Search:
Site   Web

SiteProNews

SiteProNews

Article Categories





By Chip Cooper in Featured

The U.S. Congress will soon be voting on two separate bills, which if they become law will certainly increase the burden on webmasters for website legal compliance, including new disclosures and website legal forms.

Given the current mood in Congress for more and more regulation, it’s likely that the federal government will soon have increased regulatory authority over the advertising practices of Web business – both in terms of how they target consumers and with the advertising messages themselves.

Consumer Privacy Bill to Target Behavioral Ads

Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Technology and the Internet has been planning to introduce a consumer privacy bill since last year, and he most likely will introduce it in the near future.

Rep. Boucher’s primary target is how advertisers target consumers with behavioral advertising. Web marketers have long sought to use tracking technology to increase the relevance with online ads – the more relevant the ad, the more conversions increase.

Behavioral ads increase relevancy significantly. Behavioral technology tracks a user’s behavior on the Web, including sites visited, length of visits, content read, and searches made. This data is then used to create a behavioral pattern for a specific user which in turn is related to a specific online demographic. Ad networks then serve so-called behavioral ads that are targeted and relevant to that specific demographic.

Many Web advertisers fear that the new bill will require opt-in by consumers. However, Rep. Boucher says he’s leaning toward opt-out.

“Where I want to go with this is generally opt-out,” says Rep. Boucher. “If I were [a publisher or advertiser], I would want Internet users to have a sense that their experience is more secure, that they know what information is collected about them, and they be given much more control. They will be more trusting of electronic commerce. . . .it’s good for business.”

Even if the bill is proposed on an opt-out basis, there will likely be increased regulation in the form of new disclosures and website legal forms requirements indicating how data is tracked and used.

Proposed Expansion of FTC Enforcement Powers

In November, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 which is now under consideration in the U.S. Senate. The bill if passed into law would enlarge the current the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) powers to levy civil penalties on “unfair” and “deceptive” advertising. Under existing law, congressional review and public testimony must take place before penalties can be imposed for “unfair” and “deceptive” advertising. These checks and balances were added by congress in 1975 and 1980 to curb the FTC’s then-broad powers stemming from the act that created the FTC in 1914.

Ad industry proponents fear that the proposed law would enable the FTC to have enforcement authority over anyone providing “substantial assistance” in a violation, including any website that publishes the ad and the creative people who produced it.

Conclusion

The proposed consumer privacy bill focuses on behavioral advertising – how consumers are targeted. The proposed expansion of FTC enforcement powers focuses on the advertising messages themselves. The combination of the two proposed laws will have a significant impact on webmasters seeking compliance with regulations on online advertising.

On January 20, 2010, the Direct Marketing Association joined twenty eight other trade and business associations in sending a letter to members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation. The letter opposed the current proposed expansion of the FTC’s powers on the grounds that the FTC could act as an “unelected legislature” across the economy. This would be “like putting the FTC on steroids”, according to a former FTC chairman.

Leading Internet, IP and software lawyer Chip Cooper has automated the process of drafting website legal forms for website legal compliance. Use his free online tool – Website Documents Determinator — to determine which documents your website really needs for website legal compliance. Discover how quick, easy, and cost-effective it is to draft your website legal forms at DigiContracts.com.

By Michelle Jayes in Featured

We have all heard at one time or another about the benefits that can be derived from better time management. This is a subject that is discussed by every self-help authority and successful entrepreneur, and it applies equally whether you are running an online business from home or if you own a bricks and mortar business.

The question is whether you have ever considered why you should spend any time on learning better time management skills and if it is worth your while to invest in them? The truth is that for anybody who has battled to manage their time better, it certainly is.

Here are three of the main benefits of having better time management skill:

1. Being in Control!

When you are able to manage your time more effectively, you have better control over your life. By planning your daily activities before-hand you will have more clarity and be more aware of what you will need to do, and in what order so that you can get it all done.

When you plan ahead of time and work out what time needs to be allocated to each task, you will immediately be relieving yourself of a lot of unnecessary pressure as you will understand what you need to do and you don’t have to waste time worrying and trying to remember each thing, all that has to be done is to work systematically through your list.

The advantage that you gain from this is that you will feel far more confident about completing your tasks and reaching the goals you have set.

2. Less Stress Means Greater Productivity?

When one works to a plan that is set out for the day, there is immediately a feeling of being less stressed as you know what is required and you have a plan to follow and this leads to being more productive, which in turn leads to a greater sense of job satisfaction. You are also able to enjoy what you do and will feel much happier.

Another benefit is that when you are more productive you achieve more in a shorter space of time and will end up with more free time on your hands. This is time that you can devote to your family, friends or just chill out and do something that your really enjoy.

3. Enjoying more Free Time;

When you learn to control the amount of time that you take on a daily basis to complete the tasks required for your online income business, you will have more free time to spend doing things that are important to you that are not connected directly to your business.

It is absolutely necessary to have some time to relax and get rid of excess stress because if you fail to do this chances are you will become less productive and the quality of your work will suffer. Even people who believe that they can perform better under pressure actually only produce good results if the stress is short lived.

A small amount of stress can force a person to focus and concentrate on a task and this can be a good thing, but too much stress will eventually affect their health and their work will deteriorate in quality. Being able to have some free time in which to relax and enjoy yourself is essential for your health and the success of your online business enterprise.

Time management is one skill that generally gets overlooked or put on to the back-burner to be learned at a later date. This is a mistake if you want to not only make a success of your online business but also if you want to be able to enjoy the results of having made a success of it. It is well worth your time to develop these skills for the benefits you will gain.

If you enjoyed this article by Michelle Jayes then visit her website www.online-income-business.com for more great ideas and business opportunities and sign up for her free newsletter

By Debbie Everson in Featured

One interesting venue of email marketing already in existence, yet may be unknown to many, comes from an unexpected direction: photography. High-quality photography has always been associated with full-scale ad campaigns, found traditionally in billboards, posters, newspapers, and glossy magazines. But with the rise of the Internet as a powerful medium of marketing, even photography sites like Flickr have become a playground for email marketing campaigns.

Marketing with Photos at Flickr

Flickr is one of the most popular photo hosting sites in the Internet. While it is often synonymous with photography professionals and hobbyists, it is also a teeming community of marketers and potential customers. The demographics of Flickr covers a vast area not merely confined to people with photography interests. It is also a microcosm of the entire Internet itself, where people from all walks of life, and with diverse interests, upload captured snapshots of events, family affairs, and company products and services.

A picture speaks a thousand words, and can sell a million products. Flickr users can be potential customers reachable through email marketing with nice Flickr photos as a valued-added. The emphasis is on good quality photos, without which any email marketing campaign isn’t worth the effort. Why? As mentioned, there are many family photos and point-and-shoot images in the Flickr archives. It takes outstanding imagery to rise above the run-of-the-mill and be noticed by the entire community.

Tips to Market at Flickr

Ready to shine on Flickr? Here are some tips on how to go about it:

  1. Build up a portfolio of quality photos. Most Flickr users have an eye and taste for quality. Many of them will certainly ignore email marketing efforts based on poor photos. Hire a photographer, buy the best camera, or capture images powered by enchanting concepts. By whatever means possible, half of the email marketing challenge is solved when the photos are there.
  2. Tag for searchability. Flickr, like almost all online community sites, rely heavily on search tags to bring results to users. The most appropriate keywords should be used as descriptive tags to bring in the target audience. Further to this, keyword analysis should be conducted, to appropriately modify tags to suit the search patterns of users.
  3. Organize photos properly into collections, for ease of access by users, who can click on the photo galleries based on themed groupings descriptive of actual content.
  4. Grab attention with attractive thumbnails. From the photo collection, the best images should be selected as thumbnails, those tiny visual teasers that lure users to peruse the rest of the collection.
  5. Regular photo updates. As in blogs and websites, frequently refreshing content builds reputation for being a reliable and consistent source of fresh images, with the possibility of being visited more often or linked to by other blogs and websites.
  6. Treat Flickr as a social media playground. That means joining relevant groups and sharing tips, news and photos with the community. This builds relationships and reputation, and widens email marketing coverage further.

Summing up how to make email marketing work in Flickr, it takes nice quality photos, the will to keep going by regularly updating fresh content, and socializing with the Flickr community, to really reap the rewards of the email marketing campaign.

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 Eric Gruber in Featured

Are you a small business owner or internet marketer who’s pulling hair out, grinding teeth and wiping sweat from your brow trying to figure out how to write articles that drive targeted traffic to your website?

Well, then it’s a good thing you’re reading this article, because I’m going to give you the power to get out of that dark, cold, gloomy corner and see the light.

How?

First, I’m going to explain in detail what article writing templates are – and how they can help you overcome your writer’s block. Then, I’m going to give you an opportunity to get 3 of my instant article writing templates for free! These article templates are guaranteed to help you write articles faster – and in many cases, you’ll be able to write articles in 30 minutes or less. So keep reading.

What Are Instant Article Writing Templates

Article templates serve as a blueprint for building great articles in a particular style. They provide the guidance and inspiration you need to quickly and easily build an incredible inventory of high-quality, original articles.

For example, when you get my instant article writing templates at http://www.StartWritingArticlesFaster.com you get worksheets that guide you throughout the process.. Each template is in chart format. All you have to do is put the information that’s in your head and put it exactly where I ask you to. Once the template is complete, all you have to do is copy each section and paste it into a new document – and you’ll have a finished article.

5 Reasons Why You Need to Start Using Instant Article Writing Templates Now

  • Inspiration - Are you stuck at the gate?  Are you confused on how to begin your article? Are you stuck for ideas? Just browsing through through article templates will help you spark an idea for your next set of articles.
  • Speed - Are you thinking in your head right now – It takes too much time to write articles. That’s because most of your article writing time is spent staring at a blank, white screen. Then, you focus a tremendous amount of time trying to organize your ideas in a flowing manner. But, when you use article writing templates, you’re given a structure and format. So you can write articles faster. Rather than spending time on creating the proper structure for your articles, you can now invest the time you save into writing new articles!
  • Ease - Using the right instant article writing templates make it easy to build high-quality articles that are designed to inform readers while also driving traffic back to your website.
  • Clarity - Since these templates have been well thought out in advance, you’re articles will flow smoothly and have a clear introduction, body and conclusion that will make your articles clear and easy to understand.
  • Style – I can’t tell you how many of my article marketing clients sacrificed speed for quality. They had NO flow, NO organization, NO easy transitions. If I had submitted their articles as-is, their articles would not generate results. So, for the last couple of years, I’ve worked hard to solve these article marketing problems that hinder your chances of getting more prospects and sales online. I’ve analyzed hundreds of articles that I’ve written for my blog, for my newsletter and for article submission. I spent hours reviewing all of my client’s articles that I have proofread, formatted and optimized so it can get published on top websites like About.com, I looked for clear patterns and structures that you can use to write your articles right now. You want to use proven article templates that are designed specifically to give you an article layout and structure that insures an attractive, easy-to-read article that’s almost guaranteed to get results.

Where Can You Get Instant Article Writing Templates

Now, if you go to http://www.TryMyFreeArticleTemplates.com, I’ll give you 3 of my article templates for free! All you have to do is enter your name and email in the provided box, and you’ll immediately receive the article templates download.

You can also find the complete collection at: http://www.StartWritingArticlesFaster.com

Article Marketing Expert Eric Gruber uses the power of articles to create online opportunities for Internet marketers, small business owners, authors, entrepreneurs and speakers who want more publicity, prospects and profits. Now, you can get 3 of his favorite his instant article writing templates that will help you overcome writer’s block and write your articles in 30 minutes or less. Get your free article templates now: http://www.TryMyFreeArticleTemplates.com

By Forrest Yingling in Featured

WebmastersOnline business operators have a tendency to forget that the company hosting their store is the foundation of their business and a successful business needs a strong and reliable foundation. When looking for a web host, remember that finding the company with the cheapest price is not the goal. Paying a higher fee for better service and more dependability is ultimately the smartest decision. Conversely, the most expensive company is by no means going to be the best either.

When launching a new e-commerce business, finding the best web host for your needs can be a tremendously daunting task. There are simply so many web hosts out there and it is a tiresome and grueling process to separate the good guys from the bad. Many folks looking to start a website begin by checking out web hosting review sites and directories. On these sites, you can read what clients have to say about their current and former web hosts.

By Jill Whalen in Featured

SE-TacticsOne of my favorite pastimes is debunking SEO myths – and there are many! I could probably come up with 100 SEO-related ideas or actions that people think are helpful, but which in reality won’t provide them with more targeted traffic to their websites.

Here are some of the more prevalent myths I hear and see bandied about in SEO articles, at SEO conferences, in SEO blogs and on SEO forums:

By admin in Featured

If you are thinking about starting an online business the first step you should take is to find a niche product or service. A niche is a product or service that serves a highly targeted audience with specific needs. Why is this important? Because with all of the different businesses establishing a presence online it is important to choose something that caters to an underserved audience with a demand for a specific product or service.

Many people who are new to online business make the mistake of choosing a product or service that is currently considered “hot” without thinking about the high rate of competition and the fact that the market may already be saturated. In addition to that, you can end up paying a fortune in advertising with nothing to show for it in the end.

If you choose a niche that serves a highly targeted audience with specific needs you will stand a much better chance of succeeding with your online business. Here are a few tips on choosing a niche that will help to improve your chances of success.

What Are You Passionate About?

Sit down and make a list of things you are passionate and knowledgeable about. The list should include interests, hobbies, professional skills, and any other topics that you would be happy working with on a daily basis. At first, you may find this a challenge if you have been caught up in the 9 to 5 grind and forgotten what you are passionate about. Be patient and enlist the help of some friends if you wish.

It is important that you are passionate about what you do because this will show through when you build a client base. If you are enthusiastic about what you do this will reflect on others and they will return to do business with you time and again. Additionally, if you enjoy what you do it will never feel like work.

Research Your Market

Once you have decided on a topic the next step is to start researching the topic on the Internet. You can begin to find your audience and where your position will be in your market by participating in forums related to your topic, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and any other sites where you can find people discussing your topic.

As you visit these sites listen carefully and take some notes on what people are discussing. This will help you to discover exactly what they are looking for when it comes to your product or service. Listening to the needs of your audience will help you to determine a niche for your online business.

For example, if your topic of interest is landscaping it is important to find out what people are looking for with regard to landscaping. Landscaping is very broad topic with a lot of competition. What about landscaping? What are people specifically looking for? Are they looking for landscaping professionals? Are they looking for landscaping tools? Perhaps they are looking for tips on how to do landscaping.

The key here is to drill down into the term “landscaping” and find a specific niche related to this topic the serves a highly targeted audience with specific needs. Landscaping plans for small backyards would be an example of a niche that serves a specific audience.

Keywords

Once you find your audience and what they are looking for the keywords you choose will help your targeted audience to find you online. Once you get to know your audience you can brainstorm keywords they might use to search for your product or service. You can use one of the many keyword tools that are available online for accomplishing this task.

Just like you had to drill down to find a niche you must find keywords that relate to the niche. Let’s go back to the landscaping example. If you simply choose the keyword “landscaping” you may get a lot of visitors to your website but they will be untargeted. If you are selling landscaping plans and they are looking for tools they will leave your site. If you choose the keywords “landscaping plans for small backyards” you know exactly what the people are searching for and it makes it easy to deliver the solution when they arrive at your website.

Take the time in the beginning to choose your niche and get to know your market and what they are looking for. The time you invest will help you to build a solid foundation for building a business that will last over the long term.

Kevin Traynor is an online business coach and mentor who is currently training people how to get started and be successful in their own online business. If you would like to learn more and also get a FREE “Truth Report” on how to get started online,it’s available at => http://www.yournetsuccessbizs.com

By David Hurley in Featured

While it is important to get your PPC ad seen and even more important to get visitors to click on your ad, those aims pale in comparison with your conversion rate. There are simple tricks that can be used to optimize your pay per click advertising efforts, but they are tricks that are often overlooked.

Running a PPC campaign can be an overwhelming task. There are so many things to do, that the details are often overlooked until it is too late. Here are a few tricks to help increase your conversion rate and optimize your pay per click advertising efforts.

1. Make Getting Conversions Easy

If you make your visitors take a multitude of steps in order to make a purchase, then it is more likely that your customers will get discouraged. While this may not be a problem if you are using pay per click advertising for list-building purposes, it is often a killer in regards to making a sale.

One of the easiest ways to increase your conversion rate (even when list-building) is to only collect the information that is absolutely necessary. Studies have shown that the best converting pages require customers to only enter an email address.

While it is nice to get someone’s name, address, phone number, etc it really isn’t critical information to have. If it is necessary, consider obtaining this information after you have already secured their email address.

2. Focus Your Landing Page

Once you decide what the goal of your landing page is, make sure that you do not distract viewers from it. Many people choose to simply use a page from their website as their landing page. Unfortunately, these pages often contain a jumble of additional ads, unrelated content, and links to other web pages. All of these things can either distract or overwhelm visitors, both of which lead to the customer leaving. It is essential to keep your landing pages as simple and succinct as possible to optimize your pay per click advertising efforts.

3. Include Critical Information in Your Ad Copy

Everyone knows that pay per click advertising is advantageous because it can drive highly targeted traffic to your landing page.

However, many people may still click on your ad that are not part of your target audience. This is because your ad copy does not include the right information.

For example, if you are selling a product that is similar or the same as your competitors, then the price is important to include in your ad copy. Many customers base their purchasing decision on price and if your product is out of their price range, there is no reason for them to click on your ad. By including the price in your ad, you can automatically filter out people who would not purchase your product anyways.

Pay per click advertising can be one of the most profitable and lucrative online advertising methods available. However, if steps are not taken to optimize every step of the sales process, money and opportunities will be lost and expenses will climb.

The more you can do to ensure that you target is highly optimized and that you landing page has the ability to create a maximum conversion rate, the more successful your pay per click advertising ventures will be.

David Hurley is the online marketing director of Website-Traffic-Hog.com, an innovative manual traffic exchange. Not only do they deliver great quality traffic but you will earn PPC Advertising and Safelist Mailings just by surfing! Go to Website-Traffic-Hog.com for full details and FREE membership.

By Mike Small in Featured

website-promotionEvery major search engine provides hints and tips about how to optimize your pages for improved rankings on their sites. But when you read these guidelines you quickly see that most of it is just their own wish list. Things like ‘Write for humans not search engine bots – or – do not hide keywords with a font matching the background color.’ It is all good advice but kind of general and already well known (for the past decade.)

But there are always things a search engine will not tell you. And, of course, these are the things that make all the difference in your SEO efforts and results. That said; here are eight things that Bing does not want you to know (or you can skip to the Magic Formula section at the end):

By Debbie Everson in Featured

2009 saw a lot of exciting changes and additions to the world of online marketing and search engine optimization. Some important events that took place were the launch of BING, announcement of Google Caffeine, the merger of Yahoo and Microsoft search. 2010 will see real time web emerging which will become more popular than the traditional methods of optimization.

Following is the list of pointers to get your website on top, reach out to potential customers and ensure brand visibility in 2010.

  1. Decrease Webpage Load Time. Google’s Matt Cutts recently hinted that the load time of a website may affect its ranking in the search engines. That is, the faster a website loads, the better its chances to rank well for its niche keywords. Website load time is touted as the next big step towards improved rankings. The pre-requisites to a good webpage load time are; reputable web host and fast internet connection.
  2. Get Listed in Google Local Search. Getting listed in Google Local Search ensures brand visibility in front of visitors from the nearby places. It has been proven that the number of visitors to a website increase exponentially when listed in local search results. The reason being, a customer will always prefer to purchase a quality product which is easily available in his or her vicinity rather than order it from another unfamiliar city or state.
  3. Get Involved in Social Media. Social Media is the flavor of the season and in 2010 organizations are going to actively engage in conversation and social networking and reach out to their potential customers. Social Media Marketing is a must for every organization as it helps create brand awareness and build relationships with consumers in the highly competitive market. Micro targeting and Personalization will be the keywords in 2010.
  4. Optimize Your Website Mobile Users. With and ever increasing number of people tweeting and using Facebook from their mobile devices, a lot of organizations are now finally paying attention to how their websites appear on mobile phones. You can have your website appear on the mobile under the same URL or have a special domain for the same. The most common way is to have the domain name as mobile.websitename.com.
  5. Apply Web Analytics to its full potential. There are hundreds of web analytics tools in the market which provide a mountain of data pertaining to the visitor’s usage. Some of the most well known web analytics tools are Omniture, Google Analytics and Yahoo! Web Analytics etc. Web Analytics tools can answer the “how” but not the “why”. That is, you can find out how many visitors checked the product catalogue webpage, but not the answer to, why the visitors didn’t place an order for the product. Organizations need to dissect the data from web analytics tools and successfully apply its learning’s to enhance their visitors experience and in turn increase sales revenues.

In 2010 companies must go beyond organic search engine optimization by integrating social media marketing and optimizing their websites for mobile users.

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.

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Subscribe to SiteProNews Articles

Receive New Articles As They are Posted


Webmaster Headlines

Apple's stingy employee discount

iOS and OS X: Time for Some Real Convergence

Anonymous Strikes: Symantec Says Stop Using pcAnywhere

Google+ Is Now Open To Teens, Offers New Safety Features

SOPA's Big Brother Signed By EU Nations Amid Widespread Protests

Why Your Business Needs to Be on Google+ Now

5 Simple Ways to Explore Your Social Media Following

5 Basic SEO Troubleshooting Tips for Content Marketers

The Glee Guide to Attracting a Raving Horde of Social Media Fans

10 Clever Ways Your Email Signature Can Support Your Marketing

Recent SiteProNews Articles

RecentSiteProNews Articles

Write Current Content and Explode Your SEO – A SPN Exclusive Article

Best Free Business Cloud Apps You Probably Haven’t Heard Of

Has Google Replaced Content as King of the Web?

SEO Short Cheat Sheets

Beef Up Your Internet Marketing and Your Body At The Same Time!

Optimizing Your Business Facebook Page for Maximum Hits and Return Visits – A SPN Exclusive Article

SiteProNews Blog News

Google Celebrates Art Clokey’s Birthday
Not many people will recognize the name Art Clokey. But a lot more people will recognize the green c...
more >

Reader Rescue : Should My Meta Description Tags Just Duplicate My Title Tags?
Hi Everyone From early days learning SEO, I went ahead and did all my meta descriptions with a bi...
more >

Death of Steve Jobs Fails to Break Twitter Record
We all heard the sad news yesterday that Steve Jobs, founder and visionary at Apple, had died at...
more >

Recommended Links


   Get Facebook Fans

   Submit Express - SEO Services

Wordpress 3.3.1