SiteProNews

Now that you’ve designed and launched your website, you have a powerful marketing tool for your business. But, your website is only as useful as the content is current. The process of keeping the content on your site current is called website maintenance, and it’s important to keep both visitors and search engines supplied with new information. Just like regular maintenance on your car, you have to make changes on your website every few months to make sure that things run smoothly.

If you update the content on your website on a regular basis, potential clients will be drawn back to your site to find out “what’s new”. The search engines pay visits to websites in their queue regularly. The catch is that you’ll stay in the queue only if you update your site regularly. If the search engines visit your site several times in a row, and don’t find anything new, they may decide not to come back-which can be a blow to your search engine rankings.

So, when is it appropriate to update your website? You don’t want to waste time and money nitpicking at your site if you don’t have updates of real value to add. You should update your site if you’ve:

• Grown your skills. Have you gotten a new accreditation? New licensing? Improved your skills? Any change in your skill set is a great reason to update your website-and your potential clients-with your new capabilities.
• Expanded your products or services. Do you have a new offering? Add it to your website and start making new sales in that area.
• Completed a successful project. If you’ve just finished a project, include it on your website. Create an online portfolio, add a case study-build a section on your website to use as a place to show the world your success.
• Gotten more testimonials, or added to your client list. Including more feedback on your offering helps to build your credibility. Be sure to get a testimonial from each of your successful client projects. Updating your testimonials regularly will also show clients who have visited your site a few times that your offerings are “up to snuff”.
• Written an article. Writing articles is a great way to keep your website up-to-date and to put more content on your site. Search engines love content-rich sites, and visitors will love to see the new information. So, if you write articles to educate your clients and promote your business, be sure to place them on your website as well. They’re likely to be full of keywords related to your area of specialty, which will help your ranking in the search engines.
• Press releases. You should post all press releases and other information you publish about your company to your website. You never know who may be visiting, and you may get written up for your accomplishments.
• Changes in your business. Have you hired someone? Changed your business structure, and you’re now required to notify the public of that? If so, you should probably review your website and evaluate how you can add that information.
• Yearly check-ups. You should do a basic check on your site at least once a year, to make sure that the content is current. Some things to check on include:
• Your copyright statements should be updated yearly
• Test and validate your links, to ensure that they still work
• Your time references should be changed. If your “About” page says how many years you’ve been in business, this is the time to change that!
• Your pricing and offerings-do you have new products or services? Have your prices increased over the past year?

Spotlight any major updates on your home page as well, so that people will learn of those updates as soon as they enter your site. The search engines will also discover the new update as soon as they enter your home page if you leave a bit of information, with a link to the full story, on the home page. That will act as a breadcrumb for the engine to follow-the engines will follow your link to learn more about it.

Any of these reasons, and dozens of others, are great reasons to make changes to your site. If you make keeping your website current a priority, it will pay off with better search engine rankings and increased sales and leads through your website.

Once you’ve decided to make your changes, the next choice is how to go about doing that. There are two steps involved in maintaining your site:

1. First, decide whether you prefer to edit your content on paper or online. This can be done in a couple of ways. You can start by printing the pages that have outdated information and then updating that information on paper first. Or, you can copy and paste the outdated content from your website into a word processing program such as Microsoft Word and then edit that file on your computer.
2. After you have updated your text content you can choose either to make the changes yourself or to hire a web designer to make the changes. There are several tools that you can use to make changes to your site yourself. We recommend an easy-to-use tool called Macromedia Contribute. It’s fairly inexpensive, its simple to set up and learn, and it allows you to back up to older versions of your site if you make mistakes.

We suggest that you use this tool to make only simple text changes. More complicated changes-for example, to the overall design or navigation-are more difficult to make, and having a professional make those changes will save you energy and frustration.

If you are comfortable with a more complicated software program, then we recommend a professional-grade tool such as Dreamweaver. With a better software package, you’ll be able to make some of the more complicated changes yourself.

By building more-and more current-information into your website, you will also begin to build trust with your potential clients, since they will have a snapshot of what’s currently happening in your business and available to them. Your website can go a long way towards making sure that your online prospects know, like, and trust you-which can lead to more sales from your website.

Author:  Erin Ferree is a brand identity and marketing design strategist who creates big visibility for small businesses. Through her customized marketing and brand identity packages, Erin helps her clients design effective websites that help them extend their brands, bring in new clients and make sales. http://www.elf-design.com

There is no doubt that links from other websites to your website is vital for an ecommerce business. It all filters down to the Google Page Rank. This is the Google tool that is used to determine how important a website is to people surfing the net.

Google will balance the number of links, the PR of the pages exchanging the links, the keyword similarities on the linked pages, how often the site is updated, and the number of hits a site receives. Two PR 4 sites sharing links between pages with ‘small business’ as the main keyword, will benefit more from a small business website with a PR4 and a private blog that discusses ‘wealth building.’

Also, 100 links between a PR6 site and a PR4 site will increase the ranking of the second site faster than 100 000 links from a PR2 site and the same PR4 site.

This can all be a little confusing. Google’s PR algorithm controls everything. The confusion comes from the fact that search engines cannot think. Both the PR4 ‘small business’ site and the PR2 ‘wealth building’ site can be helping small business owners improve their page promotion. However, search engines cannot read. If they don’t see similar keywords, then they do not understand that the sites really do have similar content.

Building Links

The main problem with generating inbound links is the time needed to generate links. Even a strong link building campaign can take months to build a few thousand organic links. This brings up the question, should you buy links from other sites with high ranks?

The benefits are solid, if the link is in the right place. Some link buying services let the business owner pick what sites their links appear on, and which pages they appear on. This is the only type of ‘static page’ service to use.

Another service puts links on blogs. This type of service, like www.payu2blog.com and www.blogsvertise.com or www.payperpost.com let business owners pick the PR ranks, topics, and quality of blog, their links are posted on. Blogs have a benefit that static websites don’t. First, blogs always put the link inside the content, hidden within keywords that the business owner chooses. This guarantees that the keywords at both sites match.

The second benefit is that blogs are pinged to blog search engines, and directories, every time the blogger posts a blog, or a comment is posted. This means that a single blog can be ‘pinged’ to the search engines daily, where a static web page is pinged every few months – if ever.

However, a static page that is linked to a blog will be ‘crawled’ every time the blog post is published and pinged.

Crawling Your Site

Many people buy links from PR4 to PR8 sites for no other reason than to have the search engines come and crawl the site. It doesn’t matter if the link goes down, because the benefits have already been received. This is the best way to have a new website resolved by Google in a matter of hours, instead of weeks, or months.

Cost

Cost can be prohibitive. Some companies have a budget of $1million for blog advertising. However, a small company can get started for $1000. In fact, if the blog owner finds blogs with ads hidden among the posts, they can contact the blog owner and deal with them directly. A PR 2 or 3 blog will cost $5. A PR 4 – 5 will cost $10. A PR6+ can run as high as $100.

However, the traffic driven to your site by Google can easily offset the cost. Buying 10 links from 10 PR5 websites or blogs can result in 100 000 extra hits in a month, which can produce 1000 extra sales.

Link Farms

Whether you buy links on blogs or web sites, avoid link farms. These are sites that are in business to sell links. If the search engines find these sites they will ban them. This can result in your 1000 PR7 links disappearing – forever. It can take Google six months, or more, to apply new links to your website. This drops your page rank, and profits, for a few months.

Outbound linking

It is also important to remember to link from inside your website to similar sites. Google will count these links too. In the end, it is up to each individual business owner to decide whether they should build organic links, or invest in buying links.

Author:  Mark Walters is a third generation entrepreneur and author. He offers free training and investing videos designed to speed you towards financial independence at http://www.cashflowinstitute1.com/Articles.htm

The old cliché is wrong. All our lives we’ve heard, “It’s not what you say, but how you say it.” That may occasionally be true, but for the most part it’s what you say AND how you say it. Case in point: Announce It!, a custom candy-bar-wrapper manufacturer, had copy on their home page that was acceptable. It mentioned pretty much all the important things a site visitor would need to know about ordering candy wrappers. Yet the copy wasn’t pulling as well as it should have been.

The Problems

The target audience consists mostly of women. In addition, these women order favors for special occasions. That means (stereotypically speaking) you have people who ask a lot of questions and are especially cautious of buying something they can’t touch, feel or see (in person) for use at a major life event. Communication (what the copy says as well as how it says it) is vital.

The text had to convince women that they could trust “Announce It!” to produce something they would show off in front of all their family and friends for important occasions such as birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, weddings, showers and more. That meant answering the questions these women have as well as instilling confidence that their party favors would be the hit of the event.

Technically, the copy was OK. But it lacked excitement. No, not hype… excitement. It needed to reach out to women and make them feel welcome while also reinforcing that “Announce It!” was the perfect solution for them. You can see the original text here:.

As I’ve always said, you never want to “we” all over your copy. The content needed to speak to the site visitor, not talk about the company. The old text was full of “we” and “our” and hardly even acknowledged the site visitor.

From a search engine standpoint, the site was bouncing around a good bit. According to the site owner, “For a long time, I held the #1 position for many of my keywords. As search engines evolved, my site started bouncing. It was time to hire a professional.”

The Solution

The plan was to make the text more inviting and supportive while providing information that was easy to immediately identify. I wanted to help “Announce It!” differentiate itself from other candy-bar wrapper and favor sites. That meant making important benefits clearly visible. In addition, a glimmer of excitement would be added to the copy to get the women in the mood to buy.

A complete change of focus for the copy would also happen. Rather than “we” and “us” the copy would be directed toward the visitor while still communicating important benefits about buying from the company.

Lastly, correcting an elementary mistake would help the copy read better and assist with SEO. The hope with SEO was to give “Announce It!” some stability, as it had a history of bouncing back and forth between the first and second pages in the SERPs.

The overall goal was to increase conversions for this site. As the site owner herself said, “Without conversion, your rankings don’t mean as much. You really have to convert the visitors once they get to your page.” Oh so true!

First I introduced you to Announce It!, an online candy-bar-wrapper manufacturer that was seeking professional help with their search engine copywriting. Facing an audience that consisted primarily of women who were purchasing favors for special occasions, “Announce It!” copy had to be spot-on with its communication. The primary problems were that the copy did not convey a sense of excitement or answer all the questions customers might have. It also focused too heavily on the company rather than communicating with the site visitor.

Let’s see how the changes were worked into the copy and what the results were.

The Rewrite

You can see the original copy at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/customcandybarwrapper-original.pdf and the revised copy at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/customcandybarwrapper-new.pdf.

Headlines are one of the most important elements of advertising copy and of search engine optimization. The original web page didn’t have any type of headline — a fundamental mistake that needed to be corrected. The introduction of the text now begins with using a key phrase and stating a benefit. The headline reads:

Creative, Custom Candy-bar Wrappers Designed To Make Your Event a Hit!

Since “Announce It! key phrases all deal with candy-bar wrappers, it’s obvious that visitors who find this site are already familiar with the general product. (At least to the point of knowing what a custom candy-bar wrapper is.) The question they still have is, “Why should I buy from “Announce It!” instead of all the other candy-bar-wrapper sites?”

As the visitors read on through the copy, they find reassurance that their idea of using custom-designed candy-bar wrappers is a good one. Visitors are also provided with several benefits available from Announce It! that other companies don’t offer. For the sake of scan-ability, bullet points are used to further highlight differentiating factors about Announce It!. (Low minimum orders, free color proofs, free photo inclusion, etc.) This all helps to clearly explain why this site is the better choice over others the visitor may have gone to previously.)

Because the product itself is graphic, it was important to retain the product images used on the original home page. Certainly, customers would expect to see samples of the wrappers. However, to create a greater impact, each image was captioned with a short bit of occasion-specific, persuasive, keyword-rich copy. For instance:

“Custom candy wrappers are a truly creative way to send your retiree off in style.”

The finished product now speaks directly to the site visitor, sounds more professional, outlines important benefits and uses key phrases in an appropriate way so as not to hinder the natural flow of the copy.

The Results

The results showed improvements in both conversions and rankings. According to “Announce It!” their conversion rate quadrupled! They also report, “[The copy] has really made a difference in the way the site is perceived and how the customer reacts. I have gone from a one-person operation to a full-fledged business with five employees. The traffic and orders continue to increase every year!”

You couldn’t ask for much better than that!

Author:  Copy not getting results?  Learn to write SEO and online copywriting that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Already know how to write, but need help using keywords?  Get Karon’s report “How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)” at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

Are you ready to hire someone to design your logo, collaterals, or artwork for your website? Well, here’s just the information you need to get the best results from hiring your first (or your first successful) graphic designer.

To assure that we begin on the same page, a graphic designer designs your marketing materials - the print- and web-ready art which are then turned over to a printer or coded for the web for the final outcome. Some of their vocabulary can be foreign to you, and their processes may not be familiar either. We’ll address that and more with these tactics.

This advice gives you the essentials for hiring the right person for this critical project. The more qualified the designer, and the better the match between you and your designer will lead to more appealing final designs. the more professional you and your business will look.

1. Look at their work samples. Many designers offer a portfolio of samples either on their website, by email as a PDF, or in a hard-copy format. When you review these, look for a general design style that you like, not necessarily whether they have lots of experience within your particular industry. In fact, deep experience within an industry isn’t necessarily the best thing when you want a designer to put a fresh visual spin on your business and your issues.

2. Make sure they’ve actually done the work in their portfolio. This is especially true if you’re reviewing design companies or firms. Make sure that the designers who are still on staff created the work that you really admire.

Where this can come into play with solo designers is if the portfolio isn’t clear about their involvement in the development of all the design elements. For example, if they’re showing a brochure design or a website in their portfolio, but you love the logo; make sure that they created the logo before hiring them.

And, ask what the client’s involvement in the design of that logo is-if the client came to the designer with a sketch of the logo already created, then the logo may not be reproducible by the designer or firm alone.

3. Talk to the designer. Having an actual conversation with them can really help for two reasons:

To make sure you can communicate well with each other. If you each have very similar styles of communication, levels of energy, or enthusiasm about the project, then the project will most likely run very smoothly (or has a great potential for success). Also, make sure that you each understand what the other is saying-having similar definitions for concepts is amazingly helpful. When you don’t understand something, ask questions! To see if the two of you “gel” together. You’ll be working closely, so make sure that you get along! If you don’t like their personalities or vice-versa, then the relationship will most likely become strained and difficult. 4. Review their skills. This becomes especially important if you’re hiring a web designer-make sure the designer is qualified to provide you with all the technical components you’ll need. For example, web coding, forms coding, HTML newsletter integration and Search Engine Optimization are all somewhat technical fields that not all designers can deliver. Make sure you’ll be able to get what you need.

5. Check their references. If you really like a particular project in their portfolio, see if you can get that client’s contact information. But, if the designer can’t release it, that’s not necessarily the worst sign-maybe the client prefers that their contact information be kept private. Or they’ve moved, and haven’t told the designer how to get in touch with them. Be open to reasons why they may not be able to furnish a particular reference.

6. Learn about their processes. Find out how they plan to execute on the work that you’d like to have done. Ask what the designer needs you to do, what you’ll be asked to review and approve, how decisions are made, and how they’re made final. Make sure your designer is able to guide you through the design process, providing all the information you’ll need along the way.

7. Check their turn-around time for replying to emails, sending quotes, and returning calls. Make sure that it’s in line with the turn-around time that you expect throughout the project. Turn-around time here can also indicate the designer’s level of excitement about your project. However, if it’s a bit slow, make sure they weren’t just out of their office at meetings for the day, or tied up in another deadline-understand that they’re a small business as well, and the fact that they’re busy is probably a sign of how effective they are for their clients!

8. Review the rights that they’re selling to you. Make sure that you have the copyright and reproduction rights that you want. Think as far into the future as possible-you want to make sure that you’ll have what you need as your business grows. You don’t want to have to come back to your designer and re-negotiate your rights in a few years!

9. You may be tempted to ask for some sample designs for your specific project. This is known as work on “spec” (speculation) -having a designer do work without a guarantee of getting the project. While designers can understand your fears-what if you don’t like the logo we develop, what if we don’t “get” what you want, what if…

Asking a designer to work on spec isn’t very fair. The first round of designs on any project is the most time-consuming to create-it often consists of researching your company and your competitors, brainstorming on the creative side, and generating first ideas. You wouldn’t ask a doctor to diagnose you before paying for his time, and then offer to pay him if you like the diagnosis-it’s no more fair to do so with a designer.

10. Make sure that you’ll get the deliverables you expect. Some designers don’t plan to include final files in their deliverables to you-if you want to have the original files delivered to you along with printed collateral or the final files uploaded to your web server, make sure the designer knows that up-front. It may change the pricing.

If you want to be able to edit the final files, make sure that the designer can deliver the files to you in a way that you can edit them. Realize that, depending on the software that you have, this may either limit the design or be impossible, but you probably won’t get the files in the specific format you want unless you ask!

And, if you envision having your final files in a particular format-such as having your letterhead in Microsoft Word-be sure to ask for that. Many designers don’t consider Word files to be part of a standard set of deliverables.

11. Have a realistic schedule and check the designer’s turnaround time. Allocate enough time for your project to be completed-rush jobs never turn out to be as good as they could be if enough time were allotted. An average logo project takes weeks, not days!

Also, be sure that they have time available in their schedule to complete your project on your timeline. Check for upcoming vacations, and whether they work evenings and weekends if your timeline calls for that.

12. Make sure that you’re both clear about revisions. Many designers include a set number of revisions in their project packages. Make sure that you understand what constitutes a revision, how many you’ll get and what happens once they’re all used up.

13. Get it in writing. A contract can help to lay out expectations for the project on both your end and the designer’s. Once you have a contract from your designer, make sure to read it carefully-it will often state exactly what you’re going to get out of the project, how you’re expected to pay for designs, what you’re paying for, and how to get out of the contract (in case you have to cancel the project for any reason). And, if it doesn’t make things clear, ask the designer to elaborate for you.

Following these steps gives you all of the background information you need for optimum results when hiring a designer. Use them as a reference when you review designer’s websites, meet with, or interview your potential designer. Understanding the process and expected outcome does wonders for a smooth transition from ideas to reality.

Author:  Erin Ferree is a brand identity and marketing design strategist who creates big visibility for small businesses. Through her customized marketing and brand identity packages, Erin helps her clients design effective websites that help them extend their brands, bring in new clients and make sales. http://www.elf-design.com

So you’ve got your business blog up and running. Congratulations! But don’t think that your job is done yet. Starting a blog is kind of like keeping a pet. It’s fun and exciting and new at first, but there’s a lot of maintenance that goes into it, and if you don’t take care of it, you’re going to have one heck of a mess on your hands.

Blogs are a major benefit to your business, there’s not doubt about it. But you’ve got to put quite a bit into it in order to really reap the rewards.

Protect your Blog from spam

Many people aware of the power behind blogs will attempt to find programs that allow them to auto post spam to your blog in the form of comments and unless you take the necessary steps may end up with the wrong kind of audience. Most blogs will allow you to require that people create an account on your blog first, which we strongly recommend.

Update frequently

You don’t have to update every day (though it would be nice if you could), but once a month, or even once every two weeks, is not going to cut it. If you let your blog go too long without a post, people will quit reading it. Not only will that hurt your blog, but it will also reflect negatively on your business. People may think that your company is going out of business, or simply old and tired because you don’t put the effort to continue something you started. Pick a schedule, be it daily or twice a week or whatever, and do your best to stick to it.

Don’t talk if there’s not something useful to say

The only thing worse than a blog that never updates, is a blog that updates with posts about nothing. The concept may have worked for “Seinfeld,” but it’s not a good philosophy for your business blog. Posts that don’t say anything are boring, and people aren’t going to read boring posts. Remember your target audience here. Keep a log of topics to write about that they would find interesting, and stay abreast of industry news.

Length isn’t important

No, a post that’s two sentences long is not the way to go, but neither do you have to write a novel of “War and Peace” proportions for every blog post. If you’ve just got a little company blurb that’s 150 words long, don’t worry about stretching it out. What you’re saying is far more important than how many words you use to say it. Interact!

If you’re lucky enough to have people actually responding to your blog posts, rejoice. Now you’ve got to talk back to them. If they ask a question, answer it. If they bring up a good point, mention it and give them your own feedback. If they have something negative to say, give them a polite, professional counterargument. It’s called “social media” for a reason. If you want to take it one step further (and you should), read some of your posters’ blogs and comment on those. You could end up making priceless business relationships.

Track the things that matter

So Google Analytics regularly tells you how many people are looking at your blog. Those metrics are easy to check, but are they really what you want to know? You may assume that the more readers you have, the more customers you’ll get, but that’s not necessarily the case. Don’t focus so much on the analytics numbers. Find out from your readers what works and what doesn’t, and fix your blog accordingly.

Don’t let your blog founder because you weren’t sure how to maintain it. Take care of your blog, and you’ll find that it will benefit your business for a long time to come.

Author:  President and founder of Xeal Inc., Tony D. Baker is Oklahoma’s leading Internet marketing expert with more than 10 years of Internet marketing experience. You can catch Tony on the Xeal Radio Show on Sunday nights on 1170 KFAQ Tulsa. Sign up for a free 25-point website evaluation and pick up crucial tips at Xeal’s free Thursday webinar at http://www.xeal.com/webinar.

What is a quality incoming link? This article describes the key characteristics of a perfect link. For explanation purposes, the sample company is a shoe retailer called Fred’s Sports, and the keyword phrase being optimized for is “blue Nike sneakers

Key word phrase in anchor text

Unless you put your keyword phrase in the anchor text (the text that describes the web site being linked to), you are wasting a lot of link power. Unfortunately a lot of people don’t know this an end up putting their company name in the link text rather than the keyword phrase that they want their company to be found by. Much better that they link anchor says “blue Nike sneakers” than “Fred’s Sports Store”.

The link is from a relevant page

Google and the Google-powered search partners seek relevance in the interconnectedness of web pages. Incoming links should be from pages where the content on that page is related to the content of the page that is being linked to. A fishing related page linking to a casino site is an example of a non-related link. A jogging related page linking to a blue Nike sneakers product page is related and is looked upon favourably by the search engines.

The link goes to a relevant page

Another mistake that people make is always linking to the home page rather than to the most relevant page to the anchor text. If the link anchor text is “blue Nike sneakers” then the link should go to a page about blue Nike sneakers, not the home page. This is by far and away the most common linking mistake.

The link is from an authority site

Links from high Google PageRank sites are worth more, a lot more, than links from other sites. It’s all about trust. A link from a trusted site tells the search engines that the sites linked to are also trusted - it’s a vote of confidence from a credible source. Links from .gov, and .edu sites are also reported as having more weight than standard links. They are also more difficult to get adding to their perceived quality.

The link is at top of the page

Links from the top of a page (except for the header), are said to have more weight than links at the bottom of pages. It’s the same with keyword phrases. A keyword phrase in the heading is worth more than in the body text.

The link is one-way, not reciprocal

Google’s algorithm looks for link exchanges between sites and rates these links lower than straight one-way links. If possible, look for one way links by creating link bait - compelling content that will encourage people to link to your pages.

The link is within the body copy - not an advertising zone

Linking should be a natural part of the body copy. Recent reports suggest that the search engines will derate links from parts of the page that are traditionally sold for advertising. these tend to be the margins, header and footer areas of the page.

The link does not have a nofollow tag

The nofollow tag is a recent innovation that tells the search engines that although I am linking to this other page, I do not vouch for the page’s integrity. In short, the nofollow tag tells the search engines to ignore the link. Obviously you do not want links to your web pages to have nofollow tags. Be careful with link exchanges. Some dishonest people will exchange links with you but use nofollow tags in the links to your pages to preserve their own link power.

There are few links on page (less than 20)

One link to your web site from a page with hundreds of links does little for your SEO results. The page’s SEO power is being distributed over all the other links on the page. Goo;le’s guidelines recommend no more than 100 links per page, but I believe 20 is a reasonable goal. You never know when the Google algorithm may change. The perfect page that links to your pages should have no more than 20 links.

Author:  John Hacking, SEO Brisbane, is Product Manager for Search Tempo, a Brisbane specialist SEO company. Search Tempo also conducts SEO training.

Many companies’ help lines are usually crowded with customers trying to find an answer for their questions. Some of these questions are legitimate; others seem to be made just to annoy the help staff. FAQs are supposed to prevent such situations by offering potential help line “customers” the chance to find the information they are looking for on their own, without necessarily picking up the phone or sending e-mail.

What Are FAQs?

FAQ is the abbreviation for Frequently Asked Questions. FAQs are organized “collections” of valuable information that usually comes from questions (and their corresponding answers) for the most common issues raised by users, on various topics. Companies make up such information compilations in order to fulfill their customers’ need for answers.

They are also a means to ease the burden of the customer support group by providing answers in written form to the most commonly asked questions.

FAQs can be available online or offline, burnt on CDs or DVDs. The second choice is more viable for people who don’t have access to the Internet, though this is a highly unlikely situation.

Writing an FAQ

Why should you write an FAQ?

The most common advice when it comes to writing FAQ documentation is that, if you have some experience in a particular field, if you have ever come across issues that you finally managed to solve, it’s good to let other people know it too. FAQs are basically about sharing information in a non-selfish manner.

When you submit your FAQs to the appropriate newsgroups, you stand a good chance of getting good feedback on your work, and thus your efforts will be rewarded.

An FAQ will almost automatically make you an “expert” (more or less) in your field. People will contact you and will help you maintain your FAQ up-to-date either by asking yourself more questions (in this case you’ll have to do some research and update your work), or simply by getting hold of more relevant information, based on their own experience that can be added to your FAQ.

What should you write about?

The possibilities are endless. Practically, any subject will do. There will always be questions, let’s say, regarding the compatibility between a particular piece of hardware and some software, or about configuration errors, etc. If you figure out which could be the most common problems and you have the answers for them, just go ahead and write.

Special considerations

It’s a good idea to include a disclaimer in your FAQ. You should mention there things like the fact that, that as far as you know, the information provided in the FAQ is accurate (or was accurate at the time you posted the respective FAQ on the Web or in a newsgroup), but that you cannot be held liable for any inconvenience caused by following those instructions or using that information.

You can also copyright the information in the FAQ that you submit for public use. Specify the terms under which the information can or can’t be used without your specific consent, under penalty of law. It can give you the legal basis just in case.. Yet, experts say that this usually does not work since there are numerous companies that gather loads of FAQs from directories on the Web, burn them on CDs or DVDs, and then sell them.

A Few Tips for Writing FAQs

When you set out to write an FAQ, it is good to follow a few guidelines. Among these, we consider that it’s worth mentioning:

• Put yourself in your audience’s shoes; figure out what questions might be asked and provide the answers that you’d like to hear/read
• Mind your grammar and spelling; always remember to review what you write, or have somebody else do it for you
• Be concise enough to offer the necessary information in the least amount of words and time, but don’t be as concise as to leave the reader under the impression that they have gained nothing by reading what you have written. Check also an article about writing good software documentation
• Remember to use bullets when you have lists

Author:  Adriana Iordan, Web Marketing Manager at Avangate B.V. Avangate is a complete ecommerce provider for shareware sales incorporating an easy to use and secure online payment system plus additional software marketing servicesand sales tools.

Newspapers, both online and print, are inundated with hundreds of press releases every day. With that kind of capacity, you’ve really got to make sure that yours stands out from the pack if you want it to catch the eye of the editors and make it in front of their readership.

Don’t start at the top

One of the best ways to increase your chances of getting published is to hunt down the person at the newspaper who cares about what you’re trying to say. The editor-in-chief probably doesn’t have the time to look over every press release that comes in, and if you’ve got a press release about a new pet product, chances are that the business editor won’t care too much.

Whether you’ve got a story that needs to get into the right hands, an unusual topic that needs a special reporter, or you just want better coverage for your piece, finding the right person at the newspaper can make all the difference.

Good things take time

Unfortunately, building a press list is not exactly an instantaneous process. Finding the right person at a newspaper can take quite a bit of time and research, but if it can get your press release wider distribution, it will all be worth it.

In addition, you’ll have the contact information for future releases, and if you’ve treated your newspaper contact right, then you’ll have an established relationship, which could be mutually beneficial in the long run.

Search for similar stories

Initially, try searching Google News and Yahoo News to locate individual reporters who might be interested in your story. If you’re looking on a national level, look for people who have written several articles on subjects similar to yours, without a regional focus.

Don’t just look at titles, and don’t just look at one story. Actually read the stories to get a feel for the writer and the tone they take. That will help you make your decision about who to send your release to.

Broaden your focus

Think outside the box. You may have a press release that hits multiple categories. For instance, a technologically advanced gizmo that vaporizes dog poop would probably be of interest to both a pet writer and a technology reporter.

One exception to that rule is writers who work for the same publication. Tempting as it may be, don’t send your release to more than one writer at a publication. This is a serious faux pas, and will build a very bad foundation for future press relationships. Rather, take the time to figure out whose style best fits your piece, and send it to them.

Make it easy for them to contact you

Above all, make sure that no matter what, your contact information is clearly printed on every press release you submit. Few things are more frustrating to a reporter than having a good press release and no way to contact the company for more information about it.  

Searching for the right person is going to take a long time. But finding the right person for your press release will make it a lot easier to promote your business in the long run. Ensuring your release gets into the right hands is an investment that’s well worth the time spent.

Author:  Jessica Cox and Michelle Pierce are graduates of the University of Oklahoma’s College of Journalism with a background in Internet marketing and writing for the Web. They currently provide PR services at Xeal Precision Marketing. Sign up for a free 25-point website evaluation and pick up crucial tips at Xeal’s free Thursday webinar at http://www.xeal.com/webinar.

Last week I discussed the best tactics for achieving rankings in Yahoo, the web’s number 2 most popular search engine. Now it is time to pick on the third most used search property – MSN, which has 6.6% of the search market (src: Hitwise) and is currently found at www.live.com. MSN’s ranking algorithm has its own nuances which will be noted in this article but in many cases the rules of optimization may be the same as Yahoo’s in which case I will occasionally duplicate information from my “How to Optimize for Yahoo” article or source it for more information.

WEB SITE OPTIMIZATION

Except for the following elements, optimizing for MSN is identical to optimizing for Yahoo.

Fresh Content is King: I suppose technically this is not an element of ‘optimization’, however, this article would not be worth its salt if I didn’t express how highly MSN regards fresh content. If your site is in a competitive marketplace and you are finding it difficult to get a leg up on your competitors in MSN then write original content in order to build up your site and reputation. MSN appears to elevate websites that regularly update their content and a blog is a great way to post this content for others to read and favour you with links. If you would like some information on how to get a blog up and running from start to finish then I suggest reading Blogs 101.

Themed structure: this topic is identical to that of my Yahoo article, however, it is vital enough to mention it again. Construct your website using a themed structure where core site topics (themes) have their own unique section of the website to themselves. When the search engine spiders index the content within this section they will be given absolute clarity as to what the section is about. For more information see the example within the Yahoo Optimization article.

Basic optimization principles hold true: take out your SEO basics handbook and follow the rules when optimizing for MSN and you have done the best you can. Specifically focus on inline links (links to pages within sentences) and the use of heading tags to fortify rankings at MSN.

Navigation: pages with text navigation which lends itself to simpler and more relevant indexing are performing well.

WEB SITE SUBMISSION

Unlike Google and Yahoo, MSN does not yet have a fully operational Webmaster Central for webmasters to submit sitemaps and to acquire insight into their website profile on MSN; it is currently in private beta so it is not available yet. That said I feel that submitting a website sitemap is extremely important. Fortunately there are two known ways to get your sitemap submitted to MSN:

Option 1) The best method for submitting your sitemap is by adding a sitemap reference in your Robots.txt file using the following format:
Sitemap: http://www.xyzname.com/sitemap.xml

Option 2) A back-door strategy can be used to submit your sitemap to MSN through the news aggregation service called Moreover. To submit your sitemap substitute the bolded text with your own information in the following URL:
http://api.moreover.com/ping?u=http://www.xyzname.com/sitemap.xml

LINK BUILDING

MSN places a great deal of weight on incoming links and does not appear to apply as many filters to the links that Google or Yahoo do. As a result, ethical or not, many link building strategies such as reciprocal link building and paid links appear to pay dividends.
It is also noteworthy that MSN’s spider is very active so any incoming links that you receive will often be spidered within a week. Furthermore, MSN’s link filtering systems are not as bogged down as the other search engines (less traffic perhaps?) so incoming links appear to affect rankings faster which tends to help when tweaking a campaign and measuring the value of links.

CONCLUSION

As you can see there is little to report on the intricacies of optimizing for MSN because, quite frankly, MSN is fairly predictable and by the book; write good original content, optimize it well using the techniques outlined in the Yahoo optimization tutorial and ensure to submit your sitemap to MSN. If you combine those elements with a solid link building campaign then you are sure to move into a ranking where you can continue to tweak your optimization until you reach the top.

Author:  Ross Dunn, CEO Founder of http://www.stepforth.com

Many internet marketers have deduced that email marketing faces the worst crisis since its discovery. They base this conclusion on the massive increase of unsolicited emails better known as SPAM. Recent research has shown that email campaign clicks have been reduced to their lowest point. In the past years, email campaigns were very productive with click percentages of 15%-25%. Unfortunately the click ratio is now averaged at 2%.

Since every internet user receives a huge amount of spam email messages, the time for distinguishing the legal opt-in subscriptions messages from spam has increased considerably. Therefore, it’s more likely that users will erase the genuine messages with the spam messages.

Although these facts are true, the “Death of email marketing” as some internet marketers call it, will not happen. There is solid proof that many corporations, small businesses, and home business entrepreneurs are running successful and profitable email campaigns.

All these successful email marketing campaigns have something in common, some specific principals that any online business entrepreneurs should incorporate into their marketing plans.

Personalization

Research has proven that when Personalization is used the click through rate of the email increases dramatically. A friendly tone is the key to build rapport with the subscriber. Most of the auto responder services and email software contains this feature. One thing must be specified though. There must be no exaggeration in the personalization otherwise the results will be reversed.

Email marketing schedules

The frequency of the mailings is extremely important. Although it seems tempting to send emails daily, with that strategy many of the subscribers will unsubscribe, especially if the mail contains advertisements most of the time and no useful information. One of the best email marketing tactics is to broadcast one time per week and not exceed two times per week maximum.

Which is the Best Day for campaigns

The answer is simple, Friday. The internet user has the whole weekend to check his email and distinguish the spam with the luxury of time, something not possible on other days of the week.

Use of double opt-in

Subscribers who are double opt-in are extremely targeted, because they verified their interest for the newsletter and are more disposed to buy the products or services the email list owner recommends. Plus, this feature provides maximum safety to the newsletter owner from spam complaints and the associated consequences.

Recommend not sell, plus unique content

The internet user searches for information on the internet. The same happens with the user’s email. The subscription happens for that reason over 95% of the time. Messages must contain a combination of useful information and personal recommendations of tested and proven products or services.

No Co-Registrations

This is the easy way to boost the number of the subscribers of an email list. Co-Registrations offer forms to users with many other email list owners with different fields of interest. The danger of spam accusations relies on that method and the effectiveness is questionable.

Buying leads to send emails

Another hyped email marketing technique. The list owner who bought the leads will not be clearly informed how the “subscriber’s” emails have been acquired. Have they been gathered with ethical opt-in methods or has an email script crawler been used? There is no control on that tactic and herein too lies the danger of spam accusations.

No Red flag words

Words and phrases like free, discount, bonus, make money, opportunity, income, etc. lead the email to spam folders. These phrases should be avoided at all costs. There is software that provides spam check features for that and free services as well. One of them is http://spamcheck.sitesell.com .

Author:  Christos Varsamis is the publisher of http://www.residualincometips.com. He invites you to learn more info about Online Residual income and Profitmart Residual Income.