Is There an Affiliate กFree Lunchก Program?

Is There an Affiliate กFree Lunchก Program?

by: Glenn Beach

กEverything worthwhile has a cost… Whenever you think you are getting something for nothing, look again—someone, somewhere, somehow is paying for it. Behind every free lunch there is a hidden cost to be accounted for.ก Edwin G. Dolan

If you, or any of your business prospects, believe that time is money, then yes, the ‘there Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunchก principle DOES apply to your internet business. What you can’t invest in money, you will have to invest in time. You will have to be able to put the axe to the grind for more hours per day or week, and you will have to wait for more weeks and months before your ship comes in. Those are the facts.

If you are able to think outside the box (and few internet entrepreneurs CAN’t!) then the principle can be stretched a little. Are you balking at spending a few pennies a day to boost your sales? Do some research comparing what your marketing program offers and what the same services cost on the open market. Compare what information your program offers and what you can learn elsewhere. For example:

find some online business forums and search these topics: free advertising, phone followup techniques, sample followup letters, sample phone scripts.

investigate your and other affiliate marketing programs for all the above plus services and tools such as: prospect notification, contact manager, online forum, billing and revenue collection, gateway website, company resource center, free sales and marketing tools, affiliate training courses, successful team support, commission or compensation schedule. In other words, look at EVERYTHING that the program will give you for free.

research what you would have to pay for any or all of the above tools, hints, and services.

How does your affiliate program measure up? What do you get for free and therefore, what do you save? How much can you afford to invest based on these savings?

If you absolutely HAVE NO MONEY to invest, thatกs one thing. If you have a kneejerk reaction to investing in something that กsays itกs freeก, think again. What other business in the WORLD besides one on the internet can you begin for NOTHING? How many pennies a day can you AFFORD to invest in your business, maybe not now but as soon as possible?

If you have nothing, you can start and run a business. You will have to pay for it, however, with time. Free ads need to be worked every day. Free ads drop out of sight as new ads follow. You need to study your product till you know it inside and out, so all prospective affiliates can be led, encouraged, taught how they too can succeed. Since the name of the game is visibility amongst the billions of offers on the internet, you can’t afford to waste a single hardwon prospect.

Without any money to invest in advertising, this will be a long slow process. You will have to determine how YOU can best achieve sales and attract affiliates, because each personกs skills, style and dislikes are different.

You need to be internet savvy because all the information you require to succeed is out there, you just have to know how to find it. Study, seek your own answers, and know where and how to ask questions. You will win the game with patience and persistence.

About The Author

Glenn Beach is a proud member of Work at Home Team.

He is a selfemployed subcontractor and home entrepreneur at:

http://www.workathomebusinessopportunitycanada.com

email: [email protected]

This article was posted on March 06, 2004

by Glenn Beach

Microsoft Great Plains customization and developme

Microsoft Great Plains customization and development – overview for programmer

by: Andrew Karasev

When Great Plains Software was designing and developing Great Plains Dynamics/Dynamics CS+/eEnterprise it placed several fundamental principles into the system

1. Computer platform independence. If you consider the situation in the computer software industry those days (earlier 1990th) nobody knew which office computer platform will be the winner: IBM PC clones with Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh with Mac OS or something like Sun SPARC. This is why graphical multiplatform idea was popular among software developers. Also there was a myth about C/C++ languages, working similar on all computers.

2. Database platform independence there was the need for future surviving. Competition on the database market was also very tough: Oracle, Ingress, Sybase, DB2, Ctree/Faircom, Btrieve (Pervasive SQL 2000 later on)

In order to realize these two principles Great Plains Software created its own development environment and programming language Great Plains Dexterity (DYNAMICS.DIC, REPORTS.DIC, FORMS.DIC are Dexterity dictionaries).

At this point customization standards were clarified:

1. If you need seamless integration with Great Plains Dynamics, working in the realm of Dynamics security and database independent data access/modification you do it in Great Plains Dexterity.

2. If your customization should be light then you appeal to the customization tools coming with your computer platform. Very soon Microsoft Windows took the market, so VBA was the way to go.

3. As soon as Microsoft Windows kicked Mac OS from the office computers market, standard third party Microsoftfriendly tools were recommended good example is Crystal Reports

4. When Microsoft SQL Server won the database market Great Plains Software began migration campaign from Ctree/Faircom, Btrieve/Pervasive SQL to MS SQL Server 7.0 and later 2000

Finally, when Microsoft bought Great Plains Software, Microsoft Business Solutions turned to be more concerned about its ERP products migration and transformation into socalled suites: Microsoft Financial, Microsoft Logistics, Microsoft Manufacturing, Microsoft Human Resources and pretty much abandoned the promotion of traditional tools: Great Plains Dexterity, VBA, ReportWriter, Continuum, Integration Manager. As a temporary patch to enable .Net programming it released such tools as eConnect.

Right now (20042005) we are in the transformation phase when old tools, such as Dexterity are still playing important role, but if you are thinking about customization, you probably better consider SQL Server scripts/views/stored procs, if you have customization budget make a research on eConnect. Try to make as much web publishing in Visual Studio.Net as possible. Use Crystal Reports design and our recommendation is to base Crystal Report on SQL View or Stored Procedure.

Good luck with installation, implementation, customization, development, upgrade and if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help! If you want us to do the job give us a call 18665280577! [email protected]

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, based in Chicago, California, Texas, Florida, New York, Georgia, Washington, Minnesota, Colorado, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is CMA, Great Plains Certified Master, Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer. You can contact Andrew: [email protected]

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 23, 2004

by Andrew Karasev

Detect and Remove Spyware

Detect and Remove Spyware

by: Mitch Johnson

The increasingly common computer and internet threat known as spyware is designed to gather information about personal and business computer users. The private information spyware is capable of obtaining about you can include your click stream, usage habits, passwords, credit card number and social security information. It is almost guaranteed that all PC computers have been infected with spyware.

A spyware infection is not primarily intended to alter a computer’s function but as a ขside effectข your computer will begin malfunctioning in obvious ways when some types of spyware invade. Possible signs include continuous pop ups, browser crashes and unauthorized start page changes. Users who have downloaded music and game programs are likely to have been infected as well as those who use shareware and/or freeware.

To clear your computer of malicious spyware computer users must download or purchase one of the many spyware scan tools. Proven and effective spyware tools can scan your computer and catch spyware, adware, keyloggers, dialers, Trojans, malware and more. Once the infected files are identified the spyware scan tools can safely remove them while keeping a back up of the file in case restoration is needed later. Spybot Search and Destory has become one of the most advanced and used free spyware scanning tools. Spy Doctor can be purchased and begin actively protecting against future spyware infections.

You computer should be scanned for spyware infections on a regular basis so as to avoid serious problems that could arise from deep infection. Nearly any of the many antispyware programs include free updates that will bring the program’s database of spyware definitions to the latest known for ultimate computer protection. Finding and using a good antispyware tool will help protect your private information from being snatched and used against you. Spyware removal tools will also stop annoying and intrusive advertisements from interrupting your internet activity.

About The Author

Mitch Johnson is a successful freelance author that writes regularly for http://www.spywareremovalmadeeasy.com/, a site that focuses exclusively on spyware removal software, as well as tips on how to prevent spyware from popping up on your computer. This site articles on has spyware guard, http://www.spywareremovalmadeeasy.com/spyware_guard.htm as well as spyware scanner, http://www.spywareremovalmadeeasy.com/spyware_scanner.htm

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 02

by Mitch Johnson

Free Keyword Research Tools Are Not As Effective a

Free Keyword Research Tools Are Not As Effective as Wordtracker

by: Alexander Marlin

Many online marketers fail, because they just don’t realize that free keyword research tools only give very competitive keywords. You need wordtracker to strike it niche (RICH).

One of the most unanswered questions online today is, how to perform keyword research that gets free traffic from the search engines. Many SEO experts recommends using one keyword or keyword phrase per page, while others recommends using secondary keywords with your main keyword.

My philosophy is simple, you simply use both methods and check to see which method works best.

You will also have to draw the line and recognize which is working best and continue with that method.

For me, I love to use one keyword phrase for review pages and for content pages I use secondary keywords with my main keyword, making the theme of that page much more search engine friendly. Our job is to please the spiders as well as our visitors.

My advice for newcomers is to build our first page using only a free tool such as GoodKeywords. I did the same with my first site, which ranked very highly for my choosen keyword phrases, due to the fact that the competition wasn’t very high and I also didn’t use the highly targeted keywords found in the search results.

Now, I must admit that I wanted to take my keyword research to higher heights and even discover a niche of my own with very little competition, and that is where free keyword research tools fails. They don’t supply enough data for you to analyze if your keywords are actually worth while or highly competitive.

That is where, wordtracker and KRA comes into play.

Wordtracker is the number one keyword research tool online, has been for many years and still is. Those who generate five figure monthly commission checks with affiliate programs knows the importance of wordtracker and just can’t live without it.

KRA, is a tool by SEO expert Andy Williams that you can use to filter out secondary keywords and related phrases. If your into optimizing your pages for better search engines result, then I highly recommend you get yourself a copy.

You can reap the benefits of online keyword research by using these tools, and stop fiddling around with free tools. Free tools are for beginners who are testing the waters. It is now time for you to join the rank of professional marketers and stop hoping for success.

The best feeling you can get from your online marketing is when you make that first sale, and it doesn’t matter how big it is.

Stop targeting the wrong keywords and start building much more profitable content pages that only the smart marketers are targeting.

My final words: If a keyword research tool is so good, then why would you create a tool with an import possibility for wordtracker data?

About The Author

Alexander Marlin, Ebenezer St. Maarten A.N. Has been actively marketing on the Internet for over 3 years. One of his many keyword research websites can be found at http://howtobuildwebsite.com/keywordresearch.html.

This article was posted on September 12

by Alexander Marlin

Website and Network Stress Monitoring

Website and Network Stress Monitoring

by: Vadim Mazo and David Leonhardt

In today’s world, organizations are fast accepting the web and related applications as part of their overall business strategies. They understand that the Internet provides them with the potential to target a very focused set of customers spread across a very diverse geography.

For a successful Internet presence, it is important that the web server and web applications are reliable, scalable and always available, irrespective of traffic volumes to the site.

To achieve this, you must test all your hardware and software using tools to check your website, usually called web stress tools. These tools should ideally be used even before the site is on the World Wide Web. They can provide a reasonably good estimate about the performance of your website and a company can identify issues before they arise.

Such issues might include slow response times while opening the website, a limited number of users able to simultaneously browse the website, or a cap on the number of requests that can be handled by a processing application. Based on the results, a webmaster can identify the bottlenecks and take corrective actions before they result in lost sales.

What does Website stress testing do?

Web stress testing provides performance reports for varying elements. For example, users might be complaining that your shopping site is taking ages to load and most search results are showing errors message. Using a web stress tool, you can check the performance of your web server. To your surprise, the CPU utilization on the Server may be just 20%. But if you are also monitoring the database application, you might find that it is already running at 100% and is the most likely reason for poor performance.

Stress tools can be deployed as software solutions where you can monitor the key components of your servers such as the CPU, memory and hard disk utilizations. They are built with userdefined alerts that can be triggered if a particular parameter crosses a threshold set by the user. As an example, you can configure an alert that must be generated whenever the CPU utilization crosses the 80% mark. Although this is helpful in identifying system bottlenecks, the results are limited to web servers that are connected to your internal network.

If the target audience is across the globe, or even across the country, a company needs to monitor its website and applications stress loads from different locations across the globe. The web server must provide reasonable performance from wherever customers are located. In such a situation the software solution is unlikely to meet the companyกs requirements.

Organizations must use external website stress monitoring tools, which provide detailed performance reports on servers that are tested from different locations. The outcome of these tests can help in finetuning the settings at their ISPs and in optimizing performance of the servers. Besides this, external stress testing also include monitoring of other network infrastructures that connect to the web server, such as routers, firewalls and leased lines that provide the backend connectivity.

This is why DotcomMonitorกs stress test tool (http://www.dotcommonitor.com/webloadstresstest.asp) offers its clients stress test agents located in various countries such as the USA, UK and Germany. This service provides performance data about the website from these and other locations spread across the globe.

So if you run a business on the Internet, it is important that your website and all associated web applications perform to their optimum levels. They handle transactions quickly and in turn offer faster response times to your user requests. Using web stress services you can get information you need to ensure superior throughputs and gain a reputation for highperformance dependability among your customers.

About The Author

Vadim Mazo is CTO of DotcomMonitor

http://www.dotcommonitor.com

http://www.dotcommonitor.com/websitemonitoring.asp

http://www.dotcommonitor.com/networkmonitoring.asp

David Leonhardt is a website marketing consultant:

http://www.seowriter.net/freelance/marketingconsultant.html

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 08

by Vadim Mazo and David Leonhardt

Add Wow! To Create A Buzz, Online!

Add Wow! To Create A Buzz, Online!

by: Steve Nash

Why is any web site special?

Is it special because the site is unique? Is it because the site loads quickly, has fresh content, and is easy to use? Is it special because the site contains the best content (or range of products)?

Is the site great because of the other people that visit?

Or is the site so useful or so much fun that people SIMPLY CANNOT stop talking about it, cannot stop revisiting it?

You guessed it, itกs all of the above (and more!).

Making any website a กwow!ก takes time, and there really are no quickfix solutions. But it is possible to make your site special a site that visitors bookmark without you asking; one that they willingly tell ALL their friends about.

=> USE THIS RESOURCE

Use your brain!

Your brain is *the* single best resource you have when trying to create a website with wowappeal. It is vital you use your brain to be creative, to be inventive, to be original!

(I mean just how interested are you in yet another version of (the brilliantly simple) http://www.hotornot.com ?)

So, to get your creative juices flowing, take a look at the following websites. (I visit these sites on a regular basis, you might too!) Find out what you like (and what you dislike) about these sites? And see what can you กborrowก?

http://www.amazon.com

(Personalisation, product choice and recommendations)

http://www.amazon.co.uk

(How does the UK version differ from Amazon.com ?)

http://www.google.com

A simple, but powerful site

http://www.mail2web.com

Access to pop3 email accounts. Simple, but effective

http://www.sitepoint.com

Great web developer resource, with informed forums

http://www.greasypalm.co.uk

A nicely designed shopping guide, offering cash back

http://www.textmefree.com

Guide to free sms text messaging, worldwide

Yes, that last site, TextMeFree.com, is my site. I built it in a week or so, a couple of years ago, from content I found via Google. I built it, because it was a site I wanted to use (but didn’t exist yet!).

And now the site gets OVER 5000 unique visitors per day, and is very much appreciated by its visitors

(http://www.textmefree.com/happyusers.html).

The point Iกm trying to make is that anyone can build a site with กwow!กappeal, anyone that uses their brain!

== Aside ==

If you have yet to build your website, then can I politely recommend that you take a look at an allinone suite of tools that goes by the name of Site Build It!

Site Build It! (SBI) lets you use your brain, lets you explore your passion, and provides you with the tools to convert that passion into a profitable website. It allows you to build (and promote) a site that pleases both the search engines AND site visitors. So you concentrate on your business (or passion), and SBI does the rest!

http://buildit.sitesell.com

== Aside ==

=> OR COMBINE THESE SERVICES

Intelligent and imaginative use of these excellent services WILL also make your website a compelling place to visit, a website with กwow!ก

http://www.blogger.com

Add a web log (blog) to your site

http://www.willmaster.com

CGI and WebMaster Tools

http://www.everyone.net/main/html/community_tour.html

Create a community

http://www.websource.net/free_articles.htm

Put other peopleกs content on your site

http://www.fonetastic.net/getfreesms.php

Offer free SMS on your site

http://subportal.iboost.com/subportals.html

Offer free stuff

http://www.atomz.com

Add search to your site

http://www.prizeengine.com/host.asp

http://www.loquax.com/webmaster/

Offer a prize or competition

http://www.hi2.com

Let visitors play games

=> OR DO IT YOURSELF!

The web is literally brimfull with free website building tools that can really improve your website.

Again, you are only limited by your own imagination (or creative combination of other peopleกs imagination!). I recommend you visit all of these sites, and get thinking…

http://www.bignosebird.com (script called Birdcast)

http://cgiresources.com/Programs_and_Scripts

http://reallybig.com

http://www.builder.com

http://www.websource.net/web/

http://www.jessett.com

=> READ MORE…

Think for a while about the sites that *you* really like, and think why it is that you like them. And always be on the lookout for good ideas, both online and offline.

For more กadd wow!ก ideas, why not read my article: 21 Reasons Why The Next Site I Visit Could Be Yours. You can get your free copy here:

http://www.wisebuys.info/webmasterarticles.shtml

Make your site a กwow!ก, and get everyone talking about (and visiting) your site. Sounds simple, doesn’t it! It isn’t, but there are lots of tools and resources on the Internet to help you. Just add your brain… then create a buzz!

Copyright 2004 Steve Nash

About The Author

STEVE NASH is the author of the ebook: ก3 SuperTips To Build, Promote And Profit More From Your Website.ก Download your free copy now! http://www.wisebuys.info/bonus.shtml

HIS BEST TIP? Use Site Build It!, and use your brain, to develop a profitable business online! Learn more, at my free guide here! http://www.sitebuildit.com

This article was posted on April 05, 2004

by Steve Nash

Regain Internet Privacy from Spyware

Regain Internet Privacy from Spyware

by: Mitch Johnson

The majority of computers connected to the internet today are infected with some sort of spyware. The prevalence of internet use has made the growth of spybot, adware, spyware, Trojans, keyloggers and other malware fast and easy.

Each form of surveillance software invades users’ privacy through numerous methods so they can gather information about people’s internet and computer activities. Users must learn to deny spyware access or remove any current infestations in order to maintain a private internet experience.

The consequences of spyware can include identity theft, loss of system control, PC slow downs, pop up ads and browsers crashes. Without a spyware removal tool you are continuing to invite spyware in to invade your privacy. Your antivirus and firewalls cannot catch most spyware applications because they are installed by piggybacking in on legitimate downloads that you approve such as freeware programs as well as music and game software.

Once on your computer the spyware works silently, beyond the user’s knowledge to gather private information. Spyware and adware software are stealthily embedded in your system, making them difficult to remove manually, which is why it is vital for internet users to find a spyware scanner. Spy scan tools search through the hard drive for spyware infected files. It then removes the detected files so your computer can be restored to it normal working capabilities. Several spyware tools actively protect you from spyware infections while you are working online.

About The Author

Mitch Johnson is a successful freelance author that writes regularly for http://www.1stinremovespyware.com/, a site that focuses primarily on spyware detection software, as well as tips on how to avoid spyware from popping up on your computer. His articles have also been featured on related spyware sites such as,

http://www.bestinspywaredetection.com/ as well as http://www.bestsypwareremovalreviews.com/

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 31

by Mitch Johnson

Youกve Got a Mailing List. Now What?

Youกve Got a Mailing List. Now What?

by: Scott Foreman

You thought that if you could just get people on your emailing list, you’d be on Easy Street. Part of that thought is right because without a mailing list your email marketing strategy is irrelevant. If you’ve got a mailing list, my hat is off to you. But now that you’ve got them, how do you keep track of them?

In this second (of three) part series, we will discuss integrated marketing tools. Namely, we are talking about socalled Complete Marketing Tools (or just, Tools) that come in many shapes and sizes, but are mostly applications that combine Ad Trackers, Autoresponders, and Shopping Carts. If you missed part 1 of this series, please check it out at: http://www.buildpassiveincome.com/cmd.php?ad=122106

What comes with the privilege of having a large marketing list, is the responsibility of keeping up with it. Complete Marketing Tools are set up just for that purpose, among many others. The Tool effortlessly integrates signing up new prospects as well as erasing list members who opt out of your publications.

Additionally, the Tool can manage rejected email messages without you ever having to deal with them. Whether the email you send is rejected due to Hard Bounces, Soft Bounces, or SPAM, the Tool is smart enough to either continue trying to send a message or remove the name from you list altogether.

Also, with just a few mouse clicks, you can manage your prospects between different mailing lists, autoresponders, and broadcasts. Such flexibility in a mailing list is hard to appreciate until you have to spend your precious time manually removing prospects with bad email addresses or some other tedious task.

If managing your mailing list isn’t enough for you, Complete Marketing Tools offer comprehensive affiliate management systems as well. From multi tier programs to commission payment scheduling to tutorials for new members, your affiliates will be better prepared because of the Tool. Likewise, you will be better equipped to manage your growing affiliate army.

If you want to set limits on your payout threshold, the Tool will do that in less than 30 seconds. You can also choose to pay your affiliates for whatever result you are looking; from pay per sale to pay per lead and more. If you’re looking for a one or two tier affiliate program, a Complete Marketing Tool is exactly what you need to save time and effort of your part.

Whether managing prospects or managing affiliates, the Complete Marketing Tool can give you a flexibility and ease of use that you may not have known even existed. In the meantime, next week we’ll discuss the Tool’s ability to handle Autoresponder and Broadcast messages.

Take a tour of our favorite Tool and see if won’t pay for itself many times over in time saved. http://www.buildpassiveincome.com/cmp.php?ad=120452

Remember, be good to yourself and never underestimate the power associated with the intensity of your passion.

Copyright 2005 Foreman Enterprises

by Scott Foreman BuildPassiveIncome.com

mailto:[email protected]

We will pay you TWO WAYS to run this article!

First, we will pay you up to $25 for every person who visits our site and purchases a product as a result of you running or posting this article.

PLUS, once you confirm we will give you a FREE DISPLAY AD in our Internet Success Newsletter (thatกs how much we appreciate it)!

Make sure that you get your affiliate ID at:

http://www.buildpassiveincome.com/affiliate

This article may be reprinted for use in newsletters and websites provided that the information box is kept intact. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: [email protected]

About The Author

Wayne and Scott Foreman are coowners of

http://www.buildpassiveincome.com

This Secret Book Made Terry Dean Rich! You Can Get it Free IF you click below now (you won’t believe the simple techniques it reveals that ANYONE can use)

http://www.BuildPassiveIncome.com/secret

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 09

by Scott Foreman

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

How to Create a Professional Website In Less Than

How to Create a Professional Website In Less Than a Week

by: Andre Grisby

Hereกs a really simple way… any novice can create a fully functional website in less than a week.

Websites are the wave of the future. Although many companies are using an online presence to drive business to their brick and mortar stores, many hobbyists also tend to have a bit of interest in developing their own online presence as well. Developing a website from scratch can be rather expensive, but armed with the right tools, and given a little instruction, anyone can develop a professional website in less than a week.

One thing you must always remember is that anyone trying to do a particular job should be armed with the right tools. Having the right tools will definitely make your project a bit easier to complete.

I guess you are scratching your head wondering what type of tools I would be talking about. You see when you are developing a website, you become a builder, a painter, or an artist. You are taking an idea from your head and transforming it into a digital image so to speak. Just as if you were going to build a home from the ground up, take a paint brush and create a masterpiece painting, or take a piece of clay and create a winning statue, you need the right tools to do the right job.

The tools Iกm referring to are web graphics software, web design software, and ftp (file transfer protocol)software. These are tools are a must if you want to get off on the right foot. There are so many of these types of programs that you must really do your homework in order to purchase the one the best fits your needs. Some of these programs can even be downloaded for free. Each program focuses on a particular task. The graphics software helps you create images for your website from scratch. The web design software in short helps you to design and build a website from scratch. The file transfer protocol software is you link to sending your completed web pages from you computer to the internet.

Day one should be focused on purchasing cyber ‘real estateก, and purchasing a name for that real estate.

Building a website is like building a new house. You have to purchase the land and then you can purchase the materials to build the home on the land. Letกs take a look at this. Every website has a so called name. Example www.1234.com. This is called the domain name. There are many places that you can purchase cheap domain names. They usually run under $10 dollars and are good for about a year. Once you have the domain name you can start looking for a place to host you website. There are many hosting companies that are popping up on a daily basis. Hosting can be dirt cheap or it can be rather expensive. It all depends on the quality of service you receive from the company. Hereกs another area you should consider researching before you make a purchase.

Day two should be focused on the whole planning aspect of your website.

The planning aspect of your website should be focused on the objective of your website, the audience you are trying to target, and how your competition is doing in the market. Focusing on the objective simply means to think about what you are trying to accomplish with your website. Your goals and accomplishments should fall into this category. You should also be trying to focus on a target market. Many internet marketers feel that you should focus on a niche market. Remember that the internet is a big playing field. A beginner will get lost in the crowd trying to cover several areas. Instead, try and focus on something with less competition but enough competition to stay in business. Targeting a specific market or niche market is basically the audience you are trying to win over.

Day two should also be focused on the look and feel of your website. For example, you should have a mental image of how you want your website should look. It would be safe to say that you could even sketch out a raw diagram of how you want things to look. Pay attention to the color scheme as well. remember that all colors do not coordinate with one another.

Day three should be focused on the type of graphics you plan on using.

In all honesty, web graphics can make or break the success of your online presence. The internet is all about information and speed. Itกs like going to a fast food restaurant. You go their because you something quick to eat. The internet is similar. A fast loading website will beat out any other website hands down any day. In order to have a fast loading website you must keep your image graphics file size down to a minimum. The more clutter or bells and whistles you add to your site, the faster it will take to load. There are several website design programs out their that will let you know how long it would normally take for you page to load up. Shrinking the file size, saving it in different formats, and even cropping the image can cut seconds off your loading time.

If you want to save money, you can purchase a graphics program and make images and logos on your own. If you are a bit scared of the venture, you have the option of hiring someone to do the job for you. Whatever choice you make, always do your research for the best details and outstanding customer support.

Here we are on day four. Only one day left. Creating your web pages.

This is basically the meat and bones of any website. For the most part, an easy way to build a website is to use what is called a template. Basically a template is a preset model used to create a number of different pages. It saves you time and headaches. Once you find the look and feel of your website, you use that interface as a preset model to help you move along more smoothly. There are many html editors that can help you do this quicker than usual. One thing to remember is that using an html editor prevents you from dealing with actual html coding. Basically what Iกm getting at is you don’t really need to know html when using an html editor.

You want to focus on building links, inserting and formatting text, and focusing on building your other pages throughout your site. Day four is the day where everything starts coming together. Take your time on this day. Don’t rush anything. Make sure you are satisfied with one step before moving on. Your website is basically a mirror image of what you stand for. It will reflect on your work ethic and personality.

Congratulations you made it to day five. Give yourself a pat on the back. This day is spent publishing your website to the world.

This is where all you work is tied together and presented in a nice package. In order to do this you need some type of ftp software. In technical terms itกs called File Transfer Protocol. This is how you transfer your web page files and graphics from your computer to your hosting company. The procedure is rather simple. You basically use a point and click interface. You highlight the file you want to transfer and hit upload or send. The software is rather selfexplanatory. Once the site is up on the web, check for links that are not working, or slow download times. Way to go, you have completed your first website without all the technical wisdom. There are a few more details that you will run into, but this is like a crash course of something that is really rather simple.

(c) Copyright 2003 by R. Grisby

When you decide to tackle this task, just remember to take your time and plan everything out in advance. Do your research, and learn the basics of the three main software tools that are required. The tools are only as good as the user. If you become stuck or confused on a certain function, seek help. Customer support, chat rooms, or newsgroups. Remember the internet is a world of information. Use it to your advantage.

Follow these steps and you can impress your friends and family. Completing this will eventually get you labeled as a genius or whiz kid.

About The Author

R.Grisby distributes ebooks dealing with various topics. Selfhelp, motivation, website design, and how to manuals are some of the areas that are covered. Visit www.buildmyesteem.com and also www.grisbynovels.com/5daywebsite.htm

This article was posted on September 24, 2004

by Andre Grisby

SEO Trade Secrets 8 Great Tools for Search Engin

SEO Trade Secrets 8 Great Tools for Search Engine Optimization

by: Glenn Murray

About 80% of website traffic comes through search engines. And research shows, if you’re not on the first 2 pages, most people won’t find you.
This article isn’t about how to achieve a high ranking. That topic has been done to death over the past few months. We all know the basics now… Submit your site to the major search engines, scatter a generous helping of the right keyword phrases throughout your site in real sentences, then get a lot of other relevant sites link to your site. That’s it.
This article is about what tools to use to make your job easier.
1) Choosing Keyword Phrases (costs approx USD$7.50 per day)
To decide what keyword phrases to use, subscribe to www.wordtracker.com for a day and do some analysis. Simply enter a keyword and WordTracker tells you how often people have searched for that keyword in the last month or two, how many competitor sites are using that keyword, and how many searches it expects in the next 24hrs.
2) Measuring Keyword Density (FREE)
To measure the density of the keyword phrases on your page, go to http://www.gorank.com/analyze.php and type in the domain and keyword phrase you want to analyse. It’ll give you a percentage for all the important parts of your page, including copy, title, meta keywords, meta description, etc. The higher the density the better.
3) Check How SearchEngineFriendly Your Site Is (FREE)
Search engines send out spiders (or robots) to investigate your site. These tools allow you to see your site from the spider’s point of view.

http://optimiser.123promotion.co.uk enter your URL and a keyword phrase and it gives you a great summary of the things you could improve.
http://www.1hit.com/allinone/tool.searchengineviewer.htm enter your URL and it gives you a summary of the things you could improve.
http://www.gritechnologies.com/tools/spider.go? Poodle tells you how many links the spider will see and investigate.

4) Check How Many of Your Pages are Indexed (FREE)
Go to just about any search engine and type site:www.yourdomain.com. The search engine will then tell you how many of your pages it has indexed.
5) Monitor Your Position in Google (FREE)
No need to waste time clicking through hundreds of Google search results looking for your site. This tool allows you to enter a keyword and a domain name, and it searches Google to see where your domain is positioned. Go to http://www.cleverstat.com/googlemonitorquery.htm to download the setup file. Then just install.
6) See How Important Sites Are (FREE)
The Google Toolbar is an indispensable tool. One of the things it can tell you is the ขimportanceข of every site you visit (in Google’s eyes at least). You’ve probably heard a bit about PageRank or PR. PR is Google’s measure of the importance of a site. Basically, the higher your PR, the higher your ranking. This tool gives you a snapshot of the PR of every site you visit. Go to http://toolbar.google.com. TIP: It’s good to get links from other sites with high PR – especially if they contain the same keywords as your site. WARNING: Apparently the Google Toolbar monitors your internet usage. As yet, it’s unclear what it uses this information for.
7) Monitor What Sites are Linking to Yours (FREE)
Google News Alerts (http://www.google.com/newsalerts?hl=en) and Google Web Alerts (http://www.google.com/webalerts) will tell you who’s linking to your site. Simply set up an alert to be notified when Google finds www.yourdomain.com.
8) Getting Help (FREE)
If you’re new to SEO, the first thing you should do is check out Google’s guide to SEO at http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html. If you already know the basics, there are a number of forums you can subscribe to to post questions. These forums are free, and they’re frequented by countless SEO experts. And when I say ขexpertsข, I mean EXPERTS! Some of these people do SEO all day, every day. And like many technical experts, they’re only too happy to help – for free. The best forum seems to be http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3, but http://searchengineforums.com/Forum28 is ok too. If all else fails, you can try sending Google an email. Go to http://www.google.com.au/contact/index.html, but don’t hold out much hope of help here. They’ll eventually answer, but there’s no guarantee on the quality of their response…
This is just a snapshot of the tools available out there, but these will certainly get you started.
Some additional resources: http://www.123promotion.co.uk/promotion/tools/websitepromotiontools.html Various Web Promotion Tools
Enjoy!

About The Author

Glenn Murray heads advertising copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at [email protected]. Visit http://www.divinewrite.com for further details or more FREE articles.

This article was posted on May 26, 2004

by Glenn Murray

All the Spyware Security you Need: For Free

All the Spyware Security you Need: For Free

by: Mitch Johnson

More and more internet users are understanding how important it is for them to find security software that allows them to remain invisible to possible intruders. Threats such as spyware, Trojans, viruses, worms and other malware are difficult to avoid because they have become so widespread. To partially prevent these malicious codes from sneaking in you must first secure you computer with a firewall that will notify you of any unauthorized intruders.

Even by setting up your security so that you remain invisible to most intruders, users will be exposed to spyware and viruses by visiting web sites and downloading freeware and shareware. If you computer is invaded by spyware or viruses you must download both antivirus and antispyware software. Technology experts recommend using more than one spyware tool because its threats are so prevalent no one scanning tool can catch all infections. Utilizing two or more antispyware tools will help better protect your computer from the consequences of spyware build up.

Each of the security tools necessary to keep your internet surfing safe can be downloaded for free. Numerous antivirus, antispyware and firewall programs can be downloaded for free and most offer equivalent protection to those you purchase.

Because all the tools necessary for security are free, there is no reason users should not take advantage of the safety nets.

Once you have your security tools in place you can run a test through a trustworthy source to ensure that your computer is virtually invisible online and secure from intruders.

About The Author

Mitch Johnson is a successful freelance author that writes regularly for http://www.1stinremovespyware.com/, a site that focuses primarily on spyware detection software, as well as tips on how to avoid spyware from popping up on your computer. His articles have also been featured on related spyware sites such as, http://www.bestinspywaredetection.com/ as well as http://www.bestsypwareremovalreviews.com/.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 03

by Mitch Johnson