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Using 404 Errors (Page Not Found) To Your Advantage

By Cindy Dykstra in Featured

What’s the easiest way to get rid of a bad house guest? Why, show them the door of course! What’s the quickest way to get visitors to leave your website? Show them a stark, blank “Page Not Found” 404 error page.

When visitors click on a link on your site that tries to call a non-existent page, the server your website is hosted on automatically generates the 404 Error. The web site visitor sees a page with no links to any other pages on your site. The only option available to them at this point is to click their browser’s Back button. Unfortunately, a majority of your web site visitors will just leave.

It’s even worse when the link from someone else’s site leads visitors to your 404 page. In this case visitors will have to use the Back button or type a new web address in and away they go - from your site, your products, your services and your profits.

Because you do have complete control over your internal links (links on your site to other pages on your site), you must be vigilant in your testing and monitoring to ensure the links work properly.

External links, or links from someone else’s site to yours, are much more difficult, if not impossible, to control and correct if there are errors. You should definitely try though, by contacting the site owner or webmaster with the correct link address and anchor text for the external link.

While it may sound a bit bleak at this point in our conversation, you can use a 404 error page to your advantage.

I do like to let my visitors know that the page they’re looking for can’t be found and a very brief description of how it could have happened. No need for too much detail there, because you want them to read the rest of the page. This page can be your sitemap or a one-time product offer as a way to keep them on your site even though they’ve not gotten to their intended destination.

Your 404 page should be consistent in layout and design with the rest of your site and include your logo and contact email and phone number. Make sure especially that the navigation on this page is consistent with the rest of your site, and triple check those links to be absolutely sure they work. You most likely won’t get another chance if the visitor clicks a link and sees this same page again.

Putting a link to your sitemap from this page will encourage your visitors to explore a little more. Once they get to the sitemap, they’ll be able to find all the information and products or services they’re looking for very easily. Don’t forget to add products you’d like to showcase on this page too, so that you can give your visitors an idea of the quality of your goods, with links to more products like it.

If you use this page to put a copy of your sitemap, you must remember to update it just as you do your HTML or XML sitemap.

In a perfect world, you don’t want visitors to find your 404 Error page. I can say without a doubt it can happen to all web sites at some point, so use your creativity to turn it to your advantage.

Author:  Cindy Dykstra is a web designer and developer and edits Article-DirectorySite.com, a quality article directory providing free content to use on your web site, blog, ezine or newsletter. Free article submission and RSS feeds too!

Small Business Guide to Podcasting

By Lou Bortone in Featured

Podcasting, in essence, sends your own radio show over the Internet. Despite the name, your audience doesn’t necessarily need an iPod to receive a podcast. They can listen to podcasts on a computer or on most MP3 players.

Podcasting works by delivering online audio content via an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. Fortunately, you don’t need to know much about RSS or audio files or even iPods to become a podcaster. Turnkey software and Internet resources make podcasting inexpensive, easy and accessible to all. There are three simple steps to creating your own business podcast:

1. Create an audio file.

2. Add your file to an RSS feed.

3. Post your podcast on your Web site and on podcast directory sites.

Here are the steps for creating your own podcast:

Record your podcast

A computer microphone and some readily available software is all you need to get started.

Resources: Audacity is free software for audio and recording. Use a low-cost service like FeedForAll to create your RSS feed. To reach a wide audience, submit your podcast to iTunes or Podcast Alley.

Reach your customers

Regular, interesting podcasts can keep you in front of your clients. Tell them via email that your podcast is live and let them know that they can receive it automatically and listen any time.

Resources: Ipodder, PodFeeder and Doppler deliver podcasts to subscribers at no charge to you or them.

Show your authority and expertise in your business

Use of regular podcasts can promote your company’s expertise and enhance your image as a thought leader in your field. But if you hope to be heard by the masses, you’ll need to submit your podcast to directories.

Resources: FeedBurner helps publicize and optimize your podcast to maximize distribution.

Deliver content that’s customized and flexible

Your podcasts can feature product info or tutorials, interviews with executives, talk shows, commentaries, or other information designed to engage your customers.

Resources: For more ideas on how you can use podcasts, visit Podcasting Tools.

Put a personal face on your business

The very nature of podcasting is up-close and personal, allowing you to talk one-on-one with your customers. You can use your own voice, tone and passion to communicate your message.

Resources: Besides Audacity, Mixcraft software can help you record your podcast and sound more professional.

Finally, here are a few more tips and tactics:

• Be concise, relevant and on subject in each show. Most podcasts are six to seven minutes long, although some are more like traditional, 30-minute radio shows.
• Use your podcast in conjunction with your blog. Both should be consistent with your brand.
• Avoid advertising in your podcast and stay away from a hard-sell approach.
• Be consistent. Decide on a podcasting schedule and stick with it.

Author:  TV writer/producer Lou Bortone is “The Online Video Guy,” who gives small businesses the tools for creating their own online video content. Lou helps individuals, businesses and non-profits produce compelling video blogs, podcasts and TV programs for the Internet. Be sure to visit http://www.theonlinevideoguy.com and pick up your FREE Special Report “7 Secrets to Boosting Your Business Using Online Video!”

7 Golden Rules of Online Customer Service

By Donna Gunter in Featured

How do you treat the people with whom you do business? Many times what we forget in this online world where so much of our customer service is automated is that, in the end, we’re still doing business with other people. Do your customer service procedures create raving fans or send people away into the Internet black hole, never to be heard from again, except when you’re bashed on some blog or disparaged in a discussion forum post?

What’s the real price you pay as an online business owner for your customer service? Usually, the “real price” boils down to one thing — word-of-mouth-marketing. If your customer likes the way you handle a situation, he will probably tell tell 3-5 others. However, if he feels he was treated poorly or unfairly, he’ll tell 50 of his closest friends about the bad experience. Sad to say, we human beings love to complain much more than to praise. Why burn bridges with your customer when you don’t have to?

Online business owners often create customer service rules that are based on fear — fear of being taken advantage of, fear of someone getting the best of you, fear of someone not paying you for your time What happens if the entire basis of your customer service standards is fear? Well, then fear-based outcomes is what you’ll get, because you tend to get what you choose to focus on. So, if you perceive that everyone in the world is out to get you and take advantage of you, then you’re right.

Is there a good middle ground to choose that protects both your interests and gives your customer a great experience? There is, and you’ll find it in my simple, 10-second philosophy of customer service. Ready? Here it goes…..treat your customer how you want to be treated. That’s it — nothing high tech here.

To help you evaluate your online customer service for my Golden Rule philosophy, here are 7 standards you should consider:

1. Don’t hide behind the legalese. Don’t expect your customer to page through a multi-page, small print document and read and understand all of your stipulations, especially if they’re written in legalese rather than simpler English. If you put unfavorable or difficult terms in your Terms of Service agreement and your customer signs it, sure, you have legal protection to back up whatever terms they stipulated to with their signature. But, will the wrangling over those terms be worth it in the end? If you have terms that your customer might not find favorable at a later date, be sure and point those out to him in the beginning. Don’t expect him to figure it out on his own, and don’t hide behind the cowardly excuse, “Well, you should have read the Terms of Service thoroughly There’s nothing I can do.”

2. Walk a mile in your customer’s shoes. Would you want to be treated the way you’re treating them? If what you’re doing to your customers makes you queasy and uneasy, that’s your instinct telling you that what you’re doing isn’t just and proper. Moreover, how would you feel if you were treated in this fashion?

3. Make it simple to do business with you. Don’t make your customer have to hire an attorney to understand your contract or to do business with you. I’m not advocating that you completely ignore legal help and advice. However, an attorney’s job is to protect you from ALL liability, even those things that have a very small likelihood of actually occurring. Consequently, this usually translates into a very long document that’s very difficult to read and comprehend. Work with your attorney to transform any contracts or Terms of Service agreements that you have into ones that are easily read and understood by the average person.

4. Don’t do customer support via email. When you’re first starting out, using email to answer service problems is ok, but as it becomes more and more difficult to send and receive legitimate business email, you’ll find that you start to lose inquiries as your business grows larger and as your number of inquiries increase. At that point, think about installing a virtual support desk. This is a website that contains common FAQs and answers, as well as offers your customers the ability to open a ticket to report a problem. All correspondence occurs within the site, so you lessen the possibility of lost email. One of the more popular programs is Kayako, www.kayako.com.

5. Make it easy to contact you. Nothing is more irritating than wanting to speak to a real, live person for help and all you find is a contact form or an email address. Don’t leave your customers out in the cold. Offer several options for contacting you, whether that’s by email, phone, instant messaging system, live chat on your website, or a help desk/trouble ticket system.

6. Make it easy to stop doing business with you. I learned a valuable lesson from the Director of Admissions when I worked as a student affairs administrator at a small college and was trying to change a student’s mind about dropping out of school. He told me, “Once they’re already decided to leave, their minds are made up and there’s no turning back. Just let them go.” This applies to your customers as well. There may be a small percentage that you can salvage as a customer in this process, but the overwhelming majority have already made their final decision. Don’t make them jump through hoops to cancel their business with you — make it as easy and painless as possible. However, do follow up with a phone call or email or survey to determine the reason for their departure, but don’t force them to go through this process to exit. Remember the AOL service cancellation call that was recorded and posted online that became a huge embarrassment for AOL? Don’t let your cancellation policy become the next big Internet joke.

7. If in doubt, ask your customer what to do. If you and your customer can’t come to a resolution that feels equitable to both parties, ask your customer what he believes is the fair thing to do. I believe that generally people are good and fair and that most will treat you humanely if they’ve been humanely treated by you. The final decision may not be everything that you want, but it’s probably not everything that your customer wants, either. You can use this strategy to end on a positive note, and while the customer may not return to you, he probably also won’t tell everyone he meets that you’re an ogre, either.

Figure out how you can implement this Golden Rule philosophy in your online business. You’ll find it to be a business asset that’s priceless.

Author:  Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at OnlineBizU.com . Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at AskDonnaGunter.com

Questions To Ask A Potential Web Designer

By Richard James in Featured

For an individual or a corporate to get due recognition and develop their business, they will need to let others know of their existence and what they do. This is possible either through PR activities or by creating a well planned out website.

For a website, seeking the professional guidance is the ideal solution and some questions that needs to be asked of the potential web designer could be :

1. Experience

How many years has the web designer been in this line of work? This will give an idea about aware he or she is of current advancements in the field, such as Ajax, table-less layouts and Web 2.0 design styles.

2. Samples of their past work

What are the sites they have created? Ask them for samples or URLs that you can take a look at to build confidence in their capabilities.

Look for designs that are stylistically similar to what you have in your head. Even better, ask if the designer has ever done work in your particular industry.

3. Industry exposure

What kind of industries have they been involved with? Who are their clients?

This is so you can judge their ability to understand your industry and create a site that will suit your needs.

4. After sales service

What kind of service do they offer clients once the site is up and running? Do they help in updating it if any changes need be made or in acquiring more web space and so on?

5. Visibility through search engines

Do they help in getting your company website listed in search engines or provide a full search engine marketing service?

Having a pretty website is all very well, but you need people to visit it. Ask the designers if this is something they have practical experience with.

6. Copyright and security issues

Will they make sure that the data and images used on the site are copyrighted and protected so others cannot copy them? And the security settings which will be useful while monitoring the traffic.

Also, try to ensure that you have details of where they have licensed images and photographs from. This may save you problems in the future.

7. Duration

How much time will they require to do the design, layout, and upload the same? This will give you good insight into whether they are efficient or not. A good web designer should not take more than a month, but this also depends on the time dedicated by the client.

8. Fees and charges

While hosting your site on a domain, you need to pay registration charges which will be a one time payment.

What will the overall cost in designing a website, with say a minimum of about 5 pages and couple of interactive links?

Does the designer’s fee include designing, editing, and installing required software?

9. Links and Animation

Do they also help incorporating links to other sites through this and putting in flash animation videos or pictures?

10. Online shopping carts

For companies looking to sell products and services online, check the designer’s portfolio for examples of real, working ecommerce websites.

11. Ownership

Who will own the design, logo, and images that have been used on the site? Make sure to let them know you will be the sole owner so that you can move the site to another host if necessary.

Author:  Richard James works for Just Web Designers, a site that allows companies to receive fast quotes from up to 4 web development and ecommerce design companies in the UK.

Selecting a Search Engine Optimization Company

By Gunjan Tiwari in Featured

A Search Engine Optimization Company can be an invaluable asset in your Internet marketing campaign. They specialize in knowing how to raise your search engine positions, monitoring those positions on the regular basis, and adjusting their strategies to account for undesirable results in any given month.

Since this takes a lot of time, effort, and specialized knowledge, it can be in your best interest to go to an outside source rather than try to maintain high search engine positions on your own.

However, like every business, there are good companies and there are lemons. Knowing the right questions to ask and the criteria to look for will help you in choosing an affordable, effective search engine optimization company.

When looking at different companies, begin by considering the approach they employ to raise your search engine positions.

Steer clear of companies that use cloaked, doorway, or bridge pages to raise your positions. These techniques violate most search engine policy, and in the worst case scenario, will only get your website severely penalized, if not removed entirely from a search engine’s index.

A cloaked page is a page that is created which is invisible to the regular visitor to your website. The cloaked page is coded to detect a search engine spider and divert them to this special page, which is set-up to artificially boost your search engine position.

Doorway or bridge pages utilize the same concept, but often reside on an entirely different server. Google, one of the largest and most important search engine on the Internet, will remove your website from their index if they detect you have cloaked pages. Never employ any company that uses this technique!

Another important element is to get a guarantee that the company you hire will not work with your competitors while they are working for you.

Obviously, this would seriously compromise the effectiveness of the search engine optimization campaign. Be aware that some companies will use the success they achieve for your website to sell their services to your competitors. So get your guarantee in writing, and make sure it is legally binding.

Of course, one of the most important factors you want to check out is the company’s track record of results. However, don’t take the company’s word for it. They will undoubtedly be slanting their results in order to sell their services to you.

To go beyond their simple statement of success, ask them a few pertinent questions, and verify their answers.

Ask them which engines they have achieved the best results on. The ones that are important are the most popular engines, and these are the ones you want to see good results on.

Next, find out what keywords and phrases they are claiming great results with. It’s easy to get high rankings with unpopular words. For instance, the keyword “cat leashes” will get high popularity ranking because no one else would think of using it.

What you are looking for is good results using popular keywords. Check out the software Wordtracker, available at www.wordtracker.com. You can order a free trial, or a subscription ranging from 1 day to 1 year.

This software rates the popularity of keywords and phrases based on actual search engine use.

Next, look for good results over an entire site that the company claims to have successfully worked for.

You want to see a wide range of positions over a number of different search engines using different keywords or phrases for the entire site. Request a report for any client the company claims to have done well for.

This report should show good positions on a number of the most popular search engines for a variety of different, popular keywords and phrases.

When you are checking out SEO companies, make sure they have actually done the work they are claiming to have done. Some companies will use other company’s results in order to get you to sign on with them.

If you are in doubt, call the company they are showing you results for, and ask for the name of their SEO company.

It’s important to keep in mind that a successful search engine optimization campaign will result in maximum exposure across a wide range of popular search engines using a variety of keywords and phrases.

This is the formula for a successful campaign, and you should keep it always in the forefront of your marketing strategy.

Ask the search engine optimization company you are considering for a report that shows you rankings across a number of popular search engines for a period of at least six months.

Remember: search engine marketing is a process that is continual, and you need a company that not only understands this, but keeps constant tabs on your search engine positions. That company must also be able to adjust its strategy in the event that search engine rankings drop.

Be sure the sample report the company shows you is in a format that you can easily understand. For example, it could be in the form of a chart that covers a period of at least six months and presents data such as the top 50 positions broken down on a monthly basis or the top 5 pages each month.

Then, ascertain that the company you are considering actually monitors these positions or pages every month, and that the sample report they show you includes findings and recommendations for the specific site.

This insures that the company will actively monitor and make adjustments to their strategy on a continual basis rather than simply gather statistics on your positions. You need a company that is actively participant in your search engine marketing campaign, not just an information gatherer.

Obviously, your finances have to figure into your choice of company, but bear in mind that a SEO company is crucial in the success of your marketing campaign. It is not just a casual accessory.

If you cannot afford a company that will do a thorough and reliable job for your website, you might consider waiting until you do have the finances in place.

Author:  Gunjan Tiwari is making part-time healthy living online! Gunjan’s Free “NO BS, 6 Part E-course” is jam packed with tips and techniques on How you can create a non-stop cash flow online in less than 2 hours a day .Click Here to get an insight on how to REALLY make your living online for FREE

Is Social Media Marketing Really Worth Your Time and Effort?

By Craig Cannings in Featured

In a busy Internet landscape with many competiting priorities and bottom lines, who really has the time to Twitter, network on Facebook, Linked In and Ryze, blog, post comments on blogs, forums and social networks, create and syndicate viral videos, set up multiple Squidoo Lenses and Twitter some more? Phew…. there goes the day!

While there is a growing base of early adopters who are leveraging the potential of these many new and existing social media channels, for the average web business entrepreneur, many are still trying to ascertain the value and ROI potential of Social Media Optimization and Marketing. While return on investment for Social Media campaigns can be measured through effective Web Analytics, it is still not as cut and dry as other web marketing channels like PPC advertising, Affiliate Programs and straight media buys.

So, the question remains, is it worthwhile to invest your time and resources on this more fluid, less travelled social media channel where the pay off potential is there, but much harder to quantify?

Before attempting to answer this question, I would like to provide some of my own distinctions between Social Media Marketing (SMM) and Social Media Optimization (SMO) as well as offer a handful of different strategies for employing each.

Social Media Optimization (SMO) refers to those ON-SITE activities employed to make your homepage and website more interconnected with Social Media channels. SMO connects your site or blog with photo and video sharing sites (You Tube and Flickr), Social News and Bookmark sites (Digg and Delicious) and the Blogosphere.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) refers to all OFF-SITE activities used to leverage your business reach and exposure through social media news sites, industry-specific forums, Wikis, Blogs, Microblogs and Social Networks. SMM includes the engagements and interactions your company makes with the Social Media spectrum in order to better connect with your target audience, increase quality back links to your site and look for natural ways to bridge industry-specific discussions with your own business.

Here is a sample of some of the SMO and SMM strategies you might consider utilizing in your own business:

Social Media Optimization Ideas:

• Social Bookmark Tools: I would recommend utilizing a social bookmark tool like Addthis.com so that your main web pages can be easily bookmarked and saved in such sites as Delicious, Digg and Stumbleupon. These social media sites will potentially connect with you a targeted audience seeking your products and services.
• RSS Feeds: Set up RSS feed capabilities in order to quickly syndicate your dynamic content such as articles and newsletters to partner sites and blogs.
• Business Blogs: Build a Business Blog with fresh “keyword targeted” content that will attract the search engine spiders as well as your target audience.
• Wikis, Forums, and Social Networks: Create a relevant wiki or social networks for your user audience to interact and contribute to your site content. Wikis are typically very well received and indexed by the search engines and can certainly engage the right of kind of audience for your web business.

Social Media Marketing Ideas:

Interacting with targeted blogs, social networks and forums.
One of the best ways to see targeted traffic to your site is to regularly dialogue and provide comments on blogs, forums and industry specific social news sites. You might want to check out one of our recent blog posts that included a comprehensive list of Social Media News Sites provided by Social Media expert, Jack Humphrey.

With this kind of Social Media Marketing, it is essential to build relationship, provide relevant insights and look for natural ways to talk about your own business. While this approach is not a “quick fix”, it can definitely provide a nice targeted stream of traffic over the long term and ultimately improve your link popularity. Check out Google/Blog Search and Board Reader to help you identify the types of blogs and forums you might want connect with.

Microblogging
The emergence of popular microblog platforms such as Twitter and Jaiku (recently purchased by Google) present another opportunity to connect and dialogue with a targeted audience. At Twitter, you can do keyword-specific searches for others in your  industry and invite them to join your network. In considering the potential ways to do some social marketing through Twitter, I came across a great resource called “The Great Big Juicy Twitter Guide”, by Caroline Middlebrook which provides some useful information for understanding and leveraging this new channel.
 
Wiki Contributor
You might consider perusing some relevant topics in Wikipedia (and other industry specific wikis) to contribute some content and look for relevant ways to submit a link for your own business.
 
Blog Syndication
Recently, I have been using a great new tool, Web2submitter, to mass syndicate my blog posts to top Social News sites (i.e. Digg, Reddit), which has resulted in yet another a nice new stream of site traffic.

Podcast and Viral Video Syndication
This will require a bit more work, but creating a relevant and interesting podcast and syndicating it through iTunes or such networks as Podfeed.net can be a great SMM tactic. Also, video syndication has huge viral potential, but certainly requires some thought and discretion to ensure that your video gets passed around video sharing sites for the right reasons:) That is the slippery slope of SMM - the potential for bad publicity.  An innovative solution called TubeMogul.com provides the ability to upload your videos to all the major video sharing sites at once and features an innovative analytics tool for collectively tracking your stats.

Other Social Media Channels
There are a number of other cool user generated sites like Squidoo, where you can build a “Lens” on a particular topic you are well versed in and which naturally relates to your business.

So, that just scratches the surface of the many different SMM and SMO strategies you can test out in this rapidly evolving Web 2.0 landscape.

A Social Marketing Experiment
Now, what is the effectiveness of Social Media Marketing versus other Web Marketing channels? A few months ago, MarketingExperiments.com conducted a very interesting experiment testing the ROI potential of Social Media Marketing and Optimization versus Pay Per Click search advertising. Over a 12 month period, they performed a variety of social marketing activities such as submitting 44 viral videos to YouTube and engaging their targeted community by commenting on blogs and dialoguing in specific social networks and forums. They hired an employee at $10 an hour to blog, build content and to “get social” in the industry-specific communities. Ultimately, they were testing the difference in cost and ROI between a PPC campaign (with an average bid of $.75cents) versus that of a social marketing initiative run by a part-time  blogger.

Their findings proved to be very interesting! Their Social Marketing campaign yielded a 1,427% greater return on their investment, then if they ran a Google adwords campaign over a 12 month period! Now, it is important to note that they only ran the Google adwords campaign for a 1 month period, so it is hard to accurately gauge the overall performance then if they had run a 12 month PPC campaign. Nonetheless, through their social marketing efforts, they spent $3600 in wages over the year for the part-time position and saw over 93, 000 unique visits to their respective sites during that time period. (An average of $.04 cents cost per visit) Now, there was certainly a great deal of trial and error involved during this experiment, but the results certainly revealed the power of Social Media Marketing. I would recommend taking a read of their findings at MarketingExperiments.com.

So, back to our question we started with…Is Social Media Marketing a worthwhile investment of your time and marketing budget? My answer is an emphatic YES! In this new Web, where user-generated content and collaboration reign supreme, businesses have a prime opportunity to connect with a highly targeted audience in a cost-effective manner. Social Media Marketing, much like SEO, does not necessarily yield a fast return on investment, but has great potential for increasing search listings and expanding targeted exposure over the long term!

Author:  Craig Cannings is the Managing Director of ESalesGuru.com, an innovative marketplace connecting ebusinesses with niche Internet Marketing Specialists and Firms worldwide. Visit www.esalesguru.com or contact Craig for more information at craig@esalesguru.com

Getting Attention Through Proper Web Design

By Semul Johnson in Featured

When web designing a page, it is important for every web design company and for every web designer to attract attention to the most important events, items and contents in the site you are making in behalf of a client. Fortunately, there are various ways by which you can attract the attention of online users. Most web site designers will find it effective to simply change the font size of the content headline. Setting the font size reasonably bigger is a sure-fire yet simple way to draw in attention. Newspaper and media companies will know this for sure. A good and experienced web design company should know this as well.

Grabbing Attention through Typography

Using typography or varying font and font sizes to get the attention of online users is not really a new concept. However, before you go on and set your titles or headlines to 48px or even larger, you should know a few rules on typography that are best generally followed by a web design company. Here are some of them:

Web design tip #1: Highlight only what is important. Before setting a headline to a much bigger font, you should ask yourself: Is this particular part really that important? If you are announcing a 20% off sale on regular cosmetics, for example, this will surely arouse interest but making your font unreasonably huge will likely to turn your customers off. And this is something that you and your web design company should avoid at all times.

Web design tip #2: Consider the standard font size you use for the rest of the page. This is just plain common sense: if you type everything at 24pt, then creating a 30pt subject headline might not look all that different. However, a 16pt headline written on top of an 8pt text will look huge.

Web design tip #3: Set standards on the use of font sizes. You should have already decided with your client as to the type of events that should merit an increase in the title font size, and up to what extent it should be. You and your web design company will benefit from this. Once you have laid out the plan, even if your client comes running back to you and starts pleading you to announce the recent cosmetic sale at 54pt, you should strictly follow the standard pre-determined size for the particular level of content.

Remember though that changing the font size is not the only way that you can modify your web design to get as much attention. Playing around with your font will also prove useful. You can for example, use different fonts of the same family to highlight important events (using Sans-Serif and switching to Serif for added emphasis). You can also modify the color to instantaneously grab your viewers’ attention. Similarly, you can change the weight and the style of your font by using the bold or italicized option to make certain parts of your site stand out.

Grabbing the attention of your online users is not just limited to fonts. There are still other ways to change your site’s web design so that it gets the attention it deserves. Here are some of them:

Web design tip #4: Use images. Graphics and images have always been effective at catching attention. A picture says a thousand words, as they say.

Web design tip #5: Change your layout. Completely changing your layout is a very exciting way to get attention, for as long as you come up with an interesting new one.

Web design tip #6: Use animations. Flat images tend to attract attention. However, these days, your web design company may have to ask you to come up with animation-based splash page to show off the kind of pages you come up with. They generally make your site look more dynamic and interesting to the eyes of your visitors. Be careful though, as you will need to think about site loading times beyond the web design stage.

Catching the attention of online visitors may prove relatively easy to do as stated above. However, it is just as easy to go way overboard with these attention grabbing techniques. You have to remember that if each and every line in your page is set in red or bold face and has blinking effects; nothing in the content will stand out after ll. Also, if you announce your 20% off on cosmetic site at the same intensity as an ongoing war, your online visitors will surely notice how strange, business-centered or unrealistic your site seems to be. They will learn to quickly ignore all the designs you make and look for another site that is more even-handed - much to the frustration of your web design company.

Author:  Semul Johnson is a Marketing expert with a leading SEO services company specializing in SEO web design.

Internet Forums - Six Ways To Avoid Disaster

By Elaine Currie in Featured

Internet Forums are highly popular, they cater for all tastes and deal with every topic imaginable. People visit Internet forums for a variety of reasons, the most common being the search for information or entertainment. The Internet forum is a safe environment if you behave sensibly but you can find yourself in dangerous territory if you ignore the following warnings.

Don’t Join Internet Forum Flame Wars

An Internet Forum flame war is to be avoided at all costs. The airing of differing points of view, debate and discussion are healthy things for an Internet forum: they keep it lively. An Internet forum flame war can make entertaining reading but don’t be tempted to join in or start one. If you make a habit of leaping into forum flame wars, you will acquire a reputation as a trouble-maker and you could find yourself barred from a forum because of your behaviour. Another good reason for avoiding forum flame wars is that you could find yourself caught in the crossfire. Before you know it, people will be firing at you from every direction when all you intended to do was have a bit of fun.

Don’t Make Jokes On An Internet Forum

Well, you can if you really must, but remember that the Internet forum has the same drawback as email: the reader can’t see your expression or gestures. The smile, shrug or grimace which can lift your comment from serious to humorous will be missing and your message will be something which the reader has to interpret. If the reader gets it wrong, you might very well find that you just started your very own Internet forum flame war quite unintentionally. You can safely tell a joke on a forum (provided that your joke’s content is appropriate) but sarcasm and irony are dangerous and best avoided.

Don’t Be An Internet Forum Drama Queen

The Internet forum is not a suitable stage for you to perform your very own drama. If you flounce about making extravagant statements merely for effect, you will be the object of ridicule by other forum members even if nobody tells you so. If you are a member of a support forum for a particular programme, it is quite in order to post a message to the forum saying something along the lines of “I’ve started to feel unsure about [whatever], I don’t think it’s going to work out unless I make some changes. Can anybody suggest what I should try next?” Compare this to the next post in drama queen style: “I quit! This Sucks. I’ve done everything right so it must be this ****ing programme. You will never hear from me again!” Which forum member would you want to help? There will be kind people who feel the drama queen’s pain and offer support and suggestions. When the drama queen makes a big re-entrance to the forum after a few days sulking, posts “I’m back!” and expresses a resolve to work diligently towards success, the kind people who offered support will feel that their advice must have done the trick. When the forum drama queen posts another “Goodbye Forever!” message, the same kind people will empathise as the drama queen is obviously being affected by an emotional roller coaster and they will offer further sound advice. The kind forum members will be pleased when the drama queen makes a further “I’m Back And Here To Stay!” recovery. By about the third or fourth “I Quit!” drama, even the kindest people will be wishing the drama queen had stayed quit the first time round and Internet forum credibility for the drama queen ends there.

Don’t Be An Internet Forum Puppy

A real puppy can’t help chasing after everything that moves, getting under people’s feet and being hyperactive to the point where it sometimes becomes annoying: that’s just its nature. The Internet forum member who behaves like a puppy can help it and should desist. I am talking about the person who joins an Internet forum for the sole purpose of getting the links in his signature file on the forum as often as possible. The annoying forum puppy will respond to every message posted whether he knows anything about the subject or not. He will post messages which are of no value to anyone, these messages will range from boring pointless observations to obscure drivel to requests to poll an unimportant question which bears no relevance to the forum. If you are desperate to plaster your signature file all over the place, join lots of Internet forums and just post a few messages on each. With any luck, you will grow out of this time-wasting pursuit before the other forum members form a lynching party.

Don’t Be An Internet Forum Seconder

Have you ever come across Mr Me Too? If you have, you will know who I mean. He is about as annoying as the Internet forum puppy. Mr Me Too will post a response to every thread that appears on a forum. It won’t take him long as he won’t bother to read through the thread, all he will do is add a comment saying “me too” or “I agree”. This gets his signature file posted with the link back to his website and that’s all he wants. Mr Me Too does not go to the Internet forum for entertainment or information or to contribute anything useful. If you are subscribed to a forum thread and receive notification that someone has posted a further message on the topic, it is very irritating to log in at the forum only to find that someone has posted a message saying “me too” or “I agree” just to give his signature file an airing. It is sadly true that the Internet forum puppy and Mr Me Too will get their links on the Internet alongside the forum members who post meaningful messages. When the day arrives that Search Engine Robots are able to distinguish the difference between valuable forum messages and drivel, those two offenders will find that it’s pay back time for their transgressions.

Don’t Attack The Internet Forum Moderators

If you have a message removed or edited by an Internet forum moderator, there will be a reason, so don’t post complaints on the forum. Even if you don’t understand or don’t agree with the decision, there is no point in arguing. Attacking a moderator is like holding up a placard saying “I’m a pest, throw me out”. The moderators are there to ensure the Internet forum is kept to the required standard. Remember that somebody owns this forum and invests time and energy in keeping the environment — well — moderate. The Internet forum is not your private sand-pit, you are a guest and if your behaviour is not appropriate, your invitation to play could be withdrawn. You should also remember that anything you post on an Internet forum will be available for public scrutiny for years to come.

The dictionary definition of the verb to moderate is: “to keep within measure or bounds; to regulate; to reduce in intensity; to make temperate or reasonable”. If this does not sound like your kind of environment, perhaps you should stay away from Internet forums.

Author:  To find sources of legitimate work at home ideas, visit Elaine Currie’s Work At Home Directory - while you are there, pick up a free copy of Ezine Article Writing - 10 Steps To Success http://www.huntingvenus.com/eceboo.htm

Destination Marketing: SEM Without Compromise

By Stoney deGeyter in Featured

Question: Why does your website deserve to be #1?

• Because I have the lowest prices
• Because I have better customer service
• Because I’ve been in business longer
• Because no one does this better than me
• None of the above

The correct answer is None of the above.

Actually, all of those things canbe a factor as to why a website might appear higher up in the search results, but none of them represent the real reason. What is that real reason which any site deserves to be #1? I think that can be summed up as this: It provides something unique, interesting, compelling or valuable that my visitors cannot find anywhere else.

This is what I refer to as “Destination Marketing,” which can be defined as: The act of developing a website to become a desired destination for people looking for the product, services or information that you provide. In other words, Destination Marketing is SEO and SEM without compromising rankings for conversions or conversions for rankings.

This brings us back to the question: Why does your website deserve to be #1? Is your website a destination desired by the masses who are seeking what you offer? If you suddenly received some exposure that brought thousands of new visitors, would they come back tomorrow? Would they buy from you again? Would they tell their friends about you? If no, why not?

For years I’ve been writing articles suggesting that SEO needs to be much more than just focusing on top search engine rankings. It’s been a pleasure to see the industry move in that direction over the past couple years. While most “SEO” firms are still focused on getting top rankings period, a handful have begun the migration to providing additional marketing services that go beyond top rankings alone. Services such as usability, conversion analysis, good marketing copy, viral marketing are becoming more and more popular and necessary part of a solid SEO effort.

Yes, a #1 ranking can still be achieved without any of that, but for how long? And why would you want a #1 ranking if your usability is poor, your marketing copy couldn’t sell air conditioning in Arizona, no one would ever link to you if they didn’t think that getting a “reciprocal” link would help them and your conversion percentages are in the toilet?

Bringing more traffic to a bad website is hardly the “fix” your business needs. What you do need is to convert your website into a user friendly, information-rich, unique destination that establishes trust and leaves a positive impression in the minds of your visitors.

Standing out in a sea of thousands

While many people want their website to be #1 (or even settle for first page) for their keywords, very few websites actually deserve it. The concept of Destination Marketing is about making your website better than the sum of its parts by combining strong SEO and strong on- and off-page marketing without compromising any of it. If your website is just another site doing the same thing that hundreds of others are and you provide no unique offerings, simply put, you don’t deserve to be #1. Period.

I believe that the art/science of SEO should ultimately be about developing and implementing a solid Destination Marketing campaign that gives people a reason to want to visit and/or buy from you. If you want to stand out in a sea of thousands of other websites, you simply have no other choice. If you don’t offer anything unique or present your offerings in a new and intriguing way, you’re just one of a million when you want to be one in a million.

There are many kinds of marketing strategies that can be effective in the short term, but Destination Marketing is easily the most effective and long-lasting. You can drive traffic to your site via commercials, link bait, ads or top rankings but traffic by itself, doesn’t create customers. Yes, an in crease in conversions usually does correspond with an increase in traffic, but are these one-time buyers or long-term customers?

Even improving both on-site usability and conversion issues—both of which can greatly improve sales—won’t necessarily bring people back time and time again. Destination Marketing does not creates a site that not only gets customers but keeps customers creating a continuous income stream from repeat purchasers. In fact, Destination Marketing is really the only way to make your site “sticky.” Being sticky means that after visitors leave your site they find themselves compelled to return. Low prices rarely create a sticky website. Good usability can help, providing something unique will certainly be more memorable, but creating a website that becomes a destination is what keeps people coming back time and time again.

All of these things can contribute to improvement in sales and conversions, but nothing builds a business like building a repeat customer base. Even if you sell a product that is only needed once every five or ten years, implementing a destination website campaign can create a loyalty that can span decades for a single customer.

Not only that, but each customer will undoubtedly refer many people to you over the course of the years, another great benefit of creating a destination website. A satisfied customer can produce a dozen more, but a customer that return to your website time and time again because you have created a “destination,” produces hundreds more.

Seven building blocks of a destination website

There are seven building blocks of a destination website. All of these are going to sound familiar and many are things that you might have already taken into consideration and implemented. While every one of these building blocks is valuable independently, together they create a website that is greater than the sum of its parts. They create a destination that visitors want to return to time and time again while also telling others about them, both verbally and through their own website and blog links.

Expert information

Many people underestimate the value of good information. Every day I hear excuses why less information is better. Sorry, I just don’t buy it. Sure, you don’t always want a 600 word article on every page of your website so it can be properly “optimized” for the search engines, but a good rule of thumb is that the more pertinent information you provide your visitors the more willing they will be to buy from you.

More information doesn’t always have to be sales/marketing copy either. In fact it is often beneficial to provide information on your website that doesn’t sell anything. Yes, you heard that correctly, non-sales related information can help increase sales. At the very least, non-sales related information is required to create a destination website because it provides information that visitors find helpful in researching their potential purchase.

Writing expert tutorials, helps, tips and even personal background information helps establish you (and your website) as an authority on your topic. The more information you provide the more your visitors can really see that you truly are the expert. You’ll also find that most people are willing to pay higher prices to someone they believe know what they are talking about than pay the “cheapest prices on the web” to someone who doesn’t. You might even go as far as setting up an “ask the expert” area of your website where you allow visitors to submit questions, then you post the questions and answers to your website. Do that and you’ll have no shortage of content.

Usability

Too many websites suffer from debilitating usability issues. Whether it’s a poorly constructed and implemented navigation structure, confusing site architecture, misplaced or missing calls to action, or not properly utilizing internal contextual links, bad usability ultimately creates a poor user experience.

Think of usability as a road. If a road is properly maintained with pot holes filled in regularly, that road is more likely to be used over an alternative that is not maintained. People most often take the path of least resistance. Careful consideration of your sites usability helps create a path that is easer and therefore more desirable to use.

Good usability helps your visitors find the information they need more quickly and guides them through a conversion process in as few steps as possible. Usability is the encouragement people need to either stay on your website and get more information or to buy from you rather than someone else. The more usable your site is, the more visitors will reach their (or your) goal.

Website design

Website design and usability go hand in hand, but they are two different things. A website can be very usable, but still have an ugly design. Your website should be, at the very least, as good as the worst website of your major competitors. But you really should not settle for not-quite-worst. In fact, you should not settle for anything less than the best.

The design of a website can convey a lot of information. If a visitor is comparing your site with a competitor, they’ll know who cares more about their professional appearance. Rightly or wrongly, an ugly website can tell a visitor that you’re not too serious about what you’re doing or that you don’t have the resources to provide the type of quality customer service they want.

Just as few people would trust a business executive who came to an important meeting in with an unkempt appearance, so too visitors trust a website that looks and performs poorly, especially when there are other, more professionally designed websites available.

Unique selling proposition (USP)

If you don’t have a USP, then you have no business being in business. Your USP helps answer the question every visitor invariably ask themselves, “why you?” Low prices are not a USP; everybody says they have low prices. The lowest prices on the web can be a USP, but only if it’s true and/or nobody else is claiming that.

So what is it that makes you remarkable? Do you provide unlimited customer support? Do you provide hassle-free returns? Do you provide a particular line of products? Do you offer free shipping on all purchases regardless of order size? Do you have more knowledge than anybody else in the industry?

All of these questions can help you establish your own USP. There are dozens of questions you can ask yourself until you find what it is about you that would make someone buy from you rather than someone else.

Time and presence

Not very often does an “authority” website pop up overnight. When this happens it’s usually because someone with an already established name builds a new site and brings a built-in audience with them. SEO Guru Danny Sullivan is such an example. When he moved from Search Engine Watch to the new Search Engine Land, his name alone brought credibility to Search Engine Land immediately.

Most business owners don’t have the luxury of having a well-known or trusted name at the helm. They have to earn that. But with time, one’s presence on the web can be established. Longevity on the web isn’t necessary to be successful as many businesses can start being successful in a short amount of time, but longevity certainly does help.

Unless you have thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars to pour into your website, building a solid web presence takes time. Relationships must be built, business ties established, customers served, testimonials received, etc. All are a part of building one’s presence through time. And short of having a big chunk of money to invest, creating a destination website is built slowly.

Voice

Most destination websites have become that way because part of their USP is that they provide a distinct voice in the community. Your voice helps set you apart from the rest and, if created thoughtfully, can establish long-term customer relationships.

A voice is simply your content written from a unique and consistent perspective. It most certainly is not bland “corporate” type speak. A voice can be anything that a business wants. It can be humorous, serious, whimsical, snarky, flowery, down to earth, brutally honest, thoughtful, etc. Whatever voice you choose to go with, you need to be consistent throughout your website. It’s that voice that permeates into the readers mind and draws them back time and time again.

Developing the right voice for your visitors is not easy. You have to make sure the voice is professional enough to not turn people off, but interesting enough to make them want to return. Even if you have to go with a less obvious voice, you can also use altar egos in various places in order to give your text an extra punch. My company has done this with our own alter-ego we named Bob Loblaw. Bob appears once on almost every page to provide a unique and somewhat comical insight on the content of each page while also providing a way to drive the point home in a different voice. The main voice throughout the site is consistent and we have added the second voice for a little extra humor and “kick.”

Your voice needs to be yours and yours alone, but it also needs to be a voice that is interesting to the visitor. Sites with the most distinctive voices often find they have the most loyal following.

Trust and credibility

The ability to convey trust and credibility are absolutely essential to developing a destination website. In fact, you can have “expert” information, great design, usability, USP, developed presence, and your own unique voice, but if people can’t trust you then they come, leave, and never come back. Without credibility in your area of expertise, you really have nothing at all.

In the dotcom era many businesses spent millions establishing themselves only to flop. Why did this happen? For one, these businesses did not have a solid business plan in place, and two, they simply had not been able to establish themselves as a trustworthy destination. Many achieved instant success only to see that success disappear because these companies did not do what it takes to build a relationship of trust with their audience.

While all the other building blocks of a destination website are ultimately worthless without trust and credibility, all six other blocks actually help a business establish the trust and credibility that they need to be a destination website.

Becoming a destination website

Every year the online marketplace becomes more and more competitive. As each year passes, search engines get smarter and smarter about delivering results that are more than just relevant to a particular query, but they deliver websites that the searcher is actually most interested in viewing. Together, this makes Destination Marketing essential to a business’ success online.

With thousands of websites competing for a top 10 spot in the search results, only those sites that have set themselves apart from the rest as the best destination for that query will achieve first page status. That’s what Destination Marketing is all about, not achieving, but truly deserving a top ranking on the search engines.

So tell me again, why do you deserve to be #1?

Author:  Stoney deGeyter is CEO of Pole Position Marketing.

Eleven Things That Define What A Quality Link Is

By Eric Cho in Featured

In any link building campaign, its not just about the quantity of links you get but more importantly the quality of the link. Many newcomers to SEO think, as long as its a one way link or has high page rank, then its a great link, but there are so many other elements to consider before judging whether a link is good for your site or not. In most cases search engines won’t even count some of the links because they’re plain spammy.

Here’s a list of things I look out for when either buying or link exchanging:

1/ Theme of site - Before I look at anything at all, we need to ensure that the site (not just the page where the link is found) is on the same topic as the site being linked to. There’s no point having finance links on a health site. How would this look to visitors let alone search engines? I personally wouldn’t trust a site that links to irrelevant or unrelated content.

2/ Static URL - The pageURL needs to be static eg http://www.semhints.com/seo.html because these are the URL’s that search engines like. Make sure the URL isn’t dynamic eg http://www.semhints.com/?q=2315% or whatever it may be. I’ll go one step further and avoid link pages that have /linkspage-1.htm, /linkspage-2htm etc . If the URL shows relevant keywords, in my opinion, there is more value. It also shows that the webmaster has organized the structure and navigation system of his site well.

3 / Cached by Google - Probably more important than page rank, the page must be cached by Google. If Google cant see the page how can they even come close to valuing the link located on the page. To check this, simply install the Google toolbar, and make sure the page rank icon appears. Right click the page rank icon and you will see an option that says “Cached snapshot of page”. If nothing appears than you know the page has not been indexed by Google yet.

4 / Number of outbound links - Be warned now that many “one way link building services” out there say they can give you as many links as you want. Now its great that they’re one way links, themed, even has good pagerank sometimes, but they’re still link farms. Google says keep the outbound links on a page fewer than a 100, and some service say they’ll keep it under 50. But seriously, look at a page with 50 outbound links listed vertically, you might as well be looking at a thousand (well thats how I feel). It looks ugly when there’s many outbound links, and rarely would you qualify these as quality links. The more outbound links there are on a page, the lesser page rank juice is passed on as well. My rule of thumb is, ensure there are less than 5 outbound links.

5/ Page Rank - I hate these words since everyone so obsessed over it, but yes it is good to have a high page rank link. Just make sure you don’t overlook the main purpose of link building, which is to increase search engine rankings.

6/ Number of Incoming Links - The total number of links going into a site where your link is placed is always a good indication of how valauable that link is. Obviously, I would prefer my links to be placed where there are many other sites already linking to that page, not just the site. So there are 2 things you need to check here, number of links to the particular page, and number of links to the actual site itself.

7/ Traffic - Its good to have qualified traffic already landing on the page. There could be 1-2% of visitors going to your site (if its located where it can be easily found), hence instantly increasing traffic. You don’t have to wait around for spiders to crawl the page and struggle your way to the top of SERPs.

8/ Position - I’ve always liked my links to be found within content instead of hiding in footers or sidebars. SEO’s think its more valuable from a search engines perspective but that’s only a theory. From a visitors point of view, I think it would definitely be a more qualified and valuable link. While reading through a post, article, guide or news, and having links to referred sites, users will find it more helpful and resourceful for themselves.

9/ Unique IP address - If I was to buy a link (IF, with a capital ‘I’), I would only buy 1 link. It will look very suspicious to search engine if 100 sites have a link to a certain page and all come from the same IP address. Obviously the sites are owned by the same webmaster. You might as well have 100 links on 1 page.

10/ Unique domain - If you have links on www.widgets.com and also a subdomain (even if its a different server) red.widgets.com, then really its still diluting the value of the links.

11/ rel=”nofollow” - Its best if this tag isn’t in the source code otherwise search engines don’t count the link at all.

If you can find 20 quality links that fit the points mentioned, you definitely see much better progress in your link building campaigns compared to 1000 spammy links. Organic link growth is always best. Keep in mind, Im not trying to encourage you to buy links here.

Author:  Eric Cho is the owner of Search Engine Marketing Hints and runs a number of successful health websites. He is also involved with websites in the travel and home loans industry.