Top Things You Must Realize When Searching

Top Things You Must Realize When Searching

by: Andrew Malek

For the uninitiated, searching for web pages can seem a slow, obscure process. Unless you have a highspeed Internet connection, web pages may seem to take days to load. And the searching itself – you have to admit it looks weird typing in bunches of plus signs, asterisks, parenthesis, and other funny symbols and operators to find what you want.

To help you in this process and show that you are not, I’ve compiled a top five list of things you must realize when searching the web for information. No pencils will fly, no drums will roll, but you just might learn something.

5. Search Engines Have to Make Money

Before you grumble over the growing number of advertisements and sponsored links that appear in search engine results page, remember that most search engines are free. You’re not paying anything for a very costly service. Thus, these sites have to earn income somehow to stay afloat (computing power and bandwidth isn’t cheap!) So, to put it bluntly… live with it.

(Yes, I know some types of advertising are much more obtrusive than others. Popup ads, dancing animations, and other larger advertisements may make it harder to use some search engines that support these types of ads. If you don’t like it, vote with your mouse clicks and move to another search engine).

4. Sites Go Down

Worse yet, you’ve entered in your perfect search query, looked at the results page, and the first site you see no longer exists!

The Internet changes all the time. Unfortunately, search engines and directories are not able to constantly query every site on the Internet to see if they are still online. Occasionally (in other words, probably frequently) you will find links to web sites that no longer exist. It is just a part of life. Especially with the dotcom bust, many web site owners can no longer afford to host free resources. If they could not convert their traffic to paying customers, they just took their sites down

So when you find a link that is dead, don’t pump your fist in anger … just go back to the results page and move along. Or, better yet, if you’re using a search engine that caches pages, such as Google, just look at the cached version of the now defunct pages and find the information contained therein. It’s like stepping through a time machine!

3. Your Web Browser Will Crash

On a related note, not only do web sites go down – but so may your web browser. Sometimes it will be due to visiting a multimediaintensive web site. Sometimes it will seem to happen for no reason. But it will happen, and when it does, don’t go blaming yourself saying that you did something wrong.

Web browsers, like just about any other type of computer software program available on the market, are not infallible. They can and usually do contain bugs. These may predictably rear their ugly heads when visiting sites containing a lot of multimedia and advanced interactive elements, or they may appear completely at random.

If your web browser crashes, do what I do. Just restart it. Don’t say you did something wrong. Don’t think that you must be so bad with computers that you crashed the Internet. Just restart your browser, and if you have to restart your computer to do so, then do it as well. Most likely the crash is not your fault.

2. The Internet Can Be Slow

No matter how fast your onramp to the Internet may be, there will be times where it seems to take forever to load a web page. This is just the nature of the beast.

As the Internet is a loosely connected network, if certain connections go down, computers may not always be able to route information via other networks. Thus access speed will suffer and your web browser will start to crawl. If this seems to be happening often, step away from the computer, go outside and take a nice, long walk (unless it’s 30 degrees below). You can run your search another time when the speed is back to normal.

And the #1 thing you must realize when searching…

1. The Best Result Just May Be On Page 10

Most people only look through the first page of search engine or directory results, usually the top ten listings. Others may visit the second page, but relatively very few people venture to the higher numbered pages.

This is a shame – sometimes the best results to a search engine query are not in the first ten listings as they may only contain links to commercially driven sites or sites run by web owners who know how to manipulate listings. In some cases web sites containing perfectly good information may not be listed in the top 10, 20, 50, or even top 100 results.

Obviously searching through the many pages and pages of resulting sites will take extra time, especially if you do not have a highspeed connection to the Internet. But, this time spent may well be worth it if you find some gems in the rough! So if you have the time, speed, and patience, browse through the deeper results pages. You never know what you may find!

And that’s it – my top five list of things you must realize when searching. This covers slow access time, results not on page 1, browser bugs, web sites popping up and down and changing management, and the need for sites to make money, causing advertisements to become more obtrusive. Gosh, that just makes you want to go out and search right now, doesn’t it? .

About The Author

This article was written by Andrew Malek, Internet Search Guru and author of Find Stuff On the Net, an ebook that can show even beginning computer users how to navigate the Internet without fear. Gain confidence using your web browser. Master search engines. And more! For further information and free snippets of the book, visit http://www.findstuffonthenet.com/

[email protected]

This article was posted on May 1, 2002

by Andrew Malek

Advantages for Using FrontPage… maybe this HTML

Advantages for Using FrontPage… maybe this HTML editor has some hidden advantages

by: Robin Nobles

Ever since Iกve been doing SEO work, Iกve always griped and complained about FrontPage and all the extraneous code it puts in the section of the page, etc.

Then recently, I had the opportunity to visit with a group of advanced search engine optimizers, and I was shocked to find that many of them use FrontPage and love it.

FrontPage??!!

The first thing I learned is that there are ways to keep out the extraneous code! With FrontPage, you can remove the code, but it keeps comes back again and again and again. But, there’s a way to get rid of it forever.

How to Get Rid of Extraneous Code and Headers

Dave Barry, Webmaster of SmartCertify Direct (http://www.smartcertify.com), explains how:

FrontPage 97 or 98 users:

Click on Start, then Find, then Files or Folders. Search your hard drive (generally your C drive) for a file named frontpg.ini. Click on the file.

When it opens, look for a line that says, ขVersion 3.0.ข

Add this line under Version 3.0:

HTMLREFORMAT=0

The next time you use FrontPage, remove the extraneous code and headers, and they won’t come back.

FrontPage 2000, 2002, or XP users:

Look at the menu bar at the top of the Open Web. Click on Tools, then Page Options.

You’ll see an option box. Under HTML Source, at the top of the page under General, you’ll have this choice:

When saving file(s):

Preserve existing HTML or Reformat using the rules below

If you choose Preserve existing HTML, and if you delete any extraneous code and headers, you won’t see the code or headers on your pages again.

(To view an example screen shot showing the above, click here: http://www.academywebspecialists.com/newsletters/fp2.gif)

Dave added:

ขTo disable the HTML changing of FrontPage 2000, a registry entry is also needed. This registry file (http://www.academywebspecialists.com/newsletters/noreformat.zip) will do it automatically. Just open the file with Notepad to verify its authenticity before using it.

ขThe attachment and registry entry must occur on the server.

ขOr, if you want to edit the registry manually, here is the code:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared

Tools\Web Server Extensions\All Ports]

‘reformatHtmlก=ก0ก

AddIn that Generates META Tags

FrontPage also has an Addin that will delete META tags without going into the source view. It’s called META Tag Maker 2002, and it will create and manage META tags through one dialogue box, without having to go into source view.

http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/downloads/addin/searchdetail.asp?aid=80

In fact, the FrontPage site has an amazing number of Addins for FrontPage that are free for the taking. http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/downloads/addin/def ault.asp

Some of the more popular Addins include:

Multimedia/Special FX, Windows Media Addin, that will easily embed audio and visual into your Web pages;

Clear Teal Template, that is a 16page easytouse Web template that lets you easily create a Web site;

Scripting/Database Tools, JBots Plus 2002 Trial. According to the FrontPage site, JBots components make FrontPage Web sites more customized by adding JavaScriptenabled features, but you don’t have to know how to write code or cut and paste. Simply fill in dialog boxes, click Generate, and the JavaScript is created for you.

Other Advantages for Using FrontPage

* Server side includes are easy with FrontPage. Before we go on, let me explain what ขserver side includesข are.

Server side includes (SSI’s) generate parts of Web pages dynamically on the ขserver side.ข They allow you to add customization features to your Web pages, such as an email form. Unlike other forms of dynamic content, or content that’s created on the fly, server side includes have a normal URL that’s easy for users to remember and doesn’t create problems for the engines.

In other words, SSI’s embed special commands into an HTML document that tells the server to perform specific actions when a user requests the page. The server then creates the Web page on the fly by merging files or inserting requested information.

How might you use SSI’s on your Web page? Let’s say you want to add a form to your Web site for your users to complete to sign up for your newsletter. You could create the form using SSI’s.

For more information on creating SSI’s with FrontPage, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/using/default.htm and click on FrontPage Server Extensions.

* Dave Barry, who recently created two major sections of the Dell Web site using FrontPage, manages 40 to 50 Web sites at SmartCertify, and he easily moves back and forth between those sites using FP. With that many sites, there is a lot of duplicity, and he can effortlessly share objects with FP or edit multiple Web sites. With FrontPage, you can cut and paste between the sites, use shared borders, and easily drag and drop files, thus saving a lot of time versus handling each site separately.

If you’ve ever wanted to experiment with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), FrontPage also makes using them a breeze. You can even create DHTML using FrontPage.

Dave created a video on how to copy and paste, how to use Cascading Style Sheets, and how to use shared borders with Front Page:

http://www.smartcertify.com/seo/frontpage.asp

(Author Note: When viewing these videos, make sure you have the latest version of Microsoft Windows Media Player. To download the latest version (7.1), click here (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;enus;Q299321). Also, I found that I was unable to view the videos if my firewall (Zone Alarm) was running.)

* Another benefit to using FrontPage is being able to create virtual directories with ease. As you know, when you specify a home directory, all of the subdirectories beneath than home directory automatically become subdirectories of the Web site as well. However, you can also designate a folder located elsewhere on the system as a subdirectory of the site by creating a virtual directory out of it. A virtual directory is a directory or folder on a server that is not in the actual server directory structure.

Again, Dave created a video on how to create virtual directories using Front Page:

http://www.smartcertify.com/seo/iis.asp

* If you want to create a database, it’s no problem with FrontPage. It will virtually create a database for you and import data without any database knowledge at all. The program works with Access, SQL, Oracle, and ODBC, and you can set up an SECcompliant database within 30 seconds and begin working with asp pages with no prior knowledge whatsoever.

Click here for Dave’s video on how to create a database using FrontPage:

http://www.smartcertify.com/seo/dwizard.asp

* To Lee Davies of #1 Internet Marketing (http://www.1internetmarketing.co.nz), the main advantage to FrontPage is that you can so easily manage all your html pages from the folders section.

For example, ขIf you were to rename an image, which is something that needs to be done when optimizing, it will rename the links to the images from every page,ข he explains.

* What I kept hearing again and again as I interviewed users of FrontPage is that FrontPage saves you time in creating Web pages, because it’s so easy to use. Don Hammond with DonOMite (http://www.donomite.com) explains,

ขStraight HTML pages are a breeze with FP. I know a lot of programmers scoff at using it, but it means I can crank out a basic HTML page in seconds rather than minutes. And when I get paid by the job, it means more $/hr to me.ข

* Dawn Rowlett with Web Submission Services (http://www.internetmarketingwebsites.com) explains further:

ขFrom the first day that I was introduced to FrontPage, I was instantly able to catch on to some of the many features because it was so easy to use. I think the most beneficial factor to the program for me was that I was able to go in and design a page, knowing nothing at all about HTML. I could include hyperlinks, tables, images, change colors, backgrounds, insert text, create paragraphs, etc. with absolutely no background in coding. I was able to do all of this on my first day with the program!

ขI remember one time in the beginning when I was involved in a discussion with a designer who was using another HTML editor and was completely stuck on the coding of how to create a simple table. My first thought at the time was, using Front Page, that is such a simple task.ข

* Many professional SEO’s also like to use FrontPage because it’s a program that’s simple enough for their clients to use. So, when the SEO turns the site back over to the client, the client can easily make changes with FrontPage without having to know HTML. As Tom Altman with RSM McGladrey, Inc. (http://www.rsmmcgladrey.com) explains,

ขMost of the folks already have the office suite, so they are used to using Word and the like. FrontPage is not that much different, and it lets them maintain their own site.ข

Make FrontPage Work the way YOU Want it to!

At the Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions Resource Kit, you’ll find links to all of the possible ways to make FrontPage work for you, instead of the default values after installation.

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/frontpage/wpp/serk/apndx03.htm

Take a Free Course in using FrontPage!

Dave Barry at SmartCertify Direct (http://www.smartcertify.com) created a free course in using FrontPage. Simply register at the following URL, and take the free course:

http://www.smartcertify.com/seo/registerseo.asp

In Conclusion

As you’ve seen, some very experienced Web designers and search engine optimizers use FrontPage as their ขeditor of choice.ข Its ease of use and variety of readymade templates make it a program that’s easy for beginners yet has the functionality that advanced designers need.

It also allows the designer or SEO to get a page designed quickly and easily, and time adds up to money for a busy SEO.

As Nancy Nelson with Search by Design! (http://www.searchbydesign.com) said,

ขIs it a perfect tool? Certainly not, but FrontPage combined with minor HTML knowledge can take you a long way…ข

So FrontPage users, don’t be ashamed to admit that you use FrontPage! Some of the best Web designers in the industry use it, with good reason.

Special Thanks to Dave Barry

Dave Barry with SmartCertify created the videos, screen shots, and free tutorial available in this article. Plus, he gave me the work arounds for getting rid of extraneous code, and he verified the accuracy of the content. Thank you Dave – there’s no way I could have created this article without your help.

Copyright 2002 Robin Nobles and Dave Barry. All rights reserved.

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) Search Engine Optimizer software (http://www.seoptimizer.com). She also teaches 4day hands on search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe with Search Engine Workshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com).

Dave Barry is a professional Webmaster, Web designer, programmer, and search engine optimizer, all rolled up into one amazingly talented man who works for SmartCertify Direct. (http://www.smartcertify.com) He has also begun working with Search Engine Workshops to put on ขhands onข training workshops at locations across the globe. (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com).

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 01, 2002

by Robin Nobles

Ten Steps To A Well Optimized Website Step 10: T

Ten Steps To A Well Optimized Website Step 10: The Extras

by: Dave Davies

Welcome to part ten in this search engine positioning series. Over the past nine weeks we have covered the nine fundamental steps to a proper search engine positioning campaign. From choosing keywords and writing content to optimizing your pages and building quality links we have covered the required steps to attaining solid rankings that will last. In part ten we will cover the extras.

The extras consist of tips, tools and resources that you will want to use to keep you on the cutting edge of who’s who and what’s what in the search engine positioning arena.

Over this series we have covered the ten key aspects to a solid search engine positioning campaign.

The Ten Steps We Have Gone Through Are:

Keyword Selection (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/searchenginepositioning/keywords.htm)

Content Creation (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/searchenginepositioning/content.htm)

Site Structure (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/searchenginepositioning/structure.htm)

Optimization (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/searchenginepositioning/optimization.htm)

Internal Linking (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/searchenginepositioning/internallinking.htm)

Human Testing (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/searchenginepositioning/humantesting.htm)

Submissions (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/searchenginepositioning/submissions.htm)

Link Building (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/linkbuilding/linkbuilding.htm)

Monitoring (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/searchenginepositioning/monitoring.htm)

The Extras

Step Ten – The Extras

The first nine steps in this series cover the true nutsandbolts of a solid SEO campaign. These are the crucial steps you need to take to attain top rankings that will stick. That said … there are ขthe extrasข, the icing on the SEOcake sotospeak. Those little things that will bump you up from number 4 to number 2, or help you hold your positioning through an algorithm change.

Some of these things have been touched on in previous articles while others are completely new. Either way, these are the things that will give you that little oneup over other ethical SEO’s who know their stuff.

Tools

One of the most important advantages you can gain over your competition comes from the tools you use and more importantly, how you use them. Some people blindly follow the advice given to them from socalled ขSEOsoftwareข. This is never the right decision. Taking the information these good tools can provide, and knowing how to turn that information into advantage is the key.

Here are the tools that many successful SEOs use to build solid rankings for their clients and why:

Top Optimizer Pro (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/resources/recommended/top.htm)

I’ve noted this one in the article on link building and it’s definitely worth mentioning again. Never before have I found a tool that can tear apart your competition so thoroughly for such an affordable price and in such an easytounderstand manner.

This tool with take a look at the top 10 for a search phrase, and give you:

their position

their PageRank

their Alexa rank

the total number of backlinks to their site as seen by Google

the number of their site pages indexed by Google

their keyword density for the targeted phrase

their title

their H1 tag

This is the overview it gives you. You can then select one of the sites and view more detail including:

the backlink URL

the backlink domain

the IP address of the backlink

the PageRank of the backlink from that page

the specific anchor text use for that backlink (or a note whether it was an image)

the title of the page linking back

the Alexa rating of the page linking back

the top three keyword focusก of the page linking back

the number of links pointing to that page

the number of outbound links from that page

Right below that there is access to a breakdown of the sites backlink’s that gives a summary of:

the specific anchor text, the number of times that anchor text was used, and the percentage this represents of the total backlinks counted

where these links come from. This will give you great information as to how many of these links are coming from the same domain, which is generally accepted in the SEO community as holding less weight than the same number of links from different domains

a PageRank breakdown of all the links

At $247 from TopNet Solutions it’s a bit pricey but worth every penny if you only use it on one campaign.

PR Prowler (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/resources/recommended/prprowler.htm)

A necessity for any search engine positioning campaign that requires link building. This tool, also developed by TopNet Solutions, doesn’t do all the fancy things that Top Optimizer Pro does however it does do one thing VERY well – it’s seeks out quality relevant link partners with high PageRanks.

If you’re not in a competitive industry and you just want to save time on link building (and I do mean a LOT of time) this tool will do it for you. You simply set it to find links based on specified search phrase(s) and with a minimum PageRank. You can search for up to 1000 links at a time. Simply start the tool and continue on with other work or go to bed while it’s working for you. Come back and you’ve got some great leads and the best part is, it’s weeded out all the duds so your efforts are focused only on the links that will most benefit your site.

This tool has taken campaigns that would have required many hundreds of links to a point where the same effect can often be realized with 50 and in a fraction of the time spent.

FireFox (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/)

While this isn’t exactly an SEO tool perse it makes researching and optimizing much faster and more convenient. FireFox is a browser (read: Internet Explorer replacement) that has MANY features that make it more convenient.

I like the tabbed browsing (moving between multiple pages through the use of tabs on one browser screen), the username and password ability is far better and more advanced than Internet Explorer’s and it’s far more secure than the more popular Microsoft product. It blocks popups and spyware just isn’t written for it.

I will admit that for the first few hours I was trying it out I found it a bit more difficult to use but once you realize how much more powerful it can be and that the difficult arises from the instinct to make the task more difficult by doing it the way you would have with IE, you’ll never want to switch back. The next time you’ve got 5 IE windows open to various search engines, another for WordTracker and a couple more to various other pages think of FireFox and you’re world will be made easier. It’s a free download.

You can read more on the advantages of the FireFox browser in a search engine positioning article written by ISEDB Editor Jim Hedger at http://www.isedb.com/news/article/1062.

Search Status (http://quirk.co.za/searchstatus/)

A tool developed for FireFox users giving them access to the Google Toolbar and Alexa Rankings. It can be downloaded and installed free of charge.

A big thanks to developer Craig Raw for a great tool, free of charge, for those of us who want to use something that isn’t powered by Microsoft and that has all the advantages of the FireFox browser.

WebAlerts (https://www.google.com/alerts/signin?hl=en)

You’re doing your linkbuilding, you’re writing articles, or you just want to see what others’ are saying about you. Do you really want to run searches for yourself and for your articles every few days?

Set up a Google WebAlert for a phrase from an article you’ve written, for your company name, for your competitors and/or for a phrase from the description you’re using in your link exchanges and let the most powerful servers in the world do the work for you.

Beanstalk On Tools …

There are definitely some very useful tools out there as noted above. What must be understood is that these tools alone won’t get you the top rankings any more than a map will guarantee you a good vacation if you don’t know how to read it and you don’t know where you want to go.

The single most important thing anyone hoping to attain (and maintain) top positioning on the search engines can do is to keep himself or herself educated. While we noted a few great resources in the last article on monitoring here are some of the key resources I uses to keep uptodate on what’s going on the in SEO world.

Search Engines

This is definitely the most obvious. Run periodic if not daily searches on your keyword phrases and a few others. Don’t just look for your rankings but look at who’s in the top positions and look at their sites and who’s linking to them. Watch for changes and look for what’s different in the sites that are now on top.

Don’t kill yourself trying to figure out every single engine. Google, Yahoo! and MSN are the three biggest and just following these three is more than enough work. Generally I’ve found that meeting the requirements of these three will generally result in solid rankings on most of the other ขsecondaryข engines.

Forums

I can’t speak highly enough about forums. When you’re looking for uptodate information this is where to go. The challenge on forums however is in deciding who knows what they’re talking about and who doesn’t. Further, you’ll need to be able to figure out which members follow your code of ethics when it comes to SEO. Business owners seeking longterm rankings with minimal maintenance should not be taking advice from Blackhat SEOs.

I mentioned a few forums on the last article. A few additional forums worth watching are:

Search Engine Watch Forums (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/) – There’s not much to say about this one except that it’s a mustsee. Tons of great information, many members so a wide variety of opinions to draw from.

IHelpYou Forums (http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/) – Managed by SEO Doug Heil this is an interesting one. While I can’t say I agree with everything Doug has to say I will give him credit for ethics. If you want to make sure your tactics are squeakyclean then here’s where to get advice. My recommendation: take the info with a grain of salt. Doug tends to occasionally make blanket rulings on tactics that have their place however if you go in knowing this he can be a great source of some solid information.

High Rankings Forums (http://www.highrankings.com/forum/) – Managed by SEO Jill Whalen, this one has some great discussions. Sticking with my belief in giving credit where it’s due I have to advise to pay attention to what Jill says. She knows her stuff and while she definitely falls into the category of whitehat SEOs, she’s willing to discuss a variety of tactics, their merits, and judge them based on their use and worth. Open and honest discussion – that’s what forums are about. Mentioned last week but worth mentioning twice.

The other forums mentioned last week were:

Web Pro World (http://www.webproworld.com/forum.php)

SEO Chat (http://forums.seochat.com/)

Search Guild (http://www.searchguild.com/)

Li’l Engine (http://forums.lilengine.com/)

Conclusion

So here we are, the end of it all. 17,000 words read (thank you) and, if you’ve been following the program, many MANY hours spent optimizing your website.

Will it be worth it? If you have followed these steps, keep yourself updated on changes, and keep working on building your links, creating quality content, and insuring that you’re always putting in 10% more than your competitors then it certainly should be.

I would like to take a moment to thank those of you who have worked through these past ten articles and to wish you the very best of luck in your online promotions. As always, you are welcome to contact me with any questions you might have. Our goal in this series has been to provide you with the information and the resources to do it. I hope we have done just that.

About The Author

Dave Davies and Beanstalk (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/) offer guaranteed search engine positioning. He has been optimizing and ranking websites for over three years and has a solid history of success. Dave is available to answer any questions that you may have about your website and how to get it into the top positions on the major search engines.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 30, 2004

by Dave Davies

The Online Advertising Scandal

The Online Advertising Scandal

by: Ieuan Dolby

The World Wide Web was an enormous step for mankind, a step not seen since Neil Armstrong sullied the surface of the moon. The idea behind the WWW came across as a veritable information highway where documents, data and info could be rapidly sent and accessed by millions the world over. The potential behind the web is enormous and even now the scope is not fully utilized. The possibilities for growth, for extended usage, are available and enormous yet the system is stagnating and it is very possible that people will soon turn away. The average person seeking information may well return to oldfashioned libraries and the good old book to find the information that they require if the face and image of the WWW is not altered very soon and inline with customer demand.

The ability of any user to gain information from the Internet is enormous, simple and with positive results. But the information received is increasingly becoming that which a paying body prescribes and thus is advertisement biased or pointed towards the end purchase of a product. Hotels advertise a city or holiday resort with the point of view of potential tourists coming to stay. A detailed description of moon cakes in Taiwan although complete and detailed would certainly be with aim to make people buy some from the store hosting the website involved.

Initially the Internet was heralded as a onestop point for gaining any type or form of information with the click of the mouse. This is certainly true except with regard to loose information that has no affiliation towards an end purchase or a users change of heart. Certainly this type of information is available and millions of websites exist but unless a user has prior information on how to access this site then the chance of it being found amongst the masses is minimal. Most web users find or locate information by using a search engine. Most web users input their request and wait for results to come up as prescribed and ordered by the search engine system. If for example a request was entered for ขtravel tales on the seaข many, possibly thousands of choices will appear in return. Number one in the pole position will probably be Amazon.com who feels certain that anybody looking for a story would probably find it amongst their collection – naturally obtainable at a price. The next on the list might be Ebay who feel that certain travel products might appease the searcher or it might be goarticles.com an articles selling service who would assume that travel tales of the sea would be somebody looking to buy such from them and for their own use.

Certainly each and every result that is produced on the first page would point the user towards large companies who are selling an item of one sort or another. The user though may in fact just want to read some Travel Tales of the Sea without having to fork out cash or to issue his/her credit card information over the Internet.

In the bowels of the search results in pages that are covered in dust will reside some very comprehensive and useful websites, eg: http://www.seadolby.com a website that is filled with free and indepth Travel Tales of the Sea. The possibility of any user keeping interest long enough to get to this web site listing is minimal and long before it is reached the user has either fallen asleep or entered another search on a different note. In short the average user does not get past the first page of a search engines results and probably not past the first three that come up: e.g. amazon.com, ebay.com and goarticles.com

Although notforprofit informational web sites are many and filled with amazing and detailed info these sites ability to gain attention on the world stage is difficult unless money is poured in to boost their ratings and rank positions on the search engine results. Nowadays many search engines have entered the payperclick arena with companies putting forward money to buy keywords that will most likely be used to boost their website. Some company buys the word ขTravelข and this word is then basically lost forever to the lone freeforall info site who cannot afford to pay money to boost their popularity.

The art of advertising and paying for positions on search engines is only available to the sites that can afford the exorbitant fees. Should a lone site owner who has built his siteup decide to fork out of his own pocket the money to boost his ratings this will only be achieved on one or two search engines or directories and the amount required to compete with the megasites is far beyond any hobbyist can afford. Naturally the ability to submit ones site on free inclusion pages and directories is available but as the webmaster and author behind Seamania found out, so much energy and time is spent on advancing the ratings of his site that not enough time is given to the writing of travel tales of the sea, which of course is the basis and sole point behind the website in the first place.

Large for profit websites can afford to hire weborientated staff to control, advertise and spend time on boosting the rankings of their particular website. Single owner for profit websites can afford to pay marketing specialists and to buy keywords at exorbitant rates. The lone notforprofit website owner can either spend all day and all week controlling and submitting his site to the thousands of ever changing search engines and directories and suffer from a serious loss of updated content on his/her website or place emphasis on building up content and never have a visitor to his portal.

Many other factors go towards reducing the effectiveness of the individual website than just search result rankings. Many single website owners operate outdated and very slow computers, use old or outdated software and only perform on odd occasions when not playing with their children or busy at work. Many other free info sites have found that subscribing to some lists to boost their rankings has infact reduced them to near invisibility. Google and now other search engines condemn sites for using link pages that they themselves do not agree with, so by simply subscribing or joining one of these sites Google may drop a future crawl of the website involved. It is also impossible for the lone notforprofit website to keep up with ever changing trends and policies. Where payment is made for a lifetimes inclusion in a search engine, the next year may see the demise of this particular engine or its partnering up with another – thus the lifetimes inclusion becomes null and void and to prevent being dropped from the listings another fee is required – read the small print!

Other means to increase visibility is often initiated by offering advertising space to companies like Google, Barnes and Noble or other directories or affiliates. This can result in a slight income for websites (The Seamania website made 40US dollars over the last three months) but never enough to afford placement on search engine results or to purchase keywords. It is also against the grain for many freeinfo website owners to have to place advertising on their websites as not only is it taking up valuable space it detracts and reduces the free effect the content within. Furthermore should a website choose one companies advertising it may boost their rankings within one search engine but equally so reduce it in another’s e.g. allowing Google advertising space on an index page may increase the page rank in Google but seriously reduce it in Yahoos search results and possible exclusion from their Yahoo Directory.

>From the point of view of an Internet User in search of free and notforprofit biased information he/she does not want to see endless sites where a visa card is required to proceed further. It would be very nice to see the advancement of such directories like Zeal.com who divide their listings into those for profit and those who generally provide valuable and nonprofit orientated formation. Naturally the question arises as to how such a search engine would manage to cover the costs of these listings but generally with the amount of people available who regard the Internet as a toy and a hobby projects such as Editor of a category volunteers should not be hard to recruit. The other way would be to have search engines run and operated by governments like public libraries are or built and operated by universities as part of study programs – something practical for students to involve themselves with.

Directories abound whose content is managed by volunteers, the Open Directory Project being the most famous. But sites such as Seamania have found to their detriment that trying to get noticed in amongst the debris found in these directories is not easy. Seamania was originally listed as a Personal website in the boating category but over time the emphasis and content of the website has evolved to become a general travel website. It has though proved impossible to change the location of the site in the Dmoz directory to a travel listing rather than a boating listing.

If at all possible and to prevent users who are sick of being asked for their credit card information or being given 30 different porn sites upon entering Travel Tales of the Sea into a search engine, it would be nice to see a shift in emphasis in the way that the search engines operate their listings.

Certainly the idea of switching on a computer and being faced with two choices, one for sites that areforprofit and one that points towards notforprofit sites would be a dream come true. To enter in a search request and to not find amazon.com or ebay.com in the first few results would put cheer to any searchers hopes of finding what he wants. And maybe in this way a true exchange of information may be facilitated and the mass exodus of searchers back to the public library for information may be halted.

About The Author

Ieuan Dolby Author and Webmaster of Seamania. As a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Navy he has sailed the world for fifteen years. Now living in Taiwan he writes about cultures across the globe and life as he sees it.

seadolby.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 03, 2005

by Ieuan Dolby

6 Ways That Blogging Can Save You Money

6 Ways That Blogging Can Save You Money

by: Tinu AbayomiPaul

Even though I’ve had several personal blogs for years, I’ve only been officially business blogging since 2003. So in going back over expenses for the last quarter, you can imagine my shock when I realized that my overall business costs were down about 19%. What saved me so much money? Surprisingly, blogging.

How can you save money with your blog? Itกs pretty simple, so Iกll be brief.

Attract search engine traffic without paying the big bucks

If you want Google, Yahoo and MSN to pay attention to you, blog.

It doesn’t have to be a whole new site, just add a directory to your existing site and start blogging. Most blog software solutions are either cheap or free.

And you can find out most basic blog information online for free (really, sometimes just typing your question into Google will do it.) by people whoกve actually done it. For less than $100, you can build a small library of blog tips and secrets, written by successful business bloggers.

Instead of buying links, get oneway links from blog search engines and directories, as well as getting your RSS feed content displayed at other sites.

Linking is a great way to get search engine attention and click traffic. Some people get links by trading; others by including their links at the end of freely distributed articles. Others pay to be listed, or to get linked.

In each of these scenarios, some type of trade takes place, money, free content, or a link back.

When you blog, youกll find plenty of search engines and directories that are willing to list you free of charge. For the most part you won’t need to link back youกll get a oneway link from site favored by search engines, often using text that you select yourself.

If 90 or more of these free, legitimate links back to your site is worth your time, then get you blog in motion.

Not only that, if you update frequently, other sites may want to display your RSS feed content on their sites. To encourage them to do so, put a link on your page with instructions on how to do so. Ever since I put one on the front of my site, various feeds from my main site have turned up in the most unexpected places.

Cheaper way to study your audience.

As your blog gets more popular, you may start to find that on any given day, you have a representative crosssection of prospects and clients at your site. If you have a question for them, you can just… ask.

True, you can post a link to a survey in your newsletter or on your site, but these are not as interactive as the ability for your audience to comment. They will comment, and you can reply to ask them to expand, or clarify. Conversation gets going and before you know it, a bond is formed, a much stronger bond than occurs in a oneway conversation.

Cheaper (and faster) way to start a resource or authority site.

Five years ago, if you wanted to start an authority site, your best bet was to build a portal with a specialized directory at its core. Three years ago, you were better off starting a forum with a resource section attached to it. Last year, your top bet was a feedenabled content management system, especially as more parts of content management systems began to have content feeds related to them. (I have 12 feeds for each of my PHPNuke based sites, though they don’t work as well with Google Tap.)

Now, if you want to be the expert, you want to start a blog.

If you’re blogging consistently, you have a hub of information collected that will inspire return traffic. You have a collection of links to articles, sites, and tools. You can constantly write up your own opinion editorials on each of these items, as well as factbased analysis of news and events that can help your audience make better choices.

As blog software matures you can now categorize, and alphabetize your links, and with the ability to ping multiple sources as well as leave trackback links to other sites, you can send your readers through a ring of related, freshly updated information that ultimately leads back to you.

Spend less money on advertising as your blog becomes more popular

I can’t promise you that you’ll never spend another red cent on advertising costs. However, the amount of free advertising you get from having your blog link or RSS feed listed in dozens of search engines and directories, and popping up in feed readers is not to be underestimated.

You’ll probably still want to do some ezine advertising when your new ebook or software release is debuted. But you may not need to buy as much advertising or purchase as often.

Then there is the fact that many newsletters that are also published to RSS feeds have wider reach. I’ve found that it’s worth the extra money to appear in both versions – ask your favorite publisher for details. For publications that allow this, it’s normally only 20% extra

Save money by retaining visitors

You’ve probably heard a thousand times that it is easier to sell repeatedly to an existing client than it is to find a new one. So how do you get that visitor to come back, and possibly buy again?

A constant stream of new information on a particular topic work is enough to keep people buying a daily newspaper, subscribing to a magazine or viewing a television series.

Frequent updates can work the same way for your site.

With bloggers being named People of the Year by Time magazine last year, if you’re not blogging in 2005, you’re going to be left in the dust by other sites in your industry that do. It doesn’t have to take up a lot of extra time, and the time it does takes is made up for in the money you can save.

Copyright 2005 Tinu AbayomiPaul

About The Author

Tinu AbayomiPaul

Read more about how a blog can help you get spidered by search engines within 24 hours at http://www.freetraffictip.com/gbc.

This article was posted on January 06

by Tinu AbayomiPaul