Website Design, Templates, and Blogging Information

Should I Create a Website? Do I Need One?

admin — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 05:04:39 +0000

People always want to follow the latest thing, be it in fashion, sports, that kind of thing. Websites have become a necessity to almost everyone. Companies, businesses, individuals, even young adults have created personal websites with their respective purposes, be it for profit, or for entertainment.

What one must consider, however, before creating a website, are the factors in which must be put to thought before doing so, such as the cost, maintenance, use, web host and so forth.

Firstly, associating with the cost, we must always try to find an affordable host, not spending too much, nor too little. A cheap host does not exactly symbolize a credible reliability rating, but we must always look for value for money deals. Also, regarding the efficiency and server/web host reliability, there are many cases of web hosts not providing the service they had assured other people, some had even shut down and were nowhere to be seen. Keep this note in mind, as if you would like a long-lasting website, this would be the first thing to look for.

Next, would hiring a professional be affordable? Is it the best option? For simple websites, we could always pick up the coding, or even use programs, as it is relatively simple. However, when it comes to more complex coding, and when you want it to do a tad more than just providing information, hiring help in doing so would be the best way. Not only in terms of design, but security is also a key factor in assuring a quality website. If the website also acts as a portal for businesses, security would definitely be the issue here.

So, having considered the things to do before building a website, do we actually NEED one? If creating one would boost sales or promote positive implications to oneself, then by all means, go ahead and do what’s best. Yet again, planning is the key to success, in everything we do.

Technorati Tags: building a site, blogging, making money online, start a website

Website Design

admin — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 03:33:52 +0000

Introduction

Importance of the latter :

Design, design, design. To put the wonders of a good design into perspective, imagine a when we are purchasing a T-Shirt. First of all, what do we look at? The design of the T-Shirt, of course. Well most people do, other than the material factor. But let’s assume the all other factors are constant, wouldn’t the design or looks, become the key aspect then?

2 ) Design

Putting oneself in another individual’s shoes, as usual. Here are another two situations.

Situation A : A website with good design and breathtaking graphics. (Good color schemes with matching theme), pictures. (Optimum resolutions and relevant) and proper fonts and word sizes.

Situation B : A website inversely equipped with hideous graphics and pictures in terms of resolution, quality and relevancy. (Red pictures with a bright green background) Fonts used were not matching albeit too fanciful. (Too small, artsy font-types)

Situation A, visitors that enter the website are immediately awestruck by the design and artwork. The well placed pictures and designs will somewhat symbolizes the positive nature of the company/website. As we know, most people DO judge by impression.

As for Situation B, the shabby environment due to severe lack of creativity and badly taken pictures wouldn’t exactly help in attracting visitors. Fonts that were hard to be read, let alone comprehended, and mismatching themes in terms of color, isn’t exactly welcoming, is it?

Analysis: Now, the main idea here is to always plan your websites, try to get other individuals for feedback and perspectives. Each mindset might differ, but at least you will get room for improvement. Don’t get me wrong, even a plain website with proper design would generate plenty of positive implications, but the key idea here is to at least maintain an impressionable website.

Technorati Tags: website design

Improve Usability of Your Website

admin — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 02:13:39 +0000

No matter how brilliant your website design is, if it is hard to reach the content of your site then your site is as useful as an empty shell. Here are some tips to improve the usability of your website to ensure it serves its functions optimally.

The first method is to make sure the typography of your content is suitable. If you have large blocks of text, make sure to use CSS to space out the lines accordingly. The longer a single line of text is, the greater the line-height of each line should be. Also, make sure the font size of your text is big enough to read easily. Some sites have 10-pixel-tall text in Verdana font; while that may look neat and tidy, you have to really strain your eyes to read the actual text.

Make it easy for visitors to find content that they want on your site. If you have thousands of articles on your site and a certain visitor wants to find one single article from that pile, you have to provide a feasible means to enable visitors to do that without hassle. Be it an SQL-driven database search engine or just a glossary or index of articles that you have, providing such a feature will make sure your visitors can use your site with ease.

Ensure that your site loads fast if you do not want to lose visitors. Most internet users will leave a website if it doesn’t load completely within 15 seconds, so make sure the crème de la crème of your website is delivered to the visitors as soon as possible to retain their attention.

Last of all, test each and every link on your site before it goes online. There is nothing more effective in tarnishing your professional image than broken links, so be very careful about that.

Technorati Tags: site design, blog layout, optimizing your site

Understanding Your Visitors

admin — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:00:21 +0000

Understanding the type of people who visit your site is a very important task because you can use that information to enhance your site to suit them. As a result, you will gain more loyal returning visitors that come back again and again for more.

What is the age level and what kind of knowledge does your audience have? A layman might linger around a general site on gardening, but a professional botanist might turn his nose at the very same site. Similarly, a regular person will leave a site filled with astronomy abstracts but a well educated university graduate will find that site interesting.

Take your audience’s emotional state into consideration when building your site. If a very irritated visitor searches for a solution and comes across your site, you will want to make sure you offer the solution right up front and sell or promote your product to him second. In this way, the visitor will put his trust in you for offering the solution to his problems and is more likely to buy your product when you offer it to him after that.

When you design the layout for your site, you have to take into account the characteristics of your audience. Are they old or young people? Are they looking for trends or are they just looking for information served without any icing on the cake? For example, introducing a new, exciting game with a simple, straightforward black text against white background page will definitely turn prospects away. Make sure your design suits your site’s general theme.

Try to sprinkle colloquial language in your sites sparingly where you see fit and you will create a sense that your audience is on common ground with you. This in turn builds a trusting relationship between you and your audience, which will come in useful should you want to market a product to your audience.

Technorati Tags: visitors, readers, traffic, blogging help

If You are Already Blogging, Money May be Just a Click Away

admin — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:03:45 +0000

If you already spend a fair amount of time blogging, money may come to you literally as soon as you ask for it. Once you have an established blog with a regular readership, it is easy to turn a profit through advertising. By hosting sponsored links or banners, you can see income from your hobby almost overnight. Even if you did not start your blog intending to turn a profit, making supplementary income from your blog may be easier than you think.

Of course, even for people who have spent months or years blogging, money from advertising revenue may not add up to a large sum. The amount of money that you can make as a blogger depends on a lot of different factors, but perhaps the most important element of the equation is the topic of your blog. If your blog is on a subject that appeals to a demographic that advertisers have a strong desire to reach, you will be more likely to be able to turn a large profit on your blog than if your blog is on a fairly obscure subject that does not draw the kind of audience that advertisers need to appeal to. Of course, the only way to find out where you fall on this spectrum is to try hosting some ads. If you are already blogging, you have nothing to lose.

Technorati Tags: blogs, blogging revenue, wordpress, adsense, blogger

Generating Revenue With Good Planning

admin — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 16:52:07 +0000

For anything to work well, care must be taken to make firm, workable plans to execute it and the same goes for website designs. With a well thought out website design, you will be able to create a site that generates multiple streams of revenue for you. In fact, may websites turn into online wasteland because they are not well planned and do not get a single visitor. Gradually, the webmaster will not be motivated to update it anymore and it turns into wasted cyberspace.

The crucial point of planning your site is optimizing it for revenue if you want to gain any income from the site. Divide your site into major blocks, ordered by themes, and start building new pages and subsections in those blocks. For example, you might have a “food” section, an “accomodation” section and an “entertainment” section for a tourism site. You can then write and publish relevant articles in the respective sections to attract a stream of traffic that comes looking for further information.

When you have a broader, better-defined scope of themes for your website, you can sell space on your pages to people interested in advertising on your page. You can also earn from programs like Google’s Adsense and Yahoo! Search Marketing if people surf to those themed pages and click on the ads. For this very reason, the advertisement blocks on your pages need to be relevant to the content, so a themed page fits that criteria perfectly.

As Internet becomes more widespread, advertising on the Internet will bear more results than on magazines or offline media. Hence, start tapping in on this lucrative stream of profit right away!

Technorati Tags: adsense, site planning, Web Design, website building

Protecting Your Adsense Account

admin — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 03:41:34 +0000

To those of you who are monetizing your websites with Google Adsense, be aware that strict rules apply. The terms that Google places on Adsense Publishers are there for mainly two reasons. One: to help the website owner get the most out of Adsense. Two: to maintain the internet’s appeal to the masses.

Clicking Your Own Ads is Bad

The quickest way to get your Adsense account banned is by clicking your own ads. DO NOT CLICK YOUR OWN ADS. Google will find out, and your account will be shut down faster than you can think about it. This is a no-no.

Telling Others to Click Your Ads is Equally Bad

Another way to get your Adsense account closed is by telling your visitors to click the ads. Telling the visitors that they should click your ads is a blatant action against Google’s terms of service, which everyone who owns a website with Adsense as a monetizing source, should know by heart.

Building Garbage Sites Stinks

Making your website for Adsense is also a big problem. Garbage sites that are thrown together just for clicks is beginning to be one of the main problems that Adsense is facing today. Remember how I said that Google is making sure the web stays user-friendly? This is a reason why they will shut your site down.

Read the Terms and You’ll Be Alright

The point is: make sure you read the Terms of Service. And when in doubt, contact Google and see if there is a problem with it! Always make sure you’re reading proper information, as well, never take someone’s word at face value. As soon as you try something new, and you feel like it should work, that might be the day Google cracks down on you, and you’ll miss out on the opportunity to make money online with Google Adsense.

Technorati Tags: adsense, adsense account, banned by adsense, new adsense account

20 Social Bookmarking Sites That You Need to Know

admin — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 03:12:31 +0000

Not all social bookmarking sites are created equal, but they are all a great way to get instant traffic, and heavy backlinks to your site. Below are a list of 20 social bookmarking sites and the discriptions taken from their site:

1. Delicious
2. Diigo
3. StumbleUpon
4. Spurl
5. Sitetagger
6. Netvous
7. RawSugar
8. Rojo
9. Scuttle
10. Shadows
11. Simply
12. IceRocket
13. GoKoDo
14. Kaboodle
15. Digg
16. Connectedy
17. Fark
18. CiteULike
19. BlogMemes
20. BlinkBits

All of these bookmarking sites are fantastic at getting your site indexed and noticed quickly and effectively. Since the search engines are checking these pages regularly, you potentially can get your website indexed in a matter of hours.

Case studies have shown that people who use social bookmarking as a search engine optimization tool, have had their sites indexed in the search engines within 24 hours. So make the use of this list, pick out the ones (if not all) that will suit your niche, or blog, the best. And get to social bookmarking!

Technorati Tags: social bookmarking, links, favorite sites

Why You Need To Use A Pay Per Lead Program

admin — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 03:15:55 +0000

In the recent years, and the sudden drop in Adsense revenue in most individuals’ sites, there seems to have been a frantic search for other money-making options. And one of those options that is growing in popularity and in income is the “Pay Per Lead” Programs.

Pay Per Lead is a lot like an affiliate program. You recruit your visitors to a site that captures their name, address, and whatever information they need to make that person a valuable lead. But those advertisers will actually pay you a certain amount of money per lead.

Unlike Google Adsense, you know how much you are getting paid per action, and it’s typically much more than a single click on an Adsense ad. In fact, you can choose Pay Per Lead affiliate programs that pay as much as 40 dollars per lead! That means if someone signs up for more information, or a free membership, you could make 40 dollars.

Here are some great sites that offer Pay Per Lead programs to website owners:

CJ.com
Azoogleads.com
Hydramedia.com
CPAEmpire.com
ModernClick.com
RevenueGateway.com

These are just a few of the many Pay Per Lead programs out there. Generally, all have the same basic format and set up, and very good customer service. Make sure you search for the best programs that meet your niche’s needs!

Technorati Tags: pay-per-lead, affiliate income

Affiliate Blogging

admin — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:03:28 +0000

Three Affiliate Blogging No-No’s

If you’re monetizing your blog by promoting an affiliate product, here are some basic tips on what NOT to do:

Do NOT promote more than 1 or 2 products:

If you look like you’re a big spammer online, Google, and other search engines are going to throw you out of the results faster than you can say “I’m not a spammer!”. Good, informative content is where your money is, and it’s best to stick with one product per blog. This also keeps you focused on learning about the product, instead of just saying “Buy this

product!”, which is a big turn off.

Do NOT use sales page material:

This one is pretty controversial because most affiliate marketers with ClickBank or Commission Junction don’t want to purchase the product, therefore, they don’t have any information on it. So they use the sales copy on another person’s sales page. This is not only tacky, it makes you look robotic, and without passion.

Do NOT forget to cloak your affiliate links:

One big no-no is putting your affiliate link on the internet. It can get stolen, not to mention it just looks bad. No one wants to click a link that looks like “http://imanaffiliate.clickheretomakememoney.com/youreallydontwantthisjunk2×33mdm. A great way to cloak your affiliates is to use tinyurl.com or urlfreeze.com. If you own your own hosting, and website, use your domain name and a redirect page. That method actually boosts click through rates.

Blogging as an affiliate is about presenting the problem to the person (making them feel like they need something to fix it) and then giving them the solution (the product). Make sure you know about the product you’re promoting, or at least feel passionately about it. This will give you plenty to talk about, as well as a passion in your writing that will make people feel they ought to buy it because someone else feels so strongly for it.

Technorati Tags: Affiliate Blogging, Affiliate Links, Cloaking Links, Product Promotion, Sales Page Content

Start Your Blog Now

admin — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 18:42:30 +0000

5 Reasons You Should Already Have Your Own Blog-

1: Blogs can be free to make.

I’ve discussed how to create a free Blogger.com blog, as well as a free Wordpress blog. Blogs can be free to make, and can automatically place you on the internet free of charge.

2: Blogs can be about anything.

Anyone can build a blog. From kids to adults, a blog is easy to set up, easy to begin posting, and can be about anything you want it to be about. In fact, it’s best to build a blog around what you love. Because you’ll have some ownership over it, you’ll enjoy posting, and you’ll constantly update it.

3: Search engines love blogs.

A great thing to realize about blogs is that they will typically out-rank most regular sites without a blog. Why? Because Google, and most other search engines realize that these blogs are typically updated often, with original content. This makes then extremely valuable in their eyes, and they’ll be boosted in the search engine rankings because of such.

4. Blogs are flexible.

In the new Web 2.0 age we now face, flexibility is key! There are certain extremely powerful tools that can only be utilized by blogs, and not by regular sites. Tools that are built in, such as comments, polls, and other user-attracting widgets that will generate a buzz on your site are typically not found on a regular HTML website. More buzz means more traffic, more traffic means more potential for profit.

5: Everyone is doing it.

This isn’t a “well, if everyone was jumping off a bridge…” No, this means that you can shine in your market and become an “everyone” who knows more than everyone else. Becoming an expert is a key to your success. And looking like everyone means that you can then shine in a market without looking like a spam-artist.

Technorati Tags: blogs, blogger, wordpress blog, free blogs, live journal, blogging

The Importance of Your RSS Feed

admin — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 22:06:43 +0000

Really Simple Syndication. Have you ever heard that term? You probably have. It’s the RSS feeds that you see everywhere. RSS feeds are typical to sites that are constantly updating, growing, or changing. And almost every blog on the internet has one.

Why is my RSS Feed valuable?

Your RSS feed is valuable because 1) it keeps your readers constantly updated. And 2) it can make your website accessible from other websites.

When someone builds a website, and they’re looking for good, relevant content that fits with their specific niche, they might go to an RSS directory and search for an RSS feed. When they impliment this RSS feed into their site, whatever that feed is pointing to (blog entries, new articles, forum updates), whoever reads that feed on the new website will be more inclined to click. This gives you a great deal of traffic if you’re the one that website chose to syndicate.

Not only are you getting a great deal of click-through traffic, but you are getting valuable backlinks that will help boost your page rank.

RSS feeds are also very helpful in giving your blog or website constant updates without you having to worry about writing, or paying someone else to write relevant content. Some blogs are automated on RSS feeds, and generate revenue based on those RSS feeds.

So if you ever thought that the little orange icon on the side of most blogs was just there for show, you’re dead wrong. That RSS feed might pull those blogs in hundreds of viewers, and maintains a constant reading base because they are always updated.

So make sure you promote your RSS feed. Think of it as a Mini List.

Technorati Tags: rss feed, newsreader, feedburner, syndication

Your Blog and Video

admin — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 02:22:27 +0000

If you’ve never heard of Youtube.com, I think it would be safe to assume that this is the first website you’ve ever visited. Youtube, Google Video, and Metacafe are just a few of the many video sites out there that are at your disposal to build massive amounts of traffic to your site. Video is one of the growing assets in the internet marketing community, and is being utilized abundantly.

Video is viral. If you were to make a video that was so funny that hundreds upon hundreds of people put on their website, do you realize that the exposure from that would be massive? What if your website URL was at the tail end of that video? The traffic would be amazing!

There have been case studies done that showed that people who made one single video got over 1000 visitors (unique visitors) to their new website in less than 24 hours. Imagine the rewards of such a magnificent amount of people!

If your Adsense site got 1000 visitors in 24 hours, and the click through rate was even 5%, at 1 dollar a click, you’ve made 50 dollars in one day. That’s not bad at all. What if you had an infomercial that was marketed for FREE to hundreds upon thousands of eyes every day.

Video is becoming a necessity in most websites. If you don’t have a video, it’s safe to say that you’re not in the right age. Video marketing on blogs and websites is becoming so powerful. Creating a video is easy, too. Making a video can be cheaper than 40 dollars, to even free! All you have to do is buy a webcam and you’re ready to go!

If you’re not using video in your marketing strategy, or at least in your traffic building campaigns, you’re not utilizing all of your resources.

Technorati Tags: youtube, video blogs, viral video, vlog, video marketing

Simple Ways to Get Backlinks

admin — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 15:42:19 +0000

You’ve probably heard the term from me time and time again. A lot of your search engine ranking effort is in your backlinks. I won’t get into the discussion of page rank and backlinks, nor will I talk about reciprocal linking, or link trading. But I will tell you that you need high page ranking sites to link to you, and there are 3 time-tested methods that will get you great backlinks with no cost. Article directories, commenting on blogs, and forums.

Article Directories:

If you’re not writing articles for your website or blog, you’re probably not getting too many backlinks to your site. Article directories (at least the top ones) have great page rank. And they will share it with you if you write great articles and put your site in the “About the Author” section. Also, this will not only get you great backlinks from the article directories, but others who decide to use your article on their website or blog.

Comments:

Commenting on other blogs is extremely dangerous if not done properly. People can consider you spam, block you, or report your site. The best way to comment on other people’s blogs or websites is to find a blog directory and hand pick specific blogs in your particular niche. Then, when you’re ready to comment, READ THE POST, and add good content. This is not only helpful to the other readers, but also gives the blog owner the knowledge that you’re not just spamming them.

Forums:

Another great tactic that has been overlooked for a time. Most forums allow you to place website URLs on the signature of the posts you make. Some don’t. Find a forum that is worth your time and effort, and one that will offer you good advice to add onto your website or blog. Then, get involved with the forum, posting good, useful posts with your website on the signature. This will not only give you backlinks, but will also allow viewers to click your websites, giving you instant traffic.

Technorati Tags: backlinks, page rank, google rankings, increase traffic

Content Writing Equals Content Reading

admin — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:33:53 +0000

If you’ve researched a market that is extremely profitable, but you have no knowledge of the market, then you’re going to have to do some reading. If you’ve built a blog and you’ve got to write rich, eye grabbing content about a topic, then you’re going to have to do some reading.

Most people don’t realize how much they really do have to read when they write. Not only does it better inform them of the topic at hand, but it also allows better writing style, grammar, and flow with the reader. If you don’t read often, it’s a good chance that your writing will reflect that because you have no real guidance in how you should write.

Also, reading up on your topic is a great way to gather new content. If you learn something new, you can write about it, share your opinions on it, and what it might mean to your readers. Reading inspires, promotes creativity, and informs.

A few great places to read online are newsletters, forums, and other reputable blogs. If you’re researching a topic about a niche that you have very little knowledge about, go to a local library and find as much as you can about the subject. This will give you tons of great content, knowledge, and passion, as you will now have ownership in the niche.

Don’t just rely heavily on the internet as your research, or content. Try and branch out into physical books, interviews, and other resources that will be able to add to your credibility as a content or information provider. Make sure you know what you’re talking about, or your blog/website will never thrive as it should.

Technorati Tags: writing content, write articles, web site content, original content

Easy, Profitable Affiliate Marketing Tip

admin — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 22:13:07 +0000

An Easy, Viral, Affiliate Marketing Tip

Have you ever turned down something that was freely given? Something that you were told “this will make you money, and it’s free?” I would have to say unless the person giving it to you is a liar, and you know that he or she is a liar, you’ve not turned it down. You could give it a shot, and hopefully the steps and system would be profitable.

What if giving away a free book was not only viral, but made you money, brought in traffic, and built a list that you could sell to time and time again? It sounds almost too good to be true, huh? Well it gets better, because it can be practically free to start.

(Although building a list does cost a low monthly fee to own an account at Aweber, or some other list building service, this is usually fairly cheap.)

First of all, you need to know about your niche. If you don’t know about your niche, this system will not work. You must feel comfortable with writing about your given market. If you’re into this market for profit value, and you don’t know anything about it, this system will not work for you.

The Steps:

1. Find an affiliate product that you can put into your report.

2. Write a 5 - 15 page “report” on your market, giving great information, key tips, and helpful advice that will benefit the reader, but make sure you elude to the fact that even more helpful info is in the affiliate product.

3. Using a lead capture form, promote your “Free Critical Report!” to your website visitors, and watch them file in, filling out the lead capture form to get to your report. This not only captures their name and email address for later, it also plugs an affiliate product that will make you money.

This is a great way to promote affiliate products without sounding like you’re promoting an affiliate product. A sneaky way to boost affiliate sales, virally get more traffic, and build a list. Easy as pie.

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, viral marketing, lead generation, list building, affiliate income

Finding Your Niche and it’s Keywords

admin — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:46:11 +0000

So you’ve found the most profitable, least competitive niche ever, and you’re going to build a blog around it. You’ve got 2 great affiliate programs for it, Adsense clicks pay out a staggering 15 dollars a click, and you’re just sure that you can build a great list of over 3,000 people. But there’s one thing missing, and you don’t know what to do about it:

You have no content, and you have no knowledge of the niche, and you need KEYWORDS.

What do you do in this case? You’ve got a fantastic niche that no one has tapped into yet. You’re just sure you can make a killing, but there’s not a single thing you know about the niche, and you’re not sure how long the niche will say so low in competition.

You have basically 2 choices. One: pay someone to write your content and find your keywords. In this case, you would have someone write GREAT content, and not just some 5 dollar articles, but good, solid, comfortable content and put in the time to find awesome keywords.

Or Two: You research the niche out, develop an interest in it, and write your own content and find your own keywords.

Choosing the former may get you instant content, and allow you to start the website, but at some point you’re going to have to know when to do it yourself. All that outsourcing will drill a hole in your wallet.

The way I see it, there are 3 basic ways to research your niche:

1: Ezines or Newsletters

Find an Ezine or Newsletter about your niche. Chances are you’re going to get a great deal of information from these, and I suggest you eat them up as fast as you can.

2: Forums

This is probably your best bet. Forums are a great way to get personalized questions answered, as well as network, and build up a presence in the niche. Ask questions, research for answers, and dig deep into the niche.

3: The Library

Yep, good, old fashioned books. The internet might be great for researching, but nothing beats sitting down and reading a book. You want to know why? As you read a book, you will begin developing your own voice in the niche. You’ll grasp concepts, and wording that you can then begin to implement into your own writing. This makes your content a whole lot easier to understand and believe.

So if you’ve found a niche that is absolutely perfect, then I suggest you dig deep into researching the market. Sign up for newsletters, forums, guestbooks, and surveys. Anything that will make you believable as a leader in that market.

For keywords, there is NO better keyword database than wordze.com. Wordze gives you all the keywords you want for any niche. You get all the long-tail and “low hanging fruit” that’s out there. It’s so simple to find the best keywords for any niche when you use wordze.

The cool thing I want to tell you about is the FREE 30 day trial offer that’s available at wordze. You can only get to the FREE trial signup page through the links in this post. The offer will only last for the next 6 days, so act fast! CLICK HERE for your free 30-day trial at wordze.com ($45 value!).

Come back and let me know what you think of wordze…

Technorati Tags: wordze trial, keywords, niche research, keyword research, keyword discovery

The Top Three Ways to Design a Site

admin — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 00:00:41 +0000

Have you ever heard that saying “There’s more than one way to skin a cat?” Well, that saying has nothing to do with what I am about to tell you. There are only 3 basic ways to build your website: build it yourself, use a free template, or have someone else do it.

Building A Website:

There are a lot of really good website designing tools and programs out there. It’s probably what most people with a tight wallet seem to want to opt for. But this can become quite time consuming. You have to learn the program. Then you have to design the website. This is not to scare you off, but most people designing their first website typically don’t know how to build one, which leads me into the second option.

Using a Template:

The easiest and cheapest way to get a website up and going is by using a template. You can tweak them, sure, but they have what’s called “footprints” that Google and all of the main search engines will see, and dock points in the search engine ranking. Not fun. Although, if you’re looking to build a website, and not looking to pull in a huge profit, this might be what you want to go with. But if you’re looking to pull in some revenue, and you don’t want to build it yourself, you’re going to have to get someone else to do it.

Have Someone Else Build It:

This is possibly the most professional way to do it: pay a freelancer. These guys do this for a living. Most of the major websites that you see on the internet are designed by freelancers, or teams of people paid to build websites. A couple freelancing websites are GetAFreelancer.com and Elance.com. Outsourcing your website design might be the key to building the site or blog that you’re looking for. Most freelancers work with you in what you’re vision for the website is, and they’ll tweak it to your specifications.

Technorati Tags: website design, templates, freelance design, website building

What is Web 2.0

admin — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 19:26:13 +0000

In 2003, a man by the name of Tim O’Reilly coined a phrase that we all hear about nowadays: “Web 2.0”. Web 2.0 is merely a term to describe the current state of our internet, it doesn’t mean the internet is totally different, it merely demonstrates that our websites, internet experience, and online communities are evolving, and will continue to do so.

What he heck does that mean? Well, Web 2.0 basically means this: the internet is now user based. It’s more user-friendly, user-focused, customized for the reader, and all about the visitor. Web 2.0 is based more on sharing than it is on informing. Sure, you want to inform, but you will do so in a “sharing” form, using more viral tactics, and giving away things rather than selling them. Web 2.0 makes the internet a community. It’s no longer the “Internet” it’s filled with more community focused sites: forums, social book marking, personal blogs, digg.com, and all other manner of places that you can share information with other people.

So you might be asking: well, how does that change the way *I* use the internet? For those of you beginning in internet marketing, blogging for income, or just wanting to build a site, this means a great deal. It offers you more options to market, or become involved with other REAL people doing the same thing. It also gives you the great chance to market in a more casual manner as a regular person sharing valuable information. And often, a person who does this right, scores big - and people are scoring big.

The good part about Web 2.0 is the quick ability to get your website recognized by many other people. In the past, it could take weeks to get in the search engines, then even longer to achieve any form of traffic, and to market your information to the masses. Now, it’s not surprising to make it to the search engine results in a matter of days, or even hours.

A bad part about Web 2.0 is the supposed “work” you have to put into it. Constantly uploading, blogging, bookmarking, and commenting seems to be a hassle. Don’t get discouraged. This is an initial effort that will pay off in the end. The thing about Web 2.0 is that if someone likes your site, they have the tendency to tell other online communities, such as Digg, which sends you even more traffic, leading to the viral effect which is part of what “Web 2.0″ is about.

Technorati Tags: Web 2.0, Social Bookmarking, Blogging, Digg, Viral Tactics

Ten Ways to Get Traffic to Your Website

admin — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 01:08:55 +0000

Here are 10 easy ways to get traffic to your blog or website:

1. Write and submit articles to the article directories.

This is an old, and time tested technique that works almost instantly. If you’re not writing articles, you’re not getting traffic.

2. Leave comments on other people’s blogs with a backlink to your site.

Make sure that you’re not spamming, though. This can come across very spam-like. Tip: add to the person’s post, giving good information, don’t just post your link.

3. Answer questions on Yahoo! Answers.

Not only does this help you learn about your market, it also mau help you attain a “guru” status.

4. Network with other people who share your interest.

It’s as easy as making friends.

5. Use Pay Per Click search engine advertising.

This can get pricey, so make sure you start slow, then work your way up.

6. Submit a viral, funny, extreme, or cute video to YouTube.com, Google Videos, or Meta Café.

Videos are a great way to get repeating traffic; especially if the video is funny enough to repost.

7. Conduct and publish surveys to your website.

This is also a great way to build a list (repeating customers). This is something I should probably be doing.

8. Post free classified ads on any of the sites that allow them with a link to your site.

Be careful with this one though, as it can also become very spam-like.

9. Exchange reciprocal links with other related websites.

A great way to build click-through traffic, as well as inbound links with relevant anchor text.

10. Write something controversial.

This is great for social book-marking sites such as digg.com and PlugIM, to name two. This can also create a buzz in your market centered around you. You should make sure you don’t cross the “line”. If you plan to write negative things about a person, company, or website, you need to make sure they are true and you should never resort to name-calling just to attract visitors…it just makes you look bad.

Building a steady stream of traffic can be a hassle, but these 10 tips can really work.

Technorati Tags: build traffic, backlinks, blog traffic, PPC, Submit Articles

The Top 5 Video Sites

admin — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 04:30:25 +0000

As I’ve said before: video is going to be one of the greatest tools in your toolbox for marketing your site, product, or service. But if you’re not submitting those videos to any of the sites that will get eyeballs to watch, then you’re not doing much good. Here is a list of 5 of the most popular online video sites:

1: Yahoo! Video

Most people know who Yahoo! is. After the craze and tremendous growth of video on the web, Yahoo! finally created their own web-based video hosting system to their members. Yahoo! had over 20 million visitors view their videos as of July ‘06.

2: MySpace Videos

Myspace is an online community of individuals blogging, sharing information, bulletins, photos, and now video! Videos have seen over 200,000 views in a single day on Myspace. Imagine the possibilities of a viral market to 200,000 people.

3: YouTube

Possibly one of the most known video sharing websites on the internet today. Youtube has grown tremendously in popularity over the last couple years, and has seen over 16 Million visitors in the year 2006 alone. Youtube is great for video blogging and connecting with other users.

4: MSN Video

Video with the power of MSN behind it. As google did, MSN, Yahoo!, and AOL were bound to follow. MSN has seen great popularity in their news videos, and has begun to develop their own viral video sharing system.

5: AOL Video

Over 15 million people have visited AOL video, which makes it one of the most popular video sharing websites on the internet today.

All 5 of these websites should not be overlooked when considering marketing video. Since video is so viral, make sure you put a lot of thought behind what your video is going to be. Is it comedic? Is it an infomercial? You want to make sure that it’s viral, so that as many people will share it with their friends as possible.

Technorati Tags: YouTube, MSN Video, MySpace Video, Video Blog, Vlog, YouTube Blog

Finding The Right Niche

admin — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 23:36:50 +0000

The Top 3 Attributes of A Good Niche

1: Writable

When looking for a niche to blog or build a website around, make sure you’re picking a niche that you can write about. The best way to do this is by looking at what you’re interested in, or interested in learning, and begin a blog based on that.

If you chose a niche that is profitable, but not worth writing about, your blog is going to be a bore, and it will most likely fail. If you choose a niche that you love, and you began to cultivate it, even if it biggest money maker, you could turn it into something that generates a steady stream of income and you’ll have fun. If you choose a niche that really doesn’t interest you, chances are you will struggle to keep it updated.

So make sure, when you’re researching a market, or a niche to build a blog or website around, you find a niche that you’re interested in and you can write about it, and keep writing about it.

2: Newsworthy

A good niche to look for is not only writable, but also newsworthy. If you’re writing on a product or a service that has no future, it stands to reason that most people will not be searching for it. But if you build your blog or website around a newsworthy niche (that you are interested in), then you can have updated information at all times.

This also adds to the “write worthy” part of a niche. If your market is stagnant, there is no real flexibility for you to grow, or to step out and be the first at something in that niche. You’re a follower, not a leader. Leaders end up with the most success. Think about doing something different within your niche.

3: Profitable

Lastly, you want to know if it’s profitable. It’s up to you to find out what is profitable for you. Are your goals to make $10,000 a month? If so, look for a profitable product or niche that will help you attain that goal; but make sure you don’t lose sight of the other two rules of finding the right niche!

You want to make sure that you’re BUILDING a business. You’re not going to fall into a good one. Building a business takes time. Building your sites around only one of these rules might not be the smartest decision. So do a lot of research before you go diving headfirst into a market.

Writable, Newsworthy, and Profitable. These 3 blended together will help make your blog, or website a successful one.

Technorati Tags: find a niche, niche, profitable niches, blog niches

All Aboard- One More Link List Building Up Steam

admin — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 00:33:42 +0000

Ok this is it…I promise, maybe. Here’s another link list that comes from AllSux.com and it looks like it’s gonna start rolling along. You know the drill by now- follow the instructions, and I will add you as I get pings and comments back. I will say that since I started the first one of these I have seen my number of backlinks increase. Whether or not they actually improve this site’s page rank is another story. I’m pretty sure all of those nice nerds over at google have built some kind of “super-duper” spider that can see not only on page stuff, but they can also read the mind of the site owner to find out if he/she is trying to “game” the system (they know my shoe size too). Oh well, it’s neat to find all of these different blogs to read, most are blogs that I probably wouldn’t have found if not for these viral link things.

Oh well- here we go:

———-START COPYING HERE ———-

*REMOVED*

I apologize to everybody that had links here, but I had to take them all down. For some reason a site that many people copied the list from made my link a “nofollow”. This means that google would not view that link as a regular link that it would count towards a site’s PageRank. I don’t know why this was done, as my site was the only site on the list with rel= “nofollow” included in the link code.

Please feel free to remove my link from “Geek-Train” list on your sites.

Viral Linking Again?

admin — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 21:12:36 +0000

YEP!
Why not? Here’s another viral link building spinoff, this one I picked up at the Buzz Marketing Blog.

Here are the instructions:
Step 1: Highlight the links below, right click, then click “View selection source”
Step 2: Paste the list into your blog or site
Step 3: Email contact(at)deanhunt.com or Ping this blog back either with a trackback, or comment to this post with your link information and I’ll pass it on.
Step 4: Get a mention and link here at deezar.net and every other site that plays the game
Step 5: Update your list daily to reflect the new websites and blogs that join in

***
SAY NO TO PAGERANK, YES TO LIFE WEBMASTERS LIST***

Buzz Marketing Blog
Young Entrepreneurs Blog
No Nonsense Business Advice
Sell your blog
CS Developer
Aplliance Journal
Madkane Humor Blog
Find New Leads
PHPied

UK SEO Directory
Bikinifigur: Abnehmen ohne Hunger
Bob Meets World
BlueJar Webmasters Guide
All Sux Dot Com
CodingPad
The Next Post
Tech Blog
Reality Wired

Tom Wilson Google Blog
Price Filter
a few loose screws
Clickon Web Design
Woody Maxim
Crystals Quest
What Simply Works
Affiliate profit center
Internet Marketing Blueprints

Cash 4 blogging
Hits USA
Wendy Haney
Sheterk Marketing
How To Build a website blog
The Block Party
Ezinet Global Marketing
Best Online Earning Strategies
Online Security Authority

1nf0rmat10n.com
Alternative Healing
That’s what i’m talking about
Web Urbanist Media and Art
Fundraising Ideas
Chatsquatch
Money Spinning
Blogging at Flixya
Blogging Tips

He Said What
Things That Are Fun
Wii Contests

***List Ends Here** - UPADTED DAILY *** Please update your lists

Technorati Tags: viral linking, pagerank, backlinks, vlinks

Beginning Basics- HTML Tags for Text

admin — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 22:10:11 +0000

Even though a single web page is made up of hundreds of tags, what I want to discuss are the very basics that you must know in order to make your text more effective in conveying emotion, as well as optimizing your site well in the search engines.

What’s an HTML Tag?

A tag in HTML is basically a place holder for an attribute that peoples’ browsers will interpret into specific data. HTML tags are words placed inside less than (<) and greater than (>) signs, typically followed by an “end tag” with a slash before the word. Further explanation of this is farther down.

Font Style Tags:

Bold text is great for emphasizing a point, or a key element in a product or service you’re providing. Not only is bolding text great for visual emphasis, but bolding keywords and relevant phrases ads weight to your site in the eyes of the search engines.

The tags for bolding text are either or . I suggest using “strong” as that is what most browsers understand. Although “b” still works. To use these types of tags in your page, type an entry, or piece of text, and look for a key word or phrase you would like to ad emphasis too.

Take, for example, the phrase: I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas.

To bold this statement, I would place a before “I like to…” and then a after “…bananas.” So that in the HTML code, it would look like this:

I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas.

Do you see the difference between the opening tag, and the closing tag? The open tag has no slash, the closing tag does. Basically, the same tag is repeated, just add a slash to tell the HTML code that the bold attribute is ended.

Other Tags:

The following tags also can be used in the same way as the “bold” tag:
Italics = or 
Underlined =

Make sure that you do not OVER stylize your posts or text in your blog or website. This is extremely tacky, and will scare off potential readers faster than anything else. Make sure you use these tags wisely, and do not get style-happy. You can use these, and the HTML Blogging Tips, to make your pages more attractive to visitors.

Technorati Tags: text HTML, HTML Tips, HTML Tags, style tags

HTML Tips You Must Learn to Be a Successful Blogger

admin — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 22:02:15 +0000

When you’re designing your website, you’ll have the chance to either build you own, pay someone else to do it, or use a template. Regardless of whether or not you are not the official webmaster, there is potentially some time that you’ll want to be able to tweak something here or there. And there are some basic HTML tips that you have to remember when tweaking a template, pre-built site, or your own website.

Always close tags.

An HTML tag looks something like this: < htmltag > (without the space inbetween the > and < signs). You want to make sure that you close them. This means that if you had a bold tag (), you need to follow that tag with a closing tag: < / closinghtmltag >. These are typically shown with a slash in front of the tags main function. So the text or area between these two tags are bolded, or have the attribute that those particular html tags require.

Do not delete unless you know what you’re doing.

If you didn’t build the website, or you’re using a template, do not delete any code unless you’re sure of what you are doing. When in doubt, never move or change something. Don’t go through and randomly delete information. You could mess up a tag that is essential to your website’s look and feel, and unless you’re positive of what you’re doing, it could ruin your website.

Close the tags in the same order as being opened.

Take this line of text for example.

I like to eat bananas.

Do you notice how the tags are in the order of which they were opened. If the emphasis tag is opened last, that means it needs to be the first tag that is closed. Think of HTML tags as doors. A tag inside another tag is like a room inside another room. You need to get out of the inner room first, before you can get into the room outside of it.

In the next post we’ll go over some common HTML mistakes. Until then, re-read The Get Results by Not Making These Web Design Mistakes post for more information about tweaking your site’s design.

Technorati Tags: web design, learn html, html tips, successful blogging

Video Blogging for Profit

admin — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 19:31:54 +0000

You know what a blog is. You’ve probably got several. But have you seen the light and begun video blogging? Video blogs are rising in popularity. No one wants to read what you have to say, they want to SEE what you have to say.

Video blogs and written blogs have a lot in common, although written blogs leave out a tremendous amount of emotion and voice inflections. Video blogs capture everything that a person wants to convey, and people love it.

Video websites like Youtube.com are growing at such a fast pace. There are actually scouts that are paid to go onto video hosting services and seek out acting talent! If that doesn’t tell you that video blogging is becoming essential to your business, then I don’t know what will!

Video blogs, however, must be informative. If you’re offering a service or a product, you must still have great content in words. You don’t need a face for television to be a good video blogger, you merely need to offer good, sound information or entertainment, and the audience will come.

To start your vlog, or to begin vlogging, you need to set up a Youtube.com “channel”. This is your video website. You can host your own videos on the site, or directly record the video onto their server via webcam and mic. It’s free to sign up, and quick to get started.

Building a fan base is easy too, all you have to do is get involved!

The main thing about Web 2.0 today is that internet marketers have to get their hands dirty. They have to know what their audience is doing in order to give their readers what they want! Video blogging is the same way. Get involved with the Youtube community, and you’ll see the fruit of that seed!

Technorati Tags: vlog, video blog, youtube blog, web 2.0

Blogging Platforms- Wordpress Vs Blogger

admin — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 22:03:52 +0000

Out of the two most popular blogging platforms on the internet today, there has to be a better blog, right? That’s up for debate. A lot of people say Wordpress is the best because of it’s flexibility and large library of plugins. Others think that Blogger is easier to set up and maintain, as well as gets better search engine rankings because it is owned by Google. Even though this entry won’t tell you which is better, it will hopefully inform you enough to make an educated decision.

First, let’s discuss Wordpress. You can set up a free account, and blog off of Wordpress’ hosting, or you can download Wordpress for your own domain. If you choose the latter, you’ll have hundreds of different plugins and add-ons for your blog, not to mention your very own domain, which is great for search engine rankings. This is typically what drives people to building a Wordpress blog. Compared to Blogger blogs, Wordpress blogs have a wide range of custom templates, plugins, and support that Blogger does not have.

Although Wordpress has gained a great deal of popularity, Blogger is typically the “Old Faithful” of the two. When setting up an Adsense account, or just breaking into the blogging community, Blogger has been turned to by many. Since Blogger is owned by Google, setting up an account, posting a couple of entries, and then applying for a Google Adsense account off of the Blogger makes it easy to set up an Adsense account. This is a technique anyone can use. Not to mension, Blogger’s easy-to-use tools make this platform an amazing beginners tool. Blogger can also have self hosted or free hosted accounts. With the same restrictions as with Wordpress.

Even though they both have their strong and weak points, if you’ve not started a blog, and wish to build an online presence, you need to act now, and set up at least a free account on either Blogger or Wordpress. Building a blog is one of the easiest ways to get recognized, earn an income, and voice your opinion on matters close to your heart. Both Blogger and Wordpress are easy to set up, and quick to begin posting.

As you can see, there is really not a “better choice.” There is only personal preference. You never know which one is better unless you try. You may enjoy the flexibility of Wordpress, or the ease of Blogger. Either one is fine for those looking to build an online presence. But don’t expect them to build themselves - get going!

Technorati Tags: Wordpress, Blogger, AdSense, Free Blog, Blog Account

Recover Your (Or Somebody Else’s) Deleted/Lost Website

admin — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:55:18 +0000

Warrick…
Let me repeat that, Warrick.

This is a very cool tool. It allows you to recover a website that has been lost (deleted, taken down, etc) without a backup. It uses Archive.org,
Google’s, Live Search’s (MSN), and Yahoo’s cache to reconstruct the missing site. Plus, it’s free. That’s right, free.

From the Warrick Site:

“Warrick is a free utility for reconstructing (or recovering) a website when a back-up is not available. Warrick will search the following web repositories for missing resources: Internet Archive, Google, Live Search, and Yahoo. All of the resources are gathered together and provided to you as a single collection of files.”

Warrick’s creator, Frank McCown, explains the process in a recent post to his blog:
Finally, a web interface for Warrick- “After submitting the requested info, the user is sent a confirmation email (to avoid recovering websites for bots). Once the user confirms the request, the job is queued and later dispatched to a free machine. The user is emailed when the job completes, and then the user can download the recovered set of files from the lost website.”

There are some limits, which should be pretty obvious to most.
*Cache results from a search engine won’t be available forever, so you should attempt to recover a site as soon as possible.
*When using Archive.org, you should expect their results to be at least 3 months out-of-date (from Frank McCown’s blog).

The easiest way to recover a site is with a backup, so obviously it’s a good idea to backup your sites regularly. Sometimes stuff just happens and if you don’t have a backup, it sure is nice to know Warrick is there if you need it.

Technorati Tags: warrick, internet archive, recover website

Three (Easy) Ways to Monetize Your Website

admin — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 19:54:32 +0000

On the internet there are typically 3 real ways to make decent money: AdSense(through google), YPN (through yahoo), affiliate marketing (clickbank, commission junction, or azoogle ads), or creating your very own product.

1 - Pay Per Click:

Text ads such as Google Adsense, Yahoo!, Kontera, and so on are a great way to supplement your income stream from your website. If you have a large reading base, or tend to have massive amounts of traffic to your site, implementing Adsense, or Yahoo! Publishing may be a great source of income for you.

Although no one should bank on these as their main income stream. Google or Yahoo! can change their terms of service in a heart beat, and your revenue could plummet. So make sure you’re checking all of your options before you use this technique as your main source of income.

2 - Affiliate Marketing:

Another popular, and higher paying source of online income from your site is by becoming an affiliate and promoting other peoples’ products on your website. This is a great way to make a little extra money with your site, as you don’t have to put a lot of effort into creating a product.

Although, you must “pre-sell” the user on the product to make them click the affiliate link. Although this may seem difficult, there are many ways to do this with ease.

Two very popular affiliate programs are:

Clickbank
Commission Junction

There are others, so make sure you look around and find out what service best fits your needs.

3 - Product Creation:

Product creation is one of the most effective ways of building a revenue stream from your website. You keep 100% of the revenue, and you also have the fulfilling feeling of owning something. Here are my steps to creating your very first product.

You’ll want to develop a decent reader base to your blog/website. Once you have them, begin to poll them with a form from Aweber, capturing their name and email address. When you’ve gotten plenty of questions, and a lot of people (make sure you’re staying in touch with them, answering random questions and giving them good content), you’ll want to take the main questions and develop a product out of them.

Once the product is done, sell it to the newly acquired list!

If you are looking for hosting, Hostmonster has a special for $5.95 per month you get 300GB of storage and 3TB of transfer! That’s unheard of. You can host as many domains as you want on your account. The $5.95 coupon is activated through the below ad-

Technorati Tags: ypn, adsense, monetize website, clickbank, commission junction, aweber, website income

How To Set Up An Adsense Account

admin — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 19:52:53 +0000

Okay, so hopefully you’ve learned some of the web design, and web building basics. By now you should have already registered for your first blog like we talked about earlier (either Wordpress or Blogger), and you should be filling it up with useful content that creates a good user experience. How about making a little money for your effort? Sounds good huh? That’s where AdSense comes in. It’s the easiest way to put targeted ads on your website.

Setting up an AdSense account takes a little more time than setting up a blogger account. Assuming you have a website or blog, this process may be a little longer.

First, you must build your site for Google AdSense to approve you. This is easiest if you learn how to build a free blogger blog. It’s fast, and you can begin posting information the second your blog is created.

As soon as you have information on a website/blog, you may now apply for Google AdSense ads to be place on your blog or website by clicking the link at the bottom of this article. There is a large button on the top right of the page that says “Sign up now>>”. Click that button.

Make sure you fill out this form accurately. The approval process can take between 2 - 3 business days to an entire week.

To help this process, make sure your website has unique and helpful content. This will ensure your success in monetizing with AdSense, as well as speed up the approval process.

If you do not have a website, but still wish to be approved for AdSense, build a free blogger blog, and begin posting information. This is a great way to begin making AdSense income.

Make sure that after you’ve been approved, and you begin setting your sites up with AdSense ads, you stick to their guidelines, and do not do anything against their terms of service. If you do this, your AdSense account may get banned, and making money with Google AdSense will be impossible.

So make sure that you A) have a blog or websites with information on it and B) Abide by Google’s terms of service.

Technorati Tags: AdSense, Using AdSense, Sign up for AdSense, Create a AdSense account, monetizing your blog