Is your website getting great traffic? Are pageviews and other metrics improving or stable? How many pages does the average visitor read on your site? If the answers to these questions are negative, you need to find ways to boost page views and increase website traffic immediately.

More pageviews means more opportunity to advertise products & services.

There are a few ways you can improve your website’s pageviews. These tips are not blackhat or unethical in anyway. They’re simple solutions that become force multipliers.

With the expense and time involved in driving raw visitors to your site, you need fixes and updates that can be done once and allow your site to capitalize on it’s user base overtime.

Increases in page views can greatly increase income or even jump start earnings where there weren’t any. What usually stimulates multiple page views is relevancy. The more specific and targeted a website, or section of a website is, the more likely there will be a click on a similar page. It’s instinctive and impulsive for highly related pages to have an appeal to users.

Interlinking, popular pages and related pages

Always link to other pages within the body of your content. If this is a blog or article type site, and the site is highly targeted, there will be plenty of opportunity to link to related pages within the paragraphs. This is called interlinking and is pretty much common practice among the pros.

Related pages can be displayed just below the article or somewhere close to the main content of the page. These pages must be similar in topic to the current page’s content but with a slightly different focus. This will take advantage of users who are generally interested in the broader topic.

Popular pages, especially for article sites, can be displayed on a sidebar or footer area. This is a great way to drive hits to already successful pages. I would recommend having a tabbed box on the sidebar with one tab for popular pages and another for Editor favorites. This is great for promoting pages with lower page views. If it’s a simple corporate site, then a main nav is a must on all pages.

If there is sparse opportunity for interlinking, try displaying small summaries of current pages on the sidebar, footer or header areas with a link to read more. This will work great for services, testimonials and other rich content pages.

RSS Feeds & Other Syndication Channels

To draw the user back to your site, display a synopsis of articles in RSS feeds and make the user click to view the full article on your site. This is not recommended if you are tracking RSS views and have RSS ads.

When syndicating entire articles, making sure the links within the body has an absolute URL. This means that the entire domain is included in the link. If this is not in place, then links will point to the current syndication site or simply be dead.

Other types of syndication includes content scrapers, article directories, product databases, etc. The main thing here is making sure your inner article links are in place and pointing to your site. You also want to make sure that there is proper attribution with a link back to your home page.

Member Profiles, Author Profile and About Page

Your site may have a good amount of steady users and participators. Require membership for social interactions and give a profile with a backlink as a benefit. This allows you to get additional content for your site that’s user driven. This will greatly increase page views.

The same for Authors, if there is more than one author, allow profiles and make them public. As for the About page, that’s like the profile for the website. Create a great about page. You will be surprised that a large portion of users read the about page intently. Use it to highlight content, and link to that content.

Categories List, Archives and Search Form

3 of the most powerful ways to increase pageviews is with an easy to access categories list, archives list and a search form. These make it easy for users to find the content they’re interested in, thereby increasing site traffic.

A categories list is the lazy mans search. All content is neatly arranged and users can find something their interested in within seconds. Place this on the side bar or a separate page for maximum effect. Usually blogs will have a link to the category the post is in. Utilize this built in feature to increase hits to that category.

Take it a step further and provide an archives list that’s well presented, and arranged by date. This will compliment the categories list and drive pageviews up. Put the archives on the sidebar or a separate page like the categories.

Another very useful item is a search form (and technology to accompany). Most blog software have search technology built in. Utilize this to satisfy users with immediate needs. The search form should be clearly visible and provide a clean, easy to read list of results.

Social postings, Sharing, Emailing a Friend

Use Facebook, Twitter and other social networks to spread the word about your business. Post about every new article or page on twitter. Chat about casual related information and offer promotions on Facebook.
Use share and like buttons. Every time someone clicks one of those buttons, there entire friends list can see a post about your page. This also applies to email a friend buttons. People love sharing content, encourage them to.

Conclusion

There are many ways to boost pageviews without spending more time or money driving raw hits. Provide links to other content and especially if it’s related to the content the user is reading. Syndicate your content and let other websites promote your pages.

Make sure to add links to older pages, popular pages and user profiles. Also social buttons and interactions will increase website traffic because this is part of the search algorithm now.

5 Ways to Increase Website Traffic by Boosting Pageviews is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

There are people who work very hard to solidify standards that even the Search Engines must adhere to. Of course standards may only be enforced if there is true habituation by the masses.

What is costing  you thousands of dollars every year.

Missing Sitemap

Your Website might have many pages with plenty of text content. If you’re still not receiving significant traffic, then perhaps your site is not properly indexed by Search Engines.

This could be caused by bad site navigation structure, lack of a sitemap, and of course, no Webmaster Tools account. You are losing thousands of visitors every year that goes by. And meanwhile you remain profitless from your website.

The Language of robots

There seems to be a miss-conception about content on the web. Some people really think only humans read this stuff. Don’t you realize how many robots actually live among us? They visit us every day in some cases. And their numbers are growing.

The problem at the moment is that robots don’t speak our exact language. While we may be able to title a book or article without even mentioning the main terms of the content, and still have a human understand it from just the title, a robot will probably give it a lower relevancy than what it actually is.

Now that I’ve mentioned that, not using relevant keywords in your titles is costing you big bucks. Not using the same keyword or keywords used in the title through out the body of the webpage is also hurting it’s ranking potential. Your pages are ranking much lower than they could and you are missing all the great traffic.

Their just NOT walking into the store

In many cases you have a hot ranking on page one on a highly trafficked word, but the hits are not coming as you expect. Have you even considered what your SERP  (Search Engine Results Page)  listing looks like.

There are paid advertisements above and on the right side of the search engine results page. These are thought of as ads of course, but you should also think of a natural listing as an ad as well. And the site just below your site, may be well aware of that and craft a well defined ad for that space. Now you are losing hits and sales to them.

Conclusion

It takes only a few changes in the way you run your website that will make the difference in how much visitors you get. The things mentioned above are enough to get your pages ranked on many relevant keywords. Your site is fully capable of making a lot more money if it’s currently making any.  But ignoring the items above might very well be costing you.

The cost of ignoring On-page SEO is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

I”ll share with you three jobs I’ve tried my self. And two others I firmly stand behind. They require little to no money to start. But please take note, they do require a little bit of skills and training. So if you decide to try any of these, expect to put in at least one month of training. Also, try to have a few dollars to pay for essentials like paper, pen and a phone. And a printer won’t hurt either.

Ok, so here they are:

Debt Collection Service

The first plan on this list goes right for the cash. Debt Collections as a business is time tested and probably won’t die anytime soon. This is about soliciting payments for past due accounts. Not much cash is needed to get started. And a license from your local Department of Consumer Affairs is required for any State in the US.

Although software is normally recommended, it’s not required in the beginning. As you grow, eventually software can be acquired to help with management of the accounts.

You will be using letters and phone calls to get in touch with the person who owes.  Spend a few weeks training on your phone pitch. Research collections best practices online for more training. Also, get familiar with the FDCPA and FCRA. It’s important you don’t violate other peoples right with abusive practices. You can obey the law can’t you?

When you’re ready to take on clients, first create a proposal. Just a few pages explaining how your business operates and what the client can expect is needed. Find collection agency proposals online and take notes. Use these notes to draft your own proposal.

When you have a proposal prepared, make a few copies  and start prospecting local business in your area. Some examples are dentists and physical therapists. Retail stores that offer credit. Any business that has customers that owes them. You will be surprised who offers credit. If you are not sure, try them anyway. Offer to send them the proposal. Wait for the callbacks.

Later you can get a website and use Pay Per Click advertising to generate leads. This is something I tried and it worked very well.

When a new client comes on board (on contract of course), start small to prove your self. Scale up as you gain experience. This type of business should be relatively easy for most people. I started an agency several years ago and did make a few thousand dollars. Although I bought the delinquent accounts, I did do some prospecting, ran PPC and generated leads.

Web Coder

The reason I didn’t say programmer, is because I’m focusing on the less technical aspect of web development. Creating web pages using HTML and CSS is really not that difficult. It would take 1 to 3 months to learn most skills in this field for basic web page coding.

To start, visit sites like W3Schools. Their tutorials are very easy to understand. There are also tons of resources online to help you start writing HTML pages. When you are trained, it’s practically as easy as writing an essay.

Once you have attained the skills, create one or two portfolio examples to demonstrate your abilities. This is all you need to start getting work. You can setup a website to showcase these examples. They don’t have to be on their own domain. A sub folder will work fine.

To get work in this area, start with the classifieds like CraigsList.com. Place an ad detailing your expertise, or answer ads asking for someone with your abilities. Show pictures of your example sites. Link back to your website. Prospects will contact you for quotes. Listen to their needs and if it fits your skill level, take the job.

The benefit is you get to set a price, work remotely (at home) and get repeat business from clients. The more projects you do, the better your skills will become.

Sales/ Customer Service

Many business need to generate sales for products and services. Often customer service representative are needed to handle client questions and support.

This is a highly in demand skill. If you are already trained as a sales or service rep, entering into this field will be very easy. Training can be done online or with affordable classes at local colleges.

Often you will need just a computer and phone to begin work. Leads can be supplied by the client. Incoming customer calls or emails again will be forwarded by the client. They will also provide pitches and training materials. These materials will be specific to their business.

Types of business that will need this work done will vary. They include contractors, wholesalers and online companies to name a few.

To find work you can use classified ads, or websites like oDesk. The work is usually ongoing and often pay hourly or/and commissions based.

Online Marketing

This is a popular field that exploded in the past 5 years. Often blogging or writing for companies is the main work involved.

You can work for another company or run your own. To run a marketing business you will need products or services to promote. Use sites like ClickBank or Commission Junction to find great products to write about. This can all be done at home.

Your primary focus is to drive leads and sales. Here you will make a percentage of the sale. With enough sales you can make a good living.

Like almost anything, training will be needed. Learn to write great reviews that make folks interested in buying based on your recommendations is the key.

You can also write generally about a topic, product or service without directly selling. And use advertising as a means to generate income. You can get paid per click through, impressions or sales. The challenge here is to drive traffic to your website. So you need a little SEO knowledge and social marketing skills.

Forex Trading

This might not be right for many people. Forex Trading is very sophisticated and requires extensive training. As an alternative, Stock Trading may work better.

To start trading online, you will need some cash. I would recommend you have risk capital set aside for any investment. Many Forex Brokers provide up to $50000 demo accounts (not real money, just for training).

Once you get the hang of it and see an increase in gains you can scale up. But discipline is very important. Don’t take it for granted, this can be like gambling if you are emotionally involved.

You will lose money. The point is to make more winning trades than losing trades. In the end you can come out with a small percentage gain. With enough money this can make you a few hundred or thousands of dollars per month.

Take the time to research Forex Brokers. Some may be scams, but most are not. Overall the money you make is completely legitimate. This type of business probably will never go out of style.

These are just a few guaranteed ways of making money at home. Some may not be for you. And all require training. If you can master any of these fields you will probably never have to worry about working at home again.

If you have done any of these or you completely disagree with me, please tell me about it in the comments.

Article Image Credit

5 legitimate home based business ideas is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

Your website is suffering and there are issues that need your immediate attention. Let me shed some light on 10 areas that must be improved on your website. I guarantee after these changes, there will be a significant boost in readership, and overall performance. Here they are.

1. Number of Objects

The objects on a site are images, JavaScript files, CSS files, video and audio files. Even Flash files are objects. Count them. You don’t need any special software for this. To check the number of JS and CSS files, just press CTRL+U and the source will give you the details.

Then trash or combine some of them. Try to bring it to under 20 objects. The key is to improve latency and increase speed.

2. Quality of Headlines

The titles for your pages and articles are weak. Use AMI’s Headline Analyzer and get those titles right. It’s all about the quality. Look at this articles title, got you to click right? Here’s the key, emotional impact.

3. Page Inter-linking

Getting links from other sites might be difficult. But how you link to your own articles is not only easy, but completely under your control. You get to choose what page and anchor text to use. This will increase ranking and page views. Do it as often as possible.

4. Logo Colors

5 colors in a logo might look great to you, but this is not recommended. Logos are best with one or two colors. It’s all about contrast. Look at the top 5 websites on the internet. Google is among the few that can get away with over 3 colors. To further stress this point, think about printing. It’s becomes more costly as the amount of colors increases.

5. Email List (Newsletter) Promotion

“Subscribe” is a weak and overused word. Try giving a name to the Newsletter or Feed. Also bribery is insulting and not very affective.  Trying giving something away for free and just offer that. Make the user enter their name and email as a built in requirement. Not a bribe.

So something like “sign up for my newsletter and get a free ____”, just won’t work as effectively as “Get a Free ______”.  And put the sign form right bellow. This is not a bribe, it’s a requirement. And it’s not saying what you want. It’s obvious to the trained marketer. But not to your visitor. He’s just being offered a freebie.

6. Privacy Policy

If you collect any information from users, depending on where your website is based, you may need a Privacy Policy. This is a page where you disclose how Users information is collected and used. And for what reasons you are collecting it. This is certainly not a substitute for legal advice, so consult an attorney about this please.

7. Paragraph Size

It’s best to have paragraphs less than 5 sentences long. I make this mistake often. It’s usually corrected during editing. Not something to over-obsess about. Some paragraphs demand more than 4 or 5 sentences. But people usually skim information and may skip a very long paragraph. Try to keep it short.

8. MySQL Queries

It’s a known fact that CMS systems like WordPress makes many MySQL queries. That’s because a lot of the content is stored in the database. Sometimes a custom site that’s dynamic may make too many calls to the database. Tell your developer to try and avoid this by making some info hard coded or flat file based. With WordPress, using plugins like WP Super Cache will help reduce the need to dip into the db for each request of a page.

9. Sidebar Placement

I’m referring to the User Interface. Not the HTML code placement. Some say a left sidebar on a web page is annoying to Users. And a right sidebar is professional. Some say a left side bar with ads increases revenue, while a right sidebar may reduce this. This all as to do with how our brain works. And how our eyes move from one location to next.

If you want Users to read more of the meaty content, then a right side bar may work. But if the sites design places the navigation on the sidebar, a left bar may be more suitable. If you want to increase revenue, a left sidebar with ads may be more beneficial. Split testing will be important in determining the best option here.

10. HTML Size

How much lines of code does the page have? How many bytes is the page? How many comments (HTML comments, not human comments) does the page have? Is there too much space between lines? These questions are important if you have slow loading pages. Try to get pages under 100k of bytes for best performance across various modem speeds.

I’m actually guilty of not following some of these guidelines. There is just so much specifics that it can be hard to get to for even a seasoned developer as I. So don’t be hard on your self if some of these take some time to get right.

If you think I missed anything or was wrong about anything, let us know in the comments.

10 Absolutely Necessary Areas to Improve on your Website is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

To create a WordPress template (theme) in 5 minuets you will not start from scratch. There is no need for that when you want to quickly develop themes. The purpose of this article is to outline the fast track to theme creation (Not theme design, that is a different thing).

The benefit is a new theme ready for styling within minuets. It’s a jump start for designers and folks with low tech skills or interests. In other words, if you don’t want to deal with complex code. And you just want to spend time designing or making minor changes.

In many cases you are the developer for someone else, and a client wants something original. Or you want to sell templates to make some cash. This should be all you need.

Don’t worry about copyright issues, this is Open Source Software under the GNU General Public License . Read more about what this means. Simply put, you can sell your custom themes. But this is not a substitute for legal advice. Review the license with an Attorney please.

The simplest way to create themes.

Start with the default theme provided by WordPress. Use an FTP program and grab the style.css file. This file can be found in the themes folder under default. The themes folder is in the wp-content folder.

Next, open the file in your favorite IDE or plain Notepad. Edit the line that says “Theme Name” to the new theme name you want. This is usually the second line from the top in this file. When you’re done, save your changes and upload the file back to the default folder.

Updating the other info in this file is highly recommended. Changing the name of the default folder is probably a good idea also. That’s it, you’ve just created a new theme. If you go to Appearance->Themes in the WP Admin, you should see the default theme with the new name you gave it. If you edited the other info in the CSS file and renamed the default folder, you will see the new Author’s name, and folder name as well.

Pretty simple wasn’t it. But it wouldn’t be fair to leave you with just that. Some additional edits might be necessary for complete branding of your new theme.

Some additional edits on the new theme

Open Appearance->Editor in WP Admin. On the fourth line from the top in every PHP file, you will see this: * @subpackage Default_Theme. You can change the words Default_Theme to the name of your new template. Do this for every PHP file if you want, but lines 2 to 5 can be deleted with no consequences.

Also open the RTL stylesheet (CSS file). Go ahead and edit the first three lines to reflect the normal stylesheet. Now you can spend all the time you want editing style.css and theme files to suit your needs.

In a future post I will outline some advance theme editing methods that will greatly change the look and function of a theme.

How to Create a WordPress Template in 5 Minutes is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

I’ve used it for a number of edits on my own and client projects and find it very effective in providing the features now considered standard for Graphic Software. If you don’t want to pay an outside person or company to do your logo, you will find this software very useful for creating professional looking artwork.

What kind of logo can I create

In this guide I will show you how to create simple text logos using Gimp. You’ll learn how to use the text feature, change font type and size, change color and save your image in the file type you want (gif, jpg, png etc).

After practicing these techniques for a few projects, you should be able to create logos and other artwork very easily and rapidly. This will save you thousands of dollars, time and headache when it comes to graphic design.

What you will not learn is how to create custom (non-text) art from scratch. In other words; I can’t teach you how to draw in this software. But if you are good at the creating custom logos, eventually you might be able to create unique artwork without using any pre-designed elements.

How to create a logo

First grab Gimp and install it on your computer. Open the program and drag the two floating toolbars to the right and left. This will provide an organized layout to work with.

Click the file option at the top left and select “new”. Then click on the Template dropdown and select 640×480. A new window will open within the program with a blank white box. This is where you will be doing most of the designing.

On the left toolbar click on the big “A”. Move your mouse to the white box and click. A small box will appear called Text Editor. Use this to enter the text of your logo. After entering your text, go ahead and hit close.

Your text will be outlined with a border and four little boxes on each end. Hover over the bottom right one, click and drag the box open to the bottom right of the bigger white box. This will give you some room to enlarge the text.

Now go to the left toolbar and on the bottom portion ( it will be divided in two parts) there will some text editing features. You can change the font type and size from this area. Clicking on the black rectangular box will pop open an new window. Here you can choose the color of your logo.

At this point if you like what you have created, go ahead and export it. To do this, go back to the File option (top left) and select “Save As”. A window will pop up. Here you can name your image and select a folder to place it in.

The last option on this box is “Select File Type”. Click the little plus sign and slide down to gif, jpg or png and hit save. Another box will popup asking you if you would like to “Merge Visible Layers”. Just hit export and if any other boxes appear, ignore it because you are still learning the program. So go ahead and hit save.

You should now have a new image appear in the folder (or desktop) where you saved it. At this point you might want to just save the Gimp file for future editing. Save it again like above. You don’t need to select file type this time.

In future guides I will show you how to had gradient, effects, use layers, import images, and manipulate dimensions.

If you find this guide useful, please tell how this has helped you create professional text logos in the comments.

How to use Gimp for Creating Logos is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

Although it’s not a W3C recommendation yet (at the time of this writing), there is enough support to start experimenting and developing websites and applications with the new elements. I’ll cover the HTML5 Audio Tag specifically in this article.

The plain Audio Tag looks like this: <audio src=”http://mysite.com/hotsong.ogg” controls=”controls”>You Need HTML5 in your browser</audio>

The value of src can be an OGG file. The content between the audio tags can be a message for those who use browsers that lack HTML5 Audio Tag support.

That’s it, nothing fancy. The tag can also be styled with CSS.

How to create an OGG file

There are audio recording software that can output in the OGG format. I have extensive audio recording and editing experience but I have not tested any software that supports OGG. I will be doing this soon and report my findings in an update to this article.

I did the simplest thing when testing the audio tag. I used a free software called MP3 2 Ogg Lab and converted an MP3 file to OGG.

Implementing HTML5 Audio Tag

With an OGG file ready, I created a quick test HTML  file on my computer and added the tag.

Example: <audio src=”mytest.ogg” controls=”controls”>Browser lacks support for Audio Tag</audio>

When I loaded the file from my desktop, it played fine in FireFox, Chrome, and Opera. But not in Safari (this is on a PC).

When loaded from my web server it played in Chrome and Opera. It did not play in FireFox or Safari.

Of course IE does not support HTML5 Audio tag, and my tests confirmed this.

I’m not sure why FireFox plays the file from the desktop but not my server. It could be a Codec issue. Same with Safari. I will have to test other conversion tools, and OGGs created from different sources to pinpoint the cause of this issue.

Some Live Audio Tag Demos

There are a few demos currently available for the audio tag along with other tags. Here they are:

• http://www.apple.com/html5/
• http://static.etianen.com/html5media/
• http://moztw.org/demo/audioplayer/

Let me know if you find this useful. If you have tested the HTML5 Audio Tag and would like to share your experience please tell us about it in the comments.

HTML5 Audio Tag Tutorial is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

With a bad economy, it became harder to generate the same amount of leads. My income basically took a hit.

This is the point where conversion optimization becomes important. I knew the leads were still coming from classified ads. But I needed a way to determine how competitive my ad’s title was compared to others. Because this is what people saw before they decided to click through to see the full ad.

With this information I could tweak my titles. And even tweak my ad copy to achieve a higher conversion rate.

CraigsList does not allow tracking of ads in most of its sections. In fact I’ve only tracked ads in the services section. So if you try the method I’m about to give you in other sections, be prepared to have it pulled. The method I use have not caused any red flags to go up (yet).

To do this, go to StatCounter.com and sign up for a free account.

Then create a new project. When you view the project details, there will be a Rench icon, click on that. Then click install code. Select invisible counter. At this point it’s important to check off “HTML Only Counter”. This is important because CL does not allow JavaScript in their ads.

Go ahead and complete the tracker creation process. You will get a piece of code that is an image enclosed by a link tag. You can extract just the img part of this snippet because that’s all you need.

It will look like this : <img src=”http://c.statcounter.com/4697119/0/f98546e2/1/” alt=”vBulletin counter” border=”0″>

Please do not use the code above…it probably won’t work for you.

Now go ahead and paste this on the bottom of your ad.

Please note; Because this will now report that your ad has an image, if you do not add your own image, then it will be seen as deceptive when some one views the ad and see no image. Add an image to make it legit.

Within minuets of posting, you should start seeing total views and unique hits on your ad. If it works fine, you will see 1 hit. This is you, because you should have previewed the ad before submitting.

Let me know if this was helpful. I’ve been using this for a few months now and it has working fine for me.

How to Track Views on Craigs List Ads is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

There is on the other hand a method to the city life madness. Outsiders might find it overwhelming. But once you’ve established a footing, it seems we’re able to soar to new heights never before realized when living in a small town.

The pace is fast for sure. But the City also provides inspiration simply from observing it’s people. Some are the uber successful, while others are top of their field talents.

It makes me want to perform at the highest level of my abilities. Also acquiring new skills and tricks becomes a mission, because the competition is either on your back or just ahead.

Freelancing in the City

To be independent in a Big City is not really difficult. Tobe honest, there is so much demand here that unless you are completely incompetent, you’re  sure to find work. It doesn’t help sharpen your marketing skills too much though. A small town Freelancer will have to work twice as hard to attract the same amount of interest in his service (IMO).

So go ahead and start Freelancing if you live in a City. Put out simple ads. Even if you have 1 thing on your portfolio, there’s a strong chance someone will be interested.

But that’s where the easy part ends. In the Big City the quality threshold is much higher. It becomes now your primary focus to provide a service that rivals the competition. Because once you deliver, the critique starts. Your work will be compared to the countless others. Because your clients will seek the advice of their family, friends, coworkers or staff. That’s a wide network for them to tap into to gain the insight they need to determine your true level of competency.

Future of Freelancing

At the beginning of the decade I remember there being a lot of talk about a work force shift. And to a large effect, that did happen. More people work at home now than back in those days. Obviously this is because computers are now owned by most Americans. (And people across the world).

As long as we have these tools and keep on acquiring the newest, we will strive to be independent or out of the corporate environment. In many cases, Freelancing is a stepping stone to true Entrepreneurship where your business is incorporated and hiring.

My Freelance Experience in the Big City is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

There’s more details about this issue. I will just list some resources because it has been covered thoroughly by others. I don’t want to just repeat what they said…so here goes:

• SEOmoz – Flash and Search Engines don’t mix
• ConversationMarketing – Google Indexing Flash – Don’t Party Yet
• Seo.com – Merging Flash with SEO

Simple techniques for improving Flash SEO

What I want to cover is the simplest way to do SEO for Flash; Provide alternate HTML content for the search engines and other non flash users, and flip to Flash if the user can view it.

To do this you will need to add some JavaScript to the head of your HTML page that checks for Flash. If it’s a search bot, it will not be able to view flash, so it will see the regular text content.

To do this simply enclose the main area, where either the Flash or text content will appear, in a Div. Give the div an id so we can identify it with the JS.

Program the page like any other HTML page. Making sure the semantic structure is correct. The content must match what appears in the Flash. Otherwise this may be seen as masking.

Add the JS to the head of the document and do a check for Flash. If the user has it, push the Flash object to the Div. If not, don’t push anything. The text content should be presented.

Here is a detailed explanation and example of this method.

The future of Flash

Many people are praying for Flash’s downfall. Companies like Apple are determined to stifle the technology. And as much as I dislike working with Flash (partly because it offers no SEO benefit), I feel this is extremely unfair.

Standards or not, Adobe deserves to be supported and not discriminated against. That’s why Google is making an effort at developing methods to properly crawl Flash content.

The future of Flash is bright. The interactive multimedia benefit it offers cannot be mirrored by anything currently available. I’m skeptical HTML5  can be that beautiful or graceful. So for the people who love the brilliance of Flash…soon enough there will be ways to properly index it’s content. Until then, try an alternative method like I outline above.

If it turns out I’m wrong, and Flash dies, I will be testing the replacement.

Solutions to Improve Flash SEO is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

Before I realized it was there, a few clients have asked me to integrate these lists so they can better manage items for their website.

This is a relatively new dynamic web application feature that some sites may be using. I will show you how to implement one of these using simple techniques and tools.

First you will need a Javascript Library called Scriptaculous. Download it and add to a directory where your main PHP files for this app will be.

You will need access to a database. I use MySQL, but if you are experienced with others, you may be able to adjust the codes accordingly.

The first PHP file you will create is a class file. In it you will add a database connection function and a main query function. You will also need to create 6 other core functions to run the application.

Here is an example class file you can use. This can be changed accordingly to match your db settings. You will also need to create a database table with 4 fields. These are id, title, link and sort order.

Here’s a pic for reference.

Now that you have the basic core files setup, it’s time to do some interface scripting.

The next set of files you will create will be what the admin will see. These will be 5 files, one to display the main list, one to add new items, another to delete items, one to edit an item and finally a file to sort the items. Now I can’t just say go create…I have to give you some kind of reference.

Grab the files here.

Implement and start testing. You should be able to sort, reload and see your changes in effect. Because whatever you see in the admin, that’s the order it will be displayed on the front.

You will also have an ability to add, edit or delete a record. You can sort up or down. But beware, I’ve had problems when I displayed the list inline. The sort function still works but in an awkward way and not as smoothly.

Once you are satisfied that the application does what it needs to on the backend. You can now go ahead and display the list on the front. Style however you want. Changes are seen when you load the page and not live while looking at the page. So it won’t freak your visitors out, because they don’t see anything moving around while browsing. Here is an example file.

Let me know if you enjoyed this tutorial. And if and how you use this sweet little app.

Note: by the way you have to change the extension of the example files to php.

How to Create a Draggable Sort List is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

The first thing you need to consider is demand. What kind of demand is there for what your website will be offering. This is called the market. Rarely does a new company create a market for their product or services. Most enter an already established market where others have proven success. You will want to spend some time researching and tweaking your offerings to match.

The next thing to take into account is promotion. How will you promote the site. Do you have an advertising budget? If you don’t, do you have the time or man power to do free promotions? Think seriously about this, because it will make a any top notch site fail miserably or achieve great success. You have to promote it. You will often not get free love from search engines. If you do, then the market you chose above is seriously under served.

Another thing to consider is site features. Please do not think that all the fancy buttons and slick sliders is what has to be on a site. Think practically about what your visitors will need to do to convert for you. Adding filler features may do more harm than good. Often it’s the users that will request certain features added to a site. Only then will you truly know what they want. Weigh that against what you want and come to some kind of balance that benefits both parties.

Now this is not nearly the complete list of things to consider before website development starts. But they are the core of the pre plan faze and spending some time on this will only help you towards your ultimate goal of having a successful online business.

How to Pre Plan a Website Before Development is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

Now I’m not going to call anyone out, because that’s not my job. But it got me thinking about syndication and how this contributes to article piracy on the internet.

A content reuse study recently released by the Fair Syndication Consortium, highlights the amount of abuse leveled at newspapers. In it they claim over one hundred thousand copies were found to duplicate about 80% of the content from original articles.

This made me pause, because as they state, these sites often had an advertising based model. And there is no revenue sharing with the copyright owners. Something FSC strongly advocates for in their Content Syndication and Management Guidelines.

It’s also fair to mention, that regardless of the lack of revenue sharing, there is some benefit to the reuse of content. For one, most pirates don’t remove links and if you practice deep linking in your articles, this will boost readership to other pages on your site.

Another benefit as a results of deep linking (if the pirate site is reputable), is this provides a backlink with your chosen anchor text originally weaved into the article. This represents significant multiplication of links to a site without further effort on the original authors part.

If the links in the article are affiliate links, this will automatically monetize traffic from any source. A very sneaky reverse piracy technique, but, it can harm your relationship with the advertisers linked to in those articles if the quality of traffic sucks.

I would suggest that until a program like what the FSC is offering becomes popular, our best defense or counter offense, is to include links to other posts, maybe links to our sponsors and an author resource box directly below the main content of the article.

That way, there is always some link benefit to article piracy. Lets hope the pirates don’t get wild about removing links and we should be fine.

Do you have an article being outright stolen? Tell us what your best defense was to protect your rights.

When Syndication Becomes Article Piracy is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

Best of all there is no sign up required to use any of these tools. Their features do vary. Some provide details of the scan, others allow over 500 urls to be included.

Sitemap Tools

1. www.sitemapdoc.com/
2. www.xml-sitemaps.com
3. www.resourceseo.com/sitemaps.php
4. www.sitemapspal.com/
5. www.scriptsocket.com/sitemaps.php

It’s important that your Sitemap is linked from your homepage. You will also need to create a Webmaster account with Google and any other search engine that provides this service. Then submit it from within the control panel.

This will allow better indexing and the inclusion of more urls in the search index. Which of course leads to more organic hits.

If you need help setting up a Sitemap or Webmaster tools account, contact me and I will provide some assistance.

5 Tested XML Sitemap Creation Tools is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

These applications add very useful features that enhance your blog. They can help provide a far better experience for your websites community.

Implementing any of these will offer great benefits to your sites visibility, functionality and credibility.

All in One SEO Pack. Incredibly useful for SEO. It allows you to had a custom title, description and keywords to your posts and pages. I use this and it helps me fine tune my content for the search engines. It also gives character count for the title and description.

Contact Form 7. There might be many form creation plugins, but I personally find many too complex for simple forms. When you want to add a simple contact or feedback form, this plugin is very helpful. I use this and like it very much. It also offers captcha.

WP Super Cache. This plugin is useful for busy sites or sites with limited bandwidth. It allows the saving of previously delivered pages as HTML. This will improve the load speed of your site and prevent downtime with traffic spikes.

WordPress Related Posts. This plugin help boost readership to other posts that readers might have missed. Helps increase page views and lower bounce rates.

Subscribe to Comments. This plugin will help improve the dialog between your commentators. Commentators will want to follow the hot topics and heated debates.

Top Commentators Widget. This plugin is great for boosting comments. It provides a do follow link on the home page (or wherever you choose to place it). This is a big incentive for visitors to leave comments if they know you give do follow opportunities to commentators.

Akismet. This was created by WordPress’s original developer. Very useful in the fight against spam. Many use this when their blogs start getting a lot of traffic because it’s almost impossible to screen every comment manually.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list. And these are some of the best but there are plenty of plugins available. Some may be more complex or offer more features than these. But these are very popular and I think they deserve to be on a best of class list like this one.

I will be adding to this list over time…until it reaches a good 25 or so plugins you can use on your blog.

Why are You Not Using the Best WordPress Plugins? is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

So I tried this with eBay and the results were very good. I made a few thousand dollars before losing my eBay account. I must admit, I didn’t manage the account very well. There is more details to this, but I will spare you my failure because it is 100% my fault. This system used correctly can potentially make you a lot of money, and without spending any thing more than $25 to start.

The parts of the income machine

To start drop shipping, you need a few tools and services. One being a supplier/manufacturer. I used MegaGoods.com primarily for this. There are others, probably better. You can also contact wholesalers directly and ask them to drop ship. Some may agree.

The next thing you need is a PayPal Debit Card. The reason this is needed is because most payments will be instantly available on the card. There might be other merchant accounts that will allow a debit card for the account. This piece of the puzzle is critical for optimum cash flow.

You also will need a store. You can leverage eBays marketplace, but be warned, their fees can eat up your profits. Your own website launched on platforms such as WordPress can help you retain more money.

The final part to this income machine is you. You have to fill each order that comes in manually. Some Dropshippers might have a bulk upload system. Eventually you can hire someone to handle this aspect of the business.

So that’s it. The closed loop refers to the fact that most orders are paid for and the cash is available for you to purchase the item from the Dropshipper. What’s left over in the account after the transaction should be all yours.

Tips and best practices for better results

It’s very important that you calculate shipping prices correctly based on the buyers location. You don’t want to get an order, only to realize the shipping puts you in the negative. Your store should allow a shipping calculator based on weight and location. It should also be a shipping company/method that the Dropshipper uses. There might also be drop shippers who will offer a flat delivery fee. This can help you avoid any unexpected costs.

Another calculator is needed to help you with pricing. This can be done in excel. Some factors in this equation is price of product, merchant processing fee, delivery handling fee and your additional overhead. Each product you sell must be priced correctly so you can come away with a profit.

Closing

I absolutely don’t guarantee success with this system. This is not a get rich quick scheme, or a lazy man’s ticket to prosperity. This will be hard work to setup. The ease of burden is with cash flow and the absence of inventory. Basically you get what you put in.

The Closed Loop Dropship Income Machine is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

We are told that simple research and brain storming can give great ideas. And this is true to a certain degree. But to find those genius ideas, the ones that throw all other solutions out the door, is hard and frustrating.

But there is an old technique, used even by people like Einstein to come up with creative breakthroughs. I like to call it the light bulb method. This simple technique was researched by Dr Darren Lipnick of the Australian National University. In his research he found people solved more problems after using this method than with other techniques.

The Simple Technique

Dr Lipnicki studied what effect would lying down have on creative thinking. He found that people solved more problems and formulated better ideas while reclined.

Have you realized how much your thoughts flow when in bed about to go to sleep? If you have ever paid attention to your mind, you will realize there is a gold mine of genius ideas waiting to be discovered.

My dad told me a story once (he’s now starting to tell his stories repeatedly – kind of funny). In his story he tells of a time when he studied math as a youth. His mission was to solve a juicy equation. But he kept hitting a road block. He couldn’t solve the problem the traditional way (probably sitting up all night under candle light). So he went to bed. And he dreamed the equation…and the solution.

To his amazement it was correct. At least that’s how he tells the story. Regardless, this sheds some light on the sub conscious mind, and the power of our thoughts and dreams.

Now I’m not suggesting you go to sleep to come up with good ideas. The same effect can be attained by simply resting your body and mind. According to Dr Lipnicki, a chemical called noradrenaline is released in the brain at greater amounts when standing vs. lying down.

I actually read about this on Steve Pavlina’s blog a few years ago. I can’t find the exact article  ( I will try to find it and link it here).  I started using this method immediately and found it to be absolutely true.

I’ve used this technique to come up with ideas for programming, designing, and writing. And it works like a charm. I actually came up with the idea for this article while lying in bed last night. I also came up with a few more genius article ideas.

If you are having a mental block, and can’t solve creative problems, try lying down, meditating or even sleeping. Always have a pen and pad near by and record almost everything that comes to mind. You will be surprised at what exists in your subconscious.

Simple Technique to Find Genius Ideas is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

When looking for a good IDE, some standard features demanded by other programmers must be considered.

But here’s the thing. You really don’t need an IDE.  A regular notepad program can work fine for editing your codes.

An IDE offers advanced features to manage files and code.  Use of an IDE is common among most programmers.

What IDE did I start with

I became serious about programming in 2002, it was DreamWeaver I chose.  I thought it was great for learning HTML and CSS.

I used it for HTML, PHP, JavaScript and CSS coding.

It’s important I state that this is a biased article.  There are plenty of IDE’s for various languages.  I haven’t spent allot of time with too many other software. So I can only talk about what I’ve used and how it has benefited me.

What makes a good IDE

From my experience, in building websites, a good IDE must have these basic features:

1. Syntax Highlighting
2. Code Collapsible
3. Gives a “Birds Eye” View
4. As an Auto Complete Feature
5. Allows FTP Connection Seamlessly
6. Has a good Compiler

Finding the best IDE for your projects will depend on what features are important to you. I will not discuss these in detail. Because I don’t use or know much about some of those features, like the compiler. I often code on plain notepads. I do this in WordPress and rarely open my IDE.

What I currently use

Currently I use jEdit. There are a few differences from DreamWeaver. The biggest being it’s Free.

It does not include some basic features like auto complete or the birds eye view.

I’m not sure if there are plugins that can add these features.  I haven’t really added allot of plugins to my editor.

The one plugin I really love is FTP. It allows direct editing of files on the server. Now this is not recommended for a newbie.  If there is an issue, then you don’t have a back up on your computer. I actually should not practice this…but it streamlines my processes very well.
I often would grab the file if the previous changes are salvageable before any new updates.

Another great feature is the undo. jEdit offers unlimited undos back to when the program was opened.

Closing
IDE’s can be expensive or even free. There are standard features that you must look for that can greatly improve efficiency.
The only way to know which ide is good is with practical experience.  Test various systems if you can, and see what works for you.

What IDE do you use and Why?

How to Choose a Good IDE is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

Therefore it’s vital that you know how to manage outsourcing and what services can help.

You will need support tools like a project management system such as Huddle. Which was featured on TechCrunch and ZDnet

Taking care of the cash in the beginning will be your responsibility. A financial/accounting program can offer tremendous benefits. John Chow offered some advice on this when he discussed accounting for a corporation.

Even then you must be disciplined with your income and reinvest consistently.

The risks are big. Potential loss of clients and money is two risks. Developing a bad reputation or burning bridges with workers is another.

The tips above is important for more than just income generation, it’s important for overall business stability.

Executed correctly, production output can be 10 times or more than what an individual can do. It must then follow, that so will your income increase.

Outsourcing can be done locally or internationally. For cheaper labor (in 2010), international outsourcing is the way to go. To find workers either way, Odesk is one great starting point.

I’ve used a few project management software, and I’ve reviewed Odesk. I feel with the combination of services like these, your experience will be positive.

Have you used Huddle or Odesk? Tell us what your experience was like bellow.

Outsourcing Solutions To Multiplying your Productivity is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com

In the game of life, there are humans and machines. Who the judge is, will be the focus of this article.

When judged by a robot, your on page SEO makes you a winner. Your code is properly optimized for maximum interpretation by search engines.

But there is another factor: Humans!

Their opinion of you is a major influence on SE rankings. About 80% of your credibility is derived from what others think of you and how much they believe in your business.

If they bought your pitch, they will become an advocate, often mentioning your site. Some link back to it while anchoring the search terms that add value to your business.

This value is calculated by the robots, but it is entirely based on what other humans think and do for you.

How to please Humans

Pleasing the humans then becomes the important goal. This is traditional and probably will not change anytime soon.

What I mean is…no matter how much you think robots judge us…it’s really the people that decide your real worth. And always will.

Pleasing them will take the same skill as managing any normal human relationship.

So here is how you do it. You kiss them. And you keep on kissing until their in love.

What do I mean? Certainly not a real kiss!

A kiss is a term for unexpected benefit. It means, give them something they will go nuts for. Give them something that’s free, useful and adds to their value.

And try to make it a surprise. It will help you build stronger Human relationships.

Initiated Online – Building Authority is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com