Steven Sharples Internet related blog

Secrets On Google: Almost Everything You Want To Know About Goog

2006-05-26T15:18:00.001-07:00

By Stan Seecrets

This article takes a look into real Google-related issues, perhaps whimsically. It will also legitimately challenge for top rankings for the keyword "google". Whether it succeed or fail, interesting results should be forthcoming.

Google News

The stories are not fact-checked. Its reporters are not journalists [words from CNN’s Global Edition]. Available in Australia English, Canada English, Hong Kong English, India English, Singapore English, United Kingdom English, Sanskrit, Tang Dynasty Chinese and Esperanto. For real news, see MSN News or Yahoo News.

Google Do-No-Evil

This mantra is well enshrined in Google’s philosophy. Perhaps, they are considering using the same logic as President Clinton during the Lewinsky episode. "We don’t do evil, maybe we’ve done a few bad things – nosirree, we’re not evil. Killing 20 million Native Americans is evil. Trampling on one billion individuals privacy is not evil, a wee bad perhaps".

Google Collective Consciousness in Real-time

[Below are extracts from Google’s pages. This author’s comments are enclosed in square brackets.]

"Google captured the top searches and institutionalized them as the Google Zeitgeist [German for spirit of the time], a real-time window into the collective consciousness.

Pulling together interesting search trends and patterns requires Google’s human and computing power together. Search statistics are automatically generated based on the millions of searches conducted on Google over a given period of time - weekly, monthly, and annually. With some help from humans [read manipulated], and a pigeon or two when they have time, these statistics and trends make their way from the depths of Google's hard drives [read kept indefinitely] to become the Google Zeitgeist report.

We should note that in compiling the Zeitgeist, no individual searcher's information is available or accessible to us [who are you kidding]. What you see here is a cumulative snapshot of interesting queries people are asking – some over time, some within country domains, and some on Google.com – that perhaps reveal a bit of the human condition. We appreciate the contribution all Google users make to these fascinating bits of information [to sell to governments, repressive or not, to spy on its own people at grossly inflated prices]."

To protect your own privacy, readers should neutralize their searches, that is entering an additional and opposite search for each real search. Examples are birthday parties, funeral services; marriage advice, divorce cases; open source, software patents; george w bush, cleverness; you should get the picture now.

Google GMail

Having pried into the collective consciousness is apparently not enough. Now the target is the individual’s private thoughts and persona through the owner’s emails. The tips on neutrality cannot be easily applied to emails. To safeguard your privacy, use crypto. Newbies are encouraged to read "A Gentle Introduction to Cryptography".

Google Translate

[Original paragraph from Marketing Plan for Joe Nogood Gift Store] Perhaps, a possible topic may be "Gift-Receiving Habits of Bushmen Americans", the ones concentrated in the D.C. area. Bushmen use strange language like "I wish to caveat my response" which is hardly understandable by the public. A follow-up article like "Bushmen Gifts – the Impact on Iraq’s Economy" may provide the scholarly reputation for Joe, a must-read for think tanks around the world.

[Google Translated to German] Möglicherweise kann ein mögliches Thema "Gewohnheiten der Buschmannamerikaner Geschenk-Empfangen", die, die im DC-Bereich konzentriert werden. Buschmänner verwenden merkwürdige Sprache wie "ich wünschen zum Einspruch meine Antwort", die durch die Öffentlichkeit kaum verständlich ist. Ein Anschlußartikel wie "Buschmanngeschenke - die Auswirkung auf Wirtschaft des Iraks" kann das gelehrte Renommee für Joe zur Verfügung stellen, müssen-las für denken Behälter um die Welt.

[Google Translated back from German] Possibly a possible topic "habits of the shrub man Americans gift receiving" can, who, who are concentrated within the DC range. Shrub men use strange language as "I wish for the objection my answer", which is hardly understandable because of the public. A connection article like "shrub man gifts - the effect on economics of the Iraq" can make the scholarly reputation available for Joe, must-read for thinks containers around the world.

This author dare not translate the above into French using Google Translate. Given the French ambivalence with Americana [read Google]; a real war may just break out.

Google Map

The advanced imagery has a resolution of one foot [30 cm. for the rest of the world]. If a stark naked man appeared, his pride and joy would not qualify to be a pixel [dot] but, his obese a** can.

Google Wallet [Payment Beta]

This will be in beta until Google’s researchers solved the paradox – where will the growth be after Google cleaned out everybody of their money. Stay tuned folks. Meanwhile, please remember "In God we trust, others pay cash – there are no trails for data-miners".

Google We’re Recruiting Open-source Marketing

PageRank was a phenomenal success. There are thousands who slogged and promoted this idea without being paid a cent. Now, Google is looking to recruit many more to promote PageTrust. Remember, the marketing of this idea is open-source, so for all your tireless promotional efforts, you will receive no compensation from Google. The personnel at Google will cheer you on and feast on gourmet food.

Google We’re Hiring

There are many positions available for experienced personnel from the intelligence community. Having a high security clearance from your country of domicile is a prized asset. Personnel from NSA, KGB, MI5, Mossad are cordially invited to send in their resume. Those with extensive experience from Zimbabwe, Myanmar, North Korea and defunct units of Saddam’s Intelligence are also welcomed.

Exceptional talents who can convert technical analysis [stock charting] ideas into software patents are highly sought.

Technical experts in artificial intelligence [especially from Google rivals – there is a current lawsuit] are also encouraged to e-mail in their applications.

Stan Seecrets Postulate: "Using a single argument to derive at a conclusion is propaganda, using multiple arguments is persuasion."

[No elaboration required.]

About the Author: The author, Stan Seecrets, is a veteran software developer with 25+ years experience. © Copyright 2005, Stan Seecrets. All rights reserved. For more of his articles and website promotion, visit http://www.seecrets.biz or http://www.rushprnews.com

Source: www.isnare.com

Secrets On Google: Almost Everything You Want To Know About Goog

2006-05-26T15:18:00.000-07:00

Stop Working For Google And Start Making Google Work For You

2006-05-26T15:16:00.000-07:00

Stop Working For Google And Start Making Google Work For You

By Scott Fromherz

You need traffic, and Google can give you traffic. There are two ways that Google can send traffic to your site: an expensive way and a free way. I'm going to show you how to make Google give you traffic for free.

You don't want just any traffic, you want TARGETED traffic. For those not familiar with the terminology, targeted traffic refers to clicks to your website from people who are actually interested in the topic of your site. Your marketing will be much more effective if your clicks are targeted. Here is an example of targeted marketing. Imagine a salesman who is trying to sell dental chairs. He puts together a flyer describing the great benefits of his particular brand of chair, and he decides to give the flyers to people. Which group of people do you think will respond better to his flyer - a group women at a scrapbooking convention, or a group of dentists at an American Dental Association meeting? It's a no brainer! But better yet, what if he went to a seminar called, "How To Start Your First Dental Practice From Scratch." These guys are already in the mindset to buy dental chairs. That’s targeted traffic.

When I started my first online business, I went straight to Google Adwords. This is one of the fastest ways to get targeted traffic. Basically, you pay Google to have your ad appear on the right side of the browser. You do this by bidding on keywords. When someone types your keywords into Google, the ad appears. Just go to Google and type anything into the search box. If you look on the right side of the screen, you will see little three-line ads. You probably didn't even know these were ads. Not only are they ads, but people are paying every time you click on those ads. This is the perfect kind of targeted traffic because people are actually searching for your topic.

So when I started my first Adwords campaign, slowly but surely I developed a targeted marketing campaign that was sending 40 to 50 visitors to my site. These people were ready to buy what I was selling. And they did; but at what a price! I was spending $80 per day in advertising. Way too much! I was only making about $100 in sales per day, so after subtracting advertising costs, my net income was only $20 per day. If I could only get traffic without paying for it, my yearly income would increase from $7,300.00 per year ($20/day x 365 days) to $36,500 per year ($100/day x 365 days). You’re probably wondering how you get free targeted traffic - I'm going to tell you in the next few paragraphs.

When I realized how much I was spending on advertising, I started to research methods of getting free targeted traffic; often referred to as search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. If your site appears on the first page of results for a Google search, then you get free traffic. Not only that, it is targeted traffic because someone has just typed in the phrase or keyword related to your site. So how do you get on the first page? In order to understand this, you need to know a little about how Google ranks their pages. It all comes down to one principle: Google wants to provide high quality search results, so they want to rank relevant links higher than irrelevant links. One of their methods of determining relevancy is to count how many other websites are linked to your site. These are called "back links." The assumption is that, the more links to your site, the more relevant your site must be.

Armed with this knowledge, I went out and bought some links. You may not know this, but there are actually companies that will allow you to buy a link on their web pages. I bought one link for $20 per month, another for $75 per month. It was much cheaper than Adwords, but it didn't get me ranked any higher, and it didn't get me much extra traffic. Two links was just not enough links to rank me higher on Google. What I needed was a way to get LOTS of back links. Then I heard about an intriguing idea: article marketing.

Article marketing is simple. You write an article, you put a link to your website at the bottom of the article (in the author information area). Then you post your article to an "article site." That's it. For every article that you post, you get a link to your site. And not only that, it's a targeted link because the content of your article will be related to the content of your website. It is best to post to as many article sites as you can. Every time Google sees a new targeted link to your site, it will rank you a little higher. There are literally hundreds of article sites and they are all looking for fresh content. Post your article to as many as you can find. Presto! Now you have tons of back links. That is article marketing. It's that simple. And it's free.

At first, I manually posted to about seven article sites. This was fairly time consuming. I immediately notice a few extra hits to my site. But in order for article marketing to be cost effective to me, I needed a way to post to hundreds of article sites quickly and easily. Then I heard about article submission software. Basically, this software has a list of article sites in it and it guides you through the process of mass posting your article to multiple sites. So I posted the article to about 200 sites. Bam! Now my site is ranked #2 for a certain keyword combination. This is effective search engine optimization. This is article marketing.

That's it. Now you know how to make Google work for you. You no longer have to work for Google by paying for Adwords. Plus you can contribute a helpful article to the internet and make tons of money doing it. Put article marketing to work for you today. Write an article, post it, make a link, and make more money!

About the Author: Scott Fromherz owns and operates multiple websites. You can submit your articles at his article submission site at http://www.ArticleAdvocate.com

Source: www.isnare.com

An SEO Checklist

2006-05-22T05:20:00.000-07:00

An SEO Checklist
By Andrew Williams

Would you like a checklist of the important steps to take in optimizing a web site? Well, here it is:

1. Use a keyword research tool to find profitable phrases (i.e. those that are actually being searched for).

2. Build each page optimized for a single keyword phrase. Also sprinkle in some secondary keywords relevant to the main keyword.

3. Link your web site together so that all pages are only a couple of clicks away from the homepage.

4. Use text links instead of fancy graphics or buttons to link to your pages.

5. When you add a link to a page where the main keyword phrase for that page is "blue widgets", make
sure the links to that page include the phrase "blue widgets".

6. Build a sitemap.

7. Add articles / Content to your web site and add links from these articles to your important pages.

8. Get quality link partners.

Once you have completed these 8 steps, repeat steps 7 & 8 over and over again. I would say that 80% of your time on a new site should be steps 7 and 8. Add content & find
link partners. A great way of getting links into your site is writing and publishing articles on article submission sites. When webmasters take up your article and publish it on their site, you get an incoming link to yours.

As your site climbs in the search engine rankings, you can decide when you are happy with your rankings and reduce the amount of time spent on 7 & 8.

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Andy Williams is author of the free, ezSEO internet marketing newsletter, offering subscribers up-to-date information on all aspects of internet marketing. His search engine optimization website offers unique, no BS information, for free.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_Williams

Top 10 SEO Myths

2006-05-22T05:18:00.000-07:00

Top 10 SEO Myths
By Aaron Wittersheim

When it comes to search engine optimization, there’s more than meets the eye. These Top 10 SEO Myths demonstrate why advertisers must avoid quick fixes and complicated gimmickry if they want consistently high search-engine rankings.

Myth 1. It’s all about meta tags. In the 1990’s, search engines used meta tags to rank Web sites. Because site developers began to manipulate the system by loading misleading keywords or by “keyword stuffing,” search engines now discount or ignore them.

Myth 2. Hiding text will improve my rankings. Invisible keyword-rich text in page code is old news to search-engine spiders. Today, hidden text might prompt search engines to remove the site from the database.

Myth 3. Piling on keywords and key phrases in my Web content will ensure high rankings. Actually, keyword/keyphrase density of 3-15 percent is recommended. Higher percentages may penalize your site.

Myth 4. Doorway pages are effective. A doorway is an independent web page created for the purpose of redirecting traffic to another site. Search engines consider most doorways spam, and severely penalize them.

Myth 5. Multiple domains will do the trick. This is a time-consuming and expensive strategy. Listings run as high as $300, but development costs are enormous: since search engines easily detect mirrored sites, each domain must be uniquely created. Better ROI comes from putting all the effort into a single, well-optimized site.

Myth 6. I need to submit to 1,500 search engines! Not so: five search engines bring in 99 percent of the traffic. Advertisers can safely ignore the rest.

Myth 7. I can rely on site submission and optimization software. These programs are ineffective and are routinely blocked by search engines. Because search-engine-indexing rules continually change, SEO requires on-going human review and evaluation.

Myth 8. More reciprocal links will automatically raise my rankings. While Google’s exact formula is unknown, quality inbound links rate highest, and unreciprocated links rate higher than reciprocated ones.

Myth 9. We can do SEO in-house. This one is tempting for businesses that underestimate the complexity of the task. Executives should consider whether their candidate will have the time, focus and on-going networking and training opportunities to be effective.

Myth 10. All SEO firms are the same. If that were true, high rankings would be a matter of luck. But SEO is a chess game, not a lottery. Beware of firms that promise the world and guarantee results. Top firms are committed to painstaking research, hard work and continuous training.

This Top 10 list hits the main points; but there are many other ways SEO can go wrong. In contrast, a solid program increases visibility and brings high qualified traffic. Because the rules of engagement change daily, periodic strategy review with a competent SEO partner is essential.

Aaron Wittersheim is the president of Whoast Inc., a suburban Chicago search marketing firm. For more information, visit http://www.whoast.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Aaron_Wittersheim

Creative and Profitable Ways to Use Autoreponders

2006-05-04T14:25:00.001-07:00

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Creative and Profitable Ways to Use Autoreponders
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An interested visitor who has been strolling through your
site has finally come to just what she is looking for and
is about to make a purchase. It's a sunny afternoon, and
her cat, who happens to be sitting on the moss under the
visitor's large fifty-year-old snow-rose bonsai tree,
suddenly jumps down, and the priceless tree topples over.

In the blink of an eye, your visitor exits your site, and
your sale is dust - unless you have had the foresight to
utilize an autoresponder that has captured her email
address. If you have installed an autoresponder, you can
then follow-up with her, and in all probability, make the
sale when the poor woman has finished repotting her
precious bonsai.

Autoresponders are remarkable, versatile programs that do
so much more than just automatically answer your email.
Here are a few ideas that will help you to creatively and
productively use your autoresponder to transform the casual
visitor into a profitable customer. Use your autoresponder
to:

1. Publish a newsletter. Certain quality autoresponders
will manage subscriptions and follow-up with interested
prospects. Your newsletter can keep your visitors informed
about your services or products, while building your
reputation as a credible expert in your particular
business.

2. Publish a newsletter only for your affiliates. Inform
them of current sales you are running and of promotional
material that your affiliates can use themselves to
increase their commissions. Include tips, advice, and
techniques that your affiliates can use to successfully go
out and promote your business.

3. Write reviews. Cover books, software, music, e-books,
movies, etc., and put each review in an autoresponder.
Review your affiliate programs, using a link to your
affiliate's page in your autoresponder.

4. Distribute your articles. Writing and distributing
targeted articles is a powerful tool to build your business
credibility, bring traffic to your site, and increase your
sales potential. If your articles contain valuable
information, many editors will print what is known as a
resource box for you. A resource box contains your bio and
a brief description of your service or product. It can also
contain your autoresponder address. Let's say you've
written fifty articles. Put them on separate autoresponder
accounts and create a master list that contains the titles
of each article, the autoresponder address, and a brief
abstract. Then promote your master list. Additionally,
include your publishing guidelines so your affiliates can
add their articles to your list, increasing the number of
writers who are represented in your article list.

5. Create mailing lists. Inform subscribers to your
articles when you've written new ones that they may want to
publish in their own newsletter or website.

6. Automate your sales process. Use an ad to insure
repeated exposure of your message, which has been proven to
effectively increase sales. In your ad, put your
autoresponder address where a visitor will be exposed to
numerous marketing materials. This multiplies the chances
of converting visitors into customers. For example, if
you're selling a particular product, put testimonials about
how spectacular it is on your autoresponder, and add a
detailed, enticing description of your product.

7. Distribute advertising. Let's say you sell advertising
on your website or in your newsletter or e-zine. Set your
autoresponder to send the information about rates and how
to place an ad automatically to all prospects' email
addresses. Then have your autoresponder follow-up. It can
also send notification of any special deals you are
currently offering.

8. Distribute an email course. Each day, have your
autoresponder send out another lesson. Just be sure that
each lesson has quality content - not a sales pitch. Your
content will do the selling for you, and will do it much
more effectively. You can include tips centered on a
different topic for each lesson, illustrating how your
product will benefit the reader. Include the tangible
benefits the visitor will reap by purchasing your product.
Make sure to include a paragraph or two at the end of each
lesson enticing your prospect to consider making a
purchase.

9. Automate a reminder about your service or product after
a visitor has completed your course. This will increase the
possibility of sales from visitors who have taken your
course but are dragging their feet about actually making a
purchase. You can also use these reminders to promote new
products or services, and the products and services of your
affiliate programs.

10. Distribute free reports. This gives your visitor an
idea of the type of information you can provide and the
quality of your product or service. Make sure these reports
are not sales letters or you will more than likely lose a
potential customer than gain a sale.

11. Create trivia quizzes on your site and place the
answers in an autoresponder. Your visitor will then be
motivated to request your autoresponder, and you will have
a record of the visitors' email addresses who took your
quiz. Or create a contest and have any visitors that enter
send their responses to your autoresponder. Your
autoresponder can be set-up to send them a confirmation of
their entry.

12. Offer a trial version of your product. Give your
prospects a sample of your ebook, course, software,
membership, etc. People who are exposed to a little taste
often end up wanting the whole pie. You can also capture
their email addresses when you offer them a free trial from
your website. Set up your autoresponder to give
instructions on how to obtain their free trial, and then
make sure to follow-up to try and close the sale.

13. Link to hidden pages on your autoresponder. For
example, a hidden page could be your affiliate page that
contains graphics, promotional articles, and text links
that interested affiliates can make use of. Inform visitors
that they may have free access to your affiliate page by
simply requesting your autoresponder. You will then gather
a list of visitors who may be interested in becoming your
affiliates.

14. Use an autoresponder on your order page. Post a request
form for visitors to be notified of special offers or
discounts in the future. This creates a very effective
mailing list that contains the names of people who are
already your customers.

15. Put your links page on your autoresponder. It should
contain up to fifty links that would be of particular
interest to your visitors. Make sure to add your own
promotional copy at the top or bottom of this page.

Now that you have proof that autoresponders can be used
creatively, see if you can come up with some brilliant
ideas of your own!

Paid URL Inclusion

2006-05-04T14:25:00.000-07:00

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Paid URL Inclusion
===================================================

There are many ways to promote your website and one of the
most efficient ways is to use search engines. Search
engines are the first stop for most people trying to find
information, services, and products online. Because of
this, it is essential that your website appears quickly in
search results.

The Internet contains numerous search engines, some of
which offer what is known as "paid inclusion." This means
that you pay the specific search engine an annual fee for
your web page to be included in their index.

Of course, every search engine already has an automated
program commonly called a "spider" that indexes all the web
pages it locates online, and it does this for free. So
whether you pay or not, your web page will eventually be
indexed by all Internet search engines, as long as the
spider can follow a link to your page. The major issue is,
then, how quickly your page is indexed.

A search engine that offers a paid URL inclusion uses an
extra spider that is programmed to index the particular
pages that have been paid for. The difference between the
spider that indexes pages for free and the spider that
indexes only pages for a fee is speed. If you have paid for
inclusion, the additional search engine spider will index
your page immediately.

The debate over paid URL inclusion centers around the
annual fee. Since the regular spider of these search
engines would eventually get around to indexing your web
page anyway, why is a renewal fee necessary? The fee is
necessary to keep your pages in the search engine's index.
If you go the route of paid inclusion, you should be aware
that at the end of the pay period, on some search engines,
your page will be removed from their index for a certain
amount of time.

It's easy to get confused about whether you would benefit
from paid inclusion since the spider of any search engine
will eventually index your page without the additional
cost. There are both advantages and disadvantages to paid
URL inclusion, and it is only by weighing your pros and
cons that you will be able to decide whether to spring for
the extra cash or not.

The advantages are obvious: rapid inclusion and rapid
re-indexing. Paid inclusion means that your pages will be
indexed quickly and added to search results in a very short
time after you have paid the fee. The time difference
between when the regular spider will index your pages and
when the paid spider will is a matter of months. The spider
for paid inclusion usually indexes your pages in a day or
two. Be aware that if you have no incoming links to your
pages, the regular spider will never locate them at all.

Additionally, paid inclusion spiders will go back to your
pages often, sometimes even daily. The advantage of this is
that you can update your pages constantly to improve the
ranking in which they appear in search engines, and the
paid URL inclusion spider will show that result in a matter
of days.

First and foremost, the disadvantage is the cost. For a ten
page website, the costs of paid URL inclusion range from
$170 for Fast/Lycos to $600 for Altavista, and you have to
pay each engine their annual fee. How relevant the cost
factor is will depend on your company.

Another, and perhaps more important, disadvantage is the
limited reach of paid URL inclusions. The largest search
engines, Google, Yahoo, and AOL, do not offer paid URL
inclusion. That means that the search engines you choose to
pay an inclusion fee will amount to a small fraction of the
traffic to your site on a daily basis.

Google usually updates its index every month, and there is
no way you can speed up this process. You will have to wait
for the Google spider to index your new pages no matter how
many other search engines you have paid to update their
index daily. Be aware that it is only after Google updates
their index that your pages will show up in Google, Yahoo,
or AOL results.

One way to figure out whether paid URL inclusion is a good
deal for your company is to consider some common factors.
First, find out if search engines have already indexed your
pages. To do this, you may have to enter a number of
different keywords, but the quickest way to find out is to
enter your URL address in quotes. If your pages appear when
you enter the URL address but do not appear when you enter
keywords, using paid inclusion will not be beneficial. This
is because your pages have already been indexed and ranked
by the regular spider. If this is the case, your money
would be better spent by updating your pages to improve
your ranking in search results. Once you accomplish this,
you can then consider using paid inclusion if you want to
speed up the time it will take for the regular spider to
revisit your pages.

The most important factor in deciding whether to use paid
URL inclusion is to decide if it's a good investment. To
figure this out, you have to look at the overall picture:
what kind of product or service are you selling and how
much traffic are you dependent on to see a profit?

If your company sells an inexpensive product that requires
a large volume of traffic to your site, paid inclusion may
not be the best investment for you; the biggest search
engines do not offer it, and they are the engines that will
bring you the majority of hits. On the other hand, if you
have a business that offers an expensive service or product
and requires a certain quality of traffic to your site, a
paid URL inclusion is most likely an excellent investment.

Another factor is whether or not your pages are updated
frequently. If the content changes on a daily or weekly
basis, paid inclusion will insure that your new pages are
indexed often and quickly. The new content is indexed by
the paid spider and then appears when new relevant keywords
are entered in the search engines. Using paid inclusion in
this case will guarantee that your pages are being indexed
in a timely manner.

You should also base your decision on whether or not your
pages are dynamically generated. These types of pages are
often difficult for regular spiders to locate and index.
Paying to include the most important pages of a dynamically
generated website will insure that the paid spider will
index them.

Sometimes a regular spider will drop pages from its search
engine, although these pages usually reappear in a few
months. There are a number of reasons why this can happen,
but by using paid URL inclusion, you will avoid the
possibility. Paid URL inclusion guarantees that your pages
are indexed, and if they are inadvertently dropped, the
search engine will be on the lookout to locate them
immediately.

As you can see, there are numerous factors to consider when
it comes to paid URL inclusion. It can be a valuable
investment depending on your situation. Evaluate your
business needs and your website to determine if paid URL
inclusion is a wise investment for your business goals.

How to Price Your eBook

2006-05-04T14:24:00.002-07:00

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How to Price Your eBook
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You've written and compiled an ebook. Now you have to
decide how much to charge for it. Finding the right
price is essential to the success of your product. If
you charge too little, people will think it's of
little value, and they won't purchase it, or even it
they do buy your book, you will have to sell thousands
of copies to get to the point where you can begin to
see a profit. If you price it too high when compared
with your competition, you will find yourself steadily
lowering the price, which will cause you all kinds of
new problems in the future. For example, if you sell
your ebook at first for $39.99, and later reduce it to
$24.95, don't you think the people who bought it for
$39.99 are going to be PISSED?

Choosing the right price for your ebook is one of the
most critical parts of the marketing process. The
first rule of pricing ebooks is to never underprice.
Determine the highest price your audience can afford,
and then if you find your book isn?t selling, you can
always reduce the price. Before you take that step,
make sure you are promoting your book like crazy on
the Internet and on websites. The price should be
aimed at bringing in profits, but you should never
forget that price is one of the factors that people
use in judging the value of your ebook ? before they
buy it. So always start with the highest price, and
then launch a mega-marketing campaign.

Pricing an ebook is particularly difficult because
ebooks are a fairly new commodity. Since they are
digital, the value of an ebook is as confusing as the
understanding of what digital actually is to the
average layperson. This means that we must look at
ebooks in a different light in order to determine
their actual worth in this brave, new cyber world.

Let's look at the difference between a book in print
and an ebook. A printed book is an object you can hold
in your hand, store on your bookshelf, even hand down
to the next generation. It is priced on factors such
as paper stock, design and production costs, and
marketing.

But the fact that unites ebooks and print books is
that they are composed of ideas. It is the ideas in
these books that have the ability to change, or
possibly transform, people's lives.

What do you think an idea is worth when evaluated
against the cost of paper and ink?

It is the IDEAS that are valuable! That is how you
determine the cost of your ebook.

What should I charge for my ideas?

There are all different formulas and methods for
determining the correct price for your ebook. Let's
begin with honing in on your ultimate goals.

Decide if your goal is to get wide distribution and
maximum exposure. This goal is aimed at drawing
customers to your business or service, or to
establishing the credibility of your reputation. If
this is your main goal, you should aim to keep your
price on the low side. Some authors have even priced
their ebooks at a profit loss to draw a high number of
new customers. The key is to find a price that
maximizes your profits and the number of books you
sell.

This is an excellent pricing strategy if you are
looking to acquire long-term customers. Long-term
customers are extremely likely to buy from you again
and again ? as long as the first ebook they buy is of
exceptional quality and beneficial to the customer.

However, if your book contains valuable ? and more
importantly NEW information, references, or techniques
? then you should aim to price it on the high end.

After you figure out your goal, you must figure out
what your audience's need is for your ebook. For
example, does your book solve a particular problem? If
it does, and solves it in a way that hasn't been
written about in one hundred other ebooks, you will be
able to achieve high sales at a high price. If your
book solves a problem or answers questions in a new
and unique way, you should price your book as high as
you can go. You will achieve larger profits this way,
but bring in fewer customers. Just make sure the
question or problem that your book solves is one that
is important and relevant to the majority of your
market audience. If your ideas are not common
knowledge, or you are presenting a brand new
technique, you will be able to sell books at a high
price. Just be prepared for your competition to
undercut you on price as soon as they hear about your
book.

Keep in mind that the above pricing strategy is
temporary. Eventually, you will cease to sell books at
this high price. So figure out in advance how long you
plan to offer your ebook at this high price, and when
that time is up, change your pricing strategy.

If you want to see large profits over customer draw,
aim for an audience that is looking for easy solutions
to their problems at a low price. If your book is
aimed at solving one particular problem rather than
general advice, then you can charge more. Start at the
highest price the market will bear to bring in the
largest profits, and plan to discount the book a
number of times throughout the year.

Marketing Strategies

The key that unlocks the sales potential of your ebook
is to find a single sentence that becomes your selling
handle. This sentence states what question or problem
your book answers and the benefits your ebook can
provide. Then be sure to use that sentence in every
piece of sales and promotional material, and every
time anyone asks you about your ebook.

Besides promoting your books assiduously online, there
are several other strategies that can help you sell
more books.

One is to give something away for free with your book,
such as a valuable bonus item. Or bundle several
ebooks under one price, which lowers the price for
each ebook if they were sold separately.

An effective technique for figuring out a price is to
send out a survey to your current customers. If these
customers have already bought an ebook from you, ask
for their opinion in terms of price. Do this by
creating a sales page for the new book, but don't
include a price on that page. Instead, add a number of
links to survey questions that ask pointed questions
to aid you in assigning a price to your ebook.

Another strategy is to test out prices by creating a
number of duplicate sales pages with different prices
on each page. Make sure your sales copy is exactly the
same on every page, and includes your selling-handle
sentence. Then figure out for each page the conversion
ratio between visitors to your site and sales of your
book. This will tell you what your optimum price is.

Ultimately, if you've written a book that solves a
problem or presents a new technique, your book will
bring in both traffic and profits. So be sure to write
that selling-handle sentence that sums up what problem
your book solves and what the benefits of your book
will be to the customers who purchase it. And then
watch your market come to you!

Protecting Your Search Engine Rankings

2006-05-04T14:24:00.001-07:00

===================================================
Protecting Your Search Engine Rankings
===================================================

Your website's ranking on search engines is a vital element
of your overall marketing campaign, and there are ways to
improve your link popularity through legitimate methods.
Unfortunately, the Internet is populated by bands of
dishonest webmasters seeking to improve their link
popularity by faking out search engines.

The good news is that search engines have figured this out,
and are now on guard for "spam" pages and sites that have
increased their rankings by artificial methods. When a
search engines tracks down such a site, that site is
demoted in ranking or completely removed from the search
engine's index.

The bad news is that some high quality, completely
above-board sites are being mistaken for these web page
criminals. Your page may be in danger of being caught up in
the "spam" net and tossed from a search engine's index,
even though you have done nothing to deserve such harsh
treatment. But there are things you can do - and things you
should be sure NOT to do - which will prevent this kind of
misperception.

Link popularity is mostly based on the quality of sites you
are linked to. Google pioneered this criteria for assigning
website ranking, and virtually all search engines on the
Internet now use it. There are legitimate ways to go about
increasing your link popularity, but at the same time, you
must be scrupulously careful about which sites you choose
to link to. Google frequently imposes penalties on sites
that have linked to other sites solely for the purpose of
artificially boosting their link popularity. They have
actually labeled these links "bad neighborhoods."

You can raise a toast to the fact that you cannot be
penalized when a bad neighborhood links to your site;
penalty happens only when you are the one sending out the
link to a bad neighborhood. But you must check, and
double-check, all the links that are active on your links
page to make sure you haven't linked to a bad neighborhood.

The first thing to check out is whether or not the pages
you have linked to have been penalized. The most direct way
to do this is to download the Google toolbar at
http://toolbar.google.com. You will then see that most
pages are given a "Pagerank" which is represented by a
sliding green scale on the Google toolbar.

Do not link to any site that shows no green at all on the
scale. This is especially important when the scale is
completely gray. It is more than likely that these pages
have been penalized. If you are linked to these pages, you
may catch their penalty, and like the flu, it may be
difficult to recover from the infection.

There is no need to be afraid of linking to sites whose
scale shows only a tiny sliver of green on their scale.
These sites have not been penalized, and their links may
grow in value and popularity. However, do make sure that
you closely monitor these kind of links to ascertain that
at some point they do not sustain a penalty once you have
linked up to them from your links page.

Another evil trick that illicit webmasters use to
artificially boost their link popularity is the use of
hidden text. Search engines usually use the words on web
pages as a factor in forming their rankings, which means
that if the text on your page contains your keywords, you
have more of an opportunity to increase your search engine
ranking than a page that does not contain text inclusive of
keywords.

Some webmasters have gotten around this formula by hiding
their keywords in such a way so that they are invisible to
any visitors to their site. For example, they have used the
keywords but made them the same color as the background
color of the page, such as a plethora of white keywords on
a white background. You cannot see these words with the
human eye - but the eye of search engine spider can spot
them easily! A spider is the program search engines use to
index web pages, and when it sees these invisible words, it
goes back and boosts that page's link ranking.

Webmasters may be brilliant and sometimes devious, but
search engines have figured these tricks out. As soon as a
search engine perceive the use of hidden text - splat! the
page is penalized.

The downside of this is that sometimes the spider is a bit
overzealous and will penalize a page by mistake. For
example, if the background color of your page is gray, and
you have placed gray text inside a black box, the spider
will only take note of the gray text and assume you are
employing hidden text. To avoid any risk of false penalty,
simply direct your webmaster not to assign the same color
to text as the background color of the page - ever!

Another potential problem that can result in a penalty is
called "keyword stuffing." It is important to have your
keywords appear in the text on your page, but sometimes you
can go a little overboard in your enthusiasm to please
those spiders. A search engine uses what is called
"Keyphrase Density" to determine if a site is trying to
artificially boost their ranking. This is the ratio of
keywords to the rest of the words on the page. Search
engines assign a limit to the number of times you can use a
keyword before it decides you have overdone it and
penalizes your site.

This ratio is quite high, so it is difficult to surpass
without sounding as if you are stuttering - unless your
keyword is part of your company name. If this is the case,
it is easy for keyword density to soar. So, if your keyword
is "renters insurance," be sure you don't use this phrase
in every sentence. Carefully edit the text on your site so
that the copy flows naturally and the keyword is not
repeated incessantly. A good rule of thumb is your keyword
should never appear in more than half the sentences on the
page.

The final potential risk factor is known as "cloaking." To
those of you who are diligent Trekkies, this concept should
be easy to understand. For the rest of you?cloaking is when
the server directs a visitor to one page and a search
engine spider to a different page. The page the spider sees
is "cloaked" because it is invisible to regular traffic,
and deliberately set-up to raise the site's search engine
ranking. A cloaked page tries to feed the spider everything
it needs to rocket that page's ranking to the top of the
list.

It is natural that search engines have responded to this
act of deception with extreme enmity, imposing steep
penalties on these sites. The problem on your end is that
sometimes pages are cloaked for legitimate reasons, such as
prevention against the theft of code, often referred to as
"pagejacking." This kind of shielding is unnecessary these
days due to the use of "off page" elements, such as link
popularity, that cannot be stolen.

To be on the safe side, be sure that your webmaster is
aware that absolutely no cloaking is acceptable. Make sure
the webmaster understands that cloaking of any kind will
put your website at great risk.

Just as you must be diligent in increasing your link
popularity and your ranking, you must be equally diligent
to avoid being unfairly penalized. So be sure to monitor
your site closely and avoid any appearance of artificially
boosting your rankings.

Choosing an eBook Compiler

2006-05-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

===================================================
Choosing an eBook Compiler
===================================================

What is an eBook compiler?

You've written and revised your ebook, hired an artist
who has produced outstanding graphics, and now you're
ready to actually put together your ebook. What you
need to make an ebook is software called an ebook
Compiler.

There are many different compilers to chose from, but
first, you need to know exactly what an ebook Compiler
does. Here is the simple explanation:

An ebook compiler is a software program that converts
either text pages or HTML text into a single
executable file or an ebook.

If you or someone you hired has created a file with
graphics in HTML, you will need an HTML ebook
Compiler. This type of compiler requires a working
knowledge of the HTML tag language. You can also use
software to do this for you, such as Microsoft
FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver.

How do you choose an eBook Compiler?

There are a large number of ebook Compilers available
on the market, all with glowing sales copy and tekkie
language. It can get very confusing and overwhelming
very fast without some simple guidelines to help you
figure out which compiler is right for you.

Choosing an ebook Compiler depends on a number of
factors:

1. How did you create your pages? Did you use HTML or
PDF format? There are many more compilers available
for HTML, but you can find some very good compilers
that will covert your PDF files into an ebook.

2. Consider how easy the program is to use and the
thoroughness of the software's instruction manual. It
is absolutely necessary that the compiler you buy have
an instructional manual, documentation, or online
"wizards." If it doesn't, your chances of figuring out
how to correctly use the program are compromised, and
the time required doing so is going to be significant.
Many manufacturers of compilers offer a free trial
version so you can play around with it and see if it
suits your needs. Download the trial version and
ascertain that it actually does what it claims to do.

3. Security features. If you plan to sell your ebook,
check out the security features of the compiler
software carefully. Security features should include:
prevention of the reader from modifying text, access
only to the pages you assign or by entering a
password, different ways of generating passwords such
as secure passwords, user-friendly, and open
passwords.

4. Supported scripting. Find out what scripts the
software supports. Scripting allows you to create
special effects, customize menus, and create and
modify other user interactivity. Choose a compiler
that permits you to include graphics, search windows,
hyperlinks, forms, surveys, etc.

5. Pricing. This is a factor that is not always easy
to gauge. The highest priced compilers are not
automatically your best choice. Choose your compiler
based on the necessary requirements for your Ebook.
That means you need to know exactly how you plan to
use your Ebook and what functions you require.

Let's look at some of these factors in more detail.
First of all, make sure you have the correct browser
to run the compiler. The majority of HTML compilers
use Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape. Check out
the version that the compiler supports. Compilers that
require a browser will not run on a computer that does
not have the required browser installed. However,
there are ebook HTML compilers that don't require you
to have any browser installed on your computer. These
compilers run on any Windows system.

If you choose a compiler that requires a browser,
check to ascertain that the browser is installed
correctly and that it is properly configured to the
specifications of the compiler. Check to see if
certain functions are turned off or on, and make any
adjustments according to the compiler instructions.

Security is an essential element of any compiler,
regardless of whether you plan to sell or give away
your ebook. One of the main reasons for using a
compiler is to prevent the reader from modifying the
contents. A secure compiler allows access only to the
pages you want the user to access unless they enter a
correct password.

To find out how secure an ebook HTML compiler is, open
an ebook on it. While it is open, check the temporary
directory of your computer. This can usually be
accessed by typing in C:\Windows\temp. If you see a
bunch of files when your ebook is open or running, it
means that your computer is decompressing the secure
data from your ebook before showing the ebook to the
viewer. This method is not secure! It means that
anyone with the knowledge of how to access these
temporary files can steal the secure data and then
they can fiddle with your ebook to their evil heart's
desire. Remember, one of the main purposes of buying
and using an HTML compiler is to protect your
property.

Next, let's discuss passwords. When trying to choose
an ebook Compiler, check out the type of passwords
that the compiler supports. Almost all compilers offer
some kind of password protection that insures that the
user can only access the contents they have purchased
from you. However, the best compilers offer varied
ways to generate different types of passwords. Choose
a compiler that gives you the options of secure,
user-friendly, and open password generation.

Another important factor when it comes to passwords is
how the compiler generates them. A compiler that has
internal password protection generation built into the
software is more secure than compilers that link to
live Internet password control systems.

Find out if the compiler generates passwords online.
If it has this option, it allows you to choose any
payment processing system you want or to do the
payment processing yourself.

Next, look into the size of ebook the compiler
supports. The best compilers can create ebooks up to 2
GB in size without decompressing the HTML pages or
images to your hard disk. Usually, ebooks that are 2
GB in size can easily support 6 GB of compressed data.
The catch here is that only text files will generally
be compressible.

You do not want a compiler that decompresses this
amount of data when the user attempts to open your
ebook. This would mean that anyone who purchases your
ebook will have to wait for all the data to decompress
before they can access your ebook right after
downloading it. So look for compilers that only
decompress temporarily files that are NOT HTML to the
local hardisk. Non-HTML files include Flash, Word, and
Acrobat files. This type of compiler is more secure
and certainly faster.

Make sure the compiler you choose is compatible with
your system software. Check out what version of
Windows it requires, and make sure you have that
version before buying your compiler.

Support issues are extremely important. Choose a
compiler that includes an installation program. This
program allows your user to choose a number of
different places on their computer to install the
ebook, to place a shortcut on their desktop, and to
add the ebook, if they choose, to the Start Programs
menu.

You also want excellent and accessible vendor support.
Make sure you can access quick technical support! At
three o'clock in the morning, this factor will be VERY
important. Also, check to see the terms of free
technical support offered. Unlimited technical support
is obviously the best option.

Check to see if the company that puts out the compiler
software offers a service level agreement. This
agreement is to assure you of their quality response
to your questions or problems.

A good thing to consider is how long the compiler has
been on the market. Usually, the version number will
give you an idea. The longer the program is on the
market, the higher the version number, the more bugs
have been worked out.

When choosing an ebook compiler, do not be swayed by
incredible promises and dazzling sales copy. Do your
homework first, and then consider all the above issues
and factors before choosing an ebook compiler.

Why Write an eBook?

2006-05-04T14:23:00.000-07:00

===================================================
Why Write an eBook?
===================================================

It's not true that everything that has been said has
already been written. Since that unfortunate axiom
came into use, the whole universe has changed.
Technology has changed, ideas have changed, and the
mindsets of entire nations have changed.

The fact is that this is the perfect time to write an
ebook. What the publishing industry needs are people
who can tap into the world as it is today - innovative
thinkers who can make the leap into the new millennium
and figure out how to solve old problems in a new way.
Ebooks are a new and powerful tool for original
thinkers with fresh ideas to disseminate information
to the millions of people who are struggling to figure
out how to do a plethora of different things.

Let's say you already have a brilliant idea, and the
knowledge to back it up that will enable you to write
an exceptional ebook. You may be sitting at your
computer staring at a blank screen wondering, "Why?
Why should I go through all the trouble of writing my
ebook when it's so impossible to get anything
published these days?

Well, let me assure you that publishing an ebook is
entirely different than publishing a book in print.
Let's look at the specifics of how the print and cyber
publishing industry differ, and the many reasons why
you should take the plunge and get your fingers
tapping across those keyboards!

Submitting a print book to conventional publishing
houses or to agents is similar to wearing a hair shirt
24/7. No matter how good your book actually is, or how
many critique services and mentor writers have told
you that "you've got what it takes," your submitted
manuscript keeps coming back to you as if it is a
boomerang instead of a valuable mine of information.

Perhaps, in desperation, you've checked out
self-publishing and found out just how expensive a
venture it can be. Most "vanity presses" require
minimal print runs of at least 500 copies, and even
that amount will cost you thousands of dollars. Some
presses' minimal run starts at 1,000 to 2,000 copies.
And that's just for the printing and binding. Add in
distribution, shipping, and promotional costs and -
well, you do the math. Even if you wanted to go this
route, you may not have that kind of money to risk.

Let's say you already have an Internet business with a
quality website and a quality product. An ebook is one
of the most powerful ways to promote your business
while educating people with the knowledge you already
possess as a business owner of a specific product or
service.

For example, let's say that you've spent the last
twenty-five years growing and training bonsai trees,
and now you're ready to share your knowledge and
experience. An ebook is the perfect way to reach the
largest audience of bonsai enthusiasts.

Ebooks will not only promote your business - they will
help you make a name for yourself and your company,
and establish you as an expert in your field. You may
even find that you have enough to say to warrant a
series of ebooks. Specific businesses are complicated
and often require the different aspects to be divided
in order for the reader to get the full story.

Perhaps your goals are more finely tuned in terms of
the ebook scene. You may want to build a whole
business around writing and publishing ebooks.
Essentially, you want to start an e-business. You are
thinking of setting up a website to promote and market
your ebooks. Maybe you're even thinking of producing
an ezine.

One of the most prevalent reasons people read ebooks
is to find information about how to turn their
Internet businesses into a profit-making machine. And
these people are looking to the writers of ebooks to
provide them with new ideas and strategies because
writers of ebooks are usually people who understand
the new cyberspace world we now live in. Ebook writers
are experts in Internet marketing campaigns and the
strategies of promoting and distributing ebooks. The
cyberspace community needs its ebooks to be successful
so that more and more ebooks will be written.

You may want to create affiliate programs that will
also market your ebook. Affiliates can be people or
businesses worldwide that will all be working to sell
your ebooks. Think about this? Do you see a formula
for success here?

Figure out what your subject matter is, and then
narrow it down. Your goal is to aim for specificity.
Research what's out there already, and try to find a
void that your ebook might fill.

What about an ebook about a wedding cake business? Or
an ebook about caring for elderly pets? How about the
fine points of collecting ancient pottery?

You don't have to have three masters degrees to write
about your subject. People need advice that is easy to
read and easily understood. Parents need advice for
dealing with their teenagers. College students need to
learn good study skills - quickly. The possibilities
are endless.

After you've writtten your ebook

Getting your ebook out is going to be your focus once
you've finished writing it, just as it is with print
books. People will hesitate to buy any book from an
author they've never heard of. Wouldn't you?

The answer is simple: give it away! You will see
profits in the form of promoting your own business and
getting your name out. You will find affiliates who
will ask you to place their links within your ebook,
and these affiliates will in turn go out and make your
name known. Almost every single famous ebook author
has started out this way.

Another powerful tool to attract people to your ebook
is to make it interactive. Invent something for them
to do within the book rather than just producing pages
that contain static text. Let your readers fill out
questionnaires, forms, even crossword puzzles geared
to testing their knowledge on a particular subject.
Have your readers hit a link that will allow them to
recommend your book to their friends and associates.
Or include an actual order form so at the end of their
reading journey, they can eagerly buy your product.

When people interact with books, they become a part of
the world of that book. The fact is just as true for
books in print as it is for ebooks.

That's why ebooks are so essential. Not only do they
provide a forum for people to learn and make sense of
their own thoughts, but they can also serve to promote
your business at the same time.

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2006-05-02T08:46:00.000-07:00

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2006-05-02T07:58:00.000-07:00

Evaulating Web Site Performance

2006-05-02T07:57:00.001-07:00

===================================================
Evaulating Web Site Performance
===================================================

Setting up a website is the very first step of an Internet
marketing campaign, and the success or failure of your site
depends greatly on how specifically you have defined your
website goals. If you don't know what you want your site to
accomplish, it will most likely fail to accomplish
anything. Without goals to guide you in developing and
monitoring your website, all your site will be is an online
announcement that you are in business.

If you expect your site to stimulate some form of action,
whether it is visitors filling out a form so a
representative can contact them, or purchasing a product,
there are steps you can take to insure that your website is
functioning at peak efficiency. One of the first indicators
of how well your site is working for you is finding out the
number of visitors in a given period of time. A good
baseline measurement is a month in which you haven't been
doing any unusual offline promotional activities.

However, just because hoards of people have passed through
your gates does not mean your site is successful. Usually,
you want those visitors to actually do something there. It
is equally important to monitor the number of visitors to
your site who made a purchase. This figure is called the
site conversion rate, and it is an essential element of the
efficacy of your website.

To find the site conversion rate, take the number of
visitors per month and figure out the percentage of them
that actually performed the action your site is set up for.
For example, if you had 2,000 hits to your site, but only
25 of them purchased your product, your site conversion
rate equals 1.25%. To get this figure, take your number of
visitors and divide that figure by the number of visitors
who made a purchase. Then divide that result by 100 (25 ?00 X 100).

If your website is set-up to get visitors to fill out a
form, make sure to then figure out what the difference is
between your site conversion rate and your sales conversion
rate. This is because not everyone who fills out your form
will actually become your customer. However, whether your
site is set-up to sell a service or product, or to get the
visitor to fill out a form, the site conversion rate will
measure the success or failure of your website whenever you
make changes to the site.

You may find that you need to implement some additional
marketing strategies if you find that traffic to your site
is extremely low. There are several effective methods to
improve the flow of traffic to your website, particularly
launching a search engine optimization campaign. This
campaign is targeted at increasing your position in search
engine results so that consumers can find your pages faster
and easier. You can either research the steps you need to
take to improve your search engine rankings, or employ a
search engine optimization company to do the work for you.
In either case, after your have improved your search engine
positions, make sure you keep on top of them by regular
monitoring and adjusting of your efforts to maintain high
positions.

Another factor to examine is how easy it is for a visitor
to your website to accomplish the action the site is set-up
for. For example, if your goal is for the visitor to fill
out a form, is this form easily accessible, or does the
visitor have to go through four levels to get to it? If
it's too difficult to get to, the customer may just throw
in the towel and move on to another site. Make sure your
buttons are highly visible, and the path to your form or
ordering page quickly accessible.

Finally, have a professional evaluate the copy on your
website. The goal is, of course, to get your visitor to
make a purchase or fill out your form. Website copy must be
specifically geared to your online campaign and not just a
cut and paste job from your company brochure. The right
copy can make the difference between profit and loss in
your online campaign.

Search Engine Keywords Selection

2006-05-02T07:57:00.000-07:00

===================================================
Search Engine Keywords Selection
===================================================

Search engines are the vehicles that drive potential
customers to your websites. But in order for visitors to
reach their destination - your website - you need to
provide them with specific and effective signs that will
direct them right to your site. You do this by creating
carefully chosen keywords.

Think of the right keywords as the Open Sesame! of the
Internet. Find the exactly right words or phrases, and
presto! hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front
door. But if your keywords are too general or too
over-used, the possibility of visitors actually making it
all the way to your site - or of seeing any real profits
from the visitors that do arrive - decreases dramatically.

Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing
strategy. If they are not chosen with great precision, no
matter how aggressive your marketing campaign may be, the
right people may never get the chance to find out about it.
So your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather
and evaluate keywords and phrases.

You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words
for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven't
followed certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG.
It's hard to be objective when you are right in the center
of your business network, which is the reason that you may
not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the
inside. You need to be able to think like your customers.
And since you are a business owner and not the consumer,
your best bet is to go directly to the source.

Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of
potential search words and phrases yourself, ask for words
from as many potential customers as you can. You will most
likely find out that your understanding of your business
and your customers' understanding is significantly
different.

The consumer is an invaluable resource. You will find the
words you accumulate from them are words and phrases you
probably never would have considered from deep inside the
trenches of your business.

Only after you have gathered as many words and phrases from
outside resources should you add your own keyword to the
list. Once you have this list in hand, you are ready for
the next step: evaluation.

The aim of evaluation is to narrow down your list to a
small number of words and phrases that will direct the
highest number of quality visitors to your website. By
"quality visitors" I mean those consumers who are most
likely to make a purchase rather than just cruise around
your site and take off for greener pastures. In evaluating
the effectiveness of keywords, bear in mind three elements:
popularity, specificity, and motivation.

Popularity is the easiest to evaluate because it is an
objective quality. The more popular your keyword is, the
more likely the chances are that it will be typed into a
search engine which will then bring up your URL.

You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity
of keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating
based on real search engine activity. Software such as
WordTracker will even suggest variations of your words and
phrases. The higher the number this software assigns to a
given keyword, the more traffic you can logically expect to
be directed to your site. The only fallacy with this
concept is the more popular the keyword is, the greater the
search engine position you will need to obtain. If you are
down at the bottom of the search results, the consumer will
probably never scroll down to find you.

Popularity isn't enough to declare a keyword a good choice.
You must move on to the next criteria, which is
specificity. The more specific your keyword is, the greater
the likelihood that the consumer who is ready to purchase
your goods or services will find you.

Let's look at a hypothetical example. Imagine that you have
obtained popularity rankings for the keyword "automobile
companies." However, you company specializes in bodywork
only. The keyword "automobile body shops" would rank lower
on the popularity scale than "automobile companies," but it
would nevertheless serve you much better. Instead of
getting a slew of people interested in everything from
buying a car to changing their oil filters, you will get
only those consumers with trashed front ends or crumpled
fenders being directed to your site. In other words,
consumers ready to buy your services are the ones who will
immediately find you. Not only that, but the greater the
specificity of your keyword is, the less competition you
will face.

The third factor is consumer motivation. Once again, this
requires putting yourself inside the mind of the customer
rather than the seller to figure out what motivation
prompts a person looking for a service or product to type
in a particular word or phrase. Let's look at another
example, such as a consumer who is searching for a job as
an IT manager in a new city. If you have to choose between
"Seattle job listings" and "Seattle IT recruiters" which do
you think will benefit the consumer more? If you were
looking for this type of specific job, which keyword would
you type in? The second one, of course! Using the second
keyword targets people who have decided on their career,
have the necessary experience, and are ready to enlist you
as their recruiter, rather than someone just out of school
who is casually trying to figure out what to do with his or
her life in between beer parties. You want to find people
who are ready to act or make a purchase, and this requires
subtle tinkering of your keywords until your find the most
specific and directly targeted phrases to bring the most
motivated traffic to you site.

Once you have chosen your keywords, your work is not done.
You must continually evaluate performance across a variety
of search engines, bearing in mind that times and trends
change, as does popular lingo. You cannot rely on your log
traffic analysis alone because it will not tell you how
many of your visitors actually made a purchase.

Luckily, some new tools have been invented to help you
judge the effectiveness of your keywords in individual
search engines. There is now software available that
analyzes consumer behavior in relation to consumer traffic.
This allows you to discern which keywords are bringing you
the most valuable customers.

This is an essential concept: numbers alone do not make a
good keyword; profits per visitor do. You need to find
keywords that direct consumers to your site who actually
buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your
product. This is the most important factor in evaluating
the efficacy of a keyword or phrase, and should be the
sword you wield when discarding and replacing ineffective
or inefficient keywords with keywords that bring in better
profits.

Ongoing analysis of tested keywords is the formula for
search engine success. This may sound like a lot of work -
and it is! But the amount of informed effort you put into
your keyword campaign is what will ultimately generate your
business' rewards.

Why You Should Promote Residual Affiliate Programs

2006-04-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

Why You Should Promote Residual Affiliate Programs

Are you a webmaster in need of additional income? Or are you planning to set up an online business but you still don't have any product to sell? If so, affiliate marketing may be the best solution for your problems. With affiliate marketing, you won't need to worry about the products you have to sell. All you need to have is a website with sufficient contents that are related to the products of a certain online company offering affiliate programs. By becoming a member of the program, or by becoming an affiliate, you can start earning a certain amount of money right away!

Affiliate marketing is some sort of business relationship established between a merchant and his affiliates. In affiliate marketing, an affiliate agrees to direct some traffic to a merchant's website. If that traffic is converted into some kind of action, like a visitor purchasing a product on the merchant's website or a visitor becoming a lead for the company, the affiliate who directed the traffic will be compensated. Compensation may take the form of either a percentage sales commission for the sales generated or a fixed fee predetermined upon the application of the affiliate on the merchant's affiliate program.

Promising a lot of benefits both for the merchants and the affiliates, affiliate marketing has become one of the most popular online marketing methods today. In fact, almost every merchant or retailer site today offers an affiliate program that any one can join into. Most retailers would entice people to become affiliates or members of their program by promising great benefits like large commissions, lifetime commissions, click through incomes and a lot of other benefits. But would all these affiliate programs bring off the same benefits?

Most affiliate programs would pay you, as an affiliate, a one-time commission for every sale or lead you brought to the merchant's website. Commissions for this kind of affiliate programs are usually large, ranging from 15% to a high of about 60%. Other affiliate programs would pay you a fixed fee for every click through or traffic you send to the merchant's site. Programs like this often pay a smaller fee for every click through, usually not getting any larger than half a dollar. The good thing about this kind of program, however, is that the visitor won't have to purchase anything in order for the affiliate to get compensated.

Another type of affiliate program is the residual income affiliate program. Residual affiliate programs usually pay only a small percentage of sales commission for every sale directed by the affiliate to the merchant's site. This commission often comes only in the range of 10% to 20% sales commission. Because of this, many people ignore residual affiliate program and would rather opt for the high paying one-time commission affiliate program. Are these people making a mistake, or are they making the right decision?

We can't tell, for sure, if people are making a mistake by choosing a high paying one-time commission affiliate program. But we can definitely say that they are making a large mistake if they ignore residual affiliate programs. Residual affiliate programs would indeed pay at a lower rate, but merchants offering such kind of programs would generally pay you regular and ongoing commissions for a single affiliate initiated sale! That means, for the same effort you made in promoting a particular affiliate program, you get paid only once in a one-time commission program, and a regular and ongoing commission for a residual program!

So, are the benefits of promoting residual affiliate programs clearer to you now? Or are they still vague? If they are still vague, then let's make them a bit clearer with this example.

Suppose there are two online merchants both offering web hosting services on their sites. The first merchant offers a one-time commission type of affiliate program that pays $80 for every single affiliate initiated sale. The second merchant also offers an affiliate program, but this time a residual affiliate program that pays only $10 for every single affiliate initiated sale. As an affiliate, we may get attracted at once at what the first merchant is offering, as $80 is definitely a lot larger than $10. But by thinking things over before actually getting into them, one may be able to see that the second merchant is offering us more opportunity to earn a larger amount of money.

Supposed you have directed traffic to the merchant and it converted into a sale, you'll get paid once by the first merchant for the sale you have initiated. But with the second merchant, you'll get paid monthly for as long as the customer you have referred to the merchant continues to avail of the web hosting service. That means that for the same effort of getting one customer to avail of the merchant's service, you get paid monthly in residual affiliate programs while you only get paid once in a one-time commission type of affiliate programs.

So, are residual affiliate programs worth promoting? Definitely yes, because you virtually get more money from these types of affiliate programs in the long run! And would residual affiliate programs work best for you? Probably not, probably yes. It is not really for me to tell. But with the benefits that residual affiliate marketing can provide, it would really be unwise to ignore such programs.

How Many Affiliate Checks Do You Want To Receive?

2006-04-28T12:03:00.002-07:00

How Many Affiliate Checks Do You Want To Receive?

Affiliate Marketing is by far, one of the easiest ways to make money online. It is a revenue sharing business relationship between the affiliate who agrees to promote the products or services, and the merchant who offers them.

The affiliate advertises the merchant's products and services and gets a commission for every successful referral. Every time a customer is referred to the merchant's site, through the affiliate's efforts, and makes a purchase, the affiliate gets a share of the profit. No payment is due to the affiliate until successful results are realized. Compensation is based on either number of visits (Pay-per-click), registrant (Pay-per-lead), or commission for each sale (Pay-per-sale).

Affiliate Marketers can earn a few bucks to thousands of dollars with affiliate programs. The opportunity to earn in affiliate marketing can only be limited by the affiliate's determination, creativity and strategy. It is a brilliant way to earn online, and you do not have to produce your own product or service to make a buck. By advertising your merchant's products passionately, you get more in return. Profits in affiliate marketing usually start small but can get larger as the campaign starts to build up steam.

There are many ways that an affiliate marketer can do to maximize their profits. If you ask any affiliate marketer how many affiliate checks they would want to receive, they will most likely want to get as many as possible. Some affiliate checks are small, amounting to nothing more than $25.
While others are large and can easily reach the thousands and even more. Over time, these affiliate checks may build up to a really impressive amount. However, making a fortune in affiliate marketing is not instant. You should put in enough work and effort as well. You have to use your imagination to find more ways to attract more web traffic that can convert to sales for the merchant and profit for you as well.

How many affiliate checks do you want to receive? Most affiliate marketers will enthusiastically reply that they want to receive as many affiliate checks as possible. However, is it as easy as it sounds? Does joining many affiliate marketers guarantee more affiliate checks that really amount to something? The answer is No. Most affiliate marketers assume that joining multiple affiliate programs is a wise option. Because, it is very easy to join affiliate programs and there is really nothing to lose, affiliate marketers are tempted to join as many programs they can get their hands on. Thus, they fail to give their affiliate programs enough attention and work that they ought to receive. The maximum potential of the affiliate programs are not realized and the resulting income from these programs will almost certainly be disappointing.

The best way to achieve multiple streams of income is to concentrate on one affiliate program first. Choose a product or service that you can promote passionately. Pick a product in which you have complete trust. The best products and services to promote are those that you use personally. Your prospects will be able to sense your sincerity whenever you promote a product that you have experienced. This will greatly enhance your credibility as well as your product's marketability and will really encourage your prospect to purchase or avail of the product or service.

As soon as your first affiliate program is making a reasonable profit then you can proceed to joining another affiliate program and repeat the process. "Too much, too soon" is a common pitfall in affiliate marketing. Joining too many affiliate programs simultaneously in the hopes of having multiple streams of income simply does not work.

Focus first on one affiliate program and work on it so that it makes a good profit. Then, go find another promising program and give it your best effort. The question should not be how many affiliate checks you want to receive, but how many "high-paying" affiliate checks can you receive. The answer lies in your determination to succeed and determination to maximize your earning potential. With the right tools, the right actions, and perseverance you can definitely make a good profit out of affiliate marketing.

5 Things You Must Have to Succeed in Affiliate Marketing

2006-04-28T12:03:00.001-07:00

5 Things You Must Have to Succeed in Affiliate Marketing

The idea of being mere passengers on a ship meant to sail to the farthest points does not appeal to people who like to put their destiny into their own hands. They have the desire of maneuvering the ships themselves, of being able to be the ones to take it anywhere they want to. Being aboard a ship on its way to a particularly great destination is something each and every one of them dreams of, and the knowledge that they have the capacity to steer it themselves is what makes them actually want to.

Perhaps this is the reason why more and more people are succumbing to one of the most popular businesses around – affiliate marketing. It is because in this business, there are no bosses to order the employees around. There are no deadlines to meet and no clutter of work do to. One only needs to be equipped with the tools needed to succeed in a business such as this, and he is bound to get what his heart ultimately desires.

Just what are the things needed to be able to succeed in affiliate marketing? What must one have within himself to be able to do well in this industry? There is a lot of competition involved in affiliate marketing, and to be able to rise above the norm, one must be equipped with just the right stuff necessary to propel him forward. There are five things one must ultimately possess if he wants to achieve the glory he is yearning for in this business, and these five things are a must for him to possess to be able to stand out among the rest.

The very first quality one must possess if he wants to try his hand in affiliate marketing is the willingness to learn and be trained. Treading through unfamiliar territory is scary stuff if one is not properly equipped, and he might get lost amidst a jungle of the unknown. Learning the tricks of the trade is also an important aspect of the game, and one’s willingness to know it all will give him far better advantages in the business than he could ever imagine.

The second quality one must possess is the willingness to invest time and effort even if direct results do not seem at all apparent. Although several months may pass without good news, it is important for one who has his foot in the industry to hold on and wait. It is this quality which would save him from giving up after investing a lot of himself in the business.

The third quality one must possess is self-determination. If one wants to conquer the affiliate marketing world, he must have the ability to push himself ahead. Never having to say die is a quality each and every affiliate marketer should possess, and the ability to motivate oneself into scaling greater heights is an ability which would actually take an affiliate marketer there.

The fourth quality one must possess is discipline. If one knows how to teach himself to work everyday with all the energy he can muster, then he is close to achieving what he has set his heart to having in the first place.

The fifth and last quality one must possess is optimism. Negative attitudes and hearsays should not discourage an affiliate marketer from pursuing what he has to in order to make life better for himself and for everyone concerned. Neither should anyone influence his attitude toward the business, because once in it, it is a must for him to be the captain of his ship and the master of his soul.

The ingredients to success in a business such as affiliate marketing are diverse and manifold, but the most important thing one needs to be able to make it big lies in himself alone. It is he who has the capacity to do everything to be able to realize his prospects, and the desire which fuels his heart in doing so is the gasoline which should keep the engine going.

Affiliate marketing is all about putting one’s fate into his own hands. The right attitude is the key to being able to steer one’s ship into that part of the ocean where a certain kind of serenity can be found, one that permeates the atmosphere as the ship sails calmly on.

3 Necessary Tools for the High Rolling Affiliate Marketer

2006-04-28T12:03:00.000-07:00

3 Necessary Tools for the High Rolling Affiliate Marketer

What does it take to become a successful Affiliate Marketer? What are the ingredients of an affiliate marketing success story? Is there a shortcut to Affiliate Marketing glory? All these questions play around in the minds of affiliate marketers who want to make it big in this business.
Although affiliate marketing is touted as one of the easiest and most effective ways to earn money online, it is not as easy as it sounds. The wise affiliate marketer plans every action and executes it the best way he can. He should also maximize the potential to earn by utilizing the right tools necessary for a successful Affiliate Marketing business. We have consulted some of the most successful affiliate marketers in the business and below are the top three necessary tools for a successful affiliate marketing business.

Important Tool #1: Your Own Website

The most important and indispensable tool in Affiliate Marketing is your own website. The first step in any successful affiliate marketing business is building a good, credible and professional looking website. Your website is the jump off point of all your marketing efforts. Thus, you must first build a user-friendly website, which will appeal to your prospects and encourage them to click on the links to the products and service you are promoting and make a purchase. Therefore, you must first concentrate your efforts in building a website that will cater to what your prospects need.

The most important thing you should consider is that almost all web users go online to look for information, not necessarily to go and buy something. Above all else, make your website full of original, relevant and useful content. People will love articles that are appealing and helpful. Keep in mind that, in the internet, content is still king and good quality content will not only build your credibility, it can also help you achieve a higher search engine ranking. By posting relevant and useful articles, you establish yourself as a credible expert in the field, making you a more trustworthy endorser of the product or service you promote. Establishing a good reputation is a good step in building up a loyal consumer base.

Important Tool #2: Incentives

Competition is extremely tight in the internet world. You must always be one-step ahead of your rivals to ensure that you capture a significant share of your target market. Therefore, you must use every possible means to encourage people not only to visit your site but also to click and proceed to the websites of the products and services you are promoting. Building an opt-in email list is one of the best ways to gather prospects. Offer a newsletter or an e-zine. Better yet, offer incentives to your prospects to encourage them to subscribe to your newsletters. You can present free softwares, access to exclusive services and other freebies that will be helpful to your prospects.

Important Tool #3: Link Popularity

The importance of driving highly targeted traffic to your website cannot be emphasized enough. The all-important web traffic is at the top of the list of the most important entities in the internet world. Attracting people to your site should be the first step you should carry out. Do everything to achieve a high search engine ranking. Link Popularity is one of the factors that search engines use to determine search engine rankings. Therefore, to enhance your link popularity, you must launch an aggressive reciprocal link campaign.

One of the best ways to do this – at no cost at all – is by submitting articles, with your website's link at the resource box, to e-zines and free article sites. You will not only gain exposure, you will also have the opportunity to advertise for free, just include a link back to your site. The more sites you submit your articles to, the better your link popularity is. Make your articles original, relevant and useful so that more websites will pick it up and post it.

These are but three of the many tools that an affiliate marketer can use to maximize earning potential. The possibilities are endless and are limited only by your imagination, creativity, resourcefulness and determination. You can always explore other ideas and adapt other strategies, which you think might help you become a high rolling affiliate marketer.

Why So Many People Fail In Affiliate Marketing

2006-04-28T12:02:00.002-07:00

Why So Many People Fail In Affiliate Marketing

More and More people are lured into affiliate marketing and you might be one of them. Indeed, affiliate marketing is one of the most effective means of generating a full-time income through the Internet. It’s a fair deal between the merchandiser and his affiliates as both benefit from each sale materialized. Like in other kinds of business, a great deal of the profits in affiliate marketing depends on the affiliate’s advertising, promoting and selling strategies. Everyday, as affiliate marketing industry expands, competition heightens as well so an affiliate marketer must be creative enough to employ unique and effective ways to convince potential buyers to purchase or avail of the products and services offered.

Compared to traditional advertising practices, affiliate programs are more effective, risk-free and cost-efficient. But why do many people still fail in affiliate marketing? There are a lot of reasons and a lot of areas in the program to look into. The most critical aspect in the affiliate program is advertising. Many affiliate marketers fail in this aspect because they lack hard work, which is the most important thing in affiliate marketing and in all other kinds of business as well. Although it pays to be lucky, you cannot merely rely on it. Affiliate marketing isn’t as simple as directing customers to the business site. If you want to earn big, of course, you have to invest time and great amount of hard work in promoting the products. As earlier mentioned, the competition is very high and customers nowadays are very wise, too. After all, who doesn’t want to get the best purchase—that is, to pay less and get more in terms of quantity and quality.

Lack of preparation is also a reason why one fails in affiliate marketing, whether he is a merchandiser or an affiliate. Part of the preparation is researching. On the part of the merchant, he has to be highly selective in choosing the right affiliate websites for his affiliate program. In order to be sure he has the best choices, he must have exhausted his means in looking for highly interested affiliates whose sites are sure fit to his products and services. The affiliate site’s visitors must match his targeted customers. On the other hand, the affiliate marketer must likewise research on the good-paying merchandisers before he signs up for an affiliate program. He must ensure that the merchants’ products and services match his interests so he can give his full attention and dedication to the program. He can get valuable information by joining affiliate forums, comparing different affiliate programs and reading articles on affiliate marketing where he can get tips from experienced affiliate marketers on how to choose the best merchants and products with high conversion rate.

The website is a very important tool in the whole affiliate program. As an affiliate marketer, you should plan how your site is going to be, from domain name to the design, the lay-out, the content, and ads. Some users are particular about what they see at first glance and thus when they find your site ugly, they won’t read through the content even if your site has many things to say and offer. On the other hand, there those who want information more than anything else. Affiliate marketers with “rich-content” web sites are usually the ones who prosper in this business because the content improves traffic to the site. Websites with high quality contents—with relevant keywords and more importantly, right information about the product and not empty hyped-up advertisements—allow you to earn big in affiliate marketing even when you’re asleep. If you won’t be able to sustain the interest of your site visitor, you won’t be able to lead him to the merchants’ site. No click-through means no sale and thus, no income on your part.

Selecting a top level domain name is also crucial to the success of the affiliate program. Lots of affiliate sites don’t appear in the search engine results because they are deemed by affiliate managers as personal sites. Major search engines and directories would think of your site as transient ones and thus, they won’t list it in the directory. Before you decide on the domain name, know first what you are going to promote. Many fail because their sites are not appropriately named, so even when they feature the exact products the customer is looking for, the customer might think the site is not relevant and thus, won’t enter the site.

Above all, an affiliate marketer must be willing to learn more. Certainly, there are still a lot of things to learn and so an affiliate marketer must continue to educate himself so he can improve his marketing strategies. Many fail because they don’t grow in the business and they are merely concerned about earning big quickly. If you want long-term and highly satisfactory results, take time to learn the ins and outs of the business. Continue to improve your knowledge especially with the basics in affiliate marketing ranging from advertising to programming, web page development, and search engine optimization techniques. Likewise, study the needs and wants of your site users and how different merchandisers compete with each other.

Keep on trying; don’t get disappointed if your first attempts did not pay off. Thousands are attracted by the possibility of generating skyrocketing incomes through affiliate marketing and so they sign up in any affiliate program without carefully understanding every aspect of the business. When they don’t get instant results, they quit and sign up for another program and repeat the process of just copying links and referring them to others. When you sign up for an affiliate program, don’t expect to get rich in an instant. Work on your advertising strategies and be patient. You’ll never know how much you can get if you don’t persevere.

The 3 Easiest Ways For Newbies To Start In Affiliate Marketing

2006-04-28T12:02:00.001-07:00

The 3 Easiest Ways For Newbies To Start In Affiliate Marketing

With the aid of the Internet, you can almost have everything right at your fingertips. With just a few clicks you get access to thousands and even millions of pieces of information and data on virtually any field of interest. As years pass by, the Internet continuous to effect radical changes in many facets of human endeavors, including commerce. Experts say that the information space, commonly known as the “world wide web,” grows by over a million pages everyday as more and more people utilize the Internet for information, education, entertainment, business and other personal reasons. It doesn’t take a business-oriented individual to realize that this phenomenon can bring about sky-high financial gains. The Internet’s fast-growing popularity in the recent years is surely an opportunity for business that any entrepreneur would not want to miss.

You might be thinking only businessmen can make much money out of the Internet, don’t you? Think again. You too can earn big bucks through the Internet even if you don’t have products to sell and high-profile and established company. How? That is through affiliate marketing. You might have come across these words over the net while surfing. Affiliate marketing is a revenue sharing between a merchant and an affiliate who gets paid for referring or promoting the merchants’ products and services. It is one of the burgeoning industries nowadays because it is proven to be cost-efficient and quantifiable means of attaining great profit both for the merchant and the affiliate and other players in the affiliate program, such as the affiliate network or affiliate solution provider.

Affiliate marketing works effectively for the merchant and the affiliate. To the first, he gains opportunities to advertise his products to a larger market, which increases his chances to earn. The more affiliate websites or hard-working affiliates he gets, the more sales he can expect. By getting affiliates to market his products and services, he is saving himself time, effort and money in looking for possible markets and customers. When a client clicks on the link in the affiliate website, purchases the product, recommends it to others who look for the same item or buys it again, the merchant multiplies his chances of earning. On the other hand, the affiliate marketer benefits from each customer who clicks on the link in his website and who actually purchases the product or avails of the service provided by the merchant. In most cases, the affiliate gets commision per sale, which can be fixed percentage or fixed amount.

If you want to be an affiliate marketer and make fortunes out of the Internet, you may follow the following three most basic and easiest ways to start an effective affiliate marketing program. First is to identify a particular thing you are interested in or passionate about so you won’t be bored and forced to develop your affiliate web site later on. Focusing on a specific area you know very well will help you bring out your best without much risks and effort. You can add a personal touch to your site and give your visitors who are possible buyers an impression that you are an expert in your field. In this way, you gain their trust and eventually encourage them to buy the products you endorse. Next is to look for good paying merchants and products or services related to your interest and create now a website. In choosing the products, you must also consider its conversion rate—the number of visitors-turned-buyers. There are various affiliate networks and affiliate solution providers that can give you info on the most profitable products and best paying merchants. The key here is, be wise enough to choose the right one.

Now that you have decided where to concentrate, have chosen the products to endorse and the merchant you are supporting and have created your own web site with top level domain name and reliable hosting, you are ready to promote. This is a crucial task, since it is through this that you would be able to increase traffic to the business website, sales and of course, profit. In affiliate marketing, it is possible to earn large sums of money in a short span of time especially when you’re endorsing high-priced items. Expensive products are hard to sell; however, with the right marketing strategies and sales techniques, you can draw visitors to the merchant’s site and make them buy the products. How to promote the products, though, would need a separate discussion. Continue to educate yourself by reading books or other articles online about the best advertising techniques.

Keep in mind, there is no facile and quick path towards success. Affiliate marketing may seem very tempting due to numerous encouraging testimonies of merchants and affiliate marketers alike who have benefited from it, but it entails great deal of hard work and persistence. Likewise, you need to be creative, flexible and willing to embrace new ideas to market your partners’ products until you find the perfect strategy that works for a specific market that you are targeting. Neither signing up for an affiliate program nor copying ads and leading others towards the merchants’ site doesn’t guarantee success yet. Many affiliate marketers fail to understand this, so when they don’t make sales, they quit, look for other programs and repeat the same mistake. In the end, they conclude that affiliate marketing is just one of those scams in the Internet. Even as you sleep, you can work your way to great financial success if you employ the right strategies in affiliate marketing. Be creative, be smart and surely, you’ll achieve your goals.

Finding Hot Selling Products to Sell

2006-04-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

Finding Hot Selling Products to Sell

In order to locate products that sell online, we need to understand what people already want to buy. Finding a good choice of idea or product is always accompanied by interfacing the demand for the product in the current market and the level of competition or market share that the product will be having in the long run.

“What should I sell? What products are hot selling? These are the questions most people are trying to find an answer in order for them to make the definite decision. And if we really want to know the answer to this question, our only choice is to do some research. There are all kinds of twists along the road that may lead you to think you have a high-demand idea. We must be able to understand and satisfy the need, wants and expectations of our customers on a certain product that they’re trying to buy. This three are called the basic needs or minimum requirements in a purchase. Needs are the basic reasons or the minimum requirements consumers are looking for in a product or service. They are called the qualifying or “gatekeeper” dimensions in a purchase. Wants are the determining dimensions among many choices. Expectations, on the other hand, are values or intangibles associated with a product or service. Expectations are actually part of “wants” but they become extremely important when products or services are not differentiated.

For example, in reading a logic book, university students look for the following: Relevant logic concepts use of simple language, easy to understand and affordable prices. These similar ideas can be applied to Internet Sales as well. After all, the Internet is just another place to sell products. The basic concept of demand is the same there as it is anywhere else, and has been all the time.

Now, the second thing that must be considered in finding “hot” products to sell are the level of competition or the market shares do your product will have. Market share or level of competition means the ratio of your brand sales versus the total market sales. While companies would naturally define its target competitors, it is actually the consumers who ultimately decide the competitive frame, or the list related products or services that consumers consider when exercising their purchasing power. We must therefore choose the market segment where we can have a potential leadership or at least a strong challenger role. Because the overriding objective of getting into this business is not just to satisfy the needs and wants of our customers but to do so profitably better than his competition. Otherwise, our competition will end up satisfying the customers better than our own interest.

Third factor to be considered in finding hot selling products is finding out the general interest level about the product. General interest in a product helps us to gauge where our demand and competition numbers fall into the big picture. Simply saying, if there isn’t much demand for the product, and there isn’t much competition, it would seem that it might not be good a good put up for sale. But the research doesn’t stop here; there is one last thing to be considered to exactly find the hot selling products that you’ve been looking for. We must also learn how others are advertising those products. If there are a good number of them doing so, it may mean that it’s a good product to get into. Coming to the last phase of the process is analyzing and evaluating all the information that has been collected. We have to look at all of the data we have collected on demand, competition, and advertising, and make decision as how they all balance out.

And here are several factors or aspects that must be measured: (a) not enough demand means not enough people are going to buy (b) too much competition means not enough of a profit to go around (c) too much advertising drives up the price of pay per click ads, and competition as well (d) not enough general interest, combined with low demand, means there may not be a good market even if there is competition trying to make the sales.

How to Drive Laser-Targeted Traffic Using Overture

2006-04-28T12:01:00.000-07:00

How to Drive Laser-Targeted Traffic Using Overture

In online marketing business like affiliate marketing, no traffic means no sales. That’s the reason why most affiliates or webmasters easily shell out even big bucks just to get top rankings on the search engines. Once you are promoting a product or service in you web page, you need to have more visitors that can be potential consumers to your products and services. This is one of the fundamental rules to succeed in online marketing business. Here, you just need to start and get it right and you can do some things wrong but still manage to succeed. Don’t ever try to get it wrong because no matter how hard you work, you can never find yourself on the way to success.

I guess everyone will agree if I said that obtaining enough highly targeted traffic is the key to success in affiliate marketing business. This method is proven to be effective if you’re promoting or reselling product or service online. One of the best and most secured marketing strategies that affiliate marketers can employ is the strategy of paying for performance. This means that your investments are used only on results such as additional sales and incomes.

Let’s take a practical example. Paying for performance could mean giving a commission to a sales person only when new sale is made. This strategy assures you real profit because you can already compute the amount money you have to spend for every new sale made. Also, you can avoid spending any marketing bucks because every cent you use up has either come from sale or will generate a sale in the future.

And one of the proven and most efficient ways of acquiring sales in affiliate marketing business is by drawing laser-targeted traffic towards your web site and converting them to sales by means of “Pay-Per-Click” Search Engines (PPCSEs).

Overture claims to be the Internet’s best pay-per-click search engine. It is the world’s leading resource of Pay-For-Performance search on the web. And what’s more enticing about Overture? When you advertise in Overture Premium Listings, your site will absolutely appear in the leading U.S. search engines like Yahoo, InfoSpace, MSN, Netscape, AltaVista, Lycos and more. Plus, you can get the benefit of reaching more than 80% of active Internet users.

PPCSEs like Overture can bring impressive sales because they permit you to pay for performance by means of attracting precisely targeted traffic to your niche. And this means people or site visitors who are actively searching for what precisely you are offering or selling. Overture’s secret is to drive laser-targeted traffic to your website by proposing or bidding on keywords that are related to the product or services that you are offering. And this strategy works this way: the more exact the keyword is, the better results you’ll receive and the less you’ll have to spend for each new sale.

Overture drives targeted traffic by keeping you away from the general keywords that are very common and usually come expensive and by casting a wide net of laser-focused keywords that are more targeted, not so expensive, and with high conversion rate. I’ll tell you, attracting laser-targeted traffic through Overture is nothing but a “Win-Win” Situation.

Overture’s strategy also allows your visitors to respond. And what’s important once you get your visitors to respond? Well, you are given a chance to develop lifetime customers that will patronize your product and will buy from you over an over again. Bear in mind that one-time sales can’t be a key in creating a highly-profitable business especially online. You can only achieve this through PPCSEs like Overture, which gets your site visitors to respond. And once it happens, you can constantly market and sell your products to them.

Another tactic that Overture uses in order to gain laser-targeted traffic is to have a “Back-Up Response” for those who “almost bought” your product on the first visit. To successfully realize this, you need to market and advertise to them over and over again until you make them a new customer. Offer them an incentive so that they’ll allow you to advertise to them over a certain time span by means of e-mail or post mail. Here are some of the back-up responses which you can use: send a free e-mail newsletter, give a free catalog and offer a promo or sweepstakes which gives them the chance to win free merchandise.

Other things that will surely attract lifetime customers to your site are offering valued customer discounts, giving seasonal and special offers especially to your repeat customers and any other incentives to purchase. Don’t get me wrong with this; the abovementioned strategies can surely develop a trusted relationship between you and your customers. Aside from patronizing your products over their lifetime, they may even refer others to you or to your site.

To sum up, one of the most effective and secured marketing strategies that any businessman can utilize particularly those who are involved in online marketing is the approach of only paying for performance. And one of the most helpful online strategies to create more sales is by pulling laser targeted traffic towards your website and converting them to sales by means of Pay-Per-Click Search Engines like Overture.

What's LinkShare, And Do I Need To Use It?

2006-04-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

What's LinkShare, And Do I Need To Use It?

Online affiliate marketing is one of the most effective, cheapest and fastest ways to promote merchandise. With millions of people getting access to the Internet everyday, there’s a great chance for a merchant to introduce his products and services to a wider market, thereby, maximizing his revenue.

Likewise, affiliate marketing is an excellent way to generate full-time income for a home-based affiliate marketer. For someone who is jaded of going through a grueling eight-hour work routine, affiliate marketing offers a great opportunity to earn big without wearing himself out—physically, mentally and emotionally.

In affiliate marketing, both parties are benefited since as the merchant earns from each item sold, the marketer likewise earns a commission.

If you are interested in affiliate marketing but are finding it hard to look for affiliate programs, affiliates or merchants, you can start by checking sites of various affiliate networks. Many affiliate programs in the Internet are being offered through an affiliate program network, which acts as a link between the merchants and individual affiliates.

Among the most popular is LinkShare, it is through it that merchants and affiliates meet. LinkShare maintains and manages affiliate marketing programs for a great number of merchants with various kinds of businesses, products and services. It also has over 6,000 affiliate site members in its network. It gains profit from the set-up fees, monthly account maintenance fees and commissions.

Joining networks like LinkShare can be of great help in establishing your online marketing business. Whether you are a merchant or an affiliate marketer, you need to research well on your partners in order to choose the best for you.

LinkShare provides the facility of acquiring access to a large network of advertisers (merchants) who offer their affiliate programs to publishers (affiliates) who are willing to promote their products. In the same manner, it gives the merchants access to a large network of affiliates who are searching for affiliate marketing opportunities.

LinkShare is especially beneficial for an affiliate in choosing his partners since he can find his options all in one location. It would be easier for him to compare products, commission rates and other benefits given by the merchant. The merchant usually just waits for interested affiliates to sign up in his affiliate marketing program but being in the network increases his chance to promote his products to a larger market, thus, maximizing his potential to gain huge profit.

To help you decide whether to use large affiliate networks such as LinkShare or not, let us try to look deeper into its positive and negative sides. The primary advantage of LinkShare to you as an affiliate is convenience.

As earlier mentioned, you find different pieces of information about your choices simultaneously all in a single location, so you save time and effort looking for affiliate programs or merchants.

It’s also easier to track your business partner’s performance through monthly reports and statements, as well as its sales and commission rates, so you know whether the affiliate program is still worth continuing. If you have signed up for several affiliate programs, you can check all your statistics for each merchandiser you are affiliated with by logging in just once.

LinkShare helps you manage and maintain all records of your visitors’ click-throughs and sales transaction. It takes care of your commissions and gives it to you monthly in lump sum. Especially when you have more than one merchant partner, it would be easier for you to manage your accounts and track your earnings when you are affiliated through a marketing program network.
Furthermore, every information you get is accurate and secured, so you are protected from all the risk you might encounter. Above all, you can enjoy LinkShare’s benefits for free. You just have to go to their site and register your website. Instantly, you get access to a great variety of affiliate programs available for you.

So, what’s on the negative side? Although, it is indeed helpful to join affiliate marketing networks such as LinkShare, there are some disadvantages, too.

For one, merchants offer lower commissions to affiliates who partner with them through the third party program network. This because they still have to pay for the use of service and the technology provided by LinkShare.

Direct partnership with the merchant cuts costs of advertising through the network and so the affiliate has bigger potential to earn more. Moreover, it is possible that your payment may be delayed for a month or more since program networks would pay you only after the advertiser or the merchant has paid them.

Do you need to use LinkShare or other networks? It depends, actually. You can opt for direct partnership with the merchant, but this choice is not applicable all the time. There are a lot of merchandisers who offer their affiliate program only through affiliate program networks and thus, you have no choice other than joining the network to get into the affiliate marketing program.

So you are faced with “take it or leave it” situation. But LinkShare and other program networks are not that disadvantageous. After all, whether you join it or not, earning big would depend more on your promotional strategies and persistence.

Creating Multiple Streams of Affiliate Marketing Income

2006-04-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

Creating Multiple Streams of Affiliate Marketing Income

Have you ever heard or read the phrase “multiple streams of income” before? Do you know what this phrase means? For many businessmen, creating multiple streams of income online or offline is one way of securing themselves as well as their businesses in the future. They also believe that it can also save them from the so-called famine effect in the business industry. Once you are engaged in affiliate marketing business, it is advisable if you have multiple streams of affiliate marketing income so that if one of those income streams vanished, it will not upset you the way losing your sole stream would. If you depend on just one source of income and this single stream has been downsized or has lain off, you’ll surely find yourself bankrupted and hopeless. Try to ask the most successful online entrepreneurs, and you’ll discover that they have established multiple streams of online income.

There is a businessman that said and attested that the very first step you must take in creating multiple streams of income is to assess or evaluate your resources. Start by assessing yourself first. Jot down your answers to the following questions: What are the talents, abilities, strength and gears that you possess? Are you gifted with excellent and creative writing skills? Can you do well at sales? Are you good in communicating with people? Are you born with an artistic skill or unique ability that other people don’t have? Through this, you can determine the kind of business where can possibly excel.

Next, look around and write down you assets and physical resources such as computer, color printer, scanner, digital camera, cell phone, CD or DVD burner. Write these all down because it can be used as a resource. Consider also your friends and family. Find out what do they possess that you have access to. Remember that no man is an island. You can use the talents, abilities, knowledge and resources of everyone you know.

That’s basically the initial step if you want to create multiple income streams. But if you’re already a webmaster or a site owner, you definitely have an edge. Why don’t you join affiliate marketing business to help you gain extra income out of your own website?

Being involved in affiliate marketing is one of the most desirable ways to make multiple sources of income. It is because affiliate marketing programs come in various shapes and forms. There are a large number of affiliate marketing programs that you can sign on with and start gaining bucks right away. In affiliate marketing, you can make money by promoting and reselling your affiliate products and by recruiting new affiliates. What’s good about this is that you can find widest array of training materials that can enhance your marketing abilities. In affiliate marketing, you can be sure that there are genuine products to promote and sell and there is real income to make.

Either part time or full time, being an affiliate marketer is an excellent way to create multiple income streams by means of promoting products and services from web merchants. Here, you can get affiliate commission without investing big bucks in making your own product and without worrying about book keeping, customer support and ecommerce. All you have to do is to promote and resell the products and services in your site and pass on potential customer’s the merchant’s site.

In affiliate marketing, it is advisable to promote more merchants in your site so that your visitors will have variety of destinations to choose from. Using multiple merchants in the same site or niche means only one thing – you have multiple streams of affiliate income. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this business strategy because this is one of the best ways to protect your business and expanding your horizons. Through this, you can be assured that you won’t experience crisis if ever one of your web merchants closed his/her program.

However, you should choose only those affiliate programs that interest you so that you can effectively advertise and promote them. Don’t ever be tempted into signing up for numerous affiliate programs in the hope that one of them will bring income. Select wisely and don’t be engaged in selling products you know nothing about. Go with the stuff that jives with your enthusiasm; your passion can capture your client by the nose and guide him/her to your affiliate link.

You should also work hard to make your multiple streams of income more stable. You can do this by embracing some strategies and tactics and by developing within yourself, some traits that can help you become successful in any kind of business such as patience, persistence and thirst for knowledge.

Lastly, just remember the adage that says “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” So that if one of them is lost, you can still have some to make omelets. And what do these eggs have to do with multiple streams of affiliate income? Well, it goes without saying that the more streams of income you possess, the bigger and better your money lake becomes.

What Is Niche Marketing, and Do I Need It?

2006-04-21T14:20:00.000-07:00

What Is Niche Marketing, and Do I Need It?

In ecology, a niche refers to the place or position occupied by an organism or a population within an ecological community called the ecosystem. It is the term which defines the role the organism or the population plays in the general scheme of things. The niche an organism or a population holds is the one responsible for dictating the ability of the species to survive. It is the one which spells whether an organism or a population will perish or thrive.

In marketing, a niche refers to a service or a product that occupies a special area of demand. It is that small corner in the market that accounts for a certain kind of specialty concerning an unmet customer need. To be able to attract a strong, solid market, the choice of a niche product should ultimately complement the website one owns. It is through this scheme that he is able to generate a specific market for the niche product he is trying to sell.

Niches are involved in niche marketing, the process of finding market segments that are small but potentially profitable nonetheless. To maintain a profitable quantity of sales, this marketing strategy relies on increasing the loyalty of customers so that their corporate objectives will be met or surpassed. Illustrative of this is the fact that the quality of the product or service sold will generate customer satisfaction and, consequently, customer loyalty. The result is profitability garnered through a solid market base that trusts in the ability of the product or service to really deliver.

One of the great things about niche marketing is that it encourages those who indulge in it to be unique and one-of-a-kind. Here one is not forced into the lion’s den and made to compete against established marketers. He is made to occupy a strong and secure position that ultimately wins him a real place in the market. Niche marketing differs from other online marketing strategies because this particular quality allows it to operate almost autonomously and without having to contend with corporate sharks that tear each other to pieces.

One of the most important things that should be thought over by those involved in this type of business is the niche business that is going to be involved in the process. It is important to consider the type of business that one is going to work on to be able to ensure himself of the success that he hopes to have. It is also important for him to know everything about the niche business at hand. Learning the tricks of the trade in is one of the things that one could do to make a niche business prosper tremendously.

Being able to reach the niche market is another consideration to make. In doing so, one should know the exact phrases that people are searching for. The use of tools can help a lot in knowing the type of keywords that should be used to make the business profitable. Targeting the right keywords does a lot in making this type of business soar.

Those who engage in niche marketing know that determining the potential of a niche before doing everything else is a must if one wants to save all the time and effort that might be wasted if he plunges into everything head on. Building a niche marketing site that proves to be profitable should be done after an unsatisfied customer demand is identified, and marketing the site appropriately by reaching out to customers the best possible way is what niche marketers should consider if they want their business to reach skyrocketing success.

Is niche marketing needed in a world teeming with a hundred like systems designed for people to make money online? Those who know how the system works will answer in the affirmative, because niche marketing is the only system capable of filling up a gaping hole in the market by catering to the unsatisfied needs of customers - needs that are usually not given notice by those in the big league. Though niche marketing, one is able to gain a foothold in the market by being a needle in a haystack. Small and inconspicuous it may be, but its ability to sting someone so madly once it is found will render him more than surprised.

Analyzing Website Traffic

2006-04-07T14:38:00.002-07:00

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Analyzing Website Traffic
===================================================

Analyzing your web traffic statistics can be an invaluable
tool for a number of different reasons. But before you can
make full use of this tool, you need to understand how to
interpret the data.

Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic web
traffic information that you then have to interpret and
make pertinent use of. However, the data you receive from
your host company can be overwhelming if you don't
understand how to apply it to your particular business and
website. Let's start by examining the most basic data - the
average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and
monthly basis.

These figures are the most accurate measure of your
website's activity. It would appear on the surface that the
more traffic you see recorded, the better you can assume
your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate
perception. You must also look at the behavior of your
visitors once they come to your website to accurately gauge
the effectiveness of your site.

There is often a great misconception about what is commonly
known as "hits" and what is really effective, quality
traffic to your site. Hits simply means the number of
information requests received by the server. If you think
about the fact that a hit can simply equate to the number
of graphics per page, you will get an idea of how overblown
the concept of hits can be. For example, if your homepage
has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits,
when in reality we are talking about a single visitor
checking out a single page on your site. As you can see,
hits are not useful in analyzing your website traffic.

The more visitors that come to your website, the more
accurate your interpretation will become. The greater the
traffic is to your website, the more precise your analysis
will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller
the number of visitors, the more a few anomalous visitors
can distort the analysis.

The aim is to use the web traffic statistics to figure out
how well or how poorly your site is working for your
visitors. One way to determine this is to find out how long
on average your visitors spend on your site. If the time
spent is relatively brief, it usually indicates an
underlying problem. Then the challenge is to figure out
what that problem is.

It could be that your keywords are directing the wrong type
of visitors to your website, or that your graphics are
confusing or intimidating, causing the visitor to exit
rapidly. Use the knowledge of how much time visitors are
spending on your site to pinpoint specific problems, and
after you fix those problems, continue to use time spent as
a gauge of how effective your fix has been.

Additionally, web traffic stats can help you determine
effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you
have a page that you believe is important, but visitors are
exiting it rapidly, that page needs attention. You could,
for example, consider improving the link to this page by
making the link more noticeable and enticing, or you could
improve the look of the page or the ease that your visitors
can access the necessary information on that page.

If, on the other hand, you notice that visitors are
spending a lot of time on pages that you think are less
important, you might consider moving some of your sales
copy and marketing focus to that particular page.

As you can see, these statistics will reveal vital
information about the effectiveness of individual pages,
and visitor habits and motivation. This is essential
information to any successful Internet marketing campaign.

Your website undoubtedly has exit pages, such as a final
order or contact form. This is a page you can expect your
visitor to exit rapidly. However, not every visitor to your
site is going to find exactly what he or she is looking
for, so statistics may show you a number of different exit
pages. This is normal unless you notice a exit trend on a
particular page that is not intended as an exit page. In
the case that a significant percentage of visitors are
exiting your website on a page not designed for that
purpose, you must closely examine that particular page to
discern what the problem is. Once you pinpoint potential
weaknesses on that page, minor modifications in content or
graphic may have a significant impact on the keeping
visitors moving through your site instead of exiting at the
wrong page.

After you have analyzed your visitor statistics, it's time
to turn to your keywords and phrases. Notice if particular
keywords are directing a specific type of visitor to your
site. The more targeted the visitor - meaning that they
find what they are looking for on your site, and even
better, fill out your contact form or make a purchase - the
more valuable that keyword is.

However, if you find a large number of visitors are being
directed - or should I say misdirected - to your site by a
particular keyword or phrase, that keyword demands
adjustment. Keywords are vital to bringing quality visitors
to your site who are ready to do business with you. Close
analysis of the keywords your visitors are using to find
your site will give you a vital understanding of your
visitor's needs and motivations.

Finally, if you notice that users are finding your website
by typing in your company name, break open the champagne!
It means you have achieved a significant level of brand
recognition, and this is a sure sign of burgeoning success.

Increasing Your Search Engine Ranking

2006-04-07T14:38:00.001-07:00

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Increasing Your Search Engine Ranking
===================================================

The methods employed to increase your search engine
rankings may seem like rocket science to you, so you have
probably avoided dealing with this issue. I am here to tell
you - the time has come to face your website! A high search
engine ranking for your website is so essential that if you
have the slightest desire to actually succeed in your
business, there is no way you can continue to avoid this
issue.

At least 85% of people looking for goods and services on
the Internet find websites through search engines such as
Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The idea of optimizing your pages
for high search engine rankings is to attract targeted
customers to your site who will be more than likely to make
a purchase. The higher your page comes up in search engine
results, the greater the traffic that is directed to your
website. That's what search engine optimization is about.

You can immerse yourself in all the technical information
available online to figure out how to optimize your web
pages to achieve higher rankings. Or you can look at a few
simple items on your pages, make some small adjustments,
and most likely see improved rankings quite rapidly. The
first item you should examine is the title bar on your
homepage.

The title bar is the colored bar at the top of the page.
Look at the words that appear there when you access your
home page. To increase search engine rankings, the words on
your homepage's title bar should include the most important
keywords or phrases, one of which would include your
company name.

Then click on all your links and examine the title bars on
the pages you access. Each title bar on every single page
of your site should contain the most important keywords and
phrases taken from the page itself. However, avoid very
long strings of keywords, keeping them to six words or
less. Avoid repeating keywords more than once in the title
bars, and make sure that identical words are not next to
each other.

The next item to put under your microscope is your website
content. Search engines generally list sites that contain
quality content rather than scintillating graphics. The
text on your site must contain the most important keywords
- the words that potential customers will be typing into
search engines to find your site.

Aim to have around 250 words on each page, but if this is
not desirable due to your design, aim for at least 100
carefully chosen words. If you want to achieve a high
ranking on search engines, this text is essential. However,
the search engines must be able to read the text, meaning
that the text must be in HTML and not graphic format.

To find out if your text is in HTML format, take your
cursor and try to highlight a word or two. If you are able
to do this, the text is HTML. If the text will not
highlight, it is probably in graphic form. In this case,
ask your webmaster to change the text into HTML format in
order to increase your search engine rankings.

Next we come to what is called meta tags. I know this
sounds like something out of science fiction, but it is
really just simple code. Many people believe that meta tags
are the key to high search engine rankings, but in reality,
they only have a limited effect. Still, it's worth adding
them in the event that a search engine will use meta tags
in their ranking formula.

To find out if your page is set up with meta tags, you must
access the code. To do this, click the "view" button on the
browser menu bar, and select "source." This will pull up a
window revealing the underlying code that created the page.
If there are meta tags, they usually appear near the top of
the window. For example, a meta tag would read: meta
name="keywords" content=. If you do not find code that
reads like this, ask your webmaster to put them in. This
may not do much for your search engine rankings, but any
little boost helps.

Lastly, we come to the issue of link popularity. This is a
factor that is extremely important in terms of search
engine rankings. Almost all search engines use link
popularity to rank your website. Link popularity is based
on the quality of the sites you have linked to from your
links page.

If you type in "free link popularity check" in a popular
search engine, the search engine will then show you what
sites are linked to your site. In the case that there
aren't many sites linked up to yours, or that the sites
that are linked up have low search engine rankings,
consider launching a link popularity campaign. Essentially,
this entails contacting quality sites and requesting that
they exchange links with your site. Of course, this
requires checking out the rankings of the websites you want
to link up with. Linking to popular, quality sites not only
boosts your search engine ranking, but it also directs more
quality traffic to your website.

Search engine rankings are extremely important for a
successful Internet marketing campaign. Before you go out
and hire a search engine optimization company, try taking
some of the simple steps listed above, and see if you can't
boost your rankings yourself. Don't ever ignore this
all-important factor in Internet marketing. Remember, the
higher your search engine ranking, the more quality
customers will be directed your way.

Monitoring Search Engine Positions

2006-04-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

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Monitoring Search Engine Positions
===================================================

Since search engines are the first stop for people on the
Internet looking for goods or services, the position your
website appears in search results is an important factor.
If your URL shows up far down the results list, the chances
of the consumer never finding you increase incrementally.
Once you achieve a high search engine position, it is
essential that you make sure you maintain the high ranking
you have worked so hard to achieve.

This means you must come up with a strategy to monitor your
search engines positions. This strategy is crucial to the
success of any marketing campaign. Think of your search
engine positions as your online portfolio. Would you let
your stock portfolio be ruled by chance and market
fluctuations, or would you keep close tabs on your stocks
so you could buy and sell when the time is right? This is
the way you must consider your search engines positions.

Be aware that at first, after you have launched your search
engine campaign and done all the right things to increase
your rankings, you will most likely see a continual upward
climb. What you need to be on the lookout for is the moment
that upward climb reaches a plateau. When this happens,
your search engine position campaign moves into stage two,
the monitoring and protecting stage.

In stage two, do not be concerned about the short-term
fluctuations in your positions. These are similar to the
subtle rising and falling of stocks in a portfolio.
Short-term movement is an integral part of the whole
process. It's the long-term changes that you must watch for
and prepare to act on immediately.

Analyzing the long-term trends of search engines positions
is imperative. The way in which search engines rank
websites may change at the drop of hat. If you are unaware
of these changes - many of which are subtle yet can be
deadly to your ranking - your position may drop to the
bottom of the list before you can get your bearings. To
prevent this kind of precipitous drop, you must create a
system to monitor your positions on a monthly basis. Devise
a chart to keep tabs on your top ranking positions or your
top pages, and make sure to watch "the market" closely.

Each search engine uses a formula to compute website
rankings. When a search engine changes this formula in any
way, it may raise or lower your ranking. Some search
engines use a number of different formulas, rotating them
so that a formula doesn't become overused or outdated.
Depending on which formula is being applied, your search
engine position may suddenly drop or rise in rank
significantly. Therefore, you must check your positions
frequently in order to catch when a search engine changes
formulas and what effect it has on your positions.

You must also deal with your competition - a crucial factor
you must always be vigilant about. Your competitor's
position may suddenly rise, automatically lowering your
position. Or their position may drop, pushing your position
higher. Each month, expect position changes due to the
continual changes that are occurring in your competitor's
position, and be prepared to adjust your marketing strategy
to compensate for decreased rankings. Monitoring these
fluctuations will also give you vital information about how
to improve your website to increase your position in search
results.

Of course, you must discern what the most popular search
engines are in order for your monitoring efforts to be
effective. Right now, there are ten popular search engines
that direct most of Internet traffic to your sites. The
challenge you face is that these top ten may change from
month to month.

This means that your must not only monitor your search
engine positions, but you must also keep track of the
ranking popularity of the search engines you are
monitoring. Find out which search engines people use most
frequently every month and be sure to live in the present!
People are fickle about their favorite search engines, and
it takes constant vigilance to follow their dalliances. The
search engines they loved when you first launched your
campaign may be old news in the next few months. You must
adjust your list of engines according to the whims of the
Internet users. Check out
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html
for a current list of website favorites.

Another factor to monitor carefully is a sudden drop of
your positions in all search engines. This is not the same
as monthly fluctuations - this is a neon red warning sign!
It could mean a number of different things.

It all your search engine positions have plummeted, it may
indicate that search engines spiders - those sneaky
programs that seek out your site and rank their positions -
have found some type of problem with your website. If you
have recently changed the code, for instance, the spider
may become utterly confused and consequently drop your
positions disastrously. If a spider creeps up on your
website when it is down for adjustments or changes, you may
actually disappear from a search engine index entirely. Or
a search engine may drastically change its formula, and
suddenly all of your website come up as irrelevant. If that
search engine is a current favorite, it may create a domino
effect, causing all of your position to drop in all search
engines.

Some search engines rely on the results from other search
engines, and it is vital that you know which engines these
are and keep track of all the engines they influence. The
biggest problem here is that search engines will sometimes
change affiliations, and this can create a major shift in
the geography of the Internet. For example, recently Yahoo
decided to display only results gleaned from Google. So you
must not only monitor your own positions, but you must keep
abreast of seismic shifts in the landscape of the Internet
as a whole.

Finally, pay attention to your keywords. Keywords are the
foundation bricks of the entire search engine system, and
they demand individual scrutiny in your monitoring efforts.
If you have found that a number of your positions have
plummeted, it may mean that a page of your website has
become invisible or inaccessible to search engine spiders.
Or the competition for that particular keyword or phrase
has recently rocketed into outer space. In either case, you
must act quickly and efficiently to regain lost ground.

Your search engine marketing campaign is an investment. If
costs you time and money on a continual basis. Protect this
investment as diligently as you would your financial
portfolio. In the same way, track your positions from an
objective perspective, and monitor your positions on a
regular basis. Make sure your time and effort reap rewards
by keeping your eye on the big picture - your long-term
marketing campaign.

Increasing Link Popularity

2006-04-07T14:37:00.000-07:00

===================================================
Increasing Link Popularity
===================================================

Search engines are the gateway to the Internet; they are
the first tool that potential customers use to find the
products and services they need. This is why link
popularity is so imperative. If the customers do not find
your website, you have no possibilities of making any
sales.

You're probably wondering what the blazes is popular about
a link! Well, in a word - plenty! Link popularity refers to
the ranking assigned to your website by the search engines,
and it determines the ranking your page gets when keywords
are entered into a search engine. So, you're probably
wondering, how do I make my link popular?

Search engines are discretionary, giving status and ranking
to sites that have links to their pages from related,
quality sites. It's a simple formula, but a very important
one. Google created the system, and now virtually all the
most popular search engines employ it to rank your web
pages in their indexes.

The more commonly used your keyword is, the harder it will
be to achieve link popularity, but without achieving this
step, it is almost certain your site will never rank highly
on any search engine. But don't be discouraged; there are
tried and true ways of achieving link popularity using the
most competitive keywords.

There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is
that just linking up with a large number of other websites
will not achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have
quite the opposite effect. This is particularly true when
pertaining to websites that are nothing more than "link
farms" - pages containing line after line of indiscriminate
links. Search engines may aggressively discriminate against
your website if you are associated with a link farm, so
steer clear of them!

The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site
you are linking to. Never link to a page you have
reservations about your visitors seeing. The last thing you
want your website to appear as is indiscriminate and cheap.
Linking to sites of poor quality will only lessen your link
popularity, if not completely destroy it.

So let's get to what you need to do to achieve supreme link
popularity and improve your rankings to stellar status on
all the popular search engines.

The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the
door, is to get a listing in a popular directory, such as
Open Directory Project and Yahoo. If your site is
business-related, you will want to be listed on Yahoo, and
despite the fact that it will cost you around $300 a year,
it will be money well spent. If your site is
non-commercial, the listing will be free, but it will take
time and follow-up to actually get it listed. Open
Directory is gives you a free listing whether you are
business-related or non-commercial, but be prepared to make
a lot of follow-up inquiries before you see your site
listed.

You are aiming to get listed in the highest level of
appropriate category, and this just takes some common
sense. For example, if your company ships Alpaca wool from
an Alpaca farm located in the middle of Nowhere, Tiny
State, do NOT submit your listing to "Retailers from
Nowhere, Tiny State." BIG MISTAKE! All you have to do is
look a little deeper - and submit your listing to the "Fine
Alpaca Wool" category. You will not only associate yourself
with culture and quality, but you will be listed in a
national category.

The next step after you have attained directory listings is
to locate other quality sites that will increase your link
popularity. Try to find sites that are in some way related
to yours, so not only will your link popularity increase,
but your customer base may also be expanded. You want to
avoid your competitors and look for sites that are useful
to your site's visitors. Let's look at the Alpaca Wool site
example. Linking up to a site that sells knitting supplies
would be helpful to your visitors, and the chances of the
knitting supply site wanting to link up to your site are
also greater. By linking to a related site that will be
relevant to your website's traffic, you are increasing both
of your site's business prospects - and both of your sites'
link popularity.

Not all sites want to link to other sites, so you will have
to do some research when you are looking for possible
linking partners. Google is an excellent starting place for
your search. Make sure you enter keywords that you think
quality customers will also enter to find your own site.
Remember, your criteria are quality, highly ranked,
non-competing websites that have a links or resources page.
Go to these sites and objectively assess them. Look at the
quality of the product, the graphics, and the ease of use.
Then check out the other sites they are linked to, and
determine if your own site would fit in with the crowd.

When you decide you have found a good prospect, you must
set out to woo them. The first thing to do is to add a link
on your own links page to their site. This is an essential
first step; it shows good faith, and ups your chances
significantly of their reciprocity. After you have added
their link, you must contact the webmaster of their site.
Since this is almost always done by email, you want to make
sure it is immediately clear that your message is not junk
mail. This requires that you tell them right off the bat
that you have added a link to their page on your site. A
hook like this almost always insures the reader will read
on.

Next, be sure to be flattering and let them know how much
you appreciate their website. Make sure you emphasize that
you have actually visited their site, and that their site
is not just a random pick. Give them the address of your
links page, and ask them to check out the link for
themselves. It's a good idea to mention that they will not
only benefit from the increased traffic your website will
direct their way, but you will also increase their link
popularity. Briefly, explain why link popularity is so
essential, but do this in a sentence or two so you don't
sound like a professor! Finally, tell them you would
greatly appreciate if they would reciprocally add a link on
their own links page to your website.

Go through this process with as many appropriate sites as
you can find, bearing in mind the criteria of quality and
non-competitiveness. After you have emailed all relevant
sites, be sure to check these website frequently to see if
they have added a link to your page. Give it about a month,
and if no link appears, try another charming email. Then
give it another month, and if your site is still absent
from their links page, it's time to remove their link from
your own links page. The only time you want to pursue a
link further than this is if you believe a site is crucial
to your link popularity and your business needs. Just
remember to keep all your communications complimentary and
cordial.

Then set up a schedule to check your ranking in search
engines frequently to see if your link popularity has
improved. This is not achievable in the blink of an eye. It
will take some time and a good deal of work. There is no
way around the labor-intensive quality of improving your
link popularity, which is why search engines regard it with
such importance.

By the way - make sure you have a beautiful, streamlined
site or you will never persuade anyone to link up to you.
Be prepared to keep plugging away at this process, as long
as it takes, until you achieve link popularity stardom!

Using Google Adwords to Drive Traffic to your Website

2006-04-06T08:06:00.000-07:00

Using Google Adwords to Drive Traffic to your Website

Highly targeted traffic is one of the most important entities in the internet universe. Any website owner or administrator recognizes the importance of driving traffic to a website. The success of any website does not rely entirely on the site itself. You may have a terrific idea for a website, offer an excellent product or service, or have an exceptionally designed site with superb content, but if you do not use the right strategies to advertise, your site would not attract the high traffic you need. Attracting targeted traffic is a task that should be taken seriously for any site to succeed or make a profit. Fortunately, there are internet-marketing tools that help the website marketer to drive traffic to his website. One of the most significant, and effective, of these tools is Google's Adwords. Adwords is one of Google's advertising services.

How does Google Adwords work? Google is the largest search engine on the web receiving over 200 million queries each day through its various services. As Google is the most popular search engine today, webmasters are keen on having their websites achieve a higher ranking in the search engine results it provides. A high ranking can mean high traffic for that website. The search engine results page is also a great venue for advertisers to promote a product or service through ads and links. Consequently, Google launched its Adwords service, as a way for businesses to advertise products and services to a targeted audience. Google Adwords can guarantee instant traffic. In this service, Google displays relevant text based ads within its search engine results page termed as "Sponsored Links". Whenever a particular keyword is searched on, these relevant links appear in a separate section giving excellent exposure to the sites listed.

How do you use Google Adwords? First, you have to open an account with the Google Adwords Service. Then, you should indicate your target language and country. This is important because you would not want your products advertised in countries where your product or service cannot be sold. Afterwards, you should now create an ad group. This involves designing the ad, selecting keywords and determining maximum cost per click that you are willing to spend and defining bid amounts. The most important step in creating a successful Adwords campaign is selecting an effective title tag that will catch the attention of your target audience. The title tag, generally a short phrase, is the most important part of your Adwords campaign so make sure that it is attractive and catchy. You should describe the website clearly and accurately. The most effective advertising conveys a clear message to the target audience. With a clear message, you will be attracting qualified leads, which can eventually convert to sale. Thus, the importance of selecting the right keywords cannot be overemphasized.

There are keyword variations you can adapt to reach more prospects. Using these varieties, misspellings and derivatives can help increase the chance of your ads being served. Broad match is targeting keywords in a loosely defined manner. Here, the ads appear based on the keywords that have been queried by other users as opposed to exact match, which calls for the keyword to match the query exactly. Meanwhile, a keyword phrase set to phrase match will only appear when the exact phrase is searched on. A negative keyword is helpful in filtering unrelated pages.

After you have decided on what title tag to use in your ad, you must now define a budget in order to maximize exposure. Google Adwords recommend a daily budget for each campaign. However, you should determine a budget that is suitable and affordable. You should also determine the maximum cost per click. Google will offer a recommended cost per click, but you do not have to stick with this. Usually, a number one position is not ideal as it can also attract unwanted traffic and useless clicks. A number two position is more preferred as it can filter useless clicks and provide traffic with a higher conversion rate.

To conclude, Google Adwords is an excellent strategy and tool in giving your site maximum exposure. Nevertheless, Google Adwords should not be your sole advertising campaign. It will definitely help you find the all-important, highly targeted traffic you need.

Search Engine Optimization for Affiliate Marketers

2006-04-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

Search Engine Optimization for Affiliate Marketers

There are no secrets on how to rank high with the major search engines because effective search engine optimizations are now immense. What is search engine optimization? Before we discuss that thing, you have to understand first how search engines work and a bit of know-how.

Search engines are into providing their users with the most relevant and up-to-date information to match the search term that was used. They are sophisticated pieces of technology which allow users to quickly find relevant websites by searching for a word or a phrase. Search engine results are useless to users if the information doesn’t relate to the search term, or if the results are old. People expect the most up-to-date and fresh information that is useful to them.

Updating your website everyday and adding some materials will help you get noticed by the search engines. So, if you are going to sell any type of product or service online, you have to optimize your website for the search engines, in order to boost traffic and sales. It is because over 90% of your business will likely come directly from search engine results. And for that reason, it is absolutely important to optimize your site for search engines for you to have the greatest deals in the entire world.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process by which webmasters or online business owners utilize strategic copy to augment their website’s status. It is certain that the internet has grown so fast over the years and the competition for the best search engine position has created an enormous market. Therefore, better understanding the fundamental elements of Search Engine Optimization is vital for an online business’ success.

Making use of effective search engine optimization techniques will improve the page rank of your website. There are many tricks that can be used to increase page rank; the most effective method is to provide high quality content consistently. This seems like a simple concept but there are many websites that fails to provide content that visitors find interesting. Sites which provide content that are interesting, well-written and regularly updated create highly engaged visitors who are more likely to return to the website in the coming days. So, if you can set your website apart from those boring, lifeless sites then do it. You’ll surely have a step closer to achieving high page rank through search engine optimization.

The next significant factor for an effective search engine optimization is to include keywords and phrases within your content. To make sure that you are properly targeting your market, you have to make sure that the keywords and phrases you have on your site are the keywords and phrase that your site is actually optimized for. The more keywords you use in your content, the more likely it is that online visitors will find your site when they do some research with those words. If you are unfailing with these techniques, then your overall search engine optimization will increase, boosting your page rank.

You should also have to develop a linking strategy as a part of your search engine optimization. Not only does this provide free advertising for your site, but it makes the impression that your site is imperative because of its affiliated links. For each link that you have pointing back to you, that is another chance for your potential customer to find you. The more inbound links that you have pointing to your site, the higher you will be ranked in the search engines.

Another is to develop a content stratagem. People who get to search from the internet are looking for information. The more information you provide for them and the more helpful it is, the more likely you will make the sale. Writing articles is the most effective way to build up content for your site. When writing articles to post on your site, make sure that you develop a clear means of arranging their content. You can do this by simply adding a new page to your site. This will allow room for extra articles to be added as you write them, and will allow you to build up an archive of articles which will maintain to draw online visitors. Make sure also that you have included your archived articles in a directory that is next to the root web of your site so that the search engines will catalog your online articles.

Always keep in mind that search engine optimization methods are important in developing your site’s status. With that thing in mind, make sure that you write high-quality, keyword rich content and link your site to and from a deliberate family of other sites. These things will help improve your site’s popularity and coerce increased business through your online business.

Google Adsense Profits Mixed In With Affiliate Marketing

2006-04-06T08:03:00.000-07:00

Google Adsense Profits Mixed In With Affiliate Marketing

Are you a webmaster who needs funds to keep your website running? Or is your website the only way for you to earn income? Whichever you are, for as long as you are a webmaster or a web publisher and you need cash, affiliate marketing may work well for you. With affiliate marketing, you may get a lot of cash pouring into your bank account easily. And if your website is rich in great contents and you want to earn more profit, why not get into the Google Adsense program as well?

Why Affiliate Marketing?

Well, simply because affiliate marketing is the easiest and probably the best way to earn profits online, unless otherwise you are a businessman and would rather sell your own products online than advertise other businessman’s products on your site. But even online retailers can benefit from affiliate marketing programs, because affiliate marketing actually works for merchants as well as it works for the affiliates.

Affiliate marketing, simply said, is a relationship or agreement made between two websites, with one site being the merchant’s website and the other being the affiliate’s site. In the relationship, the affiliate agrees to let the merchant advertise his products on the affiliate’s site. The merchant, on the other hand, would agree to pay the affiliate in whatever method they have agreed into. This would generally mean easy income for the affiliate, as he would do nothing but place the retailer’s ad on his site. This would also be very beneficial for the merchant, as getting affiliates to advertise their products would be a lot more affordable than hiring an advertising firm to promote their products.

There are a variety of methods on how the merchant would compensate the affiliate for his services, and for the webmaster, these methods simply translates to the method by which he would earn easy cash. Among the more common methods of compensation are the pay-per-click method, the pay-per-lead method, and the pay-per-sale method. The pay-per-click method is the method most preferred by affiliates, for their site’s visitor would only have to visit the advertiser’s site for them to gain money. The other two methods, on the other hand, are better preferred by merchants, as they would only have to compensate you if your visitor becomes one of their registrants or if the visitor would actually buy their products.

Getting much profit on affiliate marketing programs, however, does not depend so much on the compensation method is it does on the traffic generated by your site. A website that can attract more visitors would generally have the greater chance of profiting in affiliate marketing programs.

What about Google Adsense?

Google Adsense is actually some sort of an affiliate marketing program. In Google Adsense, Google act as the intermediary between the affiliates and the merchants. The merchant, or the advertiser, would simply sign up with Google and provide the latter with text ads pertaining to their products. These ads, which is actually a link to the advertiser’s website, would then appear on Google searches as well as on the websites owned by the affiliates, or by those webmasters who have signed up with the Google Adsense program.

While one can find a lot of similarities between Google Adsense and other affiliate marketing programs, you can also see a lot of differences. In Google Adsense, all the webmaster has to do is place a code on his website and Google takes care of the rest. The ads that Google would place on your site would generally be relevant to the content of your site. This would be advantageous both for you and for the advertiser, as the visitors of your site would more or less be actually interested with the products being advertised.

The Google Adsense program compensates the affiliate in a pay-per-click basis. The advertisers would pay Google a certain amount each time their ad on your site is clicked and Google would then forward this amount to you through checks, although only after Google have deducted their share of the amount. Google Adsense checks are usually delivered monthly. Also, the Google Adsense program provides webmasters with a tracking tool that allows you to monitor the earnings you actually get from a certain ad.

So, where do all of these lead us to?

Where else but to profits, profits and even more profits! Affiliate marketing programs and the Google Adsense program simply work, whether you are the merchant or the affiliate. For the merchant’s side, a lot of money can be saved if advertising effort is concentrated on affiliate marketing rather than on dealing with advertising firms. For the webmaster, you can easily gain a lot of profits just by doing what you do best, and that is by creating websites. And if you combine all your profits from both the Google Adsense program and other affiliate marketing programs, it would surely convert to a large amount of cash.

Google Algorithm Problems

2006-04-06T07:26:00.000-07:00

Google Algorithm Problems

By Rachel Ringler

Have you noticed anything different with Google lately? The Webmaster community certainly has, and if recent talk on several search engine optimization (SEO) forums is an indicator, Webmasters are very frustrated. For approximately two years Google has introduced a series of algorithm and filter changes that have led to unpredictable search engine results, and many clean (non-spam) websites have been dropped from the rankings. Google updates used to be monthly, and then quarterly. Now with so many servers, there seems to be several different search engine results rolling through the servers at any time during a quarter. Part of this is the recent Big Daddy update, which is a Google infrastructure update as much as an algorithm update. We believe Big Daddy is using a 64 bit architecture. Pages seem to go from a first page ranking to a spot on the 100th page, or worse yet to the Supplemental index. Google algorithm changes started in November 2003 with the Florida update, which now ranks as a legendary event in the Webmaster community. Then came updates named Austin, Brandy, Bourbon, and Jagger. Now we are dealing with the BigDaddy!

The algorithm problems seem to fall into 4 categories. There are canonical issues, duplicate content issues, the Sandbox, and supplemental page issues.

1. Canonical Issues: these occur when a search engine treats www.yourdomain.com, yourdomain.com, and yourdomain.com/index.html all as different websites. When Google does this, it then flags the different copies as duplicate content and penalizes them. Also, if the site not penalized is http://yourdomain.com, but all of the websites link to your website using www.yourdomain.com, then the version left in the index will have no ranking. These are basic issues that other major search engines, such as Yahoo and MSN, have no problem dealing with. Google is possibly the greatest search engine in the world (ranking themselves as a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10). They provide tremendous results for a wide range of topics, and yet they cannot get some basic indexing issues resolved.

2. The Sandbox: this has become one of the legends of the search engine world. It appears that websites, or links to them, are “sandboxed” for a period before they are given full rank in the index, kind of like a maturing time. Some even think it is only applied to a set of competitive keywords, because they were the ones being manipulated the most. The Sandbox existence is debated, and Google has never officially confirmed it. The hypothesis behind the Sandbox is that Google knows that someone cannot create a 100,000 page website overnight, so they have implemented a type of time penalty for new links and sites before fully making the index.

3. Duplicate Content Issues: these have become a major issue on the Internet. Because web pages drive search engine rankings, black hat SEOs (search engine optimizers) started duplicating entire sites’ content under their own domain name, thereby instantly producing a ton of web pages instantly (an example of this would be to download an Encyclopedia onto your website). Due to this abuse, Google aggressively attacked duplicate content abusers with their algorithm updates. But in the process they knocked out many legitimate sites as collateral damage. One example occurs when someone scraps your website. Google sees both sites and may determine the legitimate one to be the duplicate. About the only thing a Webmaster can do is track down these sites as they are scrapped, and submit a spam report to Google. Another big issue with duplicate content is that there are a lot of legitimate uses of duplicate content. News feeds are the most obvious example. A news story is covered by many websites because it is content the viewers want. Any filter will inevitably catch some legitimate uses.

4. Supplemental Page Issues: Webmasters fondly refer to this as Supplemental Hell. This issue has been reported on places like Webmasterworld for over a year, but a major shake up around February 23rd has led to a huge outcry from the Webmaster community. This recent shakeup was part of the ongoing BigDaddy rollout that should finish this month. This issue is still unclear, but here is what we know. Google has 2 indexes: the Main index that you get when you search, and the Supplemental index that contains pages that are old, no longer active, have received errors, etc. The Supplemental index is a type of graveyard where web pages go when they are no longer deemed active. No one disputes the need for a Supplemental index. The problem, though, is that active, recent, and clean pages have been showing up in the Supplemental index. Like a dungeon, once they go in they rarely come out. This issue has been reported with a low noise level for over a year, but the recent February upset has led to a lot of discussion around it. There is not a lot we know about this issue, and no one can seem to find a common cause leading to it.

Google updates were once fairly predictable, with monthly updates that Webmasters anticipated with both joy and angst. Google followed a well published algorithm that gives each website a Page Rank, which is a number given to each webpage based on the number and rank of other web pages pointing to it. When someone searches on a term, all of the web pages deemed relevant are then ordered by their Page Rank. Google uses a number of factors such as keyword density, page titles, meta tags, and header tags to determine which pages are relevant. This original algorithm favored incoming links and the anchor text of them. The more links you got with an anchor text, the better you ranked for that keyword.

As Google gained the bulk of internet searches in the early part of the decade, ranking well in their engine became highly coveted. Add to this the release of Google’s Adsense program, and it became very lucrative. If a website could rank high for a popular keyword, they could run Google ads under Adsense and split the revenue with Google! This combination led to an avalanche of SEO’ing like the Webmaster world had never seen. The whole nature of links between websites changed. Websites used to link to one another because it was good information for their visitors. But now that link to another website could reduce your search engine rankings, and if it is a link to a competitor, it might boost his.

In Google’s algorithm, links coming into your website boost the site’s Page Rank (PR), while links from your web pages to other sites reduce your PR. People started creating link farms, doing reciprocal link partnerships, and buying/selling links. Webmasters started linking to each other for mutual ranking help or money, instead of quality content for their visitors. This also led to the wholesale Scraping of websites. Black hat SEO’s will take the whole content of a website, put Google’s ad on it, get a few high powered incoming links, and the next thing you know they are ranking high in Google and generating revenue from Google’s adsense without providing any unique website content. Worse yet, as Google tries to go after this duplicate content, they sometimes get the real company instead of the scraper.

This is all part of the cat and mouse game that has become the Google algorithm. Once Google realized the manipulation that was happening, they decided to aggressively alter their algorithms to prevent it. After all, their goal is to find the most relevant results for their searchers. At the same time, they also faced huge growth with the internet explosion. This has led to a period of unstable updates, causing many top ranking websites to disappear while many spam and scrapped websites remain. In spite of Google’s efforts, every change seems to catch more quality websites. Many spam sites and websites that violate Google’s guidelines are caught, but there is an endless tide of more spam websites taking their place.

Some people might believe that this is not a problem. Google is there to provide the best relevant listings for what people are searching on, and for the most part the end user has not noticed an issue with Google’s listings. If they only drop thousands of listings out of millions, then the results are still very good. These problems may not be affecting Google’s bottom line now, but having a search engine that cannot be evolved without producing unintended results will hurt them over time in several ways. First, as the competition from MSN and Yahoo grows, having the best results will no longer be a given, and these drops in quality listings will hurt them.

Next, to stay competitive Google will need to continue to change their algorithms. This will be harder if they cannot make changes without producing unintended results. Finally, having the Webmaster community lose faith in them will make them vulnerable to competition. Webmasters provide Google with two things. They are the word of mouth experts. Also, they run the websites that use Google’s Adsense program. Unlike other monopolies, it is easy to switch search engines. People might also criticize Webmasters for relying on a business model that requires free search engine traffic. Fluctuations in ranking are part of the internet business, and most Webmasters realize this. Webmasters are simply asking Google to fix bugs that cause unintended issues with their sites.

Most Webmasters may blame ranking losses on Google and their bugs. But the truth is that many Webmasters do violate some of the guidelines that Google lays out. Most consider it harmless to bend the rules a little, and assume this is not the reason their websites have issues. In some cases, though, Google is right and has just tweaked its algorithm in the right direction. Here is an example: Google seems to be watching the incoming links to your site to make sure they don’t have the same anchor text (this is the text used in the link on the website linking to you). If too many links use the same anchor text, Google discounts these links. This was originally done by some people to inflate their rankings. Other people did it because one anchor text usually makes sense. This is not really a black hat SEO trick, and it is not called out in Google’s guidelines, but it has caused some websites to lose rank.

Webmasters realize that Google needs to fight spam and black hat SEO manipulation. And to their credit, there is a Google Engineer named Matt Cutts who has a Blog site and participates in SEO forums to assist Webmasters. But given the revenue impact that Google rankings have on companies, Webmasters would like to see even more communication around the known issues, and help with identifying future algorithm issues. No one expects Google to reveal their algorithm or what changes they are making. Rumor on the forum boards speculates that Google is currently looking at items like the age of the domain name, websites on the same ip, and frequency of fresh content. It would be nice from a Webmaster standpoint to be able to report potential bugs to Google, and get a response. It is in Google’s best interest to have a bug free algorithm. This will in turn will provide the best search engine results for everyone.

About the Author: Rachel Ringler is Vice President of Advantage1 Web Services, Inc., which owns a network of Web Hosting Informational Websites including Hostchart.com, Resellerconnection.com, and Foundhost.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rachel_Ringle

How To Protect Your Site From A Google PageRank Drop

2006-04-05T16:26:00.000-07:00

How To Protect Your Site From A Google PageRank Drop

How To Protect Your Site From A Google PageRank Drop
By Titus Hoskins

For the uninitiated, Google ranks all pages on the web
with a scale of PR0 to PR10 -- higher is better. High
PR sites or pages receive most of the traffic for
competitive keywords or phrases. Keywords are what
surfers type into search engines to find what they're
looking for on the web.

Ranking high in Google for popular keywords can prove
very lucrative. It can make the difference whether
your website is in the black and producing hourly
profits, or a total worthless waste of pixel space.
Having a high Google PR is equivalent to having money
in the bank. It is that important.

For Google is still the undisputed king of traffic, regardless
of what's on the horizon, Google is the major deliver of
the web's traffic. That's why losing your high Google PR
ranking, sometimes overnight, can be so devastating for the
struggling webmaster or marketer.

Read this article to discover how you as a webmaster can
protect yourself from lost profits and traffic, even if
Google pulls the plug on your site or PR, while putting
another one of their endless algorithms into place.

10 Ways to Outsmart Google's PageRank System

Here's a list of things you can do to lessen the impact
of a sudden drop of the almighty Google PageRank:

* Diversify your traffic, make sure you cultivate other
sources of traffic other than the search engines. Form
partnerships and strategic links with other webmasters.
Interact in forums and online communities.

* Provide quality information and free products or services
that get 'good word of mouth' recommendations from your
visitors. Content will always be king -- make sure it reigns
supreme on your site.

* Pick the right domain name. If you can, choose a short
catchy keyword for your domain, one people will remember
and would naturally type into a search engine or browser
to find what they're looking for on the web. For example:
www.hotels.com.

* If you're having success with your site,(or/and especially
if you're not) venture into off-line advertising and promotion.
Use traditional promotional products, t-shirts, caps, bumper
stickers, etc. to promote your URL. You can also try PPC
(Pay Per Click) advertising to provide you with targeted
traffic and sidestep the search engines. Well sort of!

* Try viral products like ebooks, reports and free software
programs to get your links out into the marketplace. You can
also try product or site testimonials which are another great
source of targeted traffic.

* Be extremely careful of any out-going links from your
site. Don't link to bad neighborhoods (link farms, banned
sites, etc.) Google will penalize you for bad links so
always check the PageRank of the sites you're linking to
from your site. If you don't have the Google Bar, you can
check any site's PageRank here: www.iwebtool.com.

* Onsite SEO factors does have an influence on rankings --
make sure your site is dressed to kill. Pay attention to
keyword density, title descriptions, meta tags, alt tags and
interior linking structure. If you can, optimize your site for
all three major search engines: MSN, Yahoo and Google. But
don't stop there, also submit your site to the countless other
smaller search engines on the web. It's the old adage, don't
put all your eggs into the ever-changing Google basket or
you're probably turn your site and yourself into one desperate
basket case. Other search engines listed here: http://www.isedn.org.

* Along those same lines, have a large spread of keyword
phrases that you're targeting with the content on your site.
Don't go after extremely competitive keywords which have
countless major players with deep pockets buying links,
left right and center. Instead, pick a whole range of keyword
phrases that have less or little competition. All these keyword
phrases will add up to a flood of traffic for your site. Phrases
that for the most part won't be affected by a sudden drop
in PageRank. One good site for finding these keywords is
www.nichebot.com, it will give both the number of hits and
the amount of competition for each keyword.

* There is one more strategy you must explore if you want
to lessen the power and importance of your own site's PR.
One strategy that will bring in tons of Google traffic even
if your PR is ZERO. You must utilize the PageRank of other
sites on the web. Use off-page optimization for your major
keywords. Build countless anchor text links through keyword
rich articles, content related blogs and products that benefit
from the high PR of other sites on the web.

* Keyword rich articles are some of the best examples of this
method, placing them on high PR sites will filter Google
traffic through these articles onto your site. It will also
warm up these visitors before they reach your site and they
will be more receptive to any of your site's offering; never
underestimate the power of the Pre-sell. Build enough of these
links and a sudden drop in your own Google PR ranking won't
drastically affect your bottom line or the amount of quality
traffic you are receiving.

What's even more satisfying, if you build these links,
partnerships, and off-site optimization -- your Google
PageRank will probably go up. If it doesn't, who cares,
for you will have Google-Proofed your site against any
sudden drop in your site's PR rankings and broadened the
reach of your site by using the high PR of other sites on the
Web. In the process, you will have protected your site and
yourself from the big bad Google PR wolf.

You don't have to conquer Google, you just have to outsmart it!

...........

Not that there is anything fundamentally wrong with
doing business with Google. Everyone is profiting from Google,
find out how you can too! Click here: Google Cash File

Copyright © 2005 Titus Hoskins of Free Marketing Tools.
This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Titus_Hoskins

Broadband uncapped or not?

2006-03-08T07:14:00.000-08:00

Broadband uncapped or not?

I recently changed broadband providers as I was paying too much for your basic 512kbs and I am now receiving 2.2 mbps for half the price. Did this offer seem too good to be true well maybe? I was reading through the terms of the service and came a little section called fair usage policy. Which basically means that if you’re seen to be downloading vast amounts of the providers bandwidth you will be warned or your service taken away from you? With the provider I am using they have a fair usage policy. If you are seen to be taking advantage of the “uncapped” broadband they slow your speed right down till the next month.

Is broadband really uncapped anymore?

When buying or transferring your broadband it is a good idea to carefully read the small print on uncapped broadband. I personally have not had any problems as of yet with the company I am using.

I see many companies offering broadband at low prices with the slogan “uncapped”. But many of the companies are not in fact uncapped. If you are only on the net to check emails and a few web pages then you would not be affected by capping. It’s the user who plays games, download music and videos which are likely to be affected. Broadband was designed so people could do these sorts of activates online. So don’t forget when you see that advertisement for uncapped broadband think to yourself is it really uncapped

Read the terms of services

Read reviews of the service online

If migrating from another provider be sure to ask for your MAC code

SEO Tools

2006-03-01T08:40:00.000-08:00

Check it out here

http://tuelz.com/bigpage.html

Link Building Report

2006-02-05T08:23:00.000-08:00

http://www.turntoandy.com/linkreport.htm

Getting Links To Your Site(s) by Andy Henry

A great resource to have take a look if you want to increase your links building activities

He made the million mark

2006-01-06T06:16:00.000-08:00

The milliondollarhomepage has reached its target. He has auctioned off the last 1000 pixels on Ebay
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5652179487&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:UK:31

The bids have gone well high on this auction take a look.

Well done to him such as simple idea but a great one

New to SEO

2005-12-16T05:30:00.000-08:00

New to SEO then take a look at the link below.

http://www.seoelite.com/Lessons/Optimize-Your-Website.htm

Great if you are just starting to get into SEO

Microsoft beefing up Internet Explorer 7

2005-12-09T13:46:00.000-08:00

Microsoft beefing up Internet Explorer 7

REDMOND, Wash., Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash., is beefing up Internet Explorer 7 by strengthening its resistance to attacks.

Among changes to the popular browser, now in beta testing, will be steps to halt so-called "zone spoofing," Techweb.com reported Friday. IE 7 should be released in the first quarter of next year, officials said.

Also, the new IE will run its Internet zone in "protected mode," which prevents invisible installs of malicious code, while both versions of the browser -- for Vista and Windows XP -- will feature a new ActiveX Opt-In setting that reduces the likelihood of hackers using ActiveX controls.

Microsoft also will change the default of the Trusted Sites zone to "Medium," the same level of security as the Internet Zone in IE 6.

Hackers exploit unpatched Internet Explorer bug to install malware

2005-12-02T13:28:00.000-08:00

Them hackers are at it again with Internet Explorer. I recommend going to Firefox Click the link on the right of the blog ;)

xperts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have warned internet users to take care when surfing the web, following sightings of malware which has been planted on websites exploiting an unpatched Microsoft security vulnerability.

The security vulnerability, which is not yet patched by Microsoft, allows hackers to run malicious software (such as a Trojan, virus or worm) on a user's machines when they visit a website containing the exploit code.

The vulnerability affects Microsoft Internet Explorer on the following operating system platforms: Microsoft Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, Windows XP Service Pack 1, and Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Sophos experts have seen malware posted on websites using the vulnerability, including the Troj/Clunky-B Trojan horse (protected against since November 30 2005).

"Microsoft will be fuming that the security of their software is being brought into question before they have had a chance to issue a security patch," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Microsoft's next bundle of security patches are not due until 13 December, and it will be interesting to see if they decide to break the cycle and release a patch earlier in response to the increasing number of exploits of this problem."

"Everyone who uses the net needs to be very careful about what websites they visit, which email links they click on, and to ensure their defenses are always up-to-date," continued Cluley. "It wouldn't be a surprise if more malware was distributed that took advantage of this vulnerability in Microsoft's code."

Read Microsoft's security advisory now
Until a fix is available from Microsoft, concerned computer users should consider changing the configuration of Internet Explorer to turn off, or prompt before, allowing Active Scripting to run.

Sophos recommends that every IT manager responsible for security should consider subscribing to vulnerability mailing lists such as that operated by Microsoft at www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/notify.mspx.

Sophos continues to recommend companies protect their desktops and servers with automatically updated anti-virus protection and appropriate firewall defenses.

About Sophos
Sophos is a world leader in integrated threat management solutions, developing protection against viruses, spyware, spam and policy abuse for business, education and government. Sophos's reliably-engineered, easy-to-operate products protect more than 35 million users in more than 150 countries. Through 20 years' experience and a global network of threat analysis centers, the company responds rapidly to emerging threats - no matter how complex - and achieves the highest levels of customer satisfaction in the industry.

How did he make $18,343 in a single month?.

2005-11-26T06:21:00.000-08:00





















His name is Joel Comm and it wasn't so long ago he was
making only $30 a day with Google's Adsense program.

Then one day it hit him over the head like a '2 by 4'
and Joel began testing other ways to increase his Adsense earnings...

Not only did it work... but... (and this is a BIG BUT)
Joel documented everything he did to make his Adsense
commissions shoot up to the sky...

This is significant and here's why...

Now you can have access to it all where you'll view actual
details of what Joel does to make some of the biggest
commissions you'll ever hear about online...


In case you didn't know, Adsense is a program where Google
allows you to make money when people click on advertising
links that you can place at your own website(s).

In his new Adsense book sweeping the internet, Joel
candidly allows you to look over his shoulder. Now your
odds at winning with Google Adsense are more in your
favor than ever before.

And no, we're not talking about Joel doubling his Adsense
commissions from $30 to $60 a day... but more like a
staggering $500+ per day! (I told you it was significant)

Click Here!

Joel's commissions are so huge now...  UPS has begun
delivering his checks!

He climbed up to making $18,343 this past December 2004
and it's quite possible it may keep climbing - with no
end in sight... Joel's case study shows how it didn't take
long once he knew how to tweak his Adsense pages.

I had to get my hands on this book and read it once already.
I plan on reading it again in case I blinked and missed
something important  because it's filled with so many gold nuggets...

Let me tell you... this one book is crammed
solid with Adsense marketing tips - the kind you won't
easily find elsewhere... That's why I'm very excited
to tell you about it.

This is must-have marketing information and I highly
recommend that you check it out for yourself if you are
using Adsense now... or ever plan to.

Click Here! to get your own copy

Can these companies really guarantee top Google placement

2005-11-24T09:01:00.000-08:00

I had a an email advertising top placement in google,yahoo and MSN. The ad guaranteed it? I feel placement within yahoo and MSN can be reached by doing some reading on SEO forums and providing fresh content on your site. MSN and Yahoo are a lot easier to get a good position in. Google on the other hand is not.

On there Portfolio page I can see they have gotten their clients to good positions for keywords in yahoo, msn etc. I do not see many getting as good results in Google. I don't see how they can guarantee that they can. I feel the way Google changes from time to time with the recent Jagger update this kind of prediction can not be met? I may be wrong?

I can see people paying for this kind of service as they don't have the time or the experience to do get in on the SEO of their websites. I feel with the wealth of free information on the internet they could learn for themselves. I'm not a SEO expert but I must be doing something right with my CD Business card site in msn and yahoo. I still have not broke into Google. Is this due to the "sandbox" you decide?

I just doubt these kind of services and personally would not pay someone to do it. That's only my personal opinion.

Firefox taking over the browser world

2005-11-24T05:08:00.000-08:00

Film Makers to Promote Firefox

Mozilla is reportedly preparing to use an online "open source marketing" drive - use independent film-makers to promote the next generation of Firefox, its free web browser.

The open source organization, according to reports is planning to ask amateur film makers to make 30-second video ads to promote Firefox 1.5. Mozilla maintains that the films will be judged by a panel drawn from the film industry, and winners will take home high-end computer systems.

In the past year Mozilla managed to garner 50 million downloads for Firefox on the basis of word-of-mouth recommendation; in effect eating into Microsoft Internet Explorer's market share. According to sources Firefox 1.5 will probably be released on November 29, and is currently being tested by about 750,000 volunteers.

Mozilla Corporation had also announced the Extend Firefox Contest, to encourage development of extensions to the Firefox Web browser.

Extensions are small add-ons that add new functionality to Firefox. They can be anything from a toolbar button to a completely new feature. The contest expected to generate hundreds of new extensions for Firefox, allowing people to further personalize their Web browsing experience, and to make surfing the Web even more fun and convenient.

Judging by the number of downloads Firefox has had in the past year,
Mozilla doesn't seem to be worried with the possibility that independent film- makers may not compete for the prize.

source http://www.techtree.com

50 million downloads from world of mouth that’s amazing. I like to see a bigger corporation like Microsoft getting took on.

Internet addiction

2005-11-24T04:57:00.000-08:00

I think I am addicted to the internet too.

Report says 13 per cent of young people are addicted to going online

A new survey which has the backing of the Chinese Government claims that more than 13 per cent of China's youths and young adults are addicted to using the Internet.

A total of 22,500 people aged between 13-35 from all over China took part in the survey, which was carried out by the China Youth Association for Network Development.

According to CYAND, videogames are a major cause of the problem. The survey states that "about 42 per cent of addicts are attracted to online games while the figure for non-addicts is only 24 per cent" - although Chinese media reports on the survey give no definition of what constitutes an "addict".

Online gaming continues to boom in China - there are more than 1.5 million subscribers to Blizzard MMO World of Warcraft alone, making up more than a third of the game's worldwide subscriber base.

The Government has long expressed concern over the amount of time young people spend playing online games, and earlier this year a new system designed to limit playtime to a maximum of three hours was introduced.

But according to a recent report from the Xinhua news agency, the system, which penalises players in the game if they exceed the time limit, has not been a success - gamers are simply playing as different characters, playing alternative games or using private servers once the three hour period is up.

As yet the Government has not announced any plans to introduce further restrictive measures.

Soruce http://www.gamesindustry.biz

I am not a keen online player. Most of my time on the internet is spent on my websites and my businesses.

Lucky I signed up for Google Analytics ealry

2005-11-20T07:39:00.000-08:00

Thank you for your interest in Google Analytics!

Google Analytics has experienced extremely strong demand, and as a result, we have temporarily limited the number of new signups as we increase capacity. In the meantime, please submit your name and email address and we will notify you as soon as we are ready to add new accounts. Thank you for your patience.

This is something Microsoft and Yahoo have never been caught doing. Its time for Google to stop underplanning product launches.

Related -
http://www.google.com/analytics/sign_up.html

Look like the service was pretty popular. I have signed up but I have no data as of yet.

Google Analytics is free

2005-11-17T04:33:00.000-08:00

Google will allow you to track 5 million page views per month with this new service. It will also integrate within AdWords which I find to be great also. I have been hearing that maybe google will use the information given from this service to monitor our marketing online. Who knows? The great thing about this service is that is free! There are many pay versions of this software but I am going to give it ago and post an update on here once I get it working.

http://www.google.com/analytics/

Kill Bills Browser

2005-11-13T14:26:00.000-08:00

A website which is making money by convincing people to change to Firefox.

http://www.killbillsbrowser.com/

Use IE to access the page and you are soon warned to change to FireFox.

Read more about this here

http://addict3d.org/index.php?page=viewarticle&type=news&ID=12780

Pretty funny idea and if its making them money fair play. I bet Bill is not happy lol

Check out a friends blog

http://nightlife2005.blogspot.com/

Google Jagger Update

2005-11-11T14:27:00.000-08:00

I have been hearing a lot of peoples websites falling out of Google. I have not had that problem as my website(cdlivecards.co.uk) is still yet to appear for the keywords I want. I'm in Google for terms that are no use to me. The sandbox effect is happening to me and has been happening for coming up to a year now. I use AdWords which i am gathering good business from.

Here's an article on the recent update

Do Most Recent Google Updates Shake The Web Industry?
By Paras Yadav

Google’s recent “Jagger” update alarmed many companies and website owners who lost its high search engine rankings. Jagger has resulted chaos for Google search results across significant industries. Companies are in dilemma concerning this update for the future natural engine marketing.

Jagger is one of the most significant updates from a major search engine. Following the first round of Jagger update, thousands of websites that formerly received an abundance of traffic from Google’s search results are no longer ranking.

So, do we have to consider that this is just a beginning of a review that has put many companies in danger zone? What about the fine websites that got swept off after Jagger rolled out? The search engines have no compulsion to provide rankings that will drag in free website traffic. After-all, Search engines are businesses whose target is to boost revenue through paid advertising and Pay Per Click (PPC). Natural search is a considerable component of a search engine’s value; however, it doesn’t generate earnings for them.

It seems to be a pre-planned update that happen just right before the holidays. Probably, this result that companies who recently lost rankings and resulting traffic will strive hard and pay significantly for Pay Per Click ads this holidays to cover up their lost natural search engine traffic.

As this update is not yet fully accomplished, websites still got a chance in its hands to getting back into the Google index. Site owners should plan for long term search engine optimization targets.

Keep in mind that search engines frequently alter and bring up to date their ranking algorithms. To sustain top positions, site owners are recommended to hire professional and SEO strategies.

Its time, for website owners to revise and dress up to strive for their website’s top. Only this way the can retain traffic to their respective websites.

To read related articles please visit:
http://web-content-writing.blogapot.com or

http://seoservices-website-promotion.blogspot.com

Paras Yadav is freelance website area content and article writer since two years. Please visit http://web-content-writing.blogapot.com or http://seoservices-website-promotion.blogspot.com to find more enlightening and free-reprint articles.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

He has made over half a million, Information selling e-books

2005-11-03T05:31:00.000-08:00

I have added the above banner at the top of my blog to show how the million dollar homepage is going. As you can see he has sold a lot. He has stated on his blog that there are over 500 copycats. I have seen some of these sites and they are really bad rip offs. no creativity on their part.

I advise anybody trying to make money online to visit this website for some handy advise

www.traderonlineforum.com

BT outlines plans for internet TV service

2005-10-26T11:26:00.000-07:00

BT outlines plans for internet TV serviceBy Rhys Blakely
BT today outlined
its ambitions to become a television company that allows its viewers to "watch
what they like when they like" over the internet within the next year.
The
former telecoms monopoly is to work with Philips, the electronics group, to
offer a set-top box that will allow viewers to access more than 30 digital
terrestrial channels and to replay their favourite programmes.

read the rest here http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9076-1844255,00.html

Good for BT broadband users but I bet there will be some monthly charge to view this service.

Hong Kong man convicted in first BitTorrent internet piracy case

2005-10-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong man convicted in first BitTorrent internet piracy case
10.24.2005, 05:58 AM

HONG KONG (AFX) - A Hong Kong man has been convicted for illegally distributing movies over the internet using BitTorrent (BT) technology, in what is believed to be the world's first criminal piracy case involving BT software.

Chan Nai-ming was found guilty of copyright infringement for putting three Hollywood movies onto the internet without authorization by using the popular BT peer-to-peer file-sharing program, a judiciary spokeswoman said.

The Hong Kong customs and excise department said the unemployed 38-year-old Chan, who was arrested in January, is the first person in the world to be charged with violating copyright laws through the use of BT technology.

Chan was released on bail of 5,000 hkd and a sentencing hearing has been scheduled for Nov 7.

Woody Tsung, chief executive of Hong Kong's Motion Picture Industry Association, welcomed the verdict, saying he thinks it will keep internet users in the territory from sharing copyrighted files without license.

'This is an important verdict. This should scare people off from distributing any more unauthorized files on the internet,' he said.

Hong Kong Commerce Secretary John Tsang also welcomed the decision, saying it is significant as it creates a deterrent for possible file-sharers.

He also urged the public, especially young people, to respect intellectual property rights.

The customs department said that since Chan's arrest, file-sharing activities that violated copyright laws had dropped by 80 pct.

Source http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/afx/2005/10/24/afx2293439.html

Naughty boy there will be more people caught like this I bet ya

Is PayPal safe?

2005-10-23T08:59:00.000-07:00

I wanted to purchase something through PayPal today. I would but they say that they keep your details so that it is better for when you purchase something through PayPal again. I don't have an account as I hear bad stories about the service. Website such as www.Paypalsucks.com. I want to use them as a one off and that's it.

I feel businesses selling through the PayPal only route look less professional . I prefer to pay for items through websites that have their own merchant systems such as WorldPay. I feel more safer putting my details into these kind of services than I would using PayPal.

PayPal is a great way of taking payment for eBay and e-books I feel. Other PayPal like service out there are good also. For taking regular payments for larger amounts I would recommend a business merchant account such as WorldPay.

Tips when using PayPal

Watch out for emails pretending to be from PayPal. Always log in from the main site by opening a new browser window and put in paypal.co.uk or paypal.com.

Regularly empty your balance into your bank account. Do not leave large amounts of money in your PayPal account.

I'm not saying PayPal are bad as I have never had a bad experience with them in the past. I am just wary when using the service which I feel everybody should be.

The Million dollar homepage is going good

2005-10-21T14:46:00.000-07:00

http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/

You must have heard of this site. The lad creating simple but fantastic idea. I take my hat of to the lad for thinking of such a cracking idea. Loads of copy sites have begun to jump on the bag wagon. There is even sites selling the script used. People are quick at getting in there I will give them that. The tax bill on that is going to be huge over here in the UK.

Nice idea fair play to him.

Im looking to link to other blogs?

2005-10-21T08:32:00.000-07:00

I am trying to gather some links for my blog. I will link on the front page which is a PR 3. Which could be useful to some sites. Similar interest a bonus,

Thanks

Reply on here

Google PR update is happening?

2005-10-20T07:37:00.000-07:00

I have noticed a change from a PR 3 to a PR 4 on my CD Business Card site. It's going up which is down to hard work in building those links. I'm chuffed its gone up. Write them articles and gather them links that's the way I did it.

My Desktop Theme

2005-10-19T06:42:00.000-07:00

Changing from the boring standard windows theme I installed this theme which I think is really smart. Its called DogMax and to change your windows like this visit here http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/

FAQ- Support Ticket System

2005-10-19T06:26:00.000-07:00

I Currently have been looking at http://www.osticket.com/. They offer a cracking support system. I have installed it and I must say it brilliant. And most if all FREE. Allow you customer to professionally post support tickets. Your customer can also come back and check the status of their ticket. The overall look is excellent and it is really easy to use. It gives you a more professional way of offering support to your customers.

PHP 4 (or better) and MySQL is needed to install this system. Overall I think this is a great system for any online business.

Good SEO Check List

2005-10-17T15:46:00.000-07:00

http://www.topsatelliteradio.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=110&sid=b4f61e445afa0b5378f45621787c60e9

Nice Topic with some good tips

Is there a Page Rank coming up?

2005-10-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

I have been hearing that the next PR update will be around the 22nd of October. Lets see how things go. I hope my CD Business Website can go up. I have been working very hard on it. Fingers Cross

Good Luck

Blog Website Pick- SEO Links

2005-10-17T15:38:00.000-07:00

http://seopen.com/index.php

http://www.seochat.com

Very Good Web Sites to up your SEO Game.

Download the plug in for FireFox which is very useful

The Google Triple Punch.. .How Do You Rank?

2005-10-16T14:13:00.000-07:00

The Google Triple Punch.. .How Do You Rank?
by: Mark Klein

What do you need to get top rankings on Google? What's the secret sauce of success? There are many ingredients in the mix, but here are three of the most important that you need to concentrate on.

1.) Keyword relevant copy and content.

Whatever the keywords you want to get found under, be sure that you have enough copy and content about those specific word. Which would give Google a reason to rank you in the first place. If for example, one of you priority keyword is "computer training software". Create a separate page or section for this keyword (at least a few paragraphs) using the keyword in the headline, the first sentence, the last sentence as well as wherever it makes logical sense in order to achieve the keyword frequency and "density" that search engines are looking for.

Additionally, by including on this specific keyword page either articles, pdf files or news items about your keyword, will help you improve your chances of a better ranking. Give google a reason to rank you at the top. He with the most relevant copy wins .so make it rich and deep. 2.) Can the search engines read and "crawl" all the pages and content on your site?

Probably the biggest surprise to most marketers is that the search engines are unable to either navigate or read most of the content on their website. If they can't read your copy, then it's not surprising that you're not getting the rankings or traffic to your website that you aspire to.

As search engines basically read html, sites which are either "dynamic", or created in other formats such as cold fusion, asp or php often can't be read by the search engines. Even if they can read the content on your site, they often can't navigate it properly or just bounce "off the walls" as there are no specific links or site map on the site to tell the proper sequence or where to go next

Want to see what Google is indexing on your website? Go to http://www.gritechnologies.com/tools/spider.go and type in your website name to see how many of your pages are being seen by Google.

3.) Links... why they are so important?

Link popularity is one of the most important factors search engines use in determining where you will place in the search engine for your keywords, and phrases, as it helps them to determine how important or popular your site is.

In essence the search engines are saying" we're going to give top ranking to sites that have a lot of other important and relevant sites linking to them."

Link Building is the process of finding related/relevant websites and placing a link to those websites on yours then asking them to link back to you, i.e. link building is done through link exchanges or reciprocal links; the process by where both websites link to each other and bring mutual benefit to each site.

How many links do you need to have? It depends on the individual product category you compete in and how many links your major competitors with the top rankings have. At a minimum, you will at least need 25-30 relevant links.

Linking is critical not only with your search engine placement but it helps stabilize you positions in the search engines and delivers traffic directly from the sites that link to you.

In Summary, successfully implementing the above 3 strategies either through your own efforts or through employing search engine promotion specialists will deliver the "triple punch" and the knockout punch you need to get top rankings on Google and the other search engines as well.

About The Author

Article by Mark Klein, VP Sales Pageviews.com, one of the foremost search engine promotion companies specializing in search engine optimization and linking programs. For further information as well as a free ranking report, contact Mark Klein at 480-703-6850 or send an email to mark@pageviews.com

Protect your Computer and Internet Privacy by: Alex Marias

2005-10-16T14:08:00.000-07:00

Protect your Computer and Internet Privacy by: Alex Marias

Is a known fact that every time you open a browser to view a web page, order something online, or read your email in a web based viewer that information is stored on your computer for later use. Whether you are viewing the weather online, reading sports, catching up on the latest world news or viewing something a little more private, all that information is stored in your computer. Windows operating systems store all this material in what are called Temporary Internet Files or cache. Web pages may store bits of information about who you are when you visit web sites in files called cookies on your computer. Your web browser will store a list of web sites you've visited and places you've gone in a history file in your computer. Even if you are not online, programs will store histories of the files you've opened, played, or viewed.

Generally there might not be any reason to worry about all these files in your computer, but what if you sell your computer and all that information is left for someone else to see. Maybe friends and relatives visit and use your computer and you dont want everyone to know what files you are running on your computer. Then you are going to want to know how to delete these files.

Even if you are not worried about privacy on your computer, you may be surprised to realize how much hard drive space all this information takes up. If you are running out of drive space, you may want to delete these files.

How can I delete these files?

For Internet Explorer 5 and above, you can follow these directions to clear out temporary files and delete cookies.

1) Open Internet Explorer and click on Tools
2) Click on Internet Options
3) On the General Tab, in the middle of the screen, click on Delete Files
4) You may also want to check the box "Delete all offline content"
5) Click on OK and wait for the hourglass icon to stop after it deletes the temporary internet files
6) You can now click on Delete Cookies and click OK to delete cookies that websites have placed on your hard drive.
To clear the Internet History in IE:
1) Open Internet Explorer and click on Tools
2) Click on Internet Options
3) On the General Tab, in the middle of the screen,click on Clear History
4) Click OK
To clean up other temporary files on your computer in Windows 98 or higher:
1) Click Start, Programs (or All Programs), Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup
2) Choose the correct drive usually C:3) Check the boxes in the list and delete the files

This deleting method is only good if you want to free space, because normal file deletion only removes a file's directory entry, and leaves the data contained in the file on your hard drive, which can be easily recovered by any average computer user using a undelete utility. If you delete cookies or if you delete history using conventional methods anyone can recover them! Even after a hard drive format, files can be recovered using expensive hardware and software which use forensic latency track analysis algorithms.

There are several good utilities such as

http://www.amicutilities.com/privacy-guard/ that http://www.amicutilities.com/privacy-guard/?v=deletecookies http://www.amicutilities.com/privacy-guard/?v=deletehistory

About The Author

Alexandru Marias is an IT student mentaining software sites such as: http://www.downloadsplaza.com/, http://www.fungamesplaza.com/ and http://www.bluedownloads.com/.

Dream Domain Names

2005-10-11T14:18:00.000-07:00

Dream Domain Names
By J. Stephen Pope

How would you define the ideal domain name? Consider some
characteristics that you might find in the dream domain
name.

1. Not Registered Yet

Many domain names are not available. Someone else may have
registered it for use with their own website. Perhaps a
domain name speculator bought it hoping to sell it for a
quick or high profit.

The ideal domain name would not have been registered yet
and would be available for the less than ten dollars
annual registration fee.

Realistically, you might have to settle for another name.
Alternatively, you might offer to buy the desired domain
name from whoever beat you to it.

2. A Dot Com

If you are operating a business, your ideal domain name
would be one with the dot com (.com) Top Level Domain
(TLD) name extension.

First of all, it is easier for people to remember dot
com names. There is almost an assumption that your
website is dot com.

To ask people to remember your website's name is bad
enough. If you expect them to also remember that you are
dot something else, expect to lose some traffic to your
dot com competitor.

As well, dot coms generally seem to resell for more
money than other TLDs because they are perceived to be
superior. (If you don't have a dot com name, was it
because you couldn't afford to buy it? Perhaps your
competitor had the foresight to register it first.)

Realistically, however, your dot com name may not be
available. You must either pick another name or pick
another TLD extension.

Additionally, there may be reasons why you prefer or
must have a different TLD.

Perhaps you are a university needing a dot edu (.edu)
name. An Internet Service Provider (ISP) might prefer
a dot net (.net) name over dot com. Similarly, a
non-profit organization might desire a dot org (.org)
domain name.

As well, there are country specific domain names
that you might prefer.

As an example, if your business was limited to serving
customers located in Canada, you might want a dot ca
(.ca) domain name.

In most cases, however, it would be preferable to
obtain a dot com name.

3. Short and Memorable

The dream domain name would contain letters of the
alphabet only. It would not have hyphens, underscores,
numbers, or special characters.

The ideal name would be short and memorable. It would
not have spelling errors or anything else that would
make it difficult to remember.

Realistically, sometimes only the hyphenated version
of a domain name is available.

4. A Proper Name

For branding purposes, you should probably use your
business or company name as your domain name. After all,
doesn't your company name differentiate you from your
competitors?

As well, if you have trade names, product names, slogans,
and so on, you might want to protect them from unauthorized
use by registering them as well. You can simply have your
domain registrar point (or re-direct) these names to
your main site.

You might be tempted to register generic names like
computers.com, flowers.com, or accountingfirm.com.
However, proper names (such as your company's name)
seem to outperform generic names (such as widgets.com).

For example, when you think about computers, who comes
to mind? Apple? IBM? Dell? You likely don't think of
computers.com.

So, your dream domain name has not been registered by
anyone else, is dot com, is short and memorable, and
brands your business by its proper name.

RESOURCE BOX:

J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc.,
has been helping clients to earn maximum business
profits for over twenty-five years.

For more information about domain names, visit
http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/domain-names.html

For profitable Work at Home Small Business Ideas,
visit: http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com

Free Listing in Google Using Wordpress

2005-10-11T14:17:00.000-07:00

Free Listing in Google Using Wordpress
By Hong Brandon

Did you know you can list for Free in Google with Wordpress? Not too long ago, Google came up with a new concept called "Google Sitemaps".

With Google Sitemaps, you can generate an 'xml' file of your entire site, and submit it to Google using your Google Account.

One of the main objectives of Google Sitemaps is to help update Google's search engine of any changes or updates to your site.

Once Google has received your Sitemap file, it will be able to keep track of changes to your site. It's actuall a win-win for both parties.

So how does Wordpress come into the picture?

If you didn't know, Wordpress is a very popular free blogging software for building and running blogs.

And because of it's popularity, Wordpress users has developed a ton of plugins to be used with Wordpress.

One of these is actually a Google Sitemap plugin for Wordpress. Once installed, you just need to activate it and it automatically generates a Google compliant sitemap for
you.

Only thing left to do is to submit this sitemap file to Google...and you've gotten yourself a free listing in Google.

If you're new to Wordpress, do check out my "Wordpress Videos" course. With over 40 video tutorials, I'll show you how to get a free listing in Google and unleash the power of your Wordpress blogs.

http://www.wordpressvideos.com

Brandon Hong is the author of a series of best selling courses on Blogs, Rss, Wordpress and Podcasts.
http://www.wordpressvideos.com

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com

How to Analyze a Competitor’s Website

2005-10-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

How to Analyze a Competitor’s Website
By Halstatt Pires

Competitors' websites, if analyzed properly, can give you all sorts of information that you can use to increase the traffic and the popularity of your site. Here is an article on how to analyze a competitor's website.

Identifying the Leaders

Start off by identifying the major players. A good place to do this is Yahoo’s directory. It is good to view the major players in similar fields to your own so that you have a better view of your web site as perceived by others. You may want to print out the directory to take a closer look. Check some of the bigger companies and find out some of the innovative approaches and new products offered.

Sites like Media Metrix 500 can tell you which companies get the most traffic, and you can learn about the relative traffic by using Alexa. It is a free add-on to your browser that ranks the traffic for each site you visit and informing you whether it is in the top 100 or top 1000 ranking. This gives you a rough idea of where your competitors are in the ranking order.

Scrutinize the Leaders

The next step is to study the top 5 or 10 competitors very closely. There is a lot that can be learned by looking at competitors' web sites and analyzing them. These are the things that you should look for:

1. Make sure you check to see what products or services competitors offer, and note anything that’s different from your own offerings.

2. Look for gaps that you could fill.

3. Think about the look, feel and functionality of the competitors' web sites.

4. Check the advertising campaigns and offers they are running.

5. Look at their strengths and weaknesses, from the customer’s point of view.

6. See if you can figure out their strategy.

If you are dealing with a public company then you can get detailed information from proper sources and write down the names of their key players. Then it is possible to look for any interviews, articles or speeches they might have made about relating to their web site.

Look for Strengths, Vulnerabilities, and Gaps

Now summarize the information you have found into few sentences for each competitor, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each one. Note down the strategies to be followed to counter your competitor’s offering.

With this research, you can create or modify your marketing plan. Be sure to include how you intend to deal with competition, and what steps you think you would require getting top rankings in the search engines. On the basis of your research on your competitors' websites, you need to make a decision of either to compete with your competitor or walk out of the competition and focus on other areas.

Don’t get frightened away prematurely, though – make sure you know what you are getting into before you start, and don’t let big companies intimidate you. Remember that you can move faster than your competitors if you have confidence in your abilities. All you need to do is offer your customers things that they cannot find anywhere else.

Halstatt Pires is an Internet marketing consultant with http://www.marketingtitan.com - an Internet marketing firm in San Diego offering automated web site systems through http://www.businesscreatorpro.com.

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com

Selling Ebooks? Learn How to Make Your Ebook Sell

2005-10-11T14:15:00.000-07:00

Selling Ebooks? Learn How to Make Your Ebook Sell
By John Sweeney

One of the most common questions we get at Ebook Architect is “how much money will I make selling ebooks? Well, like most businesses the answer will depend on many different factors. For example the amount of time you put into the promotion of your ebook will have a direct consequence on sales and market interest in your ebook topic is another important factor. People who are good at picking good ebook topics and promoting their ebooks usually stand to make a lot of money with ebooks.

How Much Money You Ask?

Some Ebook entrepreneurs lose money in the course of a year while some make hundreds of thousands of dollars. More realistically however is somewhere in between these two points. Many ebook authors make between $5,000 and $20,000 a year.

How to Maximize Ebook Sales

The best way to ensure optimum sales is to constantly promote your ebook. This may mean staying in on weekends and staying up late during the week. Some of the best ways to promote your ebook include buying advertising from large advertising portals such as Google and Yahoo, partaking in link exchanges, writing articles for websites and Ezines, building an information dense website and writing great ebook sales pages. Accomplishing all of this is no minor feat. You should expect to be in product development for between 1-6 months and then the promotional aspect may take another 4-12 months. It’s not necessarily an easy job but as stated above the payoff could be substantial.

Worst Case Scenario

Even if you decide half way through the process that ebook entrepreneurship is not your cup of tea, you will still have written an ebook and be selling it online. That makes you an author; congratulations. Not only will you be an author but your ebook may give you some extra pocket change on a monthly basis. If nothing else, it will be a good learning experience. You have nothing to lose, so why not give it a shot?

Written By John R.

Ebook Architect

http://www.zizzoo.com/guides/ebook/index.php

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com

Publish Your Own Ebook

2005-10-11T14:13:00.000-07:00

Publish Your Own Ebook
By Amin Sadak

In my case, I publish ebooks for money – the number 1 motivation behind all ebooks on the internet today.

But do you even know how to start?

Do you have any idea about the topic you want to write about?

How about the actual compilation of the ebook?

What about marketing the ebook once you’ve compiled it?

All of these factors need to be addressed before you start work on your project.

First of all, you’ll need to get the logistics right. Will you be writing your ebook in MS Word or will you be typing it directly into some sort of ebook publishing software?
Most authors start their work in MS Word and then transfer it to an ebook compiler software program when they have finished.

Which topic will you write about? Many experienced authors suggest that you write about a topic you are passionate about. This is common sense and works well if you know a lot about one particular topic.

Most people don’t have in-depth knowledge in one particular area which limits their chances of writing a concise ebook.
However, there are ways around this and you can pick up more information about writing for money from:
http://www.ebook-publishing-software.com

For example, you can visit www.elance.com and hire “ghost writers” to write an ebook for you which you can then sell online.

Next, you need to decide which format you’d like your ebook available in. PDF ebooks are quite common and can be read by anyone who has Adobe Reader installed on their computer.
Unfortunately, PDF ebooks are not as secure as EXE ebooks. EXE ebooks are made using specific ebook publishing software programs.

Some Ebook Software titles include:

Ebook Pro

Ebook Edit Pro

Activ Ebook Compiler

Easy Ebook pro

Ebook Starter

and much more…

Read reviews about these ebook generators at
http://www.ebook-publishing-software.com

The disadvantage of using EXE ebook makers to compile and distribute your work is the fact that they can’t be used on Macintosh computers. If you want to cater for 90% of computer users, then an EXE ebook will be fine. If you wish to compile for absolutely everyone, you’ll need the less secure PDF method of compiling.

Once compiled, use the in-built password/security features of the ebook software to protect your ebook if you need to.

What do you do once you have you’re ebook ready for distribution to the World Wide Web?
Now, you need to start thinking about marketing. There are many ways to market your ebook but the most common method is to build a website explaining the benefits of your ebook. Explain what problems it can solve for the reader.

To drive traffic to your website, you can do several things , each of which take time and hard work.

1) Optimize your website for visits from the Search Engines so you may rank higher than your competitors.

2) Pay for visits to your website by advertising on Google Adwords or any other Pay-Per-Click advertising method.

3) Pay a company a set fee to deliver thousands of visitors to your site

In addition to the above, there are many ways to bring visitors to your site. For example, you can buy pop-under traffic, expired domain traffic, newspaper advertising, ezine advertising and joint ventures.

Once you start to get a steady stream of visitors to your site, you’ll start to see your ebook sales rise.

Impartial Reviews and Guides for Ebook Publishing Software can be found at:
http://www.ebook-publishing-software.com

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com

Increasing Link Popularity

2005-10-10T16:23:00.000-07:00

Increasing Link Popularity
By Karen Martin

Search engines are the gateway to the Internet; they are
the first tool that potential customers use to find the
products and services they need. This is why link
popularity is so imperative. If the customers do not find
your website, you have no possibilities of making any
sales.

You're probably wondering what the blazes is popular about
a link! Well, in a word - plenty! Link popularity refers to
the ranking assigned to your website by the search engines,
and it determines the ranking your page gets when keywords
are entered into a search engine. So, you're probably
wondering, how do I make my link popular?

Search engines are discretionary, giving status and ranking
to sites that have links to their pages from related,
quality sites. It's a simple formula, but a very important
one. Google created the system, and now virtually all the
most popular search engines employ it to rank your web
pages in their indexes.

The more commonly used your keyword is, the harder it will
be to achieve link popularity, but without achieving this
step, it is almost certain your site will never rank highly
on any search engine. But don't be discouraged; there are
tried and true ways of achieving link popularity using the
most competitive keywords.

There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is
that just linking up with a large number of other websites
will not achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have
quite the opposite effect. This is particularly true when
pertaining to websites that are nothing more than "link
farms" - pages containing line after line of indiscriminate
links. Search engines may aggressively discriminate against
your website if you are associated with a link farm, so
steer clear of them!

The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site
you are linking to. Never link to a page you have
reservations about your visitors seeing. The last thing you
want your website to appear as is indiscriminate and cheap.
Linking to sites of poor quality will only lessen your link
popularity, if not completely destroy it.

So let's get to what you need to do to achieve supreme link
popularity and improve your rankings to stellar status on
all the popular search engines.

The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the
door, is to get a listing in a popular directory, such as
Open Directory Project and Yahoo. If your site is
business-related, you will want to be listed on Yahoo, and
despite the fact that it will cost you around $300 a year,
it will be money well spent. If your site is
non-commercial, the listing will be free, but it will take
time and follow-up to actually get it listed. Open
Directory is gives you a free listing whether you are
business-related or non-commercial, but be prepared to make
a lot of follow-up inquiries before you see your site
listed.

You are aiming to get listed in the highest level of
appropriate category, and this just takes some common
sense. For example, if your company ships Alpaca wool from
an Alpaca farm located in the middle of Nowhere, Tiny
State, do NOT submit your listing to "Retailers from
Nowhere, Tiny State." BIG MISTAKE! All you have to do is
look a little deeper - and submit your listing to the "Fine
Alpaca Wool" category. You will not only associate yourself
with culture and quality, but you will be listed in a
national category.

The next step after you have attained directory listings is
to locate other quality sites that will increase your link
popularity. Try to find sites that are in some way related
to yours, so not only will your link popularity increase,
but your customer base may also be expanded. You want to
avoid your competitors and look for sites that are useful
to your site's visitors. Let's look at the Alpaca Wool site
example. Linking up to a site that sells knitting supplies
would be helpful to your visitors, and the chances of the
knitting supply site wanting to link up to your site are
also greater. By linking to a related site that will be
relevant to your website's traffic, you are increasing both
of your site's business prospects - and both of your sites'
link popularity.

Not all sites want to link to other sites, so you will have
to do some research when you are looking for possible
linking partners. Google is an excellent starting place for
your search. Make sure you enter keywords that you think
quality customers will also enter to find your own site.
Remember, your criteria are quality, highly ranked,
non-competing websites that have a links or resources page.
Go to these sites and objectively assess them. Look at the
quality of the product, the graphics, and the ease of use.
Then check out the other sites they are linked to, and
determine if your own site would fit in with the crowd.

When you decide you have found a good prospect, you must
set out to woo them. The first thing to do is to add a link
on your own links page to their site. This is an essential
first step; it shows good faith, and ups your chances
significantly of their reciprocity. After you have added
their link, you must contact the webmaster of their site.
Since this is almost always done by email, you want to make
sure it is immediately clear that your message is not junk
mail. This requires that you tell them right off the bat
that you have added a link to their page on your site. A
hook like this almost always insures the reader will read
on.

Next, be sure to be flattering and let them know how much
you appreciate their website. Make sure you emphasize that
you have actually visited their site, and that their site
is not just a random pick. Give them the address of your
links page, and ask them to check out the link for
themselves. It's a good idea to mention that they will not
only benefit from the increased traffic your website will
direct their way, but you will also increase their link
popularity. Briefly, explain why link popularity is so
essential, but do this in a sentence or two so you don't
sound like a professor! Finally, tell them you would
greatly appreciate if they would reciprocally add a link on
their own links page to your website.

Go through this process with as many appropriate sites as
you can find, bearing in mind the criteria of quality and
non-competitiveness. After you have emailed all relevant
sites, be sure to check these website frequently to see if
they have added a link to your page. Give it about a month,
and if no link appears, try another charming email. Then
give it another month, and if your site is still absent
from their links page, it's time to remove their link from
your own links page. The only time you want to pursue a
link further than this is if you believe a site is crucial
to your link popularity and your business needs. Just
remember to keep all your communications complimentary and
cordial.

Then set up a schedule to check your ranking in search
engines frequently to see if your link popularity has
improved. This is not achievable in the blink of an eye. It
will take some time and a good deal of work. There is no
way around the labor-intensive quality of improving your
link popularity, which is why search engines regard it with
such importance.

By the way - make sure you have a beautiful, streamlined
site or you will never persuade anyone to link up to you.
Be prepared to keep plugging away at this process, as long
as it takes, until you achieve link popularity stardom!

P.S.

If you've enjoyed this article, please be sure to forward
it to a friend.

Karen Martin is the Sub-Editor of 'The Internet Affiliates Resources
Directory' where subscribers have the opportunity to have their
Affiliate programs promoted absolutely free and on a permanent basis.
To get the details & Free sample subscription send a Blank email to:
bizzyman@auto-responder.co.uk Unsubscribe with one click. You have my
full permission to 'Steal' the above article which may be freely
distributed in your E-zine, on your web site or in your e-book provided
this entire resource box is kept intact. If featured a sample copy of
your E-Zine would be appreciated. Thank you.

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com

Boost Your Way To Better Search Engine Placement

2005-10-10T16:17:00.000-07:00

Boost Your Way To Better Search Engine Placement
By Robert Roy

Once your site is up and running what is the number ONE way to better search engine placement? It's developing content. Yes, honest, reliable content is what those search engine robots are looking for.

These robots are getting smarter everyday. Their algorithms are getting better every day. It is NOT worth your while to try to "beat" them to boost your way to better search engine placement. You need to stick to basics.
IF content is number one then number two is links to your site. These links are also called "back links" your way to better search engine placement also depends very much on this.

It is very important that these links have a common relevancy to your site. If your site is about orchids and gardening then you shouldn't have any links to a tax preparing site. This way you will be on your way to better search engine placement.

There are several ways to get links. One is to place a page on your site to allow webmasters to link exchange with you. You give them your link for their Web site and they give you theirs. This gives you a back link but a reciprocal one.

Another is to go to link farms, companies that will guarantee you a number of links from other sites for a fee. This is not a good option. You will be linked to sites that are not relevant to your site. This will diminish how the search engines view you and may even penalize your site.

The major search engines are now keying into not only relevancy but also their page rank. How high they rank with search engines.

There is one way to better search engine placement, get relevant links to your Web site. Put your keyword or keyword phrase into the search engines and see who are the top 20 - 25 sites that come up who also use your keyword.

First, you know that they have a lot a visitors and secondly they are good sites because of their rank. You should then email them and ask them if they would link to you and you to them. Try to be sure that they are not your direct competitor.

If they link with you the robots will give you a better score because of who they are. A simple, easy way to better search engine placement is dependant on the number of links and the quality of those links.

Site Build It? (SBI!) also has a great linking tool called "Value Exchange". All you need to do is to put in your keyword and it will match with other Web sites who use the same keyword. So at least you can get relevant sites linking to your Web site and you can pick and chose.

If you have the "Google Tool Bar" installed on your browser you can see for yourself how good the page quality of the Web site is. There is a bar on the "page rank" which will indicate where the Web site is ranked.

Back Links are very important way to get better search engine placement. Don't use link farms. Try to get back links from quality and high web visitor sites. You need to do this!

Internet business is a competitive arena but you can jump way ahead by
looking here first. This is your complete site to be successful in your online business.

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com

How to Boost Your Website Traffic and Profits with Content

2005-10-10T16:16:00.000-07:00

How to Boost Your Website Traffic and Profits with Content!
By Hans Hasselfors

Are you aware of how vitally important and valuable CONTENT is to your online business? In fact, content can do more to build your business and profits than just about any other resource or service available.

Following is a list of 5 key ways that content can help build your website traffic, subscribers, and customers starting today!...

1. Boost your search engine ranking and daily visitor count by posting keyword rich articles and content on you r website. For example, if your business involves offering products and services related to internet marketing, posting internet marketing related articles and content will attract unlimited prospective customers on a regular basis!

2. Generate double or even triple the number of newsletter subscribers you do currently, simply by offering content in the form of "special reports" or manuals as bonuses for subscribing to your publication. People love freebies, so give them what they want and watch as your results increase!

3. Create an automated cashflow by using content to formulate multi-part email training courses with related website or affiliate links "sprinkled" throughout each course. Use an autoresponder service to automate the delivery of your training course (such as a 5 part training course delivered over a 5 day period).

Training courses can also serve as excellent bonus offers for your prospective newsletter subscribers.

4. One of the most impor tant keys to a successful online business is not JUST having a list of mailing list or newsletter subscribers... It's about building a trusting relationship with your subscribers (ie, "cultivating" your list)...

By sending informative articles (content) to your list on a regular basis you will establish yourself as an expert on your topic of business, as well as gain the trust of your subscribers over time. As a result, your subscribers will be EAGER to take advantage of your "paid" product and service offers. (Just make sure that you NEVER take advantage of the relationship you develop with your list by offering products or services of poor quality just to make a quick buck!)

If there is one "constant" in Internet marketing, it's this: A cultivated list of subscribers is as good as money in the bank. Write that down and never forget it!

5. Another excellent way to generate no cost website traffic is by submitting ready-made articles to "content hungry" website a nd newsletter publishers with your "resource box" attached. A resource box is nothing more than a little 3-6 line "bio" about you and/or your web-site - including a link to your site (or even instructions on how to subscribe to your newsletter)...

When submitting or offering your article(s) for reprint purposes, just make sure to specify that each article is to be reprinted "as is" with your resource box attached.

...Even one article can go a LONG way towards generating no cost website traffic and visitors for you. Just imagine your article being sent out to a newsletter subscriber base of 100,000 individuals - many of whom will be reading YOUR included resource box and clicking on your URL to learn more about what you have to offer!

Well there you have it, 5 sure ways to build your online business exponentially with the help of articles and content...

With the declining effectiveness of many of the online advertising methods that we've relied on in past y ears, content is only strengthening its position as the ultimate KEY to generating unlimited website traffic, subscribers, and customers!

Hans Hasselfors is a successful business entrepreneur and internet marketing consultant. Get the net working for you. Join a community of like-minded entrepreneurs and make your living online. Become a member of The Business Professional network. http://www.internet-marketing-experts-online.com

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com

How to Avoid Getting Rejected for Reciprocal Links

2005-10-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

Often, when someone is beginning a reciprocal link campaign, they have a lot of trouble getting people to link back to them. This article will show you some common pitfalls that cause people to refuse your link request.

First, check the PR ranking of your home page. This will often, for better or for worse, influence people’s decisions on whether or not to give you a reciprocal link. Try to make sure that your PR is as high as possible, and you might even want to delay your campaign until you can get a higher ranking. As this only happens every few months, this might not be a viable short term option.

Second, don’t stick your reciprocal links all on one page. You need to spread things out and properly organize them. Who wants a link on a thousand-link page that Google isn’t going to index anyway? People want a good, well organized link page. They want their links to show up next to similar links that have the same content. Only put about twenty to twenty five links on a page at max, and put the descriptive text up as well that people suggest.

Third, don’t hide the links. Put a link to your “main” links page on your home page, and have a well-organized site map that includes all of your link pages. People want to have their links on a page that will be indexed by Google, and they won’t reciprocate if you hide it from the search engines.

Teve Torbes is an expert owner of a flea control site, who knows a whole lot about dog fleas. He has also created a valuable inflatable air mattress site.

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com

The Ultimate Marketing Solution

2005-10-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

The Ultimate Marketing Solution

Promote your business to new prospects with a perfect presentation every time. Amaze your prospects and make your competition look on as you are presented in a professional way.

You ask what this marketing solution is?

Well CD BUSINESS CARDS are the solution!

Pass your cards on with your business dynamically presented. There is no better way to stand out from the crowd.

Does your business spend lots of money on printed material? Well cut costs and send all your company details on a cd business card disc.

The disc can contain all the details you want your valued prospects to see. The cards are not thrown they are passed on. The cards have a unique shape and look which is sure to cause a stir where ever they are handed out.

Invest in cd business cards and create that professional image that every business should have. Not just the big companies. You can advertise this way too at the competitive prices that LiveCards charges.

Place your:

Email Links Web Links Product Images Videos Sounds PowerPoint PDF

PowerPoint to Flash Conversion is also a very handy tool to have. We can convert your PowerPoint Presentations to flash with a dynamic control menu. You will have a PowerPoint Presentation ready to hand out on a CD Business Card. Your Client will not even need the PowerPoint software to view your presentation.

Request a free demonstration card today (UK only)

www.cdlivecards.co.uk

CD Business cards

Business CD Cards

Have You Got a Trade Show Coming Up?

2005-10-10T16:08:00.000-07:00

While at trade shows you meet and greet lots of potential clients who you may hand business cards to. Once they have left the trade show venue there is a very good chance they will forget about your card or lose it.

Why not give them a card which is sure to make an impression on them. A CD Credit card shaped business card. Pass out this card with your normal full details on the front but then with the added extra of the content found on the disc.

Once the disc is placed in your potential customer’s computer an interactive on screen presentation will be shown of your business complete with images, text and even video. Incorporate existing flash presentations, PDF and PowerPoint files you already have within the card.

Content design can be a very costly thing to buy but not anymore! LiveCards offer the completion of your menu screen and label design in one set price. You can have a 1000 discs with label and content for as little as £1.70 per disc. Full colour label print out with a glossy finish.

Take over your competitors with a innovative idea which is sure to cause a stir. Imagine the look on your potential clients faces when you hand them this unique marketing incentive. Cards are 86mm x 61mm in size and hold up to 50mb of information. Direct Email and Web Links within your cards.

Leave that lasting impression with a CD LiveCards

More dynamic than your average card

www.cdlivecards.co.uk

CD Business Cards uk

CD Business card content design and card duplication. Business CD Cards are the perfect marketing tool.

Getting Your Marketing Message Across with CD Business Cards

2005-08-07T15:49:00.000-07:00

Getting Your Marketing Message Across with CD Business Cards
By Steven Sharples

CD Business cards allows any type of business that dynamic look. Hand out your business card on disc and see the expression on your clients faces. CD Business cards are aimed to provide your prospect with as much information as possible.

Perfect for leaving a lasting impression at conferences and trade shows. Imagine handing out your businesses executive summary or PowerPoint presentation integrated within your CD Business Card.

The cards come complete with a PDF and PowerPoint viewer. Your existing PowerPoint presentations can also be converted to flash. Flash converted presentations come complete with a dynamic control panel.
Imagine the possibilities you can do with your standard PowerPoint converted to the more dynamic flash. Your have ready made presentation content.

CD Business cards can come complete with your business logo, images, sound and even short video clips. CD Business cards are a sure must for any business wanting to leave an impression. Business card shaped discs are perfect as they are rectangle, light and unique. Cards come complete with a photo glossy label complete with your company logo and details.

The benefits of cd business cards over paper business cards

Business Cards VS CD Business Cards

Paper business cards do not leave the same impression that CD business cards do.

• CD Business cards have that WOW factor.

• CD business cards are not thrown away they are passed on.

• CD Business cards give you that professional image.

• They allow more valuable information to be left with that potential customer.

• CD Business cards will outshine any paper business card.

• CD Business cards are small, light and futuristic

For more information on cd business cards visit http://www.cdlivecards.co.uk

Steven Sharples

CD Business Cards

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

http://ezinearticles.com/?id=55886

I Need Real Visitors, NOT Search Spiders!

2005-06-29T10:08:00.000-07:00

I Need Real Visitors, NOT Search Spiders!
By Michael Klasno

The answer to the first question is simple, the difference between spiders and visitors is dollars. Good old fashion sales, cha ching! ring the cash register. Without quality visitors all of your SEO, website analysis, and keyword ranking nightmares, not to mention the 1000's of hours you spent changing and tweaking the look of you website, everything, was a waste of your precious time.

Don't get me wrong, you do want the spiders to visit your website and without all the work mentioned above they wouldn't stay very long or come back. But remember search spiders are very, very small and hopped up on caffeine go pills. They are faster than an F-16 and make more stops in one hour than Santa does on Christmas Eve. They have no time to stop and shop. Even if they did where would they carry the plastic? They don't have any pockets or purses to carry a wallet. Their only job is to take a quick look at your site and split to the next URL in the queue. They are mindless robots with one mission.

Secondly, Even if you do your SEO job as good or better than 95% of the webmasters out there you still aren't going to make the first page! Figure it out, do the math. Between Google, MSN & Yahoo there are only 30 first page spots per given keyword or phrase. That's out of what? 6 quad trillion pages! The shear size of the web spun by these spiders is staggering! MSN alone reported today it has 6 billion pages of data in there "three month old" search index. Add to that Google, Yahoo and AOL and, well you get the picture. For you or me to get to the first page is almost impossible. Can you change the way things are? No Way baby, it isn't a reflection on your optimization work it's just the way it is.

To quote a true expert in the field, Dean Philips

". . . Because when you stop to consider that Google, DMOZ and Yahoo! have millions and millions of pages in their directories, you'd really have a better chance of winning the lottery, than getting high enough in the results pages where it's going to make a significant difference in your traffic."

The answer to the second question, "How do I get more visitors to my website?" is a little harder to give a definitive answer to. There are as many opinions available as there are SEO websites and so called "Experts". But the bottom line is there are ways.

You have the tools, use them

If you are a website owner and/or you have a good webmaster you have the tools at your disposal already. Most people would think that link exchanging is one way but it's as old and worn out as that pair tennis shoes you have stuffed under your bed that your wife has been telling you to throw away. Paying for banner ads on other "same type content" websites will work to some extent but the best website choices are usually your direct competitors and giving them your hard earned money makes no sense at all. Google AdSense blocks seem to be on everyone website maybe that will work to bring in some income. Maybe, but it doesn't move your stock off the shelves and it won't pay your employees or truck payment. Lastly, you could try Google AdWords advertising, I know first hand that it works to bring in traffic. But watch out, if you don't manage it right it will get expensive quick.

Heard enough? All of those ideas at one time or another were very good and a couple still work if used sparingly in conjunction with a good overall marketing plan. The spiders have spun this web so big and so tight that if you don't have a good marketing plan you will get stuck and lost. You simply just have to have a plan and find alternative ways to attract real traffic to your website. More traffic will turn into more sales and that is what we all need.

If you have been looking around the web for an SEO expert to help you bail the water out of your leaky dingy I am sure you've noticed the same trends I did. Virtually everyone, not all but close, has taken the Lemming approach to there SEO work, "Follow Google". First its "we need to fill your meta tags with crap" then its "you need a Reciprocal links index" no wait "now you need only one way links" Enough already. That's fine for the big corporations, they have huge advertising budgets and enough bank to finance $10,000 per month, go in every direction optimization projects. That's fine for those SEO firms that currently have these big bucks corporate clients under contract. What about you and me? How do we get our fair share of the visitors and give us a fighting chance to make a living?

The answer is "Forget everything you've read and go back to what you know!"

The reason you got into your business in the first place was because you had a product that you knew a lot about and had good success selling it to the neighborhood. In fact, before you mortgaged your house and spent your kids' first year of college tuition to get involved in the WWW you knew EVERYTHING about that product. You were the Guru, the expert. I've got news for you friend, you still are. No matter what Google says.

Now all we have to do is prove it. I say we because from this point forward we're partners. You're still in charge, you still pay all the bills and spend all the profits, but together we are going to get the word out about your great website.

That's great Michael, but how?

With a great overall marketing plan using today's SEO techniques coupled with the old school marketing that you used for so many years. Add that together with a few new ideas and we will be back on top in a few short months.

First off you need Content! Anyone who has known me for long knows that I believe Content is King. Even if you are a product sales website with 1000's of sku's you still need good solid content to bring your customers in and keep them on your site. Long enough to hear about your products and see your great prices. In fact if you have half that many products the content articles are the most important part of the equation. Content holds the key to breaking free of the cocoon and making the spiders pay attention to your website again. So many good things can be said about content that I hardly know where to start.

Well written product articles, featured reviews, test drives, product comparisons, almost any written content will give you untold opportunities to flood the spiders data bank with keywords and phrases. Not just 10 words or 30 words but hundreds of keywords and phrases. Articles will help educate your customers before they buy saving your customer service reps countless hours. These educated customers will come back and tell their friends about your great site. Other webmasters will hear about your website resulting in links and possible affiliates. The benefits are endless.

Discussion boards used to be the big thing. Now, unless you have a tremendous amount of traffic they aren't worth the time it takes to maintain. Blogs or weblogs on the other hand are reasonably new and easy to maintain and a great way to pass on information to your prospective customers and the search engines love them. In fact if you start one, your product weblog may be the first of its kind, I don't think I have ever seen a blog about widgets?

The point is you have the knowledge to make this work. You don't need someone to do all the work you. Like Santa you just need a good helper. If you are not a good writer then practice or hire someone who is. If you need help getting this project started give me a call. Just do it!

Michael Klasno is an Assisted SEO Marketing Specialist and CEO of Net Performance Group Inc. Net Performance specializes in fishing and outdoor website design and marketing. For more internet marketing articles by this author please visit: http://www.netperformancegroup.com/Articles/articles.htm

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

You Really Can Make A Fortune Off Of EBooks and Software Resale Rights

2005-06-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

You Really Can Make A Fortune Off Of EBooks and Software Resale Rights
By Kaaryn Walker

When I first considered online selling, I had trouble thinking of a product to sell. I did not have a storefront or any particular talents to offer.

I started testing the waters by selling odds and ends on Ebay. I would visit consignment shops, stores which sold overstock or discontinued items and purchase the products for a fraction of the retail cost.

I sold several different items to see which ones sold best. I finally settled on porcelain dolls. I found a company where I could purchase the dolls in bulk quantity at wholesale prices and sold them on Ebay. It was great for a while, especially during seasonal holidays. I even became a Power Seller. But I had two big problems. I did not have a functional place to store the products and the slower selling products tended to just collect dust on the shelf. Therefore my basement became cluttered with dolls, taking up valuable space.

THEN, I learned about reselling authorized reprint rights, particularly, ebooks, and downloadable software. It is the perfect solution for making a fortune online with little investment. For example, I purchased a reseller bundle package for $29.95 which included over 85 ebooks and software resell rights. With very little effort, I resell the same product over and over without having to re-purchase additional licensing rights. I only needed one sale to break even. The possibility really is this easy to make continuous profits over and over again. Because the products are downloadable, I don’t have to worry about storage locations. I simply provide a download link to the customer upon receipt of payment. It’s perfect.

You can sell the products as a bundle (as in the original purchase) or sell the products individually for as much you want. The best part is that many of these ebook and software packages come with professionally designed websites for each of the products. You just need to modify the contact information and payment method and host them on a web hosting server.
Now, there are few important things to remember. It is wise to sell a product that you actually believe in and have enjoyed using yourself. Also in order to maximize your profits, you should market your product. Establish a mailing list and introduce your product (no spamming). Advertise your product on other websites. There a numerous of marketing techniques you can use to make immediate self generating income (even while you sleep).

Copyright, Kaaryn Walker

Author Kaaryn Walker is a work from home owner of a successful online business. For more information or to purchase quality ebooks and software with master resell rights visit http://www.internetmarketingsource.com/ebooks/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Gathering Links like your competition

2005-06-15T11:41:00.000-07:00

A little but simple trick that I use is to go over to MSN (www.msn.co.uk/msn.com)

Search your competitors URL (www.yourcompeititor.co.uk)

Copy it (right click copy)

Click search builder under the msn search bar

Click link to us and paste the URL in

Click add to search

Submit your search and you will fink links linking to your competitors. This will enable you to also use these places to place your links.

It can be done with Google to placing

Link: www.yourcompetitor.com

I find MSN better as they gather back links quicker in my opinion

Simple but useful

Try it!

I gathered many extra links using this process

Multiple Income Streams from Niche Markets

2005-05-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

Multiple Income Streams from Niche Markets
by: Fred Farah

Multiple income streams, do you find the term confusing? Don't, it's really quite simple.

In the world of Niche Markets in Internet Marketing, multiple income streams simply means having more than one source of income. This is achieved by making money from more than just one online business.

Each different web site would generally be a different business. They could relate to each other, but not necessarily. You could have businesses that have nothing to do with each other. Both methods are quite successful.

Let's look at different scenarios. How to market unrelated products? In the offline world, we are quite accustomed to seeing a little bit of just about everything sold in department stores, from razor blades to baby clothes to fashion dresses to living room furniture to washers and dryers, and so on.

Is this how it's done in the online world? Absolutely, but it is not the only method. Mega Internet stores have evolved in such a way that to compete, you must be huge, and have tons of money to finance the operation, including the cost of the ever-changing web site. The competition and horrendous costs leave no room for the little guy, so he has to find another way to do business.

Enter the newcomer, looking for a way to make a living on the Internet. Seeing he can't compete selling a large mix of hard goods and soft goods, he can decide on a "niche" product to market. A niche product simply means specializing in one key product, or just a few related products.

This concept applies to both hard goods (items that must be shipped), as well as to downloadable information products.

This opens up a whole new world of possibilities, and it means a whole different way of conducting business. Specialization is often achieved using mini-sites that sell only one product. The mini web site might have from one to five pages, but usually just a single page.

Your information product that you want to sell needs a web site, hosted by a web hosting provider that provides you their service at a reasonable cost. Let's assume you started selling your product, and after a few months it is bringing in some income. It might amount to $1,000 up to $3,000 per year.

That's not too bad, and is worth keeping, but certainly not enough to make a living with. This is where the concept of multiple income streams comes in. During the months that your business is building, you could be looking for other ideas. You find one that excites you, and more importantly you do the research and discover a good potential for attracting customers. So you go ahead with a second web site.

You have now achieved multiple income streams! Over time you have other great ideas. Actually, you are now up to four web sites with different ideas. Two of them are related information products, and the other two are hard goods.

All four are successful. Each one separately does not make enough to live on, but the combined four bring you in respectable dollars.

But how are we controlling our costs? This is important to do, seeing we have the cost of some advertising as well as the web site costs. We found it necessary to build a customer list for each different product, and periodical emails are sent to your list. All these costs can become quite extensive, almost prohibitive.

So, what do we do? How can we maintain our buinesses, yet keep our overhead down to where it isn't cutting hugely into profits?

One critical aspect to look at is your hosting and to look for a web site hosting service that includes all or as many tools that you need in order to do some serious Internet business.

The tools aren't all you need to consider. Sure having a hosting service that gives you an autoresponder is certainly a huge help. But, we have four sites here to market and at the average rate of $24.95 a business, that's close to $100 a month, a pretty steep bill especially if you are just starting out.

Now we are looking for a host that will provide all the tools we need to run our businesses, plus we want one that will allow sub-domains in case we have closely related businesses. Can we get it all at one low and affordable price.

In addition to the tools we need and the overall hosting package we need for FOUR businesses, we are all about multiple income streams, so let's see if there is a way to benefit (PROFIT) from the hosting company as well.

Many hosting companies now offer an affiliate program where you can earn a commission by referring a business and gaining customers. That's pretty much a given, however the KEY is to ensure that the commission is recurring and not just a one time commission. Not sure what I mean about recurring income? Check the link out below for more information on recurring income streams

This is all great but the question now "Is there really a hosting company out there that will give me all the tools, let me host multiple sites for one reasonable price AND on top of that let me build another income stream?"

The answer is yes and you can read my review of Recurring Income Streams and how a company called "ThirdSphere" is an excellent example. At the same time you can learn the difference between Multiple Income and Recurring Income Streams. Read about it here: http://www.bestaffiliateproducts.com/thirdsphere.html

Having Multiple Income Streams from Niche Marketing is mandatory in today's Internet Marketing world, if that is, you want to make any serious money. Internet Marketing today has become much too competitive, and the newcomer has very little chance of breaking in.

Niche Markets, each with their own web site and relevant content is THE best solution. Niche Marketing is the hottest topic on the Net today. Niche Marketing is featured on my web site at Best Affiliate Products, and you can learn much more about it at http://www.bestaffiliateproducts.com/nichemarketing.html

I'll catch up to you in my back yard in Niche Country.

Fred Farah

Best Affiliate Products and Niche Market Strategies
Subscribe to Niche Market Strategies Newsletter
And Niche Madness 7-day email course
http://www.bestaffiliateproducts.com/

Copyright 2004

About The Author

Fred Farah

Long time business man who is willing to share his expertise using his web site Best Affiliate Products.

It's all about affiliate marketing to niche markets.

Lots to learn from the Niche Madness 7-day eCourse, as well as the Niche Market Strategies newsletter.
http://www.bestaffiliateproducts.com/

How to Quickly Gain Traffic to Your New Web Site by: Herman Drost

2005-05-05T14:38:00.000-07:00

How to Quickly Gain Traffic to Your New Web Site
by: Herman Drost

The problem with a new site is that it often takes a long time before it is indexed by the search engines. This means you are missing out on getting traffic and making sales. Google places new sites in the "sandbox" which means they are on "hold" for a period of time before they rank.

Here are some ways to generate immediate traffic to your web site:

1. Start a PPC (pay per click) campaign – you can begin a Google Adwords campaign and start generating visitors the same day you set it up. Of course it is going to cost you some money but you can set a limit for how much you wish to spend. You will soon get a good idea what keywords produce the most clicks for your ads. You can incorporate these keywords in your site when you optimize it for the search engines.

While you run your PPC campaign get busy with preparing your site for the main search engines. Once you have been indexed by the main ones such as Google, Yahoo and MSN and start moving up in rankings, you can scale back the amount you spend on Google Adwords. Your goal is to eventually rank high enough that you won’t have to use PPC anymore because you are getting enough visitors.

2. Optimize your site for the search engines – the keywords that generated the most clicks from your PPC campaign, should be included in your web pages. Research alternative keywords using utilities such as Wordtracker or the Overture Suggestion Tool. You can determine the popularity of those keywords by seeing how many Google Adword campaigns are running. You accomplish this by entering the keyword or keyword phrase in the Google search engine and see how many ads appear on the right hand side of the page. If there are a lot, that means the keyword you chose is very popular and in high demand.

Integrate a few of your best keywords within the text on each of your web pages. The home page should contain the keywords which have the highest demand (most searches) with the least number of competing web sites. Then proceed with the other pages in descending order of keyword popularity.

Make sure you also include these keywords in your meta tags, title, h1-h3 tags, links and file names. Don’t overdo it for you may get penalized for spamming the search engines.

3. Increase link popularity – this refers to how many external and internal links are pointing or linking to any particular page. External links include those that come from web sites other than your own whereas internal links are those that come from within the same domain name. Link popularity is not based on the "quantity" of links but the "quality" of those links as well. Therefore increasing link popularity does not necessarily require having a large number of links pointing to your site but rather a good number of quality links.

4. Submit to the top search engine directories – many of the top directories have good link popularity that can be passed on to your site. They also have specific category pages that are related to the nature of your site. The major directories include The Open Directory, Yahoo and Zeal.

The Open Directory is one of the largest that is still free, however it can take months or even years to get listed. If you become an editor for Zeal you can get your site listed free. Yahoo costs $299.00/year to be included. It is worth it if you can afford it.

Here’s a couple of articles on how to properly submit your site to the search engine directories:

http://www.searchrank.com/resources/art007.htm

http://www.searchrank.com/resources/art015.htm

5. Submit to specialty search engine directories – you may wonder why I haven’t mentioned submitting to the major search engines. When you work on building the link popularity of your site, it automatically places you in the main search engines. Once you have submitted your site to the main directories, find specialized directories related to your business. Here’s a good resource:

http://searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/2156351

You can also research the link partners of your competitors’ sites by entering your favorite keyword in the search engines. Once you have found a number of top ranked sites, download the Google toolbar and check their back links. This can save you a lot of time researching other areas to find quality links.

Once your site been indexed by the search engines and included in the directories, focus on adding more content and continue building your link popularity. This will help you to maintain and/or increase rankings with the result of gaining more traffic to your new web site.

About The Author

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of http://www.iSiteBuild.com. Affordable Web Site Design and Web Hosting. Subscribe to his “Marketing Tips” newsletter for more original articles. mailto:subscribe@isitebuild.com. Read more of his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com/articles