Search Engine Submissions Made Easy!

Search Engine Submissions Made Easy!

by: Robin Nobles

One area of search engine marketing that has changed dramatically over the years is submissions. Submitting to the search engines used to be so complicated, with having to choose between manual versus software submissions; only being able to submit so many pages a day; having to be careful about oversubmitting; and the list goes on.

Submissions used to be the worst part of the search engine optimization process, at least for me.

Now, I can literally write this whole article in two words:

Pay Inclusion

Yep, there you have it. If you want to take the headache out of submissions and if you want to make things much easier for YOU, use pay inclusion!

It’s hard for someone like me to admit how powerful pay inclusion programs are, because I’ve been in this ขgameข long enough to remember when everything was free. So, moving into the pay realm has been a difficult thing to do.

However, the benefits of pay inclusion far outweigh the cost.

Benefits of Pay Inclusion

Your pages are indexed much faster than submitting through free add URL or waiting for the spiders to find the pages on their own.

By using pay inclusion, your pages are getting outside of the 95%+ spam that the engines say come through free add URL submissions.

With pay inclusion, your pages are respidered on a very regular basis, depending on the engine. For example, Inktomi and Fast respider their pay inclusion pages every 48 hours.

With pay inclusion, you never have to submit your pages again! As long as you continue to use pay inclusion, your pages will continue to get respidered based on each engine’s schedule.

Because your pages are respidered on a regular basis without your doing one single thing to initiate this action, you can make changes to your pages today and begin to see the results of those changes within a week. If you didn’t use pay inclusion, you may not see the results of the changes for a month or two.

If you use pay inclusion, you’re forming a ขpartnershipข with the search engines, which I personally feel is important and very beneficial. You’re now outside of the realm of the millions of spammers, and that’s exactly where you want to be.

Most of the pay inclusion programs offer some sort of submission reports.

Pay inclusion programs are ideal for dynamically generated sites.

Now that we’ve looked at the benefits of pay inclusion, letกs create an example to see how inexpensive it really is. Let’s say we have a brand new Web site, and we have three main pages that we want to submit through pay inclusion.

Pay Inclusion Programs

Inktomi (Provides secondary search results to engines such as MSN and HotBot) http://www.positiontech.com/directSubmit.htm

Benefits:

Upon submission, your pages will make it into the Inktomi index within 72 hours, as a general rule.

Your pages are respidered every 48 hours.

The term of the pay inclusion program is 12 months.

Reporting services are included, such as verification of page acceptance; refresh reports; URL validation; and account management.

Here’s the audience reach of some of the engines that use Inktomi’s secondary results, according to Nielsen NetRatings in October 2002: MSN: 28.1%; Overture: 5.4%; LookSmart: 3.0%; (also provides results to the ขnewข HotBot) (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html)

Cost? $39 for the first URL, and $25 each for additional URL’s up to 1000. So, the total cost for our three pages would be $89. (See Special Note at the bottom of this article on how you can save 20% off the price of Inktomi and Fast pay inclusion – for a limited time only.)

Fast (Provides search results to AlltheWeb, Lycos, and HotBot) http://www.positiontech.com/directSubmit.htm

You can use Position Tech to submit your Fast pages too, so be sure to enroll in both pay inclusion programs at the same time.

Benefits:

Upon submission, your pages will make it into the Fast index within 48 hours, as a general rule.

Your pages are respidered every 48 hours.

The term of the pay inclusion program is 12 months.

Reporting services are included, such as verification of page acceptance; refresh reports; URL validation; and account management.

With Fast, you can choose between several different programs, including some that include a free onsite search engine, bulk inclusion, etc.

The audience reach of Fast, according to Nielsen NetRatings in October 2002, was: Lycos: 4.4%; (also provides results to the ขnewข HotBot) (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html)

Cost? $34 for the first URL, and $16 each for additional URL’s up to 1000. So, the total cost for our three pages would be $66. (See Special Note at the bottom of this article on how you can save 20% off the price of Inktomi and Fast pay inclusion – for a limited time only.)

Teoma and Ask Jeeves (Provides results to Teoma, Ask Jeeves, and HotBot) http://ask.ineedhits.com/

The only way to get in the Teoma index is through pay inclusion. This is one engine that doesn’t have a free add URL page.

Benefits:

Upon submission, your pages will make it into the Teoma and Ask Jeeves indices within 7 days.

Your pages are respidered every 7 days.

The term of the pay inclusion program is 12 months.

Reporting services are included, such as clickthrough reporting.

The audience reach of Teoma/Ask Jeeves, according to Nielsen NetRatings in October 2002, was: Ask Jeeves: 10.3% (also provides results to the ขnewข HotBot) (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html)

Cost? $30 for the first URL, and $18 each for additional URL’s up to 1000. So, the total cost for our three pages would be $66.

AltaVista (Provides results to AltaVista) http://addurl.altavista.com/

Benefits:

Upon submission, your pages will make it into the AltaVista index within 2 business days.

Your pages are respidered every 24 hours.

The term of the pay inclusion program is 6 months.

Reporting services are included, such as tracking submissions and transactions through their online Account Management Center.

The audience reach of AltaVista, according to Nielsen NetRatings in October 2002, was: AltaVista: 4.4% (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html)

Cost? $39 for the first URL, and $29 each for 210 URL’s, then $19 each for 11 to 500 URLs. So, the total cost for our three pages for **six months** would be $97. The cost per year would be $194.

Downside:

AltaVista’s pay inclusion is more expensive than the others, and AV doesn’t have the coverage that some of the other engines have. Plus, their pay inclusion program is only for six months, as compared to a full year with the other programs.

So, you’ll have to decide whether you feel it’s worth the cost.

AltaVista is the one engine where you can still use their free add URL without being placed into the same category as the huge group of ขfree add URL spammers,ข because AltaVista’s free add URL process doesn’t allow mass submissions. Instead, their unique ขpuzzle submissionข process requires you to enter a submission code into the submission box, and you can only submit five URLs at no cost. So, if you want to use free add URL for one of the engines, AltaVista’s is the one to use. http://addurl.altavista.com/addurl/new

Total Costs so Far

With our example, considering that this is a brand new Web site with zero visibility, we’ll figure out the cost for our three pages based on using AltaVista’s pay inclusion program and on not using their program.

Subtotal of Yearly Pay Inclusion Costs Without AltaVista: $221 (for 3 pages) (Includes the Inktomi engines, the Fast engines, Teoma, and Ask Jeeves. This does NOT include AltaVista.)

Subtotal of Yearly Pay Inclusion Costs With AltaVista: $415 (for 3 pages) (Includes the Inktomi engines, the Fast engines, Teoma, Ask Jeeves, and AltaVista.)

Yahoo! http://www.yahoo.com

You might be wondering why I haven’t listed the Yahoo! directory in this listing of pay inclusion programs. With the way that Yahoo! now displays results, which are almost a duplication of Google results, the importance of submitting to the Yahoo! directory at a yearly cost of $299 has diminished. Depending on where things go from here, with Yahoo! having purchased the Inktomi engine, this is subject to immediate change. But, at this point in time, paying to be included in the Yahoo! directory isn’t anywhere near as important as it once was. If you have good visibility in Google, you should have good visibility in Yahoo!.

But, our site is brand new, and the advantage to Yahoo!’s pay inclusion program is that your site will be reviewed for possible inclusion within 7 working days. So, depending on our finances, we may want to add Yahoo!’s pay inclusion costs, just so we can get fast visibility for our new site.

(According to Nielson NetRankings in October 2002, the audience reach of Yahoo! was 28.5%. http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html)

Total of Yearly Pay Inclusion Costs Including Yahoo!, but not AltaVista: $520 (Includes the Inktomi engines, the Fast engines, Teoma, Ask Jeeves, and Yahoo!. This does NOT include AltaVista.)

Total of Yearly Pay Inclusion Costs Including both Yahoo! and AltaVista: $714 (Includes the Inktomi engines, the Fast engines, Teoma, Ask Jeeves, Yahoo!, and AltaVista.)

What about Google?

Google http://www.google.com/addurl.html

Google is the only major engine that doesn’t have a pay inclusion program. So, the only way to get your pages into the index is to let the spider find the pages on its own through links on other pages or to submit through Google’s free add URL.

Personally, I always let the spider find the pages on its own and never submit to Google manually. By going this route, while your site is busy being spidered by the other engines and you’re busy building link popularity, by the time that Google ขfindsข your pages, you should have had time to build some link popularity, which we all know is so important with Google.

According to Nielson NetRankings in October 2002, the audience reach of Google alone was 29.2%. Add to that AOL at 19.7%, Yahoo! at 28.5%, and Netscape at 5.5%, and it’s quite easy to see the power behind Google. (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html)

In Conclusion

Rather than worrying with submitting your pages manually to each of the major engines, take advantage of the tremendous benefits of using pay inclusion.

Then, let Google find your pages on its own, and hold off submitting to the Yahoo! directory for a while.

Based on our example here, if we were submitting three pages, our total yearly cost would be either $221 and $415, depending on whether or not we chose to use AltaVista’s pay inclusion program.

So, as you can see, the benefits far outweigh the costs. Repeating what I said earlier in this article, the ขkeyข to successful submissions these days can be summed up in two words: pay inclusion.

Special Note:

After writing this article, I found that Lycos is offering a discount on both Fast and Inktomi pay inclusion programs for a limited time. If you submit to both engines, you can receive a 20% discount! I don’t know how long this will last, but here’s the URL:

http://insite.lycos.com/searchservices/select/select_overview.asp?co=undefined

About The Author

Robin Nobles, Director of Training, Academy of Web Specialists, (http://www.academywebspecialists.com) has trained several thousand people in her online search engine marketing courses (http://www.onlinewebtraining.com) and is the content provider for GRSeo software (http://www.seoptimizer.com). She also teaches 2, 3, and 5day handson search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe with Search Engine Workshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com).

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 09, 2003

by Robin Nobles

Why Search Engine Traffic Should be Your Top Prior

Why Search Engine Traffic Should be Your Top Priority

by: Richard Zwicky

Most Internet marketing methods are risky and many will not have any affect on traffic to a web site. Some online marketers will sell you anything from banner impressions, to mass email campaigns (spam), to popup ads. All these marketing tools can work, but they are also extremely risky. Some people I know find popups and spam so annoying that they will never purchase anything from a business that uses them. These plans are probably not the best customer acquisition strategies, and more likely they are a total waste of money. So why would anyone bother risking money on marketing strategies that probably will not increase traffic to your website? Why not concentrate on what does work? The search engines.

Have you ever been contacted by online marketers who promise to deliver a ‘ton of trafficก to your websiteก ? I get these emails every day. Hereกs a quote from one I used to get 10 times a day (until I automatically filtered it to trash):

กHi I visited www.metamend.com, and noticed that you’re not listed on some search engines! I think we can offer you a service which can help you increase traffic and the number of visitors to your website.

I would like to introduce you to thispromotioncompany.com. We offer a unique technology that will submit your website to over 300,000 search engines and directories every month.

Youกll be surprised by the low cost, and by how effective this website promotion method can be.

To find out more about thispromotioncompany and the cost for submitting your website to over 300,000 search engines and directories, visit www.thispromotioncompany.com. (…)ก

Have you ever received one, and wondered why they were contacting you? First off, how did they find your web site? What search engines are they referring to? If they really could deliver on their promise, then they would have so much repeat, and word of mouth business, that they wouldn’t have time to be calling or emailing you. Lastly, how many people actually believe that there are 300,000 search engines?

While itกs true you need traffic from the search engines, you don’t need to use spam techniques to get it. You need real results, and not false hope.

Increase Web Site Traffic,.. Naturally

It is true that the best way to obtain lots of targeted traffic (customers) is to acquire it based on relevance, via the search engines. Various studies show that anywhere from 83% to 92% of first time visitors to a web site find it through the search engines. Thatกs an incredible statistic. If you are not acquiring those customers as a result of a relevant query, then they will be disappointed. They may be disappointed with the search result, but more likely, they will be disappointed with your web site.

In the online world thatกs your first impression. We all know how important a first impression is. You can never get a bad one back, and a good one will carry you a long way. You have to make sure that the search engines are sending you visitors that are looking for your products or services. If your web site matches their interests, they will remember it, and come back, even if they do not make a purchase on that visit. If they find it irrelevant, they may have subconsciously formed a negative opinion of your online business, through no fault of your own.

Search engines provide a continuous stream of targeted visitors to your website, and for the most part, itกs free of charge. Some engines do charge a listing fee, but most do not. The only thing the search engine asks is that each web site operator makes an effort to provide relevant and good information to web surfers for a particular search phrase. If a web site does so, the search engines will reward the site with increased good quality traffic.

Search engine traffic is a winwin situation for any online business. It doesn’t take much to improve on most web siteกs search engine traffic it just takes optimization. Did you know that as of January 1 2002, there were 160,000,000 domain hosts in use worldwide? Did you know that 88% of the web pages worldwide are not indexed by the largest search engines? 88% of web pages are not optimized. How can any business survive on the Internet if it is not optimized for the search engines, and thus can never be found? How can they exist if over 83% of first time visitors never find their web site? How much more money could a web site operator earn if they ensured their web site was even partially visible?

If you have an informative web site, the search engines want to send you lots of customers. Thatกs because the more web surfers find what they want, the more theyกll use a particular search engine and recommend it to their friends. The search engine also benefits, as it becomes known as a resource that gets its clients the searchers to their destinations quickly and efficiently. The more people recognize how well the engine works as a resource, the more it gets recommended, and used. As the popularity increases, so do the engineกs revenues from advertising.

What Does Your Web Site Need To Receive Traffic From The Search Engines?

Small web sites with only 1 or 2 pages set themselves up for failure, simply because they usually don’t have enough content of interest. There are of course exceptions, where the 1 or 2 pages are each as long as a book. But these are awfully frustrating to read, and no one will be satisfied with them. Most often 1 or 2 page sites are simply too short to provide any useful information, so the search engines don’t take them seriously. Among other factors, the search engines examine how deep a site is. The more meaningful content present, the more weighty the site is viewed as, and the more importance it is given.

If you are wondering about whether to bother, ask yourself this: Why does your company have a web site? What does the company do with it? Think about it. Most companies today have web sites, and most market the web sites to facilitate customer acquisition, to increase their customer base, and to improve customer retention rates.

There are a number of reasons for having web sites. Many companies use theirs to enhance their customer service. Using a web site as a marketing vehicle is a great way for a company ‘to put the word outก about products, services, or offerings.

Most importantly, remember that your web site is an online resource that your clients can use to find answers to frequently asked questions, กhow toก tips, and to educate themselves. When including content on a web site, always remember that the knowledge shared may be common to you, but itกs likely that you are an expert in the eyes of your clients. People visit your web site for your product or service, but also for information. If they find useful, relevant, information, they will keep coming back, and will likely make purchases. People like to buy from experts.

Instead of thinking of your web site as nothing more than an online billboard or business card, think of it as an online menu, that lets people get an idea of what it is you do, and how you do it. Develop a content rich website, optimize it, and let the search engines increase your website traffic, naturally. If you optimize each major web page within your site, you will increase the rankings in the search engine results and therefore receive targeted traffic for each of those pages.

Doing each of the above ensuring relevant content is present, and optimizing the pages will ensure that the search engines have what they need so they can do their work. It will also ensure that they can send you targeted traffic (customers), so that you can get that 83% of first time visitors your online business needs to survive.

About The Author

Richard Zwicky is a founder and the CEO of Metamend Software, www.metamend.com, a Victoria B.C. based firm whose cutting edge Search Engine Optimization software is recognized as the world leader in its field. Employing a staff of 10, the firmกs business comes from around the world, with clients from every continent. Most recently the company was recognized for their geolocational, or GIS, and phraseology and context search technologies.

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 20, 2003

by Richard Zwicky

Dealing With Search Engine Stress In A HomeBased

Dealing With Search Engine Stress In A HomeBased Business

by: Kirk Bannerman

As a member of several search engine optimization forums, I have recently noticed (especially since Yahoo recently decided to try their hand at competing with Google) that the stress level of many webmasters has gone way up. This applies not only to webmasters involved in Internetbased home businesses, but to webmasters in general.

Additionally, it seems that many people that are in the business of search engine optimization (SEO) are, with good reason, going completely bonkers. As Google came on the scene in 1998 and quickly dominated the search business, website optimization became largely a game of shooting at a single target, namely, pleasing Google…for all intents and purposes, Google became the ก800 pound gorillaก of the search engine business.

Since the advent of search engines (particularly Google) spawned the whole SEO business, I guess its only fair that the search engine industry can once again turn the SEO business on its ear, and it seems now to be sort of a cat and mouse (not desktop) relationship that can get really interesting as we move forward.

Not only are there now several viable players (most notably Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask Jeeves) in the search engine business, but they are all adopting different and frequently changing algorithms for determining the ranking positions for websites. The current game is that webmasters are trying to figure out how the various search engines perform the rankings and, on the flip side, the search engines are striving to be unpredictable to those webmasters and SEO firms.

For those people using websites to promote homebased businesses, it can be stressful constantly trying to determine กwhat the search engines wantก and agonizing over every downward fluctuation in rankings that their website may experience.

Looking forward in time, I think we can expect that rankings will fluctuate frequently and will not be at all consistent from one search engine to another. It will be quite common that for a particular search term a website might suffer a drop in position ranking for search engine กAก and an increase position ranking for search engine กBก at essentially the same point in time.

Rather than stressing out over every position ranking กwiggleก, a better approach might be to just focus on กwhat do visitors to my site want?ก. The search engines are striving to give their users a quality (relevant) search experience and if you are focused in giving visitors to your website what they are looking for, these paths will meet somewhere down the road.

You can save yourself alot of consternation by focusing upon the needs of the website visitors you are seeking to attract, rather than chasing the frequently changing ranking algorithms of several search engines. Focus on a single target instead of chasing several moving targets at the same time.

This article pertains to natural searches only, as paid search engine advertising is a completely different situation.

About The Author

Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and resides in California. For more details, visit his website at http://businessathome.us

This article was posted on April 29, 2004

by Kirk Bannerman

Marketing Your Website Inexpensively

Marketing Your Website Inexpensively

by: A.M. Wilmot

There are a number ways you can go about marketing your website, many of which are quite inexpensive. Effectively marketing your Home website is vital to your ultimate success. In fact, the key to growing a business, and particularly a new Home Business, is marketing. Once you have a domain name (which can be bought for as little as $7 these days) and a reliable host (as little as $5 a month for reasonable one), you can get going on promoting your business on the Net. This can be done for free in some cases if you are willing to spend the extra time on the project. If you are unwilling to do this, you can pay someone to optimize your site and promote it for you, which is generally cost effective.

It is possible, however to promote your business online with no marketing budget. The key is to market it aggressively, guerilla marketing style. This means using every free marketing resource at your disposal, such as free classifieds, newsgroups, search engine promotion, niche directories, freeforalls, blogs, email signature lines, message and bulletin boards and free mailing optin lists and ezines, to name just a few. Just don’t spam, whatever you do. There are many free resources throughout the web covering these free methods. You can sign up for their free newsletters or look for their websites using your favorite search engine. Speaking of search engines, most of the traffic on the internet still comes from the free engines such as Google, despite a recent influx of pay per click or pay per performance search engines such as Overture.

Offline methods includes distributing newsletters with your product or service and contact number listed inside, trade shows, brochures, flyers, stationary, advertising in either local or regional newspapers and/or กfree shoppersก, and passing out audio cassetes about your product or business to others who might be interested. The potential marketing techniques are almost limitless and it may be best to look to your กstarter kitก or starter guide as it will probably go into great detail about which offline marketing methods have been proven to work best in that particular product or line of business. The bottom line is, action always beats inaction, as you gain experience and create a synergy that push your Home Business to your goals.

About The Author

A.M Wilmot is a writer and researcher on a number of topics and has been marketing on the internet since 1996. For information on a quality home business go to http://www.homebusinesszone.com/

This article was posted on October 26, 2004

by A.M. Wilmot

Specialty or Niche Directory Submissions

Specialty or Niche Directory Submissions

by: David G Hallstrom

The following article was written for and originally published by Resources For Attorneys.com.
You are an attorney or other service or product provider. You have built an excellent web site, it looks good, it is well optimized and it tells your clients and prospective clients or customers everything they need to know in order to do business with you or purchase your product. You have submitted your site to the major and many minor search engines. Now all you need to do is sit back and wait for clients or customers to come flowing in, right? Wrong.
As the number of websites grow on the internet, it is getting more and more difficult for web sites, even excellent web sites, to obtain good rankings in the search engines. Nowdays it appears that in order to obtain good search engine rankings (somewhere on the first page for your catagory) you must have your meta tags, format and text just right, and then you have to get tons of other web sites to link to you. Even if you do everything right there are still numerous other businesses out there also doing everything right. Therefore, you still might not obtain good rankings. Even if you do obtain good rankings today, the search engines might change there way of ranking sites next week, and your site might well drop or even dissapear from the rankings.
Additionally, it is estimated that nearly 200 million adults use the internet as a source to search for products, services or information, and this number is likely to grow each year. As the number of websites grow on the internet, it is getting increasingly difficult for web surfers to find the product or service that they need. As a result, web surfers are turning to online specialty or niche directories, such as the legal and service directories from Resources For Attorneys.com or the Lifestyle Directories from Resources For Attorneys, to sift through the numerous websites and locate the product, service or information that they need.
Specialty and niche directories normally charge a small fee, $3.00 to $100.00 per year, for your listing. They are usually much smaller and have far fewer listings than the regular search engines. This makes it easier for you to obtain a good listing and it makes it easier for consumers that are actually looking for your service, product or information to find you. Additionally, there is a collateral benefit to listing your site in a directory. Most search engines count directory links as good links and this can sometimes increase your link ranking with those search engines, thereby improving your search engine listings.
Although there is a cost in subitting to these directories the total cost of submitting to several specialty and niche directories is much less than the cost of yellow page, radio or television advertising and the benefits can be as good or sometimes far better.
Finally, many of these directories allow you to submit articles, press releases, news storys and testimonials about your services. This can increase your presence and allow your customers to learn more about you, your service or product.

About The Author

Permission is given to reprint this article providing credit is given to the author, David G. Hallstrom, and a link is listed to Resources For Attorneys the owner of this article. Anyone or any company reprinting this article without giving proper credit and the correct link, is doing so without permission and will be subject to legal action.

This article was posted on July 04, 2004

by David G Hallstrom

Affiliate Income Optimization

Affiliate Income Optimization

by: Sean Burns

In my time researching the search engines, Iกve noticed something rather strange. Literally millions of searches are made each month for กbrand namesก and actual site names. For example, on Overture alone, last month, there were millions of queries made for the term กinternet explorerก. Having been on the internet for around seven years (running sites for over five), Iกve naturally assumed that people use it the same way I do. So, I know that internet explorer is a Microsoft product so I just type http://www.microsoft.com into my browser.

Apparently, thatกs not what everyone does. Here are some other examples from Overture: eBay over 7 million searches, Google over 9 million searches, Amazon Over 800 thousand searches (OK, lots will be for the river or the forest but still …), PayPal over 340 thousand searches and so on. Considering that Overture has only about 5% of the search engine market, you can see that there are millions and millions of people who actually use search engines to find sites when they could just type the name in their browser and slap a .com on the end.

Now, on to the good stuff. Of those companies that I mentioned, all but Google have an affiliate program. For example, PayPal pays $5.00 for every person who signs up. 340 000 x $5.00= $1 700 000. Interesting!

So, what can we do to make the most of this opportunity? Well, itกs easier than you would think. Obviously, trying to get traffic from people searching for eBay or PayPal would be very difficult but there are literally thousands of other companies that people search for. For example, I just checked the three best known British sports betting companies about 20 000 searches are made each month on Overture for these companies.

I have noticed that without any effort whatsoever, I am actually getting a lot of traffic from people searching for company names and script names. This is because they are listed in my Affiliate and Script directories. An example of the process is people search for a particular merchant, come to my affiliate directory and click on the link to get to the merchant. Therefore, even though they have no interest in the affiliate program, Iกm making money just by linking to merchants whoกs content is completely unrelated to mine.

Remember, this is without even trying. When I do try, Iกm getting even more traffic. For example, I have a review of the FastClick ad network on my site. I get 10+ visitors each day from people searching for phrases that include the word fastclick. Thatกs 300+ visitors per month, 15 000 per year. As you could imagine, due to the fact that FastClick pay a lifetime 5% commission on referred earnings, this is quite lucrative.

So, what do you need to do? Well, you probably already use affiliate programs in some form on your site either as a major source of revenue or to make กbackendก sales. I went for years just linking to them with banners, buttons and text links. The odd short recommendation here and there proved to be the best way to get the most out of them.

The problem, from a search engine perspective, is that just linking to them from your site will generally not get your page up high in the search engine rankings. A link to merchant กAcme Corp.ก just blends in to the text on your page and is assigned no real relevance. Therefore, you should put up an individual page on your site for each merchant that you are an affiliate of. This page could just be a review of the products or services that they offer.

Just the fact that you have a content rich page about a specific merchant will almost automatically get you traffic from the search engines (once you are listed). The main point is กcontent richก. Also, write it yourself, do not copy content from the merchants site. Why? Well, even if they let you copy their content (lots do), Google has ways of finding duplicate content. In fact, they will usually ban the page that they believe is less important if two have the same information on them. So, write it yourself.

Remember that if the merchant sells products that have gained recognition from the public, make sure you list their products.

If you already have a successful site, the search engines will actually view your ‘reviewก of a merchant as being important and it is no harder to get that page in to the top 10 listings than it is for any other page on your site.

Often, the difference between doing well and being truly successful online is just the ability to grab opportunities when they appear. You could find that spending just 10 minutes to set up a couple of new pages on your site could actually result in thousands of dollars in extra income each year.

Remember, there are close to 600 million queries made on search engines each day this is an opportunity! Don’t let it pass you by.

About The Author

Sean Burns is the author of the eBook Rankings Revealed which gives you a step by step guide to obtaining top 10 rankings on the major search engines http://www.webmastersreference.com/rankings_revealed

This article was posted on April 12, 2003

by Sean Burns

Search the Web More Efficiently: Tips, Techniques

Search the Web More Efficiently: Tips, Techniques and Strategies

by: Daniel Bazac

Studies show that after email, searching the Web is the most popular activity on the Internet. Searching is easy; finding what you’re looking for can sometimes be difficult. Hopefully the advice below will make your next Web search a breeze.

Do you really need the Web?

Before using the Web to search for information, youกll have to ask yourself if the Web is the most appropriate medium to use to find your information. You can find a florist shop in your neighborhood faster by using the local, printed Yellow Pages instead of using the Web. And sometimes a library can give you better, more comprehensive answers than the Web.

However, in most of the cases, the best and fastest way to find information is… a Web search.

Obviously, the first thing you need to search the Web is a computer with Internet access.

Before really starting your search, youกll have to decide which browser you are going to use. As a reminder, a browser, according to WhatIs.com is a program ‘that provides a way to look at and interact with all the information on the World Wide Web.ก You can select a popular browser such as Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla or Opera or you can use an alternative browser. My favorite: Avant Browser. (I have NO connection with MyBookmarks.com) Keep in mind that some browsers are faster or have more options. You can download these browsers from their companiesก web sites.

Tools for searching the Web

There are many search tools available: search engines, subject directories / virtual libraries, invisible (deep) web databases, meta search engines, etc.

A search engine is a keyword searchable database of Internet files that uses a software program to continually scour the Web. The resulting information is then indexed and stored in its database.

My favorite search engines are:

Google™ [ http://www.google.com/ ]

AlltheWeb [ http://www.alltheweb.com/ ]

MSN [ http://www.msn.com/ ]

Teoma [ http://www.teoma.com/ ]

AltaVista [ http://www.altavista.com/ ]

WiseNut [ http://www.wisenut.com/ ]

A subject directory (web directory) is a searchable collection of Web pages gathered, selected and organized by human editors into hierarchically subject categories. A virtual library is a web directory that includes highly selective links, chosen mostly by librarians.

Web directories cover a much smaller proportion of the Web but using them will bring you more highly relevant results. The largest web directories index a few million pages compared with the billions of pages indexed by some major search engines.

Remember that the web directories like the search engines do not search the Web directly. Instead, they search their own databases of indexed Web pages. Also, be aware that directories might not be uptodate. Some search engines are in fact hybrid search tools because they are both search engines and web directories. (Google™, for example, has a search engine and a directory, powered by Open Directory Project)

Some widely used web directories are:

Google™ Directory [ http://directory.google.com/ ]

Open Directory Project (ODP) [ http://www.dmoz.org/ ]

Yahoo! [ http://www.yahoo.com/ ]

Zeal [ http://www.zeal.com/ ]

JoeAnt [ http://www.joeant.com/ ]

Gimpsy [ http://www.gimpsy.com/ ]

Popular virtual libraries include:

Librariansก Index to the Internet [ http://www.lii.org/ ]

Internet Public Library [ http://www.ipl.org/ ]

The WWW Virtual Library [ http://www.vlib.org/ ]

Internet Scout Project [ http://www.scout.wisc.edu/Archives/ ]

BUBL Link [ http://www.bubl.ac.uk/ ]

The socalled invisible (deep) web is a collection of online information stored in live databases accessible on the Web but not indexed by traditional search engines. Examples of excellent invisible web databases are:

ProFusion [ http://www.profusion.com/ ]

Invisibleweb.net [ http://www.invisibleweb.net/ ]

Complete Planet [ http://www.completeplanet.com/ ]

Resource Discovery Network [ http://www.rdn.ac.uk/ ]

direct search (Gary Price) [ http://www.freepint.com/gary/direct.htm ]

A meta search engine (also known as metacrawler or multithreaded engine) is a search tool that sends your query simultaneously to several search engines, web directories and sometimes to the socalled invisible (deep) web. After collecting the results, the meta search engine removes the duplicate links and according to its algorithm will combine and rank the results into a single merged list.

Because most of the meta search engines take only the top 10 or 20 from each search engine, you can expect excellent results, กla crème de la crème.ก

But be aware that because some search engines and web directories do not support advanced searching techniques such as quotation marks to enclose phrases or Boolean operators no results from those search engines will appear in the meta search enginesก results list when those techniques are used.

Remember, meta search engines do not maintain their own databases and therefore cannot accept web site submissions.

The best meta search engines are:

ez2Find [ http://www.ez2find.com/ ]

Vivisimo [ http://www.vivisimo.com/ ]

InfoGrid [ http://www.infogrid.com/ ]

Infonetware [ http://www.infonetware.com/ ]

iBoogie [ http://www.iboogie.com/ ]

A special kind of meta search engine is the search utility (also called desktop search programs or clientside search software). Unlike the webbased meta search engines listed above, search utilities are software programs that you download to your computer. The most popular are:

Copernic [ http://www.copernic.com/en/index.html ]

Arrow Search [ http://www.rtsoftware.co.uk/arrow_search/ ]

SearchRocket [ http://www.searchrocket.com/ ]

WebFerret [ http://www.ferretsoft.com/index.html ]

ProtoSearch [ http://www.npccenterprises.com/products.shtml ]

Meta search engines are excellent tools, but they do not eliminate the need for search engines.

For more about meta search engines, see my article: The Meta Search Engines: A Web Searcherกs Best Friends.

Which Search Tool Should You Choose?

If you’re looking for specific information use search engines.

If you’re looking for a unique or obscure search term or if you want to make an indepth analysis of whatกs out there on a specific subject, then use meta search engines.

If you’re looking for general information on popular topics, use subject (web) directories.

If you’re looking for scholarly information use virtual libraries.

If you’re looking for realtime information or for dynamically changing content such as the latest news, phone book listings, available airline flights, etc., then use specialized databases (invisible or deep web.)

There are thousands of search engines, hundreds of meta search engines and dozens of web directories and specialized databases. Choosing the right search tool from the start can make the difference between a successful search and a frustrating experience.

Before Starting the Search

The easiest way to find information is when you know a web page Internet address or URL (Uniform Resource Locator) such as Fortune Magazine at http://www.fortune.com. You can find these addresses on business cards, TV commercials or newspapers. Simply type the URL in the browserกs address box and hit the (PC) or (Mac) key.

Be aware that in most browsers, you do not have to type กhttp://ก or even กwwwก before the domain name. You can access a site simply typing the domain name such as กsony.com.ก

Special note: Be careful when you copy and paste a long URL from an email message or from some web sites. URLs that span two lines have a gap (space) between the last character of the first line and the first character on the second line. First, get rid of the gap and then paste it in the browserกs address line.

Other times you may not know the URL but… you can guess it. Often companies will use their name, acronym or abbreviated name followed by ก.comก, such as ibm.com or apple.com. The same thing is true for educational institutions (add the ก.eduก suffix) or government sites (add ก.govก) So, whenever you don’t know an URL, you can try to guess it.

If you do not know the URL, youกll have to find it by searching the Internet. In many cases, a simple search on the name of an organization within most search engines will return a direct hit on their web site.

Tips For Searching Smarter:

Read the search engineกs กsearch tipsก or กhelpก page before using a search tool. Strangely enough, most of the time youกll find the กsearch tipsก link on the กAdvanced Searchก page or on the ‘results page.ก Anyway, regularly check the search tips page because the rules often change.

Customize the output of the results. Use the search engineกs กpreferencesก page. Some search tools allow you to select the value for:

the total results per page; usually 10 by default (select

the maximum often 100)

the search toolกs timeout select the maximum

the search depth select maximum.

Be sure to save the new กsettingsก or กsearch preferencesก for the next time you use the search tools. Also, set the browser you use to accept cookies.

Tips To Make Your Search Faster:

If you’re searching for information and you are not interested in graphics on the pages you see, turn off or disable graphics. You can also turn off sounds, animation, Java, JavaScript, etc. See your browser documentation for instructions.

If you decide to keep the graphics, in the case of a กheavyก page, you can always press the button in the browser, immediately after you see the text and before the graphics are entirely loaded.

More Tips:

Most search tools are caseinsensitive which means that you can construct a query your search request by typing all the words even proper names in lower case text.

If you type a long query, most of the search toolsก search boxes are not very wide so you cannot see the entire query. Write the query in a word processor and then กcopy and pasteก into the search box. Be aware that Google™ only allows 10 words in the search box.

Some search tools offer an option called กsimilar pagesก (Google™) or ‘related pagesก (AltaVista and Teoma.) Clicking on that option will show you relevant results for the page you’re interested in.

Some search engines have a function called กsee more hits/results/pages from the same domain.ก Sometimes it can be useful.

Also, some search tools, such as Google™, allow you to see an English translation for a results page that is written in a foreign language. If you want to translate a web page and you have the URL, you can also use these sites:

Systran [ http://www.systransoft.com/ ]

Fagan Finder [ http://www.faganfinder.com/translate/ ]

AltaVistaก Babel Fish [ http://babelfish.altavista.com/ ]

alphaWorks (IBM) [ http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/aw.nsf/html/mt ]

Remember, don’t expect perfect translations because that seldom happens.

Looking for pages in a specific language? Some search engines (Google™, AlltheWeb, etc.) have an advanced search page that allows you to select the language from the pulldown menu.

If your search terms contain letters not present in the English alphabet such as กéก or กüก (example fiancé or München), use Fagan Finderกs (Search Engine Ultimate Interface) which allows you to use these special letters in many major search engines. It makes a big difference. A search for Munchen in Google™ gives 570,000 results while for München กuก with umlaut gives 51,700,000 almost 10 times more.

So, letกs start searching!

Most of the search tools can be searched using keywords. Web directories and the invisible web databases can also be searched by browsing categories and subcategories.

Start with a popular search engine such as Google™, for example.

Before typing the keywords, take your time and brainstorm relevant words. Create a list of search terms. Write them down. A few seconds of brainstorming could save you minutes or hours of retrieving irrelevant results.

Advice for Searching Better:

Select the most descriptive words. Brainstorm thoroughly.

Use at least two keywords.

Place the most important words or phrases first. Whenever two or more words can appear in exact order, enclose the words with double quotation marks (กword 1 word 2ก.) Example: กUnited States.ก If you use a longer phrase, you will achieve more precise results. With a very long phrase, however, you may get zero results. Some search engines allow you to select the กphraseก option in the pulldown menu on their advanced search page or you can type it in special phrase search box, so you don’t have to use quotes.

When possible, use unique, rare or unusual keywords. The more uncommon / obscure or less frequent the keywords you use are, the fewer and more relevant results you will get.

Use nouns and objects as keywords. Do not use the socalled กstop wordsก such as กwhat,ก กwhere,ก ‘the,ก กin,ก กand,ก etc. Many search tools ignore them. If you need a stop word to appear in the results, place the implied Boolean operator ก+ ก in front of that word. The standard Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT (or AND NOT), NEAR, BEFORE, AFTER and the Boolean logic ก(parenthesis)ก, are used to construct complicated queries. The implied Boolean operators ก+ก and กก can replace the AND and NOT respectively. An example of Boolean logic is (tips OR tricks) AND (กsearch enginesก OR กweb directoriesก). It will find tips or tricks for search engines or web directories. Check the search toolกs tips to see if they accept Boolean operators. For example Google™ does not support full Boolean logic.

Do not use common terms such as Internet, Web, etc. except for cases that it is necessary. (For example, the query is กsearching the webก with quotes.)

Avoid redundant terms and complicated query structures.

Choosing the right words for your query is the most important part of web searching. The more specific the search term, the more relevant your results will be and the more likely it is that you will find what you seek. Remember, work smarter not harder.

The secret to constructing a professional query is to type words you expect to find in the matches.

Note: Some search tools, such as Ask Jeeves allow you to use the socalled กnatural language.ก This means that you can construct a query as a question in plain English, such as กWhatกs the weather in LA?ก When you have a specific question in mind, these tools can be helpful.

Checking the Results:

After typing your keywords into the search box press either the กenterก key on the keyboard or, click on the กsearch,ก กfindก or กgoก button on the search toolกs homepage. You will receive a list of documents that hopefully match your query. If you do not, it may be because some unscrupulous webmasters use unethical methods to cheat the search engines and achieve undeserved, top rankings for their sites. To learn more about this topic, please read my article, กSearch Engine Spamming Sucks!ก

The results returned, also called กmatchesก or กhitsก will be web pages related to the subject you’re searching for, ranked in order of relevancy according to the search toolกs algorithm or by date, URL, title, etc.

Each result will contain information such as the title of the page, a short description, the pageกs URL and the size of the page.

Now you have a tough job. You have to decide which of the search results will take you to the most informative site. Your best bet is to take a look at the title and description of the page. Are they relevant to your search? If yes, open the page. If not, check the next result, by scrolling down on the right side of the browser.

To view a page you have two options:

Click on the title of the page even if says กNo titleก or ก?????ก. Place the cursor on the page title and the cursor will change to the picture of a hand. Usually the links are in blue and underlined, but often they are not. You can find links in any color, including black, which makes it difficult to recognize a link in text of the same color.

The second method is to open the page in a new browser window. Rightclick over the title of the result. This produces a popup menu. Select กopen (link) in new window.ก After checking the result, close the new browser window. You will still have the first window browser with your search. Some search tools have an option that allows you to open the result in a new window. Don’t get used to that, do the right thing: open a new browser window by using the mouseกs rightclick.

If you use the first method most likely you will not use the back button to go back to the results page, but instead you will simply close the window, losing the search page altogether.

Criteria for Evaluating a Web Resource:

First of all, don’t believe everything you read on the Internet. Recently I found a page where it stated that Google™ has about one billion web pages indexed. Well, according to Google™, it indexes 3,307,998,701 web pages. Be careful what you believe. Governmental agencies, educational institutions, libraries and prestigious publications are the most reliable sources of information. Be circumspect with information found on personal sites stored in free hosts.

Six Tips For Evaluating A Site:

Is the web site published by an authoritative source? Is the author a recognized expert in the field or subject area?

Is the information relevant, credible and accurate? It doesn’t hurt to cross check two to three additional, reliable sources.

Is the site current and recently updated?

Does the site have a professional กlook and feelก: structure, layout, color scheme, navigation menu(s), etc.?

Are there spelling, grammar or punctuation errors?

Does the site have contact information such as a postal address, phone or email?

Four Additional Tips:

Don’t look only at the top ten listings. Excellent results can be found on the top 20, or even top 50 results. This is why customizing the result output at 100 results per page is handy. You don’t have to open a next tenresultsperpage page. If you don’t find relevant results in the first 20 to 50, reformulate your query or try another search tool a meta search engine, for example.

Check only results that truly looks relevant.

Be aware that many search tools list กsponsored linksก at the top of their results page. These are not results from the search toolกs database. Instead these results are paid listings from corporations that have an interest in providing you with information about their products or services. Studies show that searchers find it hard to distinguish between regular and paid results, so be aware that these exist.

To quickly discover if a result is relevant, use the กFind (on This Page)ก command of the browser (in the Edit menu) or simultaneously press CTRL and F keys then type one of your important words and press กFind nextก. You will find the location of that word, and you can see if the page is really relevant or not.

What To Do When You Get TOO MANY Results:

Itกs common to receive millions of results, often unrelated to the search. To receive more relevant results youกll have to refine or even rethink the search. Here are some ideas to help you refine your search:

Add one or more descriptive words to your query.

Use phrases. Enclose two or more words that can appear in exact order within double quotation marks.

Exclude words you don’t want in the results by using the implied Boolean operator กก. Example: the query ‘red applesก กyellow applesก will find pages that contain ‘red applesก in that order and will not include pages that contain กyellow apples. ก As you see, there is no space between the กก sign and the word or phrase you want to exclude. There is, however, a space between the กก sign and the previous word.

Use the search toolกs กadvanced searchก functions. Limit your search by language, date or by field searching: title, URL, link etc. See the search toolกs กsearch tipsก for details.

What To Do When You Get Too Few Or Irrelevant Results:

Sometimes you will get messages like กYour search did not match any documentsก or กNo pages were found containing your queryก or กNo results.ก Other times you may get few or irrelevant results.

What You Should Do:

Check the spelling of the query. Some search engines automatically detect misspelled words and will show the correct spelling. Just click on the suggested word or words.

Delete the least important word from the query.

If you used a search phrases try eliminating the double quotes.

Use more general terms, alternate spellings, plural forms or synonyms. Recently, กGoogle™ introduced a new advanced search feature that allows you to not only search for a particular keyword but also for its synonyms. Just place the ก~ก (tilde) diacritical mark directly in front of the keyword in your search query. For example, กbrowser ~helpก not only searches for กbrowser helpก, but also for กbrowser supportก, กbrowser tipsก and กbrowser tutorials.ก

You can also check the spelling of the Web pageกs URL if you typed it directly into the address field of the browser.

If all the above strategies fail, switch to another search tool, preferably a meta search engine such as ez2Find (formerly ez2www.)

Remember: if you’re doing a serious research, consider asking a professional Web searcher to do the job. In a few hours, he may find information that would have taken you days to find.

If you receive the message ‘the page cannot be displayedก or กNot foundก the page has been discontinued.

What you can do:

If a page that doesn’t display is not the siteกs home page you can use the following trick. Cut the Web address of the page starting on the righthand side and stopping at every forward slash (/). Letกs say that the URL of a dead link is www.domainname/archive/article_1.html. First delete กarticle_1.htmlก and click กenter.ก Hopefully you will see the กarchiveก page and the กarticle 1.ก If not, also delete กarchiveก and click กenter.ก Hopefully you will get the home page and there will still be an option กarchive.ก

When you cannot see a page, use the กcachedก function of some search engines, such as Google™. Go back to the results list and click on the กcachedก link near the result. You will get a snapshot of the page stored in Google™กs index. Keep in mind that Google™ does not cache all the Web pages in its index and cached pages are often not uptodate. Wayback Machine can also show you previous versions of a Web page. Simply type the URL and than select a date in the results list. Keep in mind that there are a limited number of URLs indexed in the Wayback Machineกs database. Be aware that sometimes receiving few results means that ONLY a few results matched your query. Switch to a meta search engine and I guarantee you will receive better results.

Sometimes a search tool simply will not work. Why? Because it may be disabled or undergoing changes. Try again later. Other times you might receive messages like ก503 Server is busyก or ‘too many users. ก Check back later. For U.S. residents, early morning and late night are the least busy times.

Qualities Of A Good Web Searcher:

Patience. You can find what you’re looking for in ten seconds, ten minutes or never. Keep in mind that searching the Web can be a very time consuming operation.

Persistence. Don’t be scared of millions of results. Don’t give up too fast. Searching the Web is a process of trial and error.

Good memory. When conducting extensive research, youกll have to remember all your previous search queries so you know what terms you have already tried. Write them down itกs easier.

Good organizational skills. Plan your strategy ahead of time and stick with the plan.

Creativity. Select the best words for your query.

Decisiveness. Learn to quickly recognize relevant results in the search engineกs result page. Don’t waste your time with search tools or strategies that don’t work.

Learn and accept the Webกs limitations. Sometimes you cannot find the information because there is no information available on the Web related to your search. But this happens very rarely. Most of the time, the problem is not a lack of information but rather being overwhelmed by relevant results. That is if you know where and how to search.

And yes, practice, practice, practice. The more you search, the more youกll know and soon you will be scoring the most relevant results in the timeliest manner.

A final piece of advice: use bookmarks or favorites.

When visiting a page that you think you might want to visit again, itกs wise to save its web address (URL) in your กbookmarksก or กfavoritesก folder in your browser or much better in a Webbased bookmarks manager such as MyBookmarks.com which allows you to access your bookmarks from any computer at any location. (I have NO connection with MyBookmarks.com)

The next time you want to visit that page, you simply open the saved bookmark instead of searching again or typing the pageกs URL.

Be aware that in time you can collect thousands of bookmarks. Be smart and organize them in thoughtfully labeled categories and subcategories.

Last but not least, backup your bookmarks just like all the other important information you backup from your computer.

Rest assured that finding information on the Web is never a question of luck. Instead it is the result of a thorough understanding of how search tools work, combined with mastering the art of creating a targeted search query. Searching the Web is not difficult. Like any task, you simply must press the right buttons.

Good luck with your searches!

Note: Google™ is a trademark of Google Inc.

Do you have searching tips not listed above? Please send them to mailto:[email protected]. Thank you.

About The Author

Daniel Bazac is the Search Engine Marketer for Web Design in New York [ http://www.webdesigninnewyork.com ], a site design, search engine optimization and promotion company. He also maintains Bazac Weblog [ http://www.bazac.blogspot.com/ ] a blog about the search engines and search engine marketing news and articles. He can be reached at [email protected].

This article was posted on November 07, 2003

by Daniel Bazac

Internet Marketing Without a BigPicture Strategy

Internet Marketing Without a BigPicture Strategy Dances in Circles

by: Michael Pedone

Stop Tracking the Illusive กMagic Bulletก

It seems like everyone is beating the drum for one Internet marketing method or another. And in the process they create plenty of hype and conflicting messages.

Website owners are left to wonder whom to believe when it comes to impressing the search engines. Which approach can deliver the กmagic bulletก theyกve been promised? Is it time to jump to the next กsure thing,ก that will entice both search spiders and web surfers?

The primary methods promoted to attract search engines and Web traffic aren’t new:

Links and reciprocal links

Payperclick (PPC)

Search engine optimization (SEO) in all its variations

Blogs and forums

Writing and posting articles or press releases

Paid placement with ads and banners

But each of them shares a common limitation. At its best, each is only part of the answer. An answer that won’t hold still long enough to get nailed down before the next กmust haveก appears.

The Internet is Maturing, and so are Search Engines

In recent years, the capabilities and sophistication of the search engines have exploded. Public use and expectations have grown to match it. The publicกs reliance on the Internet as a reliable source expands ever faster. Recent studies found the Web to be the most trusted source of information for making major purchase decisions, second only to spouses for finding referrals.

A Harris Interactive consumer survey (2004) reports that 73% of adults are now online 156 million users. Thatกs up from 69% eight months before. Most Internet users (80%) expect that theyกll find reliable, detailed facts online (Pew Internet and American Life Project). So they go online first when they need information. And they have confidence in what they’re able to find.

Now more than ever, access to that gigantic pool of informationhungry Internet users depends on a websiteกs relationship to the search engines. Is it possible for people to find it? The stakes are high.

Integration of Methods is the กNext Big Thingก

Refined keyword and page optimization are the standard anymore. SEO has morphed into Search Engine Marketing (SEM). The key difference is integration. SEO method aren’t seen as separate solutions, but as parts of a multipronged endeavor. Success now depends on how well they all dovetail.

Thatกs a fundamental shift from the lurching กdo this…, now that…, now that… approaches, which have characterized the online norm. And anyone whoกs still playing by that game plan will be left behind.

Be suspicious of any SEO strategy thatกs wedded to a single method no matter what impressive statistics they cite. And when the search engines กburp,ก (as they surely will now and then) a siteกs visibility can be lost. A diversified approach to links and search engines reduces vulnerability. Achieving that requires shifting focus to a bigger, more inclusive picture.

My Experience with Reciprocal Linking

As a person who has been in SEM for years (and finetuned hundreds of websites) Iกve gotten good at spotting trends as they develop. And Iกve seen too many กcan’t loseก methods fade.

No question that linking is important for search engine placement. There are effective and targeted ways to acquire incoming links that don’t require a link exchange. However, I saw some problems with the way many reciprocal links are pursued. My concerns led me to write an article, Reciprocal Linking is Dead, http://www.etafficjams.com/reciprocallinkingisdead.htm back when most insiders were proclaiming it to be the way to go. (Fresh articles about why you should develop reciprocal links appear daily.)

An integrated search engine marketing strategy is vital for your websiteกs visibility and survival. Resist the shortsightedness of putting too much reliance on what everyone is recommending.

Beat the Pack by a Country Mile

If you’re ready for the กNext Big Thing,ก stop chasing the flavor of the month. The trend is toward building an integrated strategy where all the options mesh. Achieve all the added benefits that come with integrating every method your website employs. Now thatกs a next thing with staying power.

© 2005, Michael Pedone

About The Author

Michael Pedone http://www.eTrafficJams.com a professional search engine optimization company specializing in getting targeted, eagertobuy traffic to your site! Want to improve your siteกs optimization? Call 8777859977 for a free SEO analysis

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 26

by Michael Pedone

SEO: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

SEO: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

by: Dean Phillips

I seem to have created quite a stir, on a particular SEO forum recently. In fact, rumor has it, at one point, my article, กGoogleกs Trap, DMOZกs Nap, And Yahoo!กs Crapก was the hottest topic discussed on this particular forum.

The aforementioned article was also bestowed the title of, กWorst SEO Article Everก by someone on the forum.

Why all the animus? I have no idea. Perhaps they view me as a threat to their livelihood. Whatever the reason, certain SEOกs seem to be taking my articles personally. Thatกs their problem!

My articles are not aimed directly at SEOกs or search engines per se. My articles are aimed at the people who utilize their services.

Iกm trying to get these people to realize, they can’t depend solely on search engines and search engine optimization. You have to have a multipronged attack.

I don’t depend on the search engines! I never have. I refuse to play that game. My traffic comes from the dozens of articles Iกve written that have been picked up and published on popular web sites all over the Internet. I also get traffic via word of mouth, newsletters and ezines that my articles are published in, and a few other secret methods that I use.

And you can do the same thing. You just have to get out of that search engine mindset.

There are many other proven and effective ways to market your web site. Here are just a few: ezines, newsletters, forums, online magazines, sponsor listings on other web sites, exchanging links.

Here are a few offline options: magazines, direct mail, shopper newspapers, cable television, radio, flyers, hospital newsletters, card decks, trade journals and directories, bulletin boards, tabloid newspapers.

Yes, I know Google and Yahoo! are the biggest, most powerful search engine and directory on the planet! Forget about them! Why? Because despite what certain corrupt SEOกs may claim, they CANNOT guarantee you a top ten listing in either Google or Yahoo!

No legitimate SEO would ever make that kind of guarantee in the first place. They couldn’t, because they know they wouldn’t be able to deliver on that promise. Now they may be able to get you to the top of the search engines with certain less popular keywords. However, what good does it do you to rank number one for keywords that nobody searches for?

I want to make one thing perfectly clear, right now. I am not suggesting that all SEOกs are corrupt. I don’t believe that for a second. There are many fine, honest and hardworking SEOกs out there, who are doing a wonderful job for their clients.

I have the utmost respect for people like Jill Whalen, Bruce Clay, Robert Woodhead and many, many other fine and reputable SEO experts. These individuals don’t overhype their services or your expectations.

They also have excellent rankings on the search engines. So, they definitely know what they’re doing.

Then, thereกs the other end of the spectrumthe companies that give good SEOกs like the aforementioned a bad name. Iกm sure youกve all seen some of these headlines:

‘top 10 and Top 20 Rankings Guaranteed!ก

กGuaranteed Number 1 Ranking!ก

กGuaranteed Top Ranking!ก

‘top 10 Placement Guaranteed!ก

Well, the next time you see this kind of advertisement, make a mental note to check out that companyกs ranking. Youกll be shocked at what you find out. Some of these companies making these outrageous claims are ranked at number 3 million. Thatกs not an exaggeration!

Now let me point out something very important to you. A companyกs search engine ranking doesn’t always tell the whole story. I know of many companies making a nice living on the Internet that aren’t ranked that highly in the search engines. You probably know a few yourself. You may even be one of those companies.

However, if you’re considering hiring an SEO, I think where they rank is very important. Why? Because if they aren’t capable of getting their own web site a high ranking, how can they possibly achieve a high ranking for someone else? They can’t!

You should bear that in mind, when checking out SEOกs.

About The Author

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: [email protected].

Visit his website at: http://www.letsmakemoney.net

This article was posted on October 26, 2004

by Dean Phillips

3 Website Positioning Tactics Guaranteed to Boost

3 Website Positioning Tactics Guaranteed to Boost Your Traffic

by: Michael Turner

There are many tactics you can use to increase traffic to your website. However, three particularly effective suggestions include search engine optimization, keyword articles, and trading links with other web pages. When you incorporate these three strategies into your overall Web site strategy you will be sure to increase your traffic.

Tip #1 Search Engines and Optimization

You need to be sure your web page is listed with as many search engines as possible and that it is optimized to return results. The more web sites that have your information the more visitors you will attract, it is as simple as that. Also, optimizing your website to be returned in the search engines is also very important. You will be able to do this through keywords included on your pages. The more keywords you have that are directly and indirectly related to your content the better because the higher the keyword content the higher ranking you will receive through the search engines. You should be focused on writing short articles that focus on specific keyword phrases for your website. The more keywords you include and variations of keywords mean the more people you will be able to attract to your page.

Tip # 2 Trade Links

Trading links is another great tip for getting people to your web page. What you should do is evaluate your target market, the product you are selling and other related products. Then, for the other related products you do some research to find the best web pages that sell these products. Then, you suggest a link trade. The post a link to your web site and you post a link to theirs. This will not only you’re your web page returned higher in the rankings, but also more visitors because you will have access to the visitors on other web sites as well. However, be sure that the sites you want to trade links with are good quality sites. And in order for them to want to trade with you then your site will also need to be of good quality. Keep this in mind before making any contacts.

Tip #3 Submit to Directories

You should also submit your URL to as many popular directories as possible. However, in order for directories to be willing to list your web site you better have a good site and layout. If you are still working on that then you should hold off on contacting directories until you do. Also, your web pages will have to be completely finished and not works in progress. However, if you get some of the popular directories to list you then your web page will have a heavier ranking than the others, which means you will have more traffic.

About The Author

Michael Turner shows you exactly how to increase web site traffic in his free 7 part miniseries. Grab it today at http://www.powertraffictactics.com/

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 04

by Michael Turner

Search Engines: The Life Blood of InternetBased H

Search Engines: The Life Blood of InternetBased Home Businesses

by: Kirk Bannerman

Anyone involved in an Internetbased home business will soon come to recognize the importance of search engines as a vehicle to attract potential customers.

Since the inception of Google in 1998, the popularity of using search engines has increased dramatically. Nielsen NetRatings reports that about 114.5 million Americans, or a whopping 39 percent of the US population, currently use search engines.

Through February of 2004, Yahoo and Microsoftกs MSN ranked as the two favorite spots on the Internet with 87.3 million and 86.2 million unique monthly visitors, respectively, according to figures produced by Nielsen NetRatings.

Microsoft.com, ranked third, with 64.2 million visitors, but this figure is somewhat misleading because this site attracts much of its traffic by repairing flaws in the Windows operating system. Google was the fourth most popular site with 60.8 million visitors.

The market shares of MSN and Yahoo haven’t changed much in the past three years while Google has emerged as a powerhouse without spending much of anything on advertising. Googleกs audience is now approximately six times larger than it was in early 2001, when it was the 26th most popular destination on the Internet.

As they vie for position, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft plan to continue upgrading their services healthy competition that can only serve to improve the search experiences of Internet users in the future.

According to comScore Networks, an estimated 3.5 billion online searches are performed in the United States each month, making searching the second most popular online activity, ranking behind only email.

In 2003, businesses spent an estimated $2 billion on advertising related to searches and some knowledgeable sources expect the searchrelated advertising market to triple during the next three years.

There are various search engine formats including natural search, pay for inclusion (PFI), pay per click (PPC), and hybrid approaches which combine both PFI and PPC characteristics. Because of the immense and growing popularity of search engines, their effective utilization is the life blood of Internetbased home businesses.

About The Author

Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and resides in California. For more details, visit his website at http://businessathome.us

This article was posted on March 25, 2004

by Kirk Bannerman

One In A Million Make Your Site Stand Out

One In A Million Make Your Site Stand Out

by: Steven Ng

First of all, I would like to congratulate all of you for taking interest in the world of internet business!

The idea of doing business over the internet is growing year by year, and is currently the second most popular form of consumer business in the United States, after network marketing.

Now back to the article. กOne in a millionก. What do I mean by that? Well, for those of you who have dabbled in internet businesses such as affiliate programs and network marketing businesses, you would know that these programs generally provide an entire website for you to market their program.

Thatกs great isn’t it? Your very own website to promote the business, and it also tracks your referrals and commission!

For example, the popular program $1.67 A Day provides all subscribers with their own website, which looks like this:

http://akuma.167aday.com/

You Are Not Alone

The only problem is, every single person who signs up for $1.67 A Day gets the same webpage, the only thing different is that each person has their own name at the bottom of the page.

That means, even though you have your own webpage, it is not unique. There are thousands out there with the same webpage as you.

Some of you might be saying that itกs ok. That you can still promote your own webpage by emailing everybody (be careful that you don’t spam!).

However, the problem surfaces when you start considering search engines and directories, such as:

www.google.com

www.yahoo.com

www.msn.com

www.askjeevevs.com

Letกs face it: the vast majority of website visitors find the website via search engines. Certain rare cases get visitors via word of mouth or brand name or via offline advertising. But the numbers still indicate that search engines still provide the most traffic.

And if you have thousands of other websites that look exactly the same as yours, you’re definitely not going to do very well in the search engines. Most search engines look for how much value a webpage can provide to a search user. If your page is one of thousands that look the same, it doesn’t have much value.

As a side note, Google changed their search engine algorithm in November 2003, and a lot of commercial and affiliate websites appear to get hit the hardest. It is now harder for these sites to rank well in Google.

Stand Out From The Crowd

a) Domains

So what you have to do, is be different from the rest of the affiliates. The first step is to get your own domain. Your domain is basically your internet address.

Consider the following two URLs:

http://www.amazon.com/affiliates/cgibin/id?123456

and

http://www.buybooksonline.com/

The second URL looks much better, doesn’t it? Other than the fact that itกs shorter and easier to read, it has other advantages going for it.

Looking at the first URL, a smart shopper will immediately know that you are an affiliate, and instead of visiting your site, he might himself sign up as an affiliate, and buy the products via his own affiliate site, earning the commission himself. Thatกs one less sale for you.

Also, search engines love the second URL. The URL indicates that it might not be an affiliate program, and might have something original to benefit internet surfers. Generally, unique domains will rank higher than affiliate URLs, because of the perceived value of the uniqueness.

In addition, note that the second URL has a domain that contains great keywords that surfers will key into search engines. Domains with keywords in them tend to do better in the search engine rankings as well.

A great place to get your own domain is at Namecheap. You can visit them at:

http://www.onlinebizhelp.com/namecheap.html

b) Do Something Else

Now that you have your own domain, what do you do with it?

Marketing research has shown again and again that having a website that just sells a product doesn’t do as well as websites that provide valueadded service. Visitors will immediately know that you’re trying to get them to buy something, and theyกll immediately leave.

Note: Most internet surfers search the internet looking for information, not to buy stuff!

Having said that, you can change the angle of your website by offering information. Create a website to help the visitor by providing information that they want, and then sell the affiliate program or network marketing product on the side.

For example, you can create a website that teaches visitors how to cook Italian dishes; how to prepare Italian salads; how to take care of their utensils.

This will make the visitors more at home and will get them to trust you. Once you have their trust, you can ask them to subscribe to your moneyearner, a great program that collects a recipe directory, like:

http://www.recipeswap.com/members/akuma6

Isn’t that easy? The key is to get visitors to trust you by providing them the information they want, then follow up with your affiliate program.

About The Author

Steven is the webmaster of http://www.onlinebizhelp.com/ Your Guide To Internet Business. He has successfully participated in a number of affiliate programs and opportunities, and have listed the best of them on his website. Check them out!

[email protected]

This article was posted on May 08, 2004

by Steven Ng