

2005-07-05T22:46:00.000-07:00

How to Get Your Site Indexed With Google Sitemaps

Three Ways To Index Your Site With Google Sitemaps
[Difficult, Hard, And Easy]
Google has recently implemented a program where any webmaster can create a Sitemap of their Site and submit it for indexing by Google. It is a quick and easy way for you to keep your site constantly indexed and updated in Google.

The program is appropriately called Google Sitemaps.

In order for you to best use Sitemaps, you must have an XML generated file on your site that will transmit or send any updates, changes, and data to Google. XML (Extensible Markup Language)is everywhere these days, you have probably seen the orange XML logo on many web sites and it's often associated with Blogging because Blogs use XML/RSS feeds to syndicate their content.

Today RSS is known mostly as 'Really Simple Syndication' but its original acronym stood for 'Rich Site Summary'. XML is only simple code like HTML and it is used to syndicate your content to all interested parties.

And the interested party in this case is Google. By creating Sitemaps, Google is really asking webmasters to take charge of the indexing and updating of their sites. Basically, doing the Googlebot's job!

This is a 'Good' thing! With the steady influx of new web sites growing rapidly, indexing all this material will become a challenge, even with the resources of Google. With Sitemaps, websmasters can take charge and make sure their site is crawled and indexed.

Please note, indexing your site with Sitemaps won't improve your rankings in Google. You will still be competing with the other sites in Google for top positions. But with Sitemaps you can make sure all your pages are crawled and indexed quickly by Google.

There are some other big advantages of using Google's Sitemaps - mainly you have control over a few key variables, attributes or tags. To explain this as simply as possible, your XML powered sitemap file will have this simple code for each page of your site:

http://www.yoursite.com/
1.0
2005-07-03T16:18:09+00:00
daily

Along with 'urlset' tags at the beginning and end of your code, and an XML version indication - that's basically your XML file! File size will depend on the number of web pages you have. Taking a closer look at this XML file

Location -http//www.yoursite.com - name of your web page

Priority - you set the priority you want Google top place on that page in your site. You can prioritize your pages: 0.0 being the least, 1.0 being the highest, 0.5 is in the middle. This is only relative to your site. It will not affect your rankings. Why is this important? You have certain pages on your site that are more important than others, (home page, high profït page, opt-ïn page, etc.) by placing high priority on these pages, you will increase their importance in Google.

Last Modified - when you last modified that page, this timestamp allows crawlers to avoid recrawling pages that haven't changed.
Change Frequency - you can tell Google how often you change that particular page. Nevër, weekly, daily, hourly, and so on - if you frequently update your page this could be extremely important.

Why do you need a XML Generator?

In order for this XML sitemap file on your site to be constantly updated, you need a Generator that will spider your site, list all the urls and automatically feed them to Google. Thus constantly updating your site in Google's massive index or database. Keep in mind, Google also gives you the option of submitting a simple text file with all your URLs.

There is already a flood of these generators popping up! Different ways of generating your XML powered sitemap file. More are probably appearing as you read this. But lets look at Three ways to generate your XML file.

Difficult - Google's Python Generator

That's a relative term, if you know your server like the back of your hand and installing scripts doesn't scare you, you're probably smiling at the word difficult. Google supplies a link to a generator (Google XML Generator) which you can download and set up on your server. It will cough up your sitemap XML file and automatically feed it to Google.

In order for this Generator to work, Python version 2.2 must be installed on your web server - many servers don't have this. If you know what you're doing, this will probably be a good choice.

You don't need a Google Account to use Sitemaps, but it's encouraged because you can track your sitemap's progress and view diagnostic information. If you already have another Google Account, gmail, Google Alerts, etc. just use that one to sign in and follow directions from there.

To submit your Sitemap using an HTTP request, issue your request to the following URL:

www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=sitemap_url

Hard - A PHP Code Generator

This is a PHP Generator that you can place on your server. This generator will spider your site, and produce a XML sitemap file. Download the phpSitemapNG and upload it your server. Run the generator to get your XML sitemap file and send it to Google.

Again, this is only hard to do if you don't know your way around PHP files or scripts.

Easy - Frëe Online Generator

These Generators are popping up everywhere, and Google keeps a list of these 'third party suppliers' of generators on their site. Find them at: Google's List of Third Party Generators

One of the easiest to use is www.xm-sitemaps.com, and you can index up to 500 pages with this online Generator very quickly and it will give you the sitemap XML file Google needs to index your site. It will go into your site, spider it and index all your pages into an XML sitemap of your site. You can download this file, Compressed or Non- compressed and make minor changes such as setting the priority, changing frequency, etc.

Then upload this file to your site as sitemap.xml to the root directory of your server i.e. where you have your homepage. Then notify Google Sitemaps of your XML file and you're in business.

Of course, the only drawback, if you constantly add pages to your site, you will need to also add these pages to your XML sitemap file. This won't be much of a problem unless you're daily adding pages to your site - then you will need something like the PHP or Python generator to do all this for you automatically.

Google is still the major search engine on the web so getting your pages indexed and updated quickly is the major reason to use Google Sitemaps. If you want your site to remain competitive it's probably the wisest route to take.

Designing Web Site to Maximize Traffïc

2005-07-05T21:56:00.000-07:00

Designing Your Web Site to Maximize Traffïc

Designing your site to maximize traffïc from the search engines is not a difficult task but it does require you to think ahead and plan your SEO strategy carefully. If you have not yet built your web site and are still in the initial planning stages then you may have an easier time of it. If you already have an existing web site, then you may need to take the time to read up on these SEO strategies and make some changes to incorporate them into your web site.
We will discuss ways in which you can improve on your existing web site or boost a brand new web site into the stratosphere of high rankings. These are NOT SEO tricks but rather tried, tested, ethical and true methods that will work effectively. We all know that in reality there are no real SEO tricks. True success is achieved through hard work, research and implementation of a thorough and complete SEO strategy.

Using Javascrïpt or Other Unspiderable Code

If you intend to use Javascrïpt on your web page it is best to use it sparingly or not at all. Search engine spiders cannot read Javascrïpt and it is possible that along with ignoring it when they come across it on your page, they may also get hung up on it if you are using a lot of it. If you really need to use Javascrïpt you can safely use it by putting the code into a separate JS file and calling it with a single line of code which you place between your head and /head tags within your web page.

Using Style Guidelines Effectively

If you are using CSS style commands, do not include them within your actual web page source code. You don't want search engine spiders to have to wade through 100 lines of unreadable code before they reach your actual content. Instead, place your style guidelines into a separate CSS file and call them with a single line of code from within your site and tags.

Primary Keyword Layout

Examine your web site from a source code point of view and ensure that your primary keywords or phrases will be spidered first. When search engine spiders read your page they read the source code just like we would read a book from left to right - top to bottom. We know that search engines place higher relevancy on keywords and phrases which appear closer to the top of a page so it stands to reason that if you've got a large table full of graphics appearing at the top of your source code before your primary keywords, then you can achieve higher rankings by adjusting your layout and placing a well written search engine optimized paragraph above that table full of graphics.

Spiderable Text Present on Each Page

Many times some web sites look great, but their chances of ranking high for any relevant keywords have been spoiled by the use of only graphics and very little or no text on the pages. It is very important to your SEO strategy that you make sure that you've taken the time to write some quality textual content for your pages. Don't write nonsensical text filled with blatant sp@m. Instead, take a few extra minutes and write 4-5 quality paragraphs which clearly explain the theme of your site and the particular page you're writing for.

Proper Use of Robots.txt File

Many a Web Sites inadvertently block spider access to their web site by incorrectly formatting their robots.txt file. It is critical that you know what you're doing when you use a robots.txt file. If you are unsure of the correct syntax when modifying or creating a robots.txt file, we recommend you not use a robots.txt file at all. This may sound counterproductive, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Accidentally blocking the spiders can result in a loss of all your rankings. It would almost be like starting over again to repair the damage. For help on correctly formatting your robots.txt file, visit robotstxt.org.

Dead Links and 404 Errors

If you are not checking for broken links on your web site, then you should start immediately and make this a part of your SEO strategy. You can nevër be 100% sure of your link integrity, especially when your site has 100, or more, pages. Aside from losing potential customers into a vortex of 404 errors, you risk more than that from a search engine perspective. When a search engine spider visits your web site and finds broken links, the impression left is that your site is not regularly maintained and updated. Not much is known about how the engines view this, but your crawl status may be assigned a low priority by visiting search engine spiders. In other words, the spiders may not visit your site as frequently as they visit sites with 100% link integrity. So make sure you download some link checking software and begin a regular schedule of verifying your link structure.

Using Images For Primary Navigation Links

Many webmasters like to use fancy looking navigation links but, in doing so, they fail to establish a theme for their sites. For instance, using a graphical link back to your home page does not tell the search engine spiders what that link is about unless the spider actually visits that page. If you use optimized ALT text on that graphical home page link, then that would be a step in the right direction. But to maximize the effect and clearly define the theme of your web site, you need to use a text link that has your primary keyword or phrase within the link text. This is called Link Reputation.

Home, Site Map and Contact Page Links

The Home, Site Map and Contact pages are your site's primary pages and should be your SEO strategy top priority. It is essential that these pages be spidered and exposed to your site visitors. To ensure that they are spidered, place links to them near the top of your source code on every page of your web site. Your home page is, of course, the main entrance to your web site so you want that to be the focal point in the search engines. Your site map page should (if properly optimized) have links to all of your sub pages and use primary keywords belonging to each sub page within the link text pointing to those sub pages. Your contact page is just as important because it's used by visitors who have questïons or who wish to order products and services.

Redirected Pages

When a web page has outlived its usefulness, webmasters will, on occasion, redirect visitors hitting that page to another page. Search engine spiders, however, take a dim view of page redirects. If you change the content of your site and find that you have no further use for a page, do not place a redirect on that page. Instead, remove the outdated content and replace it with something relevant. Include a text link to your home page or to a new replacement page. When you remove a page or place a redirect on an outdated page, you're cheating yourself out of better rankings and search engine traffïc. Moreover, using page redirects can result in the removal of your site listing in search engine databases with a consequent loss of revenue.

Excessively Small Type Font Sizes

Text in a font smaller than font size 2 is normally reserved for copyright information and the lëgal jargon often seen at the bottom of web pages. Use font size 2, or greater, for the majority of text on your page. Font size is a major factor in SEO strategy because the font size used defines the relevancy a search engine spider assigns to the content it finds on your page. An example of this would be the text within heading tags (H1 through to H6). Text surrounded with H1 tags has a higher relevancy placed on it than text surrounded with H6 tags. Visit the W3.org website for a better understanding of how on-page text is viewed by search engine spiders with regard to importance and relevancy. Search engine spiders tend to follow the W3 HTML standard.

Hidden Text, Door Way Pages and Other Tricks

Nowadays search engines are pretty smart and trying to trick them is not a wise course of action. Take some time to stop and examine your approach before proceeding with your SEO strategy. The rule of thumb is that if it looks like sp@m or could be perceived as sp@m by the search engines, then it probably is sp@m. The last thing you need is for a competitor to report unethical SEO tactics to the search engines. Such tactics could result in a loss of existing site listings as well as a ban on future submissions. So, to ensure the longevity of your online business, stay away from any technique that looks unethical.

Using HTML Frames

In short, don't. Frames are not very search engine friendly because search engines cannot read a framed source document that tells your browser to load more than one page in your browser window at the same time. Thus, achieving a high PageRank on your home page is difficult. Frames also make it hard for search engine spiders to find all of your sub pages.

Non-Spider-Friendly URL's

If the URLs for your web site contain characters such as &, $, =, %, etc., that is they are dynamic in nature, then search engine spiders may not be able to read them. And, if they can't be read, then the search engine spiders won't be able to follow them to index your pages. However, there are solutions available to fix this problem. For example, webmasters who have sites hosted on servers with Unix operating systems can use Apache mod_rewrite to rewrite URLs that contain a session ID, or other nästy characters, into search engine spider friendly URL's.

SEO is not just limited to the areas covered in this article, but if you apply the SEO strategies outlined in these areas to your web site, you will find that your site rankings and traffïc improve dramatically.

The Factors that Play a Role in Site's Ranking

2005-07-04T04:45:00.000-07:00

The Factors that Play a Role in Site's Ranking

Have you ever had a proposal, estimate or quote for search engine optimization work and wondered what goes into the pricing? What makes one site need more work than another? Why do some sites increase rankings faster than others? Why do some sites get more traffïc from their top page ranking than yours?
There are so many aspects of a web site that can decrease or boost your search engine rankings. Each web site is as unique as DNA and as such, will react differently to different marketing treatments.

What are these different factors that go into your web site's ranking? Below is a list of the most important aspects:

1. The State of Your Site Prior to the Optimization - Your web site can have many different attributes that contribute to its ability to rank well or not so well. Your site's PageRank for example, if your PR is a 0/10 or 1/10, it's going to take a lot longer and a lot more work to get your site ranking well. If your site is poorly designed, contains frames or is written entirely in Flash, a lot of work will be required to redesign your site so that it is search engine friendly. If your site has very few incoming links, a fair amount of link development will have to be done in order for you to see the rankings and traffïc you're after. A web site that has been around for a while and developed its PageRank, has a search engine friendly design and obtains links on a frequent basis, will be able to reach top positions much faster than other sites, once an optimization campaign is under way.

2. The Keywords You Are Targeting - Some keywords are less competitive than others. If you search Google for a keyword or keyword phrase, you'll see at the top of the results how many web pages are listed in those results. That is the amount of web sites that are competing with yours to reach top page placement for that keyword or keyword phrase.

It is therefore, much easier to rank well for the keywords which are not high in demand than it is for Keywords that are high in demand. This is why you must choose keywords wisely. With tools such as wordtracker.com, you can find out approximately how many searches are performed for a given keyword or keyword phrase. The more competitive those keywords are, the higher the cost will be to optimize your web site and the longer the optimization will take.

3. The Size of Your Target Market - If your site is targeting a global market, it will take a lot more effort to reach the top ten search results than if your site is targeting a regional market. It also depends on what sort of market you're targeting. If your site sells a product that only a small group of people will be interested in purchasing, your site will be optimized easier than if the product or service appealed to the global population. For instance, the keyword phrase "real estate" will require a lot more effort to reach top page placement for than "real estate canada" and even "real estate vancouver".

4. Competitor Sites' SEO Campaigns - You might find that once your optimization campaign is under way, your site jumps and slips and jumps and slips several times. This can be due to many things, but the one we'll look at is your competitors' sites SEO campaigns. If your competitors are aggressively optimizing their own sites for search engines, they can also be achieving new rankings and displacing your site. This brings us to our 5th and final point...

5. Your Own SEO and Link Development Campaign - Your own link development and SEO campaign should be thorough, covering all the aspects of a well optimized site and utilising all your resources for obtaining incoming links. If your SEO campaign isn't approached properly, your competitors can surpass you in the rankings easily. You must be aware of your competition and adjust your efforts accordingly.

As you can see, there are many, many things that make your site unique in the services it requires. Some sites can reach top page placement by just changing a title tag, while others wait 6 months to even be listed on Google. The bottom line is, educate yourself, ask questïons, choose the right SEO company and be patient. In time, your top page placement will come.

Edger Baston
Webmaster
http://www.dreammerchantsindia.com

Understanding Back Links

2005-07-04T04:27:00.000-07:00

Understanding Back Links

There are no hidden secrets on how to rank high with the major search engines. All that is needed is a basic understanding of how search engines work and a bit of know how. Perhaps the biggest contributing factor to a successful web site is incoming links or Back Links. Without links, your website will more than likely go unnoticed. So how should you accumulate these links? Below are a few basic methods to accumulate quality back links.

Before You Get Started
You MUST understand how search engines work. Over 90% of your business will likely come directly from search engine results. Therefore, it is absolutely essential to optimize your site for search engines. You could have the greatest deals in the entire world, but if no one knows about them then your efforts are wasted. Do a search on google for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You will find tons of great information on how to create a website that is both user friendly and search engine friendly. There are also countless numbers of companies and freelancers out there who offer SEO services. Just be cautious of their offers and do your research first. Remember, NO ONE can guarantëe top placement in major search engines, no matter what they say.

Where Should Back Links Come From?
1. Articles are a fantastic source of links and additional traffïc to your site. There are countless sites online that want your articles. It's a win-win situation for everyone. When you write articles and submit them online, you are able to leave a link to your own site and sometimes even anchor text. You can write about anything from dogs, to computers, to personal training, to web hostïng - you can even write about writing. The bottom line is, articles are a valuable source of "relevant" back links to your site.

2. Submit to directories. There are literally hundreds of "frëe" and "paid" directories online. With 3 hours of painless work, you can have your site submitted to hundreds of great directories. There are many quality lists of directories that are regularly updated. One of the best is Best-Web-Directories.com which is always updated and maintained.

3. Develop link exchanges with relevant sites. The major search engines such as google see incoming links from relevant sites, and give them more rank compared to a link from an unrelated site. For example, if you have a website about pet care products, your link strategy should target pet related sites. Again, with a bit of hard work and determination, you can develop a great number of "relevant" back links.

4. Forums are a great source for additional traffïc and links. Many forums allow their users to display signatures in their posts. These signatures can consist of both text and links. When you post a new message on that forum, your website's link will be displayed for everyone to see. This not only helps build valuable back links, but will bring additional traffïc to your website.

5. Join a link co-op. Co-ops such as the one found at DigitalPoint.com are an amazing source of valuable back links and frëe advertisement. What is a co-op network? A Co-op network is a network of site owners/webmasters that offers ad space to the network. In return, the ads they define are displayed across the entire network. The best part of ad networks such as the one found at digital point, is, they are frëe. Having your site in a co-op can literally mean thousands of back links for your site.

6. Buying ezine ads is a paid method of advertising, but it works, because it is the most targeted of these approaches. Write a concise ad for your business and link to either a lead-capture page or directly to your autoresponder. Then, begin contacting ezines to place your ad. (Do a search for "ezine directories," and you will find enough lists to keep you busy.) When you contact an ezine, look for rates for both classified ads and solo ads. The advantage to a solo ad is that your ad goes out by itself in a separate email, but they can be more expensive. Because these ads are targeted (you should NOT advertise in an unrelated ezine), you will definitely see traffïc, but you will need to track your results to see which ezines bring you the most and best traffïc.

7. Ad Swaps can be an exellent source of advertising. Start by writing some killer copy (to coin a phrase...there are many frëe articles and ebooks writen on the subject). Simply use your favorite search engine and type in..."how to write ad copy". Once you have your ad written, search out ezines that are in the same category as your business or service. Again, use your favorite web search. Build yourself a list of ezines and then email them, asking if they accept ad swaps. Include your ad in your correspondence so they can see what you are offering. Another way to find ezines is to do a web search for "ezine directories". Look up ezines in your category of business or service. Most listings will tell you if they accept ad swaps and the parameters of the ad such as how many lines and how many characters per line. Don't forget to place your website url in your ad.

If you want to have a successful site, whether-it-be a hobby or for business, you have to understand how search engines work. Part of that understanding, is knowing about link development. Maybe in the early 90's the idea of "if you build it they will come" might have been true. But, in the year 2005, the internet is a far more competitive and complex place. To be successful today, you have to work at it. Without a quality source of back links the search engines will all but ignore your site.

Edger Baston
Webmaster
http://www.dreammerchantsindia.com

10 Ways To Make money online

2005-06-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

Make money online

1:Create your own Information product
Possibly the single most profitable way to make money online. If you have the information that somebody else wants or needs why not sell it to them. This is 'The Information Super Highway' after all and we live in an 'information age', people are willing to pay for accurate, timely and reliable information on just about any subject under the sun and in doing so they're helping thousands of people to make money online. Creating an Information product usually involves the writing of an ebook on a highly targeted, and more importantly saleable, subject. Don't let this put you off, you don't need to be a trained writer to write and sell a successful ebook, thousands of everyday people are making an annual six figure income from their e-book, thanks to the power of the internet.As for what to write about ?, its easier than you think to come up with information products that sell well, just scrapping the surface, everything from business to parenting, from investing to gardening, from real estate to picking winning horses has resulted in a winning, hot selling information product. Everybody has experience in certain areas, that put into print could quiet easily become a big selling ebook. Just look at your hobby, your expertise in you day job, your travel experience etc as possible starting points to start generating ideas. For the best source of ideas online for your own winning information product try the idea guidebook Highly Recommended. There are 40+ distinct ideas you could quiet easily utilise to produce a hot selling information product of your own.
2: Become an Affiliate partnerProbably the easiest, and so the most popular, way to start to earn money online. Essentially you will need good traffic through your site, visitors click on an affiliate link on your site which takes them to the affiliate site, if they then make a purchase at the affiliate site you earn a commission.
The three most important factors to take into account when choosing an affiliate program are :-1: the relevancy of the affiliate to your site content. In simple terms there's no point signing up with an affiliate selling fish tanks if your site is for dog lovers.2: target the higher commission payers, commissions range from 2% of the sale price to up to 67%, yes I've seen 67% being offered.3: cookie length (expiration date). Basically this is the length of time after the initial referral for which you would be eligible for a commission. 30 days is about standard, but its possible to have an indefinite length. So say you send a visitor to your affiliated site and they look around for a while but don't buy. Well if they go back before the cookie expires (within those 30 days or whenever it is) and buy, you will still get that commission.
You can concentrate on signing up to affiliate programs related to your existing site and use their ads or links of your own throughout your site. Or you can target a specific affiliate or product type and focus your whole site around sending them visitors through your affiliate link.
3: Original Ideas If you've been online for any length of time you'll have noticed a number of unique websites that have been developed around original ideas. For example here in the UK there's a site http://www.friendsreunited.com/ which has since gone international, that demonstrates a great original idea in practice. Basically it's a portal to allow you to get back in touch with friends from your school days, old work places, colleges etc. Or simply sign up and see what they're up to. Three years after starting up there are currently 8million registered users and rumors that the site is being sold for £25 million. Not bad for a simple idea.Probably one of the biggest single ideas to explode on the internet was the introduction of the auction to the web, see Ebay next.
4: Earn a living or extra cash with eBay. This is a great way to make cash on the side, or full time its up to you. The great thing about this is you don't even need a website and you don't need good rankings in the search engines. eBay provides all your traffic, all the traffic you could ever need, with 75.3 million users (July 2003) a 51% jump from the previous year and still growing, and 1.4 Billion page views per month eBay is one of the most visited sites on the planet.The site is set up to allow you to sell products online at very little cost to yourself. You can choose to auction goods or set a fixed price with a buy me now button. You could sell a product line here quiet easily. Plus the site provides all the info you need to make a success of your little enterprise. Thousands of people are running their own stores from home using these methods. Combine this with drop shipping and you don't even have to deal with shipping your products.Put eBay on AUTOPILOT! and earn a serious income with part time effort.
5: Do your current job from home Computers have infiltrated most companies and have become indispensable in our daily working lives, with the advent of the internet and in particular the uptake of broadband it has become much more feasible to work at home doing your current job, without the commute! Plus as the traffic increases on the roads the rush hour crawl is simply going to get longer. What would you do with those extra hours per day that you usually spend sitting in a traffic jam? Businesses are already recognising the benefits of moving their work force out of the office. Smaller offices and lower rent for one.
6: Become a Web hosting reseller or Virtual ISP (Internet Service Provider) The concept is simple, sign up with a hosting company as a reseller. You then sell on the web hosting at a profit. Its all very easy and most good reseller accounts come with an online control panel to make it even simpler to manage your own web hosting and set up your own packages. Take a look at Jumpline.com and their reseller account. You can even build yourself a site here to begin marketing your new web hosting company. Using a number of wizards that guide you through a very simple process you can generate results that produce a professional looking site. Most of all there's absolutely no need to learn HTML. You can try a demo on the site.If you like to get your hands dirty with a bit of coding but you haven't got the design abilities of a good web designer, then you might like to take a look at Template Monster, here you can pickup a template for your new business that's more designery (is that a word ?)and very professional. A virtual ISP works in a similar way to a Hosting reseller, an ISP company provides you with the framework to provide your own branded ISP service, essentially you offer Internet connection services, dial up and quite possibly broadband. This usually works invisibly and to the end user you are the ISP. Again, as for the hosting, the best virtual ISP's offer an online control panel. Each year in the US, more than 20 million new subscribers purchase dial-up Internet service. Poor customer service ratings by the largest ISP's account for approximately 30% of the overall churn rate. This represents more than 75 million subscribers who signed up for dial-up Internet Service with a new ISP in 2002. That's a fair number of potential subscribers.
7: Develop Software and sell it onlineAh, 'but I'm not a programmer' I hear you say.... more about that in a second. If you use your computer regularly you will come across software ideas all the time. For example wouldn't it be great if you could set up your system to remind you of all the little jobs you need to do throughout the day while your working. Something that played a sound or popped up a window as a reminder. Little time saving and helpful applications to make life easier for everybody, like this, are saleable.
So your not a programmer, hire one, there are thousands of programmers out there all eager to work on your project. Try www.elance.com or more uk based www.freelancers.net. All you need is the idea offer a solution to a problem and you're guaranteed to have a saleable product.
8: Open your own 'stockless' store and sell products utilising Drop shippingSell a line of products without carrying stock ! Choose from Top Worldwide recognized Brands ! in almost any market area and product range.In simple terms, choose the products you'd like to sell, create your site or even easier set up your auction store, take orders online, collect your cash and pass on your customers delivery details to your drop shipper to complete the order. Essentially you don't carry any stock, which means no big outlay on stock and warehousing, all your orders are fulfilled by your chosen drop shipping company. You set the retail price and pay the drop shipper the wholesale price.For a more detailed breakdown of how this works, drop shipping resources and the best directory online of US drop shipping companies visit Chris Malta's site www.DropShipSource.com. You can even download a free ebook explaining the whole setup process in detail. Chris Malta uses this technique to run a number of successful businesses online.
This is more a US based option. Currently there are no companies in the UK offering a drop shipping service. But there's nothing to stop you using this opportunity to sell to the US market, some drop shippers also ship internationally.
9: Professional Competition entrant Not as crazy as it sounds there are various promotions happening online all the time. Win anything from a dvd to £1 million pounds. A million pounds was recently won by a guy here in the UK. The great thing is you don't need to search them out yourself, you guessed it there are sites out there dedicated to listing all the competitions running online. More than that there's also software available to help fill in the entry forms in one click ! Take a look at roboform . For competitions in the UK try The prize finder you can even find sites willing to swap your competition winnings or you could jump down to number 5 on this list and advertise your competition wins on www.ebay.co.uk
10: Create a high demand Newsletter/ezine If you can provide in demand and industry leading information on a monthly, bi-monthly or weekly basis, you can sell subscriptions to a newsletter. Delivered via email it costs nothing but time to produce. In the same way as information products you can focus your newsletter on just about any topic and find interested subscribers. Although its always best to concentrate on some area you have an interest yourself.
So, say you sell your subscription for a measly $5 a month (just to make it easy here to do the math) and you have 500 subscribers that represents $2500 per month for a days work. Add to that the possibility of selling advertising space in your newsletter and promoting your affiliate programs and you have a very viable business.
You will need a website to attract subscribers and the facility to take credit card subscriptions online. You should also offer automated delivery of the first newsletter when a subscriber has paid.
Conclusion These are exciting times to be working with the Internet, with this technology any individual or business has the potential to be an Internet pioneer. Any serious businessman cannot afford to ignore the possibilities. Now is the time for you to develop your online strategy. Before your competitor does.
Look at these statistics from a recent Forrester Research report: Online spending grew from £5.5 billion in 1998 to £32 billion in 2000! That's a staggering 580% increase! They also report that people newer to e-shopping are making nine purchases per year, while those who've been online for 5+ years are making 20 purchases a year.
Aug 1 2003: The U.K.’s 24/7 promotion last month boosted online sales in the U.K by 208% over the previous year.
July 28 2003: Online retail sales in the U.S, grew 39% to $956 million for the week ending July 20 from $688 million in the corresponding week a year ago, comScore Networks Inc. reports.
June 23 2003: Uk population online as reported by Computer Industry Almanac is 34.3 million from a population of 59.8 million.
Mar 18 2003: Online travel sales in Western Europe increased 53 percent during 2002, according to the Centre for Regional and Tourism Research.
Mar 20 2003: Datamonitor predicts that over 41 million European households will be accessing the Internet via high-speed broadband connections by 2006.
Beyond this, IDC (the leading global provider of technology forecasts and insights) reports that the number of Internet users around the world is expected to reach 943 million by 2005. The world population online according to two reports for 2002 - 580 million (Nielsen//NetRatings), 655 million (ITU).
The Web is only going to increase in size and the number of people online worldwide will increase along with it. It isn't going away, for the wise business man the time is now.

Buying Text-Link Ads

2005-06-10T02:00:00.000-07:00

It is widely agreed that SEM (search engine marketing) is one of today’s most cost efficient and effective methods of marketing a web site. One of the most important aspects of SEM is obtaining link popularity. For example, if you expect to rank high in Google for the search term "search engine optimization" it is important to have other sites link to you with "search engine optimization" within the text of the link. This is called anchor text. Generally the more sites linking to you with your target keyword within the anchor text the better. However, it should be noted that not all links are of equal value. There are two primary factors to consider when assessing the value of a link.
1. Link Weight
An established site that has already obtained a fair amount of link popularity is generally a more valuable location to park your link. The Google Page Rank is a general assessment of the link popularity of any given page. If a page has PR5 it is considered to have above average link popularity. For each 1 point increase in PR the link popularity is increased by about 7-10 times. So a PR6 link should theoretically be as valuable as 7-10 PR5 links but there is more to the story.
The weight of a page is distributed evenly to each link within the page. Lets say we have two PR5 pages. One page has a total of 10 links, the other has only one link. In this case it is about 10 times as valuable ,weight wise, to park your link on the page with only 1 link. It should also be noted that a PR6 page with 10 links is roughly equal to a PR5 page with only 1 link. Many webmasters only take into account the link weight when purchasing a text link. Link weight in itself is not worth much. Link weight when combined with link relevance is another story entirely.
2. Link Relevance
Link relevance is fairly straight forward in principle. It is more valuable to park your link on a site that is relevant to the search term you are optimizing for than one that is not. Large search engines closely guard their ranking algorithm for determining link relevance and placement. People have been able to reverse engineer the PR equation but for something with as many factors as placement and relevance it is next to impossible. Therefore we can only speculate as to which terms are close in relevance and which are not. My opinion on the subject is you can’t go wrong with a page that is optimized for the exact term or even slight variations of the term you are optimizing for. However, if you are considering optimizing for a term like "xbox" and you find a site to host your link that is optimized for "games" there is risk in believing these terms are relevant. Of course it can be inferred that these terms are relevant. After all, xbox is a major gaming platform but we have no idea how close in relevance the search engines consider these terms to be. To be safe value exact terms and variations of the term to be highly relevant. All other terms within an industry such as items, buzz words...should be considered relevant. All other terms should be considered non-relevant.
Now we basically know what to look for in determining the value of a potential link. There are many ways to go about building your link popularity. I am going to focus on a few of the paid methods.
1. Paid Directories
There are a ton of link directories that will host your link for a fee. Some work on a month by month basis but most are either 6 months, 1 year or permanent. Yahoo is an example of a paid directory. They cost $299 for a 1 year listing. This may seem expensive and it is. Yahoo is a high end directory which is quite valuable in comparison to other directories. However, there many smaller directories that are more cost efficient. Usually directories are only relevant to your search term assuming you are listed in a relevant category. Some niche directories can be considered highly relevant.
2. Link Brokers
There are several link brokers out there who gather potential websites willing to display your link. This is an excellent method to obtain highly relevant links. The only downside is the brokers will generally charge a listing fee to the website so they must sell the links for more than they would otherwise be willing to sell them for to cover expenses. If you are checking out a broker see what their listing fee is before you purchase any links. I wouldn’t buy from a broker that charges more than about 20% of the value of the purchased link.
3. Directly contacting webmasters
There are literally millions of sites out there more than willing to display your link for a fee. In my opinion the best method of purchasing text links is to get out there and contact webmasters for price quotes. Its certainly not hard...if you are optimizing for the search term "SEM" simply type it into google and find the top 10-20 sites listed for the term. Then either email or better yet directly call them to get price quotes from each site. Then decide which sites offer the most value and spend within your budget. It is also a good idea to ask for quotes for a 6 month and a 1 year term in addition to the standard 1 month term. Some webmasters will see you are competition and will refuse to list your site. This is perfectly acceptable, thank them for their time and move on.

Strategies for Submitting To Search Engines

2005-06-10T01:14:00.000-07:00

Webmasters are always on the lookout to enhance the link popularity of their sites. One method of doing so is to seek out authority sites in your niche – sites that are widely known on the Internet (through the sheer number of back links) and have been around for some time (think more in terms of several years). Unfortunately, such websites are often at a Page Rank of 6+ and as such, link exchange or text link ad placement is very, very expensive.
Luckily, there is a cheaper alternative. You can use web directories to not only enhance your search engine visibility (through increased link popularity), but by targeting niche categories and using sponsored listings where necessary, you can get a big jump in your traffïc as well.

What is a Web Directory?
A web directory is a collection of links broken down into relevant categories. Think Yahoo! and their directory, the Open Directory Project or even the Google Directory (which, incidentally, is pulled from the ODP). At its most basic level, a web directory is a collection of bookmarks made available to the public. In other cases, like Yahoo, it is a professional resource for people actively looking for information.

To get listed in such a directory, you can either get listed for frëe (which might take a while), or in many cases, pay a one-time fee to have your website reviewed and entered in the directory. One major exception is Yahoo, which charges a recurring fee for its commercial listings, and we'll look at that later.

The Benefits of Being Listed in a Web Directory

In theory, there are two main benefits of being listed in a web directory:

- Increased link-popularity due to a one-way link from a highly-respected resource.

- Increased traffïc due to being listed in a directory that is searched by many people every day.

In reality though, these benefits are directly related to how popular the directory is itself, and how much monëy you have paid for your listing. Of course, if the link is for frëe, there is nothing to worry about.

But if you are paying for submission, you need to know some very important facts.

Link Popularity

As far as link-popularity is concerned, you need to factor in several variables:

- The Page Rank of the directory
- The Page Rank of the category page on which you are listed
- Where you are listed on the page
- The number of competing websites on that page
- If there are other websites in your niche that can offer you the same conditions for the same price or less (very, very important).

The last point is very important from the cost/benefit angle. A web directory, while being a hub itself, is NOT a niche website or an authority site. Even within categories and sub-categories, the lack of valuable content means that web directories are, at the end of the day, link pages and nothing more.

Where directories win out is the fact that they require one-time fees. In contrast, authority sites (or most websites with a Page Rank greater than 5 or 6) tend to use text links as a source of revenue, and thus charge monthly fees. A directory listing then becomes a much better option (but only for link popularity).

More Traffïc

Directory listings are also used as traffïc building opportunities. How this works is that many directories are searchable for their visitors, so that users can look for information. In theory this is great – you can get lifetime traffïc for just a nominal payment, but you should not expect a sudden deluge of traffïc from just one directory listing. Here's why:

Most directories, apart from the top twenty or so, are usually used for link-building and not pure searching. This means that while people may use GoGuides or Yahoo for regular searches, you should expect that the smaller directories are mainly for link-popularity, and plan your investmënt as such.

Many directories offer listings based on an alphabetical ordering, or a first-come, first-serve ordering. In both cases, your website has quite a big chance of being lost out in the noise.

Directory-search algorithms differ greatly. Some directories, like JoeAnt, base their search on keyword relevancy (which makes it more of an exercise of stuffing your directory listing with keywords rather than making a good website), while others take a more "editorial" approach by factoring in editor ratings. And still, many directories display sponsored listings first, reinforcing the adage that even on the Internet, it's your advertising budget that talks, and not necessarily the quality of your website.

After you factor in the above points, you realize that there are only a handful of web directories where it is a definite benefit to "pay" to be listed. And even then, you cannot just rely on just being listed – sponsor listings get much more exposure. But before we discuss these dozen or so web directories, I'd like to tell you how you can make sure your website is accepted.

How To Get Listed – An Overview
Getting listed in a web directory is a function of three things:

Time
It takes a certain amount of time before an editor can review your website and approve (or reject) your request. This is usually anywhere between a week to almost nevër (in huge web directories like Yahoo and Dmoz). You can reduce this to within a week by using the paid listing option.

Monëy
Apart from Dmoz, the big directories usually require a nominal payment for your website to be listed. While you can calculate the benefit of such a listing from reading the previous section, know that usually there are several listing options, which for the better services (that give your website more directory visibility) obviously cost more.

Quality
In some cases (very rarely nowadays), directory inclusions can be rejected due to the poor quality of a website. Maybe the editor considered that your website was not 'useful' enough (meaning it had little or no useful / original / any content), or sometimes, there may be moral issues (although editors are urged to abide by directory guidelines and not personal beliefs). If rejected, you will almost always receive feedback (you might have to ask for it) on how to improve your website.
In earlier days, quality was a big issue. Today, it is still a major concern for top directories like Yahoo, but this is more to separate the truly atrocious from the rest rather than to separate the best from the rest.

Each web directory has their personalized criteria, but there are two crucial elements to getting listed:

Paid Inclusions – Apart from Dmoz, and some directories where you can sign-up to be an editor, the top directories require payment – anywhere from $15 to $299.

Website Quality – By this I don't mean design; I'm talking about having truly useful information – even if your website is a commercial website, simply putting up a bunch of affïliate links will not count as a quality website.

The Big Guns

Yahoo and Dmoz are the two biggest directories on the Internet, and it's only fair that I talk about how to get listed on them individually.

Yahoo

A listing in Yahoo's directory has direct benefits:

Google – and perhaps other search engines as well – give your website an added importance if your website is listed in the Yahoo directory.

Yahoo is the portal of choice for millions of users. This makes your potential target market at least in the hundreds of thousands, even for obscure niches.

To get listed in the Yahoo directory, you have to access Yahoo Directory Submit and work from there. You will be required to open a Yahoo account, if you don't have one already. The review process will cost $299, and is no guarantee that your website will be listed.

However, if you have a useful website, and follow the guidelines detailed by Yahoo, there is no reason for your website to be rejected.

The Open Directory Project

Dmoz, or the open directory project, is a directory that rivals the reach of Yahoo. Why? Because directories like the Google Directory and many others are powered by the results from Dmoz. This gives a listing in the ODP a very high premium.

However, because a listing in Dmoz is essentially frëe, there is very little you can do about the time factor. Many websites that are submitted are nevër indexed, and that happens mainly due to a lack of time.

On the other hand, quality websites that are added into their relevant categories are almost always accepted, so make sure you follow their guidelines.

Instructions for submitting the Open Directory Project can be found at: http://www.dmoz.org/add.html

Resources

Getting listed in Yahoo and Dmoz is the bare minimum for any website looking to establish themselves at the top of their niche. And if you're looking to move beyond the big two and move on to second-tier directories, here's a quick list.

Directories

Find Web Designers - multiple paid options

Portal Boost Directory - non-profit website – frëe, commercial website - $15

Around The Web - $15

Index Unlimited - multiple paid options from frëe to $99.

GoGuides - $39.99 or $69.95

Data Spear - $39.99

This Is Our Year - $19.95

Browse8 - $35

Uncover The Net - Multiple paid options, $39 one-time to $29/month

Rubber Stamped - $25

Joe Ant - $39.99

Best Of The Web - $39.95

Directories of Directories

In addition, there are several directories that are focused completely on directories (you can find similar listings by looking through Yahoo or Dmoz).

Directory Archives

Complete Planet

A directory listing is, in most cases, useful only for the link popularity. In such scenarios, if you can find better deals on authority sites in your niche, then you should go for them. However, a directory listing is cheaper (one-time versus monthly payment), and with the big directories like Yahoo, Dmoz and GoGuides, it can also bring you reasonable traffïc.

As always, remember that directory listings make up a small part of your overall online marketing strategy. If you don't have the budget for a Yahoo listing, don't sweat it – focus on other forms of marketing, and come back to it when you can afford it. Directory listings are important, but only when you are looking to squeeze every possible drop of search engine placement out of your links and your website.
Edger Baston
Webmaster
http://www.dreammerchantsindia.com

Search Engine Optimized (SEO)

2005-06-06T00:47:00.000-07:00

Nowdays, being on the first page for your most popular keyword phrase is like Getting Your Dreams answered.
And, that's where the power of advertising is going. It's all about Search. And Search is only going to become more important over the next few years. If you can get on first page, Nothing like it. In order to get those high rankings (which is the goal after all), you have to do a Lot of Things other than just Creating Your Website and Hoping for the Search Engines to come to You. You Need to make them come to you and beg for more and more. To Achieve this we will Put down 10 Steps, which should by far reach you to your goa - High Ranking on the Search Engines -
1) Spy On Your Competitors
Who are your competitors? Do you know? If you don't, you may want to go online and do a search for your product or service. Who is on the first two pages? That is your target. Those are the companies that you want to compete with. Because right now, they are getting your customers. Take a look at their website. Notice the copy. Analyze their business. Are they successful? What are they not doing right? Look for the holes. You're going to meet the needs of their customers (that they are not fulfilling) so they become YOUR customers.
2) Research your Keyword Phrases
Remember, Keyword Phrase research is critically important. It can also be a little tricky. Do you know what keywords or keyword phrases your customers search for when they look for you? Are you sure? See what your competitors are using. You can do this by right clicking on their home page, selecting "View Source" and then checking their keyword meta tag. Next, go on to Overture.com (Owned by Yahoo), clïck on "Visit the Advertiser" section, and use their Keyword Selector Tool.
3) Write Good Copy
Now it's time to start writing. Or re-writing. And if you can't write, you can hire a website copywriter to do it for you. The bottom line is to write about benefits, not features. Don't tell them how great your company is. They will discover that for themselves when you overwhelm them with your service and deliver the perfect product that meets their every need. Make the copy to the point and snappy. Make it sure it has impact, and asks the potential customer for their business.
4) Integrate Your Keyword Phrases
After you figure out which keyword phrases you want to use on your site, you need to integrate them into the copy of your site. Think Home Page and Services page as the most important pages to use them on. Essentially, you want to them to make up 5% of the total words on the page. It's not that hard actually. Just don't use them all over the place like some stupid copywriters do - you could get de-listed from the search engines. Definitely use them in your headlines and sub headlines. That will get you extra points, so to speak.
5) Check your Links, Build if necessary
Do you have any inbound links pointing to your site? If not, no amount of awesome copy is going to get your site high rankings. Links are very important. And even more so for Google. Go to linkpopularity.com and see what you have. Also chëck your competitors. If they have more than you, you need to get some high quality links. You can either do that yourself or hire someone to do it for you. It can be time consuming and expensive. But you gotta do it. It makes you look important to the search engines. A good way to do it is to make sure you are listed on directories, including DMOZ and industry related sites. Go to incominglinks.com to see which ones you should be listed on. Then write articles and submit them to article submission sites. That could potentially give you hundreds of links for frëe.
6) Use Go Rank's Analytical Tools
GoRank.com is a fantastic frëe resource for SEO. They have a Keyword Density Analyzer, Link Popularity Analyzer, Top 10 Keyword Analyzer, Research, News and lots of other great stuff. It's a great tool. It will help you in your SEO copy efforts.
7) Submit to the Search Engines
After you've ensured that your website copy and all the other important SEO considerations have been completed, it's time to submit to the Search Engines. Do it manually. Go to the search engine and do it yourself. Definitely don't pay someone to do it for you. You may have to resubmit a few times, but eventually, your site will get noticed.
8) Tweak the Copy as necessary, Add New Content
After your site has been up for a while, go back and take a second look. Ask friends and customers what they think of it. Can anything be improved? You'll be surprised what you may hear. If something isn't working, fix it. Make it sound better. The other thing that you should also be doing is adding content regularly. Build frëe resources into your website. This will make your customers and potential customers happy, and it will make you appear to be more important in the eyes of the search engines. Adding articles to your site is a great way to give your customers new, frëe content. Write about things that they would find interesting.
9) Partner with a Great SEO Firm
You may want to also consider partnering with a great Search Engine Optimization firm. There are probably a hundred very good ones out there. There are also 1000 bad ones. For the good ones, check-out TopSEOs.com and MarketingSherpa.com. They both list reputable firms. Whoever you go with, make sure they have a list of client success stories complete with stats to back it up.
10) Measure Your Success!
Finally, measure your success (or progress). Get a software program that will provide you with some web metrics as it pertains to your site. WebTrends and Statcounter are great ones. There are quite a few others as well. As you can see, Search Engine Optimized copy is only part of the overall SEO story. There is a lot to it, so make sure you cover every area. After all, you want to get your web site to the very top!

Internet Marketing

2005-05-26T23:47:00.000-07:00

Before We get into the details of Internet Marketing lets understand the Meaning of the phrase Internet Marketing. The Phrase at its grass root level means Marketing Or Promoting of Goods Or Services thru Websites, Blogs, Email, Feeds, etc On the Internet.
Internet Marketing, to Describe is Much more Easier than the nuance involved in it.
As in Real Life Situations i.e. Offline Marketing, Internet Marketing also involves a great deal of Knowledge and meticulous Planning.
To Promote any Website or Services / Goods On the Net you need to Chalk out an Internet Marketing Strategy.

The Internet Marketing Strategy -

Define Your Product / Service that You will be Marketing on the Net.
Note Down Important Descriptive Words or Phrases that relate to your Product / Service. We will Call this Keywords Eg. Tutorial, Marketing, Money, Promotions, etc.
Define the Area of Operations i.e. Who will Buy your Products or Services, Eg. Age, Sex, Origin.
Define The Class of Your Product / Service. Eg. Caters to High Income Class, Middle Income Class or Low Income Class.
Rate the Product / Service carefully, i.e keeping in mind the Audience that will purchase your Product / Service.
Add the Key words to your Site Code as Keywords / Metatags.
Once All this is done Open Your Browser.
Log on to the Following Search Engines - Google.com, MSN.com, Yahoo.com. Additioanlly you could use one of these Search Enignes to Find other Search Engines.
Submit Your Site to all These Search Engines.
Once You have Submitted Your Site To as many Search Engines As Possible Go to the next Step -
The Next Step will Explain In Detail the Different Ways that You can Promote Your Site.

Advertising Options

P2C Programs - These Programs have some Members who are looking for good oppurtunities. By Promoting your Site at these Programs you can get a good number of hits for cheap.
Safelist- There are a lot of Free Safelists Programs out there. Use The Your Favourite Search Engine to Locate them. Join a Few of them and Submit Your Site. Each Safelist, worth its salt, has a minimum of 10,000 Members who you could Mail too without problems of SPAM, as all these members are Optin Members. You could Generate A Good Amount of Traffic thru these Safelists.
Auto Surf Programs- Agreed That Auto Surf Programs are not that Responsive but you could generate Good Number of Hits Using them. There are Hundreds of them out there. Join a few and you could get about 500 hits a day. Don't Ignore this option. Auto Surf Programs are a Great Tool to Promote Your Site at.
Ebay Optin Lists - Check Out Ebay Listing for Optin Lists.You could Bid for these Lists and sometimes win 1 - 10 Million Email Optin Lists for a as low as $5.
Free For All Pages - Popularly known as FFA Pages. You could post your links to the numerous FFA's available on the net. This Medium is Burnt Out But then again Everything is worth a Try. You cold Generate a Few Hundred Hits from FFAs.
Pay Per Click Search Engines - Use them to advertise your Site / Link Free. Pay Per Cick Search Engiens Like Google offers to Place Your Site Advertisement on their Search Pages at very Low Click Rates.

Ebook Store
Traffic Virus 3.0Traffic Virus 3.0 is the latest version of the web's first traffic generating software designed to launch your own viral advertising campaign.Retail Price: $19.97 - Our Special Price $8.00