10 Essential Blogging Tools by John Jantsch 2006

So, you finally decided to take the blog leap. You've heard all about the marketing and search benefits so you stepped up to the plate and signed up for a TypePad, MovableType or WordPress blog software package and now you're a blogger.

Okay, now what? Add the ten essential blogging tools listed below and you will also be well on your way to creating and promoting a blog that is a powerful marketing tool. I'll explain the use of the tool and offer some suggestions, including the tools I use on my own blogs including the DuctTapeMarketing blog.

Feed Reader

The best way to learn about blogs and blogging is to read, or at least scan, lots of blogs. One of the wonders of blogs is that you can have every new post from every blog you want to read delivered to your desktop or to online location via RSS, so you can easily read and scan the posts of many blogs in a very short time. Newsgator is a good online choice for feed reading and also has a version that integrates with Outlook. I use a frëe online service known as Bloglines.

Subscriber Center

You need to make it easy for your blog visitors to subscribe to your blog's RSS feed – so they can read your blog in their favorite feed reader. The best way to do this is to go to FeedBurner and burn your own RSS feed there and use the tools they provide to set up automatic subscriber links so people who want to use Bloglines, Google Reader, MyYahoo or Pluck, for instance, can clíck on one button to subscribe. Tech types can figure this out without the buttons but why not make it easy for anyone to figure out.

Side note: Subscribe to each of these yourself and you will force some blog spiders to visit your site.

Email Subscription Option

A lot of people will nevër get the whole feed thing, but everyone gets email. Create an option for people to subscribe by giving you their email address – they will simply receive your blog posts like an email message. FeedBurner offers this service for frëe. FeedBlitz is another option or, if you already have an autoresponder email list service they may offer this service. AWeber offers this and helps me integrate these blog email subscribers into my other mailing lists.

Blog and RSS directories

There are hundreds of blog and RSS directories and getting listed in many can be a good thing. I use a piece of software called RSS Submit , but you can also visit Robin Goode's frequently updated list and submit your blog and feed by hand.

Hint: Subscribe to the RSS feed he offers and you will be notified when new directories are added.

Ping Service

Pinging is a term used for letting the various blog and RSS directories know when you have posted new content. Again, FeedBurner offers this as an automatic option called PingShot and you should activate it. PingGoat and Ping O Matic are other options but they require that you visit and update your record each time you post new content. Bookmark Manager

As you surf around the web or hop from blog to blog you may find sites that you want to point out to your readers. Online bookmark managers allow you to bookmark and categorize web and blog pages as you collect them and are a great tool for managing all of the stuff you find on the web. I use del.icio.us but BlinkList does a fine job as well.

Blog Stats

I like to track a few key stats in real time because it shows what other blogs might be linking to you or posting about your blog. A lot of people just like to track this kind of thing for fun and frequently visit sites like Technorati. I like to track it for networking opportunities. I use a tool called MyBlogLog because it allows me to see where traffïc is coming from but also tracks what links on my blog visitors are clicking on. It's amazing how this data can help you write more effectively. (MyBlogLog also ranks your links so visitors can see which links on your site are the most popular.)

Desktop Posting

With most blog software you must go online and post using a set of tools provided by the blog software. Many bloggers like to use a desktop application to create and submit their posts as it gives them some extra tools and allows them to more easily integrate content and files on their computer.

I use w.blogger but also like Performancing, Qumana and ecto (apple folks) (w.blogger also doubles as a really simple HTML editor.)

Tell A Friend Script

My blog software (pMachine) has a feature that allows a reader to clíck a link and send the post to a friend. This tactic brings me lots of readers. You might try looking here for some simple scripts that do that same: http://www.javascriptkit.com/script/script2/tellafriend.shtml
http://www.stadtaus.com/en/php_scripts/tell_a_friend_script/

Republish Your Feed Headlines

The ability to republish your blog posts on other web pages, sites you own or sites of strategic partners is a great way to expose folks to your blog content. One more time we turn to FeedBurner for a painless way to republish your blog post to any web page you choose with something they call BuzzBoost.

About The Author
John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide published by Thomas Nelson - due out in the fall of 2006. He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system. You can find more information by visiting http://www.ducttapemarketing.com.

Tips and tricks for Reconstruction and Development of a positive credit.

On scale of 1 to 10, how rate your credit? How scale of 350-850? If you are not too sure, you may want to check it. There are many sites online where you can get "free" copy of your credit report and your credit rating.

Did you know that the results below 640 are considered bad credit? If you are currently in this category, here are some tips to help everyone. If you are below 640 are made up, see this community if they are identified. If not, they really can contribute to your results!

First, lets talk about the weather. Time is one of the greatest gifts that have a recovery of credit ... We must not squander. Failure to do something now, will not make the process more! What more to Good things, the better your results!

Second, if you just give them credit, get a life! Your mistakes of the past should not dictate your future. Learning the past and use the right type of credit in order to build your credit record.

Third, the project small and simple. Do not worry about obtaining a $ 10000 credit line off the bat. It is as if she decides to buy a new Mercedes or BMW, after their old cars continue the journey! Start with a loan secured by your savings account. There are credit cooperatives and banks to bring in the smallest state from $ 500 to $ 500 in savings.

Fourth, to a revolving credit cards and used properly ga. Not max. Simply put a small amount each month and is paid every month when he arrives account. This really will give his client a start!

Ultimately, it is easy and slow. Do not worry about trying to get 520 to 780 at night. This is of course say your results are not likely to run at night, you should not expect to raise up to speed.

Good luck and happy construction loan!

Blogs and RSS - Why Do I Need This Stuff? by Keith Thompson

If you've been under a rock for the last year or so it's possible you might not have heard about blogs and RSS feeds. If you're like most of us, you've heard the buzz but might not've known what to make of it or what to do with it. Here's some answers.

First RSS feeds. RSS, depending on who you ask, stands for Really Simple Syndication. This is a technology that enables you to bring fresh, constantly updated material (feeds) into your site. The attraction of this is obvious. Sites need content, the fresher the better. Search engines love new content, hence the excitement about being able to pipe in extremely targeted feeds directly into your site. The implementation of this is not as difficult as one might imagine, and the choices for content are ever-burgeoning.

You can find a feed for almost anything, and if you can't, you can create your own and syndicate it all over the web. The possibilities are mind-boggling. End-users must have the capability to read these feeds, but there are free feed readers all over the place and the new generation of browsers will have this built in.

Blogs. Nominated as one of the top words of 2004, they were prominent in the election (can you say, or want to, Howard Dean?) and they have become more a of web-household item. Blog software is ridiculously easy to use, and free. But why do I need one, you ask. Well, for me, it boils down to one thing and one thing only: search engines love blogs!! I have blogs that have higher (and much more quickly acquired) PageRank than sites that have several hundred pages of content! Why is this? Think about it: the very thing search engines love most, fresh content, is the very nature of blogging. Most blogs, at least commercial ones, are very on topic, keyword oriented, and frequently updated. The marketing piece concerning blogs is still in it's infancy but growing fast. There is little more powerful these days than a content blog hosted on your own site that is updated daily. I have blogs that get more traffic than the site they are sitting on! Think about this. It'll be worth it!

Blogs and RSS feeds are the next big thing that's already
here! Don't miss out on the possibilities they offer!

Google Adwords: Here is why it can explode your business! by Matt Bacak

The beauty of Google Adwords set up is its simplicity. Google programmers seem to be a close follower of the maxim taught by Edward Debono when it comes to simplicity. Signing up and getting started is very easy and takes a few minutes to get your campaign rolling. If you are new to the Google Adwords programme, all you need to do is relax, and go through the simple steps mentioned below to get you started off on one of the most technically advanced advertising plans on the internet:

Step 1: Define the eyeballs:

The first step would be to define the target group for your advertisement. There are multiple fields to select from which help you get the geography and language preference of the audience set up so that your ads are shown only to the relevant audience. This process results in an Ad Group, and you can define multiple Ad Groups for various campaigns.

Step 2: Word your ad:

All Google ads are text based and they are displayed in varying font sizes and color to define order and importance. Once your Ad Group is defined, you need to start putting the advertising message together.

This is a bit tricky as you need to get the communication within preset character limits. You can write a headline of up to 25 characters, and a two line message of 95 characters. It might be a good idea to take a look at other Google ads in order to understand the choice of words for the ad. After the descriptions are done, you can enter a display URL.

Once the ad itself is put together, you can select the keywords for which the advert should show up. You need to careful with your selection here as your selection of keywords is going to be the key to success (as well as critical for your billing at Google) of your campaign. You can get a lot of help from the keyword tool which helps you find alternate keywords as well. It is recommended that you start with a few keywords in the first place and then proceed to add keywords as the campaign progresses.

Step 3: Define the commercials:

Here's when we need to start sorting out the preferred currency of billing and display. Google does not allow you to change currency of preference once you have set it so you need to be sure which currency you would like to be billed in. Google Adwords allows you to set pricing of each click. The system would suggest you a maximum cost per click (CPC) which you can choose or define a CPC which you are willing to spend. The 'Traffic Estimator' allows you to see a hypothetical scenario of the traffic you can expect with each type of CPC you choose along with the cost of campaign. This helps you in choosing the keywords effectively.

The commercial section does have a number of sub steps to follow! You now need to finally define what you would like to spend on the campaign. Google will display your ad only till such time the budget permits and then inform you about the expiry of budget. This feature allows you to stay within a pre-defined budget. Google Adwords also recommends a budget based on your previous selection. You can set your budget based on this recommendation.

Once you have completed setting your preferences on the system, Google Adwords gives you an opportunity to review all the details and then click on the final process of signing up for the service.

Step 4: Signing on the dotted line:

True to the rest of the process, the signing up process is really quite simple. All you need is a valid and frequently accessed email account and set up a password and you are ready to roll. Getting started on Google Adwords is quite simple as you can see from the above steps. All the best with your online marketing campaign with Google AdWords.

The Author
Matt Bacak

Matt Bacak, Suwanee, GA, USA Matt_Bacak@hotmail.com

Learn more about google adwords Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter was entrepreneur Magazines e-Biz radio show host and became a "#1 Best Selling Author" in just a few short hours.

He has helped a number of clients target his specialty, opt-in email direct marketing systems. The Powerful Promoter is not only a sought-after lead explosion specialist but has also generated leads for some of the world's top experts and businesses whose reputations would shrivel if their followers ever found out someone else coached them on their lead generation strategies.

Getting started on Google Adwords is quite simple as you can see from the above steps. All the best with your online marketing campaign with Google AdWords.

Three ways to stay motivated by Tyeisha Humphrey

1. Surround Yourself With Positive People.
Your circle of influence will greatly affect your hopes and dreams. Your peers will either keep you motivated, or they will attempt to steal your dreams. Stay away from the dream stealers. Associate with like-minded individuals who will help fuel your fire.

2. Read Books.
The only things that will be different about you 5 years from now are the books that you read and the people you meet. Become an avid reader. Learn about new things and read the success stories of others. Make it your mission to learn one new thing per day, or gain insight about a new aspect of life.

3.Commit to Your Goals.
Commit your goals to paper. Write them down and read them aloud daily. Visualize your end point. This will help you to take the daily steps necessary to reach those goals. Don’t be led astray. Stay focused and commit to yourself.

About The Author:
Tyeisha Humphrey is the owner of BigMoney247.com. She is dedicated to helping others achieve their financial dreams. Tyeisha is available for 1 on 1 mentoring. If you want to maximize your earnings and build a passive income then take a look at what she is doing today. http://www.BigMoney247.com

5 Simple search engine optimazation (SEO) techniques by Noah Ulrich

The lifeblood of any website/e-commerce business is traffic, and every webmaster knows the best type of traffic is natural, organic search engine traffic. There are two very important reasons for this:

(1) it is extremely targeted, and
(2) It is FREE!

The hard part is getting top ranking for your sites keywords... or is it? The purpose of this article is to provide a few simple, effective, and most important, search engine friendly strategies to help boost your websites' ranking and ultimately your traffic.

1. We will start with the

I know you have already heard of, and are probably currently using meta tags on your site. This is great. I just want to make sure you are using them effectively. We will only go over 2 tags: the "title" tag, and the "description" tag. We will not go over the "keywords" tag, as the major search engines have placed less and less weight on this one, and some would argue this tag has no weight at all. I still use this tag however, as I feel there is some merit and no drawbacks to using this tag.

I have found it effective to use similar text in the "title" and "description" tags, and to place your keywords prominently in these tags (near the beginning and more than once). I have seen sites with "sitename.com", "New Page 1", or "Welcome to my site" in the "title" tag, which really does not help in their quest for higher rankings for their particular keyword. Also, try not to use words such as "and", "or", or "the" in these tags.

**Important note about your keywords.

Search engines evaluate keyword prominence, keyword weight, and keyword density when determining a site's ranking. All three are calculated individually for the page, the title tag, the description tag, as well as other areas on a page. Keyword prominence means how close the keyword is to the beginning of your page. Keyword weight refers to how many times a particular keyword or phrase can be found on the page. Keyword density is the ratio of the keyword to the other words on the page. You do not want the keyword weight or density to be too high, as this can appear to the search engine as "keyword stuffing" and most search engines penalize sites that stuff their keywords.

2. Place your navigational links (and JavaScript) at the right or at the bottom, but not on the left, of the page.

When the search engines "read" your site, they read from the top left to the bottom right. Search engines place an emphasis on the first 100 words or text on the site. You do not want these words to be navigational links or Javascript. Ideally, you want to have your "heading" tags with your keywords in the beginning of your page. This being said, placing your links/JavaScript on the right or bottom of your page ensures the search engine spiders get to the text first, giving more weight to what's important on your page.

3. Place alt tags on all of your images.

Search engine spiders cannot "read" pictures or images. The only way a spider knows what an image is about is by reading the alt tag. This is also another chance to place more of your keywords in your HTML, improving your page's keyword weight/density. Alt tags are easy to make and they can make a big difference in your sites keyword ranking. A simple alt tag looks like this: alt="put your keyword phrase here." Search engines separately calculate keyw

How to sell and profit from free drive - thru traffic! by Abe Cherian

You have seen it.... It's everywhere. Traffic exchanges, toolbar traffic programs, incentive traffic programs...etc. Driving traffic 'through' your website and not really ' to your website content'. It's very inexpensive advertising and most of these advertising programs are free.

Marketers and site owners are seduced by the large flood of visitors to their website, thinking that more traffic means more sales. Much to their dismay, they find out that all these traffic programs did was increase their bandwidth and produced no leads and no sales.

Now, how do you convert these non-qualified visitors into qualified prospects and then to paying customers? How do you find a 'diamond in the rough'? You gotta sift it carefully. Finding good customers is like finding 'diamond in the rough'.

So, how do you find customers (find diamond), sell more , and profit from 'drive thru' traffic (the rough)? You carefully sift it!

Here is an example...

You (ABC Company) promotes a whole line of business opportunities and affiliate programs. And, you are using one of those traffic programs to promote it.

See ABC's Website:
http://www.imediatools.com/abccompany.html You get, not three, not two, but ONLY ONE CHANCE to turn these visitors into paying customers...

But, here is what happens...

Most of your visitors will take a peek at your splash page and leave the website for many reasons:

• Not a good time to purchase.
• Don't have enough time to read your website.
• Did not understand the product due to clutter or information
  overload on your website.
• Did not see the real value in your product right away.
• They like the product/service but just don't act on it right away.
• Didn't like your website navigation.

...and many other un-known and strange reasons. They will never get a chance to see your great offer ever again! You've LOST them forever.

Now, Imagine this!

What if those people were to visit a landing page like this one?
http://www.imediatools.com/landingpage_eample.html

This is called a 'Lead Capture Page'. When you use a 'Lead Capture Page' like this one, you'll capture 10-40% of your visitor's information for future follow-up and then re-direct them to your main website.

You'll instantly see your conversion rate and sales go up, because:

• You will capture valid and qualified leads.
• You will have enough leads to make sales daily!
• You will get unlimited opportunities to contact them automatically.
• You will increase sales and lower your advertising cost.

A good place to setup your lead capture page is http://www.imediatools.com/ Stop losing qualified prospects, and start converting them into paying customers.

How to build Link Popularity by Salihu Ibrahim

Link popularity is very important with regards to search engine placement or ranking. Most Search Engines including Google, place much importance in a Website's link popularity. They use the number of outgoing and incoming links to a Website to determine the importance ( relevance ) of the Website for a particular keyword or keyword phrase. However, incoming links are more important than outgoing links.

The search engine Google, uses its PagerRank (PR) as a measure of the link popularly of a Website. If you have the Google tool bar installed on your browser, you can easily see the PR of any site you visit on the Web. You can download it at: http://toolbar.google.com/. The PR of a site ranges from 0 to 10. The higher the number, the better. A grey PR bar means the site has not been indexed, been dropped or has been banned.

Why Link Popularity

Search Engine builders, continuously research ways to make their search engine result pages (SERPs) relevant to users. Different methods have been employed to determine the most relevant pages. Methods such as keywords in title, keywords in metatags, keywords in filename, keywords in headings, keywords in links, keywords in content of pages, etc.

Webmasters have found ways to manipulate these, thereby improving their ranking in the Serps. The latest method is link popularity. Obtaining quality links from good Websites is not easy. A good Website will only link to you if there is some benefit to that site or that site's visitors. However, Webmasters have again found a way of beating this latest hurdle. They do this through reciprocal linking. I see search engines rejecting reciprocal linking in future because this is an artificial way of boosting link popularity. The only sure way for search engines to ascertain link popularity will have to be one way incoming links.

Do's And Don'ts Of Site Linking

1. Don't do reciprocal linking with sites that sp@m. Your outgoing links to unethical sites could get you into trouble with search engines.

2. Don't link to FFA link farms. You might be penalized by the search engines.

3. Keep a close watch on your link partners always. Link to relevant and complementary sites. The higher the PR of the site, the better.

4. Obtain one-way incoming links when possible. It's the best. Use anchor text in links.

5. Most important of all, create good, original and unique content and one way incoming links will come naturally.

Reciprocal Linking

Reciprocal linking is simply exchanging links with other webmasters in order to boost link popularity. It involves sending e-mails to webmasters of sites with relevant and complementary content.

How To Do Reciprocal Linking

Write a nice and polite e-mail to the Webmaster you wish to exchange links with. However, take note of the following points:

1. Visit the sites you want to exchange links with so that you have an idea of what the site is about.

2. Before visiting the sites, download the Google and Alexa tool bars. The Google tool bar gives you the PR of the sites. The Alexa tool bar gives you an approximation of the site's traffïc and sites that are linking to it. Download the Alexa tool bar from: http://www.alexa.com/.

3. Mention one or two things about the site in your e-mail. Explain how beneficial a link exchange will be for both sites and site visitors. You can put a link to the site before sending your e-mail. Tell the Webmaster where to locate the link. Provide the keywords or keyword phrase with which you want to be linked.

4. Make it known on your site that you are willing to exchange links. You can use a "link to us" or "reciprocal linking" link. You can also use a web-form so that potential link partners can fill in their details.

Points To Note

Most sites do not have their contact email on their sites because of spammers or email harvester software. You can contact webmasters through their "contact us" form or use www.whois.com to obtain information on how to contact the webmaster. You can run your link popularity campaign through third parties such as LinkExchange.com but their prices seem a little bit on the high side. You can also use software such as Zeus and Arelis. These software apps automate most of the manual tasks that go into building link popularity. However, care must be taken when using them. One could be labeled a spammer, if they are used incorrectly.

One Way Incoming Linking

One way incoming links, are the best type of links to have for your site. They increase your PR and link popularity. They indicate to the search engines that your site is an authority on the keyword or keyword phrase used to link to you. However, incoming links are the most difficult to acquire. You can build your one way incoming links using the following strategies.

1. Build good quality websites or web pages with original, unique content. With great content, other webmasters will naturally refer visitors through links to your site.

2. Provide a frëe, useful service or tool on your site. For example, a link popularity chëck tool. This will bring repeat visitors and other webmasters will refer visitors to your site.

3. Give away something for frëe at your site. It could be a quality e-book, a useful program, software trial download, or a gift in exchange for links. You may give out the gifts after ascertaining that they have linked to your site. Some webmasters might bring down the links after collecting the gift, but many sites will still retain your links. Although you might not get many high PR sites linking to you, lots of low PR sites will still enhance your link popularity.

4. You can organize an award so that winners will link to you before claiming their prizes. Be sure to make your policy on this clear enough.

5. Pay to be listed in niche directories. Provide good topical articles on your site with links to your home page. Give permission to other webmasters to use at their sites.

To Cap It

As you go through the web, running your e-business everyday, you will discover that the most successful sites are those that give something away for frëe. Sites that are an authority in their segment of the market are those that provide useful content, or frëe tools, service, and/or software. Building such sites takes a lot of patience and perseverance, but, in the end, the reward is immens

Five Steps To Successful Web Marketing And Sales Process! by: Abe Cherian

The basic principles used successfully by brick and mortar storefronts in moving your potential clients through a successful sales process is also the most effective way on the web.

But how?
You do this by following the five step process in your marketing strategy by attracting potential clients, building trust, helping them choose the right product, presenting the product, and then closing the sale.

Step One- Marketing / prospecting:

Prospecting is the delivery of qualified visitors to your website. It can be achieved by many forms, such as, search engine marketing, pay-per-clicks, and e-mail advertising that draw people to your site. Once they are there, it's your responsibility to show them how your product can fill the void in the marketplace and what sets your product apart from the rest. Deliver your 'Unique Selling Proposition', USP.

Step two- Building trust:

Just like in a brick and mortar business where you greet a person when they walk in the door or physically help them find what they are looking for, you can build trust by doing similar things on your website by the elements that surround the design and development of your website.

Your visitor is unconsciously judging your credibility by asking themselves the following questions:

1. Does the website have the feel and look of a legitimate company?
2. Is it easy to find the company contact information?
3. How is the copy on the site?
4. How fast does it download, and are there any broken links?
5. Is there a privacy policy posted on the site?
6. Is it easy to navigate?

Step three- Help the buyer:

If you have done your prospecting right, the visitors coming to your website are hoping to find a solution to their problem. The solution can be a product or a service. Internet marketing studies show that 7 out of 10 visitors are ready to buy. They are only looking for a vendor who they find more helpful.

Ask yourself these questions?

1. Are you helping your visitors to identify and find the solution to their problem?
2. Are you guiding them to find the solution by easy to find information, and navigation?

Step four- Present the product:

Before you present your product, make sure that you have already helped the buyer by identifying with their needs in the previous stage. When you present your product or service to your visitor be sure to keep their attention and their interest by motivating them to continue with the sale.

Step five- Successfully close the sale:

Look at each of the products that you offer and ask yourself these questions:

1. Are you assuring them by giving guarantees?
2. Does your description answer all their questions?
3. Are you giving them feed back and testimonials from your clients?
4. Do you take credit cards, if so which ones?
5. What happens after they purchase?

Take the guess work out of the purchase process.
If you court your visitors by the five steps above, you'll see better conversions, and increased profits.

Is It Easy to Build An E-commerce Web Site? by Lester Boey

--Online Commerce--

E-Commerce website is all about selling products and services over the Internet. Amateurs may think that it is easy to build your own e-commerce system and our advice to you is to stay away from these amateurs. Building an e-commerce system is a complicated process and it requires web professionals who know the intricacies of building secure systems. Building an e-commerce system comes with the potential for a lot of errors and it is advisable to find security and database experts for the job.

Resource-consuming tasks such as order and supply tracking needs to be automated for e-commerce websites. Automated billing, invoice handling, accounting, and report generation tools make your e-commerce web sites easier to manage and handle sales. These are essential features to look out for in e-commerce websites.

--Building One Yourself--

Sure, you can try to build a basic E-commerce web site. But, an E-commerce web site without the tracking and automated is quite useless when you are trying to determine how your sales are derived and business expansion.

How To Gain Web Traffic Through 9 Simple Tips by Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Driving traffic to your website can be a time consuming task. However, these easy tips may help you increase traffic and convert those visitors into actual customers.

1. Title on your main URL and secondary pages

Originally, my title was ADVANCED SYSTEMS-A Leadership & Organizational Training & Development Firm near Chicago, IL. If I searched for the first two words ADVANCED SYSTEMS using Overture at http://inventory.overture.com I found a little over 4,000 keyword searches. By using this tool, I entered various key words and discovered that the term education and training had over 210,000 searches during the previous month.

Research also recommends that the title length not exceed 77 characters and so I continued researching the most effective key words to pair with my first two terms. Also, additional reading suggested that you indicate your location within this title. Even though the completed title may exceed the recommended length, this is OK because the search engines do read beyond 77 characters. Also, as you construct or revise each page, make sure that title has the appropriate key words. Currently, I am doing that for my site because as stated earlier ADVANCED SYSTEMS is not a popular searched term.

2. Content

Both my Internet marketing coach (www.leaders-perspective.com) and my marketing consultant (www.hodgecommunications.com) acknowledged that the content on my site of which I wrote was of exceptional editorial quality. Their praises made me feel very good. However, both told me that the content wouldn’t “sell an igloo to an Eskimo.” This wasn’t what I wanted to hear after spending hundreds of hours writing this exceptional content. Currently, I am revisiting each page and rewriting the content using a marketing content focus instead of editorial one. I had failed one of the basic lessons in marketing – write to the audience needs by identifying potential benefits not your expertise.

3. Search Words Again using the mentioned site in tip #1

I began to rewrite the content and then checked key words and phrases to ensure that they were embedded within the content. Writing in Microsoft Word, the writer can go to the Edit button and scroll down to the Find icon. By typing in a specific word or phrase, this handy tool will check to see how many times it appears in the document. A note of caution – Be careful not to overload your content with search words because the robots are quite sophisticated and can distinguish this overload.

4. Call to Action Within the content on each page should be a call to action.

The visitor should be encouraged to sign up for a free newsletter or contact your office by phone or email. Also, you can provide links to other pages within your website such as “click to hear read more articles.”

5. Thematic Approach

Using a theme entices search engines to travel through all the pages within your site. The theme can be your unique selling proposition. Also, a thematic approach encourages your visitors to visit more than one or two pages.

6. Use of Pictures, Graphics and Flash Pictures are far more effective than clip art.

Remember to use a variety of genders and ethnicity because your Internet audience is diverse. Be careful with flash and other time consuming graphics as they may consume too much time to download. Many visitors leave sites if the site doesn’t download in a matter of seconds. Time is money not only for you, but your visitors as well.

7. Free Offers

Visitors like to receive free offers from ezine booklets to articles to recommendations on books and other sites. Entice your visitors with freebies and have them coming back for more.

8. Regular Updates

Sites need to be updated on a regular basis to encourage Search Engines to continually visit your site. A static site is not good for web traffic or building relationships with your visitors. Construct a plan to revisit your pages to provide new content for Search Engines. HINT: Remember to check Key Words as you update your pages.

9. Perfection and Under Construction

Since web sites should not be static, perfection is an ongoing experience. Don’t wait until the content is perfect. Load it and then watch your statistics. Under construction shouldn’t be forever, however prioritize those pages you wish to update first. If you need to add a page, do so and mark it as “Under Construction.” I currently have several new pages “Under Construction” and still have yet to revise all my pages. Working using a plan (see tip 8), I anticipate completing the entire site within the next 30 days. And then, revisit at least 2 pages each month to update the content.

These last two months have been an incredible learning experience for me as I continue to work on my site to expand traffic and therefore potential clients. For example, one of the most visible results has been a 300% increase on one of my revised pages (http://www.processspecialist.com/youth.htm). Even though the site is still has pages under construction, I know that following these 9 simple tips will continue to multiply traffic and eventually increase my client base.

Five Basic Web-Design Mistakes by: Abe Cherian

In the e-commerce industry, there are two types of websites:

1. Resource driven websites: When you list tons of resources on a particular topic, or categorized resources on various topics.

2. Direct Selling Websites: When you are selling one or two products and want your visitors to signup, purchase, or subscribe to that particular product or service.

"The effective design is which is maximum simplified"

No matter what type of website you are developing, these are the 5 factors you should avoid to make your presentation more effective.

Factors Damaging The Website Design Effectiveness:

1. Slow loading contents.
Your pages downloading time is extremely important. Your users will shut your website down very quickl if you make them wait more because of your slowly downloading pages. The other sites are on a mouse click away from them.

2. Badly written content
The text that is ready for print has nothing to do with the text for the Web. According to Jacob Nielsen, Web usability guru, users have more difficulties in reading the information on computers rather than on printed editions. They rather scan it
than read it profoundly. Huge text blocks are unreadable and couldn't allow them to do it. Means to make text more readable and effective could be effectuated by using:
--Separate paragraphs
--Titles
--Subtitles
--Indentations
--Bullets
--Hyperlinks
--Different fonts and sizes

3. Complex design, abundant in elements
Don't complicate users work by complex and abundant design making the website not to be clear in terms of its downloading and its appearance on their screens.

-- Avoid frames. They could seriously damage your website usability.

-- Having a site, made on FLASH you can't explain fast and clear to users what his content is about, what it would be useful with, what they could win, using your services. If you insist however on including FLASH elements, much better variant is to insert them in a detached small file, with definite size, but inserting it, you have to possess some clear purpose. It refers much more to your home page, which is your website main portal.

-- Don't leave your pages without comprehensible title tags, clearly explaining what is your page about (title tag is the page title you see on the top of the browser).

-- Don't leave your site home page without text, explaining to your users who you are and what you are talking about on your site.

4. Difficult navigation, incomprehensible for user
-- Don't upset user by bad navigation, making him feel lost. He could enter your site by each of its pages, not only by the home page. If he/she enters by another one, he/she must understand what is his/her position on your site, where he/she could go by
clicking the corresponding link.

-- Don't leave your site without a site map. The site map gives user the possibility to orientate fast and easy on it.

-- Always put on each of your pages a link to the home page plus the firm's name and logo, making them also a link to the home page.

-- Don't allow the existing of a orphaned page, where a user could find lost.

-- Don't change the default color of the hyperlinks, because users are expecting to see them exactly that way. When a text is blue, the user is used to thing it is a link, and if it is purple, that it is a visited link. The different colors from the default ones will throw them into confusion.

-- Don't make blue a text that is not a hyperlink. That will also confuse them.

-- Don't put a link that leads to the same page, except these that go to other page sections.

5. No validated program language
The code your site is written in is validated depending on browsers from different types and versions.

-- Incorrectly written program code will make your site users close it immediately due to its bad appearing in their browsers.

-- The correctly written code is the best way to ensure on your pages the properly appearing of as more as possible browsers. It includes old versions and versions that will be published.

The biggest mistake made by lots of web designers is to project their activities from their own point of view, without thinking about user.

Think Positive - Care for your Customers By Abe Cherian

Operating a business on a daily basis dealing with customers can actually be frustrating and they often don't make it easy for you and your employees to treat them nicely.

You need to remember where all your revenue and sales come from for your business. Every dollar in sales that your business gets comes from these customers that can sometimes be frustrating. You want to treat them well and hope that maybe they'll return another day happy and satisfied and bring family and mends.

The old saying, "The customer is always right", is really not true. One unhappy customer, through word of mouth, can translate into a lot of lost customers. Just because customers aren't telling you how good you are, often times you think, "Everything must be okay." They may not come to you and say, "That was a horrible experience, but they might tell their family and friends that." Silence is not golden.

Each person really has different theories on this, but they have the potential to tell just one or many other people
positive or negative things about your business. Look at a happy customer as free advertising. You might already know how much it costs for advertising.

It's been said that an unhappy customer will tell a minimum of 1-10 people their negative experience. Think about that. 1-10 people automatically not doing business with you. That might change the way you respond to someone. Just maybe a receptionist having a bad day and being rude on the phone - that person telling 1-10 people about that and they will never do business with you.

The first step to a better relationship is to realize customers aren't different from anyone else. They are people with feelings, reactions, wants and desires. They've been studied for the last 50 years and during that time, more than any other time in history. It's your job to understand human drive, passions, emotions, fears and target those emotions.

You want to always be looking for a response from them good and bad. Every bad response you get from a customer is an opportunity to improve.

The second step is to reverse your "Money Plan" that is always thinking of them as money machines. You want to think, "How can you get them more - better - faster - easier - less expensive - higher quality - longer service-
better benefits - more options - and more desirable things that they want?"

In order for this to work you must think of your profit will come as long as you are running the business properly.
You can't think like this for long without ending up with more value in your business or product or service. A greater number of customers that are doing more business with you, doing it more frequently, and they're doing it
more often for a longer term and they're giving you referrals. Treat your customers like you want to be treated.

Small Business Web Design for Beginners by: Austin Culley

You’ve got a concept for a business, are excited about putting it out on the Internet, know a little bit about computers and the Internet, but know nothing about building a web site, or web design. You can still be highly successful and save money by doing the job yourself so long as you’ve got the willingness to learn and the time to spend on the project. It can be fun … and it should be.

The contents of this article will greatly improve your knowledge of web design without causing you to feel overwhelmed. Keep this article as a reference point, check off each part as you go through the process of development, and, in due time, you will have an effective web site for marketing the information, product, or service you wish to provide to your customers.

Domain Name

Keep it short and relevant to your business. Do not get frustrated trying to lock down a domain name by settling on anything to get you web space. You will soon realize that every word on your web site has relevancy to its success. Register for no less than two years. Serious businesses don’t renew yearly. You have to show that you’re going to be sticking around.

Web Hosting

Don’t mess around with small time web hosting. Affiliate yourself with a reputable company that provides top-notch service, as the rewards with regards to security and support are worth the extra dollar.

Web Site Construction

The basis by which people choose to build their web site is at their discretion. Microsoft FrontPage is a worthy choice for those of you who are new to web development and starting from scratch. Instead of reading books to learn about web design and development, you may be much better off using Google, MSN, or Yahoo to find the answers to your questions. Use “quotations” around your question in a search bar to get more specific answers

Layout

Building your web site on a template is a fine way to start, but you may want to learn how to build from nothing. The mistakes that you may make along the way will prove invaluable. It is strongly recommended that you go with Tables instead of Frames, and if you don’t have a clue what either means, just do a little reading about the two on the Internet before you start building.

Resolution

It would be a safe bet to keep your web site at no more than 750 pixels wide, regardless of the fact that more and more people are going to 1024x768. If your site is geared towards older folk, then you can count on the majority being at 800x600 for easier reading. You don’t want to alienate your visitors by having them scroll to see the whole page. Be sure to check that your web site pages show up the same in all browsers.

The Intro

Never ever put “Under Construction” or any other type of phrase that says that you are incomplete on your web site. Your site is young … it is never incomplete. Try to refrain from saying “Welcome to …”. You should think of your web space as being real estate. The space you use up with unnecessary text is a waste of advertising.

The Text

Keywords, their place on a web page, whether they are bolded or not, and the number of times each word appears on a web page are factors that determine how high you end up in search results.

HTML Tags

Before I say anything further, don’t get freaked out by HTML code. It not as hard as it looks. Again, do a little reading on the Internet … this time about Meta Tags and Keywords. You will have to make sure that your Title, Description, and Keyword Meta Tags are bang on with the text on each web page you build. You can use many free Tag Analyzers found on the Internet to check relevancies.

Graphics

Graphics increase load time and looks. There’s a fine line between too little and too much. Use customers, not friends and family to gauge what is appropriate for the way your web site will look.

Random

Tips You may need to read a little to learn how to implement some of these tips, but nonetheless, they are here for your consideration to improve the placement of your web site in search results:

1) Make sure your TITLE is right below the HEAD in the HTML code.

2) Use one or two keywords in an ALT Tag to describe your images.

3) Get links pointing at you from sites sharing similar content.