Link Exchange: A Better Way For 2006

By John Schwartz

While traditional link exchanges still hold some value, it may be time to add a different tactic to your link-building arsenal. Why? Because it appears that swapping links doesn’t provide quite as much ‘oomph!’ for moving up in the search engine rankings as it used to, at least not for sites in highly competitive niches. Many sites that were on the first page of results and relied heavily on exchanging links have lost those coveted positions after recent search engine updates (especially the ‘Jagger’ update at Google).

Disclaimer: Only employees who are in the know at the search engines can say with certainty which factors determine rankings. The decrease in link exchange benefit is speculation based on testing and some consensus among ‘experts’ outside of the engines.

Build More One-Way Links

Assuming that it’s true about link exchanges becoming an obsolete way to get higher search engine rankings, it’s wise to find ways to build one-way inbound links. At the very least, no web site owner should rely completely on one form of link gathering. It’s never smart to put all of one’s eggs in the same basket, after all.

The rub here is that most site owners still pursue link swaps as their ‘bread-and-butter’ means of building links. That can play against you in your own link strategy if you don’t continue to offer exchanges. What to do?

What you need is a sort of hybrid approach. That is, find a way to appeal to the barter mindset of exchanging something of value for something else of value that most web site owners have ingrained in their modes of thinking. Along those lines, here’s a great way to continue building links without swapping them: offer original, unique content in exchange for a one-way link.

Trade Content for Links Instead

Here’s how it works...

Instead of offering to exchange links on your links page, write a short notice that you will write a few hundred words of original, exclusive content (300-500 is plenty) that the other site owner may use on his or her site. In exchange, they must post a link to your site on either their home page or another important page that is linked directly from the home page. Make it clear that your link must not appear on their links page, where it would just share space with many others. For the value to be equal, your link should get special handling in exchange for that great page of new content.

Now, expect not to get too many takers at this stage. The link exchange notion is pretty ingrained in most site owners. That being the case, there’s another part of this strategy you should definitely pursue.

Be proactive! Seek out related sites from which you’d love to have a link, and approach the site owner or webmaster with an offer to write a page of high quality content in exchange for a return link. We’ve been following this strategy for months with our network of sites and the results are impressive! You can expect a much higher rate of agreement from this approach than the tired old “I love your site! let’s exchange links!” routine, which is increasingly too time consuming to be worth the effort.

Some Important Points

First, follow through and write truly excellent content. Don’t just dash off a quick article that doesn’t convey useful and interesting information. Savvy web site owners will quickly refuse to post your link if you abuse the situation in this way.

Second, make the content you give away original and exclusive. This is your ‘hook’ – your best selling point. If you try to give a site owner the same content that appears somewhere else, you’ll lose a wonderful opportunity to get a great one-way link.

Perhaps the most important point of all is to use this strategy only with closely related sites that have high quality content. Be picky! Start by checking out the top ranked sites in your niche. Search Google or another major search engine to get a list of the top sites, then visit each one and, if you deem it worthy, find their contact information and send a short, polite inquiry to see if they are interested in an exchange of content for a link back to your site.

When other site owners approach you from the notice on your links page - again, be picky. You’ll be spending some of your valuable time to write them a page of high quality content. You will want a high quality link in return. If a site does not meet your high standards, take a pass. In all cases, if you agree to the content-for-link exchange, always request a link from their home page. It’s the best possible place for your link and, at worst, the other site owner will refuse and suggest a different page. It can’t hurt to ask!

Ultimately, the real long-term value in following this link-building strategy is the return on your investment of time. The relatively short amount of time you invest in writing the content you give away may produce dividends in traffic and higher search engine rankings that last for years. Viewed from that perspective, doesn’t this make good sense?

© John Schwartz

About the Author: John Schwartz is a professional writer and web site publisher. If you need higher search engine rankings to increase web site traffic, you must have lots of original content and links. Find out how to get more of both - visit http://www.web-article-writer.com today.

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

Three Little Known Tips For Keyword Optimization

By Alden Smith

When a user enters a search term, or keyword phrase, at a search engine, regardless of whether it is Google, MSN, Yahoo! or AltaVista, the engine runs through the billions of pages in its database and awards each page a "relevancy score". The higher the score, the higher the listing will appear on the results page. If your site doesn’t contain the keyword used by the searcher, the only score it’s going to get is a zero. Your first task then is to make sure you know which keywords are most relevant for each of your sites.

There are three ways to figure out which keywords work the best for your particular site:

1. Check Your Competitors
2. Check the pay-per-clicks
3. Use specialized tools

Checking your competitors is the easy way to find out what ranks them higher than you for your particular niche. Simply do a search on one of the search engines for your best keyword, and go to the top five sites on the results page. When visiting, check the page source by going to View-> Page Source. This will open up the HTML file of the site you are visiting. In the head portion of the page (it'll be the first thing you'll see) look for the phrase "meta=keywords content="their keywords here" (It will be enclosed in ) and this will give you a list of their top keywords. Keywords should be listed in this meta tag with the highest ranking keyword first. One very big advantage of doing this research is that it gives you an idea of how your competitors have optimized their pages, and if not done properly, you have the advantage in doing your own pages in the proper fashion.

Checking the pay-per-click sites such as Overture or FindWhat will also let you see what keywords people are bidding on. The downside is that they require you to open an account, and it may cost a few dollars, but it is worth the extra expense to be able to check bids on PPC. Googlefight is also a good resource to find which of two keywords are more relevant. Although limited in use, it is rather fun to play with, and gives relevant reports.

Specialized tools are the best way to check keywords for popularity and competition. Wordtracker, a paid subscription site, is an invaluable resource for researching top keywords. At $250 USD a year, it is not cheap, but the time saved and excellent returns are worth the investment. Wordtracker has a free trial search that can be used, although it is somewhat limited in return of relevant keyword phrases. You can also purchase a subscription for monthly, weekly, and daily. Daily fees are about $8 USD, and is a worthwhile investment. A lot of research can be done in 1 day, and if you are prepared with basic keyword brainstorming, you can get a lot done in a day's time.

As you build your keyword list from your root keyword, be mindful that when people search for product to buy, they generally use two to three phrase search terms. If they are doing research, they will search with the root word. For example if I wish to research "flowers" then that is the term I will input into the search engines. If, however, I am looking to purchase, I would use the term "buy red roses" or "buy cheap bouquets". With careful planning and taking the proper amount of time to research root keywords, you can be successful with the proper optimization of your web pages.

About the Author: Alden Smith is an award winning author who has been marketing on the internet for over 7 years. His site, http://www.for-the-record.biz, is loaded with articles and information for the beginning blogger and internet marketer.

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

Eight Simple Steps For Enhancing Your Website

By Alden Smith

To be successful with your online business, whether you are selling your own product, services or are selling for other merchants as an affiliate, you need a Web site that focuses on that subject alone. The site must be easy to build, maintenance-free, low cost, credible, and a powerful traffic-builder and customer-converter.

Having the right tools or product alone will not insure the success of your website. There are many factors to be considered when designing your site. And unfortunately, most of these are usually ignored by Internet business owners. Here are eight simple steps to enhance your site and make it profitable.

1. Build It for Speed

There is no denying that in this day and age that people are in a hurry. You have between 10 and 30 seconds to capture your potential customer's attention. To minimize your load time, keep graphics small. Compress them where possible. Use flashy technology (JavaScript, Flash, Streaming Audio/Video, animation) sparingly and only if it is imperative to your presentation.

2. Target your Market

Know who your market is and make certain that your site caters to their needs. It is critical that your site reflect the values of your potential customers. Is your market mostly business professionals? If so, the site must be clean and professional. Is your product aimed at teenagers and young adults? Then your site could be more informal and relaxed. The key is to know your market and build the site to their preferences.

3. Focus the Site

Make certain your web site is focused on the goal of selling your product or service. If your business offers many products, dedicate a unique page for each instead of trying to sell them all from one page. This can easily be accomplished through the utilization of subdomains.

4. Build Credibility

The most professionally designed site won't sell if your customers don't believe in you. Become an authority in your chosen niche. The internet is all about information, not just marketing. People go to the internet to find information on a particular subject. Providing clear concise articles focused on the subject of your site makes you an expert in your field. Providing a clear privacy statement is also away to build your credibility. Provide a prominent link to your privacy statement from every page on the site as well as from any location that you are asking your visitors for personal information. Provide legitimate contact information on line, including your mailing address and phone number. Don't hide behind a computer!

5. Keep navigation simple

Make site navigation easy and intuitive. Simple and smooth navigation adds to the convenience of the visitors. Add powerful search and catalog features. Many times a lot of visitors do not have the patience to navigate through the whole website to find what they are looking for.

6. Keep it consistent

Make sure the site is consistent in look, feel and design. Nothing is more jarring and disturbing to a customer than feeling as if they have just gone to another site. Keep colors and themes constant throughout the site.

7. Make your site interactive and personalized

Make your website interactive. Add feedback forms as well as email forms that allow your prospective customers to ask you any questions they might have pertaining to a product. Personalization of your website is another key element that can lead to customer delight and can increase your sales. Personalization technology provides you the analytic tools to facilitate cross-selling and up-selling when the customer is buying online. It would give you an idea of what products to cross-sell and up-sell. For example, when a person buys a CD player, a disc cleaner can also be offered.

8. Content is King

Good content sells a product. Ask yourself the following questions. Does your copy convey the message you wish to get across to your visitors? Is it compelling? Does it lead your visitor through the sales process? Have others review, critique and edit your copy to insure it is delivering the intended message. Always double check your spelling and grammar.

These eight, simple rules will go a long way toward the improvement of your website and most importantly, turn visitors into customers.

About the Author: Alden Smith is an award winning author who has been marketing on the internet for over 7 years. His site, http://www.for-the-record.biz, is loaded with articles and information for the beginning blogger and internet marketer.

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

7 Easy Secrets To Understanding Web Statistics

By Alden Smith

Understanding what your visitors do on your site is crucial information. If your visitors proceed to purchase a product but then a large majority leaves the site when they get to a specific page in the order process, you need to know about it. It could be that this page is confusing or hard to use. Fixing it could increase your sales by 200%. This is just an example; there are many reasons why you want a detailed analysis of your site visitors.

Most website hosting services offer a stats package that you can study. If you're not sure where this is, call up your hosting service and ask them. Statistics are a vital part of tracking your marketing progress. If you don't have access to website statistics get a package that can help you in this area. Do not get a counter that simply shows how many visitors you've had. You'll be missing out on vital information that can help strengthen weaknesses in your site.

A good website hosting service offers traffic logs that provide an invaluable insight into the traffic being referred to a web site from various sources such as search engines, directories and other links.

Unfortunately traffic tracking provided by web hosting services is often in the form of raw traffic log files or other difficult to understand cryptic formats. These log files are basically text files that describe actions on the site. It is literally impossible to use the raw log files to understand what your visitors are doing. If you do not have the patience to go through these huge traffic logs, opting for a traffic-logging package would be a good idea.

Basically, two options are available to you and these are: using a log analysis package or subscribing to a remotely hosted traffic logging service. A remotely hosted traffic logging service may be easy to use and is generally the cheaper option of the two. WebTrends Live and HitsLink are two good, remotely hosted, traffic-monitoring services worth considering. However, WebTrends Live is a more complicated system and is suitable for larger ecommerce websites. "SuperStats" is another recommended traffic logging service.

These services do not use your log files. Typically a small section of code is placed on any page you want to track. When the page is viewed, information is stored on the remote server and available in real time to view in charts and tables form.

Log analysis packages are typically expensive to buy and complex to set up. Apart from commercial packages there are also some free log analysis packages available, such as Analog.

A good traffic logging service would provide statistics pertaining to the following:

1 How many people visit your site?

2 Where are they from?

3 How are visitors finding your site?

4 What traffic is coming from search engines, links from other sites, and other sources?

5 What keyword search phrases are they using to find your site?

6 What pages are frequented the most - what information are visitors most interested in?

7 How do visitors navigate within your web site?

Knowing the answers to these and other fundamental questions is essential for making informed decisions that maximize the return on investment (ROI) of your web site investment.

The most important aspect of tracking visitors to your website is analyzing all the statistics you get from your tracking software. The three main statistics that will show your overall progress are hits, visitors and page views. Hits are tracked when any picture or page loads from your server on to a visitor's browser. Hits, however, can be very misleading. It is quite an irrelevant statistic for your website.

The statistic that is probably the most important for a website is Page Views/Visitors. This gives you a good indication of two things. First, how many people are coming to your site, and secondly how long are they staying on your site. If you have 250 visitors and 300 page views you can figure that most visitors view one page on your site and then leave. Generally, if you're not getting 2 page views per visitor then you should consider upgrading your site's content so your visitors will stay around longer.

If you see the number of visitors you have increasing as well as the number of page views per visitor increasing then keep up the good work! Always look for this stat as an overall barometer of how your site design is going and if your marketing campaigns are taking hold.

Also, a good stat to look for is unique visitors. Once a person visits your site they will not be added to the unique visitors' category if they visit again. This is a good way to track new visitors to your website.

Page views are a good indication of how "sticky" your website is. A good statistic to keep is Page Views divided by the number of Visitors you have. This statistic will give you a good idea if your content is interesting and if your visitors are staying on your site for a long time and surfing.

Some people are intimidated by web traffic statistics (mostly because of the sheer volume of data available), but they shouldn't be. While there are many highly specialized statistics that can be used for more in-depth web traffic analysis, the above areas alone can provide invaluable information on your visitors and your website performance. Remember- this data is available for a reason. It's up to you to use it.

About the Author: Alden Smith is an award winning author who has been marketing on the internet for over 7 years. His site, http://www.for-the-record.biz, is loaded with articles and information for the beginning blogger and internet marketer.

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

Easy Tips To Avoid Google Click Fraud

By Alden Smith

Many web site owners are getting their Google Adsense account terminated. I read on the forums almost daily posts from people who are bemoaning the fact that Google has terminated their account when they feel they have done nothing wrong to deserve the punishment. In almost every case, click fraud is the reason for termination.

Click fraud is the act of clicking on ads for the purpose of costing the advertiser money. It is simply the same as paying out cash for false leads. Many website owners are aware of this fraud, and share the same sentiment that this is the one big problem that Adsense is facing.

How do you prevent yourself from being involved in this fraud?

The majority of web hosts offer access logs. If you are notified of click fraud and possible termination of your account by Google, it is necessary that you hand over these logs to them to clarify your situation. This allows them to look for any suspicious activity on your site. Problems like this are very serious and giving it to them is a show of good faith that you want to help Google in any way you can to attempt to solve the problem.

It can also help if you have a click monitoring software. There are many good programs available, but it is important that you get a program that has no limitations. there are free programs available, but I would suggest that you get a script from a certified expert in this field. I highly recommend using William Bontrager's script, available at http://bontragercgi.com/programs/clickwatch. Mr Bontrager will install this script on one site for you after the purchase of the software, and will show you how to add the script to other sites. Free scripts are also available on the Internet if you are limited in funds. Remember, you get what you pay for. As usual, all the information you will receive from your tracking software should be turned over to Google. This is showing Google that you too are fighting against click frauds and is in no way a part of it.

Study your server logs and watch for any activity that seems suspicious. Report anything that you may find odd, may it big or small thing. Look for large spikes in traffic, and suspicious activity in files and folders where people would not normally have access to. Remember, that when working on your site, that you will access these files and folders. It is suggested you track these by noting the time of activity. A little work on your part will save you a lot of grief in the long run.

You may want to consider disabling ads for your own IP address and local geographic area. This will certainly prevent accidents and will not make Google mistake another user as you. You can do through the htaccess file on your web site. the process is too detailed to go into further here, but if you do a search on the engines to learn ways to access and disable portions of this log, a lot of information is readily available. By doing this, and showing Google that you have done so, you protect yourself against any possible threat from Google.

Keep your Adsense off on pop ups and pop unders. Your ads should not be displayed on content sites that promote illegal activity or tampering of the legal rights of other people or business. Included in this are the content that is considered adult or gambling in nature, or promote firearms, tobacco, or drugs of any kind. If you think that you may be breaking this rule, immediately remove your content or Adsense from the web page.

Be truthful and confess up to Google about times when you might have clicked on your own ads, whether accidentally or intentionally. Be honest about anything that you may have done that is wrong. Confessing is way better than Google learning about it eventually. It would mean eventual termination and no getting back what you have worked so hard for.

Do not tell your family or friends about Adsense on your website. Chances are they may start clicking on them to help you make money without you knowing it. They may be doing more harm to you than help by trying it in the first place.

Most pay per click networks have different measures in hand to protect website owners against click frauds. Other search engines can track more than 50 data points, IP address, browser’s information, user’s session info and pattern recognition. They also have “systems” available that detects fraud, not to mention the specialized teams monitoring how things are going and helping advertisers stop click frauds. Google has some of the best brains in the business, and it does no one any good to try to "fool" them. In addition to the algorithms that Google has in place, they also employ regular people to surf the net to find illegal sites.

Google offers suggestion on how to avoid click fraud. Using “negative keywords” can be used to keep your Adsense showing on products and services that are in no way related to yours. Add tracking URLs to your links so you can track the traffic coming from Google.

Don't be caught in the Google click fraud. The opportunity to make a very decent income is readily available if you use common sense, do not try to cheat Google, and follow their Terms of Service. If you do these things, maybe some day you too can be a member of the FedEx Club!

About the Author: Alden Smith is an award winning author who has been marketing on the internet for over 7 years. His site, http://www.for-the-record.biz, is loaded with articles and information for the beginning blogger and internet marketer.

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

Search Engine Marketing: Coping Wih The Aftermath Of Google Update 'Jagger'

By Damon Lightley

Dealing with the aftermath of Google update Jagger

OK I know I’m not the first to announce this but let’s face it boys and girls SEO (search engine optimisation) as we currently know it is dead. It’s time to ditch those antiquated techniques that all SEOs cling on to and focus your online marketing efforts on 'online brand optimisation' – OBO for short!

So what’s the difference between SEO and OBO?

Think about the searcher not the search engine!

From a strategic perspective online brand optimisation (OBO) is all about optimising your site and online marketing efforts for the searcher, the end-user that seeks out your site via whatever means he or she chooses. Whether it is via a search engine, a content portal or even a forum. Your goal is to deliver what you’ve promised and help that searcher fulfil his or her online goal. If you don’t do that then you’ve failed in achieving your key online objective.

Ranking’itis!

SEO for most seasoned optimisers is about getting to the top of Google. The vast majority of SEOs become obsessed with checking their rankings in the SERPS (search engine results pages) on a daily basis and even across every possible Google data centre (DC). Checking rankings soon becomes an addiction for many SEOs and believe you me I know, I have been there. But I did come to my senses and I’ve realised that there is more to life than being no 1 in Google for a plethora of key phrases. I’ve also realised that in today’s search environment you can’t rely on the search engine to always deliver you targeted prospects that convert.

You may have read about the multitude of search marketers that have recently been hit badly by the Google ‘Jagger’ update. For many, their site has completely dropped out of the rankings and as a result they are now in an extremely vulnerable position. They solely relied on Google to drive visitors to their site and with no new prospects coming in; their business is starting to feel the strain of being dumped into the harsh terrain that I like to call the ‘Google Desert!’ As we all know no one ventures out onto page 127 of the search results!

Build a brand (a bit of a no-brainer!)

So what can they do to help rectify this? The best solution for many of them will be to clean up their site, create new compelling content, get rid of any unrelated link partners and focus their strategy on building a respected brand, not on building top positions in search sites. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that good search engine visibility isn’t an important element of any online marketing campaign. I’m just saying that it shouldn’t be the only one and it should not drive your overall strategy, it should just simply support it.

For your organic search engine market efforts to work they need to be interlinked with other non-search related activity. Search engines like Google are complex beasts and they analyse your site in so many different ways. They not only look at what content you have and who you link with but there is also evidence to suggest they measure other off-site factors such as how many mentions your site gets on other authority sites, how people interact with your site when they land on it and so on.

The simple fact of the matter is that if you want to do well in Google you need to build a strong online brand and that involves promoting your site using a multitude of online and offline channels not just search. Like I said everything is interlinked and if you have a site with a strong brand behind it then it will make its way to the top of Google.

Don’t get banished to the online desert

Building your business model around a search engine is very risky and not a smart thing to do. Why? Because you have no control over the search engine. If you solely rely on the search engine to provide you with leads and customers then you’re doing far worse than putting all your eggs in the one basket – you’ll end up in the online desert with tumbleweed blowing through your site. Remember search engines don’t owe you anything; they don’t care how great your site looks. What they do care about is what your target audience think and we all know that weak brands never make it to the top!

About the Author: Damon Lightley is a search engine marketing consultant at Site Visibility Ltd. Site Visibility is a UK based search engine marketing company >> http://www.sitevisibility.co.uk

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

Adsense Or Yahoo Publisher?

By Chuck Crawford

Lately many of my customers have been asking me this question:

"Which program is better? Adsense or Yahoo Publisher?"
It sounds simple, but the answer is not. The reason being is that both programs work well, but both also have different places when considering whether or not to use them for a specific website.

Here's why.

Adsense has been around for a while now, and at the moment has the lion's share of the market in the PPC (Pay Per Click) game. But anyone who has been promoting them on their websites will tell you that the payouts have also gotten gradually smaller as time has gone on. Why? Well it's easy, they are still the best game in town, so they aren't worried about losing their publishers to another PPC.

But then came Yahoo Publisher. Which unless you've been living under a rock for the past ten years, you already know the name, and know how big that company is. And with the purchase of Overture, Yahoo is coming into the game well equipped and ready for a fight.

So, what's the difference between the two?

Here is what I've been able to learn from my own websites. Yahoo, overall, is paying more per click then Adsense. But before you jump from this article and start changing your code, read on a bit more.

Yahoo Publisher seems to be paying more then Adsense on similar content, BUT... Their ads are not nearly as contextually targeted as Adsense. So this can present a problem for website owners. For example, if you have a website that it's primary topic is 'HOME MORTGAGES', Adsense will display ads that only link to mortgage sites. But that's not true with Yahoo Publisher. Yahoo Publisher might display some mortgage ads, but also might display a Payday Loan ad (BTW if you need a payday loan, check out this page http://www.thegiftedone.com ), Vonage ads (Vonage must pay them some big money, as they seem to be the default when the script doesn't know what to do), or some other ad that does not relate to the content of your website.

How do you choose which program is right for your site? This depends on the site itself and the type of surfers that frequent it. If you have a site that is highly targeted for a certain keyword, then I would suggest you stay with Adsense. This will keep the ads focused and targeted to your customers, presenting them with content that they will click. If they came to read about cooking recipes, they probably won’t click the Vonage ad. Here’s an example of a content targeted website: http://voip.magicanswers.com

However, if your site is more of a surfer hangout, where people go when they are bored, or if your site covers a multitude of topics, then you might be better off loading it up with Yahoo Publisher ads. This type of surfer is more likely to click an ad that’s off topic, which in turn would pay you better.

At this point what it comes down to is the click thru ratio. If monitored closely, you can determine what your surfers like and what they don’t like. What they click and what they don’t click. If one program is not performing well for you, then try the other.

I’m sure that as time goes on, Yahoo Publisher will become more targeted, and surely will be more competitive. With Google’s Adsense as an adversary they have quite a fight on their hands. My advice to you is this. If you have one website, then optimize your PPC links for YOUR website surfers. If you have many, optimize each site accordingly, but do take the time to test each program. Find out which one will pay you more. Whether you own a giant corporation with hundreds of websites, or a home based business branching out to the internet, the bottom line is always the bottom line. Which comes down to the paycheck. A simple test might lead you to more money, which is always the goal.

Till next time,

Chuck Crawford

About the Author: Chuck Crawford is an established expert in web design, traffic development and website financial analysis. He has been helping people design and develop their internet business since 1996.
This article may be reprinted freely as long as all links remain active.
http://www.affiliatewebsitedesign.com
http://www.magicanswers.com
http://www.thegiftedone.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now! 

How To Build Your Opt-In Mailing List

By Donald Nelson

“The money is in the list.” This is one of the slogans of internet marketing experts who say that it is very important to build up an opt-in list and then make regular mailings which will enable you to sell your goods and services.

If you doubt this slogan, then you should consult with one of my close friends and colleagues. He has been quietly building his mailing list over the best three years. Recently he sent out a mailing to all his subscribers, asking them to help out with Hurricane Katrina relief work. He was astonished to see that immediately following the mailing the traffic to his website jumped ten-fold over a period of three days and counting. Not only did his traffic increase, his e-book sales and subscriptions to his new course went through the roof. And, there was not one word of a commercial pitch in his message to the list.

What is the secret of his success? Even he is scratching his head. But, really it is not a mystery. He runs several free auto-responder courses from his website, delivering high quality information on health and well-being, topics that are important to all of us. Because the content of his mailings is of a high standard, he has won the trust and confidence of thousands of people. This is what electronic marketers call “pre-selling”. Now, whenever he has something to say, his readers are eager to listen.

If you run a website and do not already have a mechanism for building up a list of interested readers, then you should consider doing it now. Here are a few ways to build your list.

1. Start a periodic newsletter with a subscription form on all the pages of your website.

However, if you want the kind of success that my friend had, you should write good articles, or get quality material from other writers and send it to your list on a regular basis. If you don’t know or don’t already have a mechanism for collecting addresses and mailing a newsletter, you can get a free or paid service from http://www.bravenet.com . More robust newsletter services are offered by Aweber, http://www.aweber.com and from www.topica.com .

2. Offer an auto-responder tutorial course on your website.

People come to the web to find solutions to their problems or answers to their questions. Write a series of how-to articles or information articles and offer them as a series that is sent automatically on a periodic basis whenever people subscribe. You can use an auto-responder service hosted by commercial companies or can, as my friend did, use a simple auto responder script installed on your own server. You can get cgi auto responder script for installation on your own server or if you don’t like installing scripts you can get one from Aweber.

3. Write a small e-book in PDF format and offer it as a free download in exchange for an email address

PDF documents are the industry-standard these days, and if you supply good information that is related to your field of activity, your web visitors will be more than happy to trade their email address for a free download. PDF downloads are also viral; people pass them along to their friends and if your information and links are in the e-book, you are likely to get a wide readership and generate sales from the circulation of the e-book.

4. Publish your articles on other websites and newsletters, mentioning your mailing list in your “resource box.”

One of the best ways to build your list is to get your articles published on other websites and in the electronic newsletters published by web masters in fields related to yours. At the end of these published articles you should put your author information (this is also known as a resource box) and include a hyperlink to your website and a mention that more of your articles are available in your newsletter and give a url where people can sign up for it.

One important thing to consider about list building is that whenever you are offering something, even if it is for free, you must sell it to your readers by describing what it is and how it will benefit them. You can’t succeed with a one-line sentence saying, “Sign up for our free newsletter.” If you have a newsletter, you should give a list of past articles. If you have satisfied subscribers, publish some testimonials.

Every day many people are visiting your website and some of them would like to know more about what you have to say and would like to hear from you on a periodic basis. Give them a chance, by using some of the list-building methods that I have described.

About the Author: Donald Nelson is an editor, web developer and social worker. He is the director of A1-Optimization and provides search engine optimization and other website promotion services from his website http://www.a1-optimization.com .
Source: www.isnare.com

Make Your Website Talk: How To Install Streaming Audio On Your Site

By Donald Nelson

One of the most important tasks in online selling, and indeed in all selling, is to convince the prospective buyer that you are someone who can be trusted. A nice picture of yourself in your “about” section is helpful, but even more convincing would be a heartfelt audio message in which you explain yourself and introduce your product or service.

If you are thinking that installing a sound capability on your website would be beyond your technical or financial means then I think you will change your mind after you finish reading this article.

There are some online services that provide full audio support but they charge monthly fees and this may be more than you want to invest. However, if you want to add sound with flash buttons to your site on a limited budget then there are several moderately priced downloadable software packages that allow you to do everything, without any technical know-how. They range in price from $40 to $100. Visit the websites of audiomakerpro.com, flashaudiowizard.com or soundstreamer.com, and you will see how these programs work.

Now, if you are like me, a real cheapskate, and you don’t want to spend any money at all but would like your website to talk, then you can use the following method to install a streaming audio file on your website.

First you have to record your message. I was able to use an old software package (CoolEditPro) to record an mp3 message directly on my computer. If you have an MP3 player with a recording capacity you can just record your message and then save it to your computer.

Suppose the message is saved as myintroduction.mp3. If you just upload the file to your server and make a link to that file, it will not stream but will download when someone clicks on the link. In order to make it stream you have to do the following. Open a text file and type one small piece of text: http://www.yourwebsite.com/myintroduction.mp3 (give the location where this file will be) then save this text file with a name such as audiointro.m3u . It is only a text file but it has an extension that makes it look like a sound file. Now, upload the actual audio file myintroduction.mp3 and the text file audiointro.m3u to your server.

In the place where you want someone to listen put a text link or a graphic button linked to the file audiointo.m3u . When someone clicks on this link they will hear the file myintroduction.mp3 streaming from their speakers. It will be played on the default MP3 player of that particular computer, such as Windows Media Player, Winamp, etc.

This is poor-person’s streaming audio, but it works. The advantage of the moderately priced packages or the higher priced audio services is that the buttons are nicer and have pause, stop and start functions.

Some audio services claim that adding audio to a website increases conversion rates by 300%. Audio is a tool, if you use it correctly it may indeed be just the thing you need to improve the performance of your website. So choose the method that is convenient for you and try it out.

About the Author: Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor, and social worker. He is the director of A1-Optimization, http://www.a1-optimization.com and provides search engine optimization, copywriting and reciprocal linking services from his website.

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

Linking Strategy In The Post-Jagger Period

By Donald Nelson

“Please take down my link.” I never thought I would live to see the day that I would get an email like this, but the latest Google update has caused some people to panic. This particular person thought that his site would be penalized if he had a link coming from a site in an unrelated field. Well, following the Jagger update how should we approach linking? Should we “nuke” our reciprocal links directories altogether? Or is there a sensible way to continue linking?
Google doesn’t explain the details of their updates and algorithm changes. It is widely thought they made moves to crack down on spamming and techniques designed to fool their indexing efforts. And possibly sites that added lots of irrelevant links in a short period were penalized. Google representatives have also stated publicly, in forums, that if you link to a “bad neighborhood” you could be penalized.

I can’t get inside the Google algorithm anymore than anyone else, but I strongly believe that linking should go on in a “natural” way, in a way that predates the linking craze which Google itself helped to create. Here are some elements of a natural linking strategy.

1. Link to the kinds of sites that will provide good resources for your web visitors.

This is actually the very idea behind Google’s system of Page Rank. Sites that are “cool”, that are informative and interesting will get “votes” or links from other sites on the basis of their value as a web resource. So, link to those sites that are worthy of being in your link directory.

2. Don’t link blindly just because someone is willing to give you a link in return.

Check out any site that is proposing a link exchange with you. Are they a possible spam site? A site that has no content and only ads, or a site in fields such as online gambling, pornography, or similar areas would be suspect. If the site has a page rank of 0 and also has none of its interior pages indexed by Google, then it may have been penalized. You can tell how many of its pages are indexed by making this search: site:www.suspectsite.com .

3. Link to those sites that cater to your target audience.

In the early days of the Internet, the main incentive to link was that it would provide you with some targeted traffic. This concept is still valid. If you have a site about yoga, then find sites whose visitors would likely be interested in yoga and propose a link exchange with them. You may or may not raise your page rank with this exchange, but you will get the kind of visitors that you are looking for.

4. Get One-Way Non Reciprocal Links

There are two primary ways to get these valuable one-way links. The first way is to make your site so informative, so useful, so authoritative, that people will mention it or list it without you having to do anything at all. This is of course not an easy task, but it should be a target. You should strive to be the best in your field and if you can approach this goal then you will be noticed and you will get links without even asking for them.

Another way to get one-way links is to write articles and get them published on other websites. You are probably an “expert” in the field covered by your website. Share your expertise with others in the form of 600-800 word articles. You can distribute your articles in the article distribution groups of Yahoo! Go to http://groups.yahoo.com and make a search for article publishing or free reprint articles and you will find a number of places where you can place your article. Remember to include a link back to your site in the resource box at the end of the article.
So, don’t press the panic button. Keep your link and resource directories but build them up in a way that adds value to your site and helps you to get an extra flow of targeted traffic. If you have the skill to get non-reciprocal links, then by all means get them.

About the Author: Donald Nelson is a web-developer, social worker and editor. He is the proprietor of A1-Optimization, http://www.a1-optimization.com and provides search engine optimization, copywriting, reciprocal linking and other web promotion services.

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

Website Optimization: Bring More Traffic To Your Site The Right Way

By Donald Nelson

Search engine optimization is not difficult to understand. You don’t have to be a mathematical wizard to get the basic idea. Website optimization is simply the art and science of building web pages that provide the most relevant answers to the various queries that people make when they use a search engine.

The person who is making a query wants an answer to her question, and the search engine is trying to provide the best answer. Your job, as a website manager, is to provide web pages that will satisfy the person making the query and the search engine as well. Search engine optimization is not about tricking the search engines. You can get away with a trick for a short time, but if you are in business for the long run it is better to base your success on solid procedures. Here is what you can do to satisfy the end users and the search engines.

1. Find out how your would-be customers use a search engine.

What terms do they use when they are searching for your products? This is the $64,000 question. If you target the right words you will get the kind of traffic you want, the people who will buy your product or service. If you target the wrong words you may not get any traffic at all. This part of Internet optimization is known as keyword research. Find out all the different combinations that people use when they look for a website such as yours. The overture.com search term suggestion tool will provide some help or you can use the paid service at www.wordtracker.com

2. Build Web pages based on your keywords and Key Phrases.

It is a mistake to think that you can just sprinkle your keywords in the meta tags of any old web page and then get a high position in the search engines. If your page is only tangentially related to the query it will not get a high ranking in the search engines. However if you have written a web page that provides solid information directly related to the search term, then any surfer who ends up there will be satisfied. And, if you present your information properly, this is the kind of page that the search engines want to deliver to their users.

3. The last step in optimization is to present your material properly.

The best website promotion tip that anyone can give you is not to cheat in this process. Don’t stuff your keywords into your copy unnaturally or write them in invisible text on the bottom of your web page. If your copy is really about a particular keyword or key phrase, then simply place it in the title tag, the description tag , the headlines on the page and in text link on the page. You can use a keyword density checker to see if you have used your keyword enough. You can also just read your copy aloud to see how you are doing. If it doesn’t sound right, you may have overdone it.

If you do your web page optimization in this three-step way everyone will end up satisfied: the web visitor, the search engines and you.

About the Author: Donald Nelson is an editor, social worker and web developer. He has worked on the Internet since 1995 and presently runs A1-Optimization http://www.a1-optimization.com , a firm providing affordable search engine optimization, website copywriting, reciprocal linking and article publishing services.

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

Six Reasons Why You Should Jump Into Article Marketing

By Donald Nelson

If you are working to become a successful online entrepreneur then you have probably already tried to increase traffic and generate sales through search engine positioning and pay per click advertising. Have you also tried article marketing? Article marketing is the strategy of writing articles related to your business and publishing them on other websites and in the ezines of complementary companies with a link back to your site. This form of online promotion is a very effective way to build traffic and boost sales. Below you will find the main ways that article marketing can benefit you.

1. It is your best way to get known as an “expert” in your field.

Why should someone buy from you and not from one of the thousands of your competitors that are also online? The few lines that you write in your “about us” section of your website may not be enough to set you apart from the others. However, if your potential customer sees your name on well-written and informative articles appearing on several websites around the Internet, then she will regard you as an expert in your field. The more you publish, the greater your recognition will be and the more your reputation will be enhanced.

2. Informative articles build trust in your ability to provide a good product or service.

If you are selling online your most important asset is to be seen as knowledgeable and trustworthy. When one of your articles is selected by another publisher and placed on a website or included in an ezine, that publisher is in effect endorsing you. This kind of endorsement will impress the readers of those articles and they will feel more confident in doing business with you, especially if your article is published in an ezine or on a website which they already respect.

3. Your articles help to “pre-sell” your products and services.

It is the quality of website traffic that counts, not necessarily the quantity. The best kind of traffic you can get is from people who have read one of your articles, and have liked what they have read. These web visitors come into your website with an eagerness to know more and are much more likely to buy something from you then someone who comes onto your site “cold” or without any introduction to your ideas.

4. Article writing is a great way to generate content for your ezines and your own website.

Although you can look at article marketing as an outreach activity designed primarily for publication elsewhere, you can also use these articles in your own newsletters and on your own website. Keeping in touch with your customers and clients through a regular newsletter is an important part of doing business online. However, you need a steady flow of good material to really be successful. If your articles are good enough to be published on someone else’s website, then by all means publish them first in your own newsletters and on your website.

5. Articles published on other sites help to build one-way links to your website.

Link building is one of the keys to making a website successful, but, as with traffic, it is the quality of the links that matter, rather than the shear number. Each time one of your articles is placed on another website, you will get a link back to your site. These are one-way links because you did not have to trade links to get them. Usually these links come from pages with fewer outbound links than the standard link pages where your link is usually placed when making a reciprocal arrangement. One-way links coming from pages with few outbound links help to build Page Rank more effectively than reciprocal links.

6. You can generate a lot of money from articles that are published elsewhere.

I am conducting an online business from one of the most unlikely locations on the Earth, Albania. Despite this handicap, I have had people call me up on the phone and go on to order thousands of dollars worth of services. All of this has been the result of articles about website promotion and search engine optimization which I have written and published over the past few years. If I can do it from Albania, think of what you can do from your place.

About the Author: Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor and social worker. He is the proprietor of A1-Optimization, http://www.a1-optimization.com and provides search engine optimization, website copywriting and article writing services.

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

Counters: The Importance Of Tracking Your Visitors

By Tim Querrey

When trying to optimize your website, you will need to gather all the information about the few visitors that you now have. This will help you make improvements to your site and increase your traffic. One of the best ways to gather this statistical data is through the use of a counter.

Some of you may not know that dropping a counter onto each page of your website will not only show you the number of hits to that page, but also logs tidbits of important information too.

The following is a list of some of the data that is collected from a stat-counter.

Screen Resolution:

Knowing the screen resolution tells you how the majority of visitors view your web pages. For example: If your design is based around 800 x 600 screen resolution, and the majority of you visitors use a 1024 x 768 resolution, you may want to redesign your layout.

Keyword:

If a visitor was directed to your site by a search engine, then knowing the search term used will help in optimizing your page around important keywords relevant to you sites topic.

Length Of Visit:

This is important that if everyone is showing up to your site, but doesn't seem to stay, then check for slow loading of you page or some other reason that might turn away visitors.

Enter-Page/ Exit-Page

If your visitors are leaving from the same page they first come to, then you will need to figure out why they are not visiting other pages. Maybe the links to the other pages are hidden by are toomuch clutter, too small or non-descriptive.

Returning Visitors:

This will help you determine which pages your visitors find important. You can then concentrate more effort on those topics.

There are many more tidbits of statistical data a stat-counter can provide, and best of all you can get them for free. Theses services are provided for the benefit of building back links, and in hopes to sell you upgrades.

If you think that a counter looks tacky, you have the option to make it invisible. This will still enable you to collect important statistical data without your visitors seeing the counter itself.

Conclusion:

So if your serious about getting more traffic, you must first learn all you can from the traffic you already have, and a free stat-counter is one of the best places to start.

About the Author: Visit the authors informational site about Home Based Businesses

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

So What's So Special About Private Label Articles Anyway?

By Allan Wilson

For many years now there has been a select group of smart individuals using articles as content on their websites which has resulted with them achieving the following things:

1. The ability to create lots of websites in different niches

2. Recognition as an authority in those specific niches because of quality content

3. Websites that endure the test of time and rate well in the search engines

4. Big profits from affiliate programs and/or Google Adsense

Of course the big secret is that these guys have not written the content themselves. Think about it... It would be an impossible task to write hundreds of pages of quality content for so many websites.

So how have they been doing it?

By paying Ghost Writers to write articles for them. There are a few places online where you can hire Ghost writers for anywhere from $5.00 to more then $25.00 per article.

Up until now these guys have pretty much had everything to themselves because let's face it not too many people can afford to hire ghost writers to consistently write articles for them. For every 200 new pages you would be facing a bill of $1000.00 on the lower end of the scale.

However times have changed...

Enter Private Label Articles.

There have been a number of private label article membership sites appear in recent times which now has provided the opportunity for the average person to create quality search engine friendly websites at a fraction of the cost.

Think about these membership sites as a sort of co-op where the owner pays the up front cost of hiring ghost writers to create articles and the members pay a small monthly fee to that owner to cover his or her costs and make a profit.

The beauty of private label articles is that there is no copywrite that comes with them so you can change the articles in anyway you wish.

You can create new titles, add more keywords, add more paragraphs, mix and match articles, link to affiliate programs and the biggest benefit of all you can create your own resource box which links back to your website.

Thanks to private label articles finding website content is now just that little bit easier.

About the Author: Want 200 private label articles every month? Then visit Allan Wilson's
http://www.nichehomeimprovementarticles.com and get started today.

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

Using Private Label Articles To Create Profit Pulling Article Directories

By Allan Wilson

By far one of the easiest and most rewarding ways to profit from private label articles is to use them as the foundation for creating your own article directory however NOT in the way the general crowd are doing it.

I'm talking about NICHE article directories such as Home Improvement Article Directory, Health Article Directory, etc.

Why Niche?

Because everyone and their dog in recent months have tried to start their own article directory and almost all of them are struggling to make them work.

They are all making the same mistake. There are already plenty of big successful article directories online and competing against these guys is always going to be tough work.

But going niche gives you the edge.

My reasoning behind this is the same as in any over saturated market.

Take the popular field of online dating. There are already very established and successful dating sites online that have virtually cornered the market and any newcomers struggle to even make a dent.

But those who have gone Niche are succeeding. Dating sites have sprung up for Christians, Jews, Gays, Horse Lovers and so on.

Some have succeeded going what I call sub-niche: For example within the Christian niche there are sites for Catholics, Pentecostals, etc.

I hope you see what I mean by going niche and with this concept in mind when using private label articles to create your own article directories go niche.

By joining a private label article membership you receive 200 brand new articles every month that you can expand your article directory with. If you stick with it in one year you would have an article directory website consisting of a minimum of 2400 pages.

Every one of those pages earning income from Google Adsense, or from affiliate programs or capturing email addresses for your list.

An even more important advantage of an article directory with your private label articles is in the fact that you can add your own resource box to each and every article.

What does this mean?

It means everytime another webmaster uses your articles they are linking back to your websites increasing your search engine exposure and in turn your profit potential.

About the Author: Want 200 private label articles every month? Then visit Allan Wilson's http://www.nichehomeimprovementarticles.com and get started today.

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

Stephen King, Radio Plays And Online Marketing

By Douglas Titchmarsh

What do these 3 things have in common? It might seem a bit of a jump right now, but there is a link between the writer Stephen King, Radio plays of the fifties and internet marketing.... Words

Let me start from the beginning, I was reading "Danse Macabre" by Stephen King, a book in which he gives his take on horror fiction. In one section he is writing about the radio plays of the early 1950's, and how they gripped the listener by not giving you all the details.

The plays would have a background sound of a plane and the voice actors would set the scene they were in. The listener would build his own image of the plane and the problems the actors had, building his own sense of fear, and place himself there, that made it all the more scary, and built the drama for the listener. The main thing was, as radio is an aural only medium, the listener filled in the visual side for his or herself. The result was that they got a great thrill ride, just from words and sounds.

So that's Stephen King linked to the radio plays, so how do we get to internet marketing?

As I was reading about how successful the plays were on radio, because of the listeners imagination filling in the detail, I realised how we are trying to do the same as online marketers.

When we try to sell a product, we are using words to try to entice the website viewer into our little world, just like the radio plays did. We have to get the potential customer on our website to fill in the blanks, and visualise how our product will help him.

In the same way the best radio plays left out the complete description of what was happening and the listener filled in the blanks, we need to leave out some details, and let the viewer fill his own mind with the picture of how his problem will look from his particular perspective and how he'll feel when it's solved by our product.

Our sales pages need to draw the customer inside our world, but fill in the blanks from his own one. We need to pique his imagination just like those radio plays, and just like Stephen King does in his books, the most scary of which are the ones where the reader is left to make the monster real. In our case that monster is the perceived problem, and the hero, is you coming in the nick of time to fell the monster and save the day with your world beating product.

About the Author: Douglas Titchmarsh is the owner of several websites including http://www.cashinonline.info and http://www.thediscountebookstore.com He also publishes the DEWDigest e-zine which you can subscribe to by sending an email to dewdigest-44@bizgoldhosting.com

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

Useful Traffic From Traffic Exchanges

By Douglas Titchmarsh

There are a lot of negative comments made about traffic exchanges, but is it all justified?

Probably the most common negative people give about using click exchange, or traffic exchange programs is that the traffic from them is useless. In many cases this is due to the way people try to make use of the traffic from these exchange programs.

Most of the webmasters who sign up for traffic exchanges are trying to use a direct sales page and consequently make no sales from the traffic they get. When you look at how these exchanges work it's not hard to see why.

After you have surfed to earn your credits, or paid for your page views with cash, your page will be shown to other people in the program. When your page is shown though, you will only get a short time to make an impact on your prospect, and many of them are going to be only scanning for something of immediate use as they will be trying to get as many views as possible to get their site seen. Many of them won't even be looking for the information your site offers either although some of the better traffic exchanges like Traffic Swarm will have categories so you can target the audience who will be most interested in your site, so these are the best ones to make use of.

So how can you make better use of the traffic from traffic exchanges?

As we already stated, the use of more targeted exchanges is a good start, so that the people seeing the pages you put up are actually interested in them to start with. That will improve the chances of action being taken in the first instance.

The second thing you can do to make people notice your site, among the hundreds they will surf during a traffic exchange session, is to be different. Many of the users of the traffic exchanges will be in the same programs and using the same pages to display. You can get more even from these same sites by making your own leads page for it.

Your pages in traffic exchanges will also need to be fast loading, as if it isn't loaded in time, it can't be seen before the prospect moves on.

So you need a fast loading, unique page with a short reading time, but what to do with the prospect on the page is the main issue.

Get them to sign up for an email list, be it a course, newsletter, announcement or whatever just capture their email address while they are there. This way instead of getting one shot at the prospect you will get as many as you can email them. Instead of just the time they pass through your page while they surf a traffic exchange, you can send them to your page several times, and also to other pages later. As always a fr.ee offer will make the deal more tempting to sign up for too, so offer a bribe to get the email address.

Summing it all up, there are negative points to traffic exchanges, but by using them in a different way to most other users, they can be made to work in your favour. You can get useful traffic from traffic exchanges.

About the Author: Douglas Titchmarsh is the owner of several websites including http://www.cashinonline.info and http://www.thediscountebookstore.com He also publishes the CashInOnline Chronicle
e-zine which you can subscribe to by sending an email to douglastitchmarsh@getresponse.com

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

Profit Quickly From Content You Didn't Write

By Douglas Titchmarsh

Content, without it your website, your e-zine and your profits will suffer. With good quality content, all three will benefit you and your customers much more.

The trouble with good quality content is the time it takes to produce it. Content takes time to write and many of us find it difficult to even start writing our own content for sites and e-zines. Luckily it is possible to use other peoples content for your site or newsletter, and they will be happy to give you the right to use it freely, or sell you it at a knockdown price.

Finding quality content can be as easy as going to one of the many article directories where people submit their articles for others to use. The drawbacks of this kind of content is that the author usually requires a link back to their site or newsletter, and as they are easy to get the content may be used by many other websites and ezines.

If you feel you can make use of these articles, then search for your desired subject by keywords at the article directories such as www.dir.com or http://www.debsarticlesite.com Remember to check the terms before you use an article but most can be used as long as the authors resource box remains intact, and kept with the article content.

Another method of getting high quality content to use on your site, newsletter or other places is to join a content site such as Ready Made Content http://www.cashinonline.info/recommends/rmc.php or Your Own Articles at http://www.cashinonline.info/recommends/yoa.php each of these sites offer private label content you can re use in a lot of different ways, but as always check the licensing terms for the content you wish to use.

So now you know where to find quality articles and content, but how can you profit with it?

There are several ways to profit quickly from the content you just found, one of the easiest is to use Google Adsense http://www.google.com/adsense to add small adverts to webpages. Using the content from article directories or other sources above, you can make a themed website around a subject, add the Adsense code and upload and submit the site to search engines. A good subject will start to pull in some money via Google Adsense quite soon after traffic starts flowing.
While you are making your content site you can add some affiliate links to related products. A quick and easy way to make some affiliate profits from the content is to add links to products sold at ClickBank, although their site doesn't have a search facility, there is one available at http://www.cashinonline.info/clickbank/cbsearch.htm so you can research products by keyword and add your ClickBank id as an affiliate and add related products to your content site.

The next tips don't relate to Articles from directories but will work for the ready made content from the article and content Private Label suppliers.

If you have private label rights to the content then you can change it around and re-author it into a special report around a theme. This report can then contain affiliate links to products related to the theme. You can even pick one product and make a series of reports around it using the content, and give the reports away. Using an autoresponder, you could setup several reports to be sent over a few days, and start an email list to which you can post other offers later.

Private label content can also be used as the basis of a complete book. By using selected articles you can create a high quality ebook which can be sold, used as a giveaway to attract subscribers to a newsletter, or even contain adverts which other companies pay you to put into your book.

These are just a few of the ways quality content could be used to make a profit. Using these as a starting point, you should be able to use content in many other profitable ways. All the resources for profiting from content are available, from article site builders such as the one at http://www.articles4sitetraffic.com to ebook creators and autoresponders, use your imagination and profit quickly from content you didn't even have to write.

About the Author: Douglas Titchmarsh has several content sites which pull in revenue linked from http://www.thediscountebookstore.com/extras
as well as running 2 email newsletters you can join at http://www.cashinonline.info/subscribe.htm
and http://www.thediscountebookstore.com/gep

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

How To Profit From 0% Interest Credit Cards

By Douglas Titchmarsh

Credit cards equal debt, it's almost a universal truth. Almost.

It is possible, and is being done right now, to turn a profit from 0% credit cards.

Before we get started here are some things you need to realise before you even attempt to profit from these 0% interest credit cards.

1. It's no use making small percentage profits when you are already paying out large interest on debts elsewhere. Clear your debts first if you have any apart from a mortgage.

2. You will need to be vigilant on the 0% periods expiry, most will be 6 months, and you need to make sure you pay the money back then.

3.You need to be able to forget you have the money you borrowed on the credit card, and not dip into it for any reason.

4. You will need a good credit score from the start of this venture or it won't happen at all.

Now with those little caveats out of the way, we can get to the meat of the idea, and profit from those credit card companies.

Firstly you will need to find a credit card with a 0% interest rate for at least six months, some even offer up to nine months 0% interest. Then you need to apply for it, and wait.

You will also need either a loan or another credit card you can draw up to the limit of your 0% card on. Now here comes the science bit.

Pay the limit of the 0% credit card into a bank account by drawing it as cash or direct transfer, and immediately use the 0% card to transfer the balance to the other card to make it paid up.

The money you just got out can be placed into a high interest savings account. Leave it there until you have to pay up the 0% card at which point you will still only owe the original amount you transferred onto it. You will have made interest on the money while you had it and owe 0% interest.

If you have a real clean credit history you could even transfer the balance from another o% interest credit card to the first one, and leave the money earning interest in the savings account.
This is only meant as an informational overview, and you will need to research the credit cards and relevant laws in your own country or state. Here in the UK a few savvy people are using 0% interest credit cards to make them a nice sum, and as long as you remember the few simple rules at the beginning of this article you could too.

About the Author: Douglas Titchmarsh also runs a credit and debt information site at http://www.cashinonline.info/credit
and a newsletter at http://www.thediscountebookstore.com/gep

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

What My Two Year Old Taught Me About Marketing Online And Offline

By Douglas Titchmarsh

What can you learn about marketing from a two year old? Quite a lot actually.

Two year olds are humans and will show you exactly how they will react to a situation without any false ideals or actions to mask their true feelings.

My own two year old responds to emotions, so I figured that so would my customers in my business. When I need her to do something, my daughter will stubbornly refuse, but I can often remind her of the fun she had last time we done it, and she will happily go along.

If you can setup a similar emotional response in your customer, they will be more likely to purchase your products. Try to remind them of something you know will bring out a positive response in most people, a time when they were young and enjoying a ball game or when they first succeeded in riding a two wheel bicycle. Relate this to your products effect on their life.

My toddler doesn't like having her hair washed, to convince her to have it done we use a bribe we know she will want to have. A sweet, or a story book usually does the trick.

Our potential customers like to think they're way beyond the antics of a two year old, but how many will resist this old marketing ploy of a free gift?

There is a potential flaw here, my daughter has learnt to try to checkout the goods being offered first before she agrees to the bribe, and your customer will need some kind of assurance that the gift is worth whatever effort you ask in return, whether it is to entice them to your site or get them to sign up to your email list.

Make your bribe more than worth the required task for your customer.

Stories draw in my little girl like nothing else (except maybe television but I digress) and her attention can be held for quite a long time by an involving tale.

But our customers won't be interested in stories right?

Wrong, by painting a picture in words of how your product came about, or why your ebook was written you will involve your potential buyer more in your copy. Making the story descriptive, and emotive will gain your customers trust, and empathy.

If they can relate the story to their own problem (perceived or real) then they will be more prone to buy.

My daughter also likes to feel special, using her name will draw a smile and a response every time. She can never ignore us when we call her name out whatever she is doing. Her attention is gained even when she hears her name on the TV and she will look around.

Yep you guessed it, using your customers name will gain their attention too. In an email subject they will pick out their own name readily among all the other subjects. Using the name within the email also develops a feeling of one on one chat and intimacy which will gain their trust. It's a little more difficult on a webpage, but can be done still, using a script to request the name and then personalise the page for the potential buyer.

As you can see my two year olds actions and reactions mirror the results we will see in all of human life, and can be used in our marketing efforts to increase our sales.

Try using some of these ideas in your marketing, and thank my toddler if you see your sales rising.

About the Author: Douglas Titchmarsh also publishes a newsletter which you can subscribe to at http://www.cashinonline.info/giveaway.htm where you will also get over $247 in f.ree software.
Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

The Importance Of Monitoring Your Website

By Douglas Titchmarsh

Are you monitoring your website? You should be, especially if you are using it to make some extra cash, and definitely if it is your only source of income.

You need to monitor your website to protect it from so many nasties which could affect your bottom line. Any of the following could bring your site to a close.

A hack attack.

If your website is hacked, it could be used for any number of illegal activities.

A hacker could use your hosting account to send uce (Spam) from your domain or even add web pages such as user information "phishing" sites. These sites will have a page which looks like a login page for Paypal, Ebay or any bank. If someone fills in the form their details are sent to the hacker who now has access to their account. Your website will be shut down, and you lose money while you sort out the mess.

If you have any user information stored on your websites server, a hacker may also gain access to that too, and personal information is a very easy commodity to sell on.

Keep an eye on your site for any unexpected activity or unusual stats showing for pages you didn't make yourself. Most accounts have some kind of statistics built in to the control panel so it shouldn't cost too much to monitor visits and hits, and to which pages they go. Make sure any scripts you use are secure and updated with any patches to keep the hackers out too.

Hosting or server problems.

Your host, or server may have a problem, and lose access to the internet, or crash taking all sites hosted there down with them. This gives you two potential headaches, firstly loss of business while it is offline, but more importantly you may lose data. Making sure you take regular backups of all databases, and all your sites pages will help, also monitoring how often any outages occur, and how long each lasts will tell you whether it's time to change hosts.

No host can guarantee with absolute certainty 100% uptime, but some are much more prone to downtime than others. If you have all the site information backed up, moving hosts isn't as much of a task as it used to be, and can be done in quite a short time if needed. As hosting is such a cut throat business, finding a new one is also relatively simple. There are even software programs which will alert you if your site is unavailable.

Blog and Forum spamming

With the all pervasive spread of blogging it was inevitable that some people would resort to spamming them. Forums and message boards are also open to abuse from software which will autopost to thousands of sites in minutes. If your blog is able to accept comments, it is wise to ask for some kind of registration from people who wish to make comments. If you don't ask for registration you leave your blog open to blatant advertising done by software, which will be unlikely to bear any relevance to your blogs subject. This goes for your forums too, allowing guests to post without registration is open to abuse by widely available software which autoposts inane comments with a signature which contains a url to the spammers product.

Asking for registration will help ensure that only people committed to posting something relevant get to add their comments or posts. If someone wants to post they will take the time to register.

It may take a little time, but monitoring your websites could save you from a lot more wasted time in the future. Backups of your site will help and should be taken at least weekly, and all your scripts should at least have security updates as soon as they are released.

It's your site, make sure it stays in your control.

About the Author: Douglas Titchmarsh also authors two ezines avaialable at http://www,cashinonline.info/subscribe.htm and http://www.thediscountebookstore.com/blog

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

Web Hosting Basics

By Sintilia Miecevole

If you have decided you or your company is in need of a website, you will have to purchase web hosting services from a hosting company. There are many different web-hosting companies to choose from, and they can easily be found on the internet. If you do a quick search for them in any search engine, you will find that there are almost too many to count. Choosing the company that is right for you can be a harrowing experience, but there are really only a few basic things to consider.

The first factor to consider when choosing a web hosting company is how much space they will give you for your account. If you merely want a single page on the Internet with little or no graphics, you can get by with purchasing an account with the smallest amount of space available. However, if you are planning to create a full e-commerce site with multiple pages and order forms, you will need to make sure you have enough server space to support your entire operation.

Before you sign your web-hosting contract, you will first have to choose and purchase a domain name. Though many of the names you might want are already taken, you can often find one that suits your needs, especially if you get creative with it. For instance, if your business is called Cards For You and that domain name is already taken, you might consider choosing More Cards For You or Cards For You Today. The possibilities are endless, and with a little thought you will be able to think of a snappy domain name.

You can often purchase a domain name through your web hosting company, or you can purchase it through a private domain name retailer. These companies are very easy to find. Often times, if you type the domain name you want into a search engine, a domain name seller will pop up if the name is not already taken. You can purchase a domain name for a year at a time, or for several years, depending on how much you want to invest at the get-go.

Once you have a domain name, you will of course have to create a website to put on the Internet. There are many do-it-yourself web design programs that are fairly user friendly. Software like FrontPage makes web design a cut and paste, fill in the blank soft of affair. However, if you would like a more professional look, you can use programs like Dreamweaver or Image Ready to make your sites. There are always freelance web designers looking for work who are ready to take on your cause if you are not savvy enough to do it yourself.

Web hosting companies give passwords to allow you access your space on their servers. You can upload files and pages using their own interface programs, or you can utilize the upload tools built in to your web design program. Once you upload a page, it is important to make sure it looks correct on a variety of different web browsers. Because each browser interprets information differently, you may run into trouble if you build a site while only previewing it in Internet Explorer. There are often compatibility issues between Safari and Mozilla browsers that distort site tables and images.

However, once you work out the kinks and create an excellent site, all you have to do is pay your web hosting bills, and your site will be available for the whole world to see. Web hosting companies usually offer options regarding payment plans. You can pay for a year at a time, or you can monthly or quarterly to maintain your place on the World Wide Web.

About the Author: Sintilia Miecevole has many years experience on the internet. Be sure to visit http://www.ritzyhosting.com for expert information on hosting, providers, host finders, resources, reviews, reliability and much more. To find the right web hosting plan to meet your business and ecommerce needs click on http://www.ritzyhosting.com

Source: www.isnare.com

Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!