Easy Web Hosting

Starting tips for a NEW website

2007-11-26T16:57:00.000+07:00

There is no point in having a new website that looks beautiful and is unknown to the internet community unless you take some active steps to promote it,oe else all your efforts will be futile and useless.If you are not sure where to begin, here are some steps that are bound to prove useful.

1. Tell Your Associates:There is no need to reach the unknown millions of people out there surfing the Internet,instead it would be wise if we contact our friends and associates.Look at your e-mail address book and get the word out, tell your business contacts, friends, relatives and tel them to tell their friends too. Channelise them in a proper way.

2. Link to Your Own Site:If you already have one website, make sure that this site is linking to your new site. A website without any incoming links to it will have a very low page ranking in the all-important Google search engine and will face an uphill battle to be seen in Google search results, especially if you are in a very competitive category.Even when your site is in the construction stage you, or even your web designer can link to the new site from another already well-established site, mentioning that the new site is under construction. If you already have several sites, then link them to your infant site. It will help the new site to be seen in competitive search engine listings even in its debut period.

3. Get a paid inclusion in one of the big search engines:It takes 4-6 weeks to get listed in Google, and other search engines are equally slow. However there are a few fairly important search engines that have inexpensive express inclusion programs. If you join these programs, then your site will be listed in 48 hours. Inktomi, which provides results for MSN and 100 other search services, has an inclusion program which costs $39 for the first URL that you submit, and subsequent ones cost $25. The value of the Inktomi submission is that they revisit your URL every 48 hours and if you make changes on the page you can see the results in the MSN listings very quickly. Thus, you can tweak your pages and see how it affects your position.

4. Add your site to the Open Web Directory and the major search engines:Quality is more important than quantity when it comes to search engine submission. Forget about the sales hype that tells you to add your URL to 300, 000 search engines. Only a few search engines and directories provide the lion’s share of Internet traffic. If your site is in good shape, no longer under construction, then go to www.dmoz.org. This is the Open Web Directory. Find the category where your site fits, and make a submission. If you are accepted here your site will appear in the many search engines and local directories that use the results from the Open Web Directory. Inclusion in this directory usually takes time but it will help you a lot. Similarly submit your site to Google, Alta Vista and All The Web, these are the remaining giants where you can submit for free.

5. Start a reciprocal links campaign – Once you have given yourself a link from your other sites or from your designer’s page, you can go out and ask other complementary sites for links.Always try exchanging links with sites that have a good page rank for it indicates that the site has good hits and is often visited.By having a trackback link chances of your site having hits is enhanced.

6. Write an article about your product or service – If you have a website the chances are that you are an expert in the field that your site is all about. Write an article about your product or service, or write an article related to the subject matter of your site. Submit the article online to various websites and e-mail lists dealing with your topic. The publication of your article in a big e-zine, or on a popular web site can get your new site off to a roaring start.

7. Promote Your Site Off-line – Now that you have a site, put the URL brochures, business cards, TV advertising, and circulars.The cafepress.com has a program enabling you to put your URL on these items and even sell them online.
Last but not the least be unique and be promotionally inclined initially for traffic generation.
from http://www.selfseo.com/story-19537.php
Posted by marketraise

How To Start a Blog - Earn Blog Money While You Work At Home

2007-11-22T16:43:00.000+07:00

So, you want to know how to start a blog and earn money while you work at home. The good news is that you don’t have to know much, at all, about the blogging industry to cash in on the huge profit potential that a blog can create.

You probably have a million thoughts and ideas racing through your mind about how to make extra money. You can forget most of them, because none of them are easier that earning money from your blog. It’s easy, simple for newcomers and it will continue to grow, even while you sleep. Here are some very simple tips and tools that will get you on the instant path to making blog money.

How To Start a Blog -

Creating a blog income, or just starting a blog in general, is extremely fast and easy. The only blog websites that you really need to know about are WordPress and Blogger. Both of these blogging websites are abosultely loved by Google. They come up very high on search engine results, which you will need to drive quality traffic to your blog. You don’t have to know anything about Graphic Design or Programming to create your own blog. Both of these blog sites make it very easy for you to start your blog. It’s almost as simple as picking a blog template and typing away.

Once you have picked out your blog site, you will want to pick a name for your blog. Do yourself a huge favor and use Google’s keyword tool to pull up dozens and dozens of keywords that people are searching for. For instance: You are starting a blog on Fantasy Football. Use those two keywords in Google’s keyword tool to see a huge list of other common keywords that people are using to search for related topics.

When choosing the subject of your blog, you will want to pick a topic that you are pretty passionate about, especially if you are new to blogging. The reason you want to pick a subject that you are passionate about is because thoughts and ideas will flow to you much more easily. Once you are an expert at blogging, which can be done in a matter of a week if you want, you can then branch out into other subject that you think are profitable. If you sound like an expert to your readers, they will want to come back to your blog on a consistent basis, which you will need in order to make the big bucks. This is what you ultimately want, right? Of course you do.

Writing can be very fun, but it can also be a frustrating chore if you don’t know how to do it. Don’t worry, though, because this can be easily fixed. The easiest way to get over this hump is to study what the experts are doing. Look at their writing style. Peek at how they come across in their blog posts. Do they come off like a best friend? Do they type with excitement? Basically, you will want to copy their style until you develop your own. This is a foolproof and easy way to make you blog money skyrocket in no time.

The easiest way to make fast blog money is by using Google Adsense on your blog. The more competitive the market, the more money you will receive when people click on those ads. As your readers start to stack up, your blog income will keep climbing. The next step in creating a blog income has to do with advertising products on your blog. This is done by writing reviews about products or services, or telling people that a certain product is a great tool to get started on the subject you are blogging about. One thing to you will need to do is actually try to product or service out first. This will do two things. First, it will make your product review sound like it is coming from a true expert. Secondly, it will give your readers incentive to always come back to your blog, because you are showing them exactly how to do what they want to do and where to get it. If your product review is truthful, then you will gain a lot of readers trust for a very long time, increasing your blog income at the same time. That is your ultimate goal, right?

None of these techniques are rocket science, but they are very crucial to you making blog money. If you are a newcomer or even a seasoned blogger who hasn’t yet cashed in on their blog, now is the time to creat the blog money that will give your wallet the cash it needs, fast.

Would you like a simple, surefire, step-by-step quide to creating an unlimited source of blog money? Keep Reading...

How To Start A Blog - Adam Woodham is the author of this article and lists the tips and tricks for creating and maintaining a Blog Income on his resource website MoneyBlogs.Wordpress.com, which features exactly what he used to watch his blog profits skyrocket.
By Adam Woodham
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Adam_Woodham

Some Of The Best Ever Blog Specific Tools

2007-11-21T15:43:00.000+07:00

Blogging is one of the most popular activities people do on the Internet today. According to Technorati, there currently are seventy-five thousand (75,000) new blogs everyday and about 1.2 million new blog updates everyday. As the activity of blogging gets more popular, there will be more and more tools that will be created to specifically address the needs of the blogging population of the Internet users. This article will attempt to catalog some of the best ever blogging tools created for users. To help users find the tools that they need, these blog tools are classified here into four main categories – blog publishing, blog reading, blog searching and the blog toolbox – a collection of tools important to the serious blogger.

Blog publishing

Blog publishing tools can be further categorized into three sub-categories: Online blogging services, do-it-yourself blog publishing platforms, and accessory blog-publishing tools. Blogging services provide the blog engine that you need to get yourself started in blogging as well as the hosting. Though most of the services offer this for free, some of them require that you become paying members in order to fully enjoy all the benefits.

Blogger – Google’s Blogger is one of the earliest blogging services and it helped popularize blogging. It is one of the easiest ways to get started blogging because of the focus on usability and easy blog creation. The Blog this feature, which is integrated in many Google tools, makes posting to Blogger possible in many different situations. It is also integrated with Google’s Adsense advertising program that makes monetization of your blog quick and easy.

TypePad – Typepad is the largest paid-blogging service around. As mentioned, a paid subscription is required to create a blog using the service. It uses the Movable Type blogging technology but it caters more to the non-technical users.

Wordpress.com – one of the newcomers in the online blogging services, Wordpress gets its credibility from the success and popularity of the blogging engine that it uses –Wordpress.

Xanga – Xanga is one of the largest blog-networks, boasting a user base of 27 million users worldwide. It edges over its competitors by offering excellent community features such as blog rings, metros, and a social networking profile system.

MSN Spaces – Although it is relatively a newcomer in the blogging services space, MSN Spaces boasts of a huge user base, because of the ease at which existing MSN services users were able to start blogging. The integration with the rest of MSN’s services (hotmail, messenger) makes Spaces a very good blogging option for the existing users.

Do-it-yourself blogging platforms on the other hand, only provide the blogging engine. Although you have to find your own hosting service, DIY blogging platforms give you more control in configuring your blog. Below are some of the best DIY Blogging platforms.

Movable Type – Movable Type powers TypePad and it adds the usual advantages of a server-side blogging platform: flexibility, more advanced configuration, and total control over your blog.

Wordpress – Wordpress is an increasingly popular open-source blogging platform that is written in PHP and backed by a MySQL database.

Radio Userland – Radio Userland, one of the earliest content management systems used by the pioneering bloggers, is still a good blogging platform choice. It has solid RSS features that include a built-in aggregator. Configuration is done in a desktop web server then it is upstreamed or sync to the web server. This gives the blogger a cached copy of the whole blog.

Blog posting tools are third-party applications that are used to compose and publish blog posts. These tools usually support multiple blogging services and are ideal for those without a persistent Internet connection.

W. Bloggar and BlogJet – these are two of the best blog-posting tools in the market, and both are available for free. They support almost all of the blogging platforms. They do what most web-based posting apps does, including rich text editing, with the added feature of being able to save your drafts offline.

Performancing for Firefox – a Mozilla Firefox extension that allows you to immediately compose a blog post while using the Firefox browser. It is Ideal for active bloggers who use Firefox as their web browser. It automatically saves your unpublished posts.

Blog Reading

RSS/Atom aggregators and other RSS tools belong to this category.

My Yahoo – My Yahoo tried to bring the concept of RSS subscription to the Internet masses. Though it lacks the more advanced features, it serves well as a good aggregator.

Google Reader – Google’s web-based RSS aggregator that features an AJAX-driven user interface. It has a good support for tags or labels, and features a very nice reading interface. One of its best features is its labels-sharing feature that allows you to put aggregated content to your blog.

Bloglines – Bloglines is one of the most widely-used web-based RSS Reader. It uses the traditional two-frame reading interface, and subscriptions are grouped into folders. It has a good blog-suggest feature, that uses linking analysis to suggest which blogs might be of interest to you based on your existing subscription set. You can also share your subscriptions using Bloglines.

Blog Search

Tools used to search information and blogs, and to watch the blogosphere for topics or issues being actively discussed.

Technorati - Technorati is one of the best blog search engine, feature wise, and is indexing over 49.4 million web blogs. It serves as a one-stop shop for those who want to know the current happenings in the blogosphere, including features such as blog ranking based on linking, personal aggregator (for those who login) and many other nifty tools.

Sphere – one of the newcomers in blog search that came even after many other engines have folded down already. It promised to deliver more relevant blog search results, and it rightfully did so, as attested by its early beta testers. It features a “sphere it” feature that allows you automatically query http://sphere.com to see topics that might be related to what you’re currently reading.

Blogger’s Toolbox

A collection of other tools essential to the serious blogger

Mint / Measure Map /Google Analytics – these are three different tools used to analyze your blog statistics. Mint specializes in giving you a big-picture snapshot of your traffic, somewhat lacking in the providing specific details, something that Google Analytics is good at. Analytics can provide detailed information on what’s happening on your blog, which contents are popular, what keywords used in searches that bring you readers, and many others. It features a calendar to specify the time range of the analysis that you want to see. Measure Map, like Analytics is a fresh acquisition of Google, but still in early stages. It somewhat sits in the middle of Mint and Google Map in terms of what information is provided.

Akismet – Akismet is a highly-acclaimed anti-comment spam plugin for Wordpress blogs. It is free for personal use.

Feedburner – Feedburner is a tool that “burns” your RSS feeds in order to add tracking and analysis features. This way you can see statistics regarding your RSS subscribers.

The tools listed above are just a few of the many others that can help users; from those who are just starting to blog to those who want to become even better bloggers. It also includes some tools for searching and aggregating blogs, because a good blogger must learn to watch the blogosphere closely if it wants to be able to make more effective blog contents.
by Danny Wirken
About The Author:
http://www.theinternetone.net

Top 10 Tips to Guaranteed Targeted Traffic

2007-11-21T15:16:00.000+07:00

Increasing targeted traffic to your website is one of the easiest ways to boost your online productivity. Here are the top 10 effective strategies that will help you accomplish that:

1. Optimize Your Website

While SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a full-time career option, you can either hire an expert to do this or follow the suggestions below and get the ball rolling yourself -

a) Select Your Keywords Wisely - Keywords are the phrases people use to search and come to your website, thereafter, hire your services or buy your products. The trick is to find keywords that are highly relevant to what you offer and popular enough that your target audience will use in search engines, but not so competitive that you can't rank well using them. (Tip: GoodKeywords.com provides a free keyword tool to help you get started. Find your ‘magic’ keywords and use them to build your website content!)

b) Create Your Meta Tags - One of the methods search engines use to evaluate and read your website is known as 'Meta tags.' Make sure you include your keywords, website title and description in meta tags in the source code of each of your web pages.

c) Create an SEO Friendly Website - Avoid bandwidth-hogging flash animations, fancy graphics or "alt" tags in HTML for pictures. Not only will this slow down your website's loading speed, search engines bots will also find it difficult to read, index, and rank your web pages.

d) Get Links to Your Sites - Create a ‘Links’ or ‘Resources’ page and add links to good, relevant websites. This makes search engines think that your site provides valuable information and it should, therefore, appear high in search engine results.

2. Submit Your Website to Search Engines

Don’t wait for search engine robots or spiders to find you. Instead, go ahead and submit your website to major search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Dmoz etc. and remember to do this regularly!

3. Use PPC Advertising

The best PPC (Pay-Per-Click) programs are offered by Google and Yahoo respectively, called Adwords and Overture. It’s usually pretty tough getting top rankings in the search engines in a short period of time, but it can be very easy to get on the first page of results quickly enough, with a PPC campaign. A PPC campaign can be started with a very small investment and you retain full control over your budget. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad that takes them to your website.

4. Swap Ads with other Ezines

It's a good idea to swap ads or links with other ezine publishers in your niche. These can be real ads, testimonials about your niche, or recommendations within the content of an ezine itself. Also, consider buying some ad space in ezine publications in your niche that have a large circulation. Always run an ad for at least 3 consecutive issues in order to get the best results.

5. Give Away Freebies

Everyone loves freebies and people will even come to your site just to check what you are giving away. So keep in mind to include a free eBook, a time bound discount coupon, a prize for every X-th visitor, etc. on your website. You can also partner with other JV (Joint Venture) sites where you can offer free products and get people to your own website. Make sure you capture your visitor’s name and email address using opt-in form so that you could easily follow up with them later. Remember, 'the money is in the size of your list.'

6. Become a Guru

Other than freebies, people love free advice! So find sites where you're allowed to answer questions, and then take some time off to provide detailed answers to each one of them. Become an expert in your niche, and with every answer you give or every solution you provide, don’t forget to add your website URL at the end.

7. Participate in Discussion Forums

Participating in forums, blogs, and discussion groups is yet another fantastic idea to drive targeted traffic to your site. Check to see if you can offer any advice or make valuable suggestions in forum threads. Always remember to provide your website URL at the bottom of each post you make. Each forum may have its own set of rules about promoting your website, so make sure you carefully read and follow their terms and conditions to avoid being accused of spamming.

8. Submit Articles

This is actually the most genuine and effective technique to getting targeted traffic to your website. Write articles that come under your niche, embed your website link within, and submit the articles to online article directories. Articles with quality content and information tempt readers to click-thru to your site, in the hope of getting more advice or tips. Once prospects reach your website, they're also exposed to the products and services you offer - which can sometimes result in many sales for you!

9. Write A Press Release

Write a press release about your business and circulate it in the local media, online news sites and RSS. Be careful not to make it sound like an advertisement, though. For more information about press releases promotion, check out http://www.prweb.com/pressreleasetips.php

10. Online Networks

There are many sites today where you can network online. These networks usually have groups which you can belong to and post articles and comments. Some good examples would be adlandpro.com, ryze.com, ecademy.com, directmatches.com and linkedin.com to name a few. They work pretty much the same as discussion forums where you can post your articles, and comments, or discuss general issues with others. Many online networking sites offer you an individual page on the network where you can advertise what you have to offer and include a link to your website.

To conclude, these 10 tips of driving targeted traffic are tried-and-tested, meaning they do work. So put in some hard work and give it time... then watch your traffic grow by leaps and bounds!

Copyright (c) 2007 Lewis Low

Lewis Low is the founding editor of OnlineBizPromo.com. For more Practical Online Business Ideas and Work-From-Home Opportunities, visit his Work-At-Home directory at http://www.onlinebizpromo.com

How to Make Money with Your Blog

2007-11-20T11:07:00.000+07:00

-- What Is A Blog

A blog (or web log as what originally called) is the modern day equivalent of a journal…think ‘captains log stardate…’ and you’re heading in the right direction.

A blog is an online publication about a subject or subjects that interest you. You could write (blog) your thoughts and ideas about your favourite movies, you could log your daily activities, you could even write about your hobby.

Today advanced blogs can include more than just words – now they can include audio as well as pictures. You can even blog from your mobile phone if you care too!

Creating and Writing Your Blog

So how do you create a blog? The easiest way to start is to use Google’s Blogger.com system. Simply visit www.blogger.com and follow the prompts – they provide step by step instructions and you’ll be blogging in less time than it takes to boil an egg!

Blogger.com will allow you create a free blog and they’ll even let you host it at no charge too! Remember, a blog is published “out there” on the Internet so it has to live somewhere and the free hosting environment from Blogger.com is called Blogspot.

Writing (some people calling it ‘blogging’) to your blog is even easier than creating it. You can either use the built in publishing features provided by Blogger or you can use the ‘BlogThis’ button included with the Google toolbar. Again, complete instructions about how to blog your blog (now that’s a mouthful!) are included at the Blogger.com site and the Google.com toolbar page.

-- Monetizing Your Blog

But unless you are into sharing your thoughts for free, you want to know how to make some money – AND – share your thoughts… right?

In a word, if you have focused blog traffic (readers) then that stream of people passing by has monetary potential. Your readers have the potential to spend money, the potential to click on a link, and potential to turn all your hard work into money – here’s how: TRAFFIC…

-- Adsense (Google)

Simply put, this program devised by Google, puts a context sensitive advert in front of your viewers. If you’re blog is all about golf balls, then the adverts that you show will be about golf balls.

And when someone sees the advert and clicks on it you make money. How much you make depends on how much the click is worth (see the Adsense reporting data in your Adsense account for that info) and how many times the advert is clicked. As you can see, this is numbers game – the more traffic you get the more clicks you’ll get the money you make.

-- Affiliate Sales

Another way to capitalize on your blog traffic is to offer the readers more than just advertising – offer them solutions.

If your blog is all about golf balls then it might be a safe bet that the reader plays golf. If they play golf then they probably want (like most golfers) to improve their swing or their short game, or any number of golfing challenges.

Well doesn’t it make sense to offer them these solutions from within your blog? Of course it does. And you do this by promoting other peoples products and solutions. When your reader clicks on one of these promotional links and chooses to buy the product, you get a slice of the sale proceeds – in some cases up to 75%

Now this might sound complex but it’s not. There are many affiliate programs on the Internet – simply type ‘affiliate programs’ into Google and you’ll see what I mean. However, for my money the leader (at the time of writing this) was www.ClickBank.com

This company (like all good online companies) offers you plenty of valuable information about how to sell and promote other peoples products and make money. Afterall, your blog did all the work and got the traffic – why not turn that traffic into money too?

-- Search (Google)

You just read about Google’s Adsense program, well guess what – they have a search element to that program. Basically you can add a Google search box to your blog and when someone searches from your blog Google takes not of this and you are credited for any sales that result from your ‘assistance’. Again, the Google adsense program contains all the nitty gritty details so check them out.

-- Other Affiliate & Joint Venture Ideas

By now you should be getting the idea – TRAFFIC equals MONEY. So get creative with your blog. If you’ve got the readers then think of ways to offer them other products and services.

Here are a few other ideas to get the creative juices flowing:

-- Ebay

Let’s go back to our example from earlier – golf. If you’ve got readers wanting to get information on Golf then why not offer them the chance to get highly focused golfing products from Ebay?

Did you know that you can become an EBay affiliate? Well you can, and when someone registers to join Ebay or someone buys something from Ebay you will get a portion of the sale proceeds.

Again, TRAFFIC equals MONEY.

-- Paydotcom

Although Clickbank.com has been the leader for digital product sales and affiliate marketing, a new player has come on the scenes – www.PayDotCom.com

I know, that name is a real mouthful, but they seem to have a lot going for them. They too also have a great affiliate program and can provide you with great ideas for products to offer your readership.

-- Blog Promotion & Marketing Strategies

You’ve likely heard this a hundred times…if you build it they will come. Well I’ve got news for you…they won’t!

Not unless they can find you, and of course, not unless you offer them something relevant and useful (which you are doing by publishing a blog on your chosen subject.)

So how do we get the readers to find you – here are a few of the major ways:

-- Blog Directory Updates

When you set up your blog (if you are using Blogger) you can tell the system to notify the blog directory when any changes occur. This means that people (who are watching the directory) will know when your blog has changed.

You should also ensure that your blog is set as PUBLIC so that it will be made available to the entire world. No good keeping it a secret if you want visitors!

Incidentally, when the Internet was young (circa 1994) the free websites and free hosting solutions were ignored by the major search engines. The thinking behind this was as follows – if you cannot afford the low cost of hosting then you were not serious and so they figured why bother including you.

These days, hosting and websites are so cheap to obtain that they’ve become a commodity and now that elitist mentality has gone. The free sites are now included in the search engines. And I should point out that Google owns Blogger so they’re a supporter.

-- Pinging

One of the neat features of blogs is the ability to syndicate the content. Syndicating the content simply means that people interested in content like you have on your blog, can be notified and presented with the information when it becomes available.

Now don’t worry about the technical details, just know that there is a way to do this and for the most part it’s call RSS.

If you want to get major search engine to pick up your blog and index it in a hurry, then the current tactic is to add your blogs RSS or XML specs to your Yahoo RSS feed list.

It’s a bit beyond the scope of this document, however it is straightforward enough. Simply log into your Yahoo account and click on the edit button under RSS feeds – add your blogs feed address and that’s it.

If you’ve kept the defaults from within Blogger then your RSS feed will be called: http://your-blog-name.blogspot.com/atom/xml

-- Press Release

Press and media releases aren’t just for big companies – they’re for you too. The simplest way to approach this is to use a free PR distribution service like www.preweb.com

I’ve used them many times in the past with fantastic results – of course you still need to write a good press/media release but PRWeb really comes through after that.

PRWeb is free to use (although you can donate to upgrade features if you wish) and provides ample examples and a complete step by step guide to follow.

Simply get yourself a free account, write yourself a release (using their easy-to-follow guidelines) and submit it. Just remember to include your blog name and it’s web address so that the search engines can index it accordingly.

-- UseNet, Forums & Discussion Boards

If your blog contains meaningful and useful information then you should take a little time and visit the various resources all over the web that would like to know about your blog.

Check out the newsgroups, the discussion forums and anything else you can find related to your chosen subject. It will take a little time at first but you will get the hang of it very quickly.

Just remember to be courteous when you post anything. Blatant advertising and commercial messages are often frowned upon so be sensitive to that. It’s generally acceptable to include a short bio box or signature at the end of your email or message posting so be sure to include a brief description and link to your blog.

Remember, add value and don’t be pushy.

-- What’s Next?

Well as the shampoo bottles like to say “rinse and repeat”

This will take a while to gain momentum and the search engines can be a little slow at picking up the thread – the trick here is persistence. Which shouldn’t pose a problem for you since you’re blogging on a subject that interests you anyhow?

Here are a few passing thoughts to get you excited.

It’s very easy to earn $10 to $50 a day with this technique – once the traffic has begun flowing. Remember, TRAFFIC equals MONEY. These numbers are very conservative because I don’t want you thinking this is some get-rich-quick thing.

Sure you can earn more, I know people making at least $100 a day, but this system works as a function of the effort you put into it. You will need to create a valuable blog. You will need to write meaningful and useful content. If you throw up some shoddy link farm or inappropriate content you will be rewarded accordingly.

AUTHOR BIO: James Burchill is an independent management consultant helping people 'Sell more stuff, and make more money!' James also publishes a series of informational and Internet based products, his main website is http://www.JamesBurchill.com

James’ newest release uncovers the exciting world of freelancing on Elance at http://www.ElanceExposed.com

A Good Web Site Essentials

2007-11-20T10:33:00.000+07:00

Anyone can make a website. Basic HTML will do. But let us all admit, some website really sucks. Some are poor in designs and layout, some are crappy in content and the list goes on. These details are commonly the pitfalls of a web site. Here are some basic fundamentals on creating a good website.

Title It's your website so it's your call on whatever title you want for it. But do remember that you are not the only one browsing or visiting your site. Keep in mind that in this case, you should consider the viability of your website so always think for the benefit of your visitors or at least think from their perspective. Your page title should be short but descriptive for two reasons. One is that it is the same phrase that will appear on the top of your page which will remind your guest what site they are browsing. Second is that once your guest bookmarks your website then it will be more convenient for them not to edit it anymore since it is already descriptive enough.

Content Most visitors visit a site for information that is why the content of your page should be beneficial and interesting enough for your guests to come back. Beautiful graphics can be seen in a blink of an eye so if your content is inadequate then chances are your visitor will leave your website and never come back again.

Grammar and Spelling Never forget to proof read because it could ruin the web site's credibility. Check for grammar errors and spelling.

Images and Fonts Here, the layout comes in a little. Bear in mind that each visitor have different browsers. And layouts comes out differently from each and every browser. But of course it depends if it was tested and programmed well to attain the layout goal. Also, not all fonts are available on all computers. So i suggest a commonly-used font. Don't be overwhelmed in putting all the images in your resources. Keep it simple. Anyway, it will add up to you page load time especially if the image file is too large. Keep it pleasant to the eyes.

Page Length Articles are different from web content. You can write a very long article but writing for a web content is completely different. A web content should be short and brief. Usually, if the content of a page, especially if its the index page, is long enough that the visitor will have to scroll down to read it then it will definitely bore them and wouldn't even bother to read all of that.

Links Links should be more than “click here.” This is your chance yo use your keywords for a better ranking in search engines. The tool tip should also describe where the link is going to. Most importantly, the link should be relevant to your site to avoid being a link farm. Choose a quality link.

Contact us form This is very helpful because you will never know if a visitor is encountering problems with your site. This way, not only you can get feed backs from your guests, but also you can correct the problem fast. In doing a website remember that you are trying to please your target market and not just yourself. Step into their shoes and see if your website will catch the interest of your market. RESOURCE: Author Methyl Vizcarra recommends Wicked Innovations – a web design company company based in the Philippines that offers affordable custom web site design and ecommerce webs site design.

A Simple Guide To Designing Profitable Websites

2007-11-20T10:02:00.000+07:00

Your website is where your business resides - it's like the headquarter of an offline company.

That's why it's important to practice good web design
principles to reach the maximum number of visitors.

Here are some tips that will help...

Use clear navigation directions

Your site navigation menu should be uncluttered and
concise so that your visitors know how to navigate
around your website without any confusion.

Reduce the number of images

It's a fact that graphics make a website look more
attractive. But there are still many internet users on
dial-up, so keep in mind to reduce the size of your
graphics if possible. Large images make your site
load slowly and more often than not they are just
a waste of bandwidth.

If you find that graphics are essential on your site,
you can optimize them by using an image editing
program so that they meet a minimum file size.

There are also free online services that will do it
for you.

Here's one:
http://www.tools.dynamicdrive.com/imageoptimizer

Keep your text paragraphs at reasonable length

Reading online is a different experience then reading
off line print media. If a paragraph is too long, you
should split it into separate parts so that the text
blocks will be much easier to read.

Use a lot of white space between your copy. This
gives the eyes some rest, and keeps your readers
alert.

Also, don't make your font too small, or people will
have problems reading your copy.

Make your website cross-browser compatible

If your website looks great in Internet Explorer but
breaks horribly in Firefox and Opera, you will lose
out on a lot of prospective visitors. So, always check
how your website looks in different browsers.

It's best to have a set of browsers on your own
computer, rather than relying on online services.

You can also use the W3C validator -it may help
with your website compatibility.

Here are two free online browser check services:
http://www.browsercam.com
http://www.anybrowser.com/siteviewer.html

Avoid using scripting languages on your site

Try to use scripting languages to handle or manipulate
data on your site, and not to create visual effects.

Scripts are not supported across all browsers, so
some visitors might miss important information
because their web browser crashes.

Using website templates the right way

Website templates are very affordable these days
and can save you a lot of hassle when you want
to create a new layout.

That's the point of using a template... to save time
and effort. You can go a long way by just changing
the title, entering your keywords, put in some new
graphics and appropriate details and you're done.

Example: you find a nice template that suits your
gardening hobby site, except the original designer
has put an image of stamps in the header.

You can then search for images of garden plants,
or gardening tools, to replace the stamps for your
hobby site.

Just be aware of using too popular templates. If
many people use the same template, your site
will not appear unique and your credibility as a
solid, different business will be tarnished.

The last thing you want your site to do is appear
generic just like your next-door neighbors.

I hope these tips will help your to make a better
performing website.
by Dirk Dupon

10 High Powered Ways To Increase Your Traffic

2007-11-19T16:33:00.000+07:00

by Dr. Roger Boatwright

1. Trade links with other web sites. They should be related to the subject of your web site. Instead of trading links, you could also trade banner ads, half page ads, classified ads, etc.

2. Start an e-zine for your web site. When people read each issue they'll be reminded to revisit your web site. They'll see your product ad more than just once which will increase your orders.

3. Form an online community. It could be an online message board, e-mail discussion list or chat room. When people get involved in your community they will regularly return to communicate with others.

4. Write articles and submit them to e-zines, web sites and magazines that accept article submissions. Include your business information and web address at the end of the article.

5. Give away an electronic freebie with your ad on it. Allow your visitors to also give the freebie away. This'll increase your ad exposure and attract people to your web site at the same time.

6. Combine your products or services into one big package deal with other businesses offerings. You could share a web site and advertise the package deal; which means double the traffic.

7. Submit your freebie to the online directories that list your particular item or service for free. If you're offering a free e-zine, submit it to all the free e-zine directories on the internet.

8. Participate on message boards. Post answers to other people's questions, ask questions and post appropriate information. Include your signature file at the end of all your postings.

9. Exchange classified or sponsor ads with other free e-zine publishers. If there is a huge subscriber difference between e-zines, one can run more ads to make up for it.

10. Post your ad on free advertising areas on the internet. You can post it on free classified ad sites, free for all links sites, newsgroups that allow ads, free yellow page directories, etc.

About the Author

Roger Boatwright has a Doctrine of Medicine and many years of internet marketing experience. Roger owns a CBmall site that provides 15 ways for ClickBank affiliates to earn multiple streams of income. To find more information about this unique business opportunity, click on the web site below. mailto:roger@cbmallmarket.com http://info.cbmallmarket.com

Free Web Hosting

2007-11-19T16:20:00.000+07:00

There is no concept of free lunch in the world, this is exactly true when we talk about free Web hosting for the webmasters. Before going ahead we must talk about what hosting exactly is; Hosting is the process of storing files onto a web server so that it can be accessible to viewers through a web browser.

A lot of new webmasters have to face the decision of choosing the right host for their website and what attracts them is free web hosting that is available all over the internet worldwide. But as mentioned earlier, the free web hosting never comes as FREE as it may sound, it comes with its own limitations such as lack of autonomous domain name.

For the new webmaster, the choice of finding the best host may be very much difficult and even in the case of free hosting providers; the decision is to get the most out of them as most of these free webhosts try to get benefits from those webmasters who plan to use their services. Besides been some limitations, the use of a small server place and non-ability of using the FTP clients, no domain name, lot of ads from the web company and very low benefits may be faced when looking for a free hosting. The webhosts thus try to cover their costs by displaying their ads or some other companies.

Whenever you look for the decision of finding the free web hosting, then there are a few things that one must consider, what is your requirement, what the web host is offering, how much space they are offering, any statistics, what domain name they offer, do they offer the ability to use your own domain name or provide name servers, do their provide email address capability, what sort of ads that they put on your website and where they put that? All these questions are very much important to be answered completely in order to decide the hosting service that you choose for free.

As far as the requirement is concerned, today websites are either static or dynamic, most of the free hosts provide static webhosting and if your website is dynamic then you will have to look for a host that gives you the ability to host your website with the scripting languages that you have used. Very less free hosting companies provide dyamic services and those who do provide have a lot of limitation, like no database availability and stuff like that. Similarly, the requirement is concerned with the space that they are providing, most free webhosts provide from 5MB-50 MB of web space depending upon various other factors, the more space that you use, the more benefits the web hosting company would take from you. Most of the free hosts don’t provide the use of your own domain names as it hinders their own benefits in this way. So, most of the times the web address that your website is uploaded becomes www.yourname.freehosting.com or www.freewebhosting.com/yourname

Besides giving the long URLs, another big issue of these free web hosts is their reliability which is always in question. It is often termed that most of the free host providers are one who have old servers and give free space so as to cover the cost by getting free advertising by providing space. That is why most of the free web hosts don’t assure you that servers will be running 24 hours a day without frequent breakdowns? Similarly, these free webhosts don’t offer a good bandwidth, hence you may be in a problem if your website is popular and it gets beyond the server bandwidth limit and it will block your website till next month.

So, keeping all the factors in mind, free web hosting is not bad, if you are just trying your hands out on the web and want to explore without paying much. Free web hosting have its own set of limitations but are extremely helpful for the newbies to make their impressions on the web.

by Yasir Nisar

Yasir Nisar is a 25 years old poet, writer, freelance journalist, script writer, director, software engineer and web master of many websites. He has been writing when he was in his early teens and till then he has written thousands of articles, tens of poems, have handled edited many magazines, directed as well scripted many shows and music videos. He has been handling and managing his own software house where he specializes in web marketing, web development, web promotion and technical writing. He can be reached at yani@yasirnisar.com or at his website http://www.yasirnisar.com

7 Simple Steps For Choosing A Great Web Host

2007-11-19T16:06:00.000+07:00

There are thousands of web hosts around today with thousands of plans to choose from making what was once a simple procedure seem like a daunting task for both newbie and pro alike.

Whether you're looking for your first host or looking to move on to a better one there are 7 simple steps you must follow to succeed in choosing a great host.

1. Platform
The first and most crucial step in choosing a web host is determining the platform the web server should run, usually a choice between Unix/Linux and Windows.

Your choice is largely determined by your website and the technologies used to create it, generally a website created with Microsoft technologies (ASP, VB) will run on Windows servers while most other sites using open source technologies (PHP, Perl, Python etc) will run on Linux based systems.

2. Features
Once you've chosen your platform the next step is determining the features you'll need from your web host. Take your time with this step as the feature lists of web hosts are getting longer and longer every day and while some plans may look similar on the surface, a good look at the feature lists may tell another story.

Only you can determine the specific features you'll need, but some key things to keep an eye on are:

Disk Space
Bandwidth
Backups
Uptime
Money Back Guarantee
Domains Allowed
Databases (Number & type)
CGI, PHP, Perl, Python, SSI
Cron
Email accounts

The list goes on and on, just remember to take your time and make sure your new web host is going to provide you with everything you need.

3. Cost
Often this is the only thing people consider when choosing their first web host, funds are usually tight and on the surface most hosts look very similar. Sometimes you get lucky and choose a good host, but more often than not it turns out to be a horror story.

I can't stress enough that choosing a web host based on price alone is asking for trouble, remember that the cost of your web hosting is more than just the monthly fee, think about the total cost of ownership. TCO includes lost sales due to downtime & slow speeds, downtime rebates, extra bandwidth charges, setup costs, extra feature costs, and your monthly fee.

Many hosts will require you to pay yearly to get the best price available though there are some that allow you to pay by the month and still get the best price, it's really a matter of personal choice as to what payment method works best for you.

4. Customer Service
Customer service is another aspect that is often forgotten about until it is too late, something breaks and you need it fixed and those wonderfully handy sales people who were more than helpful in taking your money are now nowhere to be seen, all the while you're losing out on sales every minute.

You shouldn't settle for anything less than 24/7/365 service, your website needs to be running all the time so it's no good if your hosting company doesn't work during the holidays. Don't take the web hosting companies word for it, they all claim 24/7 support but few back it up with consistent performance. Be sure to test them out at various times of the day and night via phone, email and live chat if they offer it.

5. Support
An extensive knowledge base or faq can be a real time saver as well as being an indication of the level of customer service support and expertise you can expect to receive. Spend some time browsing the support sections of the website and see for yourself the level of support provided.

Are questions in the knowledge base answered thoroughly? Are real solutions provided or are they just “cut and paste” replies?

6. Longevity
Do a whois on the web host's domain name and find out the creation date, anything less than a year ago and the risk that they won't be around next year increases. They could be a great host, but considering more then 95% of new hosts go out of business within a year that really isn't something you should be taking a chance on.

7. Uptime
It's a fact of life that a web host cannot be online 100% of the time, servers need to be rebooted for security and software updates and any web host that doesn't get updated faces the increased risk of being successfully hacked.

99.9% uptime guarantees are pretty standard in the industry however a guarantee is only as good as how it is defined and the company behind it. Look for no less than a full months free hosting should they not meet their guarantee, a prorated refund based on the amount of downtime is virtually worthless. Say you pay $10 for a month of hosting and your site is down for 24 hours. They will refund you for one day of downtime which ends up being about 33 cents.

There you go, 7 simple steps for choosing a great web host. It's not rocket science, just a little research and investigating that can save a lot of heartache in the future.

About The Author:
Kyle Tully is the Founder of Web Host Critique - http://www.webhostcritique.org

Why Free Web Hosting May not be a Bad Thing

2007-11-19T15:58:00.000+07:00

There is paid web hosting and there is free web hosting. Most people tend to steer clear of free web hosting as they tend to believe that “there is no free lunch”. Free web hosting must have its catches?

Well, that really depends on your purposes and your position.

Why purpose?

If your web hosting is for your website which is for commercial purposes, such as an ecommerce web-store, you need absolute reliability and uptime. Every second of downtime is lost revenue. While some free web hosting providers guarantee uptime, you cannot hold it against them if their services do not meet expectations and cause your business to lose hundreds of dollars of revenue. Why? Because most free web hosts will have a clause in their terms that state that they do not guarantee uptime at all because they are a free service. Now, most free hosts will not even guarantee any uptime and those free web hosting services are provided on a best effort basis. You cannot risk hosting your crucial business website on such a free hosting plan.

However, for most individuals who are experimenting with building websites, free web hosting is the ideal choice as there is no monetary commitment and no lost for both parties. Everyone deserves a chance to learn and what better way to learn than to do it? Free web hosting plans from free hosts are the ideal platform for aspiring webmasters to start their web-building careers. Of course these free hosts may require something in return: visiting sponsors, displaying ads on hosted pages, reading emails, and lately, participating in online communities of the free web-host. This last option may not be a bad thing as online communities allow the users to interact and learn from each other.

There is also a last category of users who just want free web hosting for a personal site which they do not find the need to be up all the time and do not see the need to pay for it and do not see the need to do anything for it. There are some free web hosts out there who offer free hosting for nothing – just a simple sign up. Therefore, a clear purpose for using free web hosting is important. If the purpose is critical and there is no tolerance for problems, then free webhosting is not suitable. Other than that, free web hosting is not a bad thing.

Why position?

Web hosting plans are relatively affordable these days (some plans as low as $1 a month) that almost any working person can afford it for their websites. Therefore, paying for web hosting should not be a problem for those who have an income, or some savings to spend on developing their websites further. Also, any working adult should be able to afford using a Paypal account that most web hosts will accept as a form of payment. On the other hand, students and young people do not have much to spend, much less a Paypal or Credit Card with which to pay for hosting. For this group of people, free web hosting plans are the obvious alternatives if they wish to set up websites without paying anything for them.

To conclude, free web hosting may not be a bad thing for selected groups of people who have a specific purpose. For students and people looking to learn about developing websites, free web hosting is a good thing.

Dax Christopher maintains a two year old webmaster community at http://www.Buildtolearn.com, a forum community that provides free web hosting to members discusses web-hosting and webmaster related issues such as web-design, page coding, SEO and many others.

Free Web Hosting Tips

2007-11-19T15:42:00.000+07:00

Here are some tips to keep in mind as you look for a free web hosting account online.

1. Content Ownership – You might not own the space, but it is your content. That means that you should expect some sort of notice if the service is going offline so that you can make alternative arrangements or save your information to your computer.

2. Tools – Surprisingly many free web hosting accounts come with lots of tools that you can use to enhance your site. The larger the hosting provider or hosting community, the more tools you will have in your control panel.

3. Free domain names – Usually you are getting a subdomain or even a subfolder for your files. Typically free domain names only come with a paid hosting account. The reasons is that bandwidth is very expensive and no one wants to build up a free web hosting service unless they have access to cheap resources.

It is not surprising then that the free web hosting market is dominated by companies like Yahoo, Google, and Bravenet. They are large organizations who have figured out ways to balance paid services and free services without going broke.

4. Search engine optimization – Some free hosting communities are so large and so fluid that it takes some time get new pages into the major search engines. People abandon their pages at such a high rate that is hard to keep up with the live sites versus abandoned real estate.

Also, any page rank you get goes to the hosting provider and not to you that is one of the perks of having your own domain name.

5. Tracking – It always helps to know who is coming to your website and how they got there. You might have to search around for some type of free tracking service. This is very important if you plan to make money off your free web hosting account.

My picks
Bravenet, Yahoo Geocities and Blogger. I have used all three and I haven’t had the time lately to investigate other services. I will add to the list in the near future.

by Sid John
About the Author

This article may be freely distributed as long as there is an active link back to http://music-lyrics-celebs.com/