By - KC Tan
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Before you start trying to optimize your website, you should need to do a bit of research. This may sounds odd to a lot of web publishers, but before you do anything you need to do some keyword research. There are many different resources that you can go to and all you have to do is type in a subject and you can be given a list of the most commonly searched phrases relating to this topic. Why is this important? The reason is because that when you are optimizing your website you are not just optimizing for the search engine spiders, you are also optimizing for the web surfer that uses the search engines. For instance, if you have a website that is about golf you may find that the typical web surfer does not just type in golf but types in golf club or golf and then the city or state that they are interested in golfing in.
The phrasing is important because you can target your audience by incorporating the most common phrases. You would not want to simply use the keyword “golf” because there are millions of other websites that are also using the term golf and your website will literally get lost in the crowd. Instead, you will want to choose more of the specific keywords that your visitors will be likely to type into the search engine. When you have done this research, you will know which keywords that you should try to focus on and associate with your website.
Keyword research will not take you a lot of time; in fact it can take just minutes to perform. It may take you a bit longer to actually integrate these keywords in healthy amounts into your website. You do not just want to write up a bunch of fluff that will use the keywords as this is not how you can improve your pagerank and be seen. You want to improve your pagerank and then provide consumers with the service, product, or information that they are looking for when they visit your website.
Now you can probably see why many web publishers have a hard time actually optimizing their website! Optimization is something that happens slowly over time. Those that try to rush the process usually end up doing more damage than good, simply creating more work than was necessary. Keyword research is a significant task in order to optimize any site.
About The Author
KC TAN is a SEO consultant with several years of related experiences. He recommends Files Host for uploading and fast file sharing and WeBlogPost for Free Blog Hosting. KC also visits EasyTurnKeySites for Turnkey websites, prebuilt websites.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Quickly add $20,000 or more to your balance sheet
By - Jeff Beaubien
This is such a fast and easy way to add $20,000 to your balance sheet, I'm surprised it's not being done by every free person in this great country of ours. Since you're probably skeptical, I am going to use a real-world example of how I accomplished this recently.
Note: This technique requires that you be pre-qualified for a mortgage.
I received a phone call from one of my Realtors, Cindy. She told me that an agent in her office had listed a home that morning and that the sellers were about to be foreclosed upon. Within 30 minutes of her phone call, Cindy and I went out to see it.
It wasn't anything fancy, a 3-bedroom, 1-bath ranch with a 2 car attached garage. The sellers were asking $89,000 - about $5,000 less than what the home was actually worth.
I made an offer on the house that looked like this: $85,000 with $1,640 back at close for improvements (that I will actually use to help offset the down payment on the home). The sellers accepted my offer so we arranged for a closing date in three weeks.
While I waited for the closing date to arrive, I ran a classified ad in my local newspaper that read, "Don't Rent. Why Rent? Rent-to-Own! $4,995 down and $995 per month." When the ad came out I had over forty calls on the house.
I couldn't possibly find the time to show the home to all these people on such short notice so I let them drive by and peek in the windows. I got a phone call from a potential tenant/buyer who said that she wanted the house (without even seeing the inside). She agreed to my terms which looked like this: $4,995 down ($4,000 option deposit + $995 for first month's rent), $100 per month rent credit, a sales price of $119,900 and a term of 1 year. I pre qualified her and she was an acceptable risk so we closed the deal.
Remember, when you are offering such a tremendous value, you are entitled to receive a premium price for what you are offering. Since my tenant/buyer was receiving a tremendous value (a fast rate of equity accumulation and a very small down payment to buy a home), she was more than happy to agree to my high sales price. Also remember that there are many different reasons that make potential buyers not qualify for a conventional mortgage which makes a lease purchase deal very appealing to them.
I closed on the purchase of the home and used the $4,995 my tenant/buyer gave me plus the $1,640 to help offset the down payment on the home. I then gave the keys to my new tenant/buyer - deal done.
Let's look at the numbers; I paid $83,360 ($85,000 - $1,640) for the home and my total monthly payments are $845. I am receiving $995/month in rent for a positive monthly cash flow of $150 and I have a written sales agreement to sell the house to my tenant/buyer for $119,900 in 1 year.
And that is how I added over $20,000 to my balance sheet quickly and easily.
UPDATE: My tenant buyer called me recently. She is approved for a mortgage and would now like to close on the purchase of the home - just two months into our agreement. Yes!!!
About The Author
Jeff Beaubien, www.Lease2Purchase.com is the President and founder of Beaubien Investment Company in Howell, Michigan. He specializes in creative real estate techniques, but focuses on the most powerful technique of them all; the lease purchase contract.
As a result of his success in real estate, Mr. Beaubien is the author of his real estate course, The Lease Purchase Handbook.
This is such a fast and easy way to add $20,000 to your balance sheet, I'm surprised it's not being done by every free person in this great country of ours. Since you're probably skeptical, I am going to use a real-world example of how I accomplished this recently.
Note: This technique requires that you be pre-qualified for a mortgage.
I received a phone call from one of my Realtors, Cindy. She told me that an agent in her office had listed a home that morning and that the sellers were about to be foreclosed upon. Within 30 minutes of her phone call, Cindy and I went out to see it.
It wasn't anything fancy, a 3-bedroom, 1-bath ranch with a 2 car attached garage. The sellers were asking $89,000 - about $5,000 less than what the home was actually worth.
I made an offer on the house that looked like this: $85,000 with $1,640 back at close for improvements (that I will actually use to help offset the down payment on the home). The sellers accepted my offer so we arranged for a closing date in three weeks.
While I waited for the closing date to arrive, I ran a classified ad in my local newspaper that read, "Don't Rent. Why Rent? Rent-to-Own! $4,995 down and $995 per month." When the ad came out I had over forty calls on the house.
I couldn't possibly find the time to show the home to all these people on such short notice so I let them drive by and peek in the windows. I got a phone call from a potential tenant/buyer who said that she wanted the house (without even seeing the inside). She agreed to my terms which looked like this: $4,995 down ($4,000 option deposit + $995 for first month's rent), $100 per month rent credit, a sales price of $119,900 and a term of 1 year. I pre qualified her and she was an acceptable risk so we closed the deal.
Remember, when you are offering such a tremendous value, you are entitled to receive a premium price for what you are offering. Since my tenant/buyer was receiving a tremendous value (a fast rate of equity accumulation and a very small down payment to buy a home), she was more than happy to agree to my high sales price. Also remember that there are many different reasons that make potential buyers not qualify for a conventional mortgage which makes a lease purchase deal very appealing to them.
I closed on the purchase of the home and used the $4,995 my tenant/buyer gave me plus the $1,640 to help offset the down payment on the home. I then gave the keys to my new tenant/buyer - deal done.
Let's look at the numbers; I paid $83,360 ($85,000 - $1,640) for the home and my total monthly payments are $845. I am receiving $995/month in rent for a positive monthly cash flow of $150 and I have a written sales agreement to sell the house to my tenant/buyer for $119,900 in 1 year.
And that is how I added over $20,000 to my balance sheet quickly and easily.
UPDATE: My tenant buyer called me recently. She is approved for a mortgage and would now like to close on the purchase of the home - just two months into our agreement. Yes!!!
About The Author
Jeff Beaubien, www.Lease2Purchase.com is the President and founder of Beaubien Investment Company in Howell, Michigan. He specializes in creative real estate techniques, but focuses on the most powerful technique of them all; the lease purchase contract.
As a result of his success in real estate, Mr. Beaubien is the author of his real estate course, The Lease Purchase Handbook.
Collateral Benefits of Search Engine Marketing
By - Paul Bliss
Many times a client only looks at the bottom line when it comes to the performance they are getting for their investment into Search Engine Marketing.
They often only look at the selected keyword phrases that they are paying for, without fully realizing what other residual effects they are receiving.
When a site gets properly optimized, (SEO) it is being transformed into a thought-out navigational pattern to information. This is the same pattern a search engine spider looks for. Don't forget, the easier you make it for a spider to index your site, the better your chances are for getting your site a higher placement in the search engine results page (SERP's).
While W3C validation is something all sites should strive for, it is not required for better rankings. Does it help? Probably. Yahoo engineers have stated that whether a site is W3C compliant or not makes no difference to how it ranks. If it has relevant content, it will get ranked.
Another element when optimizing a site is that through proper naming of page titles, file names and placement of content make the site all the more relevant to the spider. Although Google places less value on Meta Tags, they are still used as part of the algorithm, and should not be overlooked.
After the site has coded properly, the game then goes up to the next level. Search Engine Marketing is used to drive traffic to the site through various means. Press releases, articles, blogs, RSS/XML feeds, Directory Submissions and User Groups all can bring targeted traffic to a site.
Here is where the collateral benefits of SEM begin to appear. Let's say that you have been doing a series of press releases where once a week, you talk about a new color of widget. In each press release you also list the other colors of widgets that you have for sale. Even after only the first release gets sent, you've already created a valuable In-Bound Link to your site for your Red Widget, but since you included the other colors of the widgets as well, they all pick up IBL's as well.
An even greater demonstration of a collateral benefit is ranking for keywords and phrases that you aren't targeting. Keeping to our widget example, if your site copy talks about the different uses of widgets, the available colors that they come in and the best way to preserve your widget, you've just created a multitude of various phrases that your site can get ranked on.
Example site copy:
We sell the highest-quality widget available. Our color selection ranges from red to purple, black to white and can be used in your home or for industrial needs. The widget is the most versatile tool on the market. Pick one up today!
From this one paragraph, here are the possible phrases your site could get ranked on:
high quality widget
red widget
purple widget
black widget
white widget
home widget
industrial widget
widget tool
widget
This is only a tiny sampling of the potential your site has. Remember, each page gets ranked on it's own, so that's why it is so important to make sure every page you have on your site is optimized.
Even your contact/about page is critical because if you have a brick-and-mortar business, by listing your street address, you help the search engines geo target your site. Most search engines are already trying to focus your search results regionally. While it's not a major factor yet, it is something to be aware of.
In conclusion, the next time you start checking Google to see where your site ranks for it's keyword phrases, don't forget about all of the hidden keywords/phrases that are embedded in your site's copy. You would be surprised at how many of those forgotten about terms end up at the top of the pile....
-To your online success!
About The Author
Paul Bliss
www.SEOforGoogle.com
Many times a client only looks at the bottom line when it comes to the performance they are getting for their investment into Search Engine Marketing.
They often only look at the selected keyword phrases that they are paying for, without fully realizing what other residual effects they are receiving.
When a site gets properly optimized, (SEO) it is being transformed into a thought-out navigational pattern to information. This is the same pattern a search engine spider looks for. Don't forget, the easier you make it for a spider to index your site, the better your chances are for getting your site a higher placement in the search engine results page (SERP's).
While W3C validation is something all sites should strive for, it is not required for better rankings. Does it help? Probably. Yahoo engineers have stated that whether a site is W3C compliant or not makes no difference to how it ranks. If it has relevant content, it will get ranked.
Another element when optimizing a site is that through proper naming of page titles, file names and placement of content make the site all the more relevant to the spider. Although Google places less value on Meta Tags, they are still used as part of the algorithm, and should not be overlooked.
After the site has coded properly, the game then goes up to the next level. Search Engine Marketing is used to drive traffic to the site through various means. Press releases, articles, blogs, RSS/XML feeds, Directory Submissions and User Groups all can bring targeted traffic to a site.
Here is where the collateral benefits of SEM begin to appear. Let's say that you have been doing a series of press releases where once a week, you talk about a new color of widget. In each press release you also list the other colors of widgets that you have for sale. Even after only the first release gets sent, you've already created a valuable In-Bound Link to your site for your Red Widget, but since you included the other colors of the widgets as well, they all pick up IBL's as well.
An even greater demonstration of a collateral benefit is ranking for keywords and phrases that you aren't targeting. Keeping to our widget example, if your site copy talks about the different uses of widgets, the available colors that they come in and the best way to preserve your widget, you've just created a multitude of various phrases that your site can get ranked on.
Example site copy:
We sell the highest-quality widget available. Our color selection ranges from red to purple, black to white and can be used in your home or for industrial needs. The widget is the most versatile tool on the market. Pick one up today!
From this one paragraph, here are the possible phrases your site could get ranked on:
high quality widget
red widget
purple widget
black widget
white widget
home widget
industrial widget
widget tool
widget
This is only a tiny sampling of the potential your site has. Remember, each page gets ranked on it's own, so that's why it is so important to make sure every page you have on your site is optimized.
Even your contact/about page is critical because if you have a brick-and-mortar business, by listing your street address, you help the search engines geo target your site. Most search engines are already trying to focus your search results regionally. While it's not a major factor yet, it is something to be aware of.
In conclusion, the next time you start checking Google to see where your site ranks for it's keyword phrases, don't forget about all of the hidden keywords/phrases that are embedded in your site's copy. You would be surprised at how many of those forgotten about terms end up at the top of the pile....
-To your online success!
About The Author
Paul Bliss
www.SEOforGoogle.com
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Ten Ways To Sell On eBay
By - Barbara Snyder
Hearing that there are more than 1.2 million registered eBay users, that more than 25,000 members make five figure income as full time eBay entrepreneurs, and that more than 250,000 part timers make several thousand dollars a year of supplementary income from eBay enterprises would make anyone comment in disbelief with, “No Way”.
But the correct response to this is, “Yes, way.” In fact, it has also been reported that the number one eBay entrepreneur makes over a million dollars a year. As Austin Powers would say, “Yeah, Baby.” Or should we say, “E-Baby.”
So what’s the deal with eBay, anyway? There is a lot more to it than one would think. It can be simple for an occasional buyer, but it gets increasing complex as users/sellers become more entrenched at deeper levels of use. Here are 10 key ideas or themes for sellers to consider about this phenomenon called “eBay”.
1. What‘s for sale? While some sellers are out scavengering the garage sales and their own garages, others are purchasing quantities of items wholesale to put up for auction. One would think that the right product is of paramount consideration, and most sellers agree that the unusual or the hard to find is the best bet. However, this is not always true either. Timing, meaning the right person at the right time seeing your item, is where it is at. You have to be visible and be out there with a clear message or product that seems like a steal, or at least reasonably priced. With the thousands and thousands of items for sale, there is no shortage of competition. However, the good thing is that there are a lot of buyers out there that should enable the sale of just about anything.
2. Communication and descriptive details about your product is a key in getting noticed. The description of your item and the pictures to display it will get the buyer’s attention. If a person is a serious seller, having an adequate digital camera is a must. Again, photos are extremely important.
3. The well written detailed description to accompany the item is of great benefit. Being open and honest about the item will demonstrate integrity as a seller and will keep people coming back. Being available to answer questions for prospective buyers and remembering to be courteous and helpful follows along with the never-to-be forgotten premise of “the customer is always right.”
4. With customer feedback being a key element in the ratings statistics that will promote you or haunt you during your eBay career, it is important for a seller to be professional and kindly in all business dealings. People like and appreciate personal attention. Take the time to give it. Being positive, accommodating and helpful is a winning combination for good customer relations.
5. Shipping information and how you present it can win over a customer because they notice when a buyer is tying to take advantage and ask an unreasonable amount for shipping. Of course, a seller must take into account time spent, the handling charge, when pricing the shipping. Time is money, and a seller should be compensated for all aspects of the service that is provided.
6. Some advice about setting up your auction items would be to consider having your item run seven days with an end of bidding time somewhere between 7 PM and 9 PM on a Sunday night. That seems to be the consensus amongst the top sellers. There has been much dialog on just how to increase the amount and number of bids, but there are too many variables to consider. Suffice to say, it really does depend on the product itself (and what the condition and competition is our there).
7. Some of the most unique aspects of selling have to do with the seasonal items that permeate the auction block at certain times of the year. If a seller wants to work year-round, he or she will have to broaden the horizon by finding seasonal items for all seasons. Yes, you can sell Christmas items and move right into Valentines Day and Easter and so on. Why not? These are what people are looking for.
8. One controversial topic is drop shipping. If a seller is getting a product from a third party, drop shipping is a convenient way for the seller to deliver the product. It keeps them out of it. However, that means that a back ordered item could result in a poor rating for the seller because the item was delayed. Most buyers picture the item in the hands of the seller and expect to receive it within a few days. The pros and cons of this arrangement need to be carefully considered.
9. Now to the fun part. How do you get the money? More and more people are using PayPal. It is quick, efficient and simple. A seller can make other arrangements and accept a check or money order, but the wave of the future is setting up an account with PayPal. In addition, setting up an online account with the United States Postal Service will also save countless hours in the lines at the post office. Work smarter, not harder, etc., etc.
10. A seller can look at other things to sell besides a physical product or item. Many are getting into self publishing or offering a service. Some expanding entrepreneurs are opening up a consignment shop situation, which helps those who want to sell but “don’t do computers.” The possibilities are unlimited.
Selling products and services from a home-based business can be an exciting, and hopefully profitable, situation. Go into it with a solid plan based on accurate information and with the knowledge that it is going to be hard work, just like any other job.
About the Author
Barbara Snyder is a retired California Distinguished School Principal and Coordinator For Human Resources. She has a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction. She holds elementary education, secondary, community college, and administrative credentials. She is currently the publisher of http://EducationResourcesNetwork.com, and co-publisher of Strictly Business Magazine.
Hearing that there are more than 1.2 million registered eBay users, that more than 25,000 members make five figure income as full time eBay entrepreneurs, and that more than 250,000 part timers make several thousand dollars a year of supplementary income from eBay enterprises would make anyone comment in disbelief with, “No Way”.
But the correct response to this is, “Yes, way.” In fact, it has also been reported that the number one eBay entrepreneur makes over a million dollars a year. As Austin Powers would say, “Yeah, Baby.” Or should we say, “E-Baby.”
So what’s the deal with eBay, anyway? There is a lot more to it than one would think. It can be simple for an occasional buyer, but it gets increasing complex as users/sellers become more entrenched at deeper levels of use. Here are 10 key ideas or themes for sellers to consider about this phenomenon called “eBay”.
1. What‘s for sale? While some sellers are out scavengering the garage sales and their own garages, others are purchasing quantities of items wholesale to put up for auction. One would think that the right product is of paramount consideration, and most sellers agree that the unusual or the hard to find is the best bet. However, this is not always true either. Timing, meaning the right person at the right time seeing your item, is where it is at. You have to be visible and be out there with a clear message or product that seems like a steal, or at least reasonably priced. With the thousands and thousands of items for sale, there is no shortage of competition. However, the good thing is that there are a lot of buyers out there that should enable the sale of just about anything.
2. Communication and descriptive details about your product is a key in getting noticed. The description of your item and the pictures to display it will get the buyer’s attention. If a person is a serious seller, having an adequate digital camera is a must. Again, photos are extremely important.
3. The well written detailed description to accompany the item is of great benefit. Being open and honest about the item will demonstrate integrity as a seller and will keep people coming back. Being available to answer questions for prospective buyers and remembering to be courteous and helpful follows along with the never-to-be forgotten premise of “the customer is always right.”
4. With customer feedback being a key element in the ratings statistics that will promote you or haunt you during your eBay career, it is important for a seller to be professional and kindly in all business dealings. People like and appreciate personal attention. Take the time to give it. Being positive, accommodating and helpful is a winning combination for good customer relations.
5. Shipping information and how you present it can win over a customer because they notice when a buyer is tying to take advantage and ask an unreasonable amount for shipping. Of course, a seller must take into account time spent, the handling charge, when pricing the shipping. Time is money, and a seller should be compensated for all aspects of the service that is provided.
6. Some advice about setting up your auction items would be to consider having your item run seven days with an end of bidding time somewhere between 7 PM and 9 PM on a Sunday night. That seems to be the consensus amongst the top sellers. There has been much dialog on just how to increase the amount and number of bids, but there are too many variables to consider. Suffice to say, it really does depend on the product itself (and what the condition and competition is our there).
7. Some of the most unique aspects of selling have to do with the seasonal items that permeate the auction block at certain times of the year. If a seller wants to work year-round, he or she will have to broaden the horizon by finding seasonal items for all seasons. Yes, you can sell Christmas items and move right into Valentines Day and Easter and so on. Why not? These are what people are looking for.
8. One controversial topic is drop shipping. If a seller is getting a product from a third party, drop shipping is a convenient way for the seller to deliver the product. It keeps them out of it. However, that means that a back ordered item could result in a poor rating for the seller because the item was delayed. Most buyers picture the item in the hands of the seller and expect to receive it within a few days. The pros and cons of this arrangement need to be carefully considered.
9. Now to the fun part. How do you get the money? More and more people are using PayPal. It is quick, efficient and simple. A seller can make other arrangements and accept a check or money order, but the wave of the future is setting up an account with PayPal. In addition, setting up an online account with the United States Postal Service will also save countless hours in the lines at the post office. Work smarter, not harder, etc., etc.
10. A seller can look at other things to sell besides a physical product or item. Many are getting into self publishing or offering a service. Some expanding entrepreneurs are opening up a consignment shop situation, which helps those who want to sell but “don’t do computers.” The possibilities are unlimited.
Selling products and services from a home-based business can be an exciting, and hopefully profitable, situation. Go into it with a solid plan based on accurate information and with the knowledge that it is going to be hard work, just like any other job.
About the Author
Barbara Snyder is a retired California Distinguished School Principal and Coordinator For Human Resources. She has a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction. She holds elementary education, secondary, community college, and administrative credentials. She is currently the publisher of http://EducationResourcesNetwork.com, and co-publisher of Strictly Business Magazine.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Internet Marketing Basics From The SEO Expert
By - P Laboon
<)))
The first place to start is with keyword phrase research before you publish your website. Think about researching for the keywords which are best suited to your website. Keywords are the words that the visitors input into the search engines in order to find the information they are looking for. You must try to find out a keyword phrase that has good search volume and at the same time that has least competition. There are online tools available such as http://inventory.overture.com which will help you find effective keywords.
Once you have chosen the keywords and created the website, you can now publish it. After publishing the website, there are few more steps that you need to pursue in order to improve the visibility of your website in all the major search engines such as Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc...
You should try to use your keywords several times on each page, this is called keyword density. This is the best way to show search engines that your webpage should be in the search results for that specific keyword phrase.
Next, you should now consider adding a HTML Sitemap as well as XML Sitemap. A sitemap helps your visitors to get an idea about the structure of your website as well as it provides search engine spiders a pathway to all the inner relevant web pages of the website to get indexed. The sitemap also provides information to search engine spiders about new content and date of the modification to the webpage. A sitemap can be integrated in two versions, the HTML version for the visitors, and the XML version for the search engine spider.
Once you have uploaded the sitemaps, you should check your website against valid HTML and CSS. Validation is very important for a quality website that wants to rank fr the long haul.
Once your site is up and running, apart from updating new content frequently (at least 3 times a week), it’s important to check for dead or broken links. If you find a dead or broken link, remove those links immediately or correct the file path. These links will reduce the credibility of your website to visitors and search engines.
You will also want to check for backlinks. Backlinks are incoming links to a website or web page. The number of backlinks is a sign of the popularity or importance of that website or page. Backlinks are also called as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links. Search engines frequently use the number of backlinks that a website has as one of the factors for determining that website's search engine ranking.
One of the advantages of internet marketing is that it is very easy to test your marketing results. This is very essential – you should use tracking software to keep track of which ads, keywords, etc are bringing you sales and traffic. We recommend using Google Analytics because it gives quality feedback and is free to use.
Remember, focus on the most effective methods, and keep testing – you can continually refine your marketing and improve your presence on the internet.A website which is carefully created with chosen keywords, pertinent original content which is updated often has a chance to perform well in major search engines while generating high traffic.
About The Author
Phil Laboon is an internet marketing expert that is the owner /creator of Eyeflow- a well known Pittsburgh SEO company. Phil is continually offering free advice to anyone who wants to learn and has had hundreds of free education articles published on the internet over the last 6 years he’s been in business. For more information on Phil Laboon, search engine optimization, or web design just click the links in this bio.
<)))
The first place to start is with keyword phrase research before you publish your website. Think about researching for the keywords which are best suited to your website. Keywords are the words that the visitors input into the search engines in order to find the information they are looking for. You must try to find out a keyword phrase that has good search volume and at the same time that has least competition. There are online tools available such as http://inventory.overture.com which will help you find effective keywords.
Once you have chosen the keywords and created the website, you can now publish it. After publishing the website, there are few more steps that you need to pursue in order to improve the visibility of your website in all the major search engines such as Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc...
You should try to use your keywords several times on each page, this is called keyword density. This is the best way to show search engines that your webpage should be in the search results for that specific keyword phrase.
Next, you should now consider adding a HTML Sitemap as well as XML Sitemap. A sitemap helps your visitors to get an idea about the structure of your website as well as it provides search engine spiders a pathway to all the inner relevant web pages of the website to get indexed. The sitemap also provides information to search engine spiders about new content and date of the modification to the webpage. A sitemap can be integrated in two versions, the HTML version for the visitors, and the XML version for the search engine spider.
Once you have uploaded the sitemaps, you should check your website against valid HTML and CSS. Validation is very important for a quality website that wants to rank fr the long haul.
Once your site is up and running, apart from updating new content frequently (at least 3 times a week), it’s important to check for dead or broken links. If you find a dead or broken link, remove those links immediately or correct the file path. These links will reduce the credibility of your website to visitors and search engines.
You will also want to check for backlinks. Backlinks are incoming links to a website or web page. The number of backlinks is a sign of the popularity or importance of that website or page. Backlinks are also called as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links. Search engines frequently use the number of backlinks that a website has as one of the factors for determining that website's search engine ranking.
One of the advantages of internet marketing is that it is very easy to test your marketing results. This is very essential – you should use tracking software to keep track of which ads, keywords, etc are bringing you sales and traffic. We recommend using Google Analytics because it gives quality feedback and is free to use.
Remember, focus on the most effective methods, and keep testing – you can continually refine your marketing and improve your presence on the internet.A website which is carefully created with chosen keywords, pertinent original content which is updated often has a chance to perform well in major search engines while generating high traffic.
About The Author
Phil Laboon is an internet marketing expert that is the owner /creator of Eyeflow- a well known Pittsburgh SEO company. Phil is continually offering free advice to anyone who wants to learn and has had hundreds of free education articles published on the internet over the last 6 years he’s been in business. For more information on Phil Laboon, search engine optimization, or web design just click the links in this bio.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Press Release Power
By - Paul Bliss
I'm sure by now you've heard about how Press Releases can help your marketing campaigns on the Internet. But besides from people telling you, do you have any quantitative evidence that it's worth the time to craft a newsworthy release?
From a search marketing perspective, this is one of the best ways of killing two birds with one stone. Besides getting exposure for your site, you are also creating web saturation. By having the possibility of your release getting picked up by multiple media outlets, you quickly and cheaply get eyeballs looking at your product or service, and ultimately, traffic to your site.
Being that the Internet has grown to being a social environment with the ultimate goal of personalization for each user, how can anyone get their message out?
With blogs, RSS readers and news aggregators becoming more popular, the user is becoming more selective to what they want to see. This is something every marketer should embrace.
Now, instead of spending thousands to blast an add that may only be relevant to 10 percent of your audience, you can now selectively target your audience and deliver your message.
Since the majority of us do not have Google's bankroll, we are left to find less expensive ways to drive visitors to your site. This is where one can get onto a level playing field with the big spenders.
To demonstrate the power of the press release, take a moment to review some stats on a campaign that was conducted in early December.
PR Service: PRWeb.com
Price: $80.00 USD
(Note: - you can submit free press releases, but you won't have access to any tracking stats, and you lose some services.)
For the above mentioned fee, the $80.00 includes:
Properly Optimized, RSS/XML Feed, Next Day Distribution, ability to attach files, featured, listing appears on: Google News, Overture, eMediaWire, Yahoo News, Excite News, DogPile, MetaCrawler, Inktomi, MSN News, Lycos News, AskJeeves News, Feedster and Topix News
Quite the bang for your buck, eh?
The Press Release in question was for a free service, and it was geared for Christmas use, so keep that in mind as you review the information.
Reads: 88,380
(This number indicates how many times the press release was accessed from the PRWeb site and other distribution points where they have the ability to measure a click through. This number does not include the number of journalists that have received the release through email.)
Estimated Pickup: 3,908
(This number estimates the number of times the press release was picked up by a media outlet. This does not indicate how many times the story appeared in the media. It simply attempts to estimate media interest in the release.)
Now how many places on the Internet can give you those type of numbers for getting traffic to your site?
To try and get an accurate number for a "typical" Press Release, another release was submitted in March of 2005, for a new paid-for service.
Reads: 80,375
Estimated Pickup: 1,362
Still pretty impressive, even if it's just to get some traffic, or brand name exposure.
If you're serious about your business, $80.00 is easily worth the investment for this type of return.
-To your online success!
About The Author
Paul Bliss
www.SEOforGoogle.com
I'm sure by now you've heard about how Press Releases can help your marketing campaigns on the Internet. But besides from people telling you, do you have any quantitative evidence that it's worth the time to craft a newsworthy release?
From a search marketing perspective, this is one of the best ways of killing two birds with one stone. Besides getting exposure for your site, you are also creating web saturation. By having the possibility of your release getting picked up by multiple media outlets, you quickly and cheaply get eyeballs looking at your product or service, and ultimately, traffic to your site.
Being that the Internet has grown to being a social environment with the ultimate goal of personalization for each user, how can anyone get their message out?
With blogs, RSS readers and news aggregators becoming more popular, the user is becoming more selective to what they want to see. This is something every marketer should embrace.
Now, instead of spending thousands to blast an add that may only be relevant to 10 percent of your audience, you can now selectively target your audience and deliver your message.
Since the majority of us do not have Google's bankroll, we are left to find less expensive ways to drive visitors to your site. This is where one can get onto a level playing field with the big spenders.
To demonstrate the power of the press release, take a moment to review some stats on a campaign that was conducted in early December.
PR Service: PRWeb.com
Price: $80.00 USD
(Note: - you can submit free press releases, but you won't have access to any tracking stats, and you lose some services.)
For the above mentioned fee, the $80.00 includes:
Properly Optimized, RSS/XML Feed, Next Day Distribution, ability to attach files, featured, listing appears on: Google News, Overture, eMediaWire, Yahoo News, Excite News, DogPile, MetaCrawler, Inktomi, MSN News, Lycos News, AskJeeves News, Feedster and Topix News
Quite the bang for your buck, eh?
The Press Release in question was for a free service, and it was geared for Christmas use, so keep that in mind as you review the information.
Reads: 88,380
(This number indicates how many times the press release was accessed from the PRWeb site and other distribution points where they have the ability to measure a click through. This number does not include the number of journalists that have received the release through email.)
Estimated Pickup: 3,908
(This number estimates the number of times the press release was picked up by a media outlet. This does not indicate how many times the story appeared in the media. It simply attempts to estimate media interest in the release.)
Now how many places on the Internet can give you those type of numbers for getting traffic to your site?
To try and get an accurate number for a "typical" Press Release, another release was submitted in March of 2005, for a new paid-for service.
Reads: 80,375
Estimated Pickup: 1,362
Still pretty impressive, even if it's just to get some traffic, or brand name exposure.
If you're serious about your business, $80.00 is easily worth the investment for this type of return.
-To your online success!
About The Author
Paul Bliss
www.SEOforGoogle.com
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Dramatically Increase The Credibility Of Your Affiliate Website With Customer Reviews
By - Stephen Carter
<)))
Affiliate marketing was a six billion dollar business in 2006, and shows no sign of tapering off any time soon. But as good as business has been for the top affiliate marketers, it could be a lot better for the majority. A real obstacle to achieving the sales goals of many affiliates involves their credibility. If I say a product is great, and I am being paid to convince you to buy it, why should you believe me?
The fact is, most affiliate sites on the web today are poorly constructed, and this beggars any authority the owner of the site hopes to convert into sales. Often these sites are thin conduits designed to ferry traffic from search engines to the sites of merchants who have neither the resources nor the time to figure out how to find the customers they need to ensure their business success. Despite this, and because the web is growing more and more congested, the value of a *quality* affiliate marketer nonetheless continues to increase. Unfortunately this simple fact is not at all recognized by the buying public who often begrudge affiliate marketers and view them as interlopers who put themselves between the customer and the merchants they are searching for. In short, the affiliate marketer has long suffered, and continues to suffer, from an image problem.
This image problem is not confined just to the public. Google, which derives huge advertising revenues from affiliate marketers, nevertheless regards affiliate marketing sites with complete disdain. Of course, affiliate marketers themselves have contributed to this problem because their websites very often contain little in the way of new or unique content, which is what Google values and believes its customers (web searchers) value. It is no surprise therefore, to find that some of the top affiliate marketers differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack in precisely this area. They offer not only critical assessment of the products they promote, but also take the time to blog and build a comraderie with the visitors to their sites. By offering unique, and regularly updated content, they appease the Gods of Google, and are rewarded with organic (non pay-per-click) traffic that very much contributes to the bottom line. In other words, the top affiliate marketers know how to project a good image--to their visitors, to Google, and to other search engines that might bring in prospects.
Blogging is a great way to produce unique content. But it is time consuming, there is a limit to how much daily content you can produce as an affiliate, and not everyone finds the task of writing content easy work. What if instead you could have the content create itself automatically? Well, actually you can. If you offer customer reviews of the products you promote you accomplish this and more. Not only is the subject matter on target, but the reviews themselves promote the products for you (supposing you have carefully chosen only the best products to promote, which is what any *good* affiliate marketer knows to do). Even better, you no longer have to worry about that credibility problem. If ten people come onto your site and say "Buy product XYZ, it rocks!" that recommendation is a heck of a lot more convincing than anything that you might say, no matter how truthful your utterances.
So, all you have to do as an affiliate marketer, to get people to "click through" to a merchant site in a buying mood is to promote good products and let people express their opinions about those products on your site. If the products are great, the reviews will reflect that. If instead it turns out that the reviews are consistently bad for one of the products you promote, then drop it! Replace it with another.
"But collecting reviews is really difficult!" I hear you object. "I simply do not have time for that. Do I?"
There is nothing inherently difficult about putting customer reviews on your site today. It does take a little time to set things up, but low-cost commercial quality reviewing applications are available to do the bulk of the work (see the one mentioned in the resource box below if you want to get a jump start on implementing customer reviews on your website). Not only does a customer review section on your site substantially increase your overall credibility, but search engines will love the content--especially if the review pages have been optimized for the search engines (as all good reviewing engines will certainly do).
There is another benefit to collecting customer reviews. Some review engines allow you to publish the reviews as RSS feeds. What this means is increased traffic. You can submit your feeds to the RSS directories. Moreover, if the reviewing application also allows you to create RSS feeds compatible with Google Base (as does the application mentioned below) you can upload your entire review database (or the first N characters of each review) to Google Base and make your reviews accessible to the various Google marketing avenues.
Given the clear benefits to implementing customer reviews on affiliate marketing sites it is surprising that so very few marketers have actually adopted this strategy to date. But as the web continues to mature, and affiliate marketing grows more professional, it is to be expected that this strategy will become more and more common on the sites of top affiliate marketers.
About The Author
Stephen Carter is the developer of Red Queen, powerful customer review software that allows webmasters to take advantage of the preselling potential of customer reviews. To learn more, see: How To Put Customer Reviews On Your Affiliate Website.
<)))
Affiliate marketing was a six billion dollar business in 2006, and shows no sign of tapering off any time soon. But as good as business has been for the top affiliate marketers, it could be a lot better for the majority. A real obstacle to achieving the sales goals of many affiliates involves their credibility. If I say a product is great, and I am being paid to convince you to buy it, why should you believe me?
The fact is, most affiliate sites on the web today are poorly constructed, and this beggars any authority the owner of the site hopes to convert into sales. Often these sites are thin conduits designed to ferry traffic from search engines to the sites of merchants who have neither the resources nor the time to figure out how to find the customers they need to ensure their business success. Despite this, and because the web is growing more and more congested, the value of a *quality* affiliate marketer nonetheless continues to increase. Unfortunately this simple fact is not at all recognized by the buying public who often begrudge affiliate marketers and view them as interlopers who put themselves between the customer and the merchants they are searching for. In short, the affiliate marketer has long suffered, and continues to suffer, from an image problem.
This image problem is not confined just to the public. Google, which derives huge advertising revenues from affiliate marketers, nevertheless regards affiliate marketing sites with complete disdain. Of course, affiliate marketers themselves have contributed to this problem because their websites very often contain little in the way of new or unique content, which is what Google values and believes its customers (web searchers) value. It is no surprise therefore, to find that some of the top affiliate marketers differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack in precisely this area. They offer not only critical assessment of the products they promote, but also take the time to blog and build a comraderie with the visitors to their sites. By offering unique, and regularly updated content, they appease the Gods of Google, and are rewarded with organic (non pay-per-click) traffic that very much contributes to the bottom line. In other words, the top affiliate marketers know how to project a good image--to their visitors, to Google, and to other search engines that might bring in prospects.
Blogging is a great way to produce unique content. But it is time consuming, there is a limit to how much daily content you can produce as an affiliate, and not everyone finds the task of writing content easy work. What if instead you could have the content create itself automatically? Well, actually you can. If you offer customer reviews of the products you promote you accomplish this and more. Not only is the subject matter on target, but the reviews themselves promote the products for you (supposing you have carefully chosen only the best products to promote, which is what any *good* affiliate marketer knows to do). Even better, you no longer have to worry about that credibility problem. If ten people come onto your site and say "Buy product XYZ, it rocks!" that recommendation is a heck of a lot more convincing than anything that you might say, no matter how truthful your utterances.
So, all you have to do as an affiliate marketer, to get people to "click through" to a merchant site in a buying mood is to promote good products and let people express their opinions about those products on your site. If the products are great, the reviews will reflect that. If instead it turns out that the reviews are consistently bad for one of the products you promote, then drop it! Replace it with another.
"But collecting reviews is really difficult!" I hear you object. "I simply do not have time for that. Do I?"
There is nothing inherently difficult about putting customer reviews on your site today. It does take a little time to set things up, but low-cost commercial quality reviewing applications are available to do the bulk of the work (see the one mentioned in the resource box below if you want to get a jump start on implementing customer reviews on your website). Not only does a customer review section on your site substantially increase your overall credibility, but search engines will love the content--especially if the review pages have been optimized for the search engines (as all good reviewing engines will certainly do).
There is another benefit to collecting customer reviews. Some review engines allow you to publish the reviews as RSS feeds. What this means is increased traffic. You can submit your feeds to the RSS directories. Moreover, if the reviewing application also allows you to create RSS feeds compatible with Google Base (as does the application mentioned below) you can upload your entire review database (or the first N characters of each review) to Google Base and make your reviews accessible to the various Google marketing avenues.
Given the clear benefits to implementing customer reviews on affiliate marketing sites it is surprising that so very few marketers have actually adopted this strategy to date. But as the web continues to mature, and affiliate marketing grows more professional, it is to be expected that this strategy will become more and more common on the sites of top affiliate marketers.
About The Author
Stephen Carter is the developer of Red Queen, powerful customer review software that allows webmasters to take advantage of the preselling potential of customer reviews. To learn more, see: How To Put Customer Reviews On Your Affiliate Website.
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