by Bill Platt

Believe me or not, a business can survive and thrive on the Internet without good search engine placement. That does not mean that a Webmaster should not strive to get good rankings in the search engines, but it does mean that a Webmaster should not throw his or her entire advertising budget towards search engine optimization (SEO).

The SEO guys are rolling in their Ferrari's as you read this. I would have said that the SEO guys are rolling their graves, but they are not dead, yet.

There Can Be Only Ten

How many web pages will be listed on page one of the search results at Google? How about on Yahoo or MSN? That is right; there can be only ten web pages listed on page one of the search results.

According to the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org), there are currently 85 billion web pages on the Internet. But, if you have ever used the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive, then you know as I know that they have not archived everything that is out there, so that 85-billion number is actually smaller than the real number of existing web pages.

With only ten listings on page one of the search results, there are going to be a lot of disappointed people in the world. They cannot all be on page one of the search results.

First Things First

Search engine optimization is an expensive undertaking, so it should never be taken lightly. I talk to people everyday who are building their first website for the very first time. These folks, bless their hearts, know just enough about Internet marketing to blow their savings on a website that may or may not deliver a profit to them.

There are steps that people should take when they start their website, and SEO is not one of those first steps.

Here is a checklist of steps that the new Webmaster should use in the development of his or her website:

Step One: Select the products or services that the website will sell.

Step Two: Determine if there is a market for what will be sold.

Step Three: Analyze the competition and determine the competition's weaknesses. Competition is about building a better mousetrap or reaching customers that another might be under serving.

Step Four: Build the website to sell the chosen products or services. Sales conversion is the most important element in any successful business model.

Step Five: Run test advertising to figure out what will generate traffic to your website, and more importantly, to figure out what one needs to do in order to sell goods and services.

Testing And Tracking Advertising Results Is Essential

I sold advertising in my newsletter to a guy one time. He paid a nice fee to have his advertisement run in my newsletter, but he did not invest any money in writing or testing his ad first. The advertisement itself was written very badly.

I asked him if he would like to tweak his advertisement before I ran it in my newsletter. He said he did not care what the ad looked like. He just needed me to run his ad.

I offered to rewrite his ad for him to enhance his chances of getting traffic from my newsletter. He agreed and I did.

As the newsletters I subscribed to began rolling in the following week, I noticed his bad advertisement ran in dozens of those newsletters.

I asked him later his results, and he said he had spent $10,000 running that advertisement and closed four sales at $25 each. He spent $10,000 to make $100. Needless to say, his website closed down just a couple months later.

The problem was clearly his ad, but his website may have contributed to his lack of sales conversion.

Starting Small Serves A Very Real Purpose

As we saw with the guy who spent ten grand to make $100, starting small would have been beneficial. It is all a matter of figuring out how to get traffic to one's website and more importantly, how to convert traffic to sales.

One should start small with his or her advertising to find the ad formula that will actually deliver traffic to the website. Once the traffic is coming to the website, the webmaster needs to tweak his or her sales copy to make sure that the copy will close enough sales to justify the expense of a large advertising run.

SEO should be treated in the same way. By using Pay-Per-Click advertising (PPC), a webmaster can get an idea as to which keyword phrases will actually generate traffic to a website, and with the right analytical software, the Webmaster can determine which keyword phrases generate clicks that will lead to a sale.

Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/) is a good program to help webmasters figure this out and it is free, but it has its shortcomings.

Popular paid programs include:

> http://www.opentracker.net

> http://www.keytrail.com

Another two-dozen web analytics applications are reviewed here: http://www.cumbrowski.com/CarstenC/internetmarketing_webanalytics.asp

SEO campaigns should never be undertaken until one knows exactly which keywords will actually generate sales for a website. To do otherwise, one runs the risk of optimizing a website for keywords that will not help the website convert traffic to sales.

Advertising Lessons Learned

While testing your advertising and your PPC advertising, a few very important lessons were learned.

First, you learned how to tap into the Law Of Attraction to bring people to your website.

You have learned what keywords you should target, if you decide to optimize your website.

You have learned how to track your successes and your failures with your website analytical software.

And finally, you have learned to tweak your website for the purpose of increasing your sales conversion.

All are very important lessons, because each will contribute to how much money can be earned from a website.

Building Links Is Not About PageRank

If you remember, the title of this article is, "Internet Marketing Without Search Engines." That should imply that this article is not about getting good rankings in Google. By extension, the title should also imply that what I am telling you has "nothing" to do with PageRank.

The fact is that every person using the Internet is clicking on links to take them from one website to another. Some links are in emails; others are in paid adverts on websites, or in informational web pages. Even social bookmarking websites have links to other web pages.

Building links to your website is about getting your sales message, with its accompanying link, in front of the people most likely to buy what you are selling, in a way that encourages your potential customer to click your link and visit your website.

Once you understand who your customers are and where you might be able to reach them, then you will know what steps you need to take to get your link within reach of their mouse.

You may need to buy advertising at that location. You might be able to write an article to give to them, in exchange for a link to your website. You might be able to participate in the website's forums and leave a breadcrumb trail of links for your potential clients to find. You can even create social bookmarks that will point to your website or to a page that points to your website.

The goal of linking is to give your potential customers more ways for them to find your website.

An Ironic Twist To This Tale

Although this article is about thriving on the Internet without relying on search engines, any person who undertakes linking for the sake of attracting customers will find their websites climbing in the search engine results, due to all of those links on targeted and relevant websites pointing to their own website.

Imagine that --- a link that will attract and deliver potential customers to a website AND influence how well a website might rank in the search engines

Read More...... If you like the post then please vote on any Social Media Network.

Your Ad Here

By Werner Schamberger


What is RSS?

You probably have seen this three-letter acronym in the course of your internet surfing. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary; syndicating means republishing an article that comes from another source such as a website. A RSS feed is a means of publicizing updates about websites. It may or may not include a summary and photos of the latest posting. But those that provide summaries (thus Rich Site Summary) allow users to skim through the article so that they can decide later on if they want to access the website source. The RSS feed usually contains the title of the update originating from the website. It is also usually the link to the website source.

What are the Benefits of RSS?

RSS provides benefits to both readers (users) and web publishers.

1. It gives you the latest updates. Whether it is about the weather, new music, software upgrade, local news, or a new posting from a rarely-updated site, you can learn about the latest as soon as it comes out.

2. It saves on surfing time. Since an RSS feed provides a summary of the related article, it saves the user's time by helping s/he decide on which items to prioritize when reading or browsing the net.

3. It gives the power of subscription to the user. Users are given a free-hand on which websites to subscribe to in their RSS aggregators which they can change at any time they decide differently.

4. It lessens the clutter in your inbox. Although your email address will be required to enjoy the services of online RSS aggregators, RSS does not use your email address to send the updates.

5. It is sp@m free. Unlike email subscriptions, RSS does not make use of your email address to send updates thus your privacy is kept safe from sp@m mails.

6. Unsubscribing is hassle-free. Unlike email subscriptions where the user is asked questions on why s/he is unsubscribing and then the user is asked to confirm unsubscribing, all you have to do is to delete the RSS feed from your aggregator.

7. It can be used as an advertising or marketing tool. Users who subscribe to or syndicate product websites receive the latest news on products and services without the website sending sp@m mail. This is advantageous to both the web user and the website owner since advertising becomes targeted; those who are actually interested in their products are kept posted.

What are the Drawbacks of RSS?

The disadvantages of RSS stem from user-preference concerns and the fact that it is a new technology.

1. Some users prefer receiving email updates over an RSS feed.

2. Graphics and photos do not appear in all RSS feeds. For conciseness and ease of publication, RSS feeds do not display the photos from the original site in announcing the update except for some web-based aggregators.

3. The identity of the source website can be confusing. Since RSS feeds do not display the actual URL or name of the website, it can sometimes get confusing on what feed a user is actually reading.

4. Publishers cannot determine how many users are subscribed to their feed and the frequency of their visits. Moreover, they do not know the reasons why users unsubscribe which could be important in improving their advertising.

5. RSS feeds create higher traffic and demands on the server. Most readers still prefer the whole update over a brief summary of the entry, thus they still access the site.

6. Since it is a new technology, many sites still do not support RSS.

How Do I Start Using RSS?

There are two things needed: an RSS feed and an RSS aggregator or reader. The RSS feed comes from an RSS-supported website. There are also websites that provide a directory of RSS feeds from different websites. An RSS aggregator is used to read the RSS feed from the source website. It scans and collects data on the latest RSS feeds from the worldwide web

An aggregator comes in two forms: a downloadable program, also known as a desktop aggregator, and an online or web-based aggregator. Downloadable aggregators may require payment before they can be acquired, while internet-based aggregators are usually free. All you need to do is to register an account and you are ready to use their services. Both versions allow you to customize, or choose, which RSS feeds to enter. Paid aggregators are usually chosen by more experienced users and they usually allow more freedom in customizing feeds.

Editor's Note: A selection of top RSS Desktop Aggregators can be found at:

About.com
or
RSS-Specifications.com

1. Choose an RSS aggregator to use. For beginners, web-based aggregators are recommended since they are usually user-friendly.

2. Scan the homepage of your target website for the RSS or XML button. It contains the RSS code you need to enter in the aggregator. Copy this code. Syndic8 provides a directory of websites that support RSS.

3. Paste the code (which contains the URL of the website) in your aggregator. There is a space provided for pasting the code.

After you have done these three easy steps, you can start reading the RSS feeds coming from the website. New postings appear as they are published in real time at the source website.

RSS and Internet Marketing

The original idea of RSS came from Netscape, where the intention was to provide a means for users to customize their personal homepages with links to websites that were of interest to them, similar to bookmarking websites.

The application of RSS to internet marketing was an unforeseen development to RSS technology developers. Since users are given the freedom to add RSS feeds to their aggregators, those who are interested in particular products and services available on the internet can now be notified real time. Marketing becomes more specific to interested people and not a hit-and-miss operation.

Medium to big-scale companies who intend to use RSS for marketing their products and services should consider linking up with email account providers, (e.g. Yahoo, MSN, Google mail); networking websites (e.g. Friendster, Multiply, My Space, Hi5); websites of newspapers and television network websites (e.g. New York Times, CNN). Smaller companies can also look at networking websites as well as personal blog websites (e.g. Blogspot) and websites of clubs and organizations that would probably make use of their products or services e.g. a fishing supplies store can look for the website of their local fishing club for possible RSS marketing.

Clearly, RSS is an innovation in worldwide web information management as well as online marketíng. We can expect better RSS technology in the not-so-distant future as its popularity increases among users and website owners alike.

Read More...... If you like the post then please vote on any Social Media Network.

Your Ad Here

Google continues to beat the drum about passing PageRank through paid links as Matt Cutts weighed in on the topic with another request that webmasters use the 'nofollow' attribute for them.

Paid Links Still Evil To Google

Though plenty of places in the Northern Hemisphere shiver in chilly temperatures, webmasters will continue radiating heat after the latest double-barreled barrage from Google's loquacious engineer. Paid links have a long history of annoying Google due to the way they can affect organic rankings.

This has been the year of living dangerously for webmasters who engage in pushing PageRank through paid links. Google's crackdown on sites using these links without a 'nofollow' tacked onto them means more websites will see the dreaded reduction in their PageRank as punishment.

Matt wrote about this at the Google Webmaster Central blog and his personal site. A couple of essential points he made will stand out for webmasters:

Q: Is Google trying to tell webmasters how to run their own site?

A: No. We're giving advice to webmasters who want to do well in Google. As I said in this video from my keynote discussion in June 2007, webmasters are welcome to make their sites however they like, but Google in turn reserves the right to protect the quality and relevance of our index. To the best of our knowledge, all the major search engines have adopted similar positions.

Q: Is Google trying to crack down on other forms of advertisements used to drive traffic?

A: No, not at all. Our webmaster guidelines clearly state that you can use links as means to get targeted traffic. In fact, in the presentation I did in August 2007, I specifically called out several examples of non-Google advertising that are completely within our guidelines. We just want disclosure to search engines of paid links so that the paid links won't affect search engines.

Several webmaster comments posted to the Webmaster Central blog took issue with the paid links stance, with some complaining of being penalized without cause. One commenter named Jason said one blog he has received the PR 0 hit, and has never bought or sold a link.

"What about sites that received the penalty by mistake?" he asked. "I'm hesitant to submit a re-inclusion request because it requires admission of wrongdoing. Is there any way of asking for a review that doesn't require falsely stating that we've gone against the webmaster guidelines?"

In response, Matt suggested the drop could have been a result of canonicalization issues, and that PageRank does tend to fluctuate. As far as the language of the reinclusion request to which Jason objected, Matt had this to say:

I don't want to force people to claim that they've violated our guidelines in doing a reconsideration request. I believe that we've already softened our language on that form once and that we added the option to say "something happened on this domain before I got to it."

But your feedback is something that I've heard before, and I'll try to have someone at Google look at what we can do to remove that concern. If you have suggestions for language or the best way to do it, I'm open to whatever you want to propose.

Google isn't worried about whether someone's site gets noticed in the search results or not. The other major search engines have similar views. To them, paid links skew what searchers see, and not always to the searcher's benefit.

Matt's example of this on his blog shows how a query for the very serious topic of cancer-fighting radiosurgery brings up useless and misleading results when paid links pass PageRank.

"If you stumbled across these entries on the web, you might not know whether someone got paid for writing these posts. In the same way that a regular surfer would want disclosure to know if a post were paid, all the major search engines also want to make sure that paid posts are adequately disclosed to search engines as well," Matt said.

Use paid links without identifying them, and Google will penalize the site. It's a cause and effect that enrages webmasters who want to rate well in the world's dominant search engine. Many are going to feel this is part of a ploy to drive them to buy ads on Google to get noticed.

That is a side effect of Google's attack on less than useful content. One can see why webmasters will feel this way. Google is a business, not a public utility, even if it seems otherwise to Internet users. They make the rules for their SERPs, as the other engines do, and playing on their site means following them, or going to the bottom of the list.

Read More...... If you like the post then please vote on any Social Media Network.

Your Ad Here

A beta test of Ads for Adobe PDF Powered by Yahoo opened for publishers, offering placement and tracking of contextual ads alongside Portable Document Format content.

---

White papers and other PDF content became more valuable to publishers with Adobe and Yahoo announcing their PDF advertising product beta. Do you plan to use it? Does Yahoo appeal to you as the ideal ad partner for this service?

---

PDF has been an appealing format due to its ability to preserve the look and feel of a document, while providing it to others in an easily accessible way. The free Adobe Reader became a fixture on computer desktops as adoption of PDF increased.

Yahoo has managed to score a significant win by beating ad competitors like Google and Microsoft to the opportunity to mine the PDF space for advertising revenue. Adobe and Yahoo announced the new program for delivering dynamic contextual ads in PDFs this morning.

The opt-in program pulls ads from Yahoo's network to place in a panel next to the PDF content. Each time the PDF is opened, the ads will be refreshed to keep timely and relevant ones in place.
Publishers gain the ability to track their ad performance in the PDFs. Yahoo Publisher Network senior VP Todd Teresi called this a "previously untapped opportunity" for advertisers to gain exposure, and publishers to derive revenue from these documents.

The program picked up some big name participants for this initial beta. CondeNast's Wired, IDG InfoWorld, and Reed Elsevier were among those named in a statement from Adobe.

To participate, publishers register and then upload their PDFs so the ad functionality can be enabled for the document. After that has been completed, the publisher distributes the PDF as usual.

InfoWorld's participation is of particular interest. The long-time trade journal scrapped its print magazine in opting for an online-only, ad-supported presence. If profitable, we expect to see other print publishers express interest in trying out the program.

Another interesting possibility comes to mind with the PDF advertising. The hot Amazon Kindle electronic book reader has the capability to pick up PDF content, a feature Amazon currently lists as being experimental in its ability to convert them for readability.

If Amazon works out PDF conversions, the EVDO network supporting wireless content delivery to Kindle could work as a conduit for the PDF ad program too. Since Amazon has its own interest in delivering ads, there could be issues with this idea, however.

Read More...... If you like the post then please vote on any Social Media Network.

Your Ad Here

Promoting a blog is also an art. After doing all the hard work, it is really frustrating that no good traffic is coming your way. So for that advertisements play a great role. Whether you are a product marketeer or an affiliate, a freelance writer or a blogger, advertisements could be your way to generate some good traffic. OR If you are looking for some good adsense alternatives some of these would help. Following are a few ad publishing networks. You can either be an Advertiser or a Publisher.

AdBrite.com - It suppports ad targeting by categories, keywords, geographically, or by demographics; offers up multiple ad formats for all budgets.

AdGridwork.com - Free advertising for your site. By placing ads on your site, your ad shows up on other network sites.

Adknowledge.com - Combines traffic from numerous venues and determines the best placement of ads for you.

AdMob.com - A network for advertising on mobiles everywhere.

Ads-Click.com - Let’s you advertise both on the web and on mobile devices, perfect for .MOBI sites.

AdsMarket.com - Offers four advertising channels which should offer something for everyone.

Advertising.com - An advertising network with about the best domain name they could have ever hoped for. Become an advertiser or a publisher.

Agendize.com - Works to make ads more interactive by widgetizing them.

Ask Sponsered Listings - Probably a bit high for most startups or personal blogs, (”If you’re budget is under $6,000 a month, click here…”) but still a well known name.

Bidvertiser.com (***hot***)- Select the sites you want to advertise on and bid for placement. Has publisher services for sites to sign up.

Bla.st - Advertise your new site for free, or pay as little as a few cents a day to get on the main page.

Clicksor.com - Choose your keywords and channels, and allow them to place ads on affiliate sites and in search engines. Websites can sign up to be affiliates.

CopaCast.com - Uses a mixture of value ranking and browsing habits to change ads on the fly for higher prospect browsers.

CPXInteractive.com - Offers performance-based targeting across their 20,000+ publisher’s sites.

Google AdWords (***hot***) One of the best around, the king of advertisers.

Google Adsense: (***hot***) Again a top notch publishing network.

Kanoodle.com - Uses multiple search engines to help you find the most effective homes for your ads. Publishers can sign up.

Kontera.com - Offers up in-text, relevant ads that generate pop-up windows to get your message across.

LinkLike.com - A metered link trade system to allow you to trade advertising with other sites.

LinkWorth.com - Offers a large selection of advertising options such as text ads, paid reviews, rotating text ads and more. Sites can also sign up to display the ads.

Microsoft adCenter - Pay per click advertising served up by Microsoft. Advertisers only.

Pulse360.com - Offers you choices of contextual, behavioral, geographic, local, demographic, and site specific targeting. Webmasters can also join their network for placement.

TargetPoint.com - Advertising network with over 2.6 billion page views a month and offers sign-up for sites.

Text-Link-Ads.com - Over 20,000 publishers in their network for advertisers to get noticed on.

TMX.net - Let’s you choose the types of sites you advertise on and gives you a plethora of on-reciprocal links, and as a webmaster you can sell ad space.

Yahoo! Publisher Network (***hot***) Yahoo’s pay-per-click advertising system. In betas yet, only available for US.

Ad Space For Sale:

AdSymetrix.com - Gives you the ability to add tracking to any ad you place on the net to track its performance.

Clickable.com - After you’ve started advertising with several networks, go here to try and manage everything in one place.

ForSaleByPublisher.com - A directory of sites selling ad spots so you can pick and choose where your ads appear, and bypass the ad networks.

PRCompass.com - Issue a press release about your new site or service. Free and paid versions available.

PubMatic.com - A tool that allows several ad networks to use the same space on your site; you just need to insert some tags.

If you like the list then plz digg and del.icio.us it.

Read More...... If you like the post then please vote on any Social Media Network.

Your Ad Here

Since last one day i am having this digg effect, which i had heard all around, on my blog. I was pretty amazed that how in less 5 mins i got round about 90 diggs, and a boom of traffic with loads of comments. Damn this was a hell of an experience, just sitting on my pc gazing at those stats telling about the visitors on my blog, trying to byte my nails off, refreshing the page after every 1 min, looking at the sarcastic comments of the ppl and all of it just increasing the curiosity. Even if i tried to go away and study for the next day class test, i was having all my concentration towards the Digg. Thank God that the test was rescheduled and it saved my ass, but still i have that sensation of that traffic boom with those critic comments of ppl. I am trying to get hold of myself but lets see whether i can control it or not.
Regards,
DamnedViper

Read More...... If you like the post then please vote on any Social Media Network.

Your Ad Here

Requirements:
Your 20 Mins
And your 20 Friends. Thats it
Procedure:
There had been a lot of suggestions regarding Rapidshare and Megaupload premium accounts. Sorry to say but there would be nobody so freakin crazy to give away the login and passwords for free unless there is a reason. So 95% of the accounts you would find around on the websites and blogs would be either fake or expired or with a changed password. So instead of spending hours and hours searching for login id and passwords posted by others why not you earn it yourself and that as well 100% legal and legitimate.
Now First of all, you would have to sign up for PayPal, your online bank account for free.
Click here to sign up. It will take about 5 mins.
Now you have to signup for Widgetbucks, an ad publishing services. Click to
Sign up with WidgetBucks

It would take about 6-7 mins
The Google Adsense has a payout of $100 that means that when you will earn $100 or more then you could withdraw the money by Western Union or Check. While Widgetbucks, on the other hand has a payout of $50, (with a $25 signup bonus) and that as well through paypal.
The differenced between the two is that Google adsense is ideal for a working website/blog with good traffic but has a higher payout. While Widgetbucks has a low payout and is ideal for a small website or blog plus they give you a $25 signup bonus (limited time offer).
So i recommend Widgetbucks.
Now after setting up an account at WidgetBucks you have to make a small blog. Dont worry that is not that hectic as it seems. Just login to blogger with your google account or sign up for one if you dont have. Create a new blog, post some rubbish by pasting any info you find about anything. Then add a page element in your blog with the Ad-Code from the WidgetBucks (as a html or javascipt). It would take about 7 mins.
Now you are all setup to earn your account. Now just tell your friends or people you know to click on the advertisements for once or twice not more. But dont click yourself or else you would be banned. You would require only about 20 ppl to click and then you would reach your payout limit for WidgetBucks. Wait for some time and they will pay you via your paypal account. This is it, just go to rapidshare or megaupload website signup for their premium account with your paypal id and here you go with the premium account which you have earned yourself.
I would appreciate your comments. Plz say thanks if you like it. Suggestions are welcomed. Any help required should also be commented.
Hope you enjoyed reading.
Regards,
DamnedViper

Read More...... If you like the post then please vote on any Social Media Network.

Your Ad Here