How Search Engines Connect Sellers and Buyers

How Search Engines Connect Sellers and Buyers

by: David Leonhardt

Maggie knows how to find what she wants. She lets her fingers do the walking – not in the Yellow Pages, but at Google.com. She wants to learn about bread baking, and you have just written Bread Baking Made Simple, and you sell some great baking tools. The good news is the Google and other search engines exist for one simple reason: to help Maggie find your website.

Google will show Maggie 534,000 resources on กbread bakingก. Unless she fails to find what she wants on the first page, or top 10 results, she will never find your website listed 124th in the results. (Actually, if she does not find what she wants in the top twenty or thirty results, she is likely to refine her search to กeasy bread bakingก or กhome bread bakingก).

How do you get into the top 10 results so Maggie can find your website? You might have heard a lot about กsearch engine optimizationก and กranking analysisก and กalgorithmsก. It all sounds very complex, but it really works on a simple 1 – 2 – 3 principle.

A search engine will show Maggie only resources (websites) it has on record. So make sure to submit your site to the key search engines and directories. You do not need to hire somebody who will charge you big dollars to do this. Nor should you fall for any of the autosubmit software or services. This should be done by hand, and anybody can do it. You can do it yourself.

The search engine will rank highest those websites it feels are most กimportantก. This means you have to show that your website is most important. There are a few simple things you can do. First, make sure you have content. Text content equals importance on the Internet. Links, both coming in and going out, are key. Connectivity equals importance on the Internet. Get listed in the major directories (DMOZ.com, Yahoo.com, Zeal.com, JoeAnt.com, etc.), as this also is a measure of importance.

The search engine will show Maggie the most ‘relevantก highranking resources. Google might rank http://TheHappyGuy.com relatively very high, but it is totally irrelevant to a search for bread baking. How does a search engine know which websites are most relevant for Maggieกs search? By the number of times กbread bakingก shows up in text on your web page. By the variety of ways it shows up on your page. By number web pages you link to and that link to you with the words กbread bakingก included.

Are you ready to roll? Possibly. Some of this you can easily do yourself. But there are three places that are worth spending money to help all the Maggies out there find your website and your book.

The first is choosing the right keywords. It might look simple, but กbread bakingก might not even be the best keyword phrase to focus on. It might be กeasy bread bakingก or กhome bread bakingก. The most searched terms might not be the best, nor the term with the least competition.

The second is to prepare a link strategy. The กlink exchangeก pages that are getting more popular each day are also becoming less effective each day. Here are just a few of the linking factors that will affect whether Maggie discovers your book:

The total number of incoming and outgoing links

The importance of the sites you link to and from

The relevancy of the sites you link to and from

Which pages on their sites and on yours are being linked

What you include in the incoming and outgoing links

Where on the page the links are placed

How many links are on those pages

How many pages are linked to or have outgoing links

The ratio of links to content on the pages involved

You can implement the strategy yourself, but it is worth hiring somebody to put it together for you. Ask the person what factors he would consider when building a strategy for you. If he does not mention several of the above, your money is better spent elsewhere.

The third place to invest is to have somebody knowledgeable review your html code. Chances are that you have missed numerous opportunities to let the search engines know your website is relevant, and possibly some opportunities to show it is important.

About The Author

Discover how to climb the rankings the RIGHT way: Pick up a copy of Don’t Get Banned By The Search Engines at http://thehappyguy.com/SEO.html. You might also want to find out how to promote your website with a media relations plan at http://thehappyguy.com/publicityselfpromotionreport.html, or profit from more free publicity ideas at http://www.thehappyguy.com/publicityselfpromotionproducts.html

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 03, 2003

by David Leonhardt

If You’re a Marketer, You Should be Blogging

If You’re a Marketer, You Should be Blogging

by: Craig Desorcy

Blogging has captured the interest of many across the World Wide Web. The cold, robotic nature of the virtual world becomes warm and cozy when we see personality and real life thoughts appearing on our screens. Sometimes we make a connection with the blogger that leaves an impression. We’re caught! Our natural curiousity will draw us back on a regular basis to get the juicy updates the blogger throws our way.

Wise marketers are incorporating this trend into their marketing scheme. The inexplicable urge to return time and time again is a gold mine to be escavated. After all, isn’t that exactly what a marketer’s goal is? Not only are people drawn to revisit, but search engine robots can’t seem to neglect a site that has regularly updated data. Blogging is a winwin situation that you don’t want to miss out on!

Mark was a smart and moneywise kind of guy. He’d spend hours thinking about how to get the most out of his money, and his bank account had a lot to show for his efforts. Mark had been a successful business man for some time, and now he was contemplating an expansion a virtual expansion that is.

One of the greatest of all business expenses is advertising. Mark remembered how he had snookered his way into free advertising in the local newspaper. While his counterparts paid big bucks for big ads, Mark resorted to figuring out ways to make the local news, which everyone read. It had worked marvelously in the real world, but how could he do the same thing in cyberspace?

Blogs, blogs, blogs! Blogs are the answer to free advertising in the virtual world. Search engines will gather your latest news and broadcast them worldwide while you sit back, fold your arms and smile. Who could keep from smiling when search engines index your site free of charge and heavy traffic is being directed to your virtual doorstep without costing you a penny?

( Get The Fast and Easy Way To Blogging and Using RSS Feeds Click here> http://www.effectiveinfo.com/blogsrss.html )

Not only will blogs save you a bundle of money in advertising fees, but the very nature of blogs spells out timesavings. Marketers are busy people who could use a little extra time to golf or fish. It doesn’t seem feasible to think that something as short and sweet as a blog would net as much interest as a wellthoughtout newsletter or sales letter, but in fact marketers across the world are finding it to be true. Hey, get out that dusty fishing pole, and invest some in some new tackle!

While you’re out relaxing and enjoying a much needed break, who knows how many people will be visiting your site? It could be….no, don’t hurry back to see!

About The Author

Get The Fast and Easy Way To Blogging and Using RSS Feeds

Click here> http://www.effectiveinfo.com/blogsrss.html

This article is copyright © Craig Desorcy

Craig Desorcy is an Internet enthusiast who Lives and works in Japan, spending most of his free time on the internet running his blog and websites of interest.

Craig(at)effectiveinfo.com

This article was posted on February 05

by Craig Desorcy

Home Work or Escape from Dilbertกs Box

Home Work or Escape from Dilbertกs Box

by: Janusz Wyrwa

Mc WORLD AND RAGE AGAINST Mc WORLD

Mc World that is a world in which we are living. Multinational corporations (more and more powerful, for instance thanks to fusions like DaimlerChrysler, Star Alliance or Time Warner; beyond a democratic control and กfamousก because of affairs similar to กvirtual accountingกsก issue of Enron) just like Mc Donaldกs launching fast foods rule the world and often possess more money than several countries of the Third World. What is more maybe tomorrow there will be hundreds of Mc Worlds. Narrator of David Fincherกs กFight clubก (starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton; based on Chuck Palahniukกs underground novel) predicts (ironically), that after future exploration of deep Space there will be a Microsoft Galaxy, Planet Starbucks, IBM Stella Sphere!

On the grounds that gap between the rich, highly educated, technologically advanced and the poor countries is greater and greater: according to economist Paul Bairoch difference of income between the richest and the poorest was 1 : 3 at the Roman Empire times; 1 : 30 at industrial revolution times and like 1 to 180 nowadays! Famous Polish journalist and writer, author of the กEmperorก said that dwellers of the USA and Somalia seem to live on two distant and completely different planets (we could see that in กBlack Hawk Downก by Ridley Scott). Those tensions are very dangerous (terrorist attack from the 11th September in New York). Fast development and expansion of predatory capitalism of globalization era and technological progress (so called information revolution appearance of Internet, personal computers, palmtops, cellar phones, satellites, nuclear power plants, solar, wind, sea wave กcleanก energy, industrial robots etc.) has enormous aftereffects. It causes reduction of costs and salaries, later massive unemployment, social tensions and antiglobalistsก protests (like in Seattle), great rage against Mc World.

BIG BROTHER

Your place of work is turning into a besieged castle, reality of a totalitarianism from famous George Orwellกs novel กYear 1984ก or simply a controversial, full of scandals reality show กBig Brotherก. I mean You are under perpetual control and supervision of Your boss, Your companyกs management. It is a common tendency to count employeeกs working time (for example cashiers in supermarkets; they even wear in some QuickaMartกs Pampers so as not to stop serving clients!). Thanks to GPS, magnetic cards opening doors, pagers and company cellar phones employer will nowadays find his employee or maybe slave everywhere. Management controls Yours e mail, access to Internet, to web sites. For example to not chat in private matters and not watch pornographic web sites during the work time. In Japanese company toilets there are sensors searching for drugs in employeeกs urine! Cameras, scanners, so called open space (people working in one enormous room or in glass boxes so as boss could observe and supervise employees all the time, even search these all invigilation ideas destroy Your privacy, cause psychic discomfort, reveal Your secrets to boss who is turning into Big Brother. We have to possess hope, that for instance political police, a real Big Brother will not achieve an access to those information. How to refuse humiliating procedures of invigilation and supervision of Big Brother?

ESCAPE FROM DILBERTกS BOX

All of us know famous gazette comic strip กDilbertก. Colleagues turned Dilbertกs life into a nightmare. His labor is a perpetual struggle with boss (who is an imbecile and cretin), a shouting guy, sweet and irritating idiot, conceited managers and diabolique animals: an omnipotent personnel chief Catbert, stupid Ratbert and his pet, clever and cynic Dogbert. Dilbert is forced to work in poky box, all the time attacked by colleagues and nonsense bossก directives and orders. Millions of people read about Dilbertกs frightening and funny adventures. They laugh through tiers. Their dream is to escape from that nightmare called bureau work, boring nine to five job or simply Dilbertกs box.

Thanks to modern technology their dreams and wishes may come true. Thanks to modem, Internet, fax machine and a cellar phone so called home work is nowadays possible. What is more thousands of problems, like for instance sticking around in irritating traffic jams, crowded means of public transport (like subway in which there is no place for a breath), sexual abuse, bullying or mobbing, other forms of maltreating. Besides work without boss has many advantages. Your salary for example is greater, so as whole profit goes straight to your pocket. Boring Xmas parties, integrating camps and trips with singing around fire, softball or what is the worst thing paintball, psycho tests and that whole staff with control and supervision of psychologists, personnel chiefs, your stupid and incompetent boss or cameras (look chapter titled Big Brother). Fallowing issues completely disappear: colleagues envious because of your promotion, chatting, gossiping, smoking pauses, desperately seeking of a parking place and finally, last but not least early waking up, work holism and that whole staff connected with boring nine to five job or simply Dilbertกs box!

WORKING IN GLOBAL VILLAGE OR NEW BRAVE WORLD

We are entering a New Brave World of modern technology. After great technological revolution (similar to industrial revolution and beginning of am agriculture) thanks to Internet, cellar phone, palmtop and satellite communication You may work as good or even better than in bureau, in Dilbertกs box at home or wherever You want. People from distant countries may be not only Your clients but also employers and employees. Cyberspace means the end of old Mc World and huge multinational corporationsก dictate. Not cereal, steel or coal, not even cars or planes are the most important and most soughtafter and searched consumer goods of future but information. Thanks to Internet everyoneกs invited to e business, to that great gold mine of cyberspaceกs library. Every computer user may become an Internet guru and new Bill Gates. Competition is great, dangerous and even small distant countries like Finland are overtaking in that race United States. Even countries of former East Block, post communist like tiny Estonia and in greater degree Asian Tigers or poor India (but with plenty of computer scientists) thanks to new technologies develop faster and faster. Working in a global village is a great opportunity, a chance for escape from Dilbertกs box so don’t waste it.

FROM MONOPOLY TO E BUSINESS

You are a computer nut; playing กSim Cityก, Sid Meierกs กCivilizationก, computer games from ‘tycoonก series excites you? What is more You are a passionate of กMonopolyก and hundreds times Youกve become a virtual Rockefeller or Donald Trump?! Considering that You may establish a company similar to Microsoft o r Apple Computer. Possibly a success comparative with that which achieved Bill Gates or millionaires from the Silicon Valley is simply at the reach of Your hand. E business is developing very rapidly. You may play at Wall Street, just like George Soros (transactions will last just few seconds). Equally it is possible for You to establish web sites, becoming web master, an internet guru. Selfhomework gives many advantages: freedom of choice of Your enterpriseกs activity field. What is more, great flexibility, possibility of fast adaptation to changes on the market and to conjuncture. Crisis is not a threat for You. The whole world (places where is an access to Internet) is Your target market. Regarding You may satisfy demands and needs of small consuming group in distant country, You may easily find a gap in market (technological cycles are shorter; new inventions live not 30 but 7 years so there is a demand for Your products). Thanks to e business it is possible to compare prices and invest simply everywhere. What is very important the initial costs of investing input are extremely low. You are Your own boss. In selfhomework You decide alone about working hours (even the sick, disabled, young mothers or pregnant woman may work) and Your workกs pace.

To put it briefly it is a beginning of the New Brave World and global village at labor market, simply great and successful escape from boring nine to five job or Dilbertกs box!!!

For more go to www.HomeWorkeBayShelter.com.

About The Author

I enjoy sharing my knowledge and talents with small business newcomers and professionals to help them enhance their online presence. Get more at : http://www.HomeWorkeBayShelter.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 21, 2003

by Janusz Wyrwa

5 reasons why participating in forums can benefit

5 reasons why participating in forums can benefit your business?

by: Rebecca Gilbert

Did you know that by simply participating in various forums and posting your various views and ideas, can potentially bring new growth and life to your online business?

Let’s look at some of the positive aspects that forum participation can bring to your business.

1. We are all looking for traffic to our websites and if we can get it for free with little effort, that’s even better. Did you know that when you sign up as a new member at a forum, you can usually create a ขsignatureข line that will be attached to every post that you make in a forum? This signature line can contain your website address, and as other members read your post, this will provide another route for potential customers to find your website.

2. One of the worst things about trying to advertise on the Internet is the lack of trust between website owners and customers. Everyone is afraid of being scammed. A good way of building trust with potential prospects is by giving them a chance to get to know you, and by letting some of your knowledge, honesty and integrity show in the post that you make at a forum.

3. Most webmasters on the Internet exchange links with other like sites, because exchanging links will boost your link popularity. It’s a proven fact that you get higher search engine rankings when your site has a high PR due to your link popularity. But did you know it’s even better if you have a link pointing to your site that isn’t reciprocated? Every post that you make in a forum will create a one way link pointing to your website. If you make 1000 post in a year, you have potentially created 1000 back links pointing to your site. As the search engines crawl the Internet and detect all these links pointing to your site, your website is going to move toward the top of the search engine listings.

4. Running a business on the Internet can be a very lonely occupation. There is very little interaction with other people and this can be devastating to some. By participating in forums, you will meet other people who have online businesses and who have a lot in common with you. It’s sometimes comforting to know that there are others who share your occupational frustrations, and will be there to support you if you need them.

5. It’s a proven fact that two minds are better than one. Everyone goes through learning curves on the Internet. Whether that learning curve involves starting out, building websites, search engine optimization, or the millions of other things that you must be prepared to do on the Internet to establish your business, there is someone in your favorite forum that has been there and done that. These people will be more than happy to give you free consultations.

Best wishes to you,

Rebecca Gilbert

http://www.homebusinessopportunity.biz

About The Author

Rebecca is a successful business owner and webmaster who has provided free consultation to hundreds of people who were getting started on a home business. Rebecca has just launched a new forum where she welcomes new members. http://www.homebusinessopportunity.biz/PNphpBB2.html. All new members will be entered in a contest to receive their choice of 1000 FREE BANNER IMPRESSIONS or a FREE DOMAIN.

This article was posted on August 07, 2004

by Rebecca Gilbert

Whatกs Wrong With Your Promotions ?

Whatกs Wrong With Your Promotions ?

by: Larry Johnson

How many times have you been frustrated with your promotion efforts online ?

Letกs face it…most folks working online are amateurs when it comes to promotion. They simply don’t come to the internet prepared with the tools, experience and background in advertising and promotion.

The learning curve can be pretty steep when it comes to learning to promote effectively. There is a wealth of information and resouces availabe. In fact there are some many helpful sites and resources that it is very easy to become confused with the whole process.

Searching the internet for promotion resources provides you with lots of sites and gurus who will promise you the moon in exchange for your hardearned dollars.

Finding a few dependable sites and trusted webmasters who will act as a mentor in your learning process is one good tactic to consider.

Personally, I have developed a small group of allies online with whom I can discuss problems, find answers and bounce my ideas off.

You will discover that the old adage, กNever get in a hurry to buy or sell.ก, is still true today. You can easily run out of money buying this and that amazing promotional gimmick, software, service or product.

There is plenty to buy online, but there are tons of fr*e resources available too.

While the learning curve for learning to promote effectively online is a steep one, you can do it with some determination and with little damage to your pocketbook by being selective in the resources you choose to use.

Where will your promotional efforts be one year from now? Will you still be doing the same olก thing ? Or are you now ready to put into practice a plan of action that will bring you some great results ?

Best of luck with your promotional efforts.

Larry Johnson, (c)Copyright 2004

Biz Site Biz Ezine

http://www.bizsitebiz.com/

GET YOUR PROMOTION OFF TO A QUICK START with this fr*e weekly promotional and marketing ezine. Now in our fifth year of helping others succeed quickly. You will discover tips and new resources with a กHowtodoitก approach. Subscribe: http://www.BizSiteBiz.com/Subscribeform.html

About The Author

Larry Johnson is a webmaster and publisher with over 10 years online. He has a background in radio and TV as well as sales.

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 28, 2004

by Larry Johnson

Why you should NOT submit your site on Search Engi

Why you should NOT submit your site on Search Engines

by: Zoran Makrevski

Before to answer to this question we have to know what is the difference between a search engine and directory. Here is a brief explanation.

Main difference between search engine and directory lay in the way how websites get entered into their index. People submit their sites to the directories, which are reviewed by human editors. Think of the directories as collections of Internet sites organized by subject. Search engines works by sending out a spider to fetch as many documents as possible. Another program, called an indexer, then reads these documents and creates an index based on the words contained in each document.

Having this said, let’s see why you should not submit your site to the Search Engines.

More than 90% of the search engines traffic comes from three major search engines Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

You can see many ads on Internet which looks like this: ขsubmit your site on X00.000 search engines…ข

Submitting your site on hundreds of thousands search engines wouldn’t help and is simply not worth. Save your money as you would do when you see ad’s like: ขloose weight while you sleepข.

These three search engines provide results for many other search engines, and if you are listed on these three search engines, your site will be listed on many other search engines too.

Altavista for example show results from the Yahoo! index. Rankings are not the same, because the algorithm is different but index is the same. If your site is new and is listed on Yahoo but not on Altavista, be patient and do nothing. Altavista will show your site when they update their index from yahoo. AOL (America On Line) and Netscape use Google index. They additionally receives and listings from DMOZ. Examples are many.

So called ขMetaข search engines like DogPile or Metacrawler are showing results from Google and Yahoo among of others. These search engines actually search the top search engines and show combined results.

If your site is not new, there is a chance that search engines spiders already find your site and index him. So before to do anything check is your site already listed, even if you did not submit your site on any search engine.

But what you should do if your site is just uploaded?

As we already explain search engines are equipped with spiders which will find your site. All you need is to submit your site in Directories, and search engines spiders will find your link and your site will be indexed. But be sure to provide enough ขfoodข for the spiders. That is, submit your site in enough directories, and you will make that process shorter.

While submission to the search engines is wasting of your time, submission to the directories is not. You will benefit from submitting your site in Directories, not only because search engines will find your link there and index your site, but you will also increase your link popularity. Search engines consider each link who is pointing to your site as a one kind of vote and give him a ขcreditข for each ขvoteข.

That’s why you should submit your site to as many directories you can. However, don’t expect bulk traffic from the directories. Even the biggest directories like Yahoo! or DMOZ are not able to deliver load of traffics. From the other side, traffic delivered though the directories is usually quality traffic, because these people are browsing to find products or services that you offer.

Submitting your site more than once on search engines might slow down indexing time. If you still want to submit your site on search engines best is do that just once, and do that manually. Companies who advertise that they will submit your site on X00.000 will not do that manually, that is for sure. They use automated submission software, even all major search engines say’s in their submission guidelines that you should submit your site manually. And major search engines are what you should care for only. You remember the fact where the over 90% of traffic comes from?

Remember that only submitting your site to the search engines does nothing to increase your ranking in most cases. If web site optimization on your web site is not properly implemented or is not implemented at all chances are small that your site will be on first few pages with results. And having in mind that only about 7% of the people look further then third page, top is the only place you want to be.

How to calculate if the search engine optimization is worth to invest in? Consider this: What is the annual worth of one customer to you?ก Is it 25 €, 250 €, or perhaps 2500 €? How many customers you need to get the invested money back?

Optimization of your website might be one of your best investment ever, if is planed and implemented right.

About The Author

Zoran Makrevski

Search Engine Optimization Services

SEO.Goto.gr

This article was posted on November 02, 2004

by Zoran Makrevski

Online Marketing Dontกs

Online Marketing Dontกs

by: Jessica Klein

There are over 200 million people worldwide connected to the Internet, with over 64 million regular users in America. It’s no wonder that such a vast audience has made online marketing one of the fastest growing industries in the world. However, half the trick of conducing successful ecommerce is finding a way to get people to your site in the first place—hence online advertising.

Internet advertising generated an astounding $1.92 billion in 1999, double from the amount generated in the previous year.

According to the Association of National Advertisers, nearly half of all American companies are selling online. The American City Business Journal reports that businesses that use the Internet grow 46% faster than those that don’t.

Online advertisers beware; marketing trends in this industry often become outdated faster than you can say ขpopupข. Here are some of the most common outdated online marketing techniques that should be avoided:

Pop Ups Ads Popups ads are like the billboards of the information superhighway—you can’t go anywhere without seeing at least one. The Internet has become so saturated with popups that overall web traffic times are slowing down. Most web users are downloading software that eliminates them from their system, so they are not the best way to reach prospective consumers.

Ecommerce sites Internet stores have become way too abundant, especially when likely 99% of what you’re looking for can be found at Amazon.com, the site that boasts ขEarth’s Biggest Selectionข. Unless your product is so extremely unique that it can’t be purchased elsewhere on the Web, an ecommerce site may just be a waste of time and money.

Reselling Ebooks Ebooks seem like a great idea. However, most of the sites that sell them offer the seller the right to resell the book to others. Therefore, the market has become saturated with books that are often available for free from some sites. And why would someone want to buy an ebook from you that they can get for free elsewhere?

Safelist Advertising Like ebooks, this is theoretically a good idea. Safelists are groups of members who have opted to receive ads from fellow safelist members. This form of marketing loses its effectiveness due to the fact that most members just massdelete their bulk emails without reading them. Everyone wants others to read their ads, yet no one will stop to read other people’s ads.

‘Free For All’ pages FFAs will post your ad in one of seven categories on their page. Like safelist advertising, the idea is that the thousands of others that post ads will see your ad and click to your website. Again though, everyone goes to FFAs to post, and not to access ads. On top of this waste of time and Internet space, your email account will get flooded with massive amounts of spam if you sign up with one of these sites.

About The Author

Jessica Klein is a member of the กMount Real Research Teamก, whose aim is to seek out and distribute business information to the virtual public. She is a freelance writer based in Montreal, Canada who loves writing about anything from accounting to zebras.

For more info about Mount Real, visit http://www.mountreal.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 10, 2004

by Jessica Klein

Invasion of the Amazons

Invasion of the Amazons

by: Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.

The last few months have witnessed a bloodbath in tech stocks coupled with a frantic redefinition of the web and of every player in it (as far as content is concerned).

This effort is three pronged:

Some companies are gambling on content distribution and the possession of the attendant digital infrastructure. MightyWords, for example, stealthily transformed itself from a กfreeforalleveryonewelcomeก epublisher to a distribution channel of choice works (mainly by midlist authors). It now aims to feed its content to contentstarved web sites. In the process, it shed thousands of unfortunate authors who did not meet its (never stated) sales criteria.

Others bet the farm on content creation and packaging. Bn.com invaded the digital publishing and POD (Print on Demand) businesses in a series of lightning purchases. It is now the largest ebook store by a wide margin.

But Amazon seemed to have got it right once more. The webกs own virtual mall and the former darling of Wall Street has diversified into micropayments.

The Internet started as a free medium for free spirits. Ecommerce was once considered a dirty word. Web surfers became used to free content. Hence the (very low) glass ceiling on the price of content made available through the web and the need to charge customers less than 1 US dollars to a few dollars per transaction (กmicropaymentsก). Various service providers (such as PayPal) emerged, none became sufficiently dominant and allpervasive to constitute a standard. Web merchantsก ability to accept micropayments is crucial. Ecommerce (let alone mcommerce) will never take off without it.

Enter Amazon. Its กHonour Systemก is licensed to third party web sites (such as Bartleby.com and SatireWire). It allows people to donate money or effect micropayments, apparently through its patented oneclick system. As far as the web sites are concerned, there are two major drawbacks: all donations and payments are refundable within 30 days and Amazon charges them 15 cents per transaction plus 15(!) percent. By far the worst deal in town.

So, why the fuss?

Because of Amazonกs customer list. This development emphasizes the growing realization that oneกs list of customers properly data mined is the greatest asset, greater even than original content and more important than distribution channels and digital right management or asset management applications. Merchants are willing to pay for access to this ever expanding virtual neighbourhood (even if they are not made privy to the customer information collected by Amazon).

The Honour System looks suspiciously similar to the payment system designed by Amazon for Stephen Kingกs serialized enovel, ‘the Plantก. Interesting to note how the needs of authors and publishers are now in the driverกs seat, helping to spur along innovations in business methods.

About The Author

Sam Vaknin is the author of กMalignant Self Love Narcissism Revisitedก and กAfter the Rain How the West Lost the Eastก. He is a columnist in กCentral Europe Reviewก, United Press International (UPI) and ebookweb.org and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101 and searcheurope.com. Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

His web site: http://samvak.tripod.com

This article was posted on February 2, 2002

by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.

5 Top Tips For Attracting Targeted Traffic

5 Top Tips For Attracting Targeted Traffic

by: Steve Shaw

One of the most common needs of online business owners is traffic. Without traffic, your web site barely exists, and is unlikely to make any profit whatsoever. With traffic, you stand a much greater chance of success but not just any traffic.

As the owner of a network of web sites receiving well over a million hits a month, in this article I give you my five top tips for increasing targeted traffic to your web site.

Newbies on the web frequently make the mistake of just wanting traffic, and join any and every program offering just that ‘thousands of hits to your web siteก, with the vast majority of them completely worthless. When their web sites fail to make any money, many of them give up on the web as a moneymaking myth.

For those that do persist, and try to learn from their experience, they realize itกs not just any traffic they need itกs targeted traffic. That means web site visitors who actually want to visit (rather than those who are กforcedก to visit via some traffic exchange program), and so are actually interested in what you have to offer.

This type of traffic is far more profitable to you your visitors are far more likely to purchase from you, simply because you have what they want.

But how can you attract targeted traffic?

Here are my five top tips:

1. An Affiliate Program

This works by giving those who promote your products a commission if they make a sale. Over time you can build up an army of people who are busy promoting your web sites for you.

My own affiliates account for well over half of all my sales, and to do that, by definition they have to be pushing a lot of traffic my way.

You can begin to see what my traffic and sales levels might look like without an affiliate program.

For beginners who are selling digital products such as ebooks or software, the easiest and cheapest way to start your own affiliate program is through ClickBank. Thatกs how I started and I still use them today.

2. Add Content

Providing quality content on your web site is an excellent way to permanently increase traffic to your web site.

Search engines like Google appear to favor web sites with a clear navigation structure that provide quality content within a certain genre that means not adding anything you can think of to your web site, but focus on a particular niche, and provide content broadly in line with that.

You don’t even have to create it all yourself. For example, look in article directories on the web for free reprint articles you can use, such as http://IdeaMarketers.com.

3. Create Content

Just as you are looking for content you can quickly add to your web site, so are thousands of other publishers. By creating content yourself, you can not only put it up on your own web site, but also provide it to others for their use with a small resource box at the end of the article with a link to your web site.

In so doing, you can have literally hundreds of web sites all linking to yours. This provides a consistent stream of targeted traffic from readers of the article who want to follow through to your web site, and also from search engines like Google, where your ranking will broadly increase in line with the number of web sites linking to you.

Hundreds of ezine publishers are also on the look out for quality content that they can publish, on a wide range of topics if a publisher with a large mailing list chooses to publish your article, this can lead to a surge in both traffic and sales on your web site when their ezine is published. Many ezines are published online too, providing another permanent link and source of high quality traffic to your web site.

There are various courses and ebooks available online that can teach you how to effectively distribute your articles and get them published thereกs also a free ecourse available at http://takanomi.com/publisharticles.php that tells you nearly everything you need to know.

4. Publish An Ezine

One of the most effective ways to build a loyal base of repeat visitors for your web site is your own mailing list, whether itกs an ezine that publishes regularly, or a mailing list who you occasionally mail to.

By publishing quality information in your emails, you increase your credibility, build trust with your subscribers, and encourage repeated visits to your web site.

5. Pay Per Click Engines

When you use payperclick engines, you are effectively paying to have a high ranking position for certain keywords, on certain search engines. If you choose your keywords carefully, the traffic is highly targeted the trick is to ensure you are not paying more per click than each visitor is worth.

To do this effectively requires some careful tracking of the visitors that arrive at your site from your keyword placements, but done correctly, the end result is net profit for you.

The main payperclick engines are Google Adwords and Overture with Google, your ads are displayed within minutes; with Overture, it can take a few hours to a few days to have your ads approved and displayed.

I personally use all of the above methods to attract targeted traffic to my web site of course, thatกs not the end of the road in terms of web site profitability. You then need to ensure that a proportion of this targeted traffic converts into paying customers. Once youกve mastered this too, you are well on your way to online success.

Steve Shaw creates software and systems for effective emarketing. His software at http://popupmaster.com allows you to add unblockable popups to your web site quickly and easily, specifically designed to sign up subscribers to your mailing list, and fast.

About The Author

Steve Shaw has been marketing fulltime online since March 2002, developing software products and systems for effective emarketing for more information see http://takanomi.com.

This article was posted on February 10, 2004

by Steve Shaw