Site Promotion Articles

Who Else Wants Massive Traffic Really Fast?

2006-11-07T16:01:00.000-05:00

by: Florin Costache

Picture this: you've launched your website for a couple of months now and your traffic has never gone over 100 visits a day, but today, after submitting a link to 5 websites, your server just crashed because it can't handle the traffic.

How would that happen? It almost surely isn't search engine optimization, considering that these techniques take from 1 week to 3 or 4 months for their effects to show.

The answer: Social Bookmarking. Remember these two words, they are going to save your website! Now lets take a look at the top 5 sites that can bring you a ton of traffic when you need it - right now.

1. Digg.com - this is the Big Daddy of social bookmarking. Although not the first of its kind, it surely is the biggest one out there. Getting on the front page will submit your site to the so called "digg effect", which can bring down even dedicated servers.

2. del.icio.us - it may not bring as many visitors as Digg, but it's the second best out there and it still gets the respect of every webmaster blessed with a front page posting.

3. Slashdot.org - this one can bring visitors on par with Digg, but only to tech related articles and sites.

4. StumbleUpon.com - unlike the other sites in this list, StumbleUpon doesn't rely on its website for the browsing but on browser plugins that send stumblers to sites matched to their preferences.

5. Reddit.com - although it's the last on our list, you should still pay attention to it. Reddit has a more relaxed policy on what content appears on its site and with the free tagging folksonomy your content will be categorized exactly how you want it.

Now that you have the list, you'll probably want to know how you can get that craved front page listing. The answer: good quality content.

I know everybody says that, but it's actually true, and here is one idea on how to make great content: think of one problem that has been annoying you for some time and solve it. It doesn't have to be something life changing; no matter how small your problem is you can be sure hundreds or even thousands of other people are irked by the same thing.

Another to get a lot of eyeballs is to attack a well known organization or person. Most times this isn't the kind of attention you would want for your website, but if you think you can weather the bad criticism then this can make your site a traffic hotspot.

With all this potential, sometimes you may ask yourself if gaming the system could be an option. My advice is to play fair and have your links rank high because they're good - being labeled a spammer and a cheater on the Internet is one of the worst things that can happen to your reputation.

Ok, so you know where to get your content seen, how to create that content and what not to do. Now go do it and enjoy the traffic!

About The Author
Florin Costache is the webmaster of Optimizare, a romanian search engine optimization blog.

http://www.greentwinkie.com/
http://www.greentwinkie.com/index.php/servicii-optimizare/

Do Links Increase My Ranking On Search Engines?

2006-11-03T14:45:00.001-05:00

by: David Fishman

Increasing links as a method to get your serps increase is a positive thing. You can ask youself the question, though, is just but, links should you get so this can happen? Is it possible to have to many links? Link marketing is the use of links to boost traffic to your website as otherwise as to develop it could be that your position on the se. You will need to do both to accomplish success. If you want to increase it could be that your search engine rank, accomplish on your links.

Is there a set number I should shoot for?

There is no real set integer. It's not having ten or twenty or getting a 100. It is definitely about having the right kind of links coming to the webpage. As an instance, you need to consider both reciprocal links as well as those that are the best type of link is a one way link. One way links create traffic to your site and not letting the customers get lured away with additional links on the webpage. Link exchanging, when placed correctly and applied in the correct way can help as well.

Beyond this, you will want to achieve with having good favorableness links. The links should be related in some way to your internet site. You will need to search for webmasters that offers similar, but should not have the same information as on your site.

If you are thinking about how many links you should allow pointing to your website, the correct denomination to go with is as much as you possibly can do. When getting them make sure they are of good quality, well researched links, not just a link that is not in the same theme. Make sure they provide for both reciprocal and links that are one way. Use them properly and your business really can improve from them.

About The Author
David Marc Fishman is the owner of http://linknetics.com. The link marketing software that promotes http://www.linknetics.com and http://www.linknetics.com.

SEO Secrets They Don’t Want You To Know About

2006-11-01T11:09:00.000-05:00

by: Josh Green

Back by popular demand, the second installment to the "…secrets they don’t want you to know about" series (see Affiliate marketing secrets they don’t want you to know about). Without further ado, here are the 3 secrets "they" try to keep away from you: effort, time and money. Once again I admit that this is not want you expected to hear, but believe it or not many novice webmasters (even experienced ones for that matter) often overlook these simple rules of thumb.

Before I elaborate on my three "secrets", I would like to let in on another little secret: who are "they"? You might be inclined to think that "they" is all the major search engines out there, such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. Your intuition is good but in this case misguided and is exactly what "they" want you to think. You can’t blame search engine for not reviling there secrets, if everybody knew how to get top 10 rankings, there would be no reason for these search engines to even do business.

"They" in this case is all those SEO firms who milk you out of your hard earned money promising you the moon (top ten rankings in this case).

Secret #1: Effort

The effort you put in your search engine optimization campaign remains the most important factor in determining your positioning is search engines. There are countless strategies you can use to boost your rankings, but you must first do your research. Reading articles like this is a start but visiting specialized websites like Search Engine Watch to learn even more is your best option. Writing informative content is also a great way of attracting search engine traffic. Just the other day, I got a hit from Google Brazil. The user typed the oddest keyword, but ended up staying on the landing page for quite a while, so I guess it’s safe to say he found what he was looking for. You can also share your articles with article directories. Not only do you spread the word around on how great your site is, but you also get a link back to your website form a reputable and established high ranking website, which is a plus for your rankings. The fact of the matter is, you can’t just create a website and then dump it on the net in the hopes that the hits will come. You will have to update and consistently offer new content. Not only will this help you with your search engine rankings, but it will benefit the lifeblood of your website, your visitors.

Secret #2: Money

Despite all the free strategies there exist, you will have to strongly consider spending some money to help you in you search engine optimization campaign. Signing up for Google’s Adwords or any other search engine keyword marketing service for that matter would be money well spent. By biding on specific keywords that best suit your website, you will get an add space on Google. The good thing is you only pay when someone clicks on your add and you could also set yourself a daily budget. Paid inclusion in some quality online directories is also a good idea. While this remains a viable strategy, it’s easy to get carried away. Spend cleverly by searching for the most reputable directories beforehand. The only real advantage as opposed to free online directories is immediate inclusion. While free directories can take up to a year to include your website, a pay-for directory will index you within a predetermined amount of time (usually 24 hours).

Secret #3: Patience

Finally, the last secret I would like to elaborate on is patience. Now without getting into a philosophical debate with all of you, our society in general is becoming increasingly impatient. While hocking your horn on your way back home after a long day at work might give you the illusion that you’re getting home faster, impatience like that does not serve you well in the world of search engine optimization. What many novice webmasters don’t realize is that even getting all the major search engines to index you can take several days. And all that means is that your in there database, that doesn’t mean you will be getting top 10 rankings. You must be patient and continue working on the strategies we discussed earlier and the (and only then) will you start to see positive results.

About The Author
Josh Green is a senior editor for Associate Insider. Visit http://www.associateinsider.com today for this and many more informative articles, stunning web design tutorials and reviews of the best tools available.

The Right Headline Makes All the Difference To Your SEO Results

2006-10-31T11:21:00.000-05:00

by: Mark Nenadic

Believe it or not, even though you may be targeting search engine spiders when you search engine optimize your website, when you are writing your content, the best technique is still to write as you would to appeal to an actual human visitor. This is just as true when it comes to your headlines as it is for the rest of your content.

This is the case because not only will you improve the search engine ranking because of the relevancy issue that is being considered by the latest algorithms utilized by the big search engines - especially Google - but also because your site will attract much more relevant visitors. When it comes down to it, one relevant visitor is worth the same as a thousand visitors who click to your site, and then quickly click away without taking a look at what you have to offer, or, more importantly, making a purchase.

By appealing to the people who will be visiting your website, you'll bring the right visitors to your website, and then your conversion rates will naturally improve.

To write an appropriate heading, you first need to know how to use your heading tags properly. The truth is that you can actually have as many headings as you want, but it is the first heading, "h1" that will really make all the difference when the visitors actually arrive at your site and read what you have to say.

Search engines look at the heading tags as an indication of what a given page is all about. Therefore, if your site heading has not only been search engine optimized with the right keywords, but has also been written in a way that it is relevant to the actual page, then you will achieve a much higher ranking.

All of the big search engines actively search for headings within the content of your website. When your headings are placed within heading tags, the search engines know where to find the information that they want, and you'll have told them directly what your web pages are all about.

Don't try to fool a search engine, however, by trying different manipulative techniques such as placing all of your text into a heading tag, or creating a heading that uses the right keywords, but doesn't actually make any sense. The search engines have been designed to identify this kind of abuse, and will not reference your site the way you'd like it if you try to tamper with the way your headings are laid out. In fact, the big search engines will actually ignore headings altogether if they detect misuse. Worst of all, you may even be blacklisted as a spammer. Therefore, it really is in your best interest to put a real heading into the heading tags.

The next step is to know exactly what you will be using as your heading. The best technique is to identify the best keyword phrase for the page you're working on. It is also a good idea to phrase the heading in a way that encourages site visitors to continue reading your content so that they will progress to the rest of your message, your requests to visit other parts of your site, and ultimately to make a purchase.

One good technique to encourage people to continue reading is to write in a tantalizing way, such as with a question that applies to the reader, so that they will want to know the answer or result of the statement. You may also state your heading in the form of a problem, where you claim that the rest of the article holds the solution. This is especially good for having the right kind of visitor spend time at your site, because the people who relate to the problem - which, naturally, your product or service can solve - will continue to read the page. Finally, you can also appeal to a person's curiosity in your heading by using techniques such as numbers - such as "The 5 Ways to…" - and teaser terms - such as "The Secret".

By using these techniques to create targeted, functional, and powerful headings, you'll find that not only will your search engine ranking rise, but so will the number of targeted visitors arriving at your doorstep.

About The Author
Mark Nenadic is the director and face behind 15Degrees-North http://www.15dn.com where you will find articles and resources to help with Search Engine Optimisation, Internet Marketing and Web Design.

Myths and Misunderstandings of Google's Page Rank System

2006-10-30T14:49:00.000-05:00

by: Jason McElwaine

When it comes to the search engine market, Google is king. Rank high for a popular keyword, and you can almost guarantee waves of traffic. But Google is now more than just a search engine. Visit Google Labs, and you'll find a wide variety of internet tools and software. But one Google invention, known as Google Page Rank, is confusing webmasters throughout cyberspace.

If you've ever used Google's toolbar, you probably have wondered about the little green bar that changes each time you visit a new website. It's called Google "Page Rank," and it's designed to rank websites on a scale of 1-10. Rank is determined by the quantity and quality of the links that are pointed to a particular site. An easy way to gain points in the Page Rank system is to trade links with other sites who have an equal or greater Page Rank. Unfortunately, too much time is devoted to this "little green bar." Most people assume that a website's search engine results are determined by it's Page Rank, but in fact, the two have nothing to do with one another.

Search engine results (commonly reffered to as "SERPS") are determined by a wide variety of factors. Talk to any Search Engine Optimization (SEO) professional and your head will spin with the amount of information involved. But if you ever come across an SEO professional who tells you that Page Rank will guarantee higher listings, beware! Just do a few searches in Google, and you'll discover that listings aren't ranked according to Page Rank. For example, a website with a Page Rank of 7 can easily be listed lower than a website with a Page Rank of 4.

Unfortunately, webmasters spend hours and hours trading links with each other, hoping to raise their Page Rank, when additional and alternative SEO methods should be employed instead. For instance, a quality one-way link is much more effective when it comes to search engine listings, and on-page optimization, which is the strategic coding of your website, is also an important factor.

But what are webmasters who've been focussing on Page Rank all along to do?

To start, determine if you have the time and dedication to learn Search Engine Optimization. Like most topics, there is an unbelievable amount of information listed on the web. Forums are a great place to start. Forums are superior to other methods of information, because most topics are not only discussed, but often debated at length. This helps to ensure that the information you're getting is up to date and acurate. Read often and be sure to post plenty of questions. It's important, however, to have a good understanding of Search Engine Optimization before you employ any methods you've learned to your own site. One simple mistake can lower your site's listing, and even get your site banned altogether, so make sure you're 100% confident that the methods you've learned are not only effective, but safe.

If you don't have the time and/or dedication to master SEO on your own, do your best to hire an experienced and reputable SEO professional. A wise man once said, "If you pay peanuts, you'll get monkeys," so spending a little extra money in this area is probably a good idea.

Whether it's creating innovative software like Google Earth, or purchasing the world's largest on-line video data base YouTube, Google continues to transform the search engine market. But with any company, not all projects are a resounding success. When the Page Rank system was first introduced, it seemed like a nice idea, but in reality, it's done nothing but side-track webmasters from real Search Engine Optimization. Maybe this was Google's intention all along.

About The Author
Jason McElwaine is the owner of Pin Bottle Boston Website Design loacated at http://www.pinbottle.com He can be contacted at contact@pinbottle.com

Keys to Successful Advertising

2006-10-29T11:42:00.000-05:00

by: Emmanuel David Scott

There are several methods of advertising on the Internet. Some are free, some are low cost, while others are insanely expensive. The first thing you will need to look at is how much you are willing to pay for traffic, and how far your advertising dollar can go.

Let’s say you have got a great idea, and your website is now complete. You are ready to open for business but where are your customers? Simple – you are going to have to go out and get them. It sounds easy, but advertising can be a pitfall that can cripple many e-businesses.

One of the most effective, and cheapest, methods of advertising is through the use of e-zines. There are thousands, if not millions of e-zines published every single day. The best way to approach e-zines for advertising is to join a couple that fit your product profile and that you find interesting. Most e-zines offer incentives to new businesses signing up, and will even run your ad for free just for subscribing. You can find many e-zines that offer ads for as little as a dollar. It is a fantastic way to reach thousands of people who are already interested in your type of business.

Link exchanges are another free alternative to costly advertising. Be prepared to get lost in the shuffle if you choose a popular site. The best way to make use of this method is by running your own link exchange from your site and offering a free posting in exchange for a link back to your site.

In fact, you can utilize e-zines to promote your product for free, if you can write an informative article. E-zines are desperate for content, and will often offer to publish your article in exchange for a link back to your site. If you go this route, make sure that your article is informative and not just a sales pitch. For example, if your e-business deals with making money from home, an article about how working from home decreases stress would be very well received. Targeted advertising is by far the best way to bring in traffic to your website. By using targeted key words, your customers are not just stumbling into your website. Half the work is already done by the key words. You just need to supply the information. Google Ad Words can be used very effectively as well as other targeted key word companies. Most of these operate on a pay per click basis, so you will need to research your key words and supply the best possible words to ensure a good cost-to-click ratio.

Press releases are a great way to get the word out about your site and possibly create media buzz. While this method is more expensive than the above methods, it has the potential to bring in substantial traffic. Before sending out your release, make sure that it is formatted correctly and contains a powerful first paragraph. News editors are inundated daily and you do not want to get lost in the shuffle.

When writing your press release, it is important to make it news worthy, instead of a plain announcement. Using our example above, if a recent study is released about stress management and working from home, it would be a perfect time to send out a press release that mentions the study and your business. Be prepared to receive phone calls and answer questions if your release is a hit.

You don’t necessarily have to wait for an event to happen to send out your release. If all else fails, get creative! There are many ways to tie in your business to current events, all you need is a little imagination.

Copyright © 2006 Lloyd J. Scott

About The Author
Emmanuel & Lloyd are specialists in Information Technology and have an online business for web templates and design

http://www.prepagebuilder.com

COPYRIGHT 2006 ©Lloyd & Emmanuel D. Scott

support@scottsempire.com

The Law Of 200 And How It Can Work For You

2006-10-28T16:21:00.000-05:00

by: Jim Hart

There are a number of ways that you can promote your website from writing articles for Ezine magazine/article sites (like this one) to the more gimmicky methods like free newsletters, auto responders, etc. If you have been doing any research into website promotion you don’t need another repeat of information you have already heard—what you need is a new idea. One that has real potential to work without requiring a ton of technical experience and/or vast amounts of email addresses to Spam to. You want a simple method of getting your message out without requiring a significant amount of your time and energy—and you want to communicate for free too, right?

Ever heard of the law of 200? It’s a sales/marketing rule of thumb that we all know about 200 people on a first name basis. This is a powerful concept that can be applied to a simple email message to help promote your site and/or your offer:

The first question you must ask yourself: does your site have true value to people? What does your site do that will REALLY help people? Sites tend to fall into general categories encompassing products, services or information based. No matter what your site offers it should have value to your visitors. The more people it appeals to the better. Even highly specialized sites may be able to benefit from the following promotional idea.

Create a draft email with a headline and a brief, professional opening paragraph (the shorter the better)—pick up to 3 to 5 main points you want your email to communicate to people and provide a link back to your site for supporting information. For example; if you have a free ebook, highlight the free ebook and provide a link to download it (within the email itself). Do you have articles on your site that is relevant to the email? Link back to it! In other words use your site as the data-warehouse that stores the information you want people to have access to without writing long, boring emails. If people are interested in what you are saying or offering, they will click the links within the email to get more information. Now, hold this thought…

Creating a link-back email has several advantages and chief among them: 1) Keeps the emails brief eliminating large amounts of text which nobody is going to read anyway. 2) Eliminates the need to retype information that already appears on your site in the form of HTML pages. 3) Provides a way for people to get your information quickly without actually visiting your site. 4) Avoids embedding emails with data-hogging pictures that take a long time for people without high speed Internet to download. 5) Allows you to provide a link back to your site below your name when you sign the email (By the way, all your personal and business email should have a digital signature link to your site).

Why a simple email promotion can work:

Recently in the news was a story of a man who wrote a love letter to a woman and sent it to her via email. She was so impressed with the letter that she sent it to a few of her friends who were also so impressed with the email they forwarded it to their friends. The reason the story made it to CNN headline news was that this man was getting letters back from people all over the world (including gay men) who wanted to meet the person who originally wrote the letter.

That got me to thinking more seriously about the potential benefits of sending out an email that has VALUE. Not Spam…rather, a carefully crafted email that has VALUE links which you can send to the people in your recipient list including your friends and family. If you feel uncomfortable about sending your email to friends and family then your email is NOT a value driven email. Why friends and family? Because these people also have recipient lists they could forward the email to! If your email TRULY has value, people will forward it to other people. Especially if you give something away for free, like an ebook. How many friends and family should you send it to? That’s a judgement call, but I suggest limiting it to no more than 10 people at a time. It’s like being stranded on an island and throwing a message in a bottle…see where it will float….

Why does this have tremendous potential to work for you? If you send your email to 10 people who, in turn, send it to 10 people, who do the same to another 10 people, your email will be exposed to about a 1,000 people. And if these 1,000 people send it to 10 others, your email will be exposed to 10,000 people. And if this process repeats one more time, you are exposed to 100,000 people and once more, a million people! And if one (1) percent of those million people visited your site (10,000 people) and, only one percent of those people (100 people) purchased your offer, well, you get the point.

Think about it...

About The Author
Copyright © 2006 James W. Hart, IV All Rights reserved

Be Smart, Visit SBS. click this link http://smart67.com

Want More Traffic? Use This Untapped Resource!

2006-10-27T15:27:00.001-05:00

by: Todd Levi

Just when we have thought of everything and still want to generate more traffic, there is one place we can go. We have all heard of it, that’s right MySpace. An interesting thing happened when I was looking at my websites traffic statistics the other day. I found out that I have got over 4,000 visitors to my company website, from my personal MySpace website. That accounted for over 25% of my total traffic. From a search engine optimization standpoint this was a very sizable number.

This intrigued me so I signed my business up for a free account on MySpace. Invited all my friends from my personal MySpace account, joined groups on MySpace that are industry specific to my business, and bamm! More traffic. MySpace, to debrief, is a way for people to not only express themselves and their interests, but allows individuals, companies, music groups and others to network and keep in touch.

Remember traditional marketing, specifically businesses like Mary Kay? You would hit up everyone you know and tell them about your business. Your target of local friends and family would sustain the most business for you under this system. Not only does MySpace take care of this, but lets you reach farther with people you may not already know.

Give it a try, invite the MySpace community to your business and watch for increased traffic while doing so. So far I have seen nothing but good things from this and have even landed business. This strategy has definitely helped my Internet Marketing SEO endeavors. Check out my site http://www.LeviSolutions.com and my MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/FortCollinsWebDesign

About The Author
Todd Levi owns LeviSolutions.com - Fort Collins Web Design & Internet Marketing SEO company.

Ezine Marketing, Another Low Budget Means Of Advertising

2006-10-25T22:31:00.000-05:00

by: Dr. Roberto A. Bonomi

As its name implies, an ezine is an electronic magazine, or electronic newsletter, that is published and distributed through Internet, talking to your customers about your business.

EZINE MARKETING

Ezine marketing is other of the low budget and very good means of advertising your products or services that you can use to promote your easy home business on Internet.

The ezines sometimes named "news letters" are very popular among small business entrepreneurs, because ezine marketinng works, and that's why many times when you decide to publish your ad, you can find that there's a waiting list.

Just take a look at your favorite ezine... Are there any ads on it?

I'm sure you found many, and the reason for that is very simple: people put ads on the ezines, because ezine marketing get results.

Most ezines do not reach more than a couple of thousand of subscribers, so what's the secret of the ezine marketing? The secret is that when you put an ad on an ezine, you can reach your target audience, if the ezine has 3000 subscribers, you know in advance that 3000 targeted "might be customers" are going to see it. And this is the reason why the ezines and newsletters are one of the most effective ways to promote your easy home business.

Other very popular way of advertising on Internet are the banners, but compared with the high costs of web site banner advertising, ezine markering's costs are a bargain.

YOU CAN HAVE YOUR OWN EZINE

Is there a better option, than ezine marketing?

Yes, there is and it's to publish your own ezine.

I know that if you have never published an ezine, this can seem to be much difficult than it really is, but you will soon find that it's easy, and you can publish it weekly, biweekly and even monthly.

Your advantage?

* No printing costs
* No postage costs
* You can offer free subscriptions to engross your subscriptors list
* A regular contact with your customers/prospects, establishes both your reputation and your marketing expertise

WHY SHOULD YOU HAVE AN EZINE?

If you are the ezine's owner you can obtain many advantages from it, like:

* You can be constantly in touch with your customers
* You don't need to pay for the ads you put on it
* You can keep your customers and prospects abreast of any new product or service that you decide to offer to them
* You can make money offering sponsored advertising
* Nothing helps you network like your own e-mail newsletter.
* If you supply an ezine with specialized information, you will be able to turn prospects into customers and will increase your Internet exposure through that platform.
* A regular provision of specialized information creates credibility among your subscribers and since you create a special relation with them, you will get a higher response rate from offers to your subscribers, than you would from offers to non-subscribers.

HOW CAN YOU MANAGE YOUR EZINE?

You can always manage and deliver your newsletter or ezine using some of the good e-mail programs like:

* Eudora: eudora dot com
* Pegasus: pmail dot com
* Infacta (ex Aureate Group Mail): infacta dot com

If you choose to start this way, you will have to send your ezine with the BCC (blind carbon copy) option, because this way you will be sure that every body receives his own copy without looking at the e-mail addresses of other people that receive the same ezine. Nobody wants to see that thousands of unknown people can know their e-mail address.

But if you really want to work in a professional way, the best program I can advice you to use is Postmaster.

Postmaster is a database management and automated follow up software which sells through a network of nearly 1000 Associate Affiliate Program Resellers. They pay you $60 for each referral sale that downloads from your FREE affiliate program's web site, and $20 on all orders, your resellers, you sign up, refer. Along with any other program, you're involved in, including USA America Hosting; your referrals will be placed in your group, earning you commissions. (See the link below to try it for free)

HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR EZINE

You can mail your ezine yourself or use one of the excellent software that I have mentioned previously, but the first thing you need to do is to build your subscribers list, and one way you can do it is announcing your newsletter, and you can do it at:

* New List: new-list dot com/
* Newjour: gort dot ucsd dot edu/newjour/
* Bestezines: bestezines dot com/

You can find more places searching for "announcement lists" at your favorite browser.

Another important way of promoting your ezine is including your ezine in the Directory of Ezines

WHO WILL HOST YOUR EZINE?

That depends on your choice; if you decided to use programs like Postmaster or Bamboobiz online then you have to host your list on your PC. The advantage of this option is the easiness you will have to make any changes you wish to your database.

But if you rather give this task to someone else there are many options for you:

FREE HOSTING SERVICES

That will host your mailing list, and handle all the subscribe and unsubscribe requests for free and in exchange for their services, they will put a small 3-line ad, at the end or the top of every message that you mail out.

You will find this kind of service at:

* coollist dot com
* topica dot com/create/index2.html
* oaknetpublishing dot com
* groups dot yahoo dot com/
* bravenet dot com

PAID SERVICES

Paid services will give you many additional features for a price range that goes approx. $25 per month for small ezines and can end up in the thousands for very large lists. (Many offer free trial), and the best ones I found are:

* constantcontact dot com
* topica dot com/
* listserve dot com
* bcentral dot com

THE EZINE MARKETING MACHINE

Ezine marketing can be a very interesting means of promotion for your business, even if you don't write your own ezine.

Because if you learn how to use ezine marketing for your advantage, you can generate great traffic to your web-site, promoting your business with almost zero cost and get 10 times better results than placing ads in ezines.

There's a very simple technique to do so and consists in sending free articles to the ezines (almost every ezine owner wants to have new fresh and free articles written for him)

If you like this idea, there's a great book you can read about named "The ezine marketing machine" (link at the end of the article)

ADS SWAPPING

Another great way of growing your ezine is swapping ads with other publishers. This kind of advertising is free and your ad goes to a targeted audience: people who like to read ezines and are interested in the kind of topics you write in you own ezine, and this increases the chances of your ad being noticed.

And to finish this web page I'd like to tell you about a brand new, original, and totally FREE service that I use to grow my E-zine subscriber list.

It's a new system for E-zine owners to share their ad space with other E-zine publishers... and it works great!

With EzineADVenture you can get your own ad in front of an extra thousand, five thousands, twenty thousand, or even one hundred thousand or more E-zine readers literally overnight. And this PERMANENTLY!

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READ A GOOD EZINE

There are many good ezines and newsletters on the net, and at this point I can't avoid mentioning to you that you can join for free to my Easy Home Business Newsletter

Written by Dr. Roberto A. Bonomi

About The Author
Dr. Roberto Bonomi is a successful e-book writer that shares his home business experience at: http://www.easy-home-business.com.

You can click here to try Postmaster free for 30 days: http://newsletter.easy-home-business.com/hts/postmaster30.html.

If you like this idea, there's a great book you can read about named "The ezine marketing machine" (link at the end of the article), and you can find it here: http://newsletter.easy-home-business.com/hts/ezinemarketingmachine.html.

3 New Web 2.0 Ways To Increase Traffic To Your Website

2006-10-25T13:48:00.001-05:00

by: Mohamad Latiff Bin Rahim

It's official. The Web 2.0 is here. If you have no idea at all that it is already here or what it is in the first place, then you must have been living in the cave for the past 5 years.

Face it. If you're still using some of the outdated Web 1.0 methods to increase traffic to your website, you may still get some results out of your marketing efforts but you will eventually lose out to the newer guys who go Web 2.0.

Now let me share with you 3 tips on how to increase traffic to your website, the Web 2.0 way.

1. Think viral. The concept of viral marketing will never die out. The Viral meme is what defined and made Life in the first place. For as long as there is Life, the concept of the Virus (biological, marketing, electronic, etc) will still continue to haunt us - for good or ill.

There are 2 basic elements that determine the success of your marketing virus:-

I) The strength of your viral marketing message, or in the words of Mark Joyner, its "Buzz-worthiness", that is, its merit or quality that makes people want to tell others about it because it is so good.

II) The mechanism by which the virus must spread. Is it easy to spread the message? Must your referrers go through an elaborate and troublesome process to spread the message? Or need they only do what they've always been easily doing in order to spread your viral message?

From the above 2 elements, you already have an action plan formulated for you that can be condensed into one sentence:- create a message that promotes your website, be it in the form of a video, audio, multimedia, text, blog or a whacky buzzword, that is truly "buzz-worthy" and at the same time easy to spread via existing networks.

2. Attack the Social Networks. Either exploit the existing social networks such as MySpace, Friendster, Squidoo, etc, or create one of your own that is built around your niche.

There are many Friendster or MySpace clones out there available for download (for a fee of course) which you can use, tweak or get a programming expert friend of yours to develop a Social Network of your own that is built around the niche that you're involved with.

A good way to market through Social Networks is by having an interesting profile that offers consistently updated information about yourself and your business or your website. Duplicate your blog in your MySpace or Friendster blog as any updates to your profile or blog will be reflected to the friends in your network.

Browse the Social Networks for friends who share the same interests and passions as you and add them as friends. Send private messages to them and work something out. Say you're starting a private group of like-minded people who are passionate about whatever it is your niche is about. Mention incentives such as money, exclusivity, fame, etc.

Place a limit to the number of people who can join this private club of yours and be sure to include only those people who have lots of friends in their network, perhaps ranging in the hundreds.

3. Blogging, of course, is one of those defining elements of Web 2.0.

There are different approaches to exploiting the Blogging phenomenon to market your website. One is to have a blog of your own. The other is to somehow enable others to have blogs hosted by you. But if you go the second route, you'll face tough competition from Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, etc.

The trick is to create a service or software which has something the others do not have. Or you can create a service, software, tool or tip page that complements your so-called competition by giving something of benefit to users of such blogging services.

One way is to offer RSS feeds tools that enable other bloggers to syndicate their content to other websites or deliver their feeds to their readers' desktops or emails.

Another way is to give other bloggers the opportunity to include "Bookmark" links on their blogs. Websites such as http://Del.Icio.Us or Digg offers users the ability to share their favourite websites with other people.

You can exploit this phenomenon by creating an account with the various social bookmarking sites and sharing links to your websites or you can create cool-looking "Bookmark This" icons for other bloggers and get them to link to your website in return.

If you write a blog of your own, you can market your blog by visiting other people's blogs and leaving useful and beneficial comments on them. Most of the time their comments forms enable you to include a link back to you in their comments page.

Browse the blogs around your niche and most of the time they have a link saying "Links to this Post". This enables you to link to their posts in your blog if you happen to like their blog posts. Give and take. Blog about another person's blog and a link to your website may appear in that person's blog in return. This process is automatic.

There you have it - 3 new Web 2.0 ways to increase traffic to your website. In truth, there are literally hundreds of other ways to improve your website marketing the Web 2.0 way that are not covered here in this article. Now it is up to you to apply what you have learned here and come up with something that is even better.

About The Author
Mohamad Latiff is the Creator of the http://www.TrafficTimeBomb.com, a revolutionary software that will exponentially increase traffic to your website by the power of viral marketing.

There Is Not Quick Fixes To Increase Web Site Traffic

2006-10-22T10:59:00.000-05:00

by: Ali Papila

Many web site owners would love to get lots of visitors to their site. However, competitor sites and lack of finances are major limitations to get desirable number of visitors.

Although there are few solutions available to increase web site visitors without spending money, many site owners prefer to choose some quick fixes to solve their problems. Probably one of the most popular quick fixes out of all is auto traffic sites (also known as manual exchange, pay-to-click, paid-to-surf, click exchange). These sites are known to increase web traffic in just few minutes. However, it is all artificial traffic and visitors are not really interested about your content or your site. They only visit your site for few seconds to gain credit, which can be used to send visitors to their sites with same method. With auto traffic all you get is visitors with no intention of using your services or web site content.

Increasing web site traffic is time-consuming effort. With the right content, you will get right visitors that are actually interested with your services. Therefore optimisation techniques play important role to accomplish this. Well-tuned web sites will eventually get targeted visitors from search engines.

So, you should always keep in mind, if you have patience, good content, and well-tuned web site, visitors, who appreciate your content, will visit your site.

About The Author
Ali Papila has a weblog that provides useful information on SEO and web site traffic. You can read his weblog at http://getfreewebtraffictoyoursite.blogspot.com/.

Create many blogs to boost site ranking

2006-10-21T18:07:00.000-05:00

What's one of the best ways to generate more traffic to your site? Get more links coming in. What if you could add hundreds of links to your site in a very short period of time?

You can create hundreds or thousands of blogs that point to your site.
Look here for instructions on how to do this.

Blogging for the Affiliate Marketer

2006-10-21T14:02:00.000-05:00

by: Libby Campbell

The concept of blogging appeared in the 1990's as a social network providing a means of two way communication. Today it is one of the most explosive and easiest ways to make money in affiliate marketing. Blogs, as an advertising media, continue to be considered as a non-mainstream online advertising media and that is to your advantage as an affiliate marketer.

Why? If you are just jumping aboard the world of blogging and affiliate marketing you are at the merging point of an evergreen advertising media and can capitalize on the earning potential.

The blogging environment allows you to have tremendous traffic potential with little effort, expose your product to thousands of viewers and have an open dialog with them.

Having an open dialog with potential buyers allows the blogger to increase the comfort level by addressing questions up front. Of course that means increased conversion rates and customer relations.

One of the important aspects of blogging is that it gives off the impression that you, as the blogger, are a real person. The mechanics of the web and the fear of being scammed are often lessened to a greater degree.

The personal communication provides a means to take away the stigma of an impersonal approach that a traditional website could project. An added value of having a blog presence and focusing on affiliate marketing – you can capture live testimonies much more easily. The visitors to your blog cannot only communicate with you but among themselves if you have your blog setup to allow that feature.

Making use of blogs as an Internet marketing tool is easier than you think. It is by far one of the easiest ways to create a web presence for yourself, your business or for your family for that matter.

Blogging does not require any special skills or software. It can be done by a no frills method. You do need a computer, an Internet connection and the passion for taking action to create your blog entries.

Your blog entries, also known as posts (content) should be focused on sharing and expressing your ideas around a specific product offer or niche.

Another benefit of utilizing a blog in affiliate marketing is that you can easily build creditability for yourself as a marketer without the financial overhead of a traditional business or website costs.

You’ll quickly be identified as an expert in the niche you settle into and market. The consequence of course is that you build a readership following which drives a consistent traffic flow to your blog.

By using subscription and asking for your readerships’ e-mail addresses, you can build a list that allows you to have a warm target market for other similar affiliate products that you may consider presenting.

Of course, subscription carries a responsibility of protecting the readers’ e-mail addresses. Remember to always be respectful of the readers’ personal information. You want to earn their trust and respect.

Using a blog in affiliate marketing also allows you to have a deeper understanding of their needs and desires. You can open a simple two way dialog that will provide you with a wealth of information to determine if your product meets their needs, wants and if the price range is appropriate to their expectations.

By using RSS you have the ability to further enhance the readers’ interest and their attention. Adding RSS feeds of various supporting information of interest to the niche you are marketing will increase the readers’ frequency of return.

Weather you are just getting starting in affiliate marketing or are a seasoned pro, adding a blog or blogs to your marketing effort will increase your effectiveness and your bottom line sales.

About The Author
Libby Campbell
Internet Business Analyst with over 20 years of computer experience in business consulting, project management, internet e-commerce, software design, six sigma process improvement, solution design and implementation.

http://www.blogging4wealth.com
http://www.bloggingbundle.com

Web Site Promotion For Newbies

2006-10-21T10:36:00.000-05:00

by: Michael Best

If you are new to the internet world you are not alone. There are a lot of people who are not too familiar with the internet, but want to join in on the profits that are available. If this sounds like you one of the most important things that you will need to learn is how to promote your web site.

When it comes to promoting your web site there are many options available to you. The good thing is that a lot of them are free of cost, or will only set you back a few dollars. But at the same time there are also a lot of ways that you can promote your web site that will cost you quite a bit of money. But either way, if you learn what you are doing you will be able to get the word out about your web site.

As far as free web site promotion is concerned, one of the best things that you can do is join in on the discussions that are taking place at some of the online forums. For instance, if your new web site is targeted towards the clothing industry, you will want to find forums that discuss this topic. When talking with others you can run ideas past them, and also market your new web site to them. Make sure that you add your web site to your forum signature. This way, every time you make a post anybody that reads it will be able to click on your link. Believe it or not this will drive plenty of traffic to your site.

Another low cost way to promote your web site is to submit articles to article directories. This can be done in a matter of minutes. All you have to do is write an article that coincides with your web site, and then submit it to directories. In addition, you will be able to add an author’s resource box after the article. This again will allow readers to click on your link and head straight for your site. Over time different article directories will pick up on your articles. In turn, your links will begin to show up all over the internet, which of course means more traffic directed to your web site.

Overall, web site promotion is something that you will want to learn about early on. But do not let this scare you away. There are many ways that you can promote your new web site to the internet world. With a bit of research, patience, and determination, you will be successfully promoting your web site.

Here's an idea.

I've been using a free Internet Marketing Success Guide which has increased my website traffic by 300%. This guide will teach you the correct way to promote your web site and see success with internet marketing from the very start. And with successful promotion comes traffic and profits! And isn’t this what everybody wants?

Get your Free copy of the Internet Marketing Success Guide below!

About The Author
Michael Best has been successful in the internet marketing industry for over 5 years. You may view his biography http://www.2mostop.ws. http://michael.best2.googlepages.com/home.

Is Buying Traffic A Smart Move?

2006-10-19T21:29:00.000-05:00

by: Arlan Medicine

There are so many success stories you hear about businesse being successful on the internet. However, the troubling thing is that, there is maybe a few or even a hundred stories contradictory to theirs. Many have unsuccessfully launched a business enterprise that is internet based but only a handful succeeded.

Is this because they were lucky? I dont think so... You see it takes good business sense, a lot of help and a team effort. Most importantly, its the eagerness to be successful, ability to learn, adapt and be willing to invest a little hard work as well as some money.

The Basics

Just like Neo, TRAFFIC is “The One”. Without TRAFFIC, all your efforts would be fruitless ( No Traffic = No Sales ). Every business thrives on customers, without customers you wouldn’t have anybody to sell your products or services to. In the internet world, TRAFFIC is your walk in customer. The more TRAFFIC you have to your website means the more people YOU will be able to sell your products or services to.

But like any business, not every customer that visits your website will buy, however the greater number of customers that do visit your web site to browse your merchandise or services, increases the number of customers that will eventually buy your products or services. This is a fact.

So, how do you get TRAFFIC large enough to make a small percentage of eventual buyers and make a good profit? Alot of huge companies generate TRAFFIC in the tens of thousands per day and a measly ten to fifteen percent will actually buy, but that tiny percentage is enough to sustain them with profits daily.

Many of the success stories get their TRAFFIC from buying it from others. Yes that’s right! At some point, you will have to spend money to make money. The more people that know about your site; means that more people will of course visit your site, and that’s a give.

Even though there are so many ways to advertise for free, this will not generate the same high quality visitors as those methods that are getting paid TRAFFIC.

Did you know that we can send you up to 3,000,000 visitors to your website -- starting immediately?

Would you like to have thousands or millions of potential customers looking at your website, ready to buy your product or service? If so, then read on ... Do you know why almost every online business fails?

Its simple really. They dont have anyone visiting their websites. The web has become so large that unless you spend money on advertising nobody is going to find you. If people cant find you, they cant order anything from you.

Make us your marketing partner and YOU'LL have access to LOW- COST traffic prices! Everyone needs High Volume campaigns to help search engine rankings and to gain brand recognition for your website. What we do is literally lead potential customers to your door!

Let us know how many visitors you need and how you want them targeted, and we will deliver them to you. Our services are GUARANTEED - we even provide you with stats to monitor your campaigns.

We'll provide you with Fully Targeted Expired Domain Traffic by Country and Category.
Our expired domain traffic gives you premium targeting options:

• US, UK, or Worldwide English speaking visitors (based on default browser settings).
• Targeted to over 180 Website Categories, plus Casino or Adult categories.
• All Expired Domain Targeted Traffic is Full 100% Campaign Unique!
• Most are delivered in 30 days, but due to popular demand, guarantee is 60 days.

We also have Targeted and Non-Targeted bulk mainstream traffic and we offer you the lowest prices you will ever find. This fast worldwide network can deliver hundreds of thousands of visits to a website in less than 30 days, and we guarantee 60 days for most campaigns. We have your website campaign up and showing within 24-72 hours from receipt of payment. (normally less than 2 hours).

This may not sound like such a good idea, but the payoffs tell a whole different story. When you buy TRAFFIC, your guaranteed a consistent flow of TRAFFIC to your website. You will never go without an empty day of sales.

The money you spend buying TRAFFIC will not be in vain. You'll get a huge boost in your TRAFFIC alexa and search engine rankings which will boost your sales figures greatly. Buying your traffic is a smart move and you'll reap the rewards it has to offer.

To Your Greater Success!

About The Author
Arlan Medicine, CEO
http://www.trafficdoctor.net

The "TrafficDoctor.net" is an Internet Marketing Company that has been serving the needs of internet marketers and webmasters worldwide.

Think About The Importance Of Having One Way Links Point To Your Site?

2006-10-19T21:24:00.001-05:00

by: David Fishman

Promoting links as a practice to get your websites position on the search engines is positive thing. The question that many people ask, how much and how many links should I get so this can happen? Is there a cap on the number of links you should get? Link marketing is the use of links to build up traffic to the webpage. This will multiply your position on the search engines. These things go hand in hand. If you want to increase your position on the search engines, you will need to do link marketing because this goes hand in hand.

Quantity or quality?

There is no good set number for links. It's not having ten or twenty or even having a 100. What we are talking about is having the right type of links coming to your website. For instance, consider and understand both reciprocal links and the best type one way links. One way links achieve traffic to your site without letting the visitors click away with additional links on the webpage. Reciprocal links, when grouped correctly and used in the correct way can help as well.

Beyond this, you will want to attempt to get good favorable links. The links should be in the same category or theme that compliments your website. This mean you will need to find webmasters that offer similar content, but not the same content as your site.

If you are thinking about how many links you should get pointing to your internet site, the best denomination to go with is as much as you possibly can do. Be sure that the links are of great, well researched links, try not choose links that are not in the same theme. If you can make sure you get one way links, if you cannot go with the reciprocal link exchange. Use them correctly and you business will take off beyond your wildest dreams. If you use links incorrectly or do not get links your business will suffer.

About The Author
David Fishman is the owner of http://linknetics.com. The link marketing software that promotes one way links.

Insight to SEO Jargon

2006-10-19T00:53:00.000-05:00

by: Halstatt Pires

If you have an online business, sooner or later you will start looking into search engine optimization. Better known as “SEO”, the field is full of jargon. Here is a little clarity on some of the terms used.

Insight to SEO Jargon

As you probably know, the internet has evolved a language all its own. Email and text messages come with all kinds of abbreviations from ROTFL [rolling on the floor laughing] to btw [by the way] and some others that I can’t include here due to their colorful nature. Search engine optimization is no different and here are a few of the more common abbreviations with explanations.

1. SERPs – This abbreviation stands for search engine result pages. It is typically used to in relation to rankings on a particular search engine, to wit, “the SERPS on Google just changed for the keyword phrase…”

2. Black Hat – This term refers to strategies used to obtain traffic through optimization. Although the exact definition is highly contested, it essentially means using tricks or tactics that violate search engine standards to obtain a desired result. For instance, cloaking is considered a black hat tactic.

3. Cloaking - Cloaking is a strategy whereby a search engine spider is told one thing is on a site page while visitors see something else.

4. White Hat – White hat is simply the opposite of black hat optimization, to wit, standards are followed.

5. KD – Stands for keyword density and refers to the number of times the keyword phrase you are optimizing for appears on the site page in question.

6. Spiders/Bots – refers to the programs that search engines use to crawl the web and index sites. There is Googlebot, YahooSlurp and MSNbot to mention only a few.

7. Metas – The term refers to the meta tags that are on a site. Meta tags simply tell a search engine spider or bot what is on the page in question. There are three meta tags – meta title, meta keywords and meta description – that are most commonly used. Previously were critical to search engine optimization efforts, but much less so today.

8. Anchor Text – This refers to the visible text in a hyperlink. When trading links or publishing articles, one typically wants to use anchor text that matches the keyword phrase on the page being linked to.

9. Google Dance – Google used to do updates every few months where all the rankings would change across all keywords. This was called a “dance” for some reason. It was either a very good or bad day for your optimization efforts. Google does still dance occasionally, but has moved more to a daily or weekly change in its rankings.

10. IBL – This refers to links pointing to your site. The goal is to get other trusted sites that are authorities for certain subjects similar to your own to link to you.

Obviously, there are many other terms and abbreviations that are used in SEO. This list, however, should at least give you an idea of who is saying what.

About The Author
Halstatt Pires is with http://www.marketingtitan.com - providing internet marketing services.

Using Links Increase Targeted Traffic To Your WebSite

2006-10-19T00:49:00.000-05:00

by: Juan Richardson

Link popularity is a factor that many search engines use when ranking web pages within their indexes. Simply put, most search engines give a ranking boost to sites that have incoming links from quality, related sites. This method of establishing importance, pioneered by the increasingly

popular Google, is now used in some form by 19 of the top 20 search engines. While it is still possible to achieve high rankings for non-competitive terms without a great deal of link popularity, it is unlikely your site will rank well for very popular terms without it.

Links are a great free way to increase traffic flow to your site. Some sites get as much as 200,000 visitors a month from links. Remember, this is Free traffic. There are more benefits, as we will discuss later. First though, how do you get a link to your site?

Look for other sites that might link to yours. Ideally, the businesses that run these sites will be related to yours but will not be direct competitors. For example, if you had a site that sold supplies for swimming pools, it could be useful to your visitors if your site had a link to a swimming pool installer, and useful to his visitors to have a link back to your site. Since your offerings complement each other, neither of you are likely to lose business by exchanging links. When you have found a good number of sites, add a link to each of them from a "links" page on your own site. It is important to do this before contacting the site owners, as they are much more likely to reciprocate if they see that you have already taken the trouble to link to them.

How do you find sites to swap links with?

Going to http://www.linkpopularity.com and typing in a well-known competitor’s website is one of the best ways. Check who is linking back to him. Then contact the same sites for links to you. This saves a lot of time surfing the web for appropriate websites to link to your business. For example if you sell Herbalife products. Put http://www.herbalife.com in linkpopularity. This will give all the websites linking to Herbalife. Now contact each one of those websites for a link to your website. SIMPLE!

About The Author
Juan Richardson writes articles on how to Increase Targeted Traffic To Your Website at http://1stMarketingTraffic.com using Gift Certificates Health Articles.

Discover The Secret To Free Traffic -- Keyword Optimization

2006-10-17T10:44:00.000-05:00

by: Deanna Mascle

What is the secret to free traffic? Telling the search engines and your future visitors what they want to hear!

It sounds like a Catch-22. After all, if you have no traffic then how can you deliver your message to the search engines and potential customers? There is actually a pretty simple answer to that complex problem. Keywords are the secret to free traffic.

One of my sites has been around for years. I used to publish an ezine of the same name but that ezine was folded into another publication two years ago. All that site consists of is a blog with pages of trivia content. It is not a huge site and it is not updated very often. I do very little to promote it. And yet every day it brings in over 200 visitors who contribute to my income by subscribing to the new trivia publication and supporting my advertising partners. This traffic is free because it is generated by search engines. This site generates free money for me every day and the only marketing technique I use is keyword optimization.

If you properly choose keywords that your target audience regularly searches for and optimize your web site for those keywords then you will see an increase in traffic. A simple one hour investment of your time could reap dramatic results.

Many internet marketers spend time generating a list of keywords they want to target but they do not do the basic research to make sure people are actually using those keywords. It is useless to optimize your site for a set of keywords that generate no traffic. There are a number of keyword suggestion tools around but the best not only give you a list of keywords but also tell you how many people are searching for those words or terms. My favorite keyword suggestion tool can be found at http://establishyourepresence.com/?page_id=3. Simply type in the basic word or term that you would like to target then hit the enter key.

You will receive results for both Wordtracker and Overture. I always study the Overture list but tend to base my own keyword choices on the Wordtracker results. Overture gives you the total number of times a search query has been entered into a search engines within the Overture network (including Yahoo, AltaVista and MSN) and can generate some duplicates. On the other hand Wordtracker gets its figure from entries made on meta search engines (such as Metacrawler and Dogpile) that query all the major engines simultaneously and sorts out the duplications.

Depending on the results you receive you may need to experiment with different words and combinations until you arrive at an audience size that will meet your needs. Do not simply jump at the top term as that may well be a highly competitive market. Sometimes you can achieve better results for your site by aiming a bit lower down the list--especially if there are good results for a longer keyword phrase. It is often difficult to get within the top search engine results for competitive one or two word keyword terms but you can place well with a longer phrase that is not as highly targeted by competitors.

Once you have your keyword phrase selected you must optimize your site. Make sure the phrase is reflected in your title bar, alt tags (with your logo, for example), top headline for the page, and once within the text of your page. Do not go crazy and stuff the keyword in every nook and cranny of your site. Keyword stuffing can often have negative effects on search engine results and may even get your site banned by some search engines. Simply making sure the keyword is included in these key positions will be sufficient for basic keyword optimization.

Selecting the right keywords and including those keywords in key positions within your web site will have a dramatic result on your traffic.

About The Author

Deanna Mascle publishes Establish Your Epresence which offers internet marketing strategy. Find her recommended Keyword Suggestion Tool at http://establishyourepresence.com/?page_id=3.

Six Common Mistakes In Website Design That Kill Your Online Business

2006-10-17T10:43:00.000-05:00

by: Mike Spence

Some websites fare well. Others falter - and miserably at that. What’s the difference? What do the successful websites do right and what do the failed websites do wrong?

The answer - or answers even - isn’t difficult to fathom. There are quite a number of common mistakes that seal the fate on internet marketers and their dreams. Here are 6 of them, which hopefully, you’d try to avoid at all cost:

1. A slow loading website. There is nothing more irritating than a website that tales forever to load. Granted that most internet users these days have high speed connections, a great percentage are still hooked up to the World Wide Web via slower 56K access. This percentage should not be taken for granted. In building your website, try to stay away from the humongous graphic files. No, you don’t need a high number of pixels. No, you don’t need fancy movies or flash animation. No, you don’t need catchy music. You need a website that will deliver the information it promises at an instantaneous rate, and for this reason, you have to choose functionality over design.

2. A navigation system that is very difficult to understand. If your menu bar is too complicated, you’ll just end up driving away a lot of your visitors. You don’t want your visitors to get stuck in just one page. You need to make it easy for them to explore your website. Your pages must be interlinked in a logical way, and this connection should be easily navigable through an intuitive interface that even a 7 year old will be able to understand. Again, this is a matter of functionality over design. Place your navigation links either at the top of the page right below the header, or at either side of the page in a separate column. This is where your visitors’ eyes will wander once they want to discover the other pages in your website.

3. Low quality content. Content is king on the internet. People log online to find information they need, and information is conveyed through your content. If your content is poorly written, who will have the patience to read the same? If your content is not unique, why will people choose your website over others? Indeed, there are two requisites for good quality content: excellent presentation and originality. Minus either of this, your entire website will be in jeopardy.

4. Poor choice of keywords to focus on. Keywords drive traffic to your website. Keywords are the terms that people search for when they’re looking for information. If you targeted the right keywords, quality visitors will come aplenty. If you targeted the wrong keywords, visitors will be scarce. So make sure you discover the right keywords even before you start building your website.

5. Cookie cutter websites. Again, this is a matter of originality - or the lack of it. Why would people choose your website over thousands of others sharing the same layout and boasting of the same content? What makes your website special? If these questions cannot be answered positively, then your online business is doomed. Worse, search engines penalize duplicate content, and your website will have a lower position in the search engine results.

6. A website that lacks focus. Focus is key in designing a website. It will be difficult for a website to focus on several, unrelated topics. Why would visitors who are interested with dogs be interested with astronomy? There’s no connection between the two subjects, and if your website caters to these topics, among others, then prepare for some rough sailings ahead.

These are the things you should try to avoid. Your online business depends on how well your website fares. So take some time to think about how you can properly build your website,

About The Author

Mike Spence has been involved in Website design and marketing for years and currently runs variety of business online and offline. Readers can visit He's http://LiveDeal.com Classified Website

Mike is in a variety of business such as international trade, publishing, media, and maunufacturing selling different types of products and offering advice to customers. For more infomation about this topic visit: http://mystore.livedeal.com/miketrader

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2006-10-15T17:11:00.001-05:00

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Search Engine Optimization!

2006-10-15T13:21:00.000-05:00

by: Ankit Talwar

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings, and could be considered a subset of search engine marketing. The term SEO also refers to "search engine optimizers," an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients' sites. Some commentators, and even some SEOs, break down methods used by practitioners into categories such as "white hat SEO" (methods generally approved by search engines, such as building content and improving site quality), or "black hat SEO" (tricks such as cloaking and spamdexing). White hatters say that black hat methods are an attempt to manipulate search rankings unfairly. Black hatters counter that all SEO is an attempt to manipulate rankings, and that the particular methods one uses to rank well are irrelevant. Other SEOs reject the black and white hat dichotomy as over-simplification.

Search engines display different kinds of listings in the search engine results pages (SERPs), including: pay per click advertisements, paid inclusion listings, and organic search results. SEO is primarily concerned with advancing the goals of a website by improving the number and position of its organic search results for a wide variety of relevant keywords. SEO strategies may increase both the number and quality of visitors. Search engine optimization is sometimes offered as a stand-alone service, or as a part of a larger marketing effort, and can often be very effective when incorporated into the initial development and design of a site.

For competitive, high-volume search terms, the cost of pay per click advertising can be substantial. Ranking well in the organic search results can provide the same targeted traffic at a potentially significant savings. Site owners may choose to optimize their sites for organic search, if the cost of optimization is less than the cost of advertising.

Not all sites have identical goals for search optimization. Some sites seek any and all traffic, and may be optimized to rank highly for common search phrases. A broad search optimization strategy can work for a site that has broad interest, such as a periodical, a directory, or site that displays advertising with a CPM revenue model. In contrast, many businesses try to optimize their sites for large numbers of highly specific keywords that indicate readiness to buy. Overly broad search optimization can hinder marketing strategy by generating a large volume of low-quality inquiries that cost money to handle, yet result in little business. Focusing on desirable traffic generates better quality sales leads, resulting in more sales. Search engine optimization can be very effective when used as part of a smart niche marketing strategy.

Ankit Talwar - Web Designer
About The Author
Ankit Talwar is the owner of http://www.Dead-Yahoo.com. He is a Web Designer

Internet Marketing for Directories

2006-10-15T00:38:00.000-05:00

by: James McDonald

Directory submissions, whether free or not, are essential for traffic, links and search engine rankings. Listings in DMOZ, especially, are particularly relevant to Google's search results since DMOZ is where Google gets most, if not all, of its information. Unfortunately, it may take up to two years to get your listing posting into DMOZ.

The Yahoo directory costs $299 and does not guarantee that your listing will even make it into their directory. For that kind of money, you might as well use it for Google Adwords and let Yahoo pick up your website with it's crawling robot.

The structure of the directory categories, and the category of your website listing, will determine where your site gets listed. The =main problems with web directories are where your listing will be placed, how long it takes to get listed, how much traffic will be delivered and how much link popularity gets passed on to your site.

It has been suggested that one solution would be to buy links from the various 'link farms' found on the internet today. While this is certainly quicker, and probably cheaper, than getting listed in the major directories, doing this could relegate your website to the search engine basement. All of your links...let me repeat that...ALL OF YOUR LINKS must be relevant to the theme of your particular website.

If you sell widgets, you want to link to websites that deal with widgets in some fashion whether it be selling, repairing, parts, service, or related products. You do not want to link to vacation sites, beauty sites, sex sites, etc. Google, especially, will discount these links as non-relevant thus lowering your website rating or banning it altogether. If your website is not in Google, you are not going to make it on the internet, it's as simple as that.

Important points to remember:

1. DMOZ is the most important directory on the internet today and also one of the slowest in placing new listings.

2. There are hundreds of directories on the internet which are completely free to submit your website. Simply do a search for 'free directories'. If they shwo up on the search engine results, they are probably stable and worth submitting to.

3. NO LINK FARMS! Do not take the chance of your website never being seen. Remember, stay focused, keep your links relevant, and you will see your website rise quickly in the search engine rankings. Just keep building those relevant links!

About The Author
James McDonald
Eight Years of Online Marketing and Promotion Experience - CEO of Dreamry, Inc. since its inception in 2002 - Published author
View their website at: http://www.TheOnlinePromoters.com

Website Marketing: A First Glance

2006-10-15T00:36:00.000-05:00

by: Stephan Goutoulli

I recently started working as a consultant for MarketFinders, a Ventura County/ Santa Barbara marketing company in Southern California. Lynn Sarkany, founder and principal, communicated her interest in knowing more about web marketing as the interest in this "arcane art" is exponentially growing.

I said "arcane art" because, unlike conventional marketing, the approach can be quite different and unpredictable. In this article, I will review a few things that should or shouldn't be done in order to improve your site's prominence.

Let's assume that you do not have a website. Your first task is to hire a professional designer. Why do you ask? You could use one of those great designing programs, right? Well, you may have heard this before and it's not a myth: most of these programs generate unnecessary code that does not need to be there and may very well hurt your website. Search engines do prefer up-to-date clean code and a professional web designer is one of the most qualified people to do this. With a strong structure, your site will also be liked by spiders and bots (these are the programs gathering info for search engines) thus making it easier for it to be ranked at its value (given the algorithm used by the specific spider/bot). The higher the value and relevancy, the more likely others will view your site.

If you already have a website, several factors come into play, including age of site, website design, content dynamics, and any type of web marketing. A website professional should analyze your site, including its age, history, structure, and previous marketing attempts. From that point on, he/she should be in a position to tell you if your site needs structural work and how you should proceed to optimize your site.

Next, make sure search engines know who you are and where you are. In other words, make sure your contact information is complete with street address, phone number(s), fax (optional), and email address(es). Telling visitors who you are increases your site legitimacy and search engines, starting with Google, are starting to pay attention to that. The “where” is also important since some search engines, and most directories, offer local searches and listings

About The Author

Stephan Goutoulli is the owner of WebStudio, NY, and has been working as a designer, programmer, and webmaster for over 4 years.
View their website at: http://www.hamptonswebsitedesign.com

The Perfect Internet Marketing Plan Can Work Wonders For Your Business

2006-10-12T22:59:00.000-05:00

by: Steve Waganer

Marketing on the Internet is the in thing these days. Everyone who wants to be successful in their business has an online presence as people are becoming more open to the idea of having a web presence to be successful. If you are serious about your business and want to be successful you will have to be careful and meticulous about the internet marketing plan that you choose for your business. There is simply no use for a marketing plan if the plan will not work for your business or if the plan is not at all feasible for your business. So think carefully before you settle down to implement any internet marketing plan for your business.

When deciding on an Internet marketing plan it will be beneficial for your business if you start form the very beginning. Be very clear about what you are expecting from your business and what your target audience is. Being successful in any business is all about being able to reach out to your target audience. Imagine a situation where you have the best internet marketing plan, but due to faulty marketing plan you are not bale to reach out or penetrate to the your target audience. This is the perfect recipe for disaster.

Most people lead a very busy and hectic life and have very little time to actually sit down and map out the perfect Internet marketing plan for their business. But if you want to be really successful and earn lots of profit form your online business venture you will have to seriously find a good Internet marketing plan. If you feel that it is not possible on your part to find out and implement the internet marketing plan, you can always get help from an internet marketing firm to do the work for you.

Your effort does not end here. After you have implemented the marketing strategy you must constantly find out if your plan is working favorably for your business or not. Make and implement all the changes that you feel is necessary for making your site easily accessible to online visitors. Changes that are done for the betterment of your business prospects are sure to spell success for your online business venture.

There are several ways and methods that you can utilize for finding out if your internet marketing plan is working successfully for your business or not. One way of finding this out is to see if your sales are actually going up or not. If your plan is successful then your sales will touch the roof, what better proof can you have then this. Ask you clients and customers how they came to know about you. If you find that a particular source is working really well for you then you can put major emphasis on that area. Also you can ask them to recommend your goods and services to their family and friends. Word of mouth is a good way of doing successful business.

The crucial part of any internet marketing plan is advertisement. Make advertisements that are very forceful and easily penetrate to your target audience. Take in to consideration the likes and dislikes of your target audience and make the advertisements accordingly. Basically the idea is to make everything in such a way that it suits your business and also your target audience. Finally do not compromise on anything that will cause even a little bit of harm to your business.

About The Author

Steve Waganer has specialization in Web Marketing .He is expert in Search engine optimization, Affiliated Marketing,E-Mail marketing and internet marketing plan. To get his expert advice for your website to get high rank and top position in major search engines visit http://www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com

Google Pay Per Click: Making Money With AdWords

2006-10-12T22:53:00.000-05:00

by: Michael Brymer

AdWords is Google's answer to helping people get their ads out and increasing their website sales with heavily targeted traffic. This article will give you a big head start over most.

This is a PPC ( Pay Per Click ) system. You only pay for advertising when an interested person sees your AdWords ad and clicks on it. The amount you pay per click is dependent on many factors.

Some of the factors that go toward deciding the price per click are:

1. The amount of competition bidding on that keyword.

2. The site value that Google may give your site.

3. The amount of clicks on your ad itself compared to the amount of exposures your ad receives (CTR),

Even though a keyword may start at a high price per click, its popularity will bring the price down. Popularity is the result of people using Google to search a term or phrase and choosing your ad. As your Click Thru Rate (CTR) rises you will see the price per click go down. I've had keywords start at over one dollar and fall to about five cents a click.

Some tips to lift your your CTR and thus lower your PPC (Price Per Click) are:

1. Use the keywords that you are bidding on heavily in your ad. This will make the keywords in your ad show in bold and stand out when someone does a search on Google using your keyword.

2. Encasing your keywords in [square brackets} or the use of "talking marks" will ensure your ad relates to what is being searched. Without the [square brackets} or "talking marks" around your keywords, your keywords will cover a larger unrelated area giving your ads more exposure but less clicks. This will force down your CTR (Click Thur Rate) and force your price per click up. Not a good thing.

3. The use of negative keywords. Negative keywords really bugged me because I read all about them and their use but didn't know what they were, the articles never actually explained what or how to make them. Just that it was the thing to do.

Negative keywords: if you were looking for people searching for the keyword "pink" but don't want people who are searching for "light pink" then you would ad the negative keyword -light to your list of AdWords keywords the same way as you add the keywords you are bidding on.

Did you notice the minus sign (-) next to the keyword above? Here it is again, -light. You put in as many negative words as you can think of to narrow down searchers to the ones you want.

4. With AdWords you can go locally or globally. You can limit your ad to only viewers in a particular city, state or country. If you live in New York City selling meat pies, then you may not want to sell them to china. Limiting your ad to a specific location, country and language will increase the likely-hood of great targeted traffic clicking your ad and bringing the average price of your clicks down.

With AdWords your aim is to get highly targeted cheap traffic to your website and to make sure you are profiting from the use of AdWords. To see if you are profiting you have to answer these questions:

A. How many clicks does it take to get one sale?

B. How much do I profit from one sale?

Divide A by B to see if you are in profit using AdWords or losing money! If you are in profit great, if you are losing money your keywords, negative keywords and your ad need more fine tuning or changing. You may even have to reconsider what you are trying to sell or your sales copy. A customer follow-up auto-responder will help improve copy sales. People don't often buy the first time they see a website, but you are off to a much better start then most.

AdWords gives us the ability to give people what they are searching for and to profit from that service. Start slowly with a small daily budget and have fun.

The opposite side of the AdWords coin is AdSense. For more information see my AdSense article.

About The Author
Read More Of Michael Brymer's Heavy Hitter Secrets at http://mlmbuff.com
Download a Free PC Radio At http://www.internet-radio-download.com

What Is The Importance Of Press Release?

2006-10-09T16:24:00.000-05:00

by: Steve Waganer

A press release is all about the publicity that you can do for your online business. The more publicity you do for your goods and services the more your business gets recognized everywhere on and off of the web. The trick is in making use of all the publicity tools including press releases in the correct way to draw attention to your site. Publishing press releases on the web is one great way of going about the successful publicity of your site.

Well, it is not enough just to write press releases and publish them on the web, you must know the correct way of writing a press release to be noticed on the web. There are hundreds of press releases posted on the web on a daily basis and there are chances that the one you write will get lost among the lot. The press release that you write must be just perfect to make you visible on the web.

The first and foremost rule of writing a good press release is that the information that you give throughout the press release must be newsworthy. Who will even read the press release that you have written if the information is not newsworthy? Remember, your press release must not sound like an advertisement. Rather it should be newsworthy information about the product or service you are offering to customers. There is a very thin line between writing about your site and the write up not appearing as advertisement of your business.

Always remember to ask the question how you as a customer will feel while reading your write up. And if you feel that you would not like to read it, then you drastically need to change your press release. If you do not like something chances are no one else will like it either. Put special emphasis on the first paragraph of your press release. Most editors do not go beyond the first paragraph and if you are going to create a first impression then half the work is done. If some one likes to read your first paragraph then they will go through the entire thing.

Press releases have more credibility among all the other publicity methods. While reading a press release readers do not feel that they are reading some other disguised advertisement about a product. Readers and online visitors are more likely to trust credible sources like columnists, editors and reviewers about the authenticity of any write up appearing anywhere. Editors will not publish anything that is not well written.

The buck does not stop here. The next step for you is to submit your press release to the proper places. You need a proper channel to publish your press release be it online or offline. Lots of people must have access to your press release if you are serious about this and want to create an effect. Create very impressive and eye catching headlines for your press release. A catchy headline guarantees that you press release will grab attention and compel people to read it.

Take care that there are no spelling and grammatical errors in your press release. Get someone to proof read it two or three times so that there is no chance for any mistakes. Incorrect spelling and grammar usage is not acceptable. Stick to the facts while giving information to readers and do not try to use fancy language and adjectives in your writing.

About The Author

Steve Waganer has specialization in Web Marketing. He is expert in Search engine optimization, Affiliated Marketing,Affordable search engine marketing and articles and press release.To get his expert advice for your website to get high rank and top position in major search engines visit http://www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com

Website Submission to Directories

2006-10-09T16:23:00.000-05:00

by: Chris Chenoweth

Online directories are locations where people go to find websites, the same way they do with search engines. However, there are considerable differences between the two. In order to be successful at increasing website traffic, it is crucial for people to understand these differences.

Whereas search engines usually accept almost any site that is submitted to them without looking at its quality, directories typically only accept sites that offer quality content. Since humans review all websites submitted to directories, low quality sites rarely get accepted.

Therefore, it makes sense to make sure that your website is ready before submitting it to any directories. Remember that directories list sites, not pages. In most circumstances, you should only submit the front page of your website to directories.

WHICH DIRECTORIES SHOULD YOU SUBMIT TO?

You should always begin your website promotion agenda by listing your website in the most popular online directories. These directories can significantly affect your search engine ranking so it is a wise move to list your website here before you submit to the search engines.

Directories can also send significant traffic to your website. Make sure you are listed in all of the major directories before you try any other promotional methods. In this way, you will have laid the groundwork for a successful marketing campaign.

Submitting your website to the directories is an easy process, requiring very little effort. However, making certain that the site will be accepted is the difficult part.

Since directories are far more selective than search engines and require much more preparation, you must become familiar with their policies before you submit your website. If you do not follow their instructions carefully, your website will be rejected.

If you are unsure about the appropriateness or quality of your website, research web page design articles to see what works and what does not. The primary goal of a webmaster should always be to have unique, high-quality content and lots of it.

OPEN DIRECTORY PROJECT: The best directory to start with is the Open Directory Project. Make sure you read their instructions carefully before you submit your website. The editors usually review sites quickly and will not reject them unless there is a good reason for doing so.

The Open Directory Project is free of charge, making it a perfect place to start. Once you are successful at listing your website on the Open Directory Project, you should move on to the number two directory.

YAHOO: Try to get your website listed in the Yahoo directory. Commercial websites are charged a fee but it is worth the price. Non-commercial websites are free. Again, make sure you read their instructions and guidelines carefully before you attempt to list your site.

LOOKSMART: The third biggest directory is Looksmart. A good listing in it can send a lot of visitors your way, but it is expensive. Looksmart does not draw as many visitors as Yahoo or the Open Directory Project. However, MSN, Altavista and Dogpile all use Looksmart's data in their search results, making it attractive to a lot of people.

SUBMISSION PROCESS:

Now you know where you should submit but how do you get started? It is quite simple. The first thing to do is to carefully read the rules and instructions on how to submit. They are usually displayed when you are beginning the submission process. Read them over a couple of times and follow them to the letter.

Most directories consist of various categories and subcategories. Each category consists of sites related to the category’s name (e.g. the Business category will only have sites relevant to business). You need to find the category (or more often, subcategory) that most closely fits the subject matter of your site.

You can accomplish this by browsing around the directory or by doing a search on the keyword or keywords that are most relevant to your website. There may be several categories that fit your website and you will have to choose the one that most closely describes it. Make sure you submit your website to the most accurate category for your site since submissions done to the wrong categories are usually thrown out.

All directories will ask for the title and description of the website you are submitting. Give careful thought to your choice. A good title can significantly boost the amount of traffic you receive. A bad title can work against you and decrease the amount of traffic you obtain from the directory.

Your title should be brief and include your most important keyword and start with a letter that is close to the beginning of the alphabet. Many directories list websites in alphabetical order and getting listed near the top can boost your traffic.

Since the title has to be the official title of the site and it must be used on your pages, you might be required to change the name of your site. The title must sound like it just happens to start with a letter near the beginning of the alphabet or it will get edited. Do not use hyperbole (best, unbelievable, etc.) or all capital letters.

As with your title, do not stuff your description with cheap filler words (greatest, cheapest, fantastic, etc.) Never use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. Write a short (20-25 words) description that exactly describes your site and includes one or two of your best keywords. Your description should flow smoothly. If the editor thinks your description is just a list of keywords, he/she will reject it. Try to make it sound like an objective review.

After you have entered all the information, check and re-check for any possible typos or spelling errors. Be very careful typing in your URL as a typo in it would result in your site never getting reviewed. When you are ready, hit the submit button.

You will be notified by email if your website if accepted but not, as a rule, if it is rejected. Therefore, it is difficult to know whether your site has been reviewed and rejected or if it has not yet been reviewed. Give them enough time to process your submission and wait a few weeks before you resubmit your site.

About The Author
Chris Chenoweth writes articles pertaining to health and nutrition, budgeting, and online business. If you would like additional information on ways to effectively promote your website, learn how to deliver an unstoppable flood of traffic and sales with BUTTERFLY MARKETING! http://www.ezniche.com/data/article.php?l=283.

Google - The Organic Approach

2006-10-09T16:22:00.001-05:00

by: Jim White

It's really the ultimate goal for all webmasters being at the top of Google listing for their key terms specified. That's quite logical and webmasters are encouraged to exercise all the legitimate, working solutions to ensure achieving this purpose.

But sometimes, we may forget that although search bots have conquered the online web pages and we try doing our best to find the intricate ways to pave the way to the famous Top 10 placement, but we are finally in need of people and visitors to love our websites content.

In today's highly competitive online world, all webmasters are in search of the hot news regarding the SEO world as if the entire Internet has been built up for the main cause of search engines and robots crawling and indexing the web pages.

It's recommended that you exercise the known, trusted SEO tactics but one thing is important and often neglected by a large number of webmasters: The highly successful site owners are the ones regarding Google and other major search engines as if they are interacting with people and not merely machines.

If you approach getting listed on Google through a natural and organic method, thinking about all the possible, legitimate and honest methods to help boosting your online ranking, you can make sure that you are the future winner in this campaign.

So, instead of only filling up your mind with theories like link building strategies and the ways to increase your website Page Rank, try considering the ways people will observe and praise your efforts in designing and creation of your web pages.

Have you ever wondered why some famous websites names are spreading throughout the web? And the more interesting point is that when you visit such websites you wonder just how they have managed to do so, their page layout may not even be SEO friendly or that they may not have bought thousands of links.

So what's the secret success approach to a website visibility online? The answer is relevant to viewing search engines as a bridge of connection to people and not merely observing them as machines that you should abide by some SEO rules to succeed.

You will achieve success if you consider the point that ultimately you are writing content and create web pages for human beings to read and enjoy. Good Luck!

About The Author

Jim White is an online consultant and advisor with several years of experience in search engine optimization and marketing.
He is also the admin of Banner Perfect design studio http://www.bannerperfect.com.
Affordable banner design services. Animated gif banner ads in all sizes.

Search Engine Strategies - The Importance of Links

2006-10-09T16:20:00.000-05:00

by: Mike Haydon

The most important aspect of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the links pointing to your site. Here, as with most things, quality is more important than quality. If you have a single link to your site from a high-traffic, popular site, it will be worth many times more than hundreds of links from “Free For All” (FFA) sites.

Trust me when I say this: DON'T waste your time with FFA submission. The people who market FFA submission make it sound really tempting I know. Who wouldn't want hundreds of links pointing to their site? In my early days, I went on a campaign to get as many FFA links to my site as possible. The only thing it achieved was the vast quantity of utterly useless emails I got each day. In fact, it was so bad that I had to close down that email account.

I have found out subsequently from some of the masters of SEO (like say John Reese or Brad Fallon) that it may even be likely that some of the major search engines actually penalise a site that has many FFA incoming links. What I do know is that even though I had possibly 1,000 incoming FFA links, not one of them appeared as a link in the major search engines. It seems reasonable to conclude that even if the search engine doesn't penalize you for having FFA links incoming, at least all that work to get the links is wasted. In case you were wondering, I didn't go out and manually submit to heaps of FFA pages: it was all done through submission software. Even so, it's just not worth it.

Let me say this again ... get good incoming links to your site. Without them, you will never be high on the search engine rankings. How do you know they are good? Get the Google Toolbar and enable PageRank viewer. While it is not a 100% accurate reflection of a site's search engine ranking, at least you can see whether a page has a high page rank.

Another indication of the quality of a site is where it ranks in the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. There is a lot of software out there (most of it free) that will allow you to find out the ranking of a page for a particular keyword.

In summary, stay away from FFA and “link farms”. They will not do you any good and may actually hurt you in the long term. Build your quality links and your search engine rankings will soar in no time.

About The Author
Mike Haydon has been involved in online marketing since mid 2005 and has become proficient in affiliate marketing, adwords, virtual real estate, SEO and website building.
Permission to use this article is freely granted on the condition that you link to http://www.websiteriches.net.

Website Promotion Online Is A Sure Shot Success Method

2006-10-09T16:19:00.000-05:00

by: Steve Waganer

How many eyeballs does your website grab in a day? Don’t know? Well it is about time for you to find this out and determine your actual levels of visibility on the web. The more visible it is, the more the public will talk about this. Your website promotion online depends on how visible you can be on the web. The web has a very wide reach and thus if your website promotion online is good you will reach out to people in all corners of the globe. So after the promotion you can have global customers buying your goods and services.

Ranking high and very high in relevant keywords in all major search engines is what the special emphasis of website promotion online is all about. Some of the major search engines on which you must get top ranking while doing website promotion online for your business site are Google, Yahoo, AOL, Lycos, MSN and Ask. There are many rules and methods that you can implement for making your site top ranked in the major search engines.

Write a page title for the different pages for your website. The page title of your site must describe clearly what a particular page is all about. This is helpful when major search engines index your webpage. Use all the appropriate and relevant keywords related to the goods and services you are offering. Do not use just the name of your company on the page title. Avoid using those keywords that you do not have on the web page as this can affect your rankings.

Link building your website with other related and relevant sites is another important factor that you can do for website promotion online for your business. Link building helps you in generating traffic to your site and tremendously boosts up your visibility everywhere on the web. Try building and exchanging the links of your site with sites that have high page ranks and are very popular on the web among online users. This means that the popularity and visibility of your site also increases tremendously. Search engine rankings are also affected by this. So, take care of this factor while you are building links for your site.

Writing articles relevant to your site and the products you are selling is one good way to increase your visibility on the web. Articles are a great source to attract traffic and customers to your site. Submit your articles to all major article sites on the web. Try to make use of only one author name for all the articles so that the name of the author becomes a well known brand in the internet. So the next time people see an article written by this author they automatically tend to believe that the article is good and thus you can get valuable customers for your goods and services.

Pay per click advertising is one good way for website promotion online for any business site. Pay per click is an advertising method that makes use of relevant and the most appropriate keywords for advertising about your goods. If you undertake pay per click successfully, your site will be displayed at the top of sponsored listings of search engines. It has been found that being listed at the top of the sponsored listings guarantees to bring customers to your online business site.

About The Author

Steve Waganer has specialization in Web Marketing. He is expert in Search engine optimization, Affiliated Marketing,website promotion online and Organic search engine optimization.To get his expert advice for your website to get high rank and top position in major search engines visit http://www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com

Internet Marketing Strategy: Enter The Age Of Automation!

2006-10-09T16:18:00.000-05:00

by: Derek Gehl

Internet Marketing Strategy: Enter the age of automation!

Your computer was originally designed to make life easier for you. But sometimes it doesn't seem that way, does it?

These days, computers are essential tools that, more often than not, symbolize work for many of us.

Well, it's time to reclaim those hours that the computer was supposed to save you!

I'm talking about automation. Without a doubt, automating your e-business is the most cost-effective and profitable thing you can do to turn your small office or home-based business into a formidable online entity that can compete with the biggest players out there.

The biggest mistake most newcomers to the world of Internet commerce make is thinking of their business as an online store.

If you start off thinking that way, that's all it will ever be!

Think about it: If you're a hairdresser, and you try to take your business online by simply advertising your salon with a web site, you're still limited by how many haircuts you personally can give in a day.

But if you somehow managed to automate your business then there's no limit to how much money you could be making!

Unfortunately for salon owners out there, automated haircuts aren't possible yet. But I guarantee that some part of your online business could be streamlined through automation!

For example...

Customer service

Without sacrificing the personal touch or your own interaction with your customer base, 90% of your customer service correspondence can be automated.

Whether you're answering the most common questions, booking appointments, sending invoices, or following up with your customers, those tasks can be done faster and more efficiently when they're automated. And you can concentrate on the things that can't be!

Product delivery

The faster you deliver your product to your customers, the more professional you appear. And there's nothing faster than instantly!

Setting up your sales process to immediately send out your product the moment an order is placed not only makes it possible for you to work on growing your business, it grows your business for you by providing the quickest possible service to your clients, and word gets around fast on the Internet!

If your business isn't automated for constant growth, you'll stagnate. So set yourself up for success now by automating your business!

Does your online business need a new Internet marketing strategy?

With the current explosion of e-business and online opportunities, more people than ever before are searching for professional advice on Internet marketing strategy that is tailored for beginners.

At the Internet Marketing Center, we've made it our business to help your e-business succeed in the online marketplace.

For more help on finding an Internet marketing strategy that's right for your business, click here to see our free online archive of Internet marketing strategy tips and secrets http://internetmarketingstrategy.marketingtips.com

About The Author

Derek Gehl is CEO of the Internet Marketing Center, which has been teaching real people like you how to make real money on the Internet since 1995. Sign up for IMCs free newsletter on Internet marketing at http://www.marketingtips.com/tipsltr.html.

Seven Ways To Backlink Your Way To A Higher PR

2006-10-09T12:36:00.000-05:00

by: Rose DesRochers

Backlinks play a very big role in Google's pagerank algorithm. There are several ways to get backlinks to your site. Let's get started.

1. Directories: Get your website listed in Yahoo and DMOZ (The Open Directory Project). Dmoz can be extremely difficult to get listed it, but no worries as there are a great number of directories online.

Like http://www.invision-graphics.com/link-directory.html which has a pagerank of 5/10.

2. Reciprocal links: Find reciprocal link exchange partners and exchange links. One way to find reciprocal link partners is to search Google's Directory. The green bar next to each link tells the page rank. If the bar is green half way across, then that page has a PR of 5. If it's green all the way across then the page has a PR of ten.

3. Forum Signatures: Most Forums allow a user to add a signature tag to their posts. Signature tags allow you to promote your website and by doing this you will also increase your link popularity. Be sure to use keywords in your anchor text. For example: If your website is an online Writing Community, then you would use 'Writing Community' as the anchor text and link the word Writing Community to your website. Ex: [url=http://www.todays-woman.net]Today's Woman Writing Community[/url]. Whatever you do, make sure to read the guidelines of the forum. Some forums do not allow urls in the signature tag.

4. Write Articles to promote your website: When you write an article and submit it to an article directory, the directory allows you to have a resource box. In the resource box you include information about yourself and a link back to your website. Webmasters are constantly in search for quality content for their website. Each time someone uses your article on their website or blog, it's a link back to your website.

5. Press Releases: A press release can bring you many visitors to your site and a backlink. There are many press release services available on the Internet. I use http://pr.com and http://prweb.com. You can get started there.

6. Guestbook Backlinks and Blog Comments: When signing a guestbook or commenting on a blog, be sure to leave your url. Backlinks from blogs and urls have very little effect on your ranking, therefore I don't think one should base your link popularity on guestbook and blog comments alone, but a few links from sites with a decent pr won't hurt you. Be careful not to spam. If you have a guestbook or blog, you are most likely dealing with spam. Spammers place links to their sites in your guestbook or blog in an attempt to increase their backlinks.

7. Link Exchange buttons: The easiest way to generate backlinks to your site is by offering an image that your visitors can use to link to or some linking code like I have on http://www.todays-woman.net/link-exchange.html

To check your backlinks use link:www.yourwebaddress.com. More links are generally better, but even a few good quality links can be beneficial to website popularity and your ranking. There are many ways to get backlinks for your website. I've only provided you with seven tips, but this should get you started. To find out more ways to get backlinks and increase your PR visit http://www.invision-graphics.com.

About The Author

Rose DesRochers is the founder of Blogger Talk Blog Community http://www.bloggertalk.net - a community portal for bloggers.

Visit her new blog Rose DesRochers Bizarre news http://rosedesrochers.net . Start your day with Interesting, bizarre and weird news stories.

SEO: It's Not Just About Clicks!

2006-10-09T12:33:00.000-05:00

by: Mary Pierce

Before beginning Search Engine Optimization, it is very useful to define your goals. It will be tempting to make more traffic or a number one ranking on Google your SEO Goal. Everyone wants to be number one on Google. That is only natural. More traffic to a web site is a real accomplishment. But a truly successful Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign is about more than just traffic. After all, you can have thousands of people tromping through your web site, but if not one of them results in sale or a phone call, what does it matter?

A good SEO plan should help you think carefully about your web presence. What truly represents success to you? What exactly do you want the web user to do when on your site? Also, who is your target audience?

For example, you are a house painter based in the Boston area, and you are thinking about building a web presence. You want your company’s name, Joe Schmo House Painting, to appear when a searcher types in House Painting. But do you really? What if the web user lives in London? What if you have a pay per click campaign, and you just paid 5 cents for someone who lives thousands of miles away to click on your ad? What if this happens hundreds of times? That is money right out the window.

It is imperative to answer some key questions. Who is your target audience? How are you going to measure success – is it more traffic to your site or is it more sales? The more defined the answer to these questions, the clearer and more successful your SEO campaign can be. For Joe Schmo House Painting, a goal of “more phone calls to the 1-800 number that result in projects” is a better goal then more traffic to the website. But an even better goal would be “more phone calls to our 1-800 number that result in projects that utilize our specialty textured finishes”. The more specific you can be, the easier it will be to identify and target your audience.

If you are a non-profit, success may be a more intangible quality like more awareness of a particular problem. Maybe you are an animal rights activist, and you are concerned about puppy mills. You would like to educate the public about them. This may be one situation where more site traffic is a reasonable goal. However, even in this case, more hits to your website is probably just one aspect of your organization’s goals. Your off-line goal may be something like passing legislation to ban puppy mills in your state. Keeping your organization’s goals in mind can help inform your SEO decisions, even if you are a non-profit.

The more clearly defined your goals are for the SEO, the better the outcome will be.

About The Author

Mary Pierce is a SEO and Internet Marketing consultant. She particularly enjoys helping small companies find their niche on the world wide web. Articles and SEO information can be found on her web site http://www.thecybersecretary.com.

Website Promotion Tips

2006-10-09T12:31:00.000-05:00

by: Chris Chenoweth

You’ve spent days, maybe weeks, creating a terrific website. Unfortunately, no one has seen it. Now what?

Website promotion is a many-layered, many-varied process. If you ask five people what they think are the best ways to promote their websites, you will probably get five different answers, with a few common denominators.

Promoting your site takes a significant amount of time and should not be hurried. Results will probably not be seen for a number of weeks, or even several months. Many people give up after not seeing results right away. The keys to successful website promotion are perseverance, patience, and diligence.

To begin a successful promotion campaign, you must complete two steps. Those two steps are submitting your website to the major online directories and to the top search engines.

DIRECTORIES:

You should begin your marketing campaign by listing your website in the most popular online directories. These directories can affect your search engine ranking so it is a wise move to list your website with them before you submit to the search engines.

Directories can also send significant traffic to your website. Make sure you are listed in all of the major directories before you try any other promotional methods. In this way, you will have laid the groundwork for a successful marketing campaign.

Submitting your website to the directories is an easy process, requiring very little effort. However, making certain that the website will be accepted is the difficult part.

Directories are far more selective than search engines and require much more preparation. You must become familiar with their policies before you submit your website. If you do not follow their instructions carefully, your website will be rejected.

If you are unsure about the appropriateness or quality of your website, research web page design articles to see what works and what does not. The primary goal of a webmaster should always be to have unique, high-quality content and lots of it.

The best directory to start with is the Open Directory Project. Make sure you read their instructions carefully before you submit your website. The editors usually review sites quickly and will not reject them unless there is a good reason for doing so.

The Open Directory Project is free of charge. This makes it a perfect place to start with. It will also provide you with experience that will be valuable to you later on.

After you are successful at listing your website on the Open Directory Project, you should try to get it listed in the Yahoo directory. Commercial websites are charged a fee but it is worth the price. Non-commercial websites are free. Again, make sure you read their instructions and guidelines carefully before you attempt to list your site.

The third biggest directory is Looksmart. A good listing in it can send a lot of visitors your way, but it is expensive. Their site does not draw as many visitors as Yahoo or the Open Directory Project. However, MSN, Altavista and Dogpile all use Looksmart's data in their search results, making it very attractive to a lot of people.

SEARCH ENGINES:

Now that your website has been submitted to the three major directories, you have built a good foundation for submitting it to the search engines. Your next task is to learn how to optimize your website for the search engines.

Before you submit to search engines, learn the basics of their ranking systems and adjust your pages to meet their criteria as well as possible. This will take some time and effort, but doing some work now will save you from a lot of trouble in the future.

Try to make the design of your site as search engine friendly as possible. If in doubt, research articles online that offer tips and guidelines for website optimization.

Make sure you choose the correct keywords for your website. This is called keyword optimization. If you use the wrong keywords, you will not get good results. Research keyword tools online if you are unsure about what words to use.

Now you are ready to begin the process of submitting your website to the search engines. Before you begin, however, you will need to know what search engines to submit to and how to submit to them. This process can take some time.

Google, Lycos, Inktomi, and AltaVista are the four top search engines. There are hundreds of other search engines available but they will not generate a fraction of the traffic that will come from the top four.

Learn the submission guidelines for each of the search engines you submit to. Incorrectly submitted pages will not be included. Once you submit to them, check back after four to six weeks to see if your site has been included.

There are a variety of other promotional options available to the webmaster, including pay per click, exchanging links, ezine advertising, and email marketing, just to name a few. You should definitely investigate some or all of these methods. The more work you put into your marketing efforts, the more rewards you will receive.

About The Author

Chris Chenoweth writes articles pertaining to health and nutrition, budgeting, and online business. If you would like additional information regarding other effective methods of promoting your website, learn about BUTTERFLY MARKETING! http://www.ezniche.com/data/article.php?l=283

7 Essential Steps to Ranking Well in the Search Engines

2006-10-09T12:30:00.000-05:00

by: Moshe Morris

Anyone who has a website knows the importance of attracting visitors to that site. No matter how professional a site you have and no matter how good the content on your site is, you simply can't be successful online until you have managed to find a way to bring in large numbers of relevant visitors to your sites. That is why it is important to learn how to properly optimize your site for the search engines. Because ranking well in the search engines is one of the best ways of driving masses of targeted visitors to your site each and every day. Here, then, are the 7 essential steps to ranking well in the search engines.

1. Only worry about the major search engines
There are basically only 3 search engines that you need to worry about – Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Collectively these 3 search engines make up the vast majority of search traffic online each and every day. Oftentimes, even when you don’t think you are using one of these search engines you actually are. For instance, Google provides search results for sites such as AOL and Yahoo provides search results for sites such as Altavista. At the end of the day, if someone is searching for something online, chances are they are searching at either Google, Yahoo or MSN.

2. Make sure that the search engines can “read” your site
Many times a site is programmed is such a way so as to make it difficult or impossible for the search engine “spiders” (the programs that the search engines use to analyze and organize the information found on websites). If the search engines can’t process your website then you will not rank in the search engines at all, period! Therefore, it is essential that you (or your programmer) build a search engine friendly website.

3. Find the keywords that your customers use to search for your products and services
Right now there are people searching for your products and services online. Your goal is to find out what terms and phrases they use when searching for your products and services. Those are the exact terms and phrases that you want to optimize your site for. After all, what better time to turn up in the search engine results then when your customers are actively looking for the products and services that you sell!

4. Create specialized, focused web pages for your keywords
Once you have a list of relevant keywords, you will want to create pages on your site specifically for those phrases. Each of these pages should target only a small number of keywords (1 – 2 being ideal). You will then want to optimize this page for those keywords. This involves writing relevant content which uses your keyword phrases a number of times within the text of your webpage. This content should be of the highest quality as possible. This will both help with your search engine rankings as well as customer satisfaction, both of which are crucial to online success! In addition to writing good content, there are other important places to “put” your keyword phrases. To learn where those places our, visit our web page optimization tutorial at http://www.sembasics.com/sem-guides/web-page-optimization.

5. Get lots of high quality, incoming links
This point can’t be emphasized enough. At the end of the day, high rankings come by getting other sites to link to your specialized, keyword-rich web pages. What’s more you want to make sure that those links come from topically related, popular sites. There are many ways to do this such as participating in blogs and forums, writing press releases, submitting your site to special directories and more. It is crucial that you learn all the various techniques involved in creating high-quality incoming links. To do so visit our link building strategies tutorial at http://www.sembasics.com/sem-guides/basic-link-building-strategy.

6. Track and improve upon your results
Most people don’t want to take the time to analyze the results of their optimization campaign. Not only is this a tremendous mistake, it is also a great opportunity (for you). If you take the time to properly track how you optimization efforts are going and constantly work to improve upon your result you will be able to leave most of your competition far behind. At the end of the day, high rankings in the search engine are the result of learning how to fine tune your particular site to the particular keywords that you want to rank well for. General principles and theories are just that, general, that don’t relate to you, your products, your customers, your website, or your rankings.

7. Stay up-to-date
It is crucial to understand that what works today may not work tomorrow (and what worked yesterday may very well be obsolete today). The search engines are constantly changing their algorithms and you need to change along with them. If you don’t, your success will be short lived. As such, you need to keep yourself informed of the relevant changes that are taking place in the search engine. Here is a list of 5 sites that you should frequent to help keep you up-to-date in the world of search:

http://www.seobook.com (very helpful and insightful blog – also sells a good e-book on search engine optimization)

http://www.seomoz.com (a high quality blog with lots of useful information and insights)

http://www.sembasics.com (free search engine optimization tutorials – also includes a helpful blog)

http://www.searchenginewatch.com (in particular, check out their blog and forum – great place to get advice)

http://www.searchenginenews.com (this site is not free, but is well worth the cost – excellent advice and business sense)

Getting your feet wet

Now that you know what to all you have to do is get out there and do it. Nothing is as good a teacher as experience.

About The Author

Moshe Morris is president of SEMBasics (http://www.sembasics.com) - a leading resource center for search engine marketing. SEMBasics provides free search engine marketing tutorials and other valuable search marketing products and services. To learn more about SEM Basics, please visit our website at http://www.sembasics.com.

This article is free for use in its unedited form with links intact.

PPC Advertising

2006-10-09T12:22:00.000-05:00

by: George Lamberis

PPC Advertising

What is pay per click?

Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is a way of advertising through search engines. An advertiser pays for each click that sends a visitor to the advertiser's web page. The PPC search engine offers top positions among the sponsored search engine listings for the particular keywords or phrases you choose. The idea behind PPC bidding is such that you buy/bid on keywords that are relevant to your product or service. The highest bidder gets placed at the top of the sponsored search results, the second highest bidder gets the next listing and so on. Every time someone clicks through to your website, you pay the amount that you bid on that particular keyword.

How it can increase traffic, leads, and sales?

-Pre-Qualified Traffic

Bidding on keywords that pertain to your product or service, actually pre-qualifies the people that visit your website. You determine how much you are willing to pay/bid for each click and you only pay when someone clicks through to and visits your website. This suggests that PPC search engines can cheaply lead qualified visitors to your website.

-Instant Exposure, Immediate Profits

Generally, it takes search engines weeks and sometimes months to put up your website. If it is difficult to get to your website via search engines or if you would like to get the fastest results from the search engines, then PPC is the most efficient and cost-effective option. Most PPC search engines will have your website live within a couple of hours, which means that the your site traffic and sales increase immediately.

-Consistent Top Listings

PPC is the classic method of getting your website at top of sponsored search results for free. All you have to do is choose keywords that are related to your website and place them within your web pages.

As easy as this sounds, for an average webmaster this is usually a quite daunting and arduous task without any guarantee on the success. It takes a watchful eye and quite a bit of maintenance. PPC with Cherryone Web Design http://www.cherryoneweb.com enables you to focus on operating your core business while we manage and optimize your online advertising campaign. We have the ability to monitor and maintain your advertisements' stats 24 hours a day, to ensure its effectiveness and cost efficiency.

About The Author
George Lamberis, COO Cherryone Web Design,
http://www.cherryoneweb.com

Pay Per Click Advertising

2006-10-08T18:58:00.000-05:00

by: Laurie Buckley

Advertising has gained tremendous importance in the marketing arena. Newer avenues have emerged giving much more than just the awareness factor to be looked upon. One such arena for marketing where advertising is gaining ground is Internet marketing. Many advertising techniques have come up for web based marketing or advertising projects. One of the Internets advertising techniques is termed as PPC or Pay Per Click. The Pay Per Click technique is primarily used for websites, search engines and advertising networks.

The idea behind the PPC technique is very simple yet effective. Advertisers in order to make their advertisements seen by people offer them money to visit their website and click on a particular ad. This in turn generates revenue for the advertising companies. With search engines, Pay Per Click advertisements are usually some text ads that are strategically placed near search results; when a site visitor clicks on the advertisement, the advertiser is charged a small amount. As the number of clicks increase, the revenue for advertising companies increases.

In today’s tough competition, the major players in this segment include Google AdWords and Yahoo search engine. As per the usage of the Pay Per Click facility, these are classified into three types of engines. These classifications are given as “keyword”, “product” and “service” engines. According to the nature of the job, these classifications differ. Normally the rates for Pay Per Click campaigns come to around $0.01 per click, but biger search engines pay upto $0.5 per click. Though it generates a small amount for the person who earns via PPC, it proves useful for people who spend around 4-5 hours on the net.

The very heart of Pay Per Click advertising lies in the keyword search. When a prospective client searches for a particular word or phase, a list of advertisement links appear. Clicking on any one of them increases the visitor count for that particular advertisement and thus creates revenue for the advertising company. Thus, every advertising company wants to be in the first few search counts that the user sees.

Almost the same kind of structure follows for the other two classifications. Pay Per Click is not just restricted to local advertisers. It is done on a large scale to increase the number of clicks in a single day. Nowadays many companies exist that provide Pay Per Click advertising. Judging the best out of them is a real concern for companies these days. Many of them exist only on paper and thus can be cause of fraudulent activities. You need to be extra careful while choosing a advertising agency for such advertising campaigns. For those of you who want to make some money by clicking on ads, it provides a good opportunity to earn some extra income.

About The Author

Laurie Buckley is the author of http://www.wisdomarc.com, wholesale web traffic suppliers.

Eleven "Must-Have" SEO Tools (That The Professionals Suggest)

2006-10-08T18:54:00.000-05:00

by: Jon Rognerud

SEO Tools have sprouted up from engineers, hackers, wanna-be SEO's and legimate Search Engine Optimization companies. Many are free, and very good.

But, the fact is - you don't have to be an engineer to run them. Our compiled list below is used daily by professionals and newer users alike.

Start putting these tools to use and see how they impact your own online business.

#1 - Ranking Analysis
This tool can unveil extremely valuable information on how you can break into the top 10 search engine positions. Check it out at this url http://www.webuildpages.com/cool-seo-tool/

#2 - Sitemaps
xml-sitemaps.com, they have created a sitemap generator that enables you to create a xml sitemap for Google and a text-based sitemap for Yahoo. In addition, the generator can also create an optional HTML sitemap for human visitors. Go to http://www.xml-sitemaps.com for step-by-step instructions on how to get started.

http://www.highwebsiterankings.com/site-map/ is an extension to the tool above.

We also like www.sitemapdoc.com - a little buggy though. Make sure to create an account in Google and Yahoo, and get the Sitemap into those administration control systems.

#3 - Keywords Analysis
For a keyword tool that has it all, go to http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/

#4 - Keyword Rankings
This tool allows you to track numerous keyword rankings like # backlinks, #pagerank and #daily, weekly and monthly changes in your rankings. Take control of your search engine rankings at http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/

#5 - Link Harvesting
Link Harvester is open source, so web masters are free to share it and developers are free to improve upon it. Do your own link analysis at http://www.linkhounds.com/link-harvester/

#6 - PPC, Reports, Link Partners & More
* perform keyword mining * use Web site analysis to improve your rankings

* create link popularity reports * quickly and easily find potential link partners

* use automated, semi automated, and guided submission to search engines and directories * manage your PPC campaigns * analyze your search engine rankings.

This is the grand-daddy of all tools: webceo.com. Free SEO Tool download, desktop edition.

#7 - Page Strength
Relative importance of pagestrength http://www.seomoz.org/tools/page-strength.php

#8 - Link Popularity
We like www.urltrends.com for beginners.

#9 - Alexa Rank
http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/alexa-rank-comparison/ and make sure you download the alexa toolbar.

#10 - Keywords Density Analysis
http://www.webconfs.com/keyword-density-checker.php

#11 (bonus) - SEO tool or not?
Not. But, it is very useful in determining the geographic location of an IP address using a bit of AJAX and Google Maps. http://www.seomoz.org/ip2loc/ip2loc.php

About The Author

Jon Rognerud is a recognized authority on the subject of SEO and Internet Marketing, and has spent over 10 years developing websites and marketing solutions for companies like Overture and Yahoo. His site, http://www.microsaw.com, provides a wealth of informative search marketing articles and more..

How Google Can Help You improve Your Search Rankings

2006-10-08T18:53:00.000-05:00

by: Denise Nuttall

Search Engine Ranking is the most essential ingredient for free traffic. Every body knows that search engine optimization, quality back links and original content are the key ingredients for good search engine rankings. Whether it is a niche one is competing in or a highly competitive keyword, these are a must.

Search Engine Optimization is a highly competitive keyword and a search in Google brings up 93 million search results (93,400,000 to be precise). Sites compete with each other to bring the best search engine optimization services. There are those who guarantee results though not always with legal means.

Ask anyone in which search engine they would like to rank at the top. Eight out of ten would vote for Google. This does not come as a surprise because Google gets most of the search engine visitors. So if Google gives the search engine optimization tips, what could be better than hearing it right from the horse's mouth? Yes, Google has a whole lot of tools to help us with search engine optimization and they are absolutely free.

To use this facility one needs to first to set up an account with Google after which one can go to www.google.com/webmasters. Once here, the "webmaster help" section needs to be selected. From there one can go to the "webmaster guidelines" section where Google gives guidelines on design, content, quality and other technicalities. Once a website is ready, its URL can be submitted at http://www.google.com/addurl.html (this is a very slow process as it may take at least six weeks for the website to be crawled)

A Google Sitemap is a very effective tool to enable Google to study the structure of the website and increase the number of pages indexed. A Google Sitemap maker tool can be downloaded for free at www.sitemapbuider.net. It’s an excellent tool and a Sitemap is created within minutes. Once a Sitemap is submitted Google searches for the Sitemap and displays a message after checking the Sitemap. If there are any errors it will indicate as to what those errors are and the same can be rectified and the Sitemap can be resubmitted.

Google also outlines the various do's and don'ts of search engine optimization. Some black hat tricks like link farming, cloaking, doorway pages are a strict no-no. One can also find an abundance of information on creating Google friendly sites.

So with Google on ones side, the chances of a good search engine ranking increases. With these tools one does not require expensive search engine optimization tools to increase search engine rankings.

About The Author

Denise Nuttall owns the "Home Business Resource Directory" where you can find everything you'll ever need to start, run and grow a home business at: http://djnuttall-enterprises.com

How To manufacture Cheap Website Traffic

2006-10-08T18:48:00.000-05:00

by: Terry Stewart

There is one hard and fast rule in generating wealth for your website: A steady flow of website traffic. If no one goes to your site, it hardly bares a chance of creating an income. Many sites have tried and failed in doing so, and these results to the sites clinical death. It takes money to maintain an income generating site; it also takes money to make money.

BUT, it doesn’t take a whole caboodle of cash to develop website traffic for your site.

Ever wonder how does heavy hit sites drive traffic top their site? Most of them are spending plenty of money to drive the traffic to their sites, investing in many advertising campaigns and different forms of marketing schemes and gimmickries. This is all lucrative because, well, they are what they are now, huge earning, big hitting websites.

You don’t have to do this if you don’t really have their resources. There are many ways to produce low cost website traffic without having to spend what you don’t have or can’t afford. Many people have counted on high cost methods and have ended up losing their shirt over it.

Here I give to you the Top five ways to manufacture low cost website traffic that could help your site a whole lot. Even if you only get a small percentage of successful visitors in to client ratio it still works especially if you get a high number of website traffic.

Exchange Links

Exchanging links is one definite way to get targeted traffic to a website. Usually how this works is that before one party ask for a link from another site. The requesting site must first put up a link of the of the site they are requesting from. this mainly to show good faith and to encourage a link back in return and it is common practice. This method is not only good for generating traffic but it is also helpful for getting a good page ranking.

A main requirement is that the 2 sites that are linking should both be relevent sites i.e you should not have a dog lover site linking to a gardening site. This helps to provide continuity and keeps up the interested for your targeted traffic.

Traffic Exchange

Traffic exchange services are the viewing of another’s site or page. This is done vice versa where a site can use your sites contents and so can you to his or her site. You both benefit from each others efforts to generate traffic. The other sites visitors can go to your pages and know more about your site as well as theirs. Once again the public awareness of your sites existence is boosted.

Traffic exchanges work when you view different sites on the exchange you get earn views from other people in exchange. Most traffic exchanges are free but you do get some that will charge a small fee. This is a very good way of getting good website traffic to your website.

Write and Submit Articles

Writing and submiting articles is a sure way of getting traffic to your website. There are lots of places where you can submit your articles. The articles must be unique and you must add a resource box at the end of it. A resource box is like a signature it should have your name and your website you want to promote. It is a good idea to write articles on your niche subject.

How this works is that people who are looking tor content will go to the article directories looking to use other peoples articles. Your articles can be a window for your website.

Make a Newsletter.

Another top way of getting traffic to a website is starting a newsletter while this may seem daunting it is quite easy the advantages of getting traffic from your newsletter is thayt you can build up some rappor and rust with your cliente base and you can even do surveys to find out what people are willing to pay for.

If you are not a great writer there ar many resources on the Internet whre you can download articles that have been written by other people. All you have to do is to keep the little resource box at the end of the article. The only downside is that some subscribers may go off to other sites. But like I said you will have a group of people whom you can build up trust with.

Join Online Communities and Forums

This only requires your time and nothing else. You can share your knowledge and expertise with many online communities as well as your website. You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche with your site.

Share your two cents and let them see how knowledgeable you are with the subject. As you build your reputation, you also build the reputation of your site, making it a reputable and honest business that could be frequented and trusted by many people.

This is a free and easy method of promoting your website you should join as many forums and communities in your niche as possible. All you do is put your website in the the signature line. Then just start taking part in the online discussions and the traffic will start to roll in.

About The Author
Terry Stewart has been working online since 2002. He has been a qualified chef and started working online to spend more time with his family.

http://www.achieveitnow.ws

Why Should You Link To Directories?

2006-10-08T18:45:00.000-05:00

by: Rahul Rungta

There are so many criterions that search engines follow to determine a site’s rank for certain key or search words. One of these includes links to the site. The page rank of a site is directly related to the number of links it has. The more links you have pointed to your site, with some variation of the key phrase you want to rank high for, the better ranking in the search engines you will receive.

Relationship between directory submissions and search engine rankings

One way links and search engine rankings have a great cause and effect relationship. Think of it as a business referral system. The business with the more referrals is most popular and hence, search engines rank them higher. The reason behind it, as many put it, is that the more links you have, higher are the chances of a visitor coming to your site through these links!

Again, the search engines send out spiders to the links they find in the directory pages. This will bring the search engine spiders to your site and will get your site pages added to the search engines indexes automatically.

In future, the new search engines will also follow the same procedure. Hence, you won’t have to register to them, rather they will find you themselves!

You can also improve your sales!

Again, many people actually do surf these directories to look for the things they want. So they will also act as a medium to bring in your prospective customer to your site.

Thus directory submission has three major benefits, which makes it indispensable tool of online marketing.

Higher Position In The Search Engine Results

Web Site Indexed

Click Through Traffic

So that is something one should focus on if they are interested in increasing the rankings and traffic of their site.

Many sites who offer submission service, claim to submit your link in more than 75000 directories (mind you, few even claim the figure to be around 7,00,000!). But one should remember that submitting a link and getting it listed in the directory is not the same thing. It is like an auction, you don’t win merely by bidding. Others will just bid for you, but we at Submit2please.com, will make sure that your bid is a success. We will try our level best to insure a high rate of acceptance. We also assure you that the process will not be much time consuming and the results will start pouring in within a fortnight.

About The Author

Rahul Rungta and his team have started directory submission services, http://www.submit2please.com, they can post articles to hundreds of article sites and directoires manually.

submit@submit2please.com

The 8 Effective Ways To Market Your Site

2006-10-08T18:44:00.000-05:00

by: Hala Amiereh

Building a Website is the first step to start a business. However, building it and hoping that the Internet surfers will visit your site is unrealistic. The old saying, build it and they will come does not work for a web site as it exists with millions of other websites on the world wide web. Building a website without marketing it is similar to opening a shop in the middle of now where.

We explore here how to attract visitors to your new site:

1- The best way to drive traffic to your site to have the content that your expected visitors are seeking. Content is king. It will get you eventually to be listed on the free search engines such as Google and Yahoo. You can resort to paid utilities to submit your site to multiple search engines. Try www.submitnet.net. Be careful from the funny submission tools where you will eventually have to buy something from them. Check this site to learn in details about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and how they rank sites.

2- If you have a monthly budget to market your site, you can consider the Pay Per Click search engine providers. Depending how much traffic you seek and what target visitors you want to your site, your budget will differ.

3- Make it easy for your first time visitors to recommend the site to their friends and family. Place a button that says “Tell a friend”. This link should start a process by which the visitor can send an email with a quick note to a friend. To get such scripts, check with your hosting provider if they provide such thing in the provided website builder.

4. Disseminate press releases. This might suit large site as it costs from $650 approximately.

5. There are sites that allow Free posting of links to other sites.

6. Start a Blog. Blogs are becoming a powerful marketing tool that can help you generate traffic to your site. In the blog, you have to link to your website. Blogs generate a good ranking sometimes by free search engines such as Yahoo and Google.

7. Participate in forums with subject related to your site. Aoiv spamming others. Subjects such as “have you seen this great site www.moeny-from-website.com” could generate some leads.

8. Write articles about the subject of your website and submit them to websites accepting author submissions such as articlecity.com. Usually, you get links back to your website. If 100 websites publish your article and it contains a link back to your website, then you easily get 100 links from a single article. Remember, Google Free search engine appreciates how many links link back to your site and that ranks you high when someone does a search for the a keyword related to your site’s content.

About The Author

Hala Amiereh Operates http://www.money-from-website.com site. In this site, she addresses the best ways to make money from websites.

You've Got The Traffic, Now What?

2006-10-08T18:41:00.000-05:00

by: Kimberly Bodane

As webmasters are well aware, getting traffic is one thing; retaining that traffic can often be the tricky part. Surely we've all run across sites from time to time that were easy to stumble upon, but then made us scratch our head wondering how in the holy heck it got there, and what in the world did it do to deserve such choice rankings or links from other worthy sites. Unfortunately for webmasters, there isn't any one formula for a tacky site people won't ever want to step foot in again. There are however, several things that can be done to prevent that dreaded situation.

Boost Your Content

It goes without saying that you cannot just have a website with the basic "Home", "FAQ", "About Us", and "Contact" pages. Those represent grease on the wheel, so to speak. Having just those pages will make for one terribly boring site, while omitting them will make for a choppy site where people are bound to get stuck without these important navigation tools. Always include these whenever possible!

In addition though, you absolutely must, have a healthy amount of quality content. If you are selling something, this is especially important. Your visitors want to see you as an authority on your subject if they are going to buy your product or service. For example, if you are selling pet food - write some articles on pet nutrition, and heck - throw in some articles on pet care in general! Going this extra mile will not only make better use of your keywords, but also show you want to provide your valued browsers with relevant information instead of just selling to them. This also does wonders toward the end goal, which is to keep these guests interested enough to stick around and even bookmark you for later visits. Another great tool is to have something interactive for your visitors, like polls or even forums. Include them for input, and you'll automatically make them feel as though they're participating instead of just reading.

Use Appropriate Syntax

Always, always ALWAYS keep your audience in mind, and write your content accordingly. You don't want your articles to sound like a college thesis if you're trying to do a gaming site any more than you want to sound like you're goofing around in a chat room if your site is trying to sell floor laminate. Think about who will be reading the site, and match the tone so as to not alienate your readers. Nobody wants to read what may be really good content, in a format that is distracting or abnormal to them. Ask for feedback if you must, but remember who your target audience is, and be sure to write for them above all else.

Make It Nice To Navigate

One of the most annoying things you can do to your visitor, is to make them have to hunt down what they're looking for. Make your sidebar clear, concise and easy to use. If you stop and think of what kind of information you would want as a new visitor, you can usually pull this off. For example, if you're selling a service, do not neglect to to list rates and hours of service; if it's a product, don't forget size specifications and shipping guidelines; if it's a store then think about including a map and even a picture of the storefront for added recognition. Make all of these things easy to find!

In short, put yourself in the shoes of someone visiting for the first time, and be sure to include the information they will expect when deciding whether or not to pursue your products and/or services. Again, have someone unfamiliar with your business or hobby give you feedback on what you may be missing. All too often, people are so used to knowing everything about their subject, they forget others aren't as familiar and need help. This again, can and will alienate visitors. Having an outsider's perspective will greatly reduce the chances of omitting something obvious to you, but all too necessary for your visitors.

Add The Attraction Factor

Yes, this is the frosting folks. Only very select audiences actually want just the cake, so make it palatable and nice looking. Don't flood your navigation links with ad's, and remember to use colors with universal appeal whenever possible. Good color and pattern schemes will give it the wow factor it needs for users to experience that moment where they realize they've come across a truly well made website. Pay attention to your images, spacing, font selection and link placement. As with all other steps, don't hesitate to get feedback - from multiple people, preferably!

These are just a few tips for now, on how to retain that traffic once you do manage to get it coming in. Remember, your visitors don't just want good looks or loads of content. And with careful, intuitive foresight, you shouldn't ever have to sacrifice one for the other. So find the balance, and see where it leads.

About The Author

Kimberly Bodane - http://www.helpmyhits.com

How to use Keyword Marketing

2006-10-08T18:37:00.000-05:00

by: Desmond Mantor

How to use Keyword Marketing

Keyword identification is critical to Search Engine optimisation process. The usage of right keywords definitely results in a high position in the search engine results.

Whatever be your product or service, it is important to find the correct keyword to target the niche market. Keyword marketing is all about building a successful web site.

Keyword identification becomes important before you start building content for your web site. A keyword is identified by focusing on the products and services of your company and the target audience you want to focus on.

With the increased prominence of keywords many specialised software companies have come up which offer keyword related services. They function as suggestion tools, either free or on payment basis.

Wordtracker

Wordtracker is one such tool. It helps you identify the correct keyword that can be used for successful internet marketing campaign. It gives you the correct keywords which your potential customers will use to find information on the products that you offer. In addition, Wordtracker also gives you the phrases that are most likely to be used by the customers when they search the web for information.

Ofcourse, they charge a small amount for their services!

Keywords are increasingly becoming important. You can gain in many ways by using the correct keywords in your website.

The "key" is ofcourse proper keyword marketing. Even a good keyword has to be properly marketed i.e, placed at the right place in right numbers.

Enhancing Meta tags, Titles and Body of the Text

Used appropriately keywords can give very good results. You must use them in the right density (number of words) and the right place within your website. For good results use them in the meta tags and title tags. But while using keywords in the body text, you need to be more careful. Over use of keywords can result in your text being called "spam".

Keyword density of 5 - 20% is considered appropriate. You must ensure that keywords appear in a natural manner, flowing smoothly with the other words/phrases. You can get the help of the SEO experts for understanding the right use of keywords.

PPC Marketing

Keywords play an important role when building a PPC campaign. The keyword or the key phrase becomes important when you buy a PPC advertisement as it is all about bidding for the right keyword. To choose the correct keyword for PPC advertisement you need to have a proper understanding of the market, which will help you find the correct keyword. One of the basic reasons of placing so much importance on keywords is that with them you can get the best results for your investment. If you choose the correct keyword in a PPC campaign your web site visibility can increase manifold.

About The Author

Desmond Mantor is the Sales and Marketing Director of Have Traffic which offers highly qualified traffic for commercial websites. Have Traffic's unique system of pre-qualifying visitors has proven, in independent tests, more effective than pay per click traffic. Please visit http://www.havetraffic.com to learn more about double qualified traffic http://www.havetraffic.com

Internet Forum Board Search Engine Optimization Tips

2006-10-08T18:36:00.000-05:00

by: Alessandro Golkar

A forum board is a great way in which you can create a community around your website, for recreational purposes or, even better, business. Learn how to optimize your forum board to obtain maximum results.

That is, having a targeted community on your website let you have a poll of users that came on your website because interested from the forum board, that are potential customers as well for your business.

However, a careful search engine optimization (SEO) on your forum must be made in order to have an optimal indexing from Google, thus achieving the goal of receiving free traffic from this search engine. Actually, there are several search engines on the web, but the only one effectively giving you traffic (when you’re in their SERPS of course) is Google itself.

For this reason, keep SEO in mind when installing your forum board. Whether you are using free scripts such as PhpBB or commercial scripts like vBulletin, make sure that for each page the correct meta tags and page title are displayed.

That is, the page title must reflect the content of your page, along with the description and keywords meta tags. Keep in mind that each page should rank for one or two keywords only, that should be the most frequent words in the page (anyway monitor the keyword density to avoid penalization during the indexing).

Having different page titles make you avoid the major problem of having all your forum board out of the SERPS due to the duplicate content filter, although the actual content is differing on its page: this happens when page titles are not properly setup. If you don’t know how to manage page titles and meta tags, you should look for a professional to do the work for you.

Moreover, make sure that your forum’s content is publicly viewable, otherwise the search engine crawlers won’t be able to index it thus you will lose potential future traffic.

As a last note, remember that search engines take a lot of time before putting your pages in the SERPS. So, keep in mind that you are playing on the long term, and don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results right now: if you have done a good work, traffic and popularity are natural consequences.

About The Author

Alessandro Golkar is the founder and CEO of ForumBoosting.com , whose company website is http://www.forumboosting.com , the forum promotion and enhancement firm that established its operations in November 2005. They are helping forum owners to kickstart their board and revive old ones, putting fresh content on them, and making a proper search engine optimization on their pages. Paid forum posting is the main business, along with forum seo services.

5 Minute Search Engine Ranking Course

2006-10-08T18:33:00.000-05:00

by: Cosmin Ghiurau

You have finished creating your website or you had someone do it. The next question is, "How Do I get it to the TOP of the popular Search Engines?" It's not as easy as the web designer tell you. Read on. I'll explain in easy words.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The more quality customers that find your website the higher the chance of them purchasing your product or service. To your success!

About The Author

Cosmin Ghiurau is President of JumpEye Creative Media an award winning Web Design and Development Firm specializing in PHP, MySQL Database, Rich Media Flash, Web 2.0 and more. Visit http://www.jumpeye.com

Basic Adsense Tips

2006-10-08T18:23:00.000-05:00

by: Muhamad Fuad

Once in a week, i will publish my personal article about an advertising program which is Adsense. For those who still don’t know what Adsense is, it is a pay-per-click adevertising program which website publishers can use to menetize their websites.

The first thing you need to know about Adsense is it is not a program where you can earn money esily. Well to said, your website or your blog need lots of traffic to take full advantage of this program. Now, you must be wondering on how to improve your website traffic. From my experience,for the first time my website receive very little hits per day which is about 30-50 hits. Its really bad and to solve the problems, I have use these methods:

1) Add good content

2) Do a SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

3) Improve the site layout

When I added good content to the website, website traffic increases to 100 hits per day. Website visitors is always hungry to find new information in the net. Regardless what is the type of your website/blog is, you must create a truly original content for it. Don’t spend your time searching for free artilces because Adsense really don’t like duplicate contents.

Another tips is let your visitors know what your website/blog offers to its visitors. Create a section for your new website visitors what they can gain by visitng your website/blog. Suggest them to comment on your entry so that they will feel they are belonging to your blog/website.

>From their comment and suggestion, you can improve your website/blog more. Now, thats for the section for getting website traffic.

The next factor that you must take care is SEO which means Search Engine Optimization. Search engine that we will focsu is Google. Google receive million search per day. you can imagine a lot of people go to Google everyday to search for infromation. If you’re lucky they will find your website. But it’s not an easy way to do because SEO need lots of hard work and patience. The first thing you need to do when you have a website/blog is by giving its url to Google so that its crawler can search your pages and then include them in Google search engine. For lots more information about SEO, go to our Webmaster Section. i have post lots of good tips for SEO there. Another tips

About The Author

Muhamad Fuad is a full-time technology blogger who has a lot of interest to information technology. With the past-pace growing technology world, he is willing to learn new things everyday to be shared with his blog readers. Go to his blog now to see the latest thing that he discovered.

http://www.tech-scope.com

How Blogs Can Break Or Make Your SEO Strategy

2006-10-08T18:12:00.000-05:00

by: Jon Rognerud

Blogs are a great way to get started authoring content and sharing your knowledge and insights with other people. Plus, mix work and play - and you can get rich doing this.

You don't have to be an MBA-accredited author by any means. However, there are some rules to play by, and I'll break those out below. We will talk about the top blogs, practicalities around blogs and creative ways to get started, including how you could possibly ruin your good-standing ranking and having to change your Search Engine Optimization strategy.

Blogs - Structure and Layout

I work in the field of Search Engine Optimization. It has a wide range of options, from the technical to the more strategic. Tons of discussions are found on off-page and on-page factors, latent semantic analysis, content scope, quality, HTML/CSS development, site navigational structure, spamdexing, 301 redirects, plagiarism, link strategies, directories, blogs, search engine news, email marketing tips & online (internet) marketing. Most all of the top 10 SEO firms out there agree that blogs are a "must" for driving traffic and get established in the Internet community.

There is a right way, and a wrong way. We'll discuss these below.

Be warned - too many folks out there are thinking about "how to outbeat the search engines" and use the latest-and-greatest (blogs) to elevate their rankings, essentially via content and blog spam. Blogs are a powerful way to get seen by the search bots. Blogger (Google's own) is an important key to the puzzle, but there are many.

THE UN-OFFICIAL TOP 7

BLOGGING BEST PRACTICES FOR SEO

Start here, begin a quick review of the world's top blogs:

http://www.technorati.com/pop/blogs - updated daily

http://www.technorati.com/pop/blogs - he makes #16,000/month

http://microsaw.stikipad.com/ - web 2.0 blogs

Get an account - it's free. log in - and - don't start! What? No, you must first continue by scanning the list above and get a sense for what people are writing about. This could be more generic at first, but start looking to yourself. What do you know? What do people come to you for? Anything that you specialize in? (Hint: don't think "how can I sell this" - but "how can I share this?") You'll also learn how to use trackback functions to allow other people to be notified. Permalinks are great for SEO and should be used where appropriate. So, now you learned something big: be yourself!

Think about an interesting headline. You don't need to be copywriter, but you should think about your headline and the topic at hand. More importantly, is it something that you are passionate about, or can contribute something to? It's ok to spend some time here, writer's block can come up. Think about other sites, can you re-write their UVP (unique value proposition)? How would you write yours (thinking theme here). What I've found to work is simply sit back and start talking as if you were discussing a (hot) topic with a friend, and then breaking it out into sub-groups from there.

Writing tips: casual, friendly and interesting (meaning you have something to write and you don't copy others) works well in blogs. Make sure you stay on topic and that you are truthful. Would you lie to your mother? Of course not - then think about this when you are writing online (and she will not come after you). Yahoo's blogging policy is a good one: "Be respectful of your colleagues, get your facts straight, provide context to your argument, and engage in private feedback." Also, make sure to include images (flickr) and video (youtube, google video) where you can. Make the images rich and colorful, don't worry about sizing too much.

Committment, persistence and disciplin. Sound like an extract from Jim Rohn or Anthony Robbins? Well, they probably are - but it applies to most of the things you do in life. So be it with blogging. Carve out 1/2-1 hour every day to nurture to your blog business. Think of it as your morning ritual - right after you have attended to your family and other duties. Plus, often you are not going to be in writing mode - but rather, maintenance mode - reviewing and responding to other blogger's input.

Search engines start picking up your blog, and traffic increases. Be prepared and if it gets out of hand, be able to manage that too. I'm not simply talking about traffic, but as others join and comment, you may need to defend your stance, including admitting mistakes if / when you make them. Folks appreciate other folks who are big enough to admit mistakes if it gets there. For example, you may have folks who don't like you - even if you're Bill Gates. This guy created a Corporate Weblog Manifesto that I found interesting.

Run and host your own blog service. More expensive, but this could have a large impact on your ability to control not only the content, but custom HTML layouts, code and information architecture that are important to search engines. You can offer this as a service to others in your niche market. http://businesslogs.com/ is a great resource to use for starting this process, and more hands-on development companies like http://www.leveltendesign.com/ can be an option for you. Keep in mind that the market has developed niche-companies, from real-estate to healthcare, and you should research those specifically.

Content is important for Search Engine Optimization - be on top of it, keep a schedule.

Voila - that's it, there you have it. Watch how the search engines will start picking up your content. You can run tools to see how you are ranking, how often you are showing up in the search engines. We like http://www.UrlTrends.com as a simple beginner starting point. However, it's not 100% accurate, other SEO tools can provide more detail.

Keep your content fresh, updates daily is preferred - and definitely once a week and your search engine marketing (which includes search engine optimization) will become more visible than it was just last week. Then, use http://pingomatic.com/ to alert search engines that you have made updates. It's a free service, and will help your visibility.

About The Author

Jon Rognerud is a recognized authority on the subject of SEO, and has spent over 10 years developing websites and marketing solutions at companies like Overture and Yahoo. His website, http://www.microsaw.com/, provides a wealth of informative articles, free email courses and more

The Perfect Internet Marketing Plan Can Work Wonders For Your Business

2006-10-08T18:11:00.000-05:00

by: Steve Waganer

Marketing on the Internet is the in thing these days. Everyone who wants to be successful in their business has an online presence as people are becoming more open to the idea of having a web presence to be successful. If you are serious about your business and want to be successful you will have to be careful and meticulous about the internet marketing plan that you choose for your business. There is simply no use for a marketing plan if the plan will not work for your business or if the plan is not at all feasible for your business. So think carefully before you settle down to implement any internet marketing plan for your business.

When deciding on an Internet marketing plan it will be beneficial for your business if you start form the very beginning. Be very clear about what you are expecting from your business and what your target audience is. Being successful in any business is all about being able to reach out to your target audience. Imagine a situation where you have the best internet marketing plan, but due to faulty marketing plan you are not bale to reach out or penetrate to the your target audience. This is the perfect recipe for disaster.

Most people lead a very busy and hectic life and have very little time to actually sit down and map out the perfect Internet marketing plan for their business. But if you want to be really successful and earn lots of profit form your online business venture you will have to seriously find a good Internet marketing plan. If you feel that it is not possible on your part to find out and implement the internet marketing plan, you can always get help from an internet marketing firm to do the work for you.

Your effort does not end here. After you have implemented the marketing strategy you must constantly find out if your plan is working favorably for your business or not. Make and implement all the changes that you feel is necessary for making your site easily accessible to online visitors. Changes that are done for the betterment of your business prospects are sure to spell success for your online business venture.

There are several ways and methods that you can utilize for finding out if your internet marketing plan is working successfully for your business or not. One way of finding this out is to see if your sales are actually going up or not. If your plan is successful then your sales will touch the roof, what better proof can you have then this. Ask you clients and customers how they came to know about you. If you find that a particular source is working really well for you then you can put major emphasis on that area. Also you can ask them to recommend your goods and services to their family and friends. Word of mouth is a good way of doing successful business.

The crucial part of any internet marketing plan is advertisement. Make advertisements that are very forceful and easily penetrate to your target audience. Take in to consideration the likes and dislikes of your target audience and make the advertisements accordingly. Basically the idea is to make everything in such a way that it suits your business and also your target audience. Finally do not compromise on anything that will cause even a little bit of harm to your business.

About The Author

Steve Waganer has specialization in Web Marketing. He is expert in Search engine optimization, Affiliated Marketing,E-Mail marketing and internet marketing. To get his expert advice for your website to get high rank and top position in major search engines visit http://www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com.

Tag and Ping - Social Bookmarking Secrets

2006-10-08T18:10:00.000-05:00

by: Mike Freije

Tag and Ping, these three words have suddenly become the mantra that every body seems to be chanting. Its almost reminiscent of the days when Blog and Ping was being sold as the sole panacea for indexing and getting traffic to your sites.

The “Tag And Ping” method that every body is talking about is nothing but taking social bookmarking and leveraging it for SEO.

While social bookmarking has been around for quite some time and was originally intended to help users categorize and store their favorite links online, SEO professionals soon saw the potential for utilizing this to get their sites to rank high.

Tag And Ping can be used to promote any type of website, whether its a website monetized with Google Adsense, your Blog, Your sales page or even a site promoting affiliate products.

You know, luckily not many people know that Social Bookmarking can be used as a link building methodology and this presents you a great opportunity, as a Tag Automator subscriber, to stay one step ahead of the competition.

The strategies explained over the next few emails will help you get an unbelievable avalanche of traffic to your sites and the Tag Automator software suite will multiply that many times more.

So stay tuned and make the most of this strategy.

So, What Is Social Bookmarking ?

Social bookmarking is utilizing a web service, where users create a public repository of bookmarks pertaining to sites that they like.

The concept of social bookmarking dates back to 1996 with the launch of itList.com, followed by services like Blink and Hotlinks and many more. But, the popularity of Social Bookmarking increased with the advent of the most popular bookmarking site till date, del.icio.us.

Social bookmarking sites organize their content using tags. Social bookmarking sites are an increasingly popular way to locate, classify, rank, and share Internet resources through the practice of tagging and inferences drawn from grouping and analysis of tags.

And What is a Tag?

A tag is basically a keyword. It is a label that you categorize a website under. For example if I was tagging this website, I would tag it under “tag and ping”, “tag”, “ping” etc.

Tagging is simply a way to find a website that I bookmark without remembering where you put it. You can just enter a tag to find websites that you have marked with certain tags.

The tags act as a way to quickly find your bookmarks without remembering where you put them. This is why the bookmark sites allow you to assign more than one tag.

These bookmark sites allow you to share your personal bookmarks with the public. This is where the term “social” comes into play. When you bookmark a site other people can also find the site that you bookmarked if they enter the same tag that you classified the site under.

Not only can you find the sites that you tagged under certain keywords but so can everyone else.

These bookmarks and tags may seem like geekspeak, but from an SEO standpoint these can build you a massive amount of backlinks which seem to originate from authority sites.

About The Author

Author, Mike Freije, contributes articles on Internet Marketing for http://www.articlemarketinghome.com . For more information on Tag and Ping, visit http://www.batpay.com or http://www.moneyblaster.biz.

How to Get Many More Visitors to Subscribe to Your List!

2006-10-08T18:08:00.000-05:00

by: John Leith

Some months ago I read an article on growing your opt-in email list.

The article explained the reason why you need to “sell” whatever it is you’re giving away. People are skeptical and rarely value anything that they get for free, so this got me thinking.

Whether or not people pull cash out of their pocket to purchase your ebook is beside the point. You still have to “sell” it to them....

..or to be more precise they have to be “sold” on it before they will:

1) Take the time to read your proposal of a “free gift”;

2) Wait while it downloads; then

3) Learn and profit by reading or using it!

Intentionally or unintentionally before most people take advantage of a “free offer” of any kind, they look at the "opportunity cost" (i.e. taking up your offer over any other proposal they have been presented with recently).

If your offer is convincing enough, most people will take the opportunity to at least read your proposal and download what you are “selling” them for free.

A well put together, benefit loaded, convincing proposal is a necessity to a free offer.

An excellent example of this strategy can be found at

http://www.bettermarketingtoolbox.com/recommends/LTB

No matter what you may read in countless marketing books, simply placing a couple of free items on a page and expecting your visitors to join your list is absolutely the WRONG approach - and it's the most likely reason that your visitor to sales conversion is low!

You must persuade them to join your list by “selling them” on what you are providing as a free solution to some of the problems they may be facing.

So, the next time you make a decision to give away a freebie as an incentive for subscribing to your email list, think again about this suggestion of “selling” the free gift first... make it indispensable to the person reading your web page and you'll get many more loyal subscribers.

About The Author

John Leith offers you the best, most cost effective list building software on the market. Find out for yourself: http://www.bettermarketingtoolbox.com/software/listmonsoon.