SiteProNews

It can be a daunting task setting up your on-line presence for most. The whole prospect of talking about “domain-name registration”, “hosting services”, “arranging content”, “payment gateways” and “merchant accounts” etc… can seem a totally alien experience for even those initiated with plenty of on-line experience.

So, to help those that are seriously thinking about getting their business hosted on the Internet here are some Top Ten Tips you should be asking a Web Company before you consider taking on their service.

1) “How long have you been in business?” While there is nothing wrong with going to a one man start up company (we all started somewhere) you may feel safer going with an established company where you can gather testimonials and feel more secure that the company has a history with hosting etc. You don’t want to lose your hard-earned website if the developer decides to close down.

2) “Do you have a portfolio?” First and foremost you have to see samples of work, without seeing this how do you know the Web Developer can do what you’re asking? Also, make sure these are live sites and that they actually work!

3) “Do you have any testimonials?” All good web design companies should be able to provide you with testimonials from previous satisfied clients. We at 360inovate are always happy to provide you with a list of testimonials if requested.

4) “Who works for you and can I meet them?” You need to know that the company you are hiring can deliver what they claim, ask questions such as “What are your designers histories?” and “How many years of experience do they have in this field?”. While all companies out-source at one point or another you need to be safe in the knowledge that your prospective company has staff on hand to deal with urgent queries etc and do not constantly have to rely on a freelancer. Finally, any company worth their salt will willingly let you go into their office and meet with the designers, beware of companies who refuse…what are they hiding?

5) “What is the process in developing a site?” You and the web design company have to be clear right from the word go what part each of you have to play in developing the site. At certain points your designer will require content and feedback from yourselves and you have to be aware when this will be required.

6) “What happens if I need changes?” All websites will need updated at one point or another, find out whether this is included in the price or an additional cost.

7) “What can you do to make my site visible?” If your web design company also offers Search Engine Optimization and you are considering this service, ask if it’s possible to have a short meeting with the SEO specialist. You’ll know quickly if they are up to scratch and they should also be able to supply you with previous Search Engine reports and show signs of successful SEO results.

8 ) “Do I own my site at the end?” You don’t want to go through the process of developing a website only to lose the rights to it if you decide to get hosting from another company after a few months. Ask if its possible to obtain a full copy of your website on completion.

9) “What software/languages do you use?” You probably don’t really care about the answer to this but it is good for you to know your site will be created using industry standard software etc to allow the files to be worked on at a later date with a different company if needs be. Look for software names such as Adobe Macromedia and try to get developers with more than just basic HTML knowledge such as ASP, PHP - should you wish to upgrade your site to a dynamic site it will comfort you to know that your designer will be able to oblige.

10) “Do you provide hosting?” All good web design agencies should be able to set you up with hosting and emails and you shouldn’t feel that you are paying over-the-top for this service. If they say they can’t and you feel the costs are high then be extremely suspicious!
Author:  Lynne Foster is a Senior Web Developer at 360innovate - a leading and award winning media company in Scotland.

Jennifer Slegg recently reported that Google is sending out emails to Adsense publishers that they claim to have an “unsuitable business model”. Amid much speculation about the types of account activity that were being targeted, it was later clarified on Webmaster Radio that Jennifer was referring to both MFA sites that drive organic traffic as well as sites that drive raffic through PPC to landing pages that have Adsense published on them.

The email, which is being sent to Adsense publishers, gives them a window in which to wrap up their operations. Google has also clarified that they will be paid their outstanding balance in full. It is also the case that they don’t seem to be differentiating on the scale of the publisher, with an example being someone who reported that they received the email despite having Adsense earnings which are in excess of $70,000 per month.

Google’s motivation, certainly in terms of MFA sites monetizing organic traffic, would appear to be understandable. Although Google, as well as publishers, ultimately earn revenue from this, their long term business model centers around the user experience. For some time there has been doubt about Google’s true intentions where this is concerned – especially when some feel as though they could have taken a stronger stance. In reality, Google created a monetization method for spamming the organic SERPs. Regardless of whether that traffic converts for advertisers, auto-generated content and scraper sites ultimately have the sole purpose of acting as a gateway between the user and the advertiser - and therefore their business model cannot be compared to that of a legitimate media channel in the eyes of Google.

The differentiation between traffic that converts, and traffic that does not convert does not appear to be Google’s concern in the publishers they are targeting. Google’s solution to differentiating non-converting and converting traffic appears to have been handled by smart pricing, in which publishers earn less per click when their traffic is less likely to covert for advertisers.

On the other hand, perceived conversion may be as good a reason as any for Google’s new, stronger stance. Advertisers have had reservations about Adsense for some time, feeling that the clicks from the content network provided no return. Through Google taking a stronger stance against the quality of the content network, they could shift more marketing dollars back into that medium. Whether or not, the content network is in fact a powerful marketing medium is a mute point – the perception of the content network makes brand advertisers squeamish and direct marketers feeling as though the traffic is coming from accidental clicks and untargeted traffic.

For those reasons, among others, the demise of MFA sites has been seen as imminent for some time. Despite that, many savvy marketers have reported that they see strong conversions from the Adsense content network. Many of which are driving traffic to affiliate sites; meaning that Google, the Adsense Publisher, the Affiliate and the Merchant all take their slice of the pie without anyone losing out. In fact, this has even driven some publishers to consider vertical integration; effectively cutting out the affiliate commission and signing up to be an affiliate themselves. When performance based marketers are happy to stay around in the content network, you can be in no doubt that it is delivering for their bottom line.

The point that Google is taking a stance against PPC media buys being directed to Adsense pages by publishers is a different subject area altogether. There are strong arguments on both sides of the fence; however it is hard to understand how advertisers are being negatively affected by this.

From the point of view of the user however, it is slightly different story. Effectively a user has to experience one more loop in their search for the content they are after. They may initially land on a page about cars, be directed to an Adsense page with Adsense ads, and then have to click on the Ford.com link to finally arrive at their end destination. In some cases, the journey to their end destination could involve even more page views when Adsense arbitragers are bidding on keywords in the content network, as well as in the SERPs. Despite that, enough users are following the intended path to make it a viable business model. When users feel duped, as a small percentage inevitably do, they would surely hit the back button. In that respect, the market could have been left to resolve the issues as they relate to paid search.

Whether or not Google feels this creates a negative experience for users is one thing, however for advertisers it is a different story. In the end, conversions speak for themselves. On one hand an Adsense publisher does not have to worry about how targeted their traffic is when their job is to deliver clicks, rather than sales. On the other hand, their efficiency and ability to deliver more volume ultimately makes them a valuable asset. A publisher that is driving Yahoo, MSN and third-tier traffic to an Adsense landing page is creating more volume for advertisers, and ultimately increasing Google inventory. Untargeted traffic is less likely to click the ad, while poorly converting traffic will ultimately lead to smart pricing. Although their goal may be to get clicks, publishers are still being offered an incentive to show due diligence to their advertisers.

As well as increasing volume through bringing inventory from other channels, publishers can also increase volume within Google itself through catching the long-tail on behalf of other advertisers. While an accounting firm, new to PPC, might only bid on 20 keywords, a publisher with thousands of keywords could create new channels for that advertiser on the content network while MFA sites will provide volume through organic SERPs.

Paid search was already going through a paradigm shift away from a pure, market-driven model. While this news cements that further, it also means that MFA publishers are going to have to find alternative means by which to monetize their traffic that they garner from organic search. Perhaps performance based marketing is the answer.

Author:  Manish Mathukiya Writes for iNetZeal - a Link building and SEO Service Company that offering Quality link building service with hundreds of satisfied clients.

A Little SEO Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing
I was talking to a woman recently who read a previous article that I wrote about Google. She was confused – very confused. Her site, which had a well-defined theme and was organized fairly well, was no where to be found in the search engine’s results pages (SERPs). Instead, the top results were clouded with other sites that, although somewhat related to her site’s primary keyword, were not solely dedicated to that topic.

Her real confusion came after she sought the advice of an SEO. This SEO told her that in order to rank well for her targeted keyword, her inbound links had to use that keyword as their anchor text. When she surveyed Google’s top 10 results for her keyword, she quickly saw that the sites occupying the top results did not have inbound links that used her targeted keyword (at least as far as she could determine).

Now ask yourself this question: how many articles have you read and how many forum discussions have you seen in which webmasters try their hardest to play the SEO and explain what needs to be done to get a top ranking? Out of all those articles and conversations, how many of them have been right 100% of the time without exception?

It seems that for every claim made by someone who claims to know SEO, there are 100 exceptions to the rule.

Webmaster forums and articles are full of people debating countless topics that, in all reality, do not have to be understood in order to obtain a high ranking. It can certainly be useful to know things like the differences between penalties and filters, the meaning of supplemental results, how to get out of the supplemental results, how many times you can 301 redirect Google, etc.

But we have to be careful. While this may be interesting and useful to an extent, a little SEO knowledge is a dangerous thing.

I really have no idea if the SEO who advised the woman in my example above is a good SEO or not. I was not involved in the conversation – all I heard was what the woman told me she knew. In all honesty, I do not blame the SEO so much as I blame the woman for her confusion. Trying to explain in a few emails or in one conversation what needs to be done with a site to move it up the rankings is unfair. But this example illustrates a point which we can see time and time again among webmasters.

A lot of people say they know SEO because they have had some success with it or they have studied it to some extent. But the truth is, there are really only a handful of people who really know what they are talking about.

Having just a little SEO knowledge is truly a dangerous thing. Webmasters who think they know SEO adjust their websites to make them more search engine friendly. When their site is eventually filtered out of the results, or drastically underperforms in the results, they have problems realizing that what they thought they knew to be true about SEO could in fact be wrong. The only natural conclusion is that they have done too good of a job optimizing their sites (every hear of ‘over-optimizing’?).

Then again, it could be that they know just enough about SEO to be dangerous.

Understanding SEO is Complicated

The reason a little SEO knowledge is so dangerous is that people use the knowledge that they do have in the wrong way. In our example above, this woman heard that in order to rank well for a particular keyword, she needed inbound links that used her goal keywords in their anchor text. She took that to mean that this was all she needed to do to rank well – thus ignoring the dozens of other factors that affect her ranking. What she was told did not seem to match up with the results that she saw.

The results that she saw were the result of a very complicated algorithm that was weighing dozens of factors. One of those factors was certainly the keywords used in the anchor text of inbound links to the high ranking sites. But any good SEO will tell you that this is not the only factor in ranking well.

Consider this: we all know that a chocolate cake contains flour and chocolate. But if we combine just those two ingredients, will we have a cake? Of course not – there are other factors which build the cake into what it is. We can even know all the individual ingredients of cake – but if we put them together in the wrong proportions, we’ll end up with a horrible cake.

The same is true with SEO. If we really want to understand SEO, then we need to know how all the pieces work together, what factors are more important, and what factors we should focus on with our sites.

Real SEO’s spend countless hours figuring out all the ingredients that go into a website’s ranking. They learn how to apply each piece of the algorithm in the correct way.

Most SEO’s, however, do not spend the time it takes to get to this level of knowledge. These are the self-proclaimed SEO’s who only know some of the ingredients, have theories about some of the other ingredients, and are still working on just what temperature you need to bake your site at in order to get the right result. These self-proclaimed SEO’s need to stop telling people what the recipe is for search engine success – they are simply giving people an incomplete recipe.

Understanding SEO is Complicated, but Practicing it is Simple

As complicated as SEO is, practicing it is refreshingly simple. Continuing our example of baking a cake (are you hungry yet?), SEO does come in a box along with instructions. We just need to put the elements together, put it in the oven, and wait for it to bake.

At the heart of SEO is one common desire among search engines: to return relevant results of trustworthy websites. Your job is to simply create that website.

The basic elements of SEO are well known and have been written about before. A good website will be well planned, focus on a particular theme, have a clearly defined navigation, be accessible to more than just advanced modern browsers, have great content, have great content over time, and will get links from other sites that recognize its quality.

You, as a website owner, really do not have to concern yourself with the various penalties/filters or supplemental results. As a website owner, you just need to create a technically sound website and work on building relevant, one-way links.

So if you have been asking yourself (or others) “How can I get my site to rank first for _______”, try changing the question to “How can I build a great website that others will recognize as being good which deals with ______”.

A Good SEO Is Invaluable – But Success Can Be Had Flying Solo

There is absolutely no substitute for a good SEO who really knows what they are talking about. These are the ‘master bakers’ in the world of search engine optimization. If you want to have a great cake, you would probably consider hiring a master baker.

But for most of us, we have to settle for the simplified approach to SEO. You can achieve search engine successes by simply approaching your website with the correct mentality.

Simply build your site with an emphasis on quality, a centralized theme, and solid usability. That is the simplest way to SEO success.

Author:  Mark Daoust is the owner of AffiliateKB.com.

He will be giving away $1,000 in June - register as a partner to learn more (its free and takes less than 1 minute).
 

Claude Hopkins is widely recognised as the father of advertising. His insights are so simple yet so profound and they apply just as well today as they did decades ago when they were first used.

Here are three lessons, in Claude’s own words. Please note that due to the era that it was written in, the language may be a little dated and that he uses the word “man” instead of “people”.

1. An advertiser suffered much from substitution. He said, “Look out for substitutes,” “Be sure you get this brand,” etc. with no effect. Those were selfish appeals.

Then he said, “Try our rivals’ too” - said it in his headlines. He invited comparisons and showed that he did not fear them. That corrected the situation. Buyers were careful to get the brand so conspicuously superior that its maker could court a trial of the rest.

2. Two advertisers offered food products nearly identical. Both offered a full-size package as an introduction. But one gave his package free. The other bought the package. A coupon was good at any store for a package, for which the maker paid retail price.

The first advertiser failed and the second succeeded. The first even lost a large part of the trade he had. He cheapened his product by giving a 15-cent package away. It is hard to pay for an article which has once been free. It is like paying railroad fare after traveling on a pass.

The other gained added respect for his article by paying retail price to let the user try it. An article good enough for the maker to buy is good enough for the user to buy. It is vastly different to pay 15 cents to let you try an article than to simply say “It’s free.”

So with sampling. Hand an unwanted product to a housewife and she pays it slight respect. She is in no mood to see its virtues. But get her to ask for a sample after reading your story, and she is in a very different position. She knows your claims. She is interested in them, else she would not act. And she expects to find the qualities you told.

There is a great deal in mental impression. Submit five articles exactly alike and five people may each choose one of them. But point out in one some qualities to notice and everyone will find then. The five people then will all choose the same article.

3. If people can be made sick or well by mental impressions, they can be made to favor a certain brand in that way. And that, on same lines, is the only way to win them.

Two concerns, side by side, sold women’s clothing on installments. The appeal, of course, was to poor girls who desired to dress better. One treated them like poor girls and made the bare business offer.

The other put a woman in charge - a motherly, dignified, capable woman. They did business in her name. They used her picture. She signed all ads and letters. She wrote to these girls like a friend. She knew herself what it meant to a girl not to be able to dress her best. She had long sought a chance to supply women good clothes and give them all season to pay. Now she was able to do so, with the aid of the men behind her.

There was no comparison in those two appeals. It was not long before this woman’s long-established next-door rival had to quit.

The backers of this business sold house furnishings on installments. Sending out catalogs promiscuously did not pay. Offering long-time credit often seems like a reflection.

But when a married woman bought garments from Mrs. —, and paid as agreed, they wrote to her something like this: “Mrs. —, whom we know, tells us that you are one of her good customers. She has dealt with you, she says, and you do just as you agree. So we have opened with you a credit account on our books, good any time you wish. When you want anything in furnishings, just order it. Pay nothing in advance. We are very glad to send it without any investigation to a person recommended as you are.”

That was flattering. Naturally those people, when they wanted some furniture, would order from that house.

There are endless phases to psychology. Some people know them by instinct. Many of them are taught by experience. But we learn most of them from others. When we see a winning method we note it down for use when occasion offers.

These things are very important. An identical offer made in a different way may bring multiplied returns. Somewhere in the mines of business experience we must find the best method somehow.

Author:  Kristina Mills is a successful and internationally acclaimed Copywriter, Internet Entrepreneur, Author and Speaker. Kristina has also pioneered many business success stories. This is an excerpt from Scientific Advertising which is FREE when you subscribe to Words that Sell ELetter. Just go to http://www.wordsthatsell.com.au and fill in your details.

Yes indeedy! Judgment Day is visited unto the black hat seo brethren with a mighty vengeance that was foretold from the day the first scroll of code was writ in script!

Okay, enough with the pseudo biblical babble and down to business. Just in case you are not conversant with the term black hat seo, here’s a brief explanation:

Black hat seo methods are search engine optimization techniques and strategies that fall outside the guidelines and purview of the major search engines with the intent of manipulating the position of one’s website to a far more strategic location on those search engines’ results index.

The objective of black hat seo is to game the search engines in order to attract a ton of internet traffic in as short a time frame as possible. The opposite of black hat seo is known as white hat seo. Most cream-of-the-crop black hat seo practitioners have cloaking, coding and programming skills and employ(ed) self-designed software to game the search engines.

Black hat seo techniques by their very nature are short-lived and the black hatters are well aware of this. You see black hat seo techniques involve (or at any rate used to) capitalizing on a weakness or loophole in the search engine algorithms or manufacturing such a weakness and then aggressively exploiting that flaw before the search engines caught on. In other words black hat seo has always been a race against the search engines, with the black hat webmasters ever trying to stay one step ahead!

Old School Black Hat SEO Techniques

Being a step ahead of the search engines used to be relatively simple for the sole reason that the search engine algorithms of the day really were rather basic and crude compared to the situation of today. Some of the more pervasive and better known black hat seo techniques were keyword stuffing which quite often went hand in hand with the application of invisible text.

Invisible text is merely text that is the same color as the background color of the web page on which that text is located, thus being invisible to the human eye, but readily accessible to a search engine robot. People who used such techniques would stuff their website homepage (or any page whose position on the SERPs they wished to manipulate) with their most sought after keyword, in some cases inserting that keyword hundreds of times as invisible text.

Of course the search engines got smarter, caught on and quickly fixed such loopholes.

Generally, as a rule, black hat seo webmasters never used their main sites to pursue their shady techniques because they were well aware that the penalty if caught was death; death in the sense that any website found employing such black hat seo methods, was banned and forever removed from the universe of know search! So as mentioned previously, the black hatters never adopted such shady techniques on their main websites but instead used disposable websites with multiple back-links pointing back to their main sites.

Which naturally begs the question, since the search engines were quite capable of crawling those back links, why didn’t they then penalize the destination website huh?

Good question indeed, and here is the answer; because then it would be very simple for a competitor to get rid of their competition by getting that competitors website banned by setting up such a black-hat seo operation with the destination URL being that of the competition and not that of the black hatter’s website!

With that comforting piece of knowledge in mind the black hat seo webmasters were able to conduct their business, traipsing a step ahead of the search engines and making a killing. Besides when the search engines caught on the black hatters didn’t have to close shop right away for that particular black hat op; there was still plenty of money to be made from gullible marketers who believed in overnight success and riches.

All the black hat seo webmaster had to do was provide evidence (screenshots and testimonials) of how much money they were making from their black hat seo system, and before you could say ka-ching, more money was rolling in from that defunct system through sales from people eager to duplicate the black hatter’s success.

The Biggest Names In Black Hat SEO Resigned To White Hat SEO Techniques!

Alas for the black hat seo brethren, soon enough the search engines had closed the one-step-ahead gap to a half-step ahead! Fast forward to today and there is no step-ahead gap! The search engines are way too smart and getting even smarter still, so much so that there really is no profit to be had anymore from black hat seo techniques. Perhaps that explains why so many cream-of-the-crop black hatters have finally conceded to pursuing white hat seo techniques.

But remember what I said about extra-monetization of defunct black hat seo techniques; there are plenty of gullibles out there who are willing to shell out hefty sums in hopes of fast-tracking their internet marketing campaign. And make no mistake black hat seo software usually commands a hefty price sticker on the premise that it is going to make the purchaser a bucket load of money in next to no time at all. But you and I of course know that such will not happen!

Remember to be forewarned is to be forearmed!

So if you stumble upon some advert that makes obviously outrageous claims yet still seems seductively appealing like the following example: “Internet Marketer Gets $67 Million In Google Pay-Per-Click Ads Free” just rein in that raging beast of temptation deep inside you that can barely restrain itself and recite the following: “A Fool And His/Her Money Are Easily Parted!”

Author:  Ba Kiwanuka is the webmaster of http://www.internetbusinessmart.com

To really create an effective Internet marketing campaign there are fours areas that need a lot of focus and a lot of carefully-thought-out detail:

• The Color Design and Presentation of A Web Site
• The Navigation of a Web Site
• The Copy/Web Content
• The Optimization Strategy(ies)

Creating a web environment the customer can trust is crucial and necessary if you are hoping they will invest in your product(s) or services. If you consider how to create trust, how to visually appeal to your potential customers and how to make their web navigating easier you create an easy and appealing web site

The Color Design and Presentation of A Web Site

We all see many web sites daily. Some of us see more than others, but we all see enough web sites to decide which ones are appealing and which ones are not. Some people are attracted to Flash, some are attracted to a lot of color and some do not like a lot of color. You cannot please everyone, but if you work hard to complete what I call “The Package” you can basically please everyone.

The term “The Package” consists of the four bulleted items above. People may not be fans of your Fusha and Chartreuse website, but if you handle the coloring right and combine the presentation with easy navigation, and copy that sells, you can win your visitors over.

You can really choose any color combination you want, even if they are the most ridiculous colors ever combined, as long as you combine the colors effectively. Colors should not make the copy difficult to read and they should not be so overshadowing that the viewer does not want to even bother reading the copy. I am presently creating a new web site for myself and above all choosing the right colors has been the most difficult thing, because the colors cannot take away from the copy. The eye should not have to strain to read the text.

If a web viewer feels eye discomfort they will not be able to process the copy effectively and most of the time they will just leave. The colors can be eye-catching and maybe a little crazy as long as the copy is clearly readable and the navigation is obvious.

Colors are used to attract. There are several attractive, basic white websites, but with so many websites around today web masters/designers are trying to use color to stand out. I, for one, like the colors I see. It sets one business apart from another and as a visual learner I tend to remember the colorful, eye-catching sites more. However, if the navigation is difficult I, like most Internet users, will exit quickly and not look back.

The Navigation of a Web Site

Creative navigation is fine and dandy and can sometimes be fun, BUT if a web site’s navigation is difficult to figure out or too hard to find it is really not worth the user’s time to try and figure it out. Why should they? There are hundreds or thousands of other sites offering the same services and/or products. Why not go to the site that is easy to navigate?

I had a interesting conversation with a colleague over navigation and that conversation actually inspired this article. Our discussion was over why a current web site’s navigation was completely ineffective. I am going to make up an example of what we discussed.

Let’s say you are going to a website looking for a puppy and when you land on the site you see four elaborate buttons to the left for the following:

• Golden Retriever
• Boston Terrier
• Rat Terrier
• Akita

Most people would assume that these were the four breeds this business sells. If they were looking for a Miniature Poodle and saw the four buttons I listed above they may quickly assume they had come to the wrong website and leave. Unfortunately, this website had a link at the top of the page that said “Other Breeds”, but it was small and in a 10 font and the color was not much different than the background. The link is basically invisible and not all (or even many) Internet users are going to work hard to look at a site to find a link that may meet their need UNLESS the product/service they are looking for is rare. You can optimize a site correctly and gain the placements you wanted, but if a web user cannot find the item they will leave.

It is the web owner’s and web designer’s responsibility to create navigation that easily and effectively displays everything an Internet user could need or hope to find. You cannot expect a person to work for it, because they won’t. They will just back out of your site and look at the next one. One simple thing would have made the above example’s navigation extremely effective; they could have just added “Other Breeds” under Akita. Then there would be no mistake. Everything needs to be RIGHT in the face of the viewer!

One more thing I feel I have to say is that whether we are dealing with links or copy, the font needs to be large enough to read. You may have 20/20 vision, but not everyone does so increase the size and adapt your web design accordingly. Make it clean and large enough for the average Internet user to see.

The Copy/Web Content

Thanks to terrible copy/web content I am now make more money working as an SEO Copywriter than I did as a Mental Health Counselor. Terrible copy can consist of one, many or all of the following:

• Bad Grammar
• Misspelled Words
• Choppy Writing
• Writing That Does Not Sell
• Writing That Makes You Want to Sleep
• Writing That Includes Phrases Like, “Get’er done/Git’r Done” (not sure which is correct. I have seen them both more times than I would like to say).

Copy is one of the web site’s most important advertising tools. Even if the color is boring or unattractive visitors will glance at the copy. If they are pleased they will continues to read; if they are not they will leave. We have all been on a site and read the first paragraph and then been like, “What???”. I shouldn’t complain about it because I am making money because of it, but I have read many articles giving fantastic free advice and tips and I want to contribute. Perhaps the most important thing I can say is, Obtain Great Web Content! You will benefit from professionally written copy.

If you look at this from a Psychological or Sociological perspective you will understand (especially if you look back on your web viewing experiences) that copy will either make a potential client trust you or not trust you. You have about 5-10 second of reading time to make a web visitor believe that you are trustworthy. If they do not trust you and believe you have a professional business they will not invest in your products or services.

Copy Should:

• Be Easy to Read
• Sound Professional
• Have NO Misspelled Words
• Have No Grammar Mistakes
• Should Not Be Written In a Casual Manner ( like this article)
• Sell, Sell, Sell and Blow Sunshine Where Ever It May Go

Optimization Strategy(ies)

It appears as thought everyone knows about the importance of optimization, but the truth is many businesses do not even know what the word means. People look at my business card and slowly read “Search Engine Optimization” like they are sounding out the ingredients of Moo Goo Gai Pan in Chinese. I have to explain it over and over again.

I would be writing all day long if I wanted to explain what optimization is and how to begin creating a strategy. There are millions of articles out there already, so I will focus on a what a business needs to know to design an effective web site.

Code- find a designer that knows how to properly code a website. Ask them if they know what W3C web standards are and ask them to explain it to you. A properly coded website is crucial if you want the search engines to give you the placements you are hoping for. Your site needs to please your visitors and meet the standards and guidelines of the search engines.

Web Design- Believe it or not optimization strategies need to be thought out before the design of the web site. There are several areas of a website that need to be “optimized” during the creation of the web site. You can always change a web site later, but it could end up costing you a lot of time and/or money.

Copy/Web Content- the copy should support the optimization put in place during the web design. An SEO Copywriter can help you with this and please understand that an SEO Copywriter is much different than a copywriter. To understand and create effective SEO copy a copywriter needs to understand code, the design of the website and not only know how to optimize, but also consistently keep up on the changing trends of SEO.

Please the Search Engines- As I stated above, you have to please your web visitors and meet the standards and guidelines of the search engines. Search engines want your website coded correctly, they want proper and ethical optimization strategies and they like copy. I know everyone is running around screaming “Page Rank!, You must have a great Page Rank!”.

Well, I am going to say something that will probably upset many; my Page Rank has dropped tremendously and I am still doing well in the search engines. I have all of the #1 placements on Google that I wanted and I have the page one placements I wanted (please don‘t jinx me). I have a ton of link farms linking to me and I have a lot of outbound informational links for visitors and clients. My Page Rank may have dropped, but I still have an average of 2,000 hits a month. I have clients in nearly all 50 states and I am making good money. My dropped Page Rank has not hurt me at all.

What has hurt me is my web site and that is why a new, properly coded website is being created. This website will appeal to visitors visually, mentally and it will please the search engines. I plan on having “The Package”. It is taking a lot of time and money, but it will pay off in the end.

In Conclusion

It is important to research and prepare when designing a web site that will effectively advertise your product(s) or services. Colors that match your logo is not the only thing to consider. Another unfortunate thing I am seeing, as is the colleague I discussed above, is that some web design companies are promising everything, but building quick web sites and the promises are never met.

I suggest you interview multiple web design companies. Ask for a portfolio. View the sites online. If all the sites look like a basic template you cannot expect anything different for your site. Also, if they promise optimization look at their clients’ presence on the search engines. Are they doing well? Call a few and ask what they think about the service they received. You may find that the web design company didn’t even handle the optimization. With the money you will be spending you deserve a quality web site. Do your research and you will save money in the end.

Author:  Melissa Fach has always been an Internet Junkie. A successful copywriter and SEO, Melissa works with a wide array of clients. Melissa runs Panaca Writing, SRQ Web Design and the Sarasota Print Shop.

With a widget you can place the current information from your blogs and or/websites on other webpages, and your personal pages on social networks like myspace, ning.com and your private clubs. This is not only fun and informative, but an excellent promotional tool.

What is a widget? According to Wikipedia a “web widget is anything that can be embedded within a page of HTML, i.e. a web page. A widget adds some content to that page that is not static. Generally widgets are third party originated… Widgets are also known as modules, snippets, and plug-ins. Widgets can be written in HTML, but also in JavaScript, flash and other scripting languages…

Applications can be integrated within a third party website by the placement of a small snippet of code. This is becoming a distribution or marketing channel for many companies. The code brings in ‘live’ content - advertisements, links, images - from a third party site without the web site owner having to update.”

You have probably seen widgets on web sites you have visited. When clicked on the widget will take you to the source of the information. Although widgets have been around since the late nineties, they are becoming increasing more popular especially with the rise of social networking.

I first started playing around with widgets as a way to promote my own AC published content. While widgets are not that difficult, they can be a little tricky at first if unfamiliar to you. It took me several tries to perfect my own widgets and place them on my blog and social networking sites. They now work perfectly without any problems. As I add content to my AC page for example, the widget automatically updates to show the most current article titles.

If you have not had the opportunity to work with widgets or have attempted to do so without success this article is for you. With little effort you will be able to make the widgets and place them on the web pages that you choose. Once mastered the widgets are really cool and worth the effort.

Making A Widget

At widgetbox.com you can make a widget to place on your pages. You can customize the widget with size, details, title and colors and even list it in their blidget directory which gives more exposure to your blog and AC page (every little bit of promotion helps). You can make as many widgets as you want, I have one for my blog at Women-sense.com and another for my AC content producer page so far.

Go to widgetbox.com, on the left sidebar click on the button that says ‘Make a blidget’. This will open up a box that asks for the url where the information is being gathered. For my blog I just entered the blog url, (http://women-sense.com). Widgetbox.com automatically draws from the rss feed for that URL. Don’t ask me how, I have no idea but it works. For my Associated Content I added the actual RSS link which I found by clicking on the RSS symbol and copying the url address from the browser address bar.

Once you add the link to the blidget box it will open to a page that will give you customizing options. You will see your widget on the right hand side with your information from the RSS feed. You can opt to list article titles or titles with article summaries. Different colors as well as sizing and/or images are other options available. Fool with the options until you get it the way you want it to look.

When you finish setting the options and you are happy with the way it looks, click on one of the article titles to assure it is working correctly. When clicked it should click thru to the site your are promoting.

Registering and Getting The Code

If working correctly the next step is to get the code. Now you will need the code in order to place the widget your myspace page or other website of your choice.

Before getting the code the next step in the creation of your widget offers you the chance to list your widget in the blidget gallery. I opted for this and you will probably want to do so as well. It can only add to your exposure. Add keyword tags and click ‘publish blidget’.

Now you will then be asked to register if you do not already have an account. Don’t worry, the service is absolutely free. By registering you will be able to come back and make as many widgets as you want and add them to your account for editing.

Once you have registered you will now be taken to a another page with several options. Near the top you will see the title of the widget (example: AC Media) on the far right of the title click the green button that says ‘get widget’.

Placing The Widget On Websites

A drop down list opens up for you to choose where to place the widget. You will see there are many choices. If you are placing your widget on myspace, for example, choose that selection. You will be asked for your myspace email and password, along with what section you want the widget to be placed. Widgetbox.com will automatically place the widget on your myspace page in the section you desire.

Perhaps you want to place the widget on a site that is not listed. In this case you would choose the section that says, ‘get code’. There will be two choices to choose from, a Javascript and a Flash script. At this point you may have to experiment to see which code will work on the site you are attempting to place the widget.

Many sites do not allow Javascript. If you are working on your own webpages you can probably use the Javascript code. Copy and paste the code in your websites html, save and upload your page as usual. The widget should work fine.

For other sites like ning.com you want the flash script. Select all and copy the code for the flash script. Paste the code into a block where you are able to add information by clicking on edit/add in the box and paste the code. You are almost done.

Before saving you will need to add opening and closing div tags to the code in order for it to show up. At the beginning of the code place the <div> and at the end of the code include </div>.

Click save and close the opened text box and your widget should be displayed. If correctly done your widget will automatically update every time you add new content to the site your widget is promoting.

Author:  Doran Roggio is a freelance writer & online entrepreneur. For business resources visit Doran at http://atdorans.com and http://adsense-smarts.doranunlimited.com.

As e-commerce continues to change the way that people shop in our culture, the numbers and types of website hosting options has grown to staggering proportions. Trying to find the best hosting sites and the best website design templates can be maddening. As you begin to shop around for the website hosting option that best meets your needs, keep in mind that there are three basic things that you want to look for and compare as you compare one services solution against another. Business owners have more choices than ever before when it comes to website hosting options. As the demand has grown in recent years, so have the number of service providers. There are so many to choose from that finding the best hosting sites can be a bit of a challenge. You may find it helpful, as you begin looking, to make a list of your specific needs.

Use that list of needs as a template to hold up next to the service plans that you are looking at and see which services solution best meets the needs of your company. Trying to select a website hosting solution can be as difficult as buying a used car. The sheer volume of service solutions is staggering, and it’s getting bigger every day. A plethora of options, some vital and some not so much, flood the front pages of advertisers trying to draw you in. Deciding what features you really need and which ones are just gimmicks can be difficult. If you are unfamiliar with website hosting options it may seem like the best option is to open up the phone book and blindly point a finger to decide. Your best option is to make a list of what you need, and then consider the following criteria based on that list.
First, and probably most obviously, is price. While there are a number of free website host services available, you are probably not going to get the same level of services or support that you will from an internet host that charges you a small monthly fee. Generally these fees are low, and shouldn’t make a substantial dent in your budget. Most are fairly competitive on price, and only vary by a few dollars. If then, you determine that you are willing to spend this few extra dollars each month to pay for host support, what other options should you be looking at?
The second set of factors that you need to consider, after price, are the services offered. Different website hosting services offer a variety of service levels. Some may offer different packages, often with a catchy name like the silver, gold and platinum package. As they get progressively more expensive, the number of services available goes up. Whether it includes online support or 24-hour phone support, your website hosting service should provide a services solution package that works for you. If not, then you should keep looking. Once you have determined a budget for your website hosting needs then you need to begin narrowing down the pile to the best web hosting services that remain.

Different service providers all have unique packages to try and earn your business. For the most part, these packages differ only in the kind of support that they offer. Excellent host support can be the factor that ultimately wins your business. You need to know that your services solution will be there for you when you need them and that you can get accurate help in a timely manner when things go wrong. The amount of host support that you get is one of the biggest deciding factors in website hosting decision. Keep in mind that, the more you spend the more you get. The providers of services solutions often grade their support packages by how much help you think you’ll need. Of course, you then pay accordingly. Everything from live online chat support to actual personal site visits are available. While you don’t ever want to overpay for anything, it is important that you have the support that you need when things go wrong.
A third factor, also usually determined by how much you are willing to pay, is the amount of disk space that you are allowed. Some also include data transfer information in this package. As with everything else, the more you pay, the more you get. The best web hosting services are the ones that offer unlimited data transfer and disk space. This allows you to grow without worrying about over stepping your limit. You don’t want to be in the middle of a big sales month only to have your host server lock down because you drove too much traffic to it and thus maxed out your allowable bandwidth.
As you consider each of these factors, keep in mind that the best web hosting services for you are not necessarily the most expensive, nor do they need to be the cheapest. Make a good assessment of your needs and then make an educated decision. An affordable website host is out there just waiting for your business. When you find it, you will have just taken your internet based business to the next level. While cost is going to be a factor in every business decision that you make, don’t let a few dollars a month be the driver of this decision. Figuring out the best way to manage your website hosting needs will potentially save you a lot of time.

For most business owners, your time is worth much more than a few dollars a month. Make sure that you choose a services solution that will set you up to succeed. Generally, website hosting solutions are similar in price. Don’t let the difference of a few dollars a month sway you into making a decision that might leave you scrambling for answers the first time that you have a problem. Make sure that you are completely comfortable with the level of host support that is available with your hosting package. Your time is worth more than the few extra dollars a month that you may have to spend in order to get a quality service provider.
Author:  David Odell is the owner of: Web Hosting - Know How Pages

Search Engine Marketing is the hottest new career to sweep the employment sector. There are literally more jobs available than there are marketers to fill them, hence the high salaries. Traditionally, SEO/SEM has had a long, steep learning curve, so there is currently a large supply/demand gap.

The growth of the industry has underscored the need for faster, more flexible training options. The demand for trained SEO/SEM staff has accelerated the launch of online training programs in the past three years. The spread of misinformation and the growth of dodgy SEO practices have also highlighted a need for best-practice industry certification.

Advantages of a Career in SEM

Here are the major advantages of having a career in search engine marketing:

1. The search industry is hot, hot, HOT!
2. SEO considered one of four jobs on the cutting edge
3. The pay is (usually) fantastic
4. You can learn it all online
5. You can be your own boss
6. Search marketing has the WOW factor
7. The demand is strong and growing
8. The industry is hip and groovy
9. The skills are portable and global
10. Job satisfaction is high

SEM Training Options

If you decide to start that career in search engine marketing, you have numerous training options open to you:

• Do It Yourself (DIY)
• E-books and online manuals
• Books and offline manuals
• Conferences and seminars
• In-person training
• Online courses

Let’s go through these training options one by one.

Do It Yourself (DIY)

You could try to learn search engine marketing on your own, by conducting your own research, reading widely in webmaster forums and honing your skills on your own sites via trial and error.
The advantages of learning SEM on your own are:

• You can set your own timeframe
• It’s generally inexpensive
• You have the satisfaction of acquiring skills on your own

The disadvantages of learning SEM on your own are:

• There is a very long lead time
• You will be faced with conflicting and unreliable information sources
• There is only a limited ability to network with peers
• Research is time-consuming
• You won’t know what works and what doesn’t until you trial it
• You’ll have no record or proof of skills acquired

E-books and Online Manuals

There are plenty of e-books and manuals about search engine marketing available online.

The advantages of learning SEM via e-books and manuals are:

• They are generally inexpensive
• They are readily available

The disadvantages of learning SEM via e-books and manuals are:

• They are generally considered lower quality than training
• There is no interaction with your peers
• You’ll have no record or proof of skills acquired

Examples of SEM e-books and manuals include:

- The SEO Book by Aaron Wall

- The Nitty Gritty of Writing for the Search Engines by Jill Whalen

- SEM: The Essential Best Practice Guide by Mike Grehan

Books and Offline Manuals

As with online versions, there are just as many physical books, CDs and offline training manuals available to persons wanting to learn search engine marketing.

The advantages of learning SEM via books and offline manuals are:

• They are usually inexpensive

• They are readily available

The advantages of learning SEM via books and offline manuals are:

• The information dates quickly
• There is no interaction with your peers
• You’ll have no proof of skills acquired

Examples of SEM books and offline manuals include:
- Search Engine Visibility by Shari Thurow

- SitePoint’s SEM Kit by Dan Thies

- Building Your Business with Google For Dummies by Brad Hill

Conferences and Seminars

As search engine marketing has grown as an industry, so too have the number of conferences and events dedicated to it.

The advantages of learning SEM via conferences and seminars are:

• They offer cutting edge information
• They often provide access to search engine staff
• They give you the ability to network with peers

The disadvantages of learning SEM via conferences and seminars are:

• You must travel to the venue
• They generally provide no training material
• They can be more expensive than other options
• You’ll have no record or proof of skills acquired

Examples of SEM conferences and seminars include:
Search Engine Watch’s Search Engine Strategies

Webmaster World’s PubCon

Search Engine Land ’s Search Marketing Expo

Australia ’s Search Summit

In-person Training

Just as the number of conferences relating to search engine marketing has grown, so too has the demand for in-house training in SEO and SEM subjects.

The advantages of learning SEM via in-person training are:

• It generally includes step-by-step instructions
• Training material is usually provided
• Verification of subjects studied is provided
• You have the ability to network with your peers
• Some form of certification is generally given
• University credits are sometimes available
• Certification may be recognized by potential employers

The disadvantages of learning SEM via in-person training are:

• You must travel to the venue
• The information can date quickly
• It can be more expensive than other options

Examples of SEM in-person training include:

- Bruce Clay’s SEOToolSet

- Jill Whalen ’s SEM Seminars

-Robin Noble’s Search Engine Workshops

- Search Engine Bootcamp

- Elite Retreat

Online Training Courses

It’s not always viable or affordable for webmaster s to attend conferences or training sessions at a venue other than their home or workplace. For these reasons, the demand for online training in search engine marketing subjects has skyrocketed.

The advantages of learning SEM via online training courses are:

• Courses are available 24/7 from any location worldwide
• Training materials are provided
• They are usually cheaper than venue-based options
• They generally include step-by-step instructions
• Courses are self-paced and interactive
• Certification is provided
• A knowledge benchmark is required to qualify for certification
• Verification of subjects studied is provided
• The lesson materials are updated regularly
• University credits are sometimes available
• Certification is usually recognized by potential employers
• Training institutions can assist graduates with employment

The disadvantages of learning SEM via online training courses are:

• They can be more expensive than other options

• There is only a limited ability to network with peers

Providers of online training courses in search engine marketing include:

- SEMPO Institute

- Search Engine College

Benefits of Industry Certification

When it comes to industry certification, there are various schools of thought in the SEM industry. Some suggest certification is simply not necessary, others state that SEO/SEM has no official industry standards, so any certification is meaningless, still others insist that certification is becoming increasingly important to potential employers and persons seeking careers in SEO and SEM.  

If you’re skeptical about the value of industry certification, ask yourself these questions: Will you be looking to hire search marketing staff over the next 12 months? Would you prefer to hire search marketing staff that hold industry certification? Will you be seeking a job in the search industry over the next 12 months? Do you think holding industry certification would give you an edge over applicants applying for the same jobs?

Here are some advantages to having industry certification in search engine marketing:

For Staff:

• Proof of subjects studied and skills acquired
• Ability to promote certification on web site / CV
• An edge over other applicants when applying for SEO/SEM jobs.

For Employers:

• Ability to hire based on a proven skill set (e.g. ability to set up a Yahoo! SEM campaign quickly).
• Ability to impress clients with certified status of staff.
• Reassurance that search engine-approved methods are used.
• Less on-the-job training is required.

To Sum Up

Everyone has a different learning style, so don’t assume one method will work for you. Don’t rely on a single source of training for your search engine marketing needs. Attend conferences, purchase books, take a course, network in forums and DIY when you can to acquire a broader knowledge base.

Finally, remember that training should always be supported by hands-on SEO/SEM experience so get those hands dirty!

Author:  Kalena Jordan is one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia . She is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running her own SEO business, Kalena is Director of Studies at Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.

It has been about ten days since the rollout of Google Universal and the early analysis is starting to come in. Trying to put it all together and make coherent written statements about Google Universal is difficult as there are so many unique pieces of information to assimilate. For a deadline driven writer, that sort of situation is problematic. Perhaps however, the problem itself helps explain the subject.

I do a lot of searching. As a writer, I pull information from an enormous number of sources. While researching, I need to read a lot of material and extract nuggets of information, sort each nugget for relevancy and importance and pull together an A – Z story line. In short, I need to produce complex information sets in a format viewers are comfy seeing.

My primary source is my own experience, the stuff I can see with my own two eyes and filter through the scatterings of search marketing knowledge I’ve gleaned.

My secondary sources tend to be my colleagues, the hundred or so other bloggers, broadcasters, analysts and writers toiling away around the world. My supplemental sources tend to come from other webmasters’ experiences often found in forums such as WebmasterWorld, Searchenginewatch, or Cre8asite. As I am my own primary source, the interpretation of all incoming data is likely going to be fairly subjective or rather, personal.

To recap: I have all these sources and only 600 – 1200 or so words to express their ideas them in. As I said, it can be problematic but on the whole, I can’t complain. Try to imagine what it must be like to pull, sort and compile lists of data from every part of the Internet live-time and feed them to the largest audiences ever assembled.

It can be done with accuracy and grace. Google has proven that time and time again but moving past the ¾ way mark of this decade, those times are rapidly changing. As file formats and new user habits supplant or bypass search results, accuracy and grace aren’t enough. As noted in my last post, Google appeared to be losing users of its vertical search options to newer, more person-specific technologies such as RSS feeds, Facebook and Fickr.

Google Universal is going to be integrating information from what were once separate databases like news, images, books, videos and maps into the general SERPs. It will display results based on an order it determines is most relevant to the search query entered by the user. During a discussion of Google Universal on our WebmasterRadio show yesterday, SEO Dave Davies and I speculated on exactly how Google is going to determine which result would be relevant to which user. That’s when I thought about a short piece Jennifer Laycock at Search Engine Guide had posted just as Dave and I went on the air.

“Am I the Only One That Thinks Google is Getting Creepy?” looks at comments made by Google CEO Eric Schmitt to the Financial Times, quoting a section that reads:

From The Financial Times:
Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said gathering more personal data was a key way for Google to expand and the company believes that is the logical extension of its stated mission to organise the world’s information.

Asked how Google might look in five years’ time, Mr Schmidt said: “We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms will get better and we will get better at personalisation.

“The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as ‘What shall I do tomorrow?’ and ‘What job shall I take?’”

How is Google going to decide which results to display to which user as it becomes (in effect), a Google-verse meta-search engine? My gut answer is, “With personal precision”.

Here is an example that, though it hasn’t actually happened yet, is likely to happen sooner than later. It gives me an idea on one way SEOs should adapt to a Universal environment.

I travel frequently and power-use Google Earth and Google Maps when making arrangements. I research hotel selections and information about the surrounding areas. Before I get to another large city, even if I have been there before, I want to know exactly where specific buildings, transportation routes and, most importantly, nice restaurants are in relation to where I plan on booking a room.

Cars give me the creeps so I prefer everything be in walking distance of each other. There is never any spare time on business trips so if I need water, coffee, snacks, sodas, dry cleaning or shaving cream, I need to know where to get whatever quickly. As I don’t like getting late-night lost coming back from those infamous search-marketing shindigs, I memorize routes through different cities before leaving. I know generally where a few eateries, drug stores and other conveniences are before I even get there. Such is the convenience of search.

Google is aware of this habit. It also knows which hotels I book as the name and address often form parts of my search-queries. As a matter of fact, Google knows exactly who I am interested in speaking with, what tourist attractions I might want to see, and which cites I am likely to visit next. All that information is easily available in my recorded search history.

It is only a matter of time until a search for “SES NYC” or “SMX Social Media”, for me, turns up results that include, maps of Manhattan, random notations regarding bars, lounges, buildings, pharmacies, and restaurants, images from previous SES and SMX events, and affiliate-driven results about hotels I have booked in the past. It is as Orwellian as it sounds but it’s a pretty cool spread of time saving information that could be sent directly to me. My own, situational, personal total information awareness network, so to speak.

How do SEOs deal with this? That’s simple. Find out who your clients’ clients are. Search marketers are going to need to get a lot more granular in relation to who the site visitors are.

Most SEO firms work with medium to smaller sized businesses. These businesses are using search to expand their marketing base and/or as a platform from which to make sales. Because personalization will affect the results shown to individual users, the habits and traffic-patterns of those individual users are of increased interest to SEOs.

Where, or more precisely, who are the top referring websites or web pages? How or why are those sites and pages referring traffic to the client’s site? Are there similar sites that could also drive traffic?

If the client has one or more brick and mortar locations, are there complimentary businesses nearby? I am thinking specifically about clients in the hotel and hospitality industries but obviously the concept is similar across the board. Groupings of people tend to gravitate to similar things for a reason. Figure out the reasons and actions of your various clients’ groupings of visitors and you might go a long way to furthering your clients’ search marketing needs.
Author:  Jim Hedger is the Executive Editor of SiteProNews.com. He also hosts The Alternative on WebmasterRadio.fm. Jim is also an analysit, blogger and SEO advisor to Metamend Search Marketing in Victoria BC.