Thursday, August 23, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Source Code: Places You May Not Have Thought To Put Keywords
Source Code: Places You May Not Have Thought To Put Keywords
by: Courtney Heard
We all know it's good practice to put in-context keywords into page titles, meta tags and alt tags. But here are a few places you may not have thought about.
Tables - You're most likely familiar with what a table tag looks like. They generally look like this or some variation, right? There are actually two areas within a table tag that keywords can be applied to. The table ID and Summary. A table tag written in this manner will look more like this .
File Names - HTML, images, CSS files, php scripts, cgi scripts, asp scripts, java apps, video clips, sound bites, and every file you use to create your web site can be named using keywords that apply to the web site content. Making sure these titles also apply to the purpose of the file itself is also very important, especially if the file type can be indexed by search engine bots, like php and flash. If the name of the file has very little to do with what the file contains, it will have little to no affect on your keyword density.
Reference Tags - A normal reference tag looks like this . A title can be added to this tag making it look like this . This can also be applied to mailto: reference tags. Because this text will be seen by web vistors when they hover their mouse over the link, it's good practice to keep it relevant and to-the-point. Never sacrifice user-friendliness for more keywords. You may get lots of traffic with the keywords, but without user-friendliness, that traffic will leave displeased.
Comment Tags - I thought everyone knew this one, but I haven't seen many sites out there making use of it. Comment tags are generally used to remind us of what the following or preceding code does, like little HTML post-it notes that can only be seen in the source code. They look like this where everything between the "" is the comment or note we're leaving ourselves. Used wisely and in moderation, this can be yet another opportunity to add keywords to your site's source code.
All of these areas are good areas to add keyword density to your site, but they all must be used with caution. Everything in these areas should be in context, meaning they should relate directly to what a web visitor will be seeing. They should also be used in moderation. Strings of keywords in a table summary tag will surely start raising some flags at the Googleplex. It won't be long now before Google and other major search engines start keeping a closer, more critical eye on these areas. The most important rule of thumb to go by when designing and optimizing any web site, is to keep it user friendly. A pleased and impressed web visitor is the best web site optimization and will surely lead to your site's success.
by: Courtney Heard
We all know it's good practice to put in-context keywords into page titles, meta tags and alt tags. But here are a few places you may not have thought about.
Tables - You're most likely familiar with what a table tag looks like. They generally look like this or some variation, right? There are actually two areas within a table tag that keywords can be applied to. The table ID and Summary. A table tag written in this manner will look more like this .
File Names - HTML, images, CSS files, php scripts, cgi scripts, asp scripts, java apps, video clips, sound bites, and every file you use to create your web site can be named using keywords that apply to the web site content. Making sure these titles also apply to the purpose of the file itself is also very important, especially if the file type can be indexed by search engine bots, like php and flash. If the name of the file has very little to do with what the file contains, it will have little to no affect on your keyword density.
Reference Tags - A normal reference tag looks like this . A title can be added to this tag making it look like this . This can also be applied to mailto: reference tags. Because this text will be seen by web vistors when they hover their mouse over the link, it's good practice to keep it relevant and to-the-point. Never sacrifice user-friendliness for more keywords. You may get lots of traffic with the keywords, but without user-friendliness, that traffic will leave displeased.
Comment Tags - I thought everyone knew this one, but I haven't seen many sites out there making use of it. Comment tags are generally used to remind us of what the following or preceding code does, like little HTML post-it notes that can only be seen in the source code. They look like this where everything between the "" is the comment or note we're leaving ourselves. Used wisely and in moderation, this can be yet another opportunity to add keywords to your site's source code.
All of these areas are good areas to add keyword density to your site, but they all must be used with caution. Everything in these areas should be in context, meaning they should relate directly to what a web visitor will be seeing. They should also be used in moderation. Strings of keywords in a table summary tag will surely start raising some flags at the Googleplex. It won't be long now before Google and other major search engines start keeping a closer, more critical eye on these areas. The most important rule of thumb to go by when designing and optimizing any web site, is to keep it user friendly. A pleased and impressed web visitor is the best web site optimization and will surely lead to your site's success.
Generating Traffic – The Text Link Prevails
Generating Traffic – The Text Link Prevails
by: Michael Medeiros
The Internet is growing at an exponential rate, resulting from greater masses attempting to earn an income from the Computer Revolution. It doesn’t take long for a developer to realize the magnitude of increasing competition, when attempting to obtain more visitors. How much competition exists? The fact is, when this article was written, “Whois,” reported 65,443,044 active Domains existed. Additionally, 446,308 Domains where, “on-hold,” and 1,184,180 Domains where created by 18:00 EST (1). While this information does not illustrate direct competition for a given niche, it’s apparent that any type of Website created will have modest rivalry.
The Business model of an Internet Website is relatively simple; increasing traffic means increasing revenue. However, with the growing number of Websites, it will become more difficult to obtain greater traffic. So how is traffic disbursed on the Internet? Traffic disbursement can be isolated to two primary sources: Search Engine Queries and Incoming links.
Search Engines have evolved greatly in the past few years. However, the principal is still the same. A Search Engine Spider travels through virtual space analyzing Webpages’ encountered and assessing their premise. Spiders can quickly route through deeply routed pages within any given Website and index them within a Database. In addition, they can assess which Websites change frequently, and retrieve new data on a scheduled basis. Because of their ability to quickly assess pages and their changes, they offer the internet community one of the most valuable resources, “The ability to accurately locate documents of interest”.
Based on the fundamentals of Search Engine’s, developer’s can increase Search Engine traffic by offering more content and resources. As relevant pages and resources are added to a Website, the premise of the Website becomes more apparent. In addition, expanded queries will match relevant pages displaying new content.
The other source of Internet Traffic, “incoming links,” can benefit a developer in several ways. First and most obvious, we can achieve greater traffic from the visitor of Websites displaying the incoming links. Also, if used properly, incoming links that are text based (Anchor Text) help Search Engine Spiders determine the premise of a Web-page. Finally, the total number of incoming links improves rapport with Search Engines (2).
Because some Search Engines poses the tools and resources to quickly archive numerous pages and their data, they have begun to utilize, “Anchor Text,” to leverage their Search Engine Results. The most famous example, of this technology being implemented, is the Apple QuickTime Download page showing as number one in Google for a search query of, “Click Here”. The term, “Click Here,” cannot be found anywhere on the visible page or Source Code. So why is it number one? Because the Developer linked the words, “Click Here,” to the download page from many pages with good rapport (High Google PR). Naturally, this is pure speculation, as only the Google Engineers could explain exactly why it is number one accurately. However, most are probably familiar with the famous Google Bomb of, “Miserable Failure”. A large number of people linked, “Miserable Failure,” to the Official White House Web-page of President George W. Bush. As a result, George ranks number one on Google for the search term.
Text links can be acquired through paying for placement or through exchanges with other Webmasters. For the most part, paid links will generate a lot more traffic then exchange links. This is due solely to placement. In a typical link exchange, the incoming links are placed on, “Weak,” pages that receive little traffic. In contrast, advertised links will be presented on prominent pages with a lot of visitors. Moreover, a lot of speculation exists regarding how the major three Search Engines treat reciprocal links. Some believe they cancel-out one another, as a vote. This speculation suggests that, “one-way,” incoming links provide the greatest benefit.
Bombing, as illustrated in the above examples, has created a large market for the purchase of Text Links. As a matter of fact, text link advertising is soaring right now. A number of people now offer broker services, connecting text link publishers with people wishing to advertise. It has gotten so big the Major search engines are beginning to demonstrate concern. Matt Cutts, a developer for Google, has offered some insight on the matter (3). Acknowledging that many Websites rely on the sale of ad space for income, he explains how this method of calculating the premise of a page has greatly improved Search Results for all the major Search Engines, and selling links hurts this technology. Matt suggests that sold links should include an additional tag, “rel=nofollow,” to tell Spiders not to count the vote. The Consequences of not including the tag means that Google may not pass PageRank with links coming from the site selling the links. Essentially, purchased links that do not include that tag will eventually become worthless for Search Engine recognition.
Outside of paid advertising, it would require something really special to acquire incoming links. With practical reasoning, a developer would have to either create something very useful to the Internet community, or offer valuable information that will be referenced by others often. What ever method is conjured, it’s obvious in this point of time, the text link prevails for traffic generation.
(1) Whois Source: Detailed Domain Counts and Internet Statistic (http://www.whois.sc/internet-statistics/).
(2) Google: Google Technology (http://www.google.com/technology/).
(3) Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO: Text Links and PageRank (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/text-links-and-pagerank/).
by: Michael Medeiros
The Internet is growing at an exponential rate, resulting from greater masses attempting to earn an income from the Computer Revolution. It doesn’t take long for a developer to realize the magnitude of increasing competition, when attempting to obtain more visitors. How much competition exists? The fact is, when this article was written, “Whois,” reported 65,443,044 active Domains existed. Additionally, 446,308 Domains where, “on-hold,” and 1,184,180 Domains where created by 18:00 EST (1). While this information does not illustrate direct competition for a given niche, it’s apparent that any type of Website created will have modest rivalry.
The Business model of an Internet Website is relatively simple; increasing traffic means increasing revenue. However, with the growing number of Websites, it will become more difficult to obtain greater traffic. So how is traffic disbursed on the Internet? Traffic disbursement can be isolated to two primary sources: Search Engine Queries and Incoming links.
Search Engines have evolved greatly in the past few years. However, the principal is still the same. A Search Engine Spider travels through virtual space analyzing Webpages’ encountered and assessing their premise. Spiders can quickly route through deeply routed pages within any given Website and index them within a Database. In addition, they can assess which Websites change frequently, and retrieve new data on a scheduled basis. Because of their ability to quickly assess pages and their changes, they offer the internet community one of the most valuable resources, “The ability to accurately locate documents of interest”.
Based on the fundamentals of Search Engine’s, developer’s can increase Search Engine traffic by offering more content and resources. As relevant pages and resources are added to a Website, the premise of the Website becomes more apparent. In addition, expanded queries will match relevant pages displaying new content.
The other source of Internet Traffic, “incoming links,” can benefit a developer in several ways. First and most obvious, we can achieve greater traffic from the visitor of Websites displaying the incoming links. Also, if used properly, incoming links that are text based (Anchor Text) help Search Engine Spiders determine the premise of a Web-page. Finally, the total number of incoming links improves rapport with Search Engines (2).
Because some Search Engines poses the tools and resources to quickly archive numerous pages and their data, they have begun to utilize, “Anchor Text,” to leverage their Search Engine Results. The most famous example, of this technology being implemented, is the Apple QuickTime Download page showing as number one in Google for a search query of, “Click Here”. The term, “Click Here,” cannot be found anywhere on the visible page or Source Code. So why is it number one? Because the Developer linked the words, “Click Here,” to the download page from many pages with good rapport (High Google PR). Naturally, this is pure speculation, as only the Google Engineers could explain exactly why it is number one accurately. However, most are probably familiar with the famous Google Bomb of, “Miserable Failure”. A large number of people linked, “Miserable Failure,” to the Official White House Web-page of President George W. Bush. As a result, George ranks number one on Google for the search term.
Text links can be acquired through paying for placement or through exchanges with other Webmasters. For the most part, paid links will generate a lot more traffic then exchange links. This is due solely to placement. In a typical link exchange, the incoming links are placed on, “Weak,” pages that receive little traffic. In contrast, advertised links will be presented on prominent pages with a lot of visitors. Moreover, a lot of speculation exists regarding how the major three Search Engines treat reciprocal links. Some believe they cancel-out one another, as a vote. This speculation suggests that, “one-way,” incoming links provide the greatest benefit.
Bombing, as illustrated in the above examples, has created a large market for the purchase of Text Links. As a matter of fact, text link advertising is soaring right now. A number of people now offer broker services, connecting text link publishers with people wishing to advertise. It has gotten so big the Major search engines are beginning to demonstrate concern. Matt Cutts, a developer for Google, has offered some insight on the matter (3). Acknowledging that many Websites rely on the sale of ad space for income, he explains how this method of calculating the premise of a page has greatly improved Search Results for all the major Search Engines, and selling links hurts this technology. Matt suggests that sold links should include an additional tag, “rel=nofollow,” to tell Spiders not to count the vote. The Consequences of not including the tag means that Google may not pass PageRank with links coming from the site selling the links. Essentially, purchased links that do not include that tag will eventually become worthless for Search Engine recognition.
Outside of paid advertising, it would require something really special to acquire incoming links. With practical reasoning, a developer would have to either create something very useful to the Internet community, or offer valuable information that will be referenced by others often. What ever method is conjured, it’s obvious in this point of time, the text link prevails for traffic generation.
(1) Whois Source: Detailed Domain Counts and Internet Statistic (http://www.whois.sc/internet-statistics/).
(2) Google: Google Technology (http://www.google.com/technology/).
(3) Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO: Text Links and PageRank (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/text-links-and-pagerank/).
4 Effective Ways To Use Autoresponders To Increase Your Sales
4 Effective Ways To Use Autoresponders To Increase Your Sales
by: Jean Lam
An autoresponder is a very powerful tool for any online business. Basically, an autoresponder is used to ease your tasks. Automation is critical when running an online business. Hence you won't need to do the tiring and boring manual tasks if you automate your business.
An autoresponder simply sends backs a precomposed message to the recipient who requested information from it by sending an email to this autoresponder address.
But autoresponders can be used for far more advanced tasks to increase your sales for instance.
1. Use your autoresponder to publish an ezine
A nice function available in most autoresponders nowadays is the broadcast feature.
Every person who requests more information from your autoresponder eg to subscribe is automatically added to your autoresponder database. Hence you will be able to use the broadcast feature to publish your ezine and your subscribers in your database will receive your newsletter automatically.
This is a low cost way to create mailing lists that your visitors can subscribe to including your own ezine that you can use to effectively market your products.
Concentrate on making your ezine a source of valuable information for your subscribers and you'll be able to create an ezine that your subscribers look forward to reading and that increases your sales.
2. Use your autoresponder to deliver an email course
A very simple but yet powerful method of increasing your sales is to create an email course that contains valuable information.
For eg if you are creating an email course about Internet marketing, you can write an article that lists 7 Internet marketing methods.
Method 1 - Search Engines
Method 2 - Ezine Advertising
Method 3 - Joint ventures
Method 4 - Opt In Email
Method 5 - Affiliate Programs
Method 6 - Article Writing
Method 7 - Link Partnerships
Then put every marketing method in your autoresponder on a 7-day cycle. Hence every person who requests this course will receive each lesson for a period of 7 days.
In each method, try to find products, be it affiliate products or your own products that are related to this marketing technique and include a link.
For example if you own an ebook on how to write articles to promote your business, you can include a link to that product in method 6.
3. Use your autoresponder to provide a report
Reports can be articles that you can easily deliver via an autoresponder. If you have an article called "7 Powerful Internet Marketing Tactics To Promote Your Online Business", you can easily use it as a report.
Include the links to the products to complement each method.
4. Use your autoresponder to promote your articles
Autoresponders are very effective ways to promote your articles along with your website.
You can make your articles on your site or in the emails that you send to ezine editors to consider your recent article for publication available by autoresponder. You can say something like.
All my other articles available for reprint at
articles@autorespondername.com
Make your articles available by autoresponder along with your publishing guidelines. If you've written lots of articles, make a master list of your articles available by autoresponder that lists all of your articles along with their autoresponder addresses.
This can provide you with a terrific way to get your articles published on a regular basis by ezine publishers and webmasters who enjoy your writing.
Autoresponders should form part of your Internet business. Without them, your business will suffer.
Consider an autoresponder as your own 24hr marketing machine.
by: Jean Lam
An autoresponder is a very powerful tool for any online business. Basically, an autoresponder is used to ease your tasks. Automation is critical when running an online business. Hence you won't need to do the tiring and boring manual tasks if you automate your business.
An autoresponder simply sends backs a precomposed message to the recipient who requested information from it by sending an email to this autoresponder address.
But autoresponders can be used for far more advanced tasks to increase your sales for instance.
1. Use your autoresponder to publish an ezine
A nice function available in most autoresponders nowadays is the broadcast feature.
Every person who requests more information from your autoresponder eg to subscribe is automatically added to your autoresponder database. Hence you will be able to use the broadcast feature to publish your ezine and your subscribers in your database will receive your newsletter automatically.
This is a low cost way to create mailing lists that your visitors can subscribe to including your own ezine that you can use to effectively market your products.
Concentrate on making your ezine a source of valuable information for your subscribers and you'll be able to create an ezine that your subscribers look forward to reading and that increases your sales.
2. Use your autoresponder to deliver an email course
A very simple but yet powerful method of increasing your sales is to create an email course that contains valuable information.
For eg if you are creating an email course about Internet marketing, you can write an article that lists 7 Internet marketing methods.
Method 1 - Search Engines
Method 2 - Ezine Advertising
Method 3 - Joint ventures
Method 4 - Opt In Email
Method 5 - Affiliate Programs
Method 6 - Article Writing
Method 7 - Link Partnerships
Then put every marketing method in your autoresponder on a 7-day cycle. Hence every person who requests this course will receive each lesson for a period of 7 days.
In each method, try to find products, be it affiliate products or your own products that are related to this marketing technique and include a link.
For example if you own an ebook on how to write articles to promote your business, you can include a link to that product in method 6.
3. Use your autoresponder to provide a report
Reports can be articles that you can easily deliver via an autoresponder. If you have an article called "7 Powerful Internet Marketing Tactics To Promote Your Online Business", you can easily use it as a report.
Include the links to the products to complement each method.
4. Use your autoresponder to promote your articles
Autoresponders are very effective ways to promote your articles along with your website.
You can make your articles on your site or in the emails that you send to ezine editors to consider your recent article for publication available by autoresponder. You can say something like.
All my other articles available for reprint at
articles@autorespondername.com
Make your articles available by autoresponder along with your publishing guidelines. If you've written lots of articles, make a master list of your articles available by autoresponder that lists all of your articles along with their autoresponder addresses.
This can provide you with a terrific way to get your articles published on a regular basis by ezine publishers and webmasters who enjoy your writing.
Autoresponders should form part of your Internet business. Without them, your business will suffer.
Consider an autoresponder as your own 24hr marketing machine.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Boost Your Website Traffic
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Boost Your Website Traffic
by: Rory Canyon
Search engines bring more than 80 percent of the traffic for small to medium websites. This tells exactly how important it is for small and medium websites to optimize their web structure and pages for search engines. Optimization of your website for search engine includes many aspects: website content, keywords, URL, meta-tag, back links, etc. Let's explain it one by one.
Select the right keywords. You can pay a visit to your competitors' websites (only those with top-ranked search engine placements). Through analyzing their web contents and meta tags, you can easily find out the keywords they are using. Overture keywords selection tool can also provide you valuable information. Open your favorite browser, enter http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/, type in the search box your keywords or phrases and see how many times they were searched last month. Select those with high search frequency. Google also has a similar keyword selection tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox. You can have a try of both of them and balance the search results.
Target your web site content at selected keywords. After finalizing the keywords, you can now build up your web pages with them. But, be careful, don't overuse any keywords on your web pages. Overuse of keywords may make search engine spiders think you are spamming and get your website banned. How can I judge overuse or not? Go to http://www.gorank.com/seotools/ to have a check of your keywords density, make sure it is within a reasonable range.
Make search engine friendly URLs. Although some of the search engines can follow all dynamic URLs, like http://www.scriptmenu.com/detail.php?id=25257, some of them still prefer static URLs ended with html, htm, etc. To make search engine friendly URLs, you can create real static pages, but you don't have to. The web server URL rewrite engine can make this job much easier by reinterpreting the URLs before getting actual pages. If you need more help or tips on how to implement URL rewrite model, follow the link http://www.scriptmenu.com/detail_24379.html and get a tutorial.
Get quality backward links to your page. Although keywords optimization of your web pages can improve significantly your search engine placement, it is still far from sufficient to get your pages top ranked. You have to get some quality backward links to your websites. You need at least 35 quality back links to make google going to your web site and take a look at you. You can get these quality links by submitting your site to high-ranked web site directories or by writing some quality articles and then submitting them to the high-ranked online article archives. Many other ways exist, but remember, only backward links from quality web sites count. Websites poorly indexed or with very low search engine ranking have no value to you.
Keep on improving your website. By keyword optimization, URL optimization and quality backward URLs, your website should have gotten remarkable search engine placement. However, the placement is not static, you competitors are optimizing their websites and trying to kick you out of your current position. To maintain a good search engine ranking, you have to keep on improving your website. Keep on optimizing your website navigation, content and structure. Keep on getting more quality links from top-rated sites.... The battle for top search engine positions will never end. Good luck, :-)
by: Rory Canyon
Search engines bring more than 80 percent of the traffic for small to medium websites. This tells exactly how important it is for small and medium websites to optimize their web structure and pages for search engines. Optimization of your website for search engine includes many aspects: website content, keywords, URL, meta-tag, back links, etc. Let's explain it one by one.
Select the right keywords. You can pay a visit to your competitors' websites (only those with top-ranked search engine placements). Through analyzing their web contents and meta tags, you can easily find out the keywords they are using. Overture keywords selection tool can also provide you valuable information. Open your favorite browser, enter http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/, type in the search box your keywords or phrases and see how many times they were searched last month. Select those with high search frequency. Google also has a similar keyword selection tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox. You can have a try of both of them and balance the search results.
Target your web site content at selected keywords. After finalizing the keywords, you can now build up your web pages with them. But, be careful, don't overuse any keywords on your web pages. Overuse of keywords may make search engine spiders think you are spamming and get your website banned. How can I judge overuse or not? Go to http://www.gorank.com/seotools/ to have a check of your keywords density, make sure it is within a reasonable range.
Make search engine friendly URLs. Although some of the search engines can follow all dynamic URLs, like http://www.scriptmenu.com/detail.php?id=25257, some of them still prefer static URLs ended with html, htm, etc. To make search engine friendly URLs, you can create real static pages, but you don't have to. The web server URL rewrite engine can make this job much easier by reinterpreting the URLs before getting actual pages. If you need more help or tips on how to implement URL rewrite model, follow the link http://www.scriptmenu.com/detail_24379.html and get a tutorial.
Get quality backward links to your page. Although keywords optimization of your web pages can improve significantly your search engine placement, it is still far from sufficient to get your pages top ranked. You have to get some quality backward links to your websites. You need at least 35 quality back links to make google going to your web site and take a look at you. You can get these quality links by submitting your site to high-ranked web site directories or by writing some quality articles and then submitting them to the high-ranked online article archives. Many other ways exist, but remember, only backward links from quality web sites count. Websites poorly indexed or with very low search engine ranking have no value to you.
Keep on improving your website. By keyword optimization, URL optimization and quality backward URLs, your website should have gotten remarkable search engine placement. However, the placement is not static, you competitors are optimizing their websites and trying to kick you out of your current position. To maintain a good search engine ranking, you have to keep on improving your website. Keep on optimizing your website navigation, content and structure. Keep on getting more quality links from top-rated sites.... The battle for top search engine positions will never end. Good luck, :-)
Doing Your Market Research Online
Doing Your Market Research Online
by: Norio De Sousa
Success on the internet depends a lot on what you know about your target market before starting! If you want to make money on the 'net, you've got to be prepared to do some market research online!
It's important for you to know...
How many people are looking for your product or service and...
How many companies are supplying that same product or service
These numbers give you an idea of how much money you can make with your concept.
The number of people looking for your product or service is called the "demand".
The number of companies offering a product or service similar to yours is called the "supply".
If demand is 1000 and supply is 500, you've found yourself a market ;)
Supply and Demand on the Internet
The internet works a little differently to the "offline world"...
Supply is the number of people searching for information on your product or service, while demand is the number of web sites providing that info.
Got that? No? Let me elaborate...
..If 1000 people are searching for "golf clubs", that really means that 1000 people are searching for information on golf clubs.
By the same token, if 500 web sites are supplying "golf clubs", they're really supplying information on golf clubs.
Information is the key word there. If your web site doesn't provide valuable information on a particular subject, it might as well not exist!
That's the key difference between offline marketing and online marketing. You're not marketing products, you're marketing...
I.N.F.O.R.M.A.T.I.O.N !
To help you understand why that's the case, here's a simple but true quote...
"Most people use the internet to research their next buy."
If you're providing the info they're looking for, they're a lot more likely to trust you with their money.
But you've got to be willing to put the work into it in the beginning. If no one's searching for your content, or there are too many sites supplying that info - you've lost before you've even begun!
I hope that, by now, you've started to realise just how important it is to do your market research online first. There really is no point in starting a site that no one's looking for - so make sure you do proper markert research online.
by: Norio De Sousa
Success on the internet depends a lot on what you know about your target market before starting! If you want to make money on the 'net, you've got to be prepared to do some market research online!
It's important for you to know...
How many people are looking for your product or service and...
How many companies are supplying that same product or service
These numbers give you an idea of how much money you can make with your concept.
The number of people looking for your product or service is called the "demand".
The number of companies offering a product or service similar to yours is called the "supply".
If demand is 1000 and supply is 500, you've found yourself a market ;)
Supply and Demand on the Internet
The internet works a little differently to the "offline world"...
Supply is the number of people searching for information on your product or service, while demand is the number of web sites providing that info.
Got that? No? Let me elaborate...
..If 1000 people are searching for "golf clubs", that really means that 1000 people are searching for information on golf clubs.
By the same token, if 500 web sites are supplying "golf clubs", they're really supplying information on golf clubs.
Information is the key word there. If your web site doesn't provide valuable information on a particular subject, it might as well not exist!
That's the key difference between offline marketing and online marketing. You're not marketing products, you're marketing...
I.N.F.O.R.M.A.T.I.O.N !
To help you understand why that's the case, here's a simple but true quote...
"Most people use the internet to research their next buy."
If you're providing the info they're looking for, they're a lot more likely to trust you with their money.
But you've got to be willing to put the work into it in the beginning. If no one's searching for your content, or there are too many sites supplying that info - you've lost before you've even begun!
I hope that, by now, you've started to realise just how important it is to do your market research online first. There really is no point in starting a site that no one's looking for - so make sure you do proper markert research online.
How to Explode the Traffic to your Website for little or no cost
How to Explode the Traffic to your Website for little or no cost
by: Tony Stoffo
Let me start off by saying that there are millions of people around the world online today either trying to sell something or looking for a new home based business opportunity to get involved in. The Internet is the one place where you can capture the multitude of new people coming online everyday looking for a way to make some money. So how do we get these prospects to view our website or product without spending a fortune?
Listed below are the top 5 ways to start to get massive amounts of traffic to your website.
Viral marketing classified site
Get involved in a viral marketing classified site. The one I recommend to all my clients is www.1MillionFreeHits.com. The signup is free and there are no hidden costs down the line. Remember the illegal pyramid schemes that cropped up about 10 years ago that promised you to get rich for just a small investment if you signed up 5 people and they did the same and so on. Well this is the same concept however it works incredible with classified ads. Visit the site for full details and view the How to Promote page. Plus with thousands of new people coming online everyday looking for a money making opportunity this can literally go on forever! It’s a must to include with the promotion of your website or product.
Email signature file
This may sound obvious but many people do not include this simple method of getting free hits to their website. Include an email signature file in every one of your emails. In this signature file that goes at the bottom of your email message include a short description of the product you are currently promoting with a link attached for people to visit your site. Think of all the emails that you get in a day. With this short message at the end of each of your email replies you won’t believe how many extra hits you will get to your site. It even works well with junk email that you get from other people trying to get you to visit their sites. Just reply back with something like this:
Thanks will check it out
Plus add your signature file here.
People will be curious and click on your signature file, and you will receive a bunch of extra hits from the people that were sending you junk mail.
Submit an Article to Online Directories
One of the best ways to get an incredible amount of free traffic to your site is though articles that you write and submit to online directories. Website owners and Ezine publishers are always looking for good articles with fresh material that they can include in their websites and newsletters. It’s really not that difficult just sit down and think of all the interesting things about your product that people would be interested in. Right a short say 500 word article and submit it and you won’t believe how fast your article will be picked up. The way you get hits to your website is through the resource box that is listed at the end of the article. This is where you say a little something about yourself and include a link to whatever you are promoting. There are 1,000’s of directories to submit your article to, and the best way to minimize the time involved is to submit your article using special software created just for this purpose. If you would like a list of the best ones available at the present time, just send me an email with Article Submitters in the subject line. The one thing I must warn you is not to make your article sound too much like a sales letter for your product or the directories won’t accept your article for distribution.
Free, Free, Free
People love to get things free, whether it’s an ebook you have written, or some kind of new software that will help them promote their product online. There are even ebooks out there that you can get the resale rights to and rebrand it with your name. By giving something away free is a perfect way to get new names to promote your product to. Here is how I promote a free ebook and always get a big response.
Free Ebook - Traffic generation with an amazing viral idea – Plus no name or email address required.
So do some research and find yourself a couple of free items what you can promote which will again attract free visitors to your web site.
New Cutting Edge Marketing Method
So far everything I have mentioned in this article has been free for getting traffic to your website. There is one new piece of software that I have come across that I thing will explode the traffic that you will get to your website. I feel it’s the most incredible advertising method that I have seen in a long time. It’s called Peel away ads and the curiosity that it instills is a must to include in any marketing campaign. Check it out at the site listed below and you will see what I mean:
http://lvsports.peelads.hop.clickbank.net
So as you can see it doesn’t take a ton of money to start to get a massive of traffic to your website with the things incorporated from above. If you have any questions about the items listed here please feel free to email me at freehits@msn.com and I would be happy to answer you as soon as I can.
Until next time,
Tony
by: Tony Stoffo
Let me start off by saying that there are millions of people around the world online today either trying to sell something or looking for a new home based business opportunity to get involved in. The Internet is the one place where you can capture the multitude of new people coming online everyday looking for a way to make some money. So how do we get these prospects to view our website or product without spending a fortune?
Listed below are the top 5 ways to start to get massive amounts of traffic to your website.
Viral marketing classified site
Get involved in a viral marketing classified site. The one I recommend to all my clients is www.1MillionFreeHits.com. The signup is free and there are no hidden costs down the line. Remember the illegal pyramid schemes that cropped up about 10 years ago that promised you to get rich for just a small investment if you signed up 5 people and they did the same and so on. Well this is the same concept however it works incredible with classified ads. Visit the site for full details and view the How to Promote page. Plus with thousands of new people coming online everyday looking for a money making opportunity this can literally go on forever! It’s a must to include with the promotion of your website or product.
Email signature file
This may sound obvious but many people do not include this simple method of getting free hits to their website. Include an email signature file in every one of your emails. In this signature file that goes at the bottom of your email message include a short description of the product you are currently promoting with a link attached for people to visit your site. Think of all the emails that you get in a day. With this short message at the end of each of your email replies you won’t believe how many extra hits you will get to your site. It even works well with junk email that you get from other people trying to get you to visit their sites. Just reply back with something like this:
Thanks will check it out
Plus add your signature file here.
People will be curious and click on your signature file, and you will receive a bunch of extra hits from the people that were sending you junk mail.
Submit an Article to Online Directories
One of the best ways to get an incredible amount of free traffic to your site is though articles that you write and submit to online directories. Website owners and Ezine publishers are always looking for good articles with fresh material that they can include in their websites and newsletters. It’s really not that difficult just sit down and think of all the interesting things about your product that people would be interested in. Right a short say 500 word article and submit it and you won’t believe how fast your article will be picked up. The way you get hits to your website is through the resource box that is listed at the end of the article. This is where you say a little something about yourself and include a link to whatever you are promoting. There are 1,000’s of directories to submit your article to, and the best way to minimize the time involved is to submit your article using special software created just for this purpose. If you would like a list of the best ones available at the present time, just send me an email with Article Submitters in the subject line. The one thing I must warn you is not to make your article sound too much like a sales letter for your product or the directories won’t accept your article for distribution.
Free, Free, Free
People love to get things free, whether it’s an ebook you have written, or some kind of new software that will help them promote their product online. There are even ebooks out there that you can get the resale rights to and rebrand it with your name. By giving something away free is a perfect way to get new names to promote your product to. Here is how I promote a free ebook and always get a big response.
Free Ebook - Traffic generation with an amazing viral idea – Plus no name or email address required.
So do some research and find yourself a couple of free items what you can promote which will again attract free visitors to your web site.
New Cutting Edge Marketing Method
So far everything I have mentioned in this article has been free for getting traffic to your website. There is one new piece of software that I have come across that I thing will explode the traffic that you will get to your website. I feel it’s the most incredible advertising method that I have seen in a long time. It’s called Peel away ads and the curiosity that it instills is a must to include in any marketing campaign. Check it out at the site listed below and you will see what I mean:
http://lvsports.peelads.hop.clickbank.net
So as you can see it doesn’t take a ton of money to start to get a massive of traffic to your website with the things incorporated from above. If you have any questions about the items listed here please feel free to email me at freehits@msn.com and I would be happy to answer you as soon as I can.
Until next time,
Tony
SEO Stoopid!
SEO Stoopid!
by: Bill Kruse
Why am I SEO Stoopid?
I'm SEO Stoopid because I didn't properly take notice of what my stats could have told me.
If I would have done, I would have noticed something sooner and factoring that something into my response would very probably have saved me a goodly number of lost posters and art print sales.
My site, www.kruse.co.uk, is about SEO. I've been doing it since 1996 or thereabouts and have clients of many years standing. Halfway through last year, I started adding posters pages to it. It's restful and unoressured compared with a lot of SEO, plus I wanted to see how fast I could get unrelated pages indexed and where and with whom, plus unexpectedly I found that I enjoyed doing it, lots of reasons.
When the first two phases of Jagger hit, I was cool. It washed over my seo clients the way I expected it to (it had no effects at all), and it washed over my (by now only mostly) SEO site the way I expected it to (it had no effect at all there either).
Then came the third wave. Oh dear!
My site's serps (not my clients' - they're all fine) went into a decline that they still haven't come out of. I was getting damp postcards from my serps telling me what depth they were reaching. They told me in one message they'd dived deeper than any known footballers. Imagine! If they ever come back up they'll need time in a decompression chamber before they can surface again.
I decided that since I was tanking anyway no-one would be finding my poster pages from the engines and so now was the time to hive my poster pages off to their own site, something I'd been meaning to do for some time as a site is unlikely to do well for two such diverse subjects. I got myself a new domain for them too, www.here-be-posters.co.uk in anticipation of the day when I have more time and can settle them down on their own dedicated space - the demand I had for them shows that they deserve it and I'll be attending to this in the new Year.
I put them in a little backwater personal hosting space I have with my Broadband ISP. I have a custom 404 on my main site and I adjusted it to make it plain to folk that I'd moved the posters to a new domain as they were swamping my SEO efforts.
Now I always kept a good eye on my stats but I'd failed to note that results from Google, these days, aren't just from Google any more. They're from Google Images too - and despite the fact that I'd tanked in Google.co etc for text seaarches, unknown to me as my old stats package didn't make the distinction, my posters were still very very well ranked in Google Images. I only found this out by studying my Google Analytic stats, a service I'd only recently signed up to in anticipation of clients expecting me to keep them abreast of Search Engine and SEO events.
I checked out "Michael Sowa Prints". I was in the 80's in Google.com but to my amazement I was at positions 1 and 3 in Google Images. I checked out "Salvador Dali Prints" and "Escher-prints". Same kind of deal, I was well off the main map and out in the boonies in the text-driven Googles but top 5 in Google Images. Go see, they'll probably still be there even now.
So, what was I to do? All those potentially hard-to-get serps were going to waste as when people didn't see the result they expected when they clicked through, just my 404 page (polite though it was) they just went somewhere else.
Hurriedly put all my pages back up again is what I did, and on my SEO site too, (www.kruse.co.uk), thinking to catch what business I can from what's left of the Christmas rush. I've left all of the links to the new site (www.here-be-posters.co.uk) in place as they'll get people hopping back and forth from each site to the other, hopefully without realising. All the posters and art prints, the wall tapestries too, will have to be moved over eventually and on a permanent basis. You can have a site about SEO or a site that uses SEO to sell posters, you can not, not for any length of time, have just the one site that does both.
Not the way Google are ordering the universe anyway.
I'll change over slowly in January using individual 301 redirects and this time they really will be permanent.
For now I don't believe it'll matter as Google, according to their own stats via Google Sitemaps, have no info about www.here-be-posters.co.uk and given everything else they have on their plate just now I don't suppose they'll be indexing it all and handing out a content penalty before I've moved everything over permanently.
But look at the sales opportunity I very nearly missed, eh?
Moral of the story is, make sure your stats package is the best that it can be. I don't think I'll be using my old stats package too much from now on, but I'll keep it on as it does have some individual visitor tracking capabilities that Google's version of Urchin currently lacks. Reading your stats regularly will save you money and time in the long run.
But do make sure they're as detailed as possible - you may miss important information if they aren't! Don't be an SEO Stoopid!
by: Bill Kruse
Why am I SEO Stoopid?
I'm SEO Stoopid because I didn't properly take notice of what my stats could have told me.
If I would have done, I would have noticed something sooner and factoring that something into my response would very probably have saved me a goodly number of lost posters and art print sales.
My site, www.kruse.co.uk, is about SEO. I've been doing it since 1996 or thereabouts and have clients of many years standing. Halfway through last year, I started adding posters pages to it. It's restful and unoressured compared with a lot of SEO, plus I wanted to see how fast I could get unrelated pages indexed and where and with whom, plus unexpectedly I found that I enjoyed doing it, lots of reasons.
When the first two phases of Jagger hit, I was cool. It washed over my seo clients the way I expected it to (it had no effects at all), and it washed over my (by now only mostly) SEO site the way I expected it to (it had no effect at all there either).
Then came the third wave. Oh dear!
My site's serps (not my clients' - they're all fine) went into a decline that they still haven't come out of. I was getting damp postcards from my serps telling me what depth they were reaching. They told me in one message they'd dived deeper than any known footballers. Imagine! If they ever come back up they'll need time in a decompression chamber before they can surface again.
I decided that since I was tanking anyway no-one would be finding my poster pages from the engines and so now was the time to hive my poster pages off to their own site, something I'd been meaning to do for some time as a site is unlikely to do well for two such diverse subjects. I got myself a new domain for them too, www.here-be-posters.co.uk in anticipation of the day when I have more time and can settle them down on their own dedicated space - the demand I had for them shows that they deserve it and I'll be attending to this in the new Year.
I put them in a little backwater personal hosting space I have with my Broadband ISP. I have a custom 404 on my main site and I adjusted it to make it plain to folk that I'd moved the posters to a new domain as they were swamping my SEO efforts.
Now I always kept a good eye on my stats but I'd failed to note that results from Google, these days, aren't just from Google any more. They're from Google Images too - and despite the fact that I'd tanked in Google.co etc for text seaarches, unknown to me as my old stats package didn't make the distinction, my posters were still very very well ranked in Google Images. I only found this out by studying my Google Analytic stats, a service I'd only recently signed up to in anticipation of clients expecting me to keep them abreast of Search Engine and SEO events.
I checked out "Michael Sowa Prints". I was in the 80's in Google.com but to my amazement I was at positions 1 and 3 in Google Images. I checked out "Salvador Dali Prints" and "Escher-prints". Same kind of deal, I was well off the main map and out in the boonies in the text-driven Googles but top 5 in Google Images. Go see, they'll probably still be there even now.
So, what was I to do? All those potentially hard-to-get serps were going to waste as when people didn't see the result they expected when they clicked through, just my 404 page (polite though it was) they just went somewhere else.
Hurriedly put all my pages back up again is what I did, and on my SEO site too, (www.kruse.co.uk), thinking to catch what business I can from what's left of the Christmas rush. I've left all of the links to the new site (www.here-be-posters.co.uk) in place as they'll get people hopping back and forth from each site to the other, hopefully without realising. All the posters and art prints, the wall tapestries too, will have to be moved over eventually and on a permanent basis. You can have a site about SEO or a site that uses SEO to sell posters, you can not, not for any length of time, have just the one site that does both.
Not the way Google are ordering the universe anyway.
I'll change over slowly in January using individual 301 redirects and this time they really will be permanent.
For now I don't believe it'll matter as Google, according to their own stats via Google Sitemaps, have no info about www.here-be-posters.co.uk and given everything else they have on their plate just now I don't suppose they'll be indexing it all and handing out a content penalty before I've moved everything over permanently.
But look at the sales opportunity I very nearly missed, eh?
Moral of the story is, make sure your stats package is the best that it can be. I don't think I'll be using my old stats package too much from now on, but I'll keep it on as it does have some individual visitor tracking capabilities that Google's version of Urchin currently lacks. Reading your stats regularly will save you money and time in the long run.
But do make sure they're as detailed as possible - you may miss important information if they aren't! Don't be an SEO Stoopid!
Do You Know the Fastest Way to Get a High Page Ranking?
Do You Know the Fastest Way to Get a High Page Ranking?
by: Terry Morris
There are millions upon millions of websites on the internet. The majority of these site's have poor page rankings. Is your site one of them? Would you like to increase your page ranking? Silly question right? Of course, you want a high page ranking.... we all do. Keep reading and I will let you know a little known secret as to how you can quickly improve your page ranking.
In the early days of the web, search engines would get information about a website from the keywords meta tag. This is no longer true. The reason is that several people began to keyword stuff their meta tags to achieve higher rankings with the search engines. The Search Engines got wise to this and changed the criteria they use when crawling websites. This does not mean you should forego keyword meta tags, it is still good optimization practice to include a keywords meta tag however, this tag alone will not get you a high page ranking.
Before I tell you how you can quickly improve your page rank, I want to touch on Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Optimization is very important to the success of your website and to getting good page rankings. If you have not already done so, I encourage you to learn good optimization practices and use them when creating and submitting your website(s). You can learn more about Search Engine Optimization at http://www.terrysinfosite.com
OK, so how do you get a high page ranking? Did you know that most search engines put a high level of importance on the links to your webpage? When a high ranking website links to your site it will make the search engine take notice. Does this mean that all you have to do is get a lot of incoming links to your website? NO, absolutely not! In fact if you simply go grabbing incoming links from wherever you can you could end up getting your site banned by search engines. The key is to get quality links from high ranking sites. All of your incoming links should be from site's that have something to offer your visitors. In other words there content should be relevant to yours. After all, if you are searching for information on 'computer hardware' you aren't going to be interested in a link related to 'dog grooming' now are you? Another very important point needs to be made before we continue; NEVER use link farms. This is important and bears repeating.. NEVER, EVER use link farms. The use of link farms could get you banned. You want to stay focused on your site's content... that includes your incoming links.
OK, here is what you have been waiting for, how to improve your page ranking quickly;
First: Go to Google.com and download the Google toolbar. Install the toolbar on your web browser.
Second: Do a search using one of your site's most important keywords or phrases.
Third: Visit one of the first few site's displayed in the search results.
Fourth: Note where it says "PageRank" on your toolbar. The green bar represents the page ranking for the site you are visiting and ranges from 0 to 10.
Fifth: By using this toolbar and searching with your important keyword or phrase you can find a site with a high ranking and relevant content.
Sixth: Look for the contact information for the site you are visiting and send a request for a link to your webpage in exchange for a link to theirs.
Every link you get from a high ranking site will improve your ranking with the search engines.
Be aware, since these are high ranked sites, some will refuse your request. Never fear, there is a solution. Go back to your search engine and this time enter "link:" (without the quotes) followed by the name of the site you just approached for a link. You should only need to enter the site name, not the complete url. The resulting display will show you all of the sites that link to the one you approached. You can now go visit one of those sites and ask for a reciprocal link. While this is a 'backdoor' approach to getting the link you were originally after...it has been known to work.
Here is a little side-note with regard to negotiating for reciprocal links. This was learned during my years as owner of two businesses. In any negotiation the other side has one thing on their mind at all times...."What is in this for me?" When negotiating for reciprocal links you should stress the benefits that the agreement will provide to them. Try to make your offer as attractive to the other side as you possibly can.
I admit this involves a little time and effort however, a wise man once said, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with an empty tank and a flat tire." The time and effort you spend is well worth the rewards.
by: Terry Morris
There are millions upon millions of websites on the internet. The majority of these site's have poor page rankings. Is your site one of them? Would you like to increase your page ranking? Silly question right? Of course, you want a high page ranking.... we all do. Keep reading and I will let you know a little known secret as to how you can quickly improve your page ranking.
In the early days of the web, search engines would get information about a website from the keywords meta tag. This is no longer true. The reason is that several people began to keyword stuff their meta tags to achieve higher rankings with the search engines. The Search Engines got wise to this and changed the criteria they use when crawling websites. This does not mean you should forego keyword meta tags, it is still good optimization practice to include a keywords meta tag however, this tag alone will not get you a high page ranking.
Before I tell you how you can quickly improve your page rank, I want to touch on Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Optimization is very important to the success of your website and to getting good page rankings. If you have not already done so, I encourage you to learn good optimization practices and use them when creating and submitting your website(s). You can learn more about Search Engine Optimization at http://www.terrysinfosite.com
OK, so how do you get a high page ranking? Did you know that most search engines put a high level of importance on the links to your webpage? When a high ranking website links to your site it will make the search engine take notice. Does this mean that all you have to do is get a lot of incoming links to your website? NO, absolutely not! In fact if you simply go grabbing incoming links from wherever you can you could end up getting your site banned by search engines. The key is to get quality links from high ranking sites. All of your incoming links should be from site's that have something to offer your visitors. In other words there content should be relevant to yours. After all, if you are searching for information on 'computer hardware' you aren't going to be interested in a link related to 'dog grooming' now are you? Another very important point needs to be made before we continue; NEVER use link farms. This is important and bears repeating.. NEVER, EVER use link farms. The use of link farms could get you banned. You want to stay focused on your site's content... that includes your incoming links.
OK, here is what you have been waiting for, how to improve your page ranking quickly;
First: Go to Google.com and download the Google toolbar. Install the toolbar on your web browser.
Second: Do a search using one of your site's most important keywords or phrases.
Third: Visit one of the first few site's displayed in the search results.
Fourth: Note where it says "PageRank" on your toolbar. The green bar represents the page ranking for the site you are visiting and ranges from 0 to 10.
Fifth: By using this toolbar and searching with your important keyword or phrase you can find a site with a high ranking and relevant content.
Sixth: Look for the contact information for the site you are visiting and send a request for a link to your webpage in exchange for a link to theirs.
Every link you get from a high ranking site will improve your ranking with the search engines.
Be aware, since these are high ranked sites, some will refuse your request. Never fear, there is a solution. Go back to your search engine and this time enter "link:" (without the quotes) followed by the name of the site you just approached for a link. You should only need to enter the site name, not the complete url. The resulting display will show you all of the sites that link to the one you approached. You can now go visit one of those sites and ask for a reciprocal link. While this is a 'backdoor' approach to getting the link you were originally after...it has been known to work.
Here is a little side-note with regard to negotiating for reciprocal links. This was learned during my years as owner of two businesses. In any negotiation the other side has one thing on their mind at all times...."What is in this for me?" When negotiating for reciprocal links you should stress the benefits that the agreement will provide to them. Try to make your offer as attractive to the other side as you possibly can.
I admit this involves a little time and effort however, a wise man once said, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with an empty tank and a flat tire." The time and effort you spend is well worth the rewards.
Indirect Site Promotion - Be a Good Community Member
Indirect Site Promotion - Be a Good Community Member
by: Ace Shattock
People are always asking for the best methods of promoting their site. The usual answers are: Link Exchanges, Buy Advertising, Submit to Search Engines, Viral Marketing…and so on.
While these suggestions are all good in their own way, some require a lot of effort, some require money and some rely on your site being ‘worthwhile’ for the other sites to link to…as in, a reciprocal link will be worth them putting your link on their page…and some simply put people off because of the ‘spammy’ feel to them.
My suggestion *does* require effort, but it is a lot more subtle than the methods mentioned above.
All you need is:
* Membership at a forum
* A link back to your Home Page (without index.html or index.php) in your signature (eg: www.nzboards.com).
* The ability to make helpful/interesting/funny comments.
How many of you have seen somebody make helpful comment after helpful comment, or release great hacks/code, and then head over to their site because you were impressed with what you had seen of them on other sites?
Probably most.
Being a productive member at all the Communities you frequent will more than likely cause other members of that community to investigate your site.
The converse applies.
If you flame other community members or generally make trouble, people are unlikely to want to visit your site and become a member of your community...I know of a few people whose sites I would have to literally stumble across before I would actually go there, simply from what I have seen of their posts on various fora.
So, instead of focusing solely on spamming or getting your site known through direct advertising, think about the simple act of being a good contributor, and the people will come to you.
by: Ace Shattock
People are always asking for the best methods of promoting their site. The usual answers are: Link Exchanges, Buy Advertising, Submit to Search Engines, Viral Marketing…and so on.
While these suggestions are all good in their own way, some require a lot of effort, some require money and some rely on your site being ‘worthwhile’ for the other sites to link to…as in, a reciprocal link will be worth them putting your link on their page…and some simply put people off because of the ‘spammy’ feel to them.
My suggestion *does* require effort, but it is a lot more subtle than the methods mentioned above.
All you need is:
* Membership at a forum
* A link back to your Home Page (without index.html or index.php) in your signature (eg: www.nzboards.com).
* The ability to make helpful/interesting/funny comments.
How many of you have seen somebody make helpful comment after helpful comment, or release great hacks/code, and then head over to their site because you were impressed with what you had seen of them on other sites?
Probably most.
Being a productive member at all the Communities you frequent will more than likely cause other members of that community to investigate your site.
The converse applies.
If you flame other community members or generally make trouble, people are unlikely to want to visit your site and become a member of your community...I know of a few people whose sites I would have to literally stumble across before I would actually go there, simply from what I have seen of their posts on various fora.
So, instead of focusing solely on spamming or getting your site known through direct advertising, think about the simple act of being a good contributor, and the people will come to you.
Is Getting Web Traffic an Endless Chore?
Is Getting Web Traffic an Endless Chore?
by: Brian Queenan
If you are one of most webmasters getting web traffic probably feels like an endless chore with little or no results. You probably have shelled out a handsome amount of money to this end. I see it all the time.
The biggest problem is that most Internet marketers look at the normal ways of advertising their web site. They try to market their product online as the only means of advertising. Think for minute here. Before the Internet, how would have you tried to sell something?
I’ll bet that you came up with a few places, didn’t you? I will guarantee you that almost none of the Internet marketers who are failing have advertised their site outside of the Internet and I will almost guarantee that those who are successful have at one time or another have.
A few places to consider is your local newspaper and add the URL to your web site in your ad. You may want to consider making up some signs and putting them up on busy streets around your area. Another idea would be to make up some flyers and put them on windshields of cars at local shopping malls. These ideas may not get a ton of results but they will give you results. If you are just starting out this may be the way to go. You need to start somewhere. Brainstorm on other ways to advertise outside of the net. I guess you have to ask yourself this, is what you are doing now working? Advertising using outside sources will help you create a small viral market which can result in a bigger market online. There is not a more powerful way to get customers than through word of mouth.
To be successful on the Internet, you have to do things that others are not doing. The most successful marketers use approaches that others don’t. If you do what everyone else does you’ll get what everyone else gets which is nothing. Be different from the rest and understand that will take work will separate you from the rest of the get rich quick Internet marketers out there who expect the sales to drop into their lap without having to do anything to get it.
by: Brian Queenan
If you are one of most webmasters getting web traffic probably feels like an endless chore with little or no results. You probably have shelled out a handsome amount of money to this end. I see it all the time.
The biggest problem is that most Internet marketers look at the normal ways of advertising their web site. They try to market their product online as the only means of advertising. Think for minute here. Before the Internet, how would have you tried to sell something?
I’ll bet that you came up with a few places, didn’t you? I will guarantee you that almost none of the Internet marketers who are failing have advertised their site outside of the Internet and I will almost guarantee that those who are successful have at one time or another have.
A few places to consider is your local newspaper and add the URL to your web site in your ad. You may want to consider making up some signs and putting them up on busy streets around your area. Another idea would be to make up some flyers and put them on windshields of cars at local shopping malls. These ideas may not get a ton of results but they will give you results. If you are just starting out this may be the way to go. You need to start somewhere. Brainstorm on other ways to advertise outside of the net. I guess you have to ask yourself this, is what you are doing now working? Advertising using outside sources will help you create a small viral market which can result in a bigger market online. There is not a more powerful way to get customers than through word of mouth.
To be successful on the Internet, you have to do things that others are not doing. The most successful marketers use approaches that others don’t. If you do what everyone else does you’ll get what everyone else gets which is nothing. Be different from the rest and understand that will take work will separate you from the rest of the get rich quick Internet marketers out there who expect the sales to drop into their lap without having to do anything to get it.
Search Engine Optimization And The Magic Fairy Dust
Search Engine Optimization And The Magic Fairy Dust
by: Bill Platt
There is only one thing that all webmasters agree upon... They all want to be at the top of the search engine results for search terms that will drive traffic and consumers to their website.
The truth is that the search engines are like our childhood game of King Of The Hill. Only one person can be at the top of the hill and the top of the search results. Only ten websites can be on page one of the search results. When a new website moves into the top ten, another must be removed.
For any given search term at any given time, there are only ten web pages on page one of the search results, and there are millions of web pages that did not make page one, who may or may not catch a few stragglers from the search engines.
How Can A Website Break Into The Top Ten?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an industry that has sprung up around the concept of helping their clients improve their rankings in the search engine results.
When you talk to SEO professionals, they generally point to a two-pronged approach to search ranking optimization. A website owner needs to optimize their on-site real estate for the search engines, and they need to build inbound links to their website.
On-Site Search Optimization Challenges
The trick with on-site search optimization is that you must cater to multiple audiences on your website.
* You must provide simple navigation and an attractive interface to the human visitor;
* You must provide good sales copy to your human visitors, for the purpose of converting them from shoppers to buyers;
* You must provide text copy for the search engines to read; and
* You must optimize your content to help the search engines know what topics and keywords they should pay attention, so that they can give their users the right web page for the right search terms.
A web page that draws good search rankings is useless if the web page cannot convert the human visitor to a buyer. Many website owners get caught up in the process of optimizing a web page to get it to the top of the search results, and they forget that the human visitor knows where the Back Button is in his or her browser. Once your visitor has hit the Back Button, they will go to someone else's website and buy from them, instead of you.
Most website owners have the alternate problem. They consistently convert a significant number of visitors to buyers, but they have to rely on various forms of paid advertising to get visitors to their websites, since they do not rank in the search engines.
I recently spoke with an individual who spends ,000 per month on pay-per-click advertising to get targeted traffic to his website. He said he consistently earns back his money, but he was still looking for a better way to get ranked in the search engines, so he joined my client list.
On-Site Search Engine Optimization Basics
According to the search engine companies, there are more than one thousand calculations that determine how well a website will rank in their search engine result pages (SERPs).
The Google engineers are fond of saying that if you build your website for human beings instead of search engines, then your website should rank well in their algorithms. To a certain degree, this is a good strategy.
Think about how magazines are constructed:
The Table Of Contents shows story titles, brief descriptions, and page numbers telling you where you can find a story.
On the story page, the title will be in big, bold font. Sometimes, the magazine will include a brief blurb about the story, in italics or font that is a bit bigger than the story font.
Pictures support the story with captions that further develop the story, by describing the picture.
Major subsections of the story have their own subheadings. And, the primary body of the story is in regular plain text, with only an occasional bolded or italicized word or phrase.
By analyzing the title and other large text on the page, a person who is flipping through the pages of a magazine can quickly assess the story content and make the decision as to whether they want to read the full story.
In the most simplistic way, this is how the search engines analyze a websites' content to decide which web page will best serve their users' needs.
Off-Site Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Basics
Since the inception of Google, and with Yahoo and MSN recently, the number and quality of links pointing to a website play a significant role in determining how well a web page will rank in the search results.
I have heard people suggest that as much as 75% of the value given to a web page in the search results is based solely on the number and quality of links pointing to a web page. I tend to believe a more conservative number (50.1%) will apply.
Inbound Links Are More Important Than Page Content
To prove this point, type "click here" without the quotes into Google, Yahoo and MSN and check the Adobe pages that come up in the search results: #1 in Google, #2 in Yahoo, and #1 in MSN. When you pull up those pages, search the page to find the individual words "click" or "here" in the text of those pages. They are not there. This has happened because millions of people have linked to these Adobe pages with the embedded anchor text, "click here".
Next, let's analyze those specific web pages from the perspective of each of the search engines:
* Google's #1 result - Google PageRank 8. (www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html) Links to this web page: according to Google (31); according to Yahoo (nearly 12 million); according to MSN (6,400).
* Yahoo's #2 result - Google PageRank 10. (www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer) Links to this web page: Google (15,200); Yahoo (700 thousand); MSN (32).
* MSN's #1 result - Google PageRank 8. (www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash) Links to this web page: Google (0); Yahoo (2.9 million); MSN (778).
On Google's top result, they show 31 inbound links total for that web page. But, Yahoo claims that there are more than 12 million links to this page. That is a huge difference.
On Yahoo's #2 result, MSN gives 32 links, Google gives 15,000 links, and Yahoo claims it has 700 thousand links! That is another huge difference between the link counts from the search engines.
On MSN's #1 result, MSN shows a strong link count, but still nowhere near Yahoo's 2.9 million links. But, how does a web page with zero links in Google get a PageRank 8?
What Do These Numbers Mean?
Google has always said that they will never show us all of the links that we have pointing to our websites, because anything we can see in the public search results, our competitors can see also. So, for me it really is no surprise that we cannot see all of the links that point to Adobe pages, or to the links we have created that point to our clients and ourselves, by querying the search engines.
Also, the sheer numbers of inbound links do not rule the roost. Google's #1 result (PR8) is actually shown in Google, before Yahoo's #2 (PR10) result.
The Proof For Link Building Is In The Search Engine Rankings
Recently, a fellow who works as a SEO "professional" told me that be believed my link building system was a sham.
I showed him that on the top 51 keyword phrases we use to market our original commercial website, we had 11 number one results, 31 top five results, 34 top ten results, 47 top thirty results, and 51 top 100 results within the Google search results. Additionally, it was shown that only three of those results competed with fewer than one million search results according to Google, with the remaining 48 pages competing with one million to 533 million pages.
Ole boy tore up Google trying to track how it was possible for me to have accomplished what I claimed. He finally concluded that since Google would not show HIM how I was able to rank so well in their search engine results, then I must have been lying.
According to Yahoo, we have over 12,000 links from third-party websites. According to our site statistics, we received traffic from more than 16,000 unique web pages during 2006. And Google still swears that we only have 42 inbound links to our website!
Magic Fairy Dust
My nemesis concluded that since HE could not prove through Google how I was successful in getting good search rankings, then I could not have accomplished such results by the methods I claimed.
Okay, I admit it.
I used the exact same method that Adobe used to get to the top of Google's search engine rankings. I have a pocket full of magic fairy dust. Whenever, I do not like how my websites rank in the search engines, I sprinkle my magic fairy dust on my modem.
If you don't like where you are ranked in the search engines, then I suggest you forego the search engine optimization companies altogether and instead run over to the corner store to get your own magic fairy dust. You might have to shop around a bit, but it is out there.
by: Bill Platt
There is only one thing that all webmasters agree upon... They all want to be at the top of the search engine results for search terms that will drive traffic and consumers to their website.
The truth is that the search engines are like our childhood game of King Of The Hill. Only one person can be at the top of the hill and the top of the search results. Only ten websites can be on page one of the search results. When a new website moves into the top ten, another must be removed.
For any given search term at any given time, there are only ten web pages on page one of the search results, and there are millions of web pages that did not make page one, who may or may not catch a few stragglers from the search engines.
How Can A Website Break Into The Top Ten?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an industry that has sprung up around the concept of helping their clients improve their rankings in the search engine results.
When you talk to SEO professionals, they generally point to a two-pronged approach to search ranking optimization. A website owner needs to optimize their on-site real estate for the search engines, and they need to build inbound links to their website.
On-Site Search Optimization Challenges
The trick with on-site search optimization is that you must cater to multiple audiences on your website.
* You must provide simple navigation and an attractive interface to the human visitor;
* You must provide good sales copy to your human visitors, for the purpose of converting them from shoppers to buyers;
* You must provide text copy for the search engines to read; and
* You must optimize your content to help the search engines know what topics and keywords they should pay attention, so that they can give their users the right web page for the right search terms.
A web page that draws good search rankings is useless if the web page cannot convert the human visitor to a buyer. Many website owners get caught up in the process of optimizing a web page to get it to the top of the search results, and they forget that the human visitor knows where the Back Button is in his or her browser. Once your visitor has hit the Back Button, they will go to someone else's website and buy from them, instead of you.
Most website owners have the alternate problem. They consistently convert a significant number of visitors to buyers, but they have to rely on various forms of paid advertising to get visitors to their websites, since they do not rank in the search engines.
I recently spoke with an individual who spends ,000 per month on pay-per-click advertising to get targeted traffic to his website. He said he consistently earns back his money, but he was still looking for a better way to get ranked in the search engines, so he joined my client list.
On-Site Search Engine Optimization Basics
According to the search engine companies, there are more than one thousand calculations that determine how well a website will rank in their search engine result pages (SERPs).
The Google engineers are fond of saying that if you build your website for human beings instead of search engines, then your website should rank well in their algorithms. To a certain degree, this is a good strategy.
Think about how magazines are constructed:
The Table Of Contents shows story titles, brief descriptions, and page numbers telling you where you can find a story.
On the story page, the title will be in big, bold font. Sometimes, the magazine will include a brief blurb about the story, in italics or font that is a bit bigger than the story font.
Pictures support the story with captions that further develop the story, by describing the picture.
Major subsections of the story have their own subheadings. And, the primary body of the story is in regular plain text, with only an occasional bolded or italicized word or phrase.
By analyzing the title and other large text on the page, a person who is flipping through the pages of a magazine can quickly assess the story content and make the decision as to whether they want to read the full story.
In the most simplistic way, this is how the search engines analyze a websites' content to decide which web page will best serve their users' needs.
Off-Site Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Basics
Since the inception of Google, and with Yahoo and MSN recently, the number and quality of links pointing to a website play a significant role in determining how well a web page will rank in the search results.
I have heard people suggest that as much as 75% of the value given to a web page in the search results is based solely on the number and quality of links pointing to a web page. I tend to believe a more conservative number (50.1%) will apply.
Inbound Links Are More Important Than Page Content
To prove this point, type "click here" without the quotes into Google, Yahoo and MSN and check the Adobe pages that come up in the search results: #1 in Google, #2 in Yahoo, and #1 in MSN. When you pull up those pages, search the page to find the individual words "click" or "here" in the text of those pages. They are not there. This has happened because millions of people have linked to these Adobe pages with the embedded anchor text, "click here".
Next, let's analyze those specific web pages from the perspective of each of the search engines:
* Google's #1 result - Google PageRank 8. (www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html) Links to this web page: according to Google (31); according to Yahoo (nearly 12 million); according to MSN (6,400).
* Yahoo's #2 result - Google PageRank 10. (www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer) Links to this web page: Google (15,200); Yahoo (700 thousand); MSN (32).
* MSN's #1 result - Google PageRank 8. (www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash) Links to this web page: Google (0); Yahoo (2.9 million); MSN (778).
On Google's top result, they show 31 inbound links total for that web page. But, Yahoo claims that there are more than 12 million links to this page. That is a huge difference.
On Yahoo's #2 result, MSN gives 32 links, Google gives 15,000 links, and Yahoo claims it has 700 thousand links! That is another huge difference between the link counts from the search engines.
On MSN's #1 result, MSN shows a strong link count, but still nowhere near Yahoo's 2.9 million links. But, how does a web page with zero links in Google get a PageRank 8?
What Do These Numbers Mean?
Google has always said that they will never show us all of the links that we have pointing to our websites, because anything we can see in the public search results, our competitors can see also. So, for me it really is no surprise that we cannot see all of the links that point to Adobe pages, or to the links we have created that point to our clients and ourselves, by querying the search engines.
Also, the sheer numbers of inbound links do not rule the roost. Google's #1 result (PR8) is actually shown in Google, before Yahoo's #2 (PR10) result.
The Proof For Link Building Is In The Search Engine Rankings
Recently, a fellow who works as a SEO "professional" told me that be believed my link building system was a sham.
I showed him that on the top 51 keyword phrases we use to market our original commercial website, we had 11 number one results, 31 top five results, 34 top ten results, 47 top thirty results, and 51 top 100 results within the Google search results. Additionally, it was shown that only three of those results competed with fewer than one million search results according to Google, with the remaining 48 pages competing with one million to 533 million pages.
Ole boy tore up Google trying to track how it was possible for me to have accomplished what I claimed. He finally concluded that since Google would not show HIM how I was able to rank so well in their search engine results, then I must have been lying.
According to Yahoo, we have over 12,000 links from third-party websites. According to our site statistics, we received traffic from more than 16,000 unique web pages during 2006. And Google still swears that we only have 42 inbound links to our website!
Magic Fairy Dust
My nemesis concluded that since HE could not prove through Google how I was successful in getting good search rankings, then I could not have accomplished such results by the methods I claimed.
Okay, I admit it.
I used the exact same method that Adobe used to get to the top of Google's search engine rankings. I have a pocket full of magic fairy dust. Whenever, I do not like how my websites rank in the search engines, I sprinkle my magic fairy dust on my modem.
If you don't like where you are ranked in the search engines, then I suggest you forego the search engine optimization companies altogether and instead run over to the corner store to get your own magic fairy dust. You might have to shop around a bit, but it is out there.
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