Is Your Website Content Worth Reading or Obvious Search Engine Bait?


Webmasters are always looking for ways to increase their traffic and exposure. This is natural and will never change. No one is ever content with their traffic levels.

But problems arise with this reality as well. While it is good to be motivated to get as much traffic as possible, it is tempting to try and cut corners and use tactics that are temporary rather than permanent solutions.

And there are myriad tactics that can take your entire business down the tubes as well. The trick is not to be tempted with short-term gain over long-term income from your web business.

Many webmasters are aware that "content is king" and that you have to brand your site to make sales and build credibility. But most people only take these facts at face value and only as they pertain to the search engines. Big mistake.

Your content is your lifeblood for more reasons than search engine placement. This is your "face" on the net.

So if you're using new strategies to bring in more targeted traffic, make sure you don't use something that could kill your business just to get some short term traffic.

Many people are putting article directories on their sites these days. Having a set of articles on your site is great for building credibility and making more sales, if you do it right.

But as is always the case, I see people taking that to the extreme and missing the point entirely. Now I see some webmasters completely emptying out the big article directories like GoArticles.com to put hundreds or even thousands of articles on their sites.

With no editorial review they just take the whole category their site fits in best and grab up any and all articles in it. Remember, anyone can get into an article directory whether they can write or not. Whether they are an expert or not. Want those guys on your site representing you?

I have a smaller article directory than most people at http://webmastertraffictools.com/articledirectory/

Why so small? Because I review each and every article that is submitted there. There is a very good reason for this.

To get someone to first visit your site takes money and time. Once you have them there it is easier to get them back if you impress them.

Whatever methods of temporary website promotion you use, you have to keep in mind that you want something that will work for you for years, not months. Therefore, if all you ever do is troll for temporary traffic you will ALWAYS be promoting as hard as you are today. Wasn't part of the reason you started working online to work less and make more?

Me, I want to have a network of sites that eventually promote themselves so I can spend the rest of my life on vacation. If you don't start laying down the foundation of that kind of system, you are never going to be able to retire with your site(s) supporting you.

Putting up content for content's sake is redundant. Other people's content is already on hundreds of other pages.

You don't stand out in the crowd that way alone. It is temporary at best if it works at all for you, and once people get to your site and realize you have harvested all your content from a directory they have already read through, you've made an enemy, not a customer out of them.

AND if you were unscrupulous enough to even reprint articles from people who spammed that directory with ads, poor english, poor advice, and everything else, I guarantee your visitors are leaving your site with no respect for you, whatever you sell, and with a deep hatred of "sites like yours" on the net.

That is not a long-term plan for a web business. See what I mean by temporary? No repeat traffic is no business at all.

So while my article directories are smaller, they have timely, relevant content from expert authors who can spell and who really spent time on their pieces.

Therefore I get repeat traffic, more clicks on ads, more sales of products, and a real income from that directory that will last as long as I own the site.

Points to Ponder:

1. Content is not king. GOOD content is king.

2. Repeat business is cheaper than new business.

3. Your name and brand are the only thing of singular value and importance to you on the web.

4. And short-term solutions to getting in the engines are always just that: short-term

Someday, if you are one of the webmasters I talked about above who only see the short-term picture, you are going to get tired of all the work you have to constantly do to keep traffic coming in.

And the worst part is, since you will have no foundation to rely on when you need a break, you won't be able to take one. If your focus on website promotion is always on short campaigns and tricking search engines temporarily into thinking your site is of actual value, once you stop what you're doing (probably from sheer burnout) your income also stops.

But if you have the foresight to build a base for your internet business, and you pay attention to and have standards for the kind of content you put up, you will be able to walk away from your business from time to time and the traffic and interest will still be there.

For me it is unthinkable to base my entire business on temporary solutions for getting traffic and sales when, if you have seen what you can make in the short term,why not get set up to reap those rewards for life?

But that's just me. I profit greatly from people doing it the other way. Simply because when someone comes to my site and sees content of value, they feel as though they have found an oasis in a desert of trash. A place they will visit more than twice and gladly bookmark.

You can figure out the value of that kind of response for yourself, as it pertains to your business in particular.

Between the two choices, I'll take repeat and recommended traffic over fly-by-night, angry, resentful traffic any day of the week!

Jack Humphrey is the author of Power Linking 2 Evolution at http://power-linking-profits.com and the CEO of Web Fox Media, LLC at http://webfoxmedia.com where he accepts a limited number of new clients for copywriting, marketing consulting, and professional web development.

How To Obtain Free Advertising For Your Online Business


The beauty of the Internet is that it allows you to run a business with very little money. The secret is knowing which of the available free resources are worth your time! Register with Search Engines Submitting your online business to search engines is one of the easiest, fastest, and least expensive ways to promote your site. Tens of millions of people use the major search engines every day to navigate around the Internet and quickly find what they are looking for. Statistics show that 85% of pages visited on the Internet come from people who have gotten there from a search engine. While you shouldn't rely on search engines alone to bring you qualified traffic, this is definitely a good way to kick off your marketing efforts.

There are no easy tricks or secret formulas for optimum search engine placement, but the following five tips should help make your job easier and increase your chances of getting high search engine rankings.

1. Do it Yourself. You should avoid using auto-submission services that promise to register your site at hundreds of major search engines for a small fee. There are only a handful of search engines that really count and a number of the majors use the same database. Thus, you can register on one and show up on several of them. The experts in the field agree that you are much better off taking the extra time to learn as much as you can about the major search engines and manually registering your site with each one to ensure you get the best listing possible.

2. Less is More. You may be tempted to think that it is to your advantage to try to get listed on as many sites as possible, but this is simply not the case. The major search engines will drive over 90% of your website traffic if you are listed within the top 3 pages of keyword results. Additionally, don't try to promote every page of your site. Almost every search engine will crawl through your entire site indexing all of its pages. If you have a large website and promote all of your pages, some engines will consider it spamming and reject your submissions.

3. Get your site linked from other sites. Identify other sites that offer complementary services, which are likely to be of interest to users of your site; link to them and invite them to reciprocate. In particular, do this with popular sites and do it with those sites that appear near the top of searches that use the keyword phrases that you are targeting.

4. Don't Get Too Comfortable. Granted, a good listing on a top search engine is a pretty exciting thing. But don't expect it to last forever. The good search engines are constantly re-evaluating their lists and crawling the web to ensure their rankings are as current and valid as possible. Also, hundreds of new sites are being submitted daily which could cause yours to get pushed down the list if a better one comes along. You need to keep a constant watch on your listing to make sure it stays at the top of the list.

5. Don't Expect Too Much Even if you do everything exactly right, there's still no guarantee that you'll get a good placement on search engines, or that your intended target audience will find you there. Few people truly understand how they work, and even if you're lucky enough to figure it out, they'll change the process on you as soon as you do. To make matters worse, many engines and directories are notoriously slow to add your listing, taking up to 4 weeks or longer to add your URLs to their database. Some directories limit the number of listings, so you may never get listed or you may get bumped after a short period of time. Many search engines prune their lists periodically as well.

The bottom line is that, while registering your site on search engines is a critical first step in promoting your site, the process is seldom enough to generate a significant number of quality visits to your home on the web.

Be sure to supplement your search engine marketing with other online and offline promotional efforts, such as those described in this article. Reciprocal Links and Web Rings. A reciprocal link is represented by two web sites who hyperlink to each other. The best reciprocal links are from sites that share content or interests similar to yours. The reason is that you want to draw as much traffic as possible from the linking site and, likewise, want to provide as much traffic as possible to the linking site. It's a win-win situation where both sites experience an increase in traffic. Here's how you go about arranging a link. Identify sites that have similar content or interests to yours. For each site, send an e-mail suggesting that both your sites could benefit from a reciprocal link.

Here's an example of an effective email:

Dear Webmaster,

I just visited your Web site at www.whatever.com. I have to say that I was very impressed by what I saw. Congratulations on developing an attractive, professional and informative site. I am the webmaster at www.mywebsite.com. We are currently looking to increase the number of links to our site via reciprocal arrangements with other quality sites, such as yours. At present we are getting around 300 hits per day and we are now seriously looking to expand on that. If you think that you might be interested in doing a link or banner exchange please look over our site. If you are interested, you could even go straight to our links page, where we have our own banner, plus some text about ourselves, which you could use if you decided to link to us. That's at: www.mywebsite.com/links.htm. I feel this would be win-win situation for both of us and could potentially increase traffic significantly to both our sites. If you are interested, please reply to this email and include a graphic banner, of standard dimensions and/or some text that you like to have appear on our links page. Also, let us know which URL you would like us to link to. I very much look forward to hearing back from you and hopefully establishing a mutually rewarding link exchange. Thanks for your consideration, Your Name and contact information

You'll be pleasantly surprised how many people are anxious to increase their traffic and will agree to this type of parternship.

If you do manage to develop a marketing partnership with another site, it is very worthwhile trying to form a web ring. A web ring is really not much more than a group of like-minded and linked sites. Traffic can be hard to win, especially in the early days of your site, and by getting a web ring established you will find that is relatively easy to share what traffic you get amongst the other cooperating sites. It is really quite effective and is now a popular and established way of boosting traffic to your site. Ezines & Email Newsletters

1. Writing for Ezines: Right now there's a shortage of good e-zine (short for e-mail magazines or newsletters) articles. So, if you write well and you know how to do research on the Internet, there's a huge market waiting for you. Pick a topic that you know something about and then go to the Search Engines and find as many Web sites as you can that deal with that subject. Make a note of any URLs that offer resources dealing with the topic of your article. Include those URLs in your article. Keep your article short. One or two pages is fine. Tell readers how to do something that will interest many of them. Keep sentences short, informal, and talk directly to the reader. If you don't feel comfortable with your writing skills, have a local English teacher or journalism student look over your article for you. At the end of your article, attach a 5-6 line 'Resource Box' that includes your Web site URL and/or your email address. Because you won't get paid for your article, publishers don't mind allowing you a personal plug at the end. The article makes you look like an expert in your field. Your contact info at the end urges thousands of impressed readers to contact the expert.

2. Create Your Own E-Zines: Better yet, consider producing your own company e-zine or newsletter. Nothing creates sales like your own Internet community. E-mail newsletters are a great way to build your Internet community and allow you to position yourself as a knowledgeable and helpful expert in the field. Subscribers come to see you as someone they know and can trust. E-mail newsletters are easy to produce and cost almost nothing. People on the Internet are usually in a hurry, so keep your e-zine short. One or two articles coupled with two or three short ads may be all your e-zine needs. Keep lines short enough to fit into an e-mail browser and put a hard return at the end of each line (to keep them from breaking up when e-mailed). For starters, you can send your e-zine out with your favorite e-mail program. Later, when your subscriber list grows, you may want to upgrade to a majordomo provided, most likely, by the same company that provides your web site space. Get subscribers by placing free ads on classified sites, ads in appropriate newsgroups, and announcing your new e-zine to firms that specialize in keeping track of various lists of subscribers.

Be sure to mention your new e-mail newsletter in all your print and broadcast advertising and add a place for people to subscribe on your web site. Your subscriber list can easily grow to include a few thousand within a year. An audience that size will be a continuing source of sales, contacts, and insights. Developing a thriving subscriber base means promoting your newsletter prominently on your Web site and elsewhere. A simple, text-based link exhorting visitors to "Sign up for our newsletter" will attract only the bare minimum of attention. Instead, consider a graphic or side-bar that speaks to the benefits of the newsletter - for example: "Get the latest e-business news in your inbox FREE."

Forum Networking: There are many discussion forums on the Internet, on every topic you could possibly imagine. Most discussion boards allow posters to attach a "Signature" with their post containing additional information about themselves, such as their name, URL and sometimes even an advertisement. By visiting a few forums regularly and participating in the discussions, asking and answering questions, you can build up trust with other forum members, whilst at the same time getting free exposure for your website. Just try to make a useful contribution to the forum - be sure to read the forum rules and don't SPAM! Referral Marketing Encourage happy customers to tell their friends about your business.

This is a great way to build your customer base, year after year, through the power of the 'snowball' effect-a happy customer tells a friend, who tells a friend, etc. Referrals also tend to be easier to convert into paying customers because your product has been 'endorsed' by someone they know and trust. You can offer incentives such as discounts or a free gift to encourage referrals. Regardless of whether or not the referred party makes a purchase, be sure to thank your customer for the referral-reward his behavior and he'll be more inclined to repeat it. Banner Advertising: Recent statistics show that 80% of advertisers use banner advertising and 18 of every 25 online ads created by advertisers are banner ads (ISP Cyberstats). Knowing how and where to place banner ads is a key factor in an online advertising campaign. For small businesses that don't have a large budget to devote to online advertising, a focused and effective approach to getting the most exposure for the least amount of money is essential. A simple search on Google or similar search engine will turn up numerous places where you can purchase banner advertising space. However, if your goal is to uncover free advertising resources, you should consider the following two sources:

1. Banner Exchange Services Perhaps the easiest, and certainly the cheapest, way to utilize banner advertising is by participating in banner exchange networks. These networks, such as "http://www.megatraffic.biz" , allow smaller sites to leverage the power of the Web by displaying each others' ads in a cooperative fashion. In addition to providing a no-cost linking opportunity, these networks typically generate highly targeted traffic to your site and extend viewership to audiences you may not otherwise be able to reach.

2. Trading Banners with Other Sites: When you visit a site that you think could send you good, qualified traffic, just drop a note to the webmaster and see if he/she/it wants to swap banner advertising. Tell them where you propose to put their banner on your site, and suggest a page on their site that might make for good placement for you. Be very polite and offer a fair trade. Explain something about your site and why you think it would benefit both sites to swap. How to Design Effective Banner Advertising Designers face a number of challenges when creating Internet banner advertisements. You have a very small space - usually about 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels high - in which to convey your message. That message has to be legible, and it has to catch the reader's eyes on what is often a very busy page, all while keeping file size to a minimum. That's a lot to ask from such a small graphic! Fortunately, you can follow these five easy guidelines to create ads that are catchy, effective, and easy to make.

1. Use the words "Click Here" or "Enter" every time you design a banner. You may think that these two words are overused online, but tests have proven that these words are able to increase the effectiveness of a banner ad by 20-30% without changing anything else in the banner. They inspire the reader to click on the ad if the headline of the banner interests them.

2. Animate Your Banners. An animated banner will increase your banner ads effectiveness by 30-40%. The key in using animation in your banner is keeping it small. The reason that you don't want big pictures or images that look like live video in your banners is the fact that the banner will load too slowly on people's pages. The visitors just won't see it.

3. Use an awesome headline in your banner. Don't think that just having a good looking banner will make people click through. The key to effective banner advertising is having a good headline. A good technique to use is to keep the same headline on your banner ad that you have on your entry page. Then when they click through the banner, they will come to see the same headline that sparked an interest in them in the first place.

4. It is often a good idea to use your web site address or some type of company logo in the banner. Don't focus your banner on your logo or web site address, but do include it in many cases. Your main benefit headline should be the focus of your banner. Your use of a web address or company logo in a small section of the banner just helps to produce a branding effect on people's minds giving you a few extra hits.

5. Use banner text wisely. Use a simple font in the largest possible size and capitalize the first letter of every word. If your text takes more than two seconds to read, you've got too many words. Either edit the copy down or consider adding another frame. Too much text overwhelms viewers, and they'll be less likely to read it.

Traffic Exchanges: One method of getting targeted traffic to your site is through the traffic or hit exchanges. When used properly, they can be a great source of targeted visitors. Put simply, a traffic exchange is a facility that you can use to get hits to your site in exchange for viewing other people's sites. The way traffic exchanges work are very simple. When you first visit a traffic exchange website, you will be asked to register. Usually when you register you receive free credits just for signing up. When you login for the first time, you should add your sites into the exchange. Traffic exchanges work by crediting per the amount of traffic you bring to other sites on the network. This can be through your own surfing, referral traffic, or even by purchasing site visits. Most exchanges offer free and paid memberships, with paid members of course obtaining more perks and potentially more targeted traffic.

The thing with hit exchanges is that you've got to know how to use them, otherwise your results will be disappointing. But if you apply these four strategies, you may be pleasantly surprised. 1. Create a special page for the traffic exchanges. A common mistake made by many webmasters is to direct visitors to their main page. Instead of doing this, focus on creating a well-designed 'teaser' page that will create interest in your product without pushing visitors to purchase anything. The maximum amount of time that your site will be given to load is less than 30 seconds and the last thing you want is a slow loading page. It needs to: load quickly which will mean being very sparing with the graphics and animation. put across the greatest benefit for visiting you site very clearly. have a quick and easy way for surfers to bookmark your page. This is very important. When surfing for hits, you get into a kind of flow, one you don't really want to interrupt. Having a favorites button will ensure that people who are pushed for time can always come back and view your page later. If you have links to other sites on your special page, it's best if they open in new windows. That way your visitor doesn't have to leave the hit exchange. It's also a good idea to have some form of email capture facility on your page.

2. Develop a freebie and make visitors sign up to get it. Once you have your visitor's attention, offer something for free that has intrinsic value. Some common items used by many webmasters are free ebooks, or contests for your products. By providing a free and useful item to your prospect, you attract their attention without forcing them to purchase anything at that moment. You have also obtained that visitor's email address-after they sign up. Once this is done, send them an automatic response email that lets them know how to obtain their freebie. (One quick warning: On the entry form, let the person know that they are joining a mailing list. Don't hide this fact, because you could be accused of spamming.)

3. Find good traffic exchange services and start surfing. After designing your page and including the freebie, browse for a few quality traffic exchange services. When searching, take into account the following factors:

Find sites that have good ratios. Sign up for services, such as www.megatraffic.biz that give you a fair ratio of sites which you visit, to times that your URL is displayed. Any traffic exchange service should have at least a 2:1 ratio. Study their anti-cheating policies. Any good traffic exchange service will have strict policies that prevent people from earning credits without actually viewing your site, including the use of robot/auto surf software.

Additionally, a good traffic exchange service will limit or prohibit the use of pop-ups, pop-unders, pop-exit pages or fly-ins. It should also prohibit sites that promote immoral, illegal or illicit URLs. To review recommended program terms, visit http://megatraffic.biz/agreement.asp

Referring others to the exchange should also benefit you, so be sure your exchange offers a referral program. Take advantage of your referral status. All it takes is one large site in your downline to create a stream of new visitors back to you.

4. Contact your visitors. Once you have collected a good database of visitors who are interested in your product, contact them. In the email, remind them of the freebie or contest that they joined. After that, create a sales message that discusses how your product or service can help fulfill their specific needs. Since this e-mail reaches them when they are not concerned with generating hits for their own site, you have a better chance of making a sale. If you follow these 4 steps and use the resources that are provided, you will see an increase in quality visitors and email subscriptions. Ultimately, you should generate more sales.

If you're ready to get started, we encourage you to visithttp://www.megatraffic.biz to learn more about effective traffic exchange programs.

Author: M. Avedissian
http://www.Megatraffic.biz
Copyright 2005

M. Avedissianhttp://www.MegaTraffic.biz

Give Me Quality Over Quantity Every Time


In the early days of developing my home business, I went for the numbers instead of focusing on targeting prospects. It took me a while to appreciate the importance of targeting (quality) instead of just going for the big numbers (quantity).

For online marketing, it helps greatly to get your website in front of people who are actually looking for the product, service, or opportunity that you are offering. This refers to the concept of marketing your sites to your target audience, rather than wasting your time, effort, and money on people who are not already interested in what you have to offer.

Be wary of "massive action" techniques in this era when many ISPs feel their hottest marketing theme is the blocking of incoming emails, which they decide their customers do not want to receive (they are the self appointed "information police").

Many of the sources of cheap, high volume leads supply you with leads that have absolutely no interest in your particular business (or product or service) and furthermore, have been put into the list in such a manner that can get you into trouble with your ISP because you are unwittingly spamming (many of these bulk lead lists are created by robots that crawl the Internet and harvest email addresses) the recipients.

In order to be effective in the promotion your particular proposition, whatever it is, you have to seek out your target market. This is as true online as it is offline. Just because you are able to reach huge numbers of people with your message on the Internet far more cheaply and quickly than you can offline, does this necessarily mean you should?

What's the point of devoting your time and energies to marketing to a massive group of people without first knowing whether they, as a group, have a general interest in what you are offering?

It is much more efficient and effective to first find out where your prospective customers congregate, and then target that congregation, than it is to use a shotgun approach and hope that one of your pellets will somehow find its target (you know...throw enough up against the wall and something is bound to stick). You will find that by selectively targeting your prospects before marketing to them, your conversion ratio (the proportion of your target market that takes positive action and actually purchases your product or service) will be much higher than the results you would otherwise achieve without first taking the time to target your prospects. Once again, quality wins out over quantity.

It seems that a great many webmasters have not stopped to ask themselves the all-important question...What is the purpose of my web site? For some reason, many of them seem to think that the purpose of their web site is to give away freebies. Or it could be to be a "showcase" for their products. Or it could be to create links to all kinds of resources. Or it could be to have fancy flash graphics and build a brand name.

One of the biggest mistakes people new to web design make is going for more "flash" than substance. They bog down their site with a bunch of fancy colored backgrounds, 3-D text, flash presentations, etc. If a visitor to your site is using a 56K connection and has wait to more than 8 seconds for it to load (which can easily happen on sites heavy with graphics), you can expect to lose about 1/3 of your visitors.

If you're a business, the purpose of your web site is to sell a product or service. Your web site should have one main focus. It should not be selling a dozen products, a dozen opportunities, or linking to a bunch of different affiliate programs. Presenting too many options has a tendency to confuse your visitor.When someone visits your site, it should be clearly obvious what one action you want him or her to take.

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This article is freely available for reprint provided that the resource box at the end of the article is left intact and the article is published complete and unaltered. If you are using this article on a website or e-book, please make sure that the link in the resource box is live or clickable.
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Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and coaches others seeking to start their own home based business.

Visit his website at Legitimate Home Based Business for more details.

SuperCharge Your Website With Multi Linking


Here's a fairly obvious Multi Linking Strategy that is probably the easiest and most effective one you can employ. I call it...

Power Publishing on Your Own Site

The basic idea is simply to create lots of pages on your site(s) and embed links pointing back to your most important target pages. This works because a link pointing at a page on your site -- your home page, for instance -- enhances that page whether it is coming from outside or inside your site.

Think about how this might work if you had one or two secondary or support sites. Build some content on Sites B and C pointing back to pages on Site A. Isn't that a lot easier (and much more powerful) than wasting time asking anonymous webmasters for links on their spammy link pages?

Create big batches of content pages

The best application of this strategy involves creating big batches of content pages. Please bear in mind that I am not advocating the creation of SPAM pages -- meaningless jibberish filled with keywords and links. I am talking about creating useful, readable content pages. The important thing is that your new pages be optimized for the type of content you want to promote. This will reinforce the page or pages you are pointing back to. That way, embedded links pointing back to those target pages will have more force. They will be more "relevant" because the context in which they are found will be "relevant" to your target page(s).

For instance, say the home page of your primary site is aboutbusiness card displays". Create a bunch of content pages on all your sites with heavily optimized link text pointing directly back to your primary home page. Use your new pages to talk about various aspects of your business card displays: the construction, the design, the features, the cost, the comparison with competitors, and so on. This is information you should have anyway. Just turn it into new pages. Don't worry about design. That can come later if it bothers you.

Pretty simple wouldn't you say?

Two kinds of content pages: articles and "tips"

I normally think in terms of two basic kinds of "content pages" that are easily created: article pages and tips pages. I'm sure you can think of others. Both of these formats ("articles" and "tips") lend themselves to being done in what I have called batches. By "batches" I mean instead of writing one super duper (overly long?) article about, say, Search Engine Optimization or Dog Grooming -- whatever you want to promote -- you can write five or six (or twenty-five or twenty-six) shorter articles.

Remember, Google see links on specific pages -- at least that's what gets reported -- so you might as well create five or six pages instead of only one.

In other words, don't write just one or two articles about Dog Grooming. Write a whole bunch. Narrow down your focus and expand little insignificant points. The truth is, people can't retain more than a skimpy little bit of information with each read anyway.

Put your batches into sections

That means you should end up with article sections. A section for this topic, and a section for that topic. And a bunch of articles in each section with links pointing at your most important target pages.

You can see how well the concept of "tips" fits this formula. No matter what area you are involved in, you can create all kinds of little helpful tips and publish them on your website. Put each tip on a separate page, and make sure you embed your links within relevant keyword-rich text with anchor text pointing back to your most important target pages.

1000 Trade Show Tips

For example, I have just started creating a new feature calledb>1000 Trade Show Tips. Each tip will have at least two keyword-rich links pointing back to the two most important target pages inside one of the relevant sites. That's a lot of links. You can do the math.

It's also a lot of work. First I have to find the content, and then I have to properly organize it.

Here is what I am doing for my 1000 Tips section. I am starting out by taking some of my previously written articles and lifting paragraphs from them. In other words, I am turning each paragraph into a "tip". Believe it or not this more or less works. I have to tweak each paragraph so it makes sense, but that is relatively easy. In the end, each article produces about 20 meaningful tips. 50 articles and I've got my 1000 tips. I will also make sure I write my future articles this way -- so that each paragraph more or less stands by itself as a "tip".

Organize your content pages to make it easy to create more

Finally, a comment on organization. I've tried quite a few different ways of organizing articles (content pages), and most have been cumbersome and hard to work with. What is required is a simple script that lets you enter your articles and tips into a web form and that then posts them in pages formatted according to a preset template. No fuss, no muss.

I spent quite a bit of time looking for this kind of script over the last little while. I investigated "Content Management Systems", "Article Managers", and "Blog" software, but most have two major drawbacks:

1. They are overkill for what I am after -- too much setup, and too many options. All I want is a way of posting and indexing articles in several sections.

2. They post the articles to a database and do not usually create static (.html) pages. Yes, I know some systems do create static html pages, but I have not yet found one I like. I also know that various Google experts claim dynamic pages ultimately get indexed. But my experience is that static pages get indexed more often and more quickly.

The little script I settled on is called Article Manager 02. It consists of about five files. Like most .php scripts you have to do some configuring. In my case I modified the templates to give me the look I wanted, and then created five or six different sections with an integrated index.

To post articles you go to a very simple article entry form. You enter your article (html works perfectly), and it gets posted to its own static page (in my case a .shtml page). A summary of the article gets posted to the index page. So you end up with a summary page with titles, dates, short summaries of all the articles. It's very simple and very neat. I posted 15 articles this morning in about an hour and a half.

Of course you can organize your articles any way you want. In fact you don't need a complicated system at all. You can just put them all in one folder and create an index page pointing to each of them. Then each time you want to add to your articles, just put a new one in the folder and add its link to the index page. But be sure to link the index page to all the key pages within your website. If you don't link it, none of the articles will get spidered and you will not gain any search engine ranking as a result of having them on your site.

Rick Hendershot is a marketing consultant, writer, and internet publisher who lives in Conestogo, Ontario, Canada. He publishes several websites and blogs, including Small-Business-Online.com, SuperCharge Your Website with Multi-Linking, and many more.

Profitable Target Marketing: 6 Lessons from Major League Baseball


Does your business struggle with profitable online marketing? If so, you are not alone. Attracting the right customers to a site and keeping them coming back -- while also turning a profit -- can be a challenge. Consequently, I'm always on the lookout for ways to demonstrate profitable online strategies.

Last night, as I watched the 2003 Baseball All Star Home Run Derby and visited Major League Baseball's Web site, it struck me. The league is doing many things to effectively find and attract targeted Web customers, while simultaneously generating revenue.

In fact, I noticed several lessons from Major League Baseball you can use to profitably target your own customers. Here are six of them:

Think Through Your Business Models

Free information and activities are present, but well thought out, revenue generating business models are also evident.

Lesson 1: Make your profit generators stand out.

MLB.com has a separate, prominent navigation menu for profit producing activities -- MLB Shop, Tickets, Auctions, Subscriptions -- which appears in the upper right on all pages, where potential paying customers cannot miss it.

Importantly, each corresponding area of the site is narrowly focused on the visitors' interests. For example, the shop sells baseball -- and only baseball -- items. This is readily apparent from the slogan "For all things baseball".

Lesson 2: Sell subscriptions.

The league generates revenue from a variety of event subscriptions -- live video broadcasts, live audio broadcasts, archived clips, and fantasy games. This also help open the door for repeat purchases and add-ons.

Lesson 3: Include advertisements.

Pop-ups and other online advertising are a fact of life on free-to-user sites. Major League Baseball demonstrates taste and intelligent implementation with their pop-under, limiting each visitor to a single impression. Banner advertisements and sponsorships are also apparent.

Develop Profit Pulling Marketing Techniques

Lesson 4: Segment your visitors.

The league uses a "hub and spoke" system, which allows visitors to choose their own interests. There is one general site (MLB.com), with links to several specialty sites. (stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com, etc.)

This portal approach helps segment visitors into specific interest groups. It is a win-win strategy. Visitors find what they are looking for and the league can more easily target its marketing activities.

Lesson 5: Target locally.

Each "spoke" off the MLB hub contains local content, which segments visitors regionally. The league targets products and services accordingly.

For example, the Cardinals team site includes detailed information for Cardinals baseball events, ticket purchasing for Busch stadium games, and auctions for St. Louis related baseball memorabilia.

Lesson 6: Offer tiered products.

MLB offers subscription services at many levels. By packaging fantasy games into progressively larger bundles, they encourage trial as well as repeat visits. The offerings also target customers according to interest level and budget.

There you have it -- six lessons in profitable target marketing from Major League Baseball.

About the Author

Bobette Kyle draws upon 12+ years of Marketing/Executive experience, Marketing MBA, and online marketing research in her writing. Bobette is proprietor of the Web Site Marketing Plan Network, http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com, and author of the marketing plan and Web promotion book "How Much For Just the Spider? Strategic Website Marketing For Small Budget Business." ( HowMuchForSpider.com/TOC.htm )

Copyright 2003,2004 Bobette Kyle. All rights reserved.

How to use Free Website Submission Services


After you have built your website the next natural step is to start promoting it. You can start with submitting your site to the various search engines and directories.

For those of you who either have a site now or are planning to have one in the future, you will of course want your site to be listed in the search engine index and directories.

You will thus need to decide if you want to submit your site to each individual search engine and directory by hand, pay a submission service to do it for you, buy site submission software, or use one of the free submission services on the internet.

Submitting to each individual search engine and directory by hand is relatively easy to do and yet can be time consuming and a bit tedious. If you decide to go this route, you just visit each site and look for the "Add URL" or "add website" link which is generally at the top or bottom of each site. Then simply click the button and add your website, using the full address or URL(Uniform Resource Locator). In certain instances you might have to add a title, description and other information. For the directories such as Yahoo and the DMOZ, you will be required to visit the relevant category first. Be thoughtful to select the right category. If you pay a submission service to do this for you they can save you a lot of time and will usually do a slightly better job with the keywords and descriptions based on their know-how. If you choose to do it yourself, a good place to start is directoryguide dot com and searchenginecolossus dot com.

Another method is to buy software like Submit Wolf if you are submitting a single site. I personally do not really recommend this software since it is somewhat expensive and time consuming for a novice to learn. If you have an older computer this software will chew up plenty of resources while it is running and slow down your computer considerably. On the positive side it does submit to a sizeable number of sites. This can boost your page rank or popularity. That leaves us with the freebie submission services that exist around the net. There are at least several of them available that are good. The way it works is you fill out 1 form and the service submits that site data to all the search engines and directories on it's list. I do not recommend using them if your whole business is built around your site, but for many sites they are adequate. The problem is that some search engines block these automated submissions automatically(they want you to visit their site in person so you can view ads), and they are ineffective for most directories which require that you navigate to the pertinent category first. Also, each engine allows a differing amount of keywords and requires different types of information. Some of the more popular services include submitexpress.com, which will submit your site to 40 search engines for free, addme.com which will submit your site to Google, Subjex, Alexa, Scrub The Web, FAST Search AllTheWeb, LookSeek, ExactSeek, Jayde, and a few others for free, addpro.com submits to 20+ top search engines using an automatic service that is easy to use, and quickregister.net which will submit your site to the major engines and directories if you put a small text link on your site. If you go to ez2www.com there is a freebie site submission service there if you click "add url" at the bottom of the page. There are other free submission sites out there. Just go to your favorite search engine and type in "free search engine submission" and you will be presented with a list of such freebies.

A.M Wilmont is a writer and researcher. For more information go to http://www.aaronsfreebies.com/ or http://www.home-business-match.com/

The Reality of Linking


On a regular basis I receive e-mail through all my various sites from other site owners offering to exchange links. Most approach me in the wrong manner and I can tell they have no idea about the proper way to run an effective linking program. See, in a real linking program, it isn't just about you - it should be about both sites involved in the process.

So many of these notices are not from complimentary sites in topic or design - some are actually competitors making me wonder why they would think I would link to them. Many having absolutely nothing even remotely similar to the site of mine that they have e-mailed. If they state they have already linked to my site, which is what you want to do when building a valuable link directory - not a link farm - the majority of these requests are immediately responded to asking their link to my site be removed. I know I do not want to have one of my sites "in bed" with another site that can have a detrimental effect on either my rankings or the juried resources I offer my visitors.

Poor grammar, unnecessary formatting and a one-sided approach can doom your link program from the start. Yes, links are important - but all links are not created equal! You will be ranked by the links you keep! You have to be discriminating when it comes to the sites you link to as well as with those who link back. A big warning sign is if the requester is in direct competition with you. This lets you know they will be burying their link directory and really don't plan on site visitors finding it and you - their competitor. Not a good sign!

Here are some basic tips you need to keep in mind and integrate in your linking efforts based in the reality of having an effective and ethical approach. If you cannot take the time to put these issues in play, don't waste your or the other site owner's time.

=> Stay Away From and Do Not Create Link Farms: "Link Farms" is a term used to describe groups of links that have nothing in common other than the sites involved have all agreed to link to each other for the sole purpose of effecting their organic search engine listings. Quality of content, design or site focus is not a consideration that is a requirement to participate. When you create a link directory on your site, you want to have set of guidelines that will be required for sites to be added to your link directory. Only quality links, relational to your site's focus that you know will benefit your site visitors should be considered. Just as you want to see those requesting links from you have done the same.

=> Links Need to Make Sense for Both Sites: On my Lake County, Illinois site, LakeOnline.com, I only exchange links with non-commercial community groups and organizations located within Lake County, Illinois. This makes sense as that is the focus of my site and it benefits the groups within that category to have a link from such a popular site that has proven longevity. It is a win-win for both sides. My site visitors then have links available to them of other Lake County, Illinois resources and the sites that link to LakeOnline.com are linking to a quality Lake County, Illinois resource.

If the site linking to you has no direct relationship to yours in topic or is a poor quality site - don't exchange links. Just having links for the sake of doing so doesn't benefit either site. Think in terms of the fact that the links off your site need to compliment and add to the overall offering for your site visitors.

=> Consider Google's Page Rank: Page rank is not the end-all-be-all! Don't live or die by Page Rank. (From what I've read as of late Google is way behind in updating their PageRank.) However, when it comes to linking it can be a useful tool you can use to guide you. Before you begin requesting links, you want to ensure that you at least have a page rank for your top page for a start. No page rank is an indication of a newer Web site or a site that is not considered to have quality valuable content - that is when PageRank is working properly. Just like everything online, Google's PageRank glitches on occasion too - that is why I stress you use it as a guide not your bible.

Page rank is accomplished by having a valuable resource site that others feel is worthy of linking to. If you are all sales pitch with very little content, page rank is difficult to attain. Always check a site's page rank to determine if it has been determined to have any value. Without a page rank, linking for the sake of linking is moot. Sites with higher page ranks are given more relevancy, as are the sites they in turn link to.

=> Organize and Categorize Your Directory of Links: Google has been known to ignore pages with more than 50 or so links. This is because tons of unorganized links on a page indicate "link farm" and do not indicate any sort of value or relational substance to the site in question. Categorize your links and create a new page when necessary for new topics. When a specific topic starts approaching 50, create a subcategory or an additional page.

You want to do everything you can to avoid the perception of linking purely to manipulate your rankings. When I receive requests from sites with over 50 links and their link directory is not categorized, I generally do not respond as I know they are creating a link farm which will offer no benefit to me and may have even have a detrimental effect on my natural listings.

=> Have a Plan Before You Request Links: After you have reviewed the sites you would like to exchange links with, (Never spam for link exchanges! See #2 above.) here are some tips to keep in mind before you e-mail them with your request.

1. Create a brief but concise e-mail that includes specific instructions on how they can link back to you. You want to make sure that your requested return link text, if at all possible, includes a couple of your main keywords in the link.

2. Be sure to mention why your site and the one you are contacting are complimentary and why a reciprocal link will benefit both sides. If you cannot make this analogy, you probably should not be requesting a link in the first place.

3. Have the other site's link already in place on your site before you e-mail your request and let them know exactly where that is. Be sure if you said their link is in place that it is or you loose credibility and look as though you are not sincere in your offer.

4. Include a comment of exactly where on their site or in what category of their link directory that you would like to see your link. This lets the other side know that you've reviewed their site and see the reciprocal value and are not just spamming for links.

=> Your Link Directory is Easy to Find: Hiding your link directory deep within your site or not obviously linking to your link directory is a sure sign that you are gathering links for all the wrong reasons. Understand the search engines have a way of determining link relevancy based on topic, popularity and as well as other evolving factors. If you are hiding your link directory this is a big clue that is probably has no value to your site visitors or why would you be hiding it? If you cannot have obvious navigation to your link directory, you know that you are not offering value and need to rethink your strategy.

One of the other benefits of exchanging links is the hope that those who visit the other site, will find yours by following the link to your site. If their link directory is hidden, folks cannot find you which prevents you from garnering this potential additional traffic. If you receive a request to exchange links and see that the other site has their link directory buried where their site visitors will have difficulty finding it, I would decline the request as they are not offering me anything. Work only with site owners who understand what linking is all about and have a link directory that is well organized and easily found on their site.

=> Spammy Link Requests: You've probably received those yourself. Some marketer asking if you are interested in exchanging links with a site they are unwilling to identify until you show interest. What is that!? If exchanging links makes sense there should be no reason to hide the identity of any site. This is an indication the site most likely has no page rank, is not related to yours, or is creating a link farm. Use these e-mail as an example of what you don't want to do. Hit the Delete button.

Link exchanges serve two purposes. The first being they add value to both sites and offer visibility to an entire set of site visitors who may not have known the other site even exists to search for it. The secondary reason is that search engines have a ranking algorithm that is built upon evaluating incoming and out going links to your site.

If you do not want to deal with the link exchange process all you have to do is have a high quality, content rich site and the links will happen without you having to make a single request. Create a site worth linking to and the links will come.

About the Author:
Judith Kallos is an authoritative and good-humored Technology Muse who has been playing @ http://www.TheIStudio.com for over a decade. Check out her popular Technology Cheat Sheets @ http://www.LearnAndThrive.com

Hit the Target with Bullseye Marketing


Let's see here... as of today Google states it has indexed 8,058,044,651 Web pages! Not all are quality, not all are of interest - as a matter of fact many are just dead files located on a server out in Internet-land. With that in mind, and the fact that in my not so humble opinion the Web is saturated, how are you going to get found in this mess?

Bullseye marketing! You know what a target looks like, right? All those circles getting smaller until you get to the one in the center - the bullseye. When you play darts, or go to the shooting range you score less with each hit that is in the circles furthest out. If you use this analogy when you think of online marketing, you cannot help but improve your overall rankings.

Each and every day e-mail lands in my inbox touting special super duper never before heard of ways to get your site listed on search engines. Many are just touting the very same bullseye theory I am going to discuss with you here - but for a price. There is no top secret elusive way to get search engine listings; as a matter of fact it is really black and white.

Here are the key bullseye marketing tips you should always consider:

=> Create your own target and begin to carefully create your phrases - no one word keywords here - use phrases that you know for a fact those looking for your site will use - not what you want to get found by. Many times these are two entirely different sets of keyword phrases!

If you are not sure what folks are actually using, use the WordTracker Service which offers a free trial. As WordTracker accurately claims: "Target the wrong keywords and all your efforts will be in vain."

After investigating your market's keyword phrases, start with the bullseye containing only your most important one or two 2-3 word keyword phrases.

=> As you move to the outer circles in the target, note your less important phrases - up to two per circle. This allows you to prioritize your efforts knowing which terms are those terms that are most important and possible for you to get found by. You really need to be realistic here and not use terms that your site does not back up with content. Simply typing keywords in the code doesn't make it so!

=> Once your target is complete, begin with the bullseye and make sure that your top page's title, description and Meta keyword tags use only these phrases. Also make sure to include these phrases sprinkled throughout your top page copy.

=> Now move to the next circle outside of the bullseye. Determine which page those phrases apply to most and follow the above. If the phrases in any target circle are not closely related or do not apply to each other, you can simply create a page with information and resources that applies to each specific term. As a matter of fact that works even better!

=> Don't have pages that target each desired phrase or have pages that have 10s or 100s of keywords in the Meta tags? Then it's time to get your bullseye marketing program up and in place ASAP! You want to begin the process of creating information packed pages targeted at one or two keyword phrases each and add them to your site.

Search engine crawlers are not sentient; they don't think they don't surmise. They gobble up what is on your site based on the content and the code and then based on each search site's unique algorithm it is determined how your site will be listed.

The key to bullseye marketing is that less is more. The more keywords and phrases you have on each page, the less you are about any one thing which minimizes your chances of pulling relevantly for any given phrase. You actually will dilute your site's relevancy by trying to get found by everything under the sun on one page or even a handful of pages. And if you do not have content that backs up those phrases - well, as we say here in Chicago - foe-ged-aboud-it!

Target your bullseye and have your site mimic that layout. You'll be pleasantly surprised as you see your targeted pages gain higher relevancy and that leads to more prominent rankings!

Do not dilute this process! Use target marketing and hit the bullseye!

Download my free Bullseye Marketing Worksheet and Target with theabove instructions @: http://www.theistudio.com/bullseye_marketing.html#worksheet
Adobe Acrobat Format: [108K]

About the Author:
Judith Kallos is an authoritative and good-humored Technology Musewho has played @ http://www.TheIStudio.com for over a decade. Check out her popular Technology Cheat Sheets @: http://www.LearnAndThrive.com

Website Marketing 101


When it comes to website marketing and promotions, youneed to start here...

Every website, whether new, old, or just a thought needs to consider the marketing that will be put that website in frontof it's targeted audience. Sounds easy huh? It just takestime, perseverance, and the will to succeed! A budget willhelp too!

The hardest part is sorting through all the crap that'savailable to (supposedly) help you. Yes, I said crap.

There is a mountain of businesses out there making incredibleclaims about FREE traffic generation, FREE hits, Mega sales,$20,000 in 3 hours,- or worse, for a small fee of $29.95 wecan... blah, blah, blah.

Save your money! I have spent enough for all of us.

Following through with our suggestions offers you the mostlucrative, ethical, and professional ways to achievesubstantial results and still sleep at night. No, you don'thave to go for your wallet, I will tell you about theseprograms in this article (for no charge). A good educationwill assist you the most.

If you already have a website, we recommend a Website Analysis to point out any major areas for improvement.

Before You Build

1. Have a plan - Not just a good idea. Take your idea andformulate a complete plan around your goals. Highlight anyUSP's you may have.

2. Build Meta-tags into every category page! This is crucialto targeted traffic success with the Directories and SearchEngines. You need to be found, not by your company name (only)but by "keywords" that the general public would use to findyour type of business or service. DO NOT just pick any words,this is critical!

3. Use those keyword phrases throughout your site or particularpage (use not abuse). Reinforce what topic you are addressing within that page(content).

4. Publish an article or newsletter that shows you are anauthority on the topics you cover (or try to sell). Just aspiffy sales letter is not enough. This is also critical inacquiring the email addresses of prospective customers.

5. Create some banner ads with impact for future partnershipadvertising. You will use these on your site as well as bannerpartners you can swap impressions with.

6. Begin considering what types of businesses or partners wouldor could compliment your offerings. Start a list.

7. Important: Create a budget for marketing your website.Yes, there are many things that you can implement for free,however, successful websites HAVE spent money wisely to getthem to where they are. Don't be fooled, you WILL spendmoney on marketing your website - it could be potentiallymore than what your website costs you to build. The versegoes like this... "Build it and they won't come". You mayhave already learned this, and that is why you're here. There is much, much more, and we would be happy to help you, but this is a good start.

Good luck with your online business!

Written by and Copyright © Scott Sedwick

Scott is the Founder and Sr. Internet Marketing Specialist for Hyperformance Media, Inc. a website marketing firm located just outside of Chicago, IL. since 1996. Specifically, he has over 24 years of sales and marketing experience and accomplishment in the computer industry.

Written by and Copyright © Scott Sedwick http://www.hyperformancemedia.com

Outsourcing Website Services - Can Your Business Benefit?


Would it surprise you to know that Compaq Computer? outsources?How about Underwriters Laboratories?? Gateway Computers?? Yes, even the Chicagoland Area Chamber of Commerce?! I have been involved with projects involving each one of these companies.They all outsourced specific portions of their projects. Even Hyperformance Media out-sources specific project requirements! Every business does not know every other business.

What I mean is, your business can not know everything there is to know about printing (for example). Therefore, in certain situations, it would benefit your company to outsource this service to some printing specialists. It could save you time, money, and benefits, leaving your employees their time to continue to do what they do best, their job - with minimum productivity loss!

In this simple example you can begin to see the many benefits.

* You have professionals creating the desired product.

* They will do a better job in less time.

* No need to buy additional equipment or software.

* No set-up, no training, no lost time.

* No payroll, benefits, or accounting headaches.

* Your employees remain focused on their goals and your business productivity!

These are just a few of the many reasons used to justify the outsourcing of some projects versus attempting to do everything in-house.

Your business website is a mission-critical marketing tool. Used properly, your website should be your most outspoken salesperson. Your business should be getting more business from the Web, if not doing business on the Web.

The successful marketing of your business website should NOT be taken lightly. Yes, your company now has a webmaster on the payroll full-time, not to mention the design and development staff, but is your web presence working? Are you achieving results besides just looking good?

Outsourcing the marketing services of your website gives you the experience you desire and the results you need. Your business needs to be found yesterday! Your business needs customers to grow, not just survive! Who has your market share?

Let's talk about getting some of that back! Let's talk about what changes can be put in place to GET BUSINESS from your website.

Today, tomorrow, and every year going forward!

Thanks - and good luck with your promotions!

Scott is the Founder and Sr. Internet Marketing Specialist for Hyperformance Media, Inc. a website marketing firm located just outside of Chicago, IL. since 1996. Specifically, he has over 24 years of sales and marketing experience and accomplishment in the computer industry.

Eight Simple Ways To Use Promotional Products Online


With the increase competition on the Internet, it can be hard to find ways to make your company seem different from everyone else. One thing I believe Internet marketers are failing to utilize correctly is promotional products.

Promotion products are every day items that are printed with your company logo, slogan, web site address, or any other message you want to promote. The first thing that comes to most people's minds are printed t-shirts? but there are many other items you can use to make your company stand out from the crowd.

The following are eight simple ways you can use promotional products on the Internet.

Promote Your Company's Website

This is the first thing that comes to most people's minds when they think of how they should use promotional products. But some people over look this. Every item you choose to promote your business should include your web site address on it.

Find Promotional Items That Fit Your Niche

You can always find certain items that will compliment your type of business - items that you know your customers will use often! For Example: If you sell bicycles, it would be a good idea to include a free water bottle that has your logo on it every time someone purchases a bicycle. If you have an online drug store, you could give away pill organizers with your sites name and web address printed on them.

Free Contests and Drawings

A great way to get more people to sign up for your newsletter is to hold monthly, weekly, or daily contest drawings. The winner of the drawing would receive a promotional product with your URL on it. Since everyone loves to win stuff, more people would be willing to give you their email address. And if you make the product something that relates to your business, the people who sign up are more likely to be targeted.

Motivate Customer to Buy More

You can use promotional products to entice your customers to buy more products than they normally would have. How? By bundling multiple products a long with a promotional item. For example, instead of your customer buying 1 ebook, you also offer them a package deal of two ebooks and a free promotional item.

The promotional product can even be something related to the products you're bundling it with. If you're selling weight loss information, why not use a "step counter as a bonus? If you're selling cookbooks, offer an apron. There are hundreds of products that you can put your logo on? find one that compliments your products!

Reward Your Best Affiliates

Consider thanking your top affiliates by giving them a promotional product. This shows them that you truly appreciate the fact that they promote your products. You can send gifts to your affiliate partners when they reach a certain goal, or you can give gifts to your top affiliates during the holidays. By rewarding your affiliates, you build a stronger relationship with them. They will thank you by continuing to promote your business.

Thank Your Loyal Customers

Just like thanking your top affiliates, you should also consider thanking loyal customers. You can express gratitude to customers that repeatedly by your products, customers who buy your high-ticket items, or both! Promotional items remind your clients that the relationship you share with them is important to you.

Create a Competitive Advantage

Because of increased competition, it's getting tougher than ever to compete online. You can use promotional items as a way to show your customers that you are different than your competitors. Instead of appearing as "just another company", you can demonstrate that you are unique. When someone receives a promotional item from you they are more likely to remember you over your competition.

Promote a New Product

If you are launching a new product, you can capture your audience attention and publicize it by using promotional items. At the very least, you should send a promotional item to your top customers when a new product comes out. You might also want to consider sending items to your top affiliates too if you have a new product they can promote for you.

My goal is to get you to think of new ways to use promotional products. I hope you will implement some of the ideas I have laid out here and also brain storm different ways to use them. If used correctly, these little trinkets can help you say ahead of your competitors!

Nathan Allen is the creator of http://www.AvonPrinting.com - which is a huge resource for the printing industry. You can find a list of companies that sell promotional products at: http://www.AvonPrinting.com/promotional_gifts

How To Acquire One Way Inbound Links


How can one get a good ranking in the major search engines ? This is a question, I'm sure, agitates the minds of every newbie as well as professional webmaster. Even those that are doing well are fighting to keep their place. But isn't there a way to consistently appear in a good position at the major search engines? I think there are ways to achieve this enviable position. One of the ways is what this article is all about. That is, consistently build one way inbound links to your site. Getting other webmasters to link to your site without you linking back.

Link Popularity, link prominence or link reputation is one of the most important elements search engines use to know if a site is an authority site. That is a quality site. However, like all other search engine ranking criteria, webmasters have found ways to beat this hurdle of link popularity. This they have done by exchanging links with one another. This is called reciprocal linking. You link to me and I to you and both of us have increased our link popularity by one.

Webmaster have realized the importance search engines attached to link popularity for top search engine positioning and have therefore resorted to reciprocal linking. However, in the near future this strategy will become obsolete, because these links are artificial links. Not generated voluntarily. And so they do not indicate a site as being an authority site.

The purpose of reciprocal linking is to increase link prominence for top search engine positioning and not necessarily for the benefit of web surfers. The search engines will recognize this. I predict that they will start taking this into account when they are changing their algorithms . The webmaster that will survive is one that consistently builds one way inbound links to his site. These types of links are the best. It portrays a site as being an authority site because the site is linked to naturally by other webmasters. Without reciprocal links.

Webmasters would not like to link to just any site unless there is some benefit for their site or site visitors. In this modern world nothing goes for nothing. A webmaster will only link to your site if there is some benefit for his site.

Why webmasters would link voluntarily.

Now in order for you to succeed in this one way inbound link building strategy, you need to know some of these benefits that lead webmaster to link voluntarily. If you like, call it the carrot. In accepting and eating the carrot the webmaster is led to link to your site. Let's look at some these benefits before we look at how they can be used to entice webmasters to link to you.

1. Webmasters would want to provide good, important and timely information for their visitors. If your site has this information, they will readily link to you. They could for example, point their visitors to a free resource at your site.2. Webmasters recognize the fact that providing good information creates a good image for their site. Visitors will get to know that the site is a good resource site even though the resource might not be located there. This keeps visitors coming back again and again.3. There is also the benefit of linking to an authority site. Search engines do award some points for linking to an authority site. Contrary to popular belief that this reduces the overall link popularity of a site, it actually benefits that page . This is my practical experience.

Now how do you acquire these one way inbound links?

1. Provide some useful resource at your site. This is a very powerful incentive for webmasters to link to your site. More so, if this resource is free. It could be a free tool , free software download, free content etc. This gives an incentive for webmasters to point their visitors at this resource. Some the resources you could provide are:

(a) Link popularity check tool

(b) Meta tag generator

(c) Search engine page analyzer

(d) Free CGI scripts

(e) Search engine page ranking check tool etc.

For free and paid scripts go to Hotscript.com or Searchscripts.com. There you will find all kinds of scripts that perform specific functions. Or you can hire a programmer to write a custom script for you. You will find programmers at many sites such as Elance.com.

2. Write good articles and submit to article sites, article syndicate sites and ezine announcement sites. Your article will be published along with your byline with a link pointing to your site. Make sure that the text link has your keywords in it and not your domain name. For example, < a href=" http://www.ebizstartups.com"> home base business ideas and not www.ebizstartups.com

Webmasters are always looking for good content for their websites . Stating in your article that your byline be left intact you will have many one way inbound links pointing at your site in no time. If you cannot write, hire a writer to write your articles for you. There are many places on the net where you can hire a writer for as little as $5 per article. This depends on the number of words per article. One of these places to hire a writer is Elance.com.

Writing in your area of expertise is better. Then you can present your own unique perspective to the topic. If it is not your area of expertise then be sure to research the topic very well . An incisive, well-written article will be snapped up and published by other webmasters, thereby increasing your link popularity considerably.

3. Another way to build your one way inbound link is to participate intensively in newsgroups and discussion forums. By making good and valuable contributions (postings) you establish yourself as an expert. Always try to be different and stand out. Others will see this and check out your profile. This will lead them to check out your site and eventually link to it. If signature files are allowed in the forum use a well-crafted signature file that will pull forum members to your site

4. Enter your site for an award at award sites. If your site is selected for an award, a link is placed to your site and this increases your one way inbound links.

5. You could also acquire one way inbound links by offering to provide testimonials for products you have purchased. Send the manufacturer of the product or service an email offering to provide a testimonial at his site or sales page in return for a link back to your site.

6. Submit your site to directories. Especially, niche or specialist directories. Regional directories are also okay. Submitting your site to specialist directories gives your site a greater chance of being picked up by the search engines than when you submit to a general directory. Also consider paying for submission to some important directories. For a fee, these directories will index your site in their database within two to five business days. For a list of search engines and directories you can submit to for free and for a fee go to add url to directories. Consider hiring a link building company to do your link popularity campaign for you. One of such company is linkexpress.com For a fee they will guarantee a certain number of quality one way inbound links to your site. This might be expensive but the investment will surely pay off with traffic from free search engines.

8. You can offer a discount to webmaster on services you provide at your site in return for a link from their sites.

9. If you have goods or services for sale consider setting up an affiliate program. This is a very good way of rapidly building your link prominence. Make sure your affiliate software is hosted on your server. This ensures that your affiliates' links point back to your site . Using an affiliate service will most likely mean affiliate links will be pointing at their server, thereby depriving you of links. One very good affiliate software is ASSOTRAC.

Some points to note when building one way inbound links.

Your link popularity increases as websites link to you. However, it must be said that it is not the number but the quality of the links that is important. That is, emphasis should be on quality and not quantity. Not all links are equal. Some are more favored (carry more weight) than others. Some of the things to keep in mind when carrying out inbound links are;

1. Look for quality sites to acquire links from. A link from Dmoz or Yahoo has more weight than one from a small private web site. Submit to free or paid listings in important directories.

2. The way other sites link to you is very important. Try as much as possible, to see that your keywords are in the text link that is linking to you and not your domain name. With your keywords in the text link it portrays your site as an authority site for the keyword.

3. Acquire links from complementary sites. Sites that are in the same industry as yours, but are not your competitors. Links from these type of sites have more weight than from those that are not related to your site.

4. Links from specialist or niche directories also carry more weight than those from less important general directories and your links are easier to find by the search engines. When submitting to directories, especially for a fee, be sure to choose a relevant category that is not deep down in the directory. Your listing should be at most three clicks away from the home page of the directory. Some engines will not spider deep down.

5. If you have several websites, link them together in such a way that the links are one way inbound links, and not reciprocal links. Also don't share the same IP address for the sites. All the sites should have unique IPs. This you can ensure by using a different host for each web site.

Conclusion.

Acquiring one way inbound links is the future of link popularity. Sooner the search engines will recognize the artificial nature of reciprocal linking in judging authority sites and will discount this in their algorithm or award less points (weight) to reciprocal links. The methods listed above in acquiring one way inbound links are basic, must do actions for every webmaster wishing to stay long at the top of the search engines.

The author has been earning his living online since 2000. For comprehensive home base business ideas check out one of his sites at http://www.ebizstartups.com There you will find solid, easy-to-do strategies for building a successful home base business.

The author has been earning his living online since 2000. For comprehensive home base business ideas check out one of h

About Testimonials and Customer Focused Sites


Think about it, when you browse any web site, you are basically trying to see what's in it for you, whether it be information, news, products or services. All you want is to find, read or collect information that will ultimately do something for you.

If you run a web site, your web pages need to have a lot of content that is of interest to your visitors. Have you just found an exciting product or affiliate program to promote? Before you set up a sales page, write down all the benefits the product offers your users, then design your own page around those benefits.

Invest the time it takes to figure out how you can best approach your visitors so they see value in what you are offering.

There is a difference between features and benefits:

Roses are red. (Feature)

My wife gets 'happy' when I give her roses. (Benefit)

Want to make more sales? Give your visitors more than you take. Shower them with useful items such as articles, updated e-books, free memberships and services related to the theme of your web site.

After all, without user involvement and purchases, your web site becomes as good as an empty movie theater on Friday night. Your web site should get repeat visits and develop a loyal group of thousands of visitors. People will flock to your site when they get something out of it every time they visit.

One way to make your site more convincing and to gain the trust of your visitors is by using testimonials. Testimonials enforce the idea that it's O.K. for you to get your credit card out and make a purchase. It's a validation mechanism to induce trust and sales.

Testimonials should always be verifiable, i.e., contain a link to the person's page. The idea behind most testimonials is to take away all possible doubts about your product or service. Avoid something like:

" I tried this product and made $10,000 the first day. It is simply phenomenal..."

- Jack The Ripper, U.K.

The testimonial above could be totally fabricated and people know that. A better one is:

"I don't usually buy everything I see on the Internet but I took a chance and purchased this program. I made $150 my first week with 2 sales. A got an order from a lady in Washington and another one from a gentleman in New England. Neither one has returned the product. One of them emailed me and said: 'This product is fantastic, thank you!' I am really excited to be promoting your product and I think others will too!"

Mario Giordani, Webmaster
http://milliondollardays.com
webmaster(at)roiclicks.com

Which of the above testimonials sounds better and more convincing? The second allows you to send an email or visit the web site. While verification is not 100% guaranteed, it's much better than the first testimonial. If you use an online form to collect testimonials, you may be able to guide your clients to provide better formatted testimonials to get the "punch" that you want for your product or service. A testimonial with a photo gives you more credibility. Never use a fake photo, or the photo of someone you don't know, for obvious liabilities reasons.

Does your page make you sound like a "used car salesman"? Does it inspire trust? Is it customer focused? Fine tuning your web page can be an ongoing task. Ask people to go over your page and get their input. Could you change a word here and there to make it more appealing? Is it convincing? Does it load fast? It is optimized? Would they buy from you? Does it come across as full of hype and empty promises? How can you make improvements to it?

In order to get attention, the message on your web page needs to stand out in the crowd. Make it "shout" a little louder than the rest with a powerful opening headline. Most of us are conditioned to reading the headlines on news stories. If the headline sparks our interest, then we tend to dig in deeper. The same is true with your opening headline on your web page. Make a strong visitor-oriented statement that prompts the user to want to read on?

Many pages promise you the world until you pay the fee. Then it is not unusual to be disappointed when you get the actual product or service that was so highly touted. Make sure that your page doesn't fall into this category.

I once bought into a site that did a fantastic job in convincing me I was going to be rich just by virtue of accessing all this "secret" information and by having access to all these great "tools". $97 later, all I got was a bunch of "ad blasters", free classified ad sites and ezine blasters, FFA links and a bunch of stuff thrown together to create "volume" for the member's area. Most of the information was either ineffective or readily available with a couple of searches on Google and, ahem, Free!

So while your sales page should address the "What's in it for me factor", your actual product and service needs to satisfy the customer once they trusted you and parted with their hard-earned money. Disappointed customers rarely come back.

The most important word on your sales page should be the word "you" at all times. The most important content is the one that deals with your visitors needs.

My name is Mario Giordani. I've been marketing online since 1993 and many of my 40 web sites can benefit you. Feel free to distribute this article as long as all links are clickable and nothing is changed. You can reach me at ifsbos(at)aol.com. Let's increase our page rankings by reciprocating links at http://milliondollardays.com/

4 Simple Tips for Targeted Traffic


Here are 4 of the most easiest and simplest things to implement into a site for a very generous boost in traffic. These can all be implemented within a very short time. Of course depending on the Search Engine you most likely will have to wait for them to spider your site, but when they do,... the Targeted Traffic will come.

Ok,...

-- Tip 1 --
It's a good idea to insert a link to a sitemap into your index page at the bottom, if this is the page you paid for inclusion with.

Why?

This is so, when the search engine spiders crawl your site they will ALSO spider your sitemap thus indexing ALL of your other webpages via the sitemap. Thus, indexing your whole site into the search engine(s). And having each page in the engines is very good and beneficial for ya, thus giving you more coverage with your site.

-- Tip 2 --
Try to restrict your website to a minimal number of directories as possible.

Why?

Search engines like to see a URL or web address of like:

http://www.yoursite.com/page.html

NOT one that looks like

http://www.yoursite.com/this_dir/that_dir/another_dir/page.html

So try to restrict your site to as few directories as possible and try to put your most important pages as close to the root directory as possible too. So the spiders don't have to "fish through" directory after directory to find your pages.

-- Tip 3 --
When creating your website, implement a "reverse pyramid style" construction.

Why?

Search engines like to see a broad to specific layout. Your index page, would be your broad or wide theme about your whole site, and your interior pages should focus in or "zero-in" to a specific interest. For example, if your site is on dogs, a more specific area or page would be show dogs and/or working dogs etc.

and finally

-- Tip 4 --
When submitting your website to the engines, do a bit of research and seek out the search engine(s) that "feeds" the other search engines and thus submit to the one or ones that feed the most to other engines.

Why?

Many search engines get their results from other search engines. For example, Google, supplies results or feeds results to AOL, Netscape, and iWon. So, if you get indexed within Google, you will most likely get into the indexes of AOL, Netscape, and iWon since these other engines get their results from Google. You get the idea? So even though you might only be submitting to one engine, you are "indirectly" submitting to many more.

These 4, small but very powerful ideas implemented into your site will bring you a big boost of Targeted Traffic. Because don't forget search engines are THE most largest source for Targeted Traffic online today.

This is because, whoever goes searching on a Search Engine is looking for one thing and usually one thing only. So if your site is present within the top pages of the niche or topic that visitor/searcher is looking for, you are the most likely candidate and target for him/her to hit by having your website right there in front of them.

Burke holds both a BSc. degree in Computer Science as well Certification in Search Engine Optimization and Marketing Strategies. He also regularly publishes The ACE! newsletter, in which he shares his experience, methods, and 'what works' with others. Burke can be contacted by http://www.the-ace-ezine.com or http://www.altacanweb.com