Pinging can make true wonders when running a blog. However, when blogging for money or hobby, most of the bloggers don't know that they are playing with fire and can be called ping spammers.
Every time you click 'Save and Continue Editing' button, or edit the previously published post and click 'Save' - you are sending a ping. And now imagine that when working with a new post you click'Save and Continue Editing' 10-15 times; this is not much when you are working with a long post, do many changes in fonts and colors, etc. But for the ping services it means you pinged them 10-15 times. An attempt for ping spam? Who knows: each of the ping services can have its own inner policies about what ping exactly to start thinking that your blog is a ping spammer. But this is definitely the game not a single blogger would like to play.
Because it can result in a ping service to simply block your blog and stop taking the new post feeds from it. We can talk a lot about if this is fair or not, but ping services are definitely not interested to re-digest one and the same content (or almost the same content) all the time!
NB: This ping spam issue is peculiar to WordPress blogs, however other blog platforms seem to have most of the problems with ping spam unsolved as well.
How to Check If My Blog Crossed the Line?
Ping services don't say when exactly they are sure you are ping spammer, but these 2 signs can be very useful for you.
#1. Check the online accounts of your blog in ping services.
Some ping services, like Technorati, have a very useful feature of running "account" for each of the blogs on their server. When you know the URL to this account, you can check the account of your blog and see how quickly the ping service is gulping your new posts from this blog.
For example, if previously this service has been catching the fresh posts from your blog every 24 hours and was publishing their digest on the server, and now got stuck for 3-4 days - this is a possible sign of the blog getting ping spam penalty. It's crucial to note that thisis a POSSIBLE sign, because there are some factors that can also explain this sudden "gap in love" from a ping service.
#2. Check your ping list service messages.
If you are reading your ping messages (that say "pined successfully" or other tech messages), this information is another proof factor for you. The strategy is the same: if after no problems for a long time with a ping service all of a sudden you start getting messages that say that you have not been pinged successfully and no other traits of the problem (like a message saying that you have incompatible format of the ping signal or anything else) - this is another
possible sign of the ping spam penalty.
Thursday, 21 August 2008
Web analytics is a quantitative indicator of behavior of visitors to a website. Simply explained, web analytics involves identification of visitor, analyzing the reason of visit and tracking his/her movement within your website until the time he/she leaves the website. In essence therefore, web analytics provides a clear picture of the performance of a website so that the website owner can devise strategies to maximize acceptability of the website.
Web analytics mainly comes in two flavors in terms of collection of visitors' data. The first concerns collecting data from server logfile, and the second by tagging each webpage with javascript. A third web analytics method is a combination of the two whereby more relevant data can be produced than what is possible with either of the two methods.
In this article, we will briefly define some popular web analytics terms, moving on to comparing the two methods before outlining why studying web analytics is beneficial.
Key Web Analytics Terms
'Hit' denotes a request for a file from server and is recorded only in logfile. 'Page View' means different for the two web analytics methods. While tagging script considers the whole page as one request, the logfile on the other hand will record multiple hits (one for each file, including images, .js and .css) within a single page-view.
A visitor is one who requests for a file to be shown. Once again, while server log will record several files for each visit, the page-tagging script will only consider the page as a whole seen by the visitor. In either case, the web analytics data will clearly identify if the visitor is new (new or unique visitor) or has come before (repeat visitor).
Other Information
Both web analytics methods will be able to gather several other important information, notable among which are as under.
1. The length of time a visitor spends in seeing a website.
2. The keyword phrase used to arrive at the website.
3. The unique IP address and therefore the country from where the visits generated.
4. The arrival and exit pages.
Logfile vs Page Tagging
Data transfer to and from web server is always recorded in server's logfile with clockwork precision. Since early days, realization dawned that it is possible for a suitable program to extract logfile data and arrange them in a meaningful display. That is how web analytics came into being. Today most servers come equipped with web analytics programs such as Webalizer, Awstats, etc. which analyze raw logfile data and portray valuable visitor information in easy-to-follow graphics.
14 November Google released a new service with the name Google Analytics. Google Analytics is basically a rebranded version of Urchin, a web analytics service that Google purchased a few months ago.
Web Tracking Analytics Services
Like other web analytics services Opentracker.net,shinystat, or truehits.net, Google Analytics is a service that tells you where visitors to your site are coming from, what links on the site are getting the most traffic, what pages visitors are viewing, how long people stay on the site, which products on merchant sites are being sold and where people give up in multistep checkout processes. The difference between these tools or website analyzers is that Google tracking is not done in real-time, they use a system what's similar to log analyzers. That mean it will not measure human behavior or what's done by the visitor.
Google Analytics vs Other Website Tracking Services
Another difference between Google Analytics and other web tracking services is that Google Analytics is free and unreliable. Google Analytics doesn't work with Safari and Mac OS X. In order to view a Google Analytics report on Mac OS X, you have to be using a Mozilla based brower, IE. or Firefox. But for sharing your data with the company, Google doesn't require you to pay directly for their web analytics service.
But unfortunaly if you want to open an account with Google Analytics you will get this answer:
New account signups are temporarily suspended. If you want to be notified when signups re-open, please enter your e-mail address on our signup page. Thank you!
Should you use Google Analytics or should you pay for a better service?
Google already knows a lot of things about you. If you also use their new tracking service or log analyzer system, you will tell Google how much you earn, when you earn it, which products you sell, how often you sell them, how much you spend for ads on other sites and you will reveal much more information about your personal online business and company details.
Ask yourself if you want Google to know that much about you and your company. Do you really want to share your revenue information with Google that also wants your advertising money? Do you want to share your revenue information with any other company at all?
Google officials have declined that they will use the data to better understand how much you are willing to pay for ads, based on conversions. They also claim that they do not plan to tap into the data as a means of improving regular search results or to identify bad sites. Nevertheless, these things are easily possible if you use Google Analytics also your ranking would be in danger. Google engineer Matt Cutts even writes in his blog: "Blackhat SEO companies may be leery of using Google for analytics, but regular site owners should be reassured. That sounds as if Google might actually use the information for other purposes.
Article marketing is known as a very effective method of advertising and generating free organic traffic, so let`s dig deeper and have a look at some lesser known ways on how article writing can improve your affiliate home based online business.
Article directories are usually where we start off submitting articles and for many their article submission process stops there. Whilst this is a proven and highly effective method to build back links to your affiliate home based online business website as well as generate free traffic there are other ways to spread your articles far and wide over the internet.
Before we look at these lesser known article submission methods, do be sure, prior to submitting your articles, to include the resource box at the end of your article as this will not only provide another valuable back link to your site but is also a form of free advertising for your affiliate home based online business. It is also a good idea to put your publishing guidelines in your resource box as well i.e. “You are welcome to publish my article provided you include the resource box with links intact.”
Start off by doing a search for the terms ezines and article publishing websites as you will be sure to find many links on these sites to submit your articles. It is worth looking at the ezine directories as some do accept article submissions. Going off topic a little here, but if you do have an email ezine or email newsletter be sure to submit it to the ezine directories for added exposure.
You could create a free e-book with all your own articles and offer it on your website as a freebie, or give it away to your newsletter signups. You can get more free advertising by adding your own affiliate home based online business advert to the e-book as well.
An article directory added to your own website will encourage visitors who are looking for free content for their own websites. You could also earn extra online income by becoming a freelance writer by submitting your articles to print publications that pay for submissions.
Create a free report on internet marketing or affiliate home based online businesses, include a few of your related articles and give it away as a bonus to those who purchase a product or service from you?
Ever considered publishing a book containing all the articles you have written and selling the book from your website? By offering other webmasters the opportunity to get an instant article directory by linking to yours with give you massive exposure and also increase the traffic to your website.
Don`t miss out on the opportunity to submit your articles to related online communities, such as newsgroups, forums and email discussion lists as this will attract a huge amount of free advertising to your affiliate home based online business.
The science of analyzing your website and marketing campaigns to see what performs best and what methods simply benefits you the most is website analytics
I am going to make this simple without any geeky tech stuff. Getting rid of the technical jargon, website analytics simply is the study of the impact that a website has on its users. This could be for example which products generates the most cash on your website and how many new subscribers your new opt-in page is pulling compared to your old opt-in page.
Web analytics can be done both manually, the old way, or by using different software. Many prefer a mix of those two methods.
How you can analyze your websites?
Understanding visitor behavior is crucial if you want to succeed in internet marketing. By closely watching and monitoring the number of visitors and from where they came, understanding how they navigate throughout your website and what keywords they have searched for in the search engines that brought them to your website are examples of analyzing tasks that you should be doing. Is your website content rich enough to hold visitor attention?
Analyzing the effectiveness of advertising methods is another important task. Website analytics will enable you to find out how your website shows up in the organic as well as the paid searches. Which of your AdWords ads are being clicked on the most and which affiliate programs are generating you the most profit?
Evaluating your sales is another must do. Let’s face it! Your ultimate objective and first priority is to get sales and you want to generate as many sales as you can and bring in the highest amount of profits possible. To do this you need to know your customers behavior and which sections of your website is pulling in sales like a magnate on steroids and which part is not. Optimize the wrong parts and you are doomed!
Outsource someone to do the website analytics
If you feel you don’t have the knowledge or don’t have the time to do the analyzing properly you can outsource someone to do it for you. But beware, you have to choose carefully! Identifying an appropriate analytics company or consultant is critical. Review their testimonials and ask for telephone numbers from past clients who have used them before and also check their references thoroughly. Be sure that you choose a qualified vendor who can offer a deal tailored to your specific business needs.
Know where you are heading. Have clearly defined goals for your website and know where you are going.
With quality SEO blogging software is a key to success you can fully focus on just growing your blog with quality content. These free blogging tips will help to choose the best SEO blogging software.
Blog itself is a very effective invention that helps to reach real success with blogging for money, profit or hobby. However, a nice SEO blogging software can make real wonders with the positions of your blog in search engines, traffic to the blog and profits. With the pinging pumping up your blog like crazy and wise automation of SEO jobs done by a quality SEO blogging software you can fully focus about how to publish as much quality content on your blog as possible.
That is why the question of "How do I start blogging?" should go together with another question "How can I choose the best SEO blogging software for my blog?"
The answer is very simple - you should choose the blogging platform which already has quality SEO blogging software integrated.
So, what should SEO blogging software have?
1. Meta data.
The proper choice of keywords can bring you huge traffic. That is why every post should have proper keywords in all legal spots on the blog. In meta title, meta description and meta keywords.
Yes, meta data is not a top priority for Google any longer, but these meta keywords will later on (after being pinged by the ping services) will turn into tags - and tag power is really great. Ping services create separate pages for each of the tags, these pages quite quickly are indexed by search engines and receive nice Google PR with time, and your post will be published on this page as an example of posts for this tag.
2. SEO sexy URLs.
SEO sexy URLs means that you have the necessary keywords in the URL of your posts. Quality blog solutions (that already have the guts of SEO blogging software integrated inside) will give you a change to automatically add the title of your post into the URL of this post. As you are using the keywords in the title, they will get to the URL as well.
And though keywords in URLs are not the priority for Google's algo, wasting such a chance is a big mistake.
3. Do Follow vs No Follow.
If your blog is successful - people will start posting comments to it, and some comments will have URLs in the comments. Quality SEO blogging software will have an option to decide whether you are going to leak your linking power to every comment (and put Do Follow tag) or not to share the SEO value of outgoing links in the posts and have No Follow in all URLs in the comments.
You may have noticed a new error message upon Windows start-up since December 31, 2006. The error dialog looks like this:
" Windows Defender
Application failed to initialize: 0x800106ba. A problem caused Windows Defender
Service to stop. To start the service, restart your computer or search Help and Support on how to start a service manually. "
In addition, you will see the following in your System Event Log:
" Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7023
Description:
The Windows Defender Service service terminated with the following error:
The system license has expired. Your logon request is denied. "
The issue is that Windows Defender Beta support ended on December 31, 2006. Now, I would have expected this software license expire error to let you know a bit more gracefully.
The good news is that if your are running Windows XP, there is a easy fix. Simply go to Microsoft and look for the "Download Windows Defender" link near the bottom of the home page. Follow the download and install instructions, and you will be up to date, protected and will have fixed the start-up error in just minutes.
Now for the bad news...
If you are running Windows 2000, Microsoft has decided to no longer support the Windows Defender product for the Windows 2000 platform. You can fix the start-up error by uninstalling Windows Defender from the Add/Remove Programs in your Control Panel. Unfortunately, this will leave you unprotected from Spyware and Malware. Since Microsoft is no longer providing a Spyware protection product for Windows 2000, you will need to purchase a third party product in order to be protected in the future.
It's been talked about that Google is secretly planning to eventually launch its own phone service at some point in the future. If so, Google will eventually become an Internet Service Provider (ISP) — enabling them to effectively enter the telecom industry, add a boat load of services to their growing empire, and eliminate the threats against Net Neutrality which they so strongly oppose.
Sources suggest that Google may first introduce its telephone service to users in the United Kingdom, but the actual date when the service will launch and the exact details of the plan are as of yet unknown. The service will be a free, ad supported VoIP service — (technology that that makes it possible to have a telephone conversation over the internet).
Google has released numerous services focusing closely on the telecom and communications industry some of which include a Free 411 Phone Service called GOOG-411, Google Talk which can be used via both a PC and smartphone (BlackBerry.), Google Mobile which brings additional Google services, videos, and software to cell phones, Google SMS - a text message service.
More recently, Google has announced its acquisition of GrandCentral Communications, a company that provides services for managing voice communications. GrandCentral is an innovative service that lets users integrate all of their existing phone numbers and voice mailboxes into one account, which can be accessed from the web. GrandCentral's technology fits well into Google's efforts to provide services that enhance the collaborative exchange of information. The service also assigns unique phone numbers and voicemail services.
Additionally, there has also been a lot of heated discussions over a Google-branded phone called the GPhone, which could be compared to the recent craze over the release of Apple's hugely successful IPhone. As far back as August it was reported that Google Inc. had developed a prototype cell phone that could reach markets within a year, and plans to offer consumers free subscriptions by bundling advertisements with its search engine, e-mail and Web browser software applications.
According to a story published in The Wall Street Journal "Industry watchers have long heard rumors that Google was designing its own mobile phone." Google added fuel to that speculation in July when it announced it was willing to spend $4.6 billion to buy wireless spectrum in a U.S. Federal Communications Commission auction and they have also bought the rights to 270,000 square feet of space at 111 8th avenue in Manhattan, a key New York interconnection facility.
According to LightReading, a source for technology and financial analysis of the communications industry, "Google is building a network so massive that several service provider specialists believe it could end up with one of the world's largest core transport networks, effectively building its own private Internet", reports Light Reading. " Google is in the process of acquiring space in carrier hotels, purchasing dark fiber, and issuing RFPs for network equipment."
With around 60% share of the Internet search market, Google clearly has the critical mass of users and brand strength to make a play in telecom markets around the world. And with a market cap like Google has, the investment or acquisition capital it needs is hardly a problem.
Microsoft has many computer certifications that appeal to a wide range of expert computer repair technicians to operating system geniuses. They also have certifications in administration and engineering. Microsoft Certified Professionals are a standard above in the field of information technology. Microsoft certification is widely accepted and recognized by the service and support industry. Microsoft curriculum has the practical knowledge that only an advanced developed company can provide.
MCDST is one of the most sought after Microsoft certifications on the market today. Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician is a title that has much recognition for employers who want a highly qualified technician to work as a help desk specialist and give desktop support by phone and by servicing the individual station. Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) on Microsoft Windows XP is a certification that validates the fundamental and higher skills needed to enter the IT industry as a support desk professional. Because of the recognition that Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) receives many online and classroom IT schools are offering some free tutoring. You will find free information technology Microsoft computer training on the web almost as much as you will find pay certification training. There is a long list of online schools that offer free study guides, some free online tutoring and free practice exam questions in order to prepare you for your certification.
MCDST certification demonstrates valuable troubleshooting expertise with the Windows Desktop Operating System to employers and consumers. It provides a structure for learning the skills that support technicians need. As a desktop support technician, you will use excellent customer service skills, educate users, and solve hardware or software operation and application problems on the desktop. You will learn valuable skills and best practices consistent with networking and file sharing to maintaining DHCP communications devices and Domain name system for Internet system to translate names into IP addresses. Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician certification validates the fundamental skills needed to enter the IT industry as a support professional. It communicates the technical skills of the individual to clients and employers and distinguishes career candidates from their peers. MCDST certification enhances job satisfaction through increased technical proficiency as you increase your knowledge and skills.
MCDST certification helps advance support technician careers by providing a structured framework for learning skills, and provides a knowledge basis for additional Microsoft certifications, such as the MCSA and the MCSE. Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician Certification Requirements on Microsoft Windows XP are to pass two core exams that provide a valid and dependable measure of technical proficiency. These exams are developed with the input of professionals in the industry and reflect how Microsoft products are used in organizations throughout the world.
The two core exams are: Exam 70-271:
Supporting Users and Troubleshooting a Microsoft WindowsXP Operating System consisting of about 60 questions and Exam 70-272:
If your the type of person who loves to skim through tidbits of news or read about short and up-to-date announcements online, then chances are you have run into RSS. RSS or Really Short Syndication is a very potent marketing strategy used by webmasters and online marketers for better online exposure of their articles and to improve search engineplacement for their websites. RSS makes news and information accessible wherever RSS can be applied or RSS readers can be used. Several blog providers like Blogger, Wordpress and Live journal offer RSS for their members content. More and more users, who are catching on the blogging craze, are putting importance on the relatively fast and reliable RSS.
Users often keep their blogs as an online organizer. RSS come in as a handy tool in keeping all the information from different websites all under one little corner of your blog or webpage. RSS is really a convenient option for those who tend to visit a lot of websites, and who wish to be updated about certain site activities or articles. Online users also use RSS to check out the latest news or sports update. RSS is a great tool to improve search engine ranking as well as to organize data from different sources.
RSS displays a short summary of your articles, around two or three lines of text, which the RSS readers will then display over websites, or through applications. Your articles can now be seen on different parts of the globe through different RSS portals or websites that display categorically related RSS content.
There are many directories and websites that accept and promote RSS data. If your in the market to promote your articles, then submitting your content to RSS directories and websites can help bring you very good exposure. Several websites run updated copies of your RSS data over their main page at certain intervals to help promote your website to those who would otherwise have problems seeing your updated content. People download RSS information for news, stock and trading updates, article submissions and marketing and to improve search engine ranking, among others.
With the right articles or marketing copies, webmasters and web marketers say that RSS do help a lot in passing their message across to their clients and other online visitors. Promoting the RSS data over targeted channels can greatly boost your websites exposure online. Choosing categorically related websites and marketing RSS information on them can have huge benefits on your online business. The whole concept of the RSS is to make information readily accessible to end users, as well as help promote content online. In both areas, I believe RSS has greatly excelled to become one of the top web marketing tools.
So if your planning to promote your content online, better avail of RSS. It can greatly simplify your work. Plus a lot of websites offer free RSS promotion service. With RSS, your sure to be able to get wider reach for your targeted online users. But one thing you should put in mind when doing RSS is that too much RSS data coming from other sites can cause your website to get penalized due to duplicate content. The lines are still scratchy on how duplicate content is checked even though a person is using RSS, but the basic idea of having 30-50% of your content originating from RSS information from other related websites can get you into trouble with the search engines, and not to mention those websites where your data or content is coming from.
Welcome to part 2 of the article that aims to give you just enough information to help you understand RSS and start using it. Part 1 gave you simple instructions on how to read and subscribe to an RSS site feed, part 2 will give you simple instructions on how to publish your own.
Firstly, which websites can benefit from a site feed? Well, pretty much all of them. If you provide a service, you could use a site feed to announce amendments and upgrades. If you sell stuff, you could use a site feed to announce new products and special offers. And if you own a website or web log that is regularly updated with news of any description, a site feed is virtually a necessity.
Site feeds may not be exactly commonplace at present but don’t doubt for a moment that their popularity is growing. If you get a site feed up and running now, you’ll be ahead of the game for some time to come and offer a friendly alternative to email communication.
Site feeds are usually written in a code called XML. If you view the code for a site feed it will look a little like HTML.You could:
-- Learn the language and write your own site feed. Each time you want to add an update, just update your site feed page.
-- Buy some fancy software that writes and updates the site feed for you.
-- Or… setup a site feed online that automatically updates, for free in about 20 minutes.
Third option sound good? Ok, start by setting up your own blog at Blogger. This is free to do and, if you want, they will even host it for you in exchange for a couple of banners at the top of the blog. The great thing about Blogger is that it works in tandem with the Google Toolbar.
Found a website you want to note in your blog? Click the icon in your Google Toolbar and it’s taken care of.
Everytime you add or change something on your website, record it in your blog so individuals and search engines viewing your blog can be made aware of it.
The other great thing about Blogger is that it automatically creates and updates a site feed for you. Everytime you post a message to your blog, this is added to your site feed as well.
You can get the address of your site feed from the Blogger control panel by visiting the section marked "Settings" and selecting "Site Feed".
Have you ever read an article, intended to explain RSS in simple terms that, begins well, but soon descends into confusing jargon or information overload? If so, take heart, I was in the same place a few months ago.
Often the best way to understand something, is to use it. RSS is no exception.
So rather than try and create a definitive explanation of RSS, this article will tell you how to use it. I guarantee once you’ve done so, everything will that much clearer.
If a website you visit utilizes RSS, there are a number of ways it will communicate this.
The most common way is to show a little orange button with the letters XML.
Alternatively, you may see words such as "ATOM", "RSS", "Site Feed" or variations on these.
What they have in common is that they will link to a webpage that, in most browsers, looks like gibberish.
It doesn’t matter one way or another, what is important is the address of the web page they link to.
To demonstrate, I will relate how to read a site feed for my website, The Nettle Blog. Don’t confuse RSS with blogs (web logs). They are two separate concepts. The only reason you see them together so often, is that blogs are the perfect website to take advantage of site feeds. More on that later. Here we go…
Click on this link to go the site feed for The Nettle Blog. Ignore the content in the window, just make a note of the URL in the web address bar. It should read: Feeds: Feedburner
Now you’ve got the web address for the site feed, keep it safe somewhere. You’ll need it again in a moment.
The next step is to use an RSS reader to make sense of the site feed. There are lots of these available and if you are a heavy user you would probably want to purchase a nice piece of software.
But to begin with, start with something simple and free. Start with Bloglines.
Go to Blogliness - Register and create a new account.
From the "My Feeds" section of your account you can add new site feeds you want to keep track of.
Select "ADD", enter the URL you copied and hit "Subscribe". You can preview the results, but skip that stage for now. Select "Subscribe" again and the title of the site feed will be transferred to the left-hand window.
Well done. You have now subscribed to your first RSS feed.
Blog security is a serious question. That is why today many bloggers join the online discussion about better way to make a blog more hacker proof.
As blogs have become a serious power not just for blogging for cash or hobby, but also for Internet marketing in general - the attention of hack minded people to the blogs has naturally increased as well. They are sniffing around to find any possible door inside the blog platform to access the admin area. Some can do that as game, others as business - but this is still a big pain for every average WordPress blog or Blogger or any other blog platform owners. They do their best to send you patches to fix the security issue, but sometimes hackers can just have a better luck.
In the most recent times, the idea of limiting access to the blog is circling the minds of bloggers. It is really better and easier just to give special or secure blog access to a number of highly trusted people (your blog admins or trusted blog authors). The attempts to access the blog admin area from any other IPs would be blocked.
This means the readers and visitors of your blog will not have any problems with reading blog materials. And you enjoy maximum security - because even if a hacker gets through a hole, the access for admin area to him will be cut off by default.
Quality linking practices are encouraged by the major search engines as an acceptable way of improving site popularity, website traffic and help contribute to higher search engine rankings. As a webmaster you must be wary of engaging in poor linking practices that have the potential to strip your website of its ranking status on the major search engines Google, Yahoo and MSN.
In this two part Article Series we will firstly discuss those linking practices that will find your website penalized by the major search engines, with the most current controversy over 'paid links'. Google has recently penalized several sites with ranking drops for violating its quality webmaster guidelines by selling paid links. This penalty can also be applied to those sites displaying 'paid links' that are considered spam or of low quality by the search engines and provide users with a poor browsing experience.
Not all paid linking will be penalized, the current focus tends to be on those links that are primarily being used to manipulate search engine rankings. Purchasing paid links may also affect your rankings if the originating site selling the links is considered to be a 'bad neighborhood' site by the major search engines, your site's rankings can be affected by association. As a general rule, avoid companies selling links who are promoting paid links that are 'hard to detect by a search engine' and with the recent increase in the reporting of paid links to Google, their ranking algorithms are being adjusted to detect such paid links.
The advice from Google on paid links is that it's okay to promote paid links that are aimed at increasing website traffic but are not being used to manipulate search engine rankings. If you are using paid links:-
- Add a 'no follow attribute' to the linking info, for more information on how to do this see Google Webmaster Tools.
- You can also redirect the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from the search engines with robots.txt file.
- Clearly define paid advertising links on your site to the search engines ie. with a 'sponsored link' title heading.
Another linking practice that is discouraged by the major search engines is using Link Farms to artificially increase a site's link popularity. Link farms are usually classified as a website or web page that displays a series of links to other unrelated sites and displays no content of real value or interest to site visitors. These types of links pages are usually created by automated software programs and services. To avoid being caught linking to a 'link farm' vigorously check all link exchange requests and the reciprocal URL location of your link on their site. Link farms will be obvious in nature as no actual web content will be present for site visitors except links and often the link exchange will be represented as a '3 way link' exchange.
3 Way Linking' has been an emerging trend over the past 12 months and is designed to quickly boost the search engine rankings and online presence of the requesting link partners site by anonymously building link pages that have no direct link to them so that they can't be penalized by the search engines for deceptive SEO practices. 3 Way Links are of little or no benefit to your site or your linking campaign as typically the third party site that your link is located on has no content relevance to your own site or worse still it is just a 'link farm'. Once again your site's search engine rankings can be penalized by association.
Numerous programs on the internet offer you the opportunity to earn an income online by recruiting others into the business and by offering your help as a sponsor to the new recruits will certainly help you create a profitable internet home business.
I am sure it is just not me that has signed up for affiliate programs and never heard a word or received an email from my sponsor. This is surely one way of not only leaving money on the table but also leaving new recruits feeling all alone and unwelcome and must certainly contribute to the high number of people who never earn an income online or build a profitable internet home business.
Your time need be the only thing required to help others by explaining to them what you do to earn an income online as all communication can be done by email. You could set up a series of training emails in your auto-responder, detailing exactly the steps you have taken to get where you are, or have a section on your profitable internet home business website dedicated to helping your new recruits.
Although lot of the programs do reveal who your sponsor is and ways of contacting them, others don’t and so it is a good idea to always send a welcome email to a new recruit letting them know you are their sponsor and that they are welcome to contact you with any queries or questions.
Confidence may be lacking with new sponsors who may feel they do not know enough about the business to help a new recruit and therefore rather ignore them and omit to send a welcome email at all. One of the best ways to learn and gain confidence is by teaching others and this in a way will actually accelerate your own profitable internet home business and online income.
Lots of new recruits will not even respond to your welcome email and choose to go it alone, but at least you have made the effort to contact them and offer your assistance if they need it.
There will be others who will be thrilled and reassured to hear from you and take you up on your offer of assistance and be more than willing to implement the internet marketing strategies that are working for you and start earning their own income online. It is through these people that your online income will increase.
A few people, although thankful for all your help, unfortunately fail to get into action and actually do the work required, and you will be the first person they contact to complain bitterly that they are not earning an income online, what a useless sponsor you are and that the whole internet home business is a scam! The few people who react like this should not even worry you if you have done your best in trying to help them.
Being the best sponsor you will pay off handsomely, because you will benefit from helping those that run with your suggestions and start earning an income online with their own profitable internet home business.
Monday, 4 August 2008
What does this have to do with Google?, you will ask! Well, let’s take a look at the similarities:
A. Both Google and The Eiffel tower are money generators.
The Eiffel Tower was rejected or criticized by many, yet it showed its value in annual revenue and in the fact that it turned Paris into one of the most famous and most visited cities in the world.
Google is criticized as well for many reasons: Some people feel Google has too much power, the bots can know too much. Some completely reject it, but those who don’t harvest the benefits at the end of the day.
B. It’s not easy to “get in.”
At the bottom of The Eiffel Tower the crowd is waiting to get in for a chance to reach to the top and enjoy the view. That’s their goal. That’s what they all want to do. Thousands of people each day stay in line four hours and hours, ready to pay the price to get in. It may be hot, it may be cold and windy, raining or even snowing (but snow has been known to shut down the tower) but there they are, day after day, week after week, standing in line, taking pictures of each other, moving ahead in the long line of people ahead of them who want to get to the top.
At the bottom of Google… the crowd is waiting for the same thing: to get in. For some Webmasters, the waiting takes long weeks, others find faster ways. But the waiting is there, the crowd is there: for example there is a blog born every half second, and over 170000 new blogs every day. Can you imagine the statistics for websites? And all these new sites have the same goal: to rank in Google.
C. It’s a long way to the top.
The Eiffel Tower: eventually you get in and once you are there, you have choices. You either join the masses and take a lift to the top, or you take the stairs and enjoy the experience longer, with the satisfaction that you truly made it to the top on your own. Sometimes the ones who take this route just can’t make it, and, frustrated, sweaty and panting, they turn around and start their descent.
Google: there is a fast way to the top (let’s call it black hat SEO), and then there is the long, assiduous way that will takes all your power, skill and will — but it is the most rewarding because you learn a lot in the process. You have time to enjoy “the view” (looking at the other websites from the top, learning from them, envying them…), you have time to rest every once in a while, just to start your ascension with even more power later…
D. Shops, Restaurants… Businesses Flourish at the Top
The Eiffel Tower is home for some restaurants and snack bars and some souvenir shops. Can you imagine how much money the owners make? And also… how much do they have to pay for that location, location, location? The only drawback is that not everyone can get a commercial space there. Many are called, but a few are chosen.
These days, many companies expect you to send an electronic resume and cover letter instead of mailing them. It's faster and easier for both the employer and the employee. While this is done for several reasons, the main reason is that the number of resumes, especially for virtual positions, is usually very high. In order to cut down on the time it takes to process each applicant's resume, companies have resorted to using online resume databases or instructing applicants to email resumes to one person in the office in order to save time and find the right person for the position as quickly as possible.
Creating a Virtual Resume
Creating a virtual resume is similar to creating a traditional resume. While you should include all the basic sections in an electronic resume, you may need to format it differently so the document isn't a jumbled mess when the hiring manager receives it. When creating your resume, you should create four different versions of it - a standard print version, an e-mail version, a scan-friendly version, and a plain text version. By creating different formats all at once, you will save yourself a lot of time when applying for virtual positions.
The standard print version can be used when companies specifically ask you to send one to their offices, or when you are turning in an application in person. An e-mail resume is a simple version that does not include bold or italicized headings. It is more straight-forward with simple headings that indicate a new section. If sending an email resume, always check it first before sending it. If copying it from a word processing program like MS Word, you may need to alter it to fit the email program you're using. Changing the font size, style, and making sentences shorter are common ways to make an email resume more appealing.
A scan-friendly version of your resume is also less complex than a standard print version. You should remove bold or italicized headings because those can appear blurry or faint to the reader. Plain text versions should be composed in MS Word or other word processing program so you can check for grammar and spelling errors. You can easily cut and paste your finished resume into MS notepad or other plain text program. You can use this version when uploading your resume into a company database.
Sending Your Virtual Resume
Always follow the company's instructions when it comes to sending a resume. If the company wants you to send the resume in an email instead of an attachment to the email, make sure you do so. As a potential virtual employee, you need to show employers that you can follow directions.
Always include a cover letter in your email. This should be your standard cover letter. It is considered unprofessional not to send a cover letter.
A computer system, being an electronic device can be uniquely identified when hosted in a network by utilizing the exclusive facility of IP addresses. This IP address can very well be classified as IPv4 and IPv6, where the latter provides greater assistance or advanced support for the diverse purposes met by a computer system. The IP addresses will have a form of a group of bits and period (.) which separates these bits. This separation is done to meet very specific requirements.
Searching of IP address could be done through Ip Tools for the identification of real time information of IP address. A database is globally maintained and this database contains all the IP addresses assigned to each and every system. The global management of IP addresses is too vigilant in updating the database every now and then. Searching the IP address could be done by examining this database. Effective measures had been taken to get the country wise Internet Service Providers and even the cavernous end details like city, country, country range, latitude, longitude etc could be obtained. This is facilitated by IP to location.
The domain naming system assigns a name to each and every IP addresses so as to make the users feel friendly in understanding it. Domain name could be found from IP address and at the same time, IP address could be found from the domain name in any network. IP Finder is employed to find the IP addresses of each and every computer connected through a logical network.
Collection of information in relation to an IP address has attained great importance. To meet this requirement, IP lookup facility can be employed. Functioning of this entity find its platform on TCP/IP protocols and through domain naming services. The DNS system gives IP addresses, when domain name is given.
The IP lookup facility helps in tracking the IP address of systems that visits the websites. When employed as a marketing strategy or technique, this tool proved to be extremely worthy for the marketers or business firms in receiving a feedback, by calculating the reach of their websites. Certain application demands extremely secure identity verification where they can't allow a second person to interfere. Free IP lookup facilities are provided by numerous website hosting companies.
Certain other application requires the IP address to be hidden from the network. Subnet mask is a method to achieve this. Security can be enhanced by employing subnet masking methods. Make the computer free from network problems, avoid the misuse of websites etc are examples of some useful needs of subnet masking.
Monday, 30 June 2008
101 Methods To "PR" your website
1. Submit articles to article directories.
2. Conduct link exchange activity with other blogs and websites.
3. Run a teleseminar.
4. Be a contributor on Yahoo/MSN Answers
5. Create a blog and join MyBlogLog.com
6. Create a MySpace.com account and make friends with your target market.
7. Create a viral report with links coming back to your website.
8. Generate a software product that you distribute free but advertise your website in it.
9. Build an article directory for a hot niche market
10. Produce a useful web-based software for public use
11. Ask thought-provoking questions
12. Build viral videos and upload them to Youtube.com
13. Buy links from Text-link-ads.com
14. Submit classified ads to USFreeAds.com
15. Publish content based on the latest news or unique items to tap on long tail traffic
16. Optimize your webpages for meta tags, title tags and H1 tags
17. Run online contests with kick-ass prizes
18. Run article exchange campaigns with HTML links in them
19. Generate your own social networking site
20. Join and participate in the Internet Marketing Singapore forum to get suggestions and ideas
21. Produce an unbelievable product and sell it on Clickbank.com
22. Auction off cheap digital items on eBay
23. Write articles for major sites like About.com
24. Create a regular PDF newsletter
25. Talk to 5 people every day about one piece of content on your site
26. Visit online guest books and leave a comment
27. Visit other blogs and contribute actively on a regular basis
28. Use banner advertising on banner exchange programs like BannersgoMLM.com
29. Seek out joint venture partners to promote your site/event
30. Purchase leads from a co-registration service
31. Write an offline book
32. Distribute flyers
33. Sponsor an event with prizes that have your website on it
34. Run a charity event
35. Submit a press release to PRWeb.com
36. Use resell rights promotions
37. Produce a web or blog template using Open Source license
38. Create a community with a community badge/chicklet for identity
39. Look for newsworthy information and syndicate to Digg.com
40. Use your MSN nickname/message
41. Provide a free download on your site with a message on the back of your business card
42. Leave an email signature
43. Have a tell-a-friend form
44. Newspaper advertismenets
45. Direct response mail
46. Regular podcasts
47. Run a “live” seminar
48. Create an affiliate program
49. Get invited to events
50. Run a 24-hour answering service
51. Give people the right to syndicate your content
52. Keep your content fresh
53. Create multiple offers
54. Use ping sites for your blog
55. Use article submission services like ArticleAnnouncer.com to create backlinks
56. Give a DVD out for free that requires opt-insk
57. Car decals with your website on it
58. Generate a member-get-member promotion
59. Offer a 50% sale for products on your site
60. Create an online community of friends
61. Invite 10 people to visit your site on a regular basis
62. Print t-shirts with your URL
63. Advertise in trade magazines
64. Advertise in the main newspapers
65. Radio interviews
66. TV interviews
67. TV advertisements
68. Use Google Adwords
69. Use MSN Adcenter
70. Use Yahoo Search Marketing
71. Use Adbrite
72. Getresponse Co-registration service
73. Optimize your website for a specific, targeted key phrase
74. Use PayPerPost.com to get bloggers to write about your site
75. Run a Web 2.0 community
76. Advertise in the Yellow Pages
77. Directory submissions
78. Affiliate directory submissions
79. Direct email campaigns with list owners
80. Use direct response postcards
81. Build a free software directory
82. Build a free image directory
83. Offer a bonus product during a product launch to JV partners
84. Use well-optimized websites and content
85. Bait providers to visit your website through eLance.com and Scriptlance.com
86. Purchase outdoor advertising space at targeted locations
87. Create an Opt-in mailing list
88. Visit and participate in forums related to your niche.
89. Build more backlinks for popular keywords
90. Narrow your market to a specific niche
91. Build more websites within related niches
92. Attend more seminars to gain connections
93. Use a Feed Reader to subscribe to RSS feeds - comment on targeted posts
94. Have multiple distribution locations for a physical product
95. Create your own products and let affiliates sell them
96. Blog controversially
97. Deliberately start an online war (flaming - not recommended)
98. Look for related websites in #1 position and buy advertising space from them
99. Set up account with Squidoo.com
100. Set up account with Hi5.com
101. Set up account with Multiply.com
102. Set up account with iConnectE.com - A Singaporean social networking site
103. Set up account with Huminity.com
104. Do a giveaway rights promotion
105. Build a presence on 43 things
106. Create an affiliate promotion with Clickbank
107. Run a Cost-Per-Lead program
108. Run a Classified on http://www.Mocca.com.sg
109. Find a Cause to support and promote the cause
110. Get people involved in your community
111. Use a tell-a-friend script and place this automatically with people have opted-in
112. Run a blog carnival
113. Use games to “tag” people
114. Encourage article exchanges
115. Request people to submit articles that you will display on your blog for free
116. Build a free online widget that people will use
117. Join discussion groups on Google, Yahoo or MySpace groups
118. Advertise on Alexa.com
119. Use Global SMS service
120. Leverage Craigslist.org
Thursday, 12 June 2008
E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing to communicate promotional messages to potential or current customers. E-mail marketing are often more effective than printed direct mail. Here are a couple of recommendations when setting up an e-mail marketing campaign.
Determine Your Goals
Behind every successful marketing campaign there must be specific goals. You must set goals that are specific and quantifiable. Once the goals are determined, you must be committed to reach the targets. Every campaign sows better results when there is clarity of action.
E-mail Marketing Strategy
Building your Brand name
Let people know about you, your organization and your product. Create a dear image in their mind. A simple way to build branding is sending periodic newsletter over a very short period. Be consistent. Focus on a few messages that are core to your values and goals.
Building good customer relations using emails
The most vital factor in business is creating good customer relationship. Good customer relatioship will foster customer loyalty and increase the possibility of up-selling and cross-selling of your products.
Use your Newsletters or E-zines to promote your sponsors
Once you have established a large mailing list for your newsletters or e-zines, you can potentially bring in more revenues by placing relevant ads, sponsorships or affiliate programs.
Build Trust with Relevant E-mails
Besides providing newsworthy emails you must be focused on making your emails as relevant as possible to your target audience. Keep in mind that your e-mails are competing with hundred other e-mails on your subscribers' inbox. So make your subject line catchy. After all if you don't get their attention, they wont open your emails. Don't forget that the customers will read the email only if they are relevant. "When e-mail is customized conversion rates double. (SmartMoney Magazine, May 2006)"
Make your E-Mail Readable
You must consider on designing your e-mails so they are readable by many popular e-mail programs like Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail or Outlook. More and more web-based programs have preview panes. If your newsletter is too wide or long to load, your audience may not be able to view your newsletter. Some programs will disable images to load on e-mails for spamming reasons. You may consider not using images when sending important or urgent messages to your customers. Testing your e-mails on variety of e-mail programs and computer settings is the only way to ensure that your e-mails are readable by your audience. Many newsletter providers will provide statistics on your conversion rates. Test and measure your conversion rates. Redesign if necessary to make improvements.
Building your Mailing List with Search Engines
Search Engine marketing is an easy and affordable way to attract customers and generate leads to your website. Entice your visitors with free newsletters, white papers and product demos. Use this opportunity to ask their emails to build your mailing list.
Give your Readers some control
You must consider the recipients requirements first. Give them control. Try to understand what they want. Let them choose the format (text or HTML), of the contents, the frequency of getting e-mail, whether you can send other information, etc. Add a link to your each newsletter to allow your readers to unsubscribe from the mailing list.
Finally, sending message is not your only job. Plan for specific follow-ups. Send automated bounce-back replies. Integrate the e-mail campaign with other channels. Try to generate customer interest in every possible way.
Go ahead, all the best!
Search engine optimization does not have to be complicated but it does require some work if you plan on having your Website in the top 10 on the major search engines. Many Webmasters want their Websites on the first page of Google, MSN and Yahoo when their keyword is put in the search. Unfortunately they believe one of two things. The first being that it is too difficult for them to do it themselves and the second is that there is a secret trick that will have to perform in order to get high rankings. Both of these statements are false.
Some Webmasters will pay thousands of dollars to a so-called professional SEO expert to have their Websites on top in the rankings. The truth is that you can get top Search Engine Rankings spending a little bit of money and doing the work yourself or paying a professional SEO company thousands of dollars to get your Website on the first page. Both will work the choice is yours.
There are many myths about SEO but I want to tell you the plain truth. The do-it-yourself person can accomplish just as much as the professional. You must be willing to do many tasks of Website Optimization if you want to succeed. There is much information on the Internet on SEO. Some will tell you that the secret to high rankings is creating and submitting many RSS Feeds. Others will tell you that you need quality reciprocal links. Is there just one way of gaining first page on Google?
What is required of Webmasters in order to achieve Top Website Rankings? Some believe that if they perform 3 major tasks of Website Optimization that their Website will soar to the top. I believe that you cannot just do a few works of optimization or come up with a secret trick to achieve a high site ranking on the search engine.
Complete Website Optimization is your best guarantee to having a high ranking on the major search engines. What is complete optimization? Using all of the information and tools to get your site noticed on the search engines with a high ranking for your keywords. If you really want a top ranking and only want to spend a little bit of money I will tell you the many things you will need to do in order to have the first page on the search engines.
Complete Website Optimization is your best guarantee to having a high ranking on the major search engines. What is complete optimization? Using all of the information and tools to get your site noticed on the search engines with a high ranking for your keywords. If you really want a top ranking and only want to spend a little bit of money I will tell you the many things you will need to do in order to have the first page on the search engines.
Having complete Website Optimization will require many working tasks, tools and much researched information. I’m going to give you the many tasks that you will need to perform to accomplish high rankings.
1. Accurate Description of Website. |
After you complete all of the above then you can be sure that your Website will be on top. If you want the much researched information on complete optimization with many tools to speed up the process then visit website ranking top.
For the rest of the populous, those who already have the product do the selling, explaining and closing but want to market their goods or service via internet as opposed to offline media, then automated marketing is also the answer.
Once you have taken the time to set up your campaigns, ads, submissions, press releases, etc. then it is only a matter of pushing a button and watching the sales come in! It really can be just that simple…
Friday, 30 May 2008
Almost all bloggers monetize their traffic with the help of PPC (pay per click) programs and systems, among which Google AdSense program is the most famous one. And, of course, one of the most important tasks of every blog owner who uses PPC program is to make more people click the ads: the higher percentage of clickers is - the better.
All these efforts come down to simple question: how to increase CTR level of my ads? Note: CTR is click through rate which shows the % of the people who click on the ads.
Try to put yourself into the shoes of blog visitor, and the situation gets clear. Only the person who is search hungry is very likely to click the ads of PPC program, because these ads are usually very good in giving more relevant results to the search hungry visitors of your blog. These people are happy to find as much info around their topic as possible, and their clicking habit at this very moment is extremely high.
So, search hungry people who came to your blog from the search engines are very likely to show better CTR and click on your PPC ads a lot more.
And this is the time when modern PPC Internet marketing solutions come to help.
Technologically it is possible to set up your ads to be displayed only to the traffic that comes to your blog from search engines. You are not dispersing the efforts any longer. If the solution "sees" that blog visitor A is a regular visitor to this blog - it is very likely that he or she is reading the content of this blog very attentively and will not be mentioning the PPC ads. When solution "sees" that visitor B came to the blog right from the search engine and has come here for the first time, this person should see the PPC ads.
Solutions that help to create this kind of scenarios greatly help to display the necessary type of ads to the necessary type of audience: affiliate offers for loyal blog visitors, PPC ads for the traffic that has just come from search engines to the blog. This increases the effect from your advertising and will give you very nice CTR on PPC ads which is also a nice record to be shown to other potential advertisers.
Which is the best direction to go when building up your online opportunity: focusing on a small niche or diversification? There are strong arguments for both sides of the coin and it can get pretty confusing because the decision you take will have a huge impact on the success or failure of your business.
There are those who strongly argue for diversification saying that with your finger in many pies, you will tend to considerably cut down your risks in case anything goes wrong. However on the other end of the spectrum are those who strongly support focus as the only way to succeed at anything. The rays of the sun are spread all over and are harmless in sharp contrast to a laser beam whose rays are much weaker that the sun's but because they focus, they become so powerful that they are able to cut through diamond.
It is best to reach our verdict based on success stories online and which particular policy seems to have worked best to transform opportunity into lucrative business.
In reality focus almost always seems to win the day.
When Sergey Brin and Larry Page were launching Google they focused on building the best search engine on the World Wide Web. They did this at a time when all other major companies like Yahoo! Who were involved in search were diversifying to supposedly maximize on their income and revenues. Today the figures speak for themselves because Google is much bigger than all the others. In fact there are more people using Google than those using all the other search engines put together.
There are countless other examples of how careful focusing on a tiny niche opened up an online opportunity beyond the wildest dreams of the founders. The truth is that the web is a huge place and failing to focus can easily cause you to disappear and drown in the ocean that is the web. Focusing on a tiny niche not only enables you to get an identity but also ensures that you dominate that particular niche.
Even when choosing which keywords to use for your site, it is best to focus your site on a single keyword phrase. The keyword should clearly define your narrow niche. This is in fact how you will succeed with search engines. Naturally you will sue plenty of synonyms and similar words to your single keyword phrase but they will all be closely linked to your main keyword phrase. Focus is powerful even in an online opportunity on the web.
This is going to sound like a foreign concept to some of you reading this because so many people into Internet marketing simply create a product, pump it out there and wait for the money to come pouring in. No real effort to help their fellow marketer is ever made. It's just one big assembly line. Well, believe it or not, there is a better way. This article is going to share just a few of the many ways that you can make money online by honestly helping others.
One way, and probably the easiest and most effective, is to go to forums and offer your help. This can come in many forms. What I personally do, with the forums I frequent, is make regular posts outlining some step by step process related to Internet marketing. I make it as complete as I can, given the short amount of space I have, and expect nothing in return. What ultimately happens is that people thank me for my generosity and ultimately look down at my signature to see what products I am selling. I make a lot of sales this way and don't have to give a sales pitch. The more you give...the more you get in return.
Another way is by using traffic exchanges correctly. Most people don't know how to do this. They go there with their 40 page sales letter and expect people to buy their products. It doesn't work that way at these sites. What you have to do is educate people how to use traffic exchanges. So I set up a splash page with a free report to do just that. It works very well. After reading this report, that they have to opt in to get, they are now more open to buying one of my products.
Still yet one more way to help others and make money in the process is to put up a blog with tons of great content and articles. Give away as much free information as you can. Really educate people as to how to make money online. When they see what you are willing to give away for nothing, they will be inclined to think that what you are selling must be really special. Then watch the sales come in.
The point is simple, and it's as true in this business as in any other. The more you give, the more you get in return.
Don't you ever forget it.
Are you about to embark on a tightly-focused marketing campaign? Do you need to support this effort with hard-hitting interactive creative? Have you come up with new and interesting ways of promoting your product or service, and need something better then yet another web page attached to your site?
In fact, are you tired of sending prospects to your main web site and just seeing really lame results? Not willing to navigate the politics of getting a mention on your corporate site's main page?
Then it's time to build a microsite. What's a microsite? Well, it's exactly what the name implies: a small web site that is tightly focused on a particular topic.
Why are marketers building them? Because they offer an easy way to craft, brand, and deliver a highly focused message that doesn't have to compete will all the rest of the initiatives at your organization.
Furthermore, it's relatively easy to optimize microsites for superior search engine performance, turning these little sites into hub destinations for any topic.
So how do you know if you need a microsite?
1. Is your existing web site already full of messaging? Does your company sell a lot of products and services? Do you feel that your particular marketing message might get lost in the shuffle?
2. Does your marketing campaign focus on a tightly-focused target market, topic, or action? For example, you may want your visitors to order a certain ebook or download a special report after they've progressed through a highly structured conversation about the topic in question. Perfect!
3. Does your marketing campaign require different search engine optimization characteristics or requirements from your main site?
4. Do you need something up quickly? Sometimes it's easier and less stressful to build a 10-20 page site than deal with how to fit your stuff into an existing site with many hundreds of pages.
5. Is your marketing message temporary or seasonal? If your marketing offer is here today and gone in six weeks, or is only live during certain parts of the year, then you know you're a good candidate for a microsite.
6. Are you willing to put in the time to track performance and improve conversion? If I may paraphrase a line from Spider-Man, "With great power comes great responsibility." Enough said.
7. Do you need to show your boss(es) a good return on your marketing dollars? Then yes, a microsite can deliver.
8. Are you willing to follow your organization's branding and identity guidelines? Showing them that you can play nice will go a long way toward making your microsite a reality.
Thursday, 22 May 2008
Often times paid search advertising campaigns are launched by pay-per-click do-it-yourselfers without proper education or knowledge on just how important your landing page is. This is evident by the fact that so many of them use the homepage of their web site or another page on their site as a landing page. Only in certain instances can the homepage of a website act as a landing page.
Many do-it-yourselfers fail to realize two things. The first is that their landing page is the single most important page of their web site as it relates to converting a click to a desired profitable action and two, the success (or failure) of an paid search campaign rises and falls by the conversion rates and as a result, the utmost attention needs to be given to the landing page especially when it’s the recipient of paid traffic.
Tip #1: Do not use your index page (homepage) of your web site as a landing page. By using the homepage of your site as a landing page, you are giving the Internet user a palette of choices in the form of navigational links. This in turns encourages them to surf and explore rather than the desired action of converting them to make a purchase, opt in or sign up for a newsletter, etc.
Tip #2: You want to optimize your landing page for conversions by adding core keywords to the verbiage of your landing page. This will almost always raise conversion rates. Remember, the object is not to achieve a high page rank in Google, the object is to convert the user to your desired action whether that is to make a purchase, sign up, opt in, etc. You must create your landing page with that mind and not distract your visitors by offering links to other areas of your website.
Tip #3: Advertise a clear message on your landing page. Keep it simple, don’t bombard your visitor with too much word clutter. Be sure to use one or two simple ideas conveyed by large text and some images. Be sure to place things of importance near the top of the page and create your landing page with the assumption that people will be viewing your page with 800 x 600 resolution because this is the norm.
Lastly, you want your landing page to have a clear call to action. The words you choose for your landing page should reflect and entice them to that action with big bold colorful buttons. For example: “Buy Now” or “Sign Up Now”, “Start 10-Day Free Trial Now”, and so on. Your call to action should be prominent and repeated several times if necessary. Bottom line is you must make it easy for people to do what you want them to do or they will never do it.
A landing page is simply a web page designed to convert clicks, sales or some other action. This is the first page a visitor sees when they click through to a website. But it doesn’t have to be the home page or index page of your website. In fact, often, it is better that it isn’t as you can focus your content to perform an action fine tuned to the visitor.
This page can be used to provide a sign up for your lists, to promote an informational course, promote an affiliate program, provide giveaways, to sell your own products or services and much more! Landing pages are used by Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisers and Affiliate Marketers to drive their clicks directly to a page where they can encourage the visitor to perform some kind of action.
But it is not limited to just PPC or affiliate marketing. No matter how you are driving traffic, you can use a landing page to help you direct traffic and increase conversions.
They give you an opportunity to control your traffic and it provides the visitor the information they need to make a decision to act. The information provided can be finely tuned and focused on exactly what that person was clicking to find out before they landed on your web page.
You can answer specific questions that you determine might be on that visitors mind. You can provide an overview of the benefits or features of a product you might be promoting. You can do this with a few short paragraphs, an entire article, or an entire web of pages that the landing page leads to.
You can use these pages to pre-sell affiliate programs or your own products. You can fill in gaps in information that the customer needs to know to make a buying decision before you send them off to the purchase page. Having a review of a product or a number of products on a landing page can help a visitor tremendously as well.
By split testing landing page against landing page until we get the best conversions possible from our design and content, we can make our landing pages pull profits we couldn’t normally pull with a general or unfocused web page.
So as you can see, landing pages are a great tool to improve your conversions. Instead of driving traffic to your home page or a general page that isn’t focused at all towards what you are promoting, landing pages can be designed to take a visitor by the hand and lead them strategically towards whatever action you want them to take.
Making money with your website and the products you are promoting can improve greatly if you learn how to use the landing page to your advantage.
Landing pages can be very easy, a fun process and a profitable endeavor! Once learned, they don’t have to be a lot of work. They don’t have to be complex. Once you have a good system of creating these pages, there is nothing stopping you from incorporating them into almost everything that you do.
If you want to build a successful website, do the following things. According to an ex-employee of Google, this will work good. Always!
1. Add content
Add content, add content, add content. Before you even register your domain, you should have enough ideas to build 100 pages on your site. Start brainstorming and see what you can come up with in 10 minutes. If that's not enough to fill 50 pages, consider not building the site at all. Having lots of content is important.
2. A simple design is better
The text content should outweigh the html content. Stay away from heavy flash, java, javascript, etc. Don't add to much stuff like 'best viewed with'... Your website should be viewable with any browser. Keep it clean and professional.
3. Keep the pages small
Smaller is better. Keep it under 15k if you can. Your site should be fast loading, or people will leave. Speed is everything. Next to content, that is. Keeping it under 10k or 5k if you can. Difficult, but people love fast sites. Throw away all the trash on your pages.
4. Content length
Put a new page online every day of about 200 to 500 words. Go to the overture keyword suggester to find ideas of what to write about. Spell check your content. Search engines can do it, and so should you. If you have a blog, go for article-like posts as opposed to the personal diary kinds of posts.
5. Use keywords
Use your keywords in the following places: title, description tag, heading, url, once bold, once italic and once high on the page.
6. Link to other sites
Put 2 links to other, high ranking pages on your site. They should be relevant to the content of that page and use keywords as your link. Don't add every link that's requested. Check their relevance first.
7. Link to your own site
Put links from one page to other relevant pages on your own site. Again: use keywords as your link.
Monday, 19 May 2008
There is a lot of buzz online around web 2.0 especially around how webmasters can get fast results on search engines. Rather than contribute to the buzz, lets look into it closer and explain.
Web 2.0 is a really big topic, and in short, it means the move from static webpages- just text and images to interactivity, visitor contribution and the rise of video. These are all great ideas as it creates personal ownership, in the form of being able to voice and opinion in a subject.
Now what does this mean to * Your * business, after all that's what really counts ;)
Lets look at one area - Blogging
A blog is simple to use way of putting your own content up on line. It requires no knowledge to write articles and post them up on a site (if you are advanced, and have a blog already the real information is coming ;)
Blogs or weblogs have been put forward as the "quick free fix" for getting top rankings. The most professional blogging system is one called wordpress. Its free and has a load of support.
Now bloggers themselves are a weird bunch, and they are very web2.0 aimed and, most of the time not very business focused, more out just to make a few bucks online. However, creating a blog to use to drive traffic to your own site, and increase search engine traffic is something to definitely include in your plans.
Here is a few things to keep in mind:
1. Content - Blogs are a content tool, they are used to provide information to the user give valuable information (sometimes they cross over into opinion)
2. Time - they take time and consistent effort to contribute to get started and maintain
3. Integration -They need to integrate with your marketing plan which means, not just search engine ranking, but lead generation (collecting email addressees and first names) and can be a good form of pre - selling your future customers.
4. Outside Influence - Blogs will still need outside influence in the form of links to get traffic.
The wordpress free program is great however most bloggers do not set the site up to be 100% search engine friendly.
I will use my partners site which has had very little work done on it but is getting results. We started with the keyword research and settled on a core keyword of "Home Organizing" and secondary keywords of "home organizing ideas" and "home organizing tips"
Thursday, 21 August 2008
Pinging can make true wonders when running a blog. However, when blogging for money or hobby, most of the bloggers don't know that they are playing with fire and can be called ping spammers.
Every time you click 'Save and Continue Editing' button, or edit the previously published post and click 'Save' - you are sending a ping. And now imagine that when working with a new post you click'Save and Continue Editing' 10-15 times; this is not much when you are working with a long post, do many changes in fonts and colors, etc. But for the ping services it means you pinged them 10-15 times. An attempt for ping spam? Who knows: each of the ping services can have its own inner policies about what ping exactly to start thinking that your blog is a ping spammer. But this is definitely the game not a single blogger would like to play.
Because it can result in a ping service to simply block your blog and stop taking the new post feeds from it. We can talk a lot about if this is fair or not, but ping services are definitely not interested to re-digest one and the same content (or almost the same content) all the time!
NB: This ping spam issue is peculiar to WordPress blogs, however other blog platforms seem to have most of the problems with ping spam unsolved as well.
How to Check If My Blog Crossed the Line?
Ping services don't say when exactly they are sure you are ping spammer, but these 2 signs can be very useful for you.
#1. Check the online accounts of your blog in ping services.
Some ping services, like Technorati, have a very useful feature of running "account" for each of the blogs on their server. When you know the URL to this account, you can check the account of your blog and see how quickly the ping service is gulping your new posts from this blog.
For example, if previously this service has been catching the fresh posts from your blog every 24 hours and was publishing their digest on the server, and now got stuck for 3-4 days - this is a possible sign of the blog getting ping spam penalty. It's crucial to note that thisis a POSSIBLE sign, because there are some factors that can also explain this sudden "gap in love" from a ping service.
#2. Check your ping list service messages.
If you are reading your ping messages (that say "pined successfully" or other tech messages), this information is another proof factor for you. The strategy is the same: if after no problems for a long time with a ping service all of a sudden you start getting messages that say that you have not been pinged successfully and no other traits of the problem (like a message saying that you have incompatible format of the ping signal or anything else) - this is another
possible sign of the ping spam penalty.
Web analytics is a quantitative indicator of behavior of visitors to a website. Simply explained, web analytics involves identification of visitor, analyzing the reason of visit and tracking his/her movement within your website until the time he/she leaves the website. In essence therefore, web analytics provides a clear picture of the performance of a website so that the website owner can devise strategies to maximize acceptability of the website.
Web analytics mainly comes in two flavors in terms of collection of visitors' data. The first concerns collecting data from server logfile, and the second by tagging each webpage with javascript. A third web analytics method is a combination of the two whereby more relevant data can be produced than what is possible with either of the two methods.
In this article, we will briefly define some popular web analytics terms, moving on to comparing the two methods before outlining why studying web analytics is beneficial.
Key Web Analytics Terms
'Hit' denotes a request for a file from server and is recorded only in logfile. 'Page View' means different for the two web analytics methods. While tagging script considers the whole page as one request, the logfile on the other hand will record multiple hits (one for each file, including images, .js and .css) within a single page-view.
A visitor is one who requests for a file to be shown. Once again, while server log will record several files for each visit, the page-tagging script will only consider the page as a whole seen by the visitor. In either case, the web analytics data will clearly identify if the visitor is new (new or unique visitor) or has come before (repeat visitor).
Other Information
Both web analytics methods will be able to gather several other important information, notable among which are as under.
1. The length of time a visitor spends in seeing a website.
2. The keyword phrase used to arrive at the website.
3. The unique IP address and therefore the country from where the visits generated.
4. The arrival and exit pages.
Logfile vs Page Tagging
Data transfer to and from web server is always recorded in server's logfile with clockwork precision. Since early days, realization dawned that it is possible for a suitable program to extract logfile data and arrange them in a meaningful display. That is how web analytics came into being. Today most servers come equipped with web analytics programs such as Webalizer, Awstats, etc. which analyze raw logfile data and portray valuable visitor information in easy-to-follow graphics.
14 November Google released a new service with the name Google Analytics. Google Analytics is basically a rebranded version of Urchin, a web analytics service that Google purchased a few months ago.
Web Tracking Analytics Services
Like other web analytics services Opentracker.net,shinystat, or truehits.net, Google Analytics is a service that tells you where visitors to your site are coming from, what links on the site are getting the most traffic, what pages visitors are viewing, how long people stay on the site, which products on merchant sites are being sold and where people give up in multistep checkout processes. The difference between these tools or website analyzers is that Google tracking is not done in real-time, they use a system what's similar to log analyzers. That mean it will not measure human behavior or what's done by the visitor.
Google Analytics vs Other Website Tracking Services
Another difference between Google Analytics and other web tracking services is that Google Analytics is free and unreliable. Google Analytics doesn't work with Safari and Mac OS X. In order to view a Google Analytics report on Mac OS X, you have to be using a Mozilla based brower, IE. or Firefox. But for sharing your data with the company, Google doesn't require you to pay directly for their web analytics service.
But unfortunaly if you want to open an account with Google Analytics you will get this answer:
New account signups are temporarily suspended. If you want to be notified when signups re-open, please enter your e-mail address on our signup page. Thank you!
Should you use Google Analytics or should you pay for a better service?
Google already knows a lot of things about you. If you also use their new tracking service or log analyzer system, you will tell Google how much you earn, when you earn it, which products you sell, how often you sell them, how much you spend for ads on other sites and you will reveal much more information about your personal online business and company details.
Ask yourself if you want Google to know that much about you and your company. Do you really want to share your revenue information with Google that also wants your advertising money? Do you want to share your revenue information with any other company at all?
Google officials have declined that they will use the data to better understand how much you are willing to pay for ads, based on conversions. They also claim that they do not plan to tap into the data as a means of improving regular search results or to identify bad sites. Nevertheless, these things are easily possible if you use Google Analytics also your ranking would be in danger. Google engineer Matt Cutts even writes in his blog: "Blackhat SEO companies may be leery of using Google for analytics, but regular site owners should be reassured. That sounds as if Google might actually use the information for other purposes.
Article marketing is known as a very effective method of advertising and generating free organic traffic, so let`s dig deeper and have a look at some lesser known ways on how article writing can improve your affiliate home based online business.
Article directories are usually where we start off submitting articles and for many their article submission process stops there. Whilst this is a proven and highly effective method to build back links to your affiliate home based online business website as well as generate free traffic there are other ways to spread your articles far and wide over the internet.
Before we look at these lesser known article submission methods, do be sure, prior to submitting your articles, to include the resource box at the end of your article as this will not only provide another valuable back link to your site but is also a form of free advertising for your affiliate home based online business. It is also a good idea to put your publishing guidelines in your resource box as well i.e. “You are welcome to publish my article provided you include the resource box with links intact.”
Start off by doing a search for the terms ezines and article publishing websites as you will be sure to find many links on these sites to submit your articles. It is worth looking at the ezine directories as some do accept article submissions. Going off topic a little here, but if you do have an email ezine or email newsletter be sure to submit it to the ezine directories for added exposure.
You could create a free e-book with all your own articles and offer it on your website as a freebie, or give it away to your newsletter signups. You can get more free advertising by adding your own affiliate home based online business advert to the e-book as well.
An article directory added to your own website will encourage visitors who are looking for free content for their own websites. You could also earn extra online income by becoming a freelance writer by submitting your articles to print publications that pay for submissions.
Create a free report on internet marketing or affiliate home based online businesses, include a few of your related articles and give it away as a bonus to those who purchase a product or service from you?
Ever considered publishing a book containing all the articles you have written and selling the book from your website? By offering other webmasters the opportunity to get an instant article directory by linking to yours with give you massive exposure and also increase the traffic to your website.
Don`t miss out on the opportunity to submit your articles to related online communities, such as newsgroups, forums and email discussion lists as this will attract a huge amount of free advertising to your affiliate home based online business.
The science of analyzing your website and marketing campaigns to see what performs best and what methods simply benefits you the most is website analytics
I am going to make this simple without any geeky tech stuff. Getting rid of the technical jargon, website analytics simply is the study of the impact that a website has on its users. This could be for example which products generates the most cash on your website and how many new subscribers your new opt-in page is pulling compared to your old opt-in page.
Web analytics can be done both manually, the old way, or by using different software. Many prefer a mix of those two methods.
How you can analyze your websites?
Understanding visitor behavior is crucial if you want to succeed in internet marketing. By closely watching and monitoring the number of visitors and from where they came, understanding how they navigate throughout your website and what keywords they have searched for in the search engines that brought them to your website are examples of analyzing tasks that you should be doing. Is your website content rich enough to hold visitor attention?
Analyzing the effectiveness of advertising methods is another important task. Website analytics will enable you to find out how your website shows up in the organic as well as the paid searches. Which of your AdWords ads are being clicked on the most and which affiliate programs are generating you the most profit?
Evaluating your sales is another must do. Let’s face it! Your ultimate objective and first priority is to get sales and you want to generate as many sales as you can and bring in the highest amount of profits possible. To do this you need to know your customers behavior and which sections of your website is pulling in sales like a magnate on steroids and which part is not. Optimize the wrong parts and you are doomed!
Outsource someone to do the website analytics
If you feel you don’t have the knowledge or don’t have the time to do the analyzing properly you can outsource someone to do it for you. But beware, you have to choose carefully! Identifying an appropriate analytics company or consultant is critical. Review their testimonials and ask for telephone numbers from past clients who have used them before and also check their references thoroughly. Be sure that you choose a qualified vendor who can offer a deal tailored to your specific business needs.
Know where you are heading. Have clearly defined goals for your website and know where you are going.
With quality SEO blogging software is a key to success you can fully focus on just growing your blog with quality content. These free blogging tips will help to choose the best SEO blogging software.
Blog itself is a very effective invention that helps to reach real success with blogging for money, profit or hobby. However, a nice SEO blogging software can make real wonders with the positions of your blog in search engines, traffic to the blog and profits. With the pinging pumping up your blog like crazy and wise automation of SEO jobs done by a quality SEO blogging software you can fully focus about how to publish as much quality content on your blog as possible.
That is why the question of "How do I start blogging?" should go together with another question "How can I choose the best SEO blogging software for my blog?"
The answer is very simple - you should choose the blogging platform which already has quality SEO blogging software integrated.
So, what should SEO blogging software have?
1. Meta data.
The proper choice of keywords can bring you huge traffic. That is why every post should have proper keywords in all legal spots on the blog. In meta title, meta description and meta keywords.
Yes, meta data is not a top priority for Google any longer, but these meta keywords will later on (after being pinged by the ping services) will turn into tags - and tag power is really great. Ping services create separate pages for each of the tags, these pages quite quickly are indexed by search engines and receive nice Google PR with time, and your post will be published on this page as an example of posts for this tag.
2. SEO sexy URLs.
SEO sexy URLs means that you have the necessary keywords in the URL of your posts. Quality blog solutions (that already have the guts of SEO blogging software integrated inside) will give you a change to automatically add the title of your post into the URL of this post. As you are using the keywords in the title, they will get to the URL as well.
And though keywords in URLs are not the priority for Google's algo, wasting such a chance is a big mistake.
3. Do Follow vs No Follow.
If your blog is successful - people will start posting comments to it, and some comments will have URLs in the comments. Quality SEO blogging software will have an option to decide whether you are going to leak your linking power to every comment (and put Do Follow tag) or not to share the SEO value of outgoing links in the posts and have No Follow in all URLs in the comments.
You may have noticed a new error message upon Windows start-up since December 31, 2006. The error dialog looks like this:
" Windows Defender
Application failed to initialize: 0x800106ba. A problem caused Windows Defender
Service to stop. To start the service, restart your computer or search Help and Support on how to start a service manually. "
In addition, you will see the following in your System Event Log:
" Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7023
Description:
The Windows Defender Service service terminated with the following error:
The system license has expired. Your logon request is denied. "
The issue is that Windows Defender Beta support ended on December 31, 2006. Now, I would have expected this software license expire error to let you know a bit more gracefully.
The good news is that if your are running Windows XP, there is a easy fix. Simply go to Microsoft and look for the "Download Windows Defender" link near the bottom of the home page. Follow the download and install instructions, and you will be up to date, protected and will have fixed the start-up error in just minutes.
Now for the bad news...
If you are running Windows 2000, Microsoft has decided to no longer support the Windows Defender product for the Windows 2000 platform. You can fix the start-up error by uninstalling Windows Defender from the Add/Remove Programs in your Control Panel. Unfortunately, this will leave you unprotected from Spyware and Malware. Since Microsoft is no longer providing a Spyware protection product for Windows 2000, you will need to purchase a third party product in order to be protected in the future.
It's been talked about that Google is secretly planning to eventually launch its own phone service at some point in the future. If so, Google will eventually become an Internet Service Provider (ISP) — enabling them to effectively enter the telecom industry, add a boat load of services to their growing empire, and eliminate the threats against Net Neutrality which they so strongly oppose.
Sources suggest that Google may first introduce its telephone service to users in the United Kingdom, but the actual date when the service will launch and the exact details of the plan are as of yet unknown. The service will be a free, ad supported VoIP service — (technology that that makes it possible to have a telephone conversation over the internet).
Google has released numerous services focusing closely on the telecom and communications industry some of which include a Free 411 Phone Service called GOOG-411, Google Talk which can be used via both a PC and smartphone (BlackBerry.), Google Mobile which brings additional Google services, videos, and software to cell phones, Google SMS - a text message service.
More recently, Google has announced its acquisition of GrandCentral Communications, a company that provides services for managing voice communications. GrandCentral is an innovative service that lets users integrate all of their existing phone numbers and voice mailboxes into one account, which can be accessed from the web. GrandCentral's technology fits well into Google's efforts to provide services that enhance the collaborative exchange of information. The service also assigns unique phone numbers and voicemail services.
Additionally, there has also been a lot of heated discussions over a Google-branded phone called the GPhone, which could be compared to the recent craze over the release of Apple's hugely successful IPhone. As far back as August it was reported that Google Inc. had developed a prototype cell phone that could reach markets within a year, and plans to offer consumers free subscriptions by bundling advertisements with its search engine, e-mail and Web browser software applications.
According to a story published in The Wall Street Journal "Industry watchers have long heard rumors that Google was designing its own mobile phone." Google added fuel to that speculation in July when it announced it was willing to spend $4.6 billion to buy wireless spectrum in a U.S. Federal Communications Commission auction and they have also bought the rights to 270,000 square feet of space at 111 8th avenue in Manhattan, a key New York interconnection facility.
According to LightReading, a source for technology and financial analysis of the communications industry, "Google is building a network so massive that several service provider specialists believe it could end up with one of the world's largest core transport networks, effectively building its own private Internet", reports Light Reading. " Google is in the process of acquiring space in carrier hotels, purchasing dark fiber, and issuing RFPs for network equipment."
With around 60% share of the Internet search market, Google clearly has the critical mass of users and brand strength to make a play in telecom markets around the world. And with a market cap like Google has, the investment or acquisition capital it needs is hardly a problem.
Microsoft has many computer certifications that appeal to a wide range of expert computer repair technicians to operating system geniuses. They also have certifications in administration and engineering. Microsoft Certified Professionals are a standard above in the field of information technology. Microsoft certification is widely accepted and recognized by the service and support industry. Microsoft curriculum has the practical knowledge that only an advanced developed company can provide.
MCDST is one of the most sought after Microsoft certifications on the market today. Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician is a title that has much recognition for employers who want a highly qualified technician to work as a help desk specialist and give desktop support by phone and by servicing the individual station. Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) on Microsoft Windows XP is a certification that validates the fundamental and higher skills needed to enter the IT industry as a support desk professional. Because of the recognition that Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) receives many online and classroom IT schools are offering some free tutoring. You will find free information technology Microsoft computer training on the web almost as much as you will find pay certification training. There is a long list of online schools that offer free study guides, some free online tutoring and free practice exam questions in order to prepare you for your certification.
MCDST certification demonstrates valuable troubleshooting expertise with the Windows Desktop Operating System to employers and consumers. It provides a structure for learning the skills that support technicians need. As a desktop support technician, you will use excellent customer service skills, educate users, and solve hardware or software operation and application problems on the desktop. You will learn valuable skills and best practices consistent with networking and file sharing to maintaining DHCP communications devices and Domain name system for Internet system to translate names into IP addresses. Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician certification validates the fundamental skills needed to enter the IT industry as a support professional. It communicates the technical skills of the individual to clients and employers and distinguishes career candidates from their peers. MCDST certification enhances job satisfaction through increased technical proficiency as you increase your knowledge and skills.
MCDST certification helps advance support technician careers by providing a structured framework for learning skills, and provides a knowledge basis for additional Microsoft certifications, such as the MCSA and the MCSE. Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician Certification Requirements on Microsoft Windows XP are to pass two core exams that provide a valid and dependable measure of technical proficiency. These exams are developed with the input of professionals in the industry and reflect how Microsoft products are used in organizations throughout the world.
The two core exams are: Exam 70-271:
Supporting Users and Troubleshooting a Microsoft WindowsXP Operating System consisting of about 60 questions and Exam 70-272:
If your the type of person who loves to skim through tidbits of news or read about short and up-to-date announcements online, then chances are you have run into RSS. RSS or Really Short Syndication is a very potent marketing strategy used by webmasters and online marketers for better online exposure of their articles and to improve search engineplacement for their websites. RSS makes news and information accessible wherever RSS can be applied or RSS readers can be used. Several blog providers like Blogger, Wordpress and Live journal offer RSS for their members content. More and more users, who are catching on the blogging craze, are putting importance on the relatively fast and reliable RSS.
Users often keep their blogs as an online organizer. RSS come in as a handy tool in keeping all the information from different websites all under one little corner of your blog or webpage. RSS is really a convenient option for those who tend to visit a lot of websites, and who wish to be updated about certain site activities or articles. Online users also use RSS to check out the latest news or sports update. RSS is a great tool to improve search engine ranking as well as to organize data from different sources.
RSS displays a short summary of your articles, around two or three lines of text, which the RSS readers will then display over websites, or through applications. Your articles can now be seen on different parts of the globe through different RSS portals or websites that display categorically related RSS content.
There are many directories and websites that accept and promote RSS data. If your in the market to promote your articles, then submitting your content to RSS directories and websites can help bring you very good exposure. Several websites run updated copies of your RSS data over their main page at certain intervals to help promote your website to those who would otherwise have problems seeing your updated content. People download RSS information for news, stock and trading updates, article submissions and marketing and to improve search engine ranking, among others.
With the right articles or marketing copies, webmasters and web marketers say that RSS do help a lot in passing their message across to their clients and other online visitors. Promoting the RSS data over targeted channels can greatly boost your websites exposure online. Choosing categorically related websites and marketing RSS information on them can have huge benefits on your online business. The whole concept of the RSS is to make information readily accessible to end users, as well as help promote content online. In both areas, I believe RSS has greatly excelled to become one of the top web marketing tools.
So if your planning to promote your content online, better avail of RSS. It can greatly simplify your work. Plus a lot of websites offer free RSS promotion service. With RSS, your sure to be able to get wider reach for your targeted online users. But one thing you should put in mind when doing RSS is that too much RSS data coming from other sites can cause your website to get penalized due to duplicate content. The lines are still scratchy on how duplicate content is checked even though a person is using RSS, but the basic idea of having 30-50% of your content originating from RSS information from other related websites can get you into trouble with the search engines, and not to mention those websites where your data or content is coming from.
Welcome to part 2 of the article that aims to give you just enough information to help you understand RSS and start using it. Part 1 gave you simple instructions on how to read and subscribe to an RSS site feed, part 2 will give you simple instructions on how to publish your own.
Firstly, which websites can benefit from a site feed? Well, pretty much all of them. If you provide a service, you could use a site feed to announce amendments and upgrades. If you sell stuff, you could use a site feed to announce new products and special offers. And if you own a website or web log that is regularly updated with news of any description, a site feed is virtually a necessity.
Site feeds may not be exactly commonplace at present but don’t doubt for a moment that their popularity is growing. If you get a site feed up and running now, you’ll be ahead of the game for some time to come and offer a friendly alternative to email communication.
Site feeds are usually written in a code called XML. If you view the code for a site feed it will look a little like HTML.You could:
-- Learn the language and write your own site feed. Each time you want to add an update, just update your site feed page.
-- Buy some fancy software that writes and updates the site feed for you.
-- Or… setup a site feed online that automatically updates, for free in about 20 minutes.
Third option sound good? Ok, start by setting up your own blog at Blogger. This is free to do and, if you want, they will even host it for you in exchange for a couple of banners at the top of the blog. The great thing about Blogger is that it works in tandem with the Google Toolbar.
Found a website you want to note in your blog? Click the icon in your Google Toolbar and it’s taken care of.
Everytime you add or change something on your website, record it in your blog so individuals and search engines viewing your blog can be made aware of it.
The other great thing about Blogger is that it automatically creates and updates a site feed for you. Everytime you post a message to your blog, this is added to your site feed as well.
You can get the address of your site feed from the Blogger control panel by visiting the section marked "Settings" and selecting "Site Feed".
Have you ever read an article, intended to explain RSS in simple terms that, begins well, but soon descends into confusing jargon or information overload? If so, take heart, I was in the same place a few months ago.
Often the best way to understand something, is to use it. RSS is no exception.
So rather than try and create a definitive explanation of RSS, this article will tell you how to use it. I guarantee once you’ve done so, everything will that much clearer.
If a website you visit utilizes RSS, there are a number of ways it will communicate this.
The most common way is to show a little orange button with the letters XML.
Alternatively, you may see words such as "ATOM", "RSS", "Site Feed" or variations on these.
What they have in common is that they will link to a webpage that, in most browsers, looks like gibberish.
It doesn’t matter one way or another, what is important is the address of the web page they link to.
To demonstrate, I will relate how to read a site feed for my website, The Nettle Blog. Don’t confuse RSS with blogs (web logs). They are two separate concepts. The only reason you see them together so often, is that blogs are the perfect website to take advantage of site feeds. More on that later. Here we go…
Click on this link to go the site feed for The Nettle Blog. Ignore the content in the window, just make a note of the URL in the web address bar. It should read: Feeds: Feedburner
Now you’ve got the web address for the site feed, keep it safe somewhere. You’ll need it again in a moment.
The next step is to use an RSS reader to make sense of the site feed. There are lots of these available and if you are a heavy user you would probably want to purchase a nice piece of software.
But to begin with, start with something simple and free. Start with Bloglines.
Go to Blogliness - Register and create a new account.
From the "My Feeds" section of your account you can add new site feeds you want to keep track of.
Select "ADD", enter the URL you copied and hit "Subscribe". You can preview the results, but skip that stage for now. Select "Subscribe" again and the title of the site feed will be transferred to the left-hand window.
Well done. You have now subscribed to your first RSS feed.
Blog security is a serious question. That is why today many bloggers join the online discussion about better way to make a blog more hacker proof.
As blogs have become a serious power not just for blogging for cash or hobby, but also for Internet marketing in general - the attention of hack minded people to the blogs has naturally increased as well. They are sniffing around to find any possible door inside the blog platform to access the admin area. Some can do that as game, others as business - but this is still a big pain for every average WordPress blog or Blogger or any other blog platform owners. They do their best to send you patches to fix the security issue, but sometimes hackers can just have a better luck.
In the most recent times, the idea of limiting access to the blog is circling the minds of bloggers. It is really better and easier just to give special or secure blog access to a number of highly trusted people (your blog admins or trusted blog authors). The attempts to access the blog admin area from any other IPs would be blocked.
This means the readers and visitors of your blog will not have any problems with reading blog materials. And you enjoy maximum security - because even if a hacker gets through a hole, the access for admin area to him will be cut off by default.
Quality linking practices are encouraged by the major search engines as an acceptable way of improving site popularity, website traffic and help contribute to higher search engine rankings. As a webmaster you must be wary of engaging in poor linking practices that have the potential to strip your website of its ranking status on the major search engines Google, Yahoo and MSN.
In this two part Article Series we will firstly discuss those linking practices that will find your website penalized by the major search engines, with the most current controversy over 'paid links'. Google has recently penalized several sites with ranking drops for violating its quality webmaster guidelines by selling paid links. This penalty can also be applied to those sites displaying 'paid links' that are considered spam or of low quality by the search engines and provide users with a poor browsing experience.
Not all paid linking will be penalized, the current focus tends to be on those links that are primarily being used to manipulate search engine rankings. Purchasing paid links may also affect your rankings if the originating site selling the links is considered to be a 'bad neighborhood' site by the major search engines, your site's rankings can be affected by association. As a general rule, avoid companies selling links who are promoting paid links that are 'hard to detect by a search engine' and with the recent increase in the reporting of paid links to Google, their ranking algorithms are being adjusted to detect such paid links.
The advice from Google on paid links is that it's okay to promote paid links that are aimed at increasing website traffic but are not being used to manipulate search engine rankings. If you are using paid links:-
- Add a 'no follow attribute' to the linking info, for more information on how to do this see Google Webmaster Tools.
- You can also redirect the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from the search engines with robots.txt file.
- Clearly define paid advertising links on your site to the search engines ie. with a 'sponsored link' title heading.
Another linking practice that is discouraged by the major search engines is using Link Farms to artificially increase a site's link popularity. Link farms are usually classified as a website or web page that displays a series of links to other unrelated sites and displays no content of real value or interest to site visitors. These types of links pages are usually created by automated software programs and services. To avoid being caught linking to a 'link farm' vigorously check all link exchange requests and the reciprocal URL location of your link on their site. Link farms will be obvious in nature as no actual web content will be present for site visitors except links and often the link exchange will be represented as a '3 way link' exchange.
3 Way Linking' has been an emerging trend over the past 12 months and is designed to quickly boost the search engine rankings and online presence of the requesting link partners site by anonymously building link pages that have no direct link to them so that they can't be penalized by the search engines for deceptive SEO practices. 3 Way Links are of little or no benefit to your site or your linking campaign as typically the third party site that your link is located on has no content relevance to your own site or worse still it is just a 'link farm'. Once again your site's search engine rankings can be penalized by association.
Numerous programs on the internet offer you the opportunity to earn an income online by recruiting others into the business and by offering your help as a sponsor to the new recruits will certainly help you create a profitable internet home business.
I am sure it is just not me that has signed up for affiliate programs and never heard a word or received an email from my sponsor. This is surely one way of not only leaving money on the table but also leaving new recruits feeling all alone and unwelcome and must certainly contribute to the high number of people who never earn an income online or build a profitable internet home business.
Your time need be the only thing required to help others by explaining to them what you do to earn an income online as all communication can be done by email. You could set up a series of training emails in your auto-responder, detailing exactly the steps you have taken to get where you are, or have a section on your profitable internet home business website dedicated to helping your new recruits.
Although lot of the programs do reveal who your sponsor is and ways of contacting them, others don’t and so it is a good idea to always send a welcome email to a new recruit letting them know you are their sponsor and that they are welcome to contact you with any queries or questions.
Confidence may be lacking with new sponsors who may feel they do not know enough about the business to help a new recruit and therefore rather ignore them and omit to send a welcome email at all. One of the best ways to learn and gain confidence is by teaching others and this in a way will actually accelerate your own profitable internet home business and online income.
Lots of new recruits will not even respond to your welcome email and choose to go it alone, but at least you have made the effort to contact them and offer your assistance if they need it.
There will be others who will be thrilled and reassured to hear from you and take you up on your offer of assistance and be more than willing to implement the internet marketing strategies that are working for you and start earning their own income online. It is through these people that your online income will increase.
A few people, although thankful for all your help, unfortunately fail to get into action and actually do the work required, and you will be the first person they contact to complain bitterly that they are not earning an income online, what a useless sponsor you are and that the whole internet home business is a scam! The few people who react like this should not even worry you if you have done your best in trying to help them.
Being the best sponsor you will pay off handsomely, because you will benefit from helping those that run with your suggestions and start earning an income online with their own profitable internet home business.
Monday, 4 August 2008
What does this have to do with Google?, you will ask! Well, let’s take a look at the similarities:
A. Both Google and The Eiffel tower are money generators.
The Eiffel Tower was rejected or criticized by many, yet it showed its value in annual revenue and in the fact that it turned Paris into one of the most famous and most visited cities in the world.
Google is criticized as well for many reasons: Some people feel Google has too much power, the bots can know too much. Some completely reject it, but those who don’t harvest the benefits at the end of the day.
B. It’s not easy to “get in.”
At the bottom of The Eiffel Tower the crowd is waiting to get in for a chance to reach to the top and enjoy the view. That’s their goal. That’s what they all want to do. Thousands of people each day stay in line four hours and hours, ready to pay the price to get in. It may be hot, it may be cold and windy, raining or even snowing (but snow has been known to shut down the tower) but there they are, day after day, week after week, standing in line, taking pictures of each other, moving ahead in the long line of people ahead of them who want to get to the top.
At the bottom of Google… the crowd is waiting for the same thing: to get in. For some Webmasters, the waiting takes long weeks, others find faster ways. But the waiting is there, the crowd is there: for example there is a blog born every half second, and over 170000 new blogs every day. Can you imagine the statistics for websites? And all these new sites have the same goal: to rank in Google.
C. It’s a long way to the top.
The Eiffel Tower: eventually you get in and once you are there, you have choices. You either join the masses and take a lift to the top, or you take the stairs and enjoy the experience longer, with the satisfaction that you truly made it to the top on your own. Sometimes the ones who take this route just can’t make it, and, frustrated, sweaty and panting, they turn around and start their descent.
Google: there is a fast way to the top (let’s call it black hat SEO), and then there is the long, assiduous way that will takes all your power, skill and will — but it is the most rewarding because you learn a lot in the process. You have time to enjoy “the view” (looking at the other websites from the top, learning from them, envying them…), you have time to rest every once in a while, just to start your ascension with even more power later…
D. Shops, Restaurants… Businesses Flourish at the Top
The Eiffel Tower is home for some restaurants and snack bars and some souvenir shops. Can you imagine how much money the owners make? And also… how much do they have to pay for that location, location, location? The only drawback is that not everyone can get a commercial space there. Many are called, but a few are chosen.
These days, many companies expect you to send an electronic resume and cover letter instead of mailing them. It's faster and easier for both the employer and the employee. While this is done for several reasons, the main reason is that the number of resumes, especially for virtual positions, is usually very high. In order to cut down on the time it takes to process each applicant's resume, companies have resorted to using online resume databases or instructing applicants to email resumes to one person in the office in order to save time and find the right person for the position as quickly as possible.
Creating a Virtual Resume
Creating a virtual resume is similar to creating a traditional resume. While you should include all the basic sections in an electronic resume, you may need to format it differently so the document isn't a jumbled mess when the hiring manager receives it. When creating your resume, you should create four different versions of it - a standard print version, an e-mail version, a scan-friendly version, and a plain text version. By creating different formats all at once, you will save yourself a lot of time when applying for virtual positions.
The standard print version can be used when companies specifically ask you to send one to their offices, or when you are turning in an application in person. An e-mail resume is a simple version that does not include bold or italicized headings. It is more straight-forward with simple headings that indicate a new section. If sending an email resume, always check it first before sending it. If copying it from a word processing program like MS Word, you may need to alter it to fit the email program you're using. Changing the font size, style, and making sentences shorter are common ways to make an email resume more appealing.
A scan-friendly version of your resume is also less complex than a standard print version. You should remove bold or italicized headings because those can appear blurry or faint to the reader. Plain text versions should be composed in MS Word or other word processing program so you can check for grammar and spelling errors. You can easily cut and paste your finished resume into MS notepad or other plain text program. You can use this version when uploading your resume into a company database.
Sending Your Virtual Resume
Always follow the company's instructions when it comes to sending a resume. If the company wants you to send the resume in an email instead of an attachment to the email, make sure you do so. As a potential virtual employee, you need to show employers that you can follow directions.
Always include a cover letter in your email. This should be your standard cover letter. It is considered unprofessional not to send a cover letter.
A computer system, being an electronic device can be uniquely identified when hosted in a network by utilizing the exclusive facility of IP addresses. This IP address can very well be classified as IPv4 and IPv6, where the latter provides greater assistance or advanced support for the diverse purposes met by a computer system. The IP addresses will have a form of a group of bits and period (.) which separates these bits. This separation is done to meet very specific requirements.
Searching of IP address could be done through Ip Tools for the identification of real time information of IP address. A database is globally maintained and this database contains all the IP addresses assigned to each and every system. The global management of IP addresses is too vigilant in updating the database every now and then. Searching the IP address could be done by examining this database. Effective measures had been taken to get the country wise Internet Service Providers and even the cavernous end details like city, country, country range, latitude, longitude etc could be obtained. This is facilitated by IP to location.
The domain naming system assigns a name to each and every IP addresses so as to make the users feel friendly in understanding it. Domain name could be found from IP address and at the same time, IP address could be found from the domain name in any network. IP Finder is employed to find the IP addresses of each and every computer connected through a logical network.
Collection of information in relation to an IP address has attained great importance. To meet this requirement, IP lookup facility can be employed. Functioning of this entity find its platform on TCP/IP protocols and through domain naming services. The DNS system gives IP addresses, when domain name is given.
The IP lookup facility helps in tracking the IP address of systems that visits the websites. When employed as a marketing strategy or technique, this tool proved to be extremely worthy for the marketers or business firms in receiving a feedback, by calculating the reach of their websites. Certain application demands extremely secure identity verification where they can't allow a second person to interfere. Free IP lookup facilities are provided by numerous website hosting companies.
Certain other application requires the IP address to be hidden from the network. Subnet mask is a method to achieve this. Security can be enhanced by employing subnet masking methods. Make the computer free from network problems, avoid the misuse of websites etc are examples of some useful needs of subnet masking.
Monday, 30 June 2008
101 Methods To "PR" your website
1. Submit articles to article directories.
2. Conduct link exchange activity with other blogs and websites.
3. Run a teleseminar.
4. Be a contributor on Yahoo/MSN Answers
5. Create a blog and join MyBlogLog.com
6. Create a MySpace.com account and make friends with your target market.
7. Create a viral report with links coming back to your website.
8. Generate a software product that you distribute free but advertise your website in it.
9. Build an article directory for a hot niche market
10. Produce a useful web-based software for public use
11. Ask thought-provoking questions
12. Build viral videos and upload them to Youtube.com
13. Buy links from Text-link-ads.com
14. Submit classified ads to USFreeAds.com
15. Publish content based on the latest news or unique items to tap on long tail traffic
16. Optimize your webpages for meta tags, title tags and H1 tags
17. Run online contests with kick-ass prizes
18. Run article exchange campaigns with HTML links in them
19. Generate your own social networking site
20. Join and participate in the Internet Marketing Singapore forum to get suggestions and ideas
21. Produce an unbelievable product and sell it on Clickbank.com
22. Auction off cheap digital items on eBay
23. Write articles for major sites like About.com
24. Create a regular PDF newsletter
25. Talk to 5 people every day about one piece of content on your site
26. Visit online guest books and leave a comment
27. Visit other blogs and contribute actively on a regular basis
28. Use banner advertising on banner exchange programs like BannersgoMLM.com
29. Seek out joint venture partners to promote your site/event
30. Purchase leads from a co-registration service
31. Write an offline book
32. Distribute flyers
33. Sponsor an event with prizes that have your website on it
34. Run a charity event
35. Submit a press release to PRWeb.com
36. Use resell rights promotions
37. Produce a web or blog template using Open Source license
38. Create a community with a community badge/chicklet for identity
39. Look for newsworthy information and syndicate to Digg.com
40. Use your MSN nickname/message
41. Provide a free download on your site with a message on the back of your business card
42. Leave an email signature
43. Have a tell-a-friend form
44. Newspaper advertismenets
45. Direct response mail
46. Regular podcasts
47. Run a “live” seminar
48. Create an affiliate program
49. Get invited to events
50. Run a 24-hour answering service
51. Give people the right to syndicate your content
52. Keep your content fresh
53. Create multiple offers
54. Use ping sites for your blog
55. Use article submission services like ArticleAnnouncer.com to create backlinks
56. Give a DVD out for free that requires opt-insk
57. Car decals with your website on it
58. Generate a member-get-member promotion
59. Offer a 50% sale for products on your site
60. Create an online community of friends
61. Invite 10 people to visit your site on a regular basis
62. Print t-shirts with your URL
63. Advertise in trade magazines
64. Advertise in the main newspapers
65. Radio interviews
66. TV interviews
67. TV advertisements
68. Use Google Adwords
69. Use MSN Adcenter
70. Use Yahoo Search Marketing
71. Use Adbrite
72. Getresponse Co-registration service
73. Optimize your website for a specific, targeted key phrase
74. Use PayPerPost.com to get bloggers to write about your site
75. Run a Web 2.0 community
76. Advertise in the Yellow Pages
77. Directory submissions
78. Affiliate directory submissions
79. Direct email campaigns with list owners
80. Use direct response postcards
81. Build a free software directory
82. Build a free image directory
83. Offer a bonus product during a product launch to JV partners
84. Use well-optimized websites and content
85. Bait providers to visit your website through eLance.com and Scriptlance.com
86. Purchase outdoor advertising space at targeted locations
87. Create an Opt-in mailing list
88. Visit and participate in forums related to your niche.
89. Build more backlinks for popular keywords
90. Narrow your market to a specific niche
91. Build more websites within related niches
92. Attend more seminars to gain connections
93. Use a Feed Reader to subscribe to RSS feeds - comment on targeted posts
94. Have multiple distribution locations for a physical product
95. Create your own products and let affiliates sell them
96. Blog controversially
97. Deliberately start an online war (flaming - not recommended)
98. Look for related websites in #1 position and buy advertising space from them
99. Set up account with Squidoo.com
100. Set up account with Hi5.com
101. Set up account with Multiply.com
102. Set up account with iConnectE.com - A Singaporean social networking site
103. Set up account with Huminity.com
104. Do a giveaway rights promotion
105. Build a presence on 43 things
106. Create an affiliate promotion with Clickbank
107. Run a Cost-Per-Lead program
108. Run a Classified on http://www.Mocca.com.sg
109. Find a Cause to support and promote the cause
110. Get people involved in your community
111. Use a tell-a-friend script and place this automatically with people have opted-in
112. Run a blog carnival
113. Use games to “tag” people
114. Encourage article exchanges
115. Request people to submit articles that you will display on your blog for free
116. Build a free online widget that people will use
117. Join discussion groups on Google, Yahoo or MySpace groups
118. Advertise on Alexa.com
119. Use Global SMS service
120. Leverage Craigslist.org
Thursday, 12 June 2008
E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing to communicate promotional messages to potential or current customers. E-mail marketing are often more effective than printed direct mail. Here are a couple of recommendations when setting up an e-mail marketing campaign.
Determine Your Goals
Behind every successful marketing campaign there must be specific goals. You must set goals that are specific and quantifiable. Once the goals are determined, you must be committed to reach the targets. Every campaign sows better results when there is clarity of action.
E-mail Marketing Strategy
Building your Brand name
Let people know about you, your organization and your product. Create a dear image in their mind. A simple way to build branding is sending periodic newsletter over a very short period. Be consistent. Focus on a few messages that are core to your values and goals.
Building good customer relations using emails
The most vital factor in business is creating good customer relationship. Good customer relatioship will foster customer loyalty and increase the possibility of up-selling and cross-selling of your products.
Use your Newsletters or E-zines to promote your sponsors
Once you have established a large mailing list for your newsletters or e-zines, you can potentially bring in more revenues by placing relevant ads, sponsorships or affiliate programs.
Build Trust with Relevant E-mails
Besides providing newsworthy emails you must be focused on making your emails as relevant as possible to your target audience. Keep in mind that your e-mails are competing with hundred other e-mails on your subscribers' inbox. So make your subject line catchy. After all if you don't get their attention, they wont open your emails. Don't forget that the customers will read the email only if they are relevant. "When e-mail is customized conversion rates double. (SmartMoney Magazine, May 2006)"
Make your E-Mail Readable
You must consider on designing your e-mails so they are readable by many popular e-mail programs like Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail or Outlook. More and more web-based programs have preview panes. If your newsletter is too wide or long to load, your audience may not be able to view your newsletter. Some programs will disable images to load on e-mails for spamming reasons. You may consider not using images when sending important or urgent messages to your customers. Testing your e-mails on variety of e-mail programs and computer settings is the only way to ensure that your e-mails are readable by your audience. Many newsletter providers will provide statistics on your conversion rates. Test and measure your conversion rates. Redesign if necessary to make improvements.
Building your Mailing List with Search Engines
Search Engine marketing is an easy and affordable way to attract customers and generate leads to your website. Entice your visitors with free newsletters, white papers and product demos. Use this opportunity to ask their emails to build your mailing list.
Give your Readers some control
You must consider the recipients requirements first. Give them control. Try to understand what they want. Let them choose the format (text or HTML), of the contents, the frequency of getting e-mail, whether you can send other information, etc. Add a link to your each newsletter to allow your readers to unsubscribe from the mailing list.
Finally, sending message is not your only job. Plan for specific follow-ups. Send automated bounce-back replies. Integrate the e-mail campaign with other channels. Try to generate customer interest in every possible way.
Go ahead, all the best!
Search engine optimization does not have to be complicated but it does require some work if you plan on having your Website in the top 10 on the major search engines. Many Webmasters want their Websites on the first page of Google, MSN and Yahoo when their keyword is put in the search. Unfortunately they believe one of two things. The first being that it is too difficult for them to do it themselves and the second is that there is a secret trick that will have to perform in order to get high rankings. Both of these statements are false.
Some Webmasters will pay thousands of dollars to a so-called professional SEO expert to have their Websites on top in the rankings. The truth is that you can get top Search Engine Rankings spending a little bit of money and doing the work yourself or paying a professional SEO company thousands of dollars to get your Website on the first page. Both will work the choice is yours.
There are many myths about SEO but I want to tell you the plain truth. The do-it-yourself person can accomplish just as much as the professional. You must be willing to do many tasks of Website Optimization if you want to succeed. There is much information on the Internet on SEO. Some will tell you that the secret to high rankings is creating and submitting many RSS Feeds. Others will tell you that you need quality reciprocal links. Is there just one way of gaining first page on Google?
What is required of Webmasters in order to achieve Top Website Rankings? Some believe that if they perform 3 major tasks of Website Optimization that their Website will soar to the top. I believe that you cannot just do a few works of optimization or come up with a secret trick to achieve a high site ranking on the search engine.
Complete Website Optimization is your best guarantee to having a high ranking on the major search engines. What is complete optimization? Using all of the information and tools to get your site noticed on the search engines with a high ranking for your keywords. If you really want a top ranking and only want to spend a little bit of money I will tell you the many things you will need to do in order to have the first page on the search engines.
Complete Website Optimization is your best guarantee to having a high ranking on the major search engines. What is complete optimization? Using all of the information and tools to get your site noticed on the search engines with a high ranking for your keywords. If you really want a top ranking and only want to spend a little bit of money I will tell you the many things you will need to do in order to have the first page on the search engines.
Having complete Website Optimization will require many working tasks, tools and much researched information. I’m going to give you the many tasks that you will need to perform to accomplish high rankings.
1. Accurate Description of Website. |
After you complete all of the above then you can be sure that your Website will be on top. If you want the much researched information on complete optimization with many tools to speed up the process then visit website ranking top.
For the rest of the populous, those who already have the product do the selling, explaining and closing but want to market their goods or service via internet as opposed to offline media, then automated marketing is also the answer.
Once you have taken the time to set up your campaigns, ads, submissions, press releases, etc. then it is only a matter of pushing a button and watching the sales come in! It really can be just that simple…
Friday, 30 May 2008
Almost all bloggers monetize their traffic with the help of PPC (pay per click) programs and systems, among which Google AdSense program is the most famous one. And, of course, one of the most important tasks of every blog owner who uses PPC program is to make more people click the ads: the higher percentage of clickers is - the better.
All these efforts come down to simple question: how to increase CTR level of my ads? Note: CTR is click through rate which shows the % of the people who click on the ads.
Try to put yourself into the shoes of blog visitor, and the situation gets clear. Only the person who is search hungry is very likely to click the ads of PPC program, because these ads are usually very good in giving more relevant results to the search hungry visitors of your blog. These people are happy to find as much info around their topic as possible, and their clicking habit at this very moment is extremely high.
So, search hungry people who came to your blog from the search engines are very likely to show better CTR and click on your PPC ads a lot more.
And this is the time when modern PPC Internet marketing solutions come to help.
Technologically it is possible to set up your ads to be displayed only to the traffic that comes to your blog from search engines. You are not dispersing the efforts any longer. If the solution "sees" that blog visitor A is a regular visitor to this blog - it is very likely that he or she is reading the content of this blog very attentively and will not be mentioning the PPC ads. When solution "sees" that visitor B came to the blog right from the search engine and has come here for the first time, this person should see the PPC ads.
Solutions that help to create this kind of scenarios greatly help to display the necessary type of ads to the necessary type of audience: affiliate offers for loyal blog visitors, PPC ads for the traffic that has just come from search engines to the blog. This increases the effect from your advertising and will give you very nice CTR on PPC ads which is also a nice record to be shown to other potential advertisers.
Which is the best direction to go when building up your online opportunity: focusing on a small niche or diversification? There are strong arguments for both sides of the coin and it can get pretty confusing because the decision you take will have a huge impact on the success or failure of your business.
There are those who strongly argue for diversification saying that with your finger in many pies, you will tend to considerably cut down your risks in case anything goes wrong. However on the other end of the spectrum are those who strongly support focus as the only way to succeed at anything. The rays of the sun are spread all over and are harmless in sharp contrast to a laser beam whose rays are much weaker that the sun's but because they focus, they become so powerful that they are able to cut through diamond.
It is best to reach our verdict based on success stories online and which particular policy seems to have worked best to transform opportunity into lucrative business.
In reality focus almost always seems to win the day.
When Sergey Brin and Larry Page were launching Google they focused on building the best search engine on the World Wide Web. They did this at a time when all other major companies like Yahoo! Who were involved in search were diversifying to supposedly maximize on their income and revenues. Today the figures speak for themselves because Google is much bigger than all the others. In fact there are more people using Google than those using all the other search engines put together.
There are countless other examples of how careful focusing on a tiny niche opened up an online opportunity beyond the wildest dreams of the founders. The truth is that the web is a huge place and failing to focus can easily cause you to disappear and drown in the ocean that is the web. Focusing on a tiny niche not only enables you to get an identity but also ensures that you dominate that particular niche.
Even when choosing which keywords to use for your site, it is best to focus your site on a single keyword phrase. The keyword should clearly define your narrow niche. This is in fact how you will succeed with search engines. Naturally you will sue plenty of synonyms and similar words to your single keyword phrase but they will all be closely linked to your main keyword phrase. Focus is powerful even in an online opportunity on the web.
This is going to sound like a foreign concept to some of you reading this because so many people into Internet marketing simply create a product, pump it out there and wait for the money to come pouring in. No real effort to help their fellow marketer is ever made. It's just one big assembly line. Well, believe it or not, there is a better way. This article is going to share just a few of the many ways that you can make money online by honestly helping others.
One way, and probably the easiest and most effective, is to go to forums and offer your help. This can come in many forms. What I personally do, with the forums I frequent, is make regular posts outlining some step by step process related to Internet marketing. I make it as complete as I can, given the short amount of space I have, and expect nothing in return. What ultimately happens is that people thank me for my generosity and ultimately look down at my signature to see what products I am selling. I make a lot of sales this way and don't have to give a sales pitch. The more you give...the more you get in return.
Another way is by using traffic exchanges correctly. Most people don't know how to do this. They go there with their 40 page sales letter and expect people to buy their products. It doesn't work that way at these sites. What you have to do is educate people how to use traffic exchanges. So I set up a splash page with a free report to do just that. It works very well. After reading this report, that they have to opt in to get, they are now more open to buying one of my products.
Still yet one more way to help others and make money in the process is to put up a blog with tons of great content and articles. Give away as much free information as you can. Really educate people as to how to make money online. When they see what you are willing to give away for nothing, they will be inclined to think that what you are selling must be really special. Then watch the sales come in.
The point is simple, and it's as true in this business as in any other. The more you give, the more you get in return.
Don't you ever forget it.
Are you about to embark on a tightly-focused marketing campaign? Do you need to support this effort with hard-hitting interactive creative? Have you come up with new and interesting ways of promoting your product or service, and need something better then yet another web page attached to your site?
In fact, are you tired of sending prospects to your main web site and just seeing really lame results? Not willing to navigate the politics of getting a mention on your corporate site's main page?
Then it's time to build a microsite. What's a microsite? Well, it's exactly what the name implies: a small web site that is tightly focused on a particular topic.
Why are marketers building them? Because they offer an easy way to craft, brand, and deliver a highly focused message that doesn't have to compete will all the rest of the initiatives at your organization.
Furthermore, it's relatively easy to optimize microsites for superior search engine performance, turning these little sites into hub destinations for any topic.
So how do you know if you need a microsite?
1. Is your existing web site already full of messaging? Does your company sell a lot of products and services? Do you feel that your particular marketing message might get lost in the shuffle?
2. Does your marketing campaign focus on a tightly-focused target market, topic, or action? For example, you may want your visitors to order a certain ebook or download a special report after they've progressed through a highly structured conversation about the topic in question. Perfect!
3. Does your marketing campaign require different search engine optimization characteristics or requirements from your main site?
4. Do you need something up quickly? Sometimes it's easier and less stressful to build a 10-20 page site than deal with how to fit your stuff into an existing site with many hundreds of pages.
5. Is your marketing message temporary or seasonal? If your marketing offer is here today and gone in six weeks, or is only live during certain parts of the year, then you know you're a good candidate for a microsite.
6. Are you willing to put in the time to track performance and improve conversion? If I may paraphrase a line from Spider-Man, "With great power comes great responsibility." Enough said.
7. Do you need to show your boss(es) a good return on your marketing dollars? Then yes, a microsite can deliver.
8. Are you willing to follow your organization's branding and identity guidelines? Showing them that you can play nice will go a long way toward making your microsite a reality.
Thursday, 22 May 2008
Often times paid search advertising campaigns are launched by pay-per-click do-it-yourselfers without proper education or knowledge on just how important your landing page is. This is evident by the fact that so many of them use the homepage of their web site or another page on their site as a landing page. Only in certain instances can the homepage of a website act as a landing page.
Many do-it-yourselfers fail to realize two things. The first is that their landing page is the single most important page of their web site as it relates to converting a click to a desired profitable action and two, the success (or failure) of an paid search campaign rises and falls by the conversion rates and as a result, the utmost attention needs to be given to the landing page especially when it’s the recipient of paid traffic.
Tip #1: Do not use your index page (homepage) of your web site as a landing page. By using the homepage of your site as a landing page, you are giving the Internet user a palette of choices in the form of navigational links. This in turns encourages them to surf and explore rather than the desired action of converting them to make a purchase, opt in or sign up for a newsletter, etc.
Tip #2: You want to optimize your landing page for conversions by adding core keywords to the verbiage of your landing page. This will almost always raise conversion rates. Remember, the object is not to achieve a high page rank in Google, the object is to convert the user to your desired action whether that is to make a purchase, sign up, opt in, etc. You must create your landing page with that mind and not distract your visitors by offering links to other areas of your website.
Tip #3: Advertise a clear message on your landing page. Keep it simple, don’t bombard your visitor with too much word clutter. Be sure to use one or two simple ideas conveyed by large text and some images. Be sure to place things of importance near the top of the page and create your landing page with the assumption that people will be viewing your page with 800 x 600 resolution because this is the norm.
Lastly, you want your landing page to have a clear call to action. The words you choose for your landing page should reflect and entice them to that action with big bold colorful buttons. For example: “Buy Now” or “Sign Up Now”, “Start 10-Day Free Trial Now”, and so on. Your call to action should be prominent and repeated several times if necessary. Bottom line is you must make it easy for people to do what you want them to do or they will never do it.
A landing page is simply a web page designed to convert clicks, sales or some other action. This is the first page a visitor sees when they click through to a website. But it doesn’t have to be the home page or index page of your website. In fact, often, it is better that it isn’t as you can focus your content to perform an action fine tuned to the visitor.
This page can be used to provide a sign up for your lists, to promote an informational course, promote an affiliate program, provide giveaways, to sell your own products or services and much more! Landing pages are used by Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisers and Affiliate Marketers to drive their clicks directly to a page where they can encourage the visitor to perform some kind of action.
But it is not limited to just PPC or affiliate marketing. No matter how you are driving traffic, you can use a landing page to help you direct traffic and increase conversions.
They give you an opportunity to control your traffic and it provides the visitor the information they need to make a decision to act. The information provided can be finely tuned and focused on exactly what that person was clicking to find out before they landed on your web page.
You can answer specific questions that you determine might be on that visitors mind. You can provide an overview of the benefits or features of a product you might be promoting. You can do this with a few short paragraphs, an entire article, or an entire web of pages that the landing page leads to.
You can use these pages to pre-sell affiliate programs or your own products. You can fill in gaps in information that the customer needs to know to make a buying decision before you send them off to the purchase page. Having a review of a product or a number of products on a landing page can help a visitor tremendously as well.
By split testing landing page against landing page until we get the best conversions possible from our design and content, we can make our landing pages pull profits we couldn’t normally pull with a general or unfocused web page.
So as you can see, landing pages are a great tool to improve your conversions. Instead of driving traffic to your home page or a general page that isn’t focused at all towards what you are promoting, landing pages can be designed to take a visitor by the hand and lead them strategically towards whatever action you want them to take.
Making money with your website and the products you are promoting can improve greatly if you learn how to use the landing page to your advantage.
Landing pages can be very easy, a fun process and a profitable endeavor! Once learned, they don’t have to be a lot of work. They don’t have to be complex. Once you have a good system of creating these pages, there is nothing stopping you from incorporating them into almost everything that you do.
If you want to build a successful website, do the following things. According to an ex-employee of Google, this will work good. Always!
1. Add content
Add content, add content, add content. Before you even register your domain, you should have enough ideas to build 100 pages on your site. Start brainstorming and see what you can come up with in 10 minutes. If that's not enough to fill 50 pages, consider not building the site at all. Having lots of content is important.
2. A simple design is better
The text content should outweigh the html content. Stay away from heavy flash, java, javascript, etc. Don't add to much stuff like 'best viewed with'... Your website should be viewable with any browser. Keep it clean and professional.
3. Keep the pages small
Smaller is better. Keep it under 15k if you can. Your site should be fast loading, or people will leave. Speed is everything. Next to content, that is. Keeping it under 10k or 5k if you can. Difficult, but people love fast sites. Throw away all the trash on your pages.
4. Content length
Put a new page online every day of about 200 to 500 words. Go to the overture keyword suggester to find ideas of what to write about. Spell check your content. Search engines can do it, and so should you. If you have a blog, go for article-like posts as opposed to the personal diary kinds of posts.
5. Use keywords
Use your keywords in the following places: title, description tag, heading, url, once bold, once italic and once high on the page.
6. Link to other sites
Put 2 links to other, high ranking pages on your site. They should be relevant to the content of that page and use keywords as your link. Don't add every link that's requested. Check their relevance first.
7. Link to your own site
Put links from one page to other relevant pages on your own site. Again: use keywords as your link.
Monday, 19 May 2008
There is a lot of buzz online around web 2.0 especially around how webmasters can get fast results on search engines. Rather than contribute to the buzz, lets look into it closer and explain.
Web 2.0 is a really big topic, and in short, it means the move from static webpages- just text and images to interactivity, visitor contribution and the rise of video. These are all great ideas as it creates personal ownership, in the form of being able to voice and opinion in a subject.
Now what does this mean to * Your * business, after all that's what really counts ;)
Lets look at one area - Blogging
A blog is simple to use way of putting your own content up on line. It requires no knowledge to write articles and post them up on a site (if you are advanced, and have a blog already the real information is coming ;)
Blogs or weblogs have been put forward as the "quick free fix" for getting top rankings. The most professional blogging system is one called wordpress. Its free and has a load of support.
Now bloggers themselves are a weird bunch, and they are very web2.0 aimed and, most of the time not very business focused, more out just to make a few bucks online. However, creating a blog to use to drive traffic to your own site, and increase search engine traffic is something to definitely include in your plans.
Here is a few things to keep in mind:
1. Content - Blogs are a content tool, they are used to provide information to the user give valuable information (sometimes they cross over into opinion)
2. Time - they take time and consistent effort to contribute to get started and maintain
3. Integration -They need to integrate with your marketing plan which means, not just search engine ranking, but lead generation (collecting email addressees and first names) and can be a good form of pre - selling your future customers.
4. Outside Influence - Blogs will still need outside influence in the form of links to get traffic.
The wordpress free program is great however most bloggers do not set the site up to be 100% search engine friendly.
I will use my partners site which has had very little work done on it but is getting results. We started with the keyword research and settled on a core keyword of "Home Organizing" and secondary keywords of "home organizing ideas" and "home organizing tips"