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The Ultimate Guide to Directory Submissions The Ultimate Guide to Directory Submissions By David Eaves (c) 2008 Submitting to directories is a great way to build links and increase your search engine rankings. In semi-competitive industries it can produce great results. If you add article creation and social media marketing into the link building equation then you can achieve great results for any industry. The Ultimate Guide to Directory Submissions Free or Paid Directories? When choosing directories going for the paid ones can be better, mainly because the links seem to last a lot longer. Many of the free directories seem to disappear or delete links after a year or so. However, there are a few free directories out there that should always be used - directories that have stood the test of time. Niche or General Directories? Submitting to a combination of both niche and general directories is usually a good idea. For most industries there are a variety of niche directories out there - the best way to find them is through a search engine. Do a search on Google, MSN or Yahoo for directories in your niche area - those that come up in the first few pages of results are usually the best ones to use. With general directories it's better to go for those that are more established. The older a directory is, the better. PageRank - Does It Still Matter? Because directories are generally quite large, they need a certain amount of PageRank to get all of their pages indexed properly. However a high PageRank isn't the be-all and end-all. Google's recent crackdown on directories has made visible PageRank even more irrelevant when it comes to... more.. The 10 Week SEO Diet The 10 Week SEO Diet A SPN Exclusive Article By Kalena Jordan (c) 2011 So you've noticed that your competitor's site ranks higher than your site on Google for *yellow widgets,* even though you are the premier widget provider in your area. So what are you going to do about it? You're going to take back control of the search results, that's what! You don't need to be proficient at SEO or hire a Search Engine Optimizer to make a difference to your search engine rankings. There are several easy steps you can take that can make an immediate difference to your site's visibility. Here's a 10 Week SEO Plan that will quickly put your site on the path to higher rankings: Week 1 - Verify Your Site With the Big 3 Search Engines If you want to understand how search engines interact with your site and find potential issues before they impact your traffic, you really need to verify your site and sitemaps with the big 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing) and monitor your stats regularly. Start by registering your site with Google Webmaster Tools. This is easy. Simply create an account and verify your site by uploading a small piece of code to your server for Google to find. Then create a XML sitemap of all your site pages and upload it via your Webmaster Tools account. The amount of information this gives you about how search engines interact with your site is truly mind-blowing. Once you've gone through this process, you'll be able to check:    - how many pages Google has... more.. Attracting Links To Your Website Attracting Links To Your Website By Trey Pennewell (c) 2008 the Phantom Writers You know it is funny in a way. Webmasters have learned that the most important thing that they can do to improve the traffic to their website and to attract attention from the search engines is to build links to their website. But when it comes time to actually start building links to one's website, people typically pick the hardest way to accomplish the task and then they get to work. Working Hard People have been told about various ways to build links to one's website, and they go through the process of picking out the method that they would prefer to use. It is kind of ironic that most people pick the method that they believe will be the easiest and least expensive to achieve, and when all is said and done, they will have picked out the hardest, least effective method of building links. For example, most newcomers to online business choose: Reciprocal links; Directory submissions. With Reciprocal Links, people buy a software package that helps them to search out websites that are supposedly "related" to theirs and then they send an email to the person who owns that website, proclaiming the benefits of trading links and asking for the link. With directory submissions, webmasters can get software that is supposed to help with the process, but it takes hours just to subm?one's website to a few dozen directories. Fortunately, there are service providers who also provide submissions to web directories. Regardless of how you get links subm?ed to web... more.. 47 Simple Ways to Build Trust in Your Website or Blog 47 Simple Ways to Build Trust in Your Website or Blog By Miles Galliford (c) 2007 If your website does not create a sense of trust in your visitors, all your efforts will be in vain. Your online business will not succeed. That's the bad news. The good news is that it is very easy to create and build trust in your online visitors. Below, I have listed all the techniques used by the hundreds of websites I have helped launch. If you have additional techniques, please add them to the l?. As the old saying goes, you have only one chance to make a first impression. Building trust cannot be achieved by one single action. Trust is achieved by hundreds of little things you do throughout your website that, when taken together, give readers a sense of honesty, legitimacy and stability. The other bit of good news is that few website owners focus on building trust in the minds of their visitors. If you do it well, it can become a real and sustainable competitive advantage. Here are 47 simple actions you can take to get started.   1. Trust is built by lots of small actions on every page of your website.   2. Your website design is the first impression. Make sure it is professional and relevant to the subject matter.   3. Navigation must be intuitive. If visitors can't find what they are looking for easily, they will question your competence in providing what they want.   4. Make the website personal by giving it its own tone and voice. People buy people.   5. Follow the HEART rule of creating online content. (Reminder:... more.. Killer Campaigns Volume Four: The Color of Branding Killer Campaigns Volume Four: The Color of Branding By Jerry Bader (c) 2010 Web video is a communication technique that provides a viewer-experience that delivers several big advantages over broadcast: first, the length of your presentation is for the most part a non issue other than the degree to which your content and delivery holds your audience's attention; second, the cost to produce and present professional online video is far more affordable than broadcast; and third, Web video provides the chance to intellectually and emotionally engage your audience with a memorable viewing experience, and involve them physically by prompting direct-response action. On the other hand, broadcast does provide a mass audience, but not necessarily an attentive one like your website. As we have seen in previous installments of Killer Campaigns, the commercial broadcast industry, despite its economic and time constraints, has plenty of good examples of techniques that can be used effectively in Web video campaigns, if you understand how certain elements affect an audience. It's easy to misread a commercial's true marketing effectiveness and assume the big flashy special effects and grandiose production stunts are what makes a commercial work, but in fact those kinds of things generally only make a commercial more expensive. True the big-deal aspects of a production may attract attention, but it's the small things that are the most important, the most effective and the most affordable. It's the things you hardly notice like writing, casting, music, performance, and campaign consistency that have the most impact on a presentation's ability to communicate, influence and persuade. It's the production techniques to which the audience pays little attention that maximizes sale-conversions and increases the... more.. Texas Land for Sale Texas Land for Sale The very first thing that comes to mind when talking about the Texas Land For Sale offers and what they bring to the table is if it's worth it. There are so many different things that trouble people's minds right now, which makes it hard to focus on various things if they are not that important. The really important things about the Texas Land for Sale opportunities! First of all, this is an aspect that should be minded by all the people who whish to have their own home one day. Not just a flat in the middle of the city, where there is noise, business and stress, but a home in the middle of the environment, where one can find peace and quiet. The Texas Land For Sale offers are not a way to advertise a land, or a ranch, as they are a fulfillment of one's desire. Why now? There are many times in life when one can actually think of investing in their future home. Some say that now is not the time to think of any investments as the times that we are living today are very complicated. Those are the people who should know that the recession is the factor that has made investing in lands so accessible to people. The middle classes of the society can actually consider the Texas Land For Sale opportunities due to the harsh times that the world is experiencing today. How much will it cost? There are many variations of the price and it really matters where you wish to buy that specific land, but one thing is certain: the value of the land and the prices are at their lowest point. One can verify this aspect by checking out the... more.. RTA cabinets Ventura RTA cabinets Ventura What's the deal with the RTA Cabinets Ventura services and the things that they do for their clients? Many people talk about how important it is for a business to take care of its clients and more importantly to answer to whatever needs they have. This is one of the best ways to create a strong relationship, between a brand and its potential clients. The bond between the RTA Cabinets Ventura services and its clients There are still man people who think that making a business is simple because the only thing that you need to do is to sell your product, item or service. Things are a little bit complicated as there are many factors that need to be taken into account in order to be considered successful. The RTA cabinets Ventura services are a great example in this direction due to the fact that they bring some great features to the table. First of all, they put their client's comfort first. It might sound a little bit as a clich?but it is important for the client to actually feel comfortable. That's why the service was designed to give the customer the opportunity to browse throughout different models in the online environment until they find the right piece of furniture that best fits their needs, tastes and preferences and lastly, they can make their order and have things delivered for them. When asked about how they were treated by the RTA cabinets Ventura services, many persons appreciated this aspect and the fact that things were done for them in a small timeframe. They talked about the fact that they didn't lost several hours in traffic or in a showroom, having to browse through various models and not be certain of... more.. What Your S.E.O. Strategist Won't Tell You What Your S.E.O. Strategist Won't Tell You By Jerry Bader (c) 2007 Maybe you own your own business, or perhaps you're a critical cog in the corporate machinery responsible for marketing your company, brand, product or service. If that describes you, here's eighteen things you need to know about Web-marketing but were afraid to believe. 1. Time To Be Heard Your mother told you 'children should be seen and not heard,' but you're not a kid anymore. So why are you listening to all those guys telling you not to use audio on your website. If you want to deliver a lot of content that people will remember, try letting your website do the talking. 2. There's Nothing Like the Real Thing In a world of virtual everything there's nothing like the real thing. The sound and image of real people delivering your marketing message makes it a believable, memorable presentation. 3. Unlock the Conventional Wisdom Straightjacket Driving traff?to your site is great, if those visitors stay long enough to find out why they should be doing business with you. If your website traff?is leaving as fast as it's arriving, maybe search engine optimization isn't the answer you've been looking for. 4. Linking Your Way To Obscurity You know the reciprocal linking strategy everyone is talking about as a way to generate leads? Did you ever consider that each link to another website is an invitation to leave your site? Is that really what you want - to invite people to leave? I think not! 5. Your Company's Voice... more.. Google is Much More Than a Search Engine Google is Much More Than a Search Engine By Rick Hendershot We all know that Google is the dominant search engine, and controls a large percentage of online advertising. But many of us -- even regular Google users -- are not aware of some of Google's other services. Most of them are presented as new ways of listing and categorizing the universe. However, consistent with Google's new status as a profit-first public corporation, what lies at the root of most of Google's expanding ventures is the need to become less dependent on context-based advertising revenue. In other words, the people at Google are desperately looking for new ways of making money. ** Froogle Still Looking for a Mission in Life Google's product search and comparison tool called Froogle, was launched in December 2002. It was developed in an attempt to cash in on the obvious market for online shopping that major sites like eBay and Amazon had so successfully exploited. more.. Getting the Right Marketing Mix Using Social Media Getting the Right Marketing Mix Using Social Media By John Sylvester (c) 2009 For months (or is it years now?) we have been reading articles on how businesses should develop a presence on Twitter and build a Facebook Page as part of their SEM objectives. Now, with social media firmly established in the armoury of our online marketing efforts, how can we best take advantage of these two social media giants? As if to demonstrate their power in the market these days, both Twitter and Facebook (to a lesser extent) have been targeted and dealt painful denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and, as a result, many hours of downtime. With hackers determined to bring Twitter down to earth, it was acknowledged that although defensive measures had been taken on the company's part to repel further attacks, third-party developers whose applications have been using their application programming interface, were found vulnerable. In a similar vein, the social-networking site Facebook was also hit with a DoS attack, but it didn't appear to be quite so threatening as the one that knocked Twitter off its perch on the same day. Social media, as a phenomenon, has taken marketing online by the scruff of the neck and placed it in the control of the general public. In essence, traditional search engines, where votes have often been bought and traded by sleight-of-hand SEM tactics, have now been delivered on a platform where we decide our preferred content. Not ideal, but popular. But how do we achieve success in this and what should the marketing mix be? Let's take a look at how some of the "big guns" treat social media? One of the best marketing campaigns I have seen on Facebook Pages is that... more.. The Evolution of Online Advertising - Pt 1 The Evolution of Online Advertising - Pt 1 By Scott Buresh (c) 2008 Medium Blue Please bear with me as I go through a brief history of basic online advertising. The evolution of targeted online advertising is interesting, because I believe the perceived harmlessness of early advertising technology and targeting tactics lulled many people into a sense of complacency or perhaps even false security. In the beginning of targeted online advertising, there were banner ads. As many people recall, these were supposed to drive the Internet marketing industry in its infancy. Scads of publishers paid scads of money based on a CPI (cost per impression) model or simply paid huge dollars for banner ads and other targeted online advertising on well-trafficked sites. Then something crazy happened - nothing. It turns out that the banner advertising technology on the Internet was not the magic bullet it was purported to be. The old way of making money based on providing content (the way magazines and newspapers ran advertising) just didn't seem to work in this context. This new advertising technology was part of the reason for the collapse of the dot-bomb era. All the talk was about "eyeballs," "stickiness," "bleeding edge," "cradle to grave," and several other terms that, in retrospect, would have sounded more at home in a Wes Craven movie than in an emerging industry. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of business models depended on a traditional marketing strategy working more or less the same as it always had when introduced into a non-traditional setting. All the while, one company, originally called GoTo, then Overture, and finally bought by Yahoo!, actually formulated a targeted online advertising... more.. Cracking the Google Adsense Code By Kim Roach Cracking the Google Adsense Code By Kim Roach (c) 2006 Google Adsense has empowered web publishers of all shapes and sizes to make money from their web sites. Whether you own a hobby site that gets 100 visitors per day or a popular finance portal that is flooded with millions of visitors per month, you can benefit from the Google Adsense program. Simply sign up for a free account, grab your Adsense code and paste it up on your website. Well, it sounds good anyway. In reality, that's not the whole story. Maximizing your adsense earnings requires a little more care. Fortunately, you can quickly increase your earnings by reading every word of this article. I will cover the basic necessities and also reveal advanced tips that you won't find on every digital corner. So, if you're looking to put more money in your pocket with a few tweaks of code, I urge you to read on. As you are reading, keep in mind that Google is actually one of the best resources for finding information on Adsense optimization. Think it's hard to believe that Google would give good advice? Well, it makes sense when you think about it. The more you make as a publisher, the more they will make. Google has a big incentive to help you perform well. Not to mention, they have tons of data to research what works best. So, for much of my research, I took quite a few tips from Google. But don't worry, there are also some advanced tips here that Google will probably never reveal to you. Most Effective Ad Formats In general, wider ad formats tend to outperform... more.. Using Social Media to Boost Search Engine Results Using Social Media to Boost Search Engine Results By Lauren Hobson (c) 2009    Most of us are well aware that the search engines frequently change their algorithms to improve search results for users (and foil spammers), which can make it challenging for small businesses just to keep up. But as web technology continues to evolve, it also creates new opportunities for small businesses to improve their SEO strategies and boost their rankings as well. Social media (sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Technorati, Digg, etc.) provide an excellent opportun? for small businesses to not only promote their products and services online, but also to gain significant ground in the search engine results. One of the most critical components to getting top search engine rankings is the number of inbound links and link popularity a web site is able to build. Although there are several existing link building strategies available to small businesses (e.g., press releases, directory submissions, article syndication, etc.), social media can help create additional high-value, on-target inbound links that are essential to achieving top placements in the search engines. For example, each time you use Twitter to publish a link to new content on your web site, that link gets "planted" on the Twitter page of each person following you, and has the potential to spread even further as your followers share that information with their own network of contacts. Integrated Social Marketing (ISM)TM If you have properly integrated your social networking profiles together, that same Twitter "tweet" could then be fed via RSS to your Facebook business profile, your corporate blog, your LinkedIn account, and any number of other social sites that you have set up for your business. It's not a far stretch to imagine... more.. Free Traffic and the 4 Vital Elements of a Successful Website Free Traffic and the 4 Vital Elements of a Successful Website By Brye Bishop (c) 2009 Let's face it, anyone can build a website. There are countless companies out there offering a vast array of web building solutions, some good, some great, and some quite frankly are a complete waste of time! But throwing together a website is really only part of the story, only part of the process. There are literally, hundreds of thousands of web pages, that won't ever be viewed and therefore stand no chance of commercial success. Some of those sites are relatively good; unfortunately their owners have misunderstood the process and have the cart before the horse... In the online world no one just happens by your website, cred?card in hand! If you've yet to build your website, or about to create a new site, stop! consider first exactly what you wish to achieve with that site, before you start. "Creating a website should follow a process proven to deliver a commercial end result... or run the risk of ending up, just another pretty picture in cyberspace!" Fortunately there is a process, and I highly recommend you take a look at it... perhaps you already know it... Content > Traffic > Pre-sell > Monetize A time tested, 4 step process, proven to produce websites that deliver... commercially! Ok so, let's now look briefly at each step and why they work in this particular order. 1. Numoro Uno, as always. Content. Very, very important. Building information-rich sites is crucial. You must have high quality, unique, relevant content on your site, A; because you want to attract visitors in the first place and B; to generate long term, search engine based free traffic. Online,... more.. kitchen cabinets Los Angeles kitchen cabinets Los Angeles The kitchen cabinets Los Angeles service has become quite famous for the way it approaches their potential clients and the way it provides the service. Many companies are interested into catching their clients in a net, but there are others who are interested into building up a relationship with their clients in order for both to best benefit from this relationship. What's new with the kitchen cabinets Los Angeles services? People are always comfortable with their lives and that is why many companies and businesses develop services and items that don't take the clients out of their comfort zone. In this way, both sides are quite happy. When talking about the kitchen cabinets Los Angeles services and why are they so famous, this is the most relevant argument that comes to mind: the fact that the cabinets are designed and transported right at the doorstep of the client. This means that he or she won't lose much of his time running around from store to store in order to find what is needed. Furthermore, the service is designed in such a way, that the user can place the order on the internet and simply wait for the magic to take place. It might seem a little bit ordinary for a company to be in the online environment alongside with the "offline" one. This is because of the fact that many businesses have discovered the benefits of using the internet for their business. Why are the kitchen cabinets Los Angeles services so special? They answer to the needs of the clients as they bring the products right at their homes. This means that all the worries, frustrations and the stress is... more.. Ten Reasons Why Good Link Builders Fail Ten Reasons Why Good Link Builders Fail By Maria Nemenman (c) 2011 A good website builder knows that solid links mean solid rankings, but it's an ever changing challenge to get them. Learn how to avoid a loss of link juice now. Links are incredibly important in getting relevant traffic and good position in search results, but links are like any other relationship... they can go sour. Here's a list of ten reasons why otherwise knowledgeable link builders blow their efforts. Pay attention and don't fall into any of these traps. As a website builder you have got to get this part right or you are heading for disaster. 1. One Hit Wonder The worse thing that can happen to websites that stumble onto a source of links or who only rely on one method of building links is for that accident or that plan to actually work. That sounds counter intuitive, but if you convince yourself that only one method is needed, you're heading for a fall. You need to diversify your efforts and not have all your eggs in one basket. 2. Quantity Not Quality The link builder who writes an article, spins it and then uses article submission software can easily develop 1,000 links to a web page in no time at all. The only problem is those links will be worth next to nothing. Building links is not just a numbers game. Links gain their value from the value of their source. A single link from a PR 4 is worth 1,000 links from PR 0 websites. 3. Forgetting that the... more.. SEO Web Links - Directory Alternatives SEO Web Links - Directory Alternatives By Joel Walsh If you were writing a textbook on SEO linking circa 2001, you almost certainly would have included a chapter on web directories. They used to be the primary way of actively acquiring one-way inbound links, before content syndication, blogs, or the paid link market really took off. Web Directories and SEO Links: What Went Wrong? Fast forward a few years, and you'd have to rewrite the chapter on directories and web links. In fact, you would probably downgrade web directories from a chapter to a page or two. In the SEO world, nothing good ever lasts long, and so it is with web directories. ? Traff?/B> With Google more accurate than ever, there was no more reason to turn to a human-edited list of websites. A directory might get you one or two click-throughs a month--or none at all. ? Redirects Once directory owners realized their link popularity was valuable, they started hoarding it. Overnight, many, if not most, directories switched their HTML links to search-engine-invisible redirects. more.. Top 13 Must-have Facebook Applications for Business  Top 13 Must-have Facebook Applications for Business By Wendy Suto (c) 2010 It's now or never if you want to secure your business real estate on Facebook. Fan pages for business are quickly catching on for all types of industries; however, not all fan pages are maintained effectively thus missing valuable traffic and engagement with fans AKA potential customers and clients. Facebook and other social networks are all about people and relationships. Business owners want to build their reputation, so that they become trustworthy, credible and knowledgeable about their audience to provide them with the products or services they need. Social networks work the same way. Who is your company's audience and what do they want from you? How are you going to attract more people to your page's network? Two ways to boost your network and reputation on a Facebook Fan Page: consistent updates and applications. Post often on a fan page. Allow more than one person to manage a fan page to provide the valuable information and expertise that your business prides itself on. The second way to establish a reputation and engage with your network is through Facebook applications. These add-ons will both visually enhance a fan page much like adding special features to a Web site and stimulate engagement, conversation and ongoing interactions with your fans. Once a business creates a fan page the standard applications include Photos, Video, Notes, Events and Discussion; however, these are only the basics. In order to really add uniqueness to a Facebook page as well as your social media marketing strategy, you'll need one or more of the following Facebook applications. 1. Reviews - The reviews app is perfect... more.. Medical Billing Software Medical Billing Software   When talking about the advantages of the Medical Billing Software, there are several that come to mind. The most relevant of them all refers to the improvements that it brings to the table in terms of proficiency and efficiency. There are many doctors who thing that this is a reliable too, especially when it comes to a busy day at work. The proficient work of the Medical Billing Software First of all, the first thing that people need to take into consideration is how the medical field did improve with the latest systems. Right until recent years, the systems that were used didn't imply the use of computers and things were a little bit complicated as the clerk was required to go through various pieces of information before actually reaching the ones that were of interest for that particular situation. This is an aspect that took a lot of time and especially a lot of energy and this wasn't something that could be afforded then. The Medical Billing Software and the system that implied a structure in the patient's files were just what was needed in order to rise the level of efficiency that the medical system needed. Another great aspect that was changed here was related to the idea of patient control. Many people managed to change their prescription by saying that the files were wrong and they were given other dosages. By implementing... more.. Dispelling Fears About The GoogleBomb Algorithm Update Dispelling Fears About The GoogleBomb Algorithm Update By Bill Platt (c) 2007 Google algorithm updates always bring the fears of webmasters to a boiling point. In the aftermath of an algorithm update, some people come out swinging, making claims that Google is trying to put them out of business. Others look at their Google rankings and pat themselves on the back for having survived another "algo" update. It has been known in search engine optimization (SEO) circles for quite some time that one could successfully implement what is referred to as a GoogleBomb. The best example was a search on the phrase "miserable failure". A search on those words within Google would show George W. Bush's biography at the White House website, in the top three or four results of the search results. This would occur, despite the fact that neither word in the search criteria resides on the White House website. At one time, Bush's biography had been in the Number 1 spot, but counter-bombing campaigns moved Bush's listing down the page a bit. Many people have written about this phenomenon in time's past. I have even written about it myself. When I wrote about it, my point was to show the importance of anchor text in a link to build the value of a web page in the Google search engine result pages (SERPS). The "miserable failure" GoogleBomb came to exist within a loophole within the Google algorithms. Google puts a lot of value on the anchor text that points to a particular web page. It is part of their "one link ? one vote" philosophy as to the value of a web page. Bloggers joined forces to create thousands of... more.. Has Google Replaced Content as King of the Web? Has Google Replaced Content as King of the Web? By Titus Hoskins (c) 2012 While great content will always get you noticed, I have come to the somewhat obvious conclusion that "Content is NOT King, Google is King" on the web. This is a slightly different mindset when it comes to getting traffic and marketing on the net. This new mindset doesn't change the fact that you still have to create great content, but it changes the way one goes about promoting that content on the web. In the last few years, Google's share of the search market has grown to 65% or much more in most areas of the world. This domination of online search puts Google in control of what content is seen - regardless of its quality. It plays a major role in your content's visibility, a role so great that without Google's approval, your content is not exactly dead in the water, but your chances of succeeding is much less than with a thumbs-up from Google. Now, the real turning point (light bulb moment) for me was Google's recent promotion of its own products or data, as in the whole "Google Plus Your World" search results features which were introduced a few weeks ago. Google is actively showing and promoting its Google+ profiles and posts within its SERPs. Many believe Google is sacrificing both relevancy and quality by only showing its own data (as opposed to Twitter's and Facebook's profiles/posts which Google claims it no longer has access to) when Google users are logged into their accounts. Those same critics also believe Google has stepped over the... more.. The Most Popular Social Networks and Who Is On Them  The Most Popular Social Networks and Who Is On Them By Caitlin Rambo (c) 2011 How much time do you spend online? According to a time use survey compiled by ComScore Media Metric, the average American spends 33.9 hours on the Internet every week. Depending on age and other demographics, this number can double! And for those lucky individuals whose occupations rely primarily on computers: the Internet commands their lives and they aren't ever not connected. Computers have drastically changed the technological landscape. The Internet has facilitated efficiency in a number of offline processes. We use the web to communicate with our family, friends and business acquaintances in real-time chats. Books and other multimedia are available for online viewing and instant download. We can even shop for gifts online - often offered at a deeper discount than in brick-and-mortar stores! The Internet has revolutionized the way that we live, as we now spend one-sixth of our lives in the digital world. Exhibit 1: 100 Most-Visited Websites by category, according to Google Ad Planner Where are We Actually Spending Our Time Online? Google has compiled a list of the 100 most-visited websites in the United States. (Being the modest company that they are, Google has chosen to omit their website and statistics from the study.) These 100 websites are sorted into six categories: social networking, search engines, shopping, entertainment, business and software. The Internet can deliver information instantaneously, so naturally search engines and other information-related websites comprise the most popular category - sites ranging from web portals, such as Yahoo! and Bing, to encyclopedias and other how-to pages, such as Wikipedia and eHow. Closely tailing search engines are online shopping and other e-commerce websites... more.. How To Create A Video Campaign Concept How To Create A Video Campaign Concept By Jerry Bader (c) 2007 Have you ever had a good idea, maybe a great idea, only to find that someone else already ready did it? Frustrating. You want to be a success and who doesn't? It's why you do what you do, why you put-up with what you put-up with? But it all gets so frustrating. As much as you'd like to believe otherwise, there just aren't any secr?methods, special potions, or motivational DVDs that are going to make you a success in thirty days, but there are things you can do that will help. Sure working hard helps but working smart is even better. So how do you work smart? Well you can start with presenting your core, marketing message to your targeted audience in a way that engages the spirit, informs the intellect, and embeds in the mind. And if you want to be cutting edge, the way to do it is with audio and video. What A Difference A Difference Makes Anybody who has ever tried to raise mon?for a project from a bank, or contacted an ad agency for help has heard the question, "What makes your company different?" If you don't have a different product, different process, or different way of doing or presenting what you do, you are nev?going to raise a cent or make an impact on the market. Yet most companies blindly continue to follow the market leader, and wonder why they nev?attain the level of success they hope to achieve. If you want to be a success, you have to reinvent your company as something unique,... more.. Shaping Web Audience Preference Shaping Web Audience Preference By Jerry Bader (c) 2009 Wouldn't it be wonderful if you had the power to convince people that your product or service was exactly what they needed, and as a consequence your in-box was filled with inquiries and your e-commerce site was stuffed with orders. Wouldn't that be great? And isn't that exactly what you want to achieve with your website? The problem is you are part of a giant online bazaar called The Web; and just like your local weekend flea market The Web is filled with crap, conmen, and contraband. Without understanding some of the underlying psychological principles involved in shaping audience preference you are in danger of being regarded as just another mangy flea market hustler, even if what you offer is the greatest thing since sliced bread. The subject of shaping public perception, or in our case Web audience preference, is complex and convoluted but there are basic principles that if followed will help you achieve your business objectives, no matter how you define them. The Four E-Essentials of Website Presentation All the Google ads, search engine optimization, linking strategies, social networking, and Twitter twirping will be for naught if you don't implement four essential marketing communication techniques: engage, enlighten, embed, and re-enforce. These four website presentation elements are easy to grasp but not always easy to implement. If you've read any of our other articles you will know that we think Web-video is the most effective way to implement these elements on your website and in your Web marketing. But just because you use video on your website, doesn't mean it's going to be effective unless you understand the psychology behind the e-essentials. Perhaps the best way to illustrate how... more.. If You Want To REALLY Promote Your Site, Here's How... If You Want To REALLY Promote Your Site, Here's How... By Steve Shaw (c) 2006 Site promotion gimmicks and traff?techniques come and go, but the ones that really work are those that stand the test of time. This article highlights what I consider to be the most effective methods to promote your web site of all time. 1. Get Your Site High In The Search Engines Getting your site linked high in the search engines for your keywords and keyphrases. One of the best ways to do this is to ensure your site has a good number of incoming links from quality sites - I discuss how to achieve this with relative ease below. Also make sure that your site reflects the keywords/keyphrases that you are looking for - they should be in your title tag, your headline tags, and in your initial paragraphs. Don't however over do it, or it will look like "keyword stuffing" and you will do more damage than good - just make sure they are there in a natural fashion. more.. More Freeware SEO Tools for the DIY Webmaster - Part 2 More Freeware SEO Tools for the DIY Webmaster - Part 2 By Mel Strocen (c) 2007 In Part 1 of this article , some of the better, freeware keyword, sitemap and ranking tools available to webmasters were listed. Part 2 covers meta tag generators, link popularity apps, link checkers and general SEO tools. Again, all of these tools can be found in the SiteProNews Webmaster Tools Directory along with new additions as we find them. Let's start with a look at meta tag generators. Since meta tags lost their SEO relevance several years ago, most of the freeware programs in this category are either no longer supported or haven't been updated for several years. But, then again, not much has really changed in meta tag usage so the apps listed below should still be useful. Meta Tag Generators 1. BHead 4.1.1 (1.0 MB) is an advanced meta tag generator that can create your entire HEAD section, including CSS style sheets. Generates the code for all popular meta tags and also has an option for custom tags. Keywords and description can be imported from files. Comes with a basic Style Sheet editor that includes a color picker. Other features include spell ch?, search replace, syntax highlighting, etc. For Windows 9x/NT/ME/2K/. 2. Metty Meta Tag Maker 1.31 (2.5 MB) is a meta tag creator with support for 33 meta tags that ensure search engines properly index your website. Easy to use and requires no knowledge of meta tags. For Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP. 3. Search Engine Buddy 1.0 (2.7 MB) analyzes web page meta tags and web page content on or offline to help you create the... more.. Bounce Rates Count Bounce Rates Count By David Leonhardt (c) 2008 Of late there has been a lot of discussion about bounce rates and whether or not the search engines count these in their algorithms. As far back as late 2007, there were reports that webmasters were seeing a difference in their rankings for major keywords within a few weeks of drastically changing their bounce rates. However, none of the tests and reports seem to be complete enough or repeatable enough to constitute proof. As a result, there are plenty of naysayers who believe that such things as bounce rates are not now and probably won't ever be part of the search engine algorithms. I am of the opposite view; bounce rates will certainly be part of the search engine algorithms and probably already are. What I would like to do here is share with you some of the common naysayer objections and refute all but one of them. But first, for those who are scratching their heads about what bounce means, we are referring to people leaving a website. A bouncy website is the opposite of a sticky website, one where people stay a long time. Objection 1: There is no definition of "bounce rate". Response: This is the flimsiest of arguments. A bounce is when someone leaves a website, going back where they came from. Objection 2: I don't like how Google Analytics defines a bounce. Response: Sadly, Google doesn't ask me for advice, either. But cheer up, the bounce rate in Google Analytics might not be the same as they use in their algorithm, just as the little green bar is not necessarily the PageRank... more.. An Informal Look at Writing Online Content An Informal Look at Writing Online Content By Jamie Lyons (c) 2010 I get many questions about my job as a copywriter and SEO practitioner, and for the most part they follow a similar theme- 'what do you do?' and 'could I do it?' In an attempt to address these questions once and for all and possibly also give an insight into the life of an internet marketer I've put together an article: this article. A large portion of my day is spent writing. From articles to press releases, website content to blogs: countless hours are spent staring at a blank page, frantically scrambling for inspiration or that perfectly sculpted sentence. The phrase 'writer's block' is an often derided cliche, but there is no denying that sometimes you just can't quite work out exactly what you're trying to say, or even more infuriatingly, the best way to say it. Some will go for a walk to clear their mind, others to their cigarette packet or porcelain throne in an attempt to find clarity. In the realm of content writing and SEO based copywriting in general there is a very simple reason why these personal catalysts are turned to with persistent regularity: it can be boring. There, I said it and to emphasise my conviction will say it again: Writing For Seo Purposes Can Be Boring. Now hopefully you'll grant me enough time to justify this outburst before reporting me to the various authorities, oh, and please forgive my reliance on personal experience in portraying a more universal point. I go into work every day knowing that I am required to write intelligently and enthusiastically on topics which I may have very limited previous knowledge of,... more.. Web Communication, "Sign, Sign, Everywhere A Sign" Web Communication, "Sign, Sign, Everywhere A Sign" By Jerry Bader (c) 2007 Your business success depends on your ability to communicate effectively to an interested audience. Driving appropriate traff?to your site is important, but the tactics that generate visitors are not the same tactics that get visitors to stay on your site. Web-communication is a series of elaborate multi-sensory sign languages; signs being the words, images, audio and videos that constitute the range of presentation vehicles that like all forms of communication have their own grammar, context, and relevance as interpreted from personal experience by each member of your customer-audience. Websites that consistently under perform and that don't meet business expectations generally suffer because they are not designed to hold viewers attention long enough to communicate a clear concise marketing message. When Words Lose Their Meaning Marketing is one of those words that has lost its currency because it has been tossed about with little respect for its meaning. To many, it's merely just another word for advertising, which of course it is not. To the more sophisticated it takes in all the disciplines of branding, positioning, identity, advertising, and more. Above all marketing implies a strategic approach to implementing these tactics. For companies interested in using the Web to further their business objectives, Web-marketing is the execution of a communication strategy through the creative implementation of multi-sensory signature presentations. Semiotics: The Study of Signs "Sign, Sign, everywhere a sign, Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind, Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign." - Five Man Electrical Band Like the lyrics of the song, 'Signs,' by the Five Man Electrical Band' suggests, we... more.. 10 Steps To Top 10 Rankings In Google 10 Steps To Top 10 Rankings In Google By Titus Hoskins (c) 2007 Most webmasters go totally "gaga" for top 10 rankings in Google. And for good reason, Google is the most dominant search engine on the net and will deliver the largest amount of traff? More importantly, those same webmasters will also inform you, getting top 10 rankings in Google often means your site will prove profitable. Mainly because obtaining targeted traff?is usually your first obstacle in creating a viable online business. In other words, if you get top ten listings in Google for good searchable keywords, it is almost impossible not to earn money. How To Proceed? First, you must know the rudimentary basics of how keywords work. Keywords and keyword phrases are the exact words someone types into a search engine to find what they're looking for online. If you have a site on "dog training" then your goal is to get a top 10 ranking for the keywords "dog training". Now if no one searches for "dog training" it would be a useless keyword, you would get no traff?no matter how perfectly your site is optimized for that keyword. How Do You Know If A Keyword Is Good? To find out, you have to do some keyword research on your particular keywords. Many professional online marketers use keyword research software like Brad Callen's Keyword Elite. However, you can also use the keyword suggestion tools supplied by Google Adwords or Overture. Try here: http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/ Now if you ch? "dog training", you will find it receives around 4,469 searches each day. That's a lot... more.. Your Guide to Top Search Engine Rankings Your Guide to Top Search Engine Rankings By Trent Brownrigg (c) 2006 Does it seem like no matter what you do your website just won't climb up in the search engine rankings? If so, your web site may not be optimized well enough for the search engines to increase your rankings. There are some very important factors that determine where web sites are ranked. These factors are referred to as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques and they can make all the difference in your site's rankings. Here are some of the most important factors that the search engines use in determining your rankings: 1. Web Site Content Content on your site is one of the most important factors for successful search engine optimization. Your web site should provide valuable information on specific subjects relevant to your web site. Furthermore, your content should be updated regularly. It's not enough to just put up a few content pages full of information on your site and then nev?add to it. This is a continuous process that will help your search engine rankings if done correctly. It's also important that you don't try to trick the search engines by flooding them with multiple versions of the same page, repeating the same content over and over. Doing that will not help your rankings and will eventually lead to your site getting banned from the search engines. 2. Link Popularity Inbound links are very important for achieving high search engine rankings. Most of the search engines today regard link popularity as one of the most significant determinants of your website's rankings. Here are some of the best ways... more.. Can Social Networking Improve Your Business and Your Life?  Can Social Networking Improve Your Business and Your Life? By Mary Petto (c) 2010 If you can't fathom jumping into the online world of social media for your business, start with your personal life. You've probably heard that any business committed to long-term growth has added social media to their marketing plan matrix. You've also probably heard your friends, colleagues, competitors, and, of course, your kids bragging about how social networking has solidified deals, increased business, or kick-started a creative campaign. But, alas, this Internet thing is not for you, right? If it's hard to imagine why you need to jump into this alternative universe if your business is already running smoothly, consider starting with the light version of social networking by setting up a personal account on Facebook. Joining the world of Facebook can be a real turning point in your relationships, family management, social life, and self-improvement; the likes of which could not ever have happened before. Here are just a few examples of the life- changing purposes a personal Facebook account can serve: Long-Lost Friend Database Whatever became of the fr?d you played Battleship with who moved to another state in fourth grade? Type in his name and voila! It is very likely he will appear on the search results list, the magical effect of critical mass attraction to this online universe. Not sure if it's him? One of Facebook's handiest features is that you can send private messages to users, even if you haven't officially connected through a "friend request" yet. Chances are it will be him, and you may be surprised that not only can you pick up right where you left off, as is the... more.. Landing Page Usability: More Than Just The Curiosity Factor Landing Page Usability: More Than Just The Curiosity Factor By Frederick Townes A landing page is the page that visitors first see after becoming curious enough to cl? on a link to your site. The link may be found on search engine results pages, within a specifically target?email, on the site's navigation toolbar or within another website. In many cases, these are links you pay for. The organic results delivered by SERPs are free, but, unless your site appears on the first two pages, it's unlikely that visitors will connect. In many cases, the landing page is the site's home page - but not always, even within SERPs. Landing pages can appear anywhere within a web site. Paid Links Demand ROI If your landing page receives prominent display within search engine results pages, congratulations. Upward of 50% of visitor traff?found that landing page through an SE query. However, only 20 to 25 sites can appear on page one of Google's SERPs. What about the other 10,000 links Google delivers to its users? Often, smaller sites employ paid links to drive site traff? Google Adwords, for example, is a PPC (pay per cl?) means of building business. The important point is this: PPC programs have to more than pay for themselves in order for your site to remain a viable business. Any form of paid linkage to one of your landing pages must deliver a nice ROI. And to do that, you need a fully-usable, engaging landing page. Otherwise, visitors won't stick around long enough to read about your low prices and free shipping. The Purpose of the Landing Page While all... more.. Is Google No 1 Forever? Is Google No 1 Forever? By Jim Hedger, StepForth News Editor, StepForth Placement Inc. Google is without a doubt the world's number one search engine. According to the research firm Neilsen/NetRatings, Google's share of the global search market in February 2006 was 48.5%, more than double the 22.5% share its nearest rival Yahoo saw. Having been the engine of choice for nearly five years, Google is synonymous with search. Because Google is the first thing most folks think of when they think about search, it is the most important search marketing venue, at least for the vast majority of SEOs. That might be changing in the coming years. There's a sense in the SEO sector that the horizons have expanded significantly and the search marketing map has gotten far larg? What the new landscape will look like exactly, and how large Google's footprint will be, is still unknown. The emerging online environment is still being explored, so to speak. As it is explored, it is evolving very quickly. In many ways, it feels like the early days of the commercial web where everyone knew that everything was about to change, but no one really knew exactly how. While Google's influence is incred?e and its dominance appears unassailable, a number of... more.. Google Caffeine - A Taste Test Google Caffeine - A Taste Test By Kalena Jordan (c) 2009 Earlier this month, Google invited the public to take their next generation of web search, code named Caffeine, for a test drive. The new search infrastructure is the beginning of Google's advance towards improving indexing speed and scale as the size of the web grows increasingly cumbersome. Google is seeking feedback on the changes from experienced users and web developers by making Caffeine available via a web developer preview. From the official blog post: "It's the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits 'under the hood' of Google's search engine, which means that most users won't notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences." What Is It? According to Matt Cutts of Google, Caffeine is essentially a rewrite of the search index and it roughly compares with the Big Daddy index of late 2005 / 2006. In other words, it's a BIG change to Google search. Here's a couple of grabs from Mike McDonald's video interview with Matt Cutts on the subject: "We're shooting to get results identical to previous version. We'll open up a few datacenters with it first and then roll it out." "Caffeine will be more powerful, flexible and robust - allowing Google to index faster." "(Caffeine) builds a powerful foundation for including any changes we want to do with indexing. Not so much for taking advantage of semantic, real-time indexing, but for getting good infrastructure in place for growth and unlock more power." "Webmasters shouldn't be concerned. Caffeine does not affect your... more.. Texas Ranches Texas Ranches What do people know about the real estate industry right now? The most common answer from them all is related to how the recession has greatly affected this market and how things are really bad when it comes to the investments made here. Are there any opportunities here? What do people see in the Texas Ranches? First of all, this is one of the best ways to actually make a real, solid investment, rather than one that doesn't bring much money to the table. This is one of those ways that will grant you a small fortune if played well. What's the secret here? The investments that are made in the Texas Ranches or any other piece in the real estate industry right now, are milestones for your future profit. Things go as follows: the prices are at their lowest point right now, due to the difficult times that the financial world is experiencing today. This really means that you can actually buy at a reduced price, if compared with the past couple of years. Where does the profit come from? When talking about the prices for the Texas Ranches a very specific detail comes to mind: the purpose of the ranch. There are many things that can be done at a ranch. Firstly there is the most common aspect of them all: farming. It might seem a little dull, but people will be eating their entire life and that's why this industry will basically never die. One can't quite say that there is too much food in this world. Secondly, there... more.. Top Six Internal Linking Tactics To Get Top Google Rankings Top Six Internal Linking Tactics To Get Top Google Rankings By Jason O'Connor (c) 2008 If you own or run a website and are not following these six tactics for properly linking your website together then you're losing Google traffic as you read this. First some definitions. Internal linking is the links on your website that point to other pages within your same website. External linking is when you link to another website. Tactics are specific things to do to achieve desired results, or any mode of procedure for gaining advantage or success. There are things you can do when developing or refining your internal linking structure. If you carry out the following tactics, you're going to achieve two things. One, you'll make your website better from a user's perspective. Two, you'll rank better in Google. And it's no coincidence that Google rewards you for doing things that make the website user's experience easier and better. In fact, the most important thing I can recommend is that you create, design and link your website together in a way that benefits the visitor first. Your visitors are most important, not Google rankings. One last thing before I get to the tactics. Have you heard that links from other websites that point back to your website are essential in getting top search engine rankings, especially with Google? It's true. These links vary in their effectiveness and value depending on the website from which they're coming. But did you also know that internal links often can have similar effectiveness and value as external links? So bear this in mind as you read on. 1)... more.. How Google Applies Science to Search 1 How Google Applies Science to Search 1 By Kalena Jordan (c) 2008 Dr. Craig Nevill-Manning is a New Zealander who joined Google in 2000 as a Senior Research Scientist to develop more precise search techniques. Previously, Craig was an assistant professor at the Computer Science Department of Rutgers University, where he conducted research in data compression, information retrieval and computational biology. Before that, he was a post-doctoral fellow in the Biochemistry Department of Stanford University, where he developed a software suite used by pharmaceutical research laboratories to identify the role of particular proteins within cells. A scientist at heart, Craig is probably best known as the developer of Froogle (recently re-named Google Product Search) and the founder of Google's software engineering center in New York City. This article is a summary of his presentation at Webstock 2008. Google's Spelling Bee Craig started his presentation by talking about one of his first challenges in his job at Google: the spelling correction tool. As the popularity of the search engine grew, Google needed to be able to spell-correct lots of obscure words. So his solution was to take a sampling of content from the entire web. Craig's team came up with a algorithmic model and ran it over the web. He discovered that there were several correct answers to the same question. For example, words like "kofee" could mean either the searcher is seeking a cup of java or information about Kofee/Kofi Anan. To combat this, Craig came up with an interesting solution: the "Did you mean?" alternative spelling option, based on predictive examples of searcher spelling patterns. You can see this in action if you type in "kofee anan"... more.. The Benefits of Installing Internal Site Search The Benefits of Installing Internal Site Search By SEO Advantage (c) 2010 Today's websites are more complex than ever before. Many contain a wealth of information visitors can use to answer their questions and learn what they need to know before contacting a company or making a purchase online. But with all the information and features packed into many of today's websites, it can also be more difficult for site visitors to first of all determine whether or not a website will contain the information they need and then find it on the website. Installing a site search box can provide several advantages to help your site visitors - and also benefit your marketing function in the process. Site Search Satisfies the Customer's "I Want It Now" Attitude Installing an internal site search box can help visitors find what they need more quickly. With web users still looking to find what they need as fast as possible, confusing navigation and cluttered design are more likely than ever to prompt an "on-to-the-next-site" response. Internal site search is undoubtedly the quickest way for someone to find what they're looking for on a large and complex site. An internal site search helps visitors get around navigational structures that may be confusing to them. This is especially important for sites that are constantly adding new content. As the site continues to grow, many users will find the site search function to be a valuable tool in helping them find what they need. Site Search Makes a Website More Customer Centric Installing an internal site search also means you can transform your website from a static "one size fits all" style to a more "customer-centric" approach. More and... more.. Top 10 Ways to Improve Search Engine Ranking Top 10 Ways to Improve Search Engine Ranking By Darren Dunner (c) 2007 My top 10 ways to improve search engine rankings are based on 7 years of banging my head against the world wide web's search engines and reading numerous books on top 10 SEO tactics. Let me say first of all that there are a lot of books, sources and tutorials that make promises of getting your website into the top 10 spots on the major search engines. Most of these are self promoting and the end result is that you have to hire these people to accomplish the things they say you can do on your own. So I want to preface this by saying that this article on how to improve search engine rankings is not necessarily a do-it-your-self guide. In fact, the art of SEO can be time consuming and irritating to say the least. Some methods require the help of companies like mine so I write this in hopes that you will understand what it really takes to gain exposure, realize what you can do on your own and determine when you need assistance. One final point I want to make is "Don't use any SEO Company that can't explain what it is doing and that makes claims of using secr?software that you can nev?see or use". Yes, SEO can be complex but not to the point that you can't understand what is being done. A good SEO company is able to educate you on what is being done and explain that it is best to leave some techniques to the experts. My 10 Ways to Improve Search Engine Ranking... more.. Designing Websites That Appeal To The Senses Designing Websites That Appeal To The Senses By Jerry Bader (c) 2006 Taking Advantage of The Experience Factor We read the newspaper, we watch television, and we listen to the radio, but we experience the Web; this is what makes 'The Website' one of the most powerful marketing tools available to today's marketing executives. Unfortunately conventional wisdom has stifled the 'experience factor' on most website presentations. Traditional circulation based advertising biases and pitch-mandated direct mail practices from metric-minded agencies have limited businesses' ability to take advantage of the Web's capacity to provide a more active, creative, and penetrating sensory experience aimed at furthering marketing objectives. As consumers of information we all filter what our mind considers irrelevant. When we go to a website we quickly recognize where banner and text advertisements have been placed and proceed to ignore them for the rest of our visit. Even television ads are becoming increasingly less effective, even as their cost increases. Yet people will watch and even look forward to creative, entertaining advertisements that capture our imagination and inform our ability to make better decisions about what we buy and who we buy from. Does Anybody Really Know What Works? It is easy to rely on after-the-fact number crunching and projected head-numbing statistics to justify how marketing campaigns are constructed rather than on the less predictable but more relevant elements of psychology and human nature. But do numbers really tell the true story, or are they just protect-your-butt justification designed to ease everyone's mind when it comes time to commit to a budget? Take the entertainment industry for example. Here is an industry that can... more.. How To Make Your Website Structurally Sound How To Make Your Website Structurally Sound By Erin Ferree (c) 2008 You've decided to build a website. Great! Your first step is to determine its structure - the pages you want to include and the information you want provide to visitors. But how to begin? Your first instinct may be to make your site different from everyone else's. After all, trying to differentiate your business is what you've been doing throughout your branding process. Building a Website is Like Building a Custom Home When you create a custom house, you can arrange your floor plan however you want, paint the walls as you please and fill the house with furniture you love. Your goal is to create a unique space that stands out from everyone else's. In the same vein, there are elements of your website where standing out makes sense. For example, the overall look of your site and your copy should be different from other sites - especially those of your competitors. Differentiating your website is good for your small business - to a point. What you don't want to do is reengineer its basic structure. Standing Out Isn't Always the Stable Way to Build Underneath it all, even the most unique custom home has the same foundation and spacing between studs in the wall as every other house on the block. By following underlying principles of construction, builders help ensure that the house is structurally sound. Why not use the same approach when it comes to your website? That way, your site is far more likely to work well for you. To use site building rules, of course, you need to know what they are. more.. Multiply Your Marketing Like a Virus Multiply Your Marketing Like a Virus By Michel Fortin (c) 2009 In today's Internet, conversations are cropping up all over the place. People are talking. They are talking about products. They are talking about businesses. And they are certainly talking about their experiences. When you look at how blogs, forums and social networking sites have exploded in the last few years, you can see how powerful word-of-mouth is. But the question is, is it all really important? Can it really help your business? Yes. And I'm not talking about traffic. And you don't need to be controversial, either. I'm talking creating systems to leverage, manage and profit from the "buzz." Word-of-mouth is one of the most powerful lead and business generation processes there is. Online, some people call it "word-of-mouse." But we know it more as viral marketing. Viral marketing is the process of implementing means or tools through which the knowledge of your existence self- propagates. Like a virus, your visibility spreads throughout a network of people who refer you to each other. Notwithstanding the power of backlinking, traffic and SEO, viral marketing is key for a number of reasons. Success in the offline world is "location, location, location." The Internet is no different. Your success depends highly on the number of locations you appear online - places on which your site, link, company or product name exist. In essence, to expand your reach, you need to be in as many places as possible, talked about by as many people as possible and be in front of as many eyeballs as possible. With viral marketing, there are three ways of doing it:     Create content     Create applications     Create systems The first is self-explanatory. Your content may be controversial or buzzworthy. It may create raging... more.. Keeping an Eye on Bounce Rate Keeping an Eye on Bounce Rate By Merle (c) 2009 Merle's Mission When you hear the word "bounce", you're probably more inclined to associate it with a checking account, not your website. But for those who study and understand website statistics, they understand that "bounce rate" is an important measure of your website's effectiveness. Bounce rate, simply put, is the percentage of people who come to your site, then immediately leave without viewing any of the inside content pages. Think of it like window shopping. Say you browse by a shop and don't really care to enter based on what you saw at first glance through the window. The window in this case is your home page. A bad first impression, or irrelevant content, can chase away a visitor and stop them from freely investigating the full content of your site.  Google Analytics defines bounce rate as: "The percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page. Use this metric to measure visit quality - a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren't relevant to your visitors." Therefore, a high bounce rate is bad but a low bounce rate is a positive sign that your visitors are engaging and exploring your website. So what constitutes a good rate? This is a very hard question to answer, but if you do some research, most say it needs to be under 50%. It also will depend on the type of site that you have. For example,... more.. Ranches in Texas Ranches in Texas When talking about what drives people to see and buy one of the Ranches in Texas, things cannot be explained with words. You just need to see the ranch for yourself to get a feeling on how the life here goes on. The reality is that many people dream of such an opportunity but not many of them actually have the courage to do so. The courage and the Ranches in Texas People are so caught up with the craziness of their lives that they forget about the main reasons why they are working so hard. One of those reasons is to have an early retirement and enjoy life with all of its blessings. But, those people have the tendency to get so focused on their work, that life passes alongside them with all its opportunities. Such an opportunity is actually buying one of the Ranches in Texas as a personal investment. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear about it? Some of the most common answers refer to the fact that this isn't the time to think of such an investment. The thing is that now it's the best time to act in this area and that's why this is one of the best opportunities there is. What about the money? This is another issue that is being brought in such discussions by many different people. They think that the situation is the same as 3 years ago or 10 years ago when the land was considered one of the most expensive purchases there were. The reality is that the prices for the Ranches in Texas differ from location to location,... more.. How to Create Search Engine Friendly Title and META Tags (Part 1) How to Create Search Engine Friendly Title and META Tags (Part 1) By Kalena Jordan (c) 2007 In this article, I'm going to show you step-by-step how to create search engine optimized Titles and META Tags.   The TITLE Element TITLE elements, (commonly called TITLE Tags), are one of the most important factors that search engines "look" at when it comes to determining the relevancy of a web page against a search query. In their ranking algorithms, nearly all the major search engines attribute a high relevancy we?t to the content of the TITLE tag. In the HTML code of a web site, TITLE tags look like this one (for a fictional florist): <TITLE>Miami Florists - beautiful floral creations made to order.</TITLE> To view the HTML code of any site, choose "View, Source" from your browser toolbar or right cl? anywhere on the page and choose "view source code". The META Description Tag META Description Tags are designed to describe the content of web pages. Search engine robots will gather up this information when indexing web sites and often use it when referencing web pages in the search listings. While not all search engines continue to utilize the META Description Tag, a majority of search engines rely on the content of this tag (together with a site's visible content) to provide information about a site that they can match with search queries. It is therefore important for webmasters to include keywords and phrases in the META description that they would expect searchers to use to find their site content. In the HTML code of a web site, a sample META Description Tag looks like this: more.. The Law of Dissatisfaction How To Motivate Prospects The Law of Dissatisfaction How To Motivate Prospects By Jerry Bader (c) 2007 The 7%-38%-55% Communication Rule Dr. Albert Mehrabian, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, UCLA is best known for his 7%-38%-55% Rule that states 55% of communication is attributable to non-verbal behaviors like body language and facial expressions; that 38% of communication is attributable to voice including volume, tone, pitch, cadence, and quality; and only 7% of communication is attributable to the words used. Despite this persuasive evidence, companies continue to pile on the Web-text in the vain hope that search engines will index it and that someone might actually read it, even though the reality is 70% of website visitors merely scan for headlines, bulleted points and captions. The evidence is clear, the most effective way to deliver a marketing message is a Web-video using a professional performer who knows how to use his or her voice, expression, and body language to drive the point home. "But Wait, There's More ..." I have noticed a proliferation on the Web of the sad old d?ct marketing formula that you see in sal?pitches for magazine subscriptions. Can you really expect people to take you seriously when you adopt this 'Barnum and Bailey' approach to marketing? It is a formula that flies in the face of Dr. Mehrabian's research and every other usability study that warns against over-burdening website visitors with too much text. Your search engine optimizer may think it's great for driving traff?to your landing page, but I'll bet if you ch? your logs, 50% of that traff?disappears in under 5 seconds. This format is an outdated sal?technique that doesn't work in a Web... more.. Making Your Site Search Engine Friendly - Spiderability Making Your Site Search Engine Friendly - Spiderability By John Buchanan (c) 2007 One of the keys to obtaining top rankings, or ANY rankings for that matter is making sure that the search engines can properly spider and index your site. This means doing whatever you can to make sure the search engines are able to reach each page of your site as easily as possible. When I talk to my clients about spiderability, I'm generally referring to two things... 1) Are all the links in the site true hyperlinks that can be picked up properly by the search engines. 2) Are all the pages within the site reachable within 2-3 clicks from the homepage. So let's go over the above two areas of concern. 1) Hyperlinks. This may seem almost silly, but you would be amaz?at the number of sites I run into when doing consultations and website analyses that have non-standard hyperlinks. By "non-standard", I'm referring to javascr? generated hyperlinks or hyperlinks embedded within flash files. There is nothing inherently wrong with javascr? or flash when used properly, but the simple fact is that javascr? and flash are NOT search engine friendly. Google is pretty much the only engine that is able to pick up links within javascr? or flash code. At this time, I have seen no evidence that either Yahoo or MSN have this ability. While Google may be able to pick up links, it is unclear as to whether or not Google places any VALUE on the links it finds in this manner. Remember, much of a page's ranking in Google is determined by links, so you want to be absolutely sure that each and every link... more.. 11 Things Every Successful Website Needs 11 Things Every Successful Website Needs By Merle (c) 2009 MerlesWorld.com So you've put together a spectacular website, and you're ready to go live on the Internet for the whole world to see. Not so fast there Bucky. In case you didn't know, there are a few essential requirements that every site needs to include in order to be successful. Let's review, shall we: 1) Privacy Policy/Disclaimer: Now, I'm not a lawyer and don't claim to be one, but these two documents should be standard issue for every site you have. People want to know how you're going to use their personal information, and a "privacy policy" does just that. In today's litigious society you'll also need to include a discla?r/terms of use page. This protects you and spells out to your visitors what they're agreeing to by using your website. If you don't know where to start in generating these documents, you'll find plenty of help online.     ? DMA Privacy Policy Generator     ? OECD Privacy Statement Generator     ? Google Adsense & other Ad Networks Privacy Policy Generator     ? Privacy Policy Generator     ? Free Site Discla?r This is not legal advice, and if you need help in this department, consult with a local attorney. 2) Contact Us Information: I can't tell you how many sites I've been to that fail to include a way to contact the owner. If you can't include a phone number, at the very least have an email address or a "contact us" form. By providing this information, you'll make your visitors feel more comfortable knowing there's a way to reach you should the need arise. If you need a form and don't know how to... more.. The Art of Website Maintenance The Art of Website Maintenance By Erin Ferree (c) 2007 Now that you've designed and launched your website, you have a powerful marketing tool for your business. But, your website is only as useful as the content is current. The process of keeping the content on your site current is called website maintenance, and it's important to keep both visitors and search engines supplied with new information. Just like regular maintenance on your car, you have to make changes on your website every few months to make sure that things run smoothly. If you update the content on your website on a regular basis, potential clients will be drawn back to your site to find out "what's new". The search engines pay visits to websites in their queue regularly. The catch is that you'll stay in the queue only if you update your site regularly. If the search engines visit your site several times in a row, and don't find anything new, they may decide not to come back-which can be a blow to your search engine rankings. So, when is it appropriate to update your website? You don't want to waste time and mon?nitpicking at your site if you don't have updates of real value to add. You should update your site if you've: - Grown your skills. Have you gotten a new accreditation? New licensing? Improved your skills? Any change in your skill set is a great reason to update your website - and your potential clients - with your new capabilities. - Expanded your products or services. Do you have a new offering? Add it to your website and start making new sales in that area. - Completed a... more.. How to Get Free Press How to Get Free Press By Kim Roach (c) 2008 Free press is one of the best ways to spread the word about your website, your product, and your brand. However, most people don't know where to start. Fortunately, it's really not as hard as you might think. There are thousands of articles being published every single day on blogs, newspapers, and magazines. Bloggers, writers, and journalists have pages to fill and all of them are actively looking for interesting topics to write about. Many people forget that PR is about public relations. It's not just about writing a press release. It's about getting to know the journalists. Find out what kind of stories they're working on and see what you can do to help them. PR is really about listening and engaging key influencer's. You need to connect. Connect with journalists who are writing about stories in your industry. Send them a quick note to tell them what you like about their writing. Provide them with story ideas within your industry. Provide them with value and they will have open ears whenever you want to pitch your story. But remember, a journalist is extremely busy. You must respect their time. Keep everything short and sweet. Get to the point quickly and concisely. Most journalists can be easily contacted through email, which can be found on their website, in their byline, or within the publication they write for. However, many writers and journalists can also be found on a number of different social media networks, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. These social media platforms are another great way to connect with bloggers and mainstream media... more.. Link Popularity and Press Releases Link Popularity and Press Releases By Gary Sims The quantity of links to your site is used by the search engines (like Google) to calculate the importance of your site. This measure of incoming links is called "Link Popularity". Press releases are a powerful way in which you can promote your site, service or product while at the same time increasing your link popularity.   Search Engine Optimization Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process of fine tuning your website to get higher rankings on Internet Search Engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. Broadly speaking there are two types of optimization, "on-page" and "off-page". On-page optimization deals with the layout and format of a web page to make it attractive to a search engine. Off-page optimization deals with external factors like the number of people linking to your page. Let's look at off-page first. Off-Page Optimization In trying to quantify the importance of a website, search engines have developed sophisticated algorithms that rank web pages for their quality. The largest factor in determining quality is the number of links to a web page. Links are an almost impartial method of determining how popular a website or a web... more.. Video Marketing - Its Different Manifestations Video Marketing - Its Different Manifestations By Punam Parab (c) 2007 Just go through these facts and figures: ? "This [online video ads] could very well become the dominant form of online advertising... probably within the next 18 to 24 months" - Bob Hanna, senor vice president of sales with Burst Media-a group that offers publisher sites to advertisers. ? "Online video ad spend is to surge by 89% in 2007 and is poised to grow and in 2010 will be worth around $2.9 billion". - marketing vox. ? "At some time early in 2010, one in 10 dollars devoted to internet advertising will go for video placements" - David Hallerman, a senior analyst with eMarketer and author of the report 'Internet Video: Advertising Experiments & Exploding Content' Well, if you have a sharp mind [and even if you don't], you cannot but notice the rising fortunes of video marketing. Video marketing is the next big thing in the world of Internet marketing. Video marketing entails the use of video for conveying your message to the audience. Most experts believe that videos are more effective when it boils down to establishing an engaging and interactive platform to communicate with the target audience. If you too are interested in entering into the world of 'online video marketing', then it will augur well if you are aware about the various forms of video marketing. Video advertising is one of the basic forms of video marketing. In case of video advertising, the advertiser makes use of the video that is already being run across television channels. Usually, the video is edited to shorten the duration. This also makes the video more appealing to the online audience.... more.. How to Optimize for Google: Part 2 How to Optimize for Google: Part 2 By Scott Van Achte, Senior SEO, StepForth (c) 2008 Optimizing for top Google rankings includes a number of factors. In Part 1 of 3 we discussed onsite optimization. In Part 2 we will touch on incoming links as well as using Google Webmaster Tools. LINKS Links are very important in today's Google rankings, but just how many links you need will depend on both the competitiveness of your target phrases, and the quality of the incoming links themselves. Essentially the number one rule of links is to keep it relevant! Topical relevance is very important in order for inbound links to give your site the most value. If the page that links to you is relevant that is good, if the entire site linking to you is relevant, that is better. First to get an idea of how many links you may need, take a look at the top 10 ranking sites in Google and record how many links Yahoo is noting for each site. (This is because Google does not display anywhere near all the links they have noted). The average of this count is often a good indication of how many links your site may need. There are many different ways to get links to your site including the age old reciprocal link trade, directory links, article based links, and links from press releases. Reciprocal Links Reciprocal linking has seen its value drop considerably over the past few years, however, if the site you are trading with is relevant you can still receive value from these links. Paid Links Google... more.. Successful Internet Marketing Without Search Engines Successful Internet Marketing Without Search Engines By Bill Platt (c) 2007 Believe me or not, a business can survive and thrive on the Internet without good search engine placement. That does not mean that a Webmaster should not strive to get good rankings in the search engines, but it does mean that a Webmaster should not throw his or her entire advertising budget towards search engine optimization (SEO). The SEO guys are rolling in their Ferrari's as you read this. I would have said that the SEO guys are rolling their graves, but they are not dead, yet. There Can Be Only Ten How many web pages will be listed on page one of the search results at Google? How about on Yahoo or MSN? That is right; there can be only ten web pages listed on page one of the search results. According to the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org), there are currently 85 billion web pages on the Internet. But, if you have ever used the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive, then you know as I know that they have not archived everything that is out there, so that 85-billion number is actually smaller than the real number of existing web pages. With only ten listings on page one of the search results, there are going to be a lot of disappointed people in the world. They cannot all be on page one of the search results. First Things First Search engine optimization is an expensive undertaking, so it shouldn't be taken lightly. I talk to people everyday who are building their first website for the very first time. These folks, bless... more.. The Surprising Truth About Ugly Websites The Surprising Truth About Ugly Websites By Mark Daoust Ugliness has nev?looked better. I have spent the last few days examining a surprising trend in web design that has made ugly websites look absolutely irresistible. No, it's not the bolded, 18 point Times New Roman font shouting at me as I access the page that has me excited, nor is it the harsh colors that have actually managed to make my eyes hurt and distort my vision. In fact, it's not even that logo which is so pixelated from being processed, resized, saved, and edited so many times that it appears to be blurred to protect the identity of the company who owns the website that has me singing the praises of ugly websites. What is it? Ugly sells. That's right ? ugly websites are surprisingly effective in making mon? As a person who puts business before technology, a profitable website is a website that is an unbelievably attractive website to me. The Case of Plenty of Fish I was struck by an example of just how... more.. Texas Ranches for Sale Texas Ranches for Sale What's the immediate reaction when people hear about the TX Land For Sale? There are many that can be highlighted but the most relevant of them all is passivity. This is because there are some people who think that this isn't something that they can handle or it isn't something that should be in their own best interest. Sadly, you find the very same people complaining about unfulfilling their life is. The other vision of the TX Land for Sale One idea that should be illustrated in this material refers to the greatest benefit that comes to mind when talking about the Tx Land for Sale opportunities. There are some people who have believed that this is something that truly are in their own best interest and have chosen to accept it. They bring forth the idea that they were leading very stressful lives, full of problems and worries. The business of the city and all of its craze didn't actually help at all. What did they do? They took up one of the Tx Land for Sale opportunities and shaped after their best desire. Many of them have brought up the house of their dreams and have made it as they've always wanted. There are some who would say that they afforded all of this because they were rich. Interesting enough, this wasn't the case in almost any of the investments. The reason why the prices are so low when it comes to investing in the real estate industry and making some personal adjustments to the land afterwards is because of the recession. The difficult times... more.. The 4 Points of Do-It-Yourself SEO The 4 Points of Do-It-Yourself SEO  by: Gordon Goodfellow Ever felt intimidated at the convoluted, jargon-ridden information about Internet marketing for small businesses available on the Net? Ever been horrified by the huge fees the experts charge, putting search engine optimization beyond your own means? Ever thought: What exactly is search engine optimization anyway, and can I do it myself? The answer is: Yes, you can! The basics of search engine optimisation in applied web marketing are simple. It's all to do with the keyword content of your text copy, and can be summarised in seven points. 1. Register a good domain name which reflects what your site is about. Even if you are an established business, don't register www.FredJones.com if you make widgets. Rather, you want to register something like www.BestWidgets.com because that would inspire confidence in people looking for quality widgets who would not necessarily have heard of Fred Jones the widget-maker. 2. Name your page URLs based on reasons similar to the above for your web promotion, except now you can be more specific. Search engines like to know what your page is about. Name a page after a product (BigYellowWidgets.htm) or a service or action (Buy-Widgets-by-Post.htm) on one of the sales pages. 3. The text in the title tag is crucial in letting search engines know what each page is about. Put your important keywords in your title tags, using both the singular and plural versions (people will search for both) and make these tags different and specific for each page. For example, "Widgets and After Sales Widget Services". Whatever you do, don't call the home page "Index", but treat it almost as a mini-description. 4. The other tags (at the top of the html page) between the two... more.. mineral lipstick mineral lipstick If you were to talk with 10 females on the street and ask them about what kind of lipstick do they use, the answer will most positively be different than the mineral lipstick. This is due to the fact that most of the people aren?t aware of the benefits of the organic cosmetics and what they bring to the table. They are so used to what they are currently using, that it?s quite hard to change their minds for something better. The better perspective brought by the mineral lipstick A first idea here refers to the comparison between the mineral lipstick, or any other product that has a mineral foundation and the products that don?t use organic substances in their components. A difference is the amount of time that the products last. The nonorganic ones have a very low durability, due to the fact that they deal with the surface of the skin, rather than head a little deeper and discover the source of the problem. The mineral foundation products are designed to go a little deeper, until they reach the possible problem and try to fix it. This will be able to change the effects of the problem that are visible on the outside and make the skin shine in a natural manner. Another difference between the two of them refers to the matter of the price. A mineral lipstick... more.. Conversion Rate Optimization Part 1, Google Takes the Leading Role Conversion Rate Optimization Part 1, Google Takes the Leading Role By Frederick Townes (c) 2007 Within the e-commerce sphere, the "mind games" between site owners and search engine designers have focused on search engine optimization (SEO). After all, you can't make a sale if visitors aren't reaching your site. However, as the web marketplace grows exponentially more competitive, attention among webmasters and site owners has turned to conversion optimization ? converting site visitors to buyers. Conversion optimization has nothing to do with SEO. SEO is designed for spiders and bots. Conversion optimization is based on two factors only: the needs and motivations of human site visitors and persuasive site content and design to encourage humans to make a purchase or perform some other action. Any other considerations are sub-sets of these two factors in conversion optimization strategies. Measuring Human Motivations and Site Effectiveness SEO is based on the development of numbers (metrics) that are immutable. Numbers are numbers, there's no debating that. The interpretation of site metrics, on the other hand, is a true combination of art, science and testing. Assessing conversion rate optimization must apply a completely different approach to data gathering and the accurate, actionable assessment of the cold hard facts (percentages and such) that are the basis of SEO. The Google Website Optimizer (GWO) Google owns SEO (sorry Yahoo). It is now moving into eyeball optimization (EBO) to help site owners improve conversion rates. It's got lots of features, it's totally flexible in designing useful tests for human reactions and it provides data using simple to read and understand charts showing what's working and what... more.. Top 5 Ways To Benefit From Universal Search Top 5 Ways To Benefit From Universal Search By Jennifer Horowitz (c) 2008 What is Universal Search and Why Should You Care? Universal Search combines all the information within its Vertical engines/databases into one index to serve a single set of SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). An example of Vertical engines/databases are Google News, Google Video, Google Images etc. What this means is when you go to www.google.com, (their most highly trafficked domain) and do a search, rather than just getting websites from their main index, you will also get results from the News, Images, Video, etc databases as well. It is a more comprehensive results page. Google Vice President of Search Products and User Experience Marissa Mayer said the company's goal for universal search is to create "a seamless, integrated experience to get users the best answers." Sometimes the information you are looking for is best delivered by video, or images or a news story. Currently, you would have to search each of the Vertical engines/databases to get all the information. Google is planning to integrate it into one search engine. As a searcher this means easier access to various forms of information with only one search. It seems like a good thing, as long as the results are easily organized on the page. It could mean more scrolling to get to the different areas of results, depending how they lay it out. What To Do and Why Changes with the search engines can sometimes be confusing. There is a lot of information to evaluate and some decisions to be made. Before you decide anything, you need to understand what your options are. If your site isn't already properly optimized... more.. Making Sense Of Website Statistics Making Sense Of Website Statistics By Paul J Coulter (c) 2007 Every website owner wants lots of traff?directed to their website, but this can sometimes involve spending a lot of time and mon? Fortunately, most website owners can ?rease their return on ?estment simply by paying closer attention to their website log files. Most website host? companies have special software installed that will process these website log files and display the information in an easy to read format. From this information website owners can get an understanding as to how many people are visiting the website, where the visitors are coming from, where they are entering and exiting the website, the average number of page views per visit, and many more interesting facts. These statistics will allow you to better analyze the effectiveness of promotional campaigns and give you some insight as to how you can tweak your website to ?rease your return on ?estment. "Hits" Explained There seems to be some confusion regarding the terms used to describe website visitor traff? We usually hear website owners speak in terms of "hits" to their website. Hits don't accurately describe the number of visitors viewing the website ? they are actually just any sort of HTTP request made to your server. Not only are requests made for website pages, but also for all the images and other files associated with viewing a single page. Therefore, one page view could actually result in dozens of hits, and, if a single user visits many pages on your website, this visit could generate hundreds or even thousands of hits. This can excite some website owners, but this number is not a... more.. The SEO's Toolkit: Tools The SEO's Toolkit: Tools By Dave Davies (c) 2009 Welcome to part two of this three part series on SEO tools and resources. In the last article we discussed the variety of Firefox extensions used for SEO. In this article we'll discuss some of the free and affordable tools you can use to better your organic optimization efforts. By affordable I mean for virtually everybody so I'm going to set the bar at $100/yr or ownership. Admittedly, we use tools that cost more than this but many of those tools will be out of some people's price range. Here are some of the key tools you need to use to help insure the successful optimization of your website. Google Keyword Tool Many of you are likely familiar with Google's keyword tool, but it needs to be noted. This is a great resource for researching keywords. As with all keyword tools, it has its limitations and most would agree that it seems to overestimate search volume but nonetheless it is probably the best of the keyword tools out there, especially at the price. Keyword Discovery No individual set of data is perfect and no stage of the SEO process is more important than keyword research and selection. Keyword Discovery is a great tool to compare with the Google keyword data. Where you find commonalities you know that 2 independent sets of data agree. With a free tr? that may itself work for many - it's certainly worth looking into. Keyword Spy While the paid version of this tool is more than the $100/yr. max I noted previously - the free version provides some great data. Simply enter... more.. Article Marketing Success Secret: Give Them What They Want Article Marketing Success Secret: Give Them What They Want By Bill Platt (c) 2008 the Phantom Writers Some people find great success with article marketing, while others think its proponents are full of bull. The difference between the winners and the losers in article marketing is most frequently defined when the writer sits down and begins to write. That is right. Success and failure is most often determined by the writers' motivation, and more importantly, by the writers' commitment to the reader. Flawed Strategies In 2005, a few of the Internet Marketing gurus took notice of the success people were having with article marketing, and they passed this news to the Internet Marketing newbies of the world. But, there was something missing from the advice given. In a lot of cases, the people preaching the power of article marketing hadn't used the technique themselves. Even today, few of my article distribution competitors utilize reprint articles to promote their own businesses. Most of my competitors rely upon affiliate marketing to promote their websites. Unfortunately, the Internet Marketing newbies of the world were given a lot of bad advice. It was said that: The only purpose of article marketing was to build links, and link popularity for search engine rankings; The writer only needed to write enough words to meet the minimum word count requirements of publishers; It wasn't necessary for the content to be well-written, since the publishers do not read the articles they approve for publication; Anything that can be done to reduce the time/cost of article writing would benefit the marketer. The only suggestion... more.. How To Construct a Web-Video Advertisement That Works How To Construct a Web-Video Advertisement That Works By Jerry Bader Motivate and Persuade Your Audience More mon?is wasted on advertising than any other business function. Small and mid-sized businesses in particular throw mon?at advertising in a vain attempt to establish themselves in the marketplace. However, there is hope that the democratizing nature of the Web environment can even the playing field and allow smaller companies to deliver their marketing messages effectively. But before that can happen, the potential advertiser must understand what the big boys have spent a considerable amount of time and effort to find out: how to create an advertising campaign that motivates and persuades customers to do business with you. Take Advantage of What Major Advertisers Already Know Chuck Young, founder and CEO of Ameritest, an advertising and brand research firm and John Kastenholz, Vice President of Consumer and Market Insight at Unilever have done extensive research into how story telling, emotions, and ideas are linked in creating effective commercial advertising. Since their research was based on television advertising it holds immediate relevance to any company that intends on using the Web as a significant presentation tool for delivering their marketing message. The cost of producing and airing broadcast television commercials is exorbitant, and that cost necessitates the kind of research done by Young and Kastenholz. Web-based marketers can benefit from the psychological insights provided from these studies and implement the findings in cost effective Web-video and audio presentations on websites, Google Video, Google Video Ads, YouTube, MySpace, and the countless other video presentation vehicles popping up on the Web daily. In Chuck Young's article, "A Film... more.. Why You Should Use Article Directories to Promote Your Website Why You Should Use Article Directories to Promote Your Website By Jay Gaulard (c) 2009 If you are online and are not already using article directories to promote your website, you are missing out on a free and highly effective marketing option. Article directories are great ways to draw traffic to your site without paying for advertising. However, to get real traffic to your site using an article directory, you must know how to use them correctly. What Article Directories Are Before you can use an article directory, you have to know what one is. Article directories are websites where thousands upon thousands of articles on just about any subject are posted. They are generally categorized to make it easier for readers to find information they want. They are also linked together, so a reader reading about "Hawaii travel" will naturally go from article to article on that topic. People can use the articles they find in the directories on their own websites, either for free or for a small fee. Authors pay nothing to subm?to article directories. How Article Directories Benefit Online Businesses You are probably thinking, "Sure, that's great. But how does an article directory help me promote my business? Doesn't giving away free content defeat my purpose as an online business?" These are great questions. When you subm?an article to an article directory, it will contain a bio with a link to your website. Since you are the author of the article, you are allowed to include this information. This means that anyone who is searching online and comes across the article directory will see a link to your site. Not only that, but the people who use the content on their own websites... more.. 9 Practical Reasons Why Web-Audio Is A Necessity 9 Practical Reasons Why Web-Audio Is A Necessity By Jerry Bader (c) 2006 1. Limited Screen Real Estate Computer screens have increased in size over the years but website designers still have to deal with the problem of how to get all a client's information presented 'above the fold' so visitors don't have to scroll too much. It's hard enough to get prospects to read anything, let alone copy that drones on. This problem isn't being helped by SEO tacticians promoting inflated text presentations often amounting to exercises in key-phrase diarrhea. If you have a lot to say, turn some of it into audio, so prospects can sit back, listen and absorb what you have to say, rather than hunt desperately for the information they're looking for. The single most important thing that effects a user's Web-experience is how fast they find what they came to learn and what could be easier and faster than pressing an audio button. 2. Computer Screen Readability We have all been raised with the eight and half by eleven format permanently implanted in our heads. Unfortunately computer monitors' four by three aspect ratio is horizontal and the new breed wide-screen monitors use a sixteen by nine format - great for timeline editing and spread sheets, not so great for reading. Computer monitors have nev?been all that easy on the eyes and the new flat screen LCDs are brighter and display more contrast which is great for graphics but again not so great for reading. So instead of giving your potential clients eyestrain and a headache, deliver the information using audio, a much more user-friendly experience. more.. Copyrights, Trademarks and Patents. Understanding Intellectual Property Copyrights, Trademarks and Patents. Understanding Intellectual Property By Kelly Sims (c) 2007 You are a business owner with a web presence. During a routine Google search for your page ranking, you discover something disturbing. There is another company out there with a name very similar to yours and almost identical content on their website. What do you do? Is your company name and website content automatically protected by copyright law? Should you have registered your company name as a trademark? Can you demand that they change their name and dismantle their website immediately? Intellectual Property can be a confusing topic, and one that all business owners should know about. Sadly however, many entrepreneurs simply don't. Intellectual property is in very simple terms an idea that legally belongs to somebody, be they a company or an individual. Only the owner of that idea, or somebody the owner has a legal agreement with can use the idea. Generally, the owner of the idea is usually its creator unless someone paid them to create the idea, in which case the idea's owner is the person who paid for the idea. There are different kinds of intellectual property, but for the purpose of this article, we will focus on copyright, patent and trademark. Patent ? A patent protects the creators of new inventions. An invention can include anything from a new product or business method to a recipe. If you decide to patent your invention, there a few things you should know. First, you will need to apply for a patent in every country where you would like your invention to be protected. Secondly,... more.. Controlling Search Engine Spiders for Improved Rankings Controlling Search Engine Spiders for Improved Rankings By Eric Johnson (c) 2009 When it comes to getting your website listed at the top of the search engines keyword search rankings, it is essential for you to gain a deeper understanding of the search engine spiders that crawl over your website. After all, it is the spiders that determine the relevance of your website and decide where your site will land in the search engine results page. Therefore, by learning how to control the direction of the spiders, you can be certain your website will rise in rankings. Gaining Control with the Help of Robots.txt You may think that gaining control of search engine spiders is an impossible task, but it is actually easier than you might think when you take advantage of a handy little tool called the robots.txt file. With the robots.txt file, you can give the spiders the direction they need to locate the most important pages on your website while preventing them from wasting time on the more obscure pages such as your About Us and Privacy Policy pages. After all, these pages won't do much to improve your search engine ranking and won't help your target market find your website, so why should the spiders waste their time exploring these pages when ranking your site? Another positive aspect to using a robot.txt file is the fact that it prevents the spiders from indexing duplicate pages. This is beneficial because having duplicate content can actually reduce your search engine ranking. So, while you are making changes to your website or working on an area that isn't fully developed yet, you can instruct the spiders to leave those pages alone until you are ready... more.. A Beginner's Guide to Google Website Optimizer A Beginner's Guide to Google Website Optimizer By Kalena Jordan (c) 2008 We all know that the most effective Pay Per Click advertising campaigns use landing pages that are matched perfectly to your target search keywords and designed to follow through with the idea or theme that your PPC ad has hinted at. But how do you determine the effectiveness of those landing pages? How do you know what design or page features will trigger a better response in your audience and lead to more conversions? The answer is that you don't, unless you test. Benefits of Landing Page Testing Whether they are a part of a PPC campaign or not, there are countless benefits to testing your web site pages, including: Improve the effectiveness of landing pages Increase conversions / sales Attract more leads / sign-ups Increase time spent on your site by visitors Reduce the Cost Per Acquisition of new customers Eliminate guesswork. Improve your site design via information from your site's end users Avoid staff disputes ? let your customers decide what design elements should be changed Google Website Optimizer The Website Optimizer is a tool that allows marketers and webmasters to test variations of pages on site visitors automatically, to see which pages or variations of pages perform the best (i.e. lead to the most conversions). In April 2007, Google took their Website Optimizer tool out of BETA and made it available to the general public. I had been wanting to use Google Website Optimizer to test our landing pages on Search Engine College for some... more.. How to Optimize for Google - 1 How to Optimize for Google - 1 By Scott Van Achte (c) 2009 In today's online world search engine rankings can make your business succeed, and while rankings in Yahoo and MSN are very valuable, their combined market value is still less than that of Google. This makes achieving top rankings in Google that much more important. In this three-part series on How to Optimize for Google we will touch on a number of important aspects for top Google rankings including website optimization, links, Google Webmaster tools, and a number of other considerations. The focus of Part 1 will be with on page website optimization. THE RIGHT KEYWORDS This article is not about keyword research so I will not spend too much time on this topic, however, I felt it was important to at least brush on this slightly. Make sure that your targets are achievable. If you select the wrong keywords it can make your entire optimization experience essentially a waste. Choose keywords that are attainable but yet still provide a reasonable search frequency for your industry. Your phrase selection should also be targeted to bring qualified traffic to your site. Using the hotel industry as an example, targeting the word "hotel" would make very little sense but by narrowing it down to "Victoria BC hotel" you now have less competition, and a more qualified audience. Keep your targets in perspective and go after the obtainable rankings. WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION There are many on-site factors that play a role in your search engine rankings. Here are a number of those factors and what you can do to improve your chances of success. Title Tag The title tag plays one of the most important roles in search results at Google, and is... more.. Landing Pages. What You Need to Explain to your Website Design Company Landing Pages. What You Need to Explain to your Website Design Company By Colette Mason (c) 2010 The definition of a landing page is simply "the first page that visitors hit on your site," so it is not strictly a certain page but any page that a user "lands" on. All websites have landing pages, whether they like it or not, even if it was not specifically designed as such. Landing pages can have a substantial impact on your e- commerce website. A poorly-developed one can hasten its breakdown just as an effective landing page can drive traffic to your site, respond to calls to action and make your business website a success. One vital measure of the effectiveness of your website is the "bounce rate," or the percentage of visitors who immediately leave your site without making any other click. The bounce rate is inversely proportional to the effectiveness of the landing page. Basically, this means that a high bounce rate indicates that your landing page isn't compelling enough for the visitor to pursue his interest or take some other action. Normally, the home page is the primary landing page of most typical websites. But more and more, site owners are designing landing pages outside of the home page, and for good reason. Most users prefer to skip information which is irrelevant to their needs. They want to get directly to their search, hence the need for a landing page that delivers just that. They can avoid the delays caused by having to click through pages and pages of information when they already have something in mind. Landing pages serve their purpose when the site owner knows the kind of visitor they are targeting. This is... more.. Texas Ranches for Sale Texas Ranches for Sale The field of investments is pretty large and people do have a lot of choices when it comes to choosing a place where they can put their money. Usually they choose the safest game where they can play, rather than risk a little and see what happens. The most interesting things happen in uncertain industry. Why should someone choose the Texas Ranches for Sale opportunities as an investment? There are various reasons why people choose the real estate industry as a place to put their money in. It might sound a little bit strange but now it's the perfect time to actually take up these opportunities due to some important aspects. First of all, the Texas Ranches for Sale offers are considered to be extremely tempting in terms of prices. This is due to the fact that the value of the land is estimated to be very low. The recession has made it possible for the prices to remain at the lower side of the grid, making it possible for the ones that haven't had an opportunity in the past to make a decision now. Another great aspect in this matter is that most of the people don't choose this field as an investment right now. They are a little bit influenced by the media and the stuff that they hear on their own regarding the Texas Ranches for Sale opportunities. The reality is a little bit different as things are not as shown on television. Furthermore, as the number of people that are buying right now is low, you... more.. Marketing in the New Technological Eco-System Marketing in the New Technological Eco-System By Leslie Lyon (c) 2009 Spas2b Inc. There is a whole technological Ecosystem developing before our eyes, that we can either ignore; adapt to slowly at our own pace (recommended!); or race to embrace. These new methods of network marketing provide us with everything from enhanced lead generation, to high level CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Knowing that many industries are slow to move in the technological arena, I am confident that this "Snapshot" will be eye-opening to many of you! Our Top 5 Sites for Social Networking and Micro-Blogging These are not just communication devices to chat from, they generate leads and help close sales by increasing exposure and developing relationships. Another purpose they serve is to improve your organic ranking, as search engines are now sending traffic to your site based on these social networking "traffic sources". Here are just a few to consider... 1. LinkedIn - Use LinkedIn for business referrals and leads. A great way to introduce men to your business. This business-oriented site is used for professional networking and has a primary demographic of males averaging 41 years of age. Your developed "connections" are people you know and trust in the business. Your connections, connections & their connections (called second degree and third degree connections) allow you to be introduced to possible business opportunities. You can join relevant alumni, industry, or professional groups of your choice. 2. Twitter - Use Twitter to notify your clients of latest business developments; promotions and business initiatives. Demographic of 35-49 is biggest. This "follow-me" site allows you to put in up to 140 characters which are displayed on your profile page and delivered to those... more.. Occam's Razor Solves Marketing Misinformation Occam's Razor Solves Marketing Misinformation By Jerry Bader (c) 2010 Many years ago I had a professor whose favorite saying was, "It's the simple things that elude people." It's not a new idea of course, but it is an important one, often associated with 14th century English logician William of Ockham. Occam's razor as it is commonly referred to states that "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity" which in pop culture terms has been interpreted as meaning 'the simplest solution is most often the best.' It is also pretty clear that old Ockham would have been a big believer in what we now call the 'Paradox of Choice' as coined by Barry Schwartz in his book by the same name. The Paradox of Choice basically describes how customers intent on buying from you, don't, because they are confused with too many options; to paraphrase Ockham, features or options must not be multiplied beyond what it takes to get an order.' In fact, it is pretty well understood by those of us who actually study how to communicate a marketing message that a focus on an emotional benefit is what works, not another new feature. The implications of this seemingly simple insight into decision-making are quite significant for marketing executives: features are out; emotional and psychological benefits are in. Ah, but what emotional benefit, there's the rub. I will assume that if you are reading this you are interested in improving your business and that you are open to new ways of doing things, and that starts with new ways of thinking about things. Finding Your Emotional Benefit Finding your emotional benefit is really not that hard if you know where to look. The... more.. Correcting Common Usability Mistakes Correcting Common Usability Mistakes By Mark Johnstone, Senior Web Developer, StepForth Placement Inc. Each day at StepForth Placement we view dozens of websites that request a SEO Review and a vast majority of these sites have fundamental usability problems. Often times neglecting this important element of a website can lead online visitors to become lost, frustrated and/or confused. All it takes for a visitor to decide to stay, explore or leave a site is 0.4 of a second. Attracting visitors to your website is a formidable challenge; it is yet another to build a fast connection with them and keep them there. With this in mind, here are some simple measures that can be taken to remedy these mistakes and help promote your online conversions. Having great search engine placements is one thing but to create a usable website environment is just as important. What good can come from "being found" if users quickly exit your site? A solid search engine friendly and usable website should be your answer to both of these major components for your online success. There are a variety of standards still in place when it comes to designing a usable website. This is not to say that the uniqueness and creativity of your website has to suffer, rather by following some simple guidelines visitors know where to go to find the information they need. The process of developing a usable interface can be a balancing act. Some core elements need to be assessed prior to any actual design work being done. Attention to content creation, search engine friendly design tactics, and the face you put on your design each have to be blended into this usable... more.. Anniversary gift ideas Anniversary gift ideas The first though in people's mind when it comes to Anniversary gift ideas is to run away. This is because of the fact that they simply don't know what to choose when that time of the year comes, regardless of the stages that that the relationship is at the moment. Some say that this is one of the hardest things that they need to do and that is the reason why they need some help in this matter. Why are people so afraid to find the best Anniversary gift ideas? First of all, they need to understand one simple and yet very important aspect: the meaning of an anniversary. There are many examples, especially of men, that simply don't understand why they have to come up with the gift once every year during a certain date. The explanation is represented by the fact that it's a celebration of the relationship and that is why it is so important. People are adjusted with the idea that a celebration is connected with the fact that a gift should be offered and that's why the Anniversary gift ideas are so searched for. One of the best advices in this area is that there are no rules when it comes to making a gift. This is because of the fact that people are different, their experiences are different and they see the world in a different way. That's why people have different tastes when it comes to everything and that's why life is so enjoyable. Offering something to somebody... more.. The A to Z Guide to Getting Website Traffic The A to Z Guide to Getting Website Traffic By Shawn Campbell In September of 1999, Brett Tabke wrote "26 Steps to 15k a Day" in the Webmaster World forum. A lot has changed since then, and now is the time to consider a new 26-step plan that meets the current needs of webmasters in 2006. Some of the old ones still apply (writing new content everyday, for example), and some don't (submitting to the search engines is no longer necessary), and we're here to tell you which is which! As you probably already know, bringing in traff?is not easy - it takes hard work, determination and lots of elbow grease. So if you're ready, roll up your sleeves and follow these 26 simple steps, and within just one year you will generate enough traff?to keep you busy for a long, long time! A) Keyword Research Before you do anything else, use a keyword research tool and do an extensive job researching the right keyphrases to use for your site. What keyphrases are your direct competitors using? Are there any keyphrases that create a potential for market entry? Are there any that you can put a spin on and create a whole new niche with? B) Domain Namemore.. Social Bookmarking and Power Linking Social Bookmarking and Power Linking By Andrew Daum (c) 2008 Just in case you missed it... the Web has changed. I think a little history of the Internet is in order to grasp the big picture. I'm not going to give any dates (late eighties and early 90's)... I'll just give a quick run down. I would say nearly fifteen years ago I had a dial up Internet connection that allowed me to log into various College computers, BBS's (bulletin boards) and Newsgroups. The Internet was much different than the Web is today. There were no graphics... it was totally text based and everything was dial up. All you could do was basically post to a newsgroup, post messages on some BBS's and send email. Internet Marketing as we know it today did not exist. In time though - a few brave souls ventured out of the shadows and began marketing within the newsgroups. This started wars between the "Purists" and new "Marketers" that I still remember to this day. You see, the Purists considered the Internet to be their own little playground. They viewed anyone selling something as evil. After all... Marketers had the TV, the Radio, Magazines, Newspapers, etc, etc as an avenue in which to sell their crap. "The Internet is ours" was their battle cry. They viewed the Internet as a way for them to communicate with each other without having to wade through all the BS advertising - and they could control what was being said. When the evil "Marketer" entered the picture, this all changed - and it changed quickly. Once the evil Marketer had discovered the Internet as a new... more.. 2010 Resolution - Give Your Website a Legal Check-Up 2010 Resolution - Give Your Website a Legal Check-Up By Chip Cooper (c) 2010 We all make New Year's resolutions - some are personal, some are business or professional in nature. Even if we don't actually make New Year's resolutions, we engage in formal and informal "planning" as we look ahead to the new year. If you operate a website, you're probably aware that your website operations are now highly regulated. And the pace of legal regulations continues to accelerate. Which means that you face an increasing risk of legal liability. So, it's a good idea to give your website a legal check-up and to update your site before it's too late. General Issue Checklist The general checklist below covers issues that are not new issues which arose in 2009. These issues have been around for a while, but some may be new to you, particularly if your website or marketing activities changed recently. ? Copyright Notice. These are the basic elements of a copyright notice: the word "copyright" or copyright symbol (c in a circle) followed by the year of first publication followed by the name of the copyright owner followed by "All rights reserved worldwide." Here's an example taken from my digicontracts.com website: Copyright 1996-2010 Digital Contracts, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. ? Blogs. If you've recently added a blog to your site, or if your site is a blog site, it's possible that a visitor could post infringing materials (e.g. text, video links, images). Under the strict principles of copyright law, you'd be a copyright infringer even if you were unaware of the posting. Your liability could be significant. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides a "safe harbor" from liability provided you publish... more.. RTA cabinets Los Angeles RTA cabinets Los Angeles When it comes to the decision that people make when it comes to their interior decorating, many of them will say that the RTA cabinets Los Angeles services were the ones that really had their consideration. This is because of the fact that they really enjoyed having to do so little and leaving the rest to the company. The efficacy of the RTA cabinets Los Angeles services First of all, people value the speed with which the companies, the services or the brands handle their needs. We live in a world where everything is done with a fast forward button and that's the reason why all the customers of any markets expect things to be done so quickly. What's special about the RTA cabinets Los Angeles services? The argument can be found in the fact that they let the customers make their choices in the online environment and then they provide with the products in a very small timeframe. The interesting part here is that clients really appreciate the fact of not having to go downtown to visit the showroom and lose valuable time there. He can simply log on to the site and make the choices that he wants right from the comfort of his home. Imagine that all the traffic jams and all the stress will basically disappear. Furthermore, the RTA cabinets Los Angeles services will take care of the order and make sure that it is delivered in the smallest time possible. Many testimonials say that the team that handled their order were very prompt and they really enjoyed having their newly bought cabinets right at their doorstep. Another great aspect that should be taken into consideration is the issue of care. The developers talk about the fact that... more.. You Are NOT George Clooney - So Get Your Social Networking Act In Gear! You Are NOT George Clooney - So Get Your Social Networking Act In Gear! By Adam Urbanski (c) 2009 When George Clooney was recently asked about his take on Facebook at the Toronto Film Festival, his response was short: "I'd rather have a prostate exam than a Facebook page." Now, that's probably understandable when movie studios (his potential clients) have his number on a speed dial, and pesky paparazzi (freebie seekers and unqualified prospects) chase after his every move. But unless you already have more prospects and high quality clients than you and your business can handle, your approach to Social Networking should be drastically different. Frankly, a little over a year ago I considered online networking a total waste of time. Fortunately, I was able to recognize how wrong I was. And I wasn't the only one that had a change of heart on this. After Dell revealed they generated a cool million dollars in extra sales in 2008, (ahm, make it a cool $3 million by June'09!), many other companies large and small started paying attention to this social networking "fad"! Just consider a few of these facts: ? Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social networks initially considered online hang-out places for kids and teenagers are now attracting a much more demographically diverse crowd. ? Big brand names, like Ford, WholeFoods, Comcast, IBM, Dell, Southwest Airlines, and many, many more are establishing a strong presence on social networking hubs like Twitter and Facebook. ? Facebook membership has just passed the 300 million mark (that's nearly the population of USA!) and Twitter is marching towards 18 million users by year's end! That's a lot of potential customers! ? Although, started with college kids... more.. Top 5 Ways To Use Web 2.0 for Web Marketing Top 5 Ways To Use Web 2.0 for Web Marketing By Jason OConnor (c) 2008 Net Gazette Web 2.0 and Web marketing is a match made in heaven. There are many ways to create traffic to your website using the power of Web 2.0. Below I am going to examine what I consider to be the top five. Jack Humphrey, a well-known Web 2.0 expert, defines it this way in his Authority Black Book: Generally speaking, if people can submit links to content, submit content, make comments and vote good/bad content up/down thus affecting the amount of traffic that content can generate, it's Web 2.0. Blogs, wikis, file sharing sites, content rating systems, book-marking sites, and social networking sites are all examples of Web 2.0. Some of the more well-known Web 2.0 sites are YouTube (file sharing), Facebook and MySpace (social networking), Wikipedia (wiki), del.icio.us (book-marking) and Digg (content rating system). The l? is almost endless, and the traffic that these websites generate is absolutely staggering. So how can you harness some of this traffic? 1) Create original, quality and compelling content and submit them to Web 2.0 websites. For example, if you write an original and compelling article, you can submit it to content sharing and content rating system websites such as Digg, Propeller, Newsvine, MarkTD or Reddit. Sometimes content sharing and content rating system websites specialize in a particular industry. MarkTD specializes in marketing, for example. When you submit your article to these sites, people will give it a vote, and each vote moves the article up where it can be seen by more and more people. This has the potential of... more.. Debunking the Top 10 Search Engine Myths Debunking the Top 10 Search Engine Myths By Marc D. Ensign (c) 2009 We've all done it at some point in our professional lives. We search a keyword that describes our business only to scratch our head as to how our competitor's website shows up on the top of the l? instead of ours. If you've gone one step further and read about Search Engine Optimization, then surely you have come across the conflicting information online. One article tells you to do one thing while another tells you to do the opposite. Which one should you believe? This gray area of what you should or should not do is much like the modern day "Bat Cave." If you are lucky enough to stumble upon it, chances are you don't quite know how you got there and if you had to go back one day you would probably just find yourself lost in the woods. So what should you believe? The general rule is to combine what you read or heard with what you have experienced and somewhere in there lies the truth. To get you started, let's debunk some of the more commonly used myths floating around. 1) Use a Keyword Rich Domain Name: It is widely believed that if you include your keywords in your domain name like www.professional-website-design-in-nj.com it will greatly improve your rankings. This is not true. It is best to choose a domain name that is short, easy to remember and if possible includes your company name. 2) Google Partnership: If you are ever approached by a company claiming to have a partnership with Google, run in the... more.. Following Yahoo to a Wealth of Traffic Following Yahoo to a Wealth of Traffic By Mark Daoust  Consider Yahoo the first major casualty of the search engine wars. Yahoo has admitted that they cannot reasonably expect to take away any significant amount of the search market share from Google, so they have chosen to be happy as the second most visited search engine on the Internet. On the surface, this may seem strange. Why would Yahoo ever publicly announce that they are 'throwing in the towel' in the search engine war? That would be similar to Pepsi recommending that people drink their product only if Coca-Cola is not available. From a business standpoint, it is absolutely ridiculous and makes absolutely no sense. But be careful to not read into this too far. Yahoo may have tipped their hat to Google as being dominant in the traditional search engine market, but this does not mean that they are giving up the fight for Internet users' attention. In fact, for some time n?Yahoo has been moving towards a market which is quickly emerging as being just as powerful as search engines currently are. Yahoo Moves to Web 2.0 Style Websites In a few of the articles published h? at Site Reference we have mentioned Web 2.0 and how Yahoo seems to be following this development trend, but we have nev?looked into why Yahoo is so fascinated by Web 2.0. As most of you probably know, Yahoo launched My Web 2.0, a public bookmarking service, along with acquiring Del.icio.us, a well-established public bookmarking service. Yahoo also launched Yahoo Answers, a service which relies on a community of users to answer quest?s that the same community asks. There is a common trend with all of these services - they all rely on... more.. cabinetry Los Angeles cabinetry Los Angeles One of the most important details that can be highlighted on the matter of cabinetry Los Angeles services refers to the idea of great time management. This is because of the fact that after an order has been placed, the service is doing all that it can in order to provide the desired cabinets in a reasonable timeframe. What more can it be said about the cabinetry Los Angeles services? First of all, people are looking for services that are designed to work efficiently. This is because of the fact that people hate to be put on hold, regardless of the reason. When a service like the cabinetry Los Angeles service provides them with a high professional assistance in a small amount of time, they will surely share their experience with others and that's what will generate more clients for the company. That's who someone that puts his clients as a priority works. Another great aspect of the cabinetry Los Angeles services is that it helps the client from the beginning till the end. The process starts in the online environment where the client, right from the comfort of his home, can easily place his order. This means that he or she won't be required to head down in town and lose some precious hours in showrooms and traffic. Things go a lot easier on the internet and that is the method that is being preferred by many different clients. The next two steps are quite easy because they don't involve the client directly. A team will head down and make the proper measurements and see all the details to where the cabinets will be placed and then they... more.. 16 Tools for Twitter Users 16 Tools for Twitter Users By Kalena Jordan (c) 2008 Hands up if you're a Twitterholic. Yes, my hand's up too. If you love the micro-blogging platform Twitter as much as I do, then keep reading. I've put together a l? of the coolest plug-ins and apps designed for us Twitterholics and scored each out of five on the *must have* scale. Twitter Specific Tools: 1) TwitterFox is a Firefox extension that notifies you of your friends' status on Twitter and lets you make posts from your browser status bar. It also allows you to switch between multiple Twitter accounts in one click. This is my #1 must-have, deal-breaker, cannot live without Twitter plug-in. 2) Retweet This is an application designed for use with the Greasemonkey Firefox plug-in. It allows you to append a retweet button to the end of each Twitter entry to encourage your followers to retweet your posts. 3) Classify Twitter Users is a script that allows you to classify Twitter users and decide whether they are worth following based on their friends, followers and post ratios. Another Greasemonkey app, it's a great tool to help you weed out the Twitter spammers and fan boys from the socially healthy. You can set the script to use your Twitter user scales (e.g. spammer, social climber, social rock star) or just gather more information about people you are following. Must Have Scale (4): ? ? ? ? 4) TwittAd allows Twitter users to monetize their account by accepting advertising on the background image of their Twitter user profile. You decide the duration and price advertisers pay for... more.. Should You Worry About Your Bounce Rate? Should You Worry About Your Bounce Rate? By Lucy Beer (c) 2010 A low bounce rate is often cited as a hallmark of a good website - 40% or lower is typically heralded as the goal - signaling that visitors are engaged with your site and finding useful content. A high bounce rate is often assumed to mean that your site is not doing its job. In reality, bounce rate means different things for different sites and the emphasis you place on it will vary according to the type of site you have and its goals. What Does Bounce Rate Mean? The definition from Google's Analytics help pages is: "Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page." When is Bounce Rate a Relevant Metric? ? If you have a sales or conversion process which requires the user to follow through multiple pages on your site. ? If exploration of your site is important to your goals. ? If you are trying to turn new visitors into loyal readers or customers. ? If yours is a retail site and you want people to shop around and make purchases. ? If your homepage is not inducing further clicks, particularly if it contains blog excerpts or other 'teaser' content. What a High Bounce Rate Could Mean: 1. Keywords and content are mismatched. In cases where visitors are coming from search engines, a high bounce rate may mean that the keywords they used and the content they found on your site are not aligned - so your site doesn't... more.. SEO: Best Practices SEO: Best Practices By John Sylvester A few nights ago I was asked by a regular in a bar I frequent: 'what is this pub doing with a website? Somewhat bemused, I replied that it receives substantial hits to its website and that it is listed on all the Bangkok portals. More importantly, they have consistently remained at #1 on Google, Yahoo!, MSN and the other major search engines for well over a year. Visitors the site, although not verifiable, must convert into a lot of money.' He looked slightly bemused, shrugged his shoulders and muttered something about not knowing much about search engines. That is where we stand on building websites: our philosophy is based on making the web work for our clients; in providing them with a new revenue source. We don't just deliver tastefully designed websites, we also provide detailed research which we convert into accurately anticipated keywords likely to be used by potential visitors when searching for a source of information. With this knowledge, we optimise our clients' web pages and register it with sites we know will boost its rankings. This strategy has been successfully employed on sites based in Thailand, the UK, Germany, Australia, France, Austria and France. But there is another option to be seriously considered: commercial search. It is by far the most dynamic and fast-growing industry segment now, estimated to extend beyond $5billion by 2006. Pioneered by Overture (now Yahoo!), pay-per-click was created in response to three fundamental issues concerning internet search: poor quality results; random ordering of listings; and a weak advertising revenue model. It solved these problems by creating a real-time market for keyword bidding. Recently, however, it has spawned a series of bidding wars among a growing number of... more.. Bootstrapping Basics Entrepreneurs Need To Know Bootstrapping Basics Entrepreneurs Need To Know By Ellisa Brenneman (c) 2009 Over the last five years approximately 600,000 entrepreneurs pitched first tier venture capital firms in North America and about 15,000 received funding. Your chances of getting funded are 2.5%. This is a fact. Many of those that were funded became quite wealthy and many more failed. Venture capital firms are looking for home runs not base hits. To begin, let's say you're having difficulties raising capital for one of a multitude of reasons. You lack an experienced management team with a track record of prior success, your product is still in development, the service you've created hasn't been market tested and you still haven't refined the sales process. Or, your company may simply not be a "VC deal" or a "home run", that is, something that will go public or be acquired for a bazillion dollars. Finally, your organization may be a non-profit with a cause like the environment or autism. Does this mean you should give up? Not at all. I could build a case that too much money is worse than too little for most organizations, not that I wouldn't want to buy a NBA franchise one day to emulate Mark Cuban. Until that day comes, the key to success is bootstrapping. Bootstrapping refers to a group of metaphors that share a common meaning, a self-sustaining process that proceeds without external help. The term is often attributed to Rudolf Erich Raspe's story The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, where the main character pulls himself out of a swamp, though it's disputed whether it was done by his hair or by his bootstraps. Regardless bootstrapping sounds a lot more businesslike and appealing than hairstrapping. What follows... more.. How To Find The Right Keywords To Optimize Search Engine Results How To Find The Right Keywords To Optimize Search Engine Results By Nelson Tan (c) 2009 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 effective signs that direct them right to your site by creating carefully chosen keywords. Think of the right keywords as the "Open Sesame!" of the Internet. Find the exactly right words, and presto! Hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front door. But if your keywords are too general or overused, the possibility of visitors actually making it all the way to your site - or of seeing any real income 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 not 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... more.. The Myth of W3C Compliance? The Myth of W3C Compliance? By Sasch Mayer (c) 2007 The past few years have seen a huge ?rease in the number of search engine optimisers preaching about the vital importance of W3C Compliance as part of any effective web promotion effort. But is compliant code really the 'Magic SEO Potion' so many promoters make it out to be? For those of you not familiar with the term; a W3C compliant web site is one which adheres to the coding standards laid down by the World Wide Web Consortium, an organisation comprising of over 400 members including all the major search engines and global corporations such as AT&T, HP and Toshiba amongst many others. Headed by Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, the inventor of the internet as we know it today, the W3C has been working to provide a set of standards designed to keep the web's continuing evolution on a single, coherent track since the Consortium's inception in 1994. Whilst the W3C has been a fact of life on the web since this time, general industry awareness of the benchmarks set down by the Consortium has taken some time to filter through to all quarters. Indeed, it is only within the past 24 to 36 months that the term W3C Compliance has emerged from general obscurity to become a major buzzword in the web design and SEO industries. Although personally, I have been a staunch supporter of the Consortium's standards for a long time, I cannot help but feel that their importance has been somewhat overplayed by a certain faction within the SEO sector, who are praising code compliance as a 'cure-all' for poor search engine performance. Is standards compliance really the universal... more.. Blog Flipping: 10 Important Factors When Selling Your Weblog Or Website Blog Flipping: 10 Important Factors When Selling Your Weblog Or Website By Chuck Crawford (c) 2009 The market for blogs has exploded. Many companies do not want to invest the time in developing a blog in their respective niche, which has given rise to a whole new cottage industry, blog flipping. Blog flipping is done in a few different ways. Some flippers buy an existing blog that has potential, but is not currently producing. They take that blog and build the traffic and sales up to a level productive enough to reap a profit from their investment, and then sell it. Or, more common in today's blog flipping market, is to research a specific niche, develop a domain / blog, and then sell it. But what does "developed" really mean? It depends on the flipper. So buyers really need to do their homework (read due diligence) before investing in an "established" blog or website. Because "established" is in the eyes of the beholder, and means many different things depending upon who you consult. In my opinion, established means that the site, or blog, is profitable. Now profitable can be defined very differently for different companies. It doesn't mean that the site has to be mak? money, though it does help justify the investment when purchasing the blog. It can mean to a prospective company only that the site has traffic that company believes it can convert into sales. Not everyone can convert website traffic in the same way. So there are companies out there looking to buy blogs that have a certain, specific reader demographic that fits their market. However, these types of sales are few and far between. Companies that are buying blogs normally want to see one... more.. How & Why You Should Perform An SEO Audit On Your Website How & Why You Should Perform An SEO Audit On Your Website By Mike Tekula (c) 2009 What makes or break an SEO campaign is knowing where to start, what is important and what is simply not worth the time. Resources are never infinite. If you're not careful you can spend them spinning wheels and tweaking things that will have no real effect on your search traffic. Plan effectively, and you'll achieve true growth and a positive return on your investment. The difference lies in understanding how search engines work - how they crawl the web and how they use that data to rank web pages - and how your website does or doesn't meet these criteria. The Technical Audit The first order of action is the technical audit of your site. Tackle these issues first because this represents the foundation of your site. Some technical problems can render web pages invisible to search engines. Identifying and resolving these issues upfront is critical. A technical audit should include: Code cleanliness / content visibility      ? Does the site use JavaScript heavily?      ? Is the code bloated?      ? Is content generated by JavaScript or otherwise not SEO-friendly? File size / page load time Navigation structure      ? Is the navigation Flash or JavaScript driven? If so, does it degrade gracefully for browsers        that don't support these technologies (like a search crawler)? URL structure      ? Are there session ID's in the page URLs?      ? Are the URLs long and do they include multiple variables and parameters?      ? Do the URLs contain keywords? Title tag / headlines      ? Does the site have unique titles and... more.. Ins and Outs of Local Search Ins and Outs of Local Search By Scott Van Achte (c) 2009, Senior SEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.   As the population with internet access explodes, and more and more people are using search engines to find what they need, the usage of local search also continues to rise. For any sites servicing a local or specific geographic audience, submission to local search based engines is becoming more and more important. What is it? In a nutshell local search involves the use of specialized search engines specifically created to focus on a selected geographic region to find local businesses and websites focused on your area. Local search is commonly utilized as a directory, where users select their location, and narrow their search by categories till they find the list? they want. In many cases local search engines also guess at the users' location by using their IP, so when you visit the site and search, for example, "Chinese restaurants" you automatically see results specific to your location.   more.. 7 Simple Ways To Build Traffic To A New Website 7 Simple Ways To Build Traffic To A New Website By Mike Tekula (c) 2008 Got a brand new website? That's great, but nobody cares. OK, maybe that's a little harsh. The truth, however, is that just having a website doesn't get you much. Editor's Note: Publication of the SiteProNews newsletter will be intermittent during the next 2 weeks. Visit SiteProNews.com for the latest articles, webmaster news and blog posts. We wish all of our loyal readers a happy holiday season. Many business owners I meet are surprised to find, once we look at the numbers, that the shiny new site they had built not too long ago gets little to no traffic on a daily basis. Many newcomers to the web make the mistake of thinking that just by buying a domain name and putting up your site, visitors are going to happen by - something like when you buy property and build a storefront in a busy part of town. It just doesn't work that way. The web is harsh. You can have the best looking site in the world with great resources and content and go entirely ignored or unnoticed. It happens. It's happening right now. Somewhere out there in the ether is a brand new gorgeous website loaded with great content, and nobody cares. Poor little lonely site. But there is hope. Every website had its early days. Even sites that get hundreds of thousands of visitors a day started out with none. Here are 7 simple things you can start doing right now to help drive traffic to your site. 1. Get Some Quick Links From Trusted Directories Link building is a long-term process with... more.. How Should Webmasters React to Google Fresh?  How Should Webmasters React to Google Fresh? A SPN Exclusive Article By Titus Hoskins (c) 2011 It's been an extremely busy year for the good folks at Google, not only did they roll out the game-changing Panda Updates, but now they have increased the stakes by implementing Google Fresh. This recent algorithm update is based on the Caffeine architecture introduced by Google a year ago and supposedly makes Google's listings much fresher. On the Official Google Blog where this new Update was announced, Amit Singhal states: "We completed our Caffeine web indexing system last year, which allows us to crawl and index the web for fresh content quickly on an enormous scale. Building upon the momentum from Caffeine, today we're making a significant improvement to our ranking algorithm that impacts roughly 35 percent of searches and better determines when to give you more up-to-date relevant results for these varying degrees of freshness." However, in an update, Singhal explains this measurement of 35% only applies to where at least one result was affected by the changes. In reality, this update only "noticeably" impacts 6 to 10% of searches. "Update 11/7/11: To clarify, when we say this algorithm impacted 35% of searches, we mean at least one result on the page was affected, as opposed to when we've said noticeably impacted in the past, which means changes that are significant enough that an average user would notice. Using that same scale, this change noticeably impacts 6 - 10% of searches, depending on the language and domain you're searching on." Regardless, Google Fresh will be influencing what sites/pages get listed in the top spots in Google. Already, these fresher listings are... more.. Search Engine Tools Not Just For SEO Search Engine Tools Not Just For SEO By Gennady Lager (c) 2007 Sadly, not everyone in the world knows everything about search engine optimization. In fact, very few people know anything about SEO or even what it is. Even fewer know any search offerings that may help your experience as a search engine user, a website navigator, a webmaster or researcher. I have compiled a l? of free search engine and internet tools handy for everyone to use and improve their experience with some useful resources. Please note that if you are an SEO practitioner, none of these are news to you and you are well aware of these resources. For everyone else, this is a nice little database of handy stuff. Google Products Google has developed a smorgasbord of handy tools and products offered for fr?use to everyone. You can bet that they have developed something to almost everyone's interest. Some of the products I frequently use are Alerts, Blog Search, Earth, Analytics, Toolbar, Image Search, Trends, Page Creator, Maps, Gmail, Talk, and YouTube. These are only some of the products ? Google offers many more! Search Engine Commands Most often used by search engine professionals such as search engine optimizers - very few others know about these search engine commands. Knowing them can really bring information about a specific site and its standing in the World Wide Web to light. Here are some of the most important and generally supported commands: Site: - Displays all of the pages indexed by the engine of the site. Link: - Locates some links pointing to the site. Cache: - Shows the last indexed and cached version of a site. Info: - Displays general info about a site with other search commands. Related: - Shows websites that may be semantically or directly related to... more.. Get Your Company Link Building With These 5 Simple Tips Get Your Company Link Building With These 5 Simple Tips By Oliver Feakins (c) 2009 As the online market place continues to warm up to the idea of SEO, link building has become center stage as it tends to be the most time consuming and crucial part of any internet marketing strategy. Link building services are the most commonly outsourced aspect of SEO. This process involves finding qualified and thematically relevant one-way linking partners who will link back to your website. At first glance this sounds easy and there are hundreds of automated products out there that claim to add thousands of back links overnight. The truth is there are no short cuts in cultivating authoritative back links for a site. Link building companies spend many hours link building by hand in order to get the best results. Spammy automated products often don't cultivate valuable links and tend to do more harm than good. Here are a couple quick suggestions to help you get started. 1. Know What Keywords You're Targeting Link building strategies are an extension of your current SEO practice. You'll want to reference the list of keywords you have selected to optimize your site. Make sure that the anchor text of the link has the keyword you are targeting. For example, if you're targeting the keyword "baby names" you'll want to place that keyword in the anchor text of the link. I've seen many companies go after links by using their company name. Although this does boost link popularity it fails to pass popularity for a specific keyword and can be seen as a failed attempt. 2. Develop a Link Building Strategy There are many strategies link building companies use to source qualified... more.. Gift Ideas Gift Ideas When taking up one of the Gift Ideas resources available on the internet, many people find themselves in difficulty rather than having a solution to their problems. This is because of the fact that there are so many choices that can be made and so many things that can be considered. It's quite hard to choose a gift these days. What's your best Gift Ideas? The very first thing that comes to mind when talking about which Gift Ideas are the best ones, is related to the issue of how personal they really are. It might sound a little bit strange, but the best ideas come from having a real connection with the one that will be receiving your gift. This is due to the fact that it sends out a deeper message, an unconscious one. This means that one should turn to searching for something that will really send out a positive message and will generate amazement and why not excitement. You can always take up one of the Gift Ideas that are offered by the stores, markets or malls, but the piece of advice here is to not stop there. You can always do something with an item that has been bought from a shop. The golden rule that should be taken into consideration when offering a gift, refers to the idea of how you offer the gift and not necessarily what you are offering. If you have some ingenious idea of how you offer your gift, you should apply it, no matter how creative or different it is from the normal norms. You can always impress your friends, family or close ones by coming up with various ways of offering a... more.. Estimating the Real Cl? Fraud Rate Estimating the Real Cl? Fraud Rate By Nick Guastella (c) 2007 The controversy surrounding cl? fraud comes up every year, but it reached a fever pitch during December's Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago when participants voiced concerns over experiencing fraudulent cl? rates ranging from 20 to 40 percent, threatening the entire paid search industry. At the time, Google's Business Product Manager for Trust and Safety Shuman Ghosemajumder tried to calm advertisers' fears explaining that Google was currently "...examining ways to make its fraud-fighting efforts more transparent without revealing crucial information that might help swindlers elude detection." Ghosemajumder did, however, express concerns over revealing too much information, fearful it would give away algorithm secrets to competitors. Paid Search Revenues Continue to Rise While the major search providers have always insisted the cl? fraud rate is a gross overestimation, a 2005 Outsell survey found that cl? fraud was a $1.3 billion problem for publishers. At the time, many advertiser respondents (27 percent) said they planned to cut back and/or eliminate paid search campaigns in 2006. Outsell respondents may have intended to cut down on paid search, but they certainly didn't follow through. SEMPO's year-end search marketing report showed that North American advertisers spent $8 billion on paid placement programs in 2006, amounting to 86 percent of 2006's total search spend ($9.4 billion). Seventy-one percent of SEMPO respondents said they used paid search campaigns, illustrating that there were not many defectors. Despite advertisers' insistent claims that the search engines don't do enough to eliminate cl? fraud, paid search revenues continue to fill the coffers of Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and many second and third tier search engines. Additionally, there is a... more.. Using Google Local, Yahoo Local and MSN Local Using Google Local, Yahoo Local and MSN Local   Considering that a listing in Yahoo costs $299 per year, there exists 3 excellent opprtunities that are 100% free!   Those opportunities offer you a great way to get your local business to the top of the search engine results pages. It will take you about 1 hour of your time, and just 30 minutes in planning, but yields an amazing amount of long-term search results. Every business owner should perform this. If you have a physical address, adding your business to Google, Yahoo, & MSN local will help your current and potential customers easily find your company.   How To List Your Business On Local Business Centers Google Local Business Start by setting up a Google Maps account here. Then make sure to be as descriptive as possible about your business can be. Use your keyword phrases, separated with a comma, in the Description field. This will help increase the odds of your local business ad showing up when people are searching. Make sure and include all hours and payment information. Google local business ad?s will have the most power of the three and can really generate a lot of results within Google. Many times it will simple be people searching for your specific business but there is a lot to be said for making things easy on them. Also, remember to use an image, such as a logo.   MSN Local Business To add your local business to the MSN local business center you will follow a similar procedure except it?s faster. Go to this link and start signing up. As with Google local business you will want to be as detailed as possible and take the... more.. All You Need to Know About YouTube's Promoted Videos All You Need to Know About YouTube's Promoted Videos By Merle (c) 2010 MerlesWorld.com Way back in 2006, Google purchased YouTube.com for an alleged reported figure of 1.65 bill? dollars. And, like with everything Google does, they've added their own special "Google Touches" over the last several years, turning it into one of the most popular video destination websites online today. Need proof? According to Comscore.com's December 2009 "Videos Viewed Report", YouTube was ranked as the top U.S. video site serving up 13.2 billion of the total 33.2 billion videos that were viewed online in the U.S. for that month alone. That's a lot of people watching mega videos. For more stats see tinyurl.com/y8jbnqh. Furthermore, according to Google, YouTube has twenty hours of new video uploaded every minute and 420 million unique visitors per month. Watching online videos and sharing them with others has become an Internet obsession. People really love watching videos. Remember the old song "Video Killed the Radio Star"? In today's marketplace, it should be called "Video Killed the Television Set". What if I told you there's a way to harness that huge audience in your onl? marketing campaign? Now you can with YouTube's new advertising program called "Promoted Videos". YouTube and its other site, Google Adwords, have partnered together in this latest ad serving project. When promoting your videos on YouTube, they'll also be shown across Google's Content Network, aka sites running Google Adsense on them. The purpose of "Promoted Videos" is to help your videos stand out from the millions of others on the site. At the time of this writing, they're available in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada,... more.. For SEO Beginners - Twelve Definitions You Need To Know For SEO Beginners - Twelve Definitions You Need To Know By Mike Tekula (c) 2007 SEO is a trade that exists solely on the internet, and even then it is comprised almost entirely of the hot air of so-called "expert opinion." Plenty of it blowing around these days as search maintains position as one of the most important marketplaces in the modern business world. Many DIY webmasters will end up searching for blog entries, articles, informational web sites, etc to help get them up to speed. The problem is that in most cases certain key terms are flung around like household names while the people doing the flinging are way out of touch with the average web browser. What some of us don't realize is that not everyone knows even the basics of SEO. This l? of twelve SEO-related definitions in alphabetical order (with notes) serves as a great companion for your initial SEO reading. Read alone it will get you up to speed on some key terminology that you'll need to know to intelligently engage the ever-changing world of SEO. ? Algorithms. A search algorithm is, in short, the incredibly complex mathematical formula that a search engine uses to "rank" web sites for keywords. Based on a huge number of variables and calculations, algorithms are among the most closely-guarded secrets on the internet. Why? Imagine if they were leaked - suddenly the less-than-honest would have a very specific guideline to follow in climbing to the top of search results in a less-than-organic way, ruining the quality of Google's search results and their entire competitive advantage with it. ? Bot or Bots. See... more.. Domain Hijacking Domain Hijacking By Douglas Miller (c) 2007 There's a frightening new batch of scams going around now that can damage your reputation as domain "squatters" steal your domain name. There are a number of ways the "game" is played. The first is entirely legal, if more than a little questionable. In this version, the name of a city or geographic area is grabbed by a domain squatter and pointed to... "sites that you wouldn't want your children visiting." (We chose that term to avoid getting caught in a lot of sp@m filters for the use of the word "p-o-rn.") A prominent notice is placed on the sites, offering them for sale at prices that range from $2500 to as much as $500,000! The idea here is that city officials will feel that enough damage is being done to the reputations of their towns that they'll pay to keep them from being associated with that type of material. It's obviously safe to say that it's not appropriate to pop those kinds of images into people's faces while they're looking for info on a completely different topic. That's where the pressure on the cities comes from, and why this is such a disgusting scheme. In essence, the domain squatter says: "Pay us, or continue to watch as your city's reputation suffers." Many would call this blackmail... The second variation on the theme is not always legal. When someone takes a trademarked name (or variation of the spelling of one) or a famous person's name, and does the same thing. For trademarks or close variations, there's a specific procedure for addressing the problem. (See the resource section at the end of this issue.) For the names... more.. SEO Tips: Get More Traffic with these 10 Important Inbound Links SEO Tips: Get More Traffic with these 10 Important Inbound Links By Donna Gunter (c) 2010 Don't overlook your inbound linking strategy as you think about search engine optimization for your site. An inbound link is a hyperlink back to your site from another web site. The one constant and reliable strategy in search engine optimization is that sites with a variety of high quality backlinks rank higher in the search engine results pages. Why are these links to your site important? They can can...     ? bring potential customers to your site when they click on the link     ? boost the number of visitors to your web site     ? dramatically improve your search engine rankings Even though there are software packages on the market that help automate the linking process, use them sparingly, if at all. The only way to succeed in linking strategies is (aside from creating useful content that will encourage inbound links) by manually creating the links. That's a hard fact to swallow, given how I like to automate as much of my marketing as I can. Here are the 10 most important inbound links you must have to your site: 1. Directory Links Directories are indexes of online sites, typically organized by category. Links back to your site from directories like Yahoo Directory and DMOZ.org are very valuable. DMOZ.org is edited by human editors, and while it's free, it may take awhile for your site to be added. Getting added to Yahoo's Directory costs $299/year. 2. Press Releases If you're writing press releases, make sure they are optimized for keywords that someone would use to find a business like yours and include links back to your site, as well. Once written, you can have your press... more.. Texas Land Sales Texas Land Sales The famous idea of the Texas Land Sales is no longer a mystery. Many people have discovered the great benefits that the real estate industry has right now and most of them have chosen those opportunities because they saw fit with their own expectations. The idea is that now it's the perfect time to think about an investment in this area as there are great benefits that come with this decision. The benefits that arrive with the Texas Land Sales First of all, people need to take into account that this is an opportunity that implies a long term investment and a lot of patience. There are many solutions that can be implemented in the times that the world is living today, but the Texas Land Sales come for the ones that really want to make a solid profit. The only requirement there is here is to have a little patience when it comes to choosing the perfect moment. There are several reasons why people should start buying land in the present moment. A first idea here refers to the fact that the recession has made some drastic changes in the real estate industry: many companies have stopped expanding, others have had troubles paying their debts and so on. Those situations have generated the downfall of the real estate market and have made it possible for the value of the land to drop at its lowest point in the past 20 years. That's why the Texas Land Sales sound very promising for many people. The next idea here... more.. Gift Ideas great gift ideas When coming across the best gift ideas, many people relate to something more personal rather then something that is material. Sure, you have to spend some money in order to come up with a gift that is suitable to the taste and the style of the receiver, but the amount of money can be far less than expected. The cheapness of the great gift ideas There are some people who still think that by spending a huge sum of money on an item, will surely ensure the success of the gift, but there are a lot of situations that prove otherwise. First of all, people need to take into account that some of the best Gift Ideas are the ones which are handmade. This means that the one who is sending the gift will only need to buy the materials from which the gifts will be created. Many would say that this isn?t something for them as they don?t have any talent in crafting something worth offering. The truth is that many people don?t have the necessary skills to come up with things on their own, but the internet can prove to be a handy tool in this situation. There are millions of handmade Gift Ideas websites that offer tutorials and... more.. How to Create Search Engine Friendly Title and META Tags (Part 2) How to Create Search Engine Friendly Title and META Tags (Part 2) By Kalena Jordan (c) 2007 In Part 1 of this article, I defined Title Elements and META Tags and took you step-by-step through how to create an optimized Title Element. Now it's time to create your optimized META Description Tag. Create Your META Description Tag Take your l? of target keywords and phrases and open another text file. Again, you can use an existing sample META Description Tag as your template. Let's say our existing description is: <META name="description" content="Miami Florists create beautiful floral bouquets, arrangements, tributes and displays for all occasions, including weddings, Valentines Day, parties and corporate events. Deliveries throughout Florida."> You can make your META Description Tag as long as you like, but only a certain portion of it will get indexed and displayed by search engines. According to Danny Sullivan in his (old but still relevant) article How to Use HTML Meta Tags, 200 to 250 characters of the META Description gets indexed but less than that gets displayed, depending on the search engine. So you want to make sure all your important keywords are listed towards the start of the tag. Now take your l? of keywords for the home page in order of importance. For our fictional florist these were: - florists Miami - florists Florida - wedding bouquets Now you need to create a readable sentence or two describing your web site and incorporating these keywords so they make the best use of the keyword real estate available. Because search engines often display the contents of... more.. What is Link Bait and How Can It Help Me? What is Link Bait and How Can It Help Me? By Philip C (c) 2008 Specifically, linkbait is used to attract visitors to your website whether through interest, anger or knowledge seeking. Linkbait is content that is specially written to either educate, entertain or inflame your readership and prospective readers. These articles create buzz, and the buzz spreads virally from site to site in the form of links and comments that others make about what is written on your site. These inbound or back links are used by search engine algorithms to rank a website. The higher the rank, the higher the listing, the more traff?that arrives at your website. More visitors create more buzz which in turn creates more visitors. Linkbait creation is a marketing campaign on steroids and falls under the task of link building. Its sole aim is to increase the quantity of high-quality, relevant links to a website. Search engine optimized on a specific keyword phrase, linkbait comes in two flavors: specific, helpful, useful content written by an authority in a niche market or content that will incite discussion and sometimes argument on a niche subject. Either way, linkbait articles attract visitors to your website. Here's the difference. Your content is supposed to generate links from other websites, right?. That is the goal. You want people to like or hate your article/post/rant enough to write about it on their website and post with that follow-up a link back to your site and page of where the content is sitting. This is basic viral marketing in that visitors don't just read your material, but webmasters who find you are either riled up enough to... more.. Top 5 Reasons Most Internet Businesses Fail Top 5 Reasons Most Internet Businesses Fail By Mark Yarrobino (c) 2009   If you've been online for any amount of time, then I'm sure you've heard many of the success stories about internet entrepreneurs, and how they're making millions every year, and you've probably heard how easy it is for you to do it, too. And the truth is, it actually is kind of easy, but not as easy as most salesmen would have you believe. There is a little bit of work involved, and anyone who's really been successful has put in the time and effort to get there. And they've managed to avoid the pitfalls on this list. If you're trying to start your online business and things haven't gone as well as you've hoped so far, then hopefully, these suggestions will help. Here are the five most common reasons that most internet businesses fail that I've seen, in no particular order: 1. Information Overload You've probably already been inundated with emails explaining how some new money mak? scheme is the hottest thing on the planet and you need to get in now so that you're on the cutting edge of internet marketing. The problem is that you haven't finished working on the previous hot new thing yet, and as soon as you start this one, yet another hot idea will hit, and so on, and so on. In every valid email you get, there should be an "unsubscribe" link at the bottom. Start clicking on it, and just stick with a few of the people who you know are giving you good information about building your business from start to finish in the right order without any distractions. And make sure that you see every task through to... more.. Microsoft vs Google: Game On or Bing results too "Spammy"? Microsoft vs Google: Game On or Bing results too "Spammy"? By V9 Design & Build (c) 2009 It didn't look too promising at the launch but Bing has been constantly in the news ever since. Some say the results are better than Google, even going as far as suggesting Google is all but finished. I don't agree. On one of the search engine forums I often comment on, one of the moderators had this to say on the subject: "But overall this confirms my sense that Google, having abandoned the business model that got it to the top, viz. fast no frills search, in favour of added features and buying up other companies, is becoming increasingly fat and complacent, and along the way their search results are becoming less relevant." Now, I have to say that I had a small run-in with this guy as he supports everything Microsoft does, from its browser to its operating system and now to its new "decision engine". So when he writes - "I've been using Bing lately and I'm finding a lot of advantages over Google. These are early days yet but this is the first emerging search engine that may provide a real threat to Google's dominance - something I for one welcome," - I'm a little suspicious. There's plenty of supporters out there giving online commentaries on Bing's progress. TechCrunch.com, for example, analyses its early success by saying: "Microsoft sites' average daily penetration among US searchers reached 16.7 percent during the work week of June 8-12, up 3 percentage points from the May 25-29 period (which was prior to Bing's introduction) and up over 1 percentage point from its first week." However, on webpronews.com following its launch, Matt Cutts,... more.. Web 2.0, Are We Bowing To A False Messiah? Web 2.0, Are We Bowing To A False Messiah? By Barry Densa (c) 2007 Are you absolutely beside yourself ? giddy with delight because Web 2.0 has finally arrived to help you sell more, sell faster, make you richer, smarter, sexier, and lower your triglyceride levels? Whoops, I'm sorry... do you even know what Web 2.0 is? Web 2.0, in a nut shell, is the latest evolution in the online experience. The World Wide Web is now... ready... here it is: a tad more interactive, technologically speaking. Where does Web 1.0 end and Web 2.0 begin? Beats the heck out of me! I'm basically your average techno-phobe ? the proverbial anti-Geek, if you will. Nevertheless, Web 2.0 typically refers to an assortment of internet-based communication tools and services ? such as social networking sites, wikis, and "new and improved" chat functionalities. Writing a book review on Amazon.com is apparently considered Web 1.0 technology. I know all of this is a big whoop for some of you, but for others it's equivalent to the coming of the messiah (for either the first or second time, depending on which operating system you're laboring under). Is Web 2.0 a Boon or a Bane for Consumers and Countries? For most marketers, their company's website has been a rather static billboard of sorts. But now, thanks to Web 2.0, a website can provide visitors, prospects, customers and selected victims, with a certain degree of "give and take". You can talk to them, they can talk to you; you can learn more about them, they can learn more about you; they can "experience" you, you can "experience them" ? in short, the level of... more.. Today's Google Bots and What They Do Today's Google Bots and What They Do By Kim Roach (c) 2006 Google currently indexes over 8 billion web pages. However, before these pages were placed in the index, they were each crawled by a special spider known as the GoogleBot. Unfortunately, many web masters do not know about the internal workings of this virtual robot. In fact, Google actually uses a number of spiders to crawl the Web. You can catch these spiders by examining your log files. This article will attempt to reveal some of the most important Google spiders, their function, and how they affect you as a web master. We'll start with the well-known GoogleBot. GoogleBot Googlebot, as you probably know, is the search bot used by Google to scour the web for new pages. Googlebot has two versions, deepbot and freshbot. Deepbot is a deep crawler that tries to folow every link on the web and download as many pages as it can for the Google index. It also examines the internal structure of a site, giving a complete picture for the index. Freshbot, on the other hand, is a newer bot that crawls the web looking for fresh content. The Google freshbot was implemented to take some of the pressure off of the GoogleBot. The freshbot recalls pages already in the index and then crawls them for new, modified, or updated pages. In this way, Google is better equipped to keep up with the ever-changing Web. This means that the more you update your web site with new, quality content, the more the Googlebot will come by to check you out. If you'd like to see the Googlebot crawling around your... more.. SEO Tips to Double Rankings, Traffic and Conversion SEO Tips to Double Rankings, Traffic and Conversion By Jeffrey L. Smith (c) 2010 The only thing better than one search result in the top 3 positions in Google is two search results from a double ranking. This SEO tip works by pushing a competitor off the first page, broadening your websites keyword funnel and thereby doubling traffic and conversions. Two Results are Better than One I read somewhere that 87% of search engine traffic for a given keyword is allocated from occupying the Number 1 position in the search engine results page. If you understand SEO, then this post will share a quick method to double your SERP positions and to improve the likelihood of keyword conversions - once you have reached the Mecca for a specific search term. SEO is predicated on one simple premise, rankings; in order for SEO to be effective, it must produce ranking on the first page in search engines. Not only is this the crowning achievement of search engine optimization, but once you achieve a top 10 position, then you can pull other keywords into the spotlight as a result of strategic linking. We often refer to this as the buddy system for lateral linking. Search engine algorithms pay particular attention to individual pages capable of offsetting all of the other inconsistencies of a competitor's web pages and deem one page worthy above all others for any given search term. Obviously the metrics are unique for each market, keyword or niche, but the reality is the same, once a top 3 or more importantly Number 1 or Number 1, 2 and 3 positions are present in Google. I have mentioned before, the fastest way to get a top 10 position in... more.. Website Speed Penalty - Google is Testing Your Load Time! Website Speed Penalty - Google is Testing Your Load Time! By Aaron Steinheinkel (c) 2010   After Google started using website speed as a parameter in their ranking algorithms every webmaster has a good reason to keep an eye on the page load speed of their website. Google's bending over backwards to spread the word about this new speed penalty is proof in itself since big G is usually very secretive about pending algorithm changes. From the announcement we learn that the speed penalty was introduced following experiments by Google that revealed the impact website speed has on Internet users. But the results of the experiment come as no surprise even for someone that has started to use the Internet recently; users prefer websites that load faster and tend to spend more time on such websites. However, the search engine giant has been careful to state that even though website speed is now a factor, it is not the primary parameter for determining results. The quality and relevance of information is still the determining factor, but if your website speed is slow, you will receive a Google penalty. This implies that it is important for you as a webmaster start to assess the speed of your website to determine whether you are moving further down the search engine results pages (SERPs) because your website is slower than your direct competitors. How Can Google Know Your Page Speed? It is vital that you understand the basics of how Google's algorithm determines your website speed and thus your SERP ranking. The search engine uses two main factors when it comes to speed assessment. First, your website will receive a higher speed ranking if it responds... more.. Marketing Optimization 101 for Blogs Marketing Optimization 101 for Blogs By Rok Hrastnik Truth be told, most blogs aren't really optimized for marketing effectiveness. Even more so, some blogs are absolute marketing machines, but they at the same time fail to fully capitalize on that fact by not being really optimized marketing-wise. Blogs may be Web 2.0, but bloggers should not ignore some of the good old internet direct marketing tactics that have been working for marketers online almost for a decade or more. Here are the absolute 101 basics you really shouldn't ignore ... 1. Don't Forget E-Mail Delivery Bloggers are often abandoning or completely ignoring e-mail as a tool to deliver their content to their readers. As an RSS evangelist I certainly believe in using RSS to get your content to the world, but only as a supplement to e-mail delivery. While RSS provides us with many unique benefits, it is yet to reach mainstream adoption. Until it does, marketers and publishers should not even consider abandoning e-mail delivery, or risk ignoring... more.. organic makeup organic makeup   There is much to say about the organic makeup and how well it treats the face. Most of the people don't know about it due to the fact that they are too used to what they are frequently using and not on what is the best choice for their skin and bodies. This should be something worth considering as it can work well for one's skin health. The healthy side of the organic makeup Little do people know that the nonorganic makeup is damaging the skin slowly, but surely. This is because of the substances that are being using in their composition. That's why the appearance of side effects is so frequent and that's why more and more people that use such products find themselves in the position of having skin products. The organic makeup brings another side to this issue with the fact that its composition is naturally based. This changes the perspective completely as the organic products have a beneficial touch to the skin Another aspect that should be discussed here refers to the idea of problem solving. Usually the cosmetics are designed to resolve a problem that the skin has and make it better. The nonorganic products are a little bit different from the organic ones, judging from this perspective. They are designed to cover the surface and not take care of the deeper side of the problem. The organic makeupmore.. Does Your Website Need an Extreme Makeover? Does Your Website Need an Extreme Makeover? By Ivana Katz (c) 2009 It was Friday night and I was enjoying a quiet dinner at home, when suddenly CRACK! - part of my tooth broke off! "Damn" I thought, "Now what?" I immediately went online to see if I could find a dentist that is open on Saturday morning. So I searched and searched. The good news was there were plenty of dentists in my area ... the bad news was that I couldn't find whether they were open on Saturdays. After looking through various websites for about an hour, I narrowed it down to three dentists, who were open on the weekend. But in the end there was no competition as only one of the dentists had a professional looking website! Don't get me wrong the website wasn't flash, but it was clean, easy to navigate and most of all, provided me with the information I was looking for. I phoned the next morning, made an appointment and even got to see a dentist that day! After that experience, it really hit home ... what a difference a professional looking website makes! I am sure most of the dentists in my area are great at what they do, but none of their websites portrayed that. As a result they lost a customer who will spend hundreds, possibly even thousands of dollars on their services. So if you have a website... more.. Google's Paid Search vs. Organic Results, A Rickety Wall of Separation Google's Paid Search vs. Organic Results, A Rickety Wall of Separation By Scott Buresh (c) 2007 Medium Blue "Chinese Wall - The ethical (not physical) barrier between different divisions of a financial (or other) institution to avoid conflict of interest..." Investopedia.com "While Google nev?sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results." Google's Webmaster Help Center FAQ "NO pay for inclusion, and a complete separation of the search index part from the money part." Google Chief Engineer Craig Neville-Manning, Search Engine Strategies 2004 The good people at Google have long maintained that there is a Chinese Wall between paid search results and organic results ? that is, the department responsible for advertising is completely separate from the department responsible for organic search engine placement. The company insists that Google Adwords is a completely separate entity than the Google search engine, and nev?the twain shall meet. This all sounds very good, in theory. But do they live up to this ideal in practice? You don't hear Google talking much about Chinese Walls these days. This is certainly in part because they have had great difficulty gaining traction in the literal and very competitive Chinese market (headlines such as "Google Hits Chinese Wall" or even "Google Advance Halted at Great Wall of China" were commonplace). But might there be other, more nefarious reasons? Is there a reason why we hear less and less from Google about the virtual wall that separates paid search results from organic search engine placement? What Is Google Really Doing for Its Big Spenders? It has long been rumored that Google will provide technical... more.. SEO - Then, Now, and Tomorrow. SEO history based on my experience - a very late at night post. 1999 SEO - Creating 18 doorway pages for 18 major search engines. Looking at the sites in the top results and analyzing keyword density of each area of the pages, and repeating it with just a little more keyword density. Regularly submitting pages to the Search Engines. 2000 SEO - PPC at 1 cent per click at GoTo (later Overture/Yahoo). Yahoo owns 1/3 of the internet, MSN (Looksmart) owns ~15%, and another 15 engines share the rest. Google who? 2001 SEO - 3 major directories control much of the Internet. Yahoo Directory (~35% SE traffic), Looksmart Directory (top of MSN results), DMOZ (Helped in several search engines (including Google)). Being an editor for Zeal (Looksmart non ecommerce Editors - showed at top of MSN) and becoming a DMOZ Editor could control your listing. and with directory editor experience, then submitting to Yahoo with urls like www.car-parts-auto-part-cheap-discount.com. Back then you could have #1 rankings in 1-3 days accross 90% of the internet. 2002 SEO - Refining Keyword density and stuffing in 1 more keyword on your pages than the top guys have. By the end of the year Google?s taken over King, and the other search engines are fading fast, and the days of SEO link building are Priorty #1, trade them and buy them. 2003 SEO - With Yahoo now defaulting search results to Google, Google now controls 79% of all searches. MSN is a far cry #2 with ~13%. With Google ruling, he with the highest PageRank and most backlinks, and focused anchor text links wins monthly rankings in the Monthly Google Dance. By the end of the year almost everyone will feel the effects of a search update gone wrong with an updated called "Florida". 2004 SEO - After Florida... more.. The Importance of Meta Tags Providing the Human Touch The Importance of Meta Tags Providing the Human Touch By Matthew Coers For the uninitiated, meta-tags are pieces of code within your website that contain information about each page. These tags are supposed to tell search engines and users what the page is about. If you're a little rusty on your Internet jargon, here's a primer. There are essentially three types of meta-tags that concern most marketers: Title - This is the text that appears in the title-bar of your web browser. Description - This is a quick summary of the information on the page. Keywords - These are words that are important in the page. Up until about 4 years ago, there was a tremendous focus on meta-tags as a method of improving search engine rankings. Webmasters could stuff all sorts of words into the meta-tags to improve their... more.. New Website? It's Time To Think Links New Website? It's Time To Think Links By Matt Jackson (c) 2007 Link building has long been the staple dietary topic for SEO and Internet marketing experts, but with good reason. This is hardly ground breaking news but having a powerful link profile will help you to rank well in the search engines. Having an especially powerful link profile will also drive traffic directly to your website. As the webmaster of a new site, there are several things you must do. First, you need to create a genuinely useful website filled with equally useful and informative content. You need to ready yourself to add fresh content on a frequent basis, in order to retain existing site visitors and to attract the search engine spiders. You also need to start building links ? a good link profile takes time to develop so it is essential that you start as soon as possible. Below are some of the more and less effective methods of building quality inbound links to your new website. Create Quality Content OK, we've already mentioned this in passing, but it's important. Linkable content will get linked to (eventually). You may not have the traffic base to command links organically in this way yet, but you will do soon. Unique, informative, and even controversial content will ultimately see other sites willing to link to your own. Video marketing has become especially popular because of its viral nature. You can create a good video clip, embed it into a page of your site and include "email to a friend" links. Also ensure that it is well branded so that everybody knows where the video first came from. Free Directory... more.. 3 Top Tools and Services for an Effective Internet Marketing Solut? 3 Top Tools and Services for an Effective Internet Marketing Solution By Sydney Nelson (c) 2007 Everyone knows the Internet is growing exponentially and continually evolving. The major players in the continual evolution of the Internet are the major search engines and consumer generated media such as blogs. Because of the continual changes, a well rounded Internet marketing strategy must include a variety of proven marketing options to ensure success. I will outline 3 of the most effective Internet marketing solutions available and how they relate to your marketing strategy. SEO Optimization Search engine optimization (SEO) is the first because the free advertising afforded by the search engines is partly determined by on-page optimization techniques. With thousands of new Websites being created daily, the competition for a listing on the first search result page is increasingly saturated for the popular keywords. Statistics show better than 90% of people only look at the first search result page, and a similar percentage only click on the top search listing. In order to compete effectively, a Web page must be designed around a keyword or more effectively, a keyword phrase. The keywords must be included in the page's title, keyword META tag, page's description, the first heading (using the H1 HTML tag), throughout the body of the page and within the last 25 words on the page. These are just a few of the basic SEO on-page options that, although will not guarantee a first page listing, are definitely required as a starting point in an effective Internet marketing strategy. In most cases, there is too much competition for certain keywords such as "golf clubs". A better strategy would be to... more.. Video Microsites - The Brand Story Campaign Solution Video Microsites - The Brand Story Campaign Solution By Jerry Bader (c) 2009 Everybody wants to do more business. Everybody occasionally runs a promo, a new marketing initiative, a product launch, or a new seasonal lineup. Everybody has a website stuffed with all kinds of content ranging from the important to the useless. But only the truly smart business minds understand that campaigns require their own space and identity if they are to succeed. And when it comes to using the Web as your vehicle for such a campaign, the obvious solution is a Video Campaign Microsite. What's A Video Campaign Microsite? Video Campaign Microsites are websites that employ a series of highly focused video presentations designed specifically for the purpose of promoting a single marketing initiative aimed at a highly targeted audience. Video Campaign Microsites are dedicated to delivering an engaging online experience that compels an audience to act by taking advantage of the marketing initiative's pitch. These sites benefit from removing all the corporate clutter and irrelevant information that inhabits most business websites and generally gets in the way of an effective marketing presentation. Video Microsites are often implemented by means of a direct ema?campaign or depending on the budget, magazine, television, or radio advertising. You can also channel corporate site traffic by means of a graphical home page link. There are different styles of video Microsites that you can employ depending on your brand personality and the goals of the campaign. 1. New Product Launch Video Microsites The launch of a new product or a seasonal line should be an event, and there is no better way to attract attention and generate public and media interest than to create a brand... more.. Blogging Your Way to the Top Blogging Your Way to the Top By Scott Van Achte (c) 2009 It is no real secret that a well written topical blog can significantly help out your website - so why aren't you doing it? The most common reasons I hear for not starting a blog involve a lack of time to write posts, and limited ideas to write about, but taking that extra time to get some useful content out there can do wonders for your search rankings among other things. An established blog that is updated regularly gets spidered by Google often, and increases the chances of new search rankings considerably. I have seen multiple situations where regularly updated blogs wind up ranking #1 in Google for relevant phrases literally within a couple hours of posting. It usually takes a well established website and blog to make this happen, but there is big potential if you do things the right way. While blogs work best if updated multiple times per week, even those with a new post every week or two have advantages. Blogs don't have to be a major undertaking, spending only an hour or so a week on posting can have you seeing results in no time. There are many advantages to adding a blog to your website. Here are a few. Increased Rankings By boosting your topical content, you increase the value and relevance of your site. The more new stuff you add, the more of an authority you make your site, and this helps to improve your overall search rankings. It can also help you obtain rankings for "long tailed search phrases". Long tailed search phrases are those that are less commonly searched,... more.. Is Your Website an Asset Or a Liability? Is Your Website an Asset Or a Liability? By Nick Yorchak (c) 2007 Remember back in the good ol' days when having a website was something every company needed and wanted? Websites were the wave of the future, and the dream of transitioning to conducting business onl? filled our heads with visions of a revolution in the way commerce was conducted. With a website, a company could reach clients and interact with potential customers on a global scale. A website was indicative of a company's technological prowess, symbolic of the desire to innovate and evolve with developments in the industry. Today, this mindset has changed drastically. We all know that we need a website, but many of us think that simply having one is enough. In fact, there is research indicating that many firms with an online presence haven't touched their websites in years. They haven't spent any time improving functionality and appearance, and they have yet to consider the basics of website usability and the inherent potential of search engine optimization. Of course, we all recognize by now that having a website is an essential business asset, if it's done correctly. It's easy to see that if your site is an outdated eyesore, it becomes a liability that hurts you more than it helps you. Conversely, a well-designed site can make all the difference. It's the first place users go to research your products and services, serves as a lead generator, a CRM tool, and even to make purchases. We've all heard the adage about first impressions, and it's no secret that they're the most important factor in the way people remember... more.. The Importance of Website Conversion The Importance of Website Conversion By Scott Buresh (c) 2009 Medium Blue Many companies make the mistake of spending money in areas where it's not necessary. Take, for example, companies pumping marketing dollars into increasing traffic on the website. It's great to get more traff? but that is just the first step. Now you need that traffic to do something. Website Conversion Defined The percentage of total visitors who come to the website, follow through after clicking on the company's desired point of action (POA) and submit information, download a demo, make a purchase, etc. is the definition of website conversion. In an e-commerce application, multiple visitors will add items to their shopping carts, but a smaller percentage will actually make the purchase. The percentage of visitors that complete the transaction signifies the conversion rate for the website. In a lead-generating application, multiple visitors will follow a path that you desire for them to follow (at first), but will not complete the form, download, etc. The percentage that does signifies the conversion rate. In order to boost the website conversion rate, companies need to determine why potential customers drop out at certain points in the process and eliminate these roadblocks in order to improve sales. Clearly defined POAs, intuitive navigation, and simple checkout processes all make it easier for potential customers to buy, contact, download, or whatever else it is that you want them to do that will lead to a sale. Point of Action Basically, the POA on your website is what you want visitors to do initially. Many websites will have more than one POA, so POAs... more.. The Best Page Layout and Design for Content Websites The Best Page Layout and Design for Content Websites By Miles Galliford (c) 2007 I was chatting to a veteran print publisher who had been producing magazines for over thirty years. He shook his head in despair, as he told me that every year he sees new magazines hit the newsstands with the publications' titles placed vertically on the magazine cover. "Whenever I see this," he said, "I know it has been produced by a new publishing company that does not understand the industry. Anyone with any experience of periodical publishing knows that publications with vertical titles fail, or at least have to change quickly to survive. The market has taught us this lesson hundreds, if not thousands of times, but still people make the same mistake." This message is just as relevant to website layout as it is to magazine design. The web has been around for long enough that rules and best practices have emerged from years of tr? and error by thousands of website owners. You can either go with the flow and be grateful that you can learn from the experience of others, or you can swim against the tide and try to convince the market that you are right and they are wrong. I would suggest that swimming downstream is far easier and will give you a much greater chance of success. To understand which layouts work you only need to look at the industry gorillas. These are the online content publishers who have been around for years, and who have tested just about every layout combination. Good examples are some of the most read websites on the internet including: - BBC - The Financial Times... more.. Size Really Does Matter - At Least When it Comes to Twitter Size Really Does Matter - At Least When it Comes to Twitter By Merle (c) 2009 MerlesWorld.com Back in the days when newsletters first hit the Internet, they were usually published in text format because many email clients did not support HTML email just yet. One of the problems many publishers faced was long URL's being split in half and not being clickable to the reader. To solve this problem, shortening services started to spring up that would take a long URL and cut it down to a reasonable size. With the popularity of Twitter and the confines of 140 characters, URL (link) shortening services are in high demand once again. When you have such a small amount of space to work with, no one wants a long URL cutting into that precious real estate. There are a variety of shortening services to choose from, each having their own specific features and benefits. Most of them do work hand in hand with Twitter, allowing you to Tweet the link once it's been shortened. If you're an avid Twitter user this is a useful feature to have. Some only provide a basic shortening service, but many allow you to view stats and metrics on your newly shortened links if you register. If you're doing any form of social media marketing, it's nice to be able to see if anyone's actually clicking on all the links you're sending out to the "Twitosphere", or posting on Facebook and other sites. Tracking will give you an indication that you're being heard and that people are actually paying attention to what you have to say. Another important thing to look for is whether or not the shortening service uses... more.. Web Development Los Angeles Web Development Los Angeles   What are the Web Development Los Angeles services and how can they help a business in these harsh times that the world is living today. There are many different opinions on this matter, as some agree to the use of such services, others think that it's a waste of time. The reality is that, with the proper knowledge, things can only go up. The rise of the Web Development Los Angeles services First of all, people need to take into consideration two aspects. One refers to the idea that the online environment is one of the most powerful tools there is when it comes to reaching your potential audience. The other one refers to the fact that it's a lot cheaper to invest in this area rather than use any other forms of publicity. These aspects cannot be contested by anyone. This is one of the best arguments in favor of the Web Development Los Angeles services. Another great issue in this matter here is linked with the idea of being unique. Such services encourage their clients to be as unique as possible when it comes to showing off on the market. There are so many competitors available out there, that it makes it hard for one to come up with other concepts in their business. The Web Development Los Angeles services talk about... more.. 4 Quick Ways to Build Quality One-Way Links 4 Quick Ways to Build Quality One-Way Links By Titus Hoskins (c) 2009 Obtaining one-way quality links is often cited as the "Holy Grail" of online success. Especially if you take the SEO route for getting high rankings for all your profitable keywords in the search engines. It's no wonder then, achieving top spots for valuable and popular keywords should be the ultimate goal of any webmaster or online marketer. How well you do in this "link quest" will largely determine the success or failure of your site or online business. Assuming of course, you're going after free organic traffic from the search engines and not using Pay Per Click or other means of succeeding online. Link building and achieving top placements in the search engines (especially Google) has been my main objective for over ten years of online market?. Over the years, I have tried hundreds, if not thousands of link building methods in order to get those links. I would like to discuss briefly some of those methods and then explain in full detail my four favorite and most effective proven ways to get quality one-way links. First, some general tips on how you should approach your link building from the get-go. You must realize the web is based on content; web surfers/users are looking for quality content. If you can supply valuable content that surfers want, you will build your links naturally. People will see your content and want to link to it. This process is often referred to as link baiting - you make your... more.. Four Reasons Why The Smaller Search Engines Matter Four Reasons Why The Smaller Search Engines Matter By Bill Platt These days, all search engine optimization gurus only seem to talk about Google, as if Google was the only search engine on the Internet. Of course, we all know that there really are hundreds of search engines and directories available to us, and we know that some of the smaller search engines serve a very t?t niche of users. Honestly, I can understand why there is a lot of press on Google, because after all, granddaddy Google is the biggest of the big. We know that mill?s of people use Google daily for their search activities, and we know that our websites receive a lot of traff?from Google. There are actually four reasons why you would want to extend your search engine marketing activities beyond Google. I will discuss each of those reasons here: Reason #1: Targeted Traff?/SPAN> Niche content search engines can be a very powerful force in your... more.. mineral foundation mineral foundation   There has been a very deep interest recently in the mineral foundation cosmetic products and their benefits. This is because of the fact that people are beginning to understand that the products that are available on the market today aren?t sufficient to actually help with the problems that the skin has. They need to know that there are other solutions that can be implemented in the times that we are living today. The change that is brought with the mineral foundation products First of all, people need to understand why these products are more beneficial than the ones that don?t have such a foundation. A first argument here is the substances from which the products are created. There are many studies that show how important it is for the skin to be treated with natural substances rather then ones that are created artificially. The mineral foundation products come to serve that purpose and help the skin of the user to feel as fresh and as natural as it can. This is a detail that is worth to be taken into consideration when buying products for the skin. Another idea that comes to mind when talking about how well the organic cosmetics treat the skin refers to durability. Many people have experienced the fact that normal cosmetics have a very fast expiration date and after a few hours, the skin is exactly the same. The reason behind this aspect is that normal cosmetics don?t... more.. Suicide in Cyberspace - Your Outward Links Can Kill Your Rankings Suicide in Cyberspace - Your Outward Links Can Kill Your Rankings By Ben Kemp (c) 2007 Link building strategies have, for most people for a long time, revolved around reciprocal link exchanges. Whilst most people understand that links are important, they generally don't understand why this is so. In a nutshell, a link to your site has traditionally been accepted by Search Engines as a vote for your site. A link from a topic or theme-related site to yours is better than a link from a site having a completely different topic. An important site's link to yours carries more weight - for example from The Open Directory, or Yahoo Directory. All pretty straightforward... BUT... the rules have changed... significantly! All the thinking webmasters worked diligently to build links - willy-nilly - in order to subvert the search engine rankings and gain an advantage to themselves at the expense of everyone else. For a long time, there have been mutterings about this, and comments from Google staffers about possible penalties from linking to "bad neighbourhoods'" and - heaven forbid it - buying links! Google et al simply don't approve of willy-nilly link-building schemes, and have recently tightened the screws a bit more, in two notable ways... Bad Links Some links are bad... for example, if you are a car sales company and you've got dozens of completely irrelevant links to international hotel sites... yeah, YOU know the ones! in Prague, Munich, Shanghai etc! That's a BAD neighbourhood over there! That IS going to put a world of hurt on you! And as for the Free-For-All link sites, web rings, and 3 way link schemes... that's just suicide in... more.. Black Hat, White Hat and Big G Black Hat, White Hat and Big G By Peter Adamson (c) 2009 I read a lot of articles and postings regarding Internet marketing, SEO and the like. One frequently recurring theme is the distinction between black hat, grey hat and white hat methods. Interlaced with the use and abuse of these terms is the notion of what is "ethical" and what is not. It seems to be generally assumed that anything black hat is somehow unethical. More disconcerting yet, anything that Google frowns upon is often deemed unethical as well. I would like to clear the air about these terms which seem to mean all things to all men. First of all, let's put to one side for a moment the recently coined terms which euphemistically refer to SEO techniques under hats of various colors. These are not dictionary terms, and anyone can make them mean whatever they want. However, the words "ethical" and "unethical" have very strict meanings, have had for generations and their misuse can call into question the personal integrity of individuals. So what does ethical mean anyway? According to dictionary.com: 1. pertaining to or dealing with morals or the principles of morality; pertaining to right and wrong in conduct. 2. being in accordance with the rules or standards for right conduct or practice, esp. the standards of a profession: It was not considered ethical for physicians to advertise. So doing something unethical is first and foremost immoral and wrong. Additionally, it may be implicitly wrong because it violates an accepted code of conduct adopted by a recognized professional body, whose moral judgement is above reproach. Given these definitions, when would Internet marketing cross the line into the realm of... more.. How to Choose a Reputable SEO Company How to Choose a Reputable SEO Company   By David Jackson (c) 2011 The two most important elements that qualify companies to promote themselves as SEO experts are competence and professionalism. And the way you find out if a company is competent and professional, as well as legitimate, is to do your due diligence and check their credentials thoroughly, by exercising good old common sense and following these steps: 1. Verify Their Contact Information If the company provides a street address, Google it to see if it's a real address. If they provide a telephone number, call the number to see if it's answered by the company or an answering service. If they don't provide a telephone number, walk away. SEO is serious business. You need to have the ability to talk to whomever is going to be handling your account. You need to be able to ask questions, and you have a right to expect your questions to be answered in a professional manner. 2. Talk to Previous Customers If the SEO company publishes testimonials on their website, contact a few of their customers and get their feedback. If the company can't provide testimonials, walk away, or if the testimonials don't have contact information, they're probably bogus. Walk away. 3. Visit Reputable SEO Forums Visit reputable SEO forums like Jill Whalen's High Rankings Forum to find out what forum members have to say about the company. If an SEO company has a bad reputation, it will race across the Internet at warp speed. Conversely, if a company has a good reputation, you will find that out also. 4. Check Their Better Business Bureau... more.. My Top 10 Most Useful Free Marketing Tools Of 2011  My Top 10 Most Useful Free Marketing Tools Of 2011 By Titus Hoskins (c) 2011 At the end of the year, everyone's making lists and I thought it would be helpful if I gave you my most useful marketing tools of 2010. All of these are free and there's no reason why these tools can't also help your website or your marketing. While they are geared towards marketing, they can also be used for getting traffic to any website. I also believe it is the "USE" of "ALL" of these tools in combination which has helped me succeed online. So here, in no particular order, are my most useful free marketing tools of 2010: 1. SeoQuake for Firefox This invaluable SEO tool will give you vital stats about your site and those of your competitors. I use this extensively to check out my linking partners and how I can better challenge my competition. Besides checking the traffic ranking, Google indexed pages, age of site... the most important stats for me is the SEMRush numbers, these will roughly tell you the worth of the monthly keyword traffic a site is receiving. Very helpful. 2. Google Analytics Getting traffic is only half the battle, knowing what that traffic does on your site is extremely important. I use this program to make my pages perform better and bring in more sales. Knowledge is everything on the web. I find Analytics good for fine-tuning my "money pages" on all my sites. I use it to build the conversion rate of my traffic. And that as they say has made all the difference in the world. 3. more.. New Internet Marketing Tools New Internet Marketing Tools By Titus Hoskins (c) 2008 New Internet marketing tools are coming online each and every day. Why should you care? Mainly because these new marketing tools can have a dramatic impact on your online traffic, leads and sales. So much so, your online competitiveness can greatly depend on you finding and using these new marketing tools before everyone else does. And as Internet marketing grows more and more lucrative, it is becoming more competitive each day, so staying aware of what's happening has become vital to your online success. More importantly, if you're a full-time marketer like me, your livelihood will largely depend upon you being able to keep on top of all the new ways of marketing on the web. With these considerations in mind, I would like to l? some new or relatively new marketing tools that have been effective for me in my online market?. Some of these are marketing software, others are SEO strategies, marketing tips and the like... all have helped me achieve my online goals. Here are some new marketing tools you can try: 1. Real Link Finder Neil Shearing's "RealLinkFinder" is a handy little link-building tool you can use to increase your link popularity and SE rankings. It lets you find targeted blogs that don't have the "nofollow" attribute tag so your links will count in all the search engines. Great way to build targeted links related to your site's main keywords or keyword phrases. This is one "No C? link-building tool you should try. 2. Peel Away Ads Simple ads which sit at the corner of any webpage, when a cursor hovers... more.. Does Google PageRank Count Anymore? Does Google PageRank Count Anymore? By Titus Hoskins (c) 2009 Being a full-time SEM (Search Engine Marketer) I have been conditioned like Pavlov's dog (not a pretty picture) to jump every time Google twitches. Lately Google has been doing a lot of twitching. Specifically, the rather startling news from Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Susan Moskwa that Google has ditched PageRank from Webmaster Tools. "We've been telling people for a long time that they shouldn't focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it's the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true," states Moskwa. "We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it." (Source: WebProNews) Now, for SEO reasons or for ranking in Google's index, PageRank has long been eunuchified by Google. However, even missing a few dangling bits, history has shown us, eunuchs still wheel tremendous power. PageRank is no different. Regardless of what Google wants to happen, PageRank is still extremely important to anyone marketing on the web, especially if you're selling SEO services or operating a web business. Try selling SEO services when that little green bar on your site is pointing to PR0 or worst yet, pointing to a solid gray bar. Obtaining a high PR7 or PR8 simply means more business and revenues... regardless of how Google is or is not using PageRank. People know how to count and they learned long ago, a ten is a lot more than a big fat zero. Placed against a PR1 site, a PR8 will win more respect in the eyes of potential clients and can... more.. How to Optimize for Google I How to Optimize for Google: Part 1 of 3 By Scott Van Achte, Senior SEO, StepForth (c) 2008 In today's online world search engine rankings can make your business succeed, and while rankings in Yahoo and MSN are very valuable, their combined market value is still less than that of Google. This makes achieving top rankings in Google that much more important. In this three-part series on How to Optimize for Google we will touch on a number of important aspects for top Google rankings including website optimization, links, Google Webmaster tools, and a number of other considerations. The focus of Part 1 will be with on page website optimization. THE RIGHT KEYWORDS This article is not about keyword research so I will not spend too much time on this topic, however, I felt it was important to at least brush on this slightly. If you are interested in reading more, please see Keyword Research for Organic SEO. Make sure that your targets are achievable. If you select the wrong keywords, it can make your entire optimization experience essentially a waste. Choose keywords that are attainable but yet still provide a reasonable search frequency for your industry. Your phrase selection should also be targeted to bring qualified traffic to your site. Using the hotel industry as an example, targeting the word "hotel" would make very little sense but by narrowing it down to "Victoria BC hotel" you now have less competition, and a more qualified audience. Keep your targets in perspective and go after the obtainable rankings. WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION There are many on-site factors that play a role in... more.. Attracting Links To Your Website Attracting Links To Your Website By Trey Pennewell (c) 2008 the Phantom Writers You know it is funny in a way. Webmasters have learned that the most important thing that they can do to improve the traffic to their website and to attract attention from the search engines is to build links to their website. But when it comes time to actually start building links to one's website, people typically pick the hardest way to accomplish the task and then they get to work. Working Hard People have been told about various ways to build links to one's website, and they go through the process of picking out the method that they would prefer to use. It is kind of ironic that most people pick the method that they believe will be the easiest and least expensive to achieve, and when all is said and done, they will have picked out the hardest, least effective method of building links. For example, most newcomers to online business choose: Reciprocal links; Directory submissions. With Reciprocal Links, people buy a software package that helps them to search out websites that are supposedly "related" to theirs and then they send an email to the person who owns that website, proclaiming the benefits of trading links and asking for the link. With directory submissions, webmasters can get software that is supposed to help with the process, but it takes hours just to subm?one's website to a few dozen directories. Fortunately, there are service providers who also provide submissions to web directories. Regardless of how you get links subm?ed to web... more.. baby gift ideas baby gift ideas The thing with the Baby gift ideas is that people are always so obsessed with coming up with something new. The gifts industry is quite helpful in this direction as it comes up with various models and choices in order to satisfy almost any tastes. The cute part of the baby gift ideas First of all, there are many different choices when it comes to picking up a gift, the only thing that needs to be done here is to have a little patience and think of the one that will be receiving the gift. The Baby gift ideas are a little bit tricky because the toddlers are a little bit too young to value a specific gift. Another rule applies here and many people go by it, because it's helpful for the parents: buying specific gifts that are designed to help the child develop and expand. There are many great choices that can be made in this direction as the market is really resourceful. The very first category that comes to mind when taking about which Baby gift ideas are really great for the little ones, refers to the issue of toys. Many different psychologists have proven that it is important for the children o develop certain skills when they are that young. The industries have developed several ones that are designed to educate and expand certain abilities and skills in order for the toddler to develop and understand the world a little bit better. Another great benefit here is that the child can actually have fun in the process. This is the time of his life, when he gets to do everything that he wants so it's normal to... more.. RTA Cabinets Ventura RTA Cabinets Ventura What are the RTA Cabinets Ventura services and why is it important for home owners to be aware of them? The answer to these questions lies in the need that people have to search for kitchen furniture. There are many choices that are available out there and some of these choices are designed to be in the best interest of the customer. The interest of the RTA Cabinets Ventura services First of all, people need to get acquainted with what RTA means. It is an acronym for the words: ready to assemble. This means that the RTA cabinets Ventura models are designed to help the client with the order that he has placed and not waste valuable time on crafting the cabinets on his own. The process is quite simple and it takes a small amount of time for a client to admire the newly bought cabinets in his own kitchen. The very first thing that one should do if interested in the RTA cabinets Ventura models is to log online and find the best model that suits his needs, his style and taste and his pockets. There are models which are designed to go with futuristic styles and there are some which are available for the houses that have a more antique design. It really depends on the tastes of the clients and on what he or she wants for his home. After figuring out which is the best choice for his kitchen, the client needs to... more.. Google's Last Dance! Could Semantic Search Mean The End Of Google? Google's Last Dance! Could Semantic Search Mean The End Of Google? By Titus Hoskins (c) 2007 As a full-time online marketer and webmaster I try to keep my eyes peeled to what is happening with the search engines. These complex creatures control the Internet. They truly are the heart, soul and brains of the web. Unfortunately, they also control the faith of many struggling webmasters who are clawing their way to the top of SERPs in organic search. Being listed on these first page results for your chosen keyword phrases is the ultimate goal and it is often the determining factor in the success of your site. Recently, I have noticed some strange movements with my closely watched keywords, especially in Google. Which shouldn't alarm anyone because there are often sudden movements and adjustments as Google tweaks and refines its algorithm, the complex series of formulas it uses to determine which pages and sites get featured. (Side note: An excellent resource on Google's Algorithm and ranking factors can be found at: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#f41 It's way too early to jump to any conclusions but the big question on everyone's mind: Is Google Moving Towards Semantic Search? Or more precisely will Google have to move to semantic search if it has any chance of surviving in our 'here today - gone tomorrow' search world. Most of us old folks can easily recall a pre-Google web. Is a post-Google web possible? That's very hard to swallow but stranger things have happened on the net. But the real question should be: will Google have to embrace semantic search or perish? Wikipedia defines Semantic Search or Semantic Web as the evolving process of taking all the content... more.. Top 14 Benefits of Social Media Marketing  Top 14 Benefits of Social Media Marketing By Wendy Suto (c) 2011 There's a lot of fuss surrounding social media these days. If you still haven't jumped on the bandwagon and aren't sure why so many people are making such a big deal about it, here are 14 benefits of social media for your business and you from Success magazine. For Business: Establish a Brand and Raise Awareness Since the majority of the population is already visiting social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, getting your brand name all over those networks can help let people know that you're around. If you have yet to create a company image online, social networks are the place to do it. Create a fun YouTube video that entertains and informs. Funny videos tend to make their way around the Internet a lot faster than any other kind, so when making a video, keep in mind that you want it to be interesting enough for your target audience to want to share. Using Facebook and Twitter to create a fun online community that your customers will want to visit will boost brand loyalty and drive traffic to your Website, allowing you the chance to make more online sales. Spy on the Competition Follow your competitors on Twitter and Facebook and you'll be able to see what they have up their sleeve. Just make sure to provide a better deal than whatever they have going on. Pitch Products in a More Human, Interactive Way Since people visit social media sites to get personal rather than be bombarded with ads, discuss your business in a fun way and engage your customers with questions. Ask... more.. 7 Words That Will Make Your Website Worth Viewing 7 Words That Will Make Your Website Worth Viewing By Jerry Bader (c) 2009 Seven. It's just a number like any other, but it does seem to come up on a fairly regular basis. There's the Seven Wonders of the World, The Seven Deadly Sins, and the Seven Dwarfs: Happy, Sneezy, Sleepy, Bashful, Doc, Dopey, and my personal favorite, Grumpy. Phone numbers are seven digits, and they say the optimum brand name should be no more than seven letters long. Seven it seems is a magical number, as the average human brain can only grasp seven things at a time. Interesting, my wife says I've got trouble with two, never mind seven, but that's another story. So I've been thinking, what are the seven most important words associated with Web-marketing. I'll give you a hint: Search, Engine, and Optimization don't make the cut. So what words do make the l?? What are the seven words that will make your website worth viewing? Words Can Move You By someone's count there are 171,476 entries in the Oxford English Dictionary, plus another 47,156 words that have fallen out of favor. This of course doesn't count the 9,500 additional permutations, that don't deserve their own special attention. Fifty percent of these words are nouns, twenty-five percent are adjectives, and 14.285% are verbs, with the rest made up of all those other things, the purpose of which most of us have long since forgotten. Others may find fault with these numbers, but no matter what the total, it's a lot of words. Of the several hundred thousand words to choose from, the average person recognizes less... more.. How to Write Articles for Improved Search Engine Rank How to Write Articles for Improved Search Engine Rank By Peter Nisbet (c) 2008 If you are looking for improved search engine rank for any page on your website, you have to learn how to write articles in order to make use of one of the major and most useful resources online: article directories. Just as website directories can be used to promote your website online, article directories can be used to publish your articles. These articles can in turn be used to promote a specific page on your website, and in this respect are more useful than a website directory listing that promotes only your home page. You have few opportunities to direct search engine spiders directly to a page of your choice, and when one arises it should be made good use of. In fact, other than article directories and links on your website, you are unlikely to find such an opportun?, and it should be seized whenever it arises. However, very few people actually know how to make best use of such an opportun? and to use their articles intelligently to drive masses of traffic to their site. You can use your Author's Resource to achieve that, but in order to get the Resource read, you have to get the article read. For that to happen, you have to write a good article and then make people read it. To do that your title must be good enough to persuade people to read it. To achieve that you must be able to write a good title. So how do you achieve all of these things? That is the purpose of... more.. Website Design That Works (Part 1) Website Design That Works (Part 1) By Kevin Gallagher (c) 2007 Introduction Before you even think about opening Dreamweaver or your favourite html editor and start designing your site there are a few things I believe you need to do first. I am going to describe how to ?rease your work flow and give you some general tips and tricks that will speed up the design of your website project and help to get it showing up in search engines quicker. In future articles I will be going into greater detail of some of the topics I describe here. Now let's get started. Purchasing and Optimizing Your Domain Name The first thing you need to consider is your domain name. I suggest that you don't just use your company name, i.e. if your company makes tartan paint and your company name is "Hamish Paints" don't go for the obvious choice of hamishpaints.com. I would try and come up with a keyword rich domain name. Some search engine optimizers (SEO) would say that having keywords in your domain name doesn't make any difference to your listings but I disagree. Google will highlight your keywords in the search engine results page (SERPS), which leads me to believe that keywords do hold some we?t, and besides it will make it clearer to the searcher what your site is all about. What are Keywords? Keywords from a search engine optimization (SEO) stand point are the key -words that are used to optimize your website for better listings on search engines. These are the words or phrases people are typing into the search bar of Google... more.. ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles   There are many different opinions regarding the ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles models and how they are or aren't beneficial to the people. Some say that it's great to have things done and ready at your doorstep, but others contradict with the idea that the possibilities from which you can choose are quite limited. There are still other details that should be highlighted here in order to determine which side is right. The right side of the ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles services First of all, the matter of tastes cannot be discussed: if someone likes something, he or she cannot be argued about his choice. It's just how the way things are and that's that. But the relevant part here is the fact that the ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles models are designed to satisfy even the most extravagant of tastes. There are so many models, textures and colors that can be chosen for a kitchen, that it takes some serious hours to pick something up. Another great aspect about the ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles models and its diversities is that they suite almost any style that the other side of the house might have. This means that if you have a futuristic influenced home, you can choose something that best fits with... more.. 7 Steps to Building the Right Social Media Connections 7 Steps to Building the Right Social Media Connections By Angelique L. Rewers (c) 2011 Once upon a time, it seemed as though the number of "followers" or "connections" a person had on social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn was akin to the number of votes they had for homecoming king or queen. It was the grown-up version of a high school popularity contest. However, as these websites have now matured - and as entrepreneurs and business owners have figured out how and how not to use them - most every?has come to realize that it's not about the number of connections you have, but the number of right connections. Just like in the real world, you want to make sure you're making the most of your networking time by connecting with those people that have similar or complementary interests or expertise and, therefore, create a mutually beneficial relationship - particularly when sites like Facebook limit your number of friends to only 5,000. In fact, many people who have large followings of the wrong people are taking the drastic step of deleting their connections and starting over from scratch. Whether you're just getting started building your social media network or you're a seasoned pro, who's thinking about doing a major overhaul, here are seven steps you can take to help you build the right connections. 1.)Start With the People You Know. If you're still not using social media and are hesitant to get started, the best way to get your feet wet is by connecting with those you know personally: your friends & family, your neighbors, and your co-workers. But don't stop there; your network is likely... more.. Social Media and Conan O'Brien Social Media and Conan O'Brien By Pace Lattin (c) 2010 The way I see it, NBC has little chance of survival in the next ten years. They've proven themselves so caught up in the normal TV schedule way of thinking that they fail to understand their audience, what little of it is left. Their lack of knowledge about social media, how it's formed and how it can control the conversation is part of their failure in this situation and may very well be part of their failure as an organization. Conan O'Brien on the other hand was able to harness the internet and social media to make a stand and, in the end, become more famous than he ever was before. I'm going to explain this slowly, for the folks at NBC, if they are reading this. Let's think of Conan O'Brien & Jay Leno as a brand, and that the internet is the next big media thing, where there will be millions and millions of Americans making decisions about their life based on what they read on the internet. When people run a search on this website called GOOGLE, they get thousands of pages of choices that they can read about the topic in which they are interested. That perhaps in the future, someday, consumers and people who watch television (aren't they the same?) will be able to type in "Conan vs Jay" and get real time results that help shape their thinking about the subject, and therefore create brand identification and/or brand alienation depending on what happens. Now for the rest of us, who understand Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization and a bunch of other three word phrases with Affiliate,... more.. How To Make Your Backlinks Count (Part I) How To Make Your Backlinks Count (Part I) By Serge Botans I think that we all know now how important backlinks are for the search engine ranking success of our web site. I also think that we all know now that one way to get these backlinks is by doing link exchanges with other sites. (For the uninitiated, backlinks are links on other web sites that point to ours.) But do we know that there are various things we need to ch? before agreeing to exchanging links with another web site? After all, the whole point of exchanging links with others is to benefit from the ranking of their web sites. It is therefore imperative that we investigate ahead of time as to whether exchanging links with another site is to our advantage or not. I have thought about this whole idea of link exchange preparation and came up with a 3-step process that involves an analysis of 3 pages of the web site we want to exchange links with. The 3 pages are: the home page where we will need to ch? 7 things about that page, the directory page: this is the page that contains a list of categories that the site has put together in a bid to organize its link exchanges. We need to ch? 7 things here, the backlink page: this is the page that will contain our backlink. We also need to ch? 7 things here. Note that in some cases, the 'target' web site will not have a directory page. In that case, our analysis will be a 2-step one rather than a 3-step one. In this first article, of maybe 2 or 3,... more.. Sitemaps Improve Website Value Sitemaps Improve Website Value By Lisa Barone  Getting your pages indexed. It's your most significant SEO goal and maybe the one most vital in determining the success of your SEO campaign. Nevertheless, many seek engines have trouble finding links buried deep within the structure of your site. So how do you make certain your pages are simple for the seek engines to find? By using a sitemap. Making a placemap provides the seek engines with a one-stop-shop for all of the pages on your area. And if designed correctly, your sitemap could also be a valuable resource to lost visitors looking to figure out your site structure. What's a Areamap? A placemap displays the inner frameeffort and organization of your spot\'s content to the search engines. Your areamap should reflect the way visitors would intuitively effort through your site. Years ago spotmaps existed only as a boring series of links in l? f? Today, they are thought of as an extension of your spot. You should use your placemap as a tool to provide your visitor and the search engines by using more content. Make details for each section and sub-section through descriptive text aread under the placemap link. This will help your visitors figure out and navigate through your spot, and will also give you more food for the search engines. You can even go crazy and add Flash to your placemap similar we did with the interactive Bruce Clay areamap! Of course, if you do include a Flash sitemap for yourselfr visitor, you'll also need to incorporate a text map so that the robots can read it. A good area map will: Show a quick, simple to follow overview of your area. Provide a pathway for the seek engine robots to follow. Provide text links to every page of your area. Quickly... more.. Medical Billing Software Medical Billing Software What are the benefits of a Medical Billing Software? When trying to answer this question, we can come across various aspects of why a medical facility or hospital should have such a system implemented in their networks. Trying to understand the Medical Billing Software First of all, people should take into consideration the fact that time is of the essence here. Imagine a critical situation when a doctor needs the information on a patient in a very small amount of time. A Medical Billing Software will give the doctor the possibility to get to the needed information in time. This is possible because the system has a number of filters available, making it possible for the needed information to be reached in time. Secondly, we should surely talk about the amount of space that is speared when using the Medical Billing Software. Here you should take into consideration the fact that the old system was based on drawers and files. It took a lot of time to search for the desired information and as proven above time is of the essence. Imagine a situation when a doctor needs to administrate a substance to a patient in a critical situation and he needs to find out if he or she is allergic to such a substance. This is where the efficiency of the Medical Billing Software system: it takes a small amount of time to access the data for a... more.. Six Proven Secrets to Writing a Trash-Proof Press Release Six Proven Secrets to Writing a Trash-Proof Press Release By Bill Stoller (c) 2008 PublicityInsider.com In baseball, it's said that you know an umpire is top-notch when you never notice his presence. If he's doing his job, he won't call attention to himself in any way. It's much the same for the writer of a press release. When the recipient of a press release focuses only on its content -- and not on its creation -- the writer has succeeded. With that in mind, here's how to develop a style that can help give you a big edge in placing your press releases. 1) Master News Style By Reading News Stories The folks who write wire copy for the Associated Press are masters at presenting information without calling attention to themselves. Read all the AP wire copy you can and get a sense of the rhythm and flow of their writing. Examine their choice of words and sentence structure (typically, they choose the simplest way of saying things) and their overall tone of solid objectivity. This is the style to which you should aspire. 2) Write a Great Lead The lead paragraph in a press release should, theoretically, be able to stand alone as a news item. A standard news lead answers the Five W's -- Who? What? Where? When? Why? Successfully answer those five questions in one paragraph and you've summarized everything beautifully. Bad lead: The new Acme X100 is drawing raves from customers, who call it the best thing to happen to the flanging industry since the X99. Good lead: Philadelphia, August 15, 2007-- Calling... more.. Rev Up Your Social Media Marketing Strategy Rev Up Your Social Media Marketing Strategy In less than five years, social media has revolutionized not only our communication culture but how we conduct business. The dizzying effect of endless and sometimes unfettered-24-hour access to people and information has transformed the various tools into a game changer. There is a broad and increasing list of sites, including BlinkList, YouTube, Delicious, Flickr, Tumblr, BlogMarks.net, and the triumvirate of major sites: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. These social destinations have become to business professionals and entrepreneurs what golf is to C-suite powerbrokers - a juncture to strategically network and close deals based on shared interests and personal engagement. But these sites do more by offering users valuable real estate to advertise products or services, create and expand brand recognition, solicit feedback, build relationships, and create community forums. Users also have unprecedented access to consumers, hiring managers, prospective clients, industry experts, and opportunities. Moreover, social media levels the playing field by allowing anyone access without restrictions on time, location, or social status. The most diligent and creative players are reaping huge benefits. According to a report from Forrester Research, 55.6 mill? U.S. adults - just shy of one-third of the population - visited social networks at least monthly in 2009, a jump from 18% in 2008. Recent Nielsen research says Americans spend nearly 25% of their time online on social networks and blogs, up from nearly 16% a year ago. The initial foray into social media can be daunting and bewildering. Newcomers to the space might wonder: Who's reading? Will I be heard or noticed? Isn't it all just fun and games? Isn't it invasive? Making the effort worthwhile requires time, patience, and a... more.. Social Media Marketing Doesn't Replace SEO Social Media Marketing Doesn't Replace SEO By Jill Whalen (c) 2010 Looking at the latest search marketing conference agendas, articles, and online news in the SEM space, it certainly appears that social media marketing and networking are the wave of the future. To a certain extent, they are. Social media, and social networking in particular, create a back-and-forth conversation with your target audience, so you can virally market your website through the "buzz" that can be created. When something interesting, cool, or unique is being talked about in "all the right places," it can certainly provide a boost in website traffic. We search marketers tend to hang out in numerous online and offline communities where it's easy to promote our own products and services, yet I can't help wondering if our view of Web marketing is skewed because of this. Are potential B2B clients and even B2C customers spending time at Digg? Do they attend SEM conferences in order to hire a company, or are they just trying to learn to do it themselves? And what about other industries? Is there a Sphinn equivalent for developers of product lifecycle management software? Are there groups of people online comparing the various brands of auto parts? Are there really people seeking out articles on these topics? Perhaps. And if so, we'd be remiss not to promote our clients' websites in those spaces. But is this search marketing? Or is it simply marketing? Arguably, it becomes search marketing when it increases link popularity, but surely that should be the secondary goal of this type of marketing campaign. True link popularity comes from having something worth linking to, not something you've asked your insulated circle of cronies to link to. more.. Texas Ranches for Sale Texas Ranches for Sale When trying to understand why many people choose to invest in the Texas Ranches For Sale opportunities, there are a lot of aspects that can be considered as great arguments. The best one of all refers to the idea that the real estate industry is one of the best opportunities to use your money in the current time. Investing in the Texas Ranches for Sale opportunities First of all, people need to take into consideration a very important detail here. The value of the land has changed considerable in the last couple of years due to the recession and all the transformations that the world had during the last couple of years. This means that if a person decides to take up one of the Texas Ranches For Sale offers, he or she will basically save a lot of money now then ever. The upside here is the fact that the recession is soon coming to an end and that is what makes this aspect very important. The prices will begin to rise as corporations and businesses will want to expand and invest in order to extend their branches. This is the perfect place where you... more.. SEO for Traff?with Content vs Ranking with Links SEO for Traff?with Content vs Ranking with Links By Joel Walsh How do you grow your search engine traff?without adding a single new link or making any changes to your existing webpages? It's simple. Just add content. Simply having keyword-optimized pages of content on your site won't rank you high for competitive search engine keywords ? that's a fact of life. But keyword-optimized content can really bring in the traff?for low-competition and unique keywords. The low-competition and unique keywords are typically longer multi-word variants of the keyword. For instance, instead of "search engine ranking," "ranking for search engine traff?niche keywords." If you have lots of pages of optimized content?and you optimize well ? all the search engine traff?from these low-competition keywords will really add up. Plus, you'll usually get more repeat visitors and type-in traff? too. Just picture this realistic example of traffic-building with content vs. ranking-building with links. Company A invests $5,000 for link-building in order to rank for a competitive keyword. Company B invests the same amount, only in content. Company A and Company B: each start out on... more.. SEO Benefits of Blogging SEO Benefits of Blogging By Kristin Page (c) 2011 Adding a blog to your website is a big decision, but it is something that every company should consider. A regularly updated blog can give people a reason to visit your website more often, and there are also SEO (search engine optimization) benefits to keeping a company blog. Perhaps you've thought about starting a blog for your company, but you're not sure it will be worth the extra work. Here's a rundown of the SEO benefits to help you decide. More Content for Search Engines Most websites have a fairly limited number of pages, and a limited number of words per page. Adding a blog means you can regularly create rich content, and include the keywords you're trying to rank well for in search results. You'll be giving search engines more pages and content to crawl on your site, and more opportun? to see your important keywords. For every blog post you write, you are giving yourself the chance to add content containing five to 10 new keywords. Some of these keywords could actually be longer phrases containing keywords you're already trying to rank well for in search results. These longer phrases - called "long tail keywords" by SEO professionals - can be easier for you to rank well for. That's because, as a keyword phrase gets longer, there are fewer instances of it in search engine indexes. In effect, there's less competition for top rankings in results for searches on those keywords. For example, a gardening supplies website could add a blog that offers... more.. 10 Best Strategies to Massively Increase Your Visibility Online 10 Best Strategies to Massively Increase Your Visibility Online By Donna Gunter (c) 2009 Increasing online visibility is the goal of most online business owners. After all, without visibility, you have no traffic and thus no business. However, when you start to research how to improve your online visibility, you discover many options, but find that there is little time for research and implementation. Where does an online entrepreneur turn first to get the visibility (and traffic) to promote an online venture? New tricks and gimmicks come out every day, but unfortunately, most of them are like so many recording artists and become one-hit wonders. In my business, I've discovered that there are a handful that are able to stand the test of time. Some have been around for as long as websites have been around, while others are newer kids on the block. Here are my 10 most effective strategies to massively boost your visibility online: 1. Press releases. Press releases are a well-known marketing strategy that have worked for years with print and broadcast media. In recent years they have found new life as an online visibility tool. Just like in the old days, your release should carry some newsworthy angle that has been optimized with a select few keywords by which you want your business to be found. Don't waste your time submitting your release to the free press release sites -- the release simply sits on the site and goes no where else. Instead, invest in a fee-based service (I prefer PRWeb.com), which will ensure your release gets the recognition it deserves. 2. Social... more.. Google Instant - Implications for SEO & Internet Marketing Google Instant - Implications for SEO & Internet Marketing By Titus Hoskins (c) 2010 While reading Harry McCracken's rather insightful article on Google Instant in PCWorld , I was reminded once again, how narrowly focused my own thinking has become in regards to Google. I keep forgetting, not everybody is into SEO or Internet Marketing (lucky dogs), and that Google search has a function outside of SEO. I keep forgetting that the general public actually uses Google for online search, there are millions of web users out there who have been using Google Instant to find out the weather, the latest Lady Gaga outfit or which flat-screen HDTV to purchase? Of course, I know this to be the real function of Google, but if you're a full-time search engine marketer, your perspective is solidly aligned to all the SEO elements - keyword rankings, link building and content placem? in the most dominant search engine in the world. Basically, you will be more concerned with how Google Instant will impact those top keyword rankings, your click-through rates and most importantly, what effect will it have on your conversion rates and sales? More specifically, how does this instant search impact the display of your listings in Google and what are the long-term ramifications this instant "real time" display will have on your marketing online? There are even some so-called experts which say Google Instant will be the end of SEO. This is a rather foolish notion since the underlying structure of using optimized strategies to obtain top rankings in Google or any other search engine for... more.. Top 10 Reasons A Website Fails To Perform Top 10 Reasons A Website Fails To Perform By Gary Klingsheim (c) 2008 You've taken the time to finally build a website, and now it is online. Months go by. Maybe you get a few visitors now and again. Maybe you land on the search engines. Mostly though, it just sits there. Is the website you paid for pulling its weight? A website is a tool and can be of significant help to your business. It can cut a lot of time you put into giving information to customers. It can answer questions and perform tasks for you. Find out where websites fail to perform and how you can figure out where to make it better. 1. Undefined Website Objectives Some sites try to do way too much at once, or worse, they have no definable purpose. Many provide no clear objective. A site can do more than look good and flashy and have your contact information. Websites can be informational, storing content and articles based on a topic. Sites can run eCommerce solutions that help you with your sales process. It can also generate leads, asking customers to fill out forms with their information and interests. It can also be a hybrid site, with mixed purposes, like offering a free ebook or free access to information (informational) in return for contact information (lead generation). Defining the purpose of your website gives a clear direction to your customers. Where should customers arrive when they find your website? Where do you want them to end up? Using a clear path and clear objectives, you can lead them through your site, your products, and... more.. Does Google Have A Golden Rule? Does Google Have A Golden Rule? By Titus Hoskins (c) 2008 As a full-time webmaster and site owner, figuring out just what Google wants has been the most challenging aspect of running an online business. For many webmasters Google is the eight ton elephant in the room and you only have two options: upset the elephant and get trampled or quickly find out what it likes to consume and try to feed it. In order to keep Google fed, webmasters have to jump through more than one set of hoops. When it comes to getting top rankings in Google's Index or SERPs, there are 200 of these hoops or ranking factors. And if you want to play in Google's ballpark, you have to try and master the majority of them. For years, frustrated webmasters have been guessing and searching for these ranking factors. Asking what does Google want? How does Google rank pages and keywords? How does Google want you to build your site? Ten years ago it wouldn't have mattered what Google thought of your site for it wasn't even in the picture, but now when it comes to online search, Google is king of the hill. And as we all know, kings get whatever they want. Besides, any webmaster worth his salt, knows Google is what counts when it comes to organic traffic - you can achieve #1 spots for a keyword in all three top search engines (Yahoo and MSN being the other two light-weight contenders) but Google will simply deliver the most traffic to your site. Google doesn't as yet have a monopoly on web search, but it's getting close to... more.. What Does the Google +1 Button Mean for SEO What Does the Google +1 Button Mean for SEO By Rich McPharlin (c) 2011 Google, the internet giant based in California, has had a strangle hold on much of the online market for the past decade. Most would struggle to find a single person in the Western World who is not yet familiar with the Google Search Engine. In fact the search engine is so popular that the phrase 'Google it' has been adopted by many Gen-Yers. In addition to their massive presence in the search marketplace, Google also commands a large percentage of the online advertising industry, generating revenues in the region of US$35 billion per annum.   Facebook, a relatively new comer to the internet, and center of popular film The Social Network, is quickly closing on Google's market. Currently Facebook ranks as the 2nd most visited website online globally and holds over 750 million member accounts. Facebook is beginning to threaten Google's market dominance in online advertising due to the huge volume of data that the social network holds about its members. While Google's advertising model focuses around what people are looking for, specifically using search queries, Facebook's model allows advertisers to utilize behavioural targeting. A Facebook advertiser can select very precise advertising audiences by focusing on: - Age - Gender - Location - Employment Type - Education Level - Likes and Dislikes By selecting a narrow cross section of the global audience by one or all of the above variables, an advertiser can see significant improvement in their ROI when compared with search or conventional marketing. This is where Google Plus enters the scene. In May Google released a limited Beta of... more.. Why 2010 Will Be A White Knuckle Ride For Web Marketers | Why 2010 Will Be A White Knuckle Ride For Web Marketers | By Titus Hoskins (c) 2009 Next year may just prove to be one of the most challenging times for pursuing online or Internet marketing on the web. It may just be a watershed moment for many marketers struggling to keep abreast of all the different factors which have come into play in recent months. Most of these changes will stem from two main sources for potential upheaval: the first being the New FTC (Federal Trade Commission) Guidelines regarding Testimonials and Endorsements and the second being "ALL" the recent changes within Google. Actually, we already have the new FTC Guidelines which came into effect on Dec. 1st of 2009, but how these new rules are enforced will play out in the coming year as test-cases are brought to court. Basically, these new rules call for absolute disclosure and full transparency regarding Testimonials and Endorsements when a product or service is being offered for sale. Any business (monetary) relationship between the endorser and the company must be made known to the potential buyer. Obviously for those in online or affiliate marketing this could have a great impact if these new rules are strictly enforced. Just imagine all the website owners and bloggers who slap a few banners or affiliate links on their sites to cover hosting or operating costs... will they now have to disclose all these business arrangements? For professional affiliate marketers and the companies/products they're promoting, these new guidelines could cause potential headaches and/or legal ramifications since a general blanket disclaimer on their sites will no longer be suffice. To help solve this problem, many of the major companies are now placing... more.. How To Use Twitter for SEO How To Use Twitter for SEO By Kristina Weis (c) 2011 Links Tweeted on Twitter Matter for SEO It's official. Google and Bing include social signals - namely, links that get tweeted on Twitter - when determining rankings in their search results. This was confirmed by Danny Sullivan in his December 1, 2010 post on Search Engine Land, and it was likely a factor for a while before that. To put this new factor in perspective, Google uses hundreds of signals to determine how it should rank a website. These include inbound links to the site, the title tag of a web page, and site speed. Getting people to link to your site is really all about having great content that people want to share, whether on their blogs or websites, or on Twitter. As Google and other search engines increasingly take note of social activity and the links shared on sites like Twitter, having a good social media presence will become increasingly important for ranking well in search results. Many companies have been employing social media as a part of their marketing strategy, and for good reason. Now that social activity has so much impact on search engine optimization (SEO), companies that take SEO seriously know they must use social media as part of their strategy for getting onto the first page of search results. Note for those who are not familiar with Twitter: "tweets" are the 140-character (or less) messages that people post on... more.. How to Hard-Wire Your Site to Google How to Hard-Wire Your Site to Google By Titus Hoskins (c) 2010 Until Bing turns into David and slays Goliath, the only search engine game in town is Google. While the other search engines can't be ignored or forgotten, when it comes to online search, Google will deliver the majority of your quality organic traffic. For webmasters and especially for online marketers, having your website virtually hard-wired to Google is a marketing Must-Do. We are strictly talking about white hat stuff here. If you're seeking the opposite color, look elsewhere. As a full-time search engine marketer, I have learned a few things over the 10 years or so I have been working on the web. One of the most significant factors running constantly in the background has been Google. And, the underlying fact is that the more I intertwined my sites and content with Google, the more success I achieved. There seemed to be a direct correlation between the two, making it a little more than ironic that the original name for Google was BackRub. But this is not exactly rocket science territory here. Google is the biggest entity on the web, especially if you go the free organic traffic route. There are tons of ways to market online which don't involve Google at all, but for the purposes of this piece, I will be discussing ways any webmaster or marketer can better connect their site and content with Google. Plus, I'll (if it's not already obvious) also give you some reasons why this is a smart marketing strategy on your part. The first technique you must perfect is how to get your new content into Google's Index within minutes, if not seconds.... more.. Killer Campaigns, Making Emotional Connections Killer Campaigns, Making Emotional Connections By Jerry Bader (c) 2009 We live in an age of clones: somebody makes a very profitable movie about vampires, and the next thing you know we're all inundated with movies, television shows, books, blogs, websites, and every form of blood-sucking permutation you can imagine. CSI begets CSI Miami, which begets CSI New York, which begets NCIS, which begets NCIS Los Angeles, which is just about as much as anyone can take. If something is successful, you can be sure more of the same will follow. Despite the occasional success story, most clones either fail completely, or never live up to the success of their groundbreaking predecessors. Most of the copycats fail because the clone-masters behind them don't understand why the original worked, and as a consequence, they clone all the wrong elements. This is as true of commercial presentations as it is with broadcast programming. Cloning a successful format is not the same as Slipstreaming. Clone marketing is just rote copying of technical elements without any reference to why the original worked, whereas Slipstream marketing takes a familiar idea and plays off it like a great jazz musician reinterprets an old standard. Kleenex "Let It Out" Campaign: Recognizing The Emotional Value Proposition What is more generic than facial tissue? A consumable paper product that you use once and discard; it is the very definition of a commodity, and as we all know commodity-sales are primarily based on price. Enter Kimberly Clark, one company that has managed to turn their commodity product into the industry standard to the extent that the commodity itself has become known by Kimberly Clark's designated brand name - Kleenex. The Kleenex, "Let It Out"... more.. SEO Duplicate Web Content Penalty Myth Exploded The "duplicate content penalty" myth is one of the biggest obstacles I face in getting web professionals to embrace reprint content. The myth is that search engines will penalise a site if much of its content is also on other websites. Clarification: there is a real duplicate content penalty for content that is duplicated with minor or no variation across the pages of a single site. There is also a "mirror" penalty for a site that is more or less substantially duplicating another single site. What I'm talking about here is the reprint of pages of content individually, rather than in a mass, on multiple sites. Another clarification: "penalty" is a loaded concept in SEO. "Penalty" means that search engines will punish a website for violations of the engine's terms of service. The punishment can mean making it less likely that the site will appear in search results. Punishment can also mean removal from the search engine's index of web pages ("de-indexing" or "delisting"). How have I exploded the "duplicate content penalty" myth? PageRank. Many thousands of high-PageRank sites reprint content and provide content for reprint. The most obvious case is the news wires such as Reuters (PR 8) and the Associated Press (PR 9) that reprint to sites such as www.nytimes.com (PR 10). The proliferation of content reprint sites. There are now hundreds of websites devoted to reprint content because it's a cheap, easy magnet for web traffic, especially search engine traffic. Experience. I've seen significant search engine traffic both from distributing content to be reprinted and from reprinting content on the site. How I Doubled Search Engine Traffic with Reprint Content When I first started distributing content for my main site, I was... more.. The Top 10 Tools for Monitoring the Success of Your Website The Top 10 Tools for Monitoring the Success of Your Website By Steven Snell (c) 2007 One of the most important aspects of running a website is monitoring the site and its progress. By monitoring your website you will be able to see how it is performing and how it can be improved. This article covers 10 fr?tools that can help you to optimize your site for maximum results. 1 ? Google Analytics Google Analytics has become the preferred option among fr?statistics programs. Like any other stats program, Google Analytics provides data on the number of visitors, and page views, referral sources, entry and exit pages, and more. Unlike most other programs, Google Analytics includes the ability to track and monitor pay-per-cl? (PPC) campaigns. Other useful information includes the geographic location of your visitors, their internet connection speed, and their screen resolutions. You can sign up for Google Analytics at: http://bizsolutions.google.com/services/ 2 ? Google Webmaster Tools Want to know how the largest search engine in the world sees your website? Google's Webmaster Tools will give you loads of information such as the pages that are indexed, errors found by the Googlebot (dead links), your search engine rankings for specific search phrases, your anchor text on inbound links, internal and external link data, and robots.txt and sitemap data. By knowing how Google sees your site you will find some basic items that you'll need to change in order to reach your maximum potential in search engine traff? You can sign up for Google Webmaster Tools at: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ more.. Kitchen Cabinets Ventura kitchen cabinets Ventura The kitchen cabinets Ventura services are one of those services that are designed to really satisfy the customers and help them with their needs. Those services are really helpful when it comes to solutions that need to be implemented so that the kitchen will look as appealing as the rest of the house. The appealing side of the kitchen cabinets Ventura services First of all, people are always concerned with certain qualities when they contact various services or businesses for the problems or needs that they have. In order to see a firm as reputable or very professional, it needs to be able to satisfy its customers with a high personal approach towards the job that it performs, an efficient manner when it comes to time and most importantly a great customer care. The kitchen cabinets Ventura services come with the best customer care there is as the cabinets that I brings to the table are already assembled. This is considered to be one of the best things about this industry as the client won't lose some of the precious time that he has on putting items together in order to form the cabinets that he needs. The service provides him or her with whatever it was ordered and the only requirement there is refers to patience in order for things to be done quickly. At the end of the day, the client will be relieved to see that the cabinets are in their place and everything is in perfect harmony. There are many different models that are available here, so that the user can pick something that he likes and fits with the other features of his home. In this way, everything will look as part of the big picture. That is one of the best aspects when it... more.. Tx Land For Sale Tx Land For Sale The deal with the Texas Ranch For Sale opportunities is that they aren't advertised enough so that people can actually understand what they imply. Most of them simply guess that it is another form of attracting new clients towards the real estate industry and they don't have anything to do with them. That's one of the common behaviors there is when it comes to this delicate subject. The important aspects of the Texas Ranch for Sale opportunities First of all, any person should actually hear the entire story from the beginning till the end to be aware of the entire equation, before actually making a decision. If they do so, they would find out about the fact that now is the perfect time to actually take the Tx Land For Sale opportunities into consideration due to various reasons. One of those reasons implies that the prices of the ranches are very low in the times that we are living today. This is because of the fact that nobody is buying anymore and the real estate industry has to survive somehow. Many of them have dropped their value to a considerable low mark, so that somebody will feel that that's the perfect opportunity for him. This is a very important detail as there are many people who dream of a life, far away from the craziness of the city. That place can easily be one of the Tx Land For Sale opportunities due to the fact that they bring a lot of benefits to the table. A person actually has some peace and quiet in the middle of the environment and life goes a little... more.. Web Site Makeover Live Checklist Web Site Makeover Live Checklist By Marcia Yudkin (c) 2009 The web designer shows you her final version of your long-in-the- making revamped site. You cl? around and can hardly believe how gorgeous and rich it is. "Love it! Launch it!" Oops, not so fast. Too many times I've seen that sentiment lead to frantic scrambling, even to disaster. Before making your revamped site live, use this checklist to make sure you've caught or prevented horrible new-site glitches. 1. Timing. Never, never launch your new web site on a holiday, weekend or even on a Friday. Why? Because chances are high you'll discover something weirdly wrong with your shopping cart, images, blog or regular web pages, and the tech support you need will be closed down or just skeletally staffed. Likewise, make sure your web designer or developer will be on hand for the next day or two to quickly fix any problems that become evident. 2. Test on as many computers as you can, and request feedback with the site parked in a test location. A colleague of mine (whose experience inspired this article) replaced her old site with the new one, then asked for feedback on a discussion board. Several people reported pages looking peculiar in their browsers or receiving an obnoxious warning message instead of simply seeing the home page. Too late, she learned she should have asked for this feedback before the site went public. What looked great and worked fine in her office had not-so-positive results in various browser and monitor combinations no one had tested the site on. 3. Match the new file... more.. Develop Quality Content to Rule the Web Develop Quality Content to Rule the Web by S. Housley Fresh content The age old question keeps coming up, how do you retain website visitors, how do you make visitors return to your website? The answer should come as no surprise, fresh content. Content is truly king, the fresher the content the better the site. What many webmasters fail to realize is that there is an endless supply of content on the web that is freely available to webmasters. Not only can public domain material be freely used and syndicated on websites, but a number of content publishers provide content in exchange for a link back to their websites. A variety of contents related to the website theme that is integrated into the website will attract the interest of both search engines and web surfers. The key to taking advantage of free content is integrating or including content that is directly related to the theme of the website. 1. Articles Article repositories exist that categorizes content articles. Searching the repositories using keywords that are related to a websites theme will result in a wide variety of articles available for publication that are related to the site's existing web content. Articles in the repositories are available for syndication, which means webmasters can freely include the articles on their websites as long as they include the author resource box with valid links. Use the following to locate topic specific articles: Free Website Content GoArticles 2. RSS Feeds The contents of many RSS feeds can be syndicated. The added benefit of syndicating feeds is that they are frequently updated which will result in a steady stream of fresh changing content. In order to reap the benefits... more.. The State of Search Engine Advertising Reality and Alternatives The State of Search Engine Advertising Reality and Alternatives By Mel Strocen (c) 2007 The herd mentality nev?fails to amaze me. When the pay-per-cl? concept was first pioneered in 1997-98 by GoTo.com (now Yahoo! Search Marketing), it was years before the model was widely accepted. GoTo virtually created the market for pay-for-performance search single-handedly and redefined how businesses market online while other search engines sat on their collective hands. Then, when it was obvious that there was "Gold in Them Thar (PPC) Hills" hundreds of search engines entered the PPC arena and hordes of advertisers followed suit. As a search engine advertising model, pay-per-cl? was, and is, brilliant in its simplicity. In theory, it is a perfect way to bill advertisers based on consumer interest in their advertisements. Unfortunately, in real life mon?can bring out the worst in human, and business, nature. In today's search engine reality, pay-per-cl? should be on its last legs. But, as anyone with a knowledge of the search engine industry knows that simply isn't the case. Let's first examine the main reasons why advertisers should be abandoning PPC in droves: 1. Cost According to the Fathom Online Keyword Price Index, the average keyword price paid by online advertisers reversed a downward trend and increased 16.5% percent to $1.48 in the third quarter of 2006, up from a $1.43 per cl? at the end of 2005. That's one report. Another compiled by Cl? Forensics concluded that the average pay-per-cl? search-term cost was $4.51 across retail, financial services, health and fitness, technology and entertainment advertising. Whatever the average cost, it's too high for most small to medium-sized businesses. More stats and... more.. 10 Tips For Creating a Brilliant Landing Page 10 Tips For Creating a Brilliant Landing Page By Joanna Colek (c) 2009 Building a great landing page should be on top of your priority list if you want your website visitors transformed into customers. While a great looking website can grab the attention of your visitors, a strong landing page will keep them involved and get them to buy your products/services. Wikipedia defines a landing page as: The page that appears when a potential customer clicks on an advertisement or a search-engine result link. The page will usually display content that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link, and that is optimized to feature specific keywords or phrases for indexing by search engines. Wikipedia's definition sums it up nicely but there is certainly more to a great landing page then relevant and keyword rich content. Here are 10 things that you should be looking at when optimizing a landing page: - Relevant Content A landing page's content should be directly related to organic search results, PPC campaign, anchor text in inbound links and any other targeted inbound advertising, online and offline. If people don't get what they expect, they will be more likely to leave. - Multiple Landing Pages A landing page shouldn't necessarily be your homepage. In many instances a homepage is a good landing page. However, for more targeted traff?and better results, you want a landing page to be focused on a specific offering and specific call for action. To accomplish this, a given website should have multiple landing pages. Create some deep link landing pages that will focus on a specific proposition and your conversion rate will be higher. - Focus on Functionality More and more visitors seem to judge the professionalism and... more.. 20 Simple Ways To Get Massive Traffic To Your Web Site 20 Simple Ways To Get Massive Traffic To Your Web Site By Penny Sansevieri (c) 2008 Embarking on an Internet marketing campaign doesn't have to be difficult, tricky, or complicated. Here are a few simple ways (twenty in fact) that you can easily implement to get tons of traffic to your site right now! 1) Write articles: believe it or not this is an incredible tool for driving traffic. Well-written, relevant articles can net quite a bit of activity to your web site. Don't forget to add your URL in your byline. Articles should be 500 to 2,000 words in length. You can send articles to sites like: Article City, GoArticles, Submit Your Articles and Ezine Articles. 2) Social bookmark *everything* - and I do mean everything - you can bookmark each page of your site and each blog entry you post. While this might seem tedious, it's worth it. You'll see a strong increase in traffic if you social bookmark each page on your site and each of your blog entries. 3) List yourself in the best directories ? you'll have to pay for this but since most people don't do this (since everyone's looking for a freebie) you could really enhance your traffic by getting a listing: dir dot yahoo dot com, business dot org, botw dot org. 4) Get yourself listed at: DMOZ dot org ? it's not easy to get listed there, but worth the effort. 5) Review: if you can review hot new products or books within your market, head on over to Amazon and start positioning yourself as an... more.. How to Deliver a Marketing Message On Your Website How to Deliver a Marketing Message On Your Website By Jerry Bader (c) 2010 Here's a question for you? What do you need to be successful? What will it take for you to climb out of that deep, dark, dungeon of despair and mediocrity? What are you willing to do to be the best you can be? Look around. Things are nuts, the economy stinks, politicians are goofy, people are addicted to cell phones, businesses are obsessed with Twitter and Google and Facebook; everything is made in China, and it's all CRAP! You're lucky if anything you purchase works the way its suppose to and god help you if you complain. You'll spend hours on the phone with some clown who doesn't know, doesn't care, and doesn't get pa?to really help you. They are the purveyors of frustration and creators of cynicism. Athletes pretentiously thank God for their base hits and million dollar contracts, and we watch in astonishment. Trust me, God doesn't give a damn about who wins the next Nascar race, or that you get an even bigger flat screen plasma for your birthday. He's got bigger fish to fry like global warming, child starvation, and deadly pandemics. You're on y?own fella. So get use to it. So what's a poor entrepreneur to do? Follow the big boys as if they were The Enlightened Ones. Right, how's that worked out so far? Do you really want to go down the same road as GM or Lehman Brothers? Nobody is going to bail your ass out of trouble; you can count on that. People have... more.. Link Popularity for the Unpopular, a Quick Primer for Today's Search Engine Landscape... Link Popularity for the Unpopular, a Quick Primer for Today's Search Engine Landscape... By Casey Markee So tell the truth, were you popular in high school? Did you have a lot of friends, and a wide social circle? Were you an athlete? Did your accomplishments extend far outside the halls of your alma mater to neighboring schools and counties? If so, then congratulations; you're probably in the minority of those reading this article. What does this example have to do with link popularity you ask; more than you think. Just as in high school, on the World Wide Web, your website is known by the company it keeps. Link to the wrong site or "hang with the wrong crowd" and you could be ostracized by the search engine community before you even begin. Achieve quality inbound links from a wide range of popular kids on the internet, however, and watch your site's online profile soar. Sounds simple, and it is, if you know what to do to climb the online social ladder that is Link Popularity. But before we get to that, what exactly is Link Popularity? Simply defined, Link Popularity is a measure of the quantity and quality of other web sites that link to your site on the internet at any given time. It is considered an off-the-page criteria that is greatly utilized by search engines to determine... more.. Are Made for AdSense Sites Ruining Search Results? Are Made for AdSense Sites Ruining Search Results? By Adam McFarland of iPrioritize.com It's happened to you. You've searched for something on Google and several promising results appear. You cl? on a link, but when you get to the site all you see are a few ads and nothing even remotely close to what you searched for. So you go back to the search results and try again, only it happens again and again until you finally find a page with some decent content...or frustration sets in and you give up all together. Why does this happen? How come in this day and age Google can't give you the results you're looking for? A large part of the answer is the growing number of made for AdSense (MFA) sites on the web today. MFA sites are designed for the sole purpose of getting you to cl? on a Google AdSense advertisement. Define Made for AdSense A site is made for AdSense if its sole purpose is to get users to cl? on AdSense ads. Its owners don't intend that users will learn from its content or participate in a community. All that they want is for them to cl? on an ad. A site is NOT made for AdSense if its primary purpose is to provide unique content and the site owner decides to keep their content free by displaying advertisements, AdSense or other. This has been going on for years - television, newspapers, and magazines all generate revenue with advertisements. The difference is that the advertisements supplement the content of the show or article. The same applies for the web. If you have a news... more.. Web Directories for SEO Web Directories for SEO by Adrian Lawrence If you are looking for ways to promote your website, then web directories should definitely be considered a big part of your promotional plan. Web directories provide web visitors with a one-stop destination on the web to find the information they are looking for. Further, in using web directories, you can increase the visibility of your website and derive myriad benefits offered by web directories. Let's take a look at the benefits that webmasters derive from web directories: 1. Some webmasters might wonder why they should bother to submit to web directories when 80% of all website traffic comes from search engines. The answer is simple when you consider the following: what about the other 20%? When you are attempting to maximize the traffic that comes to your website, every little bit of promotion helps and web directories can help you gain a big chuck of that 20% of web traffic you have been missing out on. 2. Did you know that a key factor in the ranking algorithm of search engines is link popularity? By using web directories you will be creating more links that point directly to your site and the raising your ranking in various search engines across the Internet. Further, everyone knows that a higher search engine ranking is equivalent to easier accessibility... more.. ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles People might think that the ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles models are just another thing on the market. This can be true due to the fact that many of the markets are very diverse and there are many great names in an businesses, but there is an aspect that needs to be considered here: the speed that the service has. The ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles service handles their clients with speed First of all, people need to take into consideration that speed is not the dominant quality of the ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles services. There are many other qualities that matter in this industry, like: durability, professionalism, time of response and so on. But, as we are livening in a world where everything goes at a very high speed rate, it surely does matter how fast the service is provided. Let's take an example of a regular order and see how things are going. The client can easily access the internet, right from the comfort of his home, log on to the website and start browsing throughout the ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles models that are displayed there. He can take as long as he or she wants, until a decision is made. The great part of the internet here is that the browsing can be done quietly and without being disturbed by any shop supervisors that are constantly watching your every move. This is the perfect way to shop and take your time while doing it. The next step of the process is finalizing your order and waiting for the team that does the measurements to arrive. You need to point out where you want the ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles to be placed and after that part... more.. 9 Hot Tips to Increase Site Conversions 9 Hot Tips to Increase Site Conversions By Gary Klingsheim (c) 2009 "Site conversion" is a very dry and unexciting way of saying "how to get more prof? from the same amount of website traffic." Isn't that a more upbeat way of expressing it? Who doesn't want to get more prof? from the same number of visitors? Increasing your conversion rate is a straightforward, even dramatic way of positively impacting your bottom line. It really cannot be emphasized too much that any improvement at all in your conversion rate means additional revenue that is total prof? Remember this fact when you are told that the way to "make more money" is to invest in more traffic-generating schemes (and dreams, at times). Before you start spending more money to generate additional traffic, you need to do as much as you can with the traffic you are already getting. If you keep the horse ahead of the cart in your planning, you will have an efficient, stable, measurable conversion rate from which you can extrapolate x amount of additional profit from y amount of new-traffic generation. The following tips are not in any particular order (except for Number 1), and can be modified and reordered to suit your particular situation. Take ownership of the change and improvement, and make sure everyone involved understands the importance of maximizing every revenue source, beginning with the existing ones! 1: Before you can repair or improve something, you have to have a good way of measuring where you are, what you're doing, where you're going, etc. You can sign up for a free Google Analytics... more.. Using Blog PR to Promote Your Site Using Blog PR to Promote Your Site By Adam McFarland of iPrioritize The recent trend of using the press release to promote an online business has emerged with good reason ? good press costs very little and can do more for a business than thousands of dollars of marketing. Most businesses use press distribution services like PR Web or PRFree to get the word out about their news. While distribution services certainly can be effective, they tend to miss out on arguably the most influential group of the press ? bloggers. Bloggers mold and shape the opinions of their readers, who are normally the most important in their particular industry, many of whom are also bloggers. Not long after a post from an influential blogger, your news has been picked up by several other bloggers and within days you are all over the blogsphere. Before you know it your site is getting more attention than it would if a story ran in the local newspaper! So how do you get the influential bloggers in your industry to run a story about your business? Why Would Anyone Do a Story About Your Business? Are you a new company? Did you just launch a new product that they could review? Did your business w?an award? Are you a group of college kids who started a company on savings from your summer jobs? You get the idea. There needs to be a reason that someone would want to read about you. Bloggers take pride in the content they feed their readers. You don't stand a chance of getting a blogger to write about you if you don't have... more.. 3 SEO Traps to Avoid During Your Redesign 3 SEO Traps to Avoid During Your Redesign By Jill Whalen (c) 2011 I receive a lot of SEO questions from business owners who want to spruce up their aging websites, but are dead afraid of losing their existing search engine traffic. And for good reason. Going live with a redesigned website without considering the SEO implications is like being ensnared in a nasty trap that you cannot escape from. It's hard to make mon?while stuck in a trap! With that in mind, here are a 3 SEO traps to avoid before, during and after you develop your website: SEO Trap #1: Your Content Management System If you are switching to a different content management system, (CMS) it often means that the URLs from your current site will have to change to something that fits with the new system. It's likely that the new URL naming convention will not match your old one. The Escape: If this is the case with your new back end, then 301-permanent redirect all of the old URLs to their new counterparts if you can. If this is a practical impossibility, then review your analytics to find the landing page URLs within your website that receive direct search engine visitors, and redirect those. Also redirect any URLs that have links pointing to them from other sites. While it's best practice to redirect all URLs, those that don't receive any direct search engine traffic and don't have any external links are less important. SEO Trap #2: Your Site Architecture Your new website is likely to be sporting a brand new navigational scheme as well as an overall change of its site architecture (how... more.. 8 Tips To Create A Landing Page 8 Tips To Create A Landing Page By Ayat Shukairy (c) 2007 Introduction You need copy for your landing page but you're not sure where to start. First let's clarify what we mean by a landing page. A landing page can be a page that visitors come to after clicking on a promotional banner or link. Ultimately, the landing page must convince the visitor that they should stay on your site. You may also have a goal that you want accomplished, such as: Signing up for a newsletter or filling out a f? Buying a product Reading informational pieces What's going to keep them there? The structure, the language, and the visual appeal all play a part of it. Ch? out these tips to create a great landing page, or reinvent the one you already have. The Structure People arrive at your site looking for answers. They scan to see if they're in the right place and assess whether it's going to be a quick and easy visit or a long grinding one. Your landing page is the welcome wagon inviting them in and feeding them the information they need. The structure of the page will either pull them in and encourage them to fulfill your goal, or distract and cause them to cut out of there before getting the whole picture. The structure of the landing page in general should be matching that of the banner, ?or link they clicked on to get them there. So for example, if your PPC Ad is targeting SEO articles, your landing page should discuss exactly that. If a Victoria Secret's ?for lingerie... more.. EMR EMR The EMR system is one the greatest achievements in the field of medicine not because it brings some great adjustments in the surgical area, but it is something that has revolutionized the front desks of the hospitals. Many people aren't that aware of how important it is to have a system that is extremely efficient especially in cases of high pressure. EMR The Greatest Achievement One of the first aspects that are worth highlighting here refers to the idea of the space that is being saved with the EMR system. Imagine how the system used to work somewhere in the past decade. There were rooms filled with drawers that had files and files stored inside of them. The clerk had to search through all the files in order to reach the desired information and that took a lot of time as well. Additionally, there were cases when the clerk was in a hurry and he or she didn't have time to arrange the files in the order that they were before. This has generated some real problems when there were other files needed. The current system has some very efficient features and has the capability to store a great deal of patients without having the worry to actually be overwhelmed with files. Furthermore the EMR system gives the user the possibility to insert certain filters in order to be able to reach the desired information without having to lose precious time in the process. This is quite relevant when a doctor... more.. 10 Surefire Marketing Tips That Will Improve Your Website Conversions  10 Surefire Marketing Tips That Will Improve Your Website Conversions  By David Jackson (c) 2011 Like millions of other people, I'm a huge NFL football fan (go Giants), and the one thing I've learned over the years is that on any given Sunday, the worst team in the league can beat the best team in the league. It happens all the time. Why? Because in sports, just like in business, there's a very thin line between success and failure - winn? and losing. And the team that executes their game plan the best and makes the fewest mistakes will invariably win the game. That's not a theory - statistics bear that out. In sports, mistakes are the wild card - the great equalizer. You can have the greatest team and game plan in the world, but if you make mistakes and don't execute your game plan, it will be all for naught. You will lose. Mistakes prevent you from performing up to your potential and winn? the game. The same logic applies to business as well. Regardless of the competition, the businesses that execute their game plan the best and make the fewest mistakes will invariably come out on top. That's why you constantly see small businesses outperform larger, more powerful companies with greater resources. It's all about having a solid game plan and executing it. Following are 10 surefire marketing tips that will improve your website conversions: 1. Have a Plan There's an age old proverb by Thomas Edison that famously states: "He who fails to plan, plans to fail." Truer words haven't ever been spoken. You need to have a plan before you start a business. Why is a business plan... more.. The Google Goal Of Indexing 100 Billion Web Pages The Google Goal Of Indexing 100 Billion Web Pages By Danny Wirken Google's Goal of Quality Search In their paper 'The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine' it is very evident that Google's goal has always been to be one of the best search engines there is in terms of the quality of the results it gives. Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, however knew that in order to do this, Google needed to be able to store information efficiently and cost effectively and to have excellent crawling, indexing, and sorting methods or techniques. Google not only aimed to give quality results but to produce the results as fast as possible. Google started as a high quality search engine and continues to be the best search engine today. It has managed to stay true to its original intent to be a search engine that not only crawls and indexes the web efficiently but also a search engine that produces more satisfying results in comparison to other existing search engines. To stay true to the goal of providing the best search results, Google knew right from the start that it had to be designed so that the search engine could catch up with the web's growth. According to Brin and Page "In designing Google we have considered both the rate of growth of the Web and technological changes. Google is designed to scale well to extremely large data sets. It makes efficient use of storage space to store the index". They knew that they needed much space to store an ever growing index. Google's index size, which started out as 24 million web pages, was large for its... more.. Video Search Engine Optimization Video Search Engine Optimization By Randy Zlobec (c) 2008 Most of us know that a site that's well configured for search engine access is a major part of getting high traffic levels. However, you might not have thought about optimizing your video as well as the rest of your site. Since multimedia content is becoming a much more popular way of distributing information, correct video search engine optimization is important. For instance, on YouTube alone (which accounts for more than ninety-eight percent of the videos viewed via Google), more than eighty-two million people watched over four billion videos last year. That makes YouTube both the top video sharing site and the top video search engine. YouTube receives as much as thirteen hours of new user-submitted video every minute, and more than fifty percent of the people watching videos online share links with other people. So, getting a good YouTube ranking could be an important way to bring people to your site. For owners of video content, video search engine optimization is a good way to get exposure, ad income, and free traffic. Being discovered by the viewers has to happen before you can get lots of views. That means making sure that your data is rich in meta information, and that you use quality RSS or MRSS feeds that you update on a regular basis. Make sure that your meta data is well placed and relevant to the topic. A cleaner can help you remove distracting or irrelevant meta information from the file. Only after you produce well optimized content should you contact the search engines and submit your video. This places you in the... more.. The Lucky Thirteen - The Critical SEO Checklist The Lucky Thirteen - The Critical SEO Checklist By Mike Tekula (c) 2007 When it comes to SEO not all of us have the time to be experts. At some point the real "gurus" of SEO and other topics are the people with a whole lot of time on their hands. This l?, put together with the everyday webmaster in mind, drives home some absolutely crucial points that you should keep in mind when optimizing your pages for valuable search rankings. 1. Check Search Engine Crawl Error Pages It's important to monitor search engine crawl error reports to keep on top of how your site and its pages are performing. Monitoring error reports can help you determine when and where Googlebot or another crawler is having trouble indexing your content - which can help you find a solution to the problem. 2. Create/update robots.txt and sitemap files These files are supported by major search engines and are incredibly useful tools for ensuring that crawlers index your important site content while avoiding those sections/files that you deem to be either unimportant or cause problems in the crawl process. In many cases we've seen the proper use of these files make all the difference between a total crawl failure for a site and a full index of content pages which makes them crucial from an SEO standpoint. 3. Check Googlebot activity reports These reports allow you to monitor how long it's taking Googlebot to access your pages. This information can be very important if you are worried that you may be on a slow network or experiencing web server problems.... more.. Proven Insider Tips to Get More Web Visitors Quickly and Easily Proven Insider Tips to Get More Web Visitors Quickly and Easily By James Gladwin (c) 2009   Believe me, in spite of the current financial turmoil, there hasn't ever been a better time to generate an online income stream! And yet it seems that so many budding Internet marketers are finding it hard to break through VNB - the "Visitor Numbers Barrier." When I started, I thought there was some magic elixir or secret technique that would transform my visitor numbers! If only I could find THE ONE successful method! Well, this article is to let you know that while there may be hundreds of ways to get visitors to your website - I've selected some of the techniques that work best for me.   And they can work for you, as well. Because, if there IS a secret of success, it is this: "Don't rely on ONE way to generate traffic. Become familiar with MANY." Better to have many visitor doors to your website, rather than just one, don't you think? I'm still... more.. Birthday gift ideas Birthday gift ideas One of the biggest issues when it comes to someone's birthday is the Birthday gift ideas. This is one of the main concerns when kids have a birthday and their friends need to find a gift that is best suitable for that occasion. Of course, there are some classic things that can be bought, which will save the day, but a birthday is much more personal than the first thing that comes to hand in a shopping mall. The great things about Birthday gift ideas A first idea here refers to the aspect of being personal. One of the greatest Birthday gift ideas were the ones that sent a message to the receiver. Those are the gifts that really matter and those are the ones that will be remembered in the years that will come. This should be the main target of people when they are planning to hand out a gift. In this way, it will have the impact that they've planned and the receiver will be happy. A second idea here, is linked to creativity. People don't let their imagination flow as often as you might think. There are so many things that can be done if some friends put their heads together, they only need to have a little bit of courage to actually do what they think. Of course, this refers to the interesting and great Birthday gift ideas and not the craziest of ones. Jumping from a roof top into the swimming pool can be a... more.. Land for Sale in TX Land for Sale in TX One of the most interesting aspects when it comes to advertising is the matter of offers. People are always enthusiastic about offers and special opportunities that can really help them, rather than just take money from them. How about an offer in the real estate industry? How is it possible to actually get a profit in a field where the recession has hit so far? The other perspectives brought by the Land For Sale in TX opportunities. There are some points that can easily be highlighted here in order to better understand why this field can be an important tool when it comes to making some serious money. Firstly, anyone should get a good grasp of the concept so that he or she can easily understand what needs to be done here. Things are quite simple and can be found in a simple and yet important logic equation. The Land For Sale in TX opportunities are so accessible to the general public due to the difficult times that the world is experiencing in the financial filed. The value of the land has dropped considerable because companies and individuals have stopped putting their money here. There were other priorities and other things that needed to be taken care of and that's why this was a low objective for their part. The low prices of the Land For Sale in TX opportunities have opened up some gates and people need to seem them as a way to make money. How can it be achieved? The explanation is a very basic one: when the recession will fade away and things will start to run smoothly again, the companies and individuals will start... more.. 14 Popular SEO Myths Examined  14 Popular SEO Myths Examined By David Jackson (c) 2011 With so much misinformation about SEO having been dispensed over the years, it's hard to know what's true and isn't true - making it all the more difficult to separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff, as it were. Concerned about the potential harm misinformation about SEO can ultimately cause, I decided to compile an alphabetical listing of the most popular and persistent SEO myths, to either debunk or confirm their factuality. 1. Adwords Since the arrival of Google Adwords, there has been an ongoing debate over whether or not running an Adwords campaign can improve search engine rankings. Ultimately, only Google knows the answer to that question for sure. However, to my knowledge, there is no credible evidence to support the notion that Adwords can improve your search engine ranking. If there were indeed concrete evidence to the contrary, it stands to reason, everybody would just start an Adwords campaign to boost their rankings. 2. Anchor Text Although it can be other colors, anchor text is typically the blue, hyperlinked text you see on a web page - the words that you click onto take you to another page. For example: free marketing tips Okay, but is anchor text important? Yes, it is because it's a crucial element in the search engines complex algorithmic formula that helps determine the rankings of websites. For example, suppose you have a blog that reviews digital camera's; the more links you have with the words "digital camera reviews" in your anchor text, the greater your chances of increasing your ranking for the keywords digital camera reviews. 3. Alt Tags Alt... more.. Your Website Does not Need A Traditional Call To Action Your Website Does not Need A Traditional Call To Action By Jerry Bader (c) 2008 The other day I received two emails, both with the same question, why didn't we have a direct call to action on our website? Sales people are taught, you always need 'a call to action,' a request to act or lose the opportun? of a lifetime. I'm sure you've seen the infomercials, website presentations, online direct market? come-ons, and even high-pressure seminar and tradeshow presentations that will never be repeated, so you better act now. You're familiar with the language used: "act now and we'll send you two pieces of junk you don't need, but wait there's more, call in the next ten minutes and we'll add a third useless item." Does any intelligent person really respond to this kind of pitch, and what self-respecting business would actually behave in this manner? The fact is, if you sell something of value at a reasonable price, and you treat your customers with some respect, you will get your share of business. You may not get all the business, nobody does, but the business you do get, will result in more satisfied customers, more word-of-mouth referrals, and ultimately more sales. High-pressure tactics, and demands for instant commitment, frighten off as many potential clients as they ensnare. Lies and Statistics Statistically it may be true that if someone leaves your website without ordering, the chances of them returning to order are low, but as Shakespeare's Cassius said, "the fault, dear Brutus lies not in the stars, but in ourselves." The problem is NOT the customer; it's what you're saying, how... more.. Web Design Los Angeles Web Design Los Angeles When trying to get a grasp of how does a Web Design Los Angeles service work for a business many people find themselves in difficulty. This is due to the fact that they don't quite understand why this is a priority and why this type of promoting a brand is absolutely necessary when it comes to making a profit. The profit making aspect of the Web Design Los Angeles service First of all, not all the businesses in the world have an allocated budget for the online environment and all its features. There are many which aren't that interested in promoting their business on the internet. Those are the people who should take into consideration the following details when it comes to the Web Design Los Angeles offers, ideas and ways of seeing your business. A great argument in this direction is that you are basically everywhere. This means that you don't limit yourself to the targeted audience of your town, city, state or even country. The whole world has the opportunity to get acquainted with your brand and most importantly to buy from you whatever you are selling: products, items, services and so on. The fact that you are now able to speak to the entire world changes the perspective to 180 degrees. Another great aspect that should be illustrated on the mater of how Web Design Los Angeles services help many businesses refers to the idea of the way the website is structured. There is the common belief that in order to sell something you need to make it as shiny and as sparkly as possible. This may be valid in some businesses or markets,... more.. Brand Positioning Using Web-Video Brand Positioning Using Web-Video By Jerry Bader Multimedia Modeling and Vicarious Observation Albert Bandura, distinguished psychologist and expert in the field of social learning theory, points to television commercials as an important influence on social learning through multimedia modeling and vicarious observation. We often forget that like all creatures human beings are subject to our hardwired instinct for survival, one of the most important being our ability to learn through vicarious experiences rather than just direct encounters. We may learn not to touch a hot stove by putting our hand on a hot heating element, but it is far less dangerous to learn the same lesson by watching someone else do it, even if that observation is simulated as in a commercial. As Web-video presentations ?rease in popularity as a means of delivering marketing messages over the Internet, there will be the inevitable major successes and unfortunate failures. It is only a matter of time before Web-video becomes the dominating vehicle for businesses that are serious about marketing communication. The businesses that will be successful will learn how to use the medium beyond its technical implementation, focusing instead on the psychological elements that communicate beyond mere surface meaning. Marketing Campaigns Are Learning Experiences All marketing campaigns are learning experiences for the target audience in that advertisers are attempting to manipulate viewers' behavior by vicarious demonstration of brand benefits resulting from product or service use. Cost has limited the use of broadcast television commercials to all but the most deep-pocketed of advertisers, but the broadband Web and digital technology has changed all that. The means to produce reasonable-cost Web-video is at hand, witness the... more.. Google and Bing Love Anchor Text Link Spam Google and Bing Love Anchor Text Link Spam By Jill Whalen (c) 2011 While many bloggers and the media are calling Google's search results out lately, most of the focus has been on the somewhat low-quality pages that show up for informational long-tail searches. My concern for Google's search results is different, however. As I touched upon in the last newsletter, I'm tired of Google (and Bing) returning sites that use anchor text link spam to get on the first page of results. For those who don't know what anchor text is, here's a quick explanation: Anchor text is the words in the clickable part of any link. For instance, when someone links to my site, they typically use either my name or my company name in the anchor text, which looks like this: Jill Whalen is an SEO consultant. Or... Visit High Rankings for SEO consulting. But those links are not all that valuable in SEO terms. What would be better (for search engines) is for the links to be more like these: Jill Whalen is an SEO consultant. Visit High Rankings for SEO consulting. ...with the keywords that people might type into Google (or Bing) as the clickable anchor text link. Search engines assign a lot of weight to the words that are in that clickable link. It does make sense because you're telling both people and search engines what they'll get when they click the link. The problem is that it's not a natural way for people to link unless they know a bit about how search engines work.... more.. Gear Up Your Site For Social Media Marketing Gear Up Your Site For Social Media Marketing By Deepak Dutta The year 2006 saw the emergence of social media. If you are engaged in operating a website, you must realign your site to exploit the popular social media sites for increased traff? You should also introduce social media components to your site because web users are experiencing these new forms of interactions on more and more sites and they may have an expectation of the same from your site also. The first step is to declare who you are to the online community. People should be able to relate to you. Unless they know more about you, you will be just an unknown identity and most people don't like to deal with unknowns. Create an About Us page and l? your achievements and skills. Create a MySpace page and link your bio in the About Us page to the MySpace page. Also provide a link back from the MySpace page to your website. Spend an hour every week to develop your online social network in MySpace. Invite a few of these new friends to write blog articles at your site about your products or services. If you want to attract repeat visitors and want them to stay longer, your focus this year should be on the social aspects of your site. Social media uses technologies like RSS, blogging, podcasting, tagging, etc. and offers social networking (MySpace, Facebook), social video and picture sharing (YouTube, Flickr), and community-based content ranking (Digg, MiniClip) features. The central theme of these sites is user generated content used for sharing among the end-users. The social aspects of these sites are to allow users to setup social communities,... more.. Give Your Site a 10-Point Legal Check-Up Give Your Site a 10-Point Legal Check-Up By Chip Cooper (c) 2009 It's early in the year, and it's time to fulfill your resolution to give your site a quick legal check-up. Online businesses are now highly regulated, and there's substantial liability if your site's not legally compliant. In addition, your customers are becoming more Internet savvy, and a site that's not legally compliant is not going to be trusted. So, let's get started. Use This Checklist If You Already Have The Basic Site Documents In Place 1. Copyright Notice. Check Your Copyright Notice. Your copyright notice consists of the following elements: the word "copyright" or copyright symbol (c in a circle) followed by the year of first publication followed by the name of the copyright owner. It's also a good idea to add "All rights reserved worldwide". Example: Copyright 1996-09 Digital Contracts, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Note that if you update your site from time to time, you should add a date range reflecting the fact that the site has been updated each year within the date range. If you haven't updated yet for 2009, do it now. 2. Blogs, etc. Have you recently added a blog or any other functionality that permits visitors to post text or digital files to your site? Or, do you plan to do so as part of your marketing plans for 2009? If so, you need to have a DMCA notice in your Terms of Use and you also need to file a DMCA Registration form with the U.S. Copyright Office. These steps will create a "safe harbor" from strict... more.. SEO Web Design Secrets, Search Engine Optimization Tips for Beginners SEO Web Design Secrets, Search Engine Optimization Tips for Beginners By Peter Nisbet (c) 2008 SEO web design is a skill that can be learned, though most search engine optimization for beginners courses dwell too much on linking strategy as opposed to web site design per se. There are many ways for most normal people to get an improved search engine ranking, and secure a high search engine listing, and while linking is important, good on-site SEO is also necessary. Although it might not seem like it, getting a good listing on Google or any of the other search engines is not as difficult as many like to claim. There are rules to follow, and if you play the game properly then the outcome should be in your favour. The tips provided in this article are not really secrets as such; although many people offer to divulge marvelous secrets to you, all they are giving you is stuff that people have been using for years. So you won't get any secrets here. I have nothing hidden away that I don't want anybody to know, and if I had I wouldn't tell you about it! Would you? If you had some secrets that were so valuable that they were making you money, would you give them away free in an article like this one? Of course you wouldn't! So here are my not-so-secret tips on getting a good list? in Google and improving your search engine ranking. You likely know a fair bit about meta tags, and have been informed that most are not used by search engines. Well let me tell you something.... more.. Top 10 Internet Marketing Tips for 2008 Top 10 Internet Marketing Tips for 2008 By Gillian Meier (c) 2008 Internet Marketing has grown phenomenally over the last few years but the shift has quite clearly moved to a market that is driven by the consumer and that is no longer dictated by journalists and corporates. Online consumers are responding more favourably to non-intrusive, relevant and socially attractive campaigns and have quite frankly had enough of intrusive, forced online advertising campaigns. The top 10 internet marketing tips for 2008 are: 1. Optimize your website's content 2. Create a content development strategy for your website 3. Invest in a paid search (pay-per-click) campaign 4. Publicize your website through article marketing 5. Develop a social media marketing strategy 6. Create a Company Blog 7. Experiment with video marketing 8. Engage your audiences with web widget marketing 9. Discover the benefits of mobile marketing 10. Create an effective email market? strategy Let's look at each of these in more detail:- 1. Optimize Your Website's Content: First and foremost, get your website content right. Make sure it is easily read by both humans and search engines. An essential variable applied by Search Engines in the way in which they rank websites is based on the relevancy of the content that the search engine is indexing. 2. Create a Content Development Strategy for Your Website: In addition to optimizing the existing content on your website, it is essential that you develop a strategy to continuously grow your website's content on an ongoing basis. All new content should be written specifically with the web reader in mind and should also be optimized for the search engines. 3. Invest in a Paid Search (Pay-Per-Click) Campaign: When you... more.. How Many Links Does It Take to Get to the Middle of Google Page One? How Many Links Does It Take to Get to the Middle of Google Page One? By Bill Platt (c) 2009 911 Reputation Management Everyday it seems, people are asking me about the optimum number of inbound links they need to acquire for their website in order to rank well in Google. My answer is going to seem a little flip, but it is the honest, best answer. Answer: You need more inbound links - of equal or higher quality - than what your competitors have. When people wonder how many inbound links they need to acquire to rank in the Top 4 of Google's search results or even the Top 10 of Google's SERPs, they are generally hoping that someone will be able to give them a numeric answer, so that they know whether they can afford to undertake the process or not. I understand the WHY of the question, but there is no canned answer that will work for everyone. Remember, your competitor may be asking the same question and undertaking the same processes as you are, trying to accomplish the same goal. You can't truly begin to understand the answer to this question, until you have taken the time to do an Inbound Link Comparison Analysis of all of your competitors in the Top 10 spots of Google's SERPs. ? You need to look at the Top 10 listings in Google for a particular keyword. ? You need to do backlink checks for all ten URLs in Google's search listings, and you need to check those numbers across a variety of sources, including Google, Yahoo and any other tool you can find to do a check. (Google and Yahoo... more.. The Top 10 Dumbest Web Site Decisions The Top 10 Dumbest Web Site Decisions By Kalena Jordan (c) 2007 Having worked with web sites for the past eleven years, I've seen a LOT of errors, poor judgment and embarrassing gaffs on the web. Sometimes they are the fault of the client, the web designer, the IT Manager, or the SEO, but human error is always to blame. The saddest thing is that the problems are usually preventable. Here is a l? of what I consider to be the Top 10 dumbest web site decisions ever, in reverse order, David Letterman style : 10) Misspelling a Domain Back in the glory days of the late 1990's when I was working for a large Internet agency, the web designers had responsibility for the registration of domain names on behalf of clients. One particular designer had a face to face meeting with a major client, during which the client asked him to register CarTuneCentral.com (or so he thought!). The staffer did a check and was delighted to see the domain available. He made the purchase and proudly emailed the client. An hour later his boss called him in to his office to say that he'd had a call from a very frustrated client who *actually* wanted him to register CartoonCentral.com. Needless to say the desired domain wasn't available and the whole office dined on his mistake for months. 9) Letting the Domain Name Expire Now what type of company would allow their domain to expire a month after site launch? A very large one, that's who. I'll save the company some embarrassment and won't reveal their name but the site was offline... more.. Top 10 Tips for Using Web 2.0 to Promote Your Business Top 10 Tips for Using Web 2.0 to Promote Your Business By Kevin Stirtz (c) 2007 We hear a lot about "Web 2.0" these days. It sounds neat and it's trendy to talk about blogging and social media. But does it really affect our businesses? Is Web 2.0 just for kids and tech-hipsters or is it something we business owners should use to help promote our businesses? I can't tell you if Web 2.0 is right for your business, but I can tell you it's something to be aware of. Ignoring it means ignoring a possible tool that could be valuable in helping you get more customers. So, to help you get started in thinking about Web 2.0 for your business, here are some things for you to consider. 1. Have a plan Don't dive in just because it's cool or because you read an article about it. Be clear about what you're trying to accomplish, how much you're willing to invest and what time frame you are working on. Like any aspect of your business - plan ahead. 2. Make sure your target audience is online Web 2.0 tools are fun but useless if the people who see your stuff don't want what you off? Or if they don't look to the Web for information to help them buy what you sell, then your efforts will be less effective. Like any marketing channel, it only works if your prospective customers are there to see (or hear) your message and they are receptive to it. 3. Create good content Web 2.0 is the social web, but it's still... more.. Search Engine Keywords Selection Search Engine Keywords Selection By Rajkumar 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... more.. Understanding Business Cycles and How They Relate to SEO  Understanding Business Cycles and How They Relate to SEO A SPN Exclusive Article By Nick Stamoulis (c) 2011 As the song by The Byrds goes "To everything - turn, turn, turn/ There is a season - turn, turn, turn/And a time for every purpose under heaven." The same principle applies to Internet marketing - different aspects of Internet marketing campaigns run on different cycles. These business cycles have to be understood and accounted for when developing any SEO strategy, because they can directly affect the success of the campaign. While one company's business cycles may greatly differ from another, especially when comparing B2B companies with B2C businesses, the bottom line is that you have to be aware of your company's business cycles to more effectively measure SEO success. There are three main types of business cycles a company should keep track of: the sales cycle, the conversion cycle, and the SEO cycle. The sales cycle begins the moment a company gets a lead. It could be a phone call from a prospective customer or client, someone submitting an online form and so forth. Each business has to decide when they are dealing with a real lead that is worth pursuing. The sales cycle doesn't stop until that lead has either gone cold or been successfully closed. Some leads may remain active for months as potential clients hem and haw over making the final purchasing decision. Depending on the complexity of the products and services your company sells (medical testing equipment versus office supplies, for example), your business sales cycle could take a few days or even up... more.. Top 10 Google Search Features for Your Business Top 10 Google Search Features for Your Business By George Muha (c) 2010 The people at Google are truly inspired! They are evolving their search engine into something that can be an incredibly powerful tool for business. There are a zillion things that Google can do for different parts of your business and in this post, I will highlight the top 10 Google search tools that will help your supply chain. Since Google is just a click away, I think it's a very useful for everybody involved in the supply chain to be aware of how much easier it can make their lives. Everybody from traffic managers, to purchasing people, to accounting people and customer service will likely need to reference what Google can do during the course of the week. There are a lot of people who don't even know all of Google's capabilities. So without further ado, here is your: Top 10 Google Search Tools That Will Help Your Supply Chain 1. Package Tracking - You can track packages by typing the tracking number for your UPS, Fedex or USPS package directly into the search box. Some of the LTL and motor carriers also allow for you to plug in their pro numbers as well. Google will return results that include quick links to easily track the status of your shipment. Example of what to search for: "1Z9999W9999999999" 2. Time - This is huge when dealing with vendors or customers overseas or across the country. To see the time in many cities world wide, type in "time" and the name of the city. Example of what to search for: "time London" 3. Currency Conversion - This is cool! To... more.. Web Standards, Browsers and Designing For The Future Web Standards, Browsers and Designing For The Future By James Opiko (c) 2006 At present, a vast majority of webmasters are designing for IE (Internet Explorer) 6, which is not as W3C standards compliant as is FireFox, Netscape, Safari and Opera. In my article - "The importance of sound website design & search spiders to Internet Marketers," I mentioned the importance of a designer being cognizant of the fact that web browser standards are not yet fully harmonized - a web page that looks great in Internet Explorer (6) might look hideous in a Mozilla based browser like FireFox or Netscape. I also noted that with the explosion of devices with which to serve Internet applications, compliance with W3C standards has become critical. When the final release for IE 7 for Windows XP, Server 2003 & Vista is launched, hopefully before the end of 2006, the tables will be turned, so to speak. Internet Explorer 7 will be more standards compliant and your HTML code will be subject to much more rigorous interpretation than is the case with IE 6, consequently some web pages that look fine in IE 6 might not look the same IE 7. In IE 7 Microsoft has made a solemn effort to fix the browsers acquiescence to W3C standards and CSS(Cascading Style Sheets) compatibility. CSS interpretation as recommended by W3C has been improved tremendously giving designers and developers more leverage in functionality for cross-browser design. Microsoft asserts that they are taking W3C compatibility issues seriously. Concisely what this means is that IE 7 will tend to interpret your web page code more scrupulously than before. Therefore, if you have been designing your pages and have not... more.. 9 Tips for More Effective Facebook Marketing 9 Tips for More Effective Facebook Marketing By Brandon Cox (c) 2011 Facebook is NOT welcoming of the marketing efforts of its users; and often, family and friends on Facebook are ANNOYED by marketing efforts. Both of those statements are undeniable. So trying to "market on Facebook" requires good sense, strict moderation, and an understanding of how Facebook might work for marketing purposes. Personally, I rarely post any marketing messages on Facebook. I post them on Twitter frequently, but I also try to make sure that 75 - 90% of what I post on Twitter is either personal interaction, plugging good free content, or plugging other people's stuff. I do think, however, that monetizing my content on even free social media platforms is perfectly acceptable. Why? It's simple. Even though the platforms are provided to me for free, I'm also providing the content that allows the network to exist. If nob?posted on Twitter, they'd be broke. So again, in moderation, with good sense, and with a priority on relationships over sales, marketing across these platforms should be an acceptable thing. Now about the good sense part. Why is it That Social Platforms Are So Effective for Marketing? People are social, by nature, so they love recommending stuff they like. Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms have a rapidly expanding user base. Authenticity is demanded as people will give honest and public feedback. The platforms are accessible and easy to use by design, even by people with few technical skills. For the most part, marketing across social platforms is free, but doing it badly can cost dearly. Why Is Facebook So Important to Messaging and Marketing? With 500 million (and growing) unique... more.. Article Submission Trumps Ezine Ads and Google AdWords Article Submission Trumps Ezine Ads and Google AdWords By Anthony Harris (c) 2011 You may have heard advice from Internet marketing gurus that ezine ads are one of the best forms of advertising. You may also have heard that Google AdWords and other pay per click search engines are one of the best advertising methods. But when it comes to marketing your web site, article submission trumps ezine ads and Google AdWords anytime. The advantage of article submission is trust. Suppose you subscribe to an ezine in the form of an email newsletter. You've just sat down at your PC, coffee in hand, to read your email. There in your inbox is a copy of one of your favorite ezines, the one you read every time. Clicking on the newsletter, you see that this edition starts with a sponsor ad and then has a couple of great sounding articles and a couple more ezine ads. Sipping your coffee, one of the articles catches your attention. You read the article, and you were right. It's a great article. At the bottom of the article, there is a link to the author's web site and a short biography. You notice the author has a link to pick up a free report with more information about the article's topic. Then you notice that right below that there's a sponsor link in an ezine ad. The sponsor's link is for a different web site, but it also offers a free report about the same topic. Now you might click both links. But if you could only click one, which would you choose:... more.. Powerful Press Release Distribution Tips Powerful Press Release Distribution Tips By Diana Barnum While press release writing is important, press release distribution plays an equally important role in your return on ?estment (ROI) with this marketing / public relations tool. Because without targeted distribution, many prospects, clients and other interested parties may not even read your latest announcement or hear about it via other channels; TV, radio, print publications, etc. In order to bring your news to light with more of your targeted audience, try some of these tips for a more successful distribution: Media L? Management Start a folder on your computer and in hard copy form for media lists in order to keep a l? of contacts readily available and updated. Identify media outlets - both online and off - in your targeted industries; for example: Business and Marketing. Add local, regional, national and International channels to cover television, radio, newspapers, magazines, online publications, newswire and other services. A targeted media l? is an invaluable tool for most businesses. The best way to build your l? is to carefully watch, read and listen, then track media publications and shows, and to identify reporters and producers who would be interested in your story. Contact the media outlets as needed for their most recent contact name, email address, telephone and fax number, before sending your information. Tip: Using contact management software program such as ACT! or Maximizer for this purpose can help you build and maintain relationships with the media. Even using Excel to create your own spreadsheets helps with organization. There are several sources online that will help you build your media l?; however, keep... more.. Maximizing the Triangle of Relevancy With Google Maximizing the Triangle of Relevancy With Google By Sydney Nelson (c) 2007 The "Triangle of Relevancy" is used to describe the relationship between the text in a landing page, a sponsored advertisement and the keyword or phrase that's entered into a search engine. Google places a premium on relevancy as it endeavors to ensure visitors have a positive experience by getting search results relevant to their search terms. I will outline specific steps an advertiser can take to maximize their landing pages and sponsored advertisement's effectiveness in their search engine marketing endeavors. Relevancy with Landing Pages The product, if you will, of any search engine is the resulting landing pages. The page's relevance to the search terms determines whether the page will show up in a search and at what position. Google's algorithm scores each page and/or sponsored ad's relationship to the keywords or phrase and uses this information to assist in determining the order in which the landing pages and AdWords ads are placed. The algorithm also monitors the amount of time a visitor spends on a page and includes this in the score. Search engine optimization (SEO) techniques such as placing keywords in the page's title and throughout the body of the page can sometimes affect the position of a page in the search results. But of greater... more.. 10 Questions for New SEO Clients  10 Questions for New SEO Clients By Jill Whalen (c) 2011 Hello Jill, If you could only ask 10 general (non-industry-specific) questions of your new SEO customers, what would they be and why would their answers help you help them? Thank you, Andrew ++Jill's Response++ Hi Andrew, Great question! I have a variety of different questionnaires that I send to clients, depending on the type of 'SEO consulting' (http://www.highrankings.com/seo-services) that I'll be doing with them. For any SEO service, the more information I get from the client about their business and website, the better I can help them with their SEO. Here's a selection of some of the questions I ask and why they're important to the overall SEO process: 1. What Web Analytics Program Do You Use, and Can We Have Access to It? Web analytics are the key to measuring the current level of SEO success (or lack thereof). They're also the key to determining whether any future SEO implementation is helping to bring more targ?d traffic. Therefore, it's critical for me to have access to this information regardless of the level of SEO service I'm providing. If you use Google Analytics (GoAn), it's very simple to add new users to the account and in most cases it's fine to provide report-only access (rather than admin). Along with GoAn, I also ask for access to the client's Google Webmaster Tools (GWMT) account. These days, if you have GoAn access, you can usually add the same website to your GWMT account as well, which makes the process easier. 2. What's the Purpose of Your Site and who is Your Target Audience? This is a seemingly simple question, yet... more.. 20 Must-Have Search Engine Marketing Tools 20 Must-Have Search Engine Marketing Tools By Kalena Jordan (c) 2007 Anyone working in Search Engine Marketing knows that this industry travels at warp speed. If you're trying to market your web site or the web sites of your clients via search engines, chances are your time is limited - severely limited. To squeeze as much into my schedule as possible without resorting to self-cloning, my daily routine involves the use of a range of time-saving tools and software. I use such tools on a daily basis and I truly don't know how I'd function without them. I'm not the only one. I've talked to other SEM experts and they also rely on various tools to help them through their hectic schedules. Here is a l? of 20 must-have tools used by busy SEM professionals:   1. Freshbooks Invoicing and Timesheets Freshbooks is an online estimating, invoicing, project management and time tracking service that gives your business a professional image, no matter how small. I use it to invoice all my clients online and it can even be set up to automatically bill and debit the cred?cards of recurring clients every month. It also has built in staff timesheets and project management tools for online collaboration.   Price: Free for 3 clients or less   2. XML Sitemaps Generator The XML Sitemap Generator trawls through all levels of your site to generate an XML sitemap. It also gives you a running count of pages, provides a text-based URL l? and a HTML sitemap you can import straight into your site. The online version of the generator is free for sites of less than 500 pages, but there's also a low-cost script-based... more.. Twitter Under Assault Twitter Under Assault By John Sylvester (c) 2009 A new micro-blogging website, Yahoo Meme, similar in style and functionality to Twitter, was soft-launched in Portuguese in May. They have now launched a Spanish version. But what is unusual is that the word "meme" was first introduced by controversial British ethologist and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene to discuss "elements of cultural ideas, symbols or practices that are transmitted from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena..." That doesn't sound a bit like Yahoo. Just as in the 19th century, when Thomas Huxley was known as "Darwin's bulldog" for his tenacious defence of Darwinism, Richard Dawkins has played a similar, modern-day role when talking about evolutionary principles and explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. Analogous with the above, you may have noticed that Yahoo's Meme closely follows the etymology of the Greek word "mimema" for "something imitated" and that instead of a sweet little bird tweeting, it has a dog - admittedly not quite the image of Huxley the bulldog, but a dog nevertheless - barking "wow" in Spanish. A dog? Don't you think it would have been more appropriate to have used a cat that could have ruffled Twitter's feathers a little, like Yahoo Sucatash? According to Wiki, examples of memes are tunes, ideas and catch-phrases. But now, microblogging? Yes, Yahoo has introduced its own version in Spanish and Portuguese offering similar features to Twitter. At first glance it seems like another clone where users can populate with text posts, music, videos, photos and links to MP3 files, and with a repost rather than retweet button, but is it really an exact clone? According to readwriteweb.com,... more.. Yahoo Panama - Pros and Cons Yahoo Panama - Pros and Cons By Scott Van Achte (c) 2007 Near the end of 2006 Yahoo officially unveiled the new back end for Yahoo Marketing Solutions, widely referred to as the 'Panama' Update. Since then they have been slowly allowing the upgrading of accounts from the old into the new system