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Web Development Los Angeles Web Development Los Angeles   What are the Web Development Los Angeles services and how can they help a business in these harsh times that the world is living today. There are many different opinions on this matter, as some agree to the use of such services, others think that it's a waste of time. The reality is that, with the proper knowledge, things can only go up. The rise of the Web Development Los Angeles services First of all, people need to take into consideration two aspects. One refers to the idea that the online environment is one of the most powerful tools there is when it comes to reaching your potential audience. The other one refers to the fact that it's a lot cheaper to invest in this area rather than use any other forms of publicity. These aspects cannot be contested by anyone. This is one of the best arguments in favor of the Web Development Los Angeles services. Another great issue in this matter here is linked with the idea of being unique. Such services encourage their clients to be as unique as possible when it comes to showing off on the market. There are so many competitors available out there, that it makes it hard for one to come up with other concepts in their business. The Web Development Los Angeles services talk about... more.. 12 Ways to Use Twitter for Social Media Marketing 12 Ways to Use Twitter for Social Media Marketing By Ron Knight (c) 2009 Twitter is a wildly popular microblogging service. It involves writing Tweets, which are short updates of a maximum of 140 characters that tell your followers what you are up to. Although your Tweets are technically supposed to answer the question, "What are you doing?" Twitter has moved far beyond that. Tweets are used to share stories, link to photos, promote content, break news, and a whole lot more. Twitter has also become an incredibly important tool for social media marketing professionals. Here are 12 ways in which Twitter can be used in your social media marketing campaign. 1. Sharing Links to Items of Interest As soon as you read something online that you think is interesting, it is easy to share it on Twitter with all of your followers. Twitter is highly effective in this manner because it is such a quick way to be able to reach a large group of people. You can also get a lot of great ideas for blog posts from Twitter since many new ideas and stories are floating around that haven?t even made it to the blogosphere and definitely not to mainstream media. 2. Building Your Network Using Twitter is a great way to build your network because it allows you to find and follow people with similar interests. You can use Steeple to find people who live in your geographical area. You can also use other tools that help you find new people to follow based upon who your Twitter friends follow. 3. Build Relationships within Your Current Network People in different networks often use Twitter to connect with their contacts... more.. 10 Steps To Top 10 Rankings In Google 10 Steps To Top 10 Rankings In Google By Titus Hoskins (c) 2007 Most webmasters go totally "gaga" for top 10 rankings in Google. And for good reason, Google is the most dominant search engine on the net and will deliver the largest amount of traff? More importantly, those same webmasters will also inform you, getting top 10 rankings in Google often means your site will prove profitable. Mainly because obtaining targeted traff?is usually your first obstacle in creating a viable online business. In other words, if you get top ten listings in Google for good searchable keywords, it is almost impossible not to earn money. How To Proceed? First, you must know the rudimentary basics of how keywords work. Keywords and keyword phrases are the exact words someone types into a search engine to find what they're looking for online. If you have a site on "dog training" then your goal is to get a top 10 ranking for the keywords "dog training". Now if no one searches for "dog training" it would be a useless keyword, you would get no traff?no matter how perfectly your site is optimized for that keyword. How Do You Know If A Keyword Is Good? To find out, you have to do some keyword research on your particular keywords. Many professional online marketers use keyword research software like Brad Callen's Keyword Elite. However, you can also use the keyword suggestion tools supplied by Google Adwords or Overture. Try here: http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/ Now if you ch? "dog training", you will find it receives around 4,469 searches each day. That's a lot... more.. Predicting Search Engine Algorithm Changes Predicting Search Engine Algorithm Changes By John Metzler With moderate search engine optimization knowledge, some common sense, and a resourceful and imaginative mind, one can keep his or her web site in good standing with search engines even through the most significant algorithm changes. The recent Google update of October/November 2005, dubbed "Jagger", is what inspired me to write this, as I saw some web sites that previously ranked in the top 20 results for extremely competitive keywords suddenly drop down to the 70th page. Yes, the ebb and flow of search engine rankings is nothing to write home about, but when a web site doesn't regain many ranking spots after such a drop it can tell us that the SEO done on the site may have had some long-term flaws. In this case, the SEO team had not done a good job predicting the direction a search engine would take with its algorithm. Impossible to predict, you say? Not quite. The ideas behind Google's algorithm come from the minds of fellow humans, not supercomputers. I'm not suggesting that it's easy to "crack the code" so to speak because the actual math behind it is extremely complicated. However, it is possible to understand the general direction that a search engine algorithm will take by keeping in mind that any component of SEO which is possible to manipulate to an abnormal extent will... more.. Texas Land for Sale Texas Land for Sale What happens when a person actually decides to consider the Texas Land For Sale opportunities or offers? What are his or her benefits and what will be the road that needs to be taken in order to fully enjoy the decision that has been made here? The answers to these questions might scare off the people who haven't decided in this direction yet. The solid approach towards the Texas Land for Sale opportunities Firstly, people need to take into consideration the current condition that the world is currently living today. Many people think that the recession has made a lot of damages and they should be scared to approach any investment right now. Probably, they are entitled to think so, but there are some opportunities that have opened up and are really worth to be taken into consideration. Such an idea refers to the Texas Land For Sale offers and the benefits that come along with them. On of those benefits refer to the fact that the price that you will be paying for a specific land is quite low, if compared with the one given to the same land in the year of 2008 or 2009. This is because of the fact that the world is in some harsh economical stages and things are quite uncertain right now. The next step that follows considering the acquisition of a Texas Land For Sale, is to think about the reason why you are buying. There are two ways that can be taken here: a personal investment or a financial one. Both ways are quite beneficial to take and it really matters how the... more.. Can Social Networking Improve Your Business and Your Life?  Can Social Networking Improve Your Business and Your Life? By Mary Petto (c) 2010 If you can't fathom jumping into the online world of social media for your business, start with your personal life. You've probably heard that any business committed to long-term growth has added social media to their marketing plan matrix. You've also probably heard your friends, colleagues, competitors, and, of course, your kids bragging about how social networking has solidified deals, increased business, or kick-started a creative campaign. But, alas, this Internet thing is not for you, right? If it's hard to imagine why you need to jump into this alternative universe if your business is already running smoothly, consider starting with the light version of social networking by setting up a personal account on Facebook. Joining the world of Facebook can be a real turning point in your relationships, family management, social life, and self-improvement; the likes of which could not ever have happened before. Here are just a few examples of the life- changing purposes a personal Facebook account can serve: Long-Lost Friend Database Whatever became of the fr?d you played Battleship with who moved to another state in fourth grade? Type in his name and voila! It is very likely he will appear on the search results list, the magical effect of critical mass attraction to this online universe. Not sure if it's him? One of Facebook's handiest features is that you can send private messages to users, even if you haven't officially connected through a "friend request" yet. Chances are it will be him, and you may be surprised that not only can you pick up right where you left off, as is the... more.. 2010 Resolution - Give Your Website a Legal Check-Up 2010 Resolution - Give Your Website a Legal Check-Up By Chip Cooper (c) 2010 We all make New Year's resolutions - some are personal, some are business or professional in nature. Even if we don't actually make New Year's resolutions, we engage in formal and informal "planning" as we look ahead to the new year. If you operate a website, you're probably aware that your website operations are now highly regulated. And the pace of legal regulations continues to accelerate. Which means that you face an increasing risk of legal liability. So, it's a good idea to give your website a legal check-up and to update your site before it's too late. General Issue Checklist The general checklist below covers issues that are not new issues which arose in 2009. These issues have been around for a while, but some may be new to you, particularly if your website or marketing activities changed recently. ? Copyright Notice. These are the basic elements of a copyright notice: the word "copyright" or copyright symbol (c in a circle) followed by the year of first publication followed by the name of the copyright owner followed by "All rights reserved worldwide." Here's an example taken from my digicontracts.com website: Copyright 1996-2010 Digital Contracts, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. ? Blogs. If you've recently added a blog to your site, or if your site is a blog site, it's possible that a visitor could post infringing materials (e.g. text, video links, images). Under the strict principles of copyright law, you'd be a copyright infringer even if you were unaware of the posting. Your liability could be significant. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides a "safe harbor" from liability provided you publish... more.. 5 Google Tools For Researching Your Market 5 Google Tools For Researching Your Market By Pete Moore (c) 2009 Internet marketers and webmasters have always had a love/ hate relationship with Google. Whatever you think of them they do provide website owners with some great market research tools. No matter what market you are in or plan to be in, you will find these free tools provided by Google very useful when researching your market. You should be researching your market constantly, NOT just when setting up your site. The internet is ever changing and, if you're not keeping up with those changes, you will be left behind. Market Research Tool 1 - Related Searches And Wonder Wheel When you start typing in the main Google search box you should see a drop down box appear giving you some alternative search terms related to the word you typed. Note these phrases down in a notepad file or write them on a piece of paper. They will be useful as part of your keyword list used in the next tool. You will also see more related search phrases after you click search. Scroll to the bottom of the results page and you will see "searches related to:" Note down any new phrases shown there. Recently Google has released Wonder Wheel which is also a related keywords tool but is shown in a mind map format. You can also click on the related phrases to find more useful search terms. To access wonder wheel: enter your keyword in the standard search screen, then at the top of the results on the left you should see a show options link. Select that and it will reveal a menu. Near the bottom of the menu you should see wonder... more.. Reciprocal Linking vs. Mutual Linking Reciprocal Linking vs. Mutual Linking By Scottie Claiborne  Some of the advice floating around regarding linking for your site can be pretty confusing, especially when it comes to reciprocal linking. Is it something you have to do? Can your site succeed without reciprocal links? Will you be penalized for reciprocal linking? There are so many conflicting theories. Let's try to clear the subject up a little. Link Popularity The founders of Google worked off a premise that has been active in academic papers for years: citation authority. They found that the more academic papers cited another's work, the more likely that cited work was to be an authority on the subject. Similarly, when a lot of sites link to one site, it's likely that site is an authority for the topic. The "topic" is whatever those links say it is. If 25 sites link to another site with the term "oak shelving," it's likely that page is an important page for oak shelving. Manipulation of Links It didn't take long for people who wanted to rank well for certain terms to figure out that they needed a lot of links with their chosen keyword phrases to improve their rankings in the search engines. Many schemes were born, including mini-sites, site networks, link farms, and reciprocal linking. Reciprocal Linking At the most basic level, reciprocal links are links you trade with other sites (you add their link, they add yours) in order to build link popularity. There are online services, group exchanges, and software available to help you link up with more like-minded webmasters, fast. As a result, many sites have grown sizeable directories on topics that have nothing to do with their area of expertise, simply because those other sites were willing to... more.. Google+ Reviewed  Google+ Reviewed     By Jacob S Strandlien (c) 2011 Social networking has grown steadily in scope and importance over the last decade, and over the past few years, Facebook's position as the top dog of social networking services has been solid and unquestioned. Enter Google+. Google's attempts to step into the realm of social networking have been plentiful and almost undeniable failures, but Google+ is undoubtedly their strongest showing yet, and has the best chance of success. It is growing steadily in popularity, but how well does it work and what sets it apart from its competitors? Read on. Social Networking, Google Style Google has a long, tumultuous, and mostly unknown and ignored history with social networking. The following is a rundown of their previous attempts.   Orkut: As far as I am aware, this is Google's earliest and (until now) most successful attempt at a social networking platform. It didn't ever gained much popularity in the United States, but it is huge in Brazil to this day, and it also has a following in India and other various countries. Open Social: Launched in 2007, it's not technically a social network in and of itself. Open Social is Google and MySpace's attempt to create a common programming interface that can be applied across several social networks, allowing programmers to easily integrate these networks into websites and other applications. This has largely been drowned out by Facebook. Friend Connect: Launched in 2008, Friend Connect was Google's next attempt at a Facebook or MySpace style social network, but it took the approach of using various open standards (including Open Social) to create this network across different types... more.. Best Marketing Tips of Highly Successful Marketers  Best Marketing Tips of Highly Successful Marketers A SPN Exclusive Article By David Jackson (c) 2011 Most of the time when I write an article, I share my own personal marketing experiences, viewpoints and opinions - my OWN marketing tips as it were. Today, I'm going to change things up a little and share with you some of the best marketing tips of other successful marketers. I compiled these remarkable marketing gems from the thousands and thousands of quality blog posts, articles, newsletters and interviews I've had the pleasure of reading over the years. The hard part was narrowing my list down to only 20. I could easily have listed 100. Oh well, perhaps I'll write a sequel or two or three... Enjoy! - Tim Berry, Planning Startups Stories - "One of the most expensive myths in marketing is that lower price produces higher volume. That might be true for coal or gasoline, but not for most businesses. Lower price means, well, ask yourself: do you always eat at the lowest price restaurant? Purchase the lowest pr??ce clothes? Do you drive the lowest priced car? Pricing is your best statement of value." - Drew McClellan, Drew's Marketing Minute - "Do Less. One of the most tempting aspects of marketing is the veritable smorgasbord of different marketing tactics that you can toss into a marketing plan. It's almost overwhelming. Many marketing professionals make the very understandable mistake of believing that more is better. But they're wrong. You will be vastly more successful if you do less, but do it better. Pick 3-4 marketing tactics that you think are really going to be valued by your... more.. Google's 0.02% Spin Solution Google's 0.02% Spin Solution By Jim Hedger (c) 2007 Last week, Google made a startling claim, one that begs explanation even after close examination. Faced with lingering quest?s about cl? fraud, Google released a blog post stating actual cl? fraud charges are ridiculously lower than those projected by third party analysts from the search marketing community. According to Google, actual cl? fraud only accounts for 0.02% of all cl? activity found when Google's team is asked to audit an advertiser's account. If correct, Google's 0.02% assertion places the perceived dollar value of actual cl? fraud in their system somewhere in the range of $2,100,000. In a post to the Inside AdWords blog, "Invalid Clicks - Google's Overall Numbers", Google gave a brief outline of how it claims AdWords' 100+ data-point cl? detection system works to filter out 99.98% of the nearly 10% of overall clicks Google determines to be invalid. Other industry analysts have pegged the number between 15% and 20% with the cl? fraud index maintained by Cl? Forensics suggesting, "The average cl? fraud rate of Pay Per Cl? advertisements appearing on search engine content networks was 19.2 percent for Q4." Google has nev?given specific figures citing how much of the PPC-traffic they filter is caught and disregarded as invalid cl? activity saying it fluctuates from month to month but is below 10%. Though evidence of these clicks might appear in server logs or be noted as cl? fraud by third party analysts, Google says it does not charge for them. In the absence of a fee charged to an advertiser, the most such invalid cl? activity can be called is attempted fraud. On one... more.. baby gift ideas baby gift ideas The thing with the Baby gift ideas is that people are always so obsessed with coming up with something new. The gifts industry is quite helpful in this direction as it comes up with various models and choices in order to satisfy almost any tastes. The cute part of the baby gift ideas First of all, there are many different choices when it comes to picking up a gift, the only thing that needs to be done here is to have a little patience and think of the one that will be receiving the gift. The Baby gift ideas are a little bit tricky because the toddlers are a little bit too young to value a specific gift. Another rule applies here and many people go by it, because it's helpful for the parents: buying specific gifts that are designed to help the child develop and expand. There are many great choices that can be made in this direction as the market is really resourceful. The very first category that comes to mind when taking about which Baby gift ideas are really great for the little ones, refers to the issue of toys. Many different psychologists have proven that it is important for the children o develop certain skills when they are that young. The industries have developed several ones that are designed to educate and expand certain abilities and skills in order for the toddler to develop and understand the world a little bit better. Another great benefit here is that the child can actually have fun in the process. This is the time of his life, when he gets to do everything that he wants so it's normal to... more.. How to Create Search Engine Friendly Title and META Tags (Part 1) How to Create Search Engine Friendly Title and META Tags (Part 1) By Kalena Jordan (c) 2007 In this article, I'm going to show you step-by-step how to create search engine optimized Titles and META Tags.   The TITLE Element TITLE elements, (commonly called TITLE Tags), are one of the most important factors that search engines "look" at when it comes to determining the relevancy of a web page against a search query. In their ranking algorithms, nearly all the major search engines attribute a high relevancy we?t to the content of the TITLE tag. In the HTML code of a web site, TITLE tags look like this one (for a fictional florist): <TITLE>Miami Florists - beautiful floral creations made to order.</TITLE> To view the HTML code of any site, choose "View, Source" from your browser toolbar or right cl? anywhere on the page and choose "view source code". The META Description Tag META Description Tags are designed to describe the content of web pages. Search engine robots will gather up this information when indexing web sites and often use it when referencing web pages in the search listings. While not all search engines continue to utilize the META Description Tag, a majority of search engines rely on the content of this tag (together with a site's visible content) to provide information about a site that they can match with search queries. It is therefore important for webmasters to include keywords and phrases in the META description that they would expect searchers to use to find their site content. In the HTML code of a web site, a sample META Description Tag looks like this: more.. RTA Cabinets Ventura RTA Cabinets Ventura What are the RTA Cabinets Ventura services and why is it important for home owners to be aware of them? The answer to these questions lies in the need that people have to search for kitchen furniture. There are many choices that are available out there and some of these choices are designed to be in the best interest of the customer. The interest of the RTA Cabinets Ventura services First of all, people need to get acquainted with what RTA means. It is an acronym for the words: ready to assemble. This means that the RTA cabinets Ventura models are designed to help the client with the order that he has placed and not waste valuable time on crafting the cabinets on his own. The process is quite simple and it takes a small amount of time for a client to admire the newly bought cabinets in his own kitchen. The very first thing that one should do if interested in the RTA cabinets Ventura models is to log online and find the best model that suits his needs, his style and taste and his pockets. There are models which are designed to go with futuristic styles and there are some which are available for the houses that have a more antique design. It really depends on the tastes of the clients and on what he or she wants for his home. After figuring out which is the best choice for his kitchen, the client needs to... more.. Google cn The Internet As Beijing Sees It Google cn The Internet As Beijing Sees It By Joseph Pratt In November, I wrote an article and referenced a trip that ICMediaDirect.com's VP of Business Development, Diana Lee, took to China. She participated in Shanghai's inaugural ad:tech conference. It was a great trip and our company's ties with China are stronger because of it. Like most Western companies doing business in China, we're just doing business and there are no extenuating circumstances. Google, the giant search engine, cannot say the same. China is an economic giant warming up to the power of the Internet, but this hasn't been a perfect marriage so far. Centralized power and the decentralized nature of the Internet do not mesh well. Beijing feels compelled to exercise tight control over whatever flow of information they can in order to stifle potential dissent within Chinese society. A governmental missive from 2000 states plainly that Internet providers must restrict information that may "harm the dignity and interests of the... more.. Five Crucial Components of Web Design Five Crucial Components of Web Design By Woody Longacre (c) 2009 Professional website developers know the importance of web design and the role it plays in making a website successful. Designing a successful website is no easy task, especially for someone who is new to the world of web development. With the help of web development applications many people can and do create decent websites. But decent in most cases is not good enough to make a site successful from a traffic or financial standpoint. There are five crucial components of web design that you must focus on in order to make a site valuable to its visitors and successful for you.     ? SEO - Getting free traffic to your site.     ? Usability - Ease of navigating around the site and finding desired information quickly.     ? Aesthetics - Visual appeal.     ? Content - Valid, up-to-date, relevant information.     ? Graphics - Eye candy that relays relevant visual information to the visitor. SEO Before you ever lay down a byte of HTML code for a site, you have to know and understand at least the basics of SEO and how it fits into the design. SEO is the art of designing a site in a fashion that gives the site an advantage for obtaining free and abundant traffic. The number one aspect of SEO is selecting keywords relevant to your site. The keywords you select should be based on high usage, low competition and relevancy to your topic. Once you select keywords you can then begin the development of your site. Keep in mind keywords are a critical aspect of the design. The keywords you choose will be applied within the design in strategic fashion to benefit the flow of traffic to... more.. ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles   There are many different opinions regarding the ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles models and how they are or aren't beneficial to the people. Some say that it's great to have things done and ready at your doorstep, but others contradict with the idea that the possibilities from which you can choose are quite limited. There are still other details that should be highlighted here in order to determine which side is right. The right side of the ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles services First of all, the matter of tastes cannot be discussed: if someone likes something, he or she cannot be argued about his choice. It's just how the way things are and that's that. But the relevant part here is the fact that the ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles models are designed to satisfy even the most extravagant of tastes. There are so many models, textures and colors that can be chosen for a kitchen, that it takes some serious hours to pick something up. Another great aspect about the ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles models and its diversities is that they suite almost any style that the other side of the house might have. This means that if you have a futuristic influenced home, you can choose something that best fits with... more.. Using New Content to Build Links Using New Content to Build Links By Rob Sullivan Sometimes, link building is more than just searching out sites to request links from. Sometimes you have to get creative in how you build links. In this article, we look at another way of building links that doesn't really require you to go out and search for relevant sites to request links from. The web is growing at a phenomenal rate. Technorati, a popular blog search and syndication site estimates that the blogosphere alone doubles in size every 5 months. As of the end of July 2005, Technorati was tracking over 14.2 million weblogs, and over 1.3 billion links. Who knows how much the rest of the web grows? I would bet that while it doesn't double every 5 months its rate of growth is pretty impressive. It is because of this growth in the web that other forms of link building become somewhat easier. I am talking about building links through content creation and publishing. Chances are you are reading this article on the Text Link Brokers blog, or one of a number of syndication partners who agree to republish the article with links intact. Through such syndication, you could come across this article through a variety of high profile websites on the web. In addition, these high profile sites are industry specific. This means that any links I embed into this article (which is then syndicated) will ultimately point back to this site on important key phrases. Think about this, for the time it takes me to write this article, I could have built as many as 2 dozen high quality, keyword rich links back to both the main site as well as the blog site.... more.. 25 Ways to Add Quality Content to Your Web Site (Part 2) 25 Ways to Add Quality Content to Your Web Site (Part 2) . . . Using ideas that cover at least 25 different industries! By Robin Nobles Let's continue (from Part 1) with more ideas for ways to build quality content for your Web site. 13. Content that solves a problem. Why do people visit the Web? To look for information or to comparison shop. If you can solve problems for your visitors, you're giving them just what they're looking for online. For example, let's say that you sell Oriental rugs. Your potential customer might be looking for decorating ideas for her office. Her office is very small, and she's trying to think of a way to add color. Most of the wall space is taken up with windows and metal bookcases. You've created a series of content that shows pictures of problems/solutions that your oriental rugs have solved, including one with an Oriental runner. Not only does the content have pictures, it also has text describing each problem and the corresponding solution. Your potential customer found your page in the search engine results. 14. Historical data. Let's say that you sell steel pipes. What's the history of steel pipes? Creating a page outlining its history is quite appropriate. In fact, taking it a step further, creating pages that compare steel to copper and other types of piping; what causes rust; how strong is steel; how valuable steel piping really is (how steel piping is used in almost every building, etc.); how long will steel last; and on and on and on will create a whole section of extremely valuable content to a Web site. Here's the catch. Is this valuable to the... more.. The Art of Website Maintenance The Art of Website Maintenance By Erin Ferree (c) 2007 Now that you've designed and launched your website, you have a powerful marketing tool for your business. But, your website is only as useful as the content is current. The process of keeping the content on your site current is called website maintenance, and it's important to keep both visitors and search engines supplied with new information. Just like regular maintenance on your car, you have to make changes on your website every few months to make sure that things run smoothly. If you update the content on your website on a regular basis, potential clients will be drawn back to your site to find out "what's new". The search engines pay visits to websites in their queue regularly. The catch is that you'll stay in the queue only if you update your site regularly. If the search engines visit your site several times in a row, and don't find anything new, they may decide not to come back-which can be a blow to your search engine rankings. So, when is it appropriate to update your website? You don't want to waste time and mon?nitpicking at your site if you don't have updates of real value to add. You should update your site if you've: - Grown your skills. Have you gotten a new accreditation? New licensing? Improved your skills? Any change in your skill set is a great reason to update your website - and your potential clients - with your new capabilities. - Expanded your products or services. Do you have a new offering? Add it to your website and start making new sales in that area. - Completed a... more.. Metrics that Matter to a Good SEO Company Metrics that Matter to a Good SEO Company By Scott Buresh (c) 2009   "I want to be number one on Google for (insert hyper-competitive keyphrase here)." It's usually the first thing we hear in terms of search engine optimization - a company wants to be in that coveted top spot on Google, Yahoo!, Ask, and MSN. No matter the industry or specialty, when companies approach us with their desired goals for an SEO campaign, it's usually all about improving their rankings and positions...and often nothing else. Yes, achieving first page rankings or top spots on the search engines is an incredibly desirable accomplishment to many companies who want immediate and noticeable results. But with such a considerable investment in an SEO campaign, you'd think companies in need of search engine optimization services would also be concerned with their overall ROI, especially in light of the current economy.   Vastly improved (or even #1) rankings are rather easy to achieve in an SEO campaign, even by a novice search engine optimization company. I once wrote an article demonstrating that top rankings were simple - and proved it by optimizing... more.. Video Marketing - Its Different Manifestations Video Marketing - Its Different Manifestations By Punam Parab (c) 2007 Just go through these facts and figures: ? "This [online video ads] could very well become the dominant form of online advertising... probably within the next 18 to 24 months" - Bob Hanna, senor vice president of sales with Burst Media-a group that offers publisher sites to advertisers. ? "Online video ad spend is to surge by 89% in 2007 and is poised to grow and in 2010 will be worth around $2.9 billion". - marketing vox. ? "At some time early in 2010, one in 10 dollars devoted to internet advertising will go for video placements" - David Hallerman, a senior analyst with eMarketer and author of the report 'Internet Video: Advertising Experiments & Exploding Content' Well, if you have a sharp mind [and even if you don't], you cannot but notice the rising fortunes of video marketing. Video marketing is the next big thing in the world of Internet marketing. Video marketing entails the use of video for conveying your message to the audience. Most experts believe that videos are more effective when it boils down to establishing an engaging and interactive platform to communicate with the target audience. If you too are interested in entering into the world of 'online video marketing', then it will augur well if you are aware about the various forms of video marketing. Video advertising is one of the basic forms of video marketing. In case of video advertising, the advertiser makes use of the video that is already being run across television channels. Usually, the video is edited to shorten the duration. This also makes the video more appealing to the online audience.... more.. The Seven Deadly Sins of Website Copy The Seven Deadly Sins of Website Copy By Michel Fortin (c) 2009 Throughout my research, I'm always surprised when I stumble onto websites that are professionally designed and seem to provide great products and services, but lack or fail in certain important elements. Elements that, with just a few short changes, can help multiply the results almost instantaneously. Generally, I have found that there are seven common mistakes. I call them the "Seven Deadly Sins." Is your website committing any one of these? 1) They Fail to Connect Traffic has been long touted to be the key to online success, but that's not true. If your site is not pulling sales, inquiries or results, then why would it need more traffic? The key is to turn curious browsers into serious buyers. Aside from the quality of the copy, the number one reason why a website doesn't convert is that the copy is targeting the wrong audience or fails to connect with them. First, create a "perfect prospect profile." List all the attributes, characteristics and qualities of your most profitable and accessible market. Don't just stick with things like demographics and psychographics. Try to get to know them. Who are they, really? What are their most pressing problems? What keeps them up at night? How do they talk about their problems? Where do they hang out? Then, target your market by centering on a major theme, benefit or outcome so that, when you generate pre-qualified traffic, your hit ratio and your sales will improve dramatically. Finally, ensure that your copy connects with them. Intimately. It speaks their language, talks about their problems, and tells stories they can easily appreciate and relate to. Since this is the most common error that marketers and... more.. How Much Face-Time Does Your Website Need? How Much Face-Time Does Your Website Need? By Jerry Bader (c) 2009 How much time does it take your website to deliver your marketing message? Assuming the site traffic you generate is the least bit interested in what you have to say, how much of what you're saying do they remember, or more to the point, how much do they need to remember? Have you ever thought about, or even considered, how much face-time your website needs to be effective? It is probably the last thing many business website operators ever think about, let alone do anything about. The notion of 'stickiness' has been around for as long as the Web has been used as a commercial vehicle, and stickiness is a vital website ingredient. Developers, designers, and marketing experts are continuously coming up with ways to keep people on their clients' websites. Many of these sticky methods do work and keep people on sites for hours, but are they effective; just because someone stays on your site for hours doesn't necessarily mean they have any intention of doing business with you, especially if these so called sticky ingredients are implemented without any commercial purpose. Sticky Doesn't Necessarily Mean Effective Many sticky concepts were developed for sites whose financial model was based on advertising, which makes sense; the longer people stay on a site the more chance they will see the ads presented, and the more likely they will click on one of them. But for sites that are in business to sell something and are not just advertising vehicles, stickiness takes on a whole different purpose. The challenge is to make what you have to say engaging so that it attracts attention, informative so that it explains the offering, AND entertaining so... more.. Successful Internet Marketing Without Search Engines Successful Internet Marketing Without Search Engines By Bill Platt (c) 2007 Believe me or not, a business can survive and thrive on the Internet without good search engine placement. That does not mean that a Webmaster should not strive to get good rankings in the search engines, but it does mean that a Webmaster should not throw his or her entire advertising budget towards search engine optimization (SEO). The SEO guys are rolling in their Ferrari's as you read this. I would have said that the SEO guys are rolling their graves, but they are not dead, yet. There Can Be Only Ten How many web pages will be listed on page one of the search results at Google? How about on Yahoo or MSN? That is right; there can be only ten web pages listed on page one of the search results. According to the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org), there are currently 85 billion web pages on the Internet. But, if you have ever used the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive, then you know as I know that they have not archived everything that is out there, so that 85-billion number is actually smaller than the real number of existing web pages. With only ten listings on page one of the search results, there are going to be a lot of disappointed people in the world. They cannot all be on page one of the search results. First Things First Search engine optimization is an expensive undertaking, so it shouldn't be taken lightly. I talk to people everyday who are building their first website for the very first time. These folks, bless... more.. Google's First Page... Guaranteed?  Google's First Page... Guaranteed? A SPN Exclusive Article By David Jackson (c) 2012 A couple of weeks ago, I visited one of the Internet Marketing/Small Business forums that I'm a member of, and noticed a new member had posted a typical newbie question in the SEO forum. The member wanted to know how she could be guaranteed to get her website on the first page of Google. As usual, members came crawling out of the woodwork with advice - including members who didn't even own a website. Unfortunately, that's pretty typical on Internet Marketing/Small Business forums... members who don't own a website instructing other members how to get on the first page of Google... members who don't own a business dispensing business advice. So be careful where you get your advice from... but I digress. Not surprisingly, not a single member responded with the correct answer. And what is the correct answer? The correct answer is there is NO magic bullet that will assure a first page ranking on Google. Nev?has been, nev?will be. By the same token, NO reputable SEO company will promise first page rankings. By the way, this isn't the first time I've written about this topic. In my article How to Choose a Reputable SEO Company I wrote the following: "No SEO company can guarantee you a first page or top 10 ranking. I repeat: NO SEO company can guarantee you a first page or top 10 ranking. Here's why: There are far too many variables involved in the ranking of a website - not the least of which are... more.. How Much SEO Do You Need To Get Top Rankings? How Much SEO Do You Need To Get Top Rankings? By Titus Hoskins (c) 2009 Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions, perpetuated by industry SEO experts, is that a website must follow perfect SEO strategies to get top rankings. While adhering to simple common SEO standards does help the search engines both find and index your site more quickly, it doesn't guarantee by any stretch of the imagination that following those SEO guidelines will propel your site to the top of the rankings. If only search engine optimization was that easy! No doubt, there are some SEO faux pas that will do harm to your site's rankings, especially in Google, the ultimate hall-monitor all puffed up and ready to pounce on any misbehaving webmaster. Things such as keyword stuffing, keyword spamming or linking out to bad neighborhoods such as link farms, pharmaceutical or gambling sites may get you blacklisted. But how much SEO do you need? How much search engine optimization do you need to get top rankings? Do you need a whole lot or do you need very little SEO? Actually, after 10 years of marketing online, the answer to that question varies depending upon what you're trying to accomplish with your SEO efforts? If you're operating an online business in a very competitive (read lucrative) market, SEO will be high on your agenda as you go about annihilating your competition. Even if... more.. How To Achieve Top Google Rankings How To Achieve Top Google Rankings By Bill Platt (c) 2009 Links and Traffic For years, it has been well known that Google's search algorithm is driven by the number and quality of links pointing to a particular URL. And as a result, it was all the rage for some time to buy links on web pages that had a high Google PageRank (PR). But in March of 2007, Google's mouthpiece Matt Cutts declared that Google was going to fight back against Paid Links. Google put a shot across the bow of many online marketers, letting them know that the days of easily buying links from high PageRank pages in order to influence a website's ranking in Google were over. The Shot Heard Around The World With Matt Cutts declaration, a world full of online marketers began to cry foul. It was said that "They can't do that!" But the truth was and is that the Google Search Algorithm is Google's intellectual property, and therefore, Google can do anything they want within their algorithms - no matter who those changes might hurt or help.   By the end of the Summer of 2007, the people crying foul had quieted down a bit and got back to the business of trying to find new ways to manipulate their website's rankings inside of the Google search results. That is the way it has always... more.. Baby Gift Ideas Baby gift ideas When trying to discover what is that people are searching when it comes to Baby gift ideas, there is an interesting aspect that arises and intrigues some people. Many of them don't actually know what to buy, due to the fact that it is hard to determine what a baby might need. There are certain things that can be minded in order to actually come up with a gift that will surely hit its target. The details you should know about Baby gift ideas The very first aspect that needs to be taken into account is the gender of the child. This is very important as studies have proven the impact that certain things have on a baby's perspective on life from its early age. This means that one of the best ways to approach this aspect is to know whatever the baby is a boy or a girl. There are many Baby gift ideas that are suitable for a boy rather than a girl and the other way around. General gifts can be an option, but they will be seen as something with a lack of a personal touch. The other aspect that can be taken into account refers to the idea of taking to the parents to see what they need in order to raise the baby. A proper conversation will lead to one of the best Baby gift ideas that you can come up with. The parents don't need to know exactly what your intentions are as this may lead to an awkward situation, but you can easily establish what the baby needs after... more.. How to Create Search Engine Friendly Title and META Tags (Part 2) How to Create Search Engine Friendly Title and META Tags (Part 2) By Kalena Jordan (c) 2007 In Part 1 of this article, I defined Title Elements and META Tags and took you step-by-step through how to create an optimized Title Element. Now it's time to create your optimized META Description Tag. Create Your META Description Tag Take your l? of target keywords and phrases and open another text file. Again, you can use an existing sample META Description Tag as your template. Let's say our existing description is: <META name="description" content="Miami Florists create beautiful floral bouquets, arrangements, tributes and displays for all occasions, including weddings, Valentines Day, parties and corporate events. Deliveries throughout Florida."> You can make your META Description Tag as long as you like, but only a certain portion of it will get indexed and displayed by search engines. According to Danny Sullivan in his (old but still relevant) article How to Use HTML Meta Tags, 200 to 250 characters of the META Description gets indexed but less than that gets displayed, depending on the search engine. So you want to make sure all your important keywords are listed towards the start of the tag. Now take your l? of keywords for the home page in order of importance. For our fictional florist these were: - florists Miami - florists Florida - wedding bouquets Now you need to create a readable sentence or two describing your web site and incorporating these keywords so they make the best use of the keyword real estate available. Because search engines often display the contents of... more.. Ten Reasons Why Good Link Builders Fail Ten Reasons Why Good Link Builders Fail By Maria Nemenman (c) 2011 A good website builder knows that solid links mean solid rankings, but it's an ever changing challenge to get them. Learn how to avoid a loss of link juice now. Links are incredibly important in getting relevant traffic and good position in search results, but links are like any other relationship... they can go sour. Here's a list of ten reasons why otherwise knowledgeable link builders blow their efforts. Pay attention and don't fall into any of these traps. As a website builder you have got to get this part right or you are heading for disaster. 1. One Hit Wonder The worse thing that can happen to websites that stumble onto a source of links or who only rely on one method of building links is for that accident or that plan to actually work. That sounds counter intuitive, but if you convince yourself that only one method is needed, you're heading for a fall. You need to diversify your efforts and not have all your eggs in one basket. 2. Quantity Not Quality The link builder who writes an article, spins it and then uses article submission software can easily develop 1,000 links to a web page in no time at all. The only problem is those links will be worth next to nothing. Building links is not just a numbers game. Links gain their value from the value of their source. A single link from a PR 4 is worth 1,000 links from PR 0 websites. 3. Forgetting that the... more.. Website Branding ? Establishing Your Web Brand Website Branding ? Establishing Your Web Brand By Matt Jackson (c) 2008 Any form of branding essentially means being recognized. A positive website brand image means that your potential customers will recognize your brand and begin to associate that brand with a particular product or range of products. In achieving this, those same customers will begin to turn to your brand when they need the product you sell or require information that you provide. Branding Is More Than A Pretty Logo A lot of websites and website owners mistakenly believe that creating a brand means a compelling and relevant name, and well designed logos and web pages. While these are a part of website branding, they are far from being the whole story. In fact, every aspect of your website and online business needs to convey your brand image. This includes design, narrative voice, advertising, and marketing. Customer communication is equally as important, and provides the opportun? to strengthen your brand even further. Your Target Market Branding needs to concentrate on the target market you are aiming to attract. Market research and some competitor analysis will usually garner you with relevant information regarding the people you are aiming to attract. What products and services are they looking for? What information do they want access to? Do they expect to be able to interact with you or other members of your online community? These are all important questions that you not only need to ask but answer as well. The most effective branding will also consider the demographics of a target market. Age, sex, nationality, religion, and disposable income bracket are important... more.. How a Google Penalty Can Make Your Site Stronger How a Google Penalty Can Make Your Site Stronger By Ross Dunn, CEO/Founder (c) 2009   Over the past 12 years consulting on web marketing I have answered countless questions but one question I receive often stands out from all; how to clear a Google penalty. The following is an example of a question I received in the past from a person named Patrick: Please Help! For the last 8 years we were #1 for a ton of search terms but then my site got penalized by Google because we had overused some keywords. We fixed the issue months ago but my top rankings are all still over the place. Sometimes we get back into the top 10 and we all breathe a sigh of relief, then just a few hours later we are on page 5. What is going on and how can I correct this? We are beyond frustrated! First, Some Research In order to answer Patrick's question I needed to find out a couple of things about his website to make my answer more accurate: ? His site has excellent content right now and when I looked at past versions of the site I see the content was still great but definitely had keyword stuffing problems. Key finding: his site is really well done so I can see why it had top rankings before. ? I took a look at competitors found in the top 10 under several keyword searches that were obviously main targets for his website. After reviewing the backlinks for each competitor's sites I could see they were all very well entrenched but their content was not... more.. Does Google Have A Golden Rule? Does Google Have A Golden Rule? By Titus Hoskins (c) 2008 As a full-time webmaster and site owner, figuring out just what Google wants has been the most challenging aspect of running an online business. For many webmasters Google is the eight ton elephant in the room and you only have two options: upset the elephant and get trampled or quickly find out what it likes to consume and try to feed it. In order to keep Google fed, webmasters have to jump through more than one set of hoops. When it comes to getting top rankings in Google's Index or SERPs, there are 200 of these hoops or ranking factors. And if you want to play in Google's ballpark, you have to try and master the majority of them. For years, frustrated webmasters have been guessing and searching for these ranking factors. Asking what does Google want? How does Google rank pages and keywords? How does Google want you to build your site? Ten years ago it wouldn't have mattered what Google thought of your site for it wasn't even in the picture, but now when it comes to online search, Google is king of the hill. And as we all know, kings get whatever they want. Besides, any webmaster worth his salt, knows Google is what counts when it comes to organic traffic - you can achieve #1 spots for a keyword in all three top search engines (Yahoo and MSN being the other two light-weight contenders) but Google will simply deliver the most traffic to your site. Google doesn't as yet have a monopoly on web search, but it's getting close to... more.. 9 Common Title Tag Mistakes and How to Avoid Them 9 Common Title Tag Mistakes and How to Avoid Them By Kristina Weis (c) 2012 A website's title tags are very important for several reasons: 1) The title tag shows up in search results as the blue link, and a good one helps the site get more clicks and visitors from search results. 2) Title tags are a crucial SEO element that can help the website show up higher when people search for the words in it. 3) Title tags show up when web pages are shared on social media sites like Facebook. This is important because social media mentions are now a ranking factor in Google search results. So if you have the time to optimize one thing on your website, title tags are it. Here are some of the top mistakes and missed opportunities I've seen in title tags. Avoid these and you'll be ahead of the game. You'll rank higher in search results and entice more people to click on your site. 9 Signs of a Bad Title Tag: 1. "Home" or "Home Page" in Title Tag It may be logical or helpful to the website owner, but including "Home" or "Home Page" does not help visitors or search engines. All we really care about is what the page is about, and what it offers us. Why take up space with this non-information? You surely don't want to rank for the terms "home" or "home page." 2. Domain Name in Title Tag Including the domain name (like example.com) in the title tag is redundant and takes up prime SEO real estate. If a searcher... more.. Copyrights, Trademarks and Patents. Understanding Intellectual Property Copyrights, Trademarks and Patents. Understanding Intellectual Property By Kelly Sims (c) 2007 You are a business owner with a web presence. During a routine Google search for your page ranking, you discover something disturbing. There is another company out there with a name very similar to yours and almost identical content on their website. What do you do? Is your company name and website content automatically protected by copyright law? Should you have registered your company name as a trademark? Can you demand that they change their name and dismantle their website immediately? Intellectual Property can be a confusing topic, and one that all business owners should know about. Sadly however, many entrepreneurs simply don't. Intellectual property is in very simple terms an idea that legally belongs to somebody, be they a company or an individual. Only the owner of that idea, or somebody the owner has a legal agreement with can use the idea. Generally, the owner of the idea is usually its creator unless someone paid them to create the idea, in which case the idea's owner is the person who paid for the idea. There are different kinds of intellectual property, but for the purpose of this article, we will focus on copyright, patent and trademark. Patent ? A patent protects the creators of new inventions. An invention can include anything from a new product or business method to a recipe. If you decide to patent your invention, there a few things you should know. First, you will need to apply for a patent in every country where you would like your invention to be protected. Secondly,... more.. Landing Pages. What You Need to Explain to your Website Design Company Landing Pages. What You Need to Explain to your Website Design Company By Colette Mason (c) 2010 The definition of a landing page is simply "the first page that visitors hit on your site," so it is not strictly a certain page but any page that a user "lands" on. All websites have landing pages, whether they like it or not, even if it was not specifically designed as such. Landing pages can have a substantial impact on your e- commerce website. A poorly-developed one can hasten its breakdown just as an effective landing page can drive traffic to your site, respond to calls to action and make your business website a success. One vital measure of the effectiveness of your website is the "bounce rate," or the percentage of visitors who immediately leave your site without making any other click. The bounce rate is inversely proportional to the effectiveness of the landing page. Basically, this means that a high bounce rate indicates that your landing page isn't compelling enough for the visitor to pursue his interest or take some other action. Normally, the home page is the primary landing page of most typical websites. But more and more, site owners are designing landing pages outside of the home page, and for good reason. Most users prefer to skip information which is irrelevant to their needs. They want to get directly to their search, hence the need for a landing page that delivers just that. They can avoid the delays caused by having to click through pages and pages of information when they already have something in mind. Landing pages serve their purpose when the site owner knows the kind of visitor they are targeting. This is... more.. Site Content and Copy Writing Site Content and Copy Writing By Michel Fortin (c) 2008 An interesting debate is raging among copy writers, web designers and content developers about the differences, if any, between writing copy for the web versus writing content. According to prolific copywriter Nick Usborne of Excess Voice, a recent survey conducted among the readers of his newsletter of the same name offers some interesting results. They seem to be split almost three ways: one-third consists of copywriters, another content writers and the final third both. But it's wrong. This is an important debate, I believe, since all online copy is content but not all content is copy. And that's a real problem. Most web designers, webmasters and content writers develop text for websites in a way to educate visitors. They also write it with the notion that "content is king," "content increases search engine rankings," "content makes a website sticky" and so on. That's all fine and good. But I believe content fails when it strives only at informing the reader, and thus lacks important elements that take her "by the hand" and compels her to do something - anything, including the simple act of reading. In other words, while some websites may compel our attention, others fail to propel our actions, too. And their owners often end up screaming, "Why is my website not producing any sales," "why am I getting a lot of traffic but such a poor response" or "why are people leaving so quickly?" Well, if content is king, copy is the castle. The Internet is not a traditional medium ? at least not in the broadcast sense. It is intimate,... more.. What's Wrong With E-Commerce Websites? What's Wrong With E-Commerce Websites? By Jerry Bader (c) 2008 What is going on with e-commerce websites? It appears that online entrepreneurs spend so much time worrying about website traffic that they ignore the customers who actually want to buy something. Recently, I tried to order a product we spotted at a trade show. It was perfect for our application so we did a Google search to find the manufacturer and a l? of dealers who sold the item. Almost all the websites that distributed the product had proper contact information and invited people to call, which we did. After six frustrating phone calls to dealers we still hadn't found anyone willing to answer the telephone. Since we had to leave a message almost everywhere we called, we decided to try California even though we are located in the east, and it was far too early for any reasonable person to be at work. We finally got in touch with a friendly salesperson in Boston, who was very helpful but unfortunately the company was out of stock. Despite not being able to fill the order, we kept their information on file because they were friendly, accommodating, and dealt with all our questions. They tried their best to meet our needs but if we would have ordered using their online system and found out later that the product was back-ordered we would have been very upset since we had a deadline to meet. Next we reached the manufacturer who told us he was too busy to check if he had any stock, and maybe he could get back to us by four o'clock. Just as... more.. Occam's Razor Solves Marketing Misinformation Occam's Razor Solves Marketing Misinformation By Jerry Bader (c) 2010 Many years ago I had a professor whose favorite saying was, "It's the simple things that elude people." It's not a new idea of course, but it is an important one, often associated with 14th century English logician William of Ockham. Occam's razor as it is commonly referred to states that "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity" which in pop culture terms has been interpreted as meaning 'the simplest solution is most often the best.' It is also pretty clear that old Ockham would have been a big believer in what we now call the 'Paradox of Choice' as coined by Barry Schwartz in his book by the same name. The Paradox of Choice basically describes how customers intent on buying from you, don't, because they are confused with too many options; to paraphrase Ockham, features or options must not be multiplied beyond what it takes to get an order.' In fact, it is pretty well understood by those of us who actually study how to communicate a marketing message that a focus on an emotional benefit is what works, not another new feature. The implications of this seemingly simple insight into decision-making are quite significant for marketing executives: features are out; emotional and psychological benefits are in. Ah, but what emotional benefit, there's the rub. I will assume that if you are reading this you are interested in improving your business and that you are open to new ways of doing things, and that starts with new ways of thinking about things. Finding Your Emotional Benefit Finding your emotional benefit is really not that hard if you know where to look. The... more.. Social Bookmarking and Power Linking Social Bookmarking and Power Linking By Andrew Daum (c) 2008 Just in case you missed it... the Web has changed. I think a little history of the Internet is in order to grasp the big picture. I'm not going to give any dates (late eighties and early 90's)... I'll just give a quick run down. I would say nearly fifteen years ago I had a dial up Internet connection that allowed me to log into various College computers, BBS's (bulletin boards) and Newsgroups. The Internet was much different than the Web is today. There were no graphics... it was totally text based and everything was dial up. All you could do was basically post to a newsgroup, post messages on some BBS's and send email. Internet Marketing as we know it today did not exist. In time though - a few brave souls ventured out of the shadows and began marketing within the newsgroups. This started wars between the "Purists" and new "Marketers" that I still remember to this day. You see, the Purists considered the Internet to be their own little playground. They viewed anyone selling something as evil. After all... Marketers had the TV, the Radio, Magazines, Newspapers, etc, etc as an avenue in which to sell their crap. "The Internet is ours" was their battle cry. They viewed the Internet as a way for them to communicate with each other without having to wade through all the BS advertising - and they could control what was being said. When the evil "Marketer" entered the picture, this all changed - and it changed quickly. Once the evil Marketer had discovered the Internet as a new... more.. Search for secret millions + Google Search for secret millions + Google Ori Allon ? the 26-year-old UNSW student who promise to change web searches. IT IS the hush-hush deal that could be worth millions - many, many millions. Google, the world's biggest player in the internet search business, has paid the University of NSW an undisclosed sum for the rights to a mathematical process that promises to change the way we explore the web. But it is unclear how rich it will make Ori Allon, the 26-year-old doctoral student at the university who developed the algorithm, or formula, at the heart of the process. It could become the basis for the next generation of search engines, improving the relevance of responses to a search - and displaying a more detailed taste of each file so users can better decide if it is what they need. But having won a tussle against its two main competitors - Yahoo! and Microsoft - to secure the rights, Google has gagged Mr Allon and UNSW from saying too much. What we know is this: Mr Allon came to Sydney in March 2005 to work on a project run by Dr Eric Martin, of the university's computer science department, to develop a better search engine. Six months later, the team announced it had developed Orion - named after Mr Allon - which the university said would "revolutionise existing search engines". "I provided the spark," Dr Martin said last year, "but it is Ori who developed this through his amazing creati-vity and sheer hard work." Yesterday, he said: "What others would have taken two to three years to do, he did in six months." The university took the formula to the US, and now Mr Allon is working out of Google's head office in California. But because of confidentiality agreements, all the university can do is confirm that Mr Allon is... more.. Search Engine Optimization Four Vital Steps for Optimizing Your Website Search Engine Optimization Four Vital Steps for Optimizing Your Website By Donald Nelson (c) 2006 There is a bit of confusion about search engine optimization. Some people think that SEO (the abbreviated form) is nothing more than tricking search engines into giving a high ranking for a particular site. Others think that search engine optimization is so complex that they could not possibly understand it. Neither of these views are correct. Search engine optimization is best defined as the art and science of building web pages that are both search engine friendly and user friendly. Below are four basic steps that you should take when optimizing your web pages. 1. Your Web Design Should Emphasize Text and Not Graphics "Search engine friendly" means that search engines should be able to find data on your site that they can put in their data bases. While a picture may be worth a thousand words, a search engine is trying to classify pages by text and not by images. If you have an opening page with a beautiful picture of the sea and only two words of text saying "enter here" then this page will not rank high in searches for Florida Vacations. Similarly, if you have a headline with important... more.. Upgrading Your Company Website Upgrading Your Company Website By Jerry Bader (c) 2008 Dealing with website development issues can be an overwhelming task. There are many things your marketing team must consider, in fact, there are so many things to bear in mind that many of the most important ones never get dealt with, or are buried under competing interests. To avoid project paralysis you should focus on certain key areas of concern from which all other issues flow. Whether upgrading your existing website or developing a new webmedia initiative from scratch, consider these four vital questions that need to be answered: 1. What content should be included? 2. How should content be delivered? 3. How is your website going to be marketed? 4. What will visitors remember? What Content Should Be Included? Content is a function of purpose. Unfortunately many websites don't have a clearly thought-out realistic purpose; and orders alone, is not an adequate website objective. Obviously every company needs sales, that's a given, but sales are a result of all the marketing elements you put in place, and the degree to which your presentation distinguishes you from your competition. There is a prevailing view that traffic translates into sales; this viewpoint may be valid for websites whose economic model is commodity or advertising-based, but businesses that don't compete on price alone, or are more than an excuse to deliver advertising, must be structured around a purpose that is more meaningful, and far more compelling than 'give me an order or don't bother me.' An over-emphasis on search engine friendly site design ignores the fact that when someone does a search for what you... more.. Should You Worry About Your Bounce Rate? Should You Worry About Your Bounce Rate? By Lucy Beer (c) 2010 A low bounce rate is often cited as a hallmark of a good website - 40% or lower is typically heralded as the goal - signaling that visitors are engaged with your site and finding useful content. A high bounce rate is often assumed to mean that your site is not doing its job. In reality, bounce rate means different things for different sites and the emphasis you place on it will vary according to the type of site you have and its goals. What Does Bounce Rate Mean? The definition from Google's Analytics help pages is: "Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page." When is Bounce Rate a Relevant Metric? ? If you have a sales or conversion process which requires the user to follow through multiple pages on your site. ? If exploration of your site is important to your goals. ? If you are trying to turn new visitors into loyal readers or customers. ? If yours is a retail site and you want people to shop around and make purchases. ? If your homepage is not inducing further clicks, particularly if it contains blog excerpts or other 'teaser' content. What a High Bounce Rate Could Mean: 1. Keywords and content are mismatched. In cases where visitors are coming from search engines, a high bounce rate may mean that the keywords they used and the content they found on your site are not aligned - so your site doesn't... more.. Yahoo Panama - Pros and Cons Yahoo Panama - Pros and Cons By Scott Van Achte (c) 2007 Near the end of 2006 Yahoo officially unveiled the new back end for Yahoo Marketing Solutions, widely referred to as the 'Panama' Update. Since then they have been slowly allowing the upgrading of accounts from the old into the new system. While not everyone has had a chance to have their accounts switched over, it is expected that all will be upgraded by the end of this quarter. After several months of waiting, this new backend is a welcomed change as Yahoo finally moves into the future but as with any new system, it is not without its pros and cons. New System Cons There are a few negative aspects that have been widely noted in many forums and by Yahoo advertisers. As with any new design and back end, it is expected that there will be some wrinkles. Most of the problems are relatively minor, and for advertisers on top of their campaigns, these should not present any major issues. One of the downsides most discussed is the transfer of account stats from the old system to the new. Once your account has been transferred, the new system will not log any of the old system historical data. While this information is still accessible by logging into the old interface (which is made read only), it would certainly make more sense if stats were available under the new account login. Another issue is campaign tracking. After the switch has been made, as long as you do not change any tracking settings everything should continue... more.. Court Orders Google to Turn Over YouTube Data Court Orders Google to Turn Over YouTube Data By Donald P. Schweitzer (c) 2008 A federal court has ordered the giant of all Internet companies - Google, to hand over documents concerning YouTube's viewing data to another media monster - Viacom. Viacom and Google are currently entangled in a no-holds barred lawsuit, concerning allegations of infringement of intellectual property rights. Viacom wanted the viewing data to help it determine the extent to which YouTube's success was built on the popularity of copyrighted clips that were illegally posted to the site. Google contended that YouTube's viewing data should be kept from Viacom to protect the privacy of its users. Unfortunately for the millions of people who view YouTube videos, the judge granted Viacom's request. The court's ruling has caused many advocates of privacy rights to cry foul. For the following reasons, I believe the federal judge was correct in ruling against Google. The Court's Powers To Access Records Cannot Be Denied Like millions of Americans and other people around the world I love Google. I can say without a doubt that Google has been very good to me and my family law practice. And if Google wants to be viewed by it's customers as the champion of privacy rights, so be it. But, let's get real... , the court's access to private records under appropriate circumstances cannot be denied. We cannot let people hide behind their computers to commit crimes or torts. It would be absurd, for example, to give a child molester safe haven to either post or view child pornography. It would be equally absurd to give a person safe... more.. Is Your Business Website Old School - 5 Reasons To Redesign With CSS Is Your Business Website Old School - 5 Reasons To Redesign With CSS By Linda Bustos Many small business owners have a hard time seeing the value of a website redesign. They believe "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." And this is understandable. Unless you are eating, breathing and sleeping technology and staying up to date with the moving target of Internet business, you're not likely to know intuitively if your site needs a redesign. And as a small business owner, you may be concerned about the up-front costs of a website redesign. But once you understand how a redesign can help you drive traff?to your site, convert more users and even save mon? you'll feel more positive about making the ?estment in your business. Old School Web Design - Tables-Based HTML Not long ago, fax machines were the best way to deliver business documents fast. But now it's so easy to scan and email documents, and even capture digital signatures through email, the fax machine is quickly going the way of the typewriter. With email, recipients can choose to read and archive the message online, or print it out themselves on their own desktop printer. No need for individual telephone lines for the fax machine, taking up desk space, replacing toner, uncurling fax paper and listening to screeching fax machine tones! Tables-based HTML websites are like the fax machine. At one time tables were the best way to render information on the Web. But like curled paper and fading ink, tables left something to be desired. Designers were constrained by tables that allowed data to be rendered only in tabular f? The clean, professional and... more.. The Myth of W3C Compliance? The Myth of W3C Compliance? By Sasch Mayer (c) 2007 The past few years have seen a huge ?rease in the number of search engine optimisers preaching about the vital importance of W3C Compliance as part of any effective web promotion effort. But is compliant code really the 'Magic SEO Potion' so many promoters make it out to be? For those of you not familiar with the term; a W3C compliant web site is one which adheres to the coding standards laid down by the World Wide Web Consortium, an organisation comprising of over 400 members including all the major search engines and global corporations such as AT&T, HP and Toshiba amongst many others. Headed by Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, the inventor of the internet as we know it today, the W3C has been working to provide a set of standards designed to keep the web's continuing evolution on a single, coherent track since the Consortium's inception in 1994. Whilst the W3C has been a fact of life on the web since this time, general industry awareness of the benchmarks set down by the Consortium has taken some time to filter through to all quarters. Indeed, it is only within the past 24 to 36 months that the term W3C Compliance has emerged from general obscurity to become a major buzzword in the web design and SEO industries. Although personally, I have been a staunch supporter of the Consortium's standards for a long time, I cannot help but feel that their importance has been somewhat overplayed by a certain faction within the SEO sector, who are praising code compliance as a 'cure-all' for poor search engine performance. Is standards compliance really the universal... more.. Website Traffic Generation and the Love of the Traffic Fairy Website Traffic Generation and the Love of the Traffic Fairy By Bill Platt (c) 2010 the Phantom Writers For a number of years, many online marketers honestly thought that the only thing they needed to do to be successful online was to build a website, and the buyers would come to them. They heard all of the success stories from people who claimed that they had simply built a website, and people just started to arrive in huge numbers. The story, as it is told, is: These folks built a website, then the search engines found their websites and started showing people the link to their website. And the people using the search engines saw the link to their websites and saw that it was good. Search engine users saw the link and, as if it were the only link in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), they clicked the link by the thousands. And hoards of people came to the website with fists full of money, ready to purchase what the website was selling. Some people still believe this is how the search engines work. They have built their websites, and they are waiting anxiously for the "Traffic Fairy" to sprinkle his magic dust on their websites too, so that they can also make lots of money. Are YOU Still Waiting For The Traffic Fairy? I hope not. Those who are "waiting" for anything may wait until they realize they are flushing good money down the proverbial toilet, month after month. When they realize that they still have more money going out... more.. Texas Land for Sale Texas Land for Sale The very first thing that comes to mind when talking about the Texas Land For Sale offers and what they bring to the table is if it's worth it. There are so many different things that trouble people's minds right now, which makes it hard to focus on various things if they are not that important. The really important things about the Texas Land for Sale opportunities! First of all, this is an aspect that should be minded by all the people who whish to have their own home one day. Not just a flat in the middle of the city, where there is noise, business and stress, but a home in the middle of the environment, where one can find peace and quiet. The Texas Land For Sale offers are not a way to advertise a land, or a ranch, as they are a fulfillment of one's desire. Why now? There are many times in life when one can actually think of investing in their future home. Some say that now is not the time to think of any investments as the times that we are living today are very complicated. Those are the people who should know that the recession is the factor that has made investing in lands so accessible to people. The middle classes of the society can actually consider the Texas Land For Sale opportunities due to the harsh times that the world is experiencing today. How much will it cost? There are many variations of the price and it really matters where you wish to buy that specific land, but one thing is certain: the value of the land and the prices are at their lowest point. One can verify this aspect by checking out the... more.. Tips for Developing a Link Building Strategy  Tips for Developing a Link Building Strategy A SPN Exclusive Article By Nick Stamoulis (c) 2011 Link building should be considered phase two of any SEO campaign (on-site optimization being phase one) and is a critical component of maintaining site ranking and establishing a trust factor with the search engines. Link building is an ongoing campaign necessary for improving a website's inbound link stream which can help promote your brand and overall visibility in the search engines. Link building can also help boost unique visitors to your site which in turn can lead to a boost in conversions. Link building efforts come in many forms including: local profiles, blogging and blog commenting, social networking, directory submission and online publicity, among others. The overall goal of a link building strategy is to grow links from many different, but relevant, sources over time. Most link building strategies range from 3 months to a year and should incorporate 10-20 different scheduled tasks a month. It is important to create a very specific link building schedule and stick to it as much as possible. Growing links too fast raises a red flag with the search engines and can result in negative consequences. Growing links slowly helps establish a trust with the search engines, leading to better positioning in their results. The first step in developing a link building strategy is to conduct a link audit for your website and its top three competitors. Google Webmaster Tools can analyze your site while Link Diagnosis (both free services) can be used to analyze the competition. Conducting a link audit helps establish a baseline strategy by determining how many one-way links are already pointing towards your site. Depending... more.. How search engine marketing tools can work for you: or, searching is really all about finding, first of three articles How search engine marketing tools can work for you: or, searching is really all about finding, first of three articles   How does one go from being a librarian and independent information professional to a specialist in search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing? In my case, it was almost inevitable. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As the Internet became more and more of a repository for crucial information, an increasing amount of my work involved sifting through hundreds of Web sites, searching for pertinent information on a wide variety of projects in a very short time. Because it was so hard to find the information on many of those Web sites, my frustration kept growing. I knew there were Web sites out there with great information--I just couldn't find them. When I did find a Web site, I couldn't find the information I was looking for in it. I'm a searcher. I know how to search and where to find information. I understand how search engines work. The problem? The companies and organizations behind these Web sites didn't understand how to have their information found by the people who were looking for it. Shortly after this realization, I started working on search engine promotion and optimization. So what does a search engine optimization specialist do? I am currently the SEO specialist at EBSCO Subsidiary Web Services (ESWS), a department within EBSCO Industries Inc. that provides Web design, development, maintenance, and Internet marketing for the company's 20-plus subsidiary divisions. These Web sites include businesses involved in real estate, hunting and fishing supplies, office and retail products, promotional displays, and publishing. My responsibility is to develop the sites into search-engine-friendly, easily indexed, highly ranked resources. I am also responsible for making sure the Web sites easily convert... more.. Does Google PageRank Count Anymore? Does Google PageRank Count Anymore? By Titus Hoskins (c) 2009 Being a full-time SEM (Search Engine Marketer) I have been conditioned like Pavlov's dog (not a pretty picture) to jump every time Google twitches. Lately Google has been doing a lot of twitching. Specifically, the rather startling news from Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Susan Moskwa that Google has ditched PageRank from Webmaster Tools. "We've been telling people for a long time that they shouldn't focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it's the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true," states Moskwa. "We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it." (Source: WebProNews) Now, for SEO reasons or for ranking in Google's index, PageRank has long been eunuchified by Google. However, even missing a few dangling bits, history has shown us, eunuchs still wheel tremendous power. PageRank is no different. Regardless of what Google wants to happen, PageRank is still extremely important to anyone marketing on the web, especially if you're selling SEO services or operating a web business. Try selling SEO services when that little green bar on your site is pointing to PR0 or worst yet, pointing to a solid gray bar. Obtaining a high PR7 or PR8 simply means more business and revenues... regardless of how Google is or is not using PageRank. People know how to count and they learned long ago, a ten is a lot more than a big fat zero. Placed against a PR1 site, a PR8 will win more respect in the eyes of potential clients and can... more.. 10 Surefire Marketing Tips That Will Improve Your Website Conversions  10 Surefire Marketing Tips That Will Improve Your Website Conversions  By David Jackson (c) 2011 Like millions of other people, I'm a huge NFL football fan (go Giants), and the one thing I've learned over the years is that on any given Sunday, the worst team in the league can beat the best team in the league. It happens all the time. Why? Because in sports, just like in business, there's a very thin line between success and failure - winn? and losing. And the team that executes their game plan the best and makes the fewest mistakes will invariably win the game. That's not a theory - statistics bear that out. In sports, mistakes are the wild card - the great equalizer. You can have the greatest team and game plan in the world, but if you make mistakes and don't execute your game plan, it will be all for naught. You will lose. Mistakes prevent you from performing up to your potential and winn? the game. The same logic applies to business as well. Regardless of the competition, the businesses that execute their game plan the best and make the fewest mistakes will invariably come out on top. That's why you constantly see small businesses outperform larger, more powerful companies with greater resources. It's all about having a solid game plan and executing it. Following are 10 surefire marketing tips that will improve your website conversions: 1. Have a Plan There's an age old proverb by Thomas Edison that famously states: "He who fails to plan, plans to fail." Truer words haven't ever been spoken. You need to have a plan before you start a business. Why is a business plan... more.. RTA cabinets Ventura RTA cabinets Ventura What's the deal with the RTA Cabinets Ventura services and the things that they do for their clients? Many people talk about how important it is for a business to take care of its clients and more importantly to answer to whatever needs they have. This is one of the best ways to create a strong relationship, between a brand and its potential clients. The bond between the RTA Cabinets Ventura services and its clients There are still man people who think that making a business is simple because the only thing that you need to do is to sell your product, item or service. Things are a little bit complicated as there are many factors that need to be taken into account in order to be considered successful. The RTA cabinets Ventura services are a great example in this direction due to the fact that they bring some great features to the table. First of all, they put their client's comfort first. It might sound a little bit as a clich?but it is important for the client to actually feel comfortable. That's why the service was designed to give the customer the opportunity to browse throughout different models in the online environment until they find the right piece of furniture that best fits their needs, tastes and preferences and lastly, they can make their order and have things delivered for them. When asked about how they were treated by the RTA cabinets Ventura services, many persons appreciated this aspect and the fact that things were done for them in a small timeframe. They talked about the fact that they didn't lost several hours in traffic or in a showroom, having to browse through various models and not be certain of... more.. Birthday gift ideas Birthday gift ideas One of the biggest issues when it comes to someone's birthday is the Birthday gift ideas. This is one of the main concerns when kids have a birthday and their friends need to find a gift that is best suitable for that occasion. Of course, there are some classic things that can be bought, which will save the day, but a birthday is much more personal than the first thing that comes to hand in a shopping mall. The great things about Birthday gift ideas A first idea here refers to the aspect of being personal. One of the greatest Birthday gift ideas were the ones that sent a message to the receiver. Those are the gifts that really matter and those are the ones that will be remembered in the years that will come. This should be the main target of people when they are planning to hand out a gift. In this way, it will have the impact that they've planned and the receiver will be happy. A second idea here, is linked to creativity. People don't let their imagination flow as often as you might think. There are so many things that can be done if some friends put their heads together, they only need to have a little bit of courage to actually do what they think. Of course, this refers to the interesting and great Birthday gift ideas and not the craziest of ones. Jumping from a roof top into the swimming pool can be a... more.. Search Engine Tools Not Just For SEO Search Engine Tools Not Just For SEO By Gennady Lager (c) 2007 Sadly, not everyone in the world knows everything about search engine optimization. In fact, very few people know anything about SEO or even what it is. Even fewer know any search offerings that may help your experience as a search engine user, a website navigator, a webmaster or researcher. I have compiled a l? of free search engine and internet tools handy for everyone to use and improve their experience with some useful resources. Please note that if you are an SEO practitioner, none of these are news to you and you are well aware of these resources. For everyone else, this is a nice little database of handy stuff. Google Products Google has developed a smorgasbord of handy tools and products offered for fr?use to everyone. You can bet that they have developed something to almost everyone's interest. Some of the products I frequently use are Alerts, Blog Search, Earth, Analytics, Toolbar, Image Search, Trends, Page Creator, Maps, Gmail, Talk, and YouTube. These are only some of the products ? Google offers many more! Search Engine Commands Most often used by search engine professionals such as search engine optimizers - very few others know about these search engine commands. Knowing them can really bring information about a specific site and its standing in the World Wide Web to light. Here are some of the most important and generally supported commands: Site: - Displays all of the pages indexed by the engine of the site. Link: - Locates some links pointing to the site. Cache: - Shows the last indexed and cached version of a site. Info: - Displays general info about a site with other search commands. Related: - Shows websites that may be semantically or directly related to... more.. Land for Sale in TX Land for Sale in TX One of the most interesting aspects when it comes to advertising is the matter of offers. People are always enthusiastic about offers and special opportunities that can really help them, rather than just take money from them. How about an offer in the real estate industry? How is it possible to actually get a profit in a field where the recession has hit so far? The other perspectives brought by the Land For Sale in TX opportunities. There are some points that can easily be highlighted here in order to better understand why this field can be an important tool when it comes to making some serious money. Firstly, anyone should get a good grasp of the concept so that he or she can easily understand what needs to be done here. Things are quite simple and can be found in a simple and yet important logic equation. The Land For Sale in TX opportunities are so accessible to the general public due to the difficult times that the world is experiencing in the financial filed. The value of the land has dropped considerable because companies and individuals have stopped putting their money here. There were other priorities and other things that needed to be taken care of and that's why this was a low objective for their part. The low prices of the Land For Sale in TX opportunities have opened up some gates and people need to seem them as a way to make money. How can it be achieved? The explanation is a very basic one: when the recession will fade away and things will start to run smoothly again, the companies and individuals will start... more.. What Your S.E.O. Strategist Won't Tell You What Your S.E.O. Strategist Won't Tell You By Jerry Bader (c) 2007 Maybe you own your own business, or perhaps you're a critical cog in the corporate machinery responsible for marketing your company, brand, product or service. If that describes you, here's eighteen things you need to know about Web-marketing but were afraid to believe. 1. Time To Be Heard Your mother told you 'children should be seen and not heard,' but you're not a kid anymore. So why are you listening to all those guys telling you not to use audio on your website. If you want to deliver a lot of content that people will remember, try letting your website do the talking. 2. There's Nothing Like the Real Thing In a world of virtual everything there's nothing like the real thing. The sound and image of real people delivering your marketing message makes it a believable, memorable presentation. 3. Unlock the Conventional Wisdom Straightjacket Driving traff?to your site is great, if those visitors stay long enough to find out why they should be doing business with you. If your website traff?is leaving as fast as it's arriving, maybe search engine optimization isn't the answer you've been looking for. 4. Linking Your Way To Obscurity You know the reciprocal linking strategy everyone is talking about as a way to generate leads? Did you ever consider that each link to another website is an invitation to leave your site? Is that really what you want - to invite people to leave? I think not! 5. Your Company's Voice... more.. The New SEO - Let's Get Real The New SEO - Let's Get Real By Jack Strawman (c) 2008 Once upon a time, onsite optimization was the most crucial factor in search engine ranking. Webmasters and SEO experts spent ample time ensuring keywords were used in all relevant tags, and that the keyword concentration on each page was just right (usually 5-7%). Then came all the spamming and keyword stuffing, as webmasters and SEO experts fought viciously to usurp one another in the ranks. Search engines took notice, and adjusted their scoring algorithms accordingly. Onsite optimization lost its footing. Nowadays, onsite optimization is becoming less and less significant, overshadowed by the all powerful offsite optimization. Where keyword concentration was once god, now links have become the mighty ruler of the search engines. The fact of the matter is, onsite optimization counts for almost nothing these days (I did say "almost"). So why are webmasters and SEO experts still spewing all this nonsense about the importance of building great content. I really wish it were about building great content. The sad truth, however, is it's all about the links. Search engines want you to believe that ranking well is all about building a great website with great content. Build a site for your users, keep your users happy, and you will do just fine in their eyes. After all, isn't this the main principle behind organic search results; let's keep it real, honest, and user-friendly. Boy, I wish that were so. What I don't understand is why all these so-called experts and webmasters are spouting the same foolish nonsense all over the Internet. Perhaps it's because they don't want us to work on improving our own... more.. Webmaster Tips Webmaster Tips By Sharon Housley According to Matt Cutts, there are over 100 factors that affect search engine ranking. For those of you who don't know, Matt is a Google guy guru, he is employed by Google but writes an independent blog and shares information related to Google and search engine optimization. Unfortunately, of those 100 items that account for search engine ranking, there are only a few that webmasters can actually control. Unless you are a interested in an exercise of futility, it is important to only focus on those ranking factors that you, as a webmaster, can control and influence. What Search Engine Factors Do Webmasters Control? Outside of the obvious (webpage title and description) those items over which the webmaster has the most control are: PageRank, TrustRank, Anchor Text, Keyword Density, Domain Age, URL, and Relevant Links. How Can a Webmaster Use These Items to Help Ranking? First off--the obvious, each and every web page should have a descriptive page specific title and description. The title, description, and header tags are channels to communicate the most important details of a specific webpage. They should be used effectively, but not be abused. The web page should make use of h1 and h2 tags (header tags) to emphasize pertinent keywords and phrases. Particular attention should be paid when formatting urls. Keywords related to the webpage can and should be used in the webpage urls. Use hyphens rather than underscores between the keywords. Search engines are designed by developers and programming languages will recognize a hyphen and distinguish separate words, while an underscore blends the words. Keywords in the URL should not... more.. How to Optimize for Google: Part 3 of 3 How to Optimize for Google: Part 3 of 3 By Scott Van Achte, Senior SEO, StepForth (c) 2008 In Part 1 and Part 2 I discussed general website optimization, links, and Google webmaster tools. In Part 3 we will look at a number of other considerations which play a role in successful rankings in Google, and also touch on some tactics which are best avoided. Completing Optimization: Other Considerations Redirects If you need to use redirects on your site, it is very important to use the correct one. If a page is moving to a new location, or being removed all together, it is very important to have this page redirected to either the new location or the next closest page using a Permanent 301 Redirect. While rare, if a page is being moved to a new location for a short term, with the intent of it returning to the original location, then and only then, will you want to use a Temporary 302 redirect. Non WWW Redirects To help eliminate page rank split, and provide your site with a little extra value, implement a non-www redirect. What this redirect will do is change the URL to include the "www" whenever a URL is accessed that does not include it. This can help to consolidate links to the correct page and give your site some additional strength. For more help on Non WWW redirects please see: How to 301 Redirect Non-WWW to WWW URL's HTTP Headers Check your page headers! If you have implemented any form of redirect on your site including mod rewrites, check your HTTP headers.... more.. All You Need to Know About YouTube's Promoted Videos All You Need to Know About YouTube's Promoted Videos By Merle (c) 2010 MerlesWorld.com Way back in 2006, Google purchased YouTube.com for an alleged reported figure of 1.65 bill? dollars. And, like with everything Google does, they've added their own special "Google Touches" over the last several years, turning it into one of the most popular video destination websites online today. Need proof? According to Comscore.com's December 2009 "Videos Viewed Report", YouTube was ranked as the top U.S. video site serving up 13.2 billion of the total 33.2 billion videos that were viewed online in the U.S. for that month alone. That's a lot of people watching mega videos. For more stats see tinyurl.com/y8jbnqh. Furthermore, according to Google, YouTube has twenty hours of new video uploaded every minute and 420 million unique visitors per month. Watching online videos and sharing them with others has become an Internet obsession. People really love watching videos. Remember the old song "Video Killed the Radio Star"? In today's marketplace, it should be called "Video Killed the Television Set". What if I told you there's a way to harness that huge audience in your onl? marketing campaign? Now you can with YouTube's new advertising program called "Promoted Videos". YouTube and its other site, Google Adwords, have partnered together in this latest ad serving project. When promoting your videos on YouTube, they'll also be shown across Google's Content Network, aka sites running Google Adsense on them. The purpose of "Promoted Videos" is to help your videos stand out from the millions of others on the site. At the time of this writing, they're available in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada,... more.. 14 Popular SEO Myths Examined  14 Popular SEO Myths Examined By David Jackson (c) 2011 With so much misinformation about SEO having been dispensed over the years, it's hard to know what's true and isn't true - making it all the more difficult to separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff, as it were. Concerned about the potential harm misinformation about SEO can ultimately cause, I decided to compile an alphabetical listing of the most popular and persistent SEO myths, to either debunk or confirm their factuality. 1. Adwords Since the arrival of Google Adwords, there has been an ongoing debate over whether or not running an Adwords campaign can improve search engine rankings. Ultimately, only Google knows the answer to that question for sure. However, to my knowledge, there is no credible evidence to support the notion that Adwords can improve your search engine ranking. If there were indeed concrete evidence to the contrary, it stands to reason, everybody would just start an Adwords campaign to boost their rankings. 2. Anchor Text Although it can be other colors, anchor text is typically the blue, hyperlinked text you see on a web page - the words that you click onto take you to another page. For example: free marketing tips Okay, but is anchor text important? Yes, it is because it's a crucial element in the search engines complex algorithmic formula that helps determine the rankings of websites. For example, suppose you have a blog that reviews digital camera's; the more links you have with the words "digital camera reviews" in your anchor text, the greater your chances of increasing your ranking for the keywords digital camera reviews. 3. Alt Tags Alt... more.. Domain Hijacking Domain Hijacking By Douglas Miller (c) 2007 There's a frightening new batch of scams going around now that can damage your reputation as domain "squatters" steal your domain name. There are a number of ways the "game" is played. The first is entirely legal, if more than a little questionable. In this version, the name of a city or geographic area is grabbed by a domain squatter and pointed to... "sites that you wouldn't want your children visiting." (We chose that term to avoid getting caught in a lot of sp@m filters for the use of the word "p-o-rn.") A prominent notice is placed on the sites, offering them for sale at prices that range from $2500 to as much as $500,000! The idea here is that city officials will feel that enough damage is being done to the reputations of their towns that they'll pay to keep them from being associated with that type of material. It's obviously safe to say that it's not appropriate to pop those kinds of images into people's faces while they're looking for info on a completely different topic. That's where the pressure on the cities comes from, and why this is such a disgusting scheme. In essence, the domain squatter says: "Pay us, or continue to watch as your city's reputation suffers." Many would call this blackmail... The second variation on the theme is not always legal. When someone takes a trademarked name (or variation of the spelling of one) or a famous person's name, and does the same thing. For trademarks or close variations, there's a specific procedure for addressing the problem. (See the resource section at the end of this issue.) For the names... more.. SEO Tips: Get More Traffic with these 10 Important Inbound Links SEO Tips: Get More Traffic with these 10 Important Inbound Links By Donna Gunter (c) 2010 Don't overlook your inbound linking strategy as you think about search engine optimization for your site. An inbound link is a hyperlink back to your site from another web site. The one constant and reliable strategy in search engine optimization is that sites with a variety of high quality backlinks rank higher in the search engine results pages. Why are these links to your site important? They can can...     ? bring potential customers to your site when they click on the link     ? boost the number of visitors to your web site     ? dramatically improve your search engine rankings Even though there are software packages on the market that help automate the linking process, use them sparingly, if at all. The only way to succeed in linking strategies is (aside from creating useful content that will encourage inbound links) by manually creating the links. That's a hard fact to swallow, given how I like to automate as much of my marketing as I can. Here are the 10 most important inbound links you must have to your site: 1. Directory Links Directories are indexes of online sites, typically organized by category. Links back to your site from directories like Yahoo Directory and DMOZ.org are very valuable. DMOZ.org is edited by human editors, and while it's free, it may take awhile for your site to be added. Getting added to Yahoo's Directory costs $299/year. 2. Press Releases If you're writing press releases, make sure they are optimized for keywords that someone would use to find a business like yours and include links back to your site, as well. Once written, you can have your press... more.. SEO Copywriting Tips for Google, Yahoo and your Prospects SEO Copywriting Tips for Google, Yahoo and your Prospects By Angela Charles, President, (c) 2008 Pilot Fish It might not seem logical, but a web site that's well-written for human consumption with a little SEO help usually is also well-received by the robots of search engines like Google and Yahoo. So, what does "well-written" mean? Here are some tips to good SEO copywriting for Google, Yahoo and site visitors. SEO Copywriting Tips ? How to Write Great Web Site Content Keyword research: This topic deserves a whole article on its own, but suffice to say that you'll want to base your site content on the keyword terms that you know are most popular among the audience you're trying to reach. There are online tools available that can help you determine the right keywords for your company. Among them are WordTracker and Keyword Discovery. One topic per page: If your company makes 5 different products, you'll need to devote at least one page per topic. Details, details: Each topic should be covered in enough detail that the site visitor can determine whether to contact you for more information. From an SEO standpoint, the more detail you provide on each topic, the more easily the search engines will be able to determine the relevance of your site to that keyword. Kill the sales brochure: Internet users don't appreciate going to your web to find only a sales brochure. Avoid flowery language; it usually signifies a page that's light on content and heavy on sales pitch, which the search engines won't rank well. Good SEO copywriting will focus on objective facts about your company's products and services,... more.. Web Design Los Angeles Web Design Los Angeles When trying to get a grasp of how does a Web Design Los Angeles service work for a business many people find themselves in difficulty. This is due to the fact that they don't quite understand why this is a priority and why this type of promoting a brand is absolutely necessary when it comes to making a profit. The profit making aspect of the Web Design Los Angeles service First of all, not all the businesses in the world have an allocated budget for the online environment and all its features. There are many which aren't that interested in promoting their business on the internet. Those are the people who should take into consideration the following details when it comes to the Web Design Los Angeles offers, ideas and ways of seeing your business. A great argument in this direction is that you are basically everywhere. This means that you don't limit yourself to the targeted audience of your town, city, state or even country. The whole world has the opportunity to get acquainted with your brand and most importantly to buy from you whatever you are selling: products, items, services and so on. The fact that you are now able to speak to the entire world changes the perspective to 180 degrees. Another great aspect that should be illustrated on the mater of how Web Design Los Angeles services help many businesses refers to the idea of the way the website is structured. There is the common belief that in order to sell something you need to make it as shiny and as sparkly as possible. This may be valid in some businesses or markets,... more.. Rankings Dropped? 9 Possible Reasons and 9 Ways Out  Rankings Dropped? 9 Possible Reasons and 9 Ways Out A SPN Exclusive Article By Alesya Krush (c) 2011 Sometimes SEOs and site owners encounter the problem of their sites suddenly going down in the search engine results pages for no particular reason, it seems. When this happens, it is often hard to figure out why your rankings nosedived. So, let's consider possible reasons for and solutions to the problem. I arranged them by relevance, starting with the most common ones. 1. Your Site Got Penalized for Using Black-Hat SEO Techniques Google has Webmaster Guidelines by which all SEOs and webmasters must abide. If Google finds out (or your site gets reported) that you are not playing by the rules, your rankings may drop substantially, or your site may get removed from Google's index altogether. As stated in Google Webmaster Guidelines, one must not "participate in link schemes" (buying/selling links is basically meant here), create "doorway pages", or use "hidden text" on a site. These are considered illegitimate (Black-Hat) SEO practices and may incur Google's wrath. The Way Out Well, if your site does get penalized, find out what might have caused this. Re-read Google's Webmaster Guidelines and rem?whatever is in violation from your site - then file a reconsideration request. 2. The Search Engine Algorithm Has Changed On the one hand, search engines are trying to keep their search results as relevant and SPAM-free as possible. On the other hand, there are people who are trying to game the system or just take advantage of the existing loopholes. And, with... more.. mineral lipstick mineral lipstick If you were to talk with 10 females on the street and ask them about what kind of lipstick do they use, the answer will most positively be different than the mineral lipstick. This is due to the fact that most of the people aren?t aware of the benefits of the organic cosmetics and what they bring to the table. They are so used to what they are currently using, that it?s quite hard to change their minds for something better. The better perspective brought by the mineral lipstick A first idea here refers to the comparison between the mineral lipstick, or any other product that has a mineral foundation and the products that don?t use organic substances in their components. A difference is the amount of time that the products last. The nonorganic ones have a very low durability, due to the fact that they deal with the surface of the skin, rather than head a little deeper and discover the source of the problem. The mineral foundation products are designed to go a little deeper, until they reach the possible problem and try to fix it. This will be able to change the effects of the problem that are visible on the outside and make the skin shine in a natural manner. Another difference between the two of them refers to the matter of the price. A mineral lipstick... more.. Google's SEO Advice For Your Website Content Google's SEO Advice For Your Website Content By Joel Walsh The web pages actually at the top of Google have only one thing clearly in common: good writing. Don't get so caught up in the usual SEO sacred cows and bugbears, such as PageRank, frames, and JavaScr?, that you forget your site's content. I was recently struck by the fact that the top-ranking web pages on Google are consistently much better written than the vast majority of what one reads on the web. Of course, that shouldn't be a surprise, considering how often officials at Google proclaim the importance of good content. Yet traditional SEO wisdom has little to say about good writing. Does Google, the world's wealthiest media company, really ignore traditional standards of quality in the publishing world? Does Google, like so many website owners, really get so caught up in the process of the algorithm that it misses the whole point? Apparently not. Most Common On-the-Page Website Content Success Features Whatever the technical mechanism, Google is doing a pretty good job of identifying websites with good content and rewarding them... more.. Website Design That Works (Part 1) Website Design That Works (Part 1) By Kevin Gallagher (c) 2007 Introduction Before you even think about opening Dreamweaver or your favourite html editor and start designing your site there are a few things I believe you need to do first. I am going to describe how to ?rease your work flow and give you some general tips and tricks that will speed up the design of your website project and help to get it showing up in search engines quicker. In future articles I will be going into greater detail of some of the topics I describe here. Now let's get started. Purchasing and Optimizing Your Domain Name The first thing you need to consider is your domain name. I suggest that you don't just use your company name, i.e. if your company makes tartan paint and your company name is "Hamish Paints" don't go for the obvious choice of hamishpaints.com. I would try and come up with a keyword rich domain name. Some search engine optimizers (SEO) would say that having keywords in your domain name doesn't make any difference to your listings but I disagree. Google will highlight your keywords in the search engine results page (SERPS), which leads me to believe that keywords do hold some we?t, and besides it will make it clearer to the searcher what your site is all about. What are Keywords? Keywords from a search engine optimization (SEO) stand point are the key -words that are used to optimize your website for better listings on search engines. These are the words or phrases people are typing into the search bar of Google... more.. Six Ways Into Yahoo Six Ways Into Yahoo By Kim Roach (c) 2006 Yahoo was started in 1994 by two college students named David Filo and Jerry Yang. They started Yahoo as a way to keep track of their personal interests on the Internet. Nev?did they imagine that their online ventures would turn into one of the most recognized brands on the Internet. The Yahoo directory quickly gained popularity as the hot spot for finding useful Web sites. In the fall of 1994, Yahoo had its first million-hit day, translating to almost 100 thousand unique visitors. Today, Yahoo is one of the top sites on the internet, receiving over 345 million visitors every month. Through the years, Yahoo has gone through a number of facelifts. You can see a visual history using the WayBackMachine. Yahoo has n?xpanded into one of the largest portals online, offering everything from shopping, video, and podcasts to finance, news, real estate and personals. Along with this expansion have come many additional opportunities for webmasters to distribute their content. Many webmasters today are constantly worried about their rankings in Yahoo. However, there are a number of other ways to get into Yahoo besides the Yahoo Search Engine. In this article, we will discuss 6 ways that you can market your content within the Yahoo portal. Mobile Site Submission Podcast Submission Product Submission Yahoo Directory Submission Media RSS Feeds Yahoo Answers Yahoo Mobile Site Submission Yahoo, Google, and MSN n?rovide many options for the mobile browser. With cell-phones far out numbering computers, this user-base is one that is far too lucrative to pass up. It's time we developed our sites for the communication... more.. Google Page Rank Uses Domain Age to Score Google Page Rank Uses Domain Age to Score As reported in my post on how Google ranks websites, Link Building Blog reports that Google does indeed pay close attention to the age of the domain.   It seems Google has intensified the ranking factor of one key data point that is very tough to manipulate: the age of your domain name. I have been keeping an eye on trends with Google?s search results and it seems that there is an increasing trend towards ?trusted sites? owning page one. A ?trusted site? is loosely defined by me as: an older domain, a nice mix of anchor text, links built over time, links coming in from all kinds of c class blocks, maybe a .edu snuck in there, etc.   The factor I want to focus in on and get your thoughts on though is the age of the domain. This seems to me to be a very important factor in top search rankings for Google in today?s climate.   I know a lot of people are worried about domain age playing a critical role in page ranking, but reports are that this isn?t the only criteria that goes into the pot to evaluate a website?s page rank. But the driving determination to eliminate spam and splog sites that open and close domains overnight lends more and more importance to domain age.   Just because you don?t have a 5 year old website, don?t give up. Concentrate on the content, building relationships and links, and making sure your audience knows you have the goods that are worth returning for. SEO and Domain Age Google?s patent application 20050071741 displays how they rank... more.. Has Google Replaced Content as King of the Web? Has Google Replaced Content as King of the Web? By Titus Hoskins (c) 2012 While great content will always get you noticed, I have come to the somewhat obvious conclusion that "Content is NOT King, Google is King" on the web. This is a slightly different mindset when it comes to getting traffic and marketing on the net. This new mindset doesn't change the fact that you still have to create great content, but it changes the way one goes about promoting that content on the web. In the last few years, Google's share of the search market has grown to 65% or much more in most areas of the world. This domination of online search puts Google in control of what content is seen - regardless of its quality. It plays a major role in your content's visibility, a role so great that without Google's approval, your content is not exactly dead in the water, but your chances of succeeding is much less than with a thumbs-up from Google. Now, the real turning point (light bulb moment) for me was Google's recent promotion of its own products or data, as in the whole "Google Plus Your World" search results features which were introduced a few weeks ago. Google is actively showing and promoting its Google+ profiles and posts within its SERPs. Many believe Google is sacrificing both relevancy and quality by only showing its own data (as opposed to Twitter's and Facebook's profiles/posts which Google claims it no longer has access to) when Google users are logged into their accounts. Those same critics also believe Google has stepped over the... more.. Google Sitemaps Explained - How To Use Google Sitemaps Google Sitemaps Explained - How To Use Google Sitemaps By Titus Hoskins (c) 2006 Three Ways To Index Your Site With Google Sitemaps [Difficult, Hard, And Easy] Google has recently implemented a program where any webmaster can create a Sitemap of their Site and submit it for indexing by Google. It is a quick and easy way for you to keep your site constantly indexed and updated in Google. The program is appropriately called Google Sitemaps. In order for you to best use Sitemaps, you must have an XML generated file on your site that will transmit or send any updates, changes, and data to Google. XML (Extensible Markup Language) is everywhere these days, you have probably seen the orange XML logo on many web sites and its often associated with Blogging because Blogs use XML/RSS feeds to syndicate their content. Today RSS is known mostly as 'Really Simple Syndication' but its original acronym stood for 'Rich Site Summary'. XML is only simple code like HTML and it is used to syndicate your content to all interested parties. And the interested party in this case is Google. By creating Sitemaps Google is really asking webmasters to take charge of the indexing and updating of their sites. Basically, doing the Googlebot's job! This is a 'Good' thing! With the steady influx of new web sites growing rapidly, indexing all this material will become a challenge, even with the resources of Google. With Sitemaps, webmasters can now take charge and make sure their site is crawled and indexed. Please note, indexing your site with Sitemaps WON'T improve your rankings in Google. You will still be competing with the other sites... more.. 20 Best Blog Post Ideas for Small Business Blogging 20 Best Blog Post Ideas for Small Business Blogging By Donna Gunter (c) 2009 "So, what do I blog about each time?" is a question I often get from clients. To keep your blog active and healthy, I recommend blogging at least 3 times per week. However, that notion is overwhelming for many. Even though you may be an expert in a topic, your mind may go completely blank when it comes time to blog, and then at other times when you're not blogging, your idea cup runneth over. The primary thing to remember is that blog posts don't have to be long and complicated. You're not writing an article, a report or a thesis. Many times a blog post is only a paragraph consisting of a few sentences that contain your thoughts about something. Now, doesn't that sound easier than composing a 600-word post each time you sit down to blog? Here are 20 ideas you can use to help you create a blog post when you're stuck for an idea: 1. Current events. Can you link what you do in your business to a current event? Open up your daily newspaper or your RSS news reader and see what's happening in the world, your country, your state, or your city. Give your opinion about the event and a solution, if you have it, and relate that to your business if you can. 2. Trends in your industry. I read constantly and subscribe to more industry publications than I have time to review. However, there are a handful that I do regularly read, and it's to those that... more.. The Web of Tomorrow The Web of Tomorrow By Jason OConnor (c) 2007 Oak Web Works, LLC A woman switches on a tiny wireless chip that has been surgically implanted behind her ear, which then synchs up with the Web wherever she is in the world. The simple thought of logging on to the Internet triggers the system to turn on and connect to the Web. She could be on a bus or at the beach and from all outward appearances she's just staring off into space. But she sees a three dimensional artificial world before her that she can manipulate any way she chooses by mere thought alone. By looking at the trends of today we can begin to develop a image of what the Web of the future will look like. I believe the Web will improve and grow in a way that will dwarf its present existence and will improve and enrich everyone's lives way beyond what we can imagine today. The Net will become as integrated into everyone's everyday lives as much as, and even more so, than the television or telephone (in developed nations first, then everywhere). Television, communications and the Internet will merge. The Web will become increasingly realistic, interactive, and three dimensional. Two dimensional displays will evolve into three dimensional displays. And the Web will probably incorporate more than just the two senses of seeing and hearing. It will first be incorporated into all other electronics found in household appliances, copy machines, automobiles, and anything else with a microchip. Then it will be integrated directly into our brains. I also envisage this new Web creating an unimaginably sophisticated data sphere that surrounds and envelops the world like a warm... more.. Web 2.0, Are We Bowing To A False Messiah? Web 2.0, Are We Bowing To A False Messiah? By Barry Densa (c) 2007 Are you absolutely beside yourself ? giddy with delight because Web 2.0 has finally arrived to help you sell more, sell faster, make you richer, smarter, sexier, and lower your triglyceride levels? Whoops, I'm sorry... do you even know what Web 2.0 is? Web 2.0, in a nut shell, is the latest evolution in the online experience. The World Wide Web is now... ready... here it is: a tad more interactive, technologically speaking. Where does Web 1.0 end and Web 2.0 begin? Beats the heck out of me! I'm basically your average techno-phobe ? the proverbial anti-Geek, if you will. Nevertheless, Web 2.0 typically refers to an assortment of internet-based communication tools and services ? such as social networking sites, wikis, and "new and improved" chat functionalities. Writing a book review on Amazon.com is apparently considered Web 1.0 technology. I know all of this is a big whoop for some of you, but for others it's equivalent to the coming of the messiah (for either the first or second time, depending on which operating system you're laboring under). Is Web 2.0 a Boon or a Bane for Consumers and Countries? For most marketers, their company's website has been a rather static billboard of sorts. But now, thanks to Web 2.0, a website can provide visitors, prospects, customers and selected victims, with a certain degree of "give and take". You can talk to them, they can talk to you; you can learn more about them, they can learn more about you; they can "experience" you, you can "experience them" ? in short, the level of... more.. Social Media Puts Fortress Journalism Under Siege | Social Media Puts Fortress Journalism Under Siege | By John Sylvester (c) 2009 In a recent report by Peter Horrocks, Director of BBC World Service, it is clear that as society becomes more networked, the fortress mentality of the mainstream media is increasingly under siege by social media, but they are adapting. There's a lesson for us all in this. For so long now, Web 2.0 has been working in the background to subtly but unwittingly undermine mainstream media, especially in America where, for example, RSS is understood and used far more readily than in most other nations. In this, the role of the "fortress journalism" is being steadily eroded as the nature of RSS feeds allow you to choose the BBC for video news, the New York Times for international news, the Guardian for ecological reports and ESPN for sports - so storming the gates of the fortress has been around for some time, but it is only now that publishers are seriously looking at new dissemination models in a more integrated and enlightened manner. The main problem for the newspaper industry is that journalists have been very slow to recognise the changes that have been happening under their noses, and whilst the major players have all installed news feeds on their websites, they still continue with the assumption that their news product provides a complete set of information for their readers. However, in the world of Web 2.0, the choices available for a total news information set is beginning to change journalists' collective mindset: as Jeff Jarvis, Professor of Interactive Journalism at the City University of New York, described it: "Cover what you do best. Link to the rest." Social media websites now have millions... more.. Google AdSense Tips Google AdSense Tips By Sharon Housley AdSense allows website publishers to display contextually relevant advertisements on their website. If a web visitor "clicks" on an advertisement, the web publisher will earn a percentage of the advertising revenue generated as a result of the cl?. Many webmasters have built content websites around the Google AdSense model. In many cases the specific intent of the webmaster is to prof?from Google AdSense. Other webmasters use Google AdSense to supplement their revenue. Regardless of the webmaster's intent, the following tips will help webmasters looking to prof?from AdSense. Top AdSense Tips: 1. Niche Sites Targeted niche sites that have a clear theme, tend to generate more advertising revenue simply because it is easier for these sites to achieve decent search engine placement. Be warned though, you want to choose a niche where there is a sufficient number of advertisements available. 2. Target Keywords When determining the site's focus, consider how much advertisers pay for the advertisements. If the site is focused on ringtones, like Ringtone Central http://www.ringtones-central.com the payout per-click is going to be very small because ringtones are... more.. Google is Much More Than a Search Engine Google is Much More Than a Search Engine By Rick Hendershot We all know that Google is the dominant search engine, and controls a large percentage of online advertising. But many of us -- even regular Google users -- are not aware of some of Google's other services. Most of them are presented as new ways of listing and categorizing the universe. However, consistent with Google's new status as a profit-first public corporation, what lies at the root of most of Google's expanding ventures is the need to become less dependent on context-based advertising revenue. In other words, the people at Google are desperately looking for new ways of making money. ** Froogle Still Looking for a Mission in Life Google's product search and comparison tool called Froogle, was launched in December 2002. It was developed in an attempt to cash in on the obvious market for online shopping that major sites like eBay and Amazon had so successfully exploited. more.. Website Speed Penalty - Google is Testing Your Load Time! Website Speed Penalty - Google is Testing Your Load Time! By Aaron Steinheinkel (c) 2010   After Google started using website speed as a parameter in their ranking algorithms every webmaster has a good reason to keep an eye on the page load speed of their website. Google's bending over backwards to spread the word about this new speed penalty is proof in itself since big G is usually very secretive about pending algorithm changes. From the announcement we learn that the speed penalty was introduced following experiments by Google that revealed the impact website speed has on Internet users. But the results of the experiment come as no surprise even for someone that has started to use the Internet recently; users prefer websites that load faster and tend to spend more time on such websites. However, the search engine giant has been careful to state that even though website speed is now a factor, it is not the primary parameter for determining results. The quality and relevance of information is still the determining factor, but if your website speed is slow, you will receive a Google penalty. This implies that it is important for you as a webmaster start to assess the speed of your website to determine whether you are moving further down the search engine results pages (SERPs) because your website is slower than your direct competitors. How Can Google Know Your Page Speed? It is vital that you understand the basics of how Google's algorithm determines your website speed and thus your SERP ranking. The search engine uses two main factors when it comes to speed assessment. First, your website will receive a higher speed ranking if it responds... more.. 10 Key Things to Look for in a Good Web Designer 10 Key Things to Look for in a Good Web Designer By Gary Klingsheim (c) 2008 The pace of business today is positively supersonic. There doesn't seem to be enough time for anything anymore, and businesses of all sizes are working harder and faster all the time. It's important to work smarter, too. And that means when you have to choose an important vendor for an essential service, you need to slow down and make a deliberate, careful decision. This is particularly important when you are getting ready to put your company's face on the World Wide Web in a new or newly-refurbished web site. Before listing the ten key things to look for in a good web designer, let's define a few terms. Even though you may encounter variants on the name ? like web developer, web artist, webmaster and so forth - we're talking about an individual who, alone or with some assistance, is going to "get you up and running." This means more than simple design. You may need someone who can help you conceive and write copy. You may need someone who can plan smart site structure. You may need help getting a domain registered, files uploaded, e-mail accounts set up, and other technical details. You will definitely need someone who can do just about anything, or quickly find out how, or have an associate who can at the ready. With these caveats, and serious encouragement to shop around for price and professionalism, here are the ten things to look for, in rough order of importance: 1) Experience You will need someone with all the techniques, tools and tricks that... more.. Does Your Marketing Stop When Your Content Starts? Does Your Marketing Stop When Your Content Starts? By Mark Nunney (c) 2010 Your website's content will get noticed, get read, and get customers if you use your headline and first paragraph to let readers know what is in it for them. Here, I'll introduce you to some techniques you can use to make that happen. This article is an edited version of a chapter of Wordtracker's The Website Content Recipe Book - 21 irresistible content ideas to wow visitors and boost your search engine optimization. Don't Stop Marketing - Every Page is a Marketing Page Visitors may first enter your site through almost any page. And for various reasons no matter what you do, many will not read more than one page. Therefore, to maximize response you must treat every page as a marketing page. So add adverts to where they will be seen - a subject I plan to write about next week (look for 'How to make your articles sell'). But only a small percentage of readers will respond when first seeing even quality adverts. You'll have to work a bit harder for the rest of your readers. You'll have to use your pages' content to make them consider a marketing proposal (perhaps another day). You must prove that you (and your brand) are expert at delivering what's wanted, and can be trusted. To do that, your page must first be read. Who is Your Site for... and What Do They Want? When you're busy creating content, it's easy to forget that your website exists to sell your products and services to particular groups of people. And even if you wouldn't forget such a thing - can... more.. Google's Paid Search vs. Organic Results, A Rickety Wall of Separation Google's Paid Search vs. Organic Results, A Rickety Wall of Separation By Scott Buresh (c) 2007 Medium Blue "Chinese Wall - The ethical (not physical) barrier between different divisions of a financial (or other) institution to avoid conflict of interest..." Investopedia.com "While Google nev?sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results." Google's Webmaster Help Center FAQ "NO pay for inclusion, and a complete separation of the search index part from the money part." Google Chief Engineer Craig Neville-Manning, Search Engine Strategies 2004 The good people at Google have long maintained that there is a Chinese Wall between paid search results and organic results ? that is, the department responsible for advertising is completely separate from the department responsible for organic search engine placement. The company insists that Google Adwords is a completely separate entity than the Google search engine, and nev?the twain shall meet. This all sounds very good, in theory. But do they live up to this ideal in practice? You don't hear Google talking much about Chinese Walls these days. This is certainly in part because they have had great difficulty gaining traction in the literal and very competitive Chinese market (headlines such as "Google Hits Chinese Wall" or even "Google Advance Halted at Great Wall of China" were commonplace). But might there be other, more nefarious reasons? Is there a reason why we hear less and less from Google about the virtual wall that separates paid search results from organic search engine placement? What Is Google Really Doing for Its Big Spenders? It has long been rumored that Google will provide technical... more.. SEO - Then, Now, and Tomorrow. SEO history based on my experience - a very late at night post. 1999 SEO - Creating 18 doorway pages for 18 major search engines. Looking at the sites in the top results and analyzing keyword density of each area of the pages, and repeating it with just a little more keyword density. Regularly submitting pages to the Search Engines. 2000 SEO - PPC at 1 cent per click at GoTo (later Overture/Yahoo). Yahoo owns 1/3 of the internet, MSN (Looksmart) owns ~15%, and another 15 engines share the rest. Google who? 2001 SEO - 3 major directories control much of the Internet. Yahoo Directory (~35% SE traffic), Looksmart Directory (top of MSN results), DMOZ (Helped in several search engines (including Google)). Being an editor for Zeal (Looksmart non ecommerce Editors - showed at top of MSN) and becoming a DMOZ Editor could control your listing. and with directory editor experience, then submitting to Yahoo with urls like www.car-parts-auto-part-cheap-discount.com. Back then you could have #1 rankings in 1-3 days accross 90% of the internet. 2002 SEO - Refining Keyword density and stuffing in 1 more keyword on your pages than the top guys have. By the end of the year Google?s taken over King, and the other search engines are fading fast, and the days of SEO link building are Priorty #1, trade them and buy them. 2003 SEO - With Yahoo now defaulting search results to Google, Google now controls 79% of all searches. MSN is a far cry #2 with ~13%. With Google ruling, he with the highest PageRank and most backlinks, and focused anchor text links wins monthly rankings in the Monthly Google Dance. By the end of the year almost everyone will feel the effects of a search update gone wrong with an updated called "Florida". 2004 SEO - After Florida... more.. Six Steps to Writing Offers Inspiring Customers to Act Six Steps to Writing Offers Inspiring Customers to Act By Judy Murdoch (c) 2008 Highly Contagious Marketing Until fairly recently, writing marketing copy was a strange and mysterious undertaking to me. It's funny because when I was doing advertising research, I often worked closely with copywriters. I would interview customers to learn how they responded to different messages and report back to the creative team. Sometimes the copywriter or art director would have questions they wanted me to ask my focus groups. So I got to know the writers and their work pretty well. Yet, when they went back to their desk to actually create the message, I had no idea how they came up with the words that moved customers to action. Customer-Focused Story to the Rescue! Turns out like any professional, copywriters have systems. One such system that has made my writing life infinitely easier is the Customer Focused Story: A six step process that helps you develop a message that inspires action on the part of your readers. [ Note: I am grateful to marketer/copywriter extraordinaire, Mark Silver, who developed the Customer Focused Story process and taught me how to use it. Learn more about Mark at www.heartofbusiness.com ] The power behind the Customer Focus Story is this: before people are ready to take action, it is absolutely critical that they feel safe to do so. By "safe" I mean your copy addresses two, usually unarticulated questions: (1.) Do they feel that the business making the offer understands the problem they're struggling with? (2.) Can the business help THEM? If your copy helps them answer "yes" to those two questions,... more.. 3 Top Tools and Services for an Effective Internet Marketing Solut? 3 Top Tools and Services for an Effective Internet Marketing Solution By Sydney Nelson (c) 2007 Everyone knows the Internet is growing exponentially and continually evolving. The major players in the continual evolution of the Internet are the major search engines and consumer generated media such as blogs. Because of the continual changes, a well rounded Internet marketing strategy must include a variety of proven marketing options to ensure success. I will outline 3 of the most effective Internet marketing solutions available and how they relate to your marketing strategy. SEO Optimization Search engine optimization (SEO) is the first because the free advertising afforded by the search engines is partly determined by on-page optimization techniques. With thousands of new Websites being created daily, the competition for a listing on the first search result page is increasingly saturated for the popular keywords. Statistics show better than 90% of people only look at the first search result page, and a similar percentage only click on the top search listing. In order to compete effectively, a Web page must be designed around a keyword or more effectively, a keyword phrase. The keywords must be included in the page's title, keyword META tag, page's description, the first heading (using the H1 HTML tag), throughout the body of the page and within the last 25 words on the page. These are just a few of the basic SEO on-page options that, although will not guarantee a first page listing, are definitely required as a starting point in an effective Internet marketing strategy. In most cases, there is too much competition for certain keywords such as "golf clubs". A better strategy would be to... more.. Anniversary gift ideas Anniversary gift ideas The first though in people's mind when it comes to Anniversary gift ideas is to run away. This is because of the fact that they simply don't know what to choose when that time of the year comes, regardless of the stages that that the relationship is at the moment. Some say that this is one of the hardest things that they need to do and that is the reason why they need some help in this matter. Why are people so afraid to find the best Anniversary gift ideas? First of all, they need to understand one simple and yet very important aspect: the meaning of an anniversary. There are many examples, especially of men, that simply don't understand why they have to come up with the gift once every year during a certain date. The explanation is represented by the fact that it's a celebration of the relationship and that is why it is so important. People are adjusted with the idea that a celebration is connected with the fact that a gift should be offered and that's why the Anniversary gift ideas are so searched for. One of the best advices in this area is that there are no rules when it comes to making a gift. This is because of the fact that people are different, their experiences are different and they see the world in a different way. That's why people have different tastes when it comes to everything and that's why life is so enjoyable. Offering something to somebody... more.. The Search Landscape Reflected In Paid Results The Search Landscape Reflected In Paid Results By Dave Davies (c) 2008 Heart Of Business It's important to note that the writing of this article occurred on July 17, 2008. I mention this only to insure that you can put it into context and also so that those who read this article in a day or week or month from now aren't confused by my noting of Q2 reports and references to "today". Any of you who have read some of my past articles or who have visited Beanstalk's services pages will know - I'm not a PPC guy. Quite honestly, it's not in my primary skill set and it's something I would definitely prefer to leave to the experts. Now that said, following Google and it's health (which is tied directly to AdWords and AdSense) is something I'm keenly interested in. To this end, recent changes in Google's paid search display and ranking systems will have huge impacts on advertisers and, more important for the purpose of this article, on Google itself. A couple weeks ago a friend of mine, Richard Stokes from AdGooroo sent me a PDF entitled, "Search Engine Advertiser Update - Q208" . With this document they outline the changing trends in the paid search marketplace and many of the stats are surprising. If you're a PPC manager they're obviously directly important. For those of us in the organic optimization world they are still both interesting and important. They're interesting for reasons which will become clear below and they're important because anything that affects the economic health of the search engines affects the search landscape both... more.. Is Your Website an Asset Or a Liability? Is Your Website an Asset Or a Liability? By Nick Yorchak (c) 2007 Remember back in the good ol' days when having a website was something every company needed and wanted? Websites were the wave of the future, and the dream of transitioning to conducting business onl? filled our heads with visions of a revolution in the way commerce was conducted. With a website, a company could reach clients and interact with potential customers on a global scale. A website was indicative of a company's technological prowess, symbolic of the desire to innovate and evolve with developments in the industry. Today, this mindset has changed drastically. We all know that we need a website, but many of us think that simply having one is enough. In fact, there is research indicating that many firms with an online presence haven't touched their websites in years. They haven't spent any time improving functionality and appearance, and they have yet to consider the basics of website usability and the inherent potential of search engine optimization. Of course, we all recognize by now that having a website is an essential business asset, if it's done correctly. It's easy to see that if your site is an outdated eyesore, it becomes a liability that hurts you more than it helps you. Conversely, a well-designed site can make all the difference. It's the first place users go to research your products and services, serves as a lead generator, a CRM tool, and even to make purchases. We've all heard the adage about first impressions, and it's no secret that they're the most important factor in the way people remember... more.. Texas Ranches Texas Ranches What do people know about the real estate industry right now? The most common answer from them all is related to how the recession has greatly affected this market and how things are really bad when it comes to the investments made here. Are there any opportunities here? What do people see in the Texas Ranches? First of all, this is one of the best ways to actually make a real, solid investment, rather than one that doesn't bring much money to the table. This is one of those ways that will grant you a small fortune if played well. What's the secret here? The investments that are made in the Texas Ranches or any other piece in the real estate industry right now, are milestones for your future profit. Things go as follows: the prices are at their lowest point right now, due to the difficult times that the financial world is experiencing today. This really means that you can actually buy at a reduced price, if compared with the past couple of years. Where does the profit come from? When talking about the prices for the Texas Ranches a very specific detail comes to mind: the purpose of the ranch. There are many things that can be done at a ranch. Firstly there is the most common aspect of them all: farming. It might seem a little dull, but people will be eating their entire life and that's why this industry will basically never die. One can't quite say that there is too much food in this world. Secondly, there... more.. The Best Page Layout and Design for Content Websites The Best Page Layout and Design for Content Websites By Miles Galliford (c) 2007 I was chatting to a veteran print publisher who had been producing magazines for over thirty years. He shook his head in despair, as he told me that every year he sees new magazines hit the newsstands with the publications' titles placed vertically on the magazine cover. "Whenever I see this," he said, "I know it has been produced by a new publishing company that does not understand the industry. Anyone with any experience of periodical publishing knows that publications with vertical titles fail, or at least have to change quickly to survive. The market has taught us this lesson hundreds, if not thousands of times, but still people make the same mistake." This message is just as relevant to website layout as it is to magazine design. The web has been around for long enough that rules and best practices have emerged from years of tr? and error by thousands of website owners. You can either go with the flow and be grateful that you can learn from the experience of others, or you can swim against the tide and try to convince the market that you are right and they are wrong. I would suggest that swimming downstream is far easier and will give you a much greater chance of success. To understand which layouts work you only need to look at the industry gorillas. These are the online content publishers who have been around for years, and who have tested just about every layout combination. Good examples are some of the most read websites on the internet including: - BBC - The Financial Times... more.. Why 2010 Will Be A White Knuckle Ride For Web Marketers | Why 2010 Will Be A White Knuckle Ride For Web Marketers | By Titus Hoskins (c) 2009 Next year may just prove to be one of the most challenging times for pursuing online or Internet marketing on the web. It may just be a watershed moment for many marketers struggling to keep abreast of all the different factors which have come into play in recent months. Most of these changes will stem from two main sources for potential upheaval: the first being the New FTC (Federal Trade Commission) Guidelines regarding Testimonials and Endorsements and the second being "ALL" the recent changes within Google. Actually, we already have the new FTC Guidelines which came into effect on Dec. 1st of 2009, but how these new rules are enforced will play out in the coming year as test-cases are brought to court. Basically, these new rules call for absolute disclosure and full transparency regarding Testimonials and Endorsements when a product or service is being offered for sale. Any business (monetary) relationship between the endorser and the company must be made known to the potential buyer. Obviously for those in online or affiliate marketing this could have a great impact if these new rules are strictly enforced. Just imagine all the website owners and bloggers who slap a few banners or affiliate links on their sites to cover hosting or operating costs... will they now have to disclose all these business arrangements? For professional affiliate marketers and the companies/products they're promoting, these new guidelines could cause potential headaches and/or legal ramifications since a general blanket disclaimer on their sites will no longer be suffice. To help solve this problem, many of the major companies are now placing... more.. Twitter Demystified for Business Users Twitter Demystified for Business Users By Nancy McCord (c) 2009 Twitter is the current top "hot property" on the Web, but its popularity and how to use it has mystified many business owners. Many people think that they want to, or should be using Twitter, but simply do not understand the platform, its use, or its place in building web exposure. This article will demystify Twitter and help you to learn how to use it in the workplace and to promote your business. First, I have to say that I had been confused on how to use Twitter to benefit my own business until I downloaded TweetDeck. TweetDeck is a desktop application that allows you to review and post status updates on Twitter and Facebook simultaneously. I consider it a "must have" application for anyone who wants to make sense of Twitter. TweetDeck allows you to sort the people you follow on Twitter into groups, allows you to limit the number of Tweets (Twitter micro posts) to be shown at any time, and also allows you to discard all Tweets you have seen with one click. Additionally, using TweetDeck, finally a Twitter search on a topic makes sense. Since using TweetDeck, I have had a much better Twitter experience. As a Twitter newbie, visiting your Twitter home page is intimidating; it consists of post after post from people who you are following, who you may not know much about, and it just seems like a huge volume of content. To get started effectively first group the people who actually have something interesting to say on TweetDeck and voila, you have a powerful tool that keeps you at the forefront... more.. How Google Applies Science to Search 1 How Google Applies Science to Search 1 By Kalena Jordan (c) 2008 Dr. Craig Nevill-Manning is a New Zealander who joined Google in 2000 as a Senior Research Scientist to develop more precise search techniques. Previously, Craig was an assistant professor at the Computer Science Department of Rutgers University, where he conducted research in data compression, information retrieval and computational biology. Before that, he was a post-doctoral fellow in the Biochemistry Department of Stanford University, where he developed a software suite used by pharmaceutical research laboratories to identify the role of particular proteins within cells. A scientist at heart, Craig is probably best known as the developer of Froogle (recently re-named Google Product Search) and the founder of Google's software engineering center in New York City. This article is a summary of his presentation at Webstock 2008. Google's Spelling Bee Craig started his presentation by talking about one of his first challenges in his job at Google: the spelling correction tool. As the popularity of the search engine grew, Google needed to be able to spell-correct lots of obscure words. So his solution was to take a sampling of content from the entire web. Craig's team came up with a algorithmic model and ran it over the web. He discovered that there were several correct answers to the same question. For example, words like "kofee" could mean either the searcher is seeking a cup of java or information about Kofee/Kofi Anan. To combat this, Craig came up with an interesting solution: the "Did you mean?" alternative spelling option, based on predictive examples of searcher spelling patterns. You can see this in action if you type in "kofee anan"... more.. Putting The "Ad" Into Adwords Putting The "Ad" Into Adwords By Peter Astley-Sparke (c) 2008 When you're new to AdWords, it's tempting to devote far too much time and energy in trying to craft that "killer" ad. But the truth is that writing ads is a science, not an art. Here are a few of the rules. 1) Don't Fly Blind... In over five years developing AdWords campaigns, we've haven't ever seen a profitable example that didn't track conversions. AdWords Conversion Tracking is simple to install and a "must" for measuring ad performance. Remember, by itself the Cl?-Through- Rate (CTR) of an ad tells you nothing about the ROI it's delivering. We've seen many examples of ads with a lower CTR, but higher conversion rate. Google Analytics obviously adds a great deal more data, but takes time to master. However, one feature worth using immediately is its ability to tell you which ad position yields the best results. Finally, don't forget the AdWords Reports section. This has improved significantly over the past year, and the Search Query Performance report is a real asset in optimizing keywords and ad copy. 2) Cut out the Middle Man... In this case, the "middle man" is Google. When developing and testing your ads, it's vital to put yourself in control as far as possible: Delivery Method: By default, Google spreads the delivery of your ads evenly throughout the day, ensuring you don't exhaust your daily budget (and they get to spend as much of it as possible). However, it also serves to mask the true demand for your product or service. We have seen many cases where ads are more profitable at certain... more.. Killer Campaigns, Making Emotional Connections Killer Campaigns, Making Emotional Connections By Jerry Bader (c) 2009 We live in an age of clones: somebody makes a very profitable movie about vampires, and the next thing you know we're all inundated with movies, television shows, books, blogs, websites, and every form of blood-sucking permutation you can imagine. CSI begets CSI Miami, which begets CSI New York, which begets NCIS, which begets NCIS Los Angeles, which is just about as much as anyone can take. If something is successful, you can be sure more of the same will follow. Despite the occasional success story, most clones either fail completely, or never live up to the success of their groundbreaking predecessors. Most of the copycats fail because the clone-masters behind them don't understand why the original worked, and as a consequence, they clone all the wrong elements. This is as true of commercial presentations as it is with broadcast programming. Cloning a successful format is not the same as Slipstreaming. Clone marketing is just rote copying of technical elements without any reference to why the original worked, whereas Slipstream marketing takes a familiar idea and plays off it like a great jazz musician reinterprets an old standard. Kleenex "Let It Out" Campaign: Recognizing The Emotional Value Proposition What is more generic than facial tissue? A consumable paper product that you use once and discard; it is the very definition of a commodity, and as we all know commodity-sales are primarily based on price. Enter Kimberly Clark, one company that has managed to turn their commodity product into the industry standard to the extent that the commodity itself has become known by Kimberly Clark's designated brand name - Kleenex. The Kleenex, "Let It Out"... more.. Search Engine Optimization and SEO Tips Search Engine Optimization and SEO Tips By Brick Marketing (c) 2008 Conduct an Internet search for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tips and you'll quickly find a great many sites that are eager to pass along SEO tips but violate some of the Universal SEO Truths that they endorse. Ironically, these sites rank well for the keyphrase "search engine optimization tips", but the SEO tips that you seek are: 1. Buried in dense blocks of text which make them difficult to find. 2. Featured on sites so unappealing to the eye that you don't care whether the content is good or not. 3. Bracketed by distracting ads that encourage you to Buy Their SEO Book! Please bear in mind that achieving success through search engine optimization is highly dependent on a wide range of factors and any ethical Internet marketing consultant will tell you that up front. Some rules will apply to your website and some will not. But even when everything is done correctly, ranking well doesn't happen overnight as some sites lead you to believe. It takes time but if you're willing to be patient, search engine optimization will help you and your business achieve its goals. Additional Search Engine Optimization Tips 1. Know Your Target Audience ? Before any code or content is written for the site, think about your target audience and keep them in mind at every stage of site development. Consider age, gender, and especially, think about the things that will make your target audience want to visit your site often. 2. Build a Clean, User-Friendly Site ? Web users have very short attention spans and the decision to... more.. 11 Ways To Drive Traff?Away From Your Webplace 11 Ways To Drive Traff?Away From Your Webplace By Jerry Bader (c) 2007  Why Web-Users Are So Impatient While viewing a Toronto Raptor basketball game I saw T.J. Ford, one of the fastest players in the league, rush down the court like a man possessed and proceed to throw the ball behind his back to a trailing Andrea Bargnani. The trouble was the ball sailed over the head of the seven-foot Bargnani into the second row of seats. Ford, himself, finished up with a beer and popcorn fac? after landing in the lap of a front row patron. So what does this have to do by using webplace design and marketing you ask? A lot. As talented as Ford is as a basketball player he sometimes plays out-of-control, and his major asset, his speed, turns into a litalent. When this happens in a basketball game the answer is to gradual the game down and get back in control. Don't Speed-It-Up; Gradual-It-Down Webarea visitors are like the velocityy T.J. Ford; they are so intent on getting what they want as quickly and efficiently as possible, that they generally surf the internet out-of-control. How many times have you sat in front of the computer by using your hand resting on your mouse seeking for some desired product or service, service, or information, when all of sudden you find what looks similar what you would like, but before you even have a possibility to discover precisely what it's, your hair-trigger finger decides it\'s time to move-on. It\'s like your finger has a mind of it\'s own. Velocity Kills Marketing Labors All the talk and discussion about short attention spans caused by people raised on video games and quick-cut-edited music videos is very misleading. What website visitors won\'t tolerate are webplaces that waste their time, and many webplaces are guilty of... more.. Search in Internet Marketing The Importance of Search in Internet Marketing By Claudia Bruemmer (c) 2007 For long-time search marketers it will come as no surprise that search has become a media darling. Pay-per-click advertising is the most popular online marketing strategy, and organic search engine optimization provides top click-through and conversion performance. Search is more popular than display ads and ema?marketing because of its excellent performance and ROI. Internet marketers should take note of the development in the search marketplace in order to better focus their advertising budgets. Search is Evolving As the Web grows exponentially, search engine databases suffer from information overload. As a result, technology and consumer search behavior adapts and changes. One of the early attempts to make search easier was the use of metadata in search. The search engine, Clusty came out in 2004 to "deliver groups or clusters of similar results rather that mill?s of search results in one long l?." The clusters were supposed to help users see search results by topic so they could more easily find what they were looking for. Another of the early changes to search was the development of multiple databases within general search. Whether you go to Google or Yahoo, you'll see category choices such as Web, video, images, local, news, etc. These are all different databases that can help you target specific queries. Google aptly named this concept its OneBox solution; you could access many different databases from one box. Along with the development of multiple databases on niche products or subjects came the vertical search engines. These verticals are particularly useful for B2B companies. The latest trend in the evolution of the market is... more.. 8 Secrets to Fill Your Business in 60 Days 8 Secrets to Fill Your Business in 60 Days By Donna Gunter (c) 2009 OnlineBizU.com Recently I was asked in an interview to imagine that I was starting all over again, and as a newbie, how I would fill my business in 60 days. Things have changed tremendously since I began my online business in 1999, mostly for the better. Most of the steps, however remain the same. Best of all, the strategies I recommend to fill your business are the same ones that can be applied to any business, and then applied again and again to other online ventures. Here are 8 secrets to filling the prospect funnel in your business in 60 days: 1. Success mind set. Don't gloss over this strategy -- it may be the most important of all. If you truly want to succeed in your business and are passionate about what you do, nothing will hold you back. This often means that you have to step out in faith that you'll succeed, and most importantly, believe in yourself as a success. Sure, you may stumble, or even fall, but you must be willing to pick yourself back up and persevere -- even without a safety net hanging under you. 2. Target market. The biggest mistake that business owners make is wanting to sell to everyone. If you've tried this, you have no doubt discovered that casting your net around everyone is a very difficult task. Narrowing that group to a more manageable number will actually serve you much better, believe it or not. If you can identify a smaller group of hungry prospects who are willing to pay for the solutions to the problems that... more.. Ranches in Texas Ranches in Texas When talking about what drives people to see and buy one of the Ranches in Texas, things cannot be explained with words. You just need to see the ranch for yourself to get a feeling on how the life here goes on. The reality is that many people dream of such an opportunity but not many of them actually have the courage to do so. The courage and the Ranches in Texas People are so caught up with the craziness of their lives that they forget about the main reasons why they are working so hard. One of those reasons is to have an early retirement and enjoy life with all of its blessings. But, those people have the tendency to get so focused on their work, that life passes alongside them with all its opportunities. Such an opportunity is actually buying one of the Ranches in Texas as a personal investment. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear about it? Some of the most common answers refer to the fact that this isn't the time to think of such an investment. The thing is that now it's the best time to act in this area and that's why this is one of the best opportunities there is. What about the money? This is another issue that is being brought in such discussions by many different people. They think that the situation is the same as 3 years ago or 10 years ago when the land was considered one of the most expensive purchases there were. The reality is that the prices for the Ranches in Texas differ from location to location,... more.. New Website? It's Time To Think Links New Website? It's Time To Think Links By Matt Jackson (c) 2007 Link building has long been the staple dietary topic for SEO and Internet marketing experts, but with good reason. This is hardly ground breaking news but having a powerful link profile will help you to rank well in the search engines. Having an especially powerful link profile will also drive traffic directly to your website. As the webmaster of a new site, there are several things you must do. First, you need to create a genuinely useful website filled with equally useful and informative content. You need to ready yourself to add fresh content on a frequent basis, in order to retain existing site visitors and to attract the search engine spiders. You also need to start building links ? a good link profile takes time to develop so it is essential that you start as soon as possible. Below are some of the more and less effective methods of building quality inbound links to your new website. Create Quality Content OK, we've already mentioned this in passing, but it's important. Linkable content will get linked to (eventually). You may not have the traffic base to command links organically in this way yet, but you will do soon. Unique, informative, and even controversial content will ultimately see other sites willing to link to your own. Video marketing has become especially popular because of its viral nature. You can create a good video clip, embed it into a page of your site and include "email to a friend" links. Also ensure that it is well branded so that everybody knows where the video first came from. Free Directory... more.. Suicide in Cyberspace - Your Outward Links Can Kill Your Rankings Suicide in Cyberspace - Your Outward Links Can Kill Your Rankings By Ben Kemp (c) 2007 Link building strategies have, for most people for a long time, revolved around reciprocal link exchanges. Whilst most people understand that links are important, they generally don't understand why this is so. In a nutshell, a link to your site has traditionally been accepted by Search Engines as a vote for your site. A link from a topic or theme-related site to yours is better than a link from a site having a completely different topic. An important site's link to yours carries more weight - for example from The Open Directory, or Yahoo Directory. All pretty straightforward... BUT... the rules have changed... significantly! All the thinking webmasters worked diligently to build links - willy-nilly - in order to subvert the search engine rankings and gain an advantage to themselves at the expense of everyone else. For a long time, there have been mutterings about this, and comments from Google staffers about possible penalties from linking to "bad neighbourhoods'" and - heaven forbid it - buying links! Google et al simply don't approve of willy-nilly link-building schemes, and have recently tightened the screws a bit more, in two notable ways... Bad Links Some links are bad... for example, if you are a car sales company and you've got dozens of completely irrelevant links to international hotel sites... yeah, YOU know the ones! in Prague, Munich, Shanghai etc! That's a BAD neighbourhood over there! That IS going to put a world of hurt on you! And as for the Free-For-All link sites, web rings, and 3 way link schemes... that's just suicide in... more.. Clicking into the Future Predictions for 2007 Clicking into the Future Predictions for 2007 By Jim Hedger (c) 2006 While 2006 was a great year for webmasters it was a time of great change and challenge in the search engine sector. The most notable trend from 2006 was the continued advancement of Google against natural rivals Yahoo, MSN and Ask, as well as its persistent movement towards other, less obvious advertising venues. Next week we will look back at the ghosts of 2006 but as the New Year approaches, thoughts turn towards the spirits of things to come. Predictions for 2007 1/ Google's early entry to radio advertising will bear fruit prompting Google to start examining television advertising. When it comes to the allocation of advertising dollars, Google fundamentally altered the rules of the game. In the past, mass market advertisers would gamble on a shotgun approach to ad-spending. The options consisted of newspaper, magazine, telephone directory, radio or television. While each medium could provide statistics showing their print-run and audience, tracking the success or failure of these types of advertising has always posed a problem for manufacturers and retailers. When Google popularized the pay-per-click model in which advertisers only pay when a person actually views the ad, a new model was born. Google's billing model will have to alter slightly to meet the radio and video formats however, as digital radio and television becomes the norm, tracking will become far easier. Google will be able to charge by the listener or viewer though it remains to be seen if listeners or viewers will actually listen to or view advertisements on digital radio or television. more.. My Top 10 Most Useful Free Marketing Tools Of 2011  My Top 10 Most Useful Free Marketing Tools Of 2011 By Titus Hoskins (c) 2011 At the end of the year, everyone's making lists and I thought it would be helpful if I gave you my most useful marketing tools of 2010. All of these are free and there's no reason why these tools can't also help your website or your marketing. While they are geared towards marketing, they can also be used for getting traffic to any website. I also believe it is the "USE" of "ALL" of these tools in combination which has helped me succeed online. So here, in no particular order, are my most useful free marketing tools of 2010: 1. SeoQuake for Firefox This invaluable SEO tool will give you vital stats about your site and those of your competitors. I use this extensively to check out my linking partners and how I can better challenge my competition. Besides checking the traffic ranking, Google indexed pages, age of site... the most important stats for me is the SEMRush numbers, these will roughly tell you the worth of the monthly keyword traffic a site is receiving. Very helpful. 2. Google Analytics Getting traffic is only half the battle, knowing what that traffic does on your site is extremely important. I use this program to make my pages perform better and bring in more sales. Knowledge is everything on the web. I find Analytics good for fine-tuning my "money pages" on all my sites. I use it to build the conversion rate of my traffic. And that as they say has made all the difference in the world. 3. more.. Simple Twitter Tips that Attract Clients and Partners Simple Twitter Tips that Attract Clients and Partners By Meredith Liepelt (c) 2009 According to Mashable.com, a leading authority on social media, there are currently over 12 million users on Twitter. Another resource called istrategylabs.com reports that 46% of Twitter users are college grads, and another 17% have post graduate degrees. Furthermore, 47% are between age 18 and 34, and another 31% are between 35 and 49. Males and females are evenly ranked, with women accounting for 53% of users and men 47%. If your target market falls within these demographics, actively participating on Twitter is probably worth your while. Twitter is simply a micro blogging service. What does that mean? It means that you write short updates (140 characters maximum) called "tweets" and send them out to your followers. And it is a marketer's dream come true - it's an easy way to stay in front of your target market and showcase your authority for free. The myth around Twitter is that Twitter users (called tweeple or tweeps) tweet about useless information such as what kind of coffee they had with breakfast. Yes, some of that exists and it is actually important as you'll see below, but once you understand the power of connecting on Twitter, you may become a Twitter convert, just like me. So, if you're on Twitter or considering starting, the question becomes, "what do I tweet about that will make this a useful tool for me?" Here are some categories you can consider for your tweets. There are others but these will get you started: Industry Tips This is a big one. You are on Twitter to showcase your expertise, so industry tips act as your credibility builders. Here's how to do it:... more.. The Death of Google Adsense And Other Myths The Death of Google Adsense And Other Myths By Titus Hoskins (c) 2006 Recent changes in the Google Adsense program has many online website owners and marketers seriously concerned. Many have seen their Adsense prof? and income flatline... seen their four or five figure monthly Adsense income disappear overnight. For many the Google Adsense bubble has burst. What happened? First, Google made a change in its Adsense program, letting advertisers choose between putting their ads in the search results or on the content pages of Adsense publishers. Search won out and started to receive the higher bids. Search results convert better than content ads. Next, Google has cracked down on Junk Adsense sites, like they should. These sites consisted mainly of software generated re-hashed search engine links and were totally annoying to say the least. But Google also cracked down on 'squeeze pages' or 'affil?e landing pages' - a lucrative source of income for many online marketers, mainly because these pages helped marketers build an opt-?list or use permission based email. The results of these changes produced an Adsense meltdown for many online marketers. Some Internet marketers are speculating recent changes could even mean the death of Adsense. One online marketer, Scott Boulch even published a free report entitled 'The Death of Adsense". Many affil?e marketers would agree with Boulch on some of his points, especially the obvious fact that using Adsense on your web content is starting on the bottom rung of the online marketing ladder. Instead of receiving pennies per cl? with Adsense, alert marketers and webmasters have already discovered that by using CPA (Cost-Per-Action) and direct affil?e links, they can produce significantly more... more.. Google's New Patent Translated Google's New Patent Translated By Kim Roach (c) 2006 There is always great interest within the search engine marketing community whenever a search engine files for a patent. This is especially true for Google, which just recently released a new patent application - System and method for supporting editorial opinion in the ranking of search results. However, we must keep in mind that just because a patent has been applied for or granted, the search engines may or may not implement the patent within their primary search results. Nevertheless, these patents often do give us clues about what the search engines are looking for in a website. Some of Google's patents have given us insight into the influence of anchor text, fresh content, themes, data history, link popularity, user behavior, and domain-related information. However, Google's most recent patent application shows a shift from focusing on algorithm-based changes to the integration of a human editorial process. Ultimately, Google is striving to create the best possible search results for their visitors. This patent proposes one possible method for doing that. For the most part, search engine algorithms have reached their peak. We've known for quite some time now that an algorithm-based search engine can never permanently deliver excellent results. Why, you might ask. Simply because there will always be people out there trying to reverse-engineer the system. Therefore, a cat and mouse game is created. Out of this problem, a number of solutions have evolved. One of these is social search engines, which rank their results based on the wisdom of crowds. Another solution to arise from this problem is a human editorial process. And now, Google has proposed in their patent application a... more.. 8 Tips To Create A Landing Page 8 Tips To Create A Landing Page By Ayat Shukairy (c) 2007 Introduction You need copy for your landing page but you're not sure where to start. First let's clarify what we mean by a landing page. A landing page can be a page that visitors come to after clicking on a promotional banner or link. Ultimately, the landing page must convince the visitor that they should stay on your site. You may also have a goal that you want accomplished, such as: Signing up for a newsletter or filling out a f? Buying a product Reading informational pieces What's going to keep them there? The structure, the language, and the visual appeal all play a part of it. Ch? out these tips to create a great landing page, or reinvent the one you already have. The Structure People arrive at your site looking for answers. They scan to see if they're in the right place and assess whether it's going to be a quick and easy visit or a long grinding one. Your landing page is the welcome wagon inviting them in and feeding them the information they need. The structure of the page will either pull them in and encourage them to fulfill your goal, or distract and cause them to cut out of there before getting the whole picture. The structure of the landing page in general should be matching that of the banner, ?or link they clicked on to get them there. So for example, if your PPC Ad is targeting SEO articles, your landing page should discuss exactly that. If a Victoria Secret's ?for lingerie... more.. How to Get Top Search Engine Optimization and Placement Results with Google Caffeine How to Get Top Search Engine Optimization and Placement Results with Google Caffeine By Wendy Suto (c) 2010 Since its debut in 1996, Google's search engine has experienced countless updates and revisions. But none of those revisions have fundamentally changed the architecture of the Google search algorithm as much as Google's latest update, codenamed Caffeine. While recent reports put Google's market share at around 65 percent, a massive update to its search engine technology makes sense at this point. Microsoft's new Bing search engine showed some resiliency in late 2009, while Web 2.0 services like Facebook and Twitter have done a lot to change the way people search for content on the Internet. For Google to remain the most popular search service, it will have to counter Bing's claims of technical superiority. It would also have to more effectively incorporate "real-time search," the term used for finding information and content - like tweets from Twitter and breaking news stories - that have just been posted. That means a radically different Google search engine. And it also means that those who care about Website search engine optimization and placement may have a lot of new rules to learn if they want to earn high Website rankings on Google. Because Caffeine is a significant departure from previous versions of Google's search engines, Website owners and marketers could see dramatically different results for their search engine optimization and placement efforts. But the good news is that Google has offered Webmasters and online marketers a taste of Caffeine's unique algorithms. Search engine optimization and placement specialists have been able to test their Websites against an early version of Caffeine. And while it's a nice gesture by Google to provide the... more.. Texas Ranches for Sale Texas Ranches for Sale What's the immediate reaction when people hear about the TX Land For Sale? There are many that can be highlighted but the most relevant of them all is passivity. This is because there are some people who think that this isn't something that they can handle or it isn't something that should be in their own best interest. Sadly, you find the very same people complaining about unfulfilling their life is. The other vision of the TX Land for Sale One idea that should be illustrated in this material refers to the greatest benefit that comes to mind when talking about the Tx Land for Sale opportunities. There are some people who have believed that this is something that truly are in their own best interest and have chosen to accept it. They bring forth the idea that they were leading very stressful lives, full of problems and worries. The business of the city and all of its craze didn't actually help at all. What did they do? They took up one of the Tx Land for Sale opportunities and shaped after their best desire. Many of them have brought up the house of their dreams and have made it as they've always wanted. There are some who would say that they afforded all of this because they were rich. Interesting enough, this wasn't the case in almost any of the investments. The reason why the prices are so low when it comes to investing in the real estate industry and making some personal adjustments to the land afterwards is because of the recession. The difficult times... more.. Gift Ideas great gift ideas When coming across the best gift ideas, many people relate to something more personal rather then something that is material. Sure, you have to spend some money in order to come up with a gift that is suitable to the taste and the style of the receiver, but the amount of money can be far less than expected. The cheapness of the great gift ideas There are some people who still think that by spending a huge sum of money on an item, will surely ensure the success of the gift, but there are a lot of situations that prove otherwise. First of all, people need to take into account that some of the best Gift Ideas are the ones which are handmade. This means that the one who is sending the gift will only need to buy the materials from which the gifts will be created. Many would say that this isn?t something for them as they don?t have any talent in crafting something worth offering. The truth is that many people don?t have the necessary skills to come up with things on their own, but the internet can prove to be a handy tool in this situation. There are millions of handmade Gift Ideas websites that offer tutorials and... more.. The Lucky Thirteen - The Critical SEO Checklist The Lucky Thirteen - The Critical SEO Checklist By Mike Tekula (c) 2007 When it comes to SEO not all of us have the time to be experts. At some point the real "gurus" of SEO and other topics are the people with a whole lot of time on their hands. This l?, put together with the everyday webmaster in mind, drives home some absolutely crucial points that you should keep in mind when optimizing your pages for valuable search rankings. 1. Check Search Engine Crawl Error Pages It's important to monitor search engine crawl error reports to keep on top of how your site and its pages are performing. Monitoring error reports can help you determine when and where Googlebot or another crawler is having trouble indexing your content - which can help you find a solution to the problem. 2. Create/update robots.txt and sitemap files These files are supported by major search engines and are incredibly useful tools for ensuring that crawlers index your important site content while avoiding those sections/files that you deem to be either unimportant or cause problems in the crawl process. In many cases we've seen the proper use of these files make all the difference between a total crawl failure for a site and a full index of content pages which makes them crucial from an SEO standpoint. 3. Check Googlebot activity reports These reports allow you to monitor how long it's taking Googlebot to access your pages. This information can be very important if you are worried that you may be on a slow network or experiencing web server problems.... more.. 7 Steps to Building the Right Social Media Connections 7 Steps to Building the Right Social Media Connections By Angelique L. Rewers (c) 2011 Once upon a time, it seemed as though the number of "followers" or "connections" a person had on social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn was akin to the number of votes they had for homecoming king or queen. It was the grown-up version of a high school popularity contest. However, as these websites have now matured - and as entrepreneurs and business owners have figured out how and how not to use them - most every?has come to realize that it's not about the number of connections you have, but the number of right connections. Just like in the real world, you want to make sure you're making the most of your networking time by connecting with those people that have similar or complementary interests or expertise and, therefore, create a mutually beneficial relationship - particularly when sites like Facebook limit your number of friends to only 5,000. In fact, many people who have large followings of the wrong people are taking the drastic step of deleting their connections and starting over from scratch. Whether you're just getting started building your social media network or you're a seasoned pro, who's thinking about doing a major overhaul, here are seven steps you can take to help you build the right connections. 1.)Start With the People You Know. If you're still not using social media and are hesitant to get started, the best way to get your feet wet is by connecting with those you know personally: your friends & family, your neighbors, and your co-workers. But don't stop there; your network is likely... more.. 10 Free and Easy Ways to Improve Your Alexa Ranking 10 Free and Easy Ways to Improve Your Alexa Ranking By Darrell Howell (c) 2008 Alexa, which is owned by Amazon.com, gives away a free toolbar that you can download and install in your browser. Alexa is then able to keep track of the sites you visit and compute the traffic ranking of those websites, with a rank of "1" being the assigned to the most visited site. If you want a more technical definition, Alexa explains it like this: "The traffic rank is based on three months of aggregated historical traffic data from millions of Alexa Toolbar users and data obtained from other, diverse traffic data sources, and is a combined measure of page views and users (reach). As a first step, Alexa computes the reach and number of page views for all sites on the Web on a daily basis. The main Alexa traffic rank is based on a value derived from these two quantities averaged over time (so that the rank of a site reflects both the number of users who visit that site as well as the number of pages on the site viewed by those users)." http://www.alexa.com/site/help/traffic_learn_more In April 2008 Alexa revised its methodology so as to "aggregate data from multiple sources to give you a better indication of website popularity among the entire population of Internet users". http://awis.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html How accurately this method reflects the actual surfing patterns of all Internet users is open to question. However, if you bear in mind that by the end of 2005 the toolbar had been downloaded well over 10 million times you will realize why many people still think... more.. Linking With Integrity Getting One Way Links The Right Way Linking With Integrity Getting One Way Links The Right Way By Jerret Turner (c) 2008 It's just as important to know what not to do when executing a website linking strategy as it is to know what to do. With inexpensive linking software and services so readily available, there's a strong temptation to take shortcuts when it comes to getting quality links. Avoiding these traps will help your search engine placements rise naturally and stay that way for a long time. In this article, I describe two ways that you can help yourself avoid being labeled a link sp@mmer. Link Farms What is a link farm? A link farm is any website designed and set up for the sole purpose of getting search engine spiders to crawl and index web pages. These websites provide absolutely no end user utility or benefit. So how do you recognize a link farm? First, you need to ask yourself, is this site heavy laden with links? Most link farms will have a "farm" of links with little to no content. As for an explanation of the site's existence, it's usually missing too. The next question you need to ask is, what does the URL of the site itself look like? Most of the time, link farms will have long, hyphenated URLs (i.e. our-great-linking- directory dot com). This is a generalization so not all link farms will have these types of URLs. Many of these link farms are generated using software. The software will go out and find a domain name that contains specific keywords even if it settles on something with several hyphens and numbers. You may... more.. Web Communication, "Sign, Sign, Everywhere A Sign" Web Communication, "Sign, Sign, Everywhere A Sign" By Jerry Bader (c) 2007 Your business success depends on your ability to communicate effectively to an interested audience. Driving appropriate traff?to your site is important, but the tactics that generate visitors are not the same tactics that get visitors to stay on your site. Web-communication is a series of elaborate multi-sensory sign languages; signs being the words, images, audio and videos that constitute the range of presentation vehicles that like all forms of communication have their own grammar, context, and relevance as interpreted from personal experience by each member of your customer-audience. Websites that consistently under perform and that don't meet business expectations generally suffer because they are not designed to hold viewers attention long enough to communicate a clear concise marketing message. When Words Lose Their Meaning Marketing is one of those words that has lost its currency because it has been tossed about with little respect for its meaning. To many, it's merely just another word for advertising, which of course it is not. To the more sophisticated it takes in all the disciplines of branding, positioning, identity, advertising, and more. Above all marketing implies a strategic approach to implementing these tactics. For companies interested in using the Web to further their business objectives, Web-marketing is the execution of a communication strategy through the creative implementation of multi-sensory signature presentations. Semiotics: The Study of Signs "Sign, Sign, everywhere a sign, Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind, Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign." - Five Man Electrical Band Like the lyrics of the song, 'Signs,' by the Five Man Electrical Band' suggests, we... more.. Web Design Los Angeles Web Design Los Angeles   There are still many people that don't actually understand what the benefits of a Web Design Los Angeles service are. They are so focused on doing things the old fashioned way, which makes it really hard for them to survive in their business. This is an aspect that has greatly been confirmed by the recession and the harsh time that the world has been facing until now. The necessities of the Web Design Los Angeles services People need to take into account several factors that are simply the best motivators when it comes to developing an online approach. They need to understand that the internet is a very powerful tool and if used well it will be able to generate the amount of profit that will surely raise your interest. That's why the Web Design Los Angeles services need to get your attention and most important, that is the main reason why people need to start enhancing their image in the online environment. Many would think that such a service is able to make some web pages and that's that. The reality is a little bit different as such a service covers a lot of ground, especially when it comes to promoting ones business. One of the best arguments in this direction refers to the other services that a web design company offers to their clients. The search engine... more.. SEO For The New Google SEO For The New Google Dave Davies For those whose businesses rely on the Internet to produce revenue the latest Google update, nicknamed Jagger, was one of the biggest events in the past couple years (probably since the Florida Update of 2003). With this 3-part update Google has essentially changed many of the rules and have thrown the SEO community for a loop. In this update there are a few key areas that have impacted the way sites rank and how an SEO (or a business owner optimizing their own site) needs to approach and address the various components. The key areas that have been affected with this update are: The history of your web pages The way backlinks are counted Site content & structure In short, the way everything about your site is calculated has changed however if we pay attention to what has changed in each area we'll quickly see how to optimize a site and equally important, we'll see what Google is trying to accomplish with this update. I state that this as equally important in that understanding what Google is hoping to accomplish will help us take measures now to protect our rankings during future updates. We will cover this further below in the conclusion. The History Of Your Web Pages The history of your website and in fact, the individual pages within it are playing an increasingly important role in your site's ability to rank well. The longer your site has been online the better your chances of ranking highly. Further, the longer a specific internal page has been live the better it will rank for additional phrases.   What this means to you is that you will have to take... more.. Use Robots.txt and Save the World Use Robots.txt and Save the World By Sante J. Achille (c) 2007 Robots.txt Help the Search Engines Learn All About Your Website There is a growing interest in the little known file that every website should have in the root directory: robots.txt It's a very simple text file you can find all about at the robotstxt.org website. Why should you use it ? Here are some good reasons for you to consider. The Growing Importance of Robots.Txt At SES New York a robots.txt summit was held where major search engines (Ask, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!) participated, sharing interesting information on this file. Here are some numbers. According to Keith Hogan from Ask: i) Less than 35% of websites have a robots.txt file ii) The majority of robots.txt files are copied from others found online iii) On many occasions robots.txt files are provided by your web host? service It looks like the majority of webmasters aren't familiar with this file. This is going to play a major role as the size of the web continues to grow: Spidering is a costly effort that search engines tend to optimize. Those web sites demonstrating optimal command (which in turn determines efficiency) will be rewarded. During the summit, all search engines announced they will identify (or autodiscover) sitemaps via the robots.txt file. In essence search engines are now able to discover your sitemap via a link in the following format: Sitemap: <sitemap_location>, where <sitemap_location> is the complete URL of your Sitemap Index File (or your sitemap file, if you don't have an index file). Controlled Access to Your Content With a robots.txt... more.. Rev Up Your Social Media Marketing Strategy Rev Up Your Social Media Marketing Strategy In less than five years, social media has revolutionized not only our communication culture but how we conduct business. The dizzying effect of endless and sometimes unfettered-24-hour access to people and information has transformed the various tools into a game changer. There is a broad and increasing list of sites, including BlinkList, YouTube, Delicious, Flickr, Tumblr, BlogMarks.net, and the triumvirate of major sites: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. These social destinations have become to business professionals and entrepreneurs what golf is to C-suite powerbrokers - a juncture to strategically network and close deals based on shared interests and personal engagement. But these sites do more by offering users valuable real estate to advertise products or services, create and expand brand recognition, solicit feedback, build relationships, and create community forums. Users also have unprecedented access to consumers, hiring managers, prospective clients, industry experts, and opportunities. Moreover, social media levels the playing field by allowing anyone access without restrictions on time, location, or social status. The most diligent and creative players are reaping huge benefits. According to a report from Forrester Research, 55.6 mill? U.S. adults - just shy of one-third of the population - visited social networks at least monthly in 2009, a jump from 18% in 2008. Recent Nielsen research says Americans spend nearly 25% of their time online on social networks and blogs, up from nearly 16% a year ago. The initial foray into social media can be daunting and bewildering. Newcomers to the space might wonder: Who's reading? Will I be heard or noticed? Isn't it all just fun and games? Isn't it invasive? Making the effort worthwhile requires time, patience, and a... more.. Is Google No 1 Forever? Is Google No 1 Forever? By Jim Hedger, StepForth News Editor, StepForth Placement Inc. Google is without a doubt the world's number one search engine. According to the research firm Neilsen/NetRatings, Google's share of the global search market in February 2006 was 48.5%, more than double the 22.5% share its nearest rival Yahoo saw. Having been the engine of choice for nearly five years, Google is synonymous with search. Because Google is the first thing most folks think of when they think about search, it is the most important search marketing venue, at least for the vast majority of SEOs. That might be changing in the coming years. There's a sense in the SEO sector that the horizons have expanded significantly and the search marketing map has gotten far larg? What the new landscape will look like exactly, and how large Google's footprint will be, is still unknown. The emerging online environment is still being explored, so to speak. As it is explored, it is evolving very quickly. In many ways, it feels like the early days of the commercial web where everyone knew that everything was about to change, but no one really knew exactly how. While Google's influence is incred?e and its dominance appears unassailable, a number of... more.. Do You Really Need To Come In First Place? Do You Really Need To Come In First Place? By Erin Ferree (c) 2008 When I was in 6th grade, track and field was all the rage. I've never been particularly athletic. But it was 1984 and everyone in my class was pretty fascinated with the Olympics that year. As you can imagine the school's annual track meet turned into a mini-Olympics. So I surveyed the events and the sign-ups for each one. I decided that the long-distance running events held the most promise for glory. The 2 mile, in particular, only had 2 other girls signed up - so I was pretty much assured a "medal". That sounded pretty exciting. Maybe I could go for the gold! However, watching the other events leading up to the 2-mile, I soon learned that one of the other girls was a seasoned runner. She knew all about pacing, how many minutes she should be able to run a mile in, and all that fancy stuff. At that point, I knew that first place was pretty much done for. I barely knew how many laps around the track I had to run. I ran the race anyway and wound up coming in second - which was just fine by me. It's not all about winn? - a place or a show can be just fine. Whenever I talk to a client about search engine placement, this track meet comes into mind. The client comes to me wanting to be Number 1 for their chosen search term. But for many small businesses, being ranked first is not truly that important - and depending on the search term, being... more.. Internet Marketing Blogs that Beg to be Bookmarked Internet Marketing Blogs that Beg to be Bookmarked By Merle (c) 2008 PayPerClickResearch.com Let's face it, Blogs on the topic of Internet marketing are a dime a dozen. Everyone and their dog seems to have one. I'll be the first to admit it takes a lot to impress me. Some blogs are just boring and uneventful. But then there are some that make me want to come back again and again. So, what are the qualities of a great blog? Well, for me it's one that offers me something of value, whether that be in the form of valuable information, or points me in the direction of free products or services. It's all about me. By the same token, I do appreciate a blogger with a sense of humor or strong personality. If you're stiff and mechanical it's just not for me. Show me who you really are and what makes you tick. One final point. Don't forget about design. Blogs that are easy on the eyes, uncluttered and simple get my vote every time. If it has a black background and white text, I'm out of there in a big hurry. So, who has some of the best blogs online today? So glad you asked. Listen closely as I enlighten you and point you in the right direction. 1) Willie Crawford: An experienced online marketer, Willie is considered one of the world's leading Internet marketing experts. Listen to Willie, he "walks the talk" and can teach you a lot about the world of online market?. He also has a radio show at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/WillieCrawford 2) Michael Fortin Blog: Copywriting... more.. organic makeup organic makeup   There is much to say about the organic makeup and how well it treats the face. Most of the people don't know about it due to the fact that they are too used to what they are frequently using and not on what is the best choice for their skin and bodies. This should be something worth considering as it can work well for one's skin health. The healthy side of the organic makeup Little do people know that the nonorganic makeup is damaging the skin slowly, but surely. This is because of the substances that are being using in their composition. That's why the appearance of side effects is so frequent and that's why more and more people that use such products find themselves in the position of having skin products. The organic makeup brings another side to this issue with the fact that its composition is naturally based. This changes the perspective completely as the organic products have a beneficial touch to the skin Another aspect that should be discussed here refers to the idea of problem solving. Usually the cosmetics are designed to resolve a problem that the skin has and make it better. The nonorganic products are a little bit different from the organic ones, judging from this perspective. They are designed to cover the surface and not take care of the deeper side of the problem. The organic makeupmore.. Does Your Website Need an Extreme Makeover? Does Your Website Need an Extreme Makeover? By Ivana Katz (c) 2009 It was Friday night and I was enjoying a quiet dinner at home, when suddenly CRACK! - part of my tooth broke off! "Damn" I thought, "Now what?" I immediately went online to see if I could find a dentist that is open on Saturday morning. So I searched and searched. The good news was there were plenty of dentists in my area ... the bad news was that I couldn't find whether they were open on Saturdays. After looking through various websites for about an hour, I narrowed it down to three dentists, who were open on the weekend. But in the end there was no competition as only one of the dentists had a professional looking website! Don't get me wrong the website wasn't flash, but it was clean, easy to navigate and most of all, provided me with the information I was looking for. I phoned the next morning, made an appointment and even got to see a dentist that day! After that experience, it really hit home ... what a difference a professional looking website makes! I am sure most of the dentists in my area are great at what they do, but none of their websites portrayed that. As a result they lost a customer who will spend hundreds, possibly even thousands of dollars on their services. So if you have a website... more.. How Many Links Does It Take to Get to the Middle of Google Page One? How Many Links Does It Take to Get to the Middle of Google Page One? By Bill Platt (c) 2009 911 Reputation Management Everyday it seems, people are asking me about the optimum number of inbound links they need to acquire for their website in order to rank well in Google. My answer is going to seem a little flip, but it is the honest, best answer. Answer: You need more inbound links - of equal or higher quality - than what your competitors have. When people wonder how many inbound links they need to acquire to rank in the Top 4 of Google's search results or even the Top 10 of Google's SERPs, they are generally hoping that someone will be able to give them a numeric answer, so that they know whether they can afford to undertake the process or not. I understand the WHY of the question, but there is no canned answer that will work for everyone. Remember, your competitor may be asking the same question and undertaking the same processes as you are, trying to accomplish the same goal. You can't truly begin to understand the answer to this question, until you have taken the time to do an Inbound Link Comparison Analysis of all of your competitors in the Top 10 spots of Google's SERPs. ? You need to look at the Top 10 listings in Google for a particular keyword. ? You need to do backlink checks for all ten URLs in Google's search listings, and you need to check those numbers across a variety of sources, including Google, Yahoo and any other tool you can find to do a check. (Google and Yahoo... more.. Texas Ranches for Sale Texas Ranches for Sale The field of investments is pretty large and people do have a lot of choices when it comes to choosing a place where they can put their money. Usually they choose the safest game where they can play, rather than risk a little and see what happens. The most interesting things happen in uncertain industry. Why should someone choose the Texas Ranches for Sale opportunities as an investment? There are various reasons why people choose the real estate industry as a place to put their money in. It might sound a little bit strange but now it's the perfect time to actually take up these opportunities due to some important aspects. First of all, the Texas Ranches for Sale offers are considered to be extremely tempting in terms of prices. This is due to the fact that the value of the land is estimated to be very low. The recession has made it possible for the prices to remain at the lower side of the grid, making it possible for the ones that haven't had an opportunity in the past to make a decision now. Another great aspect in this matter is that most of the people don't choose this field as an investment right now. They are a little bit influenced by the media and the stuff that they hear on their own regarding the Texas Ranches for Sale opportunities. The reality is a little bit different as things are not as shown on television. Furthermore, as the number of people that are buying right now is low, you... more.. Google Instant - Implications for SEO & Internet Marketing Google Instant - Implications for SEO & Internet Marketing By Titus Hoskins (c) 2010 While reading Harry McCracken's rather insightful article on Google Instant in PCWorld , I was reminded once again, how narrowly focused my own thinking has become in regards to Google. I keep forgetting, not everybody is into SEO or Internet Marketing (lucky dogs), and that Google search has a function outside of SEO. I keep forgetting that the general public actually uses Google for online search, there are millions of web users out there who have been using Google Instant to find out the weather, the latest Lady Gaga outfit or which flat-screen HDTV to purchase? Of course, I know this to be the real function of Google, but if you're a full-time search engine marketer, your perspective is solidly aligned to all the SEO elements - keyword rankings, link building and content placem? in the most dominant search engine in the world. Basically, you will be more concerned with how Google Instant will impact those top keyword rankings, your click-through rates and most importantly, what effect will it have on your conversion rates and sales? More specifically, how does this instant search impact the display of your listings in Google and what are the long-term ramifications this instant "real time" display will have on your marketing online? There are even some so-called experts which say Google Instant will be the end of SEO. This is a rather foolish notion since the underlying structure of using optimized strategies to obtain top rankings in Google or any other search engine for... more.. Three Hot Trends to Watch Out For Three Hot Trends to Watch Out For By Michel Fortin (c) 2008 Since the new year is right around the corner, bloggers and marketers alike are posting their predictions as if a psychics convention has come to town. So in keeping with that tradition, I'd like to post a few of my own. But unlike those who post their predictions in point form, I won't make a specific l? but rather share with you some of my thoughts. (Near the end, however, this post will culminate in what I believe will be three major trends to watch out for and dive into, if you want to make some serious money in 2008 and beyond.) First off, let me state that you may or may not agree with me on these. But something is definitely going on right now that points to these three trends. All the clues are pretty evident, and you've probably seen some of these yourself. What I'm talking about is... ... Internet marketing is correcting itself. When the stock market tumbles, short of a full-on crash, they call it a "correction." Sometimes it happens precipitously. Other times, it takes place over a period of time. Likewise, I believe that Internet marketing, right now, is going through a similar correction. It may not be as precipitous as the stock market, but it's indeed quite significant. To explain what I mean, let me back up a bit. If you've read Geoffrey Moore's "Crossing The Chasm", then you understand the product adoption curve. (In marketing and academic circles, they call it the "Diffusion Process.") In plain English, it means that new markets go through a certain adoption process that... more.. How To Create A Video Campaign Concept How To Create A Video Campaign Concept By Jerry Bader (c) 2007 Have you ever had a good idea, maybe a great idea, only to find that someone else already ready did it? Frustrating. You want to be a success and who doesn't? It's why you do what you do, why you put-up with what you put-up with? But it all gets so frustrating. As much as you'd like to believe otherwise, there just aren't any secr?methods, special potions, or motivational DVDs that are going to make you a success in thirty days, but there are things you can do that will help. Sure working hard helps but working smart is even better. So how do you work smart? Well you can start with presenting your core, marketing message to your targeted audience in a way that engages the spirit, informs the intellect, and embeds in the mind. And if you want to be cutting edge, the way to do it is with audio and video. What A Difference A Difference Makes Anybody who has ever tried to raise mon?for a project from a bank, or contacted an ad agency for help has heard the question, "What makes your company different?" If you don't have a different product, different process, or different way of doing or presenting what you do, you are nev?going to raise a cent or make an impact on the market. Yet most companies blindly continue to follow the market leader, and wonder why they nev?attain the level of success they hope to achieve. If you want to be a success, you have to reinvent your company as something unique,... more.. The Top 10 Dumbest Web Site Decisions The Top 10 Dumbest Web Site Decisions By Kalena Jordan (c) 2007 Having worked with web sites for the past eleven years, I've seen a LOT of errors, poor judgment and embarrassing gaffs on the web. Sometimes they are the fault of the client, the web designer, the IT Manager, or the SEO, but human error is always to blame. The saddest thing is that the problems are usually preventable. Here is a l? of what I consider to be the Top 10 dumbest web site decisions ever, in reverse order, David Letterman style : 10) Misspelling a Domain Back in the glory days of the late 1990's when I was working for a large Internet agency, the web designers had responsibility for the registration of domain names on behalf of clients. One particular designer had a face to face meeting with a major client, during which the client asked him to register CarTuneCentral.com (or so he thought!). The staffer did a check and was delighted to see the domain available. He made the purchase and proudly emailed the client. An hour later his boss called him in to his office to say that he'd had a call from a very frustrated client who *actually* wanted him to register CartoonCentral.com. Needless to say the desired domain wasn't available and the whole office dined on his mistake for months. 9) Letting the Domain Name Expire Now what type of company would allow their domain to expire a month after site launch? A very large one, that's who. I'll save the company some embarrassment and won't reveal their name but the site was offline... more.. Attracting Links To Your Website Attracting Links To Your Website By Trey Pennewell (c) 2008 the Phantom Writers You know it is funny in a way. Webmasters have learned that the most important thing that they can do to improve the traffic to their website and to attract attention from the search engines is to build links to their website. But when it comes time to actually start building links to one's website, people typically pick the hardest way to accomplish the task and then they get to work. Working Hard People have been told about various ways to build links to one's website, and they go through the process of picking out the method that they would prefer to use. It is kind of ironic that most people pick the method that they believe will be the easiest and least expensive to achieve, and when all is said and done, they will have picked out the hardest, least effective method of building links. For example, most newcomers to online business choose: Reciprocal links; Directory submissions. With Reciprocal Links, people buy a software package that helps them to search out websites that are supposedly "related" to theirs and then they send an email to the person who owns that website, proclaiming the benefits of trading links and asking for the link. With directory submissions, webmasters can get software that is supposed to help with the process, but it takes hours just to subm?one's website to a few dozen directories. Fortunately, there are service providers who also provide submissions to web directories. Regardless of how you get links subm?ed to web... more.. RTA cabinets Los Angeles RTA cabinets Los Angeles When it comes to the decision that people make when it comes to their interior decorating, many of them will say that the RTA cabinets Los Angeles services were the ones that really had their consideration. This is because of the fact that they really enjoyed having to do so little and leaving the rest to the company. The efficacy of the RTA cabinets Los Angeles services First of all, people value the speed with which the companies, the services or the brands handle their needs. We live in a world where everything is done with a fast forward button and that's the reason why all the customers of any markets expect things to be done so quickly. What's special about the RTA cabinets Los Angeles services? The argument can be found in the fact that they let the customers make their choices in the online environment and then they provide with the products in a very small timeframe. The interesting part here is that clients really appreciate the fact of not having to go downtown to visit the showroom and lose valuable time there. He can simply log on to the site and make the choices that he wants right from the comfort of his home. Imagine that all the traffic jams and all the stress will basically disappear. Furthermore, the RTA cabinets Los Angeles services will take care of the order and make sure that it is delivered in the smallest time possible. Many testimonials say that the team that handled their order were very prompt and they really enjoyed having their newly bought cabinets right at their doorstep. Another great aspect that should be taken into consideration is the issue of care. The developers talk about the fact that... more.. organic makeup organic makeup There are so many discussions regarding the field of cosmetics that it's really hard to come up with something that hasn't been discussed before. This material brings to the table an interesting perspective, though: is organic makeup really that helpful to the skin or is it just another way for the developers to make some money? The other sides of the organic makeup There is the common belief that the cosmetic industry is designed in such a manner that women and men alike will have a feeling of addiction. This is because of the fact that normal cosmetics don't actually fix the skin's problems as they are just cover-ups. Many developers won't agree to this aspect because it will bring them some downsizes in their profits, but there are many examples of cosmetics that simply to rise to their promises. So, what's different about the organic makeup? What are the things that aren't the same as the other cosmetics that are available out there? There are many arguments that come in favor of using mineral foundation products rather than choosing normal cosmetics. This is due to the fact that the problems of the skin are treated from another angle. The main target of the product is to spot where the problem is situated and try to fix it as fast as possible. It really depends on the complexity and the type of the skin, but usually the normal problems can easily be dealt with. So basically, the skin will look at it best, but not because it is covered with a surface that sparkles and shines, but because of the fact that the problems that stops it from looking natural are being fixed. Another great issue that... more.. The Surprising Truth About Ugly Websites The Surprising Truth About Ugly Websites By Mark Daoust Ugliness has nev?looked better. I have spent the last few days examining a surprising trend in web design that has made ugly websites look absolutely irresistible. No, it's not the bolded, 18 point Times New Roman font shouting at me as I access the page that has me excited, nor is it the harsh colors that have actually managed to make my eyes hurt and distort my vision. In fact, it's not even that logo which is so pixelated from being processed, resized, saved, and edited so many times that it appears to be blurred to protect the identity of the company who owns the website that has me singing the praises of ugly websites. What is it? Ugly sells. That's right ? ugly websites are surprisingly effective in making mon? As a person who puts business before technology, a profitable website is a website that is an unbelievably attractive website to me. The Case of Plenty of Fish I was struck by an example of just how... more.. The Top 10 Tools for Monitoring the Success of Your Website The Top 10 Tools for Monitoring the Success of Your Website By Steven Snell (c) 2007 One of the most important aspects of running a website is monitoring the site and its progress. By monitoring your website you will be able to see how it is performing and how it can be improved. This article covers 10 fr?tools that can help you to optimize your site for maximum results. 1 ? Google Analytics Google Analytics has become the preferred option among fr?statistics programs. Like any other stats program, Google Analytics provides data on the number of visitors, and page views, referral sources, entry and exit pages, and more. Unlike most other programs, Google Analytics includes the ability to track and monitor pay-per-cl? (PPC) campaigns. Other useful information includes the geographic location of your visitors, their internet connection speed, and their screen resolutions. You can sign up for Google Analytics at: http://bizsolutions.google.com/services/ 2 ? Google Webmaster Tools Want to know how the largest search engine in the world sees your website? Google's Webmaster Tools will give you loads of information such as the pages that are indexed, errors found by the Googlebot (dead links), your search engine rankings for specific search phrases, your anchor text on inbound links, internal and external link data, and robots.txt and sitemap data. By knowing how Google sees your site you will find some basic items that you'll need to change in order to reach your maximum potential in search engine traff? You can sign up for Google Webmaster Tools at: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ more.. cabinetry Los Angeles cabinetry Los Angeles One of the most important details that can be highlighted on the matter of cabinetry Los Angeles services refers to the idea of great time management. This is because of the fact that after an order has been placed, the service is doing all that it can in order to provide the desired cabinets in a reasonable timeframe. What more can it be said about the cabinetry Los Angeles services? First of all, people are looking for services that are designed to work efficiently. This is because of the fact that people hate to be put on hold, regardless of the reason. When a service like the cabinetry Los Angeles service provides them with a high professional assistance in a small amount of time, they will surely share their experience with others and that's what will generate more clients for the company. That's who someone that puts his clients as a priority works. Another great aspect of the cabinetry Los Angeles services is that it helps the client from the beginning till the end. The process starts in the online environment where the client, right from the comfort of his home, can easily place his order. This means that he or she won't be required to head down in town and lose some precious hours in showrooms and traffic. Things go a lot easier on the internet and that is the method that is being preferred by many different clients. The next two steps are quite easy because they don't involve the client directly. A team will head down and make the proper measurements and see all the details to where the cabinets will be placed and then they... more.. Guide to Listing on DMOZ Guide to Listing on DMOZ By Rob Fenn (c) 2010 What is DMOZ? Dmoz is a human edited directory that has been running since 1998. It was created as a cooperative environment that would allow volunteer editors to keep up with the internet explosion. Way back, Yahoo used to be a directory - not a search engine - and Dmoz was an (eventually bigger) alternative to this. The only difference of course is that we are now well into the Google era of information at your fingertips. Dmoz on the other hand, is pretty much where it started. Dmoz's full title is the Open Directory Project. Dmoz is an acronym for Directory Mozilla. The acronym reflects loose association with ex-owner's Netscape's Mozilla project, an Open Source browser initiative. Originally called 'Gnuhoo' by founder Rich Skrenta, it was renamed the Open Directory Project in October 1998 when it was bought by Netscape. It was then acquired by AOL shortly thereafter, and Dmoz was one of the assets included in the acquisition. Unlike a search engine, for websites to be l?ed in the Dmoz directory, they have to be submitted first. They are then reviewed by individuals (known as Editors) who are assigned to various categories within the Dmoz directory. Is a DMOZ Link Worth It? It's fair to say that Dmoz isn't what it used to be. You may notice whenever you search for something online these days that a Wikipedia entry is often on the first page. This used to be the case for Dmoz, meaning it was a good referrer of traffic to websites. The key words there are that it 'used to be'. Dmoz's category pages do not rank... more.. More Freeware SEO Tools for the DIY Webmaster - Part 2 More Freeware SEO Tools for the DIY Webmaster - Part 2 By Mel Strocen (c) 2007 In Part 1 of this article , some of the better, freeware keyword, sitemap and ranking tools available to webmasters were listed. Part 2 covers meta tag generators, link popularity apps, link checkers and general SEO tools. Again, all of these tools can be found in the SiteProNews Webmaster Tools Directory along with new additions as we find them. Let's start with a look at meta tag generators. Since meta tags lost their SEO relevance several years ago, most of the freeware programs in this category are either no longer supported or haven't been updated for several years. But, then again, not much has really changed in meta tag usage so the apps listed below should still be useful. Meta Tag Generators 1. BHead 4.1.1 (1.0 MB) is an advanced meta tag generator that can create your entire HEAD section, including CSS style sheets. Generates the code for all popular meta tags and also has an option for custom tags. Keywords and description can be imported from files. Comes with a basic Style Sheet editor that includes a color picker. Other features include spell ch?, search replace, syntax highlighting, etc. For Windows 9x/NT/ME/2K/. 2. Metty Meta Tag Maker 1.31 (2.5 MB) is a meta tag creator with support for 33 meta tags that ensure search engines properly index your website. Easy to use and requires no knowledge of meta tags. For Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP. 3. Search Engine Buddy 1.0 (2.7 MB) analyzes web page meta tags and web page content on or offline to help you create the... more.. Powerful Press Release Distribution Tips Powerful Press Release Distribution Tips By Diana Barnum While press release writing is important, press release distribution plays an equally important role in your return on ?estment (ROI) with this marketing / public relations tool. Because without targeted distribution, many prospects, clients and other interested parties may not even read your latest announcement or hear about it via other channels; TV, radio, print publications, etc. In order to bring your news to light with more of your targeted audience, try some of these tips for a more successful distribution: Media L? Management Start a folder on your computer and in hard copy form for media lists in order to keep a l? of contacts readily available and updated. Identify media outlets - both online and off - in your targeted industries; for example: Business and Marketing. Add local, regional, national and International channels to cover television, radio, newspapers, magazines, online publications, newswire and other services. A targeted media l? is an invaluable tool for most businesses. The best way to build your l? is to carefully watch, read and listen, then track media publications and shows, and to identify reporters and producers who would be interested in your story. Contact the media outlets as needed for their most recent contact name, email address, telephone and fax number, before sending your information. Tip: Using contact management software program such as ACT! or Maximizer for this purpose can help you build and maintain relationships with the media. Even using Excel to create your own spreadsheets helps with organization. There are several sources online that will help you build your media l?; however, keep... more.. Internet Marketing Tips for Small Businesses Internet Marketing Tips for Small Businesses By Stephen Nelson (c) 2009 In this economy, any marketing tool you can use to find new customers is worth considering. But perhaps the best marketing tool available to many small businesses is a yellow-pages-style web site. Such a site means prospective local customers looking for a business like yours know that you're in business and ready for their patronage. But a word or two of explanation... While the traffic statistics of the typical small business web site may not impress Google, eBay or Amazon.com, many small business web sites do generate significant numbers of prospects compared to the other marketing tools available. Commonly, for example, small business web sites can attract anywhere from a few dozen to a few hundred new unique visitors on a daily basis. And that's a lot! What's more, setting up one of these Internet marketing web sites just doesn't have to be that complicated or expensive. Often times, employing the following half a dozen tips lets you enjoy surprising success: Internet Business Marketing Tip #1: Evaluate Your Competition A first and very simple tip is this: Start out by sizing up your competition. Do see what the other guy or other guys in town are doing. Look at the information they're providing. And check out the number of links that point to their site. In a nutshell, you need a better site than your competitors in order to beat them at the Internet marketing game. You need more pages of on-topic content. And you need more inbound links pointing to your pages. You can check the number of inbound links pointing... more.. 20 Simple Ways To Get Massive Traffic To Your Web Site 20 Simple Ways To Get Massive Traffic To Your Web Site By Penny Sansevieri (c) 2008 Embarking on an Internet marketing campaign doesn't have to be difficult, tricky, or complicated. Here are a few simple ways (twenty in fact) that you can easily implement to get tons of traffic to your site right now! 1) Write articles: believe it or not this is an incredible tool for driving traffic. Well-written, relevant articles can net quite a bit of activity to your web site. Don't forget to add your URL in your byline. Articles should be 500 to 2,000 words in length. You can send articles to sites like: Article City, GoArticles, Submit Your Articles and Ezine Articles. 2) Social bookmark *everything* - and I do mean everything - you can bookmark each page of your site and each blog entry you post. While this might seem tedious, it's worth it. You'll see a strong increase in traffic if you social bookmark each page on your site and each of your blog entries. 3) List yourself in the best directories ? you'll have to pay for this but since most people don't do this (since everyone's looking for a freebie) you could really enhance your traffic by getting a listing: dir dot yahoo dot com, business dot org, botw dot org. 4) Get yourself listed at: DMOZ dot org ? it's not easy to get listed there, but worth the effort. 5) Review: if you can review hot new products or books within your market, head on over to Amazon and start positioning yourself as an... more.. 20 Must-Have Search Engine Marketing Tools 20 Must-Have Search Engine Marketing Tools By Kalena Jordan (c) 2007 Anyone working in Search Engine Marketing knows that this industry travels at warp speed. If you're trying to market your web site or the web sites of your clients via search engines, chances are your time is limited - severely limited. To squeeze as much into my schedule as possible without resorting to self-cloning, my daily routine involves the use of a range of time-saving tools and software. I use such tools on a daily basis and I truly don't know how I'd function without them. I'm not the only one. I've talked to other SEM experts and they also rely on various tools to help them through their hectic schedules. Here is a l? of 20 must-have tools used by busy SEM professionals:   1. Freshbooks Invoicing and Timesheets Freshbooks is an online estimating, invoicing, project management and time tracking service that gives your business a professional image, no matter how small. I use it to invoice all my clients online and it can even be set up to automatically bill and debit the cred?cards of recurring clients every month. It also has built in staff timesheets and project management tools for online collaboration.   Price: Free for 3 clients or less   2. XML Sitemaps Generator The XML Sitemap Generator trawls through all levels of your site to generate an XML sitemap. It also gives you a running count of pages, provides a text-based URL l? and a HTML sitemap you can import straight into your site. The online version of the generator is free for sites of less than 500 pages, but there's also a low-cost script-based... more.. How to Deliver a Marketing Message On Your Website How to Deliver a Marketing Message On Your Website By Jerry Bader (c) 2010 Here's a question for you? What do you need to be successful? What will it take for you to climb out of that deep, dark, dungeon of despair and mediocrity? What are you willing to do to be the best you can be? Look around. Things are nuts, the economy stinks, politicians are goofy, people are addicted to cell phones, businesses are obsessed with Twitter and Google and Facebook; everything is made in China, and it's all CRAP! You're lucky if anything you purchase works the way its suppose to and god help you if you complain. You'll spend hours on the phone with some clown who doesn't know, doesn't care, and doesn't get pa?to really help you. They are the purveyors of frustration and creators of cynicism. Athletes pretentiously thank God for their base hits and million dollar contracts, and we watch in astonishment. Trust me, God doesn't give a damn about who wins the next Nascar race, or that you get an even bigger flat screen plasma for your birthday. He's got bigger fish to fry like global warming, child starvation, and deadly pandemics. You're on y?own fella. So get use to it. So what's a poor entrepreneur to do? Follow the big boys as if they were The Enlightened Ones. Right, how's that worked out so far? Do you really want to go down the same road as GM or Lehman Brothers? Nobody is going to bail your ass out of trouble; you can count on that. People have... more.. Where's Your Social Responsibility Google? Where's Your Social Responsibility Google? By Kalena Jordan (c) 2007 Unless you've been living on a desert island with no Internet access, you've probably seen the recent blog fallout from Google's latest crack down on alleged link brokers. This week it seems that Google made some type of manual Toolbar PageRank reduction on a handful of major blogs and portal sites like the Washington Post, ProBlogger, CopyBlogger and Forbes.com. Some of these sites had PageRank scores of 7 which have now dropped to 5, scores of 6 which have now dropped to 4 and so on. The blog buzz is that the sites have been singled out by Google as using their high PageRank scores to sell links and have been punished by the world's most popular search engine as a result. There is currently no proof of this and no public statement by Google acknowledging or denying the situation. A lot of bloggers have weighed in with commentary, observations and opinions. Every time I read a new post about the so called smack-down I imagine some Googlers at Mountain View laughing hysterically and high-fiving each other for turning the tables on the SEO industry yet again. The situation has even got the SEOs turning on each other. One of the world's best known SEOs, Jill Whalen, made a post in response to the situation that included a comment about one of the affected sites, Search Engine Guide. Jill's post has been interpreted in some circles as a type of attack. Here's the comment Jill made in her post: "Even my very good friends at Search Engine Guide were smacked down. I hadn't been to their... more.. Using Google Alerts to Help Your Business Using Google Alerts to Help Your Business By Adam McFarland of iPrioritize.com At times it seems that Google releases more new products and services than we can keep track of. From Google Calendar and Google Video, to Google Base, Google Finance, and Google Trends, it can be overwhelming just to remember what each one does. One of the oft overlooked hidden gems in Google's enormous offering is Google Alerts. Within minutes, you can be signed up for email alerts that can give you and your business a leg up on the competition. Alerts can be used to spy on competitors, keep track of what people are saying about your business, or follow an important news story. How Does It Work Google Alerts sends you an email each time a new page for your chosen term makes it in the top twenty results on Google's web search. You can also have the alert ch? Google News and/or Google Groups. To sign up for a Google Alert, all that you need to do is visit the Google Alerts homepage, enter the search term, type of alert (search Google News, Google Groups, or the web), frequency of emails (daily, as it happens, or weekly), and your email address. You can set up alerts for as many terms as you like using a Google Account. So why would you want an unl?ted amount of alerts? Because as a business owner, you have a lot to keep track of and very limited time to do it. Spy on Your Competitors Every business has a competitor. More likely, you have several direct competitors and several more... more.. Top 10 Ways to Improve Search Engine Ranking Top 10 Ways to Improve Search Engine Ranking By Darren Dunner (c) 2007 My top 10 ways to improve search engine rankings are based on 7 years of banging my head against the world wide web's search engines and reading numerous books on top 10 SEO tactics. Let me say first of all that there are a lot of books, sources and tutorials that make promises of getting your website into the top 10 spots on the major search engines. Most of these are self promoting and the end result is that you have to hire these people to accomplish the things they say you can do on your own. So I want to preface this by saying that this article on how to improve search engine rankings is not necessarily a do-it-your-self guide. In fact, the art of SEO can be time consuming and irritating to say the least. Some methods require the help of companies like mine so I write this in hopes that you will understand what it really takes to gain exposure, realize what you can do on your own and determine when you need assistance. One final point I want to make is "Don't use any SEO Company that can't explain what it is doing and that makes claims of using secr?software that you can nev?see or use". Yes, SEO can be complex but not to the point that you can't understand what is being done. A good SEO company is able to educate you on what is being done and explain that it is best to leave some techniques to the experts. My 10 Ways to Improve Search Engine Ranking... more.. Real-Time Search - 5 Reasons Why Real-Time Search - 5 Reasons Why By Ben Behrouzi (c) 2009 If you don't understand why the Real Time Web is huge, you will soon. Thanks to micro-blogging sites like Twitter, a constant stream of human-posted content has infiltrated the Web. This growing infiltration has created a bottoms up approach to content creation that via the progressive support of rapidly developing applications has and will continue to empower every individual to co-create what is deemed as "important" on the Web. The Real Time Web serves as both the database that informs us of what is happening right "Now" and the human touch to the content that will compete with the traditional algorithms for what is deemed as "valuable" content to us all. Its challenges lie in the filtration and mass integration of both the content and the act of sharing to the Real Time Web. There remain major aspects of the Web that have not yet integrated "searching" and "sharing" of the Real Time Web, including traditional search. But as filtration and integration progress the Web will take the form of a living breathing database. Here are 5 reasons why Real Time Search will help the Real Time movement change the Web and your experience forever. 1. The "Now" Factor We saw it with Michael Jackson's passing. We saw it with the Iran Protests and we see it more and more everyday -- the Real Time web provides us with what is happening right "Now" and with vivid detail from around the globe. "We" is driving the "Now" factor. 2. We Become Co-Creators The Real-Time web offers us the ability to become co-creators in not only content but also in what is deemed important. Why? Because... more.. 7 Tricks to Get a Goooooooooooogle of Links 7 Tricks to Get a Goooooooooooogle of Links By Richard Gilmore (c) 2009 SEO is a race. And in any race learning from your competitors makes you a better runner. Even when you're running first it's sometimes good to look back and check the runner-ups. And if you're not the yellow jersey guy, you absolutely should examine the leaders: their gear, their training, their strategy. In SEO the most interesting thing about your competition are their links. Whether you like it or not SEO is still pretty much about links. Good link profile can make up for almost any lack of optimized content and other onpage flaws. Love or hate, the best thing you can do about it is embrace the fact and run with it. So let's go through some tricks that will enable you to look deeper into your competition's link profile granting you access to the restricted areas: their locker room, dirty laundry and even the briefing hall where they plan their link building strategies. Let's Talk Competitive Link Research Finding out where your competitors' links come from is not all that hard. You just go to Yahoo! or Google and type in link:www.your-competitor.com to get a list of inbound links to the site. Yahoo's much better in that respect as it tends to give more extensive and accurate data. The problem here is that there's a limit of 1,000 links per website which is often not enough as the fattest link sources get left behind the limit fence. Here're some tips to break through to the other side. Note: If you're lazy like me skip to the end of the article where I'll share a tool that does it all much quicker. more.. Gift Ideas Gift Ideas When taking up one of the Gift Ideas resources available on the internet, many people find themselves in difficulty rather than having a solution to their problems. This is because of the fact that there are so many choices that can be made and so many things that can be considered. It's quite hard to choose a gift these days. What's your best Gift Ideas? The very first thing that comes to mind when talking about which Gift Ideas are the best ones, is related to the issue of how personal they really are. It might sound a little bit strange, but the best ideas come from having a real connection with the one that will be receiving your gift. This is due to the fact that it sends out a deeper message, an unconscious one. This means that one should turn to searching for something that will really send out a positive message and will generate amazement and why not excitement. You can always take up one of the Gift Ideas that are offered by the stores, markets or malls, but the piece of advice here is to not stop there. You can always do something with an item that has been bought from a shop. The golden rule that should be taken into consideration when offering a gift, refers to the idea of how you offer the gift and not necessarily what you are offering. If you have some ingenious idea of how you offer your gift, you should apply it, no matter how creative or different it is from the normal norms. You can always impress your friends, family or close ones by coming up with various ways of offering a... more.. Analysts Speculate on IT Tech Trends for 2008 Analysts Speculate on IT Tech Trends for 2008 By Anne Sych (c) 2007 Novo Help Desk Software What are the experts predicting for tech trends in 2008? At the recent Gartner Symposium/ITxpo held last October in Orlando, more than 6000 senior business and IT strategists from virtually all major industries gathered for the industry's largest conference to gain the latest advice on driving prof? and performance with IT. Attendees rely on the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo for their annual planning and to gain insight into how their organizations can best use IT to address business challenges and improve operational efficiency. Reflecting Gartner's very latest research findings, the analysts projected the 10 technologies likely to play a 'strategic' role in 2008. Gartner defines a strategic technology as one "with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years." In addition Gartner also looks at "high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar ?estment, or the risk of being late to adopt." "Companies should factor these technologies into their strategic planning process by asking key quest?s and making deliberate decisions about them during the next two years," said David Cearley, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "Sometimes the decision will be to do nothing with a particular technology. In other cases it will be to continue investing in the technology at the current rate. In still other cases, the decision may be to test/pilot or more aggressively adopt/deploy the technology. The important thing is to ask the question and proactively plan." Here's a look at the top 10 tech trends, and what... more.. Search Engine Keywords Selection Search Engine Keywords Selection By Rajkumar Search engines are the vehicles that drive potential customers to your websites. But in order for visitors to reach their destination - your website - you need to provide them with specific and effective signs that will direct them right to your site. You do this by creating carefully chosen keywords. Think of the right keywords as the Open Sesame! of the Internet. Find the exactly right words or phrases, and presto! hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front door. But if your keywords are too general or too over-used, the possibility of visitors actually making it all the way to your site - or of seeing any real profits from the visitors that do arrive - decreases dramatically. Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing strategy. If they are not chosen with great precision, no matter how aggressive your marketing campaign may be, the right people may never get the chance to find out about it. So your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather and evaluate keywords and phrases. You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven't followed certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG. It's hard to be objective when you are right in the center of your business network, which is the reason that you may not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the inside. You need to be able to think like your customers. And since you are a business owner and not the consumer, your best bet is to go directly to the source. Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list... more.. The Last Word in PPC vs. Article Marketing The Last Word in PPC vs. Article Marketing By Valerie Mellema (c) 2009 There is always a big discussion when it comes to comparing two of the best ways to advertise online: PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising and article marketing, otherwise known as "organic" or "natural" search engine optimization. There is no denying that both methods can be effective. However, which method is better? Which gives you a bigger bang for your buck? You may get varying statistics on this issue, depending on which website you visit for information. Oh yes, this matters, because you have to consider the source of the statistics and who is sponsoring the article. For example, two sources of information (respectively, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and ComScore) recently produced studies indicating that PPC advertising was more cost-effective on average. However, did the fact that Yahoo/Overture and Google were sponsoring this major study play any role in determining the final outcome? Of course it did - those are the two biggest PPC companies on the net! In figuring out which of the two is better, you have to consider cost-effectiveness as well as click-through-rates and direct conversion from visiting user to paying customer. We are going to review some statistics a little bit later on. For now, let's consider some logical points that illustrate how PPC and article marketing differ. Search engine result pages display more listings than PPC results, which does have a psychological effect on the user. For some users seeing ten search results (each one relevant to the search) is enough to convince them that there is enough web information on the subject and that "fishing" PPC ads might not be necessary. The catch is that in order to actually... more.. The Law of Dissatisfaction How To Motivate Prospects The Law of Dissatisfaction How To Motivate Prospects By Jerry Bader (c) 2007 The 7%-38%-55% Communication Rule Dr. Albert Mehrabian, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, UCLA is best known for his 7%-38%-55% Rule that states 55% of communication is attributable to non-verbal behaviors like body language and facial expressions; that 38% of communication is attributable to voice including volume, tone, pitch, cadence, and quality; and only 7% of communication is attributable to the words used. Despite this persuasive evidence, companies continue to pile on the Web-text in the vain hope that search engines will index it and that someone might actually read it, even though the reality is 70% of website visitors merely scan for headlines, bulleted points and captions. The evidence is clear, the most effective way to deliver a marketing message is a Web-video using a professional performer who knows how to use his or her voice, expression, and body language to drive the point home. "But Wait, There's More ..." I have noticed a proliferation on the Web of the sad old d?ct marketing formula that you see in sal?pitches for magazine subscriptions. Can you really expect people to take you seriously when you adopt this 'Barnum and Bailey' approach to marketing? It is a formula that flies in the face of Dr. Mehrabian's research and every other usability study that warns against over-burdening website visitors with too much text. Your search engine optimizer may think it's great for driving traff?to your landing page, but I'll bet if you ch? your logs, 50% of that traff?disappears in under 5 seconds. This format is an outdated sal?technique that doesn't work in a Web... more.. The 10 Week SEO Diet The 10 Week SEO Diet A SPN Exclusive Article By Kalena Jordan (c) 2011 So you've noticed that your competitor's site ranks higher than your site on Google for *yellow widgets,* even though you are the premier widget provider in your area. So what are you going to do about it? You're going to take back control of the search results, that's what! You don't need to be proficient at SEO or hire a Search Engine Optimizer to make a difference to your search engine rankings. There are several easy steps you can take that can make an immediate difference to your site's visibility. Here's a 10 Week SEO Plan that will quickly put your site on the path to higher rankings: Week 1 - Verify Your Site With the Big 3 Search Engines If you want to understand how search engines interact with your site and find potential issues before they impact your traffic, you really need to verify your site and sitemaps with the big 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing) and monitor your stats regularly. Start by registering your site with Google Webmaster Tools. This is easy. Simply create an account and verify your site by uploading a small piece of code to your server for Google to find. Then create a XML sitemap of all your site pages and upload it via your Webmaster Tools account. The amount of information this gives you about how search engines interact with your site is truly mind-blowing. Once you've gone through this process, you'll be able to check:    - how many pages Google has... more.. Top 14 Benefits of Social Media Marketing  Top 14 Benefits of Social Media Marketing By Wendy Suto (c) 2011 There's a lot of fuss surrounding social media these days. If you still haven't jumped on the bandwagon and aren't sure why so many people are making such a big deal about it, here are 14 benefits of social media for your business and you from Success magazine. For Business: Establish a Brand and Raise Awareness Since the majority of the population is already visiting social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, getting your brand name all over those networks can help let people know that you're around. If you have yet to create a company image online, social networks are the place to do it. Create a fun YouTube video that entertains and informs. Funny videos tend to make their way around the Internet a lot faster than any other kind, so when making a video, keep in mind that you want it to be interesting enough for your target audience to want to share. Using Facebook and Twitter to create a fun online community that your customers will want to visit will boost brand loyalty and drive traffic to your Website, allowing you the chance to make more online sales. Spy on the Competition Follow your competitors on Twitter and Facebook and you'll be able to see what they have up their sleeve. Just make sure to provide a better deal than whatever they have going on. Pitch Products in a More Human, Interactive Way Since people visit social media sites to get personal rather than be bombarded with ads, discuss your business in a fun way and engage your customers with questions. Ask... more.. Countdown to Google Page One and Search Engine Optimization Company Nightmares Countdown to Google Page One and Search Engine Optimization Company Nightmares In August, Google announced the upcoming roll out of the Google Caffeine infrastructure. Google was quick to point out that they would not launch the new infrastructure until after the Christmas holiday shopping season -- giving many online retail stores confidence for the upcoming Christmas shopping season. In the August announcement, Google described Caffeine this way: "For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google's web search. It's the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits "under the hood" of Google's search engine, which means that most users won't notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences..." After Thanksgiving, Google said that they had taken Caffeine out of its "sandbox" phase, and that it launched Caffeine on only one of its Data Centers. Search Engine Land was able to confirm that Google had launched Caffeine on the IP address 209.85.225.103, and it was running on this IP address for at least half of its searches. However, the full roll out of Caffeine continues to remain in holding pattern, until after the Christmas season. Analyzing Google's Search Engine Result Pages... Several online publishers and SEO companies jumped into testing the Google Caffeine search results in August, when the original announcement was made public. The results of testing were somewhat mixed... ? Everyone pretty much agreed that the Caffeine infrastructure was faster than the original Google... more.. Ten Ways To Clear Bad Press From Search Engine Results Ten Ways To Clear Bad Press From Search Engine Results By Linda Bustos (c) 2006 What do you see when you search for your company or brand name? Is there anything on the first page of the search engine results that you wouldn't be proud to display on your home page? Consumer review sites, blogs and forums have made it easy for anyone to say whatever they want about your company, whether they be disgruntled customers or competitors who like to play dirty. If you're in a situation where negative publicity is front and center in search results, there are ways you can reclaim search engine real estate for your corporate identity. Though you can't make negative results disappear from the search engine indexes entirely, the following strategies can help them slip off the first few pages of search engine results. 1. Good Old Fashioned Networking The first thing you should do is contact the webmasters of the sites in question with a polite request for removal of negative comments. There's a good chance they'll be willing to co-operate. Note that, even if they do remove the listing, the cached pages may remain in the search engine indexes for some time. But users who cl? through the search engine results will land on a page with the comments removed. Ch? out some of the sites that already have something good to say about you. Send them an appreciation note, and offer them a link back from your site. You could even create a special page called "Gary's Garage On The Web" (if that's the name of your business) or "Press Room." 2. Tap... more.. organic makeup organic makeup The story how women have begun to use cosmetics is pretty old because they are popular since the antique times. There are many reasons why they have chosen to use certain items to enhance their face, but the most common one of them all is that it helps them be and feel more beautiful. This is how the world works and that is how females feel. The change brought up with the organic makeup There are many products that have been used over the years in the cosmetics industry and most of them are popular now as well. This is because of the fact that people are constantly trying to adjust their current situation into a better one and that's how perfectionism was born. The developers of the organic makeup have generated a huge change in the field of cosmetics. There are still many people who aren't aware of such products and they need to find out of its benefits. One of those benefits refers to the matter of how the skin is treated. The regular products target the surface of the skin and try to cover it in order to look as smooth and as shiny as possible. But this process isn't quite durable and people use cosmetics to enhance that effect once every few hours, days or weeks. The organic makeup or other products that are designed on a natural way, work a little bit different. They are still designed to help the skin look as lovely as it can... more.. Google's Orion -The Next Shining Star or a Burnt Ember? Google's Orion -The Next Shining Star or a Burnt Ember? By Rob Sullivan (c) 2006 By now you have probably heard that Google bought a new algorithm developed by a university student down under. Many in the industry have speculated on what this could mean. Will this transform Google yet again? Or, will it merely be just another piece of technology they buy but don't appear to use. In this article, I look at the implications of Orion and what it could mean to the future of search. In order to understand the issues at play, we must first understand just what the heck Google bought. Orion is a new algorithm which in a nutshell works like Ask or Clusty in that it will not only match results based on keywords but also similar results based on concepts around those keywords. For example, if you were to search for "Canada" you may get not only the... more.. Google Reinvents the Phone with Google Voice Google Reinvents the Phone with Google Voice By Merle (c) 2009 twitter.com/msmerle When it comes to "cool tools", Google is the master inventor. Say what you want about Google, but they know what they're doing when it comes to giving the public what they want and need. Take the telephone for instance. An old invention that now has been given a new twist with " Google Voice" (G.V.) . Hold onto your chair as I'm about to tell you how to have a lot more fun with Ma Bell. Google is giving you the ability to manage all your phones with one centralized number. At the time of this writing, it's only available to those in the U.S., and by invitation only. Upon registration, you'll be given your phone number that you connect to any existing phone number. When someone calls the Google Voice number, it rings the phone number that you specified. The option of selecting a word for your personalized number is also given. Now, if all Google Voice did was send phone calls to your cell phone, that would be great all by itself, but the amount of extra tools and features are truly amaz?. When a call is received you can answer it, send it directly to voice mail, listen in on the incoming call to decide what to do with it, or start recording the call upon answering. How's that for a few options? After receiving a call you'd like to record, hit 4 on your phone to start recording. Different states have different laws when it comes to recording calls, so check your current federal and state laws before using this feature. Currently outbound... more.. Dominate Google Rankings Quick and Easy! Dominate Google Rankings Quick and Easy! By Michael Small (c) 2008 Does dominating Google rankings quick and easy sound too good to be true? It really isn't. Following are a bunch of surefire SEO tips that have kept hundreds of my clients' sites on top of Google for years, with new ones every month. There's a lot to cover and I hate long articles that drone on so I'll keep the info short and sweet. Let's start with the domain name. Domain Names Age:Make sure your domain name is at least six months old. If it's more than a year old, that's even better. Google often (but not always) likes domains to be at least six months old before indexing the site. How do they know? They use a "whois" database like the one at: http://www.AllWhoIs.com Go there and enter your domain if you want to see what Google (and anyone else in the world) can instantly know about your site. TLD Type: TLD stands for Top Level Domain, which is to say the letters after the dot. The best ones to have are ".com, .net. .org and .edu." These get the most play in Google's top 3 rankings for just about every keyword you can imagine, with ".com" and ".edu" being the best. Embedded Keywords: If you have your main keyword (and ONLY your main keyword) as a dotcom domain name with even just halfway decent page text and some good inbound links you can usually nail number one on Google for that keyword. I've done it dozens of times. It's a no brainer. Dashes: Having a dash in your domain... more.. The 5 Minute SEO Site Audit Checklist The 5 Minute SEO Site Audit Checklist By Matt Siltala (c) 2009 From month to month I have the opportunity to present 4 different webinars on different topics related to Internet marketing to brand new online business owners. The reason I bring this up is because no matter what the topic I am presenting on, I usually get asked the same question by completely different random people. They are all wanting me to "look at their site" and give them a "quick, what do you think?". These people are wanting to know if their site is ready to "go live" (although I never really understand why people ask that question) but for these people, and this post - I have come up with what I'd like to call "The 5 Minute SEO Site Audit Checklist". If you have a brand new site, and haven't done any kind of SEO before, this will be a great list of reminders that will set you off on the right foot. 1. URL canonicalization and 301 re-dirs. One of the first things I look for on any domain I am giving a health check on is the URL canonicalization. In My Opinion it does not matter if you pick proper URL canonicalization pointing to the www's or non-www's, but you need to pick one and stick to it. I personally always choose the www's because more people (from my experience) tend to link to you with the full URL. So you need to get into your .htaccess file and make a few edits. Any variation of the homepage URL needs to be done this way too - for example you need to have the /index.php also re-direct to the main URL (however you have it set up) Bottom line here, you need to... more.. How To Construct a Web-Video Advertisement That Works How To Construct a Web-Video Advertisement That Works By Jerry Bader Motivate and Persuade Your Audience More mon?is wasted on advertising than any other business function. Small and mid-sized businesses in particular throw mon?at advertising in a vain attempt to establish themselves in the marketplace. However, there is hope that the democratizing nature of the Web environment can even the playing field and allow smaller companies to deliver their marketing messages effectively. But before that can happen, the potential advertiser must understand what the big boys have spent a considerable amount of time and effort to find out: how to create an advertising campaign that motivates and persuades customers to do business with you. Take Advantage of What Major Advertisers Already Know Chuck Young, founder and CEO of Ameritest, an advertising and brand research firm and John Kastenholz, Vice President of Consumer and Market Insight at Unilever have done extensive research into how story telling, emotions, and ideas are linked in creating effective commercial advertising. Since their research was based on television advertising it holds immediate relevance to any company that intends on using the Web as a significant presentation tool for delivering their marketing message. The cost of producing and airing broadcast television commercials is exorbitant, and that cost necessitates the kind of research done by Young and Kastenholz. Web-based marketers can benefit from the psychological insights provided from these studies and implement the findings in cost effective Web-video and audio presentations on websites, Google Video, Google Video Ads, YouTube, MySpace, and the countless other video presentation vehicles popping up on the Web daily. In Chuck Young's article, "A Film... more.. Medical Billing Software Medical Billing Software What are the benefits of a Medical Billing Software? When trying to answer this question, we can come across various aspects of why a medical facility or hospital should have such a system implemented in their networks. Trying to understand the Medical Billing Software First of all, people should take into consideration the fact that time is of the essence here. Imagine a critical situation when a doctor needs the information on a patient in a very small amount of time. A Medical Billing Software will give the doctor the possibility to get to the needed information in time. This is possible because the system has a number of filters available, making it possible for the needed information to be reached in time. Secondly, we should surely talk about the amount of space that is speared when using the Medical Billing Software. Here you should take into consideration the fact that the old system was based on drawers and files. It took a lot of time to search for the desired information and as proven above time is of the essence. Imagine a situation when a doctor needs to administrate a substance to a patient in a critical situation and he needs to find out if he or she is allergic to such a substance. This is where the efficiency of the Medical Billing Software system: it takes a small amount of time to access the data for a... more.. Almost There - YouTube and Social Networking Almost There - YouTube and Social Networking By Enzo F. Cesario (c) 2010 BrandSplat Innovation doesn't wait for anybody. It's a constant, vital force, thriving on new ideas, new interpretations of old ideas, and a deep desire to understand the next important step. This generation has been defined by its technological advances, and the creation of a global society on the Web. This society is as complex and dynamic as any physical city or province, and has become the important battleground of ideas for the foreseeable future. YouTube has played a vital part in this process virtually since its inception. In less than a decade it has grown into a tool for political discourse, a venue for amateur filmmakers and artists to showcase their talents, and a means by which the common citizen opposes tyranny by posting film of those abusing their station and authority. Without a doubt, it is one of the major forces in modern innovation. Part of innovation is of course the combination of ideas. The telephone wasn't strictly a new concept; electrical transmission of messages existed in the telegraph, and the transmission of recorded sound existed in the phonograph. Combining these two technologies is what led to the telephone. This is also the path much of the Web seems bent on taking, combining and integrating services, and YouTube seems to be no exception. YouTube's designers have, for example, pledged to implement more Social Networking functionality in future versions of the site. They also set up a new interface that focuses on Playlist content rather than individual videos. What other ideas may be unveiled is a mystery, but while the Web is waiting for more concrete... more.. SEO for Traff?with Content vs Ranking with Links SEO for Traff?with Content vs Ranking with Links By Joel Walsh How do you grow your search engine traff?without adding a single new link or making any changes to your existing webpages? It's simple. Just add content. Simply having keyword-optimized pages of content on your site won't rank you high for competitive search engine keywords ? that's a fact of life. But keyword-optimized content can really bring in the traff?for low-competition and unique keywords. The low-competition and unique keywords are typically longer multi-word variants of the keyword. For instance, instead of "search engine ranking," "ranking for search engine traff?niche keywords." If you have lots of pages of optimized content?and you optimize well ? all the search engine traff?from these low-competition keywords will really add up. Plus, you'll usually get more repeat visitors and type-in traff? too. Just picture this realistic example of traffic-building with content vs. ranking-building with links. Company A invests $5,000 for link-building in order to rank for a competitive keyword. Company B invests the same amount, only in content. Company A and Company B: each start out on... more.. Top 10 Internet Marketing Tips for 2008 Top 10 Internet Marketing Tips for 2008 By Gillian Meier (c) 2008 Internet Marketing has grown phenomenally over the last few years but the shift has quite clearly moved to a market that is driven by the consumer and that is no longer dictated by journalists and corporates. Online consumers are responding more favourably to non-intrusive, relevant and socially attractive campaigns and have quite frankly had enough of intrusive, forced online advertising campaigns. The top 10 internet marketing tips for 2008 are: 1. Optimize your website's content 2. Create a content development strategy for your website 3. Invest in a paid search (pay-per-click) campaign 4. Publicize your website through article marketing 5. Develop a social media marketing strategy 6. Create a Company Blog 7. Experiment with video marketing 8. Engage your audiences with web widget marketing 9. Discover the benefits of mobile marketing 10. Create an effective email market? strategy Let's look at each of these in more detail:- 1. Optimize Your Website's Content: First and foremost, get your website content right. Make sure it is easily read by both humans and search engines. An essential variable applied by Search Engines in the way in which they rank websites is based on the relevancy of the content that the search engine is indexing. 2. Create a Content Development Strategy for Your Website: In addition to optimizing the existing content on your website, it is essential that you develop a strategy to continuously grow your website's content on an ongoing basis. All new content should be written specifically with the web reader in mind and should also be optimized for the search engines. 3. Invest in a Paid Search (Pay-Per-Click) Campaign: When you... more.. Online Marketing Methods That Work Online Marketing Methods That Work By Jeff Beale (c) 2009   Business owners are facing a harsh reality: A website in itself offers no assurance of business. "If you build, it they will come" is a clich?hat has misled many into believing all a company needed was an online presence to succeed. However, without a strategic marketing plan and a tactical approach, you're more likely to fail than to reach your goals. Proper planning will not only improve your chances of success, but it will also keep you from throwing away money on e-commerce fiascos. The first step of planning is to define your goals in light of the target market you aim to reach. As you classify your target, you should determine the core needs of that group and observe the buying behavior that occurs among your potential purchasers. Characterizing their purchasing habits enables you to position your business to appeal to your target market with compelling information before they buy from another resource.   Several online resources can help you place your business in the forefront of your target audience. The... more.. Correcting Common Usability Mistakes Correcting Common Usability Mistakes By Mark Johnstone, Senior Web Developer, StepForth Placement Inc. Each day at StepForth Placement we view dozens of websites that request a SEO Review and a vast majority of these sites have fundamental usability problems. Often times neglecting this important element of a website can lead online visitors to become lost, frustrated and/or confused. All it takes for a visitor to decide to stay, explore or leave a site is 0.4 of a second. Attracting visitors to your website is a formidable challenge; it is yet another to build a fast connection with them and keep them there. With this in mind, here are some simple measures that can be taken to remedy these mistakes and help promote your online conversions. Having great search engine placements is one thing but to create a usable website environment is just as important. What good can come from "being found" if users quickly exit your site? A solid search engine friendly and usable website should be your answer to both of these major components for your online success. There are a variety of standards still in place when it comes to designing a usable website. This is not to say that the uniqueness and creativity of your website has to suffer, rather by following some simple guidelines visitors know where to go to find the information they need. The process of developing a usable interface can be a balancing act. Some core elements need to be assessed prior to any actual design work being done. Attention to content creation, search engine friendly design tactics, and the face you put on your design each have to be blended into this usable... more.. Nine Steps to Social Networking Success Nine Steps to Social Networking Success  By Wayne English (c) 2011   Social Networking has taken the world of business by storm. Properly used, it can establish you as an expert in your field, keep you in-touch with customers, sell your products, and market your business or organization. It is an around-the-clock marketing machine that never sleeps. In our seminars, we are asked how to get started using it. While that is a simple question, it requires detailed understanding of the company, knowledge of business goals, and much more information as well. So, to provide people with meaningful assistance we developed these steps. Be advised that they do not provide answers, but lead you to asking the right questions. Why? Pertinent questions that apply to your business and situation only are invaluable. And those questions, my friend, are far more valuable to you than their answers. There are people, books, consultants, aplenty to give you answers, but if you don't answer the right questions, where are you? By developing the high quality questions that apply to your business, you will create a social networking campaign that is customized to your specific needs. To be successful, that is essential because your customers, their needs, your employees, your very business is unique. This is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. So, treat these steps as guidelines. Reorder them, combine them, delete any that you care to, but please read them all. Number nine you will find particularly interesting as it combines the online world and the offline world. Social networking has been around for hundreds of years. Don't think that it only takes place from your keyboard. Nothing could be further from the truth. 1. Goals... more.. Blogs, WordPress and Google Blogs, WordPress and Google By Scott Van Achte (c) 2009 It's no secret that a continually updated website with new content being added regularly stands a good chance of doing well in Google. One of the long standing methods to regularly expand a site's content is through the use of a blog. While there are numerous platforms to choose from for managing a blog, few can compare with the immense flexibility offered with WordPress, and at a cost of free, the price can't be beat either. Google likes fresh new content, and setting up a blog on your site, assuming it is updated often with interesting and relevant material, can be one of the best things you can do to help out your search rankings. The beauty behind WordPress is that there is a wide array of totally free plug-ins you can easily install that will make your blog totally search engine friendly. The following are some basic guidelines and essential plug-ins you should consider when you install your WordPress blog. Template Design The first configuration you need to do is work on customizing the design template to match your existing site. I suggest finding a template that matches as closely as possible to the look you are going for then work on tweaking its graphics, colors, and other particulars till you achieve the desired appearance. Most of your changes will occur in the header.php, footer.php, index.php, and page.php files in the theme editor, however, the theme you install will dictate which files actually need to be updated. You will also need to make some adjustments to your CSS file. These changes all involve working with code and graphics, and are most likely left to a professional. Once you have your... more.. Top 10 Tips for Using Web 2.0 to Promote Your Business Top 10 Tips for Using Web 2.0 to Promote Your Business By Kevin Stirtz (c) 2007 We hear a lot about "Web 2.0" these days. It sounds neat and it's trendy to talk about blogging and social media. But does it really affect our businesses? Is Web 2.0 just for kids and tech-hipsters or is it something we business owners should use to help promote our businesses? I can't tell you if Web 2.0 is right for your business, but I can tell you it's something to be aware of. Ignoring it means ignoring a possible tool that could be valuable in helping you get more customers. So, to help you get started in thinking about Web 2.0 for your business, here are some things for you to consider. 1. Have a plan Don't dive in just because it's cool or because you read an article about it. Be clear about what you're trying to accomplish, how much you're willing to invest and what time frame you are working on. Like any aspect of your business - plan ahead. 2. Make sure your target audience is online Web 2.0 tools are fun but useless if the people who see your stuff don't want what you off? Or if they don't look to the Web for information to help them buy what you sell, then your efforts will be less effective. Like any marketing channel, it only works if your prospective customers are there to see (or hear) your message and they are receptive to it. 3. Create good content Web 2.0 is the social web, but it's still... more.. What Does the Google +1 Button Mean for SEO What Does the Google +1 Button Mean for SEO By Rich McPharlin (c) 2011 Google, the internet giant based in California, has had a strangle hold on much of the online market for the past decade. Most would struggle to find a single person in the Western World who is not yet familiar with the Google Search Engine. In fact the search engine is so popular that the phrase 'Google it' has been adopted by many Gen-Yers. In addition to their massive presence in the search marketplace, Google also commands a large percentage of the online advertising industry, generating revenues in the region of US$35 billion per annum.   Facebook, a relatively new comer to the internet, and center of popular film The Social Network, is quickly closing on Google's market. Currently Facebook ranks as the 2nd most visited website online globally and holds over 750 million member accounts. Facebook is beginning to threaten Google's market dominance in online advertising due to the huge volume of data that the social network holds about its members. While Google's advertising model focuses around what people are looking for, specifically using search queries, Facebook's model allows advertisers to utilize behavioural targeting. A Facebook advertiser can select very precise advertising audiences by focusing on: - Age - Gender - Location - Employment Type - Education Level - Likes and Dislikes By selecting a narrow cross section of the global audience by one or all of the above variables, an advertiser can see significant improvement in their ROI when compared with search or conventional marketing. This is where Google Plus enters the scene. In May Google released a limited Beta of... more.. If You Want To REALLY Promote Your Site, Here's How... If You Want To REALLY Promote Your Site, Here's How... By Steve Shaw (c) 2006 Site promotion gimmicks and traff?techniques come and go, but the ones that really work are those that stand the test of time. This article highlights what I consider to be the most effective methods to promote your web site of all time. 1. Get Your Site High In The Search Engines Getting your site linked high in the search engines for your keywords and keyphrases. One of the best ways to do this is to ensure your site has a good number of incoming links from quality sites - I discuss how to achieve this with relative ease below. Also make sure that your site reflects the keywords/keyphrases that you are looking for - they should be in your title tag, your headline tags, and in your initial paragraphs. Don't however over do it, or it will look like "keyword stuffing" and you will do more damage than good - just make sure they are there in a natural fashion. more.. Landing Page Usability: More Than Just The Curiosity Factor Landing Page Usability: More Than Just The Curiosity Factor By Frederick Townes A landing page is the page that visitors first see after becoming curious enough to cl? on a link to your site. The link may be found on search engine results pages, within a specifically target?email, on the site's navigation toolbar or within another website. In many cases, these are links you pay for. The organic results delivered by SERPs are free, but, unless your site appears on the first two pages, it's unlikely that visitors will connect. In many cases, the landing page is the site's home page - but not always, even within SERPs. Landing pages can appear anywhere within a web site. Paid Links Demand ROI If your landing page receives prominent display within search engine results pages, congratulations. Upward of 50% of visitor traff?found that landing page through an SE query. However, only 20 to 25 sites can appear on page one of Google's SERPs. What about the other 10,000 links Google delivers to its users? Often, smaller sites employ paid links to drive site traff? Google Adwords, for example, is a PPC (pay per cl?) means of building business. The important point is this: PPC programs have to more than pay for themselves in order for your site to remain a viable business. Any form of paid linkage to one of your landing pages must deliver a nice ROI. And to do that, you need a fully-usable, engaging landing page. Otherwise, visitors won't stick around long enough to read about your low prices and free shipping. The Purpose of the Landing Page While all... more.. Web Design 10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Designing a Website Web Design 10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Designing a Website By Herman Drost (c) 2010 Many site owners make the mistake of building a website without laying out a clear plan for their online business. This is a sure set-up for failure. There are 1000s of abandoned sites on the web due to lack of careful planning. Before designing your website you should ask yourself some questions to avoid making mistakes down the road. 10 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Designing a Website 1. What Are Your Business Goals? It's easy to say, "I want to make mon?" however, this is not a great motivator. Think of a deeper motivation that you feel passionate about e.g. "I want to have the financ? freedom to spend more time with my kids as they are growing up." 2. What's the Purpose of Your Website? This is the question most visitors will ask when accessing your website. Your home page must clearly explain the purpose and benefits of the products and/or services you are offering. 3. What Type of Products or Services Will You Sell? Research the marketability of your products or services by doing keyword research. Use the Google Keyword Tool to find out how many searches your main keywords receive every month. If there are no searches, it means there is not much demand and therefore not worth marketing. If it is a very competitive market (millions of searches per month), it may be difficult to stand out from your competitors and create a profitable online business. 4. How Many Products Will You Sell From Your Website? This will determine how many pages your website will have. If you're only selling one product or service, you may only need 4 web pages... more.. Protecting Your Search Engine Rankings Protecting Your Search Engine Rankings By Charles Preston Your website's ranking on search engines is a vital element of your overall marketing campaign, and there are ways to improve your link popularity through legitimate methods. Unfortunately, the Internet is populated by bands of dishonest webmasters seeking to improve their link popularity by faking out search engines. The good news is that search engines have figured this out, and are now on guard for "spam" pages and sites that have increased their rankings by artificial methods. When a search engines tracks down such a site, that site is demoted in ranking or completely removed from the search engine's index. The bad news is that some high quality, completely above-board sites are being mistaken for these web page criminals. Your page may be in danger of being caught up in the "spam" net and tossed from a search engine's index, even though you have done nothing to deserve such harsh treatment. But there are things you can do - and things you should be sure NOT to do - which will prevent this kind of misperception. Link popularity is mostly based on the quality of sites you are linked to. Google pioneered this criteria for assigning website ranking, and virtually all search engines on the Internet now use it. There are legitimate ways to go about increasing your link popularity, but at the same time, you must be scrupulously careful about which sites you choose to link to. Google frequently imposes penalties on sites that have linked to other sites solely for the purpose of artificially boosting their link popularity. They have actually labeled these links "bad neighborhoods." You can raise a toast to the fact that you cannot... more.. 5 Reasons Why Most Internet Marketers Fail 5 Reasons Why Most Internet Marketers Fail By Titus Hoskins (c) 2009 When it comes to starting any endeavor, whether it be learning a new hobby or starting an online business, we all have to start at ground zero. We all have to start at the very beginning from the very same place. Granted, we each bring different skills and backgrounds into the mix, but for the most part we are all on equal footing at the starting line. If this is the case, then we really have to ponder why is it only a choice few go on to succeed, while most people don't. Just what are the reasons why most online marketers fail? This is the core question that has to be answered if you want to fully understand Internet marketing and how it works. What are these basic reasons? What are the causes or stumbling blocks that hold many marketers and webmasters from reaching their full online potential? If we know these factors, we can learn how to avoid them and even overcome them in our own online marketing. These reasons can be a solid reference point or even a source of inspiration for any online marketer just starting out. Speaking from the viewpoint of someone who has started from the very beginning with little to no knowledge of computers or even marketing for that matter, I can honestly relate to the beginning marketer. I even had to learn HTML from scratch in order to construct my own webpages. Probably my only advantage, I did have a background in art but designing webpages was completely different from anything I had done previously to starting in online market?. But from my own experiences I have drawn some general... more.. Do This and OWN Google's Top Spots! Do This and OWN Google's Top Spots! By Michael Small (c) 2008 Ranking well on Google takes two things, good content and great links. But it's not an even split. Because Google assumes only a page with good content would get great inbound links it puts about 70% of the importance for ranking on links and only about 30% on content. That little tidbit alone will put you head and shoulders above all those competitors still messing with META tags and spamming keywords. But if you want a huge advantage over the rest of your competition, keep reading. I'm about to show you how the pros do it and win every time. Part 1: Perfect Your Anchor Text So just what is anchor text and why is it important? Anchor text is the clickable word or words that make up the hyperlink. You've seen anchor text a million times (the underlined words that are typically blue.) Google figures any words special enough to be used as a guide in a link are extra valuable, which makes anchor text extremely important for you to use properly. Just how powerful is anchor text? More than most people dream. Try an experiment. Go to Google and search for "cl? here" (without quotes.) The top match for years has been a page for Adobe Acrobat Reader. So does that Adobe page have "cl? here" copied 50 times in the text? No. In fact "cl? here" does not even appear on the page a single time! Does it have "cl? here" embedded in its META tags. No; again, not even once. So how can it possibly rank... more.. 9 Tips for More Effective Facebook Marketing 9 Tips for More Effective Facebook Marketing By Brandon Cox (c) 2011 Facebook is NOT welcoming of the marketing efforts of its users; and often, family and friends on Facebook are ANNOYED by marketing efforts. Both of those statements are undeniable. So trying to "market on Facebook" requires good sense, strict moderation, and an understanding of how Facebook might work for marketing purposes. Personally, I rarely post any marketing messages on Facebook. I post them on Twitter frequently, but I also try to make sure that 75 - 90% of what I post on Twitter is either personal interaction, plugging good free content, or plugging other people's stuff. I do think, however, that monetizing my content on even free social media platforms is perfectly acceptable. Why? It's simple. Even though the platforms are provided to me for free, I'm also providing the content that allows the network to exist. If nob?posted on Twitter, they'd be broke. So again, in moderation, with good sense, and with a priority on relationships over sales, marketing across these platforms should be an acceptable thing. Now about the good sense part. Why is it That Social Platforms Are So Effective for Marketing? People are social, by nature, so they love recommending stuff they like. Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms have a rapidly expanding user base. Authenticity is demanded as people will give honest and public feedback. The platforms are accessible and easy to use by design, even by people with few technical skills. For the most part, marketing across social platforms is free, but doing it badly can cost dearly. Why Is Facebook So Important to Messaging and Marketing? With 500 million (and growing) unique... more.. Kitchen Cabinets Ventura kitchen cabinets Ventura The kitchen cabinets Ventura services are one of those services that are designed to really satisfy the customers and help them with their needs. Those services are really helpful when it comes to solutions that need to be implemented so that the kitchen will look as appealing as the rest of the house. The appealing side of the kitchen cabinets Ventura services First of all, people are always concerned with certain qualities when they contact various services or businesses for the problems or needs that they have. In order to see a firm as reputable or very professional, it needs to be able to satisfy its customers with a high personal approach towards the job that it performs, an efficient manner when it comes to time and most importantly a great customer care. The kitchen cabinets Ventura services come with the best customer care there is as the cabinets that I brings to the table are already assembled. This is considered to be one of the best things about this industry as the client won't lose some of the precious time that he has on putting items together in order to form the cabinets that he needs. The service provides him or her with whatever it was ordered and the only requirement there is refers to patience in order for things to be done quickly. At the end of the day, the client will be relieved to see that the cabinets are in their place and everything is in perfect harmony. There are many different models that are available here, so that the user can pick something that he likes and fits with the other features of his home. In this way, everything will look as part of the big picture. That is one of the best aspects when it... more.. Google Everflux: Just What We Needed, Google on Speed Google Everflux: Just What We Needed, Google on Speed By Titus Hoskins (c) 2008 Is it just me or has Google gone into overdrive? As a professional full-time online marketer I have to keep my mind firmly placed on what Google is doing. As much as I try not to because Google has probably driven more people around the bend than Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz put together. Like any professional marketer, I monitor my numerous keywords on a daily basis - especially my major targeted keyword phrases that bring in the most sales and subscribers. For years now, I have had top rankings in Google for my chosen phrases; they move up and down, but mostly they don't leave the first page. However, lately I have been noticing a lot of jumping in the top listings. Links out of nowhere are appearing, links being dropped and my own links moving up and down much too quickly for my comfort. Even six months ago the Google main index seemed to be a whole lot more stable than it is now. Within the past months, rankings within Google have become more dynamic, more fluid. They can change from day to day, what some people are calling Google Everflux. This is very similar to the old Google Dance we used to have a few years ago...when Google would update or refresh its index about once a month. Now Google is stepping out on that dance floor every day. Once upon a time, your keyword rankings in Google didn't change that much. Every four or five months Google would do major updates where your keywords and your site's PageRank... more.. Bingoo! Assault Heats Up - Google to Retaliate with Operation Chrome Bingoo! Assault Heats Up - Google to Retaliate with Operation Chrome By John Sylvester (c) 2009 Finally, a 10-year deal has been struck between Microsoft and Yahoo! Last week it attracted global media coverage, which said it was intended to create a stronger rival to the powerhouse of Google search, but perhaps the counter-offensive with the launch of Chrome OS next year will be the real bullet in the gun? Media reports on the Battle of the Bing mostly dealt with the facts of the agreement but fell way short of any concrete projections as to what web users will be searching with in the future. Yahoo!, it seems, with Carol Bartz at the helm, is busy refocusing the company on being a producer of media sites and a marketer of online display advertising. It will also receive 88% of the search-generated ad revenues from its own sites for the first five years of the deal. But a hint at the real story came from an unlikely source. This week's Economist also ran a factual piece titled Bingoo! on the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal, but its cartoon in The World This Week section went somewhat further. It showed an outraged Yahoo! sitting atop the shoulders of a belligerent Bing, both cudgel-bearing and incensed, standing on the palm of a club-wielding Neanderthal-like titan Microsoft, shouting, "We think it is wrong to have a market dominated by one giant!", to which the finger-pointing Palaeolithic Google responds, "Do a web search for 'operating system'..." Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010 and is open source, which is appealing. It is also a "lightweight" operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. It is... more.. Maximizing the Triangle of Relevancy With Google Maximizing the Triangle of Relevancy With Google By Sydney Nelson (c) 2007 The "Triangle of Relevancy" is used to describe the relationship between the text in a landing page, a sponsored advertisement and the keyword or phrase that's entered into a search engine. Google places a premium on relevancy as it endeavors to ensure visitors have a positive experience by getting search results relevant to their search terms. I will outline specific steps an advertiser can take to maximize their landing pages and sponsored advertisement's effectiveness in their search engine marketing endeavors. Relevancy with Landing Pages The product, if you will, of any search engine is the resulting landing pages. The page's relevance to the search terms determines whether the page will show up in a search and at what position. Google's algorithm scores each page and/or sponsored ad's relationship to the keywords or phrase and uses this information to assist in determining the order in which the landing pages and AdWords ads are placed. The algorithm also monitors the amount of time a visitor spends on a page and includes this in the score. Search engine optimization (SEO) techniques such as placing keywords in the page's title and throughout the body of the page can sometimes affect the position of a page in the search results. But of greater... more.. 10 Steps to Testing the Viability of Your Online Business 10 Steps to Testing the Viability of Your Online Business By Donna Gunter (c) 2009 The economic recession is pushing more and more people to consider self-employment. Starting an online business is a very low-risk way to put your toe in the entrepreneurial pond because the start up costs are minimal, the overhead is low, and the returns can be high. Despite these benefits, however, an online business is just like any other and needs to be thoroughly researched before starting to determine if there's a need in the marketplace and how viable the business idea is. The Internet is rife with exorbitant claims of how much money can be made as an online entrepreneur and that you can be rolling in the dough by next week. Remember, most "overnight" successes are 1, 2, or more years in the making, and online businesses are no exception to this rule.      Make Your Monthly Google AdSense Check Bigger! Algorithm figures out the ideal ad unit sizes, formats, shapes, and colors. No guesswork! Works w/Google AdSense and other popular ad networks. Up to 200% revenue lifts typical. Easy, one-time setup. Easier to install than AdSense. No ongoing tweaking and maintenance.     Profiled on TechCrunch, John Chow, and Search Engine Journal.... more.. How to Choose a Reputable SEO Company How to Choose a Reputable SEO Company   By David Jackson (c) 2011 The two most important elements that qualify companies to promote themselves as SEO experts are competence and professionalism. And the way you find out if a company is competent and professional, as well as legitimate, is to do your due diligence and check their credentials thoroughly, by exercising good old common sense and following these steps: 1. Verify Their Contact Information If the company provides a street address, Google it to see if it's a real address. If they provide a telephone number, call the number to see if it's answered by the company or an answering service. If they don't provide a telephone number, walk away. SEO is serious business. You need to have the ability to talk to whomever is going to be handling your account. You need to be able to ask questions, and you have a right to expect your questions to be answered in a professional manner. 2. Talk to Previous Customers If the SEO company publishes testimonials on their website, contact a few of their customers and get their feedback. If the company can't provide testimonials, walk away, or if the testimonials don't have contact information, they're probably bogus. Walk away. 3. Visit Reputable SEO Forums Visit reputable SEO forums like Jill Whalen's High Rankings Forum to find out what forum members have to say about the company. If an SEO company has a bad reputation, it will race across the Internet at warp speed. Conversely, if a company has a good reputation, you will find that out also. 4. Check Their Better Business Bureau... more.. How to Write a Media Release How to Write a Media Release By Sue Currie (c) 2007 Did you know that publicity is supposedly seven times more effective than advertising? And it is free ? that is if you do it yourself. If you know the elements of writing a good media release to capture the attention of journalists, you can benefit from free editorial coverage. Here's a few tips to help you write a media release. The Beginning The first and most important thing is to have something interesting to say. Consider your USP ? just like in sales. It's your unique selling proposition. After all publicity is "selling". You are selling a story idea to the media. I like to call it the unique shining point. It really needs to stand out, shine, be compelling ? not an advertisement, not a boring product plug. Another element that will really hook the journalist in is to consider the ESP the emotional selling point. Often it is the human element in the story that will capture the reader's attention therefore the attention of the media. Think about what your story is. What is your background? Have you overcome any obstacles to get where you are today? Any achievements or milestones? Where is the human interest? What's more compelling? An announcement about a wedding limousine service, or the 30th anniversary both in marriage and business of the couple who run the service? This is a story I helped someone uncover in a seminar I conducted. The couple later went on to get a full page colour photo and editorial story in a wedding supplement in their local paper ? for free, just by working out the human element... more.. Social Networking with Training Wheels Social Networking with Training Wheels By John Jantsch (c) 2008 Look, I don't really think that the mySpaces and Facebooks of the world are that important for the typical small business as they stand today. There may be very practical business reasons for some to actually use these and other, what are called social networks, for business gain, but most people that have jumped on the social network bandwagon have found themselves left with a "is this all there is" kind of feeling. To those, I say this, the value of the current public social networks for business folks is not what you can get out of them for gain today, but what you can learn by using them for practical gain tomorrow. That's why SpacebookedIn makes sense for you now. The Facebooks of the world are busy teaching millions and millions of business folks how social networks work, how social networking works, how shared applications can be viral and ever-present. The real payoff in my opinion is that the wave to come after the Facebook bubble bursts is the "personalized business network." Once everyone of your customers and prospects knows how to use what are easily replicatable social networking tools, like building profiles, sharing video and connecting based on mutual interests, your job of building your own social business network around your own very specific community of niche will get a whole lot easier. 2008 will be the year of the personalized social business network. So, if you've decided to take a pass on the whole social networking trend, I would suggest that you use this handy list to start learning... more.. Google's Supplemental Index - What You Need To Know Google's Supplemental Index - What You Need To Know By Titus Hoskins (c) 2007 If you run an online website or business you have probably already heard about Google's Supplemental Index. You may have even heard it being referred to as Google's Gulag, Google's Digital Dungeon, or the moniker that seems to have stuck: Google Hell. Hate it or love it, webmasters are passionate about the big G. There's no argument on that point for one good reason: Google simply delivers the most search engine traff?on the web. For any webmaster with at least a few white SEO connected brain cells Google can supply 60% or more of their traff? Therefore, suddenly getting the majority of your pages thrown into Google's Supplemental Index can result in a correlating drop in business. A few examples of this were reported in a recent Forbes article by Andy Greenberg entitled "Condemned To Google Hell". It recounts how two online jewelry businesses lost traff?and sal?by having their pages falling into Google's Supplemental Index. They speculated on what had caused this to happen: duplicate content? buying links? Matt Cutts, Google's main spokesperson (some say pacifier) to worried webmasters everywhere, responded in his own blog: "Having urls in the supplemental results doesn't mean that you have some sort of penalty at all; the main determinant of whether a url is in our main web index or in the supplemental index is PageRank." However, regardless of what Google maintains, being in the supplemental results is not a good thing for any webmaster or business. Just the fact it's called a supplemental index means it's not as important as the main index. This index is seen... more.. Tactics to Draw People Back to Your Site Tactics to Draw People Back to Your Site By Jeremy A Gislason (c) 2009 One of the biggest measurements of a website's success is the stickiness of its visitor base. Generally web masters would rather have 1,000 visitors who return regularly (they are "stuck to the site") as opposed to 3,000 visitors who only visit once or twice. These days the web is massive, carving out a niche for your site and gaining a following within that niche is the key to success. There are many reasons why you should try to make your website as sticky as possible. Visitors who return regularly are more likely to purchase some of your products or content. If you have a membership site, then retaining your member base is critical for growing your ?ome and long term success. Also, a faithful following will encourage viral promotion of your site. Search engine optimization can be a costly and time consuming task and your site's listing can be hammered down by the powers that be (Google) in the blink of an eye. If you gain a faithful user base though, they will tell their friends and family about your site and encourage them to use it as well. Viral marketing is the cheapest and most effective type of marketing there is and making your site and content desirable is the only way to achieve this phenomenon. There are "five C's" of stickiness to remember, and they are: Content Regardless of the site's design, without good content, the visitor will not come back or stay at the site for more than a few minutes. "Content is King" is a clich?but true. High quality content is far and away the most important... more.. Internet Marketing Tactics For These Tough Times Internet Marketing Tactics For These Tough Times By Titus Hoskins (c) 2009 As we enter into what many enlightened souls are calling the most dire economic times since the Great Depression, online marketers need all the help they can get - regardless of the source. You have probably heard of Google; but chances are almost 100% certain, you have never heard of me. Lucky you! Actually, the only thing you need to know about me is that I am a full-time online affiliate marketer and I make a very comfortable living from the web. Last year (2008), was my best year online so far, which left me scratching my head and saying what recession? But that may be something of a false positive, as I will never know how much I could have made if the economic times had been good instead of bad. Plus, judging from my own limited experience, selling and marketing online may not have been hit as hard as those businesses in the real world in 2008, since consumers are doing everything to save a penny and shopping online has become a much cheaper alternative for many. As we enter into these uncertain times, online marketers and webmasters need all the help they can get. Recently, Google mailed a small booklet to its Adsense users; in it Google gives "6 Top Tactics For Tough Times." It is obviously referring to its Adwords PPC (Pay Per Click) program and clients but Google's advice can be applied to your general online market?. These tactics include: (quoting directly from the Google mail-out) 1. Focus your ads on low prices and sav?s. 2. Use Value-related keywords. 3.... more.. Key Marketing Methods For 2008 Key Marketing Methods For 2008 By Sam Law and Julian Stone (c) 2007 ProWorkFlow ProActiveSoftware - Julian101.com (c) 2007 Isn't online market? by definition, expensive? Not necessarily. Online businesses are coming to the realization that in an organic environment like the Internet, organic marketing is required; paying for traditional or static marketing only gets you so far before it becomes ineffective. The consumer now controls your marketing. What is Wrong With the Old Methods? Old marketing methods are failing because users are beginning to wise up (Rise Up) against the old brute force advertising that tries to win users over through sheer volume, using abrasive web-page banners, unrelated Adwords displayed on the page, or repeated newsletters (most being restricted by anti-spam laws). The old methods no longer work effectively for two key reasons. One is the fact that they are a "flash in the pan", directing users to websites only so long as you continue to pay for the campaign, the second reason is consumers are now at the stage where they either ignore them or go out of their way to block them (with plug-in based browser or email filtering). Let's quickly run through some of the "traditional" ways to market on the web, and their failings. Paid Campaigns - (These only work while active) Paid campaigns may lure people to your site, but they are regularly not your target market and after arriving they promptly leave (High "bounce" rate). Banner Ads - People hate banner ads. Most of the ads on the Internet are loathed because they aren't relevant. Seeing a banner for a better ?urance rate... more.. ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles People might think that the ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles models are just another thing on the market. This can be true due to the fact that many of the markets are very diverse and there are many great names in an businesses, but there is an aspect that needs to be considered here: the speed that the service has. The ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles service handles their clients with speed First of all, people need to take into consideration that speed is not the dominant quality of the ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles services. There are many other qualities that matter in this industry, like: durability, professionalism, time of response and so on. But, as we are livening in a world where everything goes at a very high speed rate, it surely does matter how fast the service is provided. Let's take an example of a regular order and see how things are going. The client can easily access the internet, right from the comfort of his home, log on to the website and start browsing throughout the ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles models that are displayed there. He can take as long as he or she wants, until a decision is made. The great part of the internet here is that the browsing can be done quietly and without being disturbed by any shop supervisors that are constantly watching your every move. This is the perfect way to shop and take your time while doing it. The next step of the process is finalizing your order and waiting for the team that does the measurements to arrive. You need to point out where you want the ready to assemble cabinets Los Angeles to be placed and after that part... more.. 5 Top Traffic Sources For Your Site 5 Top Traffic Sources For Your Site By Titus Hoskins (c) 2010 I believe if you asked any webmaster or online marketer what their most important aspect of running a site would be, you would get an answer that's some way related to traffic. Mainly because traffic is your site's lifeblood, actually without traffic you really don't have a site at all. Traffic is King Traffic brings in the leads and the sales. Quality traffic is what produces your online revenue, whether from advertising or from sales on your site. Now, I have sites which get less than 50 visitors a day, I have a few sites which get around 200 visitors and I have one site which gets around 2,000 visitors a day. Don't jump to any conclusions, some days the site getting 50 visitors can make just as much as the site getting 2,000 visitors. It all has to do with the quality of the traffic and how well it converts into a sale. And of course, it all depends on what you're selling... an LCD cleaning kit for $20 bucks or a gaming laptop which sell for $2000+. Regardless, you have to get that traffic in the first place if you want to earn an online income. The more traff?you have, usually, the more you will make; at least this has been my experience. Since traffic is very important to me, I keep a lot of records and stats on where my traffic is coming from on the web. I have to know what produces the quality traffic and how to get it. So... more.. Understanding Search Engines So You Can Get a High Ranking Understanding Search Engines So You Can Get a High Ranking By Rusty Ford (c) 2007 Just 5 years ago getting a high ranking in the search engines was easy. As search engines have gotten smarter it has become impossible to get a high ranking in the search engines with gimmicks. Now the only way is to have one of the best pages about your topic and lots of people agreeing that it is one of the best by linking to it. Before explaining how to get high rankings in the search engines it is important to understand some basics about search engines. If you were to run a search engine what would be your number one goal. This one is simple; you would want to be the most used search engine on the Internet. The only way to become the most used search engine is accuracy. People use a search engine for one reason and that is to find what they are looking for. When I first started using the Internet 12 years ago, it was difficult to find anything in a search engine. You would type in baby toys and get hundreds of sex toy sites with a few baby toys sites mixed in. Now you type in baby toys and you get baby toys. The reason Google became number one was that for several years they had the most accurate results. So if you want to get a high ranking in a search engine for the terms your pages are about, then you must give the search engine what it is looking for. The search engines became more accurate because now they look primarily at one thing. That one thing is... more.. The 10 Commandments of Press Releases The 10 Commandments of Press Releases By Bill Stoller, Publisher (c) 2007 In baseball, it's said that you know an umpire is top-notch when you nev?notice his presence. If he's doing his job, he won't call attention to himself in any way. It's much the same for the writer of a press release. When the recipient of a release focuses only on its content -- and not on its creation -- the writer has succeeded. With that in mind, here's The 10 Commandments of Press Releases: 1. Thou Shalt Be Professional. No goofy fonts, rainbow paper or silly gimmicks. Even lighthearted press releases represent a communication between one professional and another. 2. Thou Shalt Not Be Promotional. If you can't get enough objective distance from your company to write a press release that's not filled with hype and puffery, hire someone to write it for you. 3. Thou Shalt Not Be Boring. Even the driest subject matter allows for some sparks of creativity. Journalists like knowing that there's a human being communicating with them, not some corporate robot. 4. Thou Shalt Be Brief. Learn to cut out extraneous words. Keep your sentences short. Include only the points necessary to sell the story. The well-crafted one page press release is a thing of beauty. 5. Thou Shalt Know Thy Recipient. A features or lifestyle editor is a very different creature from a city desk editor. If you're promoting the opening of a new winery, the food and wine editor may be interested in all the details about what kind of aging process and... more.. Simple SEO Truths Simple SEO Truths By Kim Roach of UnleashTheTraffic.com According to the 1998 Georgia Tech GVU User Survey, 85 percent of respondents found Web pages from search engines. Since then, other studies have reported 50 to 80 percent of Web site traff?comes from search engines. Searching is second only to email as the most popular online activity. Unfortunately, there are many marketers who simply do not put enough effort into preparing their web site for the search engines. The following guidelines will help you to start seeing results in the search engines. Your first step is simply choosing the right keywords. Choosing the Right Keywords Often times, people make the mistake of optimizing for very general keywords like used cars or online marketing. Although these terms get lots of traff? it is very unlikely that you will be able to rank highly for them. Then, even if you do, this type of traff?produces very low conversion rates because they are not targeted prospects. For example, if you are selling hiking backpacks, it would be much more beneficial for you to target the phrase 'hiking backpacks' rather than the extremely competitive keyword 'backpacks'. It would be even better to target the phrase 'camelbak commander'. This is a specific type of backpack and therefore will attract more buyers than searchers. In fact, according to Jupiter Media Metrix, 28 percent of searchers will type a product name into a search engine. Nine percent type in a brand name and 5 percent type in company names. The more targeted your keyword phrase, the more likely they are to buy. A person who types in 'backpacks' may be looking for... more.. Social Media Optimization - The Power Of Popular Opinion Social Media Optimization - The Power Of Popular Opinion By Brian Easter (c) 2008 Why should I care about Social Media Optimization? You should care about Social Media Optimization (SMO), because you care about your company's image. There's an old saying that goes something like, "A happy customer will tell one other person about his good experience. A disgruntled customer will tell ten people about his bad experience." Good or bad, that's powerful marketing. Social Media Optimization gives you the power to take an active role in managing your brand by interacting with your current and potential clients by discussing your products, their comments and concerns and continually promoting your brand. Social Media Optimization Defined In its most basic form, Social media optimization is any method used to raise your website's online visibility through meaningful communication. SMO opens a dialogue between you and your clients, using the power of popular opinion to fuel your marketing campaign. The open format strengthens your search engine optimization efforts by fostering a mutual connection with your clients through the myriad of online communities, also called social media sites. Current examples of SMO include: Creating profiles in social media communities such as MySpace, Facebook, and VIRB. Participating in and/or creating blogs. Disseminating your blogs or articles using RSS feeds. Creating and sharing content through community based sites like Flickr, YouTube, and more. Not to incorporate unnecessary buzz words, but SMO is a very Web 2.0 approach to Search Engine Optimization. Of course, Web 2.0 merely refers to the perceived second generation of Web-based communities and hosted services... more.. 5 Best Practices of Content Distribution 5 Best Practices of Content Distribution By Bradley Hess (c) 2010 Creating excellent content is a key element of optimizing your online presence, but once you have created fantastic information you need to disseminate it. You may be one fantastic source of information, but if nobody hears you, does it matter? Make sure that you aren't leaving out the step that will get you heard. We have compiled a list of the 5 best practices for content distribution: 1. Blogger Connections: You aren't the only blogger out there. This may seem like a bad thing sometimes when there are so many other blogs to read. How will your blog get read if there are so many others that have equally great content? The trick is to get your content on blogs that are already being read. There are many wonderful blogs that get a lot of their content from guest bloggers. You can submit articles that you have already published on your own blog or create something new that you think the particular blogger would like for their blog. They may even have a request for a specific kind of content they would like from those interested in guest blogging. Along with contributing to blogs that you are following already, make sure that you are also using services that will connect you with other bloggers. These are great for not only getting your content posted elsewhere but also for getting guest bloggers on your blog. These blogger connection services already have a great network of bloggers who would love to share content. It would be a waste of a resource if you didn't use something like this. Getting others' guest content on your blog... more.. The Roller Coaster of Link Popularity The Roller Coaster of Link Popularity By Bill Platt (c) 2007 Most webmasters are in a constant state of confusion about how to create link popularity and how to rank well in the search engine results. Three of the top four search engines, Google, Yahoo and MSN calculate link popularity as one part of their search algorithms. So, for all intents and purposes, building link popularity is an important part of getting recognition and strong placement in the search engine result pages (SERPs). Link popularity, in essence, is a count of how many web pages point to one of your web pages. The Google PageRank Version of Link Popularity PageRank (PR) is a Google tool that expands on the simplest link popularity calculation. PageRank is a value given to every web page on the Internet, with 12 possible rankings. * The Gray Bar in the PageRank tool indicates that a web page has not been added to the Google PageRank database, or Google has banned the website. (If any page on a particular domain has its own PageRank, or if any pages are shown in the Google search results when someone searches "site:www.yourdomainurl.com", then the website in question has not been banned by Google.) * PR0 to PR10. PR0 indicates that the web page has been added to the Google database, but it does not yet have any PageRank assigned to it, generally because there are not any PR value pages that link to it at this time. If one is tracking PageRank from the Google toolbar, then it needs to be understood that the database that stores PageRank values is only updated about once every 3-4... more.. ready to assemble cabinets Ventura ready to assemble cabinets Ventura The story with the ready to assemble cabinets Ventura services is quite complex as it answers to a great number of needs that the client has when it comes to ordering a piece of furniture for his kitchen. Many would argue that this is just a business like any other, but that's the beauty of being different from the other competitors on the market: coming up with various solutions. Why the need for the ready to assemble cabinets Ventura services? First of all, people should take into account the fact that the service was developed in order for them to be as comfortable as they get when it comes to ordering the cabinets. This means that they don't have to rush into town on a traffic hours, lose time watching around some showrooms and then decide if they are going to pick that cabinet or not. The ready to assemble cabinets Ventura services bring forth the idea of ordering in the online environment right from the comfort of your chair. In this way, you can actually take your time and browse through different models until you reach the one that best fits your needs, your style and the style of the house. This is one crucial aspect that needs to be minded when ordering cabinets or any other pieces of furniture: they need to match the style of the room first and then the style of the house. Some people like to do things their own way and that's one brilliant thing. But in order to be seen as a person with great taste, some things need to be in... more.. EMR EMR The EMR system is one the greatest achievements in the field of medicine not because it brings some great adjustments in the surgical area, but it is something that has revolutionized the front desks of the hospitals. Many people aren't that aware of how important it is to have a system that is extremely efficient especially in cases of high pressure. EMR The Greatest Achievement One of the first aspects that are worth highlighting here refers to the idea of the space that is being saved with the EMR system. Imagine how the system used to work somewhere in the past decade. There were rooms filled with drawers that had files and files stored inside of them. The clerk had to search through all the files in order to reach the desired information and that took a lot of time as well. Additionally, there were cases when the clerk was in a hurry and he or she didn't have time to arrange the files in the order that they were before. This has generated some real problems when there were other files needed. The current system has some very efficient features and has the capability to store a great deal of patients without having the worry to actually be overwhelmed with files. Furthermore the EMR system gives the user the possibility to insert certain filters in order to be able to reach the desired information without having to lose precious time in the process. This is quite relevant when a doctor... more.. The Benefits of a Solid Content Management System The Benefits of a Solid Content Management System By Mike Tekula (c) 2008 In the early days of the web most sites consisted of a handful of HTML pages. For smaller sites, it made sense for webmasters to use programs like Microsoft Front Page and Macromedia (now Adobe Dreamweaver) to edit their site templates, which usually contained the navigation, header and footer (the "shell" of the site), and individual pages. Editor's Note: On Dec. 29/08, we published an article by Kalena Jordan entitled "A Beginner's Guide to Google Website Optimizer (Part 1)". The entire article which includes Part 2 can be found at SiteProNews.com. The problems? Messy code These so-called What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWIG) editors didn't always get the code right. Webmasters almost always had to get into the back-end and tweak the HTML source code. This took time. Tedious site updates Edits to a site template meant every page had to be updated and reuploaded to the web server. This took time and used resources - especially before the days of broadband. Painstaking SEO Optimizing for search engines meant going through every page and manually making sure your H1 (header) and Title tags were well optimized. Risk of data loss Forgetting to download the most recent version of a site when working with multiple site editors or from multiple locations made it easy for editors to overwrite site updates - sometimes losing hundreds of hours of work with one ill-advised click of the "upload" button. While Adobe Dreamweaver has certainly come a long way over the years (messy code... more.. Proven Insider Tips to Get More Web Visitors Quickly and Easily Proven Insider Tips to Get More Web Visitors Quickly and Easily By James Gladwin (c) 2009   Believe me, in spite of the current financial turmoil, there hasn't ever been a better time to generate an online income stream! And yet it seems that so many budding Internet marketers are finding it hard to break through VNB - the "Visitor Numbers Barrier." When I started, I thought there was some magic elixir or secret technique that would transform my visitor numbers! If only I could find THE ONE successful method! Well, this article is to let you know that while there may be hundreds of ways to get visitors to your website - I've selected some of the techniques that work best for me.   And they can work for you, as well. Because, if there IS a secret of success, it is this: "Don't rely on ONE way to generate traffic. Become familiar with MANY." Better to have many visitor doors to your website, rather than just one, don't you think? I'm still... more.. Link Popularity and Press Releases Link Popularity and Press Releases By Gary Sims The quantity of links to your site is used by the search engines (like Google) to calculate the importance of your site. This measure of incoming links is called "Link Popularity". Press releases are a powerful way in which you can promote your site, service or product while at the same time increasing your link popularity.   Search Engine Optimization Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process of fine tuning your website to get higher rankings on Internet Search Engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. Broadly speaking there are two types of optimization, "on-page" and "off-page". On-page optimization deals with the layout and format of a web page to make it attractive to a search engine. Off-page optimization deals with external factors like the number of people linking to your page. Let's look at off-page first. Off-Page Optimization In trying to quantify the importance of a website, search engines have developed sophisticated algorithms that rank web pages for their quality. The largest factor in determining quality is the number of links to a web page. Links are an almost impartial method of determining how popular a website or a web... more.. Estimating the Real Cl? Fraud Rate Estimating the Real Cl? Fraud Rate By Nick Guastella (c) 2007 The controversy surrounding cl? fraud comes up every year, but it reached a fever pitch during December's Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago when participants voiced concerns over experiencing fraudulent cl? rates ranging from 20 to 40 percent, threatening the entire paid search industry. At the time, Google's Business Product Manager for Trust and Safety Shuman Ghosemajumder tried to calm advertisers' fears explaining that Google was currently "...examining ways to make its fraud-fighting efforts more transparent without revealing crucial information that might help swindlers elude detection." Ghosemajumder did, however, express concerns over revealing too much information, fearful it would give away algorithm secrets to competitors. Paid Search Revenues Continue to Rise While the major search providers have always insisted the cl? fraud rate is a gross overestimation, a 2005 Outsell survey found that cl? fraud was a $1.3 billion problem for publishers. At the time, many advertiser respondents (27 percent) said they planned to cut back and/or eliminate paid search campaigns in 2006. Outsell respondents may have intended to cut down on paid search, but they certainly didn't follow through. SEMPO's year-end search marketing report showed that North American advertisers spent $8 billion on paid placement programs in 2006, amounting to 86 percent of 2006's total search spend ($9.4 billion). Seventy-one percent of SEMPO respondents said they used paid search campaigns, illustrating that there were not many defectors. Despite advertisers' insistent claims that the search engines don't do enough to eliminate cl? fraud, paid search revenues continue to fill the coffers of Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and many second and third tier search engines. Additionally, there is a... more.. Smart Webmasters are Wasting Online Real Estate Smart Webmasters are Wasting Online Real Estate By Kim Roach (c) 2006 Many webmasters are not using their websites' traff?to full potential. The Web is full of wasted advertising space. Chances are that even your website has some virtual wasteland. These are areas that often go unnoticed by even the most experienced marketers, resulting in the loss of thousands of dollars of potential revenue. Below, four of the most underused online real estate spots are discussed as well as how you can reclaim these areas while maximizing your prof?. 1. 404 Error Pages The dreaded 404 page is something that almost everyone has encountered in their online journeys. The most common reasons for landing on a 404 page include: - a mis-typed URL - an out-of-date bookmark - a search engine link that is out-of-date - an internal broken link that the webmaster hasn't noticed Surveys suggest that approximately 40% of users who run into a 404 Page Not Found error will leave your site, nev?to return. However, as a webmaster, these pages should be customized in order to help the user find their way back to your website. To create your own customized 404 page, keep the following guidelines in mind. Provide an explanation of what went wrong. A nice way to apologize would be to offer them a fr?report. By using this technique, your visitors will not only be impressed by your creativity, but you can also collect their name and email adress at the same time. Provide a link to the site map. By redirecting them to your sitemap, they should be able to quickly and easily find what they are looking for. Provide... more.. Top Ten SEO Myths Top Ten SEO Myths By Andy MacDonald Ever wonder what the biggest SEO myths are? I have taken the most prevalent myths that seem to be constantly resurfacing and examined them for you. This is a must read for anyone looking to hire an SEO firm or someone looking to do SEO for themselves. Myth # 1: All Meta Tags Are Of Equal Importance Some Meta tags are useful while others are not. I have stated this many times. Search engines are relying more and more about what is on the website than what the tags are telling them. The description tag is used by some (but not all) search engines. The same goes for the keyword tag. Keyword tags are used more by spammers and people using software to find you as a link partner than the search engines. In my opinion, the only tags you should concentrate your efforts on are the robot tag and the description tags. Myth # 2: You Should Submit Your Site to Search Engines Weekly or Monthly Honestly, I nev?submit any site more than 1 time and sometimes I don't even do that. If you submit your site once, you're good. The engines will come back on their own. You can sometimes speed up the process of getting your site indexed by linking it to a high traff?or high PR site. The search engines will find the URL to your site and index it automatically. Myth # 3: SEO is Too Expensive Actually, SEO is probably the most cost effective f?of online marketing. Organic SEO is cheaper... more.. Who's Linking to Your Web Site and What Does That Say About You to Google? Who's Linking to Your Web Site and What Does That Say About You to Google? By Stone Reuning (c) 2010 Linking is the mechanism that connects all the pages on the Internet. You've got links throughout your web site to let people navigate their way around. You may have links going out to other web sites that you think will be useful for your visitors. And hopefully you have links coming into your web site from independent sources. All types of links can impact your search engine optimization results, helping determine where your web site shows up online. Though the hardest to control, inbound links pointing to your site can make the biggest impact. At its most basic, the concept is that if several high-quality sites are linking to your web site, then Google and other search engines figure your site must be a popular, valuable resource - and they will be more likely to show it higher in their search results. In effect, your site receives "link juice" from other web pages that link to it. However, it's not enough to secure a couple links and then sit still. The Google PageRank algorithm looks at the pattern of links to your site as they build over time. Building the right kind of links can bring a major payoff, while a wrong turn could get you penalized - and the Google Sandbox is not easy to dig out of. Armed with a bit of knowledge and some creativity, you can build up valuable incoming links naturally and powerfully, avoiding the traps that plague amateurs. Spice Up Your Links With Some Variety There are all kinds of link farming schemes to grow links, and... more.. For SEO Beginners - Twelve Definitions You Need To Know For SEO Beginners - Twelve Definitions You Need To Know By Mike Tekula (c) 2007 SEO is a trade that exists solely on the internet, and even then it is comprised almost entirely of the hot air of so-called "expert opinion." Plenty of it blowing around these days as search maintains position as one of the most important marketplaces in the modern business world. Many DIY webmasters will end up searching for blog entries, articles, informational web sites, etc to help get them up to speed. The problem is that in most cases certain key terms are flung around like household names while the people doing the flinging are way out of touch with the average web browser. What some of us don't realize is that not everyone knows even the basics of SEO. This l? of twelve SEO-related definitions in alphabetical order (with notes) serves as a great companion for your initial SEO reading. Read alone it will get you up to speed on some key terminology that you'll need to know to intelligently engage the ever-changing world of SEO. ? Algorithms. A search algorithm is, in short, the incredibly complex mathematical formula that a search engine uses to "rank" web sites for keywords. Based on a huge number of variables and calculations, algorithms are among the most closely-guarded secrets on the internet. Why? Imagine if they were leaked - suddenly the less-than-honest would have a very specific guideline to follow in climbing to the top of search results in a less-than-organic way, ruining the quality of Google's search results and their entire competitive advantage with it. ? Bot or Bots. See... more.. Top Ten Ways to Use Twitter for Marketing Top Ten Ways to Use Twitter for Marketing By Jason OConnor (c) 2009 Twitter is a micro-blogging site that asks you a basic question, "What are you doing?" It allows anyone with an account to write up to 140 characters in a text field as a means to update, comment, promote or communicate to others who are "following" you. When people follow you, they see what you've recently contributed when they login. They see your "tweets", which are the messages you leave. And of course you can follow others who tweet about the things that interest you. As an Internet marketer you may want to follow other Internet marketers, for example. Like anything, and this is especially true of working with social media, the more you give, the more you get. In other words, the more often you tweet the more activity you'll generate. Some suggest that you tweet a few times a day, every day. Not every tweet needs to be profound. But they should all be useful. It's important that you don't abuse Twitter for marketing and promoting your products, services or affiliate links. Most of your tweets ought to be about offering your followers useful and valuable information. Only once in a while should you try to use Twitter to promote something. Otherwise you'll be perceived as a spammer, and no one wants that tag. Imagine if you had a large number of people following your tweets? Some people have tens of thousands following them. If you had something to promote and you had a large following, you could quickly and efficiently alert a lot of people of your promo. It acts sort of like a mass email? blast to your house... more.. Which Website Visitors Are Potential Clients? Which Website Visitors Are Potential Clients? By Jerry Bader (c) 2009 With today's website tracking software and services you can find out a lot about the people who visit your website. You can learn where they're from, what kind of browser they're using, how long they stayed on your site, and a whole lot more. But what all this high tech intelligence won't tell you is what kind of people they are, and how likely they are to be transformed by your Web presentation from viewers to customers. Your ability to convert website visitors into clients depends on your ability to find the soft underbelly of their subconscious desire. After all, if someone is happy with what they've already got, they don't need you, but if they were truly one hundred percent happy, they wouldn't bother coming to your website. Therefore every visitor that comes to your site is a potential client whether they know it or not. The Setup's The Thing Your website presentation has to find that annoying little subconscious scab just under the surface and pick at it until it becomes a full blown irritation that fosters discontent and a desire for change. That discontent is your opening to make your value statement. We refer to this process as The Setup. Like any good presentation you cannot, or rather should not, just blurt out how great you are, but rather you have to set the scene. Like any good story, the punch line, moral, or payoff only works if it is properly setup. Far too many website presentations suffer from premature pitch climax. The ability to transform viewers into customers requires patience. Entrepreneurial companies tend to view the setup as a waste of time, and... more.. The 4 Points of Do-It-Yourself SEO The 4 Points of Do-It-Yourself SEO  by: Gordon Goodfellow Ever felt intimidated at the convoluted, jargon-ridden information about Internet marketing for small businesses available on the Net? Ever been horrified by the huge fees the experts charge, putting search engine optimization beyond your own means? Ever thought: What exactly is search engine optimization anyway, and can I do it myself? The answer is: Yes, you can! The basics of search engine optimisation in applied web marketing are simple. It's all to do with the keyword content of your text copy, and can be summarised in seven points. 1. Register a good domain name which reflects what your site is about. Even if you are an established business, don't register www.FredJones.com if you make widgets. Rather, you want to register something like www.BestWidgets.com because that would inspire confidence in people looking for quality widgets who would not necessarily have heard of Fred Jones the widget-maker. 2. Name your page URLs based on reasons similar to the above for your web promotion, except now you can be more specific. Search engines like to know what your page is about. Name a page after a product (BigYellowWidgets.htm) or a service or action (Buy-Widgets-by-Post.htm) on one of the sales pages. 3. The text in the title tag is crucial in letting search engines know what each page is about. Put your important keywords in your title tags, using both the singular and plural versions (people will search for both) and make these tags different and specific for each page. For example, "Widgets and After Sales Widget Services". Whatever you do, don't call the home page "Index", but treat it almost as a mini-description. 4. The other tags (at the top of the html page) between the two... more.. Simple SEO Page Optimization Guidelines Simple SEO Page Optimization Guidelines By Greg Schipper, fast seo ranking   Most people make on site optimization very complex. I want to set a simple guideline for