Category:

Archives:

Blogroll:

  • 05May

    I’ve looked at a lot of websites over the years and helped a lot of clients, and I’ve yet to meet anyone who is totally committed to making their site as successful as it could be.

    This is particularly true when it comes to search engine optimization. Most online businesses make a half-hearted attempt to get better search engine rankings, but rarely implement anymore than one or two things that could really help make their site a success.

    Which of the following does your website have?

    1. Unique Page Titles.

    Take a look at a selection of web pages that come up high in the search engine results for any search term and you’ll notice they all have one thing in common: unique page titles. Denoted by in HTML, page titles tell the search engines what your web page is about, and are thought to be a critical factor in how search engines determine the order in which pages are displayed in the search engine result pages (SERPS) for a specific search term.

    2. Descriptive Keyword Links.

    How do search engines find and index your site? They follow links from one page to another, indexing content as they go. If the links they follow contain keywords and phrases that are relevant to the page content, the search engines will boost the ranking of that page in their results. You should also use keywords and phrases in the site’s navigation (menu), as those terms are (or should be) highly relevant for the page they link to.

    3. Keywords in Your On-page Copy.

    If you want the search engines to know what your page is about, and rank it appropriately, you must scatter keywords throughout your on-page copy. Keywords in your copy establish your site’s relevance for words searchers use when they’re looking for your product or service.

    4. Clean, Accessible Website Design.

    Messy, bloated HTML code, 404 errors, re-directs, too many graphics, content hiding behind forms etc., all hinder the search engines’ ability to index your site. And if they can’t index it, they can’t rank it. Follow W3C’s accessibility guidelines when building your website. Better yet, ask your website designer what he knows about standards compliant website design. If he or she can’t answer, find someone who can.

    5. Focused Site Topic.

    It seems logical that the more focused your site is, the higher it will rank for related search terms. For example, a site that is focused on the sale of exercise mini-trampolines will probably do better for the search term “mini trampolines” than a site that tries to sell a number of unrelated or a selection of different exercise equipment. In addition, it makes sense to create specialty websites whenever possible. That way, you don’t fall into the trap of trying to do too many things and end up doing none of them well.

    6. Relevant Incoming Links.

    The number of other sites that link to your site’s pages is important but the quality of those sites, and the text used in the link, carries much more weight with the search engines. For example, one relevant link from an “authority” site such as a .org, .gov, or a site that’s proven itself as a reliable source, provides more value than several links from unrelated or “unproven” sites.

    Of course, there are other several other factors that go into determining a site’s ranking (far too many to go into here) but these are some of the most important.

    They’re all easy to implement, so there’s really no excuse for not taking advantage of them especially if you want to make sure your site is found and visited by as many people as possible. Then all you’ll need to worry about is getting those people to buy something from you on a frequent basis.

    And that’s really what it’s all about.

    To your success,

    Julia

    Comment on this article at: Read this article at http://www.juliahyde.com/mw/high-ranking-websites

  • 05May

    A business plan is a management tool. Do you need a business plan? Yes if you:

    You Need To Decide Whether To Start A Business.

    This plan will help you improve your chances for success and avoid making serious mistakes. You may be the only one who reads this plan, although you should have input from a number of other people with business experience. You need to ask yourself the following questions and incorporate the answers in your business plan:

    • What does it take to succeed in this type of company?

    • Do you have the skills and background necessary?

    • Can you afford to take the risk? What effect would the business’ failure have on you?

    • What is the growth potential for the business? Can it meet your financial expectations and requirements?

    • Is there a large enough market for your products/services?

    • Will you enjoy owning and managing the business?

    A business plan is an important ingredient to the success of a start-up business.

    You Want to Jump Start Your Business

    Whether you’re an entrepreneur doing business on the Internet, a stay-at-home Mom with an arts and crafts company, or a writer trying to break into publishing, a business plan acts as a guide to success. Developing your business plan helps determine your objectives and focuses you on the strategies and action plans necessary to accomplish those objectives.

    If you’re looking to boost your business it’s time to answer a few questions in your business plan.

    •What are your skill levels and talents?

    •What are goals for each month’s sales?

    •What are your resources, time available, advertising and promotional budget, website?

    •Do you have the necessary equipment? If you don’t, how will you obtain the equipment?

    •What barriers do you face?

    You Want To Better Organize Your Company or Improve Its Operations.

    This is a time and task oriented plan for use internally. It suggests actions that need to be taken and assigns responsibility. Questions that need to be answered:

    •How does our company compare to leaders in its industry?

    •What are our management weaknesses? How can we make improvements?

    •How can we increase sales, serve the customer better, improve manufacturing efficiency, increase the gross margin?

    •Do we have the necessary resources to make the above improvements? If not how will we obtain the resources? Do we need a bank loan or line of credit?

    You Are Seeking A Bank Loan.

    This plan is used to inspire confidence in your banker and convince her/him that your business is a good credit risk. It is written very logically, with an emphasis on the financial projections and presentation of historical financial results. Bankers who make bad loans get fired, so they like to err on the side of caution. A banker is looking for safety and a demonstration that the company can generate sufficient cash flow to pay the interest and the principal. Bankers are not looking for a huge return on their money. They don’t want to take part in the management of your company or sit on the board of directors. Your business plan will need answers to these questions:

    • Will the company’s cash flow be stable enough to make the payments on the loan?

    • Are the long term prospects of the business favorable?

    • Does the company have a reasonably good track record?

    You Need An Investor/Partner.

    The plan must demonstrate considerable upside potential for the business. The banker was content to get his money back plus, say 10% interest. The investor may want a return of 30% to 50% or more. This plan must be written in an interesting manner and keep the reader’s attention. Your business plan is competing with all the other plans submitted to the investor. Make sure you address the following questions:

    • Can the company grow rapidly?

    • Are the margins attractive?

    • Have you succeeded in other business ventures?

    • Is this a market that is emerging, with a large and bright future?

    • How much of the company are you willing to give up, both in equity and management control?

    You Want To Sell Your Business

    You must prove to a potential buyer that your company is worth paying a premium for. Sometimes this can be called a marketing presentation, offering memorandum, or valuation. It is not strictly a valuation, as you are trying to establish your sales price for the business, not determine a value. Usually a valuation is completed by an objective third party. You’re likely to be asked:

    • Is there untapped potential for the business that a new owner could take advantage of?

    • If the new owner had more capital, could the business grow more rapidly?

    • Are there new markets that could be entered?

    • Could costs be reduced and therefore profits increased?

    Every business should have a business plan. It’s the road map to success. But a well thought out business plan is critical if your company is seeking financing.

  • 05May

    When it comes to your website, extra attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally to serve its purpose. Here are seven important rules of thumb to observe to make sure your website performs well.

    1) Do not use splash pages

    Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like “welcome” or “click here to enter”. In fact, they are just that — pretty vases with no real purpose. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the “back” button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.

    2) Do not use excessive banner advertisements

    Even the least net savvy people have trained themselves to ignore banner advertisements so you will be wasting valuable website real estate. Instead, provide more valueable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, and let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy.

    3) Have a simple and clear navigation

    You have to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even a young child will know how to use it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors don’t know how to navigate, they will leave your site.

    4) Have a clear indication of where the user is

    When visitors are deeply engrossed in browsing your site, you will want to make sure they know which part of the site they are in at that moment. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Don’t confuse your visitors because confusion means “abandon ship”!

    5) Avoid using audio on your site

    If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they’re not annoyed by some audio looping on and on on your website. If you insist on adding audio, make sure they have some control over it — volume or muting controls would work fine.

    6) The most important – Host only with a Reliable Hosting Provider.

    Before Chosing a Web Hosting provider, read its reviews and always check the top 10 hosting providers. A good resource to research hosting providers is at Top10DedicatedHosting.com

  • 05May

    Like most online marketing methods, there’s always more than one right way to get the job done. Article marketing is quickly being adopted as the preferred choice for gathering up targeted website traffic.

    Use the following ideas to reach a wider and more diverse visitor base with your articles.

    1) Submit to the top 10 article directories

    How do you know which directories should be in your top 10 list? You have to research and rank them. You may wish to post to general as well as niche article directories depending on your topic.

    Use a common set of criteria to rank each directory. A few important criteria that I use are site age, pagerank, friendly approval process, and ease of use.

    I submit to several article directories which get spidered by search engines every few hours. These are the types of directories that search engines love and rank higher as a result.

    2) Compile your 10 articles and create an ebook

    After you’ve completed and submitted your articles to directories, compile your articles into a single ebook.

    Add a cover page, title page, and resource section. Then submit your book to ebook directories. This will get you more exposure than submitting to article directories alone.

    Be sure to include a link to your website on your ebook’s title page and resource page.

    3) Offer exclusive content to webmasters – for free

    You won’t be able to use your submitted articles, but you can write 5 to 10 additional articles. Offer them to a single webmaster for exclusive use.

    Make sure you get a link back to your site from the bottom of each article. Check out each site using Alexa to gauge how many visitors the site received.

    4) Use your blog to submit the articles

    Take each of your 10 articles you wrote initially, break them into smaller chunks. Post your article “chunks” on your blog.

    The key to this technique is to put more personality into the articles. Spin the articles a little to make sure you catch your voice. This should be fairly easy if you keep each post to 200 words or less.

    You should also change the title enough so it can get picked up by different syndication services and social networking sites.

    5) Repeat steps 1-4 above

    Article marketing should be repeated every month. It’s the “feeding” of the search engines with fresh, new content that gets the search engines to love your site.

    As you finish a batch of 10 articles, add it to your ebook. What would happen if you had an ebook that was 100+ pages long? Would you, as a site visitor, be willing to give out your name and email address if someone offered you a free resource that was over 100 pages? I would.

    As you seek out more creative ways to market your site, don’t neglect the methods you may already be applying. Make the most of each marketing technique to diversify your traffic and increase your sales.

  • 05May

    With the growing concern for security, there are plenty of associations and establishments that could benefit from an increase in the safety measures regarding employees, property, and information. Companies, small businesses, not-for-profit groups, and even schools should take advantage in enhancing the way they protect their interests. Below you will find a few suggestions that could help boost security for an array of different institutions:

    Photo ID System

    While high schools and large businesses may already utilize photo identification cards, smaller businesses and other associations might not have tapped into the convenience of such a tool. Some of the best photo ID systems are those that delegate varying levels of access according to your rank in a company. With the swipe of an electronic card, gaining entrance to top-level regions of a company are not only monitored but controlled as to who may have access to important files and other information. Implementing such a system can avoid the mishandling of vital data.

    Metal Detectors and X-Ray Scans

    Unfortunately, we live in a society that has made metal detectors and X-ray scans a necessary tool for increasing the security of a building. High schools and even middle schools across the country have already set up metal detectors to stop the flow of violence and weapon possession. Since drugs are becoming an increasing disturbing problem, X-ray scans may replace the strip and purse searches that are taking place in a handful of institutions. Violence also extends to the corporate world and other business settings, as disgruntled employees have been known to handle their stress in an inappropriate manner. Metal detectors and X-ray scans can avoid physical contact pertaining to employees and students.

    Camera Installation

    While security guards, onsite police officers, or high school principals don’t have eyes in the back of their heads, cameras may act as an extra set. Camera installation allows officials and executives to get to the root of many problems that may arise in their work setting. For example, the mysterious decrease in office supplies is finally solved through the review of several weeks of tapes or who started the food fight in lunch can be dissected. Cameras not only solve problems, but can help avoid them as well.

    Enhanced Computer Protection

    In some settings, the computer has become an encyclopedia of personal information regarding a company or school. Important and private files are stored and although passwords and user names are a must to gain access, they are still not 100% protected. Today, a lot of work is also completed on laptops, which are easily portable and make easy theft subjects. Buying laptop security devices allow workers to leave their office or desk without the fear of returning to a stolen computer.  Security cables are used to attach the laptop to a heavy chair, table, or desk, making it quite hard for someone to run off with one.

    Tightening Financial Controls

    One of the biggest fears that an executive or company owner has is the threat of employee theft or dishonesty. These acts of disobedience and disregard can cost the largest businesses billions of dollars on a yearly basis. In the small company sector, embezzlement, stolen inventory, and information leakage can seriously damage the success of a business. To prevent these occurrences and loss of money, tighter financial controls should be implemented.

  • 05May

    If you have an internet business and you are looking for excellent marketing strategies, it is often best to start out with strategies that have been successful for others. You want to choose marketing strategies that will bring excellent results when you use them. There are a variety of internet marketing strategies available, but the following are five strategies that have proven themselves effective over and over again.

    Strategy #1 – Search Engine Optimization
    One of the best internet marketing strategies to help you market your product or services is search engine optimization. This marketing strategy focuses on optimizing your site to be best found by popular search engines such as Yahoo and Google. Before you can make this strategy effective, it is important that you understand how search engine optimization works. If you are unfamiliar with this concept, it may be best to hire someone to help you with this type of marketing.

    Strategy #2 – Newsletters
    Another internet marketing strategy that has proven to be successful is e-newsletter marketing. This type of marketing works by allowing site visitors to sign up for your emails, and then you can periodically send out newsletters updating them on your business and making special offers to draw them back to your site. If you choose to use this strategy it is important that you only send these newsletters to those who sign up for them.

    Strategy #3 – Pay Per Click Ads
    A very popular form of internet marketing is using pay per click ads, which are both easy to use and cost-effective as well. You can sign up with various search engines to have your ad show up as a result for specific keywords and you will only have to pay if people click on your site. Many have found this internet marketing strategy to be one of the most effective strategies available.

    Strategy #4 – Link Exchanging
    A newer internet marketing strategy is link exchanging. This strategy basically works by having various websites exchange links. You can ask another site to provide a link to your site, and in return you will put a link to their site on yours. This works to be mutually beneficial for both businesses, and while it provides more web traffic, it can also help increase rank on search engines as well.

    Strategy #5 – Web Banners
    Web banners are another type of internet marketing strategy that has been proven to be very effective. This strategy requires purchasing space on other websites such as e-zines or other sites that may be relevant to your business. In the space you purchase your ad will appear and you will benefit from the traffic of that site being interested in what you have to offer.

    Each of these internet marketing strategies have proven to be great strategies that brought results. When choosing which of these strategies to use, be sure that you pick strategies that fit the nature of your business. There are many methods of internet marketing, but if you are new to the business, often using the tried and true methods can bring the best results.

  • 05May

    Ebay is the world’s largest marketplace with millions of dollars of transactions taking place every day. As such it also attracts a fair number of unwanted personnel, ebay scammers.

    Here are a few tips you should note when buying and selling on ebay to avoid falling into the traps set by ebay scammers

    1) Payment Terms

    Whether you are selling or buying anything on ebay, never agree to use Western Union or Money Gram for your transaction. It has been proven unsafe by numerous ebay users and it is also against ebay’s safe payment policy.

    2) Beware of Phishing

    Phishing is when someone sends you a spoofed email asking for your personal details usually from a recognized company or authority. Usually, they will have a link asking you to submit your details on that webpage.

    Do not submit any personal information regarding your ebay login account through it. If you are not sure whether it is authentic, call ebay and asked whether an email was sent to you. In all my years with ebay, they have never me an email asking to verify my ebay account login or credit card details or any of that sort. This also applies for Paypal.

    3) Monitor Your Ebay Account

    You need to monitor your ebay account closely for any suspicious activity. Examples may be any feedback left, transactions closed, auctions you have listed
    Without your knowledge. Inform ebay the moment you suspected your ebay account is being compromised.

    4) Second Chance Offers

    This seems to be the new favorite scam with ebay scammers and I’ve seen a couple of them. If you receive a second chance offer for an item you recently bid, check it is from your ebay Messages inbox with the title “ebay Second Chance Offer for …”If it is, it is authentic. If the email is not in your ebay message inbox or the email title is different, then chances are it is from an ebay scammer. If you are not sure, contact ebay and ask to verify it.

    5) Ebay Toolbar and PayPal SafetyBar

    Ebay provides a toolbar which can determine whether you are on a legitimate ebay or paypal site. My advise is to install it since it’s free. Paypal Safetybar can also detect scam emails in your inbox

    By Following the five points above, you will reduce your chances of being scammed by a ebay con artist.

  • 05May

    Many folks dream of having their own online home business, working the hours that are convenient to them, answering to no one and having all the free time they want in order to spend all that money they are going to earn. Starting a home online business can wind up being rewarding, but not as easy as many people may believe and there are five things you will need to consider before making the plunge.

    Tip #1. You will have to establish a work time schedule. The myth of working whatever hours you choose is one of the biggest attractions to starting an online home business, but not scheduling a set number of hours in which to do the work is an invitation to fail. The time you schedule does not have to be the same as traditional business hours since your online business is open all day, every day. They can be any hours you choose, but there needs to be a set number of hours dedicated to the business every day.

    The thought of working in your pajamas is another selling point to many home businesses, especially those based on the internet, but realistically offering a professional service requires a professional attitude and, realistically, how professional can you be in your pajamas. Maybe you can trade in the suit and tie for t-shirt and jeans, but being ready for an online home business should not be any different than getting ready for a traditional job.

    Tip #2. Establish an area in the home in which you will work. Whether it is a spare bedroom transformed into an office or a section of the kitchen carved into a home office is irrelevant. What matters is that you, as well as the rest of the family understand that this is your place of employment. Interruptions and conflicts are not appreciated nor will they be tolerated.

    Tip #3. Establish an online presence for your business. Many who work an online home business do not see the need for having their own website, especially if the business provides one for free. Understand that with marketing, having your own online presence can direct traffic directly to you and not one of possibly thousands of other websites offering the same type of service or product as you offer.

    Tip #4. You will need to let others know about the services you offer and the easiest and possibly most cost-effective way to do this is through networking. When many working an online home business hear the term networking, a shiver goes up their spine. Forget for a moment about online network marketing and think about all the networking you are already involved with. If you belong to a social or professional organization, you are networking.

    Tip #5. You are the best selling item in your inventory. Whether selling a service or a product the first things potential customers will see is you. Being able to sell yourself to others is a huge step in building a successful online home business.

  • 05May

    Business opportunities are all over the Internet. You can do any one that you feel is right for you. However, making money with them is not as easy as everyone leads you to believe. There are a few things that you need to know if you are going to make money online. By following these tips you will be able to achieve the financial freedom that you have always dreamed of.

    Tip 1: When looking for a business opportunity you will need to find one that has great products that you know everyone will want. They also need to have a marketing system that can be easily duplicated. This will provide you with training on marketing that will help you start making money.

    Tip 2: When you find the opportunity that you are looking for. You will need to educate yourself on Internet marketing. This is one very important thing that you do not want to neglect. This will be your key to achieving the financial freedom that you want. You will never stop learning as there is so much that you need to know. Just remember that education is something that you need for any business.

    Tip 3: You will need to be persistent and be able to motivate yourself. It will be up to you to make money with your own business. No one can do this for you so you will need to be able to do a little something on your business every day. No matter what you will need to be persistent in your advertising. It may take you a while to get where you want to be but by doing a little something every day you will be able to get your business started.

    Tip 4: Don’t ever give up. This is one mistake that a lot of people make when they don’t see results right away. It will take some time to make the kind of money that you want to. There will also be a learning curve when you first start your business. So do everything you can to become a success and don’t ever let anything stop you.

    Tip 5: Find a mentor who can teach you what you need to know. There are a lot of people out there who are successfully making money on the Internet every day. Most of these people will be able to show you how they did it and will help you every step of the way.

    These are just a few tips that you will need to follow if you are going to achieve the financial freedom that you want. It can be done but it may take you some time. Don’t let this stop you from making your business a success.

    Summary: Financial freedom can be achieved when you have your own online business. You just need to follow a few simple tips to help you on the road to success. It is up to you to make your own dream of financial freedom come true.

  • 05May

    I’ve learned a lot about search engines and search engine marketing, mostly by trial and error. It’s those countless hours of research, testing, and failing when I often think it would have been better to let someone else experience it first, then I could simply observe and learn. But, I don’t have the patience to stand around and let others fail first. What’s the fun in that?

    So, I’ve put together five points that, hopefully, someone else can learn from and avoid having to test themselves.

    1) Google is the 800 pound gorilla. This is something I learned when I was mostly using pay per click advertising. Google is so far ahead in terms of technology and usability. Other search engines not only missed the boat, they fell in the water and drowned. Yahoo! is coming around but how many years did it take? Google is where it’s at. So, get over your love of Yahoo!, MSN, and AskJeeves. Join the gorilla.

    2) Be patient So simple yet so profound. I see it time and again. People, especially new internet marketers, get dollar signs stuck in their eyes. They bite off on all the garbage that says you can get millions of visitors with no money and no effort. I bought off on it too. And it worked, for a few months. Trying to start a business online will try your soul like nothing else. The only way to have patience is to set goals, way out goals, and move towards them. There’s no more free lunch on the internet

    3) Nobody owes you anything We get upset. We cry and scream. We think we’ve been treated unfairly. We’re doing good and then, wammo! We get hit with an update which knocks us out. Someone posts an ugly comment about our business. We get accused of all sorts of stuff. Some of it true. Most of it false. But we have to keep perspective. Nobody, not even the search engines, owe us anything. Think about it. Search engines are a free service. How many daily newspapers let businesses advertise for free? That’s essentially what you’re getting, free advertising.

    4) You have to prove yourself This goes back to patience. When you’re just starting out, no matter how great you think you really are, you still have to prove yourself. You have to go out just like everyone else, toot your own horn, give away free advice, and basically do it all for no money. How do you earn trust? By being trustworthy. Very few bootstrap startups are successful from day one. Set goals, keep your perspective, and never give up.

    5) Spammers still make money I never officially considered myself a spammer. But, I did use a few spammy techniques to get search traffic. What you have to realize is that there will always be spammers. If people are still making money by sending spam email, they still make money by spamming the search engines. Yes, it’s getting harder but it’s not impossible. But, don’t fall to that temptation. Spamming as a business is a lot of work. Why not focus on what you really want to do and not worry about the search engines? Trust me, you’ll rest a lot easier.

    While these ideas certainly don’t cover every “I wish I knew” scenario, they should give you a head start on where you should be directing your time and money. Two valuable resources that can never be recovered once spent.