New Information and Wasted Time

The old way of finding new information from favorite websites was for you, the user, to go to that website and dig in. For example, just this afternoon, many Bluetenters continually went back to ESPN.com to see if Tiger or Rocco was winning and what hole they had just completed. If you went back too soon, you were disappointed with no news, resulting in wasted time.

Is there a better way?..

source: http://www.bluetentmarketing.com/blog/

Link Popularity

To achieve high ranking in search engine, link popularity is one of the principal factors. When someone checks the number of back links for a particular site with link: www.mydomain.com, the number that appears on the search bar defines the strength, the site has already. More the numbers, more it is popular to search engine.

Links are mainly 3 types. 1 way, 2 way & 3 way links. Directory, article, press release, social bookmaking all uniquely identifies the 1 way links that are very good in quality and lasts so long.........

source: http://seodiscussions.blogspot.com/2009/07/link-popularity.html

Press Release - The Media Glamour

What is Press Release

A Press Release reflects a person’s character, a business or organizational group that is influenced through media. The new released distribution can be targeted to newspapers, TV, radio stations, magazines and global newsworthy networks. A well-submitted press release will give added publicity and creditability to an individual or a business.
Journalists follow newsworthy stories that they can use in their publications. Some examples of this can be:
1. Stories about launching of a new business.
2. Solution and problem solving reports that semblances current market trend.
3. New products or services that impact current business.
4. Research and development on the latest business trends.
5. Business to business partnership.
6. Affiliated Sponsorships with business partner
7. Recognized achievements/awards that you have received.

source: http://seodiscussions.blogspot.com/2009/07/press-release-media-glamour.html

Various Forms of Web Marketing

A few days back I was thinking about the various avenues of web marketing and today when I got some time, thought I would post a write up, however, while doing a little research on the different methods I came across this post by Jeremiah Owyang, Director of Corporate media Strategy at PodTech.net and one of my most favorite bloggers. I think he has already created the best possible list on web marketing forms and trying to creat e a new list would be just trying to reinvent the wheel. Besides, I don't have any doubt that he is much more qualified than me to write on this - enjoy the read, though he says "this post is for CMO/VP/Director of Web and Marketing", I think there's something for everyone.

(I have cropped out the intro part and just put the "forms" part here)

The Many Forms of Web Marketing:

1) Corporate Domain
This has been a standard since the late 90s, nearly every company, mom and pop boutique now has a web presence. The primary purpose of this is to provide the public with information about your company, it’s products, and anything else they may need. Corporate websites often compose of several features that are listed below.

1. Corporate Site
   Little explanation is required here, today’s standard requires for every company to have a home on the web. The methods and tools are highly discussed in a variety of locations, books and conferences, but do remember that some tools are creating an impact on their relevance and marketing in general.
2. Portal Strategy
   Widely popular in the late 90s this strategy was intended to serve up all user information on one page, and keep users on one’s domain. A few well known portals now exist such as MyYahoo which is a form of a feedreader. Most modern marketers realize that content is now distributed.
3. Microsites for Segmentation
   Typically deployed around new product launches or campaign focuses, or specific market segments, these often short term websites are used for calling specific attraction. They typically have a unique URL and are tied to an integrate campaign. See Microsoft’s Origami microsite. Caution: some companies overly deploy these microsites and end up with a distributed and unfocused web strategy.
4. Interactive Web Marketing
   The web is more than a ‘read only’ medium, unlike other mediums, companies can make the website interactive, encouraging a new dynamic of engagement. There’s a variety of technologies to use from uses of Javascript, AJAX and Flash based. (Thanks Lisa D for suggestion) Of course, one can only go far where the limitation is that it is still a ‘user to computer’ interaction. A few examples include Subservient Chicken experience, What kind of M&M are you, and Geico’s Caveman Crib.
5. Intranet/Extranet
   The web isn’t just for communicating to prospects and employees, simliar strategies apply to both your employees, resellers, partners and suppliers. You can get more information by joining the Intranet User Experience Group, or find other online resources to this specific field.
6. Regionalization
   In today’s global web, websites are translated, reformatted and segmented by region, culture, class. Be sure to focus on France, China, Japan as fast emerging languages. Also see report on internet usage in third world countries.

2) Search Marketing
Ever heard of Google? Many prospects use google in the ‘hunt’ phase for a product. By paying a third party or a search engine directly you can obtain a strategy to get your website listed in search results. I’ve heard a variety of stats demonstrating success of natural vs paid results, however the ROI is usually positive. It’s likely your competitor is also present on the Search results page. View my few posts on Search Strategy or contact Andy Beal, David Berkowitz or Brian Keith.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
   Many web groups at large corporations have a document, a process, or even a dedicated resource who’s goal is to make sure web content is easily found, indexed, managed and correctly served in search results. There’s been some recent discussion the state of the SEO industry.
2. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
   Frequently, companies will hire a specialized search company to purchase keywords that will help drive contextual links in search results. These ads are contextually displayed based upon the search query. There’s a growing and sometimes controversial industry focused on these techniques.

3) Out Bound and Syndicated Web Marketing

1. Email Marketing
   While certainly not completely native to the web, they certainly are tied. Modern email campaigns (sometimes even direct marketing) involves barely personal emails blasted out to indviduals on a mailing list. These modern versions typically have the option to be HTML based, and have hyperlinks brining users back to the corporate site or Microsite. I hear the conversion rate for these are 2-5%, and typically deploy a positive ROI. Having spoken with many Web directors and Marketers, this is a task best suited for an outsourced vendor. Be sure to read the research on the growth for this industry in 2007.
2. Invasive Marketing
   “Pop-ups”, and “Pop-Unders”, trojan and tracking software are both disruptive methods to obtain the attention and data of users. Research indicates this form of marketing is diminishing, use with caution, or not at all (ask your Ad Agency if they are doing this without your knowledge) remember the market can associate your brand with the way you reach them, and users are now in charge.
3. Syndicated Content and RSS
   I lump Syndication into this category as I see it as being an evolution as marketing shifts from Push to Pull. RSS is quickly becoming a method where users can opt-in for additional content. For more information start with Six RSS Resources for the Internet Professional or Web Strategist, when you’re ready to deploy read Web Strategy: Understanding Syndicated Feeds for your Corporate Website.

4) Brand Extension
This is not a new concept, it’s simply been applied to web properties. The concept is simple, where your audience is, your brand should be also.

1. Web Advertising
   I’m sure you’re all familiar with the banner, tile, or skyscraper advertising model on websites. This age old strategy simply suggests that if there are eyeballs your brand should ‘impress’ upon the users. Click through rates are typically in the 1% or lower rate, sometimes success is measured by brand impressions, (visitation by traffic). These ads are static and do not change even if the content on the webpage changes.
2. Contextual Advertising
   These targeted ads will be served up on the webpage depending on the content that’s on the page. This is a more ‘intelligent’ and therefore more relevant than Web Advertising, which may not be targeted at specific content. This form of advertising can be text, images, media or other form and are common on websites, blogs, and are now appearing on web based emails sites. (Submitted by David Berkowitz: Feb 13th. 2007)
3. Sponsorship and /Cross branding/Affiliate
   This is a method of promoting your brand with the right audience in which the property is rewarded for integrating your brand. This can occur on content sites, shows, media properties, blogs, podcasts, and just about everything else. This is expected to increase in 2007.

4) Community Marketing and Social Media Marketing
eMarketer’s research indicates that this is the fastest growing area of growth for Web Advertising and Marketing is in the Social Media space. In my experience, the awareness rate is around 30% and deployment 10-20% for most corporations. Some of the tools listed below are not new, while some become critical in how prospects find information about products. For a high level overview please read 10 Social Media Strategies for the Fortune 1000 Corporations.

1. eCommerce/Rating Sites
   For most consumer products and a majority of enterprise products, there’s a variety of websites that rate products both by expert (sometimes called analyst) or peer review. The most popular site that has done this in the text industry is CNET reviews which deploys both editorial reviews, video demos, and user ratings and opinions. Content can be both positive and negative about your company as well as your competitors. Ratings and voting has evolved with popular news voting sites like Digg.
2. Social Networking, Forums, Wikis, Collaboration
   I’m tying these two together as both features are starting to merge in many modern versions. While founded from early usenet days, forums allow for communities to form around similar ideas and collaborate. Approximately 33% of companies deploy forums. Wikis have also been used to tie industries together as well as. Savvy marketers are starting to also realize the power of social networking sites in every flavor of focus, including image sharing sites like flickr for marketing. I’ve created a list of all White Label Social Networking platforms.
3. Syndicated Marketing
   See section 3C above.
4. Podcast Marketing
   Many corporations are reaching their community though on demand content on mobile devices, the key to this medium is certainly in the ‘pull’ strategy. I’ve listed out my recommendations in a recent post called Corporate Podcasting Strategies for 2007.
5. Blogging
   I estimate about 30% or less of businesses are considering blogs (web logs) as forms of business communication. The subject has been talked about quite extensively, I recommend reading Naked Conversations, the Weblog Handbook, and the Corporate Blogging Book. To learn about all the forms of businesses blog. If you’ve not yet deployed a Corporate Blogging program, I reccomend learning from my experience as a corporate blog evangelist.
6. Widget Marketing
   Widgets are light weight web applications that are being embedded in websites, blogs, forums, and social sites. Flickr badges, MyBlogLog, and in ways even the Firefox community marketing campaign are companies that are engaged in this way. This isn’t anything new, I noticed this trend before the term gained popularity, and called it Viral Chicklets, to learn more there’s a growing list of examples on Widgetbox.
7. Online Video
   While Online Video has existed for many years on the web, it’s most notably been gaining traction from the video blog, or video sharing sites of great popularity such as Google Video, or it’s recent acquisition YouTube. In addition to third party video sites, colleague Robert Scoble is well known for being the ‘Video Guy’ at Microsoft, while he took behind the scenes footage and shared on a Community networking site. Other companies have seen the success in this and have also launched online video sites such as General Motors. I recommend starting with thinking about Video for your Executives and thought leaders.
8. Instant Messaging, Presence
   Clever marketers are figuring out how to involve real time conversational media using Instant Messaging tools, presence, and status tools, such as Twitter. These tools tie to online and mobile devices. My experience with Generation Y is that they are using IM as their primary way to communicate over all other mediums.
9. Tagging, Collective Tools
   I’ve discussed how tagging can be used to harvest marketing intelligence as well as help your SEO results. See using Delicious for Market Research. Properly tagging content as well as researching how tags are used will help communities find your content.
10. Infinite Other Flavors
    The list of potential applications can go on and on, from Toolbar plugins such as Delicious plugin, Alexa Plugin Attention recorder, etc, to web based mobile applications. User voted news sites are rapidly appearing such as Digg. There’s a whole another category (read all my posts tagged Community Marketing) on the many different forms the above tools create when they’re combined, from Community sites like Microsoft’s Channel 9 to real time Conversation indexes like Techmeme or Technorati’s WTF, new ways to find, sort and harness information will emerge over the year. The notable attributes include a ‘community’ or ‘viral’ and ‘conversational’ tone to them.

5) Emerging Mediums tie with the Internet
The web will be a platform and will extend to other mediums as well as create new ones.

1. Internet TV (IPTV)
   While still emerging, the web will marry the TV and content, communication will evolve to a new form of media we’ve not yet seen yet. I doubt it will be as simple as ‘TV content online’ or ‘Reading websites in the living room’. Something new will appear, and it will impact your web team. See all my thoughts on IPTV.
2. Mobile Content
   Websites are already being viewed on mobile devices, either full browsers, or fast load browsers. Many executives, decision makers, road warriors and techies are accessing the web using mobile devices, so a strategy to deliver correctly to this medium is necessary. See all my thoughts on Mobile Technology.
3. Online Massive Multi Player Games, Console Games
   If you’re not heard yet, Second Life is being trialed by large companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Sun, Sears and a variety of retailers. Also popular are Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG for short) are appearing online such as World of Warcraft (WoW), and Club Penguin a growing online game for kids, teens, and some adults. XBox 360 has IPTV capabilities and most console games have online components, so there are multiple experiences to tap into.

Real World and Virtual World are Tied
What happens in real life echos online. We’re seeing that more and more as politicians, CEOs and organization involve bloggers, podcasters, and other influentials to real life events. The role of Online/Offline Community Relations is becoming more and more important. I’ve dissected how Microsoft hosts blogger dinners. Train your orginsiation to tie both strategies together. Read my post on Web Strategy: Overlaying Social Media for your Corporate Events

Putting it all Together
Whew, that’s the major families, but remember for many corporations, these elements will not be successful in a vacuum, the opportunity for momentum happens when they are combined and used strategically. At least one person or group should have full knowledge of how your brand is being used online and in other mediums.

How to Create Custom 404 Error Page

In my last article I discussed about the various reasons for which a website can throw a 404 error. While they are largely avoidable, with a little effort we can actually get the 404 errors to work for our website rather than working against it.

The solution is simple, create a custom 404 page. Instead of the ugly "404 Error - Page not Found" we can have a nice page that tells the visitors that something has gone wrong and provide him with alternatives. This would help retain the visitors to your website to great extent.

Now the question is, how to create a custom 404 page ?

Creating Custom 404 Page in Apache

a) Download your .htaccess file from server using FTP.
b) Open using Notepad and look for the line below..
ErrorDocument 404 /path/to/your/error/file.html
c) Download this error file mentioned in the path and modify the HTML to customize it, alternatively, create a separate custom 404 page and replace the "/path/to/your/error/file.html" with the path to the new file.
d) Save the .htaccess file and upload to your server.
e) Type in a wrong URL that you know doesn't exist and check if the custom 404 page shows up.

Points to Note:
a) Make sure you keep a back up of your .htaccess file before uploading the new file. This is a very crucial file for websites on Apache and can create a mess if you write anything silly in it.

b) In case you don't have a .htaccess file on your server, you can create a new one in a notepad. Just add the line below and it should work well.
ErrorDocument 404 /path/to/your/error/custom404page.html

c) Though most web hosting companies that offers Apache server gives access to .htaccess file, some of them still don't. In case you are on one of those servers speak to your host.

How to Create Custom 404 Error Page in IIS

This is again a very simple process but you will need to have access to your server to do this.

a) Open Your Internet Service Managerand right click on the website for which you want to set the custom 404 error page.
b) Click on Properties
c) CLick on Custom Errors tab.
d) You will see a long list of errors, scroll down till you see 404 HTTP error on the left column.
e) On the right column (Content) you will see a file associated with it.
f) You can edit this file and customize it. Alternatively, choose Edit Properties and change the file to the custom 404 file that you have already created.
g) Check if the custom 404 error page is working by typing a wrong URL.

So don't let those visitors bounce off , create a nice and attractive custom 404 error page and keep them in.

How to generate enough qualified leads?

Is this a question that is snatching your sleep of you at nights? Well then I feel you definitely need to read through this blog that is going to explain exactly how to produce and accelerate quality leads to your website.

I have populated few major strategies below that can be utilized to help generate quality leads for your website.

So first of all what all are the important components of lead generation?

· Rate converted – the actual number of leads that have in reality been converted into sales
· Money – the amount of money involved in getting a new lead
· Purchase price – in the first visit of each new customer, how much are you earning, monetarily
· Sales and time average – the average of the total sales that a customer does over a lifetime with your website

Few important questions that you need to ask yourself are:

· What is my aim?
· How much sales was done in the initial arrival of the customer
· How frequently are the same customers coming into your website
· What is the profit percentage that you are achieving from your website

Out of my experience as an SEO professional, I have understood that Leads Generation is a process that helps you get more and more of leads into your website, thereby increasing the sales figures!

Few sources of lead generation include:

· SEO – This is a very useful way to make others know more about your site, making it search engine visible. Applying SEO strategies into your website would help it get into the top ranks and also helps in appearing in the top pages of search engine results. Sounds great doesn’t it? :)
· Search Engine Advertising – Google Adwords and PPC options that assist you spending only for quality clicks
· Campaign organizing – Creating specific ad groups
· Creating relevant and separate landing pages for each ad group
· Creating specific sales pages in the website will help in specific linking to these web pages, thereby increasing the chances of being noted online in search engines.
· Email marketing – explain more about your products and services, through emails, as it reaches out more widely and stays as a ready reckoner in the inboxes for clients and customers.
· Referral Marketing – Let your customers get you more sales through word of mouth, thereby making them your sales generating sources!
· Advertising through various media
· Marketing though the telephone
· Partnering with other online merchants in order to generate exciting offers, that mutually benefit you both
· Mailing your clients with your details
· Last but not the least, frequently keep checking of the sales results and keep changing the marketing strategies and campaigns if the need arises.

These are just few of the many techniques that can be adopted to help you with your website’s lead generation. And one more very important thing that I want to say again is spend more time on your website. It needs your constant work and time along with efforts in order to make it one of the best sites with some great sales figures! So go ahead, your site is waiting for that extra lead generation :)

image marquee-Scroll Image

image marquee HTML code
Image marquee-Scroll Image is the new website design trend. Every web designer want become a professional web designer to get web designer job or work as a freelancer webdesigner. So need not only a eye cache webdesign but simple and with less size also.Image on web page increse your own web site look , but you might be
animated image on web page , many web designer use script,flash,and other third party software to scrol image on web page but all these increse youe web site size that effact
your web site loading time. If your web site taking more minute to downlaod it may be decrease online visitor on your site. Then what to do is here any solution , ya here is solution in HTML take a look here.

How Do I Make A Marquee Scroll Images?
Answer is here this will scroll text on web page
code is :
ADD HERE YOUR OWN TEXT
Which looks like this:
ADD HERE YOUR OWN TEXT



Image scroll
code is :


Which looks like this:

UP SIDE
ADD HERE YOUR OWN TEXT
Which looks like this:
ADD HERE YOUR OWN TEXT



Image scroll
code is :


Which looks like this:



BOTTOM SIDE
ADD HERE YOUR OWN TEXT
Which looks like this:
ADD HERE YOUR OWN TEXT



Image scroll
code is :


Which looks like this:

G tlk Tips and g talk-shortcut

G tlk Tips and g talk-shortcut
The number one search engine google has many services for internet user at free of cost. Often a new internet user start internet by use of search engine or start chating there online friend by instant messenger.
Gtalk is the instant messanger given by web search engine goggle , If you have allredy downlaod G talk then you can use thes gtalk tips to use in your chat to give a smart look your text when you chatting with your online frind
The number one search engine google has many services for internet user at free of cost.
often a new internet user start internet by use of search engine or start chating there online friend by instant messenger.
If you have allredy downlaod G talk then you can use thes gtalk tips to use in your chat to give a smart look your text when you chatting with your online frind

You can read my first post related on Gtalk shortcut here first post

Gtalk Tips
Line Break
If your message is long but less than 32767 characters and you wana Line Break then Hold SHIFT and hit ENTER

Italic text
To italic your text, put an underscore [ _ ] before and after content. _[your message] _these will be italic_
But keep in mind that You cannot bold nor italicize more than 100 characters at a time. If you exceed the limit, the desired effect will not take place.

Bold text
If you want Bold text in your message close it in *your message* and then press Enter key your text will appear in Bold. syntex - *welcome* Enter key
But keep in mind that You cannot bold nor italicize more than 100 characters at a time. If you exceed the limit, the desired effect will not take place.

Message Length
You can't send more than 32767 characters because its gtalk send message characters limit.

Smileys
Certain smileys are recognized by Google Talk and will be highlighted in blue color.
:-O B-) :'( :O

If you know any Google Talk tips & tricks, please post them here in a comment.

Everything about Meta Robots and robots.txt

Robots plays important role in the field of SEO. We have two ways to control pages and folders one is using Robots META tag and other is through robots.txt

A web page creator can specify which page should be indexed and which page should not be indexed by search engines by placing Robots META tag in the HTML section

Here are some Robots tags that are common

< content="NOINDEX" name="ROBOTS">- Ignore content and follow links
< content="NOFOLLOW, INDEX " name="ROBOTS">- Include content and do not follow links
< content="NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW" name="ROBOTS">- Ignore content and do not follow links
< content="INDEX,FOLLOW" name="ROBOTS">- Include content and follow links
< content="NOARCHIVE" name="ROBOTS">- Cache link should not show Search results pages
< content="NOODP" name="ROBOTS">- The Open Directory Project (ODP) title and description for the page should not be displayed in Search results
< content="NOYDIR" name="ROBOTS">- The Yahoo Directory title and description for the page should not be displayed in Search results
< content="NOSNIPPET" name="ROBOTS">- Titles are only displayed in Search results page and not description or text context for this page

In addition to manage folder level user agent control robots.txt file can be used. This file can be placed in root of each server and the format is plain text not HTML

Through this file website owner or webmaster can allow access to web page content and disallow access to admin, cgi and any secured files that you don’t want search engines to index

A typical robots.txt file will look like

User-agent: *
Allow: /
Disallow: /admin*
Allow: *content*
Disallow: /test/
Disallow: /paypal/
Disallow: /credit/
Disallow: /cgi/

Explains, all robots can crawl except the admin files, and crawl files named content folder, and should not crawl test, paypal, credit and cgi folder.

Hope this post helps to know more about robots and its act in SEO. You can analyze further on checking Google's robots.txt file http://www.google.com/robots.txt and post comment or tweet

search engine optimization (SEO) terms

Navigation bar (nav bar)
a web site's navigation icons, usually arranged in a row down the left hand side or along the top that plays crucial roles in directing spiders to the site's most important content and in getting site visitors to go deeper in the site

Negative Keyword
Negative Keyword is a term referenced by Google AdWords and is a form of keyword matching. This means that an advertiser can specify search terms that they do not want their ad to be associated with.

For example, if you add the negative keyword "-nike" to the keyword "running shoes", the ad will not be displayed if a person searches upon the term "nike running shoes".

Negative keyword matching ensures that only qualified traffic is clicking upon advertising.

Negative SEO
The act of demoting a page or site from the SERPS. Most often used against a competitor that is above your site in the SERPS but can be used purely for fun.

Noframes tag
alternative non-framed HTML on a frameset page for very old, non-frames capable web browsers and search engine spiders. Placing good keyword-rich text in noframes tags is a good idea if your site is framed, but a much better idea is to ditch frames altogether and rebuild the site properly. A framed web site is not search engine friendly as long as it uses noframes tags.

4 Tips to Improve your AdSense revenue

How many times have you seen an ad campaign running for “Google Adsense” that makes it sound so easy to make revenue by just copying and pasting their code onto your website? After all the research I have done on Google Adsense, I finally realized how it is not that easy just to copy and paste. There is much more beyond this that must be done in order to make Google Adsense revenue.

The following are techniques that must be implemented in order to really make money with Google Adsense:

1. Design a website that is Google Adsense friendly. In other words, make sure that your website has much content that is keyword rich and make sure your keyword density is decent. Make sure that you are using the most beneficial keywords for your niche. Try to choose keywords that cost more for pay per click. For example, if a keyword such as “dog training” cost $2.00 per click to run an ad campaign, you can be well assured that you will make around half of that per click. By choosing the top competitive keywords, you will increase your Adsense revenue considerably. Once indexed, Google will then be able to known what correct ads to place on your website.
2. Generate traffic to your website using a number of different techniques.
   • Writing articles
     By writing articles at least once a week and submitting them to article directories such as Ezine. The more article directories that you submit to, the more back links you are creating for your website. You can pay for article directory submission, which can cost as little as $80 every quarter.
   • Search Engine Directory Submissions
     By submitting your website URL to search engine friendly directories, you are creating back links back to your website. Make sure that you only submit to search engine directories with a Google page rank of four or higher. You can pay around $11.00 per website to submit to 100 directories with a page rank of four or higher. Create ads: By publishing classified ads, you are advertising your website and creating back links back to your website. US Free Ads and Domestic Sale are two places that you can submit your ad to for free.
   Just remember back links, back links, back links!
3. Google Adsense ads can be published and designed in a wide variety of formats. When displaying your ads, decide upon a size that would be best suitable for your website. There are different sizes to choose from. There are also different fonts and colors you can use to create your ads. Try to use a color that blends in well with your website. Also, although borders can be used, many web publisher's state on forums and blogs, that once they removed their borders, they had more clicks on their ads.
4. When displaying ads on your website, it is best to place them in a place where visitors can review them. One good place to display your ads is somewhere at the top of your website. A lot of web publishers use the top left corner for displaying Google Adsense. However, when you go to a website, what is one of the first things you look at? Could it be how the website is navigated by its menu? That is why another great place to display your ads could be near the navigation menu.

Earning revenue with Google Adsense takes time, patience, and trial and error. The more you read about how Adsense works for others, the more you will understand how it will work for you.

4 Tips to Improve your AdSense revenue

Online Marketing Methods That Work

Business owners are facing a harsh reality: A website in itself offers no assurance of business. “If you build, it they will come” is a clich that has misled many into believing all a company needed was an online presence to succeed. However, without a strategic marketing plan and a tactical approach, you’re more likely to fail than to reach your goals. Proper planning will not only improve your chances of success, but it will also keep you from throwing away money on e-commerce fiascos.

The first step of planning is to define your goals in light of the target market you aim to reach. As you classify your target, you should determine the core needs of that group and observe the buying behavior that occurs among your potential purchasers. Characterizing their purchasing habits enables you to position your business to appeal to your target market with compelling information before they buy from another resource.

Several online resources can help you place your business in the forefront of your target audience. The process, however, can be complex because a variety of online vehicles, if utilized properly, can help you yield the results you desire. Also, the key to successful marketing online is in developing a diverse marketing plan which takes advantage of several approaches to deliver your message. Components in your marketing plan should include such elements as search engine marketing, pay-per-performance, ad placement, joint ventures, targeted traffic, e-mail marketng, media marketing, optimization and copywriting.

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing has been one of the most highly visible forms of marketing online. With millions of businesses employing search engines to gather information daily, search engine placement for key terms has been a major business generator for companies who properly place themselves in the search engines under the right terms relevant to their market offering. An obstacle to being ranked at or near the top, however, is that thousands can be competing for the same position. And with the search engines changing their algorithms often, achieving placement on the first page for the terms relevant is extremely difficult without a solid working knowledge of and experience in the search engine marketing field. Consequently, one should not solely rely on ranking.

Pay-Per-Performance

Another marketing technique on the rise is pay-per-performance advertising. This is a method for which you pay per click, impression, or visit a site that refers to your site. The application works best if the placements chosen are locations that directly connect with the target market you desire to reach. Advertisement rates are based on an auction format in that the highest bidder obtains the top placement. If your bid is $1.00 for every time someone utilizes your link while your competitor bids $1.01, your competitor will gain a better placement than you. If 100 individuals click your link, you should understand that you will owe $100 whether they buy from you are not. Pay-per-performance advertising clearly requires a full understanding of your conversion ratio to determine the budget necessary to commit to such a program.

Ad Placement

Ad placement is similar to pay-per-performance in that you pay for advertisements on sites or newsletters. The difference is that you typically pay for impressions and market reach. Impressions encompass how many unique visitors view the location in which your ad is placed. The market reach refers to the number of individuals accessing that website or newsletter over a period of time. However, you have no guarantee of the number of visitors who will follow your ad to your website. The concept is similar to traditional print ad placement in that advertisers have no guarantee that people exposed to their print ads will visit their places of business.

Joint Ventures

Another method, joint ventures, can be highly effective in helping businesses obtain referral customers. Joint ventures can be as simple exchanging links with another website or as complex as assembling a tiered affiliates program.

Targeted Traffc Marketing

Targeted traffc marketing is an additional marketing online tool with two main applications. The first involves the purchase of a demographic defined list which will contain individuals that match a specified demographic to whom you have permission to send information freely either through an e-mail campaign or a sales call. The second form of targeted traffc entails the purchase a specified number of unique visitors to your site who match a demographic. This is a mass marketing or shotgun approach. Using either approach requires a skilled implementation of marketing content or your conversion ratio will be low, meaning you’ll be wasting money.

E-Mail Marketng

The most criticized but still effective form of online marketing is e-mail marketng. Too many marketers utilized this method improperly by imposing upon individuals who had no interest in their products or services. The answer to marketing effectively using e-mails lies in ensuring you have permission before sending to those individuals.

Media Marketing

A more effective method would be to utilize media marketing in which you write articles, white papers and other content relevant to your industry to be published. Sharing valuable insights and information rather than out-and-out selling helps to validate your company’s expertise as you also acquire free brand exposure.

Relevant Content & Copywriting

Finally, marketing effectively online requires the right kind of preparation for your website. Many sites fail in that they generate traffic but they lack the kind of relevant content that retains the visitor, educates the prospect, and/or encourages the prospect to take action. Developing content that relays a clear message to your visitors is critical. Copywriting professional Sallie Boyles states, “Lead with your punch line. Be clear. Be concise. Rather than covering each page top-to-bottom with solid content, use windows and links to provide detailed explanations as needed. When people gather research online for an immediate or future purchase, they want ease and efficiency - or they’ll leave the site and go elsewhere.”

In developing your next marketing online plan, follow these key steps to success: First, define and research your market. Second, prepare your site fo

r action. Third, position yourself in the marketplace utilizing several marketing methods. Fourth, be prepared to follow up and close the deal. A world of e-commerce awaits!

Online Marketing Methods That Work

Collection 15 Tools for Webmasters

Here is a collection of what we consider “must have” tools for webmasters. These tools will benefit any webmaster, both novices and experts alike. Arm yourself with these tools in order to achieve a more professional online presence.

1. Custom 404 Page

Use a custom 404 page, so that if a user incorrectly types a webpage URL, they will still retain navigational options within your site and be provided alternative solutions. When a domain is correctly entered, but a specific webpage’s URL is entered incorrectly, it is possible to display your custom error page to the visitor. By providing users with a navigational bar and further assistance, rather than leaving them with a generic “page not found” error screen, you can often keep prospective customers on your site by providing them with navigation alternatives.

2. UrlTrends

UrlTrends is a service that shows historical trends, so that webmasters can see how their SEO efforts are affecting websites in the search engines. UrlTrends should be used in conjunction with web-logging software.

UrlTrends - www.urltrends.com

3. Favicon

Polish your website by adding a Favorite Icon. When a “favicon” is available on your site, and the site URL is entered in the user’s web browser URL box, the favicon will be displayed beside the URL. This gives the website a more professional and polished look.

Favicon HTMLKit - www.htmlkit.com

4. Color Matching

Match the primary web colors with those used in your logo. Simply choose a preferred color using the ColorBlender service below, and a 6-color matching palette and blend will be automatically calculated for you.

ColorBlender - www.colorblender.com

5. Online WYSIWYG Editing

Online webpage editing allows for collaboration, so that different users can log in and edit web pages.

Edit - www.edit.com

6. RSS Feeds

No longer considered to be just a nice addition, RSS feeds are now a “must have” for popular websites! Create RSS feeds for newsletters, press releases, educational articles, product tutorials, new product promotions, or just about any other sort of web content. FeedForAll - www.feedforall.com

7. MaxEmail

MaxEmail’s very affordable Internet fax and voicemail service allows a fax message to be delivered to an email address as a PDF formatted attachment. This allows fax messages to follow you regardless of your location. And, it also eliminates the need for a costly extra telephone line and a dedicated fax machine.

MaxEmail - maxemail.com

8. Royalty-Free Images

Locate stock photos to incorporate into your web design. Use royalty-free stock photography to add professional, high-quality images to your website.

Photo Wizard - www.photo-wizard.net

9. Submit Corner Web Assessment Tools

These web assessment tools help you use search engines to effectively monitor who links to your website, how many links, and who your competitors are. The tools include search indexing, link tracking, and competitor identification.

Submit Corner - www.SubmitCorner.com

10. Ranks.nl

This service assesses keyword density and prominence of a domain. The tool parses keywords and assesses the number of times a keyword occurs, and then discerns the density of the keywords.

Ranks.nl - ranks.nl/tools/spider.html

11. Webmaster Toolkit

The Webmaster Toolkit is a collection of webmaster tools developed to help webmasters with daily webmaster chores. The suite of free tools and resources included continues to grow, and contains something useful for the beginner and the advanced webmaster alike.

Webmaster Toolkit - www.webmaster-toolkit.com

12. HTML Web Templates

Make it clean and professional. Use easy-to-edit HTML web templates for web design.

Web Design - www.webmaster-templates.net or www.webdesign-elements.com

13. TrafficZap

This website includes script, page rank checker, link popularity checker, and more.

TrafficZap - www.trafficzap.com

14. Compete.com

Web Analytics - Stay on top of rivals with site metrics and audience profiles for the top 1,000,000 web domains. Identify rival search marketing strategies to take your SEM and SEO efforts to the next level.

SiteAnalytics - siteanalytics.compete.com

15. Thumbshots

Easily add thumbshot images to your webpages. Integrate website thumbnails by simply copying and pasting HTML code. Additional software is not needed.

Thumbshots - www.thumbshots.org

Use top-notch tools to make web maintenance and management a little easier.

Is your competition beating you in SEO?

You have optimized your website for winning keywords, are mid-way with your link building campaign, and have been going absolutely crazy creating fresh SEO friendly content that pleases the users and search engines.

You are obviously very serious about your online business, and yet you cannot seem to cross the rank No.12, Page 2 barrier of Google search listing for your primary keywords.

A series are questions arise from the imaginary situation above:

1. Why is my ranking for the particular keyword not going up?
2. Am I missing out on any SEO strategies?
3. Maybe I am not building enough links? How much will be enough?
4. Do I have to improve my content quality?
5. The search engine has changed their algorithm (…again)
6. Others are using illegal SEO techniques

Now while one could go over the questions in your head, read up on latest search engine algorithms, contact a SEO expert, or blindly start buying links out of desperation, there is an easier way to find your answers.

Simply ask why are the other 10 websites ranking before your website?

Now that does not mean that the above questions 1 to 6 are not relevant, but simply put, one of the easiest way to boost your search rankings is to study the top 5 to ten websites for your keyword and then apply what working for them into your own strategies.

Now I am not asking you to copy the competition or have a strategy that just involves beating the competition at the ranking game. It never works. What is needed is a better balance between your company's SEO strategies and of those of your competitors.

Like in any business strategy, you have to know your competitors, study what strategies they are using, and then apply the best of those strategies to your own game plan.

In the same way, in defining the SEO path ahead for your website you must analyze your competition. What are they doing to rank in the top 10 that you are not doing? After all those websites are listed on the top for a reason, and they are applying SEO strategies that the search engine in particular seems to like.

Now while finding the answers to those questions in the real business world may be difficult, in the online world all you have to do is to right-click and view the source of the page.

The above simple step will open up a world of information to you. (Editor note: you can use Site Information Tool and Keyword Density Analyzer to reveal some important information about your competitors' sites).

1. Does the domain name contain the keyword? If the link is a sub domain then does the sub domain contain the keyword?
2. In what Meta tags, title, etc has the competition placed their keywords?
3. Does the link name contain the keyword? eg. www.seo-optimization-experts.com/mumbai-seo-expert.html
4. 4. How many keywords are listed in the keyword tag i.e. is the page focused around one or two keywords, or is it a jumble of keywords listed out.
5. Is the title and description captivating enough? How has the keyword/s been placed in the title and description and at what position?
6. Is the page graphic intensive? Is the site using a lot flash or active server pages? Search engines cannot understand graphics, only the text it can read on the page. Make sure there is a good balance between the graphics and content.
7. How long is the body text? Writing 400 to 600 words is normally fine.
8. Has the keyword (keyword weight) been used appropriately in the body content? Ideally the first 25 words of content should be keyword rich, and the keyword should appear after every 100 words in remaining content.
9. Is the content interesting to you as the reader? Does the content follow a theme? Is the content relevant to what keyword the page has been optimized for?
10. What is the page rank of the page (You can check page rank of any website by downloading the Google Toolbar at http://toolbar.google.com.
11. Which is the first place in the source code the keyword appears?
12. Has the keyword been used appropriately in headline tags and link text?
13. Does the site use java script, tables, frames, dynamic content, CMS etc?
14. Is the page focused around a theme?
15. How many inbound links are there to the page? You can check the link popularity of the page on www.marketleap.com? Visit the sites that have given the link? What is their page rank? What is the link text that describes the link to the website? Has the keyword been used in the link text?
16. How many pages does the site have?
17. Does the site have a good site map that lists all the content pages, videos on the site that search engine spiders can crawly easily?
18. Are there any 404 errors on the website?
19. What is the domain name extension e.g. .com,. net, .edu, .co.in
20. How long has that domain name been in existence? Search engines rank those sites better that have been around for a while, or those that plan to be around for a while?
21. How many directories has that page/ website been submitted to?
22. Has the site used any spamming or illegal SEO techniques like keyword stuffing, cloaking, hidden text, duplicate content and other such Spam's? If yes you can inform the search engine of the same but do so with caution. For Google: http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html

Please note that sometimes you will find no reasons why the competitors' website is ranked above yours. And that's ok. I have experienced many cases of certain sites which go against the search engines guidelines (set by search engines themselves), and yet they rank above meticulously optimized pages.

Search engines are constantly trying to remove badly optimized or spam pages which offer little or no value to the users. Our intent here is not to focus on the missing pieces/loopholes of search engines algorithms or isolated instances of sites that don't deserve it and yet are ranking high, but to work within the framework and guidelines for the long haul.

By mapping out the answers to the above questions (preferable on a spread sheet), you will find the overall patterns of what is working for those sites and why, and then figure out ways to modify your SEO strategies to improve your rankings.

How many links you need from pages with pr (pagerank)

Google Page Rank (PR) is one of the foremost indicators about the popularity of a blog, website or a single web page. In fact, many advertisers or ad networks use the PR as the primary criterion along with traffic ranks to accept or reject publisher or blogger accounts while signing up. Due to the same reason, bloggers usually go gaga over the same in an attempt to maintain or increase their blogs’ PR status.

How many backlinks will it take?
It is a known fact that more backlinks from high PR pages will eventually result in an increase of your blog’s PR. But how many backlinks will it take for a blog to receive a particular Page Rank? The following table will give you some idea.

The table below essentially have the public PR numbered from 1 to 10 along X and Y axes. The Y axis shows the page rank that you desire for and the X axis shows the number of backlinks it will take from pages with a particular PR (column header) in order to obtain your desired PR. For example, for your blog to receive a page rank of 5, you need just three backlinks from pages of PR 6 or have 101 backlinks from pages with PR 3 instead.

The above formula also explains the monetizing power of a high PR blog. Other than the advertisers, you can actually sell links from your high PR blogs to those bloggers who want to obtain similar PRs easily. In fact, I had written about the monetizing potential of the blogroll a few posts ago.

Other Page Rank facts

- The public page rank of web pages, as published by Google three to four times a year, is a number ranging from 0 and 10. But internally Google uses a value that is calculated on a real time basis to rank the search results and this real page rank is not an integer between 0 and 10.

- As the public page rank is updated only once in a while, your current page rank is not necessarily an indication of your exact search ranking at a given point of time.
A lot of people tend to worry about the page rank of their home page (main URL) alone. In order to get the best search ranking for your content, you need to also have good PR for your other pages as well. The internal linking of your pages play an important role here.

- If you have very good content, SEO friendly page structure and some good keywords, even with a PR as low as zero, your pages should be getting figured in the Google search results pages.

- There could be several other aspects that are taken into consideration by Google to derive the final page rank.

- How important is Google PR for you and your blog? Please share your thoughts on the same here and please do not forget to bookmark this post, if found useful.

SEO Tips and Tricks

Many people incorrectly believe that good meta tags are all that is needed to achieve good listings in the search engines, which is entirely incorrect. While meta tags are usually always part of a well optimized page they are not the be all and end all of optimizing your pages. In the early days of the web people were able to get great listings from optimizing just their meta tags, but the increasing competition for good search engine listings eventually led to many people spamming the search engines with keyword stuffed meta tags. The result is that the engines have changed what they look at when they rank a web page.

The search engines now usually look at a combination of all the best search engine tips to determine your listings, not just your metas - some don't even look at them at all! What this means is that your page should have a combination of all our tips implemented on your page - not just meta tags. That being said, there are two meta tags that can help your search engine listings - meta keywords & meta description.

What they look like:

Description Meta: [META NAME="description" content="This would be your description of what is on your page. Your most important keyword phrases should appear in this description.">

Keywords Meta: [META NAME="keywords" content="keywords phrase 1, keyword phrase 2, keyword phrase 3, etc.">

Where they belong:

The correct placement for both meta tags is between the [HEAD] and [/HEAD] tags within the HTML the makes up your page. Their order does not really matter, but most people usually place the description first then the keywords meta.
Tag limits:

We recommend that your Keywords Meta not exceed 1024 characters including spaces.

We recommend that your Description Meta tag not exceed 250 characters including spaces.
Meta description tips:

Make sure you accurately describe the content of your page while trying to entice visitors to click on your listing.

Include 3-4 of your most important keyword phrases. Especially those used in your title tag and page copy.

Try to have your most important keywords appear at the beginning of your description. This often brings better results, and will help avoid having any search engine cut off your keywords if they limit the length of your description.
Meta keywords tips:

Aside from what we mention in the other tips below you should only use those keyword phrases that you also used in the copy of your page, title tag, meta description, and other tags. Any keywords phrases that you use that do not appear in your other tags or page copy are likely to not have enough prominence to help your listings for that phrase.

Don't forget plurals. For example, a travel site might have both "caribbean vacation" and "caribbean vacations" in their keyword meta tag to make sure they show up in both searches.

If you know of a common misspelling of a popular keyword that could be used to find your site you should enter it in your keywords meta tag. For example, a travel site might use "caribean " in their keyword meta since it is a common misspelling for "caribbean".

Watch out for repeats! You want to include your most important phrases, but when doing so it can be difficult not to repeat one word many times. For example, "caribbean vacation" and "caribbean vacations" are two different phrases, but the word "caribbean" appears twice. This is okay to do in order to make sure you get the phrases you need in there, but becareful not to repeat any one word excessively. There in no actual limit, but we recommend that no one word be repeated in the keyword meta more than 5 times.

If your site has content of interest to a specific geographic location be sure to include the actual location in your keyword meta.