Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

...can be the
difference between a small, barely
profitable or visible website and
a traffic magnet website. There are
a lot of ways, both good and bad,
to influence the search engines.
Some search engines react to certain
strategies better than others. Some
even have conflicting strategies that
they react to.

To document all of these things would require a
significant number of pages and research that goes
beyond the scope of this article.

However, there are a number of things that can be
documented that will work for most if not all search
engines. And let's face it; there are really only 3
that make a difference between a successful and an
unsuccessful SEO strategy. They are the big three:
Google, Yahoo and MSN. These three search engines in
any given month are responsible for over 90% of all
internet searches.

So, what is this article about? It's about what you
can do as a website owner that will influence the
search engines using commonly accepted practices of
linking to other websites (outbound) and getting
website links (inbound) back to you.

There are basically 4 strategies that a website owner
usually will employ to increase their website value in
the eyes of the search engine.

They are reciprocal linking, one-way linking,
multi-site linking and directory linking. A website
owner should not think that using just a single
strategy is the right answer - sure it will help your
SEO but it won't be the Best answer. The Best answer
is to employ all 4 techniques and to do it naturally.

Each of the four linking strategies has specific
descriptions that can be summed up as:

1. Reciprocal Linking = Site A links to Site B,
Site B links back to Site A
2. One-Way Linking = Site B links to Site A
3. Multi-Site Linking = Site A links to Site
B, Site B links to Site C, Site C links to Site D, and
Site D links back to Site A.
Could be 3..N number of sites involved.
4. Directory Linking = Site Directory
A links to Site A

That seems simple enough but it takes time and effort
to perform all 4 strategies and most website owners
aren't willing to spend the time or don't have the
time to spend on it. As a website owner, SEO needs to
be one of the highest priority tasks that you need to
address, just after Order Processing and Fulfillment
and Customer Service.

Without f'r'ee traffic from the search engines, other
traffic generation strategies that usually require
payment must be engaged.

Now doing the 4 strategies above is great, but it gets
even harder because you have to do it in a way that
doesn't trigger the search engines to enforce a
penalty upon your website. No one except the search
engine engineers know all of the exact penalties but
we have some good theories for some of them.

The first is the rate at which links are created.
There is a certain threshold for creating links that
is too fast. It's possible that the threshold is a
sliding scale and is related to the age of the website
according to the engine.

For example, a young low-traffic website should not
normally be getting 1000 links a month whereas an
older website that gets a lot of traffic could be OK
to get 1000 links a month. As you progress in your
linking strategies make sure you keep this in mind,
especially if you are thinking about buying links.

The second is that having a link to every site that
links to you will likely reduce the value of the
links. In other words, if all you ever get is
Reciprocal Linking, you will likely move up the SERP's
(Search Engine Results Page's) but you won't reach
your sites full potential. Having a mixture of all 4
strategies will appear more natural to the engines.

The third is having all inbound links to your site on
"linking" pages will make those links less valuable
than having a natural link on a contextually relative
page for a percentage of the inbound links. The higher
you can drive this context percentage, the better your
website will rank.

These types of links are often some of the most
difficult links to generate an exchange for because it
requires more time and effort for both website owners.

The fourth is to have links inbound from all different
ranking sites. If all you have linking to you is page
rank 6 and 7 sites then you are likely to be sending
the message that you purchased your links and that is
not natural to the engines. Some would argue that
purchasing links for driving traffic is just fine and
it is.

However, you should not expect the search engines to
give those inbound links very much weight when
calculating your SERP positions. It is significantly
more natural for you to have a large number of rank 1
and 2 inbound links and a decreasing number of inbound
links as you move up the page rank scale (0 - 10).

The fifth is to have the text of you inbound links
varied. It isn't natural to have every website that
links to you to have the same text on the link
description.

The natural tendency would be to have a certain
percent be the sites name, but after that it should be
a wide variety of description. Your link text
description is a key factor for how your site/page
will rank, so make sure that you keep that in mind as
you specify your preferred link text description on
your website.

Finally, it would be best for a good percentage of
your inbound links to appear within the text of a page
that appears natural for the reader of that site. And
for those links to not all point back to the home page
of your website. It's most natural for a good high
quality link to appear in the text of a page and have
it point internally within your site.

So, when you begin or continue your SEO activities
keep all of these things in mind and don't be
impatient. Impatience could incur penalties or worse.
Your website could end up in the "sandbox".

It is rumored and becoming more concrete that Google
supposedly uses a sandbox that questionable sites are
put in until they have aged to a point that Google no
longer feels that they are being manipulated. Many of
the search engines use similar protection schemes to
eliminate spam sites and manipulation sites to keep
their SERP's from being cluttered.

David Hudson, webmaster of webcashlink,
business articles author, and a successful affiliate,
can help you with your online business.
Visit: Webcashlink

Pick up a fr*e copy of SEO Made Easy
by Brad Callen "SEO_Made Easy"

Affiliate Programs To Multiply Your Sales

Affiliate Programs

What could be better than exceeding your personal
sales goals for a given month or year? How about
doubling, tripling, or quadrupling your sales goal for
the month? This is exactly what affiliates can do for
you. The amount of growth potential through affiliates
is unlimited. The more affiliates you have, the more
money you can make. Consider Sam Walton trying to run
every Wal-Mart store alone. He obviously wouldn’t be
very successful. You must realize that maximum growth
you can’t be done alone. Think of the success of
companies such as Avon or Home Interiors. Their
success is based on two things: great products and
excellent affiliate programs.

Attracting Affiliates

To attract affiliates to your company you should make
it worth their time. Offering one percent of sales is
not an attractive offer. The higher the commission you
are able to offer your affiliates, the more affiliates
will be tempted to join your team. You should also
provide your affiliates with the tools they will need
to successfully market all of your products, such as
banner ads, articles, and anything else that will help
them to better market the product. You should provide
the affiliates with updated product information
through newsletters, new promotional campaigns and
etcetera to motivate and inform the affiliates.


One-Tier/Two-Tier Affiliate Program

You can choose to run your affiliate program in two
different ways, both of which are beneficial to your
business. A one-tier affiliate program allows you to
generally offer a larger commission and pays on one
level. The affiliate will receive a predetermined
amount for each sale. The other, a two-tier affiliate
program, pays affiliates on two different levels. This
is done by allowing affiliates to recruit others to
sell under them. In this situation, the top level
affiliate would receive a slightly larger commission
than the recruit or second level affiliate. For
example, if your company pays out 20% on a particular
product, the 1st level would earn 15% and the second
5%.


Setting Up Your Affiliate Program

Setting up the affiliate program can also be done two
different ways. One way is to do it yourself through
an affiliate tracking software. This software will
provide you with a way to track affiliate sales as
well as allow the affiliates to view their own
progress. The downside to this option is that you are
responsible for making payments. You can also choose
to hire an affiliate tracking company to do all the
work for you. These companies will allow the use of
credit cards and completely run the affiliate program
from billing customers, paying affiliates, and also
paying you. This is a great option for the busy
business owner or the beginning business owner. It is
also very affordable, as most affiliate tracking
companies only charge a small one time fee. However
you choose to run your affiliate program, it is sure
to increase profits for your business.

David Hudson, webmaster of webcashlink,
business articles author, and a successful affiliate,
can help you with your online business.
Visit: Webcashlink

How to Keep Your Affiliate Marketing Business Organized

I'm fairly anal about keeping my business, and almost
all aspects of my life, well-organized. For example,
open my closet and you'll see my clothes sorted by
garment type and color (according to the spectrum from
white to black). Sick, eh? How about a food cupboard
sorted into soups, veggies, snacks, sauce mixes, pasta
and rice, etc? Oh ya, and the labels ARE turned out.
Are you ready to have me committed yet?

Wait just a moment, please. There's method in my
madness... really and truly. Surely you know people
who can't organize their way out of a paper bag. They
come home and leave their keys in a different place
each time. Then whenever they want to go out, they
need to spend 5 minutes searching for their keys...
and/or shoes, or jacket, or paperwork...

What a huge a waste of life!

I use the term 'life' because life is comprised of,
and measured by, time. Nothing is more precious than
time and making each of your moments count. Spending
time on trivial matters like looking for keys when you
could be having fun with friends and family, helping
others through your business, saving the planet, or
even taking a nap - is a waste of time. Likewise,
looking for a merchant's affiiliate interface login
and password when you want to install one of their
links on your site, is a waste of time. Scrap
that...it's a waste of time to have to look for the
link itself. All the details relating to your
affiliate marketing business need to be at right at
your fingertips.

I stay organized by keeping everything in one big
Excel file accessed from my desktop. The file has a
number of worksheets, each with its own set of
information. All the programs I'm affiliated with are
listed on one worksheet, with headings for program
name, username/ login, password, network association
(if any), primary links, my own redirect links, broker
(2nd tier) links, link for the affiliate interface,
manager's name and contact info, commission rate and
other important info. Another sheet logs all monies
owed and received, and allies income by program and
category, as well as by month and year. On another
worksheet I've listed software information including
purchase date, registration numbers and login details.
Still another keeps track of information for
subscriptions such as forums and membership sites.

Everytime I come up with an article idea, it gets
entered on the 'Article Ideas' worksheet. There's yet
another sheet with a list of article submission sites.
I log interview, presentation, and teleconference
dates and details in that file. Testimonials and
success stories have their own separate sheets. The
Net Profits Today newsletter is laid out in advance on
another sheet, with suggestions for topics and
articles. Last but not least, my project (to-do) list
is on another worksheet, filed by domain name and
sorted by date due.

The 'Big File' is always open.

When I join a program, the details get entered right
away. While reading my email, I cut and paste
testimonials right into the file, and jot ideas for
future NPT topics ... as they pop up. My site files
are organized by domain name - not generic terms like
'dating site', or 'book site', as I've seen some
webmasters do. As soon as I join a program I enter all
the details on the relevant sheet, and create a
redirect link, which I know I'll use if I promote the
product via email.

I create email filters for every webmaster I do
business with, and messages go straight into their
personal folder. One quick filter - no more filing.

Setting up - and keeping up with - such a system may
seem like a lot of work. It's not. Do it often enough
and it becomes second nature. Staying organized sure
beats the heck out of wasting five minutes trying to
find the email with that merchant's affiliate program
login information just so you find your affiliate
links.

About The Arthur

Article by Rosalind Gardner, author of the best-selling
"Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year
Selling Other People's Stuff Online". To learn how you too
can suceed in Internet and affiliate marketing, get your:
"Super Affiliate Handbook"

David Hudson, webmaster of webcashlink,
business articles author, and a successful affiliate,
can help you with your online business.
Visit: Setuponce

Effective or Irritating: Pop-up Windows in Internet Marketing

"Pop-up Windows" Gone or Here To Stay

A few years ago, pop-up windows was the rage in
Internet marketing. It seemed like every time you
opened a web page you got bombarded with offers
for this or that. It got to the point where surfing
the Internet was almost like playing a video game,
that is, for every pop-up you tried to close, one or
two more would open. This is precisely why we have
seen the decline in the use of pop-up windows on the
Internet today. Surfers simply won’t even look at the
pop-ups anymore, as they’re conditioned to close the
pop-up before ever reading the ad. Very often, a surfer
will even leave your site if there are too many pop-up
ads. They simply do not want the hassle of closing those
windows while trying to obtain the information that
your site has to offer. This information, while valuable,
is not as valuable as the surfer’s time. Recent studies
have shown however, that even with these set backs,
pop-up windows are still an effective method of
Internet marketing.


Irritating Yet Still Effective

Is there some way that pop-up windows can be less
irritating and still be effective? Yes! What if the
pop-ad was seen upon exiting your site instead of
entering? This would allow the surfer to obtain the
information needed from your site, thus feeling
that they were able to come and go quickly without
being hassled by other ads and offers all the while
making the surfer happy. You have left the surfer
with a positive attitude and therefore more likely
to respond to the pop-advertisement. This is being
accomplished more and more by using what is being
called pop-under windows. When the surfer comes to
your site, the ad is opened discretely behind your
web page. Then, upon leaving your site, after
obtaining all the information that they need, will
see the ad and therefore be more likely to respond.
Since the surfer has the information, he has achieved
his objective and is now open to do other things;
ideally respond to the pop-under advertisement.


Not All Pop-up Windows Are Created Equally

Not all pop-windows are created equally. There are
some things that you can do to make your pop-windows,
whether pop-up or pop-under, more effective. The
pop-window should be easy to “escape” from. If the
surfer does not want to see the ad, but has a hard
time closing it out, they will likely become
frustrated and may leave your site all together.
You should either use a button that will allow the
surfer to close the window or be sure that the “x” is
easily visible. Another good idea is to use a script
that utilizes cookies. Cookies will prevent
pop-windows from overloading the surfer since you can
decide the frequency of the pop-windows, rather than
each time a page is opened. Also be sure that there
is not more than one pop-window per page.

When creating a pop-window, you will be asked to fill
out a short information form, select the length of
cookies, and choose the layout of the pop-window.

The Design Of Your Pop-up Window

When choosing the design of your pop-window, you can
increase the effectiveness by creating a large
headline that includes benefits that will be most
appealing to the customer. You should also consider
using incentives, and lastly, do not ask the customer to
read a long and drawn out advertisement. Keep the
message simple yet powerful and your pop-ads will be
sure to generate profits for your site.


David Hudson, webmaster of webcashlink,
business articles author, and a successful affiliate,
can help you with your online business.
Visit: Setuponce



David Hudson also endorses the Super
Affiliate Handbook by Rosalind Gardner
Get Yours Today!

Five Proven Methods for Internet Marketing Success

There are hundreds of ways that you can promote your
online business or website, some more effective than
others. These five proven methods will help you
generate traffic to your site and also generate
income for your wallet.


1. One thing that appeals to everyone is “free.”

If it is free, people will take it. Think of the samples
of cheese given away at grocery stores. Do you really
want a small piece of cheese? Of course not! But you
take it simply because it is free and someone is nice
enough to offer it to you. The same principle applies
with information or services offered from your
website. You can send out free newsletters or offer a
free trail period. One popular thing that is being
given away now is free credit reports or free PC
scans. These freebies are what we in the marketing
field like to call teasers. After running the free
credit report or PC scan we alert the customer if
there is something found on their credit record or PC
and then offer to show them what it is or repair the
problem for a price. This can be an effective way to
get information to your potential customers, create
sales or generate traffic to your site.



2. Your website contains information about a service
or product that you are very knowledgeable about.

You can use this knowledge to generate traffic to your
site by writing articles in your area of expertise and
have them published in an ezine or an article
information site. The most effective way to use these
articles is to write them for free and ask in return
that the publisher allow you to include a byline. A
byline is a very short summary of the author, their
credentials and their website. Your byline is a way
that readers will come to know you as an expert on the
topic and will in turn come to trust your site as a
source of credible information.


3. Some search engines will allow a website to
purchase their ranking.

This is an excellent IM technique in that it is effective
and inexpensive. In the pay-per-click programs, a website
is only billed for those who actually visit the page,
unlike banner ads which may be seen by millions but
only used by a few. When using the pay-per-click
program, you are asked to choose keywords and when
those are entered, your site will appear and if the
surfer chooses to view your site, you are billed for
that click. Many pay-per-click programs will offer
other benefits as well, such as updated lists of
commonly used keywords.


4. You should remember that others are in the same
boat as you.

You can choose to network with those who have similar
marketing ideas. When networking, you will be able
to share links and refer customers to each other.
You should always be very cautious when choosing a
networking partner as everything that you recommend
is a reflection of your or your product. Therefore,
you should be certain that your networking partner
is a reputable source of information.


5. Simply because your website is online, doesn’t
mean that all your advertising should be.
Advertise in newspapers, TV, the radio or you can even
send out a press release to get your information to
thousands of people all over the country.


David Hudson, webmaster of webcashlink,
business articles author, and a successful affiliate,
can help you with your online business.
Visit: Webcashlink