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If you are still trying to build up your own opt-in list but need to start marketing your products then you may look at buying leads. Buying leads however can become very costly and in some cases may not be worth the return on investment so what do you look for when buying leads?

1. How Were Your Leads Collected?

The first thing you should know when you look at buying leads is how these leads were collected. The best way is if leads were collected by means of a double opt-in system. Do not buy leads that were simply drawn from the internet without the lead’s consent as you will probably be accused of spamming if you use these leads.

2. How Fresh Are the Leads?

Another consideration to look at when buying leads is how fresh they are – how recently were they collected and how many times have they been sold? Leads that are old or that have been sold to many other buyers will probably not be worth the investment you spend in buying them.

3. Are These Leads Targeted?

Targeting is important for the success of your internet marketing business so before buying leads consider how targeted these leads are. If you find leads that are targeted to the group of people you are trying to reach you will have a lot greater success than simply buying leads that are not targeted.

4. How Often Do They Clean These Lists?

You do not want to buy leads that no longer work and so it is important to know how often the leads you are buying get cleaned up and how gaps in the lead list are filled.

5. Do They Have Testimonials and What Are These Like?

Does the company you are looking at buying leads from have testimonials on their web page? What do these testimonials have to say about the company and the results they are getting from the leads they bought? If a lead company does not have testimonials then be very cautious about doing business with it.

6. Seek Referrals First

If you know of other website owners who are also buying leads and have had some success with their leads then ask them to suggest a lead company to you. If you know and trust someone then they will be more likely to be honest with you about what works and what doesn’t.

7. Find out What Advertising Methods They Use to Get Leads

This may be similar to the first point but before buying leads find out what advertising methods the lead company used to get their leads. If they are using advertising methods that appeal to your target market then you will be more likely to have success with the leads that they provide. Also consider how effective their advertising methods are – if the people they are advertising to are just interested in getting something for free then you will probably not make any money from them. If they are using spam methods to get leads then you could find yourself in serious trouble.

In conclusion, when buying leads there are a number of important factors that you should consider – how were the leads collected and how did the company advertise to get these leads? How fresh are the leads? Is the list you buying clean and how were the gaps filled? Is the list targeted? Can you get referrals and testimonials for the lead company? Although it is always best to create your own double opt-in lists, if you are just starting out then you may find success with buying leads if you find a good lead company to buy from.

Author:  Alex Edevane is an accomplished internet marketer and educator focusing on innovative and unique techniques for building a successful online home-based business. To learn more about Alex’s revolutionary techniques please visit http://www.alexedevane.com

Over the past few years, social networking sites enabled by Web 2.0 technologies have dramatically changed the way we use the Internet. What was once a one-way connection has transformed into a dynamic connective medium, allowing users to share a wide range of content including blogs, photos, videos, and much more.

Yet how have social networking sites like Facebook changed the way online marketers advertise online? For one, they’ve made our jobs much easier. Facebook is the ideal medium for advertising within an environment that’s viral by nature. These online social directories use an interactive format that allows users to create a personal profile, connect to other users, and share content.

In a sense, these users have already effectively segmented themselves, coming together through like interest groups and connecting through content. These behaviors, which are inherent to social media and enabled by Web 2.0, create valuable networks of targeted and specific demographic groups. Now more than ever, the “Net Generation” is becoming involved in social media and presenting online marketers with the chance to market to predefined segments of online users, positioning branded messages on sites where these users spend time online.

Moreover, these social networking sites are growing at an exponential rate, adding more and more users from more diverse backgrounds. Initially, Facebook was created only for college students, but last year, it was opened to anyone with an email address. According to Microsoft, Facebook is the sixth most trafficked site in the U.S., and now has over 73 million registered users in 40,000 different collegiate, high school, work-related, and geographic networks. This represents a 530% growth rate over one year alone.

The tactic through which advertisers communicate with these segmented online audiences is known as Social Media Marketing (SMM). SMM has become a popular tool for search engine optimization (SEO) thanks to its unique ability to improve website visibility, name recognition, and brand awareness among specific online audiences through the acquisition of a network of relevant links.

So what opportunities does Facebook present for targeted online marketing efforts? Among Internet users ages 18-24, Facebook placed first on the list of favorite sites in Youth Trends most recent survey. Over 70% of females ages 17-25 indicated that Facebook was their favorite site in terms of time spent online. For males, this figure was still a powerful 56%. These demographic is clearly technology-driven, thanks to their growing up in a culture that considers time online an integral aspect of daily life. More than half of those surveyed visited Facebook at least once a day, logging an average of 35 minutes on the site.

Furthermore, these users are familiar with online environments and are adept at seeking out and finding specific pieces of content they’re interested in. Thus, social networking sites, especially Facebook, present online marketers with the opportunity to engage users with advertising messages at critical moments of relevance.

So how can we utilize social media marketing to effectively engage these elusive audiences of young adults? Below are several ideas on how to utilize social media marketing on Facebook.

• Connect Through Groups:Facebook has an infinite number of shared interest groups which users join for a myriad of reasons. These groups cover an unlimited number of subjects and interests, from marine biology to snowboarding to politics to rap music to Italian food. No matter what your interest or target market, there is a group for you. Take it from me. I’ve been a registered Facebook user, or “Facebooker” since 2003, and I’ve seen a group for everything, literally. Many even have a local focus, like Denver Broncos fan groups or Denver Chinese Students Group. Each of these groups has its own page with a forum, discussion board, photo gallery, etc. This is the best place to position messages meant for specific niche audiences, as you’re almost guaranteed everyone who sees it fits your target profile. In the past, when I was trying to drive traffic to a video site I was working for, I placed descriptive and enticing links to relevant videos on the group’s “wall,” or discussion board. I saw great results as many of the members of this particular group, which was devoted to skiing, followed these links to watch videos about their favorite sport, skiing.

• Connect Through Applications:Recently, Facebook has opened up its platform to outside developers who have created innumerable applications, ranging from fantasy stock picking simulators to video games of “beer pong” to world maps marking desired travel destinations. Users can add as many of these applications as they like to their profiles, creating opportunities for marketers and developers alike to subtly integrate marketing messages into these applications and their functions. Many developers have already done so and are not doubt reaping some major benefits, not only through increased brand awareness but through traffic driven from Facebook, which many have bridged to their own sites.

• Connect Through Content:Because Facebook allows users to post videos, images, links, photos, and more, advertisers can seamlessly utilize social media marketing strategies to connect with these groups through content. By positioning your content where your target audience is, you can be assured your brand will be right in front of their eyes as they interact with your message. Facebook is a repository for an endless amount of consumer data, what many experts have dubbed “a community in a box.” So why not leverage this data by getting involved? Connect through content.

• Connect Through Events:As Facebook has grown, it has added an “Events” section where users can post information about upcoming events and then invite their Facebook friends to attend. The entire section of events is searchable, and users can quickly locate events they’re interested in, find the host’s name, location, time, and even a description of the event. What’s more, Facebook gives each event its own page, where users can RSVP, decline to attend, or even post information on the event page’s public discussion wall, like what to wear, what to bring, etc. This presents social media marketers with a valuable opportunity to post events and then invite people that are most likely interested in attending. In my own experience with this medium, I’ve created events for clients and then posted information and invites within groups that align. For example, when promoting an upcoming reggae concert or college football game, find as many groups related to reggae music, college football, music and sports that you can, and post the event information on their group discussion boards to ensure that anyone who’s interested now knows and attends.

• Connect Through Mobile Devices:Just this week, Facebook announced that it has partnered with RIM, or Research In Motion, and their BlackBerry device. In addition to BlackBerrys, Facebook is accessible to a wide range of other mobile devices. This presents valuable opportunities for advertisers to reach potential customers on a local level, positioning their company presence at the moment of relevance.

Still, Facebook’s explosive growth hasn’t been without challenges. In response to criticism from a plethora of groups, Facebook recently added additional security measures in an effort to better protect private information. In addition to assuaging privacy fears, this is sure to encourage more users to join the site and share more information about themselves. Yet this will also force social media marketers to be more innovative and creative when identifying and locating target audiences.

As you can see, Facebook users have taken care of the segmentation process, connecting themselves through content and shared interests. These behaviors, which are inherent to social media and enabled by Web 2.0, create valuable networks of targeted and specific demographic groups. Now more than ever, the “Net Generation” is becoming involved in social media and presenting online marketers with the chance to market to predefined segments of online users, positioning branded messages on sites where these users spend time online.

The company I work for, Fusionbox, a Denver Internet marketing company, uses social media marketing to combine the objectives of Internet marketing with the capabilities of social media sites and Web 2.0 technologies. Click here for more information on social media marketing.

Essentially, our SMM services create powerful forms of viral marketing that leverage the large audiences and user communities of social media sites. Whether on MySpace, YouTube, Digg, Facebook, Del.icio.us, Flickr, or any number of others, SMM revolves around the creation and connection of users to companies through unique content.

For this reason, SMM can be utilized to build a network of links, spread brand messages, increase visibility and awareness, and even manage your company’s reputation online. After all, these social media sites each have millions of registered users, grouped into like-interest communities. Now all you have to do is discern where your target audience is congregating online. What more could a marketer ask for? No other channel allows companies to declare their identity, service offerings, value proposition and location within such a targeted environment.

Our team of experienced and innovative social media marketers will effectively position your website content in a targeted digital space where it will be seen by those you want to see it.

Fusionbox is a leader in applying Web 2.0 technologies to the Internet marketing domain. Our services have been aptly deemed Web Marketing 2.0 because of our ability to connect clients to customers by engaging the market and initiating conversations through social media.

Author:  Nick Yorchak is an SEO expert and Search Engine Marketing Specialist at Fusionbox, a full-service Denver Internet marketing, web design, and web development company. He can be reached at his Fusionbox email (nyorchak@fusionbox.com) or at (303)952-7490. Click here to check out his expert SEO blog.

When it comes to building a million dollar network marketing organization secret is superior newsletter design! Make sure your newsletter is well written, well designed, and impossibly interesting and you’ll have the key to building a network marketing empire.

Write your newsletter as if you were chatting to a friend over a cup of coffee. To achieve that effect, your newsletter should kick off with a friendly greeting to emphase the relationship that exists between the recipient and the sender. At the same time it personalizes your business by presenting you as a real live, warm, and caring human being. Too often, articles about building a million dollar network marketing business emphasize down line, up line, sales figures and product presentation but far too rarely emphasize the human side of the business. The people who read your newsletter do not want to feel as if they have just been marketed to but instead they want to have the impression that their interests and welfare were being considered when you sat down and wrote to them.

You should always design your newsletter as a plain text document rather than relying on html. Avoid graphics and other items that will make downloading it slow. Structure the body of the newsletter in such a way that it looks well ordered and not cluttered. It should consist of distinct sections, some of which may appertain to the company you are representing while others will deal with general articles and content. Free tips that may benefit the readers or save them money will always be appreciated. Make sure you are offering your readers value beyond the actual business offer behind the newsletter.

It is often suggested that your company material should make up the upper half of the newsletter’s body while general content ought to be placed on the bottom half. However, such advice is flawed because it will cause those who are simply subscribing for the content but not for the business to glance over the message you are trying to get out and scroll straight down to the bottom half of the letter – if they read it at all.

A far better method is to intersperse content and promotional material. Perhaps the first article may be about a new product you are marketing while the second may be a recipe, cooking tip, wellness advice, or so forth; the third article can once again discuss an aspect of your business, such as explaining the growth you have recently experienced, while the fourth section may be a give away, puzzle, joke, useful fact, and so on. This makes the entire body of the newsletter readable and useful and makes it more likely that your promotional information will also be read.

Your newsletter should end with a friendly closing that in some way recalls the original greeting. Once you start building a million dollar network marketing organization using the newsletter as your secret weapon, you’ll need to squeeze every bit of value you can get from it. A personal signature, your title and contact information, an invitation to email you with questions or content suggestions are all good things to incorporate while a call to action, such as buying the product or taking the free marketing course are good closes for the newsletter. You may even want to add a teaser for the next newsletter, which will ensure that you will not receive too many unsubscribe requests. Another way to maintain customer interest is to focus on the customer by including questions as part of your text and inviting feedback.

Invest your newsletter with your own personal and original style, give it some zest and zip, keep the reader involved and you will be on your way to building a loyal readership who learn to trust you and therefore will be more inclined to do business with you.

Author:  David Hurley writes articles on a variety of subjects. For more information about Internet success strategies, sign up to his free Internet marketing tips newsletter at: Grasp-The-Nettle.com.

It is logical for a beginners guide to blogging to begin with information on how to start a blog. However, first a brief introduction to what a blog actually is. A blog is nothing more than your online diary or journal, in which you can express your feelings, thoughts, and opinions or even advertise your products. There are few rules apart from keeping it clean. For that reason they come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and designs, and your blog page is literally yours to anything you want with.

You can include pictures, hyperlinks to your websites, MP3s and videos. Much depends on the type of blog you have and who is the provider, but Wordpress allows more than Blogger or Blogspot, especially if you have downloaded it to your own website. However, it is also more complicated and you might prefer to start off easy and then work your way up as you become more familiar with what you are doing. Many cPanel web hosts offer Wordpress facilities.

The basic components of a blog are:

Title: You can use the title to label your posting.
Category: You can add a category to keep blogs on similar topics together.
Body: This is the main content of the blog.
Trackback: This allows other sites to link back to your blog.
Permalink: This is the URL that goes with every blog that you write.
Comments: This allows readers to make comments on your blog – some good, and some bad.

By means of just one or two templates you can easily create new pages. It’s a bit like having a website and copying your home page as a template for all the rest of the pages, only the blog template is blank with spaces for the title, category and all the other aspects of your blog. The blogging websites that you sign up with offer a number of templates and you can choose one and literally start blogging immediately.

Blogging can be more that just your own personal thing, and you can join groups that blog about specific topics, such as football, movies, music, blogging, etc, etc. You can all share your expertise and knowledge and some are literally operating as forums. You can also use your blog to advertise a product, and to drive traffic to your website, while others have no website and use their blog as their sole communications window on the internet.

I could go on all day about what you can do and, sometimes, cannot do with a blog, but the best way is to get started and then find what you are capable of. The best way is to log onto the blog provider of your choice and sign up for a blog. Most newcomers to blogging find it easiest to start blogging from a provider’s website, and then graduating to installing blogging software on their own website

This is a bit trickier, but it allows you use all the plugins that allow total personalization of your blog so that it is completely unlike that of anybody else. You cannot use plugins when you run your blog from the provider’s site, whether it is Wordpress or any other blog. You cannot beat having your own blog software and being able to design any page that you want.

However, although this sounds great to be able to do, on the whole you are likely best to start blogging from the blog hosting site, and then graduate to your own website once you are comfortable with blogging. You will have enough to take in and learn when you upload to your own web space without having to worry about how blogging works.

Blogging is fantastic fun, and it can also be very profitable. However, there are specific techniques involved in making money using blogs, and it is very easy to get your fingers burnt if you are unaware of the pitfalls and the right way to do it. Nevertheless, blogging can be very rewarding, both personally and financially, so best of luck, and get blogging now. Don’t leave it a minute longer because you might have a lot to learn yet.

Once you have learned how to start a blog, then you can think of running your own from your own website.

Author:  For more information on the main blog sites, and how to start blogging yourself, visit Pete’s website Create A Blog where you will be provided with some useful information and links, and also some great offers to help you make money while enjoying blogging.

The best course of action to take sometimes isn’t clear until you’ve listed and considered your alternatives. The following paragraphs should help clue you in to what the experts think is significant.

If you don’t have accurate details regarding rankings, then you might make a bad choice on the subject. Don’t let that happen: keep reading.

Your website’s ranking on search engines is a vital element of your overall marketing campaign, and there are ways to improve your link popularity through legitimate methods. Unfortunately, the Internet is populated by bands of dishonest webmasters seeking to improve their link popularity by faking out search engines.

The good news is that search engines have figured this out, and are now on guard for “spam” pages and sites that have increased their rankings by artificial methods. When a search engines tracks down such a site, that site is demoted in ranking or completely removed from the search engine’s index.

The bad news is that some high quality, completely above-board sites are being mistaken for these web page criminals. Your page may be in danger of being caught up in the “spam” net and tossed from a search engine’s index, even though you have done nothing to deserve such harsh treatment. But there are things you can do - and things you should be sure NOT to do - which will prevent this kind of misperception.

Link popularity is mostly based on the quality of sites you are linked to. Google pioneered this criteria for assigning website ranking, and virtually all search engines on the Internet now use it. There are legitimate ways to go about increasing your link popularity, but at the same time, you must be scrupulously careful about which sites you choose to link to. Google frequently imposes penalties on sites that have linked to other sites solely for the purpose of artificially boosting their link popularity. They have actually labeled these links “bad neighborhoods.”

You can raise a toast to the fact that you cannot be penalized when a bad neighborhood links to your site; penalty happens only when you are the one sending out the link to a bad neighborhood. But you must check, and double-check, all the links that are active on your links page to make sure you haven’t linked to a bad neighborhood.

The first thing to check out is whether or not the pages you have linked to have been penalized. The most direct way to do this is to download the Google toolbar at http://toolbar.google.com. You will then see that most pages are given a “Pagerank” which is represented by a sliding green scale on the Google toolbar.

Do not link to any site that shows no green at all on the scale. This is especially important when the scale is completely gray. It is more than likely that these pages have been penalized. If you are linked to these pages, you may catch their penalty, and like the flu, it may be difficult to recover from the infection.

There is no need to be afraid of linking to sites whose scale shows only a tiny sliver of green on their scale. These sites have not been penalized, and their links may grow in value and popularity. However, do make sure that you closely monitor these kind of links to ascertain that at some point they do not sustain a penalty once you have linked up to them from your links page.

Another evil trick that illicit webmasters use to artificially boost their link popularity is the use of hidden text. Search engines usually use the words on web pages as a factor in forming their rankings, which means that if the text on your page contains your keywords, you have more of an opportunity to increase your search engine ranking than a page that does not contain text inclusive of keywords.

Some webmasters have gotten around this formula by hiding their keywords in such a way so that they are invisible to any visitors to their site. For example, they have used the keywords but made them the same color as the background color of the page, such as a plethora of white keywords on a white background. You cannot see these words with the human eye - but the eye of search engine spider can spot them easily! A spider is the program search engines use to index web pages, and when it sees these invisible words, it goes back and boosts that page’s link ranking.

Webmasters may be brilliant and sometimes devious, but search engines have figured these tricks out. As soon as a search engine perceive the use of hidden text - splat! the page is penalized.

The downside of this is that sometimes the spider is a bit overzealous and will penalize a page by mistake. For example, if the background color of your page is gray, and you have placed gray text inside a black box, the spider will only take note of the gray text and assume you are employing hidden text. To avoid any risk of false penalty, simply direct your webmaster not to assign the same color to text as the background color of the page - ever!

Another potential problem that can result in a penalty is called “keyword stuffing.” It is important to have your keywords appear in the text on your page, but sometimes you can go a little overboard in your enthusiasm to please those spiders. A search engine uses what is called “Keyphrase Density” to determine if a site is trying to artificially boost their ranking. This is the ratio of keywords to the rest of the words on the page. Search engines assign a limit to the number of times you can use a keyword before it decides you have overdone it and penalizes your site.

This ratio is quite high, so it is difficult to surpass without sounding as if you are stuttering - unless your keyword is part of your company name. If this is the case, it is easy for keyword density to soar. So, if your keyword is “renters insurance,” be sure you don’t use this phrase in every sentence. Carefully edit the text on your site so that the copy flows naturally and the keyword is not repeated incessantly. A good rule of thumb is your keyword should never appear in more than half the sentences on the page.

The final potential risk factor is known as “cloaking.” To those of you who are diligent Trekkies, this concept should be easy to understand. For the rest of you?cloaking is when the server directs a visitor to one page and a search engine spider to a different page. The page the spider sees is “cloaked” because it is invisible to regular traffic, and deliberately set-up to raise the site’s search engine ranking. A cloaked page tries to feed the spider everything it needs to rocket that page’s ranking to the top of the list.

It is natural that search engines have responded to this act of deception with extreme enmity, imposing steep penalties on these sites. The problem on your end is that sometimes pages are cloaked for legitimate reasons, such as prevention against the theft of code, often referred to as “pagejacking.” This kind of shielding is unnecessary these days due to the use of “off page” elements, such as link popularity, that cannot be stolen.

To be on the safe side, be sure that your webmaster is aware that absolutely no cloaking is acceptable. Make sure the webmaster understands that cloaking of any kind will put your website at great risk.

Just as you must be diligent in increasing your link popularity and your ranking, you must be equally diligent to avoid being unfairly penalized. So be sure to monitor your site closely and avoid any appearance of artificially boosting your rankings.

Author:  Matthew Faulkner, when word gets around about your command of rankings facts, others who need to know about rankings will start to actively seek you out.

Search engine marketing hinges on a basic process that involves the following simple procedure:

• The prospect wants to search for some thing. He or she needs some information on a particular topic or they are actually looking to buy some thing off the internet.
• The prospect opens up the search page of a popular search engine suited to his or her purpose.
• The Prospect types the keyword into the search bar of the search engine and clicks the go button.
• The prospect receives the search engines results and on the right hand side is your advertisement that he or she will be enticed to click and thereby complete the search engine marketing chain.

This is where most merchants go wrong. They believe that the process ends at this stage and that simply driving the traffic to the site is the prime goal of the search engine marketing cycle. The rest is going to happen automatically.

As Phillip Kotler once famously remarked, the marketing process does not end with the customer walking into the store, the process is only over once the customer has duly walked out having purchased your product and then truly the marketing process gets over.

The same thing applies to search engine marketing. The prospect must convert his show of interest into a purchase to ensure that the cycle is truly over.

Here are some tips to ensure that the prospect converts his interest into a purchase:-

In order for them to buy something, make sure you have a landing page that is convincing and that will encourage them to click on the “Buy Now” button.

The landing page is the first page that the prospect will come across once he or she clicks on the Buy Now Icon. So it should be well designed with a good layout and must be aesthetically appealing.

The beauty of landing pages is that they don’t even have to be a part of your site to begin with. If your company is currently running a temporary offer on sex toys, you can simply build a temporary page and call it “sex toys”, with a link that states: sex toys. After your temporary offer is over, you can always remove that page from your site.

A landing page that sells needs to be designed in a way that needs a minimal amount of clicks to get what they are looking for. Build your landing pages to show them the product or service you are selling, and then show them the “Buy Now” button.

Even if your organization doesn’t sell anything tangible and the purpose of all your search engine marketing is to ask the prospects communicate with you or sign up for your free newsletter, the landing page needs to be compelling and must sell them on your company.

Remember that the first impression is the last impression and this rings true even in today’s day and age. So before you start blaming your affiliates for the lack of prospects and the low conversion rate take a good hard look at your landing page. It just might tell you the reason for your slow growth.

Author:  FIND NOW more useful Search Engine Marketing tips on my blog Work From Home and DISCOVER FULL POTENTIAL of Search Engine Optimatization!

I recently received another ‘please help’ email from a gentleman named Ian who runs an adventure company in Tanzania. Ian was concerned about the effect of a variety of issues including indexing and link dampening, and was desperate for help. Unfortunately, he had read some fairly misleading articles in the past, so he had a somewhat mixed up understanding of the factors at play. Because I suspect he’s not alone in his concern and confusion, I decided to publish the details of our discussion.

Ian’s email consisted of several questions. I’ve listed each separately below, followed by my response.

Q: When I search for the number of backlinks to my site using “link:www.betheladventure.co.uk”, I see only 23 results. It appears that only 23 of our backlinks have survived Google’s dampening link filter. Is there a time delay before they are credited to a site? ”

A: Firstly, I think you may have the dampening link filter a little confused. According to the dampening link filter theory, your links are found and recognized by Google, you just don’t get the full benefit from them until a given period of time has elapsed. The dampening link filter (if it exists) doesn’t stop links from appearing in Google’s results when you search for them. (The only reason your backlinks might not appear in a Google search is if Google hasn’t yet indexed the pages containing the links.) Also, don’t worry too much about things like the dampening link filter. For a start, it’s far from established / accepted fact. Many well regarded SEO experts don’t believe in it at all. Furthermore, even if it does exist, it only affects those businesses with the budget to generate the huge numbers (hundreds or thousands probably) of links reputedly required to trigger it. If your number of backlinks suddenly increases by 20, that’s no problem.

And secondly, don’t believe everything Google tells you. By searching for “link:www.betheladventure.co.uk”, you generally only see a small percentage of actual links to your site. The best way to search for links is to search for just the URL “www.bethaladventure.co.uk” , then on the page that displays next, select “Find web pages that contain the term “www.bethaladventure.co.uk” “. When you do it this way, you’ll see all the pages that contain your URL. In most cases, the URL will be an active link (or at least it should be, and you should ask them to make it so). When you do this search, you’ll see that your site has about 169 links, not 23.

Q: Another question is about indexed pages (using site:www.betheladventure.co.uk). I understand this is a record of pages that have been changed. I had 32, it went down to 28 and now this morning it is down to 26. Do they only keep the pages for a month or is there more to the indexed pages than I realized?

A: The number of indexed pages is simply the number of pages on your website that Google ‘knows about’. Theoretically, the only time the age of a page comes into play is when the page is too young*, i.e. Google spiders haven’t visited it yet, or Google hasn’t updated its index. As to why the reported number of indexed pages is reducing, I suspect it’s just a temporary shift. The number of results in Google’s searches varies pretty much constantly.

*Actually, technically speaking, it has been suggested that Google is not capable of indexing all 11.5 billion pages currently believed to be online (and the 10 million more that are added every day), and that as it indexes new pages, old pages are pushed out of the index. (This is a very rough description of the theory - if it’s happening at all, it’s likely to be far more complicated than this.) If this is happening, it may explain why the reported number of indexed pages is reducing. Although I think it’s a long shot, a good way to deal with it is to maintain high quality content, to keep increasing it, to keep generating backlinks, and to generate a Google sitemap. To find out more about sitemaps, go to Googles site map.

I know there’s a lot of confusion surrounding these issues, so I hope you’ve found this exchange helpful.

Happy indexing!

Author:  Alexander de Albuquerque, for car insurance articles please visit us here. If, you are looking for good used bmw cars then please visit us here. Submitted by: online article submission

Before Scott Glatstein, a pioneer marketing strategist and Founder of Imperatives LLC started submitting articles online, the only online exposure he had was his own website. A Google search term for his name only returned 8 hits. Two of the 8 hits were for his cousin. None of these hits linked back to Imperative’s website. And they were all unrelated to his current business.

Today, this mindset has changed drastically. We all know that we need a website, but many of us think that simply having one is enough. In fact, there is research indicating that many firms with an online presence haven’t touched their websites in years. They haven’t spent any time improving functionality and appearance, and they have yet to consider the basics of website usability and the inherent potential of search engine optimization. Of course, we all recognize by now that having a website is an essential business asset, if it’s done correctly. It’s easy to see that if your sight is an outdated eyesore, it becomes a liability that hurts you more than it helps you. Conversely, a well-designed site can make all the difference. It’s the first place users go to research your products and services, serving as a lead generator, a CRM tool, and even make purchases.

We’ve all heard the adage about first impressions, and it’s no secret that they’re the most important factor in the way people remember their first encounter with you or with your website. On one hand, a well-designed, user-friendly website will showcase your business and your brand, impressing clients. On the other hand, an outdated and otherwise bad website can hurt you far more than it can help you in this case, as potential customers will eliminate you as a possible vendor after only interacting with your brand and substandard website for only a few minutes.

I’ll utilize a real estate analogy here to expand upon this thought. You’ll impress guests when they arrive at your home if its clean, well-kept, landscaped, painted, and overall welcoming. But if you arrive at a home that’s dilapidated and falling apart with chipped paint and an overgrown lawn, you’ll think a lot of less of whoever lives there. Are they lazy slobs? Maybe. Or maybe they just haven’t had time to take care of the property. Either way, your first impression is less than positive. We all try not to “judge a book by its cover,” but in an online atmosphere, a company’s website is their cover, the digital face they present to the world, so in that case you can’t not judge the book by its cover. After all, that’s all you have to go off of.

So this must leave you wondering: Is my website an asset or a liability? By answering the following questions, you can find out if it’s time for an overhaul or just some simple changes. Or maybe your site doesn’t need any work at all. Ready to find out?

Home Page

• Can visiting users tell immediately who you are and what you offer?
• Is your site organized in a clear fashion that promotes navigation?
• Is your home page an information destination or just a messy landing page?
• Does your home page give a good first impression that entices users to click through your links?

Performance Issues

• Do your images, videos, and pages load quickly?
• Does your site utilize clean, un-bloated code?
• Does your site have a “search” function? If so, is it fast and useful?
• Have you performed quality assurance testing to ensure your site looks the same across different browsers?

Content Is King

• Is your content written clearly and persuasively? Does it speak to your target market?
• Have you included useful and relevant resources like case studies, white papers, articles, or links?
• Does your content effectively describe the your products, services, and benefits?
• Is your content keyword focused to cater to users and search engines alike?

Links & Navigation

• First and foremost: Do all your links work?
• Are your links clearly marked?
• Do your links utilize descriptive and enticing anchor text?
• Is your navigation menu or framework consistent throughout your site?
• Does your navigation menu provide access to your entire site?

Critical Pages

• Is there a top-level page that describes your products and services?
• Do you have an “About Us” page to describe your company?
• Is the “Contact Us” page clear, informative, and thorough?
• Do you have a page where users can ask questions or answer their own?
• Is the “Contact Us” page clear, informative, and thorough?
• Do you have a Testimonials section?
• Do you have a blog that you update frequently?
• Do you have social bookmarking buttons to take advantage of Web 2.0 technologies?

Usability

• Is your site organized so that information is easy to find?
• Do you have a site map that wireframes this organizational structure and links to all your pages?
• Is your site “user-friendly?”
• Is your type scannable, easy to read, and written for the web?
• Do you utilize bullets, headlines, and other stylistic elements to organize and present content?
• Do you have calls to action that prompt users to take desired actions?
• Are you using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to control the layout of the site?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Is your site search engine friendly?
• Have you optimized your site for specific and relevant keywords?
• Have you acquired a network of high-quality, relevant links?
• Have you utilized online PR or social media marketing for its SEO benefits?
• Does your navigation menu provide access to your entire site?

Critical Pages

• Is there a top-level page that describes your products and services?
• Do you have an “About Us” page to describe your company?
• Is the “Contact Us” page clear, informative, and thorough?
• Do you have a page where users can ask questions or answer their own?
• Is the “Contact Us” page clear, informative, and thorough?
• Do you have a Testimonials section?
• Do you have a blog that you update frequently?
• Do you have social bookmarking buttons to take advantage of Web 2.0 technologies?

Now that you’ve answered all of these questions, you need to decide what to do next. Start with some competitive analysis to see what your competitors are doing and what you need to do to catch up. Then, survey users to see what they think and act upon that feedback; don’t wait, evaluate and reciprocate.

So make as many changes as you can to improve your website, turning it back into a business asset instead of a liability, and watch as your web presence creates leads and ultimately sales that impact your bottom line.

Author:  Nick Yorchak is an SEO expert and Search Engine Marketing Specialist at Fusionbox, a full-service Denver Search Engine Marketing, web design, and web development firm. He can be reached at (303)952-7490. Click here to check out his SEO blog.

Serious freelance writers know their income may come from other sources, not just writing articles for magazines or clients. Ultimately, their freelance writing leads to writing books or e-books for themselves or as ghostwrites. If you decide to ghostwrite e-books and trade paperbacks for clients, consider the following:

If a client hires you as a “work-for-hire” ghostwriter, then the client pays you for your work, and he owns all rights. Make sure: 1) You receive a 50% retainer before you begin the work; and 2) You receive the balance at or right before delivery. That’s it. If the book turns out to be a great success, great! That’s wonderful! You should be extremely proud — but from a distance! To be a successful ghostwriter, you must enjoy your glory as a ghostwriter in the shadows. Many ghostwriters prefer it that way.

I know a great speaker in the industry who commands $10,000 or more per speaking engagement. He is phenomenal to listen to and even more dynamite to read. However, he doesn’t write his books alone. He contributes to them but he never writes any of them himself. His ghostwriter, Shelly, is known only to a few writers in a close-knit writer’s group. Why does Shelly let this speaker take all the glory for her work? She is painfully shy and exceedingly talented as a writer. She once said, “I am where I need to be and he is where he should be.” If you are going to ghostwrite, stay where you belong (invisible) and accept payment for the job as payment enough.

TIP #1: As a ghostwriter, you should always try to meet the needs of the true “author” of the work. Cover the content they want and do your best to make the client happy.

TIP #2: As with writing any book, ghostwriting involves lot of revisions and changes as far out as two months, especially if the book needs to go through an editor or publisher. You should make changes as needed. However, don’t wait on final payment if your client hasn’t received final approval from his publisher.

TIP #3: Always write your ghostwrites as if they are your own. Write with quality and professionalism in mind.

TIP #4: Never sign a non-compete contract on the subject of the book. It is crazy for the client to ask but crazier for you to do it. If a client asks for one, walk away. You have your own work to protect as well as the client’s work. Remember the saying, “to thine own self be true”? Well, in writing, there’s no truer statement.

TIP #5: You owe the client exceptional work and the client you work for owes you money for a job well done.

TIP #6: If your client is dissatisfied with the end result, even after he’s paid you, make it right for the client. Satisfied clients usually become repeat clients; they will bring you steady work and referrals.

TIP #7: Consider using a pen name as a ghostwriter. Jeanine Anne, a freelance writer and ghostwriter, said she uses a pen name when she ghostwrites. She said, “I’ve written most of my ghostwrites and presented them to my clients under my pen name, Jeanine Anne. First, if someone decides to spam me, there’s no harm done to the name for which I write my own work under. Secondly, when I write for a client, I have no idea what the client will do to the work, after all it is his work once it leaves my hands. The client may add content which I may not like or he may write something that is not my style of writing.” This is something to remember if you write for clients as ghostwrites. The client hires you to do a job and the client owns the work after it leaves your hands.

You can find many ghostwriting gigs on www.FreelanceWriting.com, Elance.com, Guru.com, GetAFreelancer.com, Indeed.com, www.WritingCareer.com, and CraigsList.com. The other way is to create your own ghostwriting gigs by networking and marketing.

Author:  Learn how to become a published book author! Download Brian’s free e-book, Book Writing for Fun and Profit, at www.BookCatcher.com. Visit Brian’s blog, Book Publishing News.

Getting your website up and running is an exciting thing at first. You get a lot of people coming to visit your site, they’re buying things and you seem to be doing pretty well. But after a time, the initial excitement wears off and you begin to ask yourself, “Is this all there is?” Before you get to that point, you need to learn the three basic steps to take in order to grow an online business and stay relevant in the ever changing virtual marketplace. Thankfully, most of this information is common sense, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn a thing or two (or three).

Get People to Come to Visit

Your main concern in the beginning year or so of your website is getting people to come to your website. You can do this by employing a number of basic tactics:

1. Learn about search engines - When you begin to learn what search engines are looking for in a site in order to rank it higher, you will begin to get more hits on your site.

2. Tell everyone you know about the site - Put your website address on everything that you can in order to get people coming to your site.

3. Link with other related sites - If your friend has a website, link with them or link with others in the same market as you to increase your website traffic.

4. Make your site exciting - By offering new and fun things on your website, you will encourage new traffic on your site every day.

5. Advertise your site on other sites - By heading to video share sites and posting a video of what you do on your site, you might just drive new traffic to your web page.

Keep Them There

Once you have visitors coming to your website, it’s your job to keep them there and to keep them coming back. There are several ways to do this:

1. Change your content, but not your layout - When you keep things in places where people can easily find them, you will allow the loyal web surfers the ability to easily browse from page to page to find what they way.

2. Introduce new features on your site that are easy to use - Add a video blog or perhaps a few animations that are easy to load up and that change regularly.

3. Include ‘teasers’ on your site - Make mention of things that are coming up on your site (and on the website only) in the coming days. This will keep people coming back to see what’s new and exciting.

4. Offer discounts - By helping loyal customers and visitors buy merchandise with discounts, you are going to keep them coming back and looking for more to buy.

5. Make sure your web hosting is top notch - When your site is always available, no matter what the web traffic is, you will keep people coming back. If you ever have any server problems, fix them immediately and then apologize to those that may have been affected.

Find Ways to Branch Out

You can’t stay exactly the same when you’re trying to compete in the ever-changing world of the internet. You need to find new ways to add to your current business so that you’re always interesting to your customers. Try looking for suggestions from your customers in your comments sections of your site to see what else they might want to buy that would complement or add to their buying experience with you. For example, if you sell sailboats, maybe you can begin to offer instructional videos for sailing so that they can enhance their skills.

Author:  Scott Oliver offers free video coaching to help you build a profitable home business FAST. Get an hour of “Website Traffic Secrets” and “Minisite Creation Tactics” for FREE — immediate access here: http://www.InstantWebsiteBusiness.com