Wednesday, August 29, 2007

How To Re-Set Spellchecker to Recheck Document

After you have written a text and run spellcheck, you might find it necessary to go back and revise the document. You might also have found that you have been running spellcheck, your brain has gotten a little numb, and you can't remember if you actually fixed the last error or just "Ignore" automatically. You'll need to re-set your spellchecker so that it will recheck the entire document, not just new text that is added. Here’s an easy way to re-run spellcheck:

Block highlight the ENTIRE text (that is, click at the very beginning of the document, before the first word on the first page, and drag to the bottom of the text; or click the cursor before the first word on the first page, and then hold down the Shift key and click behind the last word on the last page).

Go to Tools, Language, Set Language, U.S. English (or other language being used), OK.

Then click at the beginning of the document to remove the highlighting.

The spellchecker has now been re-set. You can run it again, and the entire document will be spellchecked.

You can also do this just for sections of text, by block-highlighting the section you want to re-spellcheck.

You can also recheck your spelling using this alternative method:

With your document open, click Tools, Options, Spelling & Grammar. At the bottom of the window under “Proofing Tools” is a button for “Recheck Document.” Click on the button. When you do, you will get the following window:

This operation resets spell checker and grammar checker. Do you want to continue?

Click Yes. Then, re-run spellcheck on your document.

It is easy to re-check a document that has already been spellchecked. Please be sure to remember to run a final spellcheck when you are completely finished with your document!

About The Author

Jan K., The Proofer is freelance proofreader and copyeditor. Visit http://www.janktheproofer.com for more information. Visit Jan K., the Proofer’s sister sites: Mom’s Break at http://www.MomsBreak.com for free printable projects and crafts. Jan’s Dough at http://www.jansdough.com for free printable recipes for Sourdough Bread and more. For more articles by Jan K., The Proofer, visit http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com. Article © Copyright 2005. All rights reserved.

jkproof@bellsouth.net

Friday, August 24, 2007

Guaranteed Way to Increase Your Google Page Rank and Technorati Ranking!

If you are looking for ways to improve your GOOGLE PAGE RANKING and TECHNORATI RANKING, I recommend that you give Viral Linking or Viral Tagging a chance. All you need to do is follow these four simple instructions and you're on your way to increasing the number of links to your blog. (courtesy of Blogging Mix.)

==== Copy and Paste below this line ====

Instructions

1.) Copy and paste the entire matrix of “ViralTags” below.

2.) Substitute the Host Tag and one of the “ViralTags” in the matrix with your anchor text of choice containing your blog’s URL. Please keep anchor text to a maximum of 4 words to keep the matrix size manageable.

3.) When you get a ping back from someone that has your link in one of their “ViralTags”, practice good karma by copying his/her Host Tag’s anchor text (automatically the associated link will also be copied) and paste it over one of your “ViralTags” below.

4.) Encourage and invite your readers to do the same and soon this will grow virally.


Host Tag: Blogging Mix : Blog, Bloggers and Blogging

| Blogging Mix | Blog About Interesting Stuff | Internet Blog Branding | Blogspot - Search Engine Optimization | Blogging Tips, SEO Guide | Blog Instructor | Blog, Blogger and Blogging | Blog About Networking | Blog Monetization - Blogspot | Blogger, Blog and Blogging | Blogging and Marketing | Blog For Bloggers | The Bloggers Haven | Business Logic | Extension - Blogging Mix | Content, Connection, Continuity | Asian Women and Culture | Viral Tag | Viral Tag | Viral Tag | Viral Tag |


UPDATE: Please let me know through the comments when you've posted this on your blog so I can add your link. Please inform me of your preferred ANCHOR TEXT too. Thanks.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Web Site Traffic Report

Situated in hometown, www.deepakbansal.com has developed a site web site traffic report services which is much more accurate than the conventional log file analysis in addition to our web report are browser based and more consistent than log files. Seeing that a number one provider of corresponding intelligence web site traffic report, www.deepakbansal.com is becomes the trusted standard in web site traffic report provider. www.deepakbansal.com is the number one provider of real-time web site traffic report provider in the country.

In the midst of complete autonomy in gathering data and recognized leadership on interactive measurement technologies, www.deepakbansal.com ’s objective is to provide clients with an explicit competitive advantage in their e-Commerce activities through precise web site traffic report. Are you aware of the fact that how much web site traffic your web site attracts and you wonder how many people view or coming to your site? Where do they come from and when do they come along with how did they arrive to your web site? www.deepakbansal.com provides more than thousands of subscribers’ for the most part in USA, Canada, Australia, UK and much more.

Created along with integrated in the university surroundings, www.deepakbansal.com is specific in continuous research on the high-tech information technologies, web marketing as well as business intelligence. www.deepakbansal.com is concentrates in delivering on-demand web site traffic report to the enterprise as well as of international market. www.deepakbansal.com is provider of the web site traffic report designed along with distribution, the company born few years ago to offer automated excellence services to internet companies with expert professionals.

In excess of thousands of users every day, be pleased about the usability, consistency and uniqueness of the online services provided by the use of www.deepakbansal.com. Majority of web-smart businesses, consist of well known names for instance many leading firms and organizations of this in addition to foreign country, depend on www.deepakbansal.com to amplify sales, to improve web site conversions, trim down marketing costs, web site optimization, web site traffic report system and provide a higher level of service to their customers in addition to associates.

Attract Traffic to Your Blog: Alternative to Search Engines

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Give me 1 Link, I'll Give You 5 Links in Return

Blogging For SEO Benifits

It is finally time to create a blog that has enough presence on the net that it will be #1 in search engines for phrases you want. Links are king for search engines. Content is also important but we all know that links are what search engines see at first, the content is going to keep you at the top when you get there.

We are all aware of the time factor that there is when it comes to Google and other search engines. In my experience, it takes a month or more before your website shows up in any search engine for any key phrase. You will see that you gain search engines traffic all the time as long as you use this strategy.

Back to the blogging. To make sure you have links pointing to your site that are going to raise your site in search engines utilize blog directories and social bookmarking. These two things are going to magnify the power of your blog my 10 fold thanks to these two miracles of the internet.

An example of a social bookmarking site is de.lici.us. What you have to do is sign up and add your blog to your favorites. This site allows people to publicly add sites to there favorites so this is where content comes in as well. If people don't like what your writing, they won't bookmark your content. Then what you do is go to the blog area of your account and add the code that allows others to add you to there favorites. Add the code to the area of your blog where your posts are. This can be done on many blogs. Now people will add you to there favorites and this will increase traffic and links to your sites.

A blog directory is a place that indexes blogs in exchange for you placing a little rectangle that says blog on it to your blog. This is a reciprocal link but it will increase traffic to your site and any links counts. An example for this is blogcatalog.com. If you have ever added your site to a regular web directory to your site you can do this because it is the same thing. The benefit of this is that people are always looking for blogs with info. Blogs are also updated much more often.

Until next time, remember that you must always take massive action and never be reluctant to do something but always plan before you do anything.

About the Author: ----------------

Free Report-- If want more info download this free E-book.

Click Here To Get Your Own Copy Of "Creating A Massive Blog Traffic Vortex"

What Makes BlogCatalog Different? - Blogging Mix Review

Saturday, August 18, 2007

How Blogging Affects Mainstream Marketing

There has been a lot of buzz around blogging lately, and for good reason. Weblogs, or blogs for short, are changing the way people market themselves and their businesses.

If you aren't familiar with blogging, the concept is relatively easy to grasp. Blogs first began as a shared online journal. A blogger posted diary-like entries about his or her daily life for others to read.

Recently though, blogging has evolved into a new form of business writing and advertising. Many business owners now use blogs to promote their goods and services. Others use blogs to promote their website and get higher search engine rankings. Some politicians even use blogs to reach voters.

The typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media that is somehow related to the blog topic. Though most blogs focus on textual contant, a blogger may include videos, pictures, and even audio in blog posts. A blog comprised of videos is called a vlog and a blog that uses pictures is called a photoblog.

The Benefits of Blogging

By adding blogging to their marketing campaigns, business owners are able to market their product with virtually no out of pocket expense. In some cases, bloggers may even be able to make large sums of money with their published blog. For example, a blogger who employs the Google Ad Sense program can make money from blog readers. The more readers a blogger has, the more money can be made from the Google ad.

A blogger can also be a guide for shoppers who are looking for specific products and services. This makes blogging an excellent tool for retailers or affiliate marketers. Blogs can also be a source of valuable information and niche industry news.

Because there are virtually limitless possibilities provided by blogging, it is easy to see why blogs have begun to have a significant impact on mainstream marketing practices. Many companies have noticed this and have chosen to hire a blogger to write and post up to date information for customers, shareholders, and employees.

Some blogs now get millions of readers every single day. There are so many blog readers out there, that experts speculate that the world of blogging is rivaling the mainstream media. New blog search engines are also being created to make searching for a blog easier than ever before.

If you have not yet established a blog for your business, you may want to consider doing so as soon as possible. Keep in mind though that it will take work to attract readers to your blog. It must be interesting or valuable to them in some way. A blogger must also concentrate on creating informative pieces that are as honest and up to date as possible. Blogging is serious business and if you make a mistake, it will not go unnoticed by your readership.

If you need help developing your blog, there are many different browser-based software programs on the market that can help you get a start. Blogs can also be hosted by dedicated blogging services or regular web hosting services.

Last, but not least, a blogger must remember to optimize blog writing for search engines. Blogging is an Internet medium and needs to be approached with Internet principles in mind.

Blogging Example

A typical blog entry includes a title or headline, a body of text, a permalink or URL for another web page, and a post date, which indicates the date and time that the post was published. A blogger may also choose to include a link at the bottom to allow readers to post comments on the blog.
About The Author
Cliff Posey, owner of CRP Marketing, owns and operates http://webbusinesstoolsonline.com. Cliff Posey has also operated several other successful web businesses including Love Song Cards and Radio Career Consultants. The content in this article was developed from his experience in these businesses.

Monday, August 13, 2007

A Logo Without Your Name... Can Be A Big Branding Pain!

I often get asked to develop a small business's logo as a symbol-only logo. But for many small businesses, this isn't the right choice for a couple of reasons.

Designing a symbol-only logo is a much more complicated (and often more expensive) process, because the symbol has to:

- Carry a lot more meaning - there's no text to help explain the business. It's important that your logo has some meaning and a role in explaining your business - and that's a lot for a little symbol to do all by itself.

- Be entirely unique all on its' own. I don't need to tell you that there are a whole lot of logos out there. A lot of the basic shapes - and even some of the more complicated ones - are already "owned" by big corporations. But you can still use variations or combinations of those shapes when they're designed into a logo with your company name.

- Communicate to your audience. The more obscure the symbol design that you create, the less likely that your customers will understand its meaning. Or they may interpret it incorrectly. Either way your clients will feel alienated - and that's never good.

If you do create a symbol-only logo, you'll have a couple of challenges with your brand identity:

- It will take a lot more time and effort to educate your target audience about your business. Think of all the symbol-only logos that are really memorable, like Nike or Apple. The reason that those are so memorable and well-known is that each of those companies has a very large advertising budget. They can afford to dedicate people and time to getting the word out. Their deep pockets build visibility and encourage recognition. Small businesses just don't have those kinds of resources.

- Trademark infringement can be more of a problem - from both sides of the fence. It can be very difficult for your designer to design a logo that won't look like any other trademarked logo out there, regardless how hard they try.

1. First of all, it's hard for a designer to comprehensively research all of the other trademarked logos just to see what you're up against. However, the Trademark Office has more thorough tools and methods of researching the other existing logos out there and they might find one that you overlooked.

2. Secondly, logos and trademarks can be a bit subjective. Just because you and your designer think that the design that you've created doesn't infringe on other logos, the Trademark Office might reject your application based on their interpretation of "similarity"

3. And you're not just worrying about what the Trademark Office thinks. Any other business with an existing trademark could also challenge your application. They can even ask you to cease-and-desist using your logo after it has been trademarked if they held their trademark to a similar logo first. While surrendering might not seem like such a bad thing, remember that you'd also have to destroy any existing printed collateral, forfeit your trademark (and the trademarking process isn't cheap!) and redesign all of your materials. You'll also lose the equity and memorability that you will have built up in your logo if you do have to redesign.

If you do finally manage to design and trademark a symbol-only logo, you'll have to be extra-vigilant about making sure that other companies don't design a mark that's similar to yours. You are ultimately responsible for "policing" your own trademark and will have to stay up-to-date on trademark applications.

Alternately, you could hire someone to keep an eye on new trademarks for you but that can be expensive.

You can easily avoid all of these complications by designing a combination logo that includes both a symbol and your company name. Once you've designed your combination logo, you should always use the components together. This helps avoid potential legal issues like those mentioned above.


About The Author
Erin Ferree is a brand identity and marketing design strategist who creates big visibility for small businesses. Through her customized marketing and brand identity packages, Erin helps her clients design effective websites that help them extend their brands, bring in new clients and make sales. http://www.elf-design.com/

Check out Blogging Mix for more details or you can visit BlogCatalog's Discussion Thread regarding the event!

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Pop-Ups Still Work. At Least For The Time Being

Do you remember playing with the jack-in-the-box toy as a child? You knew that if you kept winding it up, eventually jack was going to burst out of the top and startle you!

Many of you found old jack-in-the-box an annoying toy and confined it to the toy box.....

Well, it reminds me of pop-ups on the internet. Eventhough you know that when you get on the internet there is a good chance a pop-up will present itself, you always act surprised and somewhat violated.

But as irritating as they are, pop-ups work. Most businesses are able to utilize pop ups for growing their list. This way they can market to you for years to come. Others actually make sales off of pop up offers.

Now, these days if you don't want to deal with pop ups, you have the pop up blockers and stoppers. This pretty much remedies the situation if you don't like multiple offers etc.

However, many people still don't have any type of pop up blockers because they haven't gotten around to purchasing it or because they actually want to view the pop up offers.

*Aggravating Pop Ups Mop Up!

With jack-in-the-box, jack always popped up. With pop ups, you can have multiple offers. Depending on the pop up software, you can have them pop up on entrance or on exit and even have them set on a time delay.

Plus, you can have them load on the front or behind the page. And even position them to the exact spot on the page where you desire.

**Remember when I said that pop up blockers and stoppers can pretty much be stopped these days?

Not so fast!!

Check out this article online at http://www.govisitors.com/jb/article4.html

After you get there you'll notice a pop up that flies onto the page.

Even if you have a pop up blocker set up on your computer, it shoudn't stop it. You see, this pop up is built into the html page. This way when it loads, it does not open in a separate window. It is a part of the page and can not be stopped.

Maybe it's sneaky, but it works....

The word on the street is that Pop Ups will soon be done away with. Believe me, this will not hurt my feelings in the least! They tend to annoy me also. However, until then, you can continue to reap the benefits of utilizing pop ups for your business!
About The Author
Turn website visitors into paying customers! Free Epackage at http://www.govisitors.com/epackage.html. Take Advantage of Pure Internet Marketing Genius at GoVisitors.com's Article Library http://www.govisitors.com/articles.html jasonblackston@govisitors.com

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

How Do Internet Coupons Affect Company Branding?

Branding is very important to companies nowadays. Through the brand, a company can communicate with its consumers. A brand is considered to be valuable if it elicits a positive response from its consumers. When a consumer sees a product with a certain brand label on it and buys the product, then the brand is considered to be highly valuable. Anything that helps a product be sold is valuable. Anything that increases company value is valuable. If a brand can increase the sales of the company, then in turn it will make the company more profitable. If the brand is useful in generating more sales, then the brand is considered to be of value.

Internet coupons can affect branding in so many ways. The following examples are both positive and negative ways wherein branding is affected. Let us first look at the positive effect. When a certain consumer sees an internet coupon, he or she will most likely have a positive response to the product. For example, an internet coupon with the ad, “Buy two of these calculators and get one free,” will let the consumer know that they could make good use of these calculators. Who would not want three calculators for the price of two? The brand of the calculator will be positively affected because the consumers will say to themselves that this company values its consumers so much that it is now giving away a third calculator for free. The consumer will then say, “We should get this calculator from the shop now.” This is a positive response.

On the other hand, the internet coupon may also affect the brand of the calculator in a negative way. When a consumer sees the internet coupon, “Buy two of these calculators and get one free,” he can always think otherwise. He may think that these calculators are being given internet coupons because they are not selling in the department store. This internet coupon campaign is a desperate attempt of the company to sell these lousy calculators. When the consumer thinks like this, then they will basically not buy the calculator. What is worse is how it affects the brand. Since these coupons may elicit a negative response, then no one else may want to buy these calculators because of the image it conveyed through the internet coupons. The brand of the calculator will be affected both now and in the future. No one may want to buy these calculators because since they were sold at a huge discount before, they are likely lousy in performance.

Companies should think very well on how they issue internet coupons. These internet coupons will affect their company brand either in a positive or a negative way. A company should not simply issue internet coupons left and right, they should think twice or even thrice before making such move.

Monday, August 6, 2007

10 Great Search Engine Optimization Tools for Your Online Success

The Internet promotion of every company is related to the search engine positioning of the site. The positioning is important for your books, products and services to be easily found online.

Search engine position is the place which a site takes in the search results for every search engine after performing search. The searches often are results of one or more words entered in the search bar. It seems simple to find where your site is by searching with the related keywords. For the search engine optimization being effective you need these keywords in your meta tags. If you want to check how it works, type for example "promotion" in Google and Yahoo to find that http://www.promotionworld.com/ is on 2. and 1. position respectively (this may change at the time you read this).

Meta Tags - How to create your meta tags

Meta tags are specific HTML tags that exceed their "what you see is what you get" functions to display content and serve as a mediator between the site page and the search engines, performed by their crawling robots.

The Title Tag is, as it can be assumed by its name, the site or page title that best describes the site content and purpose and contains of short phrase that can include the site name. It can be separated or not by colons but must include the words that describe the main functions of your site. When you write it, you can consider that the search engines will select your site in the search results more successfully if the metas contain the keywords you are going after in the search engine optimization.

MySite: MySite functions

Meta tags are easy to create with the PromotionWorld's Meta tag generator that makes this task an easy one step effort to get the entire code the way it should be in the site's HTML code immediately after the tag.

To be sure that your meta tags contain the appropriate keywords that will lead you to the top of the search list you can try a little research using the Keyword suggestion tool. Here you can find what are the most searchable keywords related to your content and to include them in your meta tags. You can go back again and again to check and update your keyword list according to the search trends.

Search Engines - How to submit your site

After your site is dressed with the meta tags, you are ready to go and submit it to the search engines. The Free Search Engine Submission tool http://www.promotionworld.com/seotools/index.php?rdt=submit will automatically submit your site to more than 60 search engines, including the best known. Just follow the easy steps and you will get your site submitted and a detailed report about the submission process results displayed and send to you.

Search Position - Where You Are

The positions of your site is easy to find using the Keyword Ranking Monitor http://www.promotionworld.com/seotools/index.php?rdt=kwrank. This handy tool will quickly tell you the site ranking on Google. You can check the competitors' sites as well to see where you are. To find out where your competitor's sites are located you can look at the WebSite Location Tool.

The effective optimization is based on statistics and you can check up how your results change thru the time using the secure help of PromotionWorld's Keyword Ranking Monitor. Your keywords and URLs are stored easily accessible with your user name and you can check the trends of any keyword search results displayed in well designed graphics. You can even select a keyword from the keyword suggestion list and import it into your keyword result table just by one click.

The most advanced search at all Google Datacenters can provide you with information about how your ranking is moving depending to which server the search inquiry is sent. This Google DataCenter Watch tool http://www.promotionworld.com/seotools/index.php?rdt=dance can allow you to predict your keyword optimization efforts.

Links - The secret of traffic

The links that are going to your site by other sites are important for your Traffic and Google PageRank. You can permanently check up your link status with this Backlink Tracker Tool http://www.promotionworld.com/seotools/index.php?rdt=bklinks. Your link history will be stored and here you can find how effective your link exchanges with other sites are - a technique of vital importance for your site online success. To check your Google PR now just go to the Google PR Tool http://www.promotionworld.com/seotools/index.php?rdt=grank enter the URL and get the result.

Extras - Convert your site traffic into money

There is a good advertising program that gains more and more popularity and becomes a materialized developer dream of earning just from the user traffic to the site. Google AdSense is designed to provide you the opportunity to provide to your users fresh related to your content links and to make you benefit from it without any effort. Using Google AdSense Tool you can see from here how the Google Adsense ads will appear on your site. Try this simple and attractive free tool to see the Google AdSense program diversity designed for your content.

If you already have a Google AdSense account you can easily monitor your AdSense data http://www.promotionworld.com/seotools/index.php?rdt=adsense_charts displayed in graphics and charts to get you an easy visual access to your campaign.

WebSite Gifts - Count your visitors and make them happy

Your site content will be more accessible if you provide the users an option to search free thru your site pages. You can get this Free search for your site.

A good gift for your site is the Free Counter displaying the number of visits for your pages. Get this tool and set it on your site. If you have an idea of some different image you can send that or if you feel, you can prepare an image and send this to be included in the tool set. Be creative and make the other users appreciate your talent.

I hope that you enjoyed our touring thru the amazing tool land and you get even more ideas about how can you promote your site.
About The Author
Milena Sotirova is Editor of DevStart, Inc. She has publications on web promotion, search engine optimization and web hosting industry news coverage and analyses. PromotionWorld.com is one of the most popular sites for web promotion and contains tutorials, tools, articles and search engine news. Subscribe for DevStart Channel http://www.promotionworld.com/informer/
Send your feedback to editor@devstart.com
You can reproduce this article on your website, or in your Newsletter provided that you include the resource box.

The Truth About Trackbacks

If you’re a blogger, chances are you’ve heard of trackbacks. Most likely, you probably don’t know what these are and what they have to do with your blog. That’s alright, as most people don’t quite understand how trackbacks work and why they are useful for a blog. In this newsletter, we’re going to go over trackbacks—what they are, how they work, why they are important to blog traffic, and how to get more trackbacks. After you’ve read this, you’ll know practically everything there is to know about trackbacks.

What are trackbacks?
The concept of trackbacks is a bit hard to explain. So we’ll use an example to explain it in the best way possible.

OK, say you see a great blog post on another person’s blog and want to link to it on your blog. You could do this the old-fashioned way by manually putting a link on your site to that blog. However, if you do it this way, the person whose blog post you are linking to won’t know that you are linking to them unless you tell them.

This is where trackbacks come in. A trackback is a program which will notify the owner of a blog when one of their posts has been linked to at another blog.

How do they work?
A blog that has a trackback system set up will have a link at the bottom of every blog post. This link will say something like “Blog This!” Anyone who clicks the link can then put a link to that blog post on their site. The person who posted the original blog will then be notified via email that their blog posting has been linked to. Additionally, the link that was clicked (“Blog This!”) will change to “Trackbacks”. From that point forward, the “Trackbacks” link will keep track of how many people have chosen to blog about that particular post. So after the first trackback, it will say “Trackbacks: 1”. The number of trackbacks recorded will be updated as they occur.

Why are trackbacks important to blog traffic?
The easy answer is that trackbacks are important because they increase awareness of your blog. Trackbacks also make a blog seem more credible. After all, people have to think your posts are good enough to be trackbacked.
Anytime a person makes a trackback on your blog, they make a post on their own blog about your blog. This, in turn, lets their readers know about your blog. Chances are, their readers will want to visit your blog to see what the big deal is. If they see something on your blog that they like, they’ll keep coming back for more, which means you’ll have a whole new fanbase of readers. That means more traffic for your blog.

Can you imagine what would happen if 5 different bloggers trackbacked a post on your blog? Depending on how popular their blog is, that’s potentially as much as hundreds of new readers for your blog! Pretty incredible, right?
Also, every trackback made, assuming it is a legitimate one (and some trackbacks are spam, especially if they are there only to link to another site) adds credibility to your blog. Blogs with high amounts of trackbacks look credible because lots of people like the posts enough to trackback them.

How can I increase the number of trackbacks I get?
The easiest and best way to increase trackbacks is to frequently post. If you post frequently (2-3 times a week), people will have quite a few posts that they can trackback. However, it is important to make sure that your posts are of a good quality. Quality blog posts are those that people can relate to and are easy to read. If you post a long boring rant, people probably won’t want to trackback that. But if you post a decent sized rant that is entertaining (and that people are likely to agree with), you’ll get trackbacked.

The number of trackbacks you get is totally dependent on the number of visitors your blog receives and how frequently you are able to make quality posts. If you’ve got a good amount of visitors and write good blog posts, you’ll get trackbacks

About the Author:Terry Detty, 42 and genuinely happy individual, enjoys all aspects of internet marketing and occasionally enjoys going out for a brisk walk. The best www.majon.com, www.majon.com/safeannounce, www.organistudios.com

6 Out-of-Box Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

If it comes to creating your new blog, I think what I am talking about will help you make your blog famous to a large extent as it is direct from my experience getting my blog ranked no.1 in a famous blog hosting website in Thailand. Currently I got 8,000-18,000 hits a day with 1,500-3,000 unique visitors.

What I have done are very simple and it doesn’t require technical background on computer language and no strings attached!

1. Choose the right blog hosting site.

This is one of the most important things at the first start. There are a huge number of blog hosting sites being created to capitalize on business opportunities mostly focused on making money via Google Adsense. However only a few hosting websites can serve that well.

Technically you have to make sure that the host of the blog hosting site you'd like is robust enough to handle a large number of visitors coming to visit your blog, easy to manage, and flexible in a sense that you can modify codes or theme yourself. This will also give you freedom in placing adsense ads in any part of your blog.

Let’s get back to the point, the right blog host should be of the following:

- It must be popular among bloggers. This will automatically make your blog famous as you have chances to get visited from your blog peers.

- It can display new posts or updated blogs on the home page(preferably) or dashboard. This increases chance to get visited as well.

- The site should accommodate forum so that you can share your opinions/experiences to get your blog known by others.

- Importantly it should allow bloggers to place ads onto blogs as long as you’d like to make money.

2. Update your blog during rush hours

This will help increase chance of getting hit by those who are updating their blogs or paying visits to other blogs. As I mentioned previously that the site should display newly updated blogs on the homepage or dashboard, people tend to have a look at other blogs before updating their blogs though the chance that your blog is disappearing from the homepage is huge due to a number of blogs updated at the same time.

3. Add videos onto your blog to make it alive.

This way is evidently effective. Youtube is a good case study. People tend to digest information through video or audio materials rather than literatures. Doing this will differentiate your blog from others.

Importantly you need to ensure that your video files can be played smoothly and clearly otherwise it will adversely affect your blog as people get bored or frustrated visiting your blog. It depends on at what speed your video can be played. Don’t make your guests wait too long.

Videos will help keep your guests coming in again particularly if they are music videos. There are thousands of music video codes that you can utilize.

4. Try to communicate with visitors and use informal words.

Reading formal articles is a boring thing. You should bridge this gap and get close to your visitors like friends. Blogs already allow your guests to communicate with you via comment form. This will indirectly generate words-of-mouth marketing. If your visitors are impressed, they will make link to your blog. You get one-way links. You should do the same in return if there are some space available in your blog.

5. Make links in the content

My assumption is that your blog is related to some specific matters that you would like to deliver to visitors thus by nature, each post or entry will be somehow related to one another. You’d better make links on words related to other posts. This will not just help your visitors get more information but also make them stick to your site and generate page views hence increased chance of getting high click-through rate(CTR) meaning bigger money.

6. Grab Hot Keywords like "Gillian Chung Naked"

As of today, there are only 58,000 search results on the phrase "Gillian Chung Naked" while there are probably millions of people from Asia searching for this. You will see a steep jump-up on the number of unigue visitors. Try it.

Hope this helps!
About The Author
Metee Liewrojanasakul, the Creator of BlogToBoom (blogtoboom.blogspot.com), a blogging experiment of his that draws thousands of visitors a day.

There Should Be More to your SEO Consultant Than Rankings

Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions in SEO is that ranking at Google and Yahoo is all that counts in search engine optimization. Potential clients come to me with a single goal: "Get me a top-ten ranking at Google." Some will also mention MSN, and a few will rhyme off a list of search engines and want to rank well at the top 200 of them.

It is time to separate fact from fiction.

Yes, your SEO consultant can get you a top-ten placement at Google. But...


If the placement is for "dirty brown shoes", it probably won't help your shoe store one bit, even if I get you the first place ranking. Few people are actually searching for that term.

Being number ten might not help much either, depending on the term. People searching for "Essential Nectar liquid vitamins", will probably click on the first result they see, or at least on one of the "above-the-fold" results that do not require scrolling. On the other hand, someone searching for "liquid vitamins" might check through two pages of results to familiarize herself with the options available.

If your title tag reads like a cheap list of search terms, it will not be enticing. For instance, if it reads: "vitamins, liquid vitamins, multivitamins, multi-vitamins", you might skip over it in favor of the next result that reads "Liquid vitamins from the Liquid Vitamin Supplements Store".

If your description tag is a mess, people will more likely skip over your listing, even if it does rank number one, in favor of one that sounds like what they are looking for. Google and others use the description tag usually when the term searched for is found in it, so make sure to include your key search terms in a description tag that actually reads well.
I recently responded to a forum question, which went something like this: My site ranks number one for this term at this engine. The term is searched this many times per day, and the engine has this percentage marketshare. Can I expect this many visitors?

That's not an SEO challenge; that's a math problem: searches x marketshare = visitors

I responded with a few factors that override mathematics in the SEO game, including the site's title tag and description tag, as well as whether the term lends itself to scrolling. I also pointed out that it depends on the title tags and description tags of the competition, too.

Another factor that makes predicting traffic difficult is the abandonment factor – how many people click on none of the results because they get interrupted or confused, or abandon the search for a new one because they find themselves off-topic or searching too broadly.

It also depends on how many sponsored links there are and how they are marked. Often at Yahoo and Lycos, for example, there are so many ads that the average searcher might never scroll a screen or two to see the organic (natural) results.

And, of course, it also depends on the color of the walls in the room the searcher is clicking from, the weather outside and how well they slept last night. But there is little you can do about that.

What you can do is to work with your SEO consultant to choose the most effective search terms for your business and make sure he develops a title tag and description tag that sell to both humans and the search engines. Then make sure he is monitoring not just the rankings for your key search terms, but also the description used by each of the search engines.

A good ranking at Google and Yahoo is just one measure of your SEO consultant's success. A more complete evaluation is that he is your partner in building long-term, targeted traffic

About The Author
David Leonhardt is an SEO consultant http://www.seo-writer.net/freelance/seo-consultant.html and a website marketing consultant: http://www.seo-writer.net/freelance/marketing-consultant.html Pick up a copy of his SEO e-book: http://www.seo-writer.net/books/seo-book.html Info@thehappyguy.com

Creating Inbound Links Is About More Than Just PageRank

Is Google PageRank (PR) the be-all, end-all of the internet marketing equation?

I have wanted to discuss this topic for quite a long time. But, there is risk in discussing this topic. It is a lot like religion and politics. We are advised not to discuss religion or politics in mixed company, because people are willing to argue and sometimes kill, based solely on your disagreement with their religious or political beliefs.

In a lot of ways, Google PR is a matter of religion to some internet marketers. And for me to discuss this topic openly is tantamount to telling someone that his or her religion is false religion.

Many of my competitor's who read this article will run to their soapbox as soon as I am done, and they will pronounce to the heavens that I am an idiot.

I will let you be your own judge.

How I Draw My Conclusions

I own one website that has so far served more than 100,000 unique visitors in the first nine months of 2006. The same site has served well over one million page views, since the beginning of 2006. I often use the statistics from this website to measure trends in the marketplace, since the unique visitors and page views are of a substantial level.

The Importance of Google In The Internet Marketplace

Just because I am questioning the value of Google's PR in the grand scheme of things, it does not mean I am questioning the domination of Google in the marketplace.

The statistics on the previously mentioned website prove the dominance of Google against their competitors. Here is how my search engine referrals break down:

* 37 Search Engines have sent me traffic. * 78.1% of visitors were sent from Google. * 18.4% came from Yahoo, Ask Jeeves/Ask, MSN * 1.5% arrived from AOL, Dogpile, Netscape, Earthlink, Altavista, Alexa. * 98.0% of all search engine referral traffic arrived from the Top Ten Referring Search Engines.

So hands down, Google is the MOST important element for my search engine marketing.

The Concept of Google PR

Google has often said that their PR system is an integral part of their search algorithms.

According to Google's own documentation, this is the definition of PR is as follows:

"PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves 'important' weigh more heavily and help to make other pages 'important.' "

Since PR utilizes a count of the number of links pointing to a website as a measure of PR value, professional internet marketers are very interested in acquiring large numbers of inbound links for their websites.

PageRank values also allow you to decide whom you might want to do a link exchange (if you do such things).

The Pros and Cons of Buying PR

Professional internet marketers are also interested in getting links on pages with an already large PR.

With Google's definition of PR, this makes sense.

PROS:

* When you buy links on pages that already have a significant PR, then you can gain that value with much less work involved. * You can bulk up your own PR in very short order.

CONS:

* Most sites that sell links on their high PR pages only do so on a monthly or quarterly basis, so this expense will be an ongoing for as long as you want to hold onto that value. * Depending on the PR of the page where the link is being sold, the cost can be very high. Many webmasters decide how much they will charge for advertising on their website, according to the PR assigned to their website. * The powers-that-be at Google warns us away from buying text links to increase our own PR. They warn us by example, pointing to the SearchKing devaluation in Google, as the result of SearchKing's paid linking scheme: http://news.com.com/Judge+dismisses+suit+against+Google/2100-1032 _3-1011740.html * The Google power broker Matt Cutts stated matter-of-factly that we should not "participate in link schemes designed to increase (our) site's ranking or PR," as stated in the Google quality guidel!
ines. He went on to say that Google "does consider buying text links for PR purposes to be outside our Google's quality guidelines." Read the full story in context here: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/text-links-and-PR/

If you continue reading the comments on Matt's blog about the text links and PR, take a moment to search out the comment on the subject from Dan Thies (http://www.seoresearchlabs.com/). Dan asked Matt at the end of his post to define the "algorithm for determining intent" of the person placing the link. Bravo Dan.

Google Toolbar Role In PR Monitoring

Just like any discussion of paid links and PR, people tend to get fired up.

Just the other day, I read a different thread on Google PR. In that thread at http://forums.Site-Reference.com, someone said that the importance of the Google Toolbar was the visible PR that shows up in the toolbar.

( PR value is only exported to the Toolbar at regular intervals. According to the "Page Rank Update and Export List History" page, the PR information was last exported to the Google Toolbar on September 28, 2006: http://www.seocompany.ca/PR/page-rank-update-list.html )

The poster I mentioned above had stated that the importance of the Google Toolbar was the visible PR that buyers use to observe the trust factor attached to a website. He said that when people view the PR, then they would be assured that the company from whom they are about to purchase from is a reputable company.

I had to disagree.

The only people who have the Google Toolbar installed in their machine are online marketers. Perhaps that is a wide paintbrush, but it is not very far from the truth.

Because most people who use the Toolbar are online marketers, then they will be the only people for whom the little green PR bar has any meaning.

The Real Importance of Google's PR

How many times have you heard that the value your website holds with the Google PR system will make or break your website's ability to gain traffic from Google?

How many of you actually believe that?

Here is where I am going to get people excited.

I launched a site with zero PR in the first week of September. Within four days, I had page one placement in Google. Let me repeat that for you. Within four days of a website's launch, I had a website with PR 0, no official backlinks according to Google, and page one search results in Google!

Okay, I admit... It was a memorial website: http://www.GoodbyeSteveIrwin.com

I have several search keyword phrases in Google that produce page one, two and three results. Right now, the search phrase "irwin nature conservation" brings up my memorial site as the #3 result.

You might tell yourself that I was able to do this because it arrived at a time when Steve Irwin was the only new story. But, I have created results like this with several websites. The Steve Irwin site was not a fluke. The Steve Irwin site was simply the fifth site that I was able to reach page one of Google search results within two weeks of site launch, with zero backlinks according to Google, and zero PR.

So, let me ask you again how important the Google PR system is for guaranteeing the placement of your website on page one of Google's search results?

You be the judge.

Traffic Links Vs. PR Links

Previously I mentioned my website that I use to measure trends in search engine marketing. Here is another interesting bit of data that I pulled from my website statistics for that domain:

* 53% inbound traffic comes from search engines * 47% inbound traffic comes from links on third-party websites (not from search engines) * Both values exclude people who visited my site as a result of bookmarks for my site or clicks directly from an email

If you break down the numbers even further, you will find the Google powerhouse is responsible for 41.4% of my gross inbound traffic from another website. And my website receives 47% of its traffic from websites that are not search engines.

Wow! My website is getting considerably more traffic from links on websites that are not search engines, than what it is getting from Google! Interesting.

Perhaps now you understand why I have always focused on getting permanent links on third-party websites that will send me traffic for years to come.

How Many Links Are Traffic Links?

This traffic arrived at my site from a total of 12,876 external webpages. If you ask the search engines how many links I have to my website on external pages, they will NOT show you a number of links anywhere near this number. In fact, MSN shows the largest number of inbound links to my website. And MSN only shows that I have 2,164 links pointing to my website. That is a number that is six times lower than the number of external webpages that actually send me human visitors!

You would be surprised how many PR 0, 1 and 2 pages are actually sending me real traffic. Real traffic converts into real sales. And I am getting more traffic from these nowhere links, than what I am getting from the Holy Grail of Google.

In Conclusion...

Let me repeat the question that I opened this article with, "Is Google PageRank the be-all, end-all of internet marketing?"

I offer a resounding, "No!"

Is Google PageRank the Holy Grail of internet marketing?

"No."

Do you need to put your links on pages that have high PR?

"No."

I feel good that Google says that my PR is a Five. It makes me feel that I am gaining ground in the Google algorithms. And it boosts my human ego. But, for every keyword phrase that really matters to my business, I am already on page one of the search results, with a measly PR of 5, and no real backlinks to speak of according to the brilliance of the Google algorithms.
About The Author
Bill Platt and his team provide inbound link building services. They don't rent links on high PageRank webpages. Instead, they develop content-driven pages, with keyword links to their client's site, that speak to their client's target market. Bill has been utilizing the same methodology with all of his own websites since 1999. If these techniques work this well with Bill's sites, imagine how the techniques can improve Links and Traffic for your site. To learn more, call Bill at: 405-780-7745 M-F 9am-6pm CST or visit http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com

Creating Inbound Links Is About More Than Just PageRank

Is Google PageRank (PR) the be-all, end-all of the internet marketing equation?

I have wanted to discuss this topic for quite a long time. But, there is risk in discussing this topic. It is a lot like religion and politics. We are advised not to discuss religion or politics in mixed company, because people are willing to argue and sometimes kill, based solely on your disagreement with their religious or political beliefs.

In a lot of ways, Google PR is a matter of religion to some internet marketers. And for me to discuss this topic openly is tantamount to telling someone that his or her religion is false religion.

Many of my competitor's who read this article will run to their soapbox as soon as I am done, and they will pronounce to the heavens that I am an idiot.

I will let you be your own judge.

How I Draw My Conclusions

I own one website that has so far served more than 100,000 unique visitors in the first nine months of 2006. The same site has served well over one million page views, since the beginning of 2006. I often use the statistics from this website to measure trends in the marketplace, since the unique visitors and page views are of a substantial level.

The Importance of Google In The Internet Marketplace

Just because I am questioning the value of Google's PR in the grand scheme of things, it does not mean I am questioning the domination of Google in the marketplace.

The statistics on the previously mentioned website prove the dominance of Google against their competitors. Here is how my search engine referrals break down:

* 37 Search Engines have sent me traffic. * 78.1% of visitors were sent from Google. * 18.4% came from Yahoo, Ask Jeeves/Ask, MSN * 1.5% arrived from AOL, Dogpile, Netscape, Earthlink, Altavista, Alexa. * 98.0% of all search engine referral traffic arrived from the Top Ten Referring Search Engines.

So hands down, Google is the MOST important element for my search engine marketing.

The Concept of Google PR

Google has often said that their PR system is an integral part of their search algorithms.

According to Google's own documentation, this is the definition of PR is as follows:

"PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves 'important' weigh more heavily and help to make other pages 'important.' "

Since PR utilizes a count of the number of links pointing to a website as a measure of PR value, professional internet marketers are very interested in acquiring large numbers of inbound links for their websites.

PageRank values also allow you to decide whom you might want to do a link exchange (if you do such things).

The Pros and Cons of Buying PR

Professional internet marketers are also interested in getting links on pages with an already large PR.

With Google's definition of PR, this makes sense.

PROS:

* When you buy links on pages that already have a significant PR, then you can gain that value with much less work involved. * You can bulk up your own PR in very short order.

CONS:

* Most sites that sell links on their high PR pages only do so on a monthly or quarterly basis, so this expense will be an ongoing for as long as you want to hold onto that value. * Depending on the PR of the page where the link is being sold, the cost can be very high. Many webmasters decide how much they will charge for advertising on their website, according to the PR assigned to their website. * The powers-that-be at Google warns us away from buying text links to increase our own PR. They warn us by example, pointing to the SearchKing devaluation in Google, as the result of SearchKing's paid linking scheme: http://news.com.com/Judge+dismisses+suit+against+Google/2100-1032 _3-1011740.html * The Google power broker Matt Cutts stated matter-of-factly that we should not "participate in link schemes designed to increase (our) site's ranking or PR," as stated in the Google quality guidel!
ines. He went on to say that Google "does consider buying text links for PR purposes to be outside our Google's quality guidelines." Read the full story in context here: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/text-links-and-PR/

If you continue reading the comments on Matt's blog about the text links and PR, take a moment to search out the comment on the subject from Dan Thies (http://www.seoresearchlabs.com/). Dan asked Matt at the end of his post to define the "algorithm for determining intent" of the person placing the link. Bravo Dan.

Google Toolbar Role In PR Monitoring

Just like any discussion of paid links and PR, people tend to get fired up.

Just the other day, I read a different thread on Google PR. In that thread at http://forums.Site-Reference.com, someone said that the importance of the Google Toolbar was the visible PR that shows up in the toolbar.

( PR value is only exported to the Toolbar at regular intervals. According to the "Page Rank Update and Export List History" page, the PR information was last exported to the Google Toolbar on September 28, 2006: http://www.seocompany.ca/PR/page-rank-update-list.html )

The poster I mentioned above had stated that the importance of the Google Toolbar was the visible PR that buyers use to observe the trust factor attached to a website. He said that when people view the PR, then they would be assured that the company from whom they are about to purchase from is a reputable company.

I had to disagree.

The only people who have the Google Toolbar installed in their machine are online marketers. Perhaps that is a wide paintbrush, but it is not very far from the truth.

Because most people who use the Toolbar are online marketers, then they will be the only people for whom the little green PR bar has any meaning.

The Real Importance of Google's PR

How many times have you heard that the value your website holds with the Google PR system will make or break your website's ability to gain traffic from Google?

How many of you actually believe that?

Here is where I am going to get people excited.

I launched a site with zero PR in the first week of September. Within four days, I had page one placement in Google. Let me repeat that for you. Within four days of a website's launch, I had a website with PR 0, no official backlinks according to Google, and page one search results in Google!

Okay, I admit... It was a memorial website: http://www.GoodbyeSteveIrwin.com

I have several search keyword phrases in Google that produce page one, two and three results. Right now, the search phrase "irwin nature conservation" brings up my memorial site as the #3 result.

You might tell yourself that I was able to do this because it arrived at a time when Steve Irwin was the only new story. But, I have created results like this with several websites. The Steve Irwin site was not a fluke. The Steve Irwin site was simply the fifth site that I was able to reach page one of Google search results within two weeks of site launch, with zero backlinks according to Google, and zero PR.

So, let me ask you again how important the Google PR system is for guaranteeing the placement of your website on page one of Google's search results?

You be the judge.

Traffic Links Vs. PR Links

Previously I mentioned my website that I use to measure trends in search engine marketing. Here is another interesting bit of data that I pulled from my website statistics for that domain:

* 53% inbound traffic comes from search engines * 47% inbound traffic comes from links on third-party websites (not from search engines) * Both values exclude people who visited my site as a result of bookmarks for my site or clicks directly from an email

If you break down the numbers even further, you will find the Google powerhouse is responsible for 41.4% of my gross inbound traffic from another website. And my website receives 47% of its traffic from websites that are not search engines.

Wow! My website is getting considerably more traffic from links on websites that are not search engines, than what it is getting from Google! Interesting.

Perhaps now you understand why I have always focused on getting permanent links on third-party websites that will send me traffic for years to come.

How Many Links Are Traffic Links?

This traffic arrived at my site from a total of 12,876 external webpages. If you ask the search engines how many links I have to my website on external pages, they will NOT show you a number of links anywhere near this number. In fact, MSN shows the largest number of inbound links to my website. And MSN only shows that I have 2,164 links pointing to my website. That is a number that is six times lower than the number of external webpages that actually send me human visitors!

You would be surprised how many PR 0, 1 and 2 pages are actually sending me real traffic. Real traffic converts into real sales. And I am getting more traffic from these nowhere links, than what I am getting from the Holy Grail of Google.

In Conclusion...

Let me repeat the question that I opened this article with, "Is Google PageRank the be-all, end-all of internet marketing?"

I offer a resounding, "No!"

Is Google PageRank the Holy Grail of internet marketing?

"No."

Do you need to put your links on pages that have high PR?

"No."

I feel good that Google says that my PR is a Five. It makes me feel that I am gaining ground in the Google algorithms. And it boosts my human ego. But, for every keyword phrase that really matters to my business, I am already on page one of the search results, with a measly PR of 5, and no real backlinks to speak of according to the brilliance of the Google algorithms.

About The Author
Bill Platt and his team provide inbound link building services. They don't rent links on high PageRank webpages. Instead, they develop content-driven pages, with keyword links to their client's site, that speak to their client's target market. Bill has been utilizing the same methodology with all of his own websites since 1999. If these techniques work this well with Bill's sites, imagine how the techniques can improve Links and Traffic for your site. To learn more, call Bill at: 405-780-7745 M-F 9am-6pm CST or visit http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Tips For A Successful Affiliate Marketing Business

Now that you have decided to take the plunge and set up a business for yourself, you need to insure that you do all of the right things. Affiliate marketing businesses do take the risk away but you still need to conduct this venture as you would any other business. If it is your sole source of income you'll want to give it your all and make it as successful as possible. In this article, we will look at ways to get your business going and make it successful. By following the advice in this article your affiliate marketing business will get off to a great start and stay that way.

The first golden rule of any business is to identify the demand. With affiliate marketing programs you'll likely be giving a range of products to sell. Check out the demand of these types of things. You should try to stay away from trendy items. They'll sell like mad one minute but you'll be giving them away the next. You want thing that you know people want and need. That way your long term sales objectives will get met.

Next is don't limit yourself to just one product. Try to offer a variety of things. Many affiliate marketing programs offer a selection and it is best to go with these. Basing your business on one product may work in the short term. However, someone will eventually come along with something better or cheaper.

Third, you need to set your business apart from others. You need to establish what makes you and what you offer better from others. What do you offer that sets you apart from other businesses? You should always use tact when talking about your competition. Putting them down or being rude will only backfire on you. Talk up the advantages that you offer and leave it at that.

Forth, you should definitely insure your home business. Everything can be fine one day but life can always take a funny turn. Accidents can happen to anyone. Ask yourself what will happen if one of your products hurts someone. Today, people can be sued for just about anything. Make sure you are insured incase the worst happens.

Fifth, you should always do your best to ensure fast and efficient service to your clients. However, there will come a time when there is a glitch. You need to keep your customers informed and aware of what is happening. Things happen that are beyond your control. Most customers are very forgiving if they are made aware of this. Keeping your customers in the dark could result in loosing them for good.

Finally, keep your customers happy. The happier they are the more likely they are to come back. Offer your customers incentives such as savings on their next purchase. It may cost you more but only in the short term. Keeping your customers happy will result is them referring you to others.

Affiliate marketing businesses are easier in the fact that they minimize risk. Everything else is like any other business. You need to work very hard to keep your customers happy. You need to set yourself apart from others and protect yourself against the worst. By following the advice in this article you will be giving your business the best possible chance for success.
Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com
About the Author:Juliette Lee is the editor and CEO of MyAudioCompanion.com. To find the best audio book titles, please visit www.myaudiocompanion.com. Sell audio books from your website and make 20%.

Custom Design for Pocket Folders

I was looking for possible pocket folders for my brochures just the other day and I wasn’t able to find one, unfortunately. Some of the paper shops that I went to have wonderful custom paper items, though. However, the problem is that I’m looking for envelopes that I could use as pocket folders but not so much that they look like any ordinary envelope in the market. For my folder printing project, I needed something more on the side of creativity and wide imagination; and a little something of Betty Crocker.

I was browsing through the Internet (where else!) when I chanced upon a very interesting article on creating your very own personalized envelopes. And mind you, the result is one-of-a-kind because it all depends on how you want your results to be.

I tried it and I was amazed at how my custom envelopes turned out. I now have envelopes that double as pocket folders for my brochures. My personalized folder printing project was an instant success thanks to this site.

I’d now like to share with you the step-by-step process of creating your very own custom and personalized envelopes direct from the article that I found. Remember though, this is a hands-on art craft. According to the author, no skills or talent needed, just a desire to make something out of the ordinary. So make yourself something useful with this envelope project.

It all starts with the envelope pattern. In order to make this, you need an envelope to take apart. A standard sized envelope will make a good pattern for now. When you get the hang of things, you can experiment with other sizes for your custom envelope.

Carefully now, get your envelope to unfold from their glued edges. Flatten it and then trace its shape onto a paper liner, in the author’s case, he used an eighth-inch acrylic.

After you’ve accurately traced the envelope onto your paper liner, next thing you do is to cut the shape out. Make sure to shape the paper liner right and create straight edges for your envelope. The most difficult thing to do is to smooth out the rounded edges and angles. I had a slow time of turning out this part of the process. Nevertheless, after I was able to do it, the round corners looked professional and done by an expert.

Finally, after peeling off the liners, you now have an envelope that is shaped in your paper choice. All you have to do is glue the edges to make it look like the shape of an ordinary envelope.

I did mine in plastic. Now I have clear plastic envelopes (in different colors, too) that double as pocket folders for my brochures and other print materials.

I hope this beats any other handcrafted project of yours. The next time you need an envelope, just remember to go back to the basics and get your hands dirty. Create your very own personalized envelope. Who knows, maybe next time you’ll be able to turn this thing into a lucrative business.
Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com
About the Author:For comments and inquiries about the article visit: Files Folder Printing Service

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Article Directory Submission

Article submission refers to submitting articles to article directories to achieve hyperlinks from websites that wish to publish your content. This is becoming a cost-effective and increasingly popular method of attaining links that are embedded in content, on-topic and from unique domains and class-C IP addresses.

Choosing to submit articles to article directories can be a lengthy process that is a strain on in-house resources. It is essential that efficiency can be achieved, and now many companies are looking towards article writing services and article submission services to ensure efficiency and quality benchmarks can be met and surpassed. Article submission companies will pro-actively find, locate and enhance their article directory submission portfolio to ensure quality benchmarks and cost-effectiveness is attained and constantly evolving to meet their client’s requirements.

As article directory submission providers offer varied and ambiguously named services it is essential that any potential clients firstly ensure accountability from the service provider they are choosing to contract with. Should the article submission company provide screenshots of submissions then the client can be sure that every submission they have commissioned has been fulfilled. Most reputable article directory submission providers will have a policy such as this as a standard approach to all submission projects.

Article submission companies may also be particularly beneficial to companies based in the USA, UK and Western countries. Using remote outsourced labour it is possible to attain services for a fraction of the cost of employing and training in-house staff. Indian article directory submission companies will provide services for rates of well below $5 an hour, and in doing so will increase the ROI a western company can attain from their directory submission spend. Choosing to contract with an article directory submission company may also aid in the UKarticle writers phase.

The article submission company will have a good understanding of best-practise article writing and the requirements of article directories to ensure higher acceptance rates and linking incentive. An experienced article submission company will also have links with article writers with experience in SEO and writing articles for the specific purpose of article directory publishing.

An article writing company may also be a potential source for purchasing article submission services or to ask for independent advice. Their desire to aid their customers in attaining the highest ROI for their article marketing spend may mean that asking your copywriter to recommend an article submission company could be a sensible approach.
Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com
About the Author:“Submitinme.com” provides manual article submission and article syndication. Cooper Murphy Webb offer Article Marketing by professional UK article writers.

Friday, August 3, 2007

How to Start a Website: The Basic Guide

This guide will show you the steps you should go through before, during, and after your website project. This is by no means a complete account, as I will try to be as industry-nonspecific as possible. Using these steps in your planning process will help to ensure your success online!

Step 1 - Why
Before you do anything, you'd better know why you need to be online. Are you planning a full e-commerce endeavor or just an online advertising brochure? The answer to this will determine the entire scope of your project and should be considered carefully. If you decide now and change your mind later, you'll have to begin the whole planning process again. Be informed and know what you plan to do.

Step 2 - Outline
Now that you know why you're going online, you should begin a general outline and begin brainstorming ideas amongst your partners and affiliates. Set down a rough estimate of the number of pages the site will have, decide the basic style you'd like to achieve, and list every idea you have for the site (outlandish or ordinary).

Step 3 - Rough Draft
Take the list you created in Step 2 and refine it. Mark each item as being "necessary", "valuable", or as a "perk". If you don't know how an item qualifies, it's not "necessary" and therefore is one of the other two. Only items that you MUST have for the site to exist should be listed as necessary. Items such as "logo", "brochure content," "contact info," etc. are considered "necessary." Items such as "email form," "graphical interface," and "product catalog" are "valuable." "Flash animation," "automated link-through-systems," and "really cool graphics" are "perks."

Create three new lists, one for each category: necessary, valuable and perk. On a sticky note, write your proposed budget for this endeavor and paste it to the "necessary" list. Now you have the basics and are ready to begin contacting designers.

Step 4 - Begin Shopping
If you have a small budget, your list of necessary items is fairly small, and you do not see anything on your list which appears complicated or unusual for a website, then just about any good and reputable designer will suffice. In this case, you should shop by price and service instead of portfolio and pizzazz.

If, however, you have a large budget, a complex list of items to accomplish, and you need experience over price, then you'd be better off looking for a large firm of designers who specialize in your type of site or market.

In either case, you should ask up front (on the phone or in your first meeting) if they'll supply a rough site map and/or set of mockup designs for your proposed site. Usually a designer is more than happy to excite you with nifty pictures of your site-to-be. You need this, as this will give you an idea of where the designer wants to go with your site. If it isn't where you want to be, then you'd better get it clear now before you've written a single check for the designer's service!

The sticky note with your budget figure is your guide to not going overboard. Know what you can afford and what you really need. It's easy to go crazy with all of the nifty options and cool widgets, but ask yourself if they're necessary. If they are a good addition or perk, make a note of it. You may use it later during the website's long-term development.

Step 5 - Domain Names
Choosing a domain name is a very important step in getting yourself online. A domain name to your online presence is as important as a name for your business was when you first began. Careful consideration and a lot of thought should be given to your choice of domain. www.yourbusiness.com is a good start. Go to http://www.register.com or any other domain registration site that offers "whois" service (most of them do) and put in your desired domain name. Don't register it yet if it's available, just check. Many of these services also include a list of "suggested alternatives." Look through them; sometimes something you hadn't considered will pop up!

Start a list of domain names you think would be appropriate. Once you have six or eight of them, show them to your spouse, your friends, or anyone else who can give you a fresh perspective. Narrow the list down to two or three names. Mark them 1 (most wanted), 2 (next) and 3 (last). Go online and find a good registrar. You should not pay more than $15 per year for the registration of a com, net or org name. If a service charges more than this, go somewhere else. I recommend www.IsThisDomainTaken.com, but you can use whom you'd like.

Register your domain. I suggest a year to get started. If you're still around this time next year, then go for a longer period. No use spending more than you have to right away!

Step 6 - Initial Designs
Unless your site is very simple and you were extremely prepared in the beginning (probably having done this before), you will have to have your site built in stages. Each stage should be thoroughly considered for every aspect of the site thus far. Check the navigability, the color scheme, the general look and feel, will it sell product or get customers interested, etc. Be sure to spend a lot of time with your designer to discuss these attributes and what you like and dislike. Print the pages of the site out (at least the main page for each section, if it's large) and write and sketch on them to show changes to graphics, text, and whatever else. Write up a detailed list of changes you'd like to see made and present that to your designer. Your designer will not be resentful of this-- don't worry about stepping on toes. This only makes his or her job easier!

No matter how small, every site has at least three design stages: mockup, rough draft, and the final version. Each stage allows changes to be made (even the final one)! Don't let a designer fool you into thinking that you only get to change a site so many times. Until you're happy, the site isn't done no matter what they say. On the flip side of the coin, however, don't be nit-picky or wishy-washy. Know what you want and point it out the first time. Don't change your mind halfway through and force the designer to scrap the whole thing. Likely, if the designer is smart, he or she will refund your deposit (minus a fee for time spent) and bid you farewell. Designers know that a wishy-washy client will never be happy and will do nothing but lose them money. As a professional, a designer has better things to do with his or her time than waste it on a never-happy client.

During this process, you should be considering the customer's point of view while visiting your soon-to-be-launched website. Will your customer want to come back? Will they be disappointed? What will they be expecting when they first type in that URL or click on that link? Your site needs a "draw" or a reason for being. Interesting content, prizes or coupons, and other items are good "draws." Content is best (a tutorial perhaps, or a continually changing tour of your factory…something) as it gives users a reason to show their friends, stay interested, and come back to double-check information they saw.

Step 7 - Begin Marketing
The marketing of your site should begin as soon as you have an idea when it will be complete. When a finish date is set in concrete, then your marketing should begin in earnest. Change all of your printed materials, business cards, letterhead, phone listings, etc. to include your new domain name (URL). Your company's new presence (www.yourcompany.com) should be as important as having your phone number listed. Consider giveaways or other interest-grabbers (freebies are always popular) and use them as a tool to launch your site (see Step 6 above). Promise a lottery, prize, coupons, or anything else that can only be had by visiting the website and entering the contest/printing the coupon. Whatever this "getter" is, make sure it's good enough that people will be interested. Once they're on the site, they should have a reason to stay (see initial designs, Step 6).

Step 8 - Hosting
Now that your site is nearly complete, you'd better find a place to put it! Your choice is web host is very important to the long-term success of your site. You need to make sure of several things before you hand out any money for this service: 1) is the host reliable? 2) will this host be around next year…the year after? 3) how much are they charging? 4) what are the limitations of their service (bandwidth, email accounts, etc.)? 5) will this host be flexible enough to keep up with the increasing demand of your site as it grows? 6) does the host offer several plans that can be easily upgraded to facilitate growth? 7) how quickly do they respond for customer service via email or the telephone?

All of these questions are very important. In the past, before I began hosting my own sites and customers, I would find a lot of competition and narrow it down to one provider using only questions 5-7. Finding a flexible host who also offers great customer service is difficult to find. Generally, if you send an email to your final prospects (after having narrowed the list using questions 1-4), the one who answers first is most likely your best bet. The one who takes longer than 24 hours to respond (including weekends!) should be removed from your list. At this point, you should have no more than one or two prospects. If you have more than one, the final question to ask is "who has the best facility, best hardware, and offers the best technical support?" Check their website or ask them via email what type of facility they are in, how many connections their server has to the outside world, and where the hosting company is located. If you are in the US and your prospective host is offshore, consider whether you want to take this risk. Remember: other countries have different laws and you may not be protected from data theft or other potential problems. As a rule, two outside connections for a server or rack is the bare minimum. The more the merrier here! What kind of machine would they be hosting you on? Check the library or another source of up-to-date magazines and find out what the newest technologies are. Chances are you can take the names of the hardware (RAQ 4 for instance) and guess that a RAQ 3 was the last generation of that machine. The newer the better! The technical support should be equivalent to the server and the facility: more is better!

Step 9 - Site Launch!
Now that your website is complete and you have a host and domain name, you're ready to launch! If all of this happens earlier than your expected or announced date (which it should if all is well), then DO NOT launch your site before the announced time. If you do it too early, you might give the impression that you're over-eager and desperate. Worse, people may believe that you pad all of your estimated dates too heavily and will have less trust in you. Keep in mind, though, that one day early is a far cry from a month early. A day will not hurt, a month could kill. Stick to your plan and don't jump ahead of yourself. Use the extra time to keep hyping your new release. Use screenshots or video captures of the now-finished site to enhance the anticipation. When the time comes, fire away!

Step 10 - Maintenance
Once your site is open to the world, you will begin to deal with the day-to-day items of owning a website. Keeping your site up-to-date and well maintained requires time and effort. Eventually it will become a regular routine and only the details will be different each time. It may sound mundane, but if done right, you will never lose interest in your website. You may need to contract a professional (generally the developer who created your site to begin with) to do your technical updates for you. Or you may wish to keep these updates yourself and learn a little about how a website is built from the inside out. Most likely, you'll hire a professional: and be smart to. Contracts can vary in scope and price. Find the one that fits your needs best and use it. Always take full advantage of what you're being given in a contract. If it's a by-the-hour list (say four hours per month), then utilize all of that time the developer is giving you. Have your marketing department (or whoever fills this role) create new and interesting things to update the site with. Include changing information, tutorials, new features, and other enhancements. Keep the site's focus at the forefront of your ideas, but continue to update and change things. If you create a site and leave it the way it is, changing it yearly or less, your visitor count will begin to drop, as people get wise to your lack of attendance. You change your other marketing regularly to keep them fresh, right? Do that with your website too! The advantage here is that a website is generally cheaper than another form of mass-media advertising, so changes can take place a lot more often.

Step 11 - New Looks
In general, a website should be completely re-vamped to receive an entirely new look or design at least once a year. This helps to keep the content fresh and forces your users to take notice once more. Making an anniversary of it can be an added bonus with plenty of hype and circumstance to build it up feverishly. When a company moves into a new building, they usually make a big deal of the event. Why not with your website too? Several months before you wish to change, consult with your original designer or maintenance provider. Get a tentative quote on the time frame and cost of these changes.

Step 12 - Success!
By the time you're ready for Step 11, you should have an idea of how successful your site has become and projections of how successful it will be if it keeps to its current path. Like most businesses, a website should start out small and become larger and larger as time passes. It should also become more and more popular. After the first year, begin to make more long-term goals and at minimum a yearly prospectus for your site. Goals reaching out as far as three years are not outlandish, but make sure they're flexible enough (and are reviewed for relevancy enough) that they can be altered to meet new challenges or changing viewpoint. Your yearly prospectus should match your first year's goals in scope. If your goal is to have a certain number of visitors per week six months from now, then your prospectus should show how this is going to happen (and whether, realistically, it really can happen). Above all, keep your focus! Know where you want to be, why you want to be there, and how it's going to happen. Your website and your business should share common threads throughout--including their goals. Keep on track and you'll have nothing but success!