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Archive for the ‘SEO Market Buzz’ Category

Some people have heard about a CMS or content management system, for managing the content they put in their articles, blogs and websites. A CMS is a web application that uses a database to help you create and edit your content. Usually a database allows you to edit or create part of the web application on the “backend” and website viewers to your site will see it in the proper format on the “frontend”.

Because they help you do all kinds of things, like create, control, edit and manage your content simply and easily, it can sometimes depend on what you want to do with your CMS. It can also depend on how many people will be using it, if you have a large company where multiple users need to change content on various web pages at different times. Bigger isn’t always better when you are choosing a CMS for your website.

For the everyday publisher that has a blog, you could use smaller versions that start around $100. Those that are into larger scale websites might use systems that are geared for multiple users and can handle large scale websites with a lot of web pages and content, but some commercial CMS programs run all the way up to $10,000.

The question is how to choose a CMS for your website and your particular situation. If you are looking for a CMS for a blog, you want it easy to use for the average person, even if you are more technically savvy. Pick a CMS with a simple administrative interface and customize it if you need to. Research the different CMS solutions, because the most popular open source CMS products might not be geared to the average person in your community of content managers.

That is one reason you don’t want a computer geek picking out the CMS because some of the best known are written in code and others have a good user interface, but aren’t that well known. You want to find a CMS that offers quick and easy installation, simple administration interface, allows you to change a template easily, offers support of some kind and offers quick and easy extension of the CMS for additional features.

You have to consider who will be using the CMS, the current process for creating and updating the content on your website and if there are improvements that can be made with a CMS that doesn’t involve an IT genius to figure it out. If you have off-site contributors that need easy access and can make quick changes to mistakes, you might need a CMS that is capable of allowing multiple remote users, for example.

If your content is kept separate from the presentation, you need to consider whether the content can be maintained separate of the visual presentation in HTML, PDF or print. You also may need to consider the ability of your CMS to grow as your needs increase. This is helpful to re-design websites that change often, but can be costly if you have to hire the job done.

When figuring out how to choose a CMS for your website, consider the user friendliness of the interface, the people that will be using it and how much content management you will be doing.

Image Courtesy: http://gbcg.co.uk/content_management.aspx

Those looking to draw revenues from ads on a website will need to make sure that their ads remain perennially effective. This is even more important for those that place click through ads on their sites which are intended to deliver the much needed financial boost required to enhance income potential. Unfortunately, a problem can raise its head that can undo a great deal of the impact of the ads. What is this problem? It would be the issue of ad blindness which is another way of describing a sense of numbness visitors have towards the ads on a particular website. How does this numbness develop? Basically, the problem derives from frequent visitors to a site just becoming a little too used to the ads. They start to see the ads as a type of background noise that they begin to ignore. Once your ads become the embodiment of peripheral non-importance, they lose an enormous amount of their value. Thankfully, there are steps you can take to reduce the issue of ad blindness and start enhancing your site’s monetary potential once again.

One such way to do this would be to place smaller and fewer ads on the site. Now, some may read this with an incredulous expression on their face. How can you place fewer ads on the site and gain greater results? Well, when you put too many ads on a site, you may end up numbing the people that frequent the site into not paying much attention to the ads. That means they won’t click on them. However, when you employ smaller and fewer ads, you may draw people’s attention back which leads them to being more likely to click on the ads. As odd as this form of “reverse psychology” is, it is most definitely an effective method to employ.

It also does not hurt to weave popular and interesting content near the ads. Do you have a really cool video podcast that people will love to watch? If so, you may wish to place the ads a lot closer to the media player that will present the podcast as opposed to centering the podcast in the page and then placing the ads far off into the margin. After all, you do want people to click on the ads so why move them too far away from the content people would be most interested in? Such a strategy of closer proximity and fewer ads could lead to great results than people imagine possible.

Even when the content of your site is merely text and basic photos, you can boost effectiveness by properly integrating the ads in with the text by using similar colors and fonts. This has the psychological advantage of making the ads look like a natural part of the website as opposed to some distracting foreign element.

Really, the steps to reducing ad blindness are not as tough as some assume. Following these few simple can go quite far in terms of being able to reduce the problem.

Image Courtesy: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=116633

When it comes to ranking in Google News, the same criteria is not used as getting page rankings on Google searches. Page ranking is not as crucial in Google News because it is the nature of the stories themselves that carry higher clout. Fresh content that appeals to the widest audience can be more important.

When Google News crawls to find news articles, it will look in a few minutes and then will check again 12 hours later. It is unlikely that you will generate any backlinks in that amount of time, so they won’t be as helpful as on Google searches, for ranking purposes.

Google News ranks stories using two different criteria. They group stories together to figure out the ones with the widest appeal are going to rank higher than ones that have a limited audience. The ones that make it into this cluster of top stories are going to appear towards the top of Google News. From there, it ranks the articles by individual basis within the top story cluster, so the bigger your story, the more competition you will have in the story cluster for top spot.

Freshness, citations, local or personal Relevance and trusted sources are the criteria used to make it through this second ranking for Google News. The criteria are broken down using these remaining tests to see where your story should rank. To get ranking in Google News, there are 5 easy steps you can take.

1.     Make sure you story has wide appeal and will be interesting to a large audience. Even if you use keyword optimizing in a small news event, it won’t matter, when it comes to rankings with Google News. They are looking for the most newsworthy articles to appeal to a wider audience.
2.     Break the story quickly. Being the first to report a breaking story is more important that using too many citations with other links. While citations can be helpful, it is the freshness of the story that can make the difference, so publish as quickly as you can.
3.     Local or Personal relevance pertains to quoting local sources at the scene of the story. This gives your story more relevance than the stories that are reporting hearsay accounts. If you are quoting local sources or those close to the story, it will move you up in the ranking criteria.
4.     Trusted sources mean that you need sources for your story that are relevant to the subject matter, especially as it pertains to the country or location the story takes place. You wouldn’t want to cite a tabloid as a source for a breaking business news story, for example.
5.      When in doubt, check the Google News publisher FAQ page they posted a few months ago. It can answer many of the questions about how Google News works and these are answers that come from Google News, themselves. That is the best way to make sure that your stories fit into their guidelines.

To get the best ranking in Google News, make sure that your articles are newsworthy. That is the most important part of being part of the news. Like any other news source, people want stories that are the most interesting and offer news they haven’t already read about.

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To write attractive page titles for better click through rates, you need to write relevant titles that are attractive to the normal person and give a description (and unique Meta page title), that will make people want to click on it. The mistake that many people make when creating page titles is that they make them so SEO optimized that the average person has no idea what the website is about. As a result, they go to another one that fits better, even though it is lower in the page rankings.

The best idea is to keep in mind that your readers drive your rankings, so you want keyword optimized titles that provide useful information to the customers looking for you. Search engines look at the page titles based on relevance to the subject to determine rank. The Meta page title is what will be bookmarked by your customers and it is the title that will appear in the bookmarks list. You want to be sure the title is accurate and not missing or your readers will have a hard time finding your website later.

You want to be sure that your primary keyword is the first word in the title tag and then your corporate name should appear at the end of the page titles. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but you want the primary keyword as close to the beginning of the title as possible. Of course, when you are making home page titles, it should include your company’s name and include what will be on the page, or your website credibility can be lowered because the search engines won’t pick up what is being represented in the contents.

A few other pointers on attractive page titles are that the title shouldn’t be too long, the title matches the first paragraph content, and that the page titles are different for each page, but consistent with the rest of your website. Usually 5 to 9 word titles are best or under 80 characters in entirety. Avoid making the page titles obvious selling pages, but you want them to be compelling enough to be descriptive.

Another thing to be certain of is the titles are typed in proper title case and headers should use the right capitalization. The title of your pages should tell the reader what the page is about and the title should be able to stand alone, in other words, it should be more than a generic “about us” title. If you keep in mind the most likely terms that your customers are likely to type into search engines, you can have an idea of a good way to come up with your page titles.

Because you have to consider relevance to get the click through, you want to consider what the normal person is likely to type into the search engines and click on when looking through your pages and those of your competitors. Using your keywords, corporate name, and plain language makes it easier to understand your page titles and you will get better click through rates.

Image Courtesy: http://www.eyeonspain.com/

Paypal began in 1998 as a privately owned venture; in 2002 it was acquired as a wholly owned subsidiary of Ebay for 1.5 billion dollars. At that time Paypal became a preferred method of payment for Ebay purchases.

Over the years Paypal’s Ebay banking system has become one of the most popular ways of sending money all over the world. Originally set up to charge fees to those who accepted paypal payments, the company has now branched out into allowing personal payments with little to no fees.

When sending money through Paypal, there are 2 option tabs available, either Business or Personal. When you choose the personal option if allows you to send money direct from your Paypal balance to any resident of the United States for no fee to you as the sender or the receiver.

You can also send money to persons in other countries using the personal option on Paypal, however even when paying with a paypal balance there is a nominal fee, associated with sending money to other countries. It is the sender’s choice whether they will pay any fees associated with sending money to people outside the United States or if the fee will be deducted from the recipients money before payment is given to them.

With this new banking strategy added to PayPal’s services, there are bound to be a larger number of transactions done through the PayPal Bank. When one takes into view the amount of money taken by banks for domestic or cross-border transactions, this idea of sending money is definitely more attractive.

Additionally you can use an e-check for sending payments through the Paypal personal function and not incur any additional fees. However for those that do not retain a Paypal balance for making payments you do still have the option of sending personal payments using credit cards, however there are additional fees incurred. These fees may not be as high as a business paypal account will be charged; nevertheless there is nominal fee. It is the sender’s option whether they will pay this additional fee or allow the fee to be taken from the amount being sent.

To send a personal payment, all you have to do is go to the Send Money option, and click on the tab for personal payments. Then choose from personal money owed, household expense, gift or other decide whether you or the recipient will pay the fee (if any) and then your friend or family member will receive an email telling them that a payment is waiting for them.

With paypal you have the option of having a Personal, Premier or Business Account. No matter which of these you choose you are still able to send money for free to persons residing in the United States if you select the personal option when sending money.
Additionally a person that has a Paypal account is able to withdraw up to $500.00 USD to his or her own account per month without having a verified account. Once the account has been verified (by adding a bank account) these limits are raised.
That’s it! Simple. And a lot less costly than the previous methods of sending money through Paypal

Image Courtesy : http://www.ehow.com/how_4863982_avoid-getting-scammed-craigslist.html

Thanks to one man’s initiative in which he decided to use the social media for business purposes and began marketing his product and services extensively on social media websites, a large number of businessmen have begun using this excellent marketing strategy for getting in touch with their potential clients on the Internet. That is the reason why Facebook, YouTube, Multiply Gather, Twitter and Friendster are being used by farsighted businessmen for marketing their products to visitors online.
If you have full intentions of doing the same thing you would want to develop a social media strategy, which is not only effective, but manages to give you profitable returns at the end of the day. You start the strategy by signing in on a number of social media websites.
The point is to introduce yourself to the general public and show that you have a face behind the company. After that, you are going to start a methodical download or upload of a number of videos, photos, as well as music; any sort of media which includes information about your product, company and services comes under the social media network marketing strategy.

Even though the services are free and thousands of blog posts are entered on these websites every single day, a businessman is going to have a much better chance of having his blog read, by people who are interested in his particular products. This naturally is a much better way of marketing and advertising than spending lots of money on ads in journals and newspapers.
That is the main reason why many marketing firms have begun using social media websites in their marketing campaign.

To begin your social media strategy and marketing campaign, you need to set out one particular goal. What is the name of your company and which target market are you interested in? Which particular social media site caters to that particular target market? You are naturally going to be doing a little bit of research on these sites.

Your job is to make new connections, and to tell your already existing clients and connections that you are alive and ticking. This is at the top of your priority list, especially when you are building a new marketing strategy which includes social media.

Social media has taken the old marketing strategies of using market surveys to find out the opinion of general consumers, regarding some particular product, to the new stage of free discussions on the product quality, online. That is why you have to keep in touch with the pulse of the general public and that can only be done by looking at the reviews, views, and discussions going on in forums.
You need to go out amongst your clients and general public and become visible. You need to make sure that the customer service is so perfect that any problem is solved within 24 hours.

The Customer is King and never more so than when he is sounding off online. One unhappy customer is quite capable of losing you more than a 100 prospective customers in the future. So when you go online and manage to talk to your customer about his problems, it shows that you care.
This marketing strategy is not only going to make your social media presence quite strong, but it is going to do wonders for your future business prospects. This also includes taking part in a number of forums online and explaining queries and FAQ’s to any prospective client, who is interested in buying your product in the near future.

Extensive research needs to be done so that you know exactly who your customers are and where they can be found. You could use Technorati, through which you can find blogs and websites related to your product, through a search query. You would also want to try out the marketing scope of Twitter. It has a really good search and monitoring tool called Twitscoop.

Once you know about the specific needs and requirements of the customer, you would want to tell them that you are capable of giving them a product, which deals with solving that particular requirement and need.
You would need to measure The Traffic with Google Analytics, Social Mention and Tweetreach. These free tools give you a broad idea of how positive your participation in the discussion was and you can base your communication strategy using the data obtained by these tools.
Once you have found a good social media strategy, which works, stick to it!

Image Courtesy : http://ictkm.cgiar.org/2009/07/29/social-media-the-next-revolution/

By this time of your online career, you have heard of page ranks based on Google’s little tool. You may even have heard about hundreds of pages a website must have in order to get that leverage. Well, the shocking truth surrounding page ranks lies in the ability to create outstanding content as well as build inbound links from reputable websites. It sounds simple, but you need to have enough confidence in your business to invest the time in establishing a presence online. One of the biggest mistakes taken by online business owners is jumping into SEO head first with no understanding; you can overcome this flaw by learning three easy steps in building page rank.

Create a Content Plan

Content is king across the web. In fact, content can determine the strength of your company as well as your website. People want to learn new facts, information, and have a way to share it with others. By constructing a solid content plan, you can cut out the interference of not providing up-to-date reviews or information in your industry. You can begin my writing evergreen content to build a foundation on your website then focus on specific issues that are affecting your industry now. These issues can be submitted as whitepapers, articles, or blog topics on many websites.

You have to find a place to publish your information to your target market; consider the advantages of working closely with a publishing company or an SEO company with publishing abilities. The more content you produce the better return on your inbound links as well as page rank in the future. Remember, the search engine loves to find new information in order to provide it to the readers online.

Build Links with Reputable Sites

Link building with government or reputable websites can shoot your page rank into a frenzy. Sometimes it will take a very, very long time to get in touch with influencers in your industry but the wait is well worth it. It is also vital to get certified by the Better Business Bureau if you want prospects to believe in your offers. Some online business owners make the mistake of claiming outrageous offers with no proof; you can back this kind of shadow into the light by establishing a strong reputation online. Remember, it is important to create a trend or develop loyal followers who come to your website. Your content and links have to offer insight in order to increase page rank in an ethical manner.

Improve Online Reputation

Reputation can determine the possibilities for sales, losses, and eventually lose of interest to customers. How well do you rank against the competition? There are thousands of companies that want to offer the same products/services at a reasonable price - what more do you have to offer? Quality service, testimonials, inbound links from customer sites, reviews, and articles can improve your company’s reputation while increasing page rank overtime. You have to remain steady in order to leverage the competition in search engines, but you have to do it smart. Focus on one step at a time instead of attacking ten different angles at once. Once you establish your place in one sector, move on into another one with more focus.

Image Courtesy : http://bloghob.com

Does anyone remember the days when all you had to worry about on the internet were those pesky viruses? Anyone at all? Well believe it or not there was such a time and while it wasn’t that long ago it seems like another life now. Today you have to worry about all sorts of things online, ranging from spyware, to adware, and of course, the newly popular internet scam.

Why has the internet scam become so popular? It is more than likely because of the economy. Making money has gotten harder and harder, and many people have taken desperate measures, and sadly one of those measures is cheating others out of their money. Well, as sad as it is for them, you have to get the most out of your money too, and that means staying away from those nasty internet scams and being able to spot them early on.

The first step in spotting s cam is asking yourself the following simple question: Is this too good to be true? If you even have to ask yourself then odds are you are dealing with a scam. You might have received an e-mail about some miracle product that the person wants you to invest in so that he or she can get the funding they need to develop the product. Now why would that even tempt you? Well when they tell you this it is more than likely they have promised you a share of the profits that are generated by the product in question. If it is a product that is a huge success, then you would be receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is definitely an attractive offer. While there is a slim chance this could be true, you need to do some research into any sort of offer you get and make sure it is legitimate before you invest ANY money into it.

Of course this isn’t the only internet scam out there that you need to keep a weather eye out for. You also need to look out for the many pyramid schemes that offer you a piece of something for just a little bit of your hard earned money, and often a monthly payment of some sort. You might also run into people that claim they need passage to your country and if you pay them some money for a plane ticket they will give you some sort of service in return. This is generally scam, and sometimes the replies are even scripted so that there is no actual human behind the keyboard that sent you the message. Do yourself a favor and don’t fall for these obvious scams.

The key thing to remember is perhaps the most obvious: If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. You need to watch yourself and make sure that you are not falling for the scams that countless other people have fallen for. You work hard to earn your money, and there is no reason for you to just throw it away at someone else’s whim. Always pay attention and keep your wallet safe when you’re surfing the web!

Image Courtesy : http://www.youngmoney.com/credit_debt/credit_reports/Five_Internet_scams

When you are ready to make it big in affiliate marketing, you will find that one of the tools that you might want to look at are toolbars. Toolbars are an interesting intersection of function and advertisement, and there is a great deal of good that can come from using them. While some marketers love them, there are definitely affiliate programs that bar them at the gate because they have had bad experiences. It is important to remember that there are many different options open to you when it comes to toolbars; you do not necessarily need to worry about the so-called “theifbars” that so many people are considering. 
 
First, there are more and more toolbar creators that are taking the chance to engage with their users. These programmers want to know what these toolbars can do for you and what you need to do to make sure that you are going to be able to get your needs met. Many of the best toolbar creators have been able to present a link to these questions directly from the toolbar itself. You can express your needs and make sure that your voice is heard when it comes to how this great tool can help you move forward. This is an essential part of getting your work taken care of. 
 
Remember that one of the big reasons why you might want to find a toolbar marketing tool that works for you is that you are going to find yourself part of a community There are many people out there who are looking forward to making the most out of their toolbar and with the right information and the right kind of intuitive use, you can meet people who are interested in what you have to say. Moreover, you can improve your business and really move forward at a pace that you enjoy. 
 
Consider what your needs are. What drives your business and what do you need a good toolbar marketing device to offer? This is something that many people do not think about, and at the end of the day, you are looking at why they have gone wrong. Of course a toolbar that doesn’t meet your needs is going to fail you! What you need to do instead is to take the time to really consider how toolbar marketing can change the way that you feel about getting the attention you need Whether you are looking to use one or market one, this is a field which sorely needs some attention.

Image Courtesy : http://www.conduit.com/Home/Publishers/Toolbar-Marketing/February-2009.aspx 

In Second Life, there is pretty much nothing that you can’t do. Regardless of your interest or passion, there is going to be some medium for it’s expression on Second Life. With the immense popularity of the game, some big companies have taken notice. Wherever there are a bunch of people congregated, you can make sure that some company will find a way to advertise there. This seems to be the case in Second Life as advertisers are flocking there rapidly. What types of advertising is showing up and does it actually work?
 
There are numerous ways to advertise or promote creatively in Second Life. Being that it is a virtual world, the only thing that is limiting advertisers is their imaginations and the ability to program what they want done. For example, if your product was something that can be consumed, they can put some sort of animation that takes place after the product is consumed. After you eat the product, the avatar does a little dance or handshake or something. While it may not seem like much, all the advertisers are after is to separate their brand from the others. Anything that can make you remember them is what they’re after. 
 
You’ll also see different characters in the game wearing gear with the logos of their advertisers. You might see a hat that says Pepsi or something like that on one of the avatars. This is just another means to keep their brand in your mind as often as possible. You’ll see clothing or tattoos, or anything else that can be shown off on the avatars. Some of the avatars will actually distribute coupons or notecards with information about the product. It might be a link to their website with info on it about their product. This is a unique way to distribute information that was only a figment of someone’s imagination a few years ago.
 
You can also find more traditional means of advertising within Second Life such as a billboard or sign. Since there are malls and shopping areas within Second Life, there are undoubtedly going to be advertisements all over the place. You’ll find bulletin boards with notes all over them about different products or services. 
 
There are also a growing number of companies that utilize one-on-one advertising within the game. These avatars will actually go up to people within the game and engage them in conversation. From there, they will tell them about an upcoming event or promotion as well as give them some information. They’ll hand out coupons, or whatever else they can to get the word out. IMAX is one company that has been successful with this form of marketing. There are even some companies that offer this service for other companies. Think of it as a marketing company within Second Life. They will be paid on a per lead basis by the companies that employ them.
 
Overall, Second Life has developed into an amazing world of technology and imagination. This means that the advertisers will never be far behind. If you’re looking for a way to promote your brand or service, this might be the place to do it.

Image Courtesy: http://image.guardian.co.uk/