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Although a more seasoned reader may find this information passe, please note that everyone has to start somewhere. Now more than ever, small business owners (who need SEO to compete with big business) or bloggers with a new blog realize, that there is no viable way around SEO, or at least knowing for lack of better terms what it entails. Consider this an SEO primer that touches lightly on each of the necessary ingredients of the practice of search engine optimization, also known as the acronym SEO for short.

SEO involves utilization of a series of strategies, tactics and techniques to streamline the content on your pages that make them more appealing for search engines spiders (the programs that scour the web and index your pages). As a result, such pages rank higher in organic positions (non sponsored / natural search results) otherwise known as search engine result pages (or SERPs).

SEO can be broken into two distinct categories. On-page SEO and Off-page SEO. You may ask what is the difference between the two?

On-page SEO deals with factors you have immediate control over such as:

1. The content - which involves the keywords your use (what you want to be found for).
2. The titles on the page - undoubtedly one of the most important factors for organic (natural) rankings in search engines. The title in conjunction with the content alone, using a content management system such as a word press blog with a few custom plug ins, are more than enough to provide consistent high ranking search engine results.
3. The layout and usability - the stickiness factor of your pages, how engaging or informative they are to the reader.
4. The programming language or programming platform - (static html pages, XHTML, .php, .asp. .cfm, etc.) Each has certain advantages based on the needs of your content.
5. Usability - one of the foremost aspects of design, it must serve a purpose to elevate the user’s navigation and encourage them to dig deeper and spend more time on your site.

and then, there are “The Off Page SEO Factors” such as:

1) Having a clean hosting environment (free of spam laden or MFA/Made for Adsense Sites). As well as low quality crash and burn websites which could sabotage your rankings, if they are hosted on a shared IP address (from the ISP / internet service provider).

2) Server side issues such as having the right .htaccess files, robots.txt files, and proper server configuration to eliminate duplicate content or other known issues that can interfere with achieving a high search engine position.

3) Internal linking - how the sites navigation is established, which pages are linked to which as well as the site architecture and internal structure. Internal links determine which page is given the most significance, if a page has the prominent features on the homepage, then all other pages should link to the home page with anchor text (the text in the link) using the keywords (the terms you want to rank for) with at least one link from each page.

Theming and Siloing: Other methods include theming and siloing which is a method that devises a very organized site structure (using folders and links to determine which pages rank highest and for which terms). Theming pages involves using content that semantically uses relevant keyword-rich phrases for file and folder names (naming conventions) with information segmented into topically related categories to augment search engine rankings. Think of it like a book, if the index and table of contents are coherent and on topic, it makes the spiders job easier to categorize your website.

Themed content aligned with off page link building can produce web pages that skyrocket straight to the top 10 results in search engines. Depending on the trust factor and authority of sites linking to you, your entire site can literally acquire traction within 4-6 months from a virtually new site (before SEO), and emerge through chrysalis as a holistic niche-dominating juggernaut.

4) How you utilize your own websites internal links alone, can determine if your website ranks for multiple less competitive terms (like a flashlight i.e. the long tail of search), or establishes it’s sights on a lofty competitive term (like a laser beam) and acquires it through (over time) using a tactful array of semantically varied external links. Links are like votes so the more relevant the link the higher your pages rank.

5) External links and Link Building - Finding seasoned websites with authority from the same niche provide the most “link juice” back to your website. Quality is more important than quantity, hence having an extensive link develop program involves careful consideration and thoughtful planning.
The basis of any link building campaign is scrutinous keyword research, where one carefully evaluates the potential for traffic and relevance from visitors that will eventually find your site as a result of conducting searches in search engine queries.

The idea is, to successfully implement enough relevant On-page SEO (content/text and the website theme) and align it to your Off-page SEO (holistically, like a homing beacon). This elevates relevance for your pages and those specific keywords as a result of the anchor text in the back links. For some pages it may only take 20-35 links to rank in the top 10, for others hundreds or thousands of links over time.

Although, once you understand the process, as it may seem simply systematic, each website has a unique threshold of criteria that are required to unlock it’s optimal search engine visibility.
Factors such as market conditions (the competition), On-page factors such as design, layout, traffic to the page (and link popularity), proper W3C compliant coding (an industry standard) as well over 200 additional variables are all calculated in an instant and returned out of the top 1000 search results every time a search is conducted. Such variables are calculated and recalculated for relevance as search engine algorithms (the ranking criteria) distinguish the highest potential match for the search query entered in the search box.

If your page or pages have all of the necessary ingredients, then they are promoted past the thousands (or millions) of other competing pages for those keywords. The most important ranking factor is content, so what you write and how you compose your content has a profound ability to impact positioning and relevance.

The quality of the content you create can dictate who will read and search for it, how and where your information will appear (blogs, press releases, on other sites, etc.), and how it will be received and acted upon. The idea behind SEO is to turn browsing window shoppers into customers, this is called conversion.

Conversion is the goal of SEO (to close a sale, to increase blog readership by having more (RSS) really simple syndication subscribers, increased lead-generation, or response rates for customers filling out a form) all are these actions are forms of conversion. Conversion starts from the time they click the title or link and enter your page, what happens from there is up to your site design and value proposition.

When you compose compelling content, you can essentially pick a series of keywords, spin them into savvy post or article and use viral marketing or article marketing to get the word out. Methods for distribution can range from articles (or blog posts) for example, that can be hosted on your site or on others websites (who will exchange your content for a link back to your site, this is a great way to build links), social media sites (that provides the ability to network, share your content and vote on it for link / story popularity) or straight forward link building (to develop authority and trust for your blog or website pages and drive pre-qualified traffic from organic search engine traffic).

All of these methods used in concert allow you to influence the probability of attaining a high ranking position for multiple keywords. This is the key to securing traffic and revenue, specifically crafted pages with extremely relevant links equal satisfied visitors who reciprocate in kind through their actions (purchasing your product or service) if all of the “feel good factors” pass the muster.

I hope this article sheds some light on search engine optimization and the stages involved. The fundamentals expounded upon are an excellent SEO 101 primer regarding website promotion and understanding search engine optimization.

Author:  Jeffrey Smith is an active internet marketing optimization strategist, consultant and the founder of Seo Design Solutions Seo Company http://www.seodesignsolutions.com/. He has actively been involved in internet marketing since 1995 and brings a wealth of collective experiences and fresh marketing strategies to individuals involved in online business.

In case you are outside of the bubble of search engine optimization or oblivious to it’s affects, rumour as of late is, there has been a reported link audit occurring throughout various industries throughout the web in regard to Yahoo search results and the number of links being counted as valid links to your site. To investigate for yourself go to Yahoo and check your own site to see if the digital link bandit is X-ing out your hard earned tokens by using link:www.mysite.com as the link operator / command.

It could be a temporal rift in the algorithm or the roll out of a new paradigm in web history as far as augmentation of rankings is concerned and search engine optimization. Or in fact, has Yahoo simply become more strict about what it considers a quality inbound link? are sites being audited to reflect the true relevance of the links pointing at their site? Since I do not work at Yahoo it is hard to tell, I do know however that the way each search engine ranks websites is truly unique.

For example, Google is all about the anchor text, chipping away with a solid link building campaign can nearly produce instantaneous fluid rankings that climb like a monkey on a mission for the sacred banana atop the tree.

MSN can also be influenced with anchor text link density, whereas Yahoo has a high on page requirement for word density and has a penchant for aged links. Call it a trust factor since they coined the term Trust Rank, in their mind, if your site is the new kid on the block, you may have to wait a while before you start to show up for related key words as a result of semantic “word stemming” or the affect of a plural spelling, singular instance or correlation between related phrases.

With all of the controversy surrounding why rankings rise and plummet, the devils advocate insists that if you content were the basis of the rankings in the first place, your essentially outside of the modality of the fluctuating rise and fall of inflated links masquerading as quality inbound links, which directory your website is a part of or who is linking to you.

The bottom line is, if your website has value, it will rise of it’s own accord as a resource, things like free tools, useful links, well written copy and massive volumes of data orchestrated through a column, such as an ezine, publication or highly frequently blog still passes the muster. But how long before other forms of ranking are scrutinized and reduced in their ability to pass rank?

I guess we will have to wait and see, but it the meantime stay on track, write world class content and let the chips fall where they may. It may be too soon to access the obvious solutions, but keeping a constant vigil on how things are shaping up never hurts to get the drop on the next exodus from grace in the ranking algorithms and how to stay outside of the influences of the dreaded search engine audit.

Author:  Jeffrey Smith is an active internet marketing optimization strategist, consultant and the founder of Seo Design Solutions Seo Company http://www.seodesignsolutions.com. He has actively been involved in internet marketing since 1995 and brings a wealth of collective experiences and fresh marketing strategies to individuals involved in online business.

Copywriting skill is a vital tool in the armory of every webmaster. Besides providing relevant content, copywriting also plays a crucial role in promotion of the products and services. The growing population of websites has led to a demand for copywriters; but this is not just for any copywriter, but a great copywriter.

Value of Strong Copywriting Skill for the Web: Irrespective of whether you are an experienced or novice copywriter the emphasis should be on your editorial skills. Your command over grammar, spellings, and sentence structure along with seasoned email marketing communications will play a significant role in your development as a copywriter to be reckoned with. A good copy is the bridge between the readers and the company and the copywriter plays the all-important role of an experienced professional who is adept at building strong and long-lasting bridges.

Secrets to Becoming a Great Copywriter: You need to practice some rules if you want to become a great copywriter. Here are the top 5:

- Always be original. We can’t emphasize enough the importance of being original in your copywriting.

- Always try to write as simplistically as possible. Use a regular but strong story to highlight the benefits and advantages for a greater impact.

- Always KISS - Keep it short and simple. Use one great idea per copy, one significant testimonial, one huge promise, one…

- Always write detailed copies. Your copy should not be superfluous. Validate your facts before writing.

- And finally, convey your message as economically as possible.

Tip: Doing your job, copywriting, correctly should allow you to nail the last three rules. While the top two rules are important not just because they have legal implications, but also because they exemplify your knowledge, experience, and command as a pro.

5 Commandments for Great Copywriting on the Web:

Let me share with you 5 of the best copywriting commandments for the web ever! Though these suggestions are viable for offline medium as well, we are writing specifically in relation to web copywriting. These commandments are sure to help you create a compelling copy that is bound to engage your readers while convey your business message as well as create effective “calls for action.”

Commandment 1: Get to know your audience. Before you begin to write a copy, ask yourself this one question - who is going to read this copy? Now picture this average person and try to put yourself in their shoes. Try to figure out what would be important to them, what makes them cry out with passion, what age group do they belong to etc. Remember, the more you learn about the readers you are writing for, the more effective and targeted your copy is going to be.

Commandment 2: Establish your value proposition. Determine the answers to these vital questions: why should the consumer buy your service/product? What kind of benefits are they likely to get? What makes your service/product better than the other product on the shelves? What is your unique to your service/product?

Commandment 3: Conceptualizing a USP (unique selling proposition). What is the best way to get a response from your audience? Be different! Yes, the more unique or different you are from your competition, the better your chances of soliciting a good response. Your company’s unique selling proposition must be strong enough to impact the new customers and attract them to the service/product. The trick is to offer something that your competitors don’t offer!

Commandment 4: Establish an objective. Start by defining the purpose of the copy. Then ask yourself, “What do I really want my readers to do after reading my copy?” Be crystal clear on the objective before starting the copy. After all, if you have doubts about the objective, the reader is bound to be confused as well.

Commandment 5: Write an extraordinary caption. The caption of your copy needs to be extraordinary to grab the attention of the audience. Try to use summarize your offering using some buzzwords that convey the “what’s in it for the reader” message across with conviction. The caption is your ONLY chance to grab the audiences’ attention! So take full advantage.

Finally, always believe in yourself. Great copywriting is well within your reach if you keep these rules and tops in mind when writing your next copy!

Author:  Learn how to build a website like a marketing pro. Also, read this free make money online guide.

Google AdWords is a Highly competitive pay per click (PPC) search engine, it’s now more important than ever to ensure that your PPC campaigns are optimized to their utmost potential. All of us want to achieve maximum return on investment (ROI) for the keywords or phrases that are most relevant to our businesses, and are most likely to provide our sites with targeted traffic.

I will go over the costly mistakes that most business owners make when using adwords.

1. Creating a long list of less than targeted keywords
2. Failing to identify unique aspects of your product or service
3. A lack of keywords in your ad text
4. Directing users solely to your home page
5. Creating single ad groups
6. Utilizing single campaigns
7. Using broad match only
8. Failing to optimize ad serving for your ads
9. failing to track results
10. Entering the content network without modifying bids

1. Creating a Long List of Poorly Targeted Keywords

When you first set out to create your AdWords campaign, it’s important not to go “keyword crazy” — resist the temptation to create long lists of irrelevant, generic keywords. For example, if you ran an automotive dealership then, it wouldn’t be in your best interests to target the keyword “truck.” The cost per click (CPC) for such a generic keyword would be incredibly high when compared to a more descriptive and relevant keyword, such as “T-Z783 Extended Cab.”

Similarly, the keyphrase “tail light covers” would not produce conversions if you strictly conducted automotive sales only. The phrase may bring visitors to your site, but if they don’t find what they’re looking for when they get there, they’ll leave just as quickly as they arrived.

It’s important to identify your specific niche, and to market directly to users who want the products and services that you offer. Don’t trick yourself into thinking that broader is better. With AdWords, that’s just not true.

2. Failing to Identify Unique Aspects of your Product or Service

Before you implement your AdWords campaign, you must understand exactly what it is that makes your organization stand out from the competition. By identifying your unique products, services, or offerings, you’ll see clearly how you can rise above your competitors and zone in on the keywords or phrases that are unique to your business.

I’d recommend that you perform an analysis of your competition. Have a look and see what they’re doing, and which phrases they’re using. After you’ve conducted a competition analysis, and you understand what makes your products or services unique, you’ll be able to come up with a strategy that will topple your competitors.

3. A Lack of Keywords in your Ad Text

When you’re creating descriptive ad copy, it’s imperative that you manage to inject your keywords in to your title and description while maintaining a delicate balance between clarity and relevance. Your ad copy should be tailored in such a way that as visitors read it, they understand exactly what they can expect when they click on your ad.

4. Directing Users Solely to your Homepage Few

site owners take the time to decide which destination URL should be applied to each ad. Instead, they point all ads in a campaign to the site’s homepage, then wonder why they’re not getting decent conversions.

If you’ve spent time compiling a list of relevant keywords that describe the unique aspects of your offering, why on earth would you send everyone to your homepage in the hopes that they’ll navigate through the site to find what they’re looking for?

Why not send them straight to the page that contains exactly what was described to them in the ad copy? Referring back to our example, if, as the automotive dealership owner, you’d created an ad that contained the keyword “T-Z783 Extended Cab,” which URL would you send prospects to? Instead of sending them to www.auto-motive-dealership.com, you’d send them straight to www.auto-motive-dealership.com/T-Z783_Extended_Cab.html, of course!

5. Creating Single Ad Groups

If you categorize ads that target related keywords into a common AdWords ad group, you’ll establish a high level of control over your entire campaign.

Let’s image that you own a sporting goods store. You might start by grouping all the ads you’d targeted towards hockey skates into a single ad group. You’d then create another ad-group which would contain ads that targeted hockey sticks, another that contained ads for hockey gloves, and so on.

Organizing your ad group structure in this manner gives you the ability to create in-depth reports on each ad-group, and to make real changes that have a significant impact on those ads’ performance over time.

6. Utilizing Single Ad Campaigns

Once you have your AdWords ads sorted into easily identified ad groups, you can move on to the next step: creating campaigns.

In the example above, we created ad groups that contain ads relating to separate products: hockey skates, sticks, gloves, and so on. Now, it’s time to create a container entitled “hockey equipment” to hold all of the ad groups in the campaign. Then, you can repeat the process of creating ad groups for tennis — one group for shoes, one for racquets, and so on — and drop all the groups into a single campaign called “tennis equipment.”

Having highly organized campaigns is the key to determining which ads are creating the optimal conversions. Don’t simply put all your ads into the one campaign — split them into separate campaigns to make tracking and amending the ad groups easy.

7. Using Broad Match Only

Unless you take advantage of the phrase matching options that AdWords makes available, chances are that you’re missing out on potential customers and creating a higher CPC for yourself.

As the name suggests, broad matches are usually less targeted than exact and phrase matches. Broad matching is the default option under which your ads will appear for expanded matches such as plurals or relevant keyword variations.

When you utilize phrase matching, your ad will appear for your chosen search terms in the order that you specify, and sometimes for other terms, too. Exact matching is by far the most targeted option to use, so don’t neglect it! You ad will appear for the exact keyword you specified. The negative keyword option is also a great tool — it allows you to specify the keywords for which you don’t want the ads to appear. Here’s a quick example of how these targeting options work:

Broad match: Default option: blue widget Phrase match: Surround the keyword in quotes: “blue widget” Exact match: Surround the keyword in square brackets: [blue widget] Negative match: Place a negative character before the keyword: -blue widget Take the time to test these different matching techniques, and to tweak your selections to improve your conversions. Broad matching is not necessarily the best — or only — option!

8. Failing to Optimize Ad Serving for your Ads

When you take advantage of the AdWords ad serving service, you’ll ensure that your most popular ads are displayed more often.

The AdWords platform will give more weight to the ads with the highest click through rates (CTRs), and will display them more often than ads with lower (CTRs) in the same ad group.

9. Failing to Track Results

In order to have any idea about your AdWords campaign’s performance, you must be able to identify which keywords work and which do not. Google AdWords supplies a vast array of very useful tracking tools. Google has also built into the AdWords interface Google Analytics — a marvellous web analytics tool that provides in-depth reporting on all aspects of your campaign’s performance.

I cannot stress enough the importance of creating goals for your AdWords campaign, then comparing your actual performance against these goals so that you can gauge your success.

10. Entering the Content Network without Modifying Bids

The AdWords platform has recently given advertisers the ability to set different bids for the content network than for the search network.

If you don’t set different bids on the content network for your keywords, you’ll be paying more than you should be for each click. Lower the prices on certain keywords, and you’ll notice that the number of clickthroughs you’ll receive will remain the same as at the higher bid.

Author:  Leighton James is an Online Money Making Machine. He Has Offered To Let You In His NEW Google Adwords SECRET. Don’t Miss This Revolutionary Opportunity http://www.Online-Residuals.com

Today, blogging has become a phenomenon. Blogging has captured the imagination of everyone, from celebrities to sportspersons to students to politicians. Everyday, almost 175,000 new blogs and over 1.6 million blog updates take place over the internet, according to Technorati - a firm that tracks blogs. By the end of January 2007, 63.2 million blogs were being tracked by Technorati!

Why Blogs?

If the above data doesn’t sound tempting to you then get a load of this. Experts believe this explosive and unheralded growth of the blogging industry is bound to continue for some more years to come. Today, blogging is increasingly being considered as a highly effective marketing tool and there has never been a better time to start your own personal blog than now! Based on the outcome from a recent survey conducted by research firm MarketingSherpa, blogs are the #4 most effective tools for sales leads generation. Their excellent responses to search engines and webspiders have made them very endearing and valuable. They are also the fastest way to build websites - if you don’t know how to build a website in HTML you can use a blog instead.

Blog History

Derived from the term “Web log,” blog is a simply a web page or a website that is partly an online journal or diary, and partly an open forum on which readers can comment. You can either update your blog on a daily basis, or write as per convenience on a weekly, monthly, or any other frequency basis.

Typically, blogs are short, expressive entries (around 200-300 words) and may or may not include photographs, links, etc. Blogging is a technique which needs to be practiced in order to improve. Since blogs are open to everyone, other readers can post their comments or reactions to your writing and continue the dialogue further.

The world of blogs or “blogosphere” literally has several thousands of blogs on every topic you can think of! While many of the blogs are hosted on public blog sites such as Blogger, Windows Live Spaces etc, others are hosted on business or individual websites.

Blog for Profit or Fun

Whether you decide to start your own blog for fun, social interaction or for profit and business expansion, blogging is just plain fun. Moreover, like other marketing tools used by marketing experts, blogs are at their effective best when used correctly. So, even if you a novice at blogging our suggestions will show you how to start your very own profitable blog.

- Sell advertising space. When you sell text links or banners on your blogs, you are essentially selling advertising space to other businesses for the promotion of their services or products. This blog strategy is only going to work if your blog enjoys high page rank on Google and other search engines.

- Offer affiliate advertisements. As a blog owner, you may wish to promote your affiliates by offering visitors links or banners to their products/services. But this would involve setting up your entire blog around the affiliate product or service. You must concentrate on building links to specific website pages for targeted traffic.

- And the simplest way to make profit from blogging is by allowing Google Adsense or any other ads on your blog. Whenever visitors click these ads, you will make money. You can visit www.google.com/adsense for more details. As you can see, there are many ways in which you can not just start your own blog but also make money from it. Use the strategies that are viable for you, match your skill level, and can fit your personal schedule.

Blogs for Business

However, even if you are starting a blog just for social interaction and sharing of ideas there is no harm in make some money as well. If you are starting a blog for business purposes then remember that your competitors are most likely using blogs as well to reach to their customers more effectively. A business blog will help you educate your customers about your business while also making it easy for you to keep pace with a dynamic market.

Simply said, blogs allow your audience to submit their comments, interact with you, exchange dialogues on the information you share with them, allowing you to constantly improve your services and expand your reach at a level where it counts.

A personal blog is a smart statement, so why not start blogging now!

Author:  Want to know more information? Then check out this free guide to making money on the internet. Also, get yourself a copy of Blogging To The Bank.

If you are in the market to purchase a website it is extremely critical that you do your homework before purchasing otherwise you could be in for a rude awakening once the transfer of ownership is completed. It is my experience that sellers tend to overvalue the sites that they offer for sale, while buyers tend to leap before they look.

I have been doing a lot of research on the subject lately and I thought I would share some of the information that I have found with you. Read the article below and you will find a number of tools that should help you Inspect What You Expect when buying a website.

Market Research

Market research is a fundamental area of research that you should be doing on your competitors. Do not take the seller at his/her word when the tell you the facts about their website. They will paint the best possible picture that exists without mentioning the warts. The collection below will allow you to inspect what you are buying without having to depend on the seller. It’s almost like being able to complete your own “home inspection” before buying.

I have gathered these tools from around the web from multiple sources and compiled them here and on my blog.

Spyfu is a web scraping tool that will show you what a site spends on Pay Per Click adverts. A site can generate 1000 dollars a month in revenue but if it spends 900 dollars in PPC to do it then the REAL revenue figure is 100 dollars per month.

URLtrends - gather SEO data, Pagerank, links, rank trends and more.

Backlink Checker - See who is linking to a specific website. Incoming links increase pagerank..at least allegedly.

Yahoo Site Explorer - Check to see what Yahoo shows for inbound links and indexed pages.

Market Leap - Test the rankings of web pages. Great for testing competitor’s sites.

WebTools - Check to make sure you aren’t buying a banned domain. Critical if you ever expect to be indexed in Google or drive search engine traffic to your site.

Trademark Issues

If you’re buying a fan site, celebrity site or any site with a potential trademark or copyright issue then you could be in for a rude surprise if you are served with a cease and desist from a law firm representing the trademark owner. The best time to find out what trademark issues you might face is BEFORE you pay for your site.

Trademark Electronic Search System - Use the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) to perform basic and advanced searches for trademarks.

Patent Electronic Business Center - Search the patent office’s records for full-text and full-page image returns on your competitors’ issued and published patent applications.

Research done here now will make sure you have no nasty surprises down the road. If the purchase amount is sizeable enough then you should surely consult a lawyer if you have reservations.

Hosting

Would you like to know how to see which host a specific website is using? This doesn’t really matter much although it does give you a way to provide a “security” check on the seller. Some unscrupulous sellers will actually try to sell sites that don’t belong to them. An easy check up to make sure they are who they say they are would be to ask them who hosts it. If they aren’t the seller, chances are they won’t answer correctly.

Don’t rely on this as your only means of security but it’s another check.

Who is Hosting This - This will show you is hosting the site currently.

Website Pulse - Website pulse will show you the speed of a web host. It shows response time, sizes and more.

Traffic

Would you like to know how much traffic a specific website is getting? Sellers will tend to flaunt their traffic count in the For Sale listings and it can sound impressive but you need to look more closely. Inspect the incoming URLs and see where the traffic is coming from. If it is paid traffic coming from “buy traffic for cheap.com” then tread carefully.

Look for trends or spikes and don’t be fooled by a 3 or 6 month average. One front page Digg article can give a website a good monthly average for the year, even though these visitors are likely never coming back. Inspect the traffic month by month and even day by day.

Google Analytics - Google Analytics is one of the best tools around and a little known fact is that if the seller is using Analytics on the site you are considering, they can allow you access to their Analytics page. No secrets there.

Compete - Compete give a great overview of a site’s traffic. It shows visitor info, growth, traffic counts, and you can put multiple sites in a portfolio as well.

Alexa - Alexa is the most commonly touted service there is, however it is definitely not the best choice in my opinion. There is concern out there that Alexa is heavily biased towards certain kinds of sites. Tread softly if this is the only valuation of traffic that you are offered.

SEO Analyzer - This tool will analyzes the weaknesses on a website allowing you to fix them and enjoy a resulting traffic increase…..at least that’s the plan. You could use this to gauge how quickly and significantly you might improve traffic post purchase.

Statsaholic - This will show stats about a sites rankings, page views etc. I have very little experience with this but it is a popular tool.

Website Valuation Tools

You’ve probably seen those little widgets on blogs and websites that give a value of that site, did you notice how grossly inflated the price was? I am not aware of any service out there where you can plug a URL into it and it give you any idea at all what the site is worth.

The only way to accurately assess a sites value is using good old common sense and many of the tools that I have listed above.

I hesitate to even say this but a very rough calculation that is often used as a starting point is 12 times current revenue. This is NOT an accurate method but is widely accepted to be used as a basis for a starting point. There are so many other factors involved on website valuation that it will take another complete article to even begin to discuss tthe topic.

Conclusion

In the end the real value of the site is no different than anything else…. it is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it. It’s no different than your house, your car, your timeshare etc…if a buyer isn’t willing to pay the amount that you ask then the site isn’t worth that much. Period.

If you have a website you are interested in selling or you have a comment on the website flipping craze then I would like to hear from you.

Author:  You can reach me on my Make Money Online blog at TheBlogEntrepreneur.com where you can read this same article with all of the links in place….saves you time.

SEO is nice for popularity, but conversion is even better. So, before you go out and start snatching up more keywords than you can shake a stick at, make sure your offer is up to the challenge of enlivening customer attention and viewer retention or your marketing efforts will be nothing more than an exercise in futility.

Are you playing it safe with keyword blinders?, or have you diversified your Search Terms?

It’s better to be safe than sorry as a result of “having blinders on” when it comes to search engine optimization and selecting the best keywords for your offer. Instead of thinking in terms of “the money phrase”, or, as soon as I hit the top 10 for “my ultimate competitive keyword”, that floodgates of website traffic will open, sales will inundate our sales team and we will have to hire 20 people to scale our sales department to keep up with the surge of orders and traffic. This is not to say that things like this do not happen, they do, but rarely as a result of one keyword alone.

Don’t believe keyword hype

The misconception typically originates as a result of assumption, or misinformation gleaned from data mining tools / keyword research tools (it says this phrase gets 20,000 hits per month, so it must), which is understandable. I can assure you, we have dominated multiple rankings in top 10 competitive keywords with double organic listings, only to be disappointed by the lack of traffic that resulted. Yet, on the other hand, been completely surprised when you write or optimize something (supposedly less competitive) and experience surges of traffic for weeks from one keyword you may or may not have expected.

It is important to be clear what search engine optimization is not, in order to know what it truly is. SEO is not the answer to conversion, it is just a tool to rouse the masses to investigate your offer, but ultimately the responsibility lies within the realm of the individual or individuals structuring the offer, to determine just what the anticipated end result will be.

Are your Pages Eye Candy? or do they Own a Focus

The internet is full of hungry eyes with agile minds attached, so many in fact, that your pages may just be another snack along the way. In order to change the menu and make your site the main course, nine times out of ten, some changes need to occur to make the transition from pages with an idle online existence to a page that for lack of better terms, offers you a deal you can’t refuse.

What Can You Learn (and apply to your own site) from a Squeeze Page

First, the headline - Conversion Starts Here. When you look at a typical squeeze page, once you get there, there is no question what the page is about, in fact they make it hard to see anything other than what the topical relevance is when you first set eyes on the page, but why? Because the headline takes up 25% of the screen, is usually in a ridiculously loud color, with quotes and highlighted in yellow. Anyone who fails at that point to surmise what the contextual relevance is for being there, should have their internet license suspended for surfing blind without emotional attachment.

In any case, the point being, the pages, despite how obnoxious they are serve a very fundamental purpose, which is to set the tone and funnel the reader’s attention to the meat and potatoes of the document (typically found at the very bottom alongside a pay pal purchase button). This is were the old adage of (A.I.D.E) attention, interest, desire, execution comes into play in it’s sublime simplicity.

Next, the testimonial, but why? Because they know you are skeptical and they know they need to subvert your defenses in order to engage the rational mind behind the emotional response when you shop (do I need this or do I want this, can I ignore or suppress the urge to purchase, or am I genuinely interested) all the while thousands of queries such as this race through the subconscious and either lead your to (a) move along (b) read further, since your there or (c) take the plunge and purchase, because, what the hay, it’s only money right.

Next, the problem / solution, which is usually built on the premise of using questions to preface it’s significance. Are you tired of? “the problem” Do you get frustrated when? Now you can be free of, by using our super duper X,Y,Z solution for mere chump change (only $39.95) for the ultimate answer to your prayers.

O.k, so I was a bit over the top, but I’m sure it’s not the first time you have seen this pitch, purchased or nearly purchased something as a result of it. Most of us are conditioned not to respond to such an overtly obvious pitch, however, I must admit, I am an impulse shopper and randomly purchase e-books in this fashion and never get around to reading them (the ideal customer for squeeze pages).

Then, the close, here is where they hit you with information about the product or service with the focus is on the “how you can benefit” mentality and inevitably the call to action, ORDER NOW!, ORDER TODAY, ORDER IN THE NEXT 5 MINUTES AND RECEIVE A FREE “rubber ducky, widget,etc.”, once again, it’s all about conversion.

Sure that page may get 1000 visitors that day, and from that 1000 visitors 100 order, that is more than enough to offset the other 900 that did not, so you can see the beauty in their plan. Pages like this could teach a great deal to businesses seeking conversion for their efforts instead of just visitors window shopping and burning up bandwidth, and I must admit even our pages in the main site need to take the positive benefits from such a blatant business model. The squeeze page is just that, a page that funnels their attention to a conclusion and then compels them to take action.

Have you heard of Funneling Attention for Higher Conversions?

Business models that make money are using the funneling tactic to amass massive amounts of income, using a tried and true / simplistic theme. Even though is mainly has it’s place in direct sales, affiliate programs, sales for e-books or inexpensive items. I have seen this tactic used for offers in the thousands and still convert readers (it just took more filler in the middle to build the argument and present the solution). Getting back to the basis of this article, the conclusion is SEO does not ensure conversion, it merely sets the stage.

Branding is one thing, but how many people are online just for the sake of saying ” I am the number one brand for industry X”, perhaps this is important for corporate America, sure, but,for the rest of us out here trying to make ends meet, we need conversion in some way shape or form.

Knowing this, instead of thinking narrow when it comes to using SEO, one could opt for a more holistic approach whereby they identify the behavior of the types of clients they would like to attract, thinking of individuals as opposed to demographics from a one dimensional prospective. If you think holistically, you can cover your bases and optimize entire segments of the niche as well as use multiple tactics and search engines to draw traffic from a variety of queries and implement “attention and retention insurance” for all of your respective offers.

For example, instead of one or two phrases, why not have twenty instead, it essentially takes about the same amount of effort and can be accomplished through modifying slight variations of content and how your build links.

Just having a top 10 ranking does not ensure traffic, simply because, not all keywords convert! It truly is sad to see so many people just scratching the surface for topical relevance, when in reality mosts sites are capable of acquiring heightened depth (for readership) and conversion and could achieve 400% more times the amount of traffic from just applying rudimentary steps to lead people through the “expected action for that page”. But, they have to get there first, so my suggestion in a nutshell is, to optimize root phrases with pertinent keywords instead of simple “exact match key phrases”, use strong internal links to get viewers deeper into the site and use graphics or video’s to cut the bounce rates in half.

We will continue along these lines for the next few days and covering topics related to SEO, conversion, structuring your offer and how the way you craft your content, ultimately impacts the bottom line. Stay tuned for the next post…

Author:  Jeffrey Smith is an active internet marketing optimization strategist, consultant and the founder of Seo Design Solutions Seo Company http://www.seodesignsolutions.com. He has actively been involved in internet marketing since 1995 and brings a wealth of collective experiences and fresh marketing strategies to individuals involved in online business.

Almost 10 years ago, futurist author John Naisbitt wrote about the social effects of the internet in his book, High-Tech/High-Touch. Here’s an excerpt from a synopsis that described the author’s observations…

“… on the effects of technology in reshaping society, the book brings together a mountain of evidence implicating technology in relentlessly accelerating our lives and stirring profound yearnings for a more emotionally satisfying existence.”

It’s simple… the more hi-tech we are, the more we crave for human interaction.

And we’ve responded to an ever-increasing sense of isolation with the help of the web and multimedia technology. There are web-based video sites like YouTube. Social networking sites such as Digg, Flickr, Wikis, MySpace and Facebook, etc. And perpetual ways to keep in contact with IM, video messaging, and texting via cell phones.

The web has grown up. And the term, Web 2.0, reflects it in important ways. For online businesses, it means giving people increased interaction and more control over their content. A curious and new twist on a time-tested marketing term, give people what they want.

Web 2.0 exemplifies the evolution of the internet. But in a way it’s a return to earlier roots by being the information sharing resource it was in the beginning when Al Gore invented it! But with the Web 2.0 twist.

And what does it mean for online businesses? It amplifies the power of the best form of advertising for any business!

Word-of-mouth advertising. Brand building. And getting your business message out to be heard!

The nature of Web 2.0 is viral and contagious. Go to Digg or Del.icio.us and you’ll find out what I mean. As a marketer in this environment, it’s crucial for you to understand the importance of viral marketing and managing your various marketing messages. And it’s important to creating maximum buzz around your products.

But you need to develop a smart strategy.

The best way to take advantage of this new technology is to understand what each has to offer in your marketing plan. Then develop a clear understanding of your business goals and most desired outcome. And no. It’s not as simple as ‘making a boatload of cash!’

It’s really no different than having a tool box. Each tool has its own specific purpose and reason for being. For example… if you want to know how customers feel about a particular topic, you can create a blog to get that kind of information. You can do interviews using either video or podcast and make them available.

Audio is very powerful and diverse. You can increase website conversions, regardless of your most desired response, simply by putting an audio button with a short message on it.

The only limits to what can be done are what you can imagine…

Approach the Web 2.0 evolution with the same strategies used with the more traditional ways of marketing. An integrated approach will serve you well. And the same marketing principles apply. We’re just driving a new vehicle!

Succeeding at online marketing means paying attention and evolving. Businesses that refuse to learn and grow will soon disappear.

Author:  A former college dropout, Dan “The Man” Lok transformed himself from a grocery bagger in a local supermarket to an internet multi-millionaire. Discover how you can maximize your website profits in minimum time. For a limited time, you can test- drive Dan’s Insiders Club for 30-days Risk-Free and get $1,165 dollars worth of bonus gifts. Rush cover to: http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com/testdrive.html

Along with the About Us page, your Contact Us page is one of the most important and crucial pages on your site to get right. In fact, the Contact Us page could be considered the absolutely most important page. Even if the rest of your site succeeds in the goals, if visitors fail to find the information they need to contact you then you will bring their shopping experience to a screeching halt.

Shoppers are often hampered if they don’t feel they can get a hold of a real person or are limited in their contact options. With all other areas of the site working, a bad contact us page may cause someone to think twice about purchasing with you altogether.

Accessibility

Visitors must be able to find a link to your Contact Us page easily and obviously from all pages of your site. They should not have to hunt to find your contact information.

Contact options

Provide multiple options for contacting you including phone, fax, email and web form. Live support can also be valuable. While you may want to direct the options toward what is most convenient for you, not providing a contact option most convenient for your visitors can be a mistake.

Contact points

Larger sites should provide contact information for all major departments such as customer service, tech support, inquiries, general info, memberships, job apps, billing, etc. You might even want to include contact options for specific individuals such as CEO, SFO, etc.

Map and hours

If you deal more with local business rather than national, your hours of operation should be included along with a map pinpointing your location. This certainly won’t hurt national businesses either.

No advertisements

Your contact page should be free of ads, both for your own as well as other products/services. This page should maintain as limited focus as possible.

Web form

Your web contact form should require as little information as is necessary. Don’t use this as a survey. Just the bare necessities should be requested.

Your Contact Us page should not be complicated. In fact, simple is better. Provide the information that your visitors need and provide as many contact options as you can to cover your bases. This will ensure an effective contact us page that provides assurances to your visitors as they move through the conversion process.

Author:  Stoney deGeyter founded Pole Position Marketing in 1998 working from a home office and has since turned it into a leading search engine marketing business with a small team of seasoned Reno SEO and marketing experts. Stoney pioneered the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing which is the driving philosophy on how Pole Position marketing helps their clients expand their online presence and improve online conversion rates.

Blogs offer countless opportunities for launching your business into the social media networks, and they can be designed as an extension of an existing website, or simply stand alone. Blogging is moving far beyond the casual journal style of the initial growth stages, allowing businesses and large companies to develop a fresh identity.

Blogging culture allows you to take part in a conversational style of marketing, reaching hundreds and thousands of visitors on a daily basis, and even creating a following. Providing high quality content is an important component of your blog; without good articles and content, your readers will simply move elsewhere.

A blog can be used as a platform for your social bookmarking efforts since each and every link to an article can be shared independently. This is why you need to implement a social bookmarking badge or link on your site, since the times that you are not independently marketing yourself, another visitor may go ahead and do it for you!

Blogs are an easy way to break apart your website into different subjects and categories. Even a well-organized website can be limited when it does not offer comments or space for feedback. While many websites are being designed in this way, the benefits of launching a blog along with your site are a valuable opportunity to generate higher readership.

Blogs also give you an option to implement an RSS subscription service. Since many people simply do not have the time to visit multiple sites in a given day, an RSS feed can deliver new content to their e-mail box or other RSS reader. This gives you a chance to share the link with each and every subscriber, and every time you publish, you increase the chances of someone simply submitting your content to a social bookmarking site or network.

SETTING UP YOUR BLOG TO BE SOCIAL MEDIA FRIENDLY

Your blog may be setup through a variety of services including Blogger, WordPress, or TypePad. Whichever format you choose, it’s a good idea to look for widgets and code that can add social bookmarking buttons to the site immediately. Remember that this makes it very easy and efficient for your readers to start submitting something they read to multiple social bookmarking networks and search engines; all you have to do during these stages is provide quality content on a regular basis, and work on generating a large amount of traffic. Traffic will build on itself, and the more-established your blog becomes, the higher the chances that it will be discovered.

As your content starts to join the networks such as StumbleUpon and Digg, you’ll notice immediate surges in traffic. Traffic is driven largely by the number of interested visitors who rate and vote on your site, and how valuable the content is to a variety of readers. Not only do you need to focus on creating evergreen and valuable content on a regular basis, but it’s important to make it easy for search engine rankings with the appropriate amount of keywords.

INCREASING YOUR BLOG’S POPULARITY WITH SOCIAL BOOKMARKING

The only way to effectively increase your blog’s popularity with social bookmarking is to spread out your endeavors across multiple social media sites. This may include Technorati, Google Links, Del.ici.ous, and Yahoo! Links where your individual articles and submissions are mentioned either within another blog, or standing alone in a particular category.

Tools such as SocialMeter can help you keep track of how well your blog or webstie is doing in the social bookmarking networks at any given time. SocialMeter scans the largest social websites and ranks them against each other based on how many times your link or website is indexed in each one. You just type in your URL and the results will run a search on each site to give you a final tally.

Badges and ‘chiclets’, the tools that you can add to your blog or website are very effective ways to develop your social bookmarking activity. Your blog’s popularity will instantly increase because you are:

1. Providing users increased interaction. You’ll be surprised how many static sites that make this shift can start building traffic with very little direct marketing. Once the news spreads that you are offering this added value to your website, you can look forward to increased traffic on a regular basis.
2. Making it easy to reach Digg and other social bookmarking networks hat allow users to vote. Voting and rating articles is becoming a very popular activity on the web, and if you write something particularly compelling you can start to create a traffic boost overnight.
3. Increasing your exposure naturally in the social networking hemisphere. Social networking and bookmarking gives you a chance to increase your exposure tenfold; visitors who find an article worth sharing will help you reach a much more targeted and refined audience than simply publishing a website and hoping to get readers. You will be delivering your news and information with a much stronger reach.

In addition to promoting yourself on social bookmarking sites, there are some effective ways to market the blog itself. Again, this will encourage your visitors to share the ‘news’ from your blog on their own. Some effective strategies for blog promotion may include:

1. Join an RSS submission network. These will help you submit to an even larger listing of sites, all from the RSS feeds that you create. Syndication allows you to reach a much larger audience, and building a steady list of subscribers can increase traffic flow instantly.
2. Post announcements about your blog and website on forums, bulletins, and community boards. When you have identified your specific channels, start promoting yourself with news announcements, new articles, or simply an introduction to community members. Include your link and you’ll easily start to drive traffic.
3. Join discussion groups and forums about your industry or topic, and leave a link to your blog or website in your profile every time you post.

Be consistent with these efforts and they will pay off big time.

Author:  Sean S. Sampson provides valuable resources, and information to help the home business owner, and online business owner prosper with their business. For more information about Social Bookmarketing, please go to http://www.makinglotsofmoneyonline.com