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2 Ways To Get Free Targeted Traffic To Your Website That Really Work

05 2008 Friday

By Jeff Schuman in Featured

In this article we want to talk about how to get traffic to your website. More specifically, we want to talk about how to get targeted traffic meaning visitors that want to be there. If you have been on the Internet for any amount of time, you understand the importance of getting targeted traffic.

1. First of all let’s talk about blogging. Blogging is extremely simple to do yet can be a very important way to get targeted traffic. The key is that you create an informative blog that people want to read.

You do this by keeping it updated on a constant basis and providing quality information. Quality information can also include offering free things such as reports, software, e-books, and valuable tips that a person can use and would be meaningful to them.

Search Engine Optimization: It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who Knows You

05 2008 Thursday

By Erin Ferree in Featured

Many small businesses start their websites and put a “Links” page up as one of their first few pages thinking that this will help them rank better.

While it’s a nice gesture to link to your vendors, associates, resources, and products you like, and your customers may even find this page helpful or interesting having a links page alone won’t help your website to rank better.

Instead, You Want Your Website to Be Like A Prom Queen

That’s not to say you want your website to wear a sparkly dress or a shiny tiara or make a sappy acceptance speech.

5 Steps to a Popular Blog

05 2008 Thursday

By Toni Laveri in Featured

Blogging is a hot way for an ordinary person to make some cash on the net. Anybody with a computer and an Internet connection can make it in this market. You’ve no doubt come across many blogs and maybe you’ve thought about starting one yourself.

Here are some common sense advice on how to get your thoughts out of your head and into your blog. Listen up.

1. You’re the boss.

Don’t worry about what people will think when you blog. Just write what you feel, what is in your heart, and your fans will find you!

2. What To Write About.

What if you can’t think of ideas, where can you get ideas to write about?

There is so many ways to research ideas, that I could spend a year writing about each one. Here is just a few things you can write about.

Hop to YouTube, find a few videos you like and blog about those 2 .Go to the major news sites and blog about current events in your home town, the nation, or the world 3. Scan a few community forums and blog about what people are talking about.

3. Ok Ok, I get the Idea, but I really don’t have time to maintain a blog.

If the thought of committing to your blog gives you weak knees, you can always schedule a bunch of posts in advance.

A lot of blogging software give you the option to schedule your posts, giving you the flexibility to post at regular intervals even if you have a short period of time to commit to your blog.

For example, when you have time to blog, generate a list of ideas for articles, tutorials and other things that you might be interested in. Brainstorm at least ten different topics and create a 3-4 sentence paragraph about each topic. Then create a post for each idea using the future post to schedule the posts.

If you want, you can post 1/2/3 blog posts per week. Now, your blog will auto post your articles even if you can’t be at the computer.

4. Show Me the Money!

Okay, let’s monetize your new blog. Once your site or blog has lots of stuff on it then sign yourself up for Google AdSense and some kind of affiliate program like the Amazon Associates Program. I suggest that if you are using amazon you go with products that you hand pick so they are exactly targeted to the subject of each web page.

A lot of experts recommend you wait a month before you start thinking about site monetization. I can see the logic in this. After all, you want to have a decent collection of interesting projects, ideas, articles and related stuff before you start looking for the money.

But, don’t expect overnight riches. In fact, don’t expect a dime for at least 3 to 5 months after you start your blog. If you use money as your primary motivation for blogging, you will burn out.

5. Time is Your Best Friend.

A lot of the popular blogs that are making nice change have been around forever. Maybe you’ve heard of a friend of a friend that’s making a ton of money on a crappy blog he started only a few weeks ago. Every time you hear these stories, remember that these great results are not typical. I guarantee you that a person like that is buying advertising to get traffic to their blog, that their content is uninteresting, and that their blog will be down in a years time.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned is that a good website is like fine wine or cheese. The longer you blog ages and is allowed to develop, the more valuable your blog will be.

Making money on the internet is fun ancd exciting. Learn more at WildCashFlow.com

Increase Website Visibility Using RSS

05 2008 Wednesday

By Rob Emmerson in Featured

Using RSS helps to streamline the communication between publishers and their readers. RSS has had a surge in popularity, so webmasters have started to experiment using RSS to deliver their content in new and creative ways.

RSS feeds usually contain a headline and a summary of the content. The summary of the content contains enough information get the attention and interest of the reader without overwhelming them. If the reader wants more information, they can simply click a link in the feed and access the website that has all the details.

RSS readers combine the information from multiple feeds. This makes it easy and convenient for individuals to quickly browse the information from many sources. Feeds are generally themed, which allows readers to subscribe to feeds that interest them.

One of the biggest benefits of RSS, is the ability of individuals to opt-in only to feeds of interest. This gives total control of what information is received to the user. If the quality of a feed goes down, or they simply are no longer interested, a user could just remove the feed from the RSS reader. There is no subscribing or un-subscribing to deal with, when the feed is removed no further information is received from that feed. An RSS reader also compiles all the information from multiple sources to one area. this allows the user to quickly view many content streams without having to go to multiple locations or emails.

RSS is a great tool for publishers as well. It frees the publisher from maintaining lists, worrying about privacy rules, spam or age guidelines. At the same time it provides the publisher a vehicle for communication to a highly targeted audience.

Publishers can use RSS to deliver keyword rich, themed content. This will help establish trust and build the publishers reputation with new and established customers.

Here is a sample of what can be delivered with RSS:

Blogs, many blogs utilize a RSS feed. Each blog post is summarized and broadcast as a feed item. This makes it easier for interested readers to scan blog posts for specific items of interest.

Articles, many articles are placed into RSS feeds and sent to readers informing them of new content. Generally, the feed consists of the article title and a brief summary or introduction of the article. RSS users can then decide to follow the link to the complete article.

Forum Feed, some forums are now allowing users to get new posts through RSS feed. The feed will usually show the latest topic of discussion. If users are interested in posting replies, or reading more, they can simply click to go directly to the forum discussion. As the forum discussion continues the RSS feed is updated and readers see the latest updates on the topic.

Organizations Schedules, many clubs, schools and groups use RSS to communicate everything from meetings to events that are coming up. The feed used to publicize these events also notify the community.

Retail Sale or Special Feed. Both online and traditional stores have started using RSS feeds to deliver news of special offers and sales to customers. Some online marketers have stepped this up by allowing users to customize a feed with keywords or phrases that they choose.

RSS feeds have been adapted to many industries and the usefulness of RSS is growing every day. RSS is now being used to market, promote and communicate to a variety of audiences. The ease of use and user friendly make up of RSS has helped many organizations to expand their reach to new audiences and customers. RSS is fast becoming the communication vehicle for many businesses and with the increase of popularity will come ever more creative uses for this communication vehicle.

Rob Emmerson is a leading expert in SEO and has written extensivly on the subject in articles and eBooks. He offers a free SEO Course for individuals interested in improving their websites. in addition he writes a daily Blog on SEO where he shares tips and tricks.

A Beginers Guide to Getting started on the Web (part 2)

05 2008 Wednesday

By Graham Taylor in Featured

I the first part of this article I looked at the basic necessities of getting your self started on the internet. In this second part I shall look at what you need to get your own site set up.

Hosting

If you want to develop your own site you will need to get a domain name, which is unique to you, the name you choose should ideally have a relationship with the key words that you use for the search engines to home in on, for example 2 of the key words that I use with this site are “Tips” and “Internet tips” so you can see that http ://tips4-u.com is tailored to the market that I want to attract. I have used several companies to host my sites in the past, but the best service for a paid host that I have found is Midphase they offer many different plans, and are full service hosting providers meaning you get all the facilities that you will need including cpanel,php,mysql and many others.

The best value that I have found, is doteasy, they give free 100 mb hosting for each name that is registered with them, but they are only basic accounts, for the facilities that I just listed they do charge.

Http: //doteasy.com

Editing software

The easiest type of editing software for creating your own site is often know as WYSIWYG or What you See is What you Get, with this type of editor you just type in what youwant and the sofeware converts it to the requires HTML language that browsers understand. I use one called Coffeecup they have a free version at www .coffeecup.com/free-editor

Ftp Software

Once you have your hosting account you will want to be able to upload your website, for this you will want a FTP client, the initials stand for File Transfer Protocol and while ther are 100’s to choose from one of the easiest that I have used is Filezilla, http: //filezilla-project.org a free download.

Payment Proccessors

Having reached this stage, you are going to need to organize a way to pay and receive money on line, there are many ways to do this and I will give you my recommendations and explain why I would net use some companies. Paypal http: //paypal.com This is the largest online payment proccessor and it is owned by E-bay, It is a must have account and very secure. Paypal has very strict rules, and if you are selling using paypal make sure that you follow there tems and conditions to the letter to avoid having your account put on hold.

Alertpay http: //www.alertpay.com/?6thoqN0Bnkgy8lks1hOJ%2bA%3d%3d

Alertpay has a good reputation and is growing quickly,

Safepaysolutions http: //safepaysolutions.com

Another high reputation newcomer, well worth opening an account.

E-gold http: //e-gold.com

A slightly riskier payment processor, e-gold has had some problems with being used for money laundering, because of the way the company works once a payment has been made it is not possible to recall it so when buying on the internet make sure you know what you are getting when you pay with e-gold. It is worth having an account, as many paid to click sites use e-gold for instant payments.

In the next and final part of this article I shall look at traffic generation.

By Graham Andrew Taylor For more Internet Tips Articles and Reviews visit tips4-u.com

Criteria for a Good SEO Firm

05 2008 Wednesday

By Sarah Lamansky in Featured

You have a website and now you’re ready to start marketing yourself…who do you go to for help? Who do you trust? Finding a knowledgeable, time-tested and honest SEO firm is a challenging, and at times, daunting task. Ask the right questions and educate yourself on the criteria for a good SEO firm. There is a lot of stuff out there on the web, but if you gain the right information and hire a great SEO firm, you can breathe easy and watch as your website soars in the search engines! Is your hired SEO firm a true fit? Check out these criteria on a good SEO firm.

Steer Clear of “Just Trust Me…”
Have you heard this line before? If so, you might want to reconsider this type of SEO Firm. Good SEO Firms not only explain what they are doing, but why they are changing your website. Whether it’s tweaking content, adding links, or creating a new page - there needs to be an explanation for changes made to your website. A good SEO firm will act in an honest and professional manner when optimizing your site - keeping those lines of communication open! If all you hear is, “Just trust me” or “In 2 weeks, you’ll be #1 in Google”…that’s a red flag! Don’t waste your time, or your money with these fly-by-night, so-called SEO Firms.

The Duplicate Content Myth

05 2008 Wednesday

By Kalena Jordan in Featured

dupe content For some reason, the words duplicate content seem to strike fear into the hearts of webmasters everywhere, particularly those who run affiliate programs.

Questions about dupe content are amongst the most common questions I get on my Ask Kalena blog. But most webmasters worry about this for the wrong reasons. Let me set the record straight: I don’t believe there is such a thing as a duplicate content penalty. Yes, search engines can detect duplicate pages and will do what they can to avoid including them. But that usually involves a filter-based algorithm to determine the “original” page and ignore the dupes. eMarketing firm Elliance have put together a terrific graphic that shows how this filter system works.

So search engines are good at filtering out dupe pages. However, duplicate content can cause other issues that you might not have thought about. As Eric Enge points out on the SEOmoz blog:

dupe content can take up a search bot’s crawl budget, meaning that some of your important pages may not be indexed.
dupe pages waste valuable PageRank and link juice
a search engine’s final decision about which is the “original” page and which are the dupes may not be accurate

I see 3. happen a lot, particularly in the case of blog posts that have been scraped or articles that have been syndicated. Pages containing my own original articles have sometimes suffered this fate when they are syndicated on a popular hub or authority site. Google incorrectly assumes that the authority site is the originator of the content and ignores my pre-dated version.

So how to avoid these issues? Where possible, use NoFollow tags to the dupe pages. If you’re syndicating content, ask your publishers to NoIndex the pages containing your content and/or to include a link back to your original source.

Internet Marketing - Tools of The Trade

05 2008 Wednesday

By Titus-Hoskins in Featured

In order to succeed on the web you need the proper tools.
It doesn’t matter if your goal is to operate a website just
for a hobby or whether you’re trying to earn a part-time
or full-time income.

You need the right marketing tools.

These tools can be very simple or very complicated; it will
mainly depend on the kind of online marketing you’re doing.
Someone running a simple website can get by with very few
tools; whereas someone operating a PPC enterprise or a SEO
consulting firm may need more sophisticated software programs
to effectively run their businesses.

Internet marketing tools is a subject I know something about
for I have been studying, testing and using countless marketing
tools for over 8 years now. I run two websites devoted to
online marketing tools. If you search Google for “internet
marketing tools” you will find my two sites on the first page.
Google Screenshot

Although I am always wary of pointing out my sites in Google,
mainly because they can move off the first page overnight…
and you end up with egg on your face. The only reason I point
out these Google listings is to prove that I at least know
how to get my pages and keywords on the front pages in Google.

Frankly, when you’re talking about Internet marketing, what
other benchmark or measurement do we really have to show
that any marketer or SEO expert knows what they’re talking
about? Not counting sales stats of course, which is really
the ultimate benchmark for online marketing.

In this blog post, I thought it would be fun to use my acquired
knowledge to discuss and list those important tools I have
found most effective and most useful in my marketing. Never
know, they may also prove helpful to you and your marketing.

Let’s start at the very beginning. I am assuming you have a
reliable PC or laptop with an Internet connection or service.
Obviously, you need these if you’re going to work on the
Internet.

Now here are some marketing tools you will need:

1. Domain

This is your online calling card and the name of your site
or business. This is your URL or your address on the web.
Most SEO experts suggest you place your main “keyword” or
“keyword phrase” in your domain name. If you are doing a
site on “engagement rings,” you should place this phrase
in your domain name. I have found using your site’s main
keywords in your domain will give you higher rankings faster
- especially in Google.

There are many domain sellers on the web; since I have
numerous domains I use GoDaddy mainly because I manage
most of my online purchases thru Paypal, which GoDaddy
accepts. I also use GoDaddy because it has a proxy service.
I have never had a problem with them and I even host 5 or
6 of my sites thru GoDaddy.

2. Website

Your need a website to go with your newly created domain.
If you can afford it, get a professionally designed site
from a professional website designer. I am purposely using
the word “professional” because that is exactly what you want
your site looking and feeling like from visitor one. In that
split second of arrival at your site there must be no doubt
in your visitor’s mind about the quality of your site.
Besides, if you’re new to online marketing, you will want
your site designed by a website designer because they will
optimize your site for all the search engines.

You can get away with using templates, but I would suggest
you at least invest some funds in a professionally designed
logo or header for your site. This will at least give your
visitor a good first impression. Even though I have an art
background, I personally use Ryan Jackson (aka designgururyan)
for my important graphics, mainly because he’s very good and
because he caters to the Internet marketing crowd.

3. Hosting

Once you have your website created, you will need somewhere
to host it. I have only used shared hosting for my sites
(shared hosting is as it sounds, you will share your site
IP address with around 200 - 300 other sites). The other
alternative is to get dedicated hosting, which is more
expensive, but you have your own IP address and faster
download times. My advice, go with shared hosting first;
if your site becomes extremely popular, you will have to
upgrade to a dedicated server just to handle all that
traffic.

There are countless hosting companies to choose from on the
web. Keep in mind, the cheapest may NOT be the best choice.
What you’re really looking for is good quality service with
support that you can contact at any time of the day or night.
Do some research of your own before you pick your web host.
A little homework done now will save you major headaches down
the road.

I have used many web hosts over the years and the ones I
find good, I have kept. Moving a site from one web host to
another is a major hassle if you have a large site. As for
web hosts, I would recommend Bluehost and even GoDaddy
- these have worked out nicely for me, but keep in mind
I only have simple sites which need very little maintenance.

4. Autoresponder

One key element you must have if you’re into online marketing
is an autoresponder service. The money is in the follow-up.
You must collect the contact information of your site’s
visitor and get them subscribed to your ezine or newsletter.
You need an autoresponder service so that you can automatically
follow-up or send emails/information to the people interested
in your site or product.

Again, I have used many AR services over the years, including
those that are usually included in your hosting packages.
However, I would recommend you invest in a more robust
unlimited autoresponder service like those offered by
GetResponse or Aweber. I have used both and found them to
be very professional and very effective.

5. Credibility

Might sound a bit strange but without a doubt your main
marketing tool on the web will be credibility. You and
your site must establish credibility with your visitor
or it’s game over.

The web is still a very untrustworthy place; you must
build and establish credibility with your visitors.
You must establish trust. You or your site must be seen
as the place to go for information on your site’s area
of interest.

Many webmasters and online marketers solve this problem
by becoming an expert on their site’s topic. Actually,
this is something that happens quite naturally. If you
keep and run a site on “engagement rings” for 7 or 8 years
- chances are you will become an expert on that subject.
Of course, nothing establishes your credibility more than
writing articles and books on your subject area. Spread
these well-informed and helpful articles/books around the
web and people will be calling you an expert faster than
Tom Cruise can jump on a couch.

Only added that last comment to remind you to be careful
of what you do on the web, credibility usually takes some
time to build, but it can be lost in one careless moment.

………………….

Internet Marketing - Tools of The Trade - Part Two

Now here are some Internet marketing tools that will make
your job and life much easier.

1. Keyword Research Software

Without a doubt, one of the most important online marketing
software I have used deals with keyword research. The core
foundation of any online site or business will be picking
and targeting the profitable keywords related to your industry
or subject matter. It is vital to choose the right keywords
if you target free organic traffic from the search engines,
and it is just as important if you’re going the much faster
PPC (Pay Per Click) route.

You must do your keyword research in order to place high
in the search engine rankings. You must know your competition.
You must know how to optimize your pages for your chosen
keywords. I find Brad Callen’s Keyword Elite to be very
helpful in finding the right keywords and getting those
keywords to the first page in Google. I mainly concentrate
my SEO efforts towards Google simply because it delivers
the most quality traffic. Good software makes a tedious
job simple and easy. Keyword Elite fills that bill.

2. HTML Editor

You need a good HTML editor or program to create your
web pages. I use the free version of Note Tab Light and
it suits my needs nicely. I have never upgraded my version
and have been using if for years. There are probably more
robust editors out there… but this one has made creating
my websites a breeze. If you want a WYSIWYG (What You See
Is What You Get) editor, try Adobe Dreamweaver.

3. FTP Software

Around a year ago, I heard of this FTP client or software
from Marlon Sanders, and it has saved me the most time/money
of any software I have ever used. You see, I have countless
sites on many different servers/webhosts and keeping track
of these different sites, multiple passwords, and uploading
files was a real pain. I had to go to the web hosts or open
up the control panel for each site… then find the page
in the directory on my computer and upload the file.
Real Hassle.

All this took up an enormous amount of my time. I didn’t
realize how much time until I bought 3D FTP and started
using it. From this one FTP software I can login to all
my sites and upload files quickly and easily. It keeps
track of all my sites and passwords. Updating 10 or 20
sites can be done within minutes!

The feature that I really like is that it will queue up
the last file I have been working on so it is at the top
of the list when I upload. I don’t have to search thru
files to find the last file I updated… it finds all
these files and puts them at the top of the list for me,
ready for uploading. Another cool feature, it tests in
3D the download speed of your site’s server.

4. WordPress/Blogging Software

For now, blogs and blogging is it. You must be taking
advantage of this keyword rich way of placing content
on the web. I find the free WordPress blogging software
to be very effective for keyword positioning. Keywords
are called tags in the blogging world. I have at least
one blog on all my sites, and I find Wordpress is very
easy to install even if setting up server side scripts
scares the BeJesus out of you!

Your online marketing will be much more effective if you
use the whole blogging networks. And don’t forget all
the social bookmark sites that will greatly increase your
web presence; I have found simply placing the Addthis.com
button on your pages will get your site book marked for
you by your visitors. Simple marketing tool that works.

5. Knowledge

You can have all the carpenter’s tools on the planet,
but if you don’t know how to use them you will never be
able to build a house. The same goes for marketing tools.
You must have some knowledge of how Internet marketing
works to really use any tools effectively.

But where to find this knowledge can prove more of a
minefield than it ought to be. There are plenty would-be
teachers and info-products to get you started, but usually
newly christened or beginning online marketers are bombarded
with so many learning options it all becomes a blur. Who do
you believe? Who do you trust?

In over eight years online, the best online marketing
training I have found would have to be the whole Sitesell
products created by Ken Evoy. Granted, he is trying to
sell you a hosting product by offering all these free
training manuals, but that doesn’t negate the fact that,
in my opinion, these “Sitesell Products” are the most
comprehensive Internet marketing knowledge you will
ever find.

Ken has just made “Make Your Words Sell” a free product,
a book he used to sell for $30 bucks. Still one of the
best sources of Internet marketing knowledge - regardless
of the price!

………………….

Internet Marketing - Tools of The Trade - Part Three

Now here are the free Internet marketing tools and/or
sites that give me the most joy. In my shallow world
joy and money are synonymous.

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics gives you an overall picture of what
is happening with your site or sites. It tracks your
visitors and tells you where they are coming from and
what they do on your site. It simply shows how to improve
your site to get higher conversions.

Simply put: this free service from Google is a MUST HAVE
for any online marketer. The more information you have
about your site and how well it is performing is vital
to increasing your sign-ups and sales.

Google Analytics

2. Microsoft’s Online Commercial Intention Tool

If you’re into online marketing, you want visitors coming
to your site with their wallets/purses open and ready to buy.
You want to mostly attract buying customers to your sales
pages and online content.

Microsoft, as part of their adCenter system, has a great
little tool that lets you check the “Commercial Intention”
of a URL or search query. In other words, you can type in
a phrase or keyword and it will tell if the person making
that search is likely to buy or not.

For example, if you type in “Corporate Business Gifts”
the probability for commercial query is 0.96604 or around
96 per cent, which is very high and it’s likely that
person has intentions of buying something.

How cool is that?

If you’re designing a website or doing PPC advertising,
it is vital you pick the keywords where people have
commercial intention - likely to buy something.

Online-Commercial-Intention-Tool

3. SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool

As you’ve probably gathered by now, choosing the right
keywords is vital to your online success. If you go the
free organic traffic route, then the keywords you target
are essential to your site’s success. SEO Book has a
handy keyword suggestion tool that you can use to find
out how many searches are made each day for your keywords.

This site also has many other handy search engine
optimization tools you can use to improve your site.

Keyword Suggestion Tool

4. iWebtool Visual Pagerank

When I first discovered this little tool, I couldn’t
believe my luck. It gives you the “Visual Google Pagerank”
of every link on a URL or web page at one glance, both
internal and external links. Now the jury is still out
on the importance of Google Pagerank, but I believe it
is still important in the whole scheme of things as a
matter of perception if nothing else; what people perceive
about your site can have positive benefits.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, this tool was
not functioning properly - maybe due to Google constant
Algorithm updates). However, this site also has many
helpful marketing tools you can use.

Visual Pagerank

5. Gurus

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the big name online marketing gurus
are the most effective marketing tools on the web. These
marketing powerhouses have the large contact and customer
lists necessary to turn any product into an instant best
seller. They operate vast multi-million dollar marketing
networks that would make the average webmaster blush
with envy.

Creating a JV (joint venture) with these gurus can
instantly put any product or site on the Internet map.
However, be warned, all the marketing hype and promotion
surrounding many of these gurus have turned a lot of
people off - especially those who have payed an arm or
leg for the latest info-product that’s supposed to give
them the keys to online wealth. In many cases, these
products are too advanced or require additional skills
that the buyer simply doesn’t have… resulting in
negative feelings and bad press.

From my own experiences, when I was first starting out,
I did have a few bad experiences and wasted more than
a little cash on products that didn’t work out as planned.
However, I quickly discovered solid online marketers like
Ken Evoy, Marlon Sanders, Neil Shearing… which as that
old poem says, “And that has made all the difference.”

Hooking up with the right online marketing expert can
be the best marketing tool and move you will ever find
and make on the web - the ultimate fast forward!

Where to find these gurus?

Here’s a nice hunting ground: www.gurudaq.com

Linking Practices – Part 2 of 3: Links Applied

05 2008 Tuesday

By Robert Cerff in Featured

Here in part two of “Linking Practices” we will cover the application of those links we discussed previously (check out part 1: “Links Defined”).

As with all marketing practices the best place to start is always with a plan. In this case we will need to establish what the purpose is of building these links. With links being a major factor when ranking a website many webmasters use links to try and gain higher rankings in search engine results. Sometimes links are valuable simply as they drive traffic to your website. As we all know traffic is very blood that powers your online business. Consider links the veins.

Reciprocal Links:
These links often offer very little aid when it comes to ranking highly in the search engines. While these links usually reside on a page that is no more than a long list of URL’s occasionally these can be of great benefit. A reciprocal link simply means a link exchanged. Usually you can request the anchor text and description you wish the link to display as well as the URL this points to. This makes sense as this is supposed to be a beneficial exchange for both parties.

Against the rules - hints about how to create text for a website

05 2008 Monday

By Adam Nowak in Featured

I am sure that many people wonder what the secret of filling up a website with its content is. The recipe seems to be quite simple - clarity and an appropriate outline are crucial. However, there is one thing you cannot forget about. Those who have never published texts or documents outside the Internet will find it easier, as they do not have to get rid of their old habits while learning the new art of website publishing. In contrast, experienced publishers will have to agree that clarity and simplicity do not mean the same as they did in the past. Filling in a website with text is against the rules and principles which they regarded as a strong point of their work until now.

Knowing the audience

The most important thing to be remembered is that a web page contains messages for a particular group of people. The content is to satisfy the informational hunger of our potential website users.

The more we know about them, the easier it is to adjust the texts for their needs. For example we can do the following things:

* choose topics in such a way that they would be really interesting for our audience;

* arrange those topics, so that it would be easier to find them on the page;

* construct the text using the language of our users, not one of experts;

* choose the style of writing that is suitable for the reader;

* set up a form of communication - contrary to other media, the Internet allows us to use a more informal style on our webpage. It is up to us to establish the grade of familiarity, but in order to do it properly, you need to have thorough knowledge about the users.

In everyday situations, we pay attention to the way people react to what we say. In such a situation, we choose our words, tone and style of speaking to show our appreciation for the other speaker. We create a message that builds trust. Difficult as it may seem, our webpage needs to build the same familiarity. We have to guess what people think about us, how we should address to them and what they want to listen to.

Scanner or reader

The text screened on the monitor is less absorbed by the human eye. That is why it reads 25% slower than a text written on paper. Moreover, too many websites found by the search engine are not related to what the reader is looking for and they do not want to read them.

Therefore, we have to prepare our text in such a way, that it convinces the readers as early as the first glance, to read it and then to search through our service. Hereafter, little advice on the subject is presented.

1. Structural construction of the text

While preparing a text that is to be published on the Internet, we think about its structural construction. We start wondering about the template that is to be filled in. For example, if we edit a text about a company’s products, we prepare a scheme of the description. It can look like this:

Name of product Problem Solution Product’s function Benefits Price

The next step is to describe all the products by filling up the same template. Be consistent and try not to change the template for similar items. The reader will expect to find the same schema on each and every page describing all the products.

2. Reduce the text, as nobody will read it

If you want to be sure that someone will read your text, write less! Let’s reduce our text by its half preserving only the main core.

All important information, that is not closely related to the core, should be moved to the additional material. It is better to do it this way, because as we already know, Internet users rarely read long texts. Try to put each new thought into a separate paragraph, but do not make them too long. It is crucial with a reference to the above mentioned remark about scanning the text before reading. Short paragraphs will make it easier to evaluate the usefulness of the text for a particular person. The ideal paragraph consists of two or three sentences

3. Text easy to scan

As research shows, 79% of Internet users scan a page and eventually read it afterwards. Therefore, the headlines informing about the text’s content should be clearly designed. Using headlines and subheadings should be of primary importance while writing such a text. If you need to highlight one part of a text or a word, use bold type. It is the best solution. Do not use capital letters, italics or underlining (in the Internet, the last one is used for marking linked pages). If you highlight using a colour, be consistent and use the same colour every time. Do not exaggerate with highlighted items. It is enough to use it in one or two phrases per one paragraph. If you want to mark many elements of the text, you can put them into a list, but try not to make it a very long one. It is acceptable that the list is not longer than nine points and has no more than two levels of indentation for each point. If the list is long, it is worth dividing it into sections, each of them having a headline. As much as it is possible, let’s help our reader imagine the data and use charts, diagrams and graphs.

4. Paragraphs - short and pithy. Text - written from the end.

Remember that each paragraph is the beginning of a new thought. Therefore, press Enter each time you start a new thought. It would be suitable that a paragraph is given to one problem and answers one user’s question. Start with the easiest information and then move to the new and more complicated kind. Do not forget that the text is to be published on a website. Therefore, put conclusions and the most important information at the beginning of the text, so that it is faster to find out what the text is about and it could make the reader read it in full. Do not keep users in suspense. As a rule they are lazy and expect simple and quick information.

Turn the content on its head. Contrary to text published on paper, start with a summary or conclusions. The Internet user should know in advance what is interesting for him in the text. We have to remember, that our reader will, first of all, scan the text and only then may become its reader.

As we can see, meeting the expectations of our Internet readers is not easy, but still possible. What is important, we can ask ourselves whether what we have created on the website would interest us as Internet users. If we have any doubts about it, it is better to start everything from the beginning and once more have a look at the presented hints.

This article was translated by mLingua Worldwide Translations, Ltd. mLingua provides professional language translations in all major Western and Asian languages, software localization and web site translation services. Please visit http://mlingua.pl

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