How to Win the Race Between Search Engines and Search Engine Optimizers----
The Search engine's purpose is to provide useful, high quality and relevant information for any search term. There is a real war between the search engines' methods and algorithms and search engine optimizers. The result must be the user's satisfaction: high quality web sites in high positions on the search engines lists.
Page Rank is an indicator that Google is using to measure web sites popularity. The algorithm to establish it is a secret, but it is easy to find that the most important factors can be the number of links leading to the website page and the Page Rank of the link’s source.
It looks like the most popular search engines are counting the links (incoming or outgoing) and considering their number like a vote for quality. In reality, not each link is equal in quality to the others.
Search engines are considering the link's quality as very important; maybe this is the determinant factor to establish a page rank. Google is the first search engine taking this factor into account.
Search engine optimizers are trying to do their best to find the top quality links for their web sites. But there are many types of links. They must find the ones giving high ranks all the time. Everybody agrees that links from high quality web sites are a major gain for a page rank. There is also the possibility to build links from related sites. In this situation, the sites must have many topics in common.
Google is developing clusters for specific topics. These clusters are hosting pages having inbound links from the sites having the same keywords. The best a search engine optimizer can do is to establish a link to one of these sites. The reason why it can be the best kind of link we can get is that the search engine will find the reference site relevant for the keywords demanded in this category.
If the search engine optimizer can include useful keywords in the text of the inbound link, he is in luck.
Reciprocal linking can be realized finding the non competitive and topic related web sites. If the search engine optimizer can realize an emails campaign, he can have good results in reciprocal links building.
The search engine optimizer has the possibility to write a personal email to a contact address or to the website’s owner. He can tell them that he appreciated their website so much that he included a review about it in his own website.
This is a very agreeable letter for anybody, even finding that, near the review, there is also the web site address. The possibility to have a reciprocal link, in this case, is 9%.
To increase your chances of getting reciprocal links with higher PRs, you should consider joining a linking directory. This can be achieved by exchanging links with other websites of similar content to your own. A great example of a linking directory is:
o http://www.MyLinkMachine.com
Another great resource to achieving higher PR for your website is to submit articles to article directories. You can include a link to your website in your article and the resource box. A great directory you may want to consider to submit your articles is:
o http://www.MyContentBuilder.com
If you are looking for a faster and easier way to submit your articles, a great resource is an automatic article submitter. It will submit an article to over 30 directories in a half an hour. To watch a video on how to do this, go to:
o http://1trac.com/dt/t/Article_Submitter_Video.php
How Your Network Affects Your PR Ratings!----
It's been long overdue that I've been wanting to talk about how owning a network of web sites, drastically affects your page ranking within Google.
For some of you, you may closely watch what goes on with Page Ranking Within Google with your trusty toolbar, and some of you may not have a clue nor care enough to watch your web site popularity and stay glued to you se ranking like a hawk.
If you've ever considered owning a successful network of web sites, you'll want to start paying close attention as to how your network affects your search positions.
Page Ranking is like an ocean "tide", it comes and goes and then comes back again, feeding a never ending sea of web site owners and keeping them on the shore to watch. What you want to notice is how owning a few "title waves" coming in, will drastically kill your page ranking but increase your search engine saturation.
If you haven't heard the term saturation before, it's merely referred to as the amount of links within your site that gets listed by search engines. So if you have 20 pages within your web site, you should have 20 pages listed in search engines.
If you don't have 20 pages listed, your search engine saturation is lower than it should be and you should concentrate on promoting ALL your pages, not just the main page of your site.
Personally owning a network of sites, and having worked on a network of 180 sites for one client, I've come to the conclusion that if you want to reach a 6/10 Google ranking, don't merely rely on your network to get success.
Like I mention in all my articles, search engines are getting smarter and can detect and sniff out a network of web sites created to help one thing, profit.
What you want to do is like I mentioned in a previous article, promote ALL your pages in as many web sites as you can. Find all related material to what you do.
Please don't get me wrong, owning a network is in no way harmful to have. The way a network will work successfully is by at least having one of your web sites already successful and the rest are tailing on it's success.
Trying to start an entire network from scratch is not only ludicrous, it would take a really good chunk of someone's budget just to make sure you would succeed in keeping up with the demand.
All too many times, I see people promote their site for a month or so, realize it's a lot of work and start neglecting it completely. Never give up on your dream, you only have one person to blame, yourself.
Start slow, start with one site. Expand it until you are ready to move onto another on-going project. Always remember that by starting another site within your network will not only bring you more responsibilities but it will be your responsibility to make sure this new web site is successful and that the old one isn't forgotten either.
So in conclusion:
Don't only rely on your network to bring your page ranking up and always look for new sources to improve on promoting all your pages.
Hope this helps all of you!
Hunting For Online Directories - The In depth Strategy----
Directory marketing can help boost your companies performance a great deal. Not only will you get qualified leads for your business, your web site will also increase it's traffic ranking a tremendous amount.
Here are a couple basic advantages to online directories,
- Substantial staying power
- Repetitive marketing
- Your listing grows with the entire site
- No updating unless necessary
- Not necessary to link back to the directory
Please Note: This article is meant to discuss and implement marketing strategies for local business directories online, not link exchange, a.k.a swapping links with other websites.
For many people, one/two directories always come to mind,
- http://dir.yahoo.com
- http://www.dmoz.com
- http://directory.google.com
With web marketing, you want to have ever lasting staying power, online directories can provide you with this and more.
Many people who DO NOT use the internet everyday stick with the basics when they come online. Many people are usually looking for a specific service or product that they want to check up on within their local community. This is why it is so crucial that you get noticed locally online.
Every major city has at least one or two good business directories for you to submit your business to. Many of these directories don't even require that you have a website.
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Tips on how to find local directories online:
<=========== Try being very specific when you search. There are two methods that work really good. A) "Hamilton" Business Directory < Search for "Your City" plus "business directory". This should typically bring you to local business directories that usually are competing against one another. Don't be afraid to keep digging through this important search term. B) Be VERY specific: If in the case that you can't find anything, try searching for something general within your local area. For instance, if you "cut hair", try searching for "Hair Salons In (your area)". Ex. "Hair Salons in hamilton, Ontario". Doing a specific search like this should typically bring up local directories that are really trying to get the most exposure as possible. The reason why you should find a directory this way is because if you don't find anything by doing specific searches for specific products or services locally, you might as well reap the rewards of having your own local business directory and get all the advertising exposure that comes with it. Directories online are there for one thing and one thing only. To give the owner of the directory massive exposure while helping his/her local, regionally, national community. That's it. There are few people out there that just create a local directory just for something to do. These people typically have too much time on their hands and they probably take great pride in their directory online. =======>
How To Prepare For Directory Submissions
<======= There are certain key bullets of information that 90% of directories ask for, here they are in no particular order. Name Company Position Type Of Business Phone Number Fax Number Email: - (may need to be validated) Web Site Title Of Your Site: - (keep it within 70 char) Description: - (keep it within 200 char) Search Terms: If you are asked for search terms, don't disregard them. This is just there so that the directory you are submitting to can add these search terms to their "search engine" in order to find your business. So if a directory asks you for search terms, add in as many as you can that you would want people to find your business by. and... Category That's typically about all that most directories will ask for. Very straight forward. I would recommend opening up "Note Pad" or "Word Document" and fill in these requirements on your own before you start submitting your company. It may save you a lot of time in the end. ===========>
Targeting Regional & International:
<=========== If your business is better off targeting people outside your local community, you might want to consider implementing a link exchange program. This is where you will find extremely competitive directories online that want to get as much exposure as you do. Once you start targeting internationally, many of the directories you will find will most likely want to swap information with you. The good ol' barter system, an eye for an eye. Nothing wrong with this. Just make sure that the directory you link to doesn't "feel wrong". ... and I mean "feel wrong". Someone came to me the other day and asked me to take a look at something. They said that they weren't sure if they should swap links with this other company. I simply asked them, what kind of feeling do you get from this other company? This person said that the website was a little fishy and felt a little cold. What is the best course of action here??? Go with your gut instinct. You never want to link to websites that you don't even feel right about it. Besides, if you link to it from your site, you might as well put up a banner sign outside your window saying that you fully support this other company. If an online directory asks you to exchange information and you don't feel that it would be valuable to your visitors, move onto another directory. If you feel fishy about it, so will others. ==========>
Finding International Directories:
<========== For this you'll want to implement the same strategy as before when you learned about searching for "local directories". Try using the "country, state/provice" added with online directory or business directory. So do a search like this: Canadian Business Directory - or - Online Directories In Canada This style of searching should bring you specific directories. Please remember that there is NO quick way of doing this. You must have patience since, even now, there are still literally 1000's of directories I've never heard of. Directories keep popping up every day. Don't be afraid to search for new directories once a month, or once every 90 days. ===========>
Placing Your Companies Directory Listing In The Right Spot:
<=========== This step could be one of the most important steps you take for advertising within online directories. I say this is important because without careful positioning, your directory listing may never see a visitor again. Steps you can take to get proper placements: - Do a "general search": Search within the directory for something general and related to your business. Place your company within that search result. - Only 2 clicks away: Try placing your company within a category that is only 2 clicks away from the main directory page. This will increase your results. Some directories can't offer you this, it's ok depending on the popularity of the directory you are submitting to. - Watch out for spammers: Watch out for directories that list 100 companies on one page. This is called "Link Farms" online and is frowned upon from search engines. - Find empty categories: Don't be afraid to click in once more in order to find a category that has been barely touched. Getting your own category is the ultimate listing for your business. - Don't go "unrelated": Do not submit your company to "unrelated" categories. If you can't find a category for your business, try contacting the directory administrator to implement a new category for your business. - Was it too confusing? Again, go with your gut feeling. If you found the directory way too confusing to find anything, 9/10 times other visitors will also find it confusing and leave. That about wraps it up for online directories. There is enough knowledge here to help you find the right directories for your business. Some tips have been excluded because every person adapts to their own strategy and I hope you will too. Best Of Luck To Ya! If It Seems Too Good To Be True, It Probably Is---- If a marketing campaign says one thing and you think it’s too good to be true, then it probably is. Business owners and marketers know and understand the importance of an effective marketing campaign like advertising flyers for example. An effective marketing campaign can make or break the impression you create with your target clients. It is therefore crucial that you do everything in your power to develop a marketing campaign that your target clients would have a hard time to resist. So what do you do to get your message out to your target clients? You get professionals and experts to help you create your advertising medium. This is where business owners are often taken advantage of. Many business owners have been victims of scams in advertising because some people prey on them just because they’re so eager to advertise that they’ll believe everything they hear, even those that are too good to be true. Guarantees and promises are given so quickly that business owners often find themselves at the end of every rip-off. Many would offer cheap marketing packages just so they could take advantage of the over eagerness of another businessman. Let’s face it. Business owners often fall prey to this kind of tricks because they clearly want to go out there and introduce their products and services. Most scams are often made online. There’s the pay-per-click ad where viewers and browsers can click on a banner if they pay a certain amount to the developers. Actually, this advertising method is legitimate before it was used by unscrupulous hackers who turned it into a way for them to steal a lot of money from unsuspecting customers. What happens is that when you click on the banner, not only do you get to pay for the amount indicated in the website, but you also get to pay a higher amount because by clicking you actually increase the rate in the banner. There are still many more scams used online. The point here is that many advertisers have paid a huge chunk of their budget just so they could avail of the promises that were never delivered. They pay for services that are not performed. Often, they were lured with big promises that they scramble to shell out their limited budget just so they can avail of the service. The key is to avoid getting cheated of your hard earned money by doing a background check first before you agree to the service being offered. And always, always be wary of attractive promises. As I’ve said before, if you think it’s too good to be true, it probably is. If You Build It, They Will Come...---- No they won't. On the web, building a web site is not enough. If there are no links to the site anywhere, no-one is going to visit it. The site won't even be listed in any of the search engines without some incoming links. To get traffic, you will need to do some promotion.
Web Directories
The basic part of any promotion campaign, web directories, whist they may not generate much in the way of traffic, will help in your site's search engine ranking. A good list of free, non-reciprocal, search engine friendly directories can be found at http://info.vilesilencer.com.
Pay Per Click Advertising
This is advertising such as PPC Search Engines, like Yahoo!'s Overture, and contextual advertising, like Google's AdWords. Be warned, it is very easy to go through a substantial amount of money for no reward using these services if you are not careful. AdWords (amongst others) lets you pick a maximum budget a day, but, although $5 may not sound like much, $5/day is $150+ per month. Better make sure your keywords are correctly identified, and, in preference, not highly competed on, and that your sales copy is good enough before doing this.
Quality Traffic, not Just Traffic
It's what everyone is after, more traffic to their website. Traffic is easy to obtain, though. Autosurfers, manual hit exchanges and purchased traffic will all send visitors to your website. However, this traffic is just visitors, many of whom will just burn up your bandwidth for no reward. Unless you are receiving decent money for pay per impression advertising, such as banners and popups, this traffic can be totally valueless.
Repeat Traffic
Unless you only require visitors to visit your site once, because you are selling a one-off product, and your sales copy is fantastic enough that they are hooked to buy on the first visit (and if you are regulary doing this, write an ebook explaining how and sell it), you will want visitors to return. If there is nothing of value at your site, visitors may come once, but they won't come back of their own accord. Typically, it is estimated that a prospective customer will be exposed seven times to a product etc. before buying.
Reciprocal Linking
Whilst somewhat frowned upon, and generally thought to not be as valuable as one-way linking (see below) for search engine optimization, a relevant reciprocal linking campaign can be an important traffic generating tool. swap links with sites in a related, but non-competing, business to your own. It isn't really a good idea to link to competitors; although visitors will be interested in your product, there is a good chance you will lose them to your competitor, especially if their website or product is better or looks better than your own. Not a desirable outcome. For example, a web hosting site could link to a site that sells scripts and programs; visitors to one will more than likely use the other, but the sites are not in direct competition. You can also swap links with web directories that require a reciprocal link.
One-Way Linking
Considered the best form of link for SEO purposes, this can also be a good source of traffic. There are a number of ways of getting one-way links. The easiest is submission to free web directories (see above). Another good source is by writing articles relevant to your site or industry, putting a resource box at the bottom, then posting the article on the directories such as ZapContent.com, or by sumbitting to the ezines. Webmasters and ezine publishers are always in need of fresh content, and will publish your article for free. The hardest way of getting one-way inbound links is by having websites voluntarily link to you. The only way to do this is by providing a valuable tool, service or resource that other webmasters will want to direct their visitors to
Importance of your website coming at good position in SERP!----
Being an owner of a website is a matter of proud for most of us. A genuine question arises that what is the use of the website, if your website is not getting the visitors?
The question is fair enough. If no one (other than you and your near one) is coming to visit your website then that website is useless. Let me explain this line.
A website in general provides three type of things, one is Service, second is Information and the third is Product. Now in the first case if your website is providing any services then what is the use of that website if no one is coming to use that service? Again in the case of an informational website if no one is going to read your informational articles then what is the use of that website? For the third type of website it is quite obvious that if no one is purchasing the product then that website is quite useless.
Other than these there are a financial issue too attached with the website. There are so many websites which provide a way to earn from your website, like Google Adsense, Widgetbucks etc. and there are so many websites which provide us the opportunity to earn cash from home, or from your website, or working part time from your home etc. etc. Also we can earn money from becoming the affiliate of any good website.
Now if your website is attached with any of these earn money from your website offer then still you won’t be able to earn any thing if no visitors are coming to your website. Otherwise if our website is an affiliate of a website then also we are not going to get any thing unless we can be able to sell there products from our website and unless our website is not getting visitors then how come we think about converting them into customer.
So ultimately, a visitor for a website is like having life in any human being. If a human being has no life then he is dead, in the same way if the website has no visitor then the website is also dead.
So, ultimately we all require visitors for our website. Now a big question arises: How? How can we get visitors? There are so many ways. One way is to run PPC (pay per click) campaigns like Google Adwords. If we are having a good budget then we can utilize that budget by spending them on Adwords and by this way we can get visitors.
Next way is to submit your website in directories. There are so many web directories available in the net from where we can get visitors by submitting our website in the proper category. Now if some one reached to that website for a search for that particular category then there is a chance that he or she can visit our website.
Next way to get visitors is to write down some informative article and submit those in some good sites which accept articles written by others, like ezinearticles, goarticles, articledashboard etc. These websites are commonly known for the visitors who really want to study good content, so if they will like the article written by you then there is a higher probability that they will surely visit your website.
Here is one more way to get visitors for your website. You can submit the news related to your website to the social book marking sites and you are sure to get visitors from there.
Is there any other way to get visitors? Well there are so many ways but the most important and the simplest way of getting visitors is from Search Engines. Suppose if your website is providing information about car’s and some one comes to Google and searches Car Review and your website came at the very first page of the SERP, then it is quite obvious that he will visit your website.
What if your website is coming at the very first page of all the searches related to your main keyword? Obviously your website will automatically get lots and lots of targeted traffic. Targeted in the sense since the people who are visiting your website were those only who were searching for that particular thing only.
Important Things to Know When You Submit Your Articles to an Article Directory-----
Article writers are submitting their articles to hundreds of article directories to offer publishers free content and to provide themselves with a marketing tool for their website. As an administrator for one of the fastest growing article directories on the web, I review hundreds of articles submitted each day. I have the joy of both reading and approving quality articles, and the unfortunate task of declining those that do not meet site standards. I have noticed many mistakes by writers that wind themselves up with an ‘article denied’. It can be unfortunate because the articles can have rich content, but minor problems will result in a rejection. Let’s take a look at some of the very basic ways you can guarantee that your article gets approved and submitted to the article directory.
1. Unique Article Content - One of the most important things is to make sure your article is unique to the article directory. Article directories are looking for unique content. Do not submit duplicate articles. That is a sure way to get your article declined, but an even better way to get your account deactivated. Run a search before submitting your article to see what kind of content is being offered.
2. Choose a Descriptive Title – Along with writing a unique article, choose a title that describes your content well and targets your article keywords. Some articles I receive will include only one or two words. It is not a good idea to be vague. Be as specific and detailed as possible. Select a title that will draw your reader in! Another important thing to note is that a title marked in all capital letters is usually frowned upon by article directories.
3. Format Your Article Properly – Many article directories prefer that you do not use hard breaks. In other words, as you write your article lets your text automatically wrap to the next line instead of pressing ‘Enter’ after every line. Also, pay attention to what the article directory requires as far as coding goes. The key is to make it easy on your reader to read the article. A formatted article also portrays professionalism and quality. Part of professionalism and quality is to use the spell check. A poorly spelled article will result in a rejection and a delay in getting your article published.
4. Length – It is vital before you even think of submitting your article to an article directory to make sure your article is the appropriate length. It is a safe assumption that the article needs to be at least 500 words. In the process of making sure your article is a good length, do not spam the article with nonsense.
5. Keywords – Do make sure you choose appropriate keywords that relate to your article. Keywords are vital for your article. Keywords allow for your article to be found by users searching for those words in search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN Search. Keywords are very important for gaining maximum exposure for your article.
Along with these five principles, take the time to read the submission guidelines for the article directory. This may seem like a very obvious principle, but I do not have the feeling many follow it. Usually the submission guidelines are not lengthy. The principles above are pretty much standard for gaining an inclusion into an article directory, but it is always wise to read the site rules so you are sure to meet the article directory’s standards.
Improve Your Directory Submission Acceptance Rates-----
Using directory submissions to get links to your website and gain visibility will usually give you permanent links and advertisement for your site. The benefit of this is that with only a small effort you can submit to the directories and then just sit there and enjoy the quality links and higher search engine rankings you get for your site.
The problem is that the more well-known directories get thousands of applications to their sites. As such, they have rules and guidelines for your listing. These rules are put in place to ensure that the submission and review procedure can operate without extra work, as well as to help the editor select just the sites that are appropriate. And so the question is: How can I improve the chances that my listing gets accepted into the highest-traffic, top web directories?
One of the most common restrictions imposed by directories has to do with the size of your title, description keywords. Before you begin submitting anywhere, sit down and take down a few properly-formulated descriptions that are 100, 150, 200, and 250 characters long. One of those four levels can usually get accepted in any web directory you come across.
You may not be able to say everything about your site, so pick the most important points and go with that. After that's done with, highest of the difficult work is out of the way. Now all you have to do is search for the length requirements, copy and paste your excerpt of that length, and you're all set. The exact same process holds true for keywords, so prepare a few different options so that, when it's time for the submission forms, it's just a matter of picking the appropriate one.
If you waste time submitting to web directories with poorly categorized, spammy listings, you are going to get turned down. You've then wasted a lot of your effort and gotten absolutely nothing in exchange. An example of this would be that if you deal in widgets, when you submit your information you include the keyword 'widgets' in your description, title, and keywords as many times as you can. typically readability takes a backseat as the focus becomes cramming the keywords in as many times as possible. Review editors detest this and it's a really easy rejection. Do not spam your directory listings. That can't be more plainly stated, yet for whatever reason, people still do it.
Web directories are sorted by topic and editors commonly take great pride in ensuring that everything stays well categorized. Every directory should advise you this as it makes their job easier when it comes time to review your link. So, put yourself in their shoes and do them a favor, because ultimately it's you and your website that are going to gain when you are accepted.
A tiny extra bit of effort on your side to properly submit your site can vastly improve your likelihood of getting approved. Think about it: If you're the editor and you want to approve a site, you probably only need to click one button. But, if the webmaster chose the wrong category, then you have to edit his application to modify the selection (and now find the proper category), which takes extra time. If you are the editor sitting down with thousands of applications to read, it's far easier to click the 'delete' button than it is to deal with fumbling through categories.
Selecting the proper category should be stressed because it not only makes the directory editor's job a lot easier therefore speeding up your acceptance, but also the search engines will look at the various links that are next to you on the page you are listed on and if they are of a related theme to your own this can improve your rankings.
It's usually not that hard to adhere to the regulations of a web directory with very little extra work. Most of the editors are looking for the same things, so the formalities from directory to directory tend to be pretty similar.
Increase Sales! Traffic! through Traffic Blazer?----
What is Traffic Blazer and what are its benefits?
As we know a lot of your web site traffic will come through search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN. You will have people visit your site through word of mouth, but an easy method to getting your name out is to be in the top 10 for specific search strings. Traffic Blazer promotes your business and web site through various methods I will describe shortly to increase your visibility on the internet and to make you more money. It will do this in a few simple steps and your site will be promoted with a few clicks and some entering of information.
Lets see how it claims to market your web site.
1) Through Blog Search Engine Submission. I have recently come across this method and have began and submitted my own blog in regards to Web Design / Domain Names. Blogs seem to be the new "it thing" to get your site out there quickly. People read your blog and from your blog you can link to your website to gain one way links to your web site. This will increase your chances of gaining a higher search engine ranking. So it naturally seems to me submitting them to blog search engines will get your blog more in the spot light and increase your traffic further.
Just be careful if you decide to create a blog, and submit to blog search engines. Don't post too often in your blogs, only 1-2 times per day, or else it may be perceived by the search engines that you are using the blog only to gain advertising. This may hurt you in the long run, such as dropping in ranking or even being completely wiped out of the search engine ranking.
2) Through actual Search Engine and Directories Submission. This is very useful as the more search engines that list you, the greater it will have your site out on the internet for people to see. If you do this by hand as I did, this is a very time consuming task and having it automated helps the process a lot. It claims to submit to over 200 search engines and directories which is good, but in reality there is about four you definately need to submit to: google, yahoo, msn and DMOZ. This may seem like this step is pointless to submit to over 200 places, but the more you get the name out there the better. Some people are dedicated to using smaller search engines and this can generate extra business you would not have otherwise.
3) Site Optimization - it says it will position your web site for top rankings with Google and other leading search engines, but I am still unclear as to how. My guess would be it suggests replacement words in your content to allow the major search engines to clearly see what the page is about. I still think your own site optimization, if you know how to optimize it for the search engines, is the best option. Otherwise, this may be a viable option for people with lesser experience on optimizing.
4) Site Analysis - It analyzes your site's strengths and potential weaknesses to help you secure crucial search engine success. This is a great tool in my opinion, as it may see something that you do not in your site that may be causing your rankings to be lower than they should be.
5) Keyword Optimization - It helps you find effective keywords for your web site. One benefit of using Traffic Blazer for this, is it shows you the words and phrases actual search engine users have searched for that are related to your site and will optimize the site for these keywords. This definately is a great asset.
6) List Checking Report / Ranking Report - it tells you where you are located in the major search engines. This is useful if you quickly want to know where you stand in the search engines for particular search phrases. Trying to find your site ranking in the search engines is tedious to by hand, and this will reduce time it takes to find this information out.
7) HTML Verification - checks your site for HTML code problems. This is a great tool and you should always make sure the HTML for your page is up to W3C standards. You can look at http://www.w3.org/ to find out about these standards, and I believe there is also an online checker there provided for free, as an alternative to using it through Traffic Blazer, but will not provide as clear results.
8) Robots.txt / Robots Meta Tag Generator - prevents incomplete or unwanted pages from being crawled and indexed by search engine spiders. You can view my other article I have written at: http://www.emenki.com/robotstxt.html to further understand what the Robots.txt file does and how it can affect search engine ranking.
9) Traffic Essentials - you receive a free guide to search engine optimization and the search engine industry. Many other places will charge as much as the cost of Traffic Blazer for similar guides, however this package is included in here. This definately will increase your awareness on what search engine optimization is and why you definately need to do it for your website to increase traffic and sales!
Overall I think this looks like a great package, and although many will agree you can do lots of this "Marketing" on your own, Traffic Blazer does allow you to complete the same in a much shorter time. The time savings you get from using this and not having to do it on your own definately makes paying the cost and purchasing Traffic Blazer something you should look into.
One thing I do not mention is the cost of Traffic Blazer and you may find it at various sources.
At Domains at Retail, the cost is only $39.95 / year. This is a great price if you have limited search engine optimization experience, and do not want to hire the services of a professional who can not even guarantee top placement.
Industrial-Grade Software Submission System for Only $44 a Month----
ROSTOCK, Germany. - October 18, 2007: GSA Rostock today announces the immediate availability of GSA Auto SoftSubmit 4.90. Developed specifically for submission to software archives, directories, and search engines, GSA Auto SoftSubmit offers a complete professional software submission system that is easy to use. A professional PAD editor is also included into the program, which eliminates the need for external editors, such as PADGen.
"The "build it and they will come" strategy doesn't work unless you promote your software proactively, says Sven Bansemer, managing director, GSA Rostock. "Submission of applications to online archives is an essential part of effective Internet marketing. It gives more visibility to your product, drives traffic to your website and increases sales. What's more, you gain better ranking in search engines thanks to the backlinks to your site. But engaging someone to do the submission can be costly and ineffective. I myself has been through this too many times and want to spare you from sharing that same bad experience by offering GSA Auto SoftSubmit so that you could take full control over submission and results you get."
Submitting an application is as easy as making a few clicks. You have everything a professional submission service has: the database, contacts, tools to target your submission campaign - everything already inside one small application sitting on your desktop and ready to submit. This way you just click "Submit" and move on with the next thing.
The core of GSA Auto SoftSubmit is the database, which is the largest and most current in the market - over 3,900 sites and it keeps on growing. Today, there are no services that can offer the database like that. Another best thing in GSA software is speed. Because it handles multiple threads, the program submits to multiple sites simultaneously, which in practice is as many as over 100 submissions a minute. The URL addresses in the database never grow old as the program is updated several times a month via the Internet.
The program allows you to bypass antispam technologies like image code verification. Once it detects a CAPTCHA form, it asks you to enter the letters and digits and then submits.
GSA Auto SoftSubmit is pretty easy to use. Just run the program and in the window with a list of websites, check all or any of the listed sites and click the Submit button. The program will then begin submitting your software.
Internet Marketing for Professional Organizers----
It is very important to put a lot of thought into marketing your professional organizer business. Even if you are a great professional organizer you will not be able to get any clients if no one knows about you and your business. Marketing is the process of getting the word out and letting others know about your professional organizer business.
Using Internet marketing to market your business is an excellent solution for professional organizers. Even if you are looking for local clients, marketing and promoting your business online is a great way to get the word out. Here are five tips to help you reach your potential organizing clients using Internet marketing:
- Create A Great Looking, Professional Web Site For Your Professional Organizer Business. Since you help your clients to organize, eliminate clutter and streamline their lives, make sure that your own web site is streamlined and easy to use.
Your professional organizer web site should have a professional look and feel and have information about you, your business, and services that you provide to your clients. There should be a way for potential clients to contact you. After all, you would like these people to get in touch with you and start working with you.
- Optimize Your Web Site for Search Engines. A great looking web site is not enough if you want to have a thriving professional organizer business. You need web site traffic. You need people visiting your web site, learning more about you and your services and contacting you for more information and to hire you.
A good way to drive more traffic to your web site is by doing search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is the process of modifying web page content and meta-information to improve the search engine ranking of the page. By optimizing your web site for search engines you can get more people looking for professional organizers in your area to your web site.
- Decide How To Monetize All Web Site Visitors. While you might be looking to work with local clients, some non-local visitors might visit your web site as well. While you cannot work with these people in person, can still monetize them by offering them phone consultations. You may also offer organizing e-books and special reports on your web site that you can sell to people who are not in your local area.
- Publish A Newsletter. Not everyone who comes to your web site will hire your immediately. Many people will need some time to make a decision about hiring you. You need to be able to keep in touch with the people who come to your web site, but are not ready to hire you yet.
Your newsletter is a great tool to keep in touch with your web site visitors, share information with them and educate them about your professional organizing products and services.
- Publish Your Articles Online. Writing and publishing articles on professional organizing topics is a great way to show off your expertise and let others know about your business. When you write and publish your articles, other web site owners pick them up and publish them on their web sites, while giving you a link back to your web site.
Use the techniques above to get more potential clients to your web site. Using online marketing is an excellent way to promote your professional organizer business.
Internet Success-----
The Internet is now a new frontier. There are new millionaires being made everyday. There are so many different ways to make money on the Internet. You could......
Sell information You can become a day trader in Stocks
Sell a product Futures
Sell a service. Forex
There are just so many ways to go. You can even play Texas Holdem and win your way to a final table to win millions like Chris Moneymaker.
All you have to do is find your niche. Something that you are very good at or something you are willing to learn. Like what are some of your hobbies? Do you collect stamps, build models, remote controlled cars, planes and boats? This is just a few. Do a search on your talent or knowledge. What did you find? Could you say more? Could you say it better?
What about paperhanging, tilefloors, lead glass windows just a few more ideas. Many peple would pay for how to ebooks. So search your hobbies and your knowledge areas. You can learn how to write an ebook and then sell it on the Internet. You would be surprised how easy and profitable it is. If you really would like to change you life here is a very good way to do it.
Just find your special niche an then learn to market it. There are millions of searches done everyday on Google, MSN, and Yahoo just to name a few. You can learn to sell you ebook by using articles, emails,{no spamming}safelist, ebay, banners, paid per click and of course your website. Learning to build your own website can be exciting and fun too.
One of the things that have made Internet marketing a bad word are the affiliate programs that you get talked into and all they do is give you a website and tell you to show it to your family and friends. They give you banners and emails to mail out to all your friends and family. You get a few sales from them . But then you find it hard to get any more. Then they get disappointed and quit. But if the company only makes 1 or 2 sales off each affiliate that still hundreds of sells for them.
If you create the ebook on how to do something and sell it you can start your own affiliate program. Then you become the person getting everyone else selling for you.
Is Branding a Legitimate Internet Marketing Strategy----
Internet marketing is all about hard results, not generic concepts of branding. Still, there are ways to go about branding your product or service on the net without spending a fortune.
Is Branding a Legitimate Internet Marketing Strategy
Branding refers to the vague notion of creating an identity for a product, service or name with consumers. The classic example, of course, is Coca Cola. Being first on the scene, the company has been able to create such a strong name brand that most people use the word “coke” instead of soda when ordering. This is true even when they prefer Pepsi. In the world of marketing, we all bow before the marketing team that accomplished this branding. The Internet, however, is a different beast. That same marketing team would be crushed if they went after a similar strategy on the net.
The Internet is so large that branding is an expensive and difficult goal unless you are the first major presence in a niche. Sites like EBay and Amazon were the first major money players in their fields, giving them a huge advantage over subsequent competitors. Unless you are coming to a field with a lot of money and no current dominant site, your branding efforts are going to meet with failure or limited success at best. If you want to stick with it, the only cost effective and ultimately successful strategy is to pursue a width search engine optimization campaign.
Search engine optimization is simply an effort to get pages on your site ranked high in search results on the three big search engines – Google, Yahoo and MSN. To establish your brand, the best Internet marketing strategy is to identify every single phrase your prospects use to find services or products in your business area. You then build optimized pages for every single phrase and get them ranked.
This strategy has two benefits. First, it will produce free traffic to your site. If you build 200 pages and each gets 50 visitors a day, your site will receive 10,000 visitors a day. The second benefit is your brand becomes established. Regardless of what the prospect searches for, they keep seeing your site. This creates both recognition and credibility with the prospect as they tend to equate high rankings with quality. As they visit your site over and over, they will also become readily familiar with your unique selling position as presented on the site.
If you want to establish a brand, avoid wasting your money on banners and such unless you are in a niche that isn’t dominated by any single site. Instead, use the width search engine optimization tactic to establish your site and pick up free traffic.
Is There A Real Downside To Print Advertising?-----
Whether you’re a small business or a Fortune 500, every dollar you spend for your operations, especially for your marketing campaign should be money well spent. It doesn’t matter really if you have a limited budget or not, as a rule, you do not spend your hard earned money just for advertising per se. The purpose of your marketing campaign is always to get the most out of your investment.
That’s why choosing the right advertising medium for your business is crucial to your success. The right media vehicle can get you greater increase in sales and steady profits. It is therefore your duty as a marketer to learn all there is to know with the medium you’re going to use – whether a full color printing method is appropriate or not; or what kind of print ad would be most appropriate for your needs?
Here’s one of the most popular media tools that have been used by many business owners and marketers to promote their business. Learning its benefits and drawbacks can help you choose the best medium to accomplish the goals you’ve set for your marketing campaign:
Newspapers
The most traditional advertising vehicle, the newspaper has been considered for both local and urban cities all over the world to be an effective means of reaching out to your target clients.
For one thing, having your ads in newspapers give you the opportunity to reach a much wider set and a large number of people. Depending on the number of readership - which is of course very large if it happens to be one of the most circulated – you can have consistent exposure every time. This means that your target readers can read your ad again and again whenever he or she wants to.
Second, since you have the flexibility to adjust the size of your ad as well as where you want it placed, you can have as large an ad as you need that can tell as much of your message you would want to tell your target readers.
For the most part, newspaper ads are well accepted because of its fast turn around. You don’t have to wait a few days before you could even see your ad printed. Since newspapers are run daily, your ad can be read by your target clients’ the next day.
Nevertheless, newspaper advertising can also be difficult to have because it can be expensive. If you have a limited budget, that could be a real problem indeed.
In addition, because many businesses use this particular medium, you would have to vie for your target readers’ attention with the other ads printed in the same newspaper. And it’s going to be tough because not only do you have to compete with the small ones, but you also have the ads run by big franchisers which often dominate the pages of any newspaper.
You also have to consider that your ad’s life is short – as short as the life of the newspaper because it can only be read once and then discarded after.
While newspaper advertising can be a well-paid investment, you need to weigh the pros and cons first before you decide to run your ad. Depending on your needs, understanding these factors can help you maximize your investment to get the most results.
Keeping Your Website's Content Relevant----
Visitors and search engines love content-rich web sites, but just having a lot of content on your web site is not enough. It all has to be relevant to a main topic with each page or section of the web site having a specific theme (And yes, this includes any resource or links pages the site may have). Each page should have its own topic and content should not stray to a different topic.
If you are promoting your graphic design business and have a page on business card design, stay on the topic and refrain from using a page title such as "Graphic Design company in Vancouver, Canada - business cards, logos, letterheads". Your want the business card design to be the most important key phrase.
There are two main reasons for content relevancy. The first is so that visitors have an easy time understanding the flow of your web site. Visitors who have to search through multiple pages to find the information they're looking for won't be visitors much longer. The average web site user takes about three seconds to decide whether or not stay on a site. A clear idea of what your site is about should be apparent immediately, followed by easy navigation to other pages that display further topics in more detail.
The second reason for keeping content relevant throughout your web site is for search engine algorithms. Keyword relevancy is an important part of search engine optimization. The more relevant your web site's content is for a specific term, the more likely the site is to show up near the top of search results for the term.
Keyword density is another big deal with search engines. There is an optimal ratio of key terms to the overall amount of text that must be used for search engine optimization purposes. The more unrelated terms that are used consistently throughout the content will bring down the percentage of more important keywords. Keyword density matters throughout an entire web site, not just on certain pages.
Other areas to keep an eye on are the contact page, about us page, and any other pages that you may not think are important to have optimized for search engines such as advertising info, privacy policy, etc. For instance, some web sites have pages devoted to reciprocal links. There's nothing wrong with them unless you link out to a lot of unrelated web sites. The keywords that are used in the anchor text and surrounding description text will detract from your overall site content if they are not related. Incoming links from unrelated sites are fine, but keep in mind that the links page counts as part of your web site as a whole.
Consider using a reciprocal links page as more of a resource for visitors instead of a long list of irrelevant sites. This not only appeases search engines but your visitors as well. And as mentioned before, both visitors and search engines should be kept in mind when creating web site content.
Keys to Creating a Solid Backlink----
Many times your site will get backlinks without you asking for them. This article doesn’t go into those kinds of links. Instead, we focus on the links you can control and specifically request.
Additionally, this article doesn’t go into backlinks from paid advertising like Google ads. Those kinds of links often don't carry much value in the eyes of search engines.
A solid backlink has three components.
By “solid,” I’m referring to a backlink that not only brings you traffic from someone clicking it but also brings the added value of enhancing your search engine rankings.
The three components are:
1. Choose good places to put links
2. Make it scrumptious for search engines
3. Make it irresistible to prospects
1. Choose a good place
There are a limitless number of web sites you can get linked from. They can range from general web site directories to coaching organization web sites to individual blogs.
Here are the main things to consider:
First, put your link in front of your target audience. Request backlinks from web sites that have the same target audience as you.
Next, choose web sites that are credible.
When credible web sites link to you, search engines will recognize it. They will give your site more "worth" and higher rankings.
For example, a link from a "quick and easy to set up" web page at myspace.com won’t be as valuable as a link from the home page of the "well established" msn.com.
Thirdly, place your link on web sites that get a lot of traffic as opposed to web sites that get very little traffic.
BUT ... keep in mind that web sites with low traffic can be valuable if their audience is the same is yours.
Finally, choose web sites that display your link prominently.
Take a look at where your link will be positioned on the page. A link at the top of an easy-to-view web page is better than a link at the bottom of a long-and-busy page.
It's better because it will get more clicks and search engines give more "kudos" to links towards the top of a page than at the bottom, generally speaking.
2. Make it scrumptious for search engines
How?
First, use simple text links when you can.
Simple text links are the most commonly used links on the Web, and are characterized by underlined text in a different color (usually blue) than surrounding text.
Text links are good because:
• They are very easy for search engines to find and follow. This makes it easy for search engines to put into their database.
• It's easy for search engines to identify the keywords to associate with this link. This helps your rankings for those keywords.
Other links like image links, Java-Script links, Flash links, or dynamic links are less ideal because they are tough to follow and are often associated with S-PAM-mers.
Next, put your main keywords in your text link. Putting your web site’s keywords in your text link will boost your web site’s ranking for those keywords.
Lastly, you will often be allowed a description with your link to further explain your web site. This description text is also a good place to put your keywords.
3. Make it irresistible to prospects
So far we have discussed how to please the search engine. But if we can't make the link attractive to the people who see it, we are missing out on good traffic.
Here' are some tips to maximize clicks on your backlink:
• Get the main benefit or main problem you solve into the text around the link in readable sentences.
• Offer something fr*ee to motivate people to click your link. This can be an article, report, assessment, newsletter, ebook, etc.
• Keep it simple, direct and easy to read. Don’t jam keywords around the link.
• If your backlink will be on a page with other competing coaches, then be sure to emphasis how your services are different to make you stand out.
An example.
Here’s a listing of executive coaches from DMOZ:
dmoz.org/Business/Management/Consulting/Executive_Coaching/
On this page you will see links and descriptions.
This directory is good because it has text links and you can also provide a keyword rich description to help your rankings.
Also notice how this page is long with a lot of listings. It can look like a big blur.
About the only motivation to click is a fr*ee consultation. How about a fr*ee article specifically discussing something interesting that one could download right away?
Let’s wrap up …
Keep in mind these three keys …. choose a good place, make it scrumptious to search engines, and make it irresistible to visitors. Doing so will make your backlinks solid anchors that drive potential clients to your site.
Now you know why backlinks are good and how to write one.
Know What To Spy For When Doing Market Research-----
Know thy enemies.
Keep your friends close; your enemies closer.
Get to know your competition.
Ever heard of these principles? One writer/philosopher once said that in order for you to be competitive and even rise above the pack, you need to know your competition and what they’re doing to be different. When you do, you’ll surely be able to create tactics that will make you stand out and hence, make a difference in your market share.
I suppose you think that the business community is very hard to be a part of because you’re always competing and trying to outdo each other.
Believe it or not, business is not about that. On the contrary, it’s not a blood bath all the time. In fact, business owners and marketers do it in a more classy and comfortable arena where they often work together to make their community work.
But no doubt about it, competition is present. And the best way to differentiate yourself from the rest is an analysis of what your competition is doing to become successful. Here’s what you should know when spying for your marketing research:
Step 1: Be a detective.
Competitive analysis is all about gathering the tools and materials your competitors have to market their products and services. Examine their features, the design, and even the commercial color printing method used to come up with an effective marketing campaign. One marketer even suggested shopping and purchasing from your competitors to learn and experience what it feels like to buy from them.
Step 2: Identify and analyze even those you feel are competitors.
Chances are you’re right. Even in the most unlikely places, you might just be surprised that a competition is present. So be on the lookout for marketing tools and materials of any businesses that you perceive to be providing the same services as you do.
Step 3: Analyze the message.
After you’ve collected the materials, focus on the message of your competitors. What are their promises? Do they have anything different to offer? Do we have anything in common? What formats did they use? Is the design effective? What seems to be the best marketing tool in all that you’ve collected?
Step 4: How can you be unique?
Finally, after gathering all the information from your competitors’ marketing materials and tools, it’s now time for you to create your own marketing campaign that would reflect something unique and compelling in your offer. When you do find your answers, be sure to include every factor that can contribute to your success – your products and services, your operating method, your unique company qualities and customer service attitude, your values, etc. Whatever you learned from your competitive analysis can definitely help you create a remarkable tool that would be able to sell to your target clients.
Know When Two Sites Are Better Than One?-----
Back in the good old days it wasn’t nearly so tough to get decent rankings fast. Wasn’t nearly so complicated either. You put up some pages, got some links and built from there. Enjoying improving rankings on your way to the top.
But that was then and this is now. Now there might be times where you WOULD be better off with two sites, (same niche) than just one.
And if I might chance to read you mind you’re thinking, “What? Is this guy crazy? I can’t keep one site going and growing much less two.”
I’m with you. But read on to discover when you might want to break out the second site.
===> Aggressive Article Marketing
Say you’re engaged in an aggressive article marketing campaign. Or you’re chasing as many reciprocal links as you can. Both legit ways to drive potential visitors or customers or subscribers to your site.
Yet how’s that going to mesh with the go slow approach to links Google now favors? Think your zeal might throw be like throwing sugar in the gas tank? And ace you out of the running for top rankings in Google? Maybe.
So if you want to use an article submission service that blasts your article far and wide you might want to rethink that. Or at least develop a second site for the links in your resource box to point to. Since if you’ve got a site you’re grooming for Google, too many links of any kind too fast raises a red flag.
===> Link Triangulation
It’s helpful to have two sites to do link triangulation. Which is a great way to get one way links.
Let’s assume you feel one way links are better. To get those two sites are a must. Simply offer to link to your link partner’s site from Site A while they link to your Site B.
Next time offer to link to the other web site from Site B while they link to your Site A.
This approach lets you build one way links to two sites at once, albeit at half speed. Which is a good thing since you’re building links slowly. Or the currently approved approach for Google.
===> Adsense or Affiliate Site?
Some seemingly have strong feelings about whether or not Adsense cannibalizes affiliate sales.
Of course the ONLY way to know for sure is to test it. Simply take an established site and run Adsense ads alone for one month. Then drop those ads and feature affiliate products only for the next 30 days. Which produces the most cash flow?
If you find Adsense does cannibalize this may be another situation ripe for the two site solution. Obviously you’ll want to edit the content so it’s close to unique for each site. Or you might emphasize product reviews on the affiliate site. While offering informative yet more topical articles on the site featuring Adsense.
===> Yahoo/MSN vs Google Focus?
More and more there is precious little overlap in the respective top rankings of Yahoo, MSN and Google. What works great for grabbing top MSN rankings might well get you in hot water over at Google. While Yahoo at times yearns to be more the anti Google than anything else.
That said, both Yahoo and MSN are more forgiving of, uh, enthusiastic optimization techniques. For instance you can get away with a higher keyword density with them than you would ever dare try with Google anymore.
But as in real life it’s hard to please two bosses. So the smart thing might be to set up two sites. To make it easy exclude the googlebot from the site designed with Yahoo/MSN in mind using your robots.txt file. And then reverse roles by excluding Yahoo/MSN from the site you’re using to catch Google’s eye.
So there you have it. Four instances when two sites may be better than one for your home based internet marketing business.
Latest Website Promotion Advice-----
I have written articles about website promotion in the past, however things on the internet are always changing and my opinions have now changed. This article is all about my new website promotion ideas, ideas which I use on my all of websites.
A good linking campaign is the main priority. Attempting to increase the number of backward links you have pointing to your website is essential. However you have to be careful. Here is a list of do's and do not's.
Do:
Increase the number of backward links pointing to your website slowly
Obtain backward links from within the same industry/market as your own
Build up the number of one-way links your website has pointing to it
Write articles and submit them to article directories
Add your website domain on all of your adverts, documentation and e-mails
Offer the visitors to your site the chance to sign up to a monthly newsletter
Offer the visitors to your site a free e-book
Write press releases
Do not:
Join a link building website to automate your linking requirements. These are tempting to join however are frowned upon by the search engines. Always remember hard work pays off.
Increase the number of backward links to quickly
Purchase too many link text ads
Just leave your website without any promotion, it will not grow on its own
Build hidden pages
In my opinion one-way links are vital. These are the most powerful form of backward link and the search engines love them. I can see no way in which they can penalise a site that is only acquiring these type of links.
The best and easiest way of obtaining these one-way links is by writing articles like the one you are reading. Once you have written the article, you then need to submit it to a number of article directories. You are able to add a link to your website on the bottom of the article and the hope is that other webmasters will want to include your article on their website, thus giving you a one-way link.
I have been writing articles for around a year and I must say it has done wonders for my businesses. The number of visitors to my sites have rocketed and the page rank have also steadily increased.
I hope you have found this article interesting to read and beneficial to you.
Good luck with your website promotion campaign
Link Bidding-----------
Pick Directory is an easy way to bid on links. Pick Directory is a highly promoted bidding web directory. Our link directory displays links alphabetically, and lets you bid your way to the top of the list. With a starting bid of $1, you are guaranteed a spot in our directory!
Increase your bid to take a top position, and not only will your link list higher in the directory, but you could join our Top 10 Link Leaders on the homepage.
Why Buy Links?
Links get results. Link popularity is one of the most important factors in search engine performance.
Increasing the number of links to your Web site can get your site listed higher in search engine results, bring more visitors to your site, increase your Google PageRank and improve your site's overall strength.
For only $1 you can buy a link and get listed now. Your site will thank you!
Link Building Strategies That Work----
There are a number of ideas about what are the best ways to promote a website and about the best ways to attract more visitors to a website. In my opinion, it is important to start up a link building campaign to increase the number of websites which have a link to your site on their site. This is one proven method which has been successful in achieving high rankings for many different sites, however there are some important factors to keep in mind when attempting to build up this link network.
If you have a new site and are desperate to achieve top rankings on the top search engines such as google, think again. Most of these search engines will probably not give your new site a high ranking until it has become established. This is where the age of the domain is important. You can not in reality expect to be placed in a higher search position than a site which has been around for eight years and which has been building up links, during this period. This is where patience is required, you should see your site as something which is going to be online for a long time and hopefully in time, some of the other sites that you are competing with will have dropped out etc.
This is the same attitude that should be applied when building up the number of backward links pointing to your site. Going from only a few, to a few thousand in a short space of time may not be the best idea. Regular increases are in my opinion the way to go and quality is just as important as quantity. Decide the ways in which you are planning to obtain your backward links and try to ensure that you obtain roughly the same amount each month, where possible of course. Over a long period of time this strategy is sure to pay dividends and your search engine position should steadily improve. You will then have an authority site, which all new sites will be aspiring to compete with. Like many areas of life we do not really want to wait for our success and want immediate rewards, such as high rankings. On some search engines this may be possible but on most it will require hard work and this type of patience.
The links that you obtain should where possible be from sites which are in a similar industry or subject matter, to your own site. This is a lot easier said than done however. If your site is very well written, optimised and of use to a large number of people, you may well receive links on other sites without the need to request the link. This is of course exactly what you want and is why it is important to spend time thinking of how your site is written and presented.
A good way of obtaining a link to your site is to write a reference or testimonial to owners of other sites with which you have had dealings with. Offer to write them this testimonial which of course will be of great benefit to them, on the understanding that they will include a link back to your site at the bottom.
I personally concentrate on obtaining one-way links as I believe these to have the most value. One way I do this is by writing articles such as the one you are reading. There are a great number of benefits of writing articles which can be read at most of the article directories such as ezinearticles. I would certainly recommend it to other people who are thinking of starting up a link building campaign.
Linking: Viral Advertising is a Good Virus----
You've built your website. I don't think I need to explain to you that you won't get anywhere with your online business if no one ever sees it. So traffic is what you're looking for. Ideally, targeted traffic. What's that, you ask.
Targeted traffic is people who know what they're looking for and have been led to believe that they'll find it on your website. How did they hear about you? Word of mouth? An ad on another website? Search engines? An ezine ad, safelist email, traffic exchange splash page?
Let's take one of those, search engines, and talk about it for a bit. Let's face it, that's the starting point for a lot of people looking for information online. But how far do they search? Here's what I usually do when I'm looking for something. Like yesterday...sigh...I spent hours looking for the driver, then the image editing software, for my scanner.
Adventures with Search Engines
I typed something into the search box. I looked at the first page of answers to my query. Not much was useful, but I did pick up on a few more targeted terms to type into the search box. Back and forth I went for a couple hours until I finally found what I was looking for.
Not my idea of a good time.
But ultimately I achieved my goal, once I had found the highly refined search terms I needed. For example, I didn't know to use "image editing software" when I started my search, but figured it out as I went along. And trust me, I didn't go much past the first page of any query during my hours of searching.
Your website needs those highly targeted keywords, so that when someone types them into a search engine, they find a listing for your website and it's one of those "Eureka! I've found it!" moments for them.
But even if you've got the keywords, how do you get your website into that first search page on Google or Yahoo! or AOL?
One way is called back linking, one of many online versions of word-of-mouth advertising. Some website already esteemed by the search engines for the same keywords as yours recommends your website as a good place to go for more info. Google or whoever sees that link, visits your site, and decides that yes, your site IS an excellent place for more info on image editing software, or whatever. Your site then "rises" in esteem in the search engine world.
So if your site is about image editing software, your url appears on other sites about that same topic, or related to it strongly, such as sites about scanners or cameras. These related sites tell their visitors that your site is a good place to go for their image editing software needs.
I'll Scratch Your Back If You Scratch Mine
How do they do this? They don't have to actually say anything, although testimonials carry a lot of weight. You can exchange links with them; "I'll put a link to your site on mine if you do the same." Hence the name, reciprocal linking.
It's a time-consuming process, finding the most appropriate sites, communicating, posting the link to your site, checking to make sure they post your link, but it's worth it because it works if you've picked good sites. It doesn't work if you link to a site about used cars or baby showers if your site is about image software.
The best way to find targeted sites to link with is to type this into a search engine: "your site's keywords" "link to us". Or variations on that, "your site's keywords" "add your link". Or use related keywords. Use your imagination here. In the image editing example, the keywords you use can relate to uses for your software, such as "scanner software" or "photograph editing software". But be sure to include the " ", that's what will make your search the most targeted by using those exact phrases within the parentheses.
There are programs and software that make linking easier. There's a website where you can sign up, enter your keywords and site description, and then receive emails notifying you when there is another site or site with the same keywords as yours. You log in and there's a simple way to visit these sites and send automatic emails asking them if they would like to link with you. Here's the link, the service is free, the site is called Value Exchange.
Once a link to your site is on another website, it's there for good (barring unforeseen circumstances, such as you not upholding your end of the deal, or vice versa). People will continue to see that link for years to come. So will the search engines. They will continue to return to your site as long as the content is still relevant, and as long as you continue to add new content. The search engines love new and unique. Which is why, for example, you will continue to find new articles such as this one on my website. :^)
Besides reciprocal linking, there's one-way linking, such as when a website uses this article and it includes the resource box at the end with my link or links in it. Sweet, this is the best kind of link, a trade of free website content for a link back. My name gets a bit of branding, I get a link back, and the website owner gets fresh content for his or her site. And even more so than a static link on a website, this one is truly viral, as this article gets passed around forever, reaching more and more people every day.
So that's linking in a nutshell. There are other methods of word of mouth online promotion, but that's for another article another day. Here's a hint of things to come, though. There's a new fun way to get around Google and the others that's just starting to spread, it's a way to create your own search engine and it's called tagging. Yes it's fun, you run around the 'net saying "you've been tagged". More on that another time.
Till then, have fun linking and watching your search engine ranking soar!
Linking Strategies – Myth busted-------
Since Google’s Jagger update, during 2005, the internet has become a fermenting ground for pundits advising us on how and why we are going to be penalised by Google if we continue using tried and tested techniques that previously worked well.
Most of this advice is pure mythology. So, it is time to examine these myths and discuss why they are myths.
Firstly, let us be clear about one thing: everything said about how to improve Google ranking is theory, unless Google says it themselves. The problem is that some of the theories are just plain wrong.
Myth 1) Linking from link farms will get you penalised by Google. WRONG. It may well be that it does your website absolutely no good at all, but why should Google penalise a website when, if this were the case, a competitor could add links to your site from link farms? I do not believe that Google, or any other search engine, will penalise a site because of what an unscrupulous competitor may do.
Myth 2) Involving your website in reciprocal link trading will get your website penalised by Google. WRONG. There are legitimate reasons for sites linking to each other, therefore, why would a site be penalised for what may be a perfectly legitimate link exchange? Reciprocal linking does not carry anywhere near the weight it used to do, it has been downgraded by Google, but reciprocal links will not harm your website, and in fact, maintain some value, though much reduced.
Myth 3) If sites that are considered “Bad neighbourhoods” link to your site, you will be penalised by Google. WRONG. Webmasters have absolutely no control over who links to their site. It would be unethical for Google to penalise a site due to the actions of other third party sites.
So why does this confusion exist?
Most of what I’ve said above is self explanatory, but maybe a little more comment is needed on the subject of bad neighbourhoods.
Bad neighbourhoods are websites that have been penalised or banned by Google. If you link TO a bad neighbourhood site you are, in the eyes of Google, guilty by association. And may be penalised. But, as I’ve already said, if they link to you it is out of your control; they are associating with you, not you with them.
So how do I know if a website is a bad neighbourhood? Simple, first you need to download and install the Google toolbar. As, no doubt, you are already aware, the Google toolbar shows the page rank (PR) of any website you visit. If the website you wish to link to has a PR allocated you are safe. If the PR is zero, but the indicator bar is just a white background, then you are safe. But beware; if the indicator background is grey, this means Google will not even allocate a PR=0 to this site, you are looking at a bad neighbourhood website – do not link to this site.
General Considerations.
Although links from link farms will not get you penalised, they are of no value, so why bother?
Although reciprocal links have been downgraded, they still have some value. So, link wisely to related content sites only. The importance of the site linking to you will be of more value to your site than a less important site, but personally, I do not mind linking to a related site with a PR=0, it is probably a new site that is still in the Google sandbox, and may gain a high PR at some future date.
It is a good idea to periodically check whether the sites you are linking to are still safe – avoid greyed out PR indicators.
And finally, the best advice of all, generate one way links to your website. One way links are the most important links you can have. But even these vary in importance according to the PR of the linking sites, the wise use of anchor text, and the relevance of the linking page/site.
I will have more to say on that subject in a future article.
Linking Strategy – The Basics----
Let’s clarify first, the basics of linking strategies. Then let’s take a look at how to use this linking strategy to have a high rank on the search engines lists.
Some elements must be clarified first of all: an outbound link is a link going out of a website. An inbound link is a link coming in from another site to yours. Reciprocal links are the links between two sites, often based on an agreement between the owner of the two websites. A link checker is a tool to check for broken links. Deep linking means linking to a web page other than a site’s home page.
Inbound links are sending visitors to a page from a website. It is a very good link, increasing the site’s traffic and fulfilling an important requirement for search engines algorithms. Outbound links are sending the visitors away from a website. Website owners are in very different positions facing the outbound links.
New windows can be opened, some are linking freely. For commercial websites, outbound links losing time and money. Outbound links can be a risk if the site is losing visitors and potential clients.
Other opinions are totally opposite: outbound links can improve the site ranking, increase the visitors’ number and there are also chances for the returns of many visitors.
As the web is becoming more commercial, deep linking becomes an important matter too. As the internet strength is to make a contact between a public document and information to another public document or information, the home page becomes very important to establish and maintain the brand and serving functions.
Deep linking is eliminating those advantages. There are also other opinions, consolidating the free modality to present information on a web site. A deep link is better than no link at all; an appropriate navigation structure can make the deep linking an advantage to clarity and functionality for a web site.
Reciprocal links are the result of an agreement between two site owners to have links to each other. The most frequent users of reciprocal links are the small/medium websites, searching for site’s popularity and willing to increase the site’s ranking.
Natural links extend a topic to a broader theme; they are always visible. Artificial links are adding value to the site’s owner, support a third party, but not the visitors. Artificial links, if they are illegitimate, are hidden from visitors. If artificial links are legitimate, they are at the bottom of the pages, usually places outside the primary areas of a web page.
By joining a linking directory, you are on your way to getting a higher page ranking. To avoid all possible penalties from Google or other search engines, go to:
o www.MyLinkMachine.com
You cannot forget about the good ol' article directories. These directories are a vital source to a higher PR. You just have to insert your link somewhere in your article, as well as the Resource Box. To start submitting your articles to these directories, go to:
o http://www.MyContentBuilder.com
If you are already submitting articles, but are tired of spending so much time submitting one article to several directories, you may want to consider an automatic submitting software. This software will submit your article to over 30 directories in half an hour. To watch a video on how this is accomplished, go to:
o http://1trac.com/dt/t/Article_Submitter_Video.php
Making Targeted Traffic Work for You------
There has been a lot of debate in other articles, forums, and books regarding sending targeted traffic to your website. Some sing its praises but many webmasters dismiss targeted traffic as a waste of money. They argue that CPC (cost per click) or paid banner/text link advertising is a better method for generating quality visitors to your site.
There is no doubt the CPC advertising and paid banner links can be a valuable source or web business. In fact, CPC advertising usually has a much high conversion rate (a greater percentage of visitors: registering on your site, signing up for your newsletter, or buying your product, etc.) than bulk targeted traffic. However, advertisers must pay a premium for this higher conversion rate. If the campaign is done properly targeted traffic is an inexpensive way to get your message out.
Here is an Example:
“Digital Camera” targeted visitor from Overture $1.70 / visitor
100,000 Banner Impressions (1% CTR) $0.35 / visitor
Targeted Traffic Targeted Visitors $.003 / visitor
Obviously targeted traffic is far less expensive than other methods of online advertising in terms or price per visitor. However, webmaster are, and should be, less concerned with price per visitor and more concerned with price per conversion, i.e., what is the cost per person registering on your site, signing up for your newsletter, or buying your product, etc.
So, in essence, the key to making targeted traffic work is to maximize your conversion rate. Let’s examine some primary rules you should follow to accomplish this.
1. Get traffic from a reliable source. You need to know where the traffic is coming from. Is it from Expired Domain redirects? Is it from pop ups or unders? If it is from pop ups/unders, does the traffic source have a method to compensate for pop up blockers? If not, you may find the actual traffic far less than the traffic you are being charged for.
2. Pinpoint your target market. Don’t try to save a few dollars with untargeted traffic. Make sure your message is being seen by people interested in your product or service. Give some thought to who would really benefit from your offer and target that group. Also, consider regional targeting as well. If you sell a product and can only ship to US customers, make sure only US visitors are being targeted with your message.
3. Create Impact Quickly. You have one brief chance to convert targeted traffic. Choose your landing page wisely. Use a page that will grab a visitor’s attention right away. However, be cautious not to create a message with too much hype. Web surfers have become more callous to advertising and may ignore messages that sound too fake.
The best option is to give a brief description of your offer then require them to click through to get more information. This way you can track conversions.
4. Avoid putting all your eggs in one basket. Experiment with different landing pages to see what works best for your offer. Do not send hundreds of thousands of visitors to a single page. Create several different landing pages and send 10k visitors or so to these pages. This way you can find out what works best and focus the rest of your traffic on those pages.
Also, don’t try to get all your traffic in a few days. By spreading it out over time you may convert repeat visitors who overlooked your message the first time.
5. Maximize your advertising dollar. I also like to sign up with a text link (www.textdot.com) or banner exchange (www.bexchanged.com) and place that code on my landing page. This way you can maximize your advertising budget by earning banner/link impressions. Just make sure that the code does not interfere with your primary message.
By following these rules, you will have a much greater chance of your targeted traffic campaign being a success.
Managed Link Strategies - The Page/Brin Effect----
Improving your websites rankings in search engines requires an effective link strategy.
In the development period of Google's existence, its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, were burning the midnight oil trying to discover a way to determine the importance of a web site.
The concept they arrived at is now known as link popularity.
The basic idea is simple: If web site "A" has a lot of other web sites linking to it, then all these llinking sites must think that web site "A" is important.
In other words, each incoming link to your web site can be considered as a vote. The more votes your web site achieves, the more importance Google, and other major search engines will give to it. This means that in the all seeing eyes of search engines your web site is more relevant if it has a lot of incoming links. So the more relevancy you can acquire for your web pages means higher search engine rankings (all major search engines appear to have adopted the Google model).
After your web site has been assessed for the number of incoming links (or backlinks), and the quality, see later, of those links, Google will assign a value, called Page Rank (PR), to the web pages on your web site. This is a numeric value between 0 and 10. Higher PR indicating more importance.
So, improving my web sites Google ranking is as simple as that?
Unfortunately the answer is NO! This is because the Google algorithm is a complex beast. There are over one hundred other things that Google check for, and there are different types of links. Each type carrying more or less relevancy.
So, the types of link are:
1) Outgoing: where your site links to another site. No use to you in terms of PR.
2) Reciprocal: where two sites exchange links, this now has less value than it used to have since a recent Google update, but is still effective on other search engines.
3) One way Incoming: A link to your site pure and simple, where your site does not link back. This is what you need to build PR. This is a vote for your site and is far more powerful than a reciprocal link.
What's in a name?
Now you know the type of link that's needed (how to get one-way incoming links will be discussed elsewhere) there is still more that will affect your PR. This concerns the link anchor text. Link anchor text is the visible part of a link, i.e., the text you click on.
Link anchor text in a link pointing to your home page should contain the main keyword that your home page is optimised for. However, if you have many links all with the same anchor text it looks, to Google, like spamming and may cause lesser significance being given to those links. Therefore, vary your anchor text.
As can be seen, generating a successful crop of links can be a time consuming process. And there are many pitfalls along the way.
Marketing Your Online Content----
As a webmaster, we need to actively promote our site. There are lots of ways to do that, both ethical and unethical. We don't have to resolve to unethical ways of marketing our site such as spamming, reciprocal link farms, page generation software and the like. The search engine algorithm will eventually catch up with that. That still leaves us with plenty of ways to market our site and content. However, the most important thing to have is to create quality content on your website.
What is quality content? Quality content is information that your viewers can benefit from. Once you create content, you want everyone to know that your content does exists. You need to distribute it the right way. Telling some strangers on the street corner about "The New Guide of Stock Picking" will help, but not effective. Time is precious. You do not want to reach the most viewers. You would want to reach the most interested viewers on your field. The reason is simple. You work less to get the attention of the most interested viewers.
Therefore, submitting your online content to ezines and article directories are absolutely critical. You will get the maximum number of interested viewers there. The deal is simple. You, as authors, are to submit your articles to these directories. In exchange, you can promote your website at the resource box provided. Viewers looking for a specific topic will browse through certain categories. If they see your writing and like it, they will become your customers. And what is the cost of this? For most places, article submission is free. Where else can you promote your business reaching thousands or more people free of charge?
Some of these article directories are general and some are niche. General article directories let writers publish everything from weight loss help to building your own business. These are good but you can certainly do better. The reason is while these kind of sites garner a lot of visitors, you will find less visitors interested in your field. Niche directories, on the other hand, focus on specific field and attract less visitors. However, these visitors are very interested in your field. If an article directory has a niche in finance, why would a person seeking information about weight loss visit the site? Therefore, only visitors interested in finance will visit this niche directory.
As always, the decision is up to you, as a webmaster. My suggestion is to first submit your content to niche directory and then when you have time, you can still submit your article to other general directories.
Marketing Your Web Site----
For most good online marketers it took at least a year to get up and running to get successful. They had to budget their time and money well. Don’t assume that putting a huge sum of cash into your business will bring you instant rewards. It is important to spend your time and money on several different approaches to see which ones generate the best hits. You need to remember to be persistent and spend your time and money wisely. When you fail to plan you plan to fail at your business. You want to find targeted visitors that are interested in what you have if you want to make sales.
1. Build Your List
Most online marketers send their offers to many targeted sources and prospects that they have generated. They do this regularly and have great success. It will allow you to build a lasting and trustful relationship with the list members. As the trust grows so will your money. There have been plenty of marketers who have made thousands just from sending an e-mail to their lists.
2. Pay Per Click search engines.
This type of search engine is the way to build high volume traffic immediately. Many hosts will be more than happy to set you up with this and you will be able to see how many people have been to your site. You will also end up paying less per month. You will also want to get Wordtracker to get as many targeted keywords as possible. The more targeted keywords you get the more traffic to your sites.
3. Article Submissions
You want to provide free and interesting articles related to what you are trying to sell to your audience. This will inform them on the benefits of what you are promoting and give it worth. Make sure your articles are truthful and not plagiarized.
4. Regular Search Engines
You will want to get started immediately to be able to build an online web presence. This will help to promote your site and gain you ranking which will move you to the top of the list. The higher on the list of ranking you are the more hits you will generate. You can link your self to a reciprocal linking campaign. This will give you the highest success in search engine rankings than anything else.
5. Forum Posting
A great way to target your market is to join a forum that is geared towards your audience. You can become friends and be helpful with all the people. This will let you gain trust. You want to be friends with your customers when marketing on the net. Visit and join high traffic forums daily and share your experiences with them and offer any advice as much as you can.
*****
Maximize The Benefits Of Printing On Your Business----------
You know for a fact that your business needs to be advertised in order for you to increase your sales. And in any marketing campaign, one of the basic tools used by most is commercial printing. Having something tangible for your target clients to read and hold on to is essential for you to be retained in their minds.
But how do you maximize the benefits you get from commercial printing your marketing collaterals? There are several ways to do it:
1 – Your customer is your priority. The only way you can make a difference in your marketing collateral is if you know your customers and clients – their wants, needs, desires. What’s important to them? What problems do they have? What are the demographics of your target market? What would make them interested in your products? What benefits are they looking for?
When you are able to answer these questions, then you’ll be able to supply your target audience with the most appropriate ad that would be beneficial to both you and your clients. With a better understanding of your customer, you’ll be able to provide not only a stronger message but also better solutions to their problems.
2 – Your headline should be attractive. Ever heard of a sensual headline? It’s not something dirty or pornographic, mind you. When we say sensual, we mean headlines that are so attractive that your target audience would be hard put to resist them. In addition to your graphics, the next element that can appeal to your target readers’ emotions and senses is your headline. If you have a headline that is extremely appealing to your prospects and customers then you would have done a good job indeed.
Always keep in mind that your customers are your priority. Build a headline that speaks of the benefits that they would gain when they purchase your product or avail of your service. A strong benefit statement would be very difficult to resist.
3 – It’s all about YOU. When I say ‘you’, I mean your customers. Forget about yourself or your company. Your customers don’t give a hoot about that. Their only concern is their welfare. So build your message on that fact. Entice them with the benefits and offers that identify with their needs and wants. Make them an offer that they can’t resist by providing them a means to make their lives better and help to solve their issues and problems.
4 – Tell them stories. Who doesn’t love stories? I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t, that’s why it is worthwhile on your part to integrate your stories in your marketing collaterals. The more appealing your story, the better.
Finally, give them a reason to act on your message. Getting your target audience to read your material is not enough. Most important is to get them to act according to your call. Call you, visit your website, go to your shop – whatever it is, the most important thing is to get them to act on your message. A material that doesn’t get your target readers to take action is a useless marketing indeed.
Methods to promote the website (2006 version)--------
Many friends have conclude the methods,but with the passage of time,a lot of new approaches.Often these new approaches,in actual operation have more remarkable achievements.Many applications currently web2.0 very fiery,but search engines on web2.0 elements,more friendly. web2.0 elements used to promote their sites.Of course,I want to integrate my predecessors and on the means to promote web2.0 way to do something in conclusion:
1:SEO.In fact,we should consider the establishment of the website at the same time,the proven effective for several things.URL alphabet,simple straightforward headlines division title "and his" meta-appropriate,functional RSS subscription,rich website linked to the website map,
labels, the most important thing is not to do evil.After they finish,submit to the search engines.
2.RSS.Use RSS in addition to enriching website connected,users will have a subscription.Then there are several RSS polymerization sites,the search included so fast.For example RSS.bokee.com,feedss.com.Users interested in the content of the site through subscription,we can increase the traffic,and users can also increase the viscosity.
3.Cyber Digest.This method is very good,very effective.Some cyber digest can give your website often bring considerable traffic.
4.Link exchange.It is imperative to promote the website.
5.E-MAIL.It is a good way to promote.Many of the website's success,to a great extent,depend on the promotion of the way.
6.Advertising.That,we need to spend a lot of money,but the recommended method is more economical to promote their advertising,so basically the same expenditure.Website traffic has also been promoted.
7.Rich conten.Users rely on the word-of-mouth marketing legend,it is actually very effective.
Recommendation:Join the key social search engine.Search engine traffic to the website is huge.However,the search engine has its own personality.Want to use search engines to have a great traffic or require a lot of ability.Of course,we can choose a new social search,such as:deyeb.Actual effect!Web2.0 combination of many elements such sites,but he is a social search engine,users will be the message.Promotion of the content, it is easy to achieve the ultimate goal of such websites.Methods (There are many similar websites, you can find themselves):
1.Download Tools Bar
2.Promote their own to the collection and search results through tools bar.
3.Also in the "group" and an "encyclopedia" to promote your information.And the effects of promotional skills.Not blindly made advertisements,were shut out.Rich content carrying the promotion, is the best way.
Actually,the most important thing is to do a rich content,the most important thing is to promote the prudent choice is not connected,Quality is important.Combining a variety of marketing methods,the best result is a search engine marketing and Internet advertising.Other methods have certain effects.However,However,it is desirable to attract target customers,or more of the traffic is useless.
Networking Through Strategic Alliances-----
Networker's know that you always get back more from your network then you have to give to it. However, that should not stop you from thinking about new ways you can help the people in your network. Your network is full of people who would like to partner with you, though neither of you may have approached the idea or formalized a plan. Here are some suggestions for ways that you can form strategic alliances with other businesses in your network.
BNI (Business Networking International) coined the phrase “giver's gain”, which basically means that if you give referrals, leads or resources the recipients will want to repay you somehow. The problem is that as your network grows, it will become increasingly difficult to give referrals to everyone in your network.
This is somewhat counterintuitive because most people would think that as they add contacts to their network it will be easier to refer the new members of your network to each other. However, if you know five accountants it is difficult to refer to all five of them equally. One way to give back to your network is to develop a number of strategic alliances.
There are a few basic steps you should follow to help ensure that your new alliances are effective. First, be sure to think about what you want the alliance to accomplish. Are you simply trying to reach new potential customers? Or are you also trying to reduce your marketing costs? In general, think about the goals of the alliance. Here are some things you might want to consider.
- You will get access to the networks of your partners.
- You will get to associate your business with another, potentially, more established brand.
- You can decrease your overall marketing costs, while expanding your reach.
- You can learn from other businesses. What has been successful for them in the past?
Next you should think about who you want to partner with. If you are a Realtor, you might think of mortgage originators or real estate attorney's that you could partner with. Bear in mind that your partner does not have to have the same goals are you, but they should be complementary. Here are several ways you can potentially form and alliance with another business.
- Create an alliance with a customer - Creating a mutually beneficial relationship with a key customer can strengthen the relationship and reduce your risk of losing this key customer.
- Create an alliance with a market leader – If you are a small business, you may be able to reap hue rewards from partnering with the market leader in your area. You may be able to offer a level of local penetration that a big company may have trouble creating on it's own. The alliance may not offer a huge financial incentive for the small business but you can leverage the alliance in your own marketing program. If you are the market leader, consider partnering with a young, easer business that might be able to offer you this type of market penetration.
- Create an alliance with a non-profit organization – You might be able to create an alliance with a trade organization or local community organization, which offer not only direct rewards, but also in-direct rewards from helping a good cause.
- Create an alliance with a former employer – Your company may offer a service that complements the services offered by a former employer.
- Create an alliance with a competitor – while you have to pay very close attention to detail when partnering with a competitor, you might be able to tap into their resources to extend your reach. They might be a competitor, but may not have the specific expertise that you do. For example, many people would consider Yahoo! and Microsoft's MSN internet portal to be competitors, but MSN recognized Yahoo! Strengths in keyword driven advertising and started featuring Yahoo! Ads with their search results. Of course, MSN is now developing their own contextual advertising system, which means the partnership is coming to an end soon.
- Create an alliance with a parelell industry – simply stated, find another business in your market but that is not a direct competitor and then team up to market to the same customer base. Each company can pitch in financially and see incremental results from their marketing activities.
Planning out exactly how the alliance will work is the next step. You and your partner should clearly outline what each party is going to be responsible for and how results are going to be monitored. Be sure to discuss the costs involved in the alliance and make sure that each party has a clear understanding of what all of the costs will be. Here are some ideas to consider.
- Ask your partner to display your literature and/or products. A Realtor may be able to display brochure from a mortgage broker in their office or include it in the packet of information they present new clients.
- Ask your partner to link to your website from theirs. An accounting firm may be able to place a link to your financial planning practice on their website.
- Include your brochure in a partners mailings. A delivery company might be willing to include your brochure in the invoices they send to their customers each month.
- Develop joint marketing materials that promote both businesses and share the expenses of implementing the plan. For example, a handyman and a landscaper may develop a direct mail piece that promotes both companies and then each company can contribute to the mailing expenses.
- Develop a “preferred partner” program that offers customers a financial incentive to buy products in tandem from two companies at once. For example, a car dealership might form a partnership with a service station and offer maintenance bundled with the purchase price of a car. A health club may offer a joint membership to a local tennis or pool club.
- Develop a seminar with another business – develop a educational seminar program with a business in your industry and then market the events as a team.
- Publish news about the businesses you have developed an alliance with.
- Introduce your new partners to your key clients. Perhaps you can invite your partner to events you are involved in.
- Serve as a sponsor for events your partners are involved in.
Once you have set up your alliance and implemented your plan, it is critical that the lines of communication stay open and that you pay attention to the relationship you have formed. Check in with your partner to make sure they are happy with the way things are going.
Set up a weekly meeting or conference call with your partner and go through a progress report. You may also find it helpful to create a “report card” for your project before it begins. Base your report card on the goals you laid out early in the relationship and then revisit it over time. By laying out the goals in advance, each person involved with the project will understand what is expected of them. In addition, it is harder to ignore setbacks and bumps in the road if expectations are fully developed and everyone is on the same page before the project begins.
The most common mistakes involve failing to clearly communicate through each stage of the alliances growth. Think about the overall value proposition, where each parties goals are aligned and mismatched, the level of commitment or excitement from each party. Always think about how the alliance can become a win-win for everyone involved. If you do not think you can really add value, don't participate because you do not want to damage your credibility. Finally, if the alliance simply does not add measurable value to your business, do not participate.
Creating these formal alliances will help you develop and strengthen the relationships you already have. Power networkers can create multiple alliances with multiple members of their network. These alliances have the added benefit of allowing you to add value to a number of businesses without having to actually give specific referrals to a number of businesses individually.
New Web - Site Promotion Ideas-------
What do you do when you have a brand new shiny web site, and no way of promoting it? Well for starters you could hold an online press conference. This is actually a very simple process. You will either hire a professional to write out a web press release and have it reviewed by an editor, or you can be brave and take your chances by writing it yourself. When you decide to do it yourself you take a great risk of being either very disappointed, or shut down entirely.
There are other ways of promoting your new web site however; you could always go the route of affiliation. This is a good method of not only promoting your new site, but an easy fashion of making some quick money as well. How this works is you sign up for an affiliation to a site, generally you will want to find a site that has some relevance to the site you are trying to promote. When ever someone goes to the site you are affiliated with, and they link on to your site by pay per click method it takes them to your site and right into the thick of your content. This can be the unfortunate part, whenever someone clicks onto your site from your affiliate; you end up paying the affiliate for the transfer of sites. Although this could easily be a very small fee to the affiliate, the point to remember is if they come and you pay the affiliate, there is no guarantee that they will buy from you.
This could easily become a very costly endeavour if you are getting many time wasters, and no buyers. This is where you will be paying for people to view but not pay. As you know this is no way to conduct a business. Sometimes people go to the extent of hiring a service that guarantees web traffic. This service states that they can increase traffic to your site, or generate hits if you like. The problem with this theory however, is that you cannot guarantee anything, you can never be sure that you will ever generate traffic, let alone sales. This is in no way to say that the program that they offer is a complete waste of time and money, it is just that absolutely no organization or single person alike can truly guarantee that they can generate traffic for you to the point that you will see successful results on your site.
Which leads back to the first mentioned thought, is it not worth the time, money, and effort, to ensure that you are getting the best exposure for your site? Don’t waste your money, time, and sanity wondering whether or not you will receive this exposure to your site. Go get it yourself.
Niche Website Marketing Tool: Myriad Search Authority Finder----
It is widely accepted that major search engines, such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN, place a very high importance on inbound links from authority websites.
The fastest way for a new niche website to get in all the major search engine indexes is to acquire links from 'expert' websites. Links from relevant authority websites can get your site in the Big Three indexes literally overnight.
Although, asking those sites for links is almost pointless, you can provide an article or participate in the site's forum and embed a link to your website into your article byline or forum signature, that is a common practice. Be unique, have something worth saying.
But how to find authority websites for your niche?
Myriad Search Authority Finder is a relatively new meta search engine by Aaron Wall (SEO Book) designed primarily to help find authoritative websites for your keywords. Want to know which websites rank well for your niche key phrase? Myriad Search will show you, presenting search results with their relative rankings from Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com.
The output of Authority Finder is in %. For a site to have 100% authority it would need to rank #1 in all four engines. You can then use these results to locate sites consistently rated as authorative across search engines, based on the keyword string being searched for.
Let's jump right in and find out the most valuable websites for keyword phrase 'dog training' as an example of using the Myriad Search.
If you have the Virtual Real Estate Toolbar installed, simply enter 'dog training' into the toolbar's search box. If you don’t have the VRE Toolbar installed, go to the Myriad website (http://www.myriadsearch.com), enter the phrase into the search box and press Search.
Wait a moment while it scans the search engines, and now you have a list of 'expert' websites to work with. You can save the search results in a CSV (comma separated values) file.
Let's analyze the Myriad results for 'dog training'.
#1 is www.uwsp.edu/psych/dog/dog.htm. This site is #1 in Google, #6 in Yahoo! and #3 in Ask.com. A valuable .edu website, that has links to commercial products. If you have a quality relevant product, you can try to acquire a link from them.
#2 is www.dogpatch.org/obed. They are #7 in Google, #10 in Yahoo! and #1 in Ask.com. There are forums you can participate in. There are links to websites with dog training related articles.
#3 is www.dogtrainingbasics.com - #2 in Yahoo! and #2 in MSN - you can submit your article in their Articles section.
#4 is www.dogproblems.com - #3 in Google and #2 in Ask.com - has a forum; has links to other dog training products and websites.
#5 is www.apdt.com - #8 in Google, #18 in Yahoo! and #6 in Ask.com - has an e-mail discussion list and news bulletins for members.
and so on…
As you can see, there is an opportunity to get one-way links from authority websites for your niche. And the Myriad Search Authority Finder is a great tool to identify those expert websites.
Not All Website Links Are Created Equal----
If you've read anything in the internet marketing arena while trying to promote your website, you've no doubt come across the advice that you need to get links to your website in order for it to do well in the search engines. I'm not here to tell you otherwise, only to point out that when someone gives you advice on getting links, don't assume that any and all links are helpful or desirable. You need to learn to go after links that will give you the best results for the least amount of effort.
Years ago, in the early days of the internet, it was not uncommon for internet 'gurus' to council people to place links on FFA lists in order to get traffic. Besides these FFA lists, webmasters were encouraged to get links from classified ads, webrings, link farms and all manner of beasts like these. These links didn't help the average user find useful information faster. In fact, if anything it made it more difficult for people to find what they were looking for.
Years ago search engines were simple by todays standards. Back then you could often achieve top ranking for a particular keyword by simply repeating these keywords over and over again. Early search engines assumed that the more often a keyword was mentioned, the more likely the page was relevant to the topic. This, of course, was not true and search engine companies eventually wisened up to this tactic.
Getting a mass of links from websites that are not relevant to the topic of your website produces little return. It does produce some return on some search engines but very little for the two biggest ones, Google and Yahoo, with Google being the most sophisticated of the two engines. Based on information from a Google patent application released a while back, experts surmise that Google will track a number of factors when determining how to rate the value and authority of the link pointing to your site.
Some of these factors include the topic of the website linking to you. If it is about deer hunting and your website is selling access to a website builder, the link won't count as highly as if it came from another website promoting a website builder or a web hosting company, web hosting directory, etc...
Number of links on a page is also important especially when factoring in Google pagerank. When another website places a link to your page, it will transfer more pagerank to your website the fewer the links on their website. Depending on how much pagerank the other website has, your link may tansfer little or no pagerank back to your website if there are too many links on the page.
Placement of the link on the page is another factor to consider. Advanced search engines like Google are now trying to discount links that are obviously advertisements or paid linking. To this end, links under partner sections, on links pages, on 'partner' pages are being discounted.
So what kind of links should you get? The best kind of links are keyword rich, contextual links within the body of the web page. Links that are relevant to the context of the page are going to get more attention that links that are clearly off topic. Including your targeted keyword between the html anchor tag is also a good idea.
Nurse Staffing Software Solution----
Nursing Agency Backoffice Software is a Backoffice Software made to make your tasks easier and your operation more progressive and productive.
* Eliminates data entry and possible for errors with complete, integrated front and back office functionality;
* With a single point of entry, information will be designated orderly from sales activities, applicant tracking, job search and placement to managing job orders, payroll, invoicing, and reporting. This is broad staffing recruiting software.
* Access to information at your fingertips all people (with rights you control) have real time access to the data they need.
It could access information to your people you control provided that they have real time access to the data they need.
If you have satisfied all the above requirements and task, this means you are already in business. One of the most time consuming part of a nursing agency are the backend office work. This includes client setup, employee screening, client /employee matching, keeping track of time records for employees and organizing the billing system.
There are several software solutions to fit individual needs such as QuickBooks and Peachtree, but this type of application software are geared towards invoicing and managing your bank accounts. They are what you would call universal all purpose software. To remain competitive and be able to manage your manpower efficiently and effectively, it is recommended that you automate your backend solutions.
Our Nursing Agency Custom Solutions Software (NACSS) was design for this specific purpose.
The software features 5 main modules.
Client - In this module you would enter all of your clients pertinent contact information. You will also specify client preferred payment method and financial information.
Employee - The employee module has more data collection than the client module. Aside from entering employee contact information, here you will input all employee skills information which covers just about every skill in the nursing field. The module also has the ability to attach Photo ID and resume with employee file. Because some states require you to conduct FCRA compliant background checks, the employee module has integrated an instant background check sub-module which connects you instantly with our partnered site to provide you Instant FCRA Compliant background checks which automatically converts to a PDF file and attached to your employees personal file. The final data collected in the Employee module is availability. Employee will identify hours he or she is able to work and in what days.
Job Order - The job order module is where you will enter all job request sent to you via phone, fax or email. Data being collected in this module are Client ID, number of nurses needed, hours needed, days need, length of time need, reporting supervisor, special skills required if needed, client pay per hour and employee pay per hour. Once these data have been entered into this module, NACSS will look for the perfect employee to match client needs. Once an employee has been assigned to a job order, their status is marked unavailable so that they are not included in the auto matching process. Once a match is found, the matching employee file will open ready for calling to offer the vacancy. Once they accept, you mark the job order as filled. If they dont accept the position, NACSS will look for the next candidate most suited for the job until the job order is filled.
Daily Time Record - In the daily time record you will enter all your employees signed timesheet.
Billing & Payroll - Once a Job Order is fulfilled and satisfied, NACSS will automatically send the completed job order into the billing module, where it sits until its maturity. Maturity is the time when the open invoices are billable, the billing period is set in the Client Module whether Net 15, 30 or 45 days. Once a job order is matured, it will auto-generate a billing invoice ready for your mailing. If your client has authorized you for auto-pay you can have NACSS auto-print a bank draft which you can in turn be deposited without having to wait for clients payment to arrive. In the payroll portion of this module, you can at anytime print the employee week to date or month to date or past hours worked. Payroll automatically calculates the amount being paid out to employee per job order. The DTR can then be sent to a 3rd party payroll processing company such as ADP.
One Way Links Are Given And Accepted With Love And Are For Ever.—Grab Them!----
Unlike Reciprocal Links, One-Way Links also known as Inbound Links are obtained by you or in fact given to you with Love and for ever. Yes,they have come to stay. One-Way Link is a link pointing to your website from another site. You do not have to link back to that website. In other words you need not reciprocate. One-Way Links play a vital role in increasing your Link Popularity.
Link Popularity is a measure of the number of sites of quality and relevance that point to your website. The more number of such sites, the higher will your page rank be.
Search Engines consider One-Way Links superior to Reciprocal Links because the website that links to your site without getting a link back, endorses the fact that yours is a website of quality.
Webmasters are known to adopt various methods to artificially increase the Link Popularity of their websites, such as purchasing of high PR links. Search Engines have now become aware of this and hence major Search Engines appear to be devaluing sites that solely depend on reciprocal links.
Good Reciprocal Links are often obtained by begging and are in some instances not permanent due to unethical practices of some webmasters. On the other hand One-Way Links have a different story to tell.
1. If your website has good content and valuable information, other webmasters will link to your site, because they Love and appreciate the contents of your site. You thus get a permanent One-Way Link more often with the same theme as that of your website.
2. I have posted about 550 articles in my website written by other webmasters, because I Love those articles and would like my visitors too, to appreciate and benefit from these articles. Similarly several hundreds of webmasters have published my articles in their Directories, Ezines, Newsletters and Websites for the same reason.
Writing expert articles of quality, that are informative and educative, sincerely from your heart is appreciated by the audience. The result is that your articles are often sought after and published by webmasters. Thus you are given a permanent One-Way Link with Love.
3. Listing in Web Directories is another great way of securing One-Way Links. In addition to well known Directories such as Yahoo Directory (charges a fee for guaranteed listing), The Open Project Directory (DMOZ), and Joe Ant Directory, there are several other Secondary Directories that Love to list your website without requesting a link back. A list of these Directories can be obtained by going into the Search Engines. By submitting your website to the relevant category in these directories you are assured of a high quality relevant One-Way Link that will be there for ever.
Furthermore there are several high PR Directories who Love to list your website but charge a fee for listing. Get listed and you are again assured of a quality relevant One Way Link for ever.
4. If you have purchased a product and like the product, write a good testimonial about the product and send it across to the webmaster or vendor concerned with your URL in it. He would be thankful to you and would Love to publish your testimonial, thereby giving you a One-Way Link.
In addition to these methods there are additional ways in obtaining one way links by posting relevant comments in Forums, Blogs and submitting Press Releases etc.
To increase their link popularity, webmasters endeavor to acquire as many quality reciprocal links or one way links. For reasons already indicated Webmasters Love one-way links and Search Engines appear to Love them even more.
The manner in which One-Way Links are obtained can be viewed from a different perspective altogether.
Webmasters Love your website and link it to theirs. They love your articles and post it in theirs. They love your product and write a glowing testimony. Directories love your quality website and list it. You love them in return for giving you a One-Way Link for ever. On the other hand in reciprocal links exchange or link trade as some term it the whole approach revolves around begging and bargaining.
The more number of relevant one way links you obtain, the greater and faster your chances of increasing your link popularity and climbing up the Page Rank ladder. The benefits of a high page rank are numerous. So the earlier you start to capitalize on these On-Way Links that are given for ever with love, the happier you are going to be.
Optimising your travel website----
The web is literally awash with travel websites. Search on Google for ‘discount air travel’ and you will find over 32 million websites. Try ‘cheap accommodation’ and there are over 11 million sites competing for your customer’s dollar. So how do you make a travel website rank highly on Google and the other search engines.
Broadly speaking, strategy in this space is similar to many physical world markets. You have to choose between being universal and being focused. If you want to be universal, i.e. offer a site which provides airline tickets, hotel and car rental bookings anywhere on earth you have to remember that you are up against some pretty stiff competition. The number one ranked site on Google for ‘discount air travel’ is Expedia. It has over 5 million back links as measured by www.marketleap.com. The cost of overtaking these mega sites for popular terms like ‘discount air travel’ is prohibitive. You will never get there. So if you want to be a universal site you must focus on less popular search terms. Look for variants on the popular search terms and try to rank highly against less popular terms. There are still very large numbers of searches done each day on terms like ‘discount plane tickets’ and it will be much easier to rank against this kind of term. Indeed the #1 ranked site on Google for this term isn’t even a home page: always a sign that this space is not too competitive. It also has a PageRank of only 4, which is not difficult to beat.
The focus strategy is easier to understand. Choose one market and optimize your website to rank highly only for that market. It’s not hard to beat the top-ranked players if you are searching for ‘Bed and Breakfast in Woodbridge ,Suffolk, England’ . Of course the problem here is that the value of ranking highly for this term is almost nil. You have to find the sweet spot of markets where a top-ranked position is valuable but yet the competition for this spot is not too intense. Once you have chosen your target market and its associated target keywords, the challenge is to get your site to rank highly. I do not propose in this article to go over the principles of search engine optimization, or SEO: there are innumerable articles which offer the latest thinking on this topic. However, a central part of all SEO strategies is linking: getting other sites to link to you. There is no substitute for the hard work of persuading other websites to link to yours, in return for a link from yours to them. Ideally you want to focus on a triangular link, where you link from one site and they link back to a different site – this will make your link less suspect in the eyes of the search engines. Look for a Free Travel Links site such as this one, complete the form, put your link up to their site and they will link back to you within 24 hours. Repeat several hundred or several thousand times, wait a while and you will be pretty much assured of a high ranking on the search engines. Then sit back and count the money.
Paid Directory Submission Checklist.----
Every online business needs traffic, which comes with increased visibility on the web. One great way to get noticed is to get listed in the major directories. Links from good directories increases your site's visibility many fold.
There are thousands of web directories on the net and selecting the good ones to submit your site can be a time consuming task. Also there are free directories and paid directories. You need to submit to both types of directories.
The following checklist is for paid directory submission only. This checklist will help you choose the best and worthwhile paid directories on the net.
Submission Check List:
1. Check out if the directory is indexed in major search engines.
2. Check the robots.txt file. Make sure that search engine bots are allowed to crawl the pages where you intend to put your listing. Check the Meta tags to make sure that search engine spiders are not prevented from following links in it. A Meta tag with noindex/nofollow will not be indexed or spidered and links in that page are not followed by bots.
3. Check if the directory is being maintained regularly. Visit the directory from time to time to see if errors are getting corrected, site information is getting updated and the like. In short, look for positive activity on the directory.
4. Check if the listings in category pages match in theme and content or not. Directories with tight focus on relevant grouping of web sites are useful for visitors and tend to show up frequently in SERPs for keyword searches.
5. Check out the age of the directory. Do a whois search ( http://www.whois.net) to get this information. Many new directories vanish after a few months due to lack of maintenance and promotion. With older directories you can at least be sure that you listing will remain visible for a reasonable period.
6. Check if the directory consists of too many empty categories - it is not useful for visitors and also does not send a too good signal to the SEs about the directory. Think twice before submitting to such directories.
7. Check if the contact information is available on the site. Proper businesses will provide you with some kind of contact information.
8. Check the Alexa rank of the directory - it is not accurate, yet you can get an idea of traffic the directory receives.Look for directories with decreasing Alexa Rank as it indicates that the directory is getting popular.
9. Check if the directory provides SE friendly urls. No JavaScript link or redirection. Also watch out for dynamic urls. Sometimes search engines find it difficult indexing or recognizing dynamic urls with parameters like http://www.
10. Check whether category pages have too many outgoing links. If your link is one of 100 links on a page, visitors will find it difficult to locate your site.
Pay Per Click and Search Engine Optimization – A Perfect Marriage-----
Pay per click or search engine optimization, which one should you use? Many view PPC marketing as a colossal waste of money while others disdain search engine optimization. In reality, the two marketing strategies form a perfect marriage.
Pay-Per-Click - PPC
PPC marketing is a love it or hate platform. For the “love it” crowd, PPC marketing is a way to get instant exposure and feedback on site designs. In a matter of minutes, you can start receiving traffic and adjusting your site to convert the traffic at the best rate possible. For those in the “hate it” crowd, bids are to high and one never knows how may of the clicks are fake and worthless.
Search Engine Optimization – SEO
As with PPC, seo marketing has its proponents and detractors. Those who love it look at the free traffic and glorious profitability of a site that converts the traffic at a decent rate. Detractors view seo as an unnecessary waste of time since it can take a year or more to get high rankings, particularly on Google. Detractors also argue that high listings are subject to changes in the search engine ranking process, which means you can lose your rankings.
So, who is right? In truth, both sides make accurate arguments. PPC is expensive and click fraud is a monstrous problem. Seo produces free traffic, but it takes along time to get to the top and rankings are subject to the whims of search engine ranking changes. The truth, of course, is both marketing platforms should be used whenever possible.
Marketing Marriage
Every site is unique, but most should combine PPC and seo marketing as part of an overall internet marketing strategy. When starting out, the PPC campaign is critical for getting immediate traffic and tweaking the site to maximize conversions. At the same time, a seo campaign should be undertaken. As the site rises in search results, the PPC campaign should be fazed out for the relevant high listings.
PPC and seo marketing are not mutually exclusive. When married together as part of an overall marketing strategy, both platforms will deliver the goods.
So you want to jump into the expanding whirlwind of photographers? Here are some helpful notes to get you setup for a good first photo shoot.
Equipment
You probably have this notion that you should look like one of those photographers you see in the movies or paparazzi groups you see in the news when you think about what equipment to get. To your relief, all you really need to have is a camera that is portable and has good color reception, or in other words, will capture the colors for you. There are, at this time, a lot of options in the market that you no longer have to settle with a point-and-shoot camera. You can now acquire a DSLR for half the price than it used to sell for. For a starting photographer, I suggest that you get a DSLR as this type of camera would allow you to set manual controls and afford you to tinker with other settings that can widen your photographing range otherwise unavailable in a point-and-shoot. Most popular ones are Canon, Nikon and Olympus. These are the three names I trust. However, if we're talking about options and flexibility, I'd go for a Canon since, not only do they have a lot of available lenses for DSLRs, but their cameras are more compatible with the other brand lenses too.
Manual Controls
You will notice that there a bunch of settings available in a camera. If you check your camera's manual, you'll find that there are programmed settings for you to easily choose from. There's landscape, portrait, sport and macro. These settings are just preset or programmed combinations of the two items I refer to as Manual Controls. Hence, let me introduce you to aperture and shutterspeed. Aperture is a range of numbers and so is shutterspeed. The programmed settings I mentioned earlier are just preset combinations of these two. The portrait setting has a high aperture and low shutterspeed, the landscape setting has the opposite and so on. But for more flexibility, I strongly suggest you use Manual Controls. With this, you can select any aperture or shutterspeed you wish to use for any given picture at any time.
The aperture is the size of the opening of your shutter. To cut the chase short, the smaller the number, the bigger your opening is, thus more light will be rendered on your picture. Shutterspeed almost works in the same way. The smaller the number, the longer your shutter will be open to absorb light. Shutterspeed deals with time, aperture deals with the diameter. Given this, aperture of 2.8 and shutterspeed of 10 will render a very bright picture. Whereas an aperture of 9 and a shutterspeed of 1000 will render a rather dark picture. It's up to you how to mix these two to come up with the perfect combination to capture your picture. This knowledge will enable you to take pictures even in situations when your programmed controls can no longer manage it.
Framing and Composition
Everybody can tell if a picture is nice or not after looking at it. But how can you tell if something will make a nice picture or not? This is the challenge you, as a photographer, will have to undertake. What might be interesting for others may not be interesting to you, and vice-versa. In this department, since we're depending on your creativity and your so-called “eye” for photography, I can only leave you with two things: 1. check your frame: make sure everything is within it and leave as little dead space as you can and 2. check the available light (avoid harsh lighting) and what direction it's coming from. Light pouring towards you will render your subject black and light pouring profusely from behind you will render your subject too bright. Check your frame if everything in it, really has to be in it. Will it distract the people from your real subject? Is it interesting enough to be in my picture? Should I do a tight shot instead? These are some of the questions you should be asking when examining your frame.
Lenses
When you purchase a camera body, it normally comes with a kit lens. Should it not come with a kit lens, then I suggest you get a kit lens before jumping to the more complex ones. Kit lens cover the normal range of aperture numbers. But then again, I don't want to delve into this so much as you do not want to be overwhelmed with complexities that come with your lens on top of the complexities of your camera. So just to quickly give you an idea, there are several kinds of lenses. Lenses may differ in their aperture ranges and in the material the lens is made of. There are lenses that are specific to the smaller aperture numbers. There are lenses made of plastic and some of glass. Those made of glass have better color reception than the former.
Post Processing
This area is optional, but most of the mind-blowing pictures I've seen lately have been to some extent, post processed. Post processing involves some degree of enhancement using any one of the graphic design software. A very popular one is Adobe Photoshop. It wouldn't hurt if you tried learning the basic enhancement techniques, not to manipulate your image altogether, but rather just to clean up your image, enhance colors and sharpen your subject. This will also prove to be helpful when you send your photos to an online printing company and see the final results.
Photography is a very technical subject at the same time highly customizable. Each photographer has his or her own style that they incorporate into their photos. The equipment can only do so much. But it still depends on you and how you want other people to see a commonplace object or perspective. So as a closing remark to beginning photographers, let me finish off with a phrase I used to take with me whenever I go shooting, remember: “safety in numbers”.
Some time ago, when pop-ups were first introduced, a craze went through the whole internet marketing arena. Internet marketers saw the power of pop windows as an effective tool to aid them in their quest to earn money online. Almost every marketer jumped in the band wagon and added pop-ups to their site, be it for displaying offers or gathering information. This explosion of pop-ups on the internet became incredulous to the point where every corner you turn on the net, you would be bombarded by them. This is exactly why the effectiveness of pop-ups has seriously declined. Since then, surfers have developed a natural tendency to close a pop-up window even before they read it. They are simply not interested! They have come to see pop-ups as an obstacle to what they are really seeking on your site: useful information. Very often, a visitor will leave your site if you have too many pop-ups appearing. They simply do not want the hassle of having to close all the pop windows. Useful information, while valuable, is not as valuable as the visitor's time. Studies have shown however, that even with these set backs, pop-up windows are still an effective method of internet marketing.
How then, do we use pop-up windows effectively for internet marketers to earn money online? Simple, we eliminate the irritating "pop in your face" factor!!
Many forms of pop windows have surfaced to solve this problem. First and foremost of them are the pop-under windows and exit pop-ups. Think about this, what if the pop-up were seen upon exiting your site instead of entering? You would allow visitors to obtain the information that they need, while letting them feel that they were able to browse your site without being hassled by other ads and offers all the while making them happy. Visitors will leave with a positive attitude and therefore are more likely to respond to the pop advertisement. Since the visitors have the information, they have achieved their objective and are now open to do other things; ideally respond to the pop-under advertisement. Internet marketing strategies could now be applied at this stage. A freebie could be offered for their contact emails to let them feel that they have not left your site empty handed, thereby helping you build your opt-in list. A short survey could be set up to get their opinion and feedback of your site, giving you valuable information on how to better improve your site to earn money online.
Other forms of pop-ups that are fast gaining recognition for their effectiveness are the fly-in pop windows and the pre-loaded pop windows. The fly-in pop window will present itself a few seconds after the surfer visits the page by slowly and unobtrusively flying in either from the side or the top. It is not as obscene as the direct pop-ups and serves to immediately grab the attention of the surfer and direct his focus to your offer. The pre-loaded pop window, on the other hand, loads with the page and appears as if it is "pasted" on the web page after the loading is finished. This pop window does not have any special appearance and forces the surfer to read its message and close it before reading the main content on the web page, thereby making sure your offer is read. Both these pop windows can be effectively coupled with an irresistible offer with the opportunity for you to earn money online.
To further increase the effectiveness of pop windows, several improvements can be made. Pop windows should be made to allow the surfer easy "escape". If the surfer does not want to see the ad and has a hard time closing it out, he is more likely to become frustrated and could leave your site all together. A button should be used that allows the surfer to close the pop window easily or make sure the "x" is clearly visible. Another good idea is to use a script that utilizes cookies. Cookies will prevent pop-windows from overloading the surfer since you can decide the frequency of the pop-windows, rather than each time a page is opened. Also, make sure that there is no more than one pop-up window per page.
During the creation of a pop window, you will be asked to fill out a short information form, decide on the length of cookies, and select the layout of the pop-window. When designing and providing the content of the pop window, you can increase its effectiveness by creating an attention-grabbing headline that includes benefits that will be most appealing to your target customer. Always try to include incentives and never ask the customer to read a long and drawn out sales pitch. Create a perfect pop window that is simple yet powerful and it will surely be one of your most valuable internet marketing tools to earn money online.
A website is no longer an option but a necessity, a must for almost small businesses and home businesses in this vast communication era. Surfing the Internet, you will find a huge quantity of websites, and the point is that how to make your site distinguished and then profitable? You may curl your lips “we should not judge by the appearance” and “we’d better focusing on our products’ quality” but in fact, hardly can a poorly designed website persuade potential consumers to open their wallets.
What do you need to do? Aim at your website!
1 – Make your website look professional:
Never think a website is all enough for your business. Maybe this was right a few years ago but now everything is changing. It must be a professional website. Why? Very simple, an ugly façade probably make consumers think your company is unreliable. But how to make it pro? Try to make your website simple and clear. Don’t let your consumers take a long time to download (keep each page to no more than 40K and use thumbnail-sized photos with the descriptive texts), otherwise they will give up and try another site. If you sell many different items or many products just in one range, classify them in a wise way to make them easy to find. For example, if you sell softwares, try to divide them into many categories such as “DVD morpher”, “MP3 morpher”, “music morpher”, etc. Then, in each category, focus on the smaller units: “basic version”, “gold version”, “diamond version” and so on.
2 – Make your website sound interesting:
Your website is for doing business, not for promoting a singer or a music band. I know that but music/sound/voice is also a key to lure your consumers. Try to have a look at a product tour or product demonstration in some certain websites, you will see how effectively music/sound/voice can promote your products!
You are wondering, “How can I do that?” Actually, it is also simple. With a software called “Voice Changer Software”, you can change your real voices, do-it-yourself voice-overs, create different sounds, etc. to vivify your website.
3 – Impulse sales:
Have you ever noticed that candies and magazines are usually displayed near the check out counter in retailed stores or supermarkets? And cosmetic stores often have perfume near the cash register? Actually, they are some tactics that help increase sales by putting items that make good impulse buys in places that you pass through to get out of the store.
Some similar tactics can be used for your website. Always have a button “Buy now” but not to make it so blatant, you can create a small ad or short review or link and put it near the products.
You can also increase sales by letting consumers know some other adds-on or related products with one or two links in the order or thank you page.
4 – Build trust from your website:
To build trust between your company and consumers, you should make your contact list easy to find on your site with full of your company’s information. You should also create a feedback form to let consumers express their thoughts about your products and services as well as all other comments and suggestions. Putting it on your site will form an impression of your company as it shows your care for your consumers.
5 – Keep an eye on emails, newsletters, etc:
The advantage of e-commerce is 24/7. You may attract consumers to search for your website and buy your products all the time. However, this also causes troubles. Maybe when you are sleeping in New York, a consumer in Beijing writes a complaint letter asking you to reply “immediately.” I do not dare ask you not to sleep but suggest you should make your consumers happy by checking and replying emails within 24 hours or less. For newsletters, no need to be rush but you should keep them regularly in a timely fashion.
Webmasters and newsletter publishers all over the world are constantly searching for new quality content. There are many websites that fulfill this need by providing pre-licensed articles. The requirements for using pre-licensed content is that the publisher must leave the author information and any links intact. Publishers are not allowed to edit the articles.
Many webmasters (publishers) will go to the free content sites to look for articles that they can use on their web sites, blogs, ezines, or newsletters.
How can this benefit someone who needs to promote their website?
If you can write an informative and useful article and publish it on a free content site you are well on your way to increasing traffic and popularity for your website. Every article that you write will have your own author information at the end. This author information will include a link to your own web site. When appropriate you can include a link within the body. Use the links sparingly as you do not want the article to be viewed as "spam". Most free content sites will not allow affiliate links to be used within your article. As a rule try to write articles that are informative and interesting. Do not write an article that is simply a "sales pitch". Publishers will not be likely to use an article that is written only to sell a product or service.
The more well written the article is, the more attractive it is for other webmasters and the more it will be used. That means more and more back links to your website. This is of course an excellent way to increase traffic to your website. This makes article writing an ultimate marketing tool.
A major factor in determining your page rank and search engine rankings is link popularity. Link popularity refers to the relevancy and number of links that point to your site from others. Basically speaking, the more inbound links you have the better your ranking will be. This is an important benefit to writing articles for content. Every time your article is published on a site you will automatically have an inbound link! And since publishers try to choose only those articles that match their subject matter and audience then most of those links will be coming from relevant sites.
To take full advantage of the link popularity factor it is important to use relevant keywords in the text links that you use. This is an important part of SEO or Search Engine Optimization. For example, instead of using "visit my site" as a text link use something like "Learn more about Writing Articles to Increase your Website Traffic and Link Popularity"
Don’t expect that your site will grow automatically. The old saying of build it and they will come does not ring true online. Here are some tips on promoting your web site fast and inexpensively.
There are a variety of ways to promote your web site. Blogs, direct links, advertising and search engine submission. Blogs are great ways to provide viewers to come visit your site. Many people create blogs just to promote their web site. Blogs can also be pinged so that spiders will visit your site and hopefully rank your web pages in their search engine index.
Links are also a great way to promote your web site. You can swap links with other sites that viewers might find interesting. You can also create one way links on articles and submit these articles to be used on other web sites. These articles are great advertisements for people to see and check out your site.
Advertising is always a great way to promote your site. You can promote your keywords at Google Adwords or on a site that already has good traffic. No matter what kind of budget you have, you can find advertising that can work for you. Lastly, you can submit your sites to the search engines. If the search engines rank your site high in their indexes, you are almost guaranteed daily visitors. So follow the above tips to promote your web site fast and inexpensively.
The first thing you can do to start promoting your website is start trading space with other websites. You can find websites and offer them space on your website to advertise their site. In return, you would get a free space on their website. Many times you will be able to earn more money if you make deals with sites who offer products that are related to yours, without being in competition. You might have to talk to fifty website owners to get a few to agree, but if you can do this for free, it will be worth it.
Another way you can go about promoting a website for free is by utilizing blogs and message boards to your advantage. When you post thoughtful comments on random blogs and message boards that somewhat relate to your website, you will be reaching more potential consumers. For example, if you have a fish hook website, you could post about your website on a fishing blog or message board. Those who came there would be most likely your targeted consumers and you could earn more money this way.
So, as you can see, to earn money online you do need to learn how to promote your website. However, you don’t have to pay an ad company a ton of money to do it for you. You may have to put in some time and effort, but you will be able to take on the task yourself.
How Industrial Suppliers can promote their website off the Internet to increase traffic and sales opportunities
By Conrad Bailey
According to a survey conducted by IndustrialLeaders.com, most buyers today of industrial products use the Web to source for supplies, equipment and machinery. However, the same survey has showed that over 92% of industrial and technical buyers that log on-line to source for products or services have no particular supplier in mind.
Experienced online marketers understand how to reach these people when they go online via pay-per-click, targeted banner ads, relevant link building and other Web marketing methods. But the smartest marketers realize the best time to actually reach these buyers is offline. This gives them a significant advantage over their competitors that are in constant battle with one another for keywords, page rank, link popularity, etc. This article was written to give you the same competitive advantage.
Make Your Website The First Place They'll Visit
Few internet marketers realize or will admit that promoting a website offline is just as important - and sometimes even more important than online. How you decide to promote your site off the Internet depends on your budget, needs, target market, industry and other criteria.
Nevertheless, the first important part of any offline promotion campaign is to take an inventory of the things in your office that can display and promote your website address, including:
· Media releases
· Brochures and catalogs
· Stationary (business cards, envelopes, letterheads, shipping labels, boxes, etc.)
· Ad specialties (calendars, pens, caps, t-shirts, mugs, etc).
· Newsletters, reports and white papers
· Every other marketing document or item you use to connect with prospects & customers.
Once you take that inventory, you need to keep in mind that no matter how many tools or resources you employ to promote your website, just presenting your web address is not going to do much. That's because, not many people will visit a website without a convincing reason to do so. Thus, every time you advertise or display your website on anything, make sure it always carries a message that persuades people to visit your site.
I cannot overemphasize this importance. Look at it this way. If I say to you visit us at MyDomain.com. Are you going to take the time out of your busy schedule to visit? Not likely. With so many websites and the abundance of information available on the Web, you are probably not going to visit a site just because someone mentioned their URL address, at least not without some kind of incentive that's part of the offer or message.
Promoting A Website Using Media Releases
I'm sure you're smart enough to never send out a press releases without including your URL address. But again, even press releases must carry a message of 'why' the reader should visit your site. This requires some creative thinking because editors almost never publish press releases that sound like a sales offer. One way around that is to write a release that is solely intended to promote something new about your site or product line.
For example, your media release can be about a new product you're now offering on your site, newly designed e-catalog, employee of the month featured, or even recent improvements made to your site. Or perhaps, a new segment on your website that benefits your customers with timely information, useful tools or environmental friendly resources. Indeed, press releases of such nature, mailed or faxed to local media sources, are more likely to get published. And when they do, better results can be expected because your web address will now include a compelling reason to visit your site.
Brochures & Catalogs
With the rising costs of paper and postage, traditional brochures and catalogs are getting more expensive to use as marketing documents. Because of this, many suppliers are moving their entire catalog to the Internet where distribution and production costs are minimal compared to the expense of printing and mailing a catalog.
Although going totally electronic is a wise decision for cost-cutting purposes, it's still important that you continue to offer your brochure and/or catalog in both print and electronic versions. There will always be prospects that prefer good old ink and paper catalogs, and that's a nice advantage to have over competitors that no longer offer them.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when promoting your website via traditional catalogs.
· Your web address should be on every page (top & bottom areas), not just on the cover like most catalogs;
· Give different reasons (real incentives) throughout the catalog to visit your website (e.g. Visit Here To See Today's Specials; Go Here To Get A Free Gift; etc.);
· The back of your catalog should include your website's 'Main Menu' or 'Site Map' describing the most important pages of your site along with its url address;
· In addition your phone number, the inner-back or inner-front cover of your catalog should include the email addresses of your customer service and sales departments. Why? Because some people prefer sending RFQ's via email rather than dealing with the possibility of a pushy salesperson.
· Your catalog can even have a 'Bargain Page' that ties into your website. Just provide the url address on the cover, where it will get the most exposure, so prospects and customers can get instant information about the latest bargains you are offering.
Promoting Your Website Via Catalogs Does Not Have To Be Expensive
As you know, cost is a major issue when it comes to printing and mailing catalogs and brochures.
You can cut costs by using fewer colors and lighter paper, but the cost can still add up even if you take the cheapest route.
If you already have a good number of catalogs or brochures in stock, you can affix 'promotional labels' on the front and back covers that carry your marketing message, along with your website's address. Labels are extremely versatile because they can be used to promote different specials you are offering at anytime. It's a great way to test different offers with prospects... without the high cost of printing additional pieces. The right labels, if designed fittingly, can really stand out and make the reader take notice.
Use Stationary To Promote Your Website
Do you have business stationary? Business cards? Letterhead? Envelopes? Shipping labels? Is your URL address presented on these items? Does your website address include a benefit or incentive for visiting? If not, why not? However you slice it, every item you use to connect with your prospect that does not carry your web address, and a reason for visiting, is wasting some fraction of your money.
When it comes to promoting your site using stationary, due to lack of space, your message should focus on the biggest benefit your company offers. This is especially true on your letterhead and envelopes where there is limited space.
One exception is your business card where you have the space to promote your website in much more client-centered detail. Indeed, business cards integrated with your website are like mini-billboards advertising your company and products all year long.
One of the best business cards I have ever seen was from a Steel & Iron Company. The front of the card had the standard black ink on white stock design and a basic layout. But at the bottom of the card, in bold text, it read, "Flip over to visit us." There, on the back of the card the company listed the web address to its Home Page, Catalog, Rebate Section, About Us and Company Profile page.
The card was so well done, I just had to call the company to ask them about it. To shorten the story, I was forwarded to the sales manager, and according to him, the card was designed by a marketing consultant agency in California. And it receives a lot of good feedback from customers and prospects praising how clever and useful the card was. Need I said more?
Advertising Specialties
A lot of industrial suppliers at one time or another have used promotional items to advertise their company logo. Now, shrewdly I may add, more of them are using these pens, calendars, t-shirts, mugs, caps and other items to also promote their website.
Most ad specialties however still have nothing on it but a company logo. I suppose the advertiser is hoping it will increase awareness or generate some publicity when the items are giving away as premiums. But unfortunately, other than spawning some goodwill with the ones that received these gifts, it's difficult to accurately measure the results in terms of actual sales.
Now I ask you, if you saw a baseball cap with a company's logo imprinted on it, what would you think? What would you do? What would you remember? The answer to all three of these questions, 9 out of 10 times would be, Nothing!
In contrast, if the same baseball cap also included the company's web address along with an incentive for you to visit the site. Well, now you will probably be interested, and you just might at least want to remember that address to visit later. Especially if the site was relevant to something you or your company needs.
The best advertising specialties to purchase and giveaway are wearables such as hats, t-shirts, caps, jackets, golf shirts, etc. That's because of the exposure they generate since they are "mobile advertisements." Wearables that display your web address can increase traffic to your site, generate sales leads, publicity, word-of-mouth and build awareness of company's capabilities..
Newsletters, Reports and White Papers
If you publish a traditional ink and paper newsletter, white paper or report, whether it be weekly, monthly or annually, be sure to dedicate a portion of each issue to promote your website. That can be done in a number of ways and through various formats. Newsletters, reports and white papers are premier tools to promote your website. They allow you to keep each prospect and customer informed, and remind them to stop by your site and see the latest client-centered benefits.
Last Words About Promoting Your Website Outside The Internet
Every manufacturer and supplier has to invest money, sometime lots of money to promote their products, whether it be online, offline or both. Unfortunately, much of what is spent often does nothing to recoup the investment in terms of increased sales, profit and company growth. That is why you must integrate your website with multiple mediums to increase your company's exposure on the Internet, and improve effectiveness through the power of unity.
You see, the Internet, although will be much different ten years from now, it is undeniably here to stay and it's only going to spread wider, impact more people and become increasingly important to employ. Make sure you position your website to grow for the long haul. Following the advice in this article, and using the resources it provides, is a great start - but it's just the beginning until you put the actual ideas into action. I hope you do that.
I recently became aware that promoting your web site in Search Engines can instantly be double within Google! That's right, you can instantly promote your site 2 times at once!
I recently became aware that promoting your web site in Search Engines can instantly be doubled within Google! That's right, you can instantly promote your site 2 times at once!
So how do you Market Your Site twice?
Simple...
Most of us typically promote www.yoursite.com. But what you need to realize is that most sites can be found on search engines simply by entering... http://yoursite.com - without the www.
Try it for a second, lets go to google and type in your url with the www. and then without the www.
So for me it would be:
1) www.smartads.info
2) http://smartads.info
The same will apply for sub-domains as well. A sub-domain is a section of your site dedicated to something you create but instead of residing within your normal directory, it resides within it's own directory,like I've illustrated below...
Normal:
www.yoursite.com
Sub-Domain:
http://sub-domain.yoursite.com
And with that again, you can promote your sub-domain twice in Search Engines like so...
1) www.sub-domain.yoursite.com
2) http://sub-domain.yousite.com
So in turn, I've just showed you how you can promote 4 sites with all the same goal in mind, yours of course!
How to utilize your new found knowledge:
Hopefully, you are all aware of how important it is to create a link exchange program for your business? Well, what you simply want to do is to mix up your links when submitting to other companies for a listing within their site.
In other words...
Lets say I just found 4 sites that I want to exchange links with, I would do something like this...
Site #1: I would submit (www.yoursite.com)
Site #2: I would submit (http://yoursite.com)
Site #3: I would submit (www.sub-domain.yoursite.com)
Site #4: I would submit (http://sub-domain.yoursite.com)
Now I'm promoting my site with 4 times the power than before!
But don't stop there...
Do you write articles? How about committing 2 of your links to every article. Change them up with each article.
Ex:
Article #1 (How to Submit Your Site to Search Engines)
Try adding
www.yoursite.com
www.sub-domain.yoursite.com
Article #2 (How to Market Your Site Twice)
Try adding
http://yoursite.com &
http://sub-domain.yoursite.com
I hope this small timbit of knowledge gives you the edge you need to put your business ahead of the game!
What do you do when you have a brand new shiny website, and no way of promoting it? Well for starters you could hold an online press conference. This is actually a very simple process. You will either hire a professional to write out a web press release and have it reviewed by an editor, or you can be bold and take your chances by writing it yourself. When you decide to do it yourself you take a great risk of being either humiliated, or shut down entirely.
There are other ways of promoting your new web site however; you could always go the route of affiliation. This is a good method of not only promoting your new site, but an easy fashion of making some quick money as well. How this works is you sign up for an affiliation to a site, generally you will want to find a site that has some relevance to the site you are trying to promote. When ever someone goes to the site you are affiliated with, and they link on to your site by pay per click method it takes them to your site and right into the thick of your content. This is the unfortunate part, whenever someone clicks onto your site from your affiliate; you end up paying the affiliate for the transfer of sites. Although this could easily be a very small fee to the affiliate, the point to remember is if they come and you pay the affiliate, there is no guarantee that they will buy from you.
This could easily become a very costly endeavor if you are getting many tire kickers, and no buyers. This is where you will be paying for people to view but not pay. As you know this is no way to conduct business. Sometime people go to the extent of hiring a service such as web1000traffic. This service states that they can increase traffic to your site, or generate hits. The problem with this theory however, is that you cannot guarantee anything, you can never be sure that you will ever generate traffic, let alone sales. This is in no way to impede the program that they offer, it is just that absolutely no organization or single person alike can truly guarantee that they can generate traffic for you to the point that you will see successful results on your site.
Which leads back to the first mentioned thought, is it not worth the time, money, and effort, to ensure that you are getting the best exposure for your site? Don’t waste your money, time, and sanity wondering whether or not you will receive this exposure to your site. Go get it yourself.
The first thing is submitting your website to all the major search engines. Search engine traffic is a major draw to websites and most web masters will tell you that the vast majority of their traffic is coming from search engine clicks. Most of the major search engines have a specific page you can use to submit your site. Once it’s submitted, it will usually take a few days to a week before it starts showing up in keyword searches.
Other website promotion ideas include advertising your website on Internet message boards and discussion forums centered on subjects related in some way to your business. For example, if you run a small business selling pet supplies, you could go to message boards and discussion forums frequented by pet lovers.
Other tried and true website promotion ideas include affiliate and banner exchanges. You can contact other websites involved with the same target market and ask to exchange banners on each other’s web sites, or you can sign up at a banner exchange portal that will automatically generate banners for other sites on your site and banners for your site on other participating sites.
For even more website promotion ideas, there are many online resources dedicated solely to teaching people how best to create awareness of their website through the Internet at large and strategies for attracting more visitors to their website. Start with these basic ideas and when you’re ready, explore for more such as writing one’s own articles. This is an effective way in promoting a website, because good content that are appreciated by readers will lead them to visit the writer’s very own website out of sheer interest.
Every successful business campaign begins with a strong, viable marketing plan. To rise above in the internet marketing world, you must be prepared to pull out all the stops in the areas of promotion and advertising. Sound difficult? Think again. The expansion of the World Wide Web has made the complications of internet marketing promotion a thing of the past. With a wide array of promotional avenues to wander, almost anyone can be victorious in the internet marketing game.
Search engines have always been, and still are, the most effective way to generate traffic to your web site. The largest search engines have their own huge databases that contain tons of information that can be discovered through keyword searches. Keywords are an essential factor when dealing with internet marketing. Search engines account for over 80 percent of traffic generated to web sites. In internet marketing, every visitor is a potential customer. The more customers you have, the more money for you.
The mailing list is an excellent internet marketing technique that can be of great help when trying to accomplish your goals. The unique aspect of a mailing list is, while it not only brings recent visitors back to your web site, these visitors will most likely send your newsletter to their acquaintances. To utilize this internet marketing method to the fullest, develop an expansive customer list, and use this list frequently.
Blogs are a new and increasingly popular internet marketing technique designed to educate readers about your product or service. This marketeting method is favored because of the ability to create and publish information instantaneously on the web, and receive feedback from its readers. Blogs and blogging have become an excellent source for internet marketing promotion because of the constant content development, as well as, overall popularity. In the internet marketing realm, it's the web site visitors that make the world go round.
Read Before Jumping Into Advertising----
If you’re a business owner for a long time now, your operating routine would probably include having a marketing campaign that would amply introduce your products and services to your target audience.
Okay. So before you do that, you’d probably be scouring for new mediums just so you can convey your message to your clients and prospects. And because you are always working on a limited budget, you’re probably always thinking of ways to maximize your exposure but limit your spending as well.
Every business owner and marketer knows that in order for you to work on your budget, you need to be creative and resourceful to be able to get your word out to your target market. It’s all about your profit margin actually. You would want to reach out to as many clients as you can, with less the expense of doing your marketing campaign, and still have a remarkable increase in your sales.
So how do you go about accomplishing such a feat?
Expert marketers would tell you one thing – before you start advertising, you must do your homework first. This means that you have to spend time and effort in trying to put together an ad that is suitable not only for your business, but most importantly, to the needs of your target market. It just goes to show that carefully preparing your ad for your target market can get you the increase in sales you need to enhance your profit margin.
It’s like going back to school again so you can be prepared to provide your target clients with the right message – no, the right advertising tool, even your business card printing pieces, that would work wonders on your target market.
If you want to save on costs, you got to do your homework. I can’t overemphasize this enough. If you’ve done your homework, you’d probably have not put your ad in every newspaper in the country just because almost everyone reads them. You’d probably be saying that it was such a waste of your resources because the page where your ad was placed has not reached the right market you are targeting. All you have to show for are a couple of mismatched prospects that has no need for your products and services whatsoever.
It’s like shooting blank bullets on your target. It won’t be able to sink in because they’re just well, blank. It’s not only impractical to do so, but it’s also a waste of your time and money to send information to those who would just ignore it.
Again, you need to do your homework. Doing so would probably save you a lot of your money, and at the same time, you get to reach the right target market who would definitely be interested to buy from you.
With small businesses, you can’t help but wonder how you can market your enterprise without having to use up your entire budget. As much as you want to stop thinking about it, the fact remains that most of the advertising tools are just too costly for your taste.
Take for example tv and radio commercials. You know for a fact that such medium can cost an arm and a leg that’s why these two are definitely out of the list.
But not all advertising methods are expensive. In fact, some of the most cost effective tools are being used often by most business owners and marketers alike. And these include print ads such as your brochure printing materials, which showcase all the products and services in your list.
As they say, most of the time, the best things in life are free. In advertising, the same adage is true. Many business owners in fact, even the big ones, utilize these marketing tactics because they believe that there are such things that can actually do the job without having to pay so much.
Here are some of the reasons why the best things in advertising are most often free:
- Print ads such as your flyers and brochures can be made without having to hire a professional brochure printing company to do it for you. Lessen the costs; reduce the hassle.
- It never fails to spread out the good word regarding your product or service – word of mouth that is. Having your clients to put in a good word for you to their relatives and friends are the best free advertising there ever is. And remember, a good word can build your reputation steadily; but one bad comment and it’ll spread like wildfire.
- Preparing a special gift for some of your most popular clients can go a long way in endearing you to them. Bring your business cards with you so you can provide them with your contact information while you’re being appreciated.
- Exchanging links with other websites are basically free and you don’t even need to do extra effort in looking for most searched sites.
- Posting your print ads at your local bulletin board helps reduce your costs of posting it by mail.
- When giving tips at a restaurant, include your business cards or brochures. Nowadays, it’s very common to see glass bowls in the cashier area for putting your business cards.
- Press releases in your local newspaper and newsletter can help you advertise your business without having to spend a penny on your advertising campaign.
Lastly, give out free samples or promotional products to your target audience and they’ll definitely gobble up your promo. It may be the one thing that you’ll surely spend your money on but the outcome produces great rewards.
In order to begin your campaign, you must first understand the difference between reciprocal and non-reciprocal links. A reciprocal link simply means that two websites are linking to each other. Both sites generate traffic for each other simultaneously. This follows the philosophy of, "You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours." A non-reciprocal link refers to a website that links one-way. A good linking strategy is to create as many inbound non-reciprocal links as possible, with some strategically chosen reciprocal links as well.
Nowadays, search engines are incredibly smart. The positioning of your site depends a great deal upon how many people link to your site. A lot of non-reciprocal inbound links tells a search engine that your site contains valuable information. After all, who's going to recommend your site without reciprocation unless they believe it will benefit their readers?
On the other hand, a website with a bunch of reciprocal links could indicate that the webmaster solicits links. This means topics and information may or may not be connected, and the probability that it's a valuable site diminishes. To determine this, search engines then look for key word connections between reciprocal links to determine if the sites are in fact benefiting each other.
The key is: choose your reciprocal links wisely. Connect only to websites that contain related information that readers will enjoy. Spend your time cultivating valuable information on your site, and then tell everyone you can! If you end up having more non-reciprocal links than reciprocal links, search engines will rate your site much higher than those that don't.
Then the question becomes, how do you generate non-reciprocal links? The first step is to create a site packed with valuable information. Make your site full of interesting details that similar sites' readers can't live without. If webmasters see the benefit to linking to your site, your Marketing Campaign becomes a snap.
When you begin, try emailing other webmasters. Tell them why your site will be important to their readers, and make it easy for them to say yes by including a ready-made link. You'd be surprised at how many people agree to help!
You can also try writing a nice review of a few sites on your webpage. Email the sites' webmasters and let them know about your testimonials. It's likely that the sites will want to advertise your nice comments to their readers by posting a link to your review.
Finally, submit your website to as many relevant web directories as you can. This is one of the fastest, most powerful ways to make your website known. If you search for "web directory" on Yahoo!, it returns over 1 million results. You can pick and choose the ones you'd like to submit to. Unfortunately, this can be very time consuming. Plus, with over a million results, how do you know which directories are the best choice?
Many times I've seen a web site undergo a revision and everything is brand new, even brand new links!
You've worked so hard to get those great page ranks for all your pages and then you get rid of them? NO NO NO. It's the same reason why people buy "expired domains". Simply because before search engines, directories & web sites have a chance to notice there is no web site anymore, someone simply changes the site to fit their needs and utilizes the traffic coming in!
Let's say that you've made up your mind and you want to change the entire layout of your site. Before you do so, go through all your links and record the page rank that your pages have right now.
Ex.
Page 1 (PR 3/10)
Link: www.yoursite.com/page1
Page 2 (4/10)
www.yoursite.com/page2
Page 3 (2/10)
www.yoursite.com/directory/page3
Now I would look at those pages and utilize the pages that have a rank of (4/10) for my most important information when I consider the new layout. Doing so will automatically get my page listed under the new information within Google.
Typically, I don't usually re-use pages that have a rank of 2/10, 1/10, 0/10. Anything higher will be strongly considered.
This will help search engines to recognize, a) Yes the site has changed, b) we are familiar with the pages they are re-using.
People BOOKMARK pages all the time!
What if you deleted all your old pages and created some new ones what will happen to your visitors that have a bookmark for those old pages??? They are now left feeling like your site is down, deleted or doesn't exist anymore.
If you're going to discard some old links, try adding a "Page no longer exist" message to let your users know that you know about the problem and you are sorry for the inconvenience.
So when re-designing your entire site, don't be afraid to re-use those high ranking links you already have for your site.
Searching For All Your Pages Online:
If you're like me, and you have well over 500 pages listed in google, you'll want to go through google to see if you've missed any pages while performing changes on your site.
type in "www.yousite.com" in Google so that you get your main link. Don't forget the brackets.
You should see underneath your listing a link that states: "[ More results from www.smartads.info ]"
This will show you all the pages listed within Google. Take a moment to go through all the links found within Google and make sure that you've caught all your old, outdated pages and correct the problem accordingly.
Good luck with all your changes!
Do you want to secure a top ranking in search engine result pages(SERP)?
I think every one is going to answer - Yes. And a very common belief is that add lot of most searched keywords in the meta tags of your web pages and see your site skyrocketing. But it feels highly frustrating when this magic proves of no avail. Remember, meta tags alone don't do a magic in getting better placed in the search pages. These meta tags sure help you to describe your web pages to a search engine and gain a better place in its results. But at the same time they help search engine too to prevent indexing of improper web pages. Which may have good weight keywords in their meta tags but having no relationship with the contents of the page.
Meta tags are the blocks which contain information about the contents of your web page and they exist into the head area of your web page. They are basically meant to communicate with the search engine. Most of the Meta tags are visible to the search engine only and not the visitor on your web page. But, Title tag is one which is visible to the search engine and the visitor as well. Most importantly, it attracts the search engine and the visitor very aggressively. Most search engines consider this tag as the primary information about the site and also an human visitor sees this information as the first thing on top left corner of the browser. Moreover, when one bookmarks the site, the text in this tag appears in the bookmarks list.
In this article, I have tried to focus mainly on 'Title Meta Tag' that how a good Title Meta Tag can render a great help in optimization of a website.
What is the significance of Meta Title Tag
Amongst the three major Meta tags (Meta Title Tag, Meta Keywords Tag, Meta Description Tag) the Title Tag is one which is given the most weight by search engines' algorithms. In fact, this tag should be written so that it should give the idea about your site instantly. A perfect written Title tag can generate quick and appreciable traffic to your site. The text written in this tag appears as clickable text in the search engine result page (SERP) and if it is really meaningful and conveys most about the web page, more clickthroughs will be the result.
This small example explains the function of Meta Title tag better. Suppose I need to visit San Francisco and need a road map of the city and go to a book store to find the same. There are lot of books on tourism and travel with different titles but my attention will go to a title which says something like ""Latest Road Map of San Francisco"" rather than a title ""All about San Francisco"". May be the second book contains better information about the subject I am looking for. But the title of first one speaks exactly about what I need. This how a better title gains priority over the other because of the contents of its title. This is exactly what happens with search engine. It picks the most matching title with the query and places in its result page as clickable text.
Should the Company name appear in Title Tag
Well, I would say sure if your company is really a big entity like IBM, Microsoft or Cisco or some well know brand like Sony, Phillips etc. Because people may want to search for those companies or brands with their names. But in normal cases it should not be so.
Suppose, your company is ""Larry Tours and Travels"" in San Francisco. Instead of writing ""Welcome to the home of Larry Tours and Travels"" in the title tag it would be better to write something like ""tour operators, travel agents, car rental,bay area tours, san francisco tours - Larry Tours and Travel"". Do a good research to find best keywords and phrases which describe your site best. My suggestion is that the length of the title tag should be between 15 to 20 words making it attractive enough that it looks interesting to the person searching for your business and he clicks through.
Few tips for writing good Title tags.
Try including the content relevant keywords in the title tag. This would help placing your site better in search engine result page (SERP) when someone searches those keywords.
Also do not use repeating keywords and phrases in your title tag because this may be treated as spamming by search engines and they may affect your ranking.
Either don't include your company name in the title tag or add it after few most relevant keywords, phrases into the title tag.
Write different title tags for each web page of your website instead of writing a common title page for the complete site. Make sure that each title tag has relevance with the contents of that web page where it appears.
Try to keep the length of your title tag small (between 15 to 20 words). Some search engines allow small title tags only and truncate the extra part of the longer ones which at times may render your title tag completely meaningless.
I would say that write very meaningful, impressive title tag they are a really powerful can be best tool to optimize your site. The title tag has most dominant role while the search engines make their decision about the theme of the website. When a search for keywords is conducted, the Title tag is given heavy consideration by most search engine algorithms. As I said earlier, since each page in your website is unique so it needs a different Title tag.
So, Writing relevant and meaningful title tag is something which may achieve high rankings in search engine result pages (SERP) and result high clickthroughs to your site. The Meta Keywords Tag and Meta Description Tag also need to be taken care of and optimized equally in addition to that of Meta Title Tag to secure a place at the top of the search engines and in convincing a search engine that your site's contents are more relevant than that of your competitor's.
Every search engine uses it's own, very specific algorithm to index the websites. All major search engines keep updating their search algorithms quite frequently to give their searchers the best searching experience. Your website's place in the search result pages depends on it's calculation from the algorithm it follows. These algorithms are not changing everyday but are evolving into more intelligent and accurate. Yet, the major focus is on the Meta tags of the site.
These Meta tags are not visible when someone browses your web page but the search engines read these Meta tags alone and decide the place of a web page on its search result pages. It does so by finding the relevance of the Meta tags within them and with its contents. The most important Meta tags are the title, description and keywords. The first thing a search engine looks for is to find a relevance in these meta tags by looking at the keywords used in them and secondly it looks the relevance of the keywords used in these meta tags with the contents of the page.
The Title Tag
The title is the most important Meta tag of your website. This is the first thing shown on a web page and this is visible to both your visitor and most importantly to the search engine. That's why it has to be given the utmost importance while search engine optimization is the consideration.
It is always depicted on the left top bar of in the browser window. This tag should include the most relevant keyword about your business. If the most relevant keywords are used in here, your web site will sure get a boost in a search.
Most websites use their company name in the title which in fact, is not something desirable. Because, nobody usually searches for a company name unless it is very well known or some giant multinational.
The perfect title tags should be something between 10-70 characters. It is not so that one can not put a longer title but the search engine would ignore the longer part of the title.
The Title tag should be written for the visitors (people searching for your business or services) first and the search engines second. This should be such as to motivate a click and obviously to favor the search engine indexing too.
Different title tags should be assigned to each page of your website containing its own keywords that relate to that specific page.
Description tag
The description tag should be written in such way that it speaks about the website contents in just one or two sentences.
It should be short and clear that your visitors get a close idea about your site by reading this in a short time.
The description tag should be 100 to 200 characters long. The Meta description tag also has a great role in the SEO of your page. This tag displays the information at a search engine result page (SERP) after a search is performed by a user. So, this should be such as this puts the concise summary of your page. Most search engines truncate longer Description. Remember this while writing this tag.
Same as above every page should have a different description tag in accordance with the contents it holds. This tag has quite some effect on the ranking of your site in Search Engine results. The Search Engine will read your description tag and will check if the keywords or search terms match your title tag and content of your web site. My suggestion is to take the first sentence or two of the contents from your web page and use that for the Meta description content.
Include the most relevant sentences matching with the page contents in description tag instead of stuffing the tag with more keywords. Remember that the Meta Description Tag of a web page must not look just a bunch of keywords, but should contain an informative and concise summary of your web page.
Keywords Tag
The most heavily sought technique in Search Engine Optimization process is Keyword optimization. But at the same time if keywords are too often repeated, chances are that the site gets marked out as ""spam"". However, if your target keyword are not included enough, its ranking will not be optimized. So, with present algorithms which are really smart and intelligent include only those relevant keywords you want to target and make sure that these are included in the contents too.
Use variations of a keyword like watch, watches, wrist watch etc. They are slightly changed keywords and yet don't render any feeling to the search engine for their being repeated in the tag.
Geographical information (name of the country, city or place) may be used in the keywords. Sometimes it plays a great role when a search is made for a location based business. Or, even brand names, model name of a product can be used in this tag. That also helps when a search is made for a specific product model or brand.
Search engines give different weights to the keywords according to their positions in HTML tags used in the content. For example if a keyword is used in this tag which is present in Heading Tag also has more weight particularly when the same is in H1 tag.
Write your Alt tags of the images and the text links being used in the page such that it includes at least one keyword from the keyword tag. But, remember the same should look just relevant with the image or the hyper link for which it has been written.
The content should have included all of your keywords. The aggregate keyword density (all the keywords used in keyword tag) should be between 20% to 30% but not less than 5% to the best optimized results. However, Density for a single keyword should not be less than 2% and higher than 6%. The best is about 5% with the major keywords and 2% with subsequent keywords.
The Meta tags should be fine tuned with the contents and a good relevance is brought about between themselves with a perfect balance between the target audience and the search engines.
These Meta tags have been used really very un-carefully by the spammers, if we commit to use them methodically with the due respect, I hope, we should be able to create ever increasing web traffic on our sites.
The so called search box should be given a correct name “search engine” which can be further divided into keyword search engines and web directories. Web surfers can make use these two types of searching methods alternatively for better search results.
Search engines accumulated their data volume through spiders or robots that work among billions of websites and collect them back to the databases and index them into good order for future query by web surfers. Complicated algorithm will perform calculations and pick up right results according to keywords provided by web surfers.
There are virtually countless websites for spiders to crawl. How spiders crawl these sites? They start crawling those sites that attract bigger volume, coming to the end through sophisticated internal links. And that is the reason why website should always be linked to high traffic site for optimum market exposure.
Search engine crawlers will crawl web pages periodically for updated contents. The newly added contents should be available to web surfers at the next database updates which normally take few days up to few months.
At the moment, there are two types of submissions are available: paid inclusion and pay for placement. Through paid inclusions, websites can be indexed into database efficiently including your newly added contents. However, your paid inclusion does not guarantee your rankings in search engines. The best advice would be having a perfectly optimized web page ready before any paid procedures.
Pay for placement will give you immediate ranking for any targeted keywords. The higher you bid the better your ranking will be. And pay per click system will let advertisers have more say as to how their advertising budget will be corrected allocated. Normally, these search engines have many affiliates to cover more advertising areas.
Unlike Search Engines send out spiders to crawl websites automatically, the web directories accumulate their database manually by human editors. The most important web directory is the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org) that compiles databases manually and indexed websites of extreme high quality and unique contents.
To submit urls to web directories, you must first make sure if the site you are going to submit has been indexed already. You can check up this by entering your website url in the search box. Then choose the category that best correspond to your products and services.
After you get the proper category, submit your site by clicking the button of suggest a site or suggest url and follow the instructions. In the mean time, correct titles, descriptions, keyword meta etc should be well written. Promotional adjectives such the best and the most should be avoided.
Following strictly the rules listed would be our heart and soul suggestion to get your site listed successfully.
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