Toshiba Wins Hollywood Support for the HD DVD form

Toshiba Wins Hollywood Support for the HD DVD format

by: Iulia Pascanu

What led them to this choice, as all four studios stated separately, is better performance for the price and copyright protection.

The other standard in competition, the Bluray disc, unconditionally backed by Sony Pictures Entertainment, is also counting on support from Metro Goldwyn Mayer and Twentieth Century Fox. The latter has recently joined the BluRay Disc Association Board.

The Bluray disc has more world leading electronics companies that support it: Sony, LG Electronics, Matsushita (Panasonic), Mitsubishi, Samsung, Sharp, TDK, Philips, Pioneer, Hitachi. Also, computer giants Dell and Hewlett Packard.

The HD DVD standard is developed by Toshiba, Sanyo and NEC, under the endorsement of the DVD Forum.

Both HD DVD and Bluray standards use the same wavelength bluelasers that permit data storage on the disc at a higher density. This enhances the disc capacity and allows the recording of high definition video on DVD support.

Wining the support of the big Hollywood movie studios is most important in the DVD format battle. Up to this moment, the four studios that gave their endorsement to HD DVD technology represent 45% of the DVD prerecorded movie market.

The launch of DVD players in the HD DVD format is expected for the last quarter of 2005.

About The Author

Iulia Pascanu writes for http://www.dvdrecorders.ws/ where you can find a complete DVD recorders shopping guide. Please feel free to use this article in your Newsletter or on your website. If you use this article, please include the resource box and send a brief message to let me know where it appeared: mailto:[email protected].

This article was posted on March 30

by Iulia Pascanu

You Are Wasting You Adword Money

You Are Wasting You Adword Money

by: Iszuddin Ismail aka Kidino

Now this is a tip if you are using any kind of PPC (Adwords, Overture) to promote any product offered via ClickBank or any affiliate program that uses PayPal for payment processing.

If you don’t know this already, ClickBank and Paypal does not accept payment from everybody.

They only accept payments from certain countries. And they can do that by identifying the IP address of the buyer.

For example, me, living in Malaysia, I cannot buy anything that is offered through ClickBank. I hate it!

So the tip is this. Whenever you are promoting anything from ClickBank, use geographical targeting to reduce costs. Just select the countries that can buy the the product.

For example, if you are promoting the Super Affiliate Handbook (by Rosalind Gardner) with Adwords, don’t include Malaysia in the regional targeting.

If I happens to come by your ad on Google, and I think that itกs interesting, I click on it that just costs you $0.20 (maybe). And when I get there, however interested I am with the product, I can’t buy it.

And maybe I could contact the merchant. And the merchant arranged an alternative payment via StormPay or MoneyBooker. But that will not be tracked with ClickBank … you just did favour for your merchant. Well … so generous of you.

$0.20 just went down the toilet. And 50% commission lost.

You can avoid that loss if you had not selected กAll Countriesก in your geographical targeting.

So what I am suggesting is for you to only show your ad to these few countries using the geographical targeting. Of course selecting the countries will takes time. But you could save a lot this way.

To make it easier for you, I have a list of countries that ClickBank do accept payments from. And thereกs another list for Paypal as well.

ClickBank

Andorra

Anguilla

Antigua & Barbuda

Aruba

Ascension Is

Australia

Austria

Bahamas

Barbados

Belgium

Belize

Bermuda

Bolivia

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Botswana

Bouvet Is

Brazil

Canada

Canada

Cayman Is

Chile

China

Colombia

Costa Rica

Cyprus

Czech Rep

Denmark

Dominica

Dominican Rep

Ecuador

El Salvador

Equatorial Guinea

Estonia

Falkland Is

Faroe Is

Fiji

Finland

France

Germany

Gibraltar

Great Britain

Great Britain

Greece

Greenland

Grenada

Guadeloupe

Guatemala

Honduras

Hong Kong

Hungary

Iceland

India

Ireland

Isle Of Man

Italy

Jamaica

Japan

Kenya

Kiribati

Korea (South)

Kuwait

Latvia

Liechtenstein

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Maldives

Malta

Martinique

Mauritius

Mexico

Monaco

Montserrat

Namibia

Nauru

Nepal

Netherlands

Netherlands Antilles

New Caledonia

New Zealand

Nicaragua

Niue Is

Norfolk Is

Northern Ireland

Norway

Palau

Panama

Papua New Guinea

Paraguay

Peru

Pitcairn Is

Poland

Portugal

Reunion Is

San Marino

Sao Tome & Principe

Seychelles

Singapore

Slovak Rep

Slovenia

Solomon Is

South Africa

Spain

Sri Lanka

St Helena

St Kitts & Nevis

St Lucia

St Pierre & Miquelon

St Vincent & Grenadines

Svalbard & Jan Mayen Is

Sweden

Switzerland

Taiwan

Thailand

Togo

Tokelau

Tonga

Trinidad & Tobago

Turks & Caicos Is

Tuvalu

United Kingdom (Gb)

United States

Uruguay

Vanuatu

Venezuela

Virgin Is (Gb)

Wallis & Futuna Is

PayPal

Anguilla

Argentina

Australia

Austria

Belgium

Brazil

Canada

Chile

China

Costa Rica

Denmark

Dominican Republic

Ecuador

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Hong Kong

Iceland

India

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Jamaica

Japan

Luxembourg

Malaysia

Mexico

Monaco

Netherlands

New Zealand

Norway

Portugal

Singapore

South Korea

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Taiwan

Thailand

Turkey

United Kingdom

United States

Uruguay

Venezuela

About The Author

Iszuddin Ismail is the กWeb Marketing Techieก at MoneyClicking. He publishes the MoneyClicking Newsletter where he shares tips and strategies to website building for internet marketing. Go over and subscribe to MoneyClicking Newsletter and receive a 50page FREE EBOOK ContentSite for Affiliate Income.

http://www.moneyclicking.net

This article was posted on September 19, 2004

by Iszuddin Ismail aka Kidino

Marketing Your Automated Testing Team

Marketing Your Automated Testing Team

by: Danna Henderson

It won’t matter how effective your WinRunner Team is if noone outside your immediate organization knows about your accomplishments. For this reason, marketing your WinRunner Team is vital to your success. When times get tough, executives look for costcutting measures. The QA group is often the first on the chopping block. If these high level executives don’t fully understand and appreciate the value of your service, they will see the cost of WinRunner licenses and maintenance as well as the highly skilled, but also more expensive WinRunner engineers as a nice place to start trimming the budget. They will not have the time or luxury to launch an investigation to see if these services are really necessary.

The next thing you know, you have a nice library of WinRunner scripts, but no tools to execute them and no one with the skills necessary to modify the scripts as applications are updated. However, if these high level executives have personal knowledge about the benefits of software WinRunner in terms they understand, which are time and cost savings to the business they support, they will be less likely to put it on the chopping block.

High level executives don’t have the time or energy to seek you out and find out what benefits the automated testing has to offer to the organization. Instead, you must make the effort to seek them out. Marketing your WinRunner group is the responsibility of the entire team, but the heaviest burden lies upon uppermanagement and Vice Presidents because they have daily contact with peers at their level and higher.

Demonstrations for High Level Executives

One of the best ways to market your WinRunner team is to demonstrate to Executives, what you have done with WinRunner tool and how it helps their business. When you know an executive will be in town for a day, arrange for a thirty minute meeting. Executives are busy and everyone wants a piece of their time, so limit the time to thirty minutes. It will be sufficient to demonstrate what you have done with the product as well as how it benefits their business.

When you have confirmed that the executive will be able to attend a demonstration, it’s time to find a suitable conference room. Choose one that has live network connections and a screen to display the laptop image. Schedule the conference room for thirty to sixty minutes before the executive arrives in order to prepare. Use this time to set up the laptop, projector, and perform a dryrun of the script. Verify with the development engineering groups that no loads will be affecting the application you plan to demonstrate. Explain how important it is that nothing impact the environment, which will cause the application to go down during the presentation.

Invite as many members of the WinRunner team as possible so that the executive has the opportunity to meet everyone. However, if this is not possible due to the current workload, invite only key individuals, preferably the ones who created or currently maintain the script that will be part of the presentation. They know most about it and will be able to troubleshoot any problems that arise more efficiently than someone who is not as familiar with the application or script.

Begin the meeting by making introductions and pass out an agenda so that everyone knows where the meeting is going and what will be covered. Give a brief overview of the application that will be demonstrated. The application should be one that the executive is familiar with and the script should run the length of the meeting (or longer). Ideally the application will have a lot of fields, making handtyped data entry tedious. WinRunnerl will whiz through the application at an impressive speed.

While the script is running, explain how long it takes to manually run one test case verses how long it take WinRunner to execute one test case. Translate this into one test iteration so everyone can see how much time WinRunner saves on a weekly or monthly basis. Mention that the manual testers, who used to perform this testing, are now free to work on other projects, while this one is testing it’s self. At the end of the meeting, bring up the report to show how easy it is to identify which test cases passed and which, failed.

Executives are usually in backtoback meetings, some of which run over their time limits. Lessimportant meetings, such as your presentation, may get rescheduled at the last minute. Don’t be discouraged. Simply reschedule the meeting for a later date. These presentations are not a waste of time. Executives who see the benefits of WinRunner and the cost savings will not only hesitate to cut your program out of the budget, but they will also inform their peers, who are struggling with long testing cycles, of your success. Ultimately, your success is their success.

Take Advantage of Status Reports

Status reports are one of the best ways to demonstrate to the business, on a weekly basis, how much time and money they are currently saving by automating the software testing. Status reports should contain the following figures:

Weekly hours saved per application

Year to date hours saved

Number of application automated

Number of scripts

Cumulative hours saved this week for all applications

Cumulative hours saved to date for all applications

Database or Spreadsheet of Project Statistics

Once the business and upper management gets wind of your WinRunner team’s abilities, be prepared for a windfall of questions. You will be asked over and over about the number of applications that have been scripted, time saved through automation, and a host of related questions. The best way to be prepared is to have a database or spreadsheet with your current project statistics on hand. Not only will you appear organized and efficient, but you will not have to drop your current activities to scramble for statistics. Your project database or spreadsheet should show general and application specific statistics.

Let Others Toot Your Horn

Executives who have had positive experiences with you in the past will spread the word when their peers complain about manual testing or show an interest in automating their software testing.

Beef Up Your QA Website

Most organizations have an internal website with sections dedicated to each group within the organization. If your QA organization doesn’t already have a website, it’s time to create one. A QA website can help you streamline activities such as a project queue that prioritized new projects, and conduct customer satisfaction survey’s, and announce your successes to the rest of the company.

Your QA website will do nothing for your PR unless other groups and organizations have to access it in order to interact with your team. You can begin forcing other groups to access your website by creating a project work queue, where they must complete a form in order to have their project entered into the QA work queue. This is your opportunity to lay down the rules rather than be forced to abide by their rules. There are specific facts that need to be clear before QA can prioritize and assign resources to a new project.

Departmental home pages generally consist of the group mission statement and basic information. Once people have seen it a few times, they will skim right over it and with out a second thought. What a waste of space! Home Page real estate is the most valuable area of your website because it’s the one page that everyone sees. You best real estate should be reserved for facts that demonstrate your team’s success. It’s not that the team mission statement isn’t important, but rather that the mission statement belongs on another page or at the bottom of your home page, after the statistics. These statistics can be arranged in such a way that they display a running total of the cumulative time saved to date for each application and as a whole.

Town Hall Meetings

Take advantage of Executive Town Hall meetings, which are often used to update employees on the success of the business and visions Executives have for the future. They usually include many top level executives, who have connections in other business units who may be in need of automated testing. It’s not unusual for each Vice President to be asked to stand up and say a few words about their team’s current activities. This is a good opportunity to repeat some of your automated testing statistics or, in some cases, a quick presentation.

Don’t be afraid to contact executives, explaining your success with WinRunner and that you would like to share this with the organization during the Town Hall meeting. Executives rarely have the opportunity to see what is really happening in the ขtrenchesข and will be pleased to hear about your success, especially when it is clearly a costcutting measure.

About The Author

Danna Henderson has created complex, robust WinRunner scripts for many webbased applications. For more information about successful automated testing with WinRunner, visit WinRunner Consultants at http://www.winrunnerconsultants.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 31, 2005

by Danna Henderson

Flea Marketing Lessons

Flea Marketing Lessons

by: David Leonhardt

A few days ago, I was signing copies of my book – Climb Your Stairway to Heaven: the 9 habits of maximum happiness – at the flea market. Nobody expects an author to sign books at a flea market. Some people sell a few wornover books, but authors just don’t do book signings at flea markets. Especially not books about finding happiness.

Iกve never been afraid to be different, to take the road less traveled, to wander off the beaten path and run gleefully right over a cliff. Fortunately for me, the flea market is on low ground and I had the chance to learn a few things just watching people.

Pop Quiz: Is it best to wedge your booth between other booths piled with junk, where nobody even notices you are there? Or is it better to have a booth out in the open away from the clutter, where people can easily see you and get to your booth?

I learned the hard way. My booth was out in the open away from the clutter, where people could easily pick up speed and zoom right past. (But I was right next to a support beam, so at least I knew the roof wouldn’t cave in on me.)

Apparently, the sales process at the flea market works like this:

Step one, some fool actually stops to look at a toasteroven with only three coils missing, partially blocking the aisle.

Step two, a traffic jam ensues as more people come along and completely block the aisle.

Step three, to relieve their boredom, they buy ‘treasuresก they would gladly have passed by if they could just have picked up enough momentum to keep walking. Isn’t that a lot like how กgurusก sell stuff on the Internet?

Step four, they go home and brag about their great กfindก and how it cost them almost 14 cents less than any of the other กHappiness is surviving your own cookingก commemorative plaques in their collection.

I leaned my second lesson. To sell anything, you have to slow people down. So I stood in front of my booth.

กFree bookmark, sir?ก

Sir hesitates, then takes the bookmark.

กIt features the nine habits of maximum happiness.ก

Sir studies the bookmark.

กSame habits as in my book right here.ก

Sir looks up at the display for a moment. Then he starts moving again, staring down at the bookmark, mumbling something under his breath and BANG! hits the support beam. กOoh,ก I thought. กA few thousand more times and that beam might not hold. That could be dangerous.ก

Fortunately, I decided to relocate, standing with my back to the beam so people would pass safely to one side. Don’t kill your customers: a brilliant idea whose time had come. I learned my third lesson after running through just 34 first aid kits.

I went through the same routine with Broadeyed Lady and her husband, except that she missed the beam. She continued walking as she read the 9 habits of happiness on the bookmark, then suddenly slapped it against her husbandกs chest. กHere. Read this,ก she commanded.

Ouch. Thatกs gotta hurt. Good thing I was giving away bookmarks and not paperweights.

I thought Broadeyed Lady was a unique character, until Hunched Old Lady did the same thing. And so did Spunky Crewcut Girl. And Grizzly Guy, too. I guess itกs easy to expect others to change, rather than ourselves.

In fairness, few people used my happiness bookmark as a domestic weapon, a fact the judge took into consideration later that day. He even commended me for not giving away paperweights.

But he did order me to recount, without looking at my notes, the lessons I had learned watching people at the flea market. Letกs see …

Slow down, or youกll never spend your kidsก inheritance on priceless knick knacks.

Grab peopleกs attention or they will just whiz by.

Don’t kill your customers

Don’t expect people to change for you, even if you do wield a loaded bookmark.

About The Author

The author is David Leonhardt, The Happy Guy. To receive his satirical happiness column weekly in your inbox, sign up at http://TheHappyGuy.com/positivethinkingfreeezine.html or read more columns at http://TheHappyGuy.com/selfactualizationarticles.html. Visit his home page กFinding Happiness and Selfactualizationก at http://TheHappyGuy.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 10, 2003

by David Leonhardt

Your Affiliate Business and Taxes

Your Affiliate Business and Taxes

by: Vickie Scanlon

Starting a homebased business on the Internet is easy you say. You have your web page built, your affiliate links and you’re ready to go. Not really, you need to make sure you have all your iกs and tกs crossed when it comes to taxes.

Getting Started

First, you will need to register your business name with the city government. When I registered my business name with the city I was charged $11 so expect to pay a small fee when filing this legal document with your local goverment.

Second, you need to apply for an Employer Identification Number with the Department of the Treasury (IRS). To file for an EIN, you will need to complete Form SS4. You can find these forms in post offices, public libraries, online, or by contacting the IRS.

Once you receive this document, keep it in a safe place in other words, don’t crumple, stomp, or throw away this identifies you and your business with the U.S. government and you will need this number when you file your taxes.

Third, you will need to check with your state government to determine if you need any specific licenses. Such as Retail Sales Tax Permit if you are planning on selling items offline or online.

Fourth, you may want to open a Business Account at your local bank once the money starts to roll in. Keeping your money separate from your family account helps you to keep your accounting accurate for your business.

What percentage of your income will go to your State and Federal Government?

You will need to pay the following taxes, at the following rate, on a quarterly basis:

States Taxes 3.7%

Federal Taxes 11.3%

Social Security 12.4%

Medicare 2.9%

The first year in business is difficult, because you have no idea what you will be makingYou will need to make a conservative guess. However, you will only pay what you owe against that of your expenses (your net income). For example, if you believe you will have $3000 in expenses during the year and you believe in your first year, you will make $6000 you would report the following:

$6000 (Money Made) $3000 (Expenses) = $3000 (What you owe)

This amount would be divided among the four quarters within the year and paid to your State Government and the Federal Government. If you find that you will be making more and you have paid in for one quarter you will have to adjust the balance and divid it between the remaining quarters.

The following is what you will submit to the Federal Government:

Federal Taxes11.3%,

Social Security12.4%, and

Medicare payment2.9%.

The State Government will receive only the 3.7% of your net earned income.

(Please note: If you are unsure about anything, you should enlist the help of a CPA, regarding tax matters).

Your estimated taxes are due on the following dates throughout the year:

April 15

June 15

September 15

January 15

To obtain more specific information you can read IRS Publication 505: Estimated Tax payments.

Note: You are not required to make estimated tax payments until you have income not subject to withholding on which you will owe tax. If you don’t make your first payment until a later period, you must divide your entire estimated tax by the number of payment dates remaining. If, for example, you have three payment dates pending, you would pay one third of the total tax by June 15, the other third by September 15 and the last by January 15.

Typical Expenses To Deduct

Here is a list of some of the expenses you can deduct.

1. Your home mortgage If you use a room solely for conducting business then you can take this deduction. There are a couple of different formulas to determine the percentage of your home that is used for your business.

You can use the กnumber of roomsก method or the กarea methodก. I would suggest using the กarea methodก because I can’t imagine having a home where all the rooms are the same size.

With the area method, you would take the area of your home office divided by the area of your home. Example:

Your Office= 10ก X 10ก = 100 square feet

YOur home is 1000 square feet

Your deduction = 100/1000 or 10%

2. Indirect Expenses with indirect expenses you will only be able to deduct the area percentage (Note: use area percentage calculated above) of the total cost. These indirect expenses would include such things as:

House payment

Utilites

Telephone

Garbage collection

Internet connection (If other people are using the Intenet)

3. Direct Expenses these are expenses that relate only to your business.

Supplies

Advertising

Business account bank charges

Keeping Track of Expenses

To keep track of all your expenses. and you are comfortable working with a spreadsheet software, I would suggest purchasing a small business accounting package such as QuickBooks or Peachtree Accounting.

To conclude, this definitely is not an exhaustive list of what you need to know. However, this will give you a beginning as to what you will have to be aware of when starting a homebased business. As your business grows, your CPA will be able to assist you and keep you on the straight and narrow to your success on the Internet.

About The Author

Vickie J Scanlon has a BBA degree in Administrative Management and Marketing. Visit her site at: http://www.myaffiliateplace.biz for free tools,articles, ebooks, and how to info or check her blog for additional insights to the Affiliate Business – http://myaffiliateplace.blogspot.com

This article was posted on March 29

by Vickie Scanlon

How To Use Viral Marketing To Grow Your Opt In Ema

How To Use Viral Marketing To Grow Your Opt In Email List

by: Stephen Warren

If you have read my article called กWhat is Viral Marketingก you should already have a fairly good idea of itกs potential.

In this article Iกm going to discuss how it can be used to grow your all essential, opt in mailing list.

As you already know, Viral Marketing is a great way to get the word out about your product or service, so you can see a huge surge in sales.

But what about subscriptions to your newsletter? Can they too be effected by this type of Marketing?

YES they can.

But how? This depends on how difficult and successful you want to make it. Not that these two factors necessarily go hand in hand.

The most basic form of using viral marketing automatically, is probably a tellafriend script. Iกm sure youกve seen them, youกve probably used them as well.

All you have to do is type in someoneกs email address into a form, and the website will usually have text pre inserted into the form telling the person how great you think the website is, but you could always add your own instead.

Your friend receives an email which to them looks like you are telling them about this fantastic new website and hopefully he will sign up to the newsletter to find out more.

This can be manipulated in other ways. For example what if you did a questionnaire, then, to get the results of the questionnaire, not only does the person have to sign up to your newsletter, but they have to fill out a tellafriend script for three friends, telling them about this questionnaire. Then, those three friends sign up, take the questionnaire, and oh look, they have to sign up to the newsletter to find out the results, oh well, lets tell three more friends each.

This has a huge snowball effect, and should see you exponentially growing your optin mailing list.

This isn’t too hard to create either. Just go down to elance.com and ask a programmer how much he would charge for such a thing.

However, you must remember that you must start your marketing efforts with some fuel, and that fuel is people. You have to start with at least a few people filling out this questionnaire for this to even begin. 0 people telling 3 friends each still equals 0.

Another way to grow your mailing list, is to pay people for every subscriber they send your way. This isn’t exactly the type of marketing Iกve been discussing throughout this article, but it will grow your optin list quite well if you pay enough and enough people start doing it. I think that 10 cents per subscriber is fair.

If people start sending you more subscribers than you can afford to pay, then you can always stop it for a while. But remember this, is you treat your subscribers well, then you have a life time value of them, which is worth far more than 10 cents.

Hotmail.com used this form of marketing in a small way that produced big results. At the bottom of each of the emails sent, they included a small line that said something like กGet your free email account with hotmail.comก. This meant that every time an email was sent from hotmail the recipient would read this and perhaps think, กHmm free email account huh? Better check this out. This resulted in hotmailกs huge growth in a relatively short period of time. Eventually Microsoft brought hotmail.com for an obscene amount of money.

About The Author

Stephen Warren is the creator and webmaster of http://www.marketershandbook.com, a completely free business and marketing resource which anyone may use.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 23, 2004

by Stephen Warren

Keyword Targeting Strategy In Your Site

Keyword Targeting Strategy In Your Site

by: Vikas Malhotra

Once the keywords have been decided for the site one has to come up with a strategy to target those keywords across the site. Here is a primer on that.

Keywords Targeting Strategy for Keyword of Single word:

Keyword of Single word is useful to attract general audience and helps in getting high rank ,if the web site is new. Keywords Targeting Strategy for Keyword of Single word is that they should be more used in the root level pages or top level domain pages. This is because these pages are the ones that attract the general traffic & are generally the pages which do not specify specifics. Hence single word keywords based on themes can be targeted for on these pages.

Keywords Targeting Strategy for Keyword of Multiple words:

Keyword of Multiple words are useful for attract targeted audience therefore should be used topic wise for each page according to subject of that web page. Relevant set of Keywords should be use in Title tag, Header Tag, Meta tag, Body tag, Alt tag, Anchor tag, Comment tag and in the url (uniform resource locator) of that specific web page. Use underscore or hyphen to differentiate Keywords. These keywords are normally targeted upon in deeper level or sub directory level pages.

Keywords Targeting Strategy for Keyword based on Theme:

Keyword based on theme is useful to attract targeted audience therefore they are strongly recommended to be used. Typically, although it is not a hard and fast rule but in theme based keyword we use general keywords in root level and uses specific keyword in directory level.

Overall one can safely say that in keyword targeting one uses a dart board strategy. Wherein the smallest circle attracts your core audience & hence should have theme oriented multiple word keywords. As we move up on the theme (dartboard) the circle ( traffic) tends to get larger & the keywords tends to get simpler( singular) even though they are theme based.

KEYWORDS and KEYPHRASES usage in Domain Name:

Keywords and keyphrases use in Domain Name & urls of directory pages is also a factor in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as well as it helps to inform targeted audience, about the sites content . Therefore, special care should be exercised in choosing a domain name. All the search engines start reading each web page with its respective domain name.

Having said that, let me add that there is a raging debate amongst the seo community to determine the exact importance of keywords in the domain name. One camp believes that it is hugely important to have keywords in domain whereas the other maintains that brand building domain name is more important than keywords incorporating one.

Whether keyword is a factor or not is debateble however it has been observed that domain name extensions do definitely play a part in rankings. Search engines ( specially google) have a predilection for sites having extension .gov,.edu,.mil in domain name. Search engines believe that information available at these domains would have a greater likelihood of being authentic as no commercial interest is served here.

Domain Name can be classifieds into two categories:

1. Keyword Specific

2. Brand Name Specific

Keyword Specific Domain Name

When Keywords and Keyphrases are used in a Domain name then its called Keyword specific Domain name.

Keyword in the domain name to my mind has two advantages.

One It is better to have a keyword domain name for it is worth remembering that most of the people link to you using your URL. If your URL has the keyword or the keyphrase then you are automatically using the keyword in the very important anchor tag.

Secondly, though marginally, in a ranking scenario with every other parameter remaining equal, the Keyword Specific Domain Name will enjoy a slight edge over the other web site. However remember Keyword used in Domain name should be primary and generic. Specific keywords can be used in the sub domains. Read about the use of subdomains.

Keywords and Keyphrases uses with hyphen/underscore in Domain name are said to preferred as they are read by search engines as separate words. So the domain name can have a search phrase incorporated into it. However the flip side of it is that domain names with hyphen or underscore are inconvenient to carry.

Brand Name Specific Domain Name

When company or organizations’ name is used in Domain Name to brand it then it’s called as Brand Name Specific Domain name.

Brand Name Specific Domain Name does not help online searches at all. However they are very powerful tools for company identification in the mind of users. In the anonymous online world a brand spells loyalty, trust & value. So if you choose to go for building your brand rather than deep rooted optimization, one way of incorporating keywords is through your directories & pages names.

KEYWORD DENSITY

Keyword Density is a proportion of the searched term ( Keyword or Keyphrase) against the whole words written on a given page. The ideal Keyword Density is 6%8% though various search engines have various tolerance levels before their spam filters get activated. Higher Keyword Density does help to boost a pages’ ranking.

Keyword Density can be increased by using target keywords repeatedly in Title tag, Header tag, Body tag, Comment tag, Alt tag, Anchor tag, Paragraph Tag , Domain name and in diretory/page names.

However one disadvantage of trying to hike the keyword density is that the visible text on the page starts to look spammy if it is not carefully crafted. That makes for a bad copy.

About The Author

Vikas Malhotra

Iกm an eBiz consultant and owner of Mosaic Services an SEO Company. I regularly write and submit articles on various SE specific topics.

To find more articles, please visit my site http://sem.mosaicservice.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 01

by Vikas Malhotra

Tips on Avoiding Scams

Tips on Avoiding Scams

by: AnnaMarie Stewart Venton

One thing I think we ALL agree on: There are way too many scams out there. Both online and off. Things like:

Email from a กmillionaire who needs help transferring large sums of moneyก This is one of the most popular scams online today.

How about the กYou`ve won the lottery!!ก mails? You know that unless you`ve bought a ticket, or registered for the lottery in question, you haven`t really won a thing. Prepare to be scammed!

Oh, and the กFree Credit Reportก mails, did you know that they`re usually just someone looking to get your ssn number, or some of them even bill you for using their กfreeก service later?

Watch out for the Egold and Paypal scams, where someone sends you a mail telling you that you HAVE to login, or risk losing everything. Both Egold and Paypal have strict email policies, and neither of them would EVER ask for your login info with an email.

Then there`s กYou`ve won a free giftก. How many of those do you get per week? All you have to do is pay s&h, right? Well, that means it isn`t really free, doesn`t it? You know what they get when you claim that free gift? Usually your credit card number, or even your email address/phone number which can then be sold on as กleadsก.

I`ve put together a bunch of links that can hopefully help you with safely marketing online, without getting scammed.

Minimize Credit Card Fraud http://www.scambusters.org/CreditCardFraud.html

Museum of Scams and Frauds (I really love this one)

http://www.quatloos.com

Great list of online and offline scams

http://www.crimesofpersuasion.com/index.htm

A forum for discussing get paid programs. Good, Bad and Scams

http://www.isaaf.com

List of scams with a touch of humour

http://www.worldwidescam.com

What if you`ve already been scammed? Complain! Don`t just leave it. You won`t help yourself, nor others if you just leave it. Even if you don`t get your money back, you`ll be doing your bit to stop these scams and fraudsters, ultimately helping others to avoid them.

Been scammed? File a report!

http://www.badbusinessbureau.com/reports/default41.htm

A joint project of consumer protection agencies from 17 nations

http://www.econsumer.gov/english/

How to complain (UK)

http://www.consumer.gov.uk/consumer_web/complain.htm

In ending:

There`s just so much hype out there, and it`s easy to get กsucked inก. We all want to believe that we can actually make the promised 10`s of thousands of dollars within just a couple of weeks.

In reality, things like that just don`t happen. The only person who can possibly, if at all, make that amount of money, is the program owner. At YOUR cost. Always remember, if it looks unbelievable, it probably is.

No matter what you market online, always do your homework before signing up for anything. It`s REALLY important to do a lot of research before you decide to pay out any money.

Don`t rely on just a couple of sources for information, find as many as you can. Check out lists and forums, see if they`ve got anything to say about the program/product you`re considering.

Ask all your friends and contacts if they`ve heard anything, good or bad. Go to marketing chatrooms, see what people there have to say about it. Ask about everything you need answers to regarding the product/program. You`ll be surprised at the amount of information you can get.

Get in touch with the owners, ask questions. If they`re elusive, or don`t answer you at all, then my advice would be to steer clear.

Above all: Never EVER use money you can`t afford to lose.

AnnaMarie Stewart Venton

Not Just Another Ezine

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About The Author

AnnaMarie Stewart Venton publishes Not Just Another Ezine at http://annamarketing.com. Dedicated to helping marketers succeed, and have a bit of fun at the same time. She also hosts weekly กGet To Know Each Otherก chats for all online marketers. Download your free Money Chatter Viral Marketing Tool here: http://annamarketing.com/MC

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This article was posted on June 03, 2003

by AnnaMarie Stewart Venton

Falling in Love With More Than One Screensaver: Th

Falling in Love With More Than One Screensaver: The Fun Part

by: Roman Kramar

Having from five to ten and more favorite screensavers is cool. But how do you enjoy them all in a straightforward and convenient way? Draw the power you need from the little yet useful tools discussed in this article!
As you remember, earlier in my article What to Do if You Fall in Love With More Than One Screensaver we discussed the standard way of switching between multiple screensavers. Having that possibility is a pleasure indeed. Just imagine that your operating system doesn’t let you easily vary screensavers to suit your mood. Youกd be forced to uninstall the installed screensaver, and then install a new one. Avoiding this effort would lead you to a fabulous triumph of utter boredom! Thankfully, itกs not the case. Furthermore, as you will see, there are tools that make switching between your favorite screensavers a breeze.
As strange as it may sound, computers were created to make our lives easier. Really, they are very good at automating repeating and boring tasks. And now is the very moment to remind them of that.
Imagine your innermost dream. You just sit doing nothing and your computer, your dutiful servant, takes care of your problem without your slightest intervention. All what is left to you is to enjoy the fruits of its labor. Nice, huh? Tada! Enter Random Screensaver!
If you have never heard about Random Screensaver, fear not! กRandomก here has nothing to do with a random and unpredictable mess on your screen. Itกs the first little tool that will help you drive away the boredom of manually switching between your favorite screensavers.
The idea behind the tool is simple yet very useful. Random Screensaver is not a screensaver in the first place. It wears this disguise to take control each time the operating system says itกs a perfect moment to start the screensaver. Once in control, the tool looks at the list of available screensavers and asks a random performer from the list to start its show.
Thatกs it! If you install Random Screensaver, you will never have to switch your savers manually. Each time a different screensaver will start. All your favorites will get a regular outing!
Oh! Iกve forgotten to tell you the most important thing. Random Screensaver is completely free, and you can download it from this page:
http://www.clearnight.com.au/random.htm
There you will find two different versions: กQuick downloadก and กFull installation.ก The first one is a bare screensaver file and is very small. The second is a selfextracting installation package that will do all the installation work for you, but itกs much bigger. If you don’t want to waste your time downloading the bigger package, itกs time to recall my previous article What You Should Know About Installing Screensavers. There you can get the knowledge needed to install the bare screensaver file.
Now that we have solved our primary problem, I can hear some of my readers start grumbling. If you are one of them, I know whatกs bothering you. Remember in the beginning of this article I said how bad it would be if you could not match your mood with running screensavers? But Random Screensaver knows nothing about your feelings. It simply runs a random screensaver. Well, there still is a cure for those of you who can’t stand this disease.
The second tool I would like to tell you about is AllSaver! Although not free, itกs a perfect cure for the second problem. It works much like Random Screensaver, but in addition to running a random show, it lets you tell exactly which screensavers you would like to see. So, if you feel today is a good day for just five of your favorite savers, and other twenty of them should rest, you can have it this way! Simply add those five to the list, and itกs done!
But wait, thereกs even more to please you! AllSaver! has one unique feature. It makes it possible to run two or four of your favorites at the same time! You select how many screensavers to run, and AllSaver! splits the screen as needed, providing the space for all running screensavers.
If you can’t wait to see it in action, you can download this amazing tool using this link:
http://www.emotional.com/AllSaver.htm
Use these tools, and say กnoก to the boredom of seeing one and only screensaver! Variety is a good thing. Have fun!

About The Author

Roman Kramar is a software developer who enjoys writing screensavers as his time permits. Visit his site at http://www.elasticsystems.com/ to find out more about screensavers and his work.

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This article was posted on July 30, 2004

by Roman Kramar

The Catalog Production

The Catalog Production

by: Maricon Williams

After the completion of the planning process, catalog production starts. These are the steps when producing a catalog:

First is the gathering of data. Before any design to exist you must first gather a complete list of all the products you will include in the catalog, as well as all nonproduct copy. If some items will be grouped together as one catalog photo block such as a shirt that comes in 4 sizes and 6 colors, check to ensure that it is clear for the designer. Sort further the list into categories or spreads.

Second, write the product copy. Although most every company can pull a list of products, item numbers and prices from their computer system, virtually no company maintains proper product name and descriptive copy. Product names used in inventory software typically have names like กIVY TSHIRT RED MEDIUM.ก In your catalog that same product would instead be called กIvy Tshirtก, available in red and size medium.

Keep in mind that the descriptive copy for general customer catalogs should range from 30 to 60 words. Business and technical catalogs should be as brief as achievable while getting across the information a corporate buyer needs to make an informed purchasing decision.

The third step is to plan and design the overall look and feel of the catalog. In the planning questions you may have determined the catalog dimensions, catalog objective and catalog audience. With that information you can design the master layout for the catalog. All page design will originate from this master layout. In the master layout, you can design all common page elements, grids, design themes, and type specifications for all type of occurrences. To examine the design specs, you can mock up a couple of pages.

Fourth, design the spreads and cover. After the overall look and feel of the catalog has been designed, product list and copy created, you can now sketch out each spread to identify the items on the spread and their approximate layout. You can also indicate any product photography that needs special shots such as with a background or model, and sketch approximately how we envision the photographกs layout.

The fifth step is product photography. This step involves the acquisition of all the picture and graphic files. The next thing to do is to process the images in Photoshop. There you can adjust the levels, add a clipping path and convert the image to CMYK.

Finally, you can now layout the catalog. This is the most thrilling part of designing a catalog. Here you can put all the elements together on the page to come up with a functional and attention grabbing catalog.

Additional Information about the articles can be found at http://www.catalogprintingexperts.com

About The Author

Maricon Williams

I love reading. Give me a book and Iกll finish it in one sitting. Reading is the chance to be transported to a different world and so is writing. Iกm more enthusiastic about writing however, since you can relay your ideas to someone else. I can only imagine that feeling when I hear a complete stranger talking about my ideas which read on an article somewhere. To relay my message to as many people is the same as touching people with music. Only mineกs less harmonic. I try to make up for it with the color I bring with words. And most of the time, it’s more than enough.

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This article was posted on March 29

by Maricon Williams