Fixed Length Page Segmentation (FixedPS)

Fixed length page segmentation is based on the length of text found on any given page.  Strip away all of the html tags and the search engines will look for the larger blocks of text or the continuous word’s that will be counted in a block of text.  I do not see the search engines using this method as all of your html tags are removed during this process which will remove all links on that page as well as other important SEO factors.

As you can see in the above image the site layout is very plain, that is because this represents the html tags being stripped from the page.  Now of course the links will not show up in blue, I used different font size and colors to represent the different segments of this layout.  The main segment of this layout would be the three paragraphs of text in the image.  By counting the continuous words, a search engine would be able to determine the most relevant content on any given page.  Any links that are on the top, bottom or side of a website will not be rated as highly as if they were in the actual content of the page.

Dom Based Page Segmentation (DomPS)

Dom based page segmentation is based straight off of the html tags on any given website.  It will factor in your title, H1, H2, H3, etc, Table, TR, TD and other tags in an attempt to break down your website into segmented blocks.  The problem with this type of page segmentation is the accuracy to properly break down a website.  Sites layouts are still created with tables, so if a search engine were to use this method, the page would not be broken up like it really should be.  The use of tables for the layout will throw this type of page segmentation off course and the results will not be nearly as accurate as with other methods.

With this example you can see the page layout is using tables for the entire site.  How would a search engine using DOM based page segmentation properly split up a site laid out like this?  Chances are they will not be able to due to tables, br tags, P tags are still used by some website designers.  You can see the 3 paragraphs have been split up into their own segments.  This is from the use of the P tag, or if you used tables for the layout then the TR and TD tags would come into play here as well.  So now instead of having the main content on the page as one single block, it has been broken up into 3.

With DOM based page segmentation the word count is not taken, it simply breaks up your site based on the html tags.  So if you made 10 small paragraphs of text, and even put a small paragraph before or after your ad block, it would all be counted as equal.  This is why this method of page segmentation is not very accurate to use by any of the search engines.

Vision Based Page Segmentation (VIPS)

With vision based page segmentation the search engines would see the web page just as you would.  You can easily see how a website is split up into different blocks to achieve the layout you see before you.  Let’s take Utah SEO Pro’s favorite social media site and break it down using vision based page segmentation.

Here is Digg broken down using vision based page segmentation, as you can see each block has been assigned a number to represent the content held within it.  Now with social media sites like Digg or an ecommerce  website, the content held within these blocks are split down even further because they are links to read more about that story or product.  Let’s break down this digg page one more time, but take it a step further.

As with the first image, the site was broken down into 4 segments, here each of those 4 segments are then broke down again into sub segments to truly index the content in each of these blocks.  Segment 1 has turned into 3 sub segments as the navigation has been broken down.  The same applies for segment 4 with the ad block and the hot topics.  You could take segment 4-2 and break down each of the 4 tabs the user can click on (all, news, videos, images) as they contain different information in each when the user clicks on one of them.

For segment 3, each topic on this page is given it’s own block.  The same would apply on an ecommerce site that shows images and a short description for the products shown on the page.  By each segment and sub segment receiving a point value, these points will determine which segment will be given the most value by any given search engine.

Combine Page Segmentation (CombPS)

Combination page segmentation is just as it sounds, it takes a combination of techniques and applies them to any given page.  The first step for a search engine would be to use vision based page segmentation to separate the content on any given page as shown in the first image example for VIPS.  The second step would then use fixed length page segmentation to analyze the data in each block.

From what I have been reading and talking with Dave (@theGypsy), currently we have yet to find a way to track if a search engine is segmenting a website when they come to it. I know this topic has been floating around for years, I see Rand did a short post in 2005 at SEOMoz about page segmentation.  For more technical information regarding page segmentation, take a look at this PDF file from microsoft.  I think that we will see page segmentation used by the search engines not only as a way to better break down the content on a website, but help fight spam and the effectiveness of paid links.  What is your take on this?  I would love to get your opinions as well.

Each red box represents a segment of this website in which the search engines will give a point value to the content or links found in them.  Each segment can be assigned a point value depending on the relevancy it has to the site.  The more points going to the actual content on the site, and the least amount of points going to the advertisement blocks.  Where I have my RSS feed and twitter information would be assigned the least amount of points.  The sub navigation where I have my categories, pages and blogroll would not get as many points as the actual content or the navigation menu at the top.  Reason for this is the content will prevail over everything else contained on the site since that is what the search engines are really after.

Types Of Page Segmentation

1. Fixed Length Page Segmentation (FixedPS)
2. DOM Based Page Segmentation (DomPS)
3. Vision Based Page Segmentation (VIPS)
4. Combined Page Segmentation (CombPS)

On Monday I will go over each of the 4 types of page segmentations in greater detail to explain in plain English how each work.

Benefits Of Page Segmentation

Many can argue if page segmentation will truly every come about as being mainstream, however the benefits can be greater for the search engines themselves if they do implement into the algorithm.  Search engines want to index the best possible results for any given query, as we know though this is not always the case.  Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of page segmentation from a search engine standpoint.

Filtered Content

By filtering the content in any given segment, the search engines will be able to focus on the main content while almost devaluing other blocks on a website.  Almost every website has a template look to it, where every page looks the same and the content, links, ads, etc. are filled in.  With page segmentation the ads, extra link boxes (possible paid links), news boxes and such would not be given as many points as the main content body of the site.  The search engines will have the ability to ignore or simply push certain segments to the side when establishing the true content of any given web page.

Spam and Paid Links Smackdown

With software and scripts available to auto generate thousands of web sites filled with scraped content, spamming the search engines is not that difficult if you know how to do it.  Most people that use this type of software will not change the layout of their spam sites.  This is how the search engines can easily detect their sites and eventually de-index them.  With page generation software, they always leave behind some sort of foot print if you use the standard layouts and do not change much.  So for those of you who do not change really anything, you are already one step behind in the blackhat game.  Secondly for those that do make major changes to alter the site layout, you may find your sites getting hit faster then normal.  By using visual or DOM based page segmentation the search engines will be able to detect site layouts and even CSS code that are identical on hundreds of other sites.

Paid links are still a gray area in my opinion due to the fact that some marketers still swear up and down by them while others abide by the Google TOS and do not purchase links.  If you purchase paid links that are not used in the body content, their is a good chance the value of the segment those links are placed in will not be valued as highly.  If the segment of “other links” is placed further down the page under the main site navigation (determined by home, about, contact, etc. links) as well as any banner ads those links will not pass as much to the search engines as they currently do now.

Page Crawling And The Time It Takes

With as many sites online today, the amount of time it takes the search engine spiders to get to them all is a huge task on both time and resources.  By using a visual page segmentation system, the search engines have the ability to only spider over the body or main content of the site.  All other content on the site could be ignored in the algorithm used to index and rank that specific page.

When a search engine hits your website, it will have the ability to break that site down as shown in the image in the beginning of this article.  Now that your site has been split up, the search engines (if they choose to) can now only spider the actual body of the site and ignore the rest.  This means that alt tags used in your images that are not contained in the body can be ignored.  As well as your H tages used in smaller segments of your site.  The search engines will only want to really get to the guts of what any specific page contains, thus they would only look at the main body segment of your site.

Problems I See With Page Segmentation

With pro’s of anything, their are cons that can follow.  Take a look at a news website, like CNN.

As you can see the front page is nothing more then links to the top stories for the hour or day, video teasers, ad space and the top navigation.  I would have to say that the Other News and Popular news would get the most points with the videos coming in second.  I could be wrong, so please do not quote me on that.  The same applies to social media websites and the front pages.  The hottest stories of the day are small text clips taken out or just someone’s opinion on the submitted topic.  How would those front pages be broken down and assigned a point value to?  I know the inner pages of the stories themselves would be segmented with the main content getting the most points or relevancy.

Still More Paid Links

Even with page segmentation the ability to purchase links will still be in the picture, however this time with the possibility to be of higher value then before.  Once a sites main content body has been established, that segment will get the highest point value assigned to it.  Where would you rather want your link to be, on a sidebar or in the content itself?  Instead of purchasing a paid link, you would be purchasing a paid article or review to be posted on a popular website.  Let’s say you have a website devoted to the latest in electronics.  You could potentially sell reviews on your site where the website that purchased it would have a link to their product page or home page.  I do not see how paid reviews could be caught on to, people express their opinions on all different types of things.  This would just be another opinion given on a website, just with a check attached to it.

These links are not sitewide however, they would only appear on the front page when it first gets posted and on the page the full article resides on.  Now if a blog runs a most popular plugin, your paid article has the chance to become a sitewide link in the plugin.

More On Page Segmentation

As I stated earlier, I was talking with @theGypsy about this article I was working on and he informed me he was writing an article regarding page segmentation and was publishing it next week.  I was almost done with this article when he emailed his over to me.  Look for his article on page segmentation on Huomah.com.

Forum Participation

We all know that forum signatures do not play a huge part in a link building campaign.  With gamers it is a little different though because a good signature quote or a nice image that stands out draws the eyes of the other readers.  Take WarCrack, I mean WarCraft for example.  The online forum for World of Warcraft is always busy with new posts on almost every section.  Take part in conversations not just on your realm forum, but hit up other realm sections and talk to people on other servers.  Giving good advice in this game can go a lot farther then most think.

Visit the class forum for your character everyday, reply to threads that are worthwhile and not the threads that are useless and just flaming people.  No need to get in a flaming war unless that is what you like to do, because you can actually get a good amount of traffic if your flame is very funny or you hit the nail on the head with your reply.  Remember, gamers like to read about the game they play as well as see how well other guilds/clans are doing.  They will want to know what you do to get as far as you have in the game.  The game forums is a great place to start because almost every person their plays the same game as you do.

Free Ebooks

Some will call this one a waste, however let me tell you why it works.  Looking online you will find plenty of ebooks about leveling your character, getting more gold/platinum on a daily basis, best gathering spots and professions, class PvP guides and even some raid guides.  Almost all of them require you to pay for them, yes if you wanted to try and make some extra money you can try and sell them.  Instead we will give it away for free and let the gaming community pass the link around to your guild/clan website to download it from.  Take the time and make it good, just a few pages will not help you to much as most gamers want to read something new and that will get them excited.  You can make guides on how to play certain classes in the game, tips/tricks to playing a better role in a raid or in PvP combat.  People will eat that up as they are always looking to get better in the game and see what other players are doing as far as strategies go.

Depending on how far your guild is in the game, you can write a detailed ebook on how to get through a certain instance or part of the game.  End game raiding guilds will see A LOT of downloads from this as even though players might not be that far into the game, they still want to read about it.  Use the game forums and other gaming sites to promote the book.  Contact other sites and see if you can write about something in the game in an exchange to have your ebook link posted in the article you write.

Strategy Sites

Use sites out there like BossKillers where you can write up detailed boss strategies for each fight and post your guild name and website for each one.  The more detailed the guild, the higher up it will be displayed for more people to read it.  Once again use the gaming forum or even tell other guilds in game about the strategy and pass it around.

Article Directories

Take a site like Ezinearticles and post your informative game guides on here for free.  It can be anything about the game you feel is important and make it detailed.  Make sure to check out the rules of the article site as most will not allow pictures or have a limit on the amount of characters you can use in the article.  The WOW Gold guides and player guides that people sell ranked well by using Ezine.  It is free to use and you are allowed to put bio links at the bottom that can point back to your guild/clan website.  If you do not understand this fully, by all means contact me and I will help you out.

Guest Posting

Contact other gaming websites and see if they will allow you to become a guest writer for them.  You might have to write something once a week or even once a month, either way you can get a free mention after each article and probably a link back to your guild website.

Twitter

This is really untested for me, however I do believe it would work as long as you actually use it on a daily basis.  Twitter is nothing more then a micro blogging platform or instant messaging service that limits you to 140 characters.  Use this to dish out tips every day for whatever game it is you are playing, people will search twitter for your game and follow you to see what tips you give out next.  Put your guild name in the profile and the website as well.  The more followers you get, the more conversation you can have and spread the word about your guild website and the tips you are giving out for free.

I know the difference between a great guild with crap for a website and a great guild with a great website that utilizes marketing techniques.  The guild site that actually updates regularly with great information on the game and not just the progression once a week will reap the rewards.  You want traffic to your site, give people more then just a screenshot of your latest achievement.  I know some gamers will hate to do this because it will feel like work, but hey if you devoted just a small amount of time into your website as you do your game, it will pay off in the end.  Their is a lot to learn with properly optimizing and promoting your website, this website along with other’s are great resources to come back to week in and week out.  You can easily utilize some of these techniques to help build your website up to a community were people will follow your every move.

For some people reading this, MMO stands for Massive Multiplayer Online. Games such as World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, Everquest are all games that are played online with a huge amount of other people. I have been asked about promoting such a site for a few friends who still play these games online. They are looking for more site for their guild (group of members who play together) to recruit some of the best players in the game. By having your guild website well known, you will attract more players to read your site and even transfer to your server to play with you.

Now many of these hardcore gamers are very creative with the site design, however they provide very little content and hardly ever update the site. Here I will go over some things that these site owners need to do to help make a bigger name for themselves.

Blog Updates

I see several guild/clan websites that have a blog integrated, yet they hardly ever update it with anything except for a screenshot or two with a small paragraph of text. I know you want to rush back to play your game, but if you were to take your website even 50% as serious as you take your video game then you will be way ahead of the rest.

Update your blog on a daily basis if you can, the amount of information you can talk about with these video games is immense. This will keep the readers coming back to see what else you will be talking about and will attract new gamers to the site.

What To Write About

Game Tips - This is a sure way to attract people back to your site week in and week out. Gamers always want an edge or tips on making something easier for them. Tell people where you get certain items, best places to get materials, boss strategies, zone/instance farming techniques, etc. This list can go on almost forever with the amount of information you can talk about, so take advantage and start typing.

Play Classes - Every game has classes or certain character types for people to play. Get with your guildmates and have them help write up class guides on how to play the character better. From gear to obtain, class specs, pvp strategies, rotations, etc. Games are always looking for some type of edge over the rest, so help point them in the right direction. You will be amazed at some of the players who have made a name for themselves and are known throughout ever server for what they talk about.

Raid Progression - Show the viewers your progression through the game, with full kill details and plenty of pictures. You can even capture the raid fights and post them on YouTube for others to see. Guilds that get world first kills or release a very detailed boss strategy get a lot of glory and site promotion. For the serious gamer who takes the guild website serious are all about in game progression. You strive for perfection and to be the first, this in return will get your name out there. It takes time and a good group of players who are dedicated to winning, take some of this dedication and determination and apply it to your website. You will start to see the results.

Expansion Packs - These do not come out but once a year, however it will give you plenty of content to talk about on your website. Sign up to be on a test server if your game allows it, take plenty of screenshots and tell everyone what it is like so far. Talk about the new content, quest’s, instances, boss fights and report the bugs you find on your website. This will draw attention from not just other guilds in the game, but other websites that are devoted to talking about any MMO game in general. You might also consider contacting these MMO gaming sites to report your finding to them. In return you could see your website mentioned in the article or better yet they will ask you to write it where you can go into detail of your guild.

Create Videos - I mentioned this briefly before, however this is something you really want to take serious. Create videos of your guild in raid fights, pvp action, guild fun nights or just a stupid video like leeroy jenkins. 9 million views to that video alone, and another 3 million views throughout 3 other videos of the same thing since the time of this posting. Embed your website in any video you make, mention the player names, classes at the beginning to get them exposure as well. Gamers love to watch videos on anything related to the game they play, especially if they are funny as hell or very creative.

Active Forums - A lot of end game guilds have forums that allow viewers to interact with the guild members, however they are not used very often. You will want to interact with the forum members, they came to the site looking for something, weather it is information on something or just to say hello and introduce themselves. Take a half hour out of each day and be active on the forum, get your other guild members to do the same if they can. Having an active forum will also help bring in a steady flow of traffic to your site.

Tomorrow I will be going over different things you can do to help promote your guild website online. You should now have a good grasp on topics you can discuss on your guild website.

Motivational Tips

Set Goals - Either on the weekend or first thing Monday morning, make a list of goals you want to accomplish for the week.  These goals can range from something small as to writing an article, new content, project planning, creating deadlines, etc.  Nothing is to small to go on your goal list, get it made and stick to it.  Some people do not need to write down a list, they have it in their head.  Either way by having a list, you are setting up a list of things that you want to get done during the week.  As you check them off the list, you will feel self satisfaction in knowing you are accomplishing things.

Set Mini Deadlines -  No matter if you work for someone else or you are the business, set mini deadlines for yourself regardless.  People tend to be more focused and work better when a deadline is drawing near.  It can be something as small as completing one thing or a series of tasks for the week.  Do this week in and week out and achieve your mini deadlines.

Listing To Music - This works well for me, while for other’s it may serve as a distraction.  Listing to certain music gets me pumped and in a good mood.  This feeling translates into more productive work due to the mood I am in.

Exercise - Go for a quick walk, jog, hit the gym for a bit and you will get your blood flowing again.  Exercising can actually give you energy as well as relieve stress, this is why it is a great way to motivate yourself to push ahead.  Now you just need to motivate yourself to try this and see for yourself.

Caffeine - This may not be the healthiest way to get yourself up and going, but many people still do it day in and day out.  I drink coffee almost every morning, not just because I like the way it tastes, but it also gets me up and going faster.  I did not start drinking coffee until this past summer, but I can see a difference it makes in my mornings and how much more I get done.  Some people have an energy drink at lunch to keep them going throughout the day or even late at night.  Caffeine can have a side effect on some people where they crash and feel tired afterwards.  If this is you, then stay away from consuming more as feeling tired will slow you down later in the day.

Take The Plunge - If you find yourself procrastinating on starting something, instead of putting it off, just take the first step.  You may find yourself wanting to do more of it or even finishing it after you have started.  Have you always wanted to start a new website for something?  Create a new marketing package for a product or service you want to see do better?  How about just motivating yourself to get more motivated? Take the plunge and get started on it, you will see that many times you will be more productive knowing you have now started something that you really wanted to get done.

It Comes Down To You

The one problem with motivation is you making the difference.  It does not matter how much you read on it or how many motivational speakers you listen to.  It all comes down to you taking the steps in motivating yourself.  Read the last statement in taking the plunge again, embed that in your mind and you will realize it is true in almost anything you do in life.  What are some of the things that you do to motivate yourself?  List them here for others to not only read, but be able to try out on their own to see what works for them.

Where To Begin

You will want to get purchase your own domain name and a small hosting package to start. I would never use any type of free hosted site on any project no matter the size. You want to market your website and create a brand for it. That is hard to do with any free web hosting service that will just give you a subdomain like Yoursite.freehosting.com. For this idea, i would use a wordpress based blog since it is very easy to setup and keep updating on your own. The download and installation directions are in the link I just gave, if you are still unsure how to get it to work then shoot me an email and I will gladly help you out. Now if you are an artist yourself, then we can add a simple checkout system to the blog with Paypal. This is crucial in helping you sell your own paintings. People will be able to not only view the pictures of your paintings, but easily purchase them with a click of a button.

What Would You Write About?

You can write just about anything that involves art, period. Weather it is painting, sculpting, drawing, anything! Write about techniques to help improve your readers artistic abilities. Show pictures as you go along if you can to be more visual to your readers. You could devote one day a week that showcases some sort of technique to your readers.

Discuss different tools of the trade, which work better for you or review new tools that are currently available. You can incorporate some of the information on a specific tool in a weekly technique you write about. Why certain brushes work better then others, or types of paint you use for certain types of paintings. Once again the list of tools you use can go on and on because new items come out all of the time.

Open up to the art community and offer to showcase another artist’s current work to you readers. This could be devoted to another post each week that your readers can look forward to seeing. They will know that every Tuesday they will get to see a new artist they may have never heard of before and take a look at the work they do.

If you feel comfortable being on camera, by all means make a video cast of you showcasing a painting or actually showing your readers a technique and the proper way to do it. People love to watch video and some may find it easier to learn a technique then just by simply reading about it. Post your videos on YouTube or even stream them live with Ustream.

The possibilities are almost endless as you will be talking about anything related to art as a whole. As I said before, you are already passionate about this topic so why not take the plunge. Maybe you were unsure on exactly what you would do, what you would talk about, how this would work, how you would make money doing this. The most important thing in making this a success is you having the passion, determination and desire to make this work. Let me show you now how you can profit from an art gallery website, I am sure some of you were already thinking this.

How Would I Make Money?

If you are an artist, you can make money by selling your art on your own website. Sounds easy right? It is, you just have to get your website out there an talk with people who like art. Remember when I said to showcase other artist’s work? Talk to them and see if they are willing to pay you a commission fee for every piece of art you sell. If you are going to feature and talk about different tools of the trade, get in contact with the companies that make the products and see if they are interested in advertising on your site or paying for a review. Some might cringe at the phrase “paid review”, however this is not a website, you are not selling a link, you are pushing the product they want to sell.

You could write your own ebook on art and sell not only on your website, but put it on ClickBank and see if other people will sell it for you. You will be giving them some of the proceeds that the sale makes, but hey they did all the work and you still get paid. The ebook can be about anything from how to purchase art, what to look for, how to paint, basic techniques, advanced techniques, etc. You could even create a seperate ebook for each of those to sell on your website. One thing you will not want to do is take the same articles you write for your blog and just put them into an ebook. Give the buyers more information, a lot more information, examples, picture and such so you are giving them a book worth paying for. Here is an article on how to create an ebook, and another on ebook marketing.

Take a look into Amazon to sell books related to art, you will get a percentage from each book that sells through your website. You could even put up ShoppingAds.com on the site to sell products through the affiliate system they have. I am not to sure if any affiliate companies run advertising regarding art, that is something to look into though in the future once your site is up and established.

In Conclusion

As long as you have the determination to succeed, the passion you have for art can take you very far on the internet. Set your goals, stay focused and put out content that will keep your readers coming back. What you write about is important in making or breaking your website. You do not want to just simply copy content that someone else has already written. Not only is it unethical, but with some sites it can land you with a cease and desist or even a lawsuit for stealing what they wrote. Keep your head up and do not be afraid to fail, failure happens to everyone who is successful in life. People might not like something you wrote about, that is going to happen. Just come out swinging for the fences on the next post and keeping moving forward with your ideas and goals you have set.

I will cover the basic concept behind each business idea as well as an execution plan to get it off of the ground for you.  As stated before their is no guarantee that they will be a success, if every business idea was a success then everyone would be successful in life.  With reward, their are always risk’s being taken in the business world.  Many people fail several times before they succeed with an idea and they grow from those failures over time.  I am a firm believer in the belief that if you never fail, you will never succeed.

These business ideas will be built around the concept of websites that you can start yourself, or with some money upfront if you do not know how to design a site yourself.  I will even be laying out a marketing plan of attack for some of these business ideas I have.  Some might be asking, why would I give away these ideas?  The answer is simple, I want to help others succeed in growing an online business to help support those people financially who take this opportunity.

Some people just need a little light shed on a business idea to get them on the right path.  Other’s are simply afraid to try and do not feel they have the time.  I will do my best in laying these ideas out in a simple and understandable way for everyone to execute on their own time.  I hope to see success stories from readers of this site who took an idea I gave out and turned it into their full time business.  In the end that is what I am looking for, to see people succeed in something they otherwise would never have tried without a little push in the right direction.

Take the time to sign up with my RSS feed or follow me on twitter (@imaccess) to get the latest updates every Friday for these free business ideas.

Like I have said before in the past, it is all about the internet hustle and making it work for you. Unless you have a subscriber list of thousands of people all ready to buy your latest and greatest product, you are going to have to work to get your ebook sold. Let me run you through some things you can do that will help you in your efforts.

1. Word Of Mouth Marketing

Using places like facebook, twitter or even myspace is a great way for word of mouth marketing to take over for you. Interact with people, respond to their questions and build a relationship with them. This will not happen overnight, but in the long run you will be glad you did this. When it comes time to release your next great idea, you will already have a good list of friends to easily advertise it to with a few keystrokes and a click of the mouse button.

2. Give The Ebook Away For A Free Review

Contact other bloggers and see if they would be interested in reading over your ebook and offering a free review of the product. Many people would gladly do a free review since you are giving them the ebook to begin with. Use their reader base to help promote your ebook, it only thing you are doing is contacting these blog owners via email, instant message or even twitter. I would not contact any of the bigger bloggers unless you already are on speaking terms with them. They do not like to be bothered with emails pitching a product to them as they get so many each week. They will do nothing but delete that email and move on to the next in line.

3. Paid Review Of Your Ebook

If offering a free copy of your ebook for a review does not work, you can always purchase a review from sites. Some SEO’s will argue that this is link buying and will suggest in not doing this. Buying links is against Google’s rules, however with a paid review you can always have the link go to a separate site if you are worried about it. If you do not care, then simply have the review link right to your landing page or purchase page. If the ebook has good information and not just full of fluff, you can see a good increase in sales from larger sites who offer paid reviews.

4. Create And Utilize A Good Landing Page

This landing page can be used in conjunction with several of the tips throughout this article. You want the landing page for your ebook to look professional and not give away to much information to the viewer. Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating a landing page for your ebook.

• Create an attractive header with the product name and even a catch phrase if you have one for the ebook.
• Have your call to action above the fold, this will allow the viewer to see what they need to do next to buy your ebook or view any free chapters.
• Show the cover on your ebook above the fold, this will allow the viewer to see what it is they are purchasing.
• Be descriptive in the first paragraph, but do not make it sound like a sales pitch.
• Use bullet points to show the reader what your ebook has to offer and why they should buy it.
• Try and get testimonials from people who have reviewed your ebook, if you do not have any, make sure to get them and add them as soon as possible. You need to establish trust with your landing page, solid testimonials only help build that trust with the viewer.
• Refund and Privacy Policy information should be shown to the viewer, they want reassurance that you are not going to just steal their money or information.
• Make sure that not matter where they are on your landing page, the option to buy the product is one click away.

5. Create Teaser Chapters

Take pieces from your ebook and offer them to be read right on your site, this is just like giving someone a piece of candy with the hopes they can buy the whole bag from you. After the teaser excerpts, give the viewer the option to buy your ebook to read it in full. You can include one teaser on your landing page, or several teasers from multiple chapters if you have a multi page website.

6. Forum Marketing

Join forums that are related to what your ebook is about, add that link in your signature if the forum allows it. Interact with the members of any forum you join, this can take some time as with using social media, but it can work. You will not sell hundreds of copies of your ebook, but if you do sell it to the right person they can tell their friends or leave positive feedback on the forum for others to potentially buy. This can be slow going, so do not expect any great results right away.

7. Article Marketing

You can write articles related to your ebook and submit to places like Ezinearticles. Remember the article is about your niche or related to it, do not make it sound like a sales pitch to sell your product. Use the bio box to tell the reader about you and link to your site using keyword phrases you are trying to target. All it takes is one article a day and over time they will bring you traffic and sales if the articles contain good information. If you are not comfortable writing articles, you could always outsource this for just a few dollars per article. Make sure to proof read any articles before submitting and double check with a service like Copyscape to make sure it is not just a copied article.

8. Offer Your Ebook on Clickbank

With Clickbank you can post your ebook in their system for other website owners to market and sell for you. You will have to give out a % of each sale to those website owners, but they are doing all of the work for you. Keep your eyes out for a full post regarding Clickbank, how it works and what you can do to use it to your advantage.

9. Do Not Over Price Your Ebook

This is where a lot of people go wrong, they price their ebook well over what people will actually pay for it thinking they are going to get rich. Think if you were the buyer, would you spend $80 for an ebook? How about $70? I didn’t think so, unless your ebook is always being updated and well known, you will not see that much money. Then again, if your ebook is already well known, why would you be reading this? Keep your price range between $10 and $40, depending on how many pages your ebook contains and how good the information is in it.

10. Run A PPC Campaign

When thinking starting a PPC campaign for your ebook, look to see how much the keywords you want to target is going to cost you. If they are running $3/click and your ebook is only $15 you might want to either find other keywords or just forget about running a PPC. However if the keyword is only $1/click and your ebook is $30 then I would be using PPC to your advantage. This is one of the quickest ways to see sales come in for your ebook.

Remember your ebook will not sell itself, you need to do the leg work to get the ball rolling. Do not expect to sell hundreds of books right away, the reality is their are so many ebooks online. What makes your ebook better? Patience is key for anyone new to marketing, you need to keep your patience when marketing your ebook. If you lose your patience right away for whatever reason, you are hurting your own efforts to make this work for you. Stay focused and work hard, you will see results if the niche is not over saturated and you have a good product. Make sure you keep a list of every person who has bought your ebook, you can offer them new products in the future or even offer an updated ebook with more information for a discounted price.

What Do You Know?

This is the first question you should ask yourself before creating an ebook. What do you know, what are you passionate about? It is much easier for you to write on something you know more about then something you know nothing about. If this is in fact your first ebook, I suggest picking a topic that you are knowledgeable about. You will have to do less research in the creation process and it will be easier for you.

The Importance Of Research

Before you even starting writing your ebook, you will want to research first to see if anyone is even searching for the topic you are about to write on. You can use Google to see how many results are showing for certain keywords that pertain to your ebook. This should show you the people you are competing against, see what they are offering and how much their ebook is selling for. Scope them out, even buy an ebook to see what it contains so you know what you need to do better. You could take it a step further and create a google adwods account and use the keyword tool to research the monthly search volume for your targeted keywords.

Questions To Ask Yourself

Here is a simple list of things you can ask yourself and answer before you begin writing your ebook. If this is your first time then I suggest you not skip over anything, do it right the first time and not try to take short cuts to be done quicker. If you rush things, you are more prone to make mistakes.

• What is the purpose of your ebook?
• Why would someone buy this ebook?
• What will this ebook contain?
• What key elements will you be focusing on?
• What will make this ebook different from the rest?
• Who are you trying to target to sell this ebook to?
• Why should someone buy your ebook?
• How much do you want to sell it for?

More Research

If you know a lot about your topic, but feel uncomfortable in just how much you know, take the time and do some research on it. Their is no shame in having to go back and educate yourself a little more to make your ebook that much better. You will benefit yourself in the long run by doing this due to the fact you are putting more information into your ebook.

Putting Your Ebook Together

So you have researched your topic, looked at the competitor websites, maybe even bought one to see how it was laid out. You now feel comfortable with what you know and have your word processing software open. Do not start typing paragraphs just yet, instead I want you to think of every major point you want to talk about in your ebook. This will eventually make up your table of contents, but for now you are going to use it as an outline when writing your ebook.

With this outline completed, you can start writing for each chapter your ebook is going to consist of. Remember you can always alter the order at any time by simply cutting and pasting the chapters in any order you see fit. Adding images, graphs, etc is a great way to add more life to your ebook. Giving the readers visual references is better at times then just plain text. When you think you are completed with your ebook, make sure to spell check it and reread it at least twice. Give the ebook to a friend or relative to read over as well, getting as much feedback as possible is important before publishing the final product.

Publishing Your Ebook

Now it is time to publish your ebook and make it ready to sell on the internet. The most common form you will find an ebook published in is that of a PDF file. You can use CutePDF which offers a free tool at the time of this writing this to easily convert your word document. The other option would be that of a simple .exe file and using an ebook compiler software which you can find several by searching Google. A third option is that of DLGuard which will compile your ebook and track customer information, times downloaded, ability to ban a customer or IP address as well as a built in shopping cart and more.

To keep things simple, you can use CutePDF to convert your document in a matter of seconds and have your ebook completed and ready to sell. Tomorrow I will be covering ways you can market your newly created ebook online. Some of the methods discussed will be free, other methods will cost a little bit of money. Either way, you will be ready to market your ebook effectively online and be ready for the next challenge of making sales.

When you start caring more about why people are no longer following you on twitter, some will hold back on what they tweet about. They are afraid they might lose more followers and at the same time they have lost the concept of twitter. Twitter is a place for you to express yourself to the world and to the people that follow you. When you start holding back on what you tweet about, you are no longer telling the world what you think. It is an empty shell of you who is tweeting only bits and pieces if your thoughts and opinions. You might as well be tweeting with a sock in your mouth or a self appointed gag order.

The Right Attitude To Have

Some people like the idea of knowing who is no longer following them for whatever the reason may be.  Cyandle of Web Entrapments uses twitterless for this reason.

nahh i can careless about that…i like knowing if they don’t think i’m worth following…if i’m not then they aren’t either…

Currently I do not use either service, if someone stops following me for whatever reason, then so be it.  If you use either service, or plan on using one of them in the future then I would go with twitterless.  Pat Strader (@matterhornpat) informed me that twitterless is in fact faster then qwitter when it comes to sending notifications of people no longer following you on twitter.

Do you currently use either service?  If so, why do you use it? Do you tweet these people back asking why they no longer are following you? In the end just be yourself, do not limit your opinions or comments on twitter in fear of losing any followers.  That is just a number, if care more about that number then anything else, you are using twitter for the wrong reasons. It is about communicating and networking with other people online.  Having 15,000 followers means nothing if you push out crap for tweets, always advertising your Squidoo or Blogger junk.