Bequeath/transfer a Domain name?

OldHack

Can a domain name be willed to a beneficiary? And it also begs the question, can the domain name be transferred to someone else?

On one hand I am thinking of personal relationships, but I am also thinking of a site I work with that is a .org URL for a social club. The original person who acquired the domain name is no longer involved with the site and has minimal connection with the club.

B.

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NIc

You will have to get in touch with the domain registrar to find out exactly what they need to transfer the domain over to you

I do not know of a case where the registered domain owner did not have to at least send written approval (amongst other things)

Domain transfers are treated very seriously, but do happen all the time as websites are constantly sold and bought


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matte

This is a great question and one that will become increasingly pertinent as domain owners (well leasees aren't we? we don't actually 'own' them) die.

The internet is still young enough for this not to have raised its head as an issue.


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allenion

I come across this problem all the time. I do a lot of work for golf clubs and their sites are often set up my members who then leave taking not only domain names but ftp passwords etc.

A public campaign is needed to educate all types of social clubs to this.

Question is it possible to have 2 names on a domain ?


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Northie

Domain transfers are very common - sometimes it's just as simple as logging in and changing your details.

Other times the registrar may require written evidence from the current holder of the domain

No one actually "Owns" a domain - rather that a person has control over certain aspects of it while they pay for the privilege of doing so


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matte

Northie wrote:

Domain transfers are very common - sometimes it's just as simple as logging in and changing your details.

Other times the registrar may require written evidence from the current holder of the domain

No one actually "Owns" a domain - rather that a person has control over certain aspects of it while they pay for the privilege of doing so


Yes that what the other posts said....

Trouble occurs if say the domain owner dies and cannot provide evidence or permission. What then? Or if the person refuses to or cannot be contacted in the case of the clubs example?



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Northie

matte wrote:

Trouble occurs if say the domain owner dies and cannot provide evidence or permission. What then? Or if the person refuses to or cannot be contacted in the case of the clubs example?


Most registrars (probably all) have a domain name dispute resolution policy, whereby an impartial and independent body will review the case and instruct the registrar to hand over the domain to the "rightful" party

If a domain name is left in a will then I can see such a body behaving sensibly in carrying out the instructions within the will


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OldHack

As Nic suggested I contacted the registrar that I want to consolidate with. I also asked the 'bequeath' question. Their Contact page said they respond within 24 hours... not if they consult a lawyer! juggle

B.



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1-Clan


I dont think most domain registers would contact a lawyer as that would cost them (or they would charge you but in that case would ask you before they contact one).

If you just email the domain own and ask him if he will hand it over to you with the info to show the domain should now be in your hands... if he then will not take the actions to pass the domain to you contact the domain register and im sure they will look into what can be done and give you the best advice.

Twitter...many followers....

dimhav

Hello every one!
I would like to ask you how can i do (collect) many followers?

Thanks
dimhav


[your URL has been moved to your sig by admin]

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Nic

by being social, providing interesting updates and 'value', being original, not being pushy and taking time to interact

and remember it's not the quantity but quality

i see lots of people with thousands of followers and then i look at how many they are following...equally they are following thousands

do people really have time or care to follow thousands of other people? NO, but people follow others in hope that in return that person will 'follow' them... it creates a vicious circle of followers who don't give a crap about each other's tweets...


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matte



and remember it's not the quantity but quality

agree 100%

I unfollow anyone who posts or reposts anything about getting more followers.
Those chasing big numbers are working on the spam principle - get as many as you can so a % may respond to your marketing messages.





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dimhav

Hello Nic!
As i read in many index,one way to get more traffic for a web site is to has many followers!
Why i cant do up to 2000 followers?

Thanks
dimhav

From lovely Greece

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1-Clan




dimhav wrote:

Hello Nic!
As i read in many index,one way to get more traffic for a web site is to has many followers!
Why i cant do up to 2000 followers?

Thanks
dimhav

From lovely Greece

I dont think Nic is saying dont get loads of followers its just spam... The comment means more on the lines of:

Dont go out looking to get loads of pointless followers just for numbers look for people that need your services etc.

So yes 2000 or even more is fine but if they are spam followers not people looking for your services its pointless and will be just that same as having 5 followers that do need you posts and services.

Back on the original post all you need to do is keep posting helpful information and people that like what you offer will soon start to join your great information run glad

Too Many Reciprocal Links Bad

flaxseoguru

Yea I never found an answer on this can someone tell me?

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waveshoppe

Well you first have to ask if participating in link exchanges offers a ranking advantage. Whereas the answer is no. So a few probably wont harm you, but if it starts looking like a link farm then it possibly could.


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1-Clan

waveshoppe wrote:

Well you first have to ask if participating in link exchanges offers a ranking advantage. Whereas the answer is no. So a few probably wont harm you, but if it starts looking like a link farm then it possibly could.

what do you mean just standard link exchanges? if so why would it look like a link farm? you need link exchanges with others to rank higher so I dont understand your reply dude




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waveshoppe

"you need link exchanges with others to rank higher so I dont understand your reply dude" Well I dont think you understand SEO dude.

One way links still have some influence on search engine results, but link exchanges are are ineffective and have been for years.


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1-Clan


thats not what google say they still value link exchanges within your niche + link exchanges are not just about the SE's are they, they also help with word of mouth which gets more visitor which is what SEP is all about so I think go for the link exchanges as long as its not a bad site it should not be bad for your site.

We have had no bad out comes from any link exchanges we have made only good with higher serp, more views and more sales. So surely link exchange are still a go part of seo?!



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waveshoppe

Well I don’t pay much attention to what Google says. It you take the top 50 factors that influence ranking, link exchanges are at the bottom of the heap, maybe even a negative factor. While link exchanges may assist with crawling and discovery, you cant say definitively that the exchanges themselves are directly responsible for a ranking improvement. Having the page indexed is closer to the truth and now a days that can be accomplished with a lot less effort. So if link exchanges are the main platform for ones SEO it will only keep you on an even platform with the other link exchangers. The goal in SEO is to dominate query space and not float around in the sediment with everyone else.




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matte

I get lots of link requests and over 75% of the time they will be to a third site that has nothing but links in it. Not even posing as a directory. So would these count - NO!!

I then get requests and the link page looks fine, bit is not linked to any other page (or from) on the main site so remains invisible to the bots. So would these count - NO!!

Or even if they do link but they have 3,000 links over hundreds of pages. So would these count - NO!!

Common sense prevails. If humans cannot see it and the directory or link page has no human value, then in my view it has no PR or SE value either. Being on the 40th page of a link exchange means you might as well be invisible.

If your link pages are like this, then it is time to refine the list, shed the porr ones and keep the good ones and get better ones.

My view anyway.



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Roger_Silvester


Google is rightly penalizing bad linking practices, webmasters who obtain links (sometimes irrelevant) in high volume using full duplex software's or services that make links without editorial discretion.

In regard to linking, the Google Webmaster and Quality Guidelines have not changed (although they did update them recently), saying in part:

"Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links ... Keep in mind that our algorithms can distinguish natural links from unnatural links. Natural links to your site develop as part of the dynamic nature of the web when other sites find your content valuable and think it would be helpful for their visitors. Unnatural links to your site are placed there specifically to make your site look more popular to search engines."

So if google considers the reciprocal linking between the two sites as artificial way of enhancing the Page Rank of a site then you could be in danger.



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rankhigher

I personally think that reciprocal links are useful for getting a website first established but after that I don't think that they have much value.

I think that Google will rank websites higher that naturally get one way links as people are linking to your content with an intent that your content is good and valuable.

I would also not recommend getting involved with a link exchange network as most of these are reciprocal link based anyway but if you really want to join one to save time I would recommend one where it is one-way link based.

Overall I don't think that reciprocal links have a negative or positive value on your SERP ranking.


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1-Clan

I thought that link exchanges were ment more for helpping you site with:
PR,
Getting better known (advertisments in away)
and more authority in your sites niche

Is that not what true link exchangeing is all about when you think about? I mean what eals would you want a link exchange for other then to help your site views and the above?

I know as waveshoppe said link exchanges are not a main factor in SEO but they still have their reasons in my view.


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rankhigher

It really depends on how the Google algorithm works these days.

If Site A has a PR of 8 and Site B has a PR of 1 and they both link to each other, will the PR 8 contribute towards Site B to improve the PR?

Would Google really consider this as it has detected a reciprocal link?

I'm simply against reciprocal linking as this would be very easy for a computer program (e.g Googlebot) to detect the sites taking part in the exchange. I would say that the majority of websites which take part in reciprocal link exchanging is for an intention that it will contribute towards their SEO, not because they think their content is valuable.

I'm just taking a generalisation on link exchange networks.



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amber.ella



Reciprocal links should of course relevant to your site.. Quality back links are the best compared to those irrelevant sites that you are getting.

What if PR is Lost?

flaxseoguru

Hi
One of My client lost the PR from 3 to 0.
What could be the reason of it?
How do i diagnose?
How do i get the PR back?


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waveshoppe

"One of My client lost the PR from 3 to 0" are you hinting that you are doing SEO on the site?


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1-Clan

why would that make any difference? lol

Where did you get the information about loss of pr from your client or from pr checker?

Is your site still coming up on google search's?


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waveshoppe

"why would that make any difference? lol"

Umm because we have people masquerading around as SEOs and charging people for services that that they have zero knowledge of.


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1-Clan

"why would that make any difference? lol"

Umm because we have people masquerading around as SEOs and charging people for services that that they have zero knowledge of.

I didnt think of that I was just thinking why would that change the reason for pr drop lol soz didnt under stand what you ment.

I have been working with seo from xmas this year and I still dont know it all as its a job where we learn more day by day as the se change all the time. but I dont think im doing bed as all the site I am working on are going up in sepr and getting many more customers and sales so can I call myself and seo person in your books yet? glad



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waveshoppe

I don’t have a beef against anyone that says they are learning SEO, the problem is when people demonstrate that are clearly unknowledgeable and they are charging for services. When is one a SEO? The 2 fold answer is when you feel confident enough to go head to head with the big boys and when customers are able to see that for themselves.




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matte

yes we have a lot of SEO "gurus" popping up at the moment on these forums and I agree with you Charles, they have little or no knowledge of it based on the very basic nature of their questions.

I just ignore them!



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Roger_Silvester

waveshoppe wrote:

I don’t have a beef against anyone that says they are learning SEO, the problem is when people demonstrate that are clearly unknowledgeable and they are charging for services. When is one a SEO? The 2 fold answer is when you feel confident enough to go head to head with the big boys and when customers are able to see that for themselves.

I agree with you here. If you are charging someone for the services then you could have good knowledge about the services you are providing. I have in the SEO business since last 2 years and still there are a lot of things that I am learning every now and then. SEO is a very vast field, but then too I could say that I am having decent knowledge about SEO.



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rankhigher

I wouldn't have said that losing Page Rank is a big deal belong as the ranking of your client is still high within Google.

The only down side is that Google PageRank is used a physchological factor in webmasters chosing your website to take part in a link exchange over someone elses.

Also some people may decide to stop linking to you.

The reason the Page Rank goes down could be that you had a fair number of links linking to your site but now they have decided to stop linking or that the PR of those sites has gone down.


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1-Clan

lol Northie do you hold shift for that key to work?

Well I wouldnt say im a pro at SEO but I feel ready to play with the big boys as the work iv been doing has been working and iv learnt a lot from guys here and other sources both on and off line glad

As for the PR drop it could be a number of things. One way to try and work it out would be to back track what work you have done for this site and try to work out where you went wrong and learn from your misstake's'. Once you have done this follow forums such as this one and learn before you offer any more SEO services to save face and even the loss of "your clients" company/lively hood!


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amber.ella

After having PR3, does he/she maintain his/her site? if not, you have to maintain getting back links.. You don't have stable PR rankings on google.. In order to get to your desired PR value and you wanted to maintain it, also maintain in getting more and more back links.. Quality of Back links, okay?! big_smile

scruff

Could be for a number or reasons.
1. You have linked to a bad site/s.
2. Your incoming links have disappeared or been removed.
3. You have over optimised and been penalised
4. There is a major fault on your site so the search engines cant spider the
pages
5. Your content is all duplicate copied from other sites
6. You are selling advertising on your site

Some of the reasons that can result in a page rank drop.



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rankhigher



scruff wrote:

6. You are selling advertising on your site

How does selling advertising decrease the PR on your site?

Can you elaborate on this please?


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MayaLocke

Going forward develop quality content and work to build quality and *relevant* incoming links.


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1-Clan

Did you even read the question? you reply dont make sence please reword so we can understand it if its even relivent to this thread!?


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Have question about domain Name

fdamours

have a travel webiste: www.alotmuchmore,com

but the name doesn't make you think its about travel, just how important is the website domain name?

I bought travelmastery.com (nothing in it yet), was thinking if it really was worth it to go through all that change for the name?

Thank you for your answers

4U2NV

Google considers your domain name as a part of its algorithm or ranking criteria. If your web site is well optimized and your domain name contains your main keyword, you definitely have better chance of higher placement on SERPS.

Matte

I would put all the content under the new domain and then do a 302 redirect from the old domain to the new.

Having the word travel in the domain is important

1-Clan

I agree this new domain would be much better for the name but on the other hand how old is your current domain as the old a domain the better and if you have high serp with good seo on the site as it is you may not need to change.

If you reg your domain for longer it is said the google will think its better as they can see you will stick at the site and not use for spam etc (I dont know if this is true or not its just been said to me and its on other sites).

Northie

well thank you very much i Will change it, don't know how hard and long it will be though.





Not a 301 redirect????

5 Secrets to Creating a Powerful Google Profile

I often want to find out more about someone before I decide to do business with that person. To get the information that I need, I Google the person's name and see how well-known they are online and what they have to say. What I discovered in my search is that their social media profiles, like those found on Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook, show up high in the search results. Google, however, has started giving these well-known social networking sites a run for their money by creating their own online profile option.

Google Profiles are simple web pages where you can list general information about yourself. Anyone who can create an account on Google and verify their real name through a screening routine can now have a personal profile page on Google. The most powerful aspect of this system, however, is the ability to include links in your profile, which can pack a powerful search engine optimization (SEO) punch for you. Best of all, Google provides this service at no cost to you.

Profiles are public and include your actual name and/or a nickname. You can list your occupation, where you are located (your profile will be used for Google Maps), a list of links, your photo and a short introduction. Google even provides a way for visitors to click a link on your profile to contact you directly.

Here are 5 secrets to creating a powerful Google Profile:

1. Upload your photo. One of the keys to creating relationships online is to let others know you're a real person. The easiest way to do that is to provide a visual cue, like a photo, to help them remember you.

2. Include keywords in bio. The "About Me" section is where you can use outbound keyword-rich links to your advantage. As you compose this section, be sure and include several keywords others might use to find you, and link those back to your web site. For example, if you're a divorce attorney in Houston, you might have the keyword phrases, "Houston divorce attorney" and "family law attorney" as links back to your primary web site.

3. Link to your sites and profiles. You can link to any number of sites from your Google profile. Just like in your bio, use keywords to your advantage here as well. So, if you run a cleaning business and have produced several videos demonstrating what you do, instead of listing your link to your YouTube videos as "YouTube.com," you might instead use "Professional Cleaning Videos," which links to your YouTube stream instead.

You should add the following links to your profile:

--web site(s)

--blog

--all of your social networking profiles (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Linkedin)

--YouTube.com or UStream channel

--Squidoo lens

--Social bookmarking profiles (Delicious, Reddit, Digg

--Article syndication page

--Free giveaway sign up page

--Products page

--Services page

4. Showcase your products and services. The page editor allows you to upload images through photo sharing sites Flickr and Picasa. Upload images of your physical or information products or shots of you in action delivering your service.

5. Take care when choosing your profile URL. If you have a Gmail account, Google will ask you if your want to use that username as part of your profile URL. Be aware that if you choose that option, you are inadvertently giving away your Gmail address. I chose instead the longer profile URL with the long string of numbers. I don't like my email address appearing anywhere online, so even though this profile URL is longer and more difficult to reference, it beats filling my inbox with spam.

If you don't use Gmail, you can select any available username to be part of your profile URL. If later on you sign up for Gmail, you can choose this username as your Gmail username. Once you've selected your customized URL, you won't be able to change it or delete it. However, you can make it private at any time by selecting your old URL on the "Edit profile" page.

Take a few minutes today to claim your name and create a powerful profile for your business. It costs you nothing, creates powerful one-way inbound links back to your site, and will help you get found online.

Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps baby boomers create profitable online retirement businesses by demystifying the steps needed to successfully market a baby boomer business online. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==> http://www.OnlineBizU.com
Copyright (c) 2009 OnlineBizU.com

Lessons from Scarlett: The Original Female Entrepreneur

I think if you've been a survivor of any sort, you can relate to Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind. Sure, she used her womanly wiles to get what she wanted, but hey... who hasn't? (And men, you've got 'wiles' of your own, so don't think you're off the hook.)

When Scarlett tore down her mother's green velvet drapes to make the dress that ultimately saved Tara from the tax collectors, it was 'necessity is the mother of invention' in action. It's sheer ingenuity to look at those curtains, one of the only things left by the Yankees, and see a fancy dress that could be the solution to her problem.

Scarlett was smart, savvy and had the spitfire spirit of her successful entreprenuerial-minded immigrant father. Over and over, Scarlett relies on her wits to maneuver her way out of predicament after predicament. And maybe some of her actions weren't those of a lady playing nice (like marrying her sister's beau) - but to her, the end result always justified her behavior. She took care of herself and her 'folk' with no apologies - and she made riches from it.

So, how does Scarlett's smart and savvy personality relate to your business?

Your biggest client decides to quit working with you, for no apparent reason, leaving you with a huge income hole to fill. Your shopping cart bills your customers three times for a single purchase. Your virtual assistant decides to fly off for a spur-of-the-moment week away, leaving you with hours of admin nightmare to deal with.

There isn't a businessowner around who hasn't been surprised by these or similar challenges once they've been in business for awhile.

Yes, it would be nice to be prepared for all of our worst-case-scenarios with back-up procedures and the like, but please... especially if you're the creative/idea type - who's going to deal with all that detail for the 'just in cases'? Not me...

When Scarlett turned that green velvet from drapery to dress, my heroine didn't know she was carrying out a perfect example of exactly how to zig-zag your way very quickly from problem to solution:

Here's how:

1. She stayed focused

Scarlett didn't let herself get all spun up about only having one dirty dress to wear, picking cotton herself, or having no food to eat during the war that was going on around her. What she did was stay focused on the task at hand: saving Tara.

All the decisions she made and actions she took came from focusing on that single goal.

2. She quickly shifted priorities when necessary

Scarlett's mantra of "I can't think about that now. I'll think about it tomorrow" kept her focused and on task, and allowed her to shift her priorities when necessary.

3. She was willing to fail quickly

Scarlett made a decision and took action. If things didn't work out the way she wanted them to, she took stock, made another decision quickly, and took action again. By being willing to fail quickly, instead of trying to figure out and manage all the potential pitfalls beforehand, she was able to rebuild her life on her terms much more quickly.

4. She was open to receiving

So maybe marrying two gentlemen she wasn't in love with for all the wrong reasons doesn't speak well of her heart, but Scarlett saw both marriages as a solution to a current predicament.

She wanted to stay close to Ashley Wilkes so she married his brother-in-law. She wanted $300 to pay the taxes on Tara to keep it, so she married her sister's beau to get it. She wanted the store and mill to make more money, so she did business with those who were willing and able to pay, even if it was with the Yankees and carpetbaggers.

5. She didn't let anyone stop her

Whenever Mammy protested Scarlett's plans, Scarlett persisted. When her sisters protested her behavior with her gentleman callers, she persisted. When she wanted to hire convicts as laborers for the mill, and both the men in her life told her it was wrong, she did it anyway.

If you know that a solution you've figured out is right for you, don't let anyone talk you out of it. Even if it doesn't work out, at least you know you stuck to your guns and your integrity to yourself is intact.

And lest you think I'm blind to some of the deeper layers of Miss Scarlett, let me assure you that no one is more satisfied than I when Rhett tells her, "Frankly, my darling, I don't give a damn."

And yet you can't argue with her results.
Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach(TM) teaches self-employed professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create wild abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com

Setting Up A Home Office. 10 Tips To Getting It Done Right The First Time

Setting up a home office can be a tremendous challenge. How do you separate your work life from your home life when they occupy the same space? Here are 10 tips to create a home office designed for maximum productivity.

1. Know yourself.

Think about your perfect working conditions. Short of a lounge chair at the edge of the ocean on a warm sunny day, what do you see? Do you have a large conference table and plenty of room to spread out? Do you have a large recliner and a laptop desk? What are your ideal working conditions? Don’t just think about comfort. What conditions do you work best in? Is there music playing? Is there a phone in your office? What is on your desk? In and out boxes? Is there a place for everything or are you more of a scattered creative type? Do you have pictures? Plants? A fountain? The key is to envision your perfect productive space, not what you think should be your perfect productive space.

2. Don’t forget wall space.

What is on the walls of your office space right now? Are they blank? Are they covered with family photos? What about inspirational prints with motivational sayings? Do you have a large writing surface on your wall or a cork board? Planning boards are fantastic if you’re a visual person. You can use a whiteboard to draft the navigation of your website or create long range plans and a timeline. Corkboards are excellent for posting notes, tasks, and ideas you don’t want to lose.

What about shelving? Use your vertical space, your wall space, to optimize your home office. Shelves are an excellent way to store items you frequently need while saving space on your desk and conserving valuable floor space. An office that feels roomy and clutter free is often much more productive than an office that feels cluttered and disorganized.

3. Let there be light.

Natural light is best for productivity and feelings of well being. However, natural light isn’t always an option. Quite often home offices are built into the center of a home or worse…the basement. Uniform ambient light is better for productivity than task lighting and it is better on your eyes. For an expensive uniform lighting set up, consider natural spectrum fluorescent bulbs. They last a long time and are good for your mood and the environment.

In addition to natural light, it is helpful to have a bit of ventilation. If you can open a window from time to time and get some fresh air, by all means do! If there are no windows available in your home office, consider air purifiers, fans or some sort of ventilation system.

4. Don’t sit at the kitchen table!

Placing yourself right in the middle of the house and all of its activity is a certain time stealer. How can you avoid distractions from chores, people, pets, and folks knocking at your door trying to sell you magazines or financial services? While the kitchen table is great because it enables you to spread out and work in a comfortable location – there are probably plenty of windows and sunlight there too – there are no doors to keep out the distractions.

5. How much memory do you think you’ll need?

The basic rule of thumb when setting up a home office is to buy as large of a computer as you can afford. You might be surprised at how quickly your memory and storage will be used up. If you don’t buy a big enough computer, you’ll end up having to buy a new one anyway. If you already have a computer and a larger capacity computer isn’t in your budget, consider an external storage drive.

6. Backup regularly.

Speaking of external storage drives…it is imperative that you back your equipment up regularly. I know that backing up takes time, sometimes it feels like it takes forever; however it is critical to the future of your business and your sanity that you back up. Stop for a moment and consider what would happen if everything on your computer suddenly vanished.

For many, it might mean the end of their business, which is why it is critical that you not only back up regularly – weekly isn’t too frequent – you will also want to make sure your backup is working. Backup and then go through the process of retrieving your information to make sure your backup is working the way it is supposed to.

7. Set up your office to function smoothly.

This means comfortable equipment, and processes that make sense for you. Is your chair comfortable? How about your keyboard and your desk positioning? The more comfortable you are in your office, the more productive you’ll be. If your wrist is hurting and your back is stiff, you’re going to work slower and chances are you’re going to be distracted.

What about the system you have set up. Is everything you use frequently within easy reach? Is your phone close by? What about your files? Take a minute and look around your home office. Is it set up optimally for you?

8. Organization and storage.

Do you have a place for everything? Storage and organization is extremely important when creating your home office. If you skip this step you’ll spend much of your time trying to find things instead of getting them done. Create a paper organization and storage system – file cabinet. Also create an effective storage system on your computer. For paper files, it is recommended that you have a file for every bank account, taxes, receipts, expenses, payables, receivables, marketing and sub folders for each marketing project.

Also consider keeping your copywriting ideas in a file. On your computer the system will work much the same way. You’ll likely have major folders for each category and sub folders contained within. For example you might have a category labeled Marketing, and sub categories labeled SEO, PPC, Direct Mail etc…

9. Do you need an address?

When you have a home address, it is tempting to have your business address be the same. However, take a moment and step back. There are distinct advantages to having a separate business address. You are able to keep your home address private. You are able to separate your work from your home legally. Having a business address looks a little more professional than 1015 Butternut Circle on your business correspondence. Additionally, having to go pick up the mail gets you out of your house on a regular basis!

10. Modems, and phones, and faxes oh my.

Do you need all of these fixtures cluttering your office? There are numerous electronic devices available now like e-fax, wireless internet, and 800 numbers that are economical and can be forwarded to your cell phone eliminating the need for a separate office phone and line.

In fact, there are automated attendants that will answer your phone for you during your off hours, send them into your ‘business’ voice mail and actually email the message to you or forward it to your personal voice mail system. All for less than $20 a month.

When it comes to working out of a home office, you make the rules. What works for the masses in terms of organization, hours, processes and so on are not necessarily what will work for you. Develop a system that works for you and stick to it. When you design a system and space that work for you, and stick to it, your productivity will increase ten fold and so will your profits.

YouTube Video Optimization for Search Engine optimization

YouTube has become a dominant force in on the web. According to comScore, in April of 2009 Americans watch over 16.8 billion videos up 16% from the previous month. YouTube videos are often showing up on Google natural search engine results surpassing the top spots. A YouTube video properly optimized can outrank sites such as Amazon and EBay. This is an internet marketer’s dream tool and it is so simple to use. This is why you must properly optimize your YouTube videos.

A good starting point for YouTube optimization is to make videos that are short, sweet, and straight to the point. People want instant gratification, not wanting to sit around watching a 30 minute video on how to use a cell phone headset. Videos should be kept to a few minutes to reduce production time, upload time, and download times. Have a script prepared so you do not mutter or stumble upon your words. Film the video in the highest quality format you can. Crisp, clean videos will receive more attention than grainy, hard to see videos. Do not make videos private and always allow for comments. This user interaction can help increase video views and move you up the YouTube video rankings. Using Annotations, text boxes in your video, can help deliver your message or promote your website or company. Make sure not too over use annotations as they can become annoying and distracting from your videos main purpose.

Since the search engine spiders cannot read or comprehend videos you must use the text fields to optimize your videos appropriately. This means doing keyword research and making sure your keywords appear in the title, description, and tags of your video is imperative to a successful YouTube marketing campaign. Maximize on the amount of text you can have in these fields. More text means a better chance of someone finding and clicking into your video. Make sure you use original titles and descriptions otherwise your video will get lost in the millions of videos with similar names. Original content is what YouTube wants to see. The more originality you add the better off you will be. You also want to have a user name with your brand or website name so it is easily remembered.

You have to put everything into perspective to increase views, as the average video only receives one hundred views annually. According to YouTube guidelines there are many factors that influence rankings and can help optimize your videos. These include the video title, the description, tags, incoming links, comments, subscribers, ratings, playlist additions, flagging, embeds, shares, age of video, channel views, subscribers, views, and the number and quality of sites that host or point to your video. You want to interact on YouTube by watching other videos, commenting, subscribing, creating channels, and making friends. Interaction helps with the viral marketing, where one person tells another person about the video. This person tells five others and so on. Doing this will increase your video network and views. All these factor into ranking high for YouTube optimization.

If your video appears on an outside website you want to make sure that it is relevant and appropriate for your video. Each time your video is viewed from an outside source it still counts as a view, so keep posting your videos on blogs and other sites. Basically, you need links from outside pages leading to your YouTube videos. You want the links to have strong anchor text, meaning that the link leading to the video contains keywords related to your video.

To increase your videos views, subscriptions, and favorites you can send out an email blasts, place your video on your website and other websites, engage in the community, build a following, connect with other members, provide valuable content, participate in social networking sites. Basically the Web 2.0 created a heaven place for video sharing. Your ultimate goal should be to reach YouTube’s homepage under Spotlight, Most Viewed, Most Discussed, and Top Favorite Videos.

You can submit your video to the major video sites at once using programs such as Tube Mogul and Traffic Geyser. These software programs submit your video to all the major video sharing sites for you, saving time and energy. Simply enter the tile, description, and tags for your video and it will appear on all the major video sharing sites. They offer analytics and tracking for your videos in one place making it easy to analyze and tweak your videos.

The best analytics would have to be the one given to you for free, YouTube Insight. This will give you all the stats and detailed information you could ever ask for. With Insight you can see how many page views you have, how popular it is, where people found your video, what country people watching your video are from, what sections of your video are most watched and least watched, and so much more. This statistical data should help optimize your current video and plan for future videos. There are many articles written about YouTube Insight and how to take advantage of it. I suggest reading up on these.

There is a program called video tube automators, which is designed to build hundreds of YouTube accounts so you can view, comment, subscribe, and vote on your own videos. This run into the black hat area of marketing and is seen as spam. This is unethical and can get your account permanently banned from YouTube.

Monetizing your YouTube videos is quite easy. You can easily set up your Ad Sense account in accordance with YouTube so you can start receiving money every time an ad is clicked next to your video. The main source of income from YouTube comes from the fact that you can show product reviews and sell features that could not be described in words. Electronic gadgets are a perfect match for YouTube video reviews.

Why Your Website is Worthless

You may have put a lot of money, resources and hours into your website, but if it’s not reaching your target demographic and generating business, your website is worthless! A website that seemed great a couple of years ago is probably not doing the job nowadays without any updates. Read on to find out why your website just isn’t cutting it anymore.

TMI

The popular web acronym TMI, or too much information, doesn’t just apply to people - your website can have TMI too! If people find too much information about your product or service on your site, they won’t be motivated to call you and find out more. Words or text on your website don’t always convey what you are able to do and whether or not you are reliable. Too much information on your website can prohibit the “person to person” sales techniques that have worked for businesses for many years.

Too Little Information/Poor Navigation

While you don’t want to give visitors too much information, you don’t want to leave them in the dark either. If your site has too little information, or poor navigation prevents users from finding the things they want to know, you’re unlikely to get any business.

A Case of Sloppy Site-itis

Sloppy site-itis is how I would diagnose sites that look like the website equivalent of Pig-Pen from the comic strip Peanuts. If your website looks like it was put together in about 5 minutes, without any thought or care, why should someone trust you to put time into their product or service? As little as one hour of maintenance can make a world of difference to the look of your site. Go through your site and make sure all the links work, check for spelling errors, and make sure all formatting, fonts and colors are consistent throughout the site. After a while it’s easy to miss mistakes that you’ve been looking at every day, so it’s a great idea to have a friend check for you too.

People Can’t Find Your Website

More and more consumers are turning to the internet to find the goods or services they need. The most important reason why your website is worthless is if people do not know about your website. You could have a multi-million dollar design, and the best product available, but if people can’t find your website, it can’t generate business. This is simple enough to understand, but short of standing on the corner waving a sign with your web address on it, how can you help people find your website?

Get on the A-List

If you’re not listed with a business directory on the top search engines, many times your website will slip through the cracks. To generate more business it may help to put your website out there on business directories along with a brief ad describing what you do. Ads that are easy to read, informative, to the point, and don’t overload the customer with information they don’t need to know are best.

You don’t have to completely reinvent the wheel, just do your research. See what your competitors are doing; look around on Google and Yahoo! to see what is ranking, and go with what is proven

One of the easiest ways to find reputable online advertising companies and business directories is to Google the keywords you think your customers would search for. When the page pulls up, scroll through the links on the first page and find a good business directory. Getting your website seen through multiple linkings on top business directories will help your website rankings and give you the business boost you need.

Social Networking: 10 Steps to Finding Your Target Market in Facebook

Everyone is talking about social networking, and many claim social networking to be the panacea for all of your marketing ills. Marketing on social networking sites like Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter can help you increase the size of your email list and help you grow your business. The key to success with this strategy is making sure that members of your target market are in your network.

Facebook is very strict and very particular about how its participants contact each other. Facebook limits the number of new invitations that can be sent in a given day or week. The exact number is a Facebook secret and unknown to the public, but if you exceed this secret amount you can get booted from Facebook. However, I think if you stick with no more than 10 per day, you will probably stay within their limits. Secondly, you are permitted only 5000 friends in Facebook, so if you’re successful in this strategy, you may ultimately need to create a waiting list of friends.

How do you find your target market in Facebook? Whether you’re an experienced social networker or just a newbie, here are 10 secrets to growing your target market network in Facebook:

1. Update-to-date profile and/or Fan page: Before you begin a “friending” (i.e. request to become another’s friend), be sure that your profile is up-to-date with an accurate description of what you do, your interests, and your contact info, including your web site URLs. If you have multiple businesses, invite people in your appropriate target market to become fans of your niche-specific fan page.
2. Follow the gurus. Follow leaders in your field/industry and “friend” them. Anytime you make a friend request, include a personal note, as that will increase the likelihood that they will accept your request. Say something like, “I’m a big fan and have been on your ezine/blog list for several years. I’d love to have you in my network in Facebook.” Once they have accepted your invitation, make comments about their status updates to help you get on their radar and in front of their networks.
3. Friends of friends. Take a look at the people in the network of your industry leaders, as they are probably part of your target market as well, and send friend requests to those of interest to you. When you friend someone that you only know by association, send a personal note as well, like “I discovered your profile in ’s network and would like to get to know you batter by adding you to my network.”
4. Use groups. Look for groups that may contain your target market. In your search for groups, use keywords that describe your niche, your industry, your geographic area, the interests of your target market, or whatever other terms you might use to find members of your target market. Join and begin to participate in the group so that they begin to get to know you. Then peruse the member lists for good prospects, sic as the members you’ve connected with or have gotten to know. Since you won’t be able to view the profiles of the group members because they aren’t in your network, much of your decision-making about whom to friend may be based upon appearance or how you might be connected to them via other friends in your network.
5. Check your own lists. Friend people that you already know from your high school, college, alumni associations, and places of employment if they fall within your target market definition.
6. Facebook-recommended friends. Facebook typically recommends friends based on your current friends list when you log into your profile. I’ve found these recommendations to be pretty solid. Take them up on their recommendation and add those folks to your network.
7. Add by interest or industry. Do a people search by job title, industry, geographic location, or interest. Those people with those terms in their profile will show up in your search, and you can request to add them based on common interests.
8. Build the relationship. Once you friend someone, you need to begin to get to know them and start them on the like, know and trust journey so that you become their top-of-mind expert in a particular area. Begin building the relationship by posting a quick “thank you” note on their wall, as well as a comment about something on their profile that interests you or in which you have in common. Watch for their status updates, as well, and comment on these when appropriate.
9. Create a group. Once you’ve got about 500 followers, create a group for your target market. Provide the group with useful content and and ask questions to stimulate discussion and get the members to return to participate in the group. You can post articles, links to blog posts, or videos you have created. Invite group members to any free virtual or face-to-face events you’re hosting.
10. Integrate into your plan. No marketing strategy works unless you consistently implement it over time. As a newbie to Facebook, you might want to spend as much as 60 minutes per day researching friends and participating in groups. As your network grows, you many spend only 15 minutes 3 times per week on Facebook. The key to success is to put this strategy on your calendar and make it a routine part of your ongoing Internet marketing tasks.

While social networking is an inexpensive marketing tool and can be effective in helping you grow your business, maintain your other marketing strategies, as well, and simply add this strategy to your marketing mix. A well-rounded Internet marketing plan that includes social networking and is implemented consistently will mean that your prospect well will never run dry.

The RIGHT Way To Use Keywords In Your Article Submissions

If you’ve just started marketing your website and you’re trying to figure out what’s the deal with all this keyword stuff, I’ve got good news for you:

Using keywords in your articles submissions is not nearly as complicated as you may think.

Actually, it’s quite easy once your realize that the main purpose of your article is to provide valuable information for your target market and that your articles should be on the topic of your website. When you are writing on the topic of your niche, many times your keywords will naturally pop up in your articles.

That is the RIGHT way to use keywords–An article that is using keywords correctly will sound entirely natural to the reader and will be easy to understand.

If you use keywords the WRONG way, the article quality will be compromised and the reader will come away thinking, “That article sounded like it was written by a robot, for a robot. There was something weird about that article.”

WRITE FOR YOUR HUMAN READERS

First and foremost, you should write for humans first, and search engines second. Think about it–if you write for search engines and your article ends up with a high ranking and the title or article is not appealing to humans, readers simply won’t click through to read your article. A high search engine ranking alone will not drive more traffic to your articles or your website–you need to provide quality content that will be of value to your readers.

Focus on writing a quality article that will be useful to your readers, and then after you’ve completed the article go through it and see if there are any spots where your keywords or variations of your keywords can be inserted. Most likely though, you will find that your keywords are automatically popping up in your article if the article is written on the topic of your website.

VARY YOUR KEYWORDS

The HTLM resource box is a great way to bring exposure to your keywords. In the HTML resource box you can hyperlink your keywords, and that can draw more attention from Google. In order for this to be effective though, you need to be careful and vary your keywords–don’t use the same keyword for each article submission.

If you use the same keywords every time in your HTML resource box, it can appear that you’re trying to manipulate Google’s rankings, which Google does not appreciate.

Use semantically related keywords in your article and resource box.

Do not simply use one keyword phrase over and over again. This means that if your keywords are “sail boats”, you can use “sailing boats”, “sail boat gear”, “how to sail a boat”–you get the idea. Mix things up and write in a natural sounding way.

DON’T OVERDO IT

Have you ever read an article that had one phrase repeated over and over again throughout the article when other words would have worked much better?

You can go overboard when using your keywords, so be sure to keep your keyword density between under 3%.

Here’s a formula for calculating keyword density:

[Number of times the specific keyword or keyphrase appears in the article] divided by [Number of words in the article] multiplied by [the number of words in the keyword or keyphrase] multiplied by 100

KEYWORDS AND TITLES

Use your keywords in your title when appropriate–your title should always reflect the subject matter of your article.

If it is appropriate to use your keywords in your title, try placing them at the beginning of your title. That will help readers who are scanning long lists of titles–if possible, the first 3 words of your title should clearly tell the reader the subject matter of your article.

If you’re not sure what your keywords are, there are many excellent tools available on the internet, some free and some paid. Some of the top keyword research tools are WordTracker, Keyword Discover, Overture, and Google Keywords Tool.

Your article submissions are a great place to make use of your keywords, and your best bet is to write naturally, write on the topic of your website, and focus on creating a quality article that will be helpful to your target market and a joy to read.

Google Adsense May Be King But There are Other Options

When it comes to making money with a website, one of the most popular methods is running text and/or image ads on various pages. It’s referred to as contextual advertising and “inline ads”. Text or image ads are shown which match the content of the pages. Inline ads appear as highlighted words on the page when the visitor hovers over highlighted text on the page. Ads appear in small boxes. Contextual ads are often displayed to the right or left of website copy, or as blocks within sections of the text. The ads shown are related to the content of each individual page. As visitors click on these links, you earn cash.

Probably the largest and most used of the contextual ad programs is Google’s Adsense. Google really is a giant when it comes to the Internet, and their talents go far beyond just being a search engine. Adsense is used by many site owners to bring in a monthly income.

If you’re interested in running Adsense ads, first you’ll need to apply and get approved. Once approved for one site, you can place Adsense on any other site that you own. You can decide to run only text ads or choose from image and text. Various sizes are offered, and you can custom select colors to match the look of your site. Once the code is generated, you paste it on your HTML pages where you want the ads to appear. Simple & easy.

But what happens if you’re not approved by Google, or for some reason your Adsense account were to be terminated? What would you do then? There are other ad network options out there and I’ve gathered some of the best alternatives together here.

Before signing up for any ad program, make sure you read their terms of service and any requirements to make sure it’s a good fit for your website. Also, review the payment options so you’ll know how and when you can expect to be paid. Let’s review:

1) Text-Link-Ads.com: http://www.text-link-ads.com/

Once your site is approved, you insert the code on your page and they sell simple text ads that appear on your site. You have final say over any ads being published. Payments are made via Paypal or Clickbank. You receive 50% of the sale price for each link they serve up. This ad network is acceptable to be run on the same page as Google Adsense as this is not considered contextual advertising.

2) Adbrite: http://www.adbrite.com/

A variety of ad formats to choose from. You can run text ads, banners, inline ads or even full page ads. You can choose to approve or reject ads before they appear on your site. Pays monthly with the default minimum check amount of $100.00. Once your site is approved, ads will appear within 24 hours of your pasting the code. Adbrite has no policy against using other ad networks on your site at the same time.

3) Kontera: http://www.kontera.com/

Contextually relevant ads and ad units which are linked to keywords on your web page. Ads displayed will match the content of your site. For your website to be approved it must be in English, be content rich with more than 50 words per page. You can run text, image, billboard, and video ads.

4) Quigo.com: http://www.quigo.com/publishers.html

Quigo offers content-targeted advertising to those with strong traffic. Publishers with 500,000 or more monthly page views are encouraged to apply. Once approved, simply copy and paste the code.

5) Yahoo Publisher Network: http://publisher.yahoo.com/

Works very similar to Google’s Adsense program. You design your own ads, choosing colors and formats, then paste some code on your page. You’ll be paid per click. Advanced ad targeting and display capabilities can sometimes improve your results. You can choose to be paid via Paypal once your earnings are $50.00, or a check when you hit $100.00.

6) Chitika.com: http://chitika.com/

A full service online ad network which serves over two billion monthly impressions across more than 30,000 websites. Chitika ads are not contextual and can be run on the same page as Adsense. Twenty-four different ad sizes are available. Payment is via Paypal once your account is at $10.00, or a check when you reach $50.00.

7) Miva: http://tinyurl.com/oha28n

Miva offers a wide variety of ad formats to choose from: content ads, inline ads, search ads. You’ll be paid on a per click basis. Payments are made monthly by check or Paypal once your balance reaches $25.00. You can also block competitor ads from appearing on your site.

AffiliatesGarage.com: http://www.affiliatesgarage.com/

A different type of ad network which allows you to display affiliate ads in an “Adsense Style”. You can run Clickbank and Paydotcom text ads on your site or blog and earn up to 75% commission.

9) Bidvertiser.com: http://www.bidvertiser.com/

Display text ads on your website and let advertisers bid against each other. Ad formats are skyscrapers, banners, rectangles, buttons. They even have ads for your RSS feeds. Payout is monthly via Paypal once your balance is $10.00. This one pays on a cost per click basis.

10) AmaSense Ads: http://www.amasenseads.com/

This service allows you to create Google Adsense styled ads for Amazon products. Different ad formats are available which makes it easy to integrate into your site. Amasense can also be used side by side with Google Adsense without any problems.

As ads are clicked on, you earn a percentage of the product which is paid by Amazon depending on the type of product that is bought. You must have an Amazon associate account first before signing up. To get one go to https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/

As you can see Adsense is not the only game in town when it comes to running ads on your site. If you have multiple sites, you may want to use one of the services mentioned above, then test, to see which one is a better earning opportunity. You might be surprised at what you learn.

It’s against Google’s terms of service to run another contextual ad service on the same page as Adsense, but there are exceptions to the rule. Most of the services above will tell you if you can run their ads alongside Adsense.

If your websites are mainly information based, network advertising is an excellent way for you to earn an income with little effort on your part. No matter if you use Adsense or another service, it just makes for good dollars and cents.

Merle’s Mission Blog- “Rants, Raves and Random Acts of Kindness” a self proclaimed “Internet Junkie” with a passion for net marketing, affiliate marketing, social networking. An avid Blogger and writer with several niche sites to her credit

How To Profit From Your Pay-Per-Click Advertising Campaigns

Advertising your services or products on the Internet is both extremely effective and extremely competitive. There are several ways to go about attracting traffic to your website; Pay-Per-Click is one of the options you can choose from, along with developing an SEO, or search engine optimization campaign. Both pay-per-click and SEO are targeted to get your website placed as close to the top of search engine results as possible. One of the differences is that it takes minutes to set up a pay-per-click campaign versus months for a good SEO campaign.

Pay-Per-Click is a simple type of paid advertising that most search engines, including some of the largest ones, now offer. It requires a bid for a “per-click” basis, which translates to your company paying the bid amount every time the search engine directs a visitor to your site. There is the added bonus that when a per-click site sends your website traffic, your site often appears in the results of other prevalent search engines.

As with all marketing campaigns, there are advantages and disadvantages. If you understand the process and monitor your pay-per-click campaign frequently, it can be very effective. One of the greatest advantages is that you never have to tweak your web pages to change your position in search engine results, as you must do in a typical SEO campaign. What you do have to do in a pay-per-click campaign is pay a fee.

Another advantage is the simplicity of the pay-per-click process. You just bid and you’re up and running. It doesn’t demand any specific technical knowledge, though the more you know about search engines and keywords, the easier–and more effective–the process will be.

The downside is that pay-per-click is essentially a bidding war. A higher bid than yours will lower your position on search engine results. This means that you will have to raise your bid to regain your position–which can obviously become quite expensive, especially if you are bidding on a popular keyword.

In order to determine if pay-per-click is a cost-effective form of marketing for your business, you must do some computing to figure out how much each visitor to your site is worth. You can compute this value by dividing the profit you make on your website over a given period of time by the total number of visitors for that same time period. For example, if your site made $5,000 in profits and there were 25,000 hits, each visitor would be theoretically worth 50 cents. The basic formula is profits divided by visitors.

The figure of 50 cents per visitor is the point at which your business breaks even. The idea, of course, is to show a profit, not to merely cover your costs. Therefore, you are aiming at a figure less than 50 cents per click.

Be aware that the most popular keywords often cost considerably more than 50 cents a click. The only way around this is to bid less for these phrases or you will be paying too much for each individual hit.

The key (pun intended) to success is to learn everything you can about search engine keyword research. The good news is there isn’t a limit to the amount of keywords you can add to your bid because additional keywords do not add additional cost. This translates into a lot less hassle for you because there is no need to optimize your site to index a particular set of keywords.

Obviously, some keywords are much more effective than others are, but they will not cost you anything except time to set-up your account in your pay-per-click bid. Of the popular search engines that offer pay-per-click, one called Overture provides an online tool that will give you the data on how often particular keywords are entered into their search engine. They also offer suggestions for keywords after you enter a description of your site.

In pay-per-click, this written description is crucial. You must understand that the object of your description is not to generally attract visitors, but to be as specific as possible so that only those visitors who are likely to buy your service or product go to your site. You must use expert marketing copy to guarantee that your description is both precise and enticing to attract the most ideal candidates to your site. This description is your most powerful tool to insure that your bid is profitable.

Another essential element of pay-per-click advertising is that you constantly monitor your bid. It is very important that you bear in mind that the results of the top search engines providing pay-per-click advertising, which are Overture and AdWords Select, usually appear on other popular search engines. Because of this, the competition for top ranking is intense, and very often you will find that the bidding price balloons too high for pay-per-click to yield a profit.

If this happens, it is advisable to withdraw your bid on that particular keyword and try another one. Remember: when you pay too much per click to make a profit, you are in essence losing the bidding war.

Since losing is not acceptable, you must have a plan in place to closely track the effectiveness of your keyword. It is advisable to monitor your keywords on at least a monthly basis.

Not only is careful monitoring important, but the analysis of visitor behavior can produce invaluable knowledge about consumer motivation, habits, and trends. Expert monitoring and consumer analysis is essential to your overall business needs, and will also insure that your pay-per-click campaign is a success.

5 Google Tools For Researching Your Market

Internet marketers and webmasters have always had a love/ hate relationship with Google. Whatever you think of them they do provide website owners with some great market research tools.

No matter what market you are in or plan to be in, you will find these free tools provided by Google very useful when researching your market. You should be researching your market constantly, NOT just when setting up your site. The internet is ever changing and, if you're not keeping up with those changes, you will be left behind.

Market Research Tool 1 - Related Searches And Wonder Wheel

When you start typing in the main Google search box you should see a drop down box appear giving you some alternative search terms related to the word you typed. Note these phrases down in a notepad file or write them on a piece of paper. They will be useful as part of your keyword list used in the next tool. You will also see more related search phrases after you click search. Scroll to the bottom of the results page and you will see "searches related to:" Note down any new phrases shown there.
Recently Google has released Wonder Wheel which is also a related keywords tool but is shown in a mind map format. You can also click on the related phrases to find more useful search terms. To access wonder wheel: enter your keyword in the standard search screen, then at the top of the results on the left you should see a show options link. Select that and it will reveal a menu. Near the bottom of the menu you should see wonder wheel.

Market Research Tool 2 - Adwords Keyword Tool

We all know how important keywords and search phrases are. Let's face it, it's what drives the internet. Google has provided us with a tool that tells you what keywords and phrases people are using to find what they are looking for. You are able to search an individual country, more than one if you hold down the ctrl key on your keyboard as you select, or all countries.

The adwords tool is now more valuable due to the fact it shows actual search numbers. Previously you only had a green bar to indicate how much traffic the search term receíved. You can also see how competitive each keyword is amongst adword advertisers, showing us which keywords are commercially viable.

Market Research Tool 3 - Google Trends

Now that you have an idea what keywords your market is using you can use the trends tool to check the history of that keyword / phrase. Google Trends supplies data for the last 5 years, giving you an idea if the search term is consistent. You can also see if the search term is popular at certain times of the year, also known as a seasonal keywords.

Another important function of Trends is the section that tells you the popularity of a keyword by country, city and language - very useful if you are targeting particular countries or even cities.

Market Research Tool 4 - Google Alerts

Alerts is underused by webmasters. If you want to stay in touch with what's hot in your market, you can by using Google Alerts. All you have to do is enter the most popular phrases in your market. Google will then send you links via email depending on what type you select.

The types are news, web, blogs, video and groups. If you would like a mix of all, you can select comprehensive. You can decide how often you want to be updated by selecting either: as it happens, once a day or once a week. I hope you can see how powerful this is if you want to be seen as an authority in your market.

Market Research Tool 5 - Google Web Search

Finally, we have Google's standard web search which is not standard in my eyes. It provides a lot of information if you know what to look for. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important part of running a website. By performing a search of your market keywords, Google will tell you what type of content it sees as important.

If you see videos, blogs or images this gives you another way to reach the top 10 of Google. If you see Web 2.0 style sites such as Digg, that could be another avenue. If there are adword ads on the right side of the screen, that tells you the market is commercially viable and more importantly that the keyword you entered is good enough to pay for, especially if there are 10 ads or more.

As you can see, even if you don't have money to buy the latest tools, I have shown you there is a way to get some very important information using free tools from Google. Are you starting to love them now?

How To Create Profitable Back Links For More Web Traffic

Back links are really important in the world of Search Engine Optimization. If you want your site to do well in search engine listing results you have to have a good page ranking. If you want a higher page ranking you’re going to need to create lots and lots of back links.

It takes time and talent to do this but it will be worth it. Google receives 3,000 search inquiries a second. That’s 180,000 per minute. If you want your share of this avalanche of free business, you will need to work hard and work smart.

Back links are simply a link from somewhere else to your site. It sounds easy to create them and it is easy, but you will need thousands of these links and you will need new ones every month. They may only take a minute to create but to create hundreds or thousands take lots of time and talent.

How Many Links Do You Need?

Lots and lots. You need more than the competitor that is ranked number one with Google. If you do that, you will be number one. Let’s take a look at a few areas and see how many we would need to dominate that field. - Top company in “search engine optimization” had 52,100 links - Top company in “web site design” had 54,200 links - Top Company in “custom T-shirts” had 72,000 links - Top Company in “Tiffany Lamps” had 825

As you can see, the more competitive the area, the more links it takes to be number one. Plan to add as many links as you can every month for as long as you stay in business. Remember that your competitors are adding new links every month too, so the number of links you need keeps growing.

Beware Of Short Cuts To Success

As you surf the web, you will see sites that advertise short cuts to link creation. They offer to sell you hundreds of links. As you evaluate these services, realize that the quality of your links is important to your success. The sites you link to must concern themselves with similar topics to your site or they may be disregarded by the search engines. Also, the quality of the linking site is important. If the site is known for spam or porn, you may be seriously penalized search engine rankings just for being associated with it. Buying back links is fraught with danger. You will be far more successful if you actually chose the sites you want to link to.

Using Articles To Create Links

Writing informative articles is a great way to create back links. You can use these articles on your site to sell visitors and publish them to article directories. Every site that publishes your article will create a back link to your site. Other sites may pick up your article and publish it creating “viral” publishing and more links. Someone in your organization should be responsible for creating this content every month or you can hire an outside firm to do this work for you.

Using Video To Create Links

Another great way to create links and sell as well is to create video clips that tell your story or sell your product in an interesting way. You can use these clips to sell on your site and you can publish them to video sites like youtube.com, metacafe.com, viddler.com and many others. These get great rankings in the search engines. Someone in your organization should be responsible for creating this content every month or you can hire an outside firm to do this work for you.

Using Social Networks To Create Links

Social networks like myspace.com are the best ways to create qulaity links from poular sites. Myspace is one of the most visited sites on the web, so links from it make your site rank as very popular. To create links from social sites, open an account , link to others with similar interests, and make comments that include a link to your site.

Using Blogs To Create Links Blogs want comments from readers. Visit blogs on similar topics to yours and on any popular blogs, leave a comment on a posting. Your comment should have a link to your site. This should not be just self serving but should continue the dialog. For example, if your site deals with web marketing and you see a blog article on meta tags, you might make a comment like, “excellent article with good points. I also found good meta tag tools at www.yoursite.com” One great way to find good blogs is to set up a Google alert for all keywords you use and you will be notified anytime a post is made with those key words. Next, simply go to the blog and make a comment.

That Sounds Like A Lot Of Work

It is a huge amount of work but just keep remembering those 180,000 inquiries per second. If you do not have time to do this, don’t despair. You can outsource the work to companies like ours and get the job done. Outsourcing this work is very cost effective as it allows you to keep selling and managing while someone else creates the links that drive your site to the top of the inquiry list.

The Problem With Buying Clicks In Social Media

Advertisers want to reach people and social networks want to make money from their audience, so all the two parties need is a fair way to exchange. But, creating a marketplace between advertisers and social networks based on selling “clicks” is sure to leave both sides very unhappy. The social networks will be unhappy because they will not be receiving full value for their inventory, as people have a tendency to avoid clicking on advertisements. Advertisers are likely to be unhappy with the quality of the traffic generated by those clicks that eventually occur simply by delivering a massive volume of impressions.

Just because pay per click (PPC) turned out to be the golden goose for Google, does not mean it can solve social networks’ monetization issues. And if a recent TechCrunch post, “Facebook Click Fraud Enraging Advertisers,” is any indication, advertisers are quickly discovering the challenges of paying for traffic coming from social media.

If Google was able to monetize so well using PPC, why can’t PPC work in social networks? Because for Google, PPC factors in that people (aka: consumers, aka: audience) might actually want to “click” on the advertisement, therefore benefiting from Google’s advertisements. The two main times people come across a Google PPC ad unit are when they search the Web using Google, or when they are on a site that uses Google AdSense. Holding aside AdSense for a moment, when people are using a search bar, they are stating their intention to navigate to another site that might have information they are looking for. In short, they are looking to click on something. If Google’s advertisers can provide that “something,” then everybody wins — users are happy, Google is happy and advertisers are happy. AdSense works similarly people’s intentions to “click” have to be guessed at, but the same theory applies. If I am on a site that is all about running, I may want to click to another site that has something to do with running. If Google can provide an advertiser that wants that click, then everybody is happy again.

But when you get to social media, the formula doesn’t work anymore. Even Google, the uncontested master of PPC technology, couldn’t make people click in its deal with MySpace. Here’s the simple reason why: If I go to a friend’s page and my friend loves to go running, it is likely that my friend will have lots of content on his/her page about running — which might tell Google, or any other AdSense-like program, to offer me a chance to click on an advertisement about, or related to running. But I didn’t come to my friend’s page to learn about running; I came to learn about my friend. Therefore I had no intention to click going in, and the PPC model falls down.

Even when PPC ads target me using the data my social networks have about me — for example, Facebook knows I am getting married in September — they end up serving ads that they hope are so relevant that even though I had no intention of clicking on anything to do with weddings, they can get me to anyway. It’s easy to see the difference between serving me a wedding advertisement when I am searching for it, or when I am on a page about weddings, but how does that translate to when I am on my Facebook homepage? It might be relevant in one way, but it is not relevant in BOTH context or timing. This causes lower click rates; and while some of the clicks that do happen would be valuable, it’s just that the total value advertisers and social networks can derive from those clicks isn’t enough to make the relationship work.

In the end, selling clicks and traffic when people don’t want to click or navigate the Web will inevitably fail.

The Problem With Buying Clicks In Social Media

Advertisers want to reach people and social networks want to make money from their audience, so all the two parties need is a fair way to exchange. But, creating a marketplace between advertisers and social networks based on selling “clicks” is sure to leave both sides very unhappy. The social networks will be unhappy because they will not be receiving full value for their inventory, as people have a tendency to avoid clicking on advertisements. Advertisers are likely to be unhappy with the quality of the traffic generated by those clicks that eventually occur simply by delivering a massive volume of impressions.

Just because pay per click (PPC) turned out to be the golden goose for Google, does not mean it can solve social networks’ monetization issues. And if a recent TechCrunch post, “Facebook Click Fraud Enraging Advertisers,” is any indication, advertisers are quickly discovering the challenges of paying for traffic coming from social media.

If Google was able to monetize so well using PPC, why can’t PPC work in social networks? Because for Google, PPC factors in that people (aka: consumers, aka: audience) might actually want to “click” on the advertisement, therefore benefiting from Google’s advertisements. The two main times people come across a Google PPC ad unit are when they search the Web using Google, or when they are on a site that uses Google AdSense. Holding aside AdSense for a moment, when people are using a search bar, they are stating their intention to navigate to another site that might have information they are looking for. In short, they are looking to click on something. If Google’s advertisers can provide that “something,” then everybody wins — users are happy, Google is happy and advertisers are happy. AdSense works similarly people’s intentions to “click” have to be guessed at, but the same theory applies. If I am on a site that is all about running, I may want to click to another site that has something to do with running. If Google can provide an advertiser that wants that click, then everybody is happy again.

But when you get to social media, the formula doesn’t work anymore. Even Google, the uncontested master of PPC technology, couldn’t make people click in its deal with MySpace. Here’s the simple reason why: If I go to a friend’s page and my friend loves to go running, it is likely that my friend will have lots of content on his/her page about running — which might tell Google, or any other AdSense-like program, to offer me a chance to click on an advertisement about, or related to running. But I didn’t come to my friend’s page to learn about running; I came to learn about my friend. Therefore I had no intention to click going in, and the PPC model falls down.

Even when PPC ads target me using the data my social networks have about me — for example, Facebook knows I am getting married in September — they end up serving ads that they hope are so relevant that even though I had no intention of clicking on anything to do with weddings, they can get me to anyway. It’s easy to see the difference between serving me a wedding advertisement when I am searching for it, or when I am on a page about weddings, but how does that translate to when I am on my Facebook homepage? It might be relevant in one way, but it is not relevant in BOTH context or timing. This causes lower click rates; and while some of the clicks that do happen would be valuable, it’s just that the total value advertisers and social networks can derive from those clicks isn’t enough to make the relationship work.

In the end, selling clicks and traffic when people don’t want to click or navigate the Web will inevitably fail.

Page Rank Sculpting – Dead or Alive?

At SMX Advanced a few weeks ago there was a huge hullabaloo about Matt Cutt’s saying that PageRank Sculpting using nofollow tags is no longer effective and it should no longer be used. I haven’t posted anything about this until now because frankly there were enough people making a stink about this topic. That said, I now am ready to weigh in on the subject mainly because Matt Cutts posted his own take on PageRank Sculpting last week and it gave me some food for thought.

So what is the deal? What did Matt say? Let’s examine the details based on his post:

Matt’s Post: “So what happens when you have a page with ‘ten PageRank points’ and ten outgoing links, and five of those links are nofollowed? … Originally, the five links without nofollow would have flowed two points of PageRank each (in essence, the nofollowed links didn’t count toward the denominator when dividing PageRank by the outdegree of the page). More than a year ago, Google changed how the PageRank flows so that the five links without nofollow would flow one point of PageRank each.”

Essentially Google claims to have rendered nofollow sculpting useless because each nofollowed link would still use up a point of PageRank instead of saving that PageRank for other (better) links on the page. So what happens to that used up point of PageRank if it does not benefit the site being linked to? Well that was part of what generated the energized discussions at SMX Advanced; Matt said the PageRank evaporated. In his recent post, however, in response to that very question Matt alluded that the seemingly vaporized PageRank still had a life but nothing that he could comment on:

“…it’s a bit complicated, esp. since Google doesn’t view pages exactly in the framework as “classic PageRank” any more. You can think of that PageRank going into the reset vector without being too far off.”

Heh, “reset vector” is bafflegab if I have ever seen it (at least to those not mathmatically inclined – like yours truly). Anyway, my take on that explanation is that the PageRank is still in play but likely in a severely reduced capacity when nofollow is used. The question I have is whether the weakened PR point has any benefit to the page? Or is it stored as a separate algorithmic value used when calculating overall website reputation? I am sure there are many brighter minds than mine on the job and I look forward to hearing more. Overall though, it is just academic because PageRank Sculpting using nofollows was a tool best used only when some advanced techniques were needed to make a website in a competitive marketplace move that last few positions in the search engine result pages (SERPs).

Is NoFollow Going to Hurt My Website?

If you are one of the multitudes of website owners that have used nofollows for sculpting don’t worry! There is absolutely no indication that using nofollow will harm your website rankings or your site’s online reputation. If you are still worried then consider the fact that this change happened a year ago so in actuality nothing has changed recently – just our perception of Google’s process. More importantly Google does not consider PageRank Sculpting or the use of nofollow unethical so penalties are not even a consideration at this point. That said, if you have used nofollow fanatically all throughout your site you may want to review the usage with a qualified SEO to make sure a better strategy is not being missed. There are a lot of options out there for increasing website visibility and nofollow PageRank Sculpting is only one of them.

So Does this All Mean PageRank Sculpting is Dead?

No, nothing so dramatic. Even Matt said that PageRank Sculpting is still effective when a site’s structure is conceptualized with PageRank in mind. And if such foreplanning was not possible I believe a similar form of PageRank Sculpting can still be done using links driven by external Javascript (one form of Javascript that Google is still not indexing – for now).