Yamin Malik

A Guide to Keyword Analysis

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:25:00 +0000

Guide Index

Basic Definition
Attributes of a keyphrase
1. Overall market or popularity.
2. Relevancy with respect to the business.
3. Overall competition.
4. Landing page.

Phases of Keyphrase marketing
1. Discovery
2. Investment
3. Feedback and ROI calculations

Section 1: Basic Definition

Some basic definitions to start with and please excuse me if it is too simple for an explanation. I will be keeping it purely on organic searches.

What is a keyphrase with respect to SEM?
People use different phrases to search for a concept, or a product, or a service. These phrases are known as keyphrases. Each keyphrase will contain one or more keyword.
Why keyphrases are important?
In my opinion keyphrases are like products and all that applies to product management or product marketing applies to keyphrase management and keyphrase marketing, if not direct then certainly in an indirect way. Previously I once had explained the AIM matrix for keyphrases which is a BCG matrix analysis for keyphrase (but lost the original version with server change but still the www has a few copies, you can search for it on web or feel free to contact me).

Section 2: Attributes of a keyphrase

A keyword has many attributes which can be broadly categorized into following attributes:-

Overall market or popularity

Relevancy with respect to the business

Overall Competition
- Total players.
- Strength of top 10 players (on-page and off-page).
- Indecisive factors.

Landing page

Let's take it one by one for indepth understanding

Overall market or popularity

The total number of times a keyphrase is searched across different search engines during a given length of time. For this you can use different online tools. I do not want to give links over here. Search google and you will get it or tryhttp://www.webmasterworld.com/forum8/423.htm .

Relevancy

Not each keyphrase is of same relevancy. Some are very directly targeted and not. If I take an example for click fraud company, then "PPC fraud click detection" is more relevant that the keyphrase "Search Engine Marketing" or "SEM". Some searching for SEM may be interested in PPC campagin and thus click farud service but the relevancy factor is low. This highly depends on the product and services offered or rather targeted. This is somehow variably constant as probability of a frequently significant change is very low. You can define a value (e.g. percentage points) to reflect the relevancy.

Note: According to Some experts we can introduce a weighted popularity attribute which is a combination of overall market and relevancy.
No. of searches X relevancy = weighted popularity (will help you find the terms which will best reach the desired audience)

Overall Competition
This can be further divided into three points:-
- Total Players: Total sites under the keyphrase search in different SE. (I will prefer to check it only in google for just no special reason). In order to avoid accidental players (who are there just due to some common keyphrase or accidentally appeared keyphrase, example some blogs just talking about the personal experiences with click frauds.) you can use the following searches,
  * (returns 1,410,000 results , this is normal search)
  * (returns 820 results which is about keyphrase in the page title)
  * (returns 386 results when keyphrase is in the url)
  * (returns 68,200 results with inanchor)
  Using these search techniques we can develop an estimated figure for competition. You can come up with an algo here.
- Strength of top 10 players in Google: Links play a major role – rather a decisive role - for highly competitive keyphrases. In other words the strength of the top players can be judged on the basis of the total links (judging the quality is a difficult job) acquired. Median of Top 10 sites will give a fair idea of competition on the basis of links. Onpage factors are not as decisive as it can be achieved by putting some extra effort on the need and the content. For checking the links you can use the following searches in yahoo (as yahoo gives the most accurate picture as of now) :-
  * (total backlinks 1,950,000)
  * (these many are internal links from Slashdot.org itself 16,400)
  All these link calculation will give you only an approximate estimate of the overall strength of the top players.
- Indecisive factors: There are few more indecisive factors like anchor text, keyword density and blah blah blah. (Only few experts know about it :) and surely they will not reveal all the secrets.)

Landing page

A targeted landing page for each keyphrase (atleast for the major one) is a good practice. Since

f (ranking) = a1 x f (onpage) + a2 x f (offpage) ,

Where f (ranking) = function for Ranking,
f (onpage) = function calculating onpage factor value,
f (offpage) = function calculating offpage factor value and
a1 and a2 are approx weights.

For major keyphrase f (offpage) plays major role as f (onpage) can’t be improved beyond a limit. If you have different landing pages for different search engine (for any reason) then you may face a problem in strengning your position for a high competitive keyphrase.

Section 3: Phases of Keyphrase marketing

There are different phases for keyphrase marketing. I have tried to categorize it into three broader ones, which are:-

Discovery
Investment
Feedback and ROI calculations

Let's study them one by one

Discovery Phase
The first phase is to discover the keyphrases. As we have explained under "Overall market or popularity", you can use the online tools to discover potential keywords. You can also use Google adwords for keyword discovery. A tracking system can play a very major role in discovering some potential but rare keyphrases like "How to get a mortgage in texas?" You can have a high conversion ratio for such crucial sentences. Tools like google analytics can help in redesigning the landing page for a better conversion ratio.
Investment Phase
In order to rank good in search engines you need to invest time into each major keyphrase to bring more traffic and links to the target page. A good analysis can help you with the investment phase. Follow the steps for an investment phase:-
* Step 1: Make a 3x3 matrix with weighted popularity and competition as displayed with high, medium and low columns and rows.
* Step 2: Now fill in the kephrases inside the cells. If your business operates more profitably in Texas compared to California then Texas mortgage has more weighted popularity for your business. Similarly "Well Fargo home mortgage" is very competitive keyphrase but may not be relevant for you. You should start from (high weighted popularity, low competition) and go towards (low weighted popularity, high competition). You can choose a clockwise or anti-clockwise approach to cover cells.
Feedback and ROI calculations
Keep checking the ROI for the keyphrases , sometimes the real data shows a little different graph than our expectations. A tracking system can help you calculate the ROI and redefine your strategies. A consistent feedback and ROI calculation is a must as the market varies so does the competition and the ranking.

I wrote this article when the world was more inclined towards SEO. And this is just an overview, if I get time I will write the marketing aspect of keyphrases with respect to user experiences.

By : AjiNIMC

25 Free Social Media Marketing & SEO Ebooks, White Papers + Other Downloads

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:22:00 +0000

Over the past two years I collected quite a few PDF and other downloads about social media in general, blogging, social media marketing and SEO.

While blogs offer quick tips and overviews ebooks and white papers have the necessary depth to cover more intricate topics.

Ebooks are particularly apt for the quite abstract concepts of social media marketing and SEO. That’s why I compiled this list of 25 free social media marketing and SEO ebooks, white papers plus other downloads.

These downloads stem from highly respectable sources and are free as agencies and specialists tend to promote themselves showing off their expertise for for free to gain recognition as experts. So this is a win to win situation for the sides, you the reader as well as the authors.

To get some of these ebooks you need to give away your email address but most downloads come without any obligations whatsoever.
Where possible I did not link the resource itself though but instead the page describing it.
The list starts with social media marketing (SMM) and end with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ebooks and downloads.

SEO Blogging Best Practices

noreply@blogger.com (loudfrogs) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:48:00 +0000

Blogging Best Practices from an SEO perspective

It’s important to remember that we blog for many reasons, not just for SEO. The following best practices are only regarding the Search Engine Optimization reasons for blogging. You may need to weigh these against other reasons you may have for blogging such as user interaction, conversion, etc.

Choose One Keyphrase

Each blog post should be targeting one main keyphrase. Use tools such as the Google keyword tool or Wordtracker’s free keyword service to determine the target keyphrase.

Use the Keyphrase as the Title

Title your blog post with the keyphrase and only the keyphrase. If you need additional information, use a sub-head. The title will be read by Google, and will also become the article’s url, two important factors in determining relevance.

Create and Use Relevant Categories

Your blog should be set up to include the category of a post in the url. Creating and using a relevant category will boost the relevancy of a post. Categories should be fairly broad, as you want many posts under each category. Example of a relevant categories would be “Auto Loans”, “Auto Finance”, etc. Each post should only exist under one category.

Pay Attention to Keyphrase Placement

Begin the article with the keyphrase if possible. If not, then make sure to include the keyphrase in the first sentence
Use sub-heads that use the keyphrase or a subset of the keyphrase
Use keyphrase or subset of the keyphrase once per paragraph as a general rule
Bold the first instance of the keyphrase
Link one instance of the keyphrase to a relevant page on your website
Read over article to make sure keyphrase placement isn’t so high as to sound “spammy”

Create and Follow a Linking Strategy

Your should determine the top 5-10 keyphrases that your site addresses and naturally work those links into your blog posts. Each of these phrases should have a consistent landing page. Go easy, these need to look natural and should be relevant to the blog topic. Remember, you are linking naturally, so you’re not saying “for great auto loans click here”. An example would be “I remember when my mom was looking for an (link to home page)auto loan(end link) with a low interest rate.”

Create Unique Meta Information

Each post should have unique meta description and meta keywords tags. We suggest a 50/50 rule: 50% of meta information should be pre-existing material related to the website in general, 50% should be specific to the post. Be sure to begin with specific information and work down to pre-existing information.

Create Unique Tags

As with the meta information, the first half of tags should be unique to the post, second half should be general tags developed for the site.

Submit Blog Posts to Digg

Submit each blog post to Digg. As with the blog post, the title of the Digg should be the keyphase. If more words are necessary to prevent looking like spam, then begin the Digg with the keyphrase. Include the keyphrase in the description of the Digg.

Submit Digg to Google

Submit each Digg to Google’s Add Url page (go ahead and also submit the blog post while you’re there). Again, use the keyphrase as the title of the submission.

Create Companion Press Release

If publishing a companion press release, target a keyphrase that is addressed in the blog as well as on the website, link to both the blog and the web page from the press release with relevant text.

Good luck with your SEO blog post!

A great analogy for SEO

noreply@blogger.com (loudfrogs) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:44:00 +0000

SEO is like gardening. You plant the seeds and hope that you achieve a good harvest within a few months. If the conditions are just right, planting the seeds will bring you results without much trouble, just a little watering. If conditions are not right, you need to take extra steps such as adding extra fertilizer. If all your ducks, or seeds, are in a row you will get a great harvest.

Sometimes you expect a feast, but end up with just a few snacks. If you plant your seeds, then ignore the garden, the chances of getting a good harvest are reduced drastically, but it can still grow if you are lucky. If your soil is right and the weather cooperates, growing a great garden can sometimes be relatively easy.

Gardening and SEO are incredibly similar when you think about it. Rankings need links, just as a garden needs water. Sometimes people link to you on their own, sometimes they don’t, and you have to go out and get them – just as sometimes it will rain, other times you have to get the hose, but more times than not, you really need the hose. Niche gardening, lets say cacti, as with niche SEO, say ‘purple kangaroo shoes’, sometimes wont require much water, or links, to grow nicely, but other factors such as soil conditions need to be there, and there is always the factor of time.

Gardening takes time, just as SEO does. Once the seeds are planted you need to wait for nature to do its thing, just as you need to wait for Google. Even the best gardeners can sometimes have failed crops if there is some kind of unknown hidden poison in the soil or if the weather doesn’t cooperate – this translates to well hidden spam or search engine road blocks, or perhaps a major algorithm update. Given time however to unearth and correct any hidden problems, the garden will grow – it just may take some extra water, fertilizer, and attention.

Gardening and SEO are both things that can bring you success, but if you don’t follow the instructions and common sense, and tend to your crop, the chances of that success will diminish.

How Successful is Your Landing Page?

noreply@blogger.com (loudfrogs) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:41:00 +0000

A common problem facing many advertisers today is this one:

You’ve got a PPC campaign that has done its job. Its driving quality traffic to your landing page, but your page abandonment rate is really high and people are bailing almost as soon as they get there. Sound familiar?

If it does, then it should beg the question what are you doing wrong?

The best way to answer this is to take a look at it from the user’s perspective. When they click on a PPC ad there are certain things they are looking for when they hit the landing page. If you don’t meet those expectations, I can almost guarantee they will bounce.

So then, what are your visitors expecting to see when they reach your landing page?

Continuation. I’m sure your creative is well-written and includes an irresistible offer that convinced the user to click on your ad instead of your competitor. Make sure that this content is given proper real estate on the landing page. I’m talking front and center so that the user sees it quickly when they first arrive. If the offer messaged on the ad text is hard to find or if this promise is broken, they will lose faith in your product, your brand and ultimately bounce.

Credibility. Are you working with a landing page that looks shady or doesn’t have guarantees or point-of-sale assurances? If yes, then fix it. Fix it immediately. If they’re not familiar with your site, most users will need to be convinced to trust you. There are a number of ways to improve credibility to your landing page. I’d recommend testing different security affiliations, partnership affiliation, as well as how you message your tagline.

Call out the call to action. Seems obvious, right? You’d be surprised at how often this is hidden, difficult to access, or missing completely from a landing page. Be completely transparent in the next step to the conversion path. This will encourage a feeling of trust and they will be more easily moved down the buying cycle.

Before investing too much more in advertising, be sure to implement landing pages that take these best practices into consideration. A well-constructed landing page will often make a dramatic difference in your success rate.

SEO is pointless if your website does not convert

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:06:00 +0000

Getting listed on Google's first result page is great. It's not so great when you find out that you get a lot of visitors through your high search engine rankings but only a few customers.

Search engine optimization is pointless if your website does not convert visitors into customers. You'll actually lose a lot of money if you don't take the time to optimize the conversion rate of your website.

Why is optimizing the conversion rate of your website important?

Suppose you sell a product for $50. If the conversion rate of your website is 1% then 1 out of 100 website visitors will buy your product. That means that you will sell 2 units if 200 people visit your website.

If you want to double your sales, you have to double the number of visitors that come to your website. That's usually quite difficult.

If you optimize your web pages so that you have a conversion rate of 2% then you can double your sales without getting more visitors. Increasing the conversion rate of a website is usually easier than getting more customers.

What can you do to improve the conversion rate of your website?

There are several things that you can do to improve the conversion rate of your website:

Drive traffic to the most relevant pages on your website

Your website visitors should come to the most relevant pages on your website. If you advertise on Google AdWords for the search term "buy blue suede shoes" then your landing page should be a page about blue suede shoes and it should be possible to buy these shoes right on the page. The same applies for visitors that you get through your regular search engine rankings.

Check your website statistics for your pages with a high bounce rate

Analyze your website statistics to find pages on your site that have a high bounce rate. If too many people leave your website without fulfilling the desired task then you have to improve your pages and make them more relevant to the user's query. Also check your statistics to find "404 not found" and other errors.

Add a call to action on all of your landing pages

Every landing page should contain a call to action. Chances are that a website visitor will see only a single page of your website. That's why all pages should contain a call to action so that your website visitors know what to do.

Micrsoft Bing and Yahoo Partnership

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:56:00 +0000

As soon as this week Microsoft Bing may be powering the search results and advertising at Yahoo, and an overwhelming amount of Search Engine Journal readers support the move, which would establish Bing with an estimated 30% search market share and position a cooperative Bing & Yahoo as a serious competitor to Google. Yesterday, upon the news leak that Yahoo &… Check out the SEO Tools guide at …

Here is the original:
Microsoft Bing Yahoo Partnership Supported by Search Engine Industry (Search Engine Journal)

The Google Sandbox Explained

noreply@blogger.com (loudfrogs) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:30:00 +0000

Introduction

The Google Sandbox is a metaphorical term to explain why most new websites have very poor rankings in Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS). Very few people know for sure if the 'sandbox' actually exists, but it seems to be a filter added to the Google algorithms sometime around March 2004.

What is the function of the Google Sandbox?

The generally accepted principle behind the Google Sandbox is that it enables Google to filter out 'Flash-in-the-Pan' websites from those that offer good quality, up-to-date content. It is within Googles interest to ensure that the results it displays to its users within the SERPS lead to highly relevant, up-to-date, useful websites Relevancy is key to the search engines success so it will take all steps it can to ensure the relevancy of its search results. Filtering out new websites and monitoring them may allow them to provide more accurate results within the real SERPS.

Indentifying the Sandbox?

How do you know if your website in in the sandbox? Most new websites under newly registered domains will get relegated to the sandbox once Google knows about the site. Google will find the site by following an Inbound Link (IBL) from another site that the Googlebot crawls. You will then see the website in the normal Google SERPS if you search for the actual domain name, but the website is unlikely to be listed for any of its keywords. Google also won't show signs of any other websites linking to your website, nor will it display pages related to yours. In addition Google won't list any pages other than your Home (index) page.

If you track your websites visitor stats whilst it is in the Google Sandbox, you will see that the Googlebot comes crawling fairly regularly and that it does crawl, and therefore catalogue, all of your pages. Google does know that your pages exist and knows what they contain, but doesn't list them in the main SERPS. In other words, because your website is new, it is under probation in the 'sandbox'.

How Long Will My website Stay in the Google Sandbox?

It is difficult to say how long a website will stay in the Google sandbox as this seems to depend on the types of keywords it will be completing for in the real SERPS It can be up to 6-8 months and the only way to get out of the sandbox is to wait.

The Google Sandbox isn't all bad news. If your site contains good quality relevant material it will find its way out of the sandbox and will get the rankings it deserves in the Google SERPS. I even have some theories that may mean that your time in the sandbox can be used wisely to actually improve your final rankings.

You also shouldn't forget that Google isn't the only search engine out there. MSN is widely used and with the might of Microsoft behind it is likely to become a bigger player in the search engine world in the new future. At the time of writing, MSN or other search engines such as Yahoo! and Alta Vista don't have a 'sandbox' filter and your new websites will be listed in the quickly and should start driving traffic to your site.

About The Author

Alan Cole runs http://www.pixelwave.co.uk , a one-person web design studio. His aim is to provide cost effective website design production and maintenance by offering professional web solutions that stand out from the crowd.

Article source:

TwoSpots web design

3 Outstanding Tools for Internet Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:14:00 +0000

This post has been moved to my new blog, if you already bookmarked it, please update it, click the following link or copy and paste the URL:

3 Outstanding Tools for Internet Marketing

http://www.yaminmalik.com/3-outstanding-tools-for-internet-marketing/

The importance of keywords in domain name

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:41:00 +0000

There is no doubt that keywords in domain name are effective way to get top ten position in Google SERPs for those keywords. Well, please don't make any wrong assumption, i am talking about:

Exact Match (If you have domain name like "fatlosstips.com", chances are your site will be found in top for this exact phrase without search engine optimization)

.Com Domains (often this work but sometimes it does not work for .org or local TLDs but when you compete it with .com domains, they will lose)

A years back in a SEO contest I had observed that keywords in domain name was really working high in many search engines.

However search engines has changed their algos to keep less consideration or weightage of keywords in domain names for following reasons:

Spammers have misused by registering hundereds of "long-tail" domains to rank them for exact match.
Now a days its almost impossible to get register a domain name with exact match.

The above mentioned factors have stopped me to play with this tactic, but recently one thing turned me back to it.

I was doing keywords analysis for one of my project and the most competative keyword was "mobile software" and landed on site http://www.mobilesoftware.com/ which is actually seems not followed search engine optimization guide lines and still in SERP 5 in Google.com

So do you have any clue about exact match in domain names and getting high ranking in SERP, how your tacticts are returining your expected results, please share your story in comments.

7 Reasons Why You Might Not Be Making Money As An SEO

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:09:00 +0000

Rather creating your eagerness to know these reason and rather i should think about the follow of these points, I am just want you to start to help you out where you stands.

Are you well organized? -Do you have your links partners' contacts well organized or you have to update everytime when you start with new projects. Forget to payout your content writer for so long? OR you spend lot of time in searching of your client's site credentials. You must know all the hazards and challenges which are seriously increasing your stress and decreasing your productivity. You must organize these informations that will ultimately incrase your money making potential.

Do you have your action plan? - Don't waste your precious time thinking about what to do instead of thinking about how to do best with your knowledge and what is required to do, so you must have your action plan well written, either you name it "SEO Cheat Sheat" , "Important steps to research new niche market" or what you want to call it. This practise will increase the value of your time.

Don't Spend too much time on Forums and Blogs - Reading and learning about SEO is important, however if you are spending majority of your time on reading about SEO instead of doing SEO, then can never increase your income for what you are dreaming. Instead of blindly searching for "SEO Trainings" you should must search and learn about the challenges you are facing your current SEO projects and must implement and proved what you have learnt.

You have to play with some Risk - You have to take some risks if you really want to increase your SEO earning. Whether you are working really hard to start your own SEO firm or SEO consultancy to do SEO Projects of your clients or whether spending your own time and money to do SEO for your own website you must have to take some risks.

Do investment on your SEO Skills and Tools - If you don't invest in your SEO skills and tools and only believe the tradational ways of working, then good luck becuase that is all you have - luck. You must consider your SEO education and tools as an investment that will pay yourself with higher future earning.
Do you haver art of managing people? - If you ever want to scale up your income dramatically , You must need some skill managing people and your resources.
Is SEO your your hobby or your profession? - SEO has tremendious opportunities to make a great deal of money, if you are smart, hard working and willing to learn. However there is no power of magic that shoots through your DSL modem into your computer and right through your mice into your figers that makes your lazy SEO efforts to fill up your bank account.

Be someone who is dedicated to working hard and making a lot of money as an SEO. Hopefully these 7 reasons are a help to you as you strive to be the best SEO you can possibly be and make the most money possible.

Complete Search Engine Optimization Services

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:22:00 +0000

If you are here you may know What is Search engine optimization? Every netpreneur dreams having top search engine ranking with Google, Yahoo and MSN. Am Yamin Malik here proud to work with you as SEO consultant. If you are here first time I certain you would be anxious to know my SEO results and my ethical search engine optimization techniques.

My SEO services start familiarizing myself with your website, products and services. I also do basic research on your competitors at very start of the SEO process.

Either you want to DIY-SEO (Do It Yourself Search Engine Optimization) or you want to know the steps and process that will be performed by me. I have explained each step for your better understanding here:

Website review
Keyword research and analysis
Analysis and optimization of site structure
Generation and optimization of titles and meta tags
Recommendations for Optimization of content
Google Analytics Integration
XML sitemap creation and submission
Manual search engine submissions
Monthly rankings review across major search engines
Link building
Manual directories submission
Manual social bookmark submission
Manual forums, groups, blogs submission
Article creation and submission
Manual newsfeed submission

Who is Yamin Malik?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:02:00 +0000

Yamin Malik is an SEO Professional, Search Engine Marketer, blogger and social media expert based in Islamabad – Pakistan. Yamin Malik is currently working as SEO Manager with Copenhagen based company Vopium.com – a virtual mobile communication provider...

More...

21 Success Secrets of Self-made Millionaires

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:41:00 +0000

The common principles and practices of all men and women who become millionaires in one generation.

Dream Big Dreams - How to visualize, imagine and create an exciting picture of personal wealth and prosperity;
Develop a Clear Sense of Direction - Learn a powerful, proven goal-setting exercise that can change your life;
See Yourself As Self-Employed - How to take complete control of your career and your financial life;
Do What You Love To Do - Identify the ideal work for you and then get paid well for doing it;
Commit to Excellence - How to move into the top 10% in your field and be paid more than ever before;
Work Longer and Harder - How to organize your time so you get more done and contribute more value;
Dedicate Yourself to Lifelong Learning - How to continually upgrade your talents and abilities to earn more money;
Pay Yourself First - The most powerful process of wealth accumulation ever discovered and how you can use it;
Learn Every Detail of the Business - How to become an expert in your chosen field and double your income;
Dedicate Yourself to Serving Others - The starting point of all personal fortunes and how to begin;
Be Absolutely Honest With Yourself and Others - How and why personal integrity goes hand in hand with financial success;
Set Priorities and Concentrate Single-mindedly - The importance of focusing on your most important tasks all day long;
Develop a Reputation for Speed and Dependability - How to give yourself the winning edge in everything you do;
Be Prepared to Climb From Peak to Peak - Learn how to recognize the cycles and trends that can make you rich;
Practice Self-Discipline In All Things - Develop the most important quality for financial success;
Unlock Your Inborn Creativity - Learn how to solve any problem, overcome any obstacle, achieve any goal;
Get Around The Right People - The important of surrounding yourself with winners at each stage of your career;
Take Excellent Care of Your Physical Health - How to develop and maintain high levels of energy and fitness;
Be Decisive and Action Oriented - How to identify the most important action steps you can take immediately;
Never Allow Failure To Be An Option - How to overcome the fears that hold most people back;
Pass the "Persistence Test" - Learn how to bounce back from defeat and never, never give up.

Rethink Your Link Building Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 May 2009 03:36:00 +0000

Your link building campaigns requires proper planning before jumping into ground. To get considerable results the overall link building strategy must have complete pre-launch home work and planning. The strategy of your link building may vary on website to website and not always instinctive. There are few important area that must be considered in link building strategy.

Check your current backlink stats

You will be required to have current backlink report of your website, Google webmaster tool can provide the URL and anchor text that ware linking back to you. Further you have to get the PR of domain linking to you and PR the page which actually linking to you.
If you are looking to have few hundreds more backlinks and already have some 10,000 (or more) links then your previous strategy is not best for you this time again. Now you need to focus on high quality links from higher PageRank sites, even if you get smaller number of links then your actual target will have better result than your previous strategy.

How competitive is your market space?

If your competitor has 40,000 links and your website has just 10,000 backlinks of similar quality, so just increasing your backlinks counts to 20,000 with same quality may not be enough to bring your website in from of them. Certainly if you focus with your search terms you are perusing in your campaigns you can better results, however you still need to have broader picture of your competitors that can help you to set your targets and plan your link building strategies.

What are your competitors link building strategies?

Observing and analyzing your competitors link building strategy can help a lot in your planning. Try to figure out their link building campaigns. Are they focusing on PRs and articles? Blogging? Social media networks or any paid linking? How these strategies are effective for their website. You might select one these strategies on top of your new plan. You should also play with some of your great ideas which you think can return better than your competitors’ strategies or may be not part of their strategies yet. Your own unique link building strategies will be more effective rather the emulating their whole strategies.

What are the sources for high quality backlinks?

Try to figure out the opportunities for really high quality backlinks in your market. What are the best sources to get large numbers of relevant back links? In your link building strategies this the most critical part.

What content can give hundreds of thousands back links?

People will link your website if they like your contents or any other reason for which they expect any compensation either money or same favor but this against the Google webmaster guidelines. Link baiting, link farming or link trading are also problematic with Google and you can choose these activities as main factor of your link building strategy.

Alternatively, you need to publish great content on your website along with some tools like social bookmarking. You need to plan and publish the stuff that your visitors like to bookmark and also help to establish your organization as legend in your market rather publishing “Me too” type contents. This strategy can help you to get the great number of links in sufficient volume if do better than your competitors. Please also keep in mind that this strategy can be alternative way to save the substantial portion of your cost of obtaining back links.

Are there branding considerations?

One of the best benefits of good link building strategies is branding with other online success. You must have consideration of branding in mind to filter out the ideas and sources in your link building strategy.

Pulling it Together

After collecting all these information and factors, consider it as whole new plan. There are some ideas which are common. Contacting people to link back who are already linking to your competitors is an example of that. If your products, services or content is equally good or expectedly better, you should ask the people link back to you if they are already linking to your competitors. This link building strategy can work really well.

You should only do this single activity as you will never get 100% conversion of linking from people who are linking your competitors. In fact, 20% linking conversion as result of contacting them directly would be an amazing output.

You must have included other type of campaigns that are on your list as result of your research. Your focus should relevant backlinks in right quality and quantity. Make sure you are not messing up your brands and you have right contents for your link building strategies.

50 Social News Websites: A List of General and Niche Social Media Communities

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 05:35:00 +0000

I recently wrote a beginners guide to social news websites and this article follows up on that by offering a list of the social news websites you can use to get information and web traffic.

There are a great deal of social news sites on the internet, sometimes too many. Most of them are dormant and are no longer active, largely because they were poorly marketed and hence, never had an active community of users in the first place.

For instance, this webpage has a list of over 380 social news sites. Most of them are a waste of your time: they are riddled with spam or are so ill-promoted that they’ll never attract a critical mass of viewers or social news participants.

You don’t have a lot of time on your hands. You want a community that gives you fresh news on topics you care about. You want something that sends prospects and traffic while branding your website or business. You want a social news site with a long term returns on investment. Here’s a list of some of them.

50+ Social News Websites: Notes about this list

Image Credit: CNV00037

I spent some time going through hundreds of social news sites and came up with a list of sites which I think are worth exploring. Each site on this list is evaluated according to various criteria, including the no. of votes for each story and the frequency/date of submissions, all of which are indicators of user/viewer activity.

This list is not meant to be comprehensive. It doesn’t include every social news website out there but only the ones which I think has potential for providing you with relevant/fresh news while giving exposure to your ideas, brand or website.

Some of the sites on this list have a broad topical focus while others are created to cater to a specific niche. I’ve divided the list into two portions: General Social News or websites which cover a wide variety of news and Niche Social News which refers to specialized sites that only focus on a limited range of niche topics.

This list purely consists of English social news sites. There are no social bookmarking or social network sites included. I’ve not included video sharing sites because I’ll be writing more on them and video marketing in a future article.

Here’s a brief definition of social news sites, in case you’re unfamiliar with them:

Social News websites are communities which allow its users to submit news stories, articles and media (videos/pictures) and share them with other users or the general public. Some of these articles will be given more visibility, depending on various factors such as the number of user votes for each item.

Apart from counting registered user votes, some social news websites employ human editors to determine the visibility of each news item. Certain stories will be removed from the website while others may be given a ‘featured‘ position if the story is highly relevant and news worthy.

General Social News Websites

1. Reddit: Popular social news website with a large user base. Covers a wide range of news. Includes several topical sections called subreddits, which focus on specific topics like programming, science, politics and business.

2. Digg: The largest and most popular social news website on the internet. Covers all topics including politics, entertainment, technology and general news. Includes a separate video and image section.

3. Propeller: A social news site that covers all topics from technology to politics and entertainment. Operates in a similar fashion to Digg.

4. Fark: A community news site which allows users to comment on news articles. User submitted links will be posted on the main page once they are approved by the administrators.

5. Slashdot: Primarily a tech news site, Slashdot also covers topics like books, games, politics and entertainment. Users can submit stories and they may be published after editors approve it. A popular site that can send a large amount of traffic.

6. Metafilter: A community weblog which allows users to share links and discuss interesting websites/topics. Moderation is done through editors as well as peer pressure in order to prevent gaming.

7. I am bored: Covers general topics with a strong focus on weird and offbeat news. You can submit a link which may be posted after the editors approve it.

8. Mixx: A general social news sites which has a category for all types of news. Topics covered include business, entertainment, sports, health and tech. Includes the ability to create groups to share news with other users.

9. Shoutwire: General news site that is well populated with a loyal group of users. Topics covered include technology, politics, entertainment, lifestyle and sports.

10. Newsvine: A website consisting of community-driven news stories and opinions. Users have their own blogs and can write articles, save links to external content and vote/comment on other user stories.

11. IndianPad: A general social news site that with a large indian userbase. Topics covered include entertainment, sports, videos and tamil news.

12. Linkfilter: Covers all sorts of news. All links are posted and moderated by users. Links can be ranked on several levels: clicks, votes, age, or a combination of all three called points.

13. NewsCloud: A general social site with a focus on news in all topics. Similar to Newsvine, each user has their own blogs and can publish content to be voted up by other users.

14. Hugg: Hugg is a social news site with a strong focus on environmental issues. Also includes other categories like politics, science, fashion and technology.

15. Plime: A general news site which features a wide variety of topics ranging from religion and sports to technology or business. Odd news performs best in this community.

16. C2NN: An active social news site with a variety of topics including environment issues, business, politics, animals and offbeat. Similar to Hugg in focus but much more populated and active.

17. Kirsty: A general news site with a focus on fashion, entertainment and design on top of other topics like technology and food. Has a strong female user base.

18. Nowpublic: A participatory news network which focuses on citizen journalism. Each user has their own individual profile blog/page and can upload videos, images and news stories.

19. Stirrdup: General social news site with four broad categories: politics, technology, news and entertainment.

20. Searchles: A hybrid social news sites which covers all topics. Includes a video section and offers personalized filtering features and the option of joining groups made up of other users with similar interests.

21. Linkinn: A social news site that specializes in pictures and video. Covers a broad range of topics, particular offbeat and weird content.

22. Earthfrisk: Covers topics like humor, politics, entertainment and business. Combines a social network and group features with digg-style news voting.

23. Truemors: A social rumor news site which focuses on the publication of “true rumors that are relevant, informative, and interesting.” Users can post links anonymously via text, voicemail, web or email. Editors moderate content.

24. StumbleUpon: A social network and browser toolbar which allows users to channel surf the internet. Technically not 100% a social news site, although users can submit webpages to be rated by other users. Here is a guide to StumbleUpon.

25. Linkswarm: Covers a wide range of topics from celebrity gossip to funny media, science and politics. Focuses on pop culture and bizarre news as well.

Niche Social News Websites

Here are social websites which focus on a specific niche. For best results, only submit to them when your site falls within the same niche or covers the same topics. Or else you’re likely to be marked as spam.

26. Sphinn: Sphinn is a social site for search and interactive marketers. It’s designed to allow you to share and discover news stories, read and take part in discussions, discover events of interest and network with others.

27. Dzone: DZone is a free link-sharing community for developers. Other topics commonly featured include web design and programming.

28. Tweako: A user-powered site and social network with a focus on guides and tutorials in all categories like computing, technology, and the Internet.

29. Autospies: A social site that focuses on automotive news, car reviews, auto show photos and videos.

30. Design Float: A social news site for design-related content. Topics covered include business, freelancing, advertising, digital art and branding.

31. Ball Hype: A site that aggregates content from thousands of sports blogs. Users can submit stories and votes will determine if they make it to home page.

32. YCombinator Hacker News: A news site that focuses on technology, startups, business and entrepreneurship.

33. SWiK: A community driven resource for people who use open source software.

34. Buzzflash: A user driven progressive political news website that allows you to submit political stories.

35. DNHour: DNHour.com is a user-powered news portal built specially for the domain name industry. Most members are generally from the domain name industry, which includes domain name owners, companies or professionals.

36. PlugIM: PlugIM is a user driven internet marketing community. Topics covered include search engine optimization, products, business and marketing.

37.Showhype: Operates in a similar way to Ballhype. Stories come from two sources — users and aggregated content. Users can also submit a link to a story that they’ve found or write their own article on ShowHype.

38. Small Business Brief: A niche social site which focuses on small business news. Topics covered include marketing and sales, website development, management and entrepreneurship.

39. Hypediss: Social news site with a focus on design, fashion, urban culture and art.

40. Chictini: Product-oriented social site which a focus on new trends and styles. It’s possible to submit news stories although most of the submissions feature products from online retailers.

41. DotNetKicks: DotNetKicks.com is a community based news site that focuses on topics like NET development techniques, technologies and tools including ASP.NET, C#, VB.NET, C++ and Visual Studio.

42. Lipstick: Reddit-style social news site for celebrity gossip.

43. Hubspot: Social news site for marketers, entrepreneurs and business professionals.

44. Winelifetoday: A niche social site for wine lovers. Topics covered included news and opinion articles to do with wine.

45. iliketotallyloveit.com: Allows users to publish and share products with the broader public which they find cool, innovative, exceptionally beautiful, or just weird. Included with every item is a link to an online shop where it can be purchased.

46. Wordsy: A niche social news site for people who love reading and books. Topics covered include small presses, fiction writing, authors, book awards and poetry. (Note: Wordsy has suspended its site since Dec 2008)

47. Value Investing News: A niche social news site that covers stocks and investment news. A small but active community.

48. Teenwag: Focus on celebrity gossip. A hybrid social network with digg-style voting. Users can submit links to be voted up by other users.

49. Muti: Muti is a social bookmarking site inspired by reddit and Digg but dedicated to content of interest to Africans or those interested in Africa.

50. Tip’d: A social media site for finance, investing, and business topics. Tip’d users vote on stories they like by clicking the ‘Tip it’ button that appears next to each story, and then can comment by pressing the ‘Discuss’ link below the story.

This list is a work in progress. I’ll be updating it with new sites over time and I plan to include my own opinions of each site when I have the time. Right now, I’ve only written a very brief description of each site along with their niche focus. Know any quality site that should be included?

Pick the sites on this list which are relevant to your website or interests. If you haven’t already, register as a new member and click around the site to check out its features/stories. Submit a few stories and introduce it to some friends. If you enjoy the community, start using the site more frequently.

Feel free to bookmark this page for future reference. In the next article on social media marketing, I’ll talk about how you can participate in these social news sites.

Fundamentals of Social Media Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 05:25:00 +0000

Interested to learn more about social media and how you use it? You’ve come to the right place.Fundamentals of Social Media Marketingis a series of tutorials which teaches you how to utilize the power of social media channels to get more exposure, supporters and customers for your website and business.

This is a resource page which includes links to all the specific articles, which are categorized below according to a chronological order.

If you’re a complete beginner, start from the first article listed and read downwards.

Your comments are always welcome in the original article page and I do encourage you to join in the discussion. Should you have any queries, feel free toemail me.

If you find this page useful, feel free to share it with others.

1. Social Media Marketing in a Nutshell

We’ll take a look at the central concept which should underlie all your social media marketing efforts. Understanding the big idea behind social media marketing is crucial because it gives you the building blocks you require for guidelines and procedures which drive action.

2. The Benefits of Social Media Marketing: Why You Should Learn and Master it

Social media marketing is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels and it is a powerful strategy that will get you links, attention andmassive amounts of traffic. For those who don’t understand or see the value of social media websites, here are the main benefits of marketing through social media channels.

3. Social Media Marketing Campaigns: How to Set Goals and Define Prospects

Determining your goals and target audience is a fairly important preliminary process when it comes to social media marketing. This is not just plotting objectives for the sake of being organized; your goals directlydetermine the best strategy to takeand the community to target. This article talks about the common goals for social media marketing and includes suggestions on how you can determine your target audience.

4. A Beginner’s Guide to Social News Websites

A powerful catalyst for viral marketing, social news websites are an excellent way to disseminate ideas and attract attention, traffic and links. These social media channels which will give you a platform to showcase your content and website to a large audience. This article will offer some tips on how to pick the right social news community, along with various strategies you can use to promote your website through these channels.

5. 40+ Social News Websites You Can Use

You don’t have a lot of time on your hands. You want a community that gives you fresh news on topics you care about. You want something that sends prospects and traffic while branding your website or business. You want a social news site with a long term returns on investment. Here’s a list of some of them.

6. Relevance and Distribution: Two Essential Factors in Social Media Marketing

Marketable content can come in many forms: for example, you can create text articles, videos, images and online tools. The medium is not of primary importance. It’s really how you frame the message so that it appeals to the audience. To increases the chances of social media success, you just need to focus on two main factors: relevance and distribution.

7. Social Media Networking and ROI: How to Maximize Value and Minimize Cost

Social media networking is the process of interacting with other individuals through the specific social media tool or community. For example, you could talk to people with similar interests in a forum or communicate with them through a more fragmented platform like Twitter. Whatever method you choose, there are usually four main goals.

8. Building a Popular Social Media Profile: 7 Essential Characteristics

What are some qualities which contribute to the growth and eventual popularity of a social media profile? Assuming that you aren’t a niche celebrity and don’t have a well-established brand name, what characteristics of your profile should you develop for maximum social media presence?

9. Developing Tactical Knowledge on Social Media Websites: A Three-Part Strategy for DIY Marketers

Before you embark on any campaign, its is important to know what you are dealing with, in order to best develop a course of action. Knowing the social media channel inside-out is paramount to leveraging it for benefits. The three steps mentioned in this article will give you the necessary foundation, from which you can start to devise future strategies with a strong likelihood of success.

10. Building Complementary Services: A Powerful Long-Term Social Media Marketing Strategy

There are a few that adopt a particularly powerful social media marketing strategy that consistently extracts attention with ease. A way that reaches out to every new and future member of a social community automatically with minimal effort. A tactic that markets continuously as long as the social channel exists and grows, without end or interruption.

Additional Resources

Here are some more posts which not part of the article series. They are each categorized according to the topics they cover.

Marketing Strategies for Social News Websites

1. Social Media Marketing Strategy #1: Recycling Linkbaits for Viral Success

Re-submission or re-insertion of link baits and valuable content into the social community gives your website a second chance. Didn’t make it big before? Now you have another shot. Note that there are also some concrete reasons why you should consider resubmission as a promotional strategy.

2. Social Media Marketing Strategy #2: The Mullet and Link baits

Where you choose to place your link bait matters. Do you want your regular site visitors or readers to see it among other content? Or would you prefer to only get the attention of a specific social media audience? This marketing strategy is known as the Mullet..in other words, business in front and party at the back.

3. How to Get Strong Referral Traffic from Social Websites

For these websites, the key to effective viral marketing not just lies in creating attractive on-site linkbait, but rather the ability to create linkbaits which grow into powerful sources of referral traffic through social websites.

Articles about Twitter

1. 17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners

There’s been a great deal of articles on how Twitter can be used for marketing purposes and I think most of them can be condensed to the simple aim of tracking and directing attention. Twitter allows you to monitor how influencers think or feel, you can also get into their attention zone via active networking.

2. How to Get More Twitter Followers: Some Methods That Work

The first step is to understand that your Twitter profile is like any other website. You should treat it no differently from your own blog or a free opt-in newsletter. This means that if you want to increase your Twitter subscriber base, you just need to do one thing again and again: Drive web traffic to your profile. The more targeted the traffic, the better.

StumbleUpon: Introduction and Detailed Guides

1. A Comprehensive Guide to StumbleUpon: How to Build Traffic to Your Website

I wrote this mini guide on StumbleUpon because I thought StumbleUpon had enormous potential in maximizing brand exposure. Included are some personal observations on using StumbleUpon to drive traffic to your website, as well as some strategies you can adopt to retain StumbleUpon visitors while monetizing your website.

2. How to become a top StumbleUpon User (Or Why You Shouldnt Bother)

Just exactly how do you actually become a top StumbleUpon user? Instead of writing out another generic how-to post which struggles to crack StumbleUpon’s algorithm, let’s take a step back to see if all this focus on being a top stumbler really matters in the first place.

3. StumbleUpon Networking: How to Share Content and Build Relationships

This article will examine the various ways of using StumbleUpon to share content directly with others, while studying the numerous benefits that arise when one disseminates web pages and shares opinions in this manner. There will also be various tips on how you can use this StumbleUpon feature to network and connect with audiences that are interested in you or your website.

4. Five Ways to Grow Your StumbleUpon Network: An Ode to Altruistic Stumbling

The number of StumbleUpon users who stumble your webpages has an effect in how much traffic you will receive in the long run.The other obvious benefit to having many friends is that your StumbleUpon experience will be enriched and more fulfilling.

5. StumbleUpon Optimization: Leveraging Photo Stumbles for More Web Traffic

This article on photo stumbling will offer some detailed tips on how you can use and optimize your images in order to increase the potential of receiving more stumbles and hence, visitors to your website.

List of Social Bookmarking Sites

noreply@blogger.com (loudfrogs) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 07:53:00 +0000

The following list is compile by

Josapheena Roshna

Top 20 Keywords Ranking of Youpark.com

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 06:55:00 +0000

Youpark.com was big challenge for me from start of year 2008, very first big challenge faced after taking over this project was implementation of URL Rewrite and followed by managing the distinctive URLs based on many filters criteria like, Mobile OS, Categories, brand and model of hand held device and attribute like free download & top downloads. The battle is still it wasy.

Below are The top 20 keywords search queries in which Youpark.com appeared on Google.com first page using 'Web Search' . You may please verify them all by clicking on these keywords.

I will try my best to put the blog, mobile device search and images top search ranking here.

Note: Please note that Google updates results frequently so there is possibilities of differrent ranking positions when you verfiy these results. All the blow mentioned stats were updated on March 06, 2009.

Sr.	Keywords	Rank in Google	Total Pages
1	mobile applications	3	59,900,000
2	blackberry aps	3	98,800,000
3	mobile application	1	60,900,000
4	cell phone applications	2	39,000,000
5	mobile phone applications	2	31,000,000
6	phone applications	6	51,900,000
7	free blackberry aps	1	8,310,000
8	htc touch games	7	2,150,000
9	blackberry pearl 8130 themes	7	453,000
10	face warp	9	575,000
11	htc touch free software	7	1,260,000
12	samsung instinct themes	11	842,000
13	blackberry storm aps	6	70,600
14	blackberry pearl 8120 themes	7	517,000
15	facewarp	1	1,590,000
16	spb mobile	9	862,000
17	games for htc touch	4	8,500,000
18	instinct themes	4	2,010,000
19	arabizer	9	68,700
20	موبي	1	262,000

(Back to My Search Engine Optimization Results Page)

Top 20 Keywords Ranking of NClubSoft.com

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:06:00 +0000

Below are The top 20 keywords search queries in which NClubSoft.com appeared on Google.com first page either using 'Web Search' or using mobile devices on Google Mobile Search. You may please verify them all by clicking on these keywords.

Note: Please note that Google updates results very frequently so there is possibilities of differrent ranking positions when you verfiy these results. All the blow mentioned stats were updated on Feb 27, 2009.

Sr.	Keywords	Rank in Google	Total Pages
1	nokia applications	9	12,600,000
2	applications for nokia	6	64,400,000
3	nokia e51 applications	7	14,600,000
4	se p990i	5
5	n96 symbian	4	3,110,000
6	games for nokia e51	10	1,620,000
7	se p1i	8	1,540,000
8	nokia n95 8gb applications	7	25,400,000
9	nokia n73 free games	5	1,450,000
10	nokia e51 free games	10	286,000
11	nokia n82 applications	6	20,100,000
12	free games for nokia e51	8	288,000
13	nokia e65 applications	6	17,500,000
14	nokia n series software	5	3,420,000
15	firefox s60	2	1,460,000
16	"gsmarena com" nokia	8
17	free nokia n95 8gb software	3	326,000
18	free games nokia n95	7	1,270,000
19	n series software	5	29,800,000
20	free nokia e51 games	8	367,000

(Back to My Search Engine Optimization Results Page)

Top 20 Keywords Ranking of BlackBerrySoft.com

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:58:00 +0000

Below are The top 20 keywords search queries in which BlackBerrySoft.com appeared on Google.com first page either using 'Web Search' or using mobile devices on Google Mobile Search. You may please verify them all by clicking on these keywords.

Note: Please note that Google updates results very frequently so there is possibilities of differrent ranking positions when you verfiy these results. All the blow mentioned stats were updated on Feb 27, 2009.

Top 20 'Web Search' Results of BlackBerrySoft.com

Sr.	Keywors	Rank in Google	Total Pages
1	blackberry curve applications	7	5,200,000
2	blackberry curve software	1	974,000
3	blackberry pearl software	6	3,140,000
4	best blackberry applications	7	10,400,000
5	blackberry curve apps	4	2,140,00
6	blackberry pearl applications	3	10,100,000
7	blackberry curve games	3	2,280,000
8	games for blackberry curve	5	701,000
9	blackberry applications	22	7,450,000
10	blackberry pearl apps	6	1,950,000
11	top blackberry applications	3	22,600,00
12	top blackberry apps	5	73,000,000
13	att blackberry software	4	1,880,000
14	blackberry gold	11	12,600,000
15	blackberry blog	5	12,600,000
16	blackberry 8310 games	9	2,120,000
17	black berry applications	6	43,500,000
18	games for blackberry pearl	10	300,000
19	blackberry curve 8330 games	5	977,000
20	blackberry 8310 applications	3	9,500,000

Top 20 'Mobile Devices Search' Results of BlackBerrySoft.com

Sr	Keywords	Rank in Google Mobile Search	Total pages
1	blackberry curve software	1
2	blackberry pearl applications	3
3	blackberry curve apps	4
4	blackberry curve applications	6
5	blackberry curve games	3
6	top blackberry applications	3
7	best blackberry applications	7
8	blackberry pearl software	6
9	blackberry pearl apps	6
10	top blackberry apps	5
11	games for blackberry curve	6
12	blackberry applications	21
13	software for blackberry curve	3
14	skype for blackberry pearl	5
15	blackberry 8310 applications	3
16	books for blackberry	4
17	blackberry curve programs	7
18	blackberry soft	2
19	blackberry 8830 games	5
20	blackberry blog	5

(Back to My Search Engine Optimization Results Page)

Gmail Turns Into Gfail

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:35:00 +0000

Thousands of Twitter messages carrying the words “gmail” or “gfail” will teach you that Google’s free web-based e-mail platform is currently down. A Google spokesperson told Pocket Lint that their engineers are working on it but have no clue why the errors are turning up.

Meanwhile, Google posted this on a discussion form:

We’re aware of a problem with Gmail affecting a small subset of users. The affected users are unable to access Gmail. We will provide an update by February 24, 2009 6:30 AM PST detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change.

(POP3 / IMAP seems to be still functioning, and the problem doesn’t appear to affect Google Apps at this point)

I’m not buying the small subset part, and considering the fact that Pocket Lint says the problem started occuring around 10:20am GMT, 3 hours before even telling everyone what’s going on is an incredibly long timeframe in my opinion.

Update: Gmail is supposed to be back now, and a Gmail Guide has confirmed this on the help forum. (Although a quick glance on Twitter seems to say otherwise)

The problem with Gmail should be resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support.

This comes a couple of weeks after the chaos when a reportedly human error caused Google’s search engine to erroneously flag the entire internet as malware.

Good thing Gmail went offline with Google Gears some time ago.

Adsense Alternatives

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:38:00 +0000

Many people have started using Google's AdSense program, but there are some who find it a bit too uncertain or simply not suiting their own requirements from an ad program.

But thankfully for such people, there are many alternatives to AdSense which attempt to alleviate some of its shortcomings. Here is a list of the most noteworthy ones from the lot with a description concerning each one.

AllFeeds (http://www.allfeeds.com/?action=publishers)
AllFeeds has a great pool of online advertisers to choose from. It also features many display formats that you can choose from. These include banners, buttons, XML feeds, DHTML pop-ups and so on. It also features real time reporting of your ad status. The site will mail a check every month, provided that you earn more then $25.00, while rolling over earnings for the next month if you don't. Another interesting thing about AllFeeds is that it integrates with Google AdSense, maximizing your earnings with AdSense.

MarketBanker (http://www.marketbanker.com/mb/sell.php)
MarketBanker allows you the unique possiblity to set the pricing for your site. It also allows you to allow or reject any link that appears on your site (although AdSense itself does a very good job of this as well, with URL filters) There's also a statistics section which will allow you to see how well your site is doing. The ads are small just like AdSense's and they're just as easy to set up. Also, registration for MarketBanker is free.

BidClix ( http://www.bidclix.com/PubTop.html)
BidClix is different because it has advertisers compete for clicks on your site, which in turn is meant to generate the highest possible profits for your page. It also has a very large pool of advertisers which ensure there are plenty of people to choose your site. However, it does require more polish on site contents then AdSense. As most sites, real time statistics are available and its very easy to get started with this service, but it's also very flexible.

Chitika (http://www.realcontext.com/index.php?option=RealContext:+Contextual+Targeting+Engine)
RealContext uses Artificial intelligence to retrieve the most relevant ads for your page. And there's an extra feature which makes RealContext unique as well. Keywords are selected based upon which previous selections payed off and which didn't. That means there's a constant feedback process that ensures you gain better revenue from your ads. It also supports blocking certain adds and child-safe filtering and many more options.

AdHearus (http://adhearus.com/webmaster.php)
AdHearus is a very feature-packed contextual ad provider. As with AdSense, advertisements are targeted but it doesn't stop here at all. The ads are very flexible, you can select from text-ads, banners, rectangles, pop-ups, pop-unders or skyscrapers. You can also display your own ads, through rotation, both on your site and on other affiliate sites, which makes AdHearus a hybrid with conventional advertising technologies. There's a very comprehensive on-line real time reporting feature and, as usual with such services, starting out is free and it's a breeze.

AffiliateSensor (http://www.affiliatesensor.com/)
AffiliateSensor has highly customizable ad blocks, which you can make for yourself with an easy to use on-line interface. You also get realtime reporting with clicks-by-domain, page and refferer. There's integration with Google AdSense as well, through the google_alternate_ad_url so AffiliateSensor can be used as a substitute for Google PSA's (Public Service Ads).

Kanoodle Bright Ads (http://www.kanoodle.com/about/brightads.cool)
Kanoodle's offering allows publishers to get ads related to topics or segments, and not the traditional keyword oriented ads. The site also groups publisher sites with advertisers by hand to ensure high-revenue generating ads. And speaking of revenue, the amount of money you receive is a clear 50% share of the amount of money Kanoodle recieves for an advertiser.

TargetPoint (http://publisher.targetpoint.com)
TargetPoint is oriented more towards content publishers. It offers full control over the look the ads, statistics over your site's overall performance and better revenue. It's free to register and you earn a guaranteed 60% of the total revenue. You can get payed with Paypal of Bank checks and (most times) wire transfers as well.

Clicksor (http://www.clicksor.com)
Clicksor will earn you as much as 60% from the amount of money your website produces. What you get is about the same as AdSense, there are targeted text ads, you can view the revenues from your website in real time. You can receive money via PayPal or through a check every two weeks, provided that you have earned more then $50. If you haven't made that much, your earning roll over to the next period

Adsense Alternatives - II

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:36:00 +0000

Bidvertiser (http://www.bidvertiser.com/)
Like AdSense, Bidvertiser displays text ads in your page. But the difference lies in the fact that advertisers bid over your advertising space, ensuring you earn as much revenue as you possibly can. This also means that bids will increase over time, earning you even more cash. You also get a great way to customize your ads with a very easy to use tool and detailed reports on your site's status.

Quigo AdSonar (http://www.quigo.com/adsonarpublishers.htm)
Quigo AdSonar achieves relevancy by placing a filter according to your site's categories. It also offers you on-line reports of your site's status and the possibility to add your own custom ads replacing ads that don't gain you any revenue. The setup is very simple, in a similar fashion to AdSense's and quite customizable as well.

Vibrant Media IntelliTXT (http://www.intellitxt.com/site/web_01a.html)
Vibrant Media IntelliTXT offers user-activated ads, highlighting certain words within the content of the page and presenting relevant ads when a user hovers his mouse over them. It uses a pay-for-performance pricing scheme and can easily be used along with other advertising methods, because it is unobtrusive. It places you in full control, allowing you to easily integrate it within your site with some simple JavaScript.

Nixie (http://www.nixxie.com/display.php?section=Partners)
Nixie claims to hold a technology that can read and understand your site, enabling it to display the most relevant content to your site. Besides text ads, Nixie also features price comparison listings as well as live auction advertising. It's very easy to implement and has a good payment policy as well.

MIVA AdRevenue Xpress (http://www.miva.com/us/content/partners/arx.asp)
MIVA AdRevenue Xpress is targeted towards small and mid-sized publishers. It implements Search Box functionality and also features things like a Category Directory as well as the handling of 404 error pages. It can be integrated with your page using a simple on-line wizard.

Fastclick (http://www.fastclick.com/publish.html)
Fastclick offers you an impressive 65 percent of what it makes from a click on your website. Payments are done monthly, via PayPal or through checks. The ads can be formatted as you wish, and Fastclick even offers a free support serice for its members and no fees are required to register with the service.

contextWeb ContextAd (http://www.contextweb.com/Corporate/publisher/publisher.shtml)
ContextAd offers the possibility of contextual ads for dynamic pages, meaning ads will change as soon as your page does. It's very easy to use and free to sing up for and offers a transparent payment policy. The ads are fully customizable and real-time reports are available 24/7.

AdBrite (http://www.adbrite.com/)
AdBrite offers publishers the possibility of integrating text ads in their pages. These are done on your own rates, with the websites you approve by hand so it bares some similarities with a classic advertising scheme. You also have the option of adding a "Your Add Here" button that buyers can immediately click to ad space on your page. It can also be used in conjunction with Google AdSense, maximizing your CTR and offering advertisers the possibility of showing their links in your Google AdSense space. You have full control over the look and feel of your adds and finally, you get an incredible 75% of what the advertiser pays for on every click.

So, as you can see there are many offers for this kind of advertising, and many hybrids based on AdSense like advertising. Also, a lot of services can work together with AdSense to earn you an even greater amount of revenue for your ad space.

Adsense and the Surfer

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:22:00 +0000

AdSense is an easy program to grasp: it's a great form of an advertising bringing a lot of benefits to every person in the chain. And of course, seeing the results it can have on a business (and a publisher) people encourage this form of publicity.

For the browsing audience this is probably the most straightforward model available, because they can be directed to a lot of new sites they wouldn't have otherwise found. Needless to say, if you have an AdSense banner on your site, and a large number of visitors you'll know it offers a great financial benefit.

But why does it work for the people clicking the links, as opposed to a standard approach?

It is aided by today's society. With bloggers and information based articles on the internet, people may be encouraged to complete purchases, which adsense can provide links to relevant suppliers whilst also benefiting the publisher.

And the good thing about this is that it works for site visitors as well. In fact Google realized that by pleasing the people who are looking for something, and directing them to what they need faster, everybody wins.

It is because of this that a lot of websites promote through AdSense in both content and search. They do it because they ultimately learned that it works for everyone.

If we look in the past, we can realize that this kind of publicity has a great impact over the people, especially in the last few years. When we enter on a web site and we see a graphical banner, our first idea is to cancel it out of our mind, because it's of no concern to us.

That's why traditional banner advertising is wrong. It's precisely because people are becoming savvy that they don’t look at a flashy banner because they think they'll be losing their time with it.

We've gotten accustomed to banners that don't interest us. And we're accustomed to them having nice graphics. So we naturally associate the two things and think that a banner with nice graphics has nothing to tell us.

But we might look at a text-ad because we've grown accustomed to them being targeted at what we're looking for. Basically these advertisements have marketed themselves into being looked at by any visitor.

This is a typical "no fluff, just stuff" situation. And in the end it means the visitors will see what they're interested in, not some random cool graphics you throw at them.

As stated above, site visitors adopt this advertising mechanism, because it is efficient in leading them to pages of interest and can offer ton of things they really want to see. Someone coming across an article on adsense was probably looking for shoes or doing research on shoes when they came across the article.

And most importantly for everyone, including visitors, this scheme can only improve as the process gets further refined to make ads more relevant to what you're looking for, not just a couple of keywords on a site.

Nowadays, it is because of AdSense that Internet surfers are looking after more interesting related things from banners, and the companies behind the site (Google and the advertiser) need to have better ideas to display, as expectations have increased a great deal.

So could "Do no evil" actually work in today's cut throat competitive marketplace? Well, as you can see it can and it does. And you, as a visitor are the one who gets to enjoy this the most. Advertising becomes less of a burden and more of a benefit, and is still a benefit you can choose to ignore.

Less obtrusive banners; banners that you're actually likely to be interested in and click means you'll be less annoyed by surfing the web and feel like you as a visitor being offered a relevant service.

Although some may feel reluctant to read articles that are there purely to compel consumers, undoubtedly without this consideration they are useful. Ultimately the adverts mean that you don’t have to go back to your homepage every time you are compelled to complete a purchase