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How To Protect Your Search Engine Rankings

By Nelson Tan in Featured

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

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

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

Outdated Google Analytics Tracking Code Could be Costing You Thousands

By Kalena Jordan in Featured

Do you run an ecommerce site? Do you use Google Analytics code on your pages? Does your site contain secure pages that start with https? If your answer is yes to any of these questions, then you’ll probably shudder in horror when you read this.

Tom Critchlow of Distilled – a search agency in the UK – has written a guest post for the Google Analytics blog that demonstrates how using outdated Google Analytics tracking code on your secure pages can be costing you THOUSANDS of dollars.

Tom explained how he noticed a glitch on the analytics report of his client’s ecommerce site that involved users of Internet Explorer 8. These users had a significantly lower conversion and revenue rate on the site, in comparison to users of other browsers and IE versions.

Turned out Tom’s client was using the old Urchin version of the Google Analytics tracking code on every page. The old code included a call to a non-secure .js file that triggers a security warning pop-up in the Internet Explorer 8 browser.

Browsers like Chrome and Firefox don’t display a security warning but Internet Explorer 8 produces the following warning when users transition from the non-secure (http) pages to secure (https) pages on a web site.

The error looks like this:

Not surprisingly, the error was causing almost all visitors browsing with Internet Explorer 8 to abandon the shopping cart process and this was costing Tom’s client an enormous amount of revenue, estimated to be in excess of USD 150K per month.

A 5 minute fix to the site saved Tom’s client an estimated 1 million dollars per year. What was the fix? Simple. Installing the new version of the Google Analytics tracking code.

The new Analytics tracking code is asynchronous, meaning that it can track a single domain, or more complex sites with multiple subdomains, database driven pages, php pages or just top level domains.

The new tracking snippet offers:

* Faster tracking code load times for your web pages due to improved browser execution
* Enhanced data collection and accuracy
* Elimination of tracking errors from dependencies when the JavaScript hasn’t fully loaded

If you are using older versions of the Analytics tracking code, Google recommends you login to your Analytics dashboard, download the new code and transition your pages over as soon as possible.

Now you have an added incentive to transition – if you run an ecommerce site, the new code might not just save you page load time but thousands of dollars too!

Google Adwords for Your Internet Based Business – The Upside and Downside

By Michelle Jayes in Featured

When people need information on any subject today, the first place they will look for it is on the internet. One of the best things to come out of the internet revolution is the search engine and the most popular search engine is Google.

Having the internet and Google has made for a quick and easy method of finding out whatever it is that you want to know. Not only does Google make it very easy to search for information but it also allows for fast growth of an internet based business for anyone who chooses to use Google Adwords as a means of advertising.

If you have never heard of Google Adwords this is a pay-per-click program that was started by Google ten years ago and it can be used to generate traffic to your website and increase the number of sales that you make. The way it works is that an internet business owner will pay Google for the amount of exposure Google gives them on the search engine.

There is an upside as well as a downside to using Google Adwords that you should be aware of before jumping in and using this type of advertising:

1. On the upside Google Adwords reaches an enormous audience. According to fairly recent research approximately 65% of all internet users will resort to Google when searching for information of any kind.

With this type of exposure one would automatically assume that by using Adwords advertising on Google your website would be displayed and bring interested buyers to your website, people who will purchase the products that you have on offer.

The advantage of this is that even if you are running your business on a limited budget you can still get your brand out there at least in the online world. By setting up your adverts and your landing pages correctly you are likely to not only recoup your advertising outlay but make a good profit as well.

One other good thing with using Adwords is that you only pay per click. In other words Google will only charge you when someone clicks on your link so no clicks no charge. Remember though that the position of an ad on the Google search page is dependant on the budget you specify and that is something else to think about. If you set the budget at 1 cent per day don’t expect your ad to be positioned in a prominent place as budgets can go as high as $100 per day and those people are going to get much better exposure.

With Google Adwords you have the flexibility to make alterations according to what you prefer – this is something that you cannot do with other forms of advertising and it only takes about 15 minutes to set up an ad on Google Adwords so it is no big deal to make frequent changes to it if you so desire. You also have the option of a multitude of languages and this allows you to cater for a niche audience.

Here is the downside!

One of the biggest downsides to using Google Adwords is that you will not be able to get any information on how well your competitors are doing. Google has a policy of not sharing this information and this can make it a bit difficult to strategize the best way to advertise effectively.

The other downside is that with Google Adwords you are very limited with the amount of copy space that you can use. You have only seventy characters with which to catch to prospective customers’ attention and this can be very difficult to achieve at times.

Even though there are these downsides when using Google Adwords it can still be a very profitable method of promoting your internet based business as it gives plenty of exposure especially with the internet being as overcrowded as it is today.

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Michelle Jayes invites your to visit her legitimate income opportunities website www.online-income-business for money making ideas and ways to improve and build an internet based business

14 Website Design Tips That Will Help You Convert More Prospects Into Buyers

By David Jackson in Featured

If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to build a website that converts prospects into buyers, this article is for you. While I’ve seen poorly designed websites make money, those types of sites are more the exception than the rule. It’s been my experience, most successful websites share common design characteristics that make them appealing to prospects.

Following are 14 website design tips that will help you convert more prospects into buyers:

1. Make sure your website loads quickly. Nothing is more annoying to visitors than a website that take forever to load. You may have the greatest website in the world, but if it takes too long time to load, visitors aren’t going to hang around to see it.

2. Have a crystal clear identity. Have you ever landed on a website and didn’t know what it was about? How did you feel? You didn’t like it did you? And I’ll bet you probably clicked out of there pretty quickly. Well, your visitors don’t like it either. Don’t let your visitors have to try and figure out what your website is all about. Make it crystal clear, right from the beginning. Having a big, descriptive headline on your home page is an excellent way to announce what your website is about. Also, choose relevant keywords for your pages, as opposed to trying to trick people just to get eyeballs. Keep your keywords relevant to your web pages.

3. Keep it simple. Don’t worry about trying to impress with all kinds of unnecessary whistles and bells. (Does anyone really need flash?) Focus on usability, sales and conversions. Simple website designs convert.

4. White space is a good thing. Stay away from clutter. Have a clean, user-friendly site that makes it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for. Remember, white space is a good thing. Also, if your website has a lot of content and/or a lot of pages, add a search box, to make it easier for your visitors to find what they’re looking for.

5. Have compelling copy that sells. Ultimately, conversions come down to sales copy. If you don’t have the ability to write effective sales copy that sells, hire someone that does. It’s well worth the investment.

6. Don’t give prospects too many choices. While variety can be a good thing, giving your prospects too many items to choose from can often backfire. Why? Because giving prospects too many items to choose from can confuse them. And confused prospects don’t buy. Limit product options to no more than three choices.

7. Make it easy for people to subscribe to your content. Remember, out of sight, out of mind. Keep your website in the uppermost of prospects minds with your content via newsletters, RSS feeds, etc.

8. Update your content regularly. Give visitors a reason to return to your site with regularly updated content. Besides, search engines like fresh content also. So updating your content regularly will help with your SEO efforts as well.

9. Use strong call to action language. Tell your visitors what you want them to do. If you want them to subscribe to your newsletter, tell them. If you want them to buy something, tell them. Don’t ever make your visitors have to guess what you want them to do. Tell them.

10. Make your website readable. Do you remember the nearsighted cartoon character, Mr. Magoo? He always walked around with his eyes in a permanent squint, trying to visually decipher things that were right in front of him.

Well, that’s exactly how I feel when I visit some websites. I find myself squinting like Mr. Magoo, because the font size is so tiny. When that happens, guess what? Click…I’m outta there. Do your readers a favor, and stay away from tiny font sizes. Stick with the standard 12-point font size, whenever possible.

Conversely, it’s not a good ideal to use overly large font sizes either. It’s just not reader-friendly. Another thing, use ALL CAPS and fancy fonts in moderation.

11. A picture is worth a thousand words. If you sell physical products, make sure you have clear pictures of those products to help close the deal. People enjoy looking at pictures of things they’re considering buying. More importantly, using pictures ogf products has been proven to increase conversions.

12. Avoid reverse type. I’m absolutely amazed at how many websites I’ve visited that are written in reverse text. What’s reverse text? Reverse text is light colored or white text on a dark or black background. If used correctly, reverse text can produce an impressive visual impact.

The problem is many websites don’t use it correctly. And if you have a whole web page of reverse text, it’s extremely difficult on the eyes. Why? Because according to readability studies, reverse text is not suitable for reading because of its poor legibility even in normal lighting conditions. It’s hard on the eyes, and just not reader-friendly. That’s why newspapers, books and magazines have always been printed on white paper with black text.

When designing your website, it’s best to use black text on a white or light-colored background, for optimum readability. However if you decide to use reverse text, use it in moderation.

13. Make the buying process easy. Make it easy for prospects to get from your home page to the product page or the checkout page. Don’t make your prospects jump through hoops, clicking thru page after page after page to give you their money. Or else you’ll lose them.

14. Display your contact information. The trustworthiness of your website – or lack of will have the greatest impact on your sales conversions, and ultimately, the success or failure of your site. If you sell products directly from your site, it’s important to display your contact information, as opposed to using a contact form. If privacy is a concern, you can use a service like The UPS Store for a physical shipping and mailing address.

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David Jackson is a marketing consultant, and the owner of Free-Marketing-Tips-Blog.com – Free, common sense marketing tips to help grow your business. http://free-marketing-tips-blog.com

Brand Me – Defining Yourself

By Brad Hess in Featured

Define yourself. When beginning, this is the first step in branding yourself. You need to realize that you are very good, even an expert, at what you do. You surround yourself, either in your job or in your circle of friends, with others who are experts in what you know. Then, you begin to believe that everyone knows what you know and you see yourself as average and begin making mental statements such as “What do I have to offer that is different or unique? Everyone knows what I know.”

WRONG.

You have friends, neighbors, and associates that come to you asking for your help and advice. Or perhaps asking, “can you teach me how to do that?” What kinds of questions do they ask you? Ask yourself this powerful question:

Choose a Domain Name That Boosts SEO

By Debbie Everson in Featured

There are two ways of selecting a domain name. You can choose the domain name first and use it as your organization name or vice versa. Most of the old organizations prefer to retain their brand name in their URL.

Many startup organizations select their URL first and then name their organization. This is because of the non availability of the perfect URL.

Your website URL is your online identity that is visible to millions of internet users. It impacts your organization name, website SEO and future business endeavors. All these factors should be taken into consideration before selecting a URL.

Boost Your Website SEO with the Following Domain Selection Tips:

1. Choose a Keyword Rich Domain Name: A keyword rich URL is a bonus for any website. It helps boost ranking in the search engine results pages. If the desired keyword rich URL is not available, you can add a prefix or a suffix to the keyword. A URL which contains a combination of keywords helps in drawing more traffic to the website.
2. Include Hyphens in the Domain Name: Search engines can distinguish between hyphenated keywords very easily. This helps in ranking better in search results pages. Hyphenated keywords in the URL are a good option if the desired keyword rich URL is not available. There is one pitfall in using hyphens in the URL. Your website visitor can land on the competitor’s website if they forget to add the hyphens. Webmasters should include hyphens as a last option to obtain the perfect domain name.
3. Select A Top Level Domain Name: A website URL should be selected based on the geographical location of the customers. If your website caters to the customers at a global level, a dot-com domain is suitable for you. If the dot-com domain is not available, you can opt between dot-net and dot-org. If your organization is based in United Kingdom, your top level domain should be dot-co-dot-uk. A non-profit organization should opt for dot-org as their top level domain.
4. Purchase a New Domain Name: A domain name should be researched well before purchasing. It is an important to get a URL related to your niche.

Tips for purchasing a new URL:

• The name should be easy to spell & remember.
• URL’s are inexpensive. You can register multiple keywords rich URL and redirect them to the main domain. As a result, a lot of traffic will be directed to the main site.
• Make sure that you are not infringing another organizations brand name.
• If your organization belongs to a particular region, Purchase a geo specific URL. This helps in capturing the target audience.

Purchase an Aged Domain Name:

• Always check the background of an aged domain before purchasing it. Aged domains can give your website SEO a good boost. Tips for purchasing an aged URL:
• Check the domain age. This will give you an idea of how old the domain is. Google gives a lot of importance to aged domains in search results pages. Your chances of ranking well improve with the age of the domain name.
• Note the page rank of the aged domain. As the page rank increases, the importance of the domain increases.
• Calculate the number of backlinks of the aged domain. An aged domain should have a few hundred backlinks. If the backlinks are not sufficient or are of poor quality, move on to purchasing another aged domain.

A good domain name should not exceed 67 characters. Look for a reputed service provider to host your URL. Register your URL for a few years instead of one year. Your website will leave a good and lasting impression on Google.

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Debbie A. Everson is the CEO of SearchMar.com, experienced SEO Consultants and Search Engine Optimization Agency to over 2,000 small businesses. Learn about search engine marketing, paid search advertising, social media, and email marketing. 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.

How Does Your Website Make Me Feel?

By Philippa Gamse in Featured

When people think about the Internet, they think about technology. When people hear that I am a Website strategy expert, they see me as a “techy type”.

But for me, the most intriguing aspect of your online business isn’t about the technology. It’s about human connections, and how you can create these in a virtual environment.

It’s commonly understood that “people buy emotionally, not intellectually.” Even when people think they’re making a rational decision, powerful subconscious factors come into play. To sell effectively, we’re told to anticipate our customers’ needs, to demonstrate that we “feel their pain”, and to respond to clues in their body language and tone of voice.

Internet Marketing Via E-mail Promotion

By admin in Featured

Marketing, as defined by the American Marketing Association, is any activity that involves the flow of services, products and/or goods starting from production until consumption. It involves various activities such as profiling, planning, pricing, promotion, and distribution of products and services.

Promotion is a crucial method that can make or break a market. Promotion stimulates demand and therefore increases profit from sales. It makes use of every media available that are accessible to potential customers.

Recently, promotion management of various companies opts for internet as the effective tool to increasing demands among customers.

Have you ever thought of this query to yourself, “What is the difference between internet marketing and e-mail marketing?”

Internet marketing is an advertisement method that makes use of search engines to promote websites using different strategies such as e-mail marketing. Currently, this provides all companies with the edge among competitors.

Internet is one medium that is sought by clients to promote their companies’ products and services. Moreover, they view internet marketing as a potential strategy to attain maximum return of investment or ROI. However, clients must be very critical in choosing the appropriate and effective advertising company.

These are the few things to remember about successful internet marketing:

1. The advertising company dealing with internet marketing must be abreast with pace and competition set by new products and services being introduced.
2. The advertising company must enable websites to be in the ranks of search engines for as many keywords as possible.
3. The advertising company must exhaust appropriate strategies to make the websites produce ranks in search engines.
4. The advertising company must assist their clients earn automatically within a few months.
5. The advertising company must help their clients receive their maximum return of investments of ROI.

Just what now is e-mail marketing?

E-mail marketing is an internet advertising tool that is cost effective to connect with existing and even potential customers. Moreover, this is about quality of the data the internet advertising company that can be sent to the addresses of potential and existing customers.

These are the things to be considered about successful e-mail marketing:

1. The best way to perform marketing with e-mail addresses is through cost per acquisition.
2. Companies must ensure that internet advertising service providers are allowed to give you e-mail addresses for corporations to contact.
3. E-mail designs must be simple yet elegant. Companies must avoid sensory overload. This can be done with the help of internet service providers.

Generally speaking, these are the things that are offered by internet service providers in e-mail marketing:

Services may include:

• Appropriate strategy for e-mail campaign
• Identification of opportunities for growth
• Maintenance and development of list of addresses
• List set-up for client’s email
• Sign-up form for client’s web site
• Importation or set-up database for client’s database
• Updates regarding client’s success and development of

Newsletter or HTML E-mail Development comprises:

• Newsletter or e-mail design
• Content formatting and developing
• Various integration with client’s website
• Programming compatibility and functionality

Sending e-mails employ the following actions:

• Set-up and sending of client’s account
• Cleaning and exportation of database
• Employing of Web Analytics to determine areas of successes and improvement

Business-minded people should be smart people. Investing a lot on an advertising company is not the turnkey strategy. Dealing with credible internet service provider is the effective step to make it big in the marketing industry.

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FREE! How To Get Up To 37 Checks Per Month, Earn Upwards Of $4,954.55.While You Sleep At Night, And Recruit WITHOUT Ever Having To Pick Up The Phone http://www.thenewbizsuccess.com

5 Useless Internet Marketing Tactics You Should Avoid

By Nick James in Featured

Knowing what doesn’t work can sometimes be more important that learning what does. Here are some things you should avoid when marketing your web site.

It’s easy to get confused with all of the various ways that you can be marketing your web site. Over the years I have tried just about every one and have learned some things along the way. Here’s some real time and money wasters that you can safely avoid doing.

1. SPAM Don’t waste your time on trash

You don’t like getting spam in your email do you? Neither does anyone else. Don’t send unsolicited commercial emails to try and promote your web site or product. (Out of all of the things listed here, I have never gone this route and won’t).

You risk getting your site shut down if your Internet Service Provider gets enough complaints. You can also be “blacklisted”. This means your email can be labelled as spam and be blocked by a lot of service providers.

Spam is stupid and a very poor decision for a business to make.

2. Free For All (FFA) Links

There are some sites which let anyone list a link to their own site. Sometimes you are required to put your own FFA link page up on your site. This tactic does not work. The only people reading FFA sites are other sites looking to post their own link. It is totally untargeted towards any potential customer.

Additionally, some search engines will penalise you for having FFA links on your site. They basically equate them as being garbage and not something a legitimate site would do. I can’t say I blame them.

3. Banner Ads

Once upon a time (in the late 1990′s) banner ads were very common and fairly effective. They don’t work very well at all anymore. I have read statistics that the click through rate is down to a mere percent of what they used to be.

You will have a much more effective chances of getting a visitor to your site by having a legitimate endorsement. You should also avoid having banner ads on your own site unless it is for your own products. Why on earth would you want to be sending people away from your site when you could be earning a higher profit if they stick around?

4. Classified Ads

Online newsletters commonly offer low priced classified ad spots. You can pay a few dollars and have your 4 to 5 line ad listed at the bottom of some newsletter when it gets sent out.

Generally these ads don’t work too well. I don’t read them. Do you?

Anything That’s Not A Solo or Top Sponsorship Ads

As a follow up to the classified ads, it is worth mentioning that not all ads are bad. You should try for a more prominent ad if you are going to go the newsletter route.

I recommend the Solo Ad or as second best, the Top Sponsorship Ad.

A solo ad is just that. Your ad is run all by itself. You have the reader’s full and undivided attention to your ad. The downside is that you will be paying top dollar so you want to track your results. If the ad was profitable, then keep running it until it is not anymore.

A top sponsorship ad is the very first ad in a newsletter. These can be pretty effective. They are a good alternative if you don’t want to take the plunge to buy a solo ad.

When it comes down to advertising in a newsletter I stick to either solo or top sponsorship. Otherwise I don’t even bother.

Knowing some of these tips can help you to avoid wasting your valuable time (and money) on ineffective marketing tactics.

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Nick James is a true example of a self made success. He offers the inside track in every aspect of internet business creation and development. Right now he’s giving away a Free Income Secrets DVD for only £1 S&H while stocks last! Free Nick James DVD

SEO Article Writing: Using Keywords in Article Headlines

By Steve Shaw in Featured

So, you have your list of keywords and you’re wondering how to incorporate them into your article titles. You’re wondering if it’s possible to do SEO article writing that also makes sense to humans.

If you go overboard with your key phrases, then your article has a good chance of being declined by publishers right off the bat.

How can you effectively use keywords in your article titles?

Is it possible to please search engines, publishers, and human readers?

Yes! This article spotlights a few techniques you can implement to effectively and correctly use your keywords in your article titles.

First, let’s lay the ground rule:

*Your title must serve your reader, first and foremost. The purpose of your title is to tell the reader what your article is about. A title is a great place to use your keywords, but the title must still make sense, be grammatically correct with proper spelling, and accurately portray the subject matter of the article.

Now, on to the tips:

1. Your title must reflect what your article is about. Most of the time this decline reason comes up when a person writes an article and then tries to include their keywords in the title as an afterthought, when the article is not really about the keywords. For example: If your article title is “10 Heart Healthy Soups”, then your article must talk about 10 heart healthy soups. Whatever is promised in the title must be delivered in the article.
2. Resist the urge to use a minimalist keyword-only title. If you’re extremely focused on your keywords and the impact they can have on your search engine ranking, you might wonder, “Why not just make a title that is totally keyword focused?”

For example: Hiking Boots

What is wrong with that?

Well first of all, this title is not very specific, nor does it draw a reader in. If you’re using a two word key phrase, most likely your phrase is extremely general and not specific enough to make a good title.

Your title should specifically indicate what your article is about, and if your article is about a specific aspect of “hiking boots”, then the title should reflect that. For example: “Hiking Boots: Top 5 Best Performers”

If you’re using long tail keyword phrases (3-5 words long), then the title almost writes itself sometimes. For example “How To Eat Healthy” may be your long tail key phrase, which also works well as a title.

But many long tail key phrases need extra words added to them in order to make sense. For example, the phrase “Used Car Values” is pretty general, and the article is likely about a more specific topic, such as “Used Car Values: How To Negotiate The Best Price For A Used Car”

3 – This almost goes without saying, but unfortunately I see this sometimes: Your title should not be a list of keywords.

What would you think if you saw a “title” that looked like this:

Used Car Pricing, Used Car Values, Used Car Deals

This type of title does not make sense, is not helpful to the reader, and was obviously an attempt to get as many keywords in the title as possible. Most publishers would immediately decline an article with a title like that.

The main idea is to write for your human readers first by creating a helpful and specific title that reflects what your article is about. You may use your keywords in the title if they sound natural and make sense.

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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 submission service http://www.submityourarticle.com used by thousands of business owners.

© Copyright 2012 All rights reserved. Jayde Online, Inc.

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