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By Kalena Jordan in Featured

The iconic arcade game Pac-Man celebrated it’s 30th anniversary this month. That’s right, 30 years ago, Pac-Man was launched in Japan and it’s been a firm favorite ever since, with young and old.

To commemorate Pac-Man’s 30th birthday, Google created an interactive Home Page Doodle: a Flash-based mini game of Pac-Man incorporating the Google logo. The “I’m feeling lucky” was replaced with a new button “Insert Coin” and you could play Pac-Man complete with 1980′s sound effects without leaving the Google home page. Apparently, it’s the first time Google have ever used Flash on their home page.

The game proved so popular with office procrastinators, that Google has kept it live so you can play it to your heart’s content. To play, you simply click that button or wait a few moments and the game will start by itself. If you click twice on “Insert Coin” then two people can play. Ms Pac-Man joins the game, with the second person controlling her movements using the WASD keys.

If you’re a Pac-Man freak, Mashable has shared how to download Google’s Pac-Man game to your PC so you can play without an Internet connection any time you like.

Happy Birthday Pac-Man.

By Debbie Everson in Featured

When a website is finally getting respectable traffic, enjoying a decent page rank (PR), and already at the first pages of search engine results, is it time to break out the champagne in celebration?

The shrewd website owner knows this is just halfway through the journey to a successful income-generating website. The end-goal is still how to turn visitors into buying customers. The bottom line is sales conversion, and this is an even harder hurdle to overcome.

It all boils down to what the users do when they get into the site. Do they click on links and advertisements? Do they spend a lot of time reading or browsing products? And most importantly, do they buy?

To convert audience from just-curious exploring visitors into actively purchasing ones, website owners should venture into the realms of landing page optimization.

Shedding Light on Landing Page Optimization

Experts rely on certain information to optimize the landing page. Some data may come from search criteria used by users to get to the site, or user demographics and buying habits. With this data the page is re-designed to appeal to users.

Another way to optimize is based on the results of an experimentation, wherein users are led to several versions of the landing page to see which version is more appealing to them. The most common experimentation is through A/B split testing involving two versions of the page. Although this method is inexpensive and makes for easier analysis and decision-making, the decision maybe flawed by inadequate data that takes no account of many external elements – banner, layout, color theme, text copy, etc. — not contained in only two versions.

Another landing page optimization that is more complex in execution, tools used, and statistical analysis is multi-variate LPO. Multi-variate LPO incorporates more elements that can be combined to come up with better landing page versions. When testing versions of landing pages that accounts for multiple variables instead of just two, the site gets the most accurate analysis of visitor preferences, the factors that can make them buy, and which page version is the best combination that gets the best reaction from users.

Tips to Better Landing Page Optimization

When website owners decide to launch their landing page optimization, they should do so with careful consideration. The undertaking involves resources and a certain degree of risk. If not done correctly, LPO can end up costing money but little results. Here are some tips to make the effort effective and easier:

  1. The look and feel of the landing page, is critical to encouraging or discouraging visitors to make a purchase in the site. This should be kept in mind as the rationale behind any LPO effort.
  2. Be careful in choosing the elements for optimization, such as layout, color theme, promotional campaigns, banners, etc. Make sure they can materialize or can be delivered when they turn out to be critical to optimization.
  3. Choose the best element mix from the many permutations, to lessen the complexity of having to test all landing page combinations.
  4. To find the optimum mix of elements from gathered data, use the most efficient tool such as Google’s Website Optimizer for analysis.
  5. Be careful in directing users to experimental landing page versions in a production website, many users tend to dislike changes and may cause them to leave.
Debbie A. Everson is the CEO of SearchMar.com, experienced SEO Consultants and Search Engine Optimization Agency to over 2,000 small businesses. Read my SEO Blog for hints and tips. Follow me on Twitter @searchmar. Call 1.866.885.6263 to speak to one of our SEO Consultants and receive your free consultation.

By Titus Hoskins in Featured

Andy Warhol got it wrong, he meant to say 15 seconds instead of 15 minutes! That lower number seems much more appropriate in the fast moving world of Twitter, the souped up mass online messaging tool that never quits or takes a breather. But how effective is Twitter as a list building tool?

Recently, one well-known Internet Marketer deleted his Twitter account which had over 25,000 followers, saying his messages or tweets were no longer being read and the response rate was next to nil. While this seems a little drastic, for SEO reasons alone it would be very foolish to delete a Twitter account with that many subscribers.

However, does this marketer have a point? Do your tweets get read or are they lost in the endless flood of other tweets quickly passing through the system. There is probably a lot of unread tweets flowing in our cyberage wasteland and the effectiveness of tweeting has diminished drastically as countless marketers plaster this latest medium with their marketing sales pitches.

So is Twitter an effective list building tool or not? Yes and no, it would all depend on how you approach the situation.

Twitter is a quick and effective way of building a large list of contacts which you can send messages to in a spam-free way. Lists with millions of followers is not unknown – thank Ashton Kutcher. Even for the online marketer and webmaster, Twitter can be an effective way to build a list of contacts very quickly.

However, the real issue remains, are your messages or tweets being read? Sadly, in many cases, because of the transitory nature and the sheer volume of tweets – your messages are probably not getting read or are not seen by as many people as you would like to see them. Therefore, one could argue about the effectiveness of Twitter as a list building tool; what’s the point if your messages are not making contact with your followers?

The key to success here is the same as with any list – you have to build a loyal group of followers who are eager to read your messages. It’s the relationship, stupid.

Besides, many people forget that Twitter is also one of the most popular web sites on the net, so having your messages and more importantly your links on this popular site is a “must-do” for webmasters and marketers. For SEO reasons alone, Twitter is extremely important. Your links are indexed by the search engines, especially if your Twitter profile is seen as an Authority Account with lots of influence.

With this fact in mind, here are some simple Twitter list building tips:

  1. Make sure you build an attractive Twitter Profile targeted to your audience.
  2. Place links to your Twitter Profile from all web sites and other social media sites/accounts.
  3. One effective way is to use a Twitter bookmark on all your relevant content and pages.
  4. Attach a link to your profile in all forum posts and email signatures.
  5. Use your Twitter account as your main tool for contact with tech/customer support.
  6. Add your Twitter Profile to your marketing articles and blog posts.
  7. Offer free ebooks, courses and special reports to anyone who re-tweets your messages.
  8. Become active within Twitter, link to other related Twitter profiles and build a strong presence.

Having said all that, I haven’t used Twitter much, except for SEO link building purposes. I find most messages or tweets do get lost in the constant flow of tweets. If a tweet falls in cyberspace, and no one reads it, is it really a tweet?

Then again, as an online affiliate marketer I have found other list building methods much more effective than sending a tweet. At the moment, one of my most effective list building techniques is at the opposite end of the spectrum, one that’s totally anonymous and invisible. If you’re into affiliate marketing you’re probably already using this technique; simply promote or pick affiliate products/program which have a cookie attached to them, when someone clicks your link they are “cookied” with your affiliate ID. I like picking affiliate programs which have at least a 90 day cookie, you can quickly build up an invisible list of prospective customers and if they buy within 90 days, you are credited with the commission.

Of course, one could always combine this affiliate list building method with your Twitter account/followers, which would be extremely effective if anyone ever bothered to read your tweets and click your links. Now if everyone could just spare 15 seconds, you have a very slim possibility of becoming both rich as well as famous.

If you want to find out more about list building old school, try this handy eCourse: list building Or why don’t you simply follow us on Twitter to get other useful marketing and list building help: bizwaremagic Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

By Jamie Lyons in Featured

WritingI get many questions about my job as a copywriter and SEO practitioner, and for the most part they follow a similar theme- ‘what do you do?’ and ‘could I do it?’ In an attempt to address these questions once and for all and possibly also give an insight into the life of an internet marketer I’ve put together an article: this article.

A large portion of my day is spent writing. From articles to press releases, website content to blogs: countless hours are spent staring at a blank page, frantically scrambling for inspiration or that perfectly sculpted sentence. The phrase ‘writer’s block’ is an often derided cliche, but there is no denying that sometimes you just can’t quite work out exactly what you’re trying to say, or even more infuriatingly, the best way to say it. Some will go for a walk to clear their mind, others to their cigarette packet or porcelain throne in an attempt to find clarity.

By Debbie Everson in Featured

RSS or Really Simple Syndication is used to distribute news and content to websites and visitors. RSS Feeds are available in a light weight xml format and can be generated for a blog or a static website. RSS Feeds are chiefly used to syndicate content such as announcements, new articles, news updates, videos and job openings.

If you ever visit a popular blog, notice the variety of feed readers placed in strategic position to capture your attention. Their main aim is to encourage you to subscribe to the feed. When you click on the feed link, you are transported to a web page containing information to sign up for the feed.

Syndicate your website content to ensure that the latest information is always easily accessible to your visitors.

6 Simple Steps to Syndicate Your RSS Feed:

1. Apply Feed Reader Syndication. Some notable feed readers are Google Reader and MyYahoo!. All you have to do is, add a subscribe button on your blog and personalize it for the common types of readers available.

2. Include an Email Subscription Box. This is one of the quickest ways to get all the updates and latest information. Feedburner and Feedblitz provide email subscription capabilities and metrics. Visitors can simply enter their email address in the input box and subscribe to your blog’s RSS Feed. All the latest news and articles will be directed to the specified email.

3. Submit RSS Feed Directly To Major Search Engines. All the major search engines have made it really simple to submit your blog’s feed. All you need to do is log into Google, MyYahoo! and MyMsn and submit your blog feed to them. This is also one of the easiest ways to get your blog indexed by searchbots.

4. Ping Search Engines. There are a number of pinging services available online where you can enter your blog or feed URL and ping the search engines. A pinging service like Ping-O-Matic gets your blog indexed at multiple websites like Technorati, Feedster etc.

5. Use PHP Syndication. It is commonly known that searchbots cannot index JavaScript. So, if you want your feed links to get indexed, JavaScript Syndication is not a favorable option. Here, PHP syndicated code has the upper hand over JavaScript syndication. It provides backlinks and helps in indexing web pages.

6. Provide JavaScript Code for Syndication. JavaScript syndication is used to display a third party RSS feed on your website. There are a lot of JavaScript syndicators online, which provide code. Simply put the code in the sidebar of your website or blog and visitors can copy and paste it onto their website.

Statistics prove that RSS Feeds are useful in pulling a large number of visitors to a blog. Today no blog is complete without an RSS Feed option. Even Twitter, the micro blogging site provides an option to subscribe to individual RSS Feeds.

Debbie A. Everson is the CEO of SearchMar.com, experienced SEO Consultants and Search Engine Optimization Agency to over 2,000 small businesses. Read my SEO Blog at http://blog. searchmar. com for hints and tips. Follow me on Twitter @searchmar. Call 1.866.885.6263 to speak to one of our SEO Consultants. Visit http://www.searchmar.com

By Sachin K Airan in Featured

Web-2.0Blogging, tweeting, friending. Odd sounding verbs, these. Not sure you’ll find them in the “verb” category in the dictionary ~ at least not yet. Give them time. “Ain’t” made it in, and that verb didn’t have nearly the grassroots
support of these three.

Indeed, this triad of “new verbs” are both the result and the harbinger of the most prominent types of social networks and Social Media Marketing in the world today: personal and professional blogs (with RSS feeds so you can stay “tuned in”), Twitter (the “mini-blog” suited to the info-bites attitude and fast-forward pace of our lives in the 21st century), and Facebook (the global water-cooler). As the Bible says of Faith, Hope, and Love, these three remain. Blogging, Twitter, and Facebook: which is “the greatest of these” remains to be seen.

By Dr. Christopher in Featured

Long tail marketing consists of niche marketing to a great many niches, selling small quantities of many products or services to each. Customers are targeted with “long tail keywords.” What does the term “long tail” refer to?

Chris Anderson popularized the “long tail” in an October 2004 Wired magazine article. Long tail keywords and niche marketing go together on the Internet. To see the long tail, get a spreadsheet of related keywords with their monthly searches, sort the keywords in decreasing order by searches and make a graph of the searches. You should find a very few keywords with many searches and a long tail of the distribution with few.

Most of us can successfully compete only for keywords in the tail of the distribution. The questions are: Which keywords in the tail? And compete how?

You can divide the keywords four search bands: the super, the high, the medium, and the low search keywords. The border between low and medium searches can be set to somewhere around 500 searches per month; between medium and high around 1000; and between high and super around 10,000.

You can divide the keywords into four competition bands as well: the super, the high, the middle, and the low competition keywords. The border between low and medium competing pages — pages containing the exact keyword phrase — can be set to somewhere around 10,000 searches per month; between medium and high around 20,000; and between high and super around 35,000.

To use a metaphor, the number of searches is the quality of the fruit — the higher the number of searches, the more ripe, plump, and tasty it is. The level of competition is where the fruit is on the tree. The super competitive keywords are on the tip top branches. The low competition keywords don’t even require you stretch. There are two not perfectly consistent principles for harvesting the fruit: (1) harvest the best fruit you can, and (2) pick the low-lying fruit first. Here are some suggestions on how to do that:

  1. Remove the super high competition keywords from your list. You will not get that traffic.
  2. Remove keywords with too high a level of competition for the number of searches. Why bother competing for them?
  3. Do not target the high competition keywords first. Devote your time where it will do more immediate good.
  4. Usually it is worth optimizing web pages by hand only for middle- or higher-band keywords. An exception might be for selling products with a high profit per sale — provided also the searcher is intending to buy.
  5. You can devote web pages to low search and competition keywords if you generate the pages. That way, you only have to create the template once, but you get to reuse it for many keywords. It would not be worth your effort to write each one individually.
  6. You can use the high end of the low band keywords in alternative titles of ezine articles. When you submit the articles through a submission service such as Submit Your Article or Unique Article Wizard, those services submit randomized variations of a your article to hundreds or thousands of article directories and blogs. They permit many alternate titles. You can have many articles spread around the web with titles including the low band keywords, all with less than twice the effort of submitting a single article. All these articles invite interested people to come to your web site. For the low competition keywords, appearance in a page title and page name (both of which you typically get in an article directory) may be enough to get the article listed on page one of the search results. Many page-one listings with few searches apiece is in the spirit of long-tail marketing.
  7. There are a lot of searches for phrases the search engines have not seen before. You can devote a page as a destination for these very low frequency keywords. Create a page with a couple of thousand words of text filled with words and phrases related to your topic. When the search engine encounters some semantically-related but not yet indexed query, your page would be a good recommendation. You can also drop low-competition keywords into the text. They will bring a few searches themselves as well as contribute to the semantic classification of the page.

Divide your keywords by search frequency and by numbers of competing pages. It will help you plan your long-tail marketing.

For more information on using long tail keywords for ezine article marketing or to improve web site traffic, visit the web site http://ezinearticleshow.com/ created by Dr. Thomas Christopher, a Colorado Front Range public speaker.

By admin in Featured

If you’ve got your own web-based business, you might be asking yourself how you can market your site. There are lots of ways to make this happen, and this article talks about all the demonstrated strategies that would make you have favorable outcomes in this particular field.

The traditional way of promoting a business venture would be to pay for want ad space in your local newspapers. This would let everybody know about your website, but carrying this out regularly would make your overhead costs go up.

A lot of people utilise the web to obtain details, plus the constant progression of the internet means that there will always be many different strategies to market your webpage. Among the choices that you could utilize is pay per click advertising, wherein you will spend money in order to put your ad on the results pages of search engines. While this is a proven way to market your site, it can get costly if you are bidding for keywords that are popular. One other way to publicise your webpage is by making use of weblogs. Crafting blog entries about your products or services and also placing the right amount of information in your weblog would draw in potential customers.

But the fastest method to publicize your site is to write content pieces and also submit them to many different article publication sites. The reason why this strategy gives the most results is due to backlinks: if your content is posted, you’ll be required to include a backlink. This particular link will let your readers visit your site if they want more information about your services and products, and you will acquire more page views.

You need to create articles that are short and educational, and you have to come up with lots of articles so that you’ll be seen as a specialist in your chosen field. Article directory websites will always be in need of new and also excellent content since this would help them receive better search engine rankings, and people will always be on the lookout for specialized information for their own webpages. When your content piece is published in an online directory and that specific article directory website acquires a high page ranking, that result could be achieved by your webpage as well since you will lead your readers to your site through your posted write-ups. In other words, everybody wins in this scenario.

But there are a few vital things to bear in mind when composing content pieces. You have to make an effort to compose around three to five articles every day, as well as restrict your write-up to 300 to 500 words; people will not read through content pieces that go past that restriction. Also, originality is of high importance. Never ever reproduce a posted content piece online or in publications and call it yours. Plagiarism isn’t accepted in any industry, plus your write-ups wouldn’t be posted if you’re caught. You can borrow an idea from another article and extend it, but remember to cite your sources.

If you do not have the time or ability to craft your own articles, you can employ freelance content writers or maybe content creation services to make your content pieces for you. Aside from offering you extra time to pay attention to various other aspects of your internet business, outsourcing this endeavor would mean getting a lot more write-ups for you to send for publication.

The main ideas guiding this specific site publicity tactic would be to provide valuable material and compel your audience to take a look at your site to obtain more details on your products and services. The secret is to make them desire more of what you are offering.

The search engines thrive on content and backlink count. Without both your site is dead! Learn effective site promotion and increase your search engine ranking by getting your FREE Marketing Report at UniqueArticleWizard.com

By Debbie Everson in Featured

Linking-StrategiesSearch engine optimization consists mainly of on page activity and off page optimization. Building backlinks is a part of off page optimization strategy. High quality backlinks have the potential to increase a websites ranking in the SERPs.

Backlinks are considered valuable when they:

By Steve Shaw in Featured

Writing a keyword rich article title is beneficial to your article, but is it possible to balance SEO article writing with writing that also appeals to human readers?

Certainly!

If you follow the techniques and advice in this article, you will be creating titles that make sense, grab the reader’s attention, and accurately portray what your article is about.

Here’s where many people go wrong:

They write their article, then they say: “Now I need to figure out a way to get my keyword phrase into my title.”

Sometimes this afterthought approach works, but most of the time it doesn’t. When you create your article and title and then backtrack and try to get your keyword phrase in your headline, the result often looks unnatural and does not make sense.

Here’s the trick:

Do the opposite. Instead of finishing by trying to force your keywords into your already constructed article and title, use your keywords as a beginning point. Take your keyword phrase and brainstorm some natural sounding titles that incorporate that phrase. Then, write an article to satisfy the title.

Let’s look at some examples of keyword rich titles (listing the keyphrase first, then the titles):

  • *Healthy Eating Habits*
  • 10 Healthy Eating Habits That Will Help You Live Longer
  • Healthy Eating Habits For Children
  • *Short Track Speed Skating*
  • The History of Short Track Speed Skating
  • Short Track Speed Skating: A Beginner’s Guide

Each one of these titles makes sense, is comprehensible to a human reader, and is engaging enough to catch the attention of a reader interested in any of these topics. These titles are keyword rich, while still appealing to human readers. This is what you’re going for!

Notice that each of these phrases is a long tail keyword phrase (3-5 words long). When you are doing your keyword research you will come up with a list of long tail keyphrases and a list of 2 word keyword phrases. The long tail phrases are to be used in generating article titles and topics. The shorter main phrases are to be used in your resource boxes.

Does It Matter Where I Put My Keyphrase In My Title?

You may notice that some of the sample titles have the targeted phrase at the beginning of the title. If you can manage it in a natural sounding way, try to include the phrase at the beginning of the title. If not, don’t worry about it.

The point is not to use a strict title formula each time. Your goal is to generate quality titles that will attract readers, convey what the article is about, and also incorporate the keyphrase in a natural sounding way. If you come up with a great title that has the keyword phrase at the middle or the end of the title, then that’s fine. Focus on creating titles that are interesting and appealing to your target readers.

After you have gone through your list of long tail keywords and generated a few titles for each, then pick a title and write an article for it.

You see, this is the reverse of what many people do–take your key phrase, then brainstorm titles, then write an article that fulfills what the title promises. The result is a natural looking title and article. This is the type of article and title that readers, publishers, and search engines will love.

For more info on how you can use article marketing to reach thousands of potential prospects for your website, go now to http://www.submityourarticle.com/report . Steve Shaw is an article marketing expert and founder of the popular article distribution service http://www.submityourarticle.com used by thousands of business owners.

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