Free SEO/SEM Articles for Reprint

Good SEO Techniques to Use by wideon.net

2007-01-19T10:11:00.000-08:00

"Every single site owner wants to be at the top of the major search engines rankings. Taking full advantage of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques can put you on the right path to seeing this dream come true.

A common way to improve your sites search engine rankings is to title tag. When doing this you should put the keyword of the page in the title tag of the web page. You also should include a different tag for every page. The keyword should be used in the ALT tags made for text browsers that cannot view images.

Be careful when applying keywords. Over using keywords can cause you to be banned from search engines for a period of time, or even forever.

You should include your keyword in the title tag, as well as once in both heading and bold text. Also using the keyword in both first and last sentences has been known to increase search engine ranking. To increase your sites popularity with search engines you need to increase the number of links that are directed to your site. The more links your website has the higher the search engines will rank you.

Links from other sites directing to your site improves your search engine ranking. Be sure to include the keyword in the links and keep it as short as you can. You may get a request to exchange links but make sure the other site doesn't have any hidden repetitive keywords.

An important factor many people don't know is to keep the size of the web page smaller, in between 5k and 15k. This will keep the search engines and your visitors happy when visiting your site.

Search engine optimization is important for any successful website that wants to be at the top of any important search engine. Be sure to use many different techniques to see the best results."
About the Author

Written by Wideon.net. Build backlinks by submitting your website to our free SEO friendly internet directory.

Using A Blog To Connect With Your Readers by Christopher Angus

2007-01-19T10:09:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the simplest definition of a blog is that of a journal or serial newsletter that provides fresh content for the reading on a timely basis. However what most people don't realize is that a blog is not just a virtual space where you put your thoughts or the latest news about your products or services. It is more than just an online press release or a way of announcing things. It is also a journal that can" talk back to you" as there are usually spaces for individuals to respond to what you have to say and offer feedback. This content is a natural form of SEO that will bring interested people back to your site (and also hopefully to your affiliate links) again and again.)

Obviously as a forum, the blog offers more intimate contact with your readers and is less formal than a press release or the usual customer feedback reviews forms you find on larger sites. Also you can moderate or edit any posts left on your blog so that you don't end up with a site filled with spam or undesirable comments. The ability to editorialize gives you the opportunity to also control the appearance of your site.

Blogs are usually more entertaining for people read then press releases or the usual web site copy simply because it is written in a more informal way. It also allows a writer to express a very personal or even partisan point of view, which is not something that is even found in contemporary journalism. Many people enjoy the fact that blogging is a way of taking your reputation out of the hands of journalists and critics and letting the public decide for themselves about what you have to say, what you have to offer and your credibility.

About the Author

Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com

SEO - Hot Blog Content is Excellent SEO by Christopher Angus

2007-01-19T10:08:00.000-08:00

The most essential component of a blog is not only its keywords, but also the timeliness of its content. It is timely content that is going to attract the search engine and also readers. This means that you must have content that is unique, expert or original. When your readers add their own comments and links to your blog this expands the search ability of your content. It should also be content that is focused on one topic and that seems specialized, fresh and new.

Another essential component of Blog content is that it must be up to date, just as any news article is. This is also what marketing and advertising experts call "hot content." Cutting and pasting articles from other sites simply won't work because the search engine sites will simply ignore what you come up with. Nobody wants to read yesterday's news. Or you will get a complaint if the page is indexed in the search engines and the content belongs to someone else. When it comes to hot content, originality is key!

Another crucial reason why your content must be original and fresh is because on the blogging page, your content is arranged in reverse chronological order. The most recent content is presented at the top of the visible page and provides immediate access to topics that are most timely (meaning the blogs you have just written.)

Another great thing about a blog is that it is of a viral nature. It can be distributed for free through an RSS, Atom or XML feed that allow readers to subscribe to your entries just like they would a magazine or newsletter. This means that users can subscribe to blog content. This brings repeat business to your site and increases your chances of the affiliate links inside your blogs of being picked up and spread by other affiliate marketers.

About the Author

Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com

The Magic Potion Of SEO by Julian Hall

2007-01-19T10:03:00.000-08:00

magic-noun 1. the art of producing illusions as entertainment by the use of sleight of hand, deceptive devices, etc. legerdemain, conjuring-to pull a rabbit out of a hat by magic. 2. the art of producing a desired effect or result through the use of incantation or various other techniques that presumably assure human control of supernatural agencies or the forces of nature.

If you have been scouring the net looking for that out of the box system, or automated piece of software which will help you to rake in those online pounds and dollars then you have no doubt been looking for a little bit of magic.

The more experienced of us realise that like the golden fleece-there is no magic potion for SEO. Fortunately what we do have is a number of tried and tested solutions you can apply to your business model in order drive the traffic and convert the visitors you need to realise you online goals.

We define the top 10 solutions:

1. Search Engine Optimisation - The term used to describe the marketing technique of preparing a website to enhance its chances of being ranked in the top results of a search engine once a relevant search is undertaken. A number of factors are important when optimising a website, including the content and structure of the websites copy and page layout, the HTML meta-tags and the submission process.

2. Pay Per Click - Advertising model in which advertisers pay for click-throughs to their website. Ads are served based on keywords or themes.

3. Blogging - is the act of writing in ones blog. To blog something is to write about something in one's blog. This usually involves linking to something the author finds interesting on the internet.

4. RSS - is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.

5. Website copywriting - is the art of writing sales and marketing related materials. Copywriting is used in every major area of business such as Sales Letters, Business plans, advertising etc.

6. Affiliate Marketing - is a system of revenue sharing between one site (the affiliate merchant) which features an ad or content designed to drive traffic to another site (the advertiser). The affiliate will receive a fee based on the amount of traffic generated.

7. Web 2.0 - is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes.

8. Usability - efficiency with which a user can perform required tasks with a product, for example, a website. Usability can be measured objectively via performance errors and productivity, and subjectively via user preferences and interface characteristics. Web design features that affect usability include navigation design and content layout.

9. Site architecture- The structure of a web site. It reflects how information is organized, including categories, subsites, labeling and other relationships.

10. Links - The process of exchanging links with other websites is called Reciprocal Linking. Since both participating websites get an inbound link, it helps in building link popularity.
About the Author

Julian Hall of http://www.ehlonline.co.uk - SEO UK - EHLOnline - UK SEO, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Pay Per Click (PPC), Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Are you stressed?

2005-12-23T20:54:00.000-08:00

Are you stressed out?? Check out this website that deals on every aspect of dealing with office, work, school and college related stress......Managing Stress

Which Directories

2004-10-04T22:54:00.000-07:00

For more CCNA articles

by Clare Lawrence

There are literally 1,000 of directories on the web and new ones pop up every day.
Which ones should I submit to? Well firstly, provided a directory’s pages are indexed by the search engines (e.g. Google) and each page has a definite theme, then they all are!

A few directories do however, have a strong effect on search engines rankings and have sufficient visitor volumes to warrant the effort to get a listing.
Some are free, others charge.

The key directories are:-

1) DM0Z (the open directory)

2) Yahoo

3) Business.com

4) MSNsmallbusiness

Some minor directories worth being listed in

5) Bluefind (paid)

6) Gimpsy

7) Allthebizz

8) Smallerbizz

9) Wowdirectory

10) Joeant

About the Author

Clare Lawrence is CEO of Discount Domains Ltd – A leading UK provider of Domain name registration and Web Hosting services. Please feel free to re-publish this article provided this reference box remains together with a hyperlink to http://www.discountdomainsuk.com
Clare can also be contacted on clare@discountdomainsuk.com.

There's Gold in Your Website's Server Log

2004-09-30T03:20:00.000-07:00

By Stephen Bucaro
Permission is granted for the below article to forward,reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website,offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as longas no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and theresource box below is included.

Many Webmasters have never bothered to view their website'sserver log. Ignoring your server log is like flying with ablind pilot. You may still be cruising along, but you haveno idea where you are or where you're headed. If yourwebsite is on a free host, you probably don't have accessto the server log. However, if you pay for your web host,or if you own the server, you almost always have someaccess to the server log.

In this article, you'll learn what kind of information atypical server log provides, how to analyze thatinformation, and how to use that information to steer yourwebsite in a direction for growth and success.

The actual data in the server log is just that, data. Datais of little use without an application to compile,categorize, analyze, and turn it into useful information.The power of server log analysis software varies dependingupon the web host, and it's not related to how much you payfor hosting service. I have seen some very low budget webhosts with powerful server log analysis software, and someexpensive web hosts that provide only a limited utility.

The importance of the server log analysis software issecond only to up-time reliabilty when it comes to webhosts. A web server log can tell you who is visiting yourweb site, where they're coming from, what operating systemand web browser they're using, what pages of your websitethey are viewing, and much more. A smart webmaster performsa regular monthly analysis of the valuable informationcontained in the server log.

Hits

Some webmasters brag about the number of "hits" theirwebsite receives, but hits themselves are not important.For example, when a search engine spiders your website, itgenerates a hit for every page it visits. There are waysto generate millions of hits on a website without anyoneever actually viewing a single page.

The important statistics are "page view hits" and "uniquevisitors". Server log analysis software should tell you howmany times each page was viewed. Anaylyzing the popularityof individual pages tells you where to place your mostimportant advertisements, and what kind of new content youshould add to your website.

The king of all statistics is the number of unique visitorsyour web site receives. When it comes to sellingadvertising or joining the most exclusive affiliateprograms, a high number of unique visitors each month isthe statistic that gets respect.

Good analysis software will tell you how many pages eachvisitor viewed and how long they stayed on your website.The goal is to develop content that gets your visitors tostay longer, a quality sometimes referred to as"stickiness".

A statistic related to hits is "bandwidth". This is acomplicated statistic because you want more visitors andthat causes bandwidth to go up. On the other hand, highbandwidth consumption makes your website repond slower(and most web hosts charge extra for bandwidth beyond acertain limit). What you want is to design your web pagesso they use bandwidth efficiently, and you want to be onthe lookout for people who are stealing your bandwidth(usually by linking to images on your web site).

Referrers

Good server log analysis software will provide you with theURLs of the webpages that people clicked on to get to yourwebsite. This is extremely valuable information. If youare receiving a high volume of traffic from anotherwebsite, you can almost consider that website to be yourbusiness partner. It would be to your advantage to findways to make your website more useful to the referringwebsite. For example, learn what the topic of the referringwebsite is and place more related content on your website.

One common method of aiding referrers is to place areciprocal link on your website. However, don't botherplacing the reciprocal link on a "links" page with hundredsof other links (a link farm). If you can't provide anhonest reciprocal link, it's better to do nothing. Anhonest reciprocal link might be a page containing a reviewof the referrer's website, and that page should containonly a few other links.

Search Strings

Good server log analysis software will provide you with thekeywords and search strings people entered at a search siteto find your website. One way to get more traffic to yourwebsite is to provide more content related to the topkeywords. If getting more traffic is your single goal,there are websites that will provide you with a list of thecurrent most popular keywords entered into search engines.Then you can provide more content related to those keywords.This gets involved with the subject of "Search EngineOptimization" (SEO).

SEO is a science in itself, covered in other articles, butI will reveal a secret trick as an example of SEO tactics.Starting with a top keyword, generate every possiblemisspelling of that keyword and place those at the top ofyour webpage with the text color the same as the webpagebackground. (Note: I don't use that trick or any otherSEO tricks myself because if you get caught the searchengines will penalize your website.)

Platform and User Agent

Good server log analysis software will tell you whichoperating systems and which browser brands and versionspeople are using to access your website. At the time ofthis writing, the most common operating system is WindowsXP and the most common browser is Internet Explorerversion 6. However, you will find a wide range ofoperating systems and browsers accessing you website.Unfortunately, they are not all compatible.

The fact is, you can't design your website to be 100percent compatible with every operating system and webbrowser in use today. That would require either using onlyplain html (version 3) or using browser detection code andcreating a dozen variations of each webpage. Use yourserver log's platform and user agent data to decide whichbrowser your web pages should to be designed to becompatible with. Your statistics will probably show that90 percent of your website's visitors are using the latestor the previous version of Internet Explorer.

Country Information

Good server log analysis software will tell you whichcountries your website visitors are located in. Analysis ofthe bucarotechlp.com server logs shows that visitors arelocated in every country, village, and hamlet on theplanet. This leads to the question, should you createmultiple variations of each webpage to accomodate visitorsfrom other nations? It depends upon your business and yourresources. The fact is that the language of business andcommerce across the planet is English, and I receivefrequent email, in English, from all over the planet.

Important Ways to Use Server Log Information

Website Design

Remember when the typical website had a gray backgroundand a single image in the middle of the page? Today, thatwould be below the standard for a kids website on AOL. Doesyour server log "platform" and "user agent" statistics tellyou that most of the visitors to your website are usingWindows XP with Internet Explorer Version 6, while yourwebsite is designed for Windows 95 and Internet ExplorerVersion 4? Can you afford to be presenting a website thatlooks outdated?

I think it's a mistake to design a website that requiresyour visitors to have the latest bleeding-edge technology.On the other hand, if the rest of the web is using ASP(Active Server Pages) to generate custom webpageson-the-fly that use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to createwebpages that resemble slick magazine pages and DHTML(Dynamic HTML) to provide interactivity, it might be timefor you to investigate those technologies.

If your website is a business site or E-commerce site, thevisual style and technical level of your website reflectsthe quality of your business or service. To determine theproper visual style and technology level of your websiterequires you to monitor three things.

1. Your competitors. You want to look as in-style as theydo, but avoid following them down the road to bloatedplugins (Macromedia Flash).2. The portion of your audience using broad band InternetAccess. Less than half of U.S. Make sure your webpagesload within 20 seconds over a 56kbps modem connection.2. Your server log platform and user agent statistics. Yourweb pages need to be designed to be compatible with thecurrent most popular operating system and web browserversion.

Webhost Performance

Web hosts provide two basic kinds of service, sharedhosting and dedicated hosting. If your website is on ashared host, there may be hundreds of other websitessharing the same computer as your website. This limits theperformance of your website. Many web host providers use"bandwidth throttling" to prevent one website from hoggingall the available bandwidth.
As your website grows and attracts increasing traffic, itwill need more of the host computers processor time andmore bandwidth. Monitor your server log hits, and bandwidthstatistics. At some point, your website may hit aperformance wall and you may need to move to a highergrade of hosting, or a different web host company tocontinue growth.

When moving to a different web host company, don't trustthe specifications they provide. Check several differentweb host directories that let visitors rate web hosts. Ifseveral different web host directories have many users thatgive a web host company a high rating, that's the companyyou want to trust with your website.
Website Topic

As you analyze certain website server statistics (forexample, "page view hits", and "top search enginekeywords") and make adjustments, you may find the contentof your website drifting away from your original intent.At some point, you may have to decide, Am I going to chasetraffic and change the topic of my website, or am I moreinterested in focusing on the topic of my choice?

If the original objective of your website was to make moneyabove all else, then let your visitors steer your website'scontent. There's nothing wrong with that. Everybody's gotto make a living. But, if the original objective of yourwebsite was to be a resource on a subject that you arepassionate about, then you may need to reassess the contentof your website.
I would reccommend having the best of both worlds. Stick tocontent related to the subject of your website, butdelineate a wide enough scope of the topic so that whenyour server statistics point out an opportunity to increasetraffic, you have rules to guide you.
In this article you learned some of the types ofinformation you can mine from your web server log and somepowerful ways to use that information to steer your websitein a direction for growth and success. If you are one ofthose webmasters who has never bothered to view theirwebsite's server log, you now know that you have beenoverlooking some gold nuggets.

About The Author

Resource Box:Copyright(C) Bucaro TecHelp. To learn how to maintainyour computer and use it more effectively to design a Website and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.comTo subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visit http://bucarotechelp.com/search/000800.asp

For morearticles click here

How to Sell your Website

2004-09-28T03:06:00.000-07:00

by Matt Dobinson

There are hundreds and thousands of websites on the internet today being bought and sold and there are many places you can sell your website such as ebay and website brokers. Though this article we will explore each of these possibilities in greater details.

Ebay - Selling a website on ebay can perfect for some and completely useless for others. As most people know ebay, it gets millions of hits every minute from people looking for everything from hair nets to race cars. For starters this is a great way to get word out that your website is for sale. It has lots of people viewing your ads but keep in mind your competition is feirce as so many people post sites for sale on ebay. To sell your website on ebay it has to stand out from the rest.

Forums - Forums tend to be a great place to sell websites. They tend to ask alot more questions about statistics and revenue than most other places but if you have a quality site you can sometimes get alot more for it buy selling your website in forums. Good forums for this include sitepoint.com, geekvillage.com and webhostingtalk.com.

Website Brokers - Website brokers normally go out and try to get you the best possible price for your website. They tend to have contacts in the industry and will get into contact with people you can't or dont even know exist. They generally charge a fee of around 10%-15%. There are a few websites around where you can post your website up to brokers - kind of like a cross between ebay and a brokers firm.

Sell to your visitors - A commonly used technique to get a good profit from the sale of your website is to post a 'site for sale' link or image on the frontpage of the site for sale. This targets the audience to people interested in the topic of the site. But be warned not all of these people are or want to be webmasters.

Personal Contact - If you have a low budget, selling your website though your personal contact can be very rewarding. This takes everyone else out of the equation and you pay no broker fees or ad fees. If you plan on selling your website this way make sure you know enough people who would be intrested in the site.

Website Checklist
Before you get to putting up website for sale ads and hiring a site broker, there are a few things you will need. Firstly, find out in detail your statistics. This including unique visitors per day or month, bandwidth used per month and current and past revenue for the website. Most people who are in the industry will ask for the pagerank of the website too. You can find out your page rank by downloading the google toolbar and re-visiting your website. A pagerank is considered by most webmasters as being a large factor.

About the Author

Matt Dobinson is the owner of PageBrokers.com - A website dedicated to buying and selling websites online for the best possible price.. He also runs WebmasterFreebie.com - an online community for webmasters.

6 Key Points to Consider When Choosing a Web Host

2004-09-22T07:02:00.000-07:00

by Kyle Dusang

With literally thousands of web hosting companies in the industry all vieing for your business, you should do your homework and plenty of research to find the one that's right for you. Carefully consider the following points to ensure you make the most well informed decision possible when choosing a host for your website.

1. Server Space

First, think about how much space your site will take up on a server. Unless you are planning on running a software repository or an image gallery, the files that make up your website will probably only use between 1 and 5 megabytes of disk space. Many companies will offer several hundreds of megabytes of webspace for a very reasonable price in attempt to out perform their competitors, but ask yourself "Do I really need that much space?". Though it's true that you should allow your site "room to grow", don't opt for what seems like a great deal on a massively sized account if you'll never use all of the space offered. Chances are you'll find an even better deal on an amount of space more suitable for your site size.

2. Data Transfer Allowance

This decision should be based on the same principal as above. Though you may be convinced that your site will be the next Amazon or Yahoo and receive a gazillion visitors a day, you really shouldn't need an extremely high data transfer allowance unless, as stated above, you're running a software download site or a large image gallery. Even heavily trafficked normal HTML sites usually only use a few gigabytes per month in bandwidth allowance. Don't go overboard just because it seems like an awesome deal. You may also want be wary of companies who offer "unlimited" data transfer as there are usually some fine-print stipulations that make this claim not entirely true. Be sure to read their terms and conditions very carefully before opting for this type of account. A five or ten gigabyte bandwidth allowance is usually plenty enough for a small to medium sized business or personal site.

3. Technical Support

A very important point to consider when choosing a web host is the types of technical support offered by the company and how easy they are to contact when you need them. Ideally, a company should offer 24/7 toll-free telephone support and email. I have seen companies that do not even offer a telephone number on their website. You should look for a company that is very easily accessible in your time of need. Nothing is more frustrating than being in the middle of working on your site and needing an important piece of information to finish the job and not being able to contact your hosting company to find it out.

4. CGI-Bin Access

No matter what type of site you are planning on running, chances are you will eventually need to install some type of CGI script. Whether it be a mailing list management script, contact form processor, or maybe even a fancy credit card processing script, your hosting account will need to allow you to install and run them. This requires access to a special folder on your server called "CGI-Bin". Some hosting accounts will only allow you to use "pre-installed" scripts as a security measure. These are scripts that the owners of the company have installed and configured so that they know that they will work properly and not adversely affect their server's performance. That may be all you need, but if you have the knowledge, it's always nice to have the ability to install your own scripts and configure them to suit your individual needs. You should also be sure that the account you choose supports the language in which your scripts are written, such as PHP, Perl, etc.

5. Up-Time Guarantee

Another very important issue in determining the value of a hosting company is how often and for how long their servers "go down". No matter how good a deal you get on server space or bandwidht allowance, or how wonderfully the company's tech support takes care of you, your site can't receive visitors or produce revenue if the machine on which it is hosted is not up and running. Naturally you want a company who can guarantee the highest up-time percentage possible. Servers are taken down briefly from time to time for maintenance or upgrading, so no company can ensure 100% up-time, but you want your site to be hosted on dependable, well managed machines that are not constantly having problems which require them to be down for long periods of time.

5. Email Accounts

Again, like data transfer allowance and server space, some companies will offer you loads more email accounts than you will ever use. Some offer hundreds or even unlimited email accounts as a selling point. This is an important factor if you are Bill Gates and have thousands of employees, each who need their own email box, but not such a big deal if you're just one person or a small company. You should be okay with 10 or 15.

6. Reputation

This is probably the most important factor to consider when choosing a web host. Do your homework. Pay attention to any negative feedback you may hear or read about a particular hosting company. There are several sites arount the Web that feature discussion forums that allow people to discuss and critique various hosting companies. Ask specific questions about any company you might be interested in using to see if anyone else has had any negative experiences with them. As a beginning webmaster, I had initially contracted the services of a particular web hosting company to host my first site, who promised very good, dependable service for a very cheap price. Then one day, for no apparent reason, decided to delete my entire site without warning or explanation. Only then did I visit some hosting forums and find that many others had similar negative experiences with that company. Don't make the same mistake I did, find out for sure from the start that your hosting company is not going to let you down.

About the Author

Webmaster: http://www.verybesthosting.com Looking for a web host? Start here. Compare plans, features, and pricing from several of the Web's most reputable hosting companies all in one place.

What is the Google Sandbox Effect?

2004-09-20T22:49:00.000-07:00

By Jakob Jelling http://www.sitetube.com

In the age of fair competition you may find it hard to believe that a search engine may hinder the appearance of a new website. This is what is currently believed to be happening on more web servers today. Some programmers have viewed Google as uncomfortable to rank newer websites until they have proven their viability to exist for more than a period of “x” months. Thus the term “Sandbox Effect” applies to the idea that all new websites have their ratings placed in a holding tank until such time is deemed appropriate before a ranking can commence.

However the website is not hindered as much as the links that are reciprocated from other users. Newer links that are created are put on a “probationary” status until again they pickup in rank from other matured sites or placed directly by an ad campaign. The idea behind the hindrance is to prevent a fast ranking to occur on a new website. The usual holding period seems to be between 90 and 120 days before a site would start obtaining rank from reciprocal or back linking.

Some advice has been given to have companies you are going to reciprocate back add your link first to the website. This may help grandfather your site in, thus reducing the waiting time associated with “new” websites. People have noticed a 0 page rank when first signing up and receiving a bolstering 7 page ranking after 4 months. Why the delay? The fact is, that if people realized how easy it would be to get a high ranking, would that take away the credibility of the engine. It depends on whom you ask, but it does seem to be happening frequently to newer subscribers. Do not discontinue back linking, your rank will eventually appear.

About the Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.sitetube.com. Visit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites.

The Advantages of Owning an Online Home Business

2004-09-15T21:27:00.000-07:00

By Clint Null

Millions of people are doing searches on their local search engines everydaytrying to find businesses that will allow them to work from home. After all,the Internet is a HUGE marketplace and online business owners are making afortune. That's not to say that these business owners did not sweat bloodandtears to set up their Online Home Businesses and go for months if not yearsbefore they saw one ounce of profit. But if you would ask any of them rightnow if it was worth it, I guarantee you they will tell you.YES!
Let's look at some of the advantages of owning an Online Home Businessversus thetradition 9-5 career.

No Commute

Many of us are lucky enough to live close to our place of employment, butthat doesn't go to say that we don't have to set a stringent schedule thatstarts with the alarm clock going off, rushing to the coffee pot, makingbreakfast for our families, rotating shower times, getting our childrendressed and off to school, and on top of that making the commute to our dayjobs. By the time most of us get to work, we feel as though we have alreadyput in a hard days work.
Can you imagine owning an Online Home Business and putting all of thisbehind you? Imagine starting work each day when you are ready too, withouthaving to rush. You may even want to skip the shower and work in yourpajamas. This is what many of us do.

Be your own boss

Nothing is more aggravating for those of us who have bosses who you swearwere prison wardens in another life. Breathing down your back, makingunreasonable demands, and caring nothing for your family or personal health.
Can you imagine owning an Online Home Business and being your own boss? Youcould decide when you would work, and how long. If you wanted to take a dayor two off, then you could make that decision without facing therepercussions from your boss. If you needed to stop in the middle of the dayto run errand's or pick your children up from school, you could do this also.

Family Time

I will never forget as long as I live the things that I missed out on withmy family because I had to go to work. Many of us feel that we work to live,but our companies turn us in to people who live to work. This above all elsewas the biggest reason that I started a home based business on the Internet.Sadly enough, I didn't discover online home businesses until my childrenwere almost grown, but I plan on making some of this up to them by beingable to help raise my grandchildren and providing a residual income to mychildren long after I am gone.

Financial Gain

I don't think there are many people who feel they get paid what their worth.Have you ever been turned down for a promotion, or been given a small raisethat didn't even come close to equaling the raise in inflation or cost ofliving? DID YOU KNOW? The U.S. Social Security Board reports that 85 out of100 Americans reaching age 65 don't possess as much as $250. And only 2% areself-sustaining (the rest dependent on family, church, or the government)!Do you want to work for 40 years or more to make $40,000 a year or less, toretire on 40% of what wasn't enough in the first place? Online HomeBusinesses are very different than traditional careers because you don't getpaid by the hour. Many of us did a lot of up front work to set up ourbusinesses without any compensation. Once your business is set-up andflourishing, you can expect to work very little and get paid A LOT. Manyentrepreneurs on the internet work as little as a few hours a week and thepaychecks just get bigger and bigger.

So if you have thought about starting your own business, don't wait untilyou have the time or the finances. You can start out working an hour or twoa week and it can cost as little as $20 to get a website set up. You'veheard the old saying that if you wait to have children until you can affordit, that you never will have any. Start now, and set aside a mere $20 for awebsite, and work an hour or two a week when you can. In a year or two fromnow, you can quit your current position and enjoy the personal and financialrewards that owning an Online Home Business can provide.

About the Author
For a great tutorial on how you can get started online, please visit:http://www.online-home-businesses.com/tutorial.html

Responsible email marketing and how to benefit from it

2004-09-13T04:14:00.000-07:00

Spam seems to be increasing by the minute and this has become a major matter of concern for email marketers. Responsible email marketing is the only way by which organizations can make sure they are safe. This is the reason why responsible email marketing is considered the future of email marketing.

What is responsible email marketing?

Responsible email marketing involves carrying out email marketing by following certain guidelines, right from obtaining email lists to sending out mails. Permission based email marketing or opt-in email marketing can also be termed as responsible email marketing but not to that extent.

Permission based email marketing as the name suggests involves taking permission from the recipients of the e-mail before sending them any mails. Unlike other emails a permission based email cannot be termed as spam, but only if it has the following characteristics.

Permission based email marketing should involve

1.) Obtaining email addresses by legitimate means like opt-ins
2.) Sending emails with a functional opt out box
3.) Handing un-subscription requests at least on a weekly basis
4.) Providing valid contact information with proper signatures with every mail
5.) Sending mails following a specific frequency at all times

Permission based email should not involve

1.) Collecting email lists from email vendors
2.) Sending mails with porn (without clearly stating so) or potentially damaging materials
3.) Sending emails with false headers that may create obstacles in tracking the mail
4.) Sending emails with false IP addresses
5.) Sending mails that do not have a reverse DNS lookup with the domain name
6.) Sending emails with misleading subject lines and mail content
7.) Sending mails from a computer that you do not have access to use

So only in case the permission based or opt-in email marketing has these qualities can it be considered as responsible email marketing.

How to collect email lists to carry out responsible email marketing?

Getting email lists from email vendors is an easy thing to do but is not recommended in the least. The best way to collect email addresses is by providing opt-in boxes on your websites, advertising in related ezines, newsletters, advertising in forms/blogs etc.

Eleven pointers to follow while getting email lists using opt-in method

1.) Never provide pre-checked opt in boxes
2.) Never make your customers check the boxes by fake means
3.) Make the opt in process as easy as possible
4.) Never ask for too many personal details
5.) Tell your customers what they will get in case they opt in
6.) Provide incentives if required
7.) Provide a ‘mail to others’ button
8.) Provide a privacy policy and stick to your policy
9.) Give information about un-subscription requests

What is a single opt in and double opt in?

Single opt in emails are those that do not require a re-confirmation. For instance, a customer clicks on a check box and he is automatically added to the subscription list. A double opt in emails on the other hand requires the recipient to reconfirm that he actually wants to receive the mails. Only after reconfirmation is the recipient added to the subscription lists. For instance, after the recipient clicks on a check box, he receives a reconfirmation mail. Only if he replies the mail or clicks a link in the mail will he be added to the subscription lists. To be on the safer side it is always better to carry out double opt-in email campaigns

Benefits of responsible email marketing

Permission email marketing has lots of benefits as compared to bulk email marketing. Few benefits are listed below

1.) As opt in email required you to take prior permission before sending emails the chances of your mail getting termed as spam becomes negligible
2.) Opt in emails will help you create long term relationships with your clients
3.) Your can portray a professional and ethical corporate image
4.) As the email is personalized and highly targeted the chances of the recipient actually opening and reading the mail is very high
5.) Response rates will generally be higher
6.) You can generate customer trust

Although responsible email marketing may seem a difficult process it can benefit you in many more ways than as mentioned above. So let’s stick to responsible marketing and let’s eliminate spam once and for all.

About the author
http://www.ishopage.com is an all-in-one online shopping mall. This website sells computers and computer related products, fashion accessories, apparels, health and beauty products, electronic goods and toys.

For more articles click here

The question of spy-ware and junk on the internet

2004-09-13T04:12:00.000-07:00

Think your system is infected by a sick spyware that makes it load unwanted pages; that gives you a message 'your system is infected by spyware - download anti spyware now'?? Please don’t press the download button!! Read on.........

The spyware nuisance

Spywares are unwanted programs that lodge themselves into the computer aiding in secret broadcast of information about a user’s internet usage. They can even take over browsers and load unwanted pages causing the computer to slow down in a major way. Spywares can load unwanted pages to bookmarks and load pop-ups that say ‘your system is infected with spyware, download anti-spyware now!!’ Hitting the download button or sometimes even closing the pop-up could bring into the computer other malicious spyware programs that can render some computer programs inaccessible.

The worst part is that spywares can even be programmed to transmit personal information including passwords and credit card information making them a real threat.

As new spyware programs are developed by the minute, anti Spywares and anti adware softwares do no good to remove them. They have the ability to remove only the secondary files while the primary files still remain. As these are not viuses the use of anti-virus software will also prove vain.

Precautions to protect your computer against spyware

1.) Do not allow your browser to download unsigned active scripts. (You can disable active scripts using internet tools or preferences of your browser; disable your active X controls using IE tools – internet options – security – custom level.)

2.) Make sure to install a good anti-spyware software like ad-aware

3.) Do not download any software that you are not sure of. Even some anti-spywares can be malicios. Read the licensing agreements and download only from reliable sources

4.) Never open mail attachments that you are not sure of

5.) In case you encounter a site that gives out pop ups like 'spyware detected' or 'download anti-spyware' or any other suspicious messages, do not click the download/cancel button. Instead use alt+f4 or Ctrl+w to close the pop up.

6.) Download and install google or yahoo! toolbars that can help you effectively block pop ups.

7.) Install 'Zone Alarm' or other good firewall that does not allow unidentified programs to transmit information.

Internet becoming a dumping ground?

Recently the numbers of sick websites that are filled with junk and very destructive content have increased over the internet. I don't why people do it, but they do it. Sadists are just a reality as any other normal person. They love to see people in pain and fear. They would go to any extent to promote themselves or harass others. But in their little game they tend to forget that they are playing with people's minds and their hard earned money and making them waste their time in useless activities.

The worst part is that these sites reach us via search engines. The irony is that they rank high in search engines. All that you need to do is click them by mistake and you got yourself trouble.

Can search engines or ISP providers help?

Search engines are the mirror of the internet but at the same time search engines are the ones that actually lead us to these malicious pages. So instead of focusing on putting competitors down, search engines and ISPs should help solve the problem of junk on the internet.

1.) Search engines/ISPs can form high end algorithms that can identify sites that promote spy wares or viruses and exclude them from their database. Even those pages that have links to such sites should be excluded.

2.) SEs can make use of special information in their search results that can tell the visitor about potentially damaging content. For instance, if a search engine feels that a website has harmful content, it can include information in the SERP like 'warning' or 'this site can have damaging content/spy wares etc.

3.) SEs can regulate the internet by giving access to pages that have real content to display high in the SERP than those which are filled with junk

The internet is becoming a dangerous place and if not regulated can lead to serious disasters. Things are developing too fast for men to cope with. In-fact the internet has developed at a speed faster than imaginable and hence there is lack of any order/rules and regulations. It's high time that we do something to protect the internet from damaging our personal property and privacy. This is a very serious problem and we need to think on this together. All nations should come together to solve this crisis, instead of ignoring it.

Search engines and internet service providers have a huge responsibility towards eliminating this crime that is going on unabated on the internet. They should work together to eliminate this problem for good and save the internet from becoming a hacker’s paradise and a dumping ground of junk.

About the Author
http://www.templatemagic.net is a quality portal that offers affordable and professionally designed website templates. Please feel free to reproduce this article. Spread the word…….

How web designers can benefit from web templates

2004-09-13T04:11:00.000-07:00

You are only as good as your PR!!

Imagine a situation where you have started a great site with exceptional design and high quality content. Your pagerank of course is zero and you alexa traffic rank is somewhere in the 18th lack or perhaps more. You want to bring visitors to your site and hence want it included in the search results but the search bots are taking their own time caching your site. Finally the googlebot caches your site and you say, what the heck, I am through. But to your dismay you find your site way deep down even for a non competitive keyword.

You feel a bit down but have the belief that getting some quality inbound links will solve the issue. You start reaching sites with your link request but alas no one seems to be answering. Of course they want a link from a site having a good PR and not with a site having a PR of zero irrespective of the quality. In fact quality just doesn't seem to matter in today's internet which is all but pagerank. If your site has a good page rank you are the king or else no one is ever going to bother about you.

So the only option left before you now is to get links from directories, blogs, forums etc. and hope for the best. You do your best and wait for a PR update. After months of waiting the PR updates do happen but your pages get no more than PR3. You feel great about it though thinking 'something is better than nothing'. Now again you approach sites for a link exchange but to your sheer disappointment find that good sites never respond to you. All you seem to be getting are links from relatively unknown and low quality sites. You develop hundreds of low quality links and wait for the next PR update which seems an eternity to arrive. You have strong faith that for all those links you established your site will surely get a higer PR, but nothing of that sort happens. Your PR increases but not more than PR4. Then you realize that PR is exponential in nature. God forbid, you feel like cursing the PR system but you are left with no choice but to continue racing against the odds to get links. You become a link maniac getting links from all corners of the internet; after some time you realize that you are spending considerable amount of time getting inbound links and almost negligible amount of time on your website. You have not updated content for months now and your visitors are starting to turn away from your site.

One fine day you read an article that google has started penalzing sites that resort to getting unnatural links with an objective to cheat its ranking system. A few sweat drops escape from your face as you realize you have been spamming guestbooks and giving links to link farms. You also find you have cross linked with many sites actively taking part in link farms. You also find that you have got links from free for all sites. All these can lead you into trouble so in a frenzy you start removing links to those sites after mailing them and explaining them the reason. Finally the PR update happens and you get a PR of 5. You have entered the land of the lords now and you escaped getting penalized. You think, 'what a heap load of hardwork getting a quality site to rank, I wonder how these junk sites make it to the top?'. And ask yourself a question, 'Is a site only as good as its PR??' or 'Is the internet only meant for big shots who can invest considerable amount of time and money on optimization?'. The answer to this is probably yes which you gulp down with a pinch of salt.
About the Author:
The author is the webmaster of http://www.infodizz.com/ which offers quality information and resources related to the internet and networking technologies including CCNA Tutorials.

Can spyware's be eliminated?

2004-09-13T04:10:00.001-07:00

The greatest threat to online marketing comes in the form of spywares. These pesky programs are everywhere on the net and can get downloaded by a simple action like canceling/clicking a pop up or pop under!! The worst part about spyware is the fact that they have a tendency to slow down the infected computer in addition to transmitting personal information. Some malicious ones can also lodge themselves as personal homepages causing unwanted pages and programs to load.

Although the question of permanently eliminating spyware seems a distant reality there can be some precautions that one can take, some of them are discussed as follows;

Precautions to protect your computer against spyware

1.) Do not allow your browser to download unsigned active scripts. (You can disable active scripts using internet tools or prefences of your browser)

2.) Make sure to install a good anti-spyware software like ad-aware

3.) Do not download any software that you are not sure of. Even some anti-spywares can be malicios. Read the licensing agreements and download only from reliable sources

4.) Never open mail attachments that you are not sure of

5.) In case you encounter a site that gives out pop ups like 'spyware detected' or 'download anti-spyware' or any other suspicious messages, do not click the download/cancel button. Instead use alt+f4 or Ctrl+w to close the pop up.

6.) Download and install google or yahoo! toolbars that can help you effectively block pop ups.

7.) Click window’s update to download the latest security developments from Microsoft.com.

The question of spyware is increasing in a major way and needs to be regulated. The ones who can play a part in regulating this junk are the ISPs, Search engines and the respective governments. Only when these people coordinate with each other can the people who propagate spywares can be put behind bars.

http://www.bizbrim.com/ is an information portal that offers quality information on various topics like outsourcing, mortgage, travel, hotels, email marketing and insurance.

For more articles click here

About this blog and rules for reprint

2004-09-13T04:10:00.000-07:00

This blog contains quality aricles that are available for reprint both online and offline.

Reprint guidelines

1.) Include all links in the article
2.) Do not alter the article in anyway except for gramatical errors if any (which we are sure will not be there)
3.) Include author byline
4.) That's it!!

If possible give a link back to this blog. Although this is not compulsary.

Link Exchange

For link exchange just give a mail to mark_biz2004@yahoo.com with a subject line : new link exchange request. Related blogs and websites will be given preference. We will also consider providing one way links for real good websites.

Article Submissions

For article submissions send a mail to mark@yahoo.com with the subject line, article submissions.

Why submit article or exchange links with this page?

Firstly this blog ranks in the top ten results for yahoo! search for keywords such as 'free articles for reprint' and 'free reprint articles', so we are sure to get targetted traffic. Secondly we are presently promoting this blog as a source that offers quality articles. All the more reasons for article submissions and link exhanging with this blog.

In case you want some article removed or changed mail me at the same address. I will confirm identity before making the changes.

For more articles click here