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Google Instant Previews – Implications for SEO & Marketing – A SPN Exclusive Article

By Titus Hoskins in Featured

Google wasn’t satisfied with just having Instant Search, now it has introduced something called Instant Previews. Searchers and web users can now browse a large instant “preview” of a site’s content by placing the cursor over the small magnifying glass displayed beside each listing. These previews are large and Google sometimes highlights a major paragraph or quote from each displayed site.

Searchers can get a general look at the layout and design of a site, onpage graphics and bold headlines can usually be seen from the preview. However, small print and the general content of the page can’t be read, so searchers will have to click through to your site if they want to read your information. Assuming of course, they don’t find what they’re looking for in the headlines or bold print.

Google Instant Previews Screenshot

Whether searchers will use this new feature remains to be seen, but these instant previews could have some ramifications on who gets the “click through” to their site. One would also reason that getting the top spot in the rankings have diminished somewhat, if searchers can quickly preview all of the top 10 listings and then make their decision. So they might not click the top listing, but decide one lower down is worth clicking. This could make any listing on the first page more worth having, not just the top one.

This doesn’t really affect any of your SEO strategies and you should be optimizing for the search engines as usual. After all, getting those top rankings for your targeted keywords in the major search engines is what brings in the quality traffic to your site. In this regard, it’s business as usual.

Just Say No to SEO Articles

By Jill Whalen in Featured

Last week I was speaking with a potential client in need of SEO consulting who told me that they had been working on their product part e-commerce website over the past few months by adding “SEO articles” to it on a regular basis. “SEO articles?” I thought. “Why would an e-commerce site that sells product parts need articles about SEO?”

Of course, I knew they weren’t talking about writing articles about SEO, but writing articles for SEO. Which is often just as silly. Unfortunately, I hear this on a regular basis because so many believe that writing keyword-stuffed articles is somehow an SEO requirement. They don’t know why they might need these articles — only that, for whatever reason, the Google Gods want them. And so they write articles that nobody would be interested in reading, but which are stuffed chock-full of the keywords for which they would like Google to show their site.

And then they wonder why it’s not happening for them.

“Did we not provide Google with the SEO articles they require?” they ask incredulously.

“Why does Google not show our ‘History of Product Part A’ article when someone is searching to buy one of them?”

“Let me explain,” I say, and ask them to put themselves in the shoes of the potential buyer.

Analyzing Alexa Stats to Increase Website Traffic

By Tom Koh in Featured

Website owners need to understand the statistics of the traffic flowing into their websites. The potential cannot be fully realized if this important ingredient is missing. Alexa stats may prove to be that tool to help in that process.

It is important for all website owners to understand how they can analyze Alexa stats to increase the amount of visitors that they see in a given period of time. Knowing what to read from these analytical statistics will help you to run a successful marketing blitz.

Demographics

Alexa is great at pulling demographics from various websites, helping users to better understand who their viewers are and who their viewers could be. Look at demographic analysis as doing a thorough survey on your target market – you are working to understand who you are targeting. The more that you understand about your target, the better that you can target them. Getting a grasp of your traffic demographics definitely helps you target the right segment of people to visit your website. This information is incredibly important in the world of advertising and marketing, crucial to the success of the biggest websites on the Internet.

Traffic Information

You need to know exactly how you are getting the traffic that you get on your website. You have to understand where the point of origin is to know what is going for your website and what is not. You want to know if individuals are simply typing in URLs, coming in off of search engine results, or are coming in off of backlinks on other websites. If you want to get website traffic you need to know where your strengths and weaknesses are, as far as traffic is concerned. You can work on pushing your strengths while honing in on and fixing your weaknesses.

Search Information

Have you ever wondered what your target market is searching for? Have you ever wondered what search results bring people directly to your website? Alexa stats will help you to boost website hits by looking at the actions of visitors and potential visitors. You will be able to make changes to your website that will directly target those individuals, helping you to see better results and higher numbers. You will get website traffic and you will see an increase I both view numbers and advertising revenue if you tailor your website to the information you find through Alexa.

Alexa stats are a strong and invaluable tool for any website. These analytical tools help you to completely understand the makeup of your website and the traffic that comes into your website. They will help to show you where you need to push your focus to, and what you need to do to increase website traffic. This information undoubtedly helps you to work the statistics to achieve the results you crave for.

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Tom Koh has been swimming in the primordial Internet soup since the 1990′s. He has pioneered several highly successful Internet ventures. Tom now helps others succeed by sending website traffic to help SEO, Alexa ranking and sales via one of his services:
www.increase-website-traffic.org.

Bluetooth Device Hijacking

By Chris Holgate in Featured

One of the guys who works for the computer repair company in one of the offices above Refresh suggested that perhaps I should do an article on the mysterious world of Bluejacking and BlueSnarfing.

The motive behind this suggestion was that whilst in a pub last night someone tried to compromise his mobile phone handset; we both agreed this was a danger readers should be made aware of. Bluetooth is a fantastic technology and one of its many applications allows modern day mobile phone handsets to communicate wirelessly and exchange data with each other. Although the technology currently has a theoretical maximum range of up to 100m, it is worth noting that when built into a mobile phone the two devices realistically have to be in the same room to communicate with one another.

The applications for Bluetooth are numerous – one of the most useful and practical use for the technology is that hands-free headsets can communicate with your mobile phone without the need for cumbersome cables. Bluetooth can also be used to send files such as pictures, movies and MP3′s to others that you know quickly, easily and free of charge.

Unfortunately, with most technology there is often a downside. In this instance, the problem with Bluetooth is that unless you turn it off when you’re not using it, then your phone will be continuously broadcasting itself and this can be a potential security vulnerability.

The term used to the sending of unwanted messages over Bluetooth is ‘Bluejacking’. As the person sending the message is not able to control your device it is technically harmless, however it can be very confusing to the person receiving anonymous messages. Another way this can be used is for unsolicited advertising; I was offered a box several weeks ago that when put in the shop window would automatically send a message advertising my company to everyone who drove past with a bluetooth enabled phone.

I, of course, declined, but imagine if every shop down a high street had one of these boxes then we would be inundated with adverts making our day-to-day life a lot more tiresome.

BlueSnarfing works in a different way to Bluejacking and is generally used maliciously. It takes advantage of the vulnerabilities in order to gain access to confidential data such as the contact list, pictures, and text messages. They can also dial premium rate numbers without the owners knowledge with of course can rack up large phone bills.

Another potential vulnerability of Bluetooth is that is can be used as a medium to transfer viruses. It is a rather strange state of the world when we have phones capable of contracting viruses but trust me, it does happen. Such viruses only tend to affect the handsets that have relatively advanced operating systems. Once infected these handsets then start propagating the virus by sending it out to every Bluetooth handset within range. These viruses are fairly easy to avoid because the handset does ask the user if they want to accept a file via Bluetooth before permission is given for the transfer to take place; typically only those uneducated in Bluetooth etiquette would accept such a file.

I don’t want to incite a knee-jerk reaction resulting in my readership abandoning Bluetooth – It is a good technology, is genuinely useful and the risks are relatively low. If you do have a Bluetooth enabled handset there are a couple of ways to minimize your risk and luckily these are extremely easy to implement.

If you don’t use Bluetooth then keep it switched turned off or your status set as ‘undiscoverable’ as this will result in no malicious users being able to locate your handset. If you do require or simply would like to keep Bluetooth enabled then make sure that if you are asked whether you would like to receive a file you weren’t expecting then reject it. Simple!

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Chris Holgate is a director and copyrighter of the online Ink and Toner website Refresh Cartridges www.refreshcartridges.co.uk He writes a weekly article of all things tech related.

Social Media Outsourcing Guide – How to Choose the Right Social Media Consultant for Your Business

By Kristina Jaramillo in Featured

With the strong emergence of social media in the internet marketing world, every Tom, Dick and Harry has come out saying they are social media experts. They are feeding on the desires of entrepreneurs who do not have time to dedicate to developing their social media presence effectively. If you do not ask the right questions you may wind up spending thousands of dollars and get no results. That’s why I created this guide to help you choose the best social media consultant for your company.

5 Questions You Must Ask Before You Hire Your Next Social Media Consultant

1. When engaging in social media marketing will you keep my targeted audience in mind?

Most social media companies will focus on making the connection. They do not care whatsoever who that connection is. What good is having thousands of connections if they do not become prospects, new clients, referral sources or possible JV partners. When I help my LinkedIn clients, I focus on their target audience. I research each individual potential connection to see if they could be a future prospect, referral source or joint venture opportunity. I focus on the quality of the connection, not the quantity because my clients do not care how many people I connect with them. They care more about how much money they are making from LinkedIn and their social media efforts.

2. Do you create a system to take the online conversation offline?

Many consultants do not take the most crucial step of any online social media connection — They fail to take the online conversation offline. If you think you are going to sell high-end products and services just by having a social media presence, then I have a Brooklyn Bridge to sell you.

You need to have a system in place that consistently gets your website and information in front of your prospects. You need to engage with them on many levels. And, you need to find ways that you can get them to take the next step in your relationship – and have a phone conversation with you.

3. How engaged are you in social media conversations?

Anyone can post content to groups – a five year old can even do that if you show them how. If your social media consultant does not understand direct response copywriting techniques that encourages conversation, then it’s time to move on. If your social media consultant does not regularly monitor the conversations that’s happening online every day, then move on.

The person you choose to handle your social media needs to know how to assess the conversations and find ways you can contribute. I spend time every day, scanning the LinkedIn Q & A boards and the different groups that my clients belong to. I look for opportunities that my clients can add value. I look for ways to spark healthy debates. That’s what effective social media marketing is all about.

4. When focusing on social media profiles do you focus strictly on keyword optimization and being found first for you niche?

If you go to LinkedIn and do a search on internet marketing, you will see the number one person has only 145 connections and the number 2 person has 154 connections. Now internet marketing is a popular key phrase. In fact, the search gets 487,100 results for that phrase. So imagine how many people check out their profiles. One has to wonder why they get so few connections. It is because the person who handles their profile forgot, if you want to create a connection, you need to have prospect focused copy within the profile. You cannot just have it stuffed with keywords. Your profile has to show me why I want to connect or do business with you.

5. How can you ensure that my social media messaging stays consistent with my branding?

One of my clients, Adam Hommey, Founder of Help My Website Sell, started to create content that dealt with how to work effectively with your website team. How does that relate to a brand that is heavily focused on increasing website conversions? Most companies would have distributed his article on their social networks without any concern. But I pushed backed and told him that this did not match his brand and this should not be sent out. I asked him point blank, how does this relate to website conversions and how will this persuade legal firms, management consulting firms and corporation (his target audience) to want to connect with him? You need someone who will keep your brand in check and work to reinforce it through social media.

By asking these 5 questions, you will avoid the mistake of hiring the wrong social media consultant or company.

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LinkedIn Expert Kristina Jaramillo creates online marketplace opportunities for entrepreneurs who want more website traffic, prospects and profits. Now, with her free special report, you can uncover how you can become “the trusted source for your industry on LinkedIn” and along with easy ways to gain more connections fast by avoiding the top 14 mistakes. Get this information for free at: www.GetLinkedInHelp.com

The Benefits Of Cloud Software Over Traditional Shared Servers

By Dirik Hameed in Featured

Everyone is interested in cloud hosting at this moment in time. Traditionally, websites have been hosted on standard dedicated servers. Dedicated servers host lots of websites. On each dedicated server, a shared hosting account is kept. A dedicated server for email or Mysql is sometimes employed. When it comes down to it though, all your eggs are in one basket. The obvious downside of this is that if the dedicated server develops a fault, your website will be down. Cloud software is different. Cloud panels have numbers on its side.

Cloud software is extremely scalable, as in you can choose to pay for what resources you use. It’s very like mobile phones that offer a pay as you go tariff. If you use a small amount of resources, you only pay for those resources. If you are suddenly hit with loads of traffic, the cloud will let you expand instantly. Cloud hosts automatically assign what power you need. Your website should never go offline because of an unexpected spike in traffic. You would simply be billed for the extra used. In this respect, cloud hosting is more cost effective. Remember you are still in a virtual hosting environment of your own- no sharing. No need for an expensive dedicated server anymore.

Whether cloud hosts are more reliable is the subject of fierce debate. There are however, many arguments for. We looked at the scenario of standard shared hosting where if one single dedicated server fails, your website goes offline. Cloud hosting is made up of many many nodes or
dedicated servers. Thus you can weather one or even two nodes going offline at the same time. Cloud hosting surely has to be considered more reliable.

Deploying cloud hosting is very quick and easy. Deploying the hardware is the first part of dedicated server hosting. Then you have to setup software and services. Cloud hosting knocks this issue on the head. You slot in servers as and when you need them. One thing to consider about cloud hosting, is it is a relatively new technology. There are a few down sides with cloud hosting, where a traditional dedicated server or shared hosting environment can offer bigger benefits. However, the reliability cost and scalability of cloud software wins hands down. Those hosts that don’t already have a cloud product, are developing one right now. This speaks volumes. Cloud hosting certainly has more benefits over traditional hosting. Watch clouds continue to improve as cloud software does.

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If you are swayed cloud hosting, have a look at www.vi.net, or for more cloud hosts information www.vi.net/cloud-hosting/cloud-hosting.php .

Add Some Personality to Your Site – A SPN Exclusive Article

By Nikki Cripps in Featured

Too many websites lack personality.

As a specialist copywriter who works exclusively in writing online content for business, I regularly come across copy that leaves me wondering if the website owners have a pulse.

Lifeless, dry, dull, uninspiring, devoid of personality, and completely lacking in charm and appeal. Banks, insurance brokers, accountants, medical practitioners, property developers and real estates are experts at pretending there are no humans employed in the business at all.

They’ve mastered the technique of stripping out humor, passion, and excitement from their websites, leaving behind a cold and barely breathing site that’s in urgent need of life support.

Why is it so hard to add a little spice to a website? I’m not talking racy office gossip or controversy. But I do want to connect with your business at some level – any level! I want to know a little bit about you because if I choose to do business with you there’s a slim chance you will learn a bit about me, including my address, my credit card details and my shopping habits. Is it too much to ask that your website reveals something in return?

What’s the Difference Between WordPress.com and WordPress.org, Anyways?

By James Druman in Featured

If you’re looking at setting up a website lately, you might be looking at WordPress as a possible solution for getting your site up quickly and making it as easy to manage as possible. No learning HTML or anything – WordPress certainly offers a great solution that requires little technical knowledge. But during their research, many people get confused as they notice that Internet Marketers often talk about uploading WordPress to your own hosting account, which you pay for, but WordPress.com already offers free websites for anyone who wants them.

Let me clear it up for you.

There’s a big difference between WordPress.com and the software you download from WordPress.org. Well, it’s basically the same software, it’s made by the same people and is all opensource, but what differs is the way you can use it.

WordPress.com is a relatively easy option if you just want to toss a quick hobby site online. The control you get over customization and all that is not as great, but it does get you online. And many people do use these WordPress.com sites to send more traffic to their self-hosted sites. Basically, when you go with this option, you are just opening up a WordPress account and setting up a website on their server.

There are some major disadvantages to using the WordPress.com account. The first is they will not allow you to monetize your site or promote your business, and if they feel you are working around those rules, they’ve got the authority to just take your site off the web in an instant and leave you hanging high and dry. Not too cool if you were pulling any kind of income stream off of that web property.

The other major disadvantage is that a WordPress.com site has “.wordpress.com” at the end of the domain. So, instead of your site being WeSellThingamabobbers.com, it would be WeSellThingamabobbers.wordpress.com. It looks uglier, it looks unprofessional, and it really just doesn’t fly for a serious business.

So what’s the deal with WordPress.org? Well, WordPress also makes the software available to people who have their own hosting accounts. That means you can still get all the benefits of their easy-to-use platform without any of those nasty disadvantages. And it’s still free.

The only thing you’re paying for if you go this route is your domain name and your hosting. Domains typically go from $7-$12 and hosting runs about $5-$30 a month, depending on your needs. Don’t worry – it’s easy to keep it down on the lower end of the spectrum if all you want to do is run a single site. But the fact that you get a free opensource software program to run your site with means you are still getting a site dirt cheap.

So I hope that clears it up a bit. I remember when I was just a newbie and always stumbling across people writing about WordPress.com and WordPress.org without making it clear what the difference was, I found myself scratching my head a bit.

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Are You Ready To Get Online But Don’t Know Where To Start? Go To www.FreeWebPageDesignService.com And Get A Free Web Page Design For Your Business – Free! Please Note That You Still Must Buy Hosting And A Domain.

Google Checkout

By Chris Holgate in Featured

Google is currently promoting possibly one of the most interesting and generous offers in the history of the internet, in order to promote its new Google Checkout service. Since the offer is only running for the next ten days I thought I should let you know if time so you are able to take advantage of it.

Google Checkout has recently been designed to act as a third party between retailers and their customers on the Internet. Such a service looks like it could prove very popular now that many are cautious of giving Internet sites their card details. The idea is that instead of giving out your card number when shopping on a website, you instead add your items to the shopping basket in the normal way, and then when you’re ready to pay you get transferred to the Google Checkout site. You sign in to your account using your e-mail address and password, choose which nominated card you wish to use and Google then forwards payment to the merchant whilst keeping your card details confidential.

Many of you will be aware of this principle already existing in forms such as Paypal and Nochex, however from a sellers point of view many of the existing sites are flawed and offer the retailer very little protection against fraudulent transactions. Many retailers have chosen not to adopt them for this reason, along with the fact that many of these kind of third party merchants end up costing a lot more than having a dedicated merchant account with the bank. The most successful service of this nature would be PayPal, however the main reason for this is that PayPal are owned by eBay and have grown as eBay has grown. The majority of eBay auctions include PayPal as a payment method which means that eBay can earn even more in fees from its users. Unsurprisingly Google Checkout is banned as a payment method on all eBay auctions, however I predict that in a matter of time Google will create a better funded and ultimately superior version of eBay as retribution.

I do feel obliged to point out that most websites on the Internet don’t have access to your card details anyway so just because a site doesn’t accept Google Checkout doesn’t mean they are necessarily unsafe. Our website for example has always liaised securely and directly with our merchant bankers – All we get off them is an authorization code; no one here EVER has access to your card details. Although not all retailers work in this fashion it is my understanding that the vast majority do.

The really interesting part for home users is the offer that Google is currently running in conjunction with a number of selected partners, including Refresh cartridges and SVP Communications. This promotion offers their customers $10 off any order above $30 when they pay by Google Checkout. To find a full list of companies selected for this promotion please take a look at the following site:
checkout.google.com/buyer/merchants.html.

We have been informed the offer is short term, so it vital that if you want to take part in it you will need to move now. It is also worth pointing out that you can order as many times as you wish and still benefit from this offer; the only stipulation is that your order is over $30 before postage and you use Google Checkout to pay and you will genuinely get $10 off your transaction. Google Checkout is completely free of charge and if you decide that the service isn’t for you after taking advantage of the discounts then you need never use it again.

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Chris Holgate writes a weekly article of all things tech related. He is a director and copyrighter of the online computer consumables business Refresh Cartridges. An archive of the articles can be found at www.computerarticles.co.uk.

Entice Your Viewers with Powerful Graphics

By Joelle Rene Hughes in Featured

Any pro salesman will tell you that it’s the WORDS that make the sale. The words describe the features and benefits of a product or business. The words generate interest, compel you to keep reading, and convince you to take action and pull out your credit card. The words are the ‘magic potion’ that makes the world of marketing spin. However…it’s the GRAPHICS that grabs their attention and brings them in the door!

Powerful, professional graphics can make the difference between having just another website and having that ‘one-in-a-million’ site that people are drawn to over and over again. Anyone in the online sales business will tell you how challenging it can be to attract customers to your sales page or web store. Why else would there be so many eBooks, videos and training programs focused on internet marketing techniques and traffic generation? You have an unfathomable amount of competition out there and until you have gained your own stead-fast following, it takes tremendous effort to capture your share of potential customers in your market niche.

Even in online auction sites like eBay, you stand a better chance of getting viewers to your listings if you provide a top-notch thumbnail image. Once inside your listing, adding additional pictures of your product will greatly improve your chances of making a sale.

Will professional graphics increase the value of your products or services? Well, unless your business is in web design or graphic arts, probably not. They will, however, escalate the ‘perceived value’ of your business. People associate professional graphics and high-end marketing schemes with a better quality product or service. Does the picture on a box of cereal actually improve the contents of
the box? Nope! But it most definitely helps sell the cereal.

Using high quality graphics makes your business look more professional. Professionalism engenders trust. Trust promotes sales. People feel more comfortable buying from those that they trust… so why not present yourself or your business with a professional online presence by incorporating some stunning graphics in your website?

Are professional web graphics expensive? Not usually. In fact, you’d be surprised at how many excellent graphic artists there are out there willing to provide you with a top-notch product for a very reasonable price.

So what’s the next hurdle to overcome? For many of you, it’s probably where to find excellent, trustworthy, reasonably priced graphics artists that can perform the services you need and are willing to listen to what you want.

Some graphics and web designers will put their business logo or contact information on the websites they create. So it may be as simple as finding a few websites that you like and checking for reference links at the bottom of the page. You could also do a search for graphics artists, but the returned results may be in the thousands. Better yet, consider contacting the owners of the websites and asking them who did their graphics designs.

Have fun sprucing up your sites with luscious graphics that capture your viewer’s attention. It’s just a matter of polishing the ‘eye-candy’.

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Joelle Rene’ Hughes is a professional artist, internet marketer, and author of multiple marketing eBooks and videos. For her recommendations for Top Quality Graphics go to => www.gfx-1-graphics.com

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