Stay updated with the SEO news and SEO updates from the best SEO websites on the SEO 3.0 net, Search Engine Journal, SEOmoz, Search Engine Land and Graywolf’s SEO blog.
Search Engine Journal
* Google Chrome at 120 Million DAU, Chrome OS Set for Mid-Year15 April 2011, 10:38 pm
There’s no doubt at all that Google is investing intensely in their Chrome web browser. Why? Well, it’s been described a lot of ways, but key factors include Chrome’s importance for services like SPDY, the ability to set web standards that Google services can then follow, and the opportunity to fine-tune up the technology for the [...]Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.Google Chrome at 120 Million DAU, Chrome OS Set for Mid-Year...
* Google App Downloads Hit 3 Billion Mark15 April 2011, 9:23 pm
Quarterly reports are to companies what New Year’s Day is to people: a chance to make new goals, review your progress so far, and have an extra drink. Google’s quarterly report for Q1 2011 was especially drink-worthy in several ways. The biggest bragging points of note are Google’s revenue, which broke all previous records, and [...]Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.Google App Downloads Hit 3 Billion Mark...
* Google News Releases Version for Low-End Phones15 April 2011, 8:51 pm
In the U.S, more than half of all mobile phone subscribers will be using a smartphone. The expanding presence of smartphones is forcing data coverage lower, the hardware is becoming more accessible, the operating systems are becoming friendlier and more secure, battery life is (slowly) increasing; there are mounds of reasons to make the switch. [...]Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.Google News Releases Version for Low-End Phones...
SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog
* How to Make SEO Happen - Whiteboard Friday14 April 2011, 9:09 pm
Posted by Aaron Wheeler Sure, you know SEO like you know the back of your hand. You know how to linkbuild, and you know how to do keyword research. Of course you've got a lot of SEO knowledge - you've been watching these Whiteboard Fridays every week, right? =P Well, now it's time to get crackin'! Unfortunately, it feels like you never have enough time to get done all the things you know you should do. Maybe the people in charge aren't willing to do the things you know they need to do to ge...
* The Story of SEOmoz13 April 2011, 9:29 pm
Posted by randfishSeveral weeks back, I gave a very unique talk at LUISS University in Rome, Italy at the bequest of the US State Department and the Business Association Italy America (BAIA). The audience was small, but the energy was fantastic. Italy has traditionally been a challenging place to do a tech startup, but a consortium of folks are aiming to change that. My talk was an early part of that effort, and I'm really proud to be involved. Luckily, the presentation can now reach a...
* How to Build Links Without Fancy Tools12 April 2011, 8:44 pm
Posted by Paddy_MooganA question that I get asked quite a bit is something along the lines of "what link building tools do you use?". The honest truth is that I don't use that many on client sites every day. I've certainly paid for and used quite a few over the last few years, but when I first started in SEO, I didn't have the cash to buy tools or subscribe to them. This forced me to do things manually for quite a long time, but it helped me learn how link building really wor...
Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
* Panda Update: Google Lowers The Boom On eHow.com16 April 2011, 11:00 pm
... New!
* SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 15, 201115 April 2011, 8:49 pm
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* Google Intros New Privacy Controls For Mobile Consumers15 April 2011, 8:37 pm
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Graywolf's SEO Blog
* How to Make Your Website Look More Legitimate14 April 2011, 3:26 pm
In the most recent 12 months, Google has taken steps to reward websites that are brands, or at least give signals that they algorithmically look like brands. If you’re not national, regional, or local brand, here are some steps you can do to look more brand-like. Get a Real Address I’ve written about Google giving [...]This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis WordPress Theme review. How to Make Your Website Look More Legitim...
* Where to Get Photos for Your Website or Blog13 April 2011, 3:06 pm
The following is part of a series on image optimization. In this post we’re going to be looking at sources for images. Premium Stock Images There are a lot of sources for stock images on the web. On the web, however, there is a huge divide in prices. While the images from this category are [...]This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis WordPress Theme review. Where to Get Photos for Your Website or Blog Related posts:How to drive...
* Andrew Wise of LinkWheelers Talks About the Panda Update12 April 2011, 3:09 pm
The following is a sponsored post. For today’s post we’re going to be talking with Andrew Wise of SEOLinkWheelers.com you may remember I spoke with Andrew back in January (see Interview with Andrew Wise of SEOLinkWheelers.com). Today we’re going to be talking about the Panda update, can you tell us what you think where the [...]This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis WordPress Theme review. Andrew Wise of LinkWheelers...
Regards,
Senthilkc
Thursday, April 21, 2011
How to Drive Traffic From Facebook on Your Website
Facebook is yet another social network that has gained much popularity in recent years. There have been many other social networks before Facebook, but none could reach the popularity graph of Facebook in such a quick time. Today Facebook is not just about socializing, but even emerging as best social media to post information regarding company or service and can be used for business. You can use this social media to promote your products and services, to acquire new clients, or even get traffic to your website or blog. In case, if you still wondering about how to get target visitors from social media like Facebook on your website then here are few vital social media optimization tips that you can follow:
Try to include information regarding your website on your wall or in photo gallery- Facebook is one of the few social networking that facilitates you to write a lot about you and your endeavors. Adding to this, you may even add or include pictures, so try to have the maximum use of all these opportunities and build the interest in you and your products.
Always try to build a good network- You need to understand that your network is your major capital in social networking websites. Therefore, always try to invite your friends and partners and ask them to join as your supporter. In fact, the best exercise that you can follow is you should always search for people with interests similar to yours. However, make sure you never spam, remember this is not the way to encourage people to join your network.
You have to post regularly – Posting regularly is the best recipe for success on Facebook. You need to understand that if you don’t publish new content regularly, the traffic to your Facebook profile and correspondingly the traffic to your website will automatically get slow and may affect the traffic. The chances are very high that you may not be able to post on a daily basis, so the best thing that you can do is try to do it as frequently as you can. If nothing else then you may also try to update your status regularly.
Try to arrange your page- Facebook is one of the few social networks that provide you the flexibility to move around many of the boxes. Just for example, if you put the RSS feed with the links to your blog in a visible space, this simple step can easily help you in generating lots of traffic for your blog or even website from Facebook account.
You can also use Facebook social ads- If you are unable to get target visitors the most appropriate and effective way you can get the traffic is by using Facebook Social ads. These are just like PPC ads and starting a campaign is similar to an AdWords campaign.
You can also start a group – Start a group about something related to your business and invite people to join it. Following this method has a great advantage as this approach is the simplest way of getting the targeted visitors who are only interested in your profile, product or your services, etc.
It is not possible to compile a complete list of all the tactics you can use in order to drive traffic from Facebook to your site, but following just few basics as we have listed here, might increase the chances of considerable increase in ratio of target visitors from Facebook to your website or blog.
Optimize your social networking profile with specialized Social Media Guide and reach more potential visitors on your site.
Regards,
Senthilkc
Try to include information regarding your website on your wall or in photo gallery- Facebook is one of the few social networking that facilitates you to write a lot about you and your endeavors. Adding to this, you may even add or include pictures, so try to have the maximum use of all these opportunities and build the interest in you and your products.
Always try to build a good network- You need to understand that your network is your major capital in social networking websites. Therefore, always try to invite your friends and partners and ask them to join as your supporter. In fact, the best exercise that you can follow is you should always search for people with interests similar to yours. However, make sure you never spam, remember this is not the way to encourage people to join your network.
You have to post regularly – Posting regularly is the best recipe for success on Facebook. You need to understand that if you don’t publish new content regularly, the traffic to your Facebook profile and correspondingly the traffic to your website will automatically get slow and may affect the traffic. The chances are very high that you may not be able to post on a daily basis, so the best thing that you can do is try to do it as frequently as you can. If nothing else then you may also try to update your status regularly.
Try to arrange your page- Facebook is one of the few social networks that provide you the flexibility to move around many of the boxes. Just for example, if you put the RSS feed with the links to your blog in a visible space, this simple step can easily help you in generating lots of traffic for your blog or even website from Facebook account.
You can also use Facebook social ads- If you are unable to get target visitors the most appropriate and effective way you can get the traffic is by using Facebook Social ads. These are just like PPC ads and starting a campaign is similar to an AdWords campaign.
You can also start a group – Start a group about something related to your business and invite people to join it. Following this method has a great advantage as this approach is the simplest way of getting the targeted visitors who are only interested in your profile, product or your services, etc.
It is not possible to compile a complete list of all the tactics you can use in order to drive traffic from Facebook to your site, but following just few basics as we have listed here, might increase the chances of considerable increase in ratio of target visitors from Facebook to your website or blog.
Optimize your social networking profile with specialized Social Media Guide and reach more potential visitors on your site.
Regards,
Senthilkc
Advanced SEO
Sydney, NSW (PRWEB) November 27, 2007 -- Bruce Clay Australia has announced that they will be running a three day Advanced Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Training course from the 17th to the 19th of March, 2008, just after AdTech, Sydney. The Training course, delivered monthly in the United States, has been run twice in Australia during 2007 and positively received by all attendees.
The training is consistently rated #1 by TopSEO's and is a must for any individual or organisation serious about SEO. Bruce Clay, the president of Bruce Clay, Inc, will be delivering the training and it will include the methodologies and techniques used by our in-house analysts as well as access to the SEOToolset™, which includes over 60 SEO related tools and detailed training materials. The training is designed for all those involved with search engine optimisation activities including webmasters, marketing and responsible management.
Bruce Clay SEO training also offers a Certification Program that recognizes your SEO skills, proficiency with the SEOToolSet™ and adherence to ethical practices. If you would like more information please contact the Sydney Bruce Clay office.
Jeremy Bolt, a Director of Bruce Clay Australia said "We recogised a gap in the Australian market for a quality SEO training course that delivered a comprehensive methodology and toolset, and not just people talking about their own experiences or selling their services. This course gets into the detail, the How-to's, the latest and nothing is held back."
The training attracts Marketing professionals with an interest in Search Engine Marketing, IT professionals who are keen to build search engine friendly websites and business owners that appreciate the leads and resulting benefits that can come from a successful SEO campaign. In 2007, attendees included representatives from some of Australians leading media, telecommunications, entertainment and travel websites.
With the increasing penetration of search engine marketing (SEM), having a clean search engine friendly website is even more important to increase quality scores and reduce SEM campaign costs.
Regards,
Senthilkc
The training is consistently rated #1 by TopSEO's and is a must for any individual or organisation serious about SEO. Bruce Clay, the president of Bruce Clay, Inc, will be delivering the training and it will include the methodologies and techniques used by our in-house analysts as well as access to the SEOToolset™, which includes over 60 SEO related tools and detailed training materials. The training is designed for all those involved with search engine optimisation activities including webmasters, marketing and responsible management.
Bruce Clay SEO training also offers a Certification Program that recognizes your SEO skills, proficiency with the SEOToolSet™ and adherence to ethical practices. If you would like more information please contact the Sydney Bruce Clay office.
Jeremy Bolt, a Director of Bruce Clay Australia said "We recogised a gap in the Australian market for a quality SEO training course that delivered a comprehensive methodology and toolset, and not just people talking about their own experiences or selling their services. This course gets into the detail, the How-to's, the latest and nothing is held back."
The training attracts Marketing professionals with an interest in Search Engine Marketing, IT professionals who are keen to build search engine friendly websites and business owners that appreciate the leads and resulting benefits that can come from a successful SEO campaign. In 2007, attendees included representatives from some of Australians leading media, telecommunications, entertainment and travel websites.
With the increasing penetration of search engine marketing (SEM), having a clean search engine friendly website is even more important to increase quality scores and reduce SEM campaign costs.
Regards,
Senthilkc
Guide Before Selecting An Online Games
We know that casino games is one of the most popular entertainment for elders now a day, though there are many casino web sites which provide different casino games with various offers and bonuses, players should be careful while selecting the casino site to play for. They must look out for the casinos which will provide them quality games, where the player can trust and where there are best player services.
While selecting an online casinos you have to pay attention on certain things such as on the reputation of the casino website, on the software provider, bonuses offered by the casinos like sign up bonus, payout time, graphics, game play, speed, monthly tournaments bonus and no deposit bonus, selection of games qualifying for wager, customer services offered by the casinos also about the blacklisted countries and many more. Before playing in any casinos you have to go through the terms and conditions of the casino site and must understand it properly.
Online-casino-list.com guide have list for top online casino games to help you choose and determine which the best online casino for you to begin with.
Regards,
Senthilkc
While selecting an online casinos you have to pay attention on certain things such as on the reputation of the casino website, on the software provider, bonuses offered by the casinos like sign up bonus, payout time, graphics, game play, speed, monthly tournaments bonus and no deposit bonus, selection of games qualifying for wager, customer services offered by the casinos also about the blacklisted countries and many more. Before playing in any casinos you have to go through the terms and conditions of the casino site and must understand it properly.
Online-casino-list.com guide have list for top online casino games to help you choose and determine which the best online casino for you to begin with.
Regards,
Senthilkc
Best Game ever seen!!
Traditionally, land based casinos was the only means to satisfy a persons gambling urge. The players had to travel long distance to get to the casino. The casinos were confined to certain areas and still now also, many places have banned land based casinos. Now a day every individual are interested in surfing online and should know how to navigate the entire internet in order to find their needs. With the coming of the online casinos, any player can have access to casino gaming with just a click of the mouse and search some information about online casino or sign up on casino forum sites and ask a recommendation on which the best online casino room sites as will as information, tips and ideas.
We know that playing casinos online is one of the most popular pastimes now a day, although this game is fun and interesting but it also requires skills and initiative for you to win. But there is so much more to the online casinos game. Casino.de has included a list of casinos accepting US players as well as the most popular casinos by player votes. I’ve noticed a few things to look out for when choosing an online casino with regard to financial arrangements that simply make life so much easier like Casino.de site is the best most popular online casino review site listing nearly 100 of the best online casinos.
Regards,
Senthilkc
We know that playing casinos online is one of the most popular pastimes now a day, although this game is fun and interesting but it also requires skills and initiative for you to win. But there is so much more to the online casinos game. Casino.de has included a list of casinos accepting US players as well as the most popular casinos by player votes. I’ve noticed a few things to look out for when choosing an online casino with regard to financial arrangements that simply make life so much easier like Casino.de site is the best most popular online casino review site listing nearly 100 of the best online casinos.
Regards,
Senthilkc
SEO for Google PR
Is Google PR really dead? Some web hosting and web development companies believe that it is a business opportunity and claim that they can do SEO and help you position websites in top of search engines results. Unfortunately, they only help you to open a paid search marketing account in Yahoo! Search Marketing or Google Adwords and take some of your budget as service fee. No matter you open an account yourself or use those service provider, you require to bid and pay for each click in search engines.
In an online forum post a discussion on Google PR, people from anywhere are speculating about what is going on. In fact, one member was quick to point out that the last big shift Google had, we saw the PR system go down as well. This begs the question... Are we seeing a Google marketing scheme just to shake people up?
What will it mean if Google's PR systems stays down?
In many ways, Google needs to be improved upon their busted PR system. There are so many areas they payed attention to forums and blogs all around the world, they would have more than enough feedback about their PR system to fix this growing PR issue.
Page ranking is a potentially a great system. It can be a great system if it directly ranks websites properly by relevancy, content and not simply by the number of links pointing to an individual website.
These days, you see a website with few medium relevant links pointing to it while its front page holds a PR of 7-8 out of 10. How does SEO company justify that?
Until then, take this old story and find other ways to build your business online. Don't worry about what Google is doing, worry about what you are doing to improve your internet marketing campaign.
Regards,
Senthilkc
In an online forum post a discussion on Google PR, people from anywhere are speculating about what is going on. In fact, one member was quick to point out that the last big shift Google had, we saw the PR system go down as well. This begs the question... Are we seeing a Google marketing scheme just to shake people up?
What will it mean if Google's PR systems stays down?
In many ways, Google needs to be improved upon their busted PR system. There are so many areas they payed attention to forums and blogs all around the world, they would have more than enough feedback about their PR system to fix this growing PR issue.
Page ranking is a potentially a great system. It can be a great system if it directly ranks websites properly by relevancy, content and not simply by the number of links pointing to an individual website.
These days, you see a website with few medium relevant links pointing to it while its front page holds a PR of 7-8 out of 10. How does SEO company justify that?
Until then, take this old story and find other ways to build your business online. Don't worry about what Google is doing, worry about what you are doing to improve your internet marketing campaign.
Regards,
Senthilkc
seo new updates
After most years of selling upon a internet, we have come to comprehend which a most creative selling plan is PPC advertising. Adwords Pay Per Click however has it’s drawbacks. If you have been new marketing with really small believe of keywords, you mount a possibility of losing a lot of money. It is utterly a plea perplexing to contest for same keywords with a some-more knowledge marketers who have a income to outbid their competitors. That is a reason we indicate expanding your horizons by regulating prolonged tail keywords for improved formula with PPC.
Long tail keywords have been shady treasures which most home commercial operation entrepreneurs mostly fail to notice. A lengthened tail keyword is a password as against to a singular word. Instead of regulating a keyword related to topic, you can put together to have a prolonged tail keyword such as how to get topic. Long tail keywords have been really in effect since not all people simply dig for a singular word, in actuality most internet searches will be a mixed word search.
Living in renouned make make use of of prolonged tail keyword word in your PPC ad campaign, regulating keyword collection such as Google AdWords Keyword Tool and SEO Book. These supports have been now used for working out a volume of a competitors to a stream buzzword. You will additionally be means to find out how most searches per month for any keyword word is created. In further to assisting you win a Keyword Tool PPC promotion costs for a due series of keyword phrases to urge your campaign.
Using prolonged tail keyword not usually assistance me to beat a price of PPC promotion though it additionally assistance me to get front page chain with my blogs and articles. Long tail keywords has been obliged for branch my PPC campaigns in to an online income creation machine. Before you give up upon regulating Pay Per Click promotion we indicate you cruise regulating prolonged tail keywords in your campaign.
Regards,
Senthilkc
Long tail keywords have been shady treasures which most home commercial operation entrepreneurs mostly fail to notice. A lengthened tail keyword is a password as against to a singular word. Instead of regulating a keyword related to topic, you can put together to have a prolonged tail keyword such as how to get topic. Long tail keywords have been really in effect since not all people simply dig for a singular word, in actuality most internet searches will be a mixed word search.
Living in renouned make make use of of prolonged tail keyword word in your PPC ad campaign, regulating keyword collection such as Google AdWords Keyword Tool and SEO Book. These supports have been now used for working out a volume of a competitors to a stream buzzword. You will additionally be means to find out how most searches per month for any keyword word is created. In further to assisting you win a Keyword Tool PPC promotion costs for a due series of keyword phrases to urge your campaign.
Using prolonged tail keyword not usually assistance me to beat a price of PPC promotion though it additionally assistance me to get front page chain with my blogs and articles. Long tail keywords has been obliged for branch my PPC campaigns in to an online income creation machine. Before you give up upon regulating Pay Per Click promotion we indicate you cruise regulating prolonged tail keywords in your campaign.
Regards,
Senthilkc
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
SEO Trends 2011
SEO Trends 2011
If you have a business website than you must require a best web promotion plans for your business website so that you will good ROI by their business. As a professional web promotion service provider HCT web promotion expert is explaining new SEO Trends of 2011. In 2011 online viewer like fast browsing website with complete information about their industries or products and services so if you have business website than must follows these steps.
For improving website browsing speed you can follow following steps:
a) HTML Validation (w3c validator checks the markup validity of Web documents in HTML, XHTML, SMIL, MathML, etc.)
b) CSS Validation (Check Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and (X) HTML documents with style sheets)
c) Page Speed Firefox extension (Page Speed is a family of tools for optimizing the performance of web pages. The Page Speed Firefox /Firebug add-on allows you to evaluate the performance of your web pages and to get suggestions on how to improve them. The mod page speed Apache module automatically rewrites pages and resources to improve their performance.)
d) Closure (compiles JavaScript into compact, high performance code.) The Closure Compiler compiles JavaScript into compact, high-performance code. The compiler removes dead code and rewrites and minimizes what's left so that it downloads and runs quickly.
Another important fact of SEO Trends 2011 is mobile version website
Each popular website owner is going to develop mobile version of their existing version so that they interact with their online mobile viewer. If you are targeting mobile viewer than you must required a mobile browser compatible website that represent your online business. HCT has expertise in developing mobile version website design. We have also expertise in web promotion of mobile version website.
And another most important trends 2011 is your website service or product video.
You tube and more video search engine rapidly using by online viewer so each business website owner also attract in these trends. In this trends develop a video that is explaining business service and making of business products etc. It is very helpful of online viewer as well as increases your website visibility and popularity.
Regards,
Alleshopz.com
If you have a business website than you must require a best web promotion plans for your business website so that you will good ROI by their business. As a professional web promotion service provider HCT web promotion expert is explaining new SEO Trends of 2011. In 2011 online viewer like fast browsing website with complete information about their industries or products and services so if you have business website than must follows these steps.
For improving website browsing speed you can follow following steps:
a) HTML Validation (w3c validator checks the markup validity of Web documents in HTML, XHTML, SMIL, MathML, etc.)
b) CSS Validation (Check Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and (X) HTML documents with style sheets)
c) Page Speed Firefox extension (Page Speed is a family of tools for optimizing the performance of web pages. The Page Speed Firefox /Firebug add-on allows you to evaluate the performance of your web pages and to get suggestions on how to improve them. The mod page speed Apache module automatically rewrites pages and resources to improve their performance.)
d) Closure (compiles JavaScript into compact, high performance code.) The Closure Compiler compiles JavaScript into compact, high-performance code. The compiler removes dead code and rewrites and minimizes what's left so that it downloads and runs quickly.
Another important fact of SEO Trends 2011 is mobile version website
Each popular website owner is going to develop mobile version of their existing version so that they interact with their online mobile viewer. If you are targeting mobile viewer than you must required a mobile browser compatible website that represent your online business. HCT has expertise in developing mobile version website design. We have also expertise in web promotion of mobile version website.
And another most important trends 2011 is your website service or product video.
You tube and more video search engine rapidly using by online viewer so each business website owner also attract in these trends. In this trends develop a video that is explaining business service and making of business products etc. It is very helpful of online viewer as well as increases your website visibility and popularity.
Regards,
Alleshopz.com
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
4 Signs an SEO Firm is a Fraud
This post started as a detailed roast of a couple of SEO firms here in Seattle. I use the term 'firms' very loosely. But I have my limits of meanness, and decided that they may simply not know any better. This post gives them a chance to withdraw any claim of search engine optimization expertise and retire from the field with dignity. But guys, if you keep trying to sell your 'expertise' to unsuspecting small business owners, all bets are off.
If you're a small business owner, or even a big one, and you go looking for an SEO expert, it's hard to tell the real deal from the total fraud. I've outed other firms before and used their promises and tactics as an illustration of what not to do. Now, thanks to a couple of SEO practitioners I just found here in Seattle, I can give you more signs you should run screaming from an SEO 'pro':
The keyword machine gun
If they've written stuff that looks like this then they're a danger to themselves and others:
seo-seattle-whoring.jpg
Wow. I thought I was a keyword whore.
I mean, never mind the fact that this reads like a computer developed a horrific case of the hiccups. Do you really think search engines will accept this as OK?
The keyword machine gun technique may work for a day or two. But it's a faulty tactic that will land anyone with a long-term business plan in trouble. Avoid it.
That used-car smell
If their carefully-crafted sales copy reads like a 2nd-grade grammar quiz:
givenaway.gif
...then it doesn't matter what they're "given" away. RUN.
That kind of writing is almost certainly a precursor to the used car lot-style sales pitch:
usedcars.gif
...that is wrong on so many levels I'm not sure where to begin. Own the 1st three pages of Google? Lock competitors out of the search engines? Dude, what the hell are you smoking? Are you trying to tell me you can get my business to control the top 30 spots on Google, for every important search phrase?
Yes they are. And no, they can't do it. No matter how many times you repeat 'SEO Seattle' in a paragraph, you still only grab 1 spot.
If you feel like you're buying from a guy in a plaid jacket who swears his grandmama last owned this car, flee the scene.
Automatic weapons
The same consultant is connected with another person who purports to offer 'automated web marketing systems'. Cough.
I'm not sure what they mean by 'automated', so I won't go too far. But anyone claiming any automated technique for SEO should make you suspicious. And in case the folks in question post a comment below saying "Our automated stuff is for social media, not SEO": Automated social media marketing is even worse.
Incompetence
Ah, now we get to brass tacks. If the SEO 'guru' you're reading about can't do SEO for themselves, that's the clearest sign you'll be wasting your money.
If, for example, the guru's web site has no title tags, that's a bad sign:
notitletag.jpg
See where it says 'Mozilla Firefox'? If the page had a title tag, it would say something else. Firefox defaults to its own brand name when no title tag exists.
So an SEO expert left out one of the most important elements of on-page SEO.
"Hmmm. That can't be right," I said, "I must be mis-interpreting some super-secret SEO tactic."
So, I viewed the source code to see what's up:
nottitle2.gif
Alas. No title tag. And no description tag, which of course means no sensible search snippet in the search results. And a doctype declaration for XHTML when the page is all table-driven and barely compliant with HTML 3.
If you're not an SEO pro, these may seem like silly details to you. But good SEO is driven by lots of 'silly' details that, when you put them together, spell success or failure for your campaign. And a consultant should know that.
Regards,
Senthilkc
Alleshopz.com
If you're a small business owner, or even a big one, and you go looking for an SEO expert, it's hard to tell the real deal from the total fraud. I've outed other firms before and used their promises and tactics as an illustration of what not to do. Now, thanks to a couple of SEO practitioners I just found here in Seattle, I can give you more signs you should run screaming from an SEO 'pro':
The keyword machine gun
If they've written stuff that looks like this then they're a danger to themselves and others:
seo-seattle-whoring.jpg
Wow. I thought I was a keyword whore.
I mean, never mind the fact that this reads like a computer developed a horrific case of the hiccups. Do you really think search engines will accept this as OK?
The keyword machine gun technique may work for a day or two. But it's a faulty tactic that will land anyone with a long-term business plan in trouble. Avoid it.
That used-car smell
If their carefully-crafted sales copy reads like a 2nd-grade grammar quiz:
givenaway.gif
...then it doesn't matter what they're "given" away. RUN.
That kind of writing is almost certainly a precursor to the used car lot-style sales pitch:
usedcars.gif
...that is wrong on so many levels I'm not sure where to begin. Own the 1st three pages of Google? Lock competitors out of the search engines? Dude, what the hell are you smoking? Are you trying to tell me you can get my business to control the top 30 spots on Google, for every important search phrase?
Yes they are. And no, they can't do it. No matter how many times you repeat 'SEO Seattle' in a paragraph, you still only grab 1 spot.
If you feel like you're buying from a guy in a plaid jacket who swears his grandmama last owned this car, flee the scene.
Automatic weapons
The same consultant is connected with another person who purports to offer 'automated web marketing systems'. Cough.
I'm not sure what they mean by 'automated', so I won't go too far. But anyone claiming any automated technique for SEO should make you suspicious. And in case the folks in question post a comment below saying "Our automated stuff is for social media, not SEO": Automated social media marketing is even worse.
Incompetence
Ah, now we get to brass tacks. If the SEO 'guru' you're reading about can't do SEO for themselves, that's the clearest sign you'll be wasting your money.
If, for example, the guru's web site has no title tags, that's a bad sign:
notitletag.jpg
See where it says 'Mozilla Firefox'? If the page had a title tag, it would say something else. Firefox defaults to its own brand name when no title tag exists.
So an SEO expert left out one of the most important elements of on-page SEO.
"Hmmm. That can't be right," I said, "I must be mis-interpreting some super-secret SEO tactic."
So, I viewed the source code to see what's up:
nottitle2.gif
Alas. No title tag. And no description tag, which of course means no sensible search snippet in the search results. And a doctype declaration for XHTML when the page is all table-driven and barely compliant with HTML 3.
If you're not an SEO pro, these may seem like silly details to you. But good SEO is driven by lots of 'silly' details that, when you put them together, spell success or failure for your campaign. And a consultant should know that.
Regards,
Senthilkc
Alleshopz.com
Friday, December 17, 2010
Making money from your website using advertising
You have managed to get your website to that magical point where you have established popularity, traffic, loyalty and a community of fans. Your site contains a wealth of information, resources and services that you provide free because that’s just the kind of person you are. You may not have intended to make money from your site but now that you have an audience you realise that it’s possible, or perhaps you have to start thinking about generating income because your costs to manage the site have increased and it’s starting to hurt.
You have been diligent over the years to build up your community, but now you wonder how to go about making some revenue by leveraging this audience (as the marketers would say, you want to monetise your site). Maybe you have some big dreams and plan to one day generate advertising income from your new web project. This is a very common plan for online business given people tend to expect information and services to be free on the web. Advertising may be one of the only revenue generation strategies available to you.
How much traffic do I have to have to make money?
In my experience once you have about 500-1000 unique visitors per day to your site *at least* before you can start to make real money. You can make chimps change from day one from your 50 hits, but this article is targeted at those that have a larger audience, or perhaps are constructing a business plan (either real or in your head) and would like to know how to go about monetising your website. If you get more then 1000 unique visitors a day chances are you already make money from your site (if not you should be!) but my points are still relevant.
As per usual I will illustrate my article using real world examples from what I did to make money. Over about five years I managed a hobby site that started off as a very local site focusing on people in my area that played the game Magic: The Gathering. I wrote reports and did news coverage for the game. Later I expanded the site to Australia and eventually opened it to the world although it remained mostly Australian with a good chunk of Asians and New Zealanders.
Banner programs
At around the time I was getting 500 unique visitors a day I decided to start playing with advertising methods. This was before the advent of Google Adsense (more on this later) but there were many banner programs available that paid either on cost per click (CPC) or per impression basis. An impression is a banner being displayed to a user once, a click is someone clicking the banner and visiting the site being advertised.
These networks act as a middle man between business that want to advertise and people like me that have an audience and want to make some money by displaying banners. Unfortunately these programs display banners that often don’t match your audience. I tried a few but it was a short lived experiment that made me a few dollars if that.
I recommend you avoid any banner programs. If you are confused about what I am talking about regarding banner programs take a look at Burst Media to get a grasp of how they work. For small sites they just don’t make much money. For large sites there are much better ways to make money. I’m sure there are people out there that make good money from these programs (I’m sure the program owners do!) but in my experience a little effort to find the right type of advertising can yield much better results.
I decided the best way to make money was to really leverage the demographics of my audience. I had a fairly focused niche, card game playing young males. I started by emailing all the local and international card game shops and asked if they were interested in exposure to my market. Instantly I had responses but I had to come up with a pricing structure first.
How much should you charge?
By this time my site was getting close to 1000 unique visitors per day, with about 300,000 impressions per month. I had done my research and I knew that advertising on websites was usually via a standard 468×60 banner so I would start with that. I also knew that many companies charged by what is called CPM or cost per 1000 impressions. Back then this was by far the most commonly used scale for pricing of web advertising and you could expect to earn anywhere from $0.10 to $10.00 CPM. I never liked this method of advertising because it didn’t guarantee any visitors. Charging by click-throughs is a far better method, but didn’t become mainstream until later.
I decided that in order to keep my advertisers I had to offer value so I went for a blanket approach. I started charging a flat rate of $30 per month to have a banner on my site which offered as many impressions that my traffic could provide. I signed up my first few advertisers at this rate.
Banner management software
In order to “rotate” different banners across my site I needed some special software that would dynamically place banners. This allowed me to have more than one advertiser banner in a single location so I could optimise my adspace and make sure my audience didn’t get too bored from seeing the same banner over and over again.
Let me save you some time, phpAdsNew is the best banner management software out there. It’s under an open source license and has all the features you could ever wish for at a price you can’t beat, it’s free. If you don’t believe me and absolutely have to try searching elsewhere try this category at the PHP Resource Index.
There is a learning curve with phpAdsNew and you do have to install it on your own server. If you are like me and you do things like this yourself most of the time you shouldn’t have too much trouble. Otherwise you might try contacting your favourite ITGeek and get them to give you a hand.
Statistics are important
The best feature with phpAdsNew is that it allows you to provide a unique user login for your advertisers to check their banner statistics in real time. This means at any point in time they can learn how many impressions and clicks their banners are receiving from your site.
Before you start searching for advertisers you should be very familiar with the statistics of your site. Do you know how many unique visitors you get? How many hits you get? How many impressions? Do you even know what the differences are between these? Try this stats terminology primer on for size if you don’t.
Most web servers come with a statistics package. Ask your web host if you don’t know. The most common are Awstats (demo) and Webalizer (demo) which often are preinstalled on many hosting packages. Become familiar with these packages so you can accurately assess your site traffic.
Increasing ad revenue
I now had the foundations laid and was serving the ads of my first few advertisers. From the point onwards I went to work attracting more advertisers by directly emailing North American online card stores and other related sites. I kept an excel file to track which websites I had emailed and their responses so I could follow up in a timely manner.
I created new banner positions and started initiatives like a newsletter to generate more revenue. I created monthly packages that combined newsletter advertising and different banner positions and offered them at $500 per quarter. I increased the top prime banner position fee to $50 per month and started offering a tower banner position for $50 as well.
Eventually I had to limit the number of banners I could take in the prime positions to avoid dilution. I had a guarantee in place that offered at least 30,000 impressions per month (averaging 40,000-60,000) to advertisers so that they always received a good equivalent CPM rate. I even had some advertisers purchase the rights to “own” a position for a certain period to make sure no other advertisers banners would be displayed.
Eventually I reached a point where I was averaging $500 per month and peaked at $1000 in one month. Some advertisers came and went quickly but many stayed loyal and in fact still advertise today though I sold the site a long time ago. The niche for the site was so focused that it became the pre-eminent site for Australia in it’s marketplace and consequently some Australian advertisers simply stuck their banners up as a branding exercise. They knew that the exposure from the site would help to align their business as one of the pre-eminent retailers or event organisers for the game. Some advertisers stopped caring about click through stats and kept advertising purely for the branding exposure.
Google adsense
At some point Google Adsense popped up and I was in with other early adopters to try it out. My results were okay. The money wasn’t nearly as good as the established relationships with advertisers I had, however the ads being displayed were a lot more targeted than banner networks I had tested early on.
I eventually stopped using Adsense because I could better monetise the adspace with my traditional advertisers. However that was before Google went to work providing such a variety of banner sizes and display options. Nowadays Google Adsense is a viable income source for many websites so I definitely suggest you look into it as a possible option for generating revenue, but remember it’s not the only means and you can earn more if you get busy chasing targeted advertisers.
Ongoing maintenance
I wouldn’t call web advertising income passive, but it sure is close. The systems I had in place handled everything automatically. While I did have to manually create advertiser accounts, pursue advertisers and control billing, once the systems were in place, in particular phpAdsNew, I didn’t have to do much. Of course depending on your website often the maintenance of your community is were the labour is involved, but chances are if you started the site you either enjoy it or have plans in place to eventually remove yourself from the maintenance role.
In the end I sold my site but if it wasn’t for the advertiser revenue my asset would not have been valued nearly as highly as the final sale price. Investing in advertising is like investing in any asset, the time and labour you put in today will lead to benefits in the future.
Regards,
Senthilkc
You have been diligent over the years to build up your community, but now you wonder how to go about making some revenue by leveraging this audience (as the marketers would say, you want to monetise your site). Maybe you have some big dreams and plan to one day generate advertising income from your new web project. This is a very common plan for online business given people tend to expect information and services to be free on the web. Advertising may be one of the only revenue generation strategies available to you.
How much traffic do I have to have to make money?
In my experience once you have about 500-1000 unique visitors per day to your site *at least* before you can start to make real money. You can make chimps change from day one from your 50 hits, but this article is targeted at those that have a larger audience, or perhaps are constructing a business plan (either real or in your head) and would like to know how to go about monetising your website. If you get more then 1000 unique visitors a day chances are you already make money from your site (if not you should be!) but my points are still relevant.
As per usual I will illustrate my article using real world examples from what I did to make money. Over about five years I managed a hobby site that started off as a very local site focusing on people in my area that played the game Magic: The Gathering. I wrote reports and did news coverage for the game. Later I expanded the site to Australia and eventually opened it to the world although it remained mostly Australian with a good chunk of Asians and New Zealanders.
Banner programs
At around the time I was getting 500 unique visitors a day I decided to start playing with advertising methods. This was before the advent of Google Adsense (more on this later) but there were many banner programs available that paid either on cost per click (CPC) or per impression basis. An impression is a banner being displayed to a user once, a click is someone clicking the banner and visiting the site being advertised.
These networks act as a middle man between business that want to advertise and people like me that have an audience and want to make some money by displaying banners. Unfortunately these programs display banners that often don’t match your audience. I tried a few but it was a short lived experiment that made me a few dollars if that.
I recommend you avoid any banner programs. If you are confused about what I am talking about regarding banner programs take a look at Burst Media to get a grasp of how they work. For small sites they just don’t make much money. For large sites there are much better ways to make money. I’m sure there are people out there that make good money from these programs (I’m sure the program owners do!) but in my experience a little effort to find the right type of advertising can yield much better results.
I decided the best way to make money was to really leverage the demographics of my audience. I had a fairly focused niche, card game playing young males. I started by emailing all the local and international card game shops and asked if they were interested in exposure to my market. Instantly I had responses but I had to come up with a pricing structure first.
How much should you charge?
By this time my site was getting close to 1000 unique visitors per day, with about 300,000 impressions per month. I had done my research and I knew that advertising on websites was usually via a standard 468×60 banner so I would start with that. I also knew that many companies charged by what is called CPM or cost per 1000 impressions. Back then this was by far the most commonly used scale for pricing of web advertising and you could expect to earn anywhere from $0.10 to $10.00 CPM. I never liked this method of advertising because it didn’t guarantee any visitors. Charging by click-throughs is a far better method, but didn’t become mainstream until later.
I decided that in order to keep my advertisers I had to offer value so I went for a blanket approach. I started charging a flat rate of $30 per month to have a banner on my site which offered as many impressions that my traffic could provide. I signed up my first few advertisers at this rate.
Banner management software
In order to “rotate” different banners across my site I needed some special software that would dynamically place banners. This allowed me to have more than one advertiser banner in a single location so I could optimise my adspace and make sure my audience didn’t get too bored from seeing the same banner over and over again.
Let me save you some time, phpAdsNew is the best banner management software out there. It’s under an open source license and has all the features you could ever wish for at a price you can’t beat, it’s free. If you don’t believe me and absolutely have to try searching elsewhere try this category at the PHP Resource Index.
There is a learning curve with phpAdsNew and you do have to install it on your own server. If you are like me and you do things like this yourself most of the time you shouldn’t have too much trouble. Otherwise you might try contacting your favourite ITGeek and get them to give you a hand.
Statistics are important
The best feature with phpAdsNew is that it allows you to provide a unique user login for your advertisers to check their banner statistics in real time. This means at any point in time they can learn how many impressions and clicks their banners are receiving from your site.
Before you start searching for advertisers you should be very familiar with the statistics of your site. Do you know how many unique visitors you get? How many hits you get? How many impressions? Do you even know what the differences are between these? Try this stats terminology primer on for size if you don’t.
Most web servers come with a statistics package. Ask your web host if you don’t know. The most common are Awstats (demo) and Webalizer (demo) which often are preinstalled on many hosting packages. Become familiar with these packages so you can accurately assess your site traffic.
Increasing ad revenue
I now had the foundations laid and was serving the ads of my first few advertisers. From the point onwards I went to work attracting more advertisers by directly emailing North American online card stores and other related sites. I kept an excel file to track which websites I had emailed and their responses so I could follow up in a timely manner.
I created new banner positions and started initiatives like a newsletter to generate more revenue. I created monthly packages that combined newsletter advertising and different banner positions and offered them at $500 per quarter. I increased the top prime banner position fee to $50 per month and started offering a tower banner position for $50 as well.
Eventually I had to limit the number of banners I could take in the prime positions to avoid dilution. I had a guarantee in place that offered at least 30,000 impressions per month (averaging 40,000-60,000) to advertisers so that they always received a good equivalent CPM rate. I even had some advertisers purchase the rights to “own” a position for a certain period to make sure no other advertisers banners would be displayed.
Eventually I reached a point where I was averaging $500 per month and peaked at $1000 in one month. Some advertisers came and went quickly but many stayed loyal and in fact still advertise today though I sold the site a long time ago. The niche for the site was so focused that it became the pre-eminent site for Australia in it’s marketplace and consequently some Australian advertisers simply stuck their banners up as a branding exercise. They knew that the exposure from the site would help to align their business as one of the pre-eminent retailers or event organisers for the game. Some advertisers stopped caring about click through stats and kept advertising purely for the branding exposure.
Google adsense
At some point Google Adsense popped up and I was in with other early adopters to try it out. My results were okay. The money wasn’t nearly as good as the established relationships with advertisers I had, however the ads being displayed were a lot more targeted than banner networks I had tested early on.
I eventually stopped using Adsense because I could better monetise the adspace with my traditional advertisers. However that was before Google went to work providing such a variety of banner sizes and display options. Nowadays Google Adsense is a viable income source for many websites so I definitely suggest you look into it as a possible option for generating revenue, but remember it’s not the only means and you can earn more if you get busy chasing targeted advertisers.
Ongoing maintenance
I wouldn’t call web advertising income passive, but it sure is close. The systems I had in place handled everything automatically. While I did have to manually create advertiser accounts, pursue advertisers and control billing, once the systems were in place, in particular phpAdsNew, I didn’t have to do much. Of course depending on your website often the maintenance of your community is were the labour is involved, but chances are if you started the site you either enjoy it or have plans in place to eventually remove yourself from the maintenance role.
In the end I sold my site but if it wasn’t for the advertiser revenue my asset would not have been valued nearly as highly as the final sale price. Investing in advertising is like investing in any asset, the time and labour you put in today will lead to benefits in the future.
Regards,
Senthilkc
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