Able Net Design Diaries

Moved

2007-11-29T13:40:00.000+09:00

For those interested I have moved the blog to our main site, now located at Able Net Design Blog

CSS Div Tables

2006-08-28T17:55:00.000+08:00

Since I now strive and insist that we develop in the latest css and xhtml standards, I came across an issue I wasn't sure how to handle.

It started when I was developing the now uploaded new Added Tech website. Being a drainage company specialising in strom water drains and things like that, there were a considerable amount of test data that needed to be displayed. Now back in the day I would have just insterted in into a table and of we go.

So anyway I put the information in a standard html table but the code just didn't look right. The table tags almost made the code look square so the nice clean feeling was suddenly destroyed. That is when I went in search of a solution.

This is what I came up with, this example has only two columns, but on the same site I have successfully ported it to a ten column table.

div

#table {width: 100%; margin: 0; padding:0;}
div#leftcell {display: td; margin: 0; padding: 2px; width: 18%; float: left; font-weight: bold;}
div#rightcell {display: td; margin: 0; padding: 2px; width: 81%; float: left; clear: right;}

The first line emulates the <table> tag. So there is nothing to special about that. To make each div display as a table cell we needed to set display:td; for those that have become familiar with <td> you would have noticed the similarity. The only difference is of course there is no <tr> or table row tag. Instead the last cell (in this case rightcell) we set clear:right; which then makes anything after that appear underneath hence emulating <tr>.

Lets have a look at the xhtml code:

<div id="leftcell"><p>First Row Left Cell Text</p></div>
<div id="rightcell"><p>Right Cell Text</p></div>

<div id="leftcell"><p>Second Row Left Cell Text</p></div>
<div id="rightcell"><p>Right Cell Text</p></div>

</div>

This is just a simple two row two column design but you can see that changing certain attributes in the css you can create a more advance form.

That is basically the new form of xhtml and css tables. Nice, clean, so what more could you want.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends, author, tour, web2.0, web 2.0, Ruby On Rails, ruby-on-rails

Completely Mobile

2006-08-22T13:19:00.000+08:00

With the arriaval of this wireless solution I have been focusing on the redevelopment of the Able Net Design website.

Of course it will be built in that all important web 2.0 style. So at the moment to keep with the web 2.0 culture I am playing around with some AJAX functionality.
Work will also start to take serious form for my top secret website that I am developing. The main template has been created so it is just a matter of developing the code and functionality.

Simplified Success for those that don't know is the book I am writing at the moment about how to run a successful website. Of course I can't go into every aspect but I can provide some valuable information. Well the update on the book is that it is almost complete. So very shortly you will be able to purchase it.

On that note I have to go. So many blogs to update.

A metaphoric discovery

2006-08-15T12:44:00.000+08:00

The discovery of this metaphor could is probably the best way to explain how SEO tips get out.

The Internet is like the Australian Bush. SEO tips and techniques spread like wild fire.

There is more to this but you will need to wait until the release of my book to get the full metaphor.

Online

2006-08-14T16:06:00.000+08:00

My new server which I now offer unlimited hosting accounts, has started to runs it's first websites. By tomorrow I hope to have all the websites transferred which will make life alot easier.

Other websites have been coming online in the last few days so all in all it has been a very busy time.

I have also spent a lot of time researching web 2.0 of course. Layouts and designs for these types of websites have changed so much that I feel the more I know the better I can inform my clients.

Domain finally up

2006-08-10T14:21:00.000+08:00

ablenetdesign-hosting.com is finally up and running.

Which means I have to build a quick website for it. Of course it will be web 2.0 in style. That is something I will work on tonight.

So stay tuned.

New Client

2006-08-09T16:15:00.000+08:00

Thats right I picked up another new client today for the CMS. I will be starting on that account with in the next day or so.

I am still waiting to be able to change the DNS on my new domain. I am hopeing I can get all of that setup by tomorrow so hopefully on Monday by the latest I can start to transfer all my hosting accounts to the new server.

As far as my top secret application is going. Well the designs and layouts have begun. These need to be finished first then Ruby On Rails programming can start. The layouts should be complete by this weekend.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends, author, tour, web2.0, web 2.0, Ruby On Rails, ruby-on-rails

Rounded Divs

2006-08-09T16:07:00.000+08:00

I like most other designers have played with images as backgrounds to make divs rounded. To me it always seemed like a lot of work and codeing. And once you got into a bit of a layered design with nested divs you started to run into all sorts of problems.

I think I new there had to be another way when I was updateing a new clients site which had rounded divs yet the designer before me didn't think of indenting the code. As you could imagine it was a mess.

JavaScript was my answer.

I came across a few but I tend to use scripts when their developers take the time to build a quality website. So the one I came up with is CurveyCorners.

There site looked good, they had examples and an active forum which all helps if you get stuck. So I downloaded the latest version and setout to implement it into my top secret application.

The first rounded div was a cinch, then me wanting more I started to play with multiple rounded divs. This started to cause a problem. However it was my fault. Let's just say there were some spelling errors in the code which I wrote.

CSS friend or foe

2006-08-08T15:53:00.000+08:00

Today I have been working on my top secret application for the web. Keeping in tune with web 2.0 I have been using complete CSS for layout.

I wouldn't call my self a CSS guru but I have a fairly good understanding about how things work and should work. Of course my staff are much better but because of the nature of the top secret application I must keep this completely to myself.

Of course like any good designer I am working with IE and FF for cross browser compatability. Let me just say it is a pitty that not everyone uses FF.

The first problem I came to was using custom bullets. Thats rights! something that should be easy is not. I am still having problems with it. Someone on the web suggested:

ul { list-style-image: url(images/tick.png) }

That works with FF but not IE. IE still displays that default "disc" bullet along with the new image. So then there was this suggestion:

ul { list-style-type: none }
li { background: url(images/tick.png) no-repeat }

No luck there either. So I finally had to submit a post to the WSG (web standards group) which my company is a member of to hopefully get an answer.

As I mentioned before this design is keeping with the web 2.0 culture of the internet at the moment. So of course rounded divs are needed. I have played with rounded divs using images before but being different and web 2.0ish I wanted to play with rounded divs using JavaScript. So I found curvycorners and am just trying to implement them at the moment. Who knows how that will work.

Just received a reply from a member of WSG.

ul { list-style-type: none; }
ul li { background: url(images/mybullet.gif) no-repeat 0 50%;
padding-left: 25px;
}

This could be the solution. I'll find out later tonight. I'm off to play tennis now.

A New Domain

2006-08-07T16:17:00.000+08:00

Today I registered a new domain for our fantastic new hosting service. It is not a new service but as of today we are able to offer unlimited hosting accounts.

This is a fantastic step forward for Able Net Design and I hope that our clients and future clients get great benefits from this new addition to our company.

Domain: ablenetdesign-hosting.com

We will be posting a Web 2.0 designed page on there as soon as the DNS and hosting are all sync'd up. (Should be very soon).

As for the "secret" web application that I have been developing, there as been a slight change in path. A new idea has come up and I have decided to focus more on that for the time being. This new application won't be built in Ruby on Rails. I have decided to experiment with CakePHP for something new.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends, author, tour, web2.0, web 2.0, Ruby On Rails, ruby-on-rails

Another CMS account

2006-08-03T16:54:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I picked up another WebFast cms account. Which is fantastic. So version 3.0 should start to be developed in the next few weeks.

Currently I am listening to a podcast from Matt Cutt. I have only listened to part 1 and there were some small things I learnt about google, but nothing to majour to report.

I'll have them for download very soon. I am also thinking about creating my own podcasts in the next few months.

However that is a project down the track. My next major project to complete is the Book.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends, author, tour, web2.0, web 2.0, Ruby On Rails, ruby-on-rails

The last post

2006-08-02T15:03:00.000+08:00

Many of you would know that I was writting an article for a newspaper. Well the previous article is it.

So it will be published this month.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends, author, tour, web2.0, web 2.0, Ruby On Rails, ruby-on-rails

The website and Country Australia

2006-08-01T15:38:00.000+08:00

I am sure most of you are thinking that web designers are the new insurance salesmen. Their constant phone calls about this new must have service for your business never seems to let up. So after awhile you get tired of saying “no” and you decide you need a website.

Does this sound familiar yet?

You have heard that your neighbor's ten year old is good at computers and could probably knock you one up, and it will cost you ten bucks and a milkshake to get it done. Seems like a bargain. It's built on a computer it's on the Internet what is the difference.

The difference between your neighbor's ten year old and a professional web designer is staggeringly huge.

Think about it in a non technical example. Would you let someone with absolutely no experience handle your investments or taxes. I think not. Well the same goes with your online marketing efforts.

That ten dollars and the milkshake will end up costing you more in loss of income then the cost of getting a website properly designed and developed by someone like me who knows what they are talking about. No offense to your neighbor.

The fact is that getting a properly designed website is not that expensive, and these days, there are special options that reduce or even abolish the upfront costs in most cases.

So now your thinking that all sounds great but what can a website do for me?

Alright say you own a bed and breakfast. Most couples, families, and basically anyone who is going to stay in your region is going to look on the Internet for accommodation. That is a known fact. Now if first impressions are the most important wouldn't you think that your website should portray how good your B&B is. You might know it but everyone else doesn't.

The idea would be, to show as many good quality photos of views, rooms and anything else that is a B&B's draw card. Just think with this one marketing tool you have suddenly opened up your B&B to every traveler all around the world.

Without having to have expensive brochures and advertisements distributed throughout the travel agencies and travel magazines.

Now everyone with a B&B is thinking, yeah that makes sense, but what about those that don't have a B&B. We are talking about the Restaurants, Art Galleries, and other actives.

Well you benefit from a website just as much. Funnily enough those same people that look for accommodation also look for the regions actives. If they can't find sufficient information on what your region has to offer, they really aren't going to visit are they.

So your properly designed website, is now starting to help everyone in the region, not just yourself.

Before you know it with the help of a great application that provide content management services, you are able to add your own pictures and pages to your website. You can start a page on your B&B's website offering links to other activities in the region. Your visitor is now getting a picture painted of what to expect when they visit. They have seen some of the shops and restaurants, and already know what they want to see and where they want to go.

I suppose it is because I am a web developer people are constantly talking to me about websites. What they have liked and disliked, why doesn't it function like this or why can't I get information on this.

It would be safe to say that most people often ask me why home tourism doesn't really utilise the web. They all say it would be so easy if they could just book their whole holiday during their lunch break or at night from their home computer.

My answer to their question is simple, but it has taken me a long time to work it out. Know one has taken the time to explain to country Australia how a website can help them.

So in my following articles I will be delving deeper into how a website can help you.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends, author, tour, web2.0, web 2.0, Ruby On Rails, ruby-on-rails

RoR

2006-07-28T13:18:00.000+08:00

I continue my search of tutorials and information about the Ruby on Rails framework, which I am now developing an application in.

Not long after I decided to use Ruby on Rails I came across a few problems. Number on of course is there seems to be no manual. So I find myself spending along time searching the internet looking for information.

I don't know if it is just me but i picked up PHP quite easily. When ever I look at using a new language there are always some problems. I have an idea but I don't know the actual code to type. So without a manual I find it quite difficult.

That has got me thinking about PHP frameworks, more directly cakePHP. Yet something is still keeping me from giving up.

Back in my studying days I was the one playing with PHP while my class mates played with ASP.net. I like to be different. Maybe that is why I look to Ruby On Rails, as something that is abit different.

So i continue my quest to work with the Ruby on Rails framework, even though there is no manual, and not ever host can run such a thing.

It is the new "future" for the web 2.0 revolution.

Just as I was about to post this, i made a break through. One of my problems I was having was trying to work out how to make certain areas password protected.

before_filter :login_required, :except => [:index, :list, :show]

Adding that to the top of the class when using the "LoginGenerator" should force login requirements for things like "add, edit, delete".

For future reference for myself this is a link to a good RoR authentication procedure.

For those (like myself) that are creating a web 2.0 application and you can't think of a stupid sequence of letters for your company name try What Brand Are You? & Web 2.0 name generator, they should be able to help you.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends, author, tour, web2.0, web 2.0, Ruby On Rails, ruby-on-rails

Web 2.0 Update

2006-07-27T16:20:00.000+08:00

Well I am slowly working out Ruby On Rails to the point where my "secret" application has started to be developed.

I have found only one other website that is already up and running offering what I have had in mind, but I am sure my product is going to be a lot better.

At the moment I am writing an article for the Toodyay Herald, which I hope to have published next month.

On the subject of publishing yes, the book is still being written. As you could imagine I have been quite busy the last few weeks so I haven't had a lot of time to spend on it.

Anyway back to my Article.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends, author, tour, web2.0, web 2.0, Ruby On Rails, ruby-on-rails

On Rails

2006-07-20T14:51:00.000+08:00

At the moment I am downloading the Ruby On Rails framework. Since the development of WebFast version 2.0 where I was able to see the effects of being able to offer my clients an application that services them. I have been looking into things like Ruby On Rails and Ajax.

So on my soon on my trusty HP notebook i'll be running Ruby On Rails, and I will start traight away developing WebFast version 3.0 which I hope using the new framework will increase it's speed and functionality.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends, author, tour, web2.0, web 2.0, Ruby On Rails, ruby-on-rails

Product info updated

2006-07-17T17:01:00.000+08:00

As most of you would know we have a solution or product called Rent-a-Site. Which basically allows you to get a custom built website with out any upfront costs.

Well for those that have or are in the process of getting a Rent-a-Site we have just uploaded an updated version of the product information. We have also made it easier to find, by adding it to our services list and under a page titled "Rent-a-Site".

Just thought i would let you all know that, so make sure you read it.

2.0 the new trend

2006-07-07T14:45:00.000+08:00

Over the past two days I have been reading a lot about web 2.0 and I have come up with some thoughts.

It seems the future no doubt, and the new design format for a website is a big step in the other direction from what we as designers used to be doing.

Web 2.0 design is made up of lots of white space, and large font.

So now that is what I am developing for my new website.

When you think about it 2.0 is just a step further in using applications on the web. So I'm not really sure if for the general user "Web 2.0" really means anything at all.

As far as a designer goes I haven't checked the effects of selling anything under the web 2.0 banner as of yet. So i'll have to give it ago and let you all know how it turns out.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends, author, tour, web2.0, web 2.0

New layout

2006-07-05T13:20:00.000+08:00

I have been working on the new layout for SnowExtreme. So all I to do is work out the blogger code and the new layout will be ready to place online.

The book is coming along fantastically. I am well into it at the moment and I might be writing a regular column in a newspaper.

There is still quite a bit of work backlogged at the moment so I am working hard at nights trying to get it all complete.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends, author, tour

Wireless

2006-07-04T14:44:00.000+08:00

The search for wireless broadband continues.

You would never think that living in a capital city such as Perth would create so many problems for affordable wireless broadband.

It seems other capital cities are fine, but Perth is lacking. The only one that is reasonably price are from the major telephone companies (Telstra & Optus).

In the not so distant future I need to have a broadband connection at my new house. It might mean having the usual non wireless solutions.

Book update

2006-06-28T16:12:00.000+08:00

The book is coming along great. I was able to set quite abit of time aside today to work on it and I can say that I am steaming through the chapters.

I have now come up with the idea for the front cover, so all I have to do is make it.

Apart from that the projects are all running along smoothly. At the moment I am just completing the custom help manual's for each website.

So any time now.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends, author, tour

Expert Author

2006-06-27T10:35:00.000+08:00

AS many of you may know I have written a few articles over the years.

Anyway today I have just been made an "Expert Author" on EzineArticles.

So that has to be a good thing with my book release coming up very shortly.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends, author, tour

Tour being built

2006-06-26T13:26:00.000+08:00

Since there is so much interest in the WebFast Content Management System version 2.0 which we have built.

It has prompted me to build a tour, which can be emailed to customers so they can see for themselves what a great application it is.

I'm surfing the net at the moment looking for "cms tours" and there really isn't anything that stands out but i'll keep looking.

I am also packaging the CMS with our large hosting package.

This will be something that will be featured on the tour.

So of I go to program this tour. The faster it is done the sooner I can pick up some more clients.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends, author, tour

The book

2006-06-23T13:16:00.000+08:00

A quick up date on "the book". It now does have a title! I came up with it over while I was writing a chapter yesterday.

I won't tell you the name but it has changed the whole book. The title is and will turn into a new method for webmasters to gain success.

Of course this has now slowed the process down as I will have to re-work some of the chapters.

So I'll let you know when its all up and running.

Projects Projects Projects

2006-06-15T12:24:00.000+08:00

Well i have had projects finishing, and projects starting. I just picked up another on on the Rent-a-Site solution.

So this means I have to get stuck into it. As most of you would know I am also moving so there is just so much going on...

The writing of my book has also started. There is no set time of completion but I am putting in the hours so I hope to be able to get something complete and finished in the next few months.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends

Module finished

2006-06-12T12:25:00.000+08:00

I have just now finished the blogging module for WebFast version 2.0. The last part which was the archiving system was not as difficult as I thought it would have been.

So with half a day left I should be able to get most of my clients websites up and running by early tomorrow. That means I might not even have to put in extra work tonight.

There has already been some initial work done on version 3.0 of WebFast. There is no release date as this is going to have all modules included in it. So there is some development that needs to be done.

It is my aim to have all websites running the WebFast content management system.

Anyway I will have more on the workings of WebFast and its codeing later on.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends

WebFast undergoing additions

2006-06-09T17:40:00.000+08:00

With the recent surge in usage of our content management system, there have been some new modules which have had to be created.

The main one has been the "blog" system which I am still working on. I hope to have it finished tonight, so I can implement it into the websites that require it.

On another note I am still to update all the websites that are currently running the WebFast system. As you may or may not know it has a new wysiwyg editor so there those already running it don't have the updated code.

That is a task for next week.

Basically all the websites that I have been talking about will be up and running by the end of next week. So that is something to look forward to. However it does mean that this weekend will be full of programming. The more I can get done this weekend the easier next weekend will be when I go through and upload them all.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends

Going mobile

2006-06-07T14:11:00.000+08:00

When I look back at what I have achieved today, I start to wonder if I have wasted too much time.

So far I have spent my date setting up my notebook so that I could further develop WebFast. One of the problems I had straight away was that the wysiwyg editor which is used wouldn't work.

What works on Linux doesn't work on Windows. Lovely! Anyway so at the moment I am working through that problem.

I have set up a webserver which can run PHP, mySQL cause as you know that is what I develop in.

I can't seem to work it out so I'm trying a few options. I had hoped to be able to start work on the blog module. I can't really start that until I have this fixed so I can see I will have to work this weekend.

WebFast version 2.0 is now running a new wysiwyg editor. This one is faster to load as it is completely developed out of Javascript. There are some new modules I need to make, for instance some kind of file manager since the last wysiwyg editor had one built in.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends

Site Review Launched

2006-06-06T13:24:00.000+08:00

Today i have launched a new blog called "Site Review". Over the three years that I have been running this company I have come across so many websites on the internet that just wouldn't display correctly or the whole design was just lacking.

The websites which I review will be picked at random. You can submitt websites to be reviewed if you would like.

Site Review can be found here (sitereivew.blogspot.com).

On another note I have done the implementation of our CMS into two sites today. That leaves me with two sites waiting for content. One site waiting for a mySQL database and two sites waiting to be uploaded.

So hopefully they will be done by the end of the week.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends

CSS rounded corners

2006-06-02T15:25:00.000+08:00

Since I go the go ahead for the Wilderness Island website today, I had to start developing it.

Anyway I had to used rounded corners on divs for this particular layout. I haven't quite dont it correctly but by doing it the way which I have it reduces any problems with cross browser compatability.

The design is complete now so on Monday I'll be uploading it and implementing the content management system.

Next week will be full of implementing the content management system into websites. I think I have about 5 to do.

So until then!

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends

Custom Manuals

2006-06-01T13:48:00.000+08:00

You may remember one of the advantages of our content management system is that we provide our users with a custom maintenance manual.

Since the increased usage of the system there has been a back log of these manuals so today I have created 4 of them. Tomorrow I should be able to finish the manuals off for the rest of the clients.

That means with in no time all of our websites that we have created can be up and running very very soon.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends

CMS Implementation

2006-05-31T14:26:00.000+08:00

I just received the go ahead for another implementation of our content management system WebFast version 2.0 for an existing client.

Basically how we managed this was by informing the client that if he increased his small monthly payment for his blog to the minimum monthly payment for WebFast version 2.0 he would be getting a lot more control over his website for not much extra cost.

Once I explained to him, all the features such as adding new pages, adding images etc... he jumped on it.

So as of tomorrow I start changing his website over to a WebFast powered website.

Almost all of our new clients are running WebFast powered websites. We are now tapping into our existing clients to turn them over as well. This is a product that all website owners should have.

For more information contact me now.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends

Error of concern

2006-05-29T14:45:00.000+08:00

I have had so much work on in the last few days that I even came in to get some done on Saturday.

I came across a small problem while uploading the ArtSpace website, with WebFast version 2.0 content management system. Basically the wysiwyg editor wouldn't load for some reason in FireFox.

So finally today I was able to fix it which means that the website will be up and running by the end of the week.

It will also mean that I can start to work on some of the other projects in a more then just an initial phase.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends

ArtSpace on the way

2006-05-25T14:20:00.000+08:00

Finally, we received the domain password which I needed to update the DNS settings, for the ArtSpace project.

So the webhosting account has been created on our servers, and I am basically just waiting for the DNS to update and away we go.

So by next week the website should just be about complete.

I have started to write a new article which, has since then spurred my desire to write a book. So at the moment I am trying to work out if I want to just publish all of my articles or actually set a list of topics and write about them.

This is something that I will work out in the next few days, and probably start soon after.

Anyway much get back to work!

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends

Self Managed Retirement Systems Development

2006-05-24T16:02:00.000+08:00

As of last night, we have been given the go ahead to start coming up with concepts for the "self managed retirement systems" website.

This website is in the same category or field as the "future wealth planners" account which we are desperately trying to finish. Unfortunately we have to wait for more content.

I have gotten the logo back for "wilderness island" and have come up with a concept which I think will do the trick. So tomorrow I will start building the concept and get it off to them for their approval.

Bascially as I thought all of the projects have started to begin at once.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends

McGay Redevelopment

2006-05-22T16:15:00.000+08:00

The Doug McGay website redevelopment is a go ahead.

I got the ok on the design, and work will commence in the next day or so.

This development will also see the creation of a new blog module for WebFast version 2.0 which for those of you who don't know is our content management system which we developed.

On the cards we have another 3 projects that will require this blog module so all in all it is a valuable module to have.

On another note our donation site which we have been creating for the Aust Psych Reform network, should be going life in the next few days. I am just waiting on the go ahead for WebFast to be implemented into it.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends

Photo storage

2006-05-16T15:19:00.000+08:00

To day I was invited to a conference with directors of Photomax. Which is a photo storing company.

Unlike most of the other photo storage companies Photomax offers some great technologies that allow you to get your old photos turned into digital, vhs videos turned into digital movies etc...

They are also at the front line when it comes to mobile phone cameras, or images anyway. With a system that will allow you to send you photos from your phone to your online storage space.

The idea with me being there was to help spread the word, and get me to sign up as a distributor. A friend of mine Ailsa Price was the one that invited me along which I am very grateful for.

One thing that stuck out in my mind was how there was an emphasis on change with technology and also more importantly how many large companies forgot to look in to the future.

Then I got to thinking has Photomax although a great product thought about what will happen if or should I say when, in the near future move to online operating systems. There is a rumor that Google is buying up companies that offer online applications like word processors etc... More importantly they have a photo storeage company called Picasa. Which the way I see it would be in direct compotition with Photomax but with a great advantage that people are using the Google Operating System, what ever it may be called.

Now I am guessing that the people at Photomax must have already thought of this, or maybe since it is such a simple thought someone has overlooked it.

That is something to watch over the next few years.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, WebTrends

Blogging Correctly

2006-05-15T16:17:00.000+08:00

With now more then 35 million blogs on the internet or as it is now called the blogosphere or blogscape, it is time to work out how to blog correctly.

If you don't know the advantages of running your own blog I suggest you read my other article "The Power of Blogging". It has an insight into the pros and cons of running your own blog.

So let's get to it! You have got your self a blog, it might be from my company (Able Net Design) or from somewhere else. You have been making regular posts but you just don't seem to be getting any traffic.

Well there are two reasons for not getting traffic. One is easily fixed and the other well is quite difficult.

Ok so the two reasons why you are not getting traffic are. Know one can find your blog, and the other know one is interested in what you are writting. Which do you think is the easy one. My company can help with both but there are some steps you can take to increase your visibility.

The first thing is to use Tags. These tags describe the post that you have written. It is almost like a category so when your blog is submitted to blog directories then it is easy for your latest posts to be picked up by the blog surfer.

The next thing is RSS feeds. If you have a look at my blogs (Snow Extreme, Able Net Design Diaries, iBlab) you will notice that I have a numerous amount of little buttons which are different applications that people use to subscribe to your blog.

Last but not least blog directories. Submit your blog to them, the idea is to get other websites to pick up your posts and display them on their site.

As a little example if you type in "Tristan Jud" in google I take up at least 5 of the first pages of results with a few exceptions. Alot of these are blog postings I have done that are now being picked up by other websites.

Write for your audience as well as search engines. That means include keywords that you want search engines to pick up on. This could be done in the title of your post. I have found that the title of my posts on Snow Extreme Blog are one of my main sources of search engine traffic.

Of course if all of this doesn't start to increase your traffic then you might need to look at what topics your are blogging about. If you have nothing interesting to say, then I doubt people will be interesting in reading your blog.

This is just as insight into blogging correctly, but it should get you on the right path.

If you require more help please don't hesitate to contact me.

Css layouts

2006-05-11T12:06:00.000+08:00

I have recently been using my notebook to develop more sites. In particular I am using it to develop my new company website, which also includes this blog layout.

Anyway I have decided to go down the line of using css for layout, instead of tables. This has created some small problems which I am working through. Unfortunately while I am working all of this code out, I am still haveing to come up with a design / layout for the site.

The problem with that is our new colours are "red". For some reason I am having great difficulty using red as my main colour. I have enver had a look at other websites but using the same colour or even different colours.

Anyway i'm sure ill get there.

If you are interested in our content management system or any online solution then please contact me.

Search Engine Friendly Pages

2006-05-10T12:37:00.000+08:00

Ok it has been awhile since I wrote on this topic. But here goes!

Please Note: These are only tips, and will not be enough to provide top positions for desired keywords. If you wish to gain better results please contact me and we can develop a campaign to suite your needs.

Meta Tags

There are many meta tags you can include in your web page. (For those that don't know your meta tags are included in between the tags of the website).

The most important tags to include are Title, Keywords, & Description.

The all important Title tag
This is really the most important tag to include on your website. A properly optimised website would have different title tags for each individual page. If you notice most of the top search engine results have the keyword your searched for in the title of the website, Sometimes it is even duplicated.

It is important to include your desired keyword near the beginning of your Title.

Most companies would opt to have there company name as the first keyword in the Title. Although this is pleasing to the eye, it is not to the search engine algorithm's. A title tag limit should be between 70 to 80 characters.

The Description tag
This tag is important for two reasons.
1. The search engine robot crawls the tag to get an idea of what the page is about.
2. The tag is often shown under the page title in search results.

It is important to have a keyword rich description however it must be written in a coherent phrase. The length of a description tag is somewhat of a mystery but we suggest somewhere to the maximun length of 255 characters.

Make sure your important keywords are towards the front of the description. As with the title tag a properly optimised website will have different descriptions for each page.

Last but not least! The Keyword tag.

Although it is tipped that major search engines such as google don't use this meta tag to rank your site, there are still plenty of search engines that do.

The idea which is much the same as many of the other meta tags is to put your important keywords up the front.

The keywords section should be around 800-1000 characters. This is the estimate provided by some search engines. I personally wouldn't work to hard on this section, but it is important depending on the search engine.

If you are using our content management system enter your page configuration administration section, and you can change the meta tags for each page there. If you are interested in our content management system the please contact me.

Hope this little guide helps. As I said if you wish to gain better results please contact me and we can develop a campaign to suite your needs.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere, seo, online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization

Perhaps a new clients

2006-05-04T13:30:00.000+08:00

It's amazing it was only yesterday in my post that is stated:

I didn't have any luck picking up any new clients today.

Today I had a phone call from a man in the Tourism industry. What would you know tomorrow morning I have a meeting with him.

So this could be a new client.

We are now offering our services in blog posting and marketing. This is a new area for us to move into, but somewhat exciting.

On that note I have to go and work.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere

No Luck

2006-05-03T16:30:00.000+08:00

I didn't have any luck picking up any new clients today. So what I have done is start to work on some of the clients I already have.

There have been some developments with the manuals for WebFast version 2.0 I will fill you all in on that at a later date.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR, Sphere

Sphere online

2006-05-02T15:14:00.000+08:00

Another Blog search tool. This one has a different twist on Technorati, so check it out. I have had a play with it... From what I can tell it seems pretty good but I couldn't find any of my blog postings on there. So I submitted my blogs again and will have a look at it in a day or so.

New in this V1.5 release:

custom range histogram;
sphere it bookmarklet that makes it easy to find blog posts that relate to what you're reading on the Web;
top queries this hour/ this week;
RSS for search results;
community feedback buttons throughout the site;
expanded related media verticals including podcasts (Yahoo! API), books (Amazon API), and photos (CNET Webshots API);
expanded related news articles coverage (over 50 mainstream news sites such as CNN, NYT, ESPN, Fox, USA Today to name a few);
expanded profiles;
featured blogs for 12,000+ keyword search terms covering over 500 broad topics including baseball, anime, food, web 2.0, tech news, knitting, culture, etc.; and
a brand new back end that scales.

The best two featues are the custom range feature (a search on 'mohammed cartoons' really illustrates its utility) and the sphere it bookmarklet (take a chance, download and it'll change your life). Also, check out the featured blogs for a number of topics like baseball, food, knitting, motherhood, web 2.0, google, etc - you'll find featured blogs for about 12,000 keyword search terms. And check out the related media for almost any search - you'll now find podcasts, books and photo's in addition to our news articles.

www.sphere.com

What are your thoughts on Sphere?

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR
, Sphere

New Client

2006-05-01T16:03:00.000+08:00

That's right, today in my inbox was an email from my new client.

I will be redeveloping the website http://www.mcgay.com/ so I have started work on is almost immediately.

I also started implementing our CMS into the ArtSpace website. This is one that should be going live in the next few days.

We are now the only CMS provider that creates a custom help document specifically with for each client. This we have found will ensure greater usage of the system and better understanding. This is out claim to fame for the time being.

So work has started on developing custom help documents for all our clients who have previously got the Web Fast version 2.0 running on their website.

Work on our new layout has almost complete. There were some major changes to what I thought I would do to what it is actually going to look like now. For some reason one on the screen it just didn't look as well as it did in my head. Depending on the work load I might get it complete in the next day or so...

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR

GST

2006-04-28T16:57:00.000+08:00

Another GST period finished, and completed. It seems like a whole wait has been lifted of my sholders.

I have been working again on trying to pick up some international clients. I still am yet to get at least one.

However I have two that are very interested so I hopefully will hear more next week.

There are still a few projects which I haven't finished yet so next week will be full steam ahead. I also expect to have the launch of our new website, which will include the new logo. This will be the first time you see the new logo so hopefully it will all work out great.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR

HeadGirl

2006-04-27T15:26:00.000+08:00

HeadGirl is now online. Well our part in the back end development in complete.

My aim now is to try and pick up the marketing contract. Or at least some other kind of contract which will allow us to gain more profit out of that one client.

Problems

2006-04-26T15:07:00.000+08:00

Since monday I have been working with my Server Admin Guys on a small problem where one client and only one client can't seem to view their website, access the website control panel or download their emails.

So today about 7 minutes ago I was able to work out that the fault has to be at their computer network not ours. Which was a nice thought.

I have a computer tech going out to their office as i post this to hopefully come up with a solution.

I haven't heard back from any of my overseas deals that I am trying to get. I hope I pick up at least on of them.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR

Overseas and out of reach

2006-04-24T16:29:00.000+08:00

My aim is to pick up the some contracting work from other web development companies around the world.

This has a few benefits, it will increase my global image, increase my income and before you know it i will be able to have my wireless internet connection for my laptop and probably a new car if I can get some more people on board.

So that and the work im doing in WA we should be growing at a steady pace from now on.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR

Long weekends

2006-04-21T14:54:00.000+08:00

I tell you what these long weekends, slow you down so much.... Not as far as design goes but getting content from clients.

Most of them are saying well send it too you as soon as these short weeks are out of the way... These short weeks never seem to end.

These weekend will be spent redeveloping the Able Net Design website. Cause we have created that new logo I want to start using it, so I'll take my notebook with me and get to work. So hopefully by Monday there is a brand new design.

Once the new design is implemented I will make this blog fit in with the look.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR

Donations all around

2006-04-20T17:04:00.000+08:00

Today I started and completed my layout which I am donating to The Psychological Reform Network, which a client a dear friend of mine is starting up.

As you would expect there are quite a few adverts for Able Net Design so hopefully it will help them with what they set out to achieve.

Today was also filled with invoicing and minor work on ArtSpace which have come back with an fantastic for the mock up I sent them.

As far as the content management system is concerned I haven't had time to create a few more modules. The next module I am creating is the blog module. This will then be implemented into all clients that are running the blog system.

In regards to my last post about eBay I haven't actually given it a shot yet, I thought I better get these few major clients out of the way before I start playing around with that.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR

Something New

2006-04-12T16:59:00.000+08:00

With the implementation of the new logo and design (whenever that happens) I plan to try something different. Marketing our services through eBay.

I have noticed a few companies doing it but if i focus on Australia it should be an easier market. The one company that is marketing on the Australian eBay at the moment really can't provide a quality product.

So this is something that I will try in the next few days.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR

I'm back

2006-04-11T11:10:00.000+08:00

Just got back to the office from my Sydney trip.

The sydney trip saw the use of our new logo on the invoices that I emailed out.

Anyway as you might expect I have quite abit of work to get done before the end of the day.

Google Page Creator

2006-03-23T13:30:00.000+08:00

I'm a tab late on blogging on this subject but here are my thoughts on the matter.

Google Page Creator (what?) This is another application which google has brought out, I recently posted a section on my personal blog iBlab about Google looking at creating their own online operating system. Read it here.

As a web developer or owner of a web devlopment company or as I like to call it "Online Solutions company" I am always looking at the changing industry in which I work.

With this latest creation which is obviously a free to use low cost solution people to develop their own webpages. I am assuming that Googles target market with this application is for personal use.

The reports that I am reading about is that the codeing which is created by the wysiwyg editor is relatively clean apart from a few things such as
not
to work with xhtml standards. Most of the css seems to be clean apart from the huge amount of hacks which are used.

I spose according to web standards it would still be classed as what I like to call "dirty code".

What would be the impact if companies started to use this type of thing for their own websites? I know in Australia there is a company called Site Now which offers a template based design with cms that the user can brand by them selves.

Is this something that business will steer clear of if the saying is true "you learn from your mistakes" do you think people have learned from the FrontPage websites of the 90's?

Somehow I think not... So who what will the internet through at us next?? Could it be a google revolution which will take the internet by storm. Well I can't see into the future but I am hopeing that this doesn't happen.

By the way, I leave for Sydney tomorrow morning so posts will become shorter and not a frequent until I get back.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR

It has started

2006-03-22T16:15:00.000+08:00

I have started to create a list of companies with websites that aren't running any sort of cms and could or should be looking for an easy solution.

That is where WebFast version 2.0 will come into it.

The list has been growing and when I get back from Sydney the work will begin.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR

Filemanager

2006-03-20T12:58:00.000+08:00

WebFast version 2.0 has just received a filemanager / image uploader.

It is now possible to upload images to the server then use them in your website, with a couple of clicks. It's as easy as that.

I have spend most of the morning implementing this system into the clients admin/editor toolbars.

It is another way in which Able Net Design is using technology to make life easier for webmasters.

We/I personally have great plans for the WebFast content management system. It is my aim to have it controlling the backend of about 50 websites by the end of the year. Then it is my aim to continue to grow the usage of WebFast by 25% each year.

I have only aimed for 25% each year after the initial 50 websites because it is a substantial amount which will allow me to continue to develop WebFast.

Interested in having WebFast run behind your website then contact me now.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR

For the children

2006-03-17T14:03:00.000+08:00

This year was the first year that we sponsored the WA Police Legacy Child Safety Handbook.

To order copies of the book please contact WA Police Legacy Inc.

WebFast CMS is selling like hotcakes. Last night I was still working at 7:00pm, finishing one clients website. Today I have another two websites to implement with this application. I think I might have to try and get one done on the weekend.

The best part about this is, that this is an application that I have created specifically for my company. There are many other web developing firms that use third party applications, which is fine but there are limitations. I have found since I have developed the software I can implement it into almost any design or situation that is required.

I must continue on now!

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR

Press Release

2006-03-16T12:05:00.000+08:00

For the first time instead of just writting an article I am actually attempting to write a Press Release.

The subject or topic is the new Web Fast Content Management System version 2.0 that I have been blogging about for the past few posts.

So what is involved in a press release? The main thing is obviously to express the benefits of the subject or topic. What I have found difficult is writing in thrid person, its something that I thought would be easy but I was definately wrong.

This is what I have so far:

Taking the Internet by storm

That is what the latest Content Management System from Able Net Design is tipped to do. Called Web Fast CMS version 2.0 the new application bosts a variety of easy to use tools for web site owners to update their website.

"The content management system has been developed in such away that it is easy to use even for the non computer savvy people. We even include 50% off our standard maintenance costs for content up dates if clients are running the application" said Tristan Jud owner of Able Net Design.

With websites becoming such any important tool in todays business world, content is king. Able Net Design's software allows you to add that content when ever you feel it necessary.

"Since there is such hype about Blogs (web logs) for todays business, we have also created a blog module which is included in our basic package. It seems that if you aren't marketing your website and services using a blog then you aren't letting your website reach its full potential" said Tristan.

The more we travel down the internet super highway the more these sorts of applications will be come everyday use, but for now this is a must have for any website owner.

I'll give you an update when I have finished and who knows it might just get picked up... I think there is alot of work to be done though.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS, Press Release, PR

Got to play hard

2006-03-15T15:18:00.000+08:00

Thats right, today was business in a new light. I have found that when I work on my business clients just appear.

It is weird really if you think about it. Like today I have spent a long time finishing Future Wealth Planners with the Web Fast Content Management System version 2.0.

So now that is almost out the way I have plenty of room to get working on the other projects that are about to start.

This year I am focusing on the pre planning of websites. If I can get that right then I should be able to increase the amount of websites I get done a year.

There haven't been any new applications as of yet, but the sales of the Content Management System are strong. It is our aim to get it on every website we do this year and we are heading in the right direction.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS

Update website

2006-03-14T14:54:00.000+08:00

I have just finished updated inthe clients section of the Able Net Design website.

It now includes all our clients and even the ones that we are just providing hosting too.

I have also just finished createing the mock layout for a new client. This is the first design that I have done using completely CSS for layout instead of the old tables method. It didn't take too much to get used to as this was a different design. I think while I'm away in Sydney I'll experiment with a few other designs to see what I can come up with. That will hopefully further my knowledge.

This will be a test to see how the CMS handles using divs for layout instead of tables. I built WebFast version 2.0 in such away that it should have no problems handleing it. So I guess we will see soon.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS

Thoughts

2006-03-13T14:43:00.000+08:00

With the creation of WebFast version 2.0 there has been an increasing interest in the use of content management systems (CMS) from our clients.

I have noticed that since the release of version 2.0 100% of new clients have taken up the opportunity to have their website implemented with this application.

I would put most of that down to not just the easy to use CMS but the fact that we are offering clients to Save on web maintenance and are packageing it with pay per click advertising which is offering considerable savings. We call this The ultimate package.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design

Save on website maintenance

2006-03-10T15:50:00.000+08:00

Get WebFast version 2.0 running on your website now.

With our brand new content management system, you can not only complete elminate your website maintenance costs, but if editing your content is just not your thing even with the ease of our content management system the get us to do it for you and receive 50% off the hourly rate.

This is something that you need to jump on NOW!

Contact us for more information.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design, Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS

Update

2006-03-09T14:55:00.000+08:00

With the initial warning of an Internet First in my previous post you may have noticed some changes to this blog.

It is no long just a place where I post interesting articles that people have sent me.
I am giving and insight to my company and what we do.

There are currently two projects that are nearly finished. Five projects that should be getting started in the next few weeks. Then there are of course the couple of projects which outstanding accounts.

How do you handle your outstanding accounts? I personnally like to give people the benefit of the doubt but it is proving not the best method. Have any of you ever removed someones website because they haven't paid for it? Or do you lock them out of their admin section (if they have one)?

As far as company growth is concerned I am quite happy with the recent success and progress in which I have been able to achieve. On that note back to it.

Tags: Ideas, Secret, Top Secret, Web Design, Web-Design, Online Marketing, Internet Marketing, internet-marketing, late payment, advice, business, business advice

Launching

2006-03-08T16:11:00.000+08:00

What we are going to launch will be an Internet First. I personally think that it will change the way that online marketing services is purchased and advertised on the internet.

I would love to be able to go into the idea more but at the moment we are just getting the final processes and ideas down on paper.

Unfortunately you will just have to take my word for it at the moment. I should have something up within the next few days if I get the time. Then the fun of marketing this fantastic idea will begin. So i'm giving all you webmasters/advertising agencies plenty of time, letting you know that something is coming so hold on to your hats.

Tags: Ideas, Secret, Top Secret, Web Design, Web-Design, Online Marketing, Internet Marketing, internet-marketing

Net-seeQ

2006-03-07T19:09:00.000+08:00

A new blog on the horizon. Thats correct instead of just running our Net-seeQ search engine I'm thinking about changing my search engine into our online marketing blog. I feel there would be a better chance to start freash and market my ideas and services.

So that is the plan. So stay tuned.

Ideas

2006-03-03T14:50:00.000+08:00

I have decided over the next few weeks to change the layouts of all my websites (iBlab, Snow Extreme Blog, Able Net Design Online Marketing, Net-seeQ, Able Net Design).

All the blogs because they are just the templates that come with blogger, and I want my own touch to the designs.

My company because, I have created a new logo so with the launch of the new corporate identity so to speak it needs to be done. It just won't fit in with the new logo so out with the old in with the new.

My search engine because with the new search script which is providing better results I feel I should up the design to something that will work better.

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This is where you get to have your say. If you have any ideas let me know, if you have favourite sites tell me about them.

Tags: Web Design, Web-Design, CSS, XHTML, Webdesign, CSS

Screenshots of WebFast version 2.0

2006-03-02T15:56:00.000+08:00

These screenshots are just of the page module. As you would guess most of the other module have a similar layout just some of the fields would be different.

Main screen once you have logged in

Configure page details, include keywords, description, sub page, navigation location

The main "Page" module screen

Create a new page.

For those tech heads the content management system is coded in PHP using mySQL as the backend database.

Get our WebFast content management system NOW. Contact us.

Tags: Content Management System, CMS, PHP, MySQL, Able Net Design

The ultimate package

2006-03-01T15:57:00.000+08:00

With the development of our new content management system we are now able to provide this ulitmate special to any one who has a website

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Tags: Specials, Advertising, Marketing, Content Management System, CMS, Web Site, Able Net Design

eBay the new revolution

2006-02-27T16:16:00.000+08:00

I am probably a bit slow on the uptake of this but it is something that really hadn't interested me until not too long ago when I started to hear things about that some people are going to ask me some advice on how to use eBay to their advantage. I'm not just talking about the average Joe that wants to have an auction I'm talking about someone who wants to make money out of it, just like a normal online store.

So it wasn't until today that I set out to discover if eBay could really be more then just an auction site.

I had a few theory's that I had come up with about eBay a before I set out to find out what was on offer.

If you were to make any kind of money you would want to have a store which had a permanent address.
You would need some kind of product that consumers would want to buy online.

So what did I learn, well quite simply I was correct there is such thing as an eBay store. From my knowledge of online marketing this would have to be the best way to get ahead from everyone else on ebay.

This way you would have more chance of repeat customers and you could use your URL to advertise outside eBay itself. This is the ultimate option for anyone considering eBay as a means of making money online.

From what I can tell while looking around it is not just physical products sold on eBay. Closer to my home, web design, there are a few people offering their webdesign services over ebay.

I am not sure how successful that is but I have decided that I will give it ago. That is really the only way to find out how it is going to work isn't it. So tomorrow I will start and auction to see where it leads me.

So is eBay the new revolution in online selling? Well if you think about it the amount of people that seem to use it could only mean that it has to work.

Tags: eBay, Marketing, Online Marketing, Internet Marketing, internet-marketing

Why Your Website Needs Inbound Links

2006-02-23T13:05:00.000+08:00

Most web-savvy people quickly learn why they need "links" from other sites pointing at theirs. Your inbound links are one of the most important ways of getting yourself known in your field, generating traffïc to your website, and influencing the search engines to notice your site.

"Traffïc" is what linking is all about. Without traffïc your website is useless as a tool for selling your products or communicating your ideas. Getting links from other websites is not the only way to generate traffïc, but it is probably the most important one.

But how do links generate traffïc?

**Direct traffïc from links**

First, links generate direct traffïc. Links from sites that share your target audience will be an important source of traffïc to your site. A visitor to the other web site sees the link to yours, clicks on it, and becomes your visitor. Some estimates put the percentage of internet traffïc resulting from this kind of link as high as 21% of total traffïc.

Why do people clïck on these links? One reason is they may view a link to an outside source as an endorsement. They assume the webmaster is saying "Here is a source you will find interesting or helpful". They are looking for the kind of service you provide, so they clïck on the link to chëck you out.

But just as important is simple curiosity. Someone sees a text link with intriguing wording like "Powerful Cheap Advertising" or "Win a Free iPod" or "See Pamela Anderson Video" and, depending on their interests, a certain number of people are likely to clïck on it.

This suggests at least three things about your links. First, you should get as many links as possible on pages your target audience is likely to be visiting. The more people see your links, the more traffïc you are likely to get.

Second, your anchor text (the words that are linked) should be intriguing. It should be short and sweet, and suggest a benefit -- a reason for people to clïck on it.

Third, your links should be on pages that people actually look at. Having hundreds of links on pages that nobody ever looks at will not result in traffïc -- at least not direct traffïc. Putting your link on a link exchange page containing hundreds of services similar to yours is not likely to generate very many clicks. This is why exchanging links with link directories is such a questionable waste of time. Web visitors rarely look at these directories.

Finding good pages where you can place your link is not always easy. One method is to systematically do searches for your most important keywords -- the search phrases people are likely to use when looking for your kind of product or service. Many of the results will be competitors of yours. But one or two may be secondary sources such as directories or reference pages. Getting your link on some of these secondary sources is almost guaranteed to result in traffïc, so it is worth the effort -- and sometimes the cost -- of getting listed in the resources that score high for your keywords.

**Traffïc from Search Engines**

The second reason for getting inbound links is to impress the search engines. Most search engines use the quantity and quality of your inbound links to evaluate the importance and relevance of your site to specific keywords. For instance, if you sell a product like "Full Color Vinyl Banners", or you are a Real Estate agent servicing "Kitchener Real Estate", one of your objectives is to rank high for searches done on your primary search phrase (and other similar ones).

This will result in traffïc because when people search for your important keywords your site is more likely to show up in the search results. The more inbound links you have that relate your site to full color vinyl banners or web promotion services, or "fill in your keyword here", the higher your site is likely to rank for these terms, and the more search engine traffïc you are likely to receive as a result.

**Using Articles to get traffïc and impress the search engines**

Embedding your links in articles is one of the best methods of rapidly increasing your inbound links. Many times a well-written article will show up in hundreds of places on the web. And if it has your link embedded in it, that will obviously increase your inbound links. Webmasters pick up these articles because they want content to enhance the value of their sites.

Articles will also generate direct traffïc because people who read them are already interested in your subject matter, and are therefore more likely to clïck on your link.

This suggests that the most valuable place to publish your article is in a themed or categorized article resource. For instance, if your product is "health" related, having it published on health-oriented sites will be more valuable than having it published on generic sites.

You can even take this a step further. If your article is about something more specific like "mesothelioma advice", then getting it published on sites that focus on "mesothelioma" will get more "reads", and have a greater influence on the search engines.

Second, when embedding your link, try to use anchor text that contains one of your important keywords, not just your URL or web address. Remember that search engines are dumb. One of your objectives is to have them relate your website to specific search terms (keywords or key phrases). And the best way to do that is to use them as your anchor text.

About The Author
Rick Hendershot heads Linknet Promotions ==> http://www.linknet-promotions.com | Get links in articles and blog posts ==> http://www.linknet-news.com/linknet-news.php | Linkpopularity durch professionellen Linkaufbau ==> http://www.thinex.de
Tags: Links, SEO, Online Marketing, Search Marketing

Search Engine Optimization And Why You Gotta Use It

2006-02-22T15:46:00.000+08:00

E-commerce is a cut throat business. You have to arm yourself with the proper know-how and the tools to make your site a cut above the rest. Each day, more and more sites are clambering to optimize their rankings in websites and if you lose your guard, you may just get trampled on and be left in the abyss filled with so many failed e-commerce sites.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a term widely used today by many e-commerce sites. For the past few years and the next ten years or so, search engines would be the most widely used internet tool to find the sites that they need to go to or the product or information they need.

Most people that use search engines use only the ten top search results in the first page. Making it to the first page, more so to the top three is a barometer of a sites success in search engine optimization. You will get a higher ratio of probability in being clicked on when you rank high. The more traffic for your site, the more business you rake in.

But, it is essential to grab a hold of that spot or make your ranking even better. As I aforementioned, each day is a new day for all e-commerce sites to make them selves rank higher using search engine optimization. It is imperative to make your site better and better everyday.

So just what is search engine optimization and do you have to use it? The answer to why you have to use it is an easy one. You need search engine optimization to be number one, or maybe at least make your site income generating.

With search engine optimization you can get the benefit of generating a high traffic volume. Let's just say you get only a turn out of successful sales with 10 to 20 percent of your traffic. If you get a hundred hits or more a day, you get a good turn out of sales already. If you get only twenty to ten hits a day, you only get one or two if not any at all.

So once again, what is search engine optimization? Search engine optimization is utilizing tools and methods in making your site top ranking in the results of search engines. Getting yourself in the first page and better yet in the top half of the page will ensure that your site will generate public awareness of your site's existence and subsequently generate more traffic, traffic that could lead to potential income and business.

Search engine optimization requires a lot of work to be fully realized. There are many aspects you have to change in your site or add as well to get search engine optimization. These will include getting lots of information about the keyword phrases that are popular in regards to your sites niche or theme.

You may also need to rewrite your sites contents so that you could get the right keyword phrases in your site without making it too commercial but light and informative. There are certain rules and guidelines to be followed with making your site's content applicable and conducive to search engine optimization.

You will also need to collaborate with many other sites so that you could get link exchanges and page transfers. The more inbound and outbound traffics generated by sites among others are one of the components search engines uses to rank sites.

Try to search the internet for many useful help. Tips, guidelines and methods for search engine optimization are plenty to be found. Read many articles that can help you optimize your site in search engine results. The more knowledge and information you gather the better. This will all help you in getting those high rankings. This may require a little time and effort in your part but the benefits will be astounding.

If you can part with some money, there are many sites in the internet that can help you in search engine optimization. There are many sites that help in tracking keyword phrases that can help your site. There are also some content writers that have lots of experience in making good keyword laden content for your sites that have good quality.

Act now and see the benefits garner with search engine optimization. All of these will result to better traffic and more business for your site and company.

About the Author: Mark Flavin Is An Expert In Search Engine Optimization & Traffic Generation Techniques. Discover His Secrets For Free At: http://conquering-the-search-engines.com/seoelite1.html

Tags: SEO, Online Marketing, Search Marketing, search-marketing

Can't get the ranking you want!

2006-02-21T09:48:00.000+08:00

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The Dark Side Of Google A Reason For Concern?

2006-02-16T16:52:00.000+08:00

The way that search marketers dream up conspiracy theories you'd think that we're all paranoid with nothing better to do.

Is there a true reason for concern? I think not, but reading other peoples paranoia is always entertaining. We all know search engines are "out to get webmasters". They have nothing better to do than to think of new ways that will infringe on websites rankings or play hide and seek with site PageRank.

Google is at the forefront of the theorists' attention. And it's not very hard to see why.

It's Tough Being At The Top

Google's market share is certainly growing. It handled 60 percent of Internet search queries in November 2005, up from 47 percent a year earlier, according to ComScore Networks. Google's chief officers have expressed that they are committed to growing the company itself in a sustainable way.

Quoting CFO George Reyes: "Google would be spending more on research and development, and will invest heavily in its computing infrastructure."

Google's motto "do no evil" has been analyzed and debated so many times. Forum posts and articles are always met with "Google does this" or "Google does that", the fact of the matter is that none of us know "what Google's intentions are, except Google themselves of course...but it's still nice to enter the guessing game to see exactly "how close, or far off" you are from the materialization.

Enter the Conspiracies

Everyone has their opinion on the matter - which makes for entertaining reading at least.

Jagger Update

The conspiracy: Google is out to destroy all the organic listings so that everyone will move over to PPC.

The real deal: Google updates their algorithm from time to time to help make search results more relevant. Each update usually receives a name by the SEO community - somewhat like naming hurricanes. The most recent update was called "Jagger". Many scraper directory sites and sites that bought those links were removed from the update.

If you had made use of any shädy techniques it is most likely that your site was caught in Jagger. It was quite a harsh update if you had not employed solid SEO techniques. So needless to say there are a lot of angry webmasters out there. A good example is the German BMW site (bmw.de) which was recently removed for making use of sp@m techniques. Just goes to show SEO is SEO no matter what the language.

Google Adsense

The conspiracy: Google Adsense sites get priority in rankings so that Google can make more monëy. And also Google is trying to take dominance and force webmasters to use Adsense rather than outbound links (link building).

The real deal: If this were true, regardless of how hard Google was to "try", they couldn't force a greater number of people to Adwords through preventing the achievement of a favorable ranking.

Besides, when Adwords first was released, several SEO's tested this theory buy purchasing paid listings over varied lengths in time. The results? There was absolutely no correlation between purchasing an Adwords account and your organic search ranking.

IP Recording / Privacy Infringement

The conspiracy: Search engines log IP addresses. The data collected can be used against you.

The real deal: There have been many theories that Google logs searchers' IP addresses etc., to track their search behaviour, but the situation has gotten much biggër than that. With all the hype stemming from the Department of Justice requesting logs from the Big Shots of search to see what searches were conducted, the talk has shifted to legal implications should the court find in favour of government.

Every bit of network traffïc you use is marked with your IP address; it can be used to link all of those disparate transactions together.

Filtering Results

The conspiracy: If Google can filter the results for China, what stops them from filtering the rest of world?

The real deal: Well this is still very much a hot topic at the moment and I have not really made up my mind on this one quite yet. I can only refer to the Google "Human Rights Caucus Briefing" in their Blog.

Excerpt from blog: "In deciding how best to approach the Chinese - or any - market, we must balance our commitments to satisfy the interests of users, expand access to information, and respond to local conditions. Our strategy for doing business in China seeks to achieve that balance through improved disclosure, targeting of services, and local investment."

And "In order to operate Google.cn as a website in China, Google is required to remove some sensitive information from our search results. These restrictions are imposed by Chinese laws, regulatïons, and policies. However, when we remove content from Google.cn, we disclose that fact to our users."

This is nothing new; in fact Google has altered their search results to comply with local laws in France, Germany, and the United States previously. Also, is it not better to have censored information than none at all? At least this way Google has a starting point from which to fight the censorship.

Do No Evil

According to Larry Page: "Google's goal is to provide a much higher level of service to all those who seek information, whether they're at a desk in Boston, driving through Bonn, or strolling in Bangkok."

The Google philosophy:
1. Focus on the user and all else will follow
2. It's best to do one thing really, really well
3. Fast is better than slow
4. Democracy on the web works
5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer
6. You can make monëy without doing evil
7. There is always more information out there
8. The need for information crosses all borders
9. You can be serious without a suit
10. Great just isn't good enough

Excerpt from site: Full-disclosure update: When we first wrote these "10 things" four years ago, we included the phrase "Google does not do horoscopes, financial advice or chat." Over time we've expanded our view of the range of services we can offer -- web search, for instance, isn't the only way for people to access or use information - and products that then seemed unlikely are nöw key aspects of our portfolio. This doesn't mean we've changed our core mission; just that the farther we travel toward achieving it, the more those blurry objects on the horizon come into sharper focus (to be replaced, of course, by more blurry objects).

Some psychologists say that the closer one becomes to a person (or something) the harder it is to see the good stuff. Has Google become so intertwined in our daily lives that we no longer recognize the good stuff that it has brought us?

Let me remind you of a few:

1. Relevant Search Results: A source to find information faster. Every update gets rid of the "clutter".

2. Gmail: As far as frëe web based email goes, this must be the most user-friendly with the largest amount of storage space to boot. You can also tie in any other email accounts you may hold and use Google's interface as the "one stop shop" so to speak.

3. Gtalk: Google's frëe IM and Voice Chat service. Nöw also tying in with your Gmail interface. This means that it's accessible from wherever you have internet - you don't need to have the program installed on the machine that you're working from.

4. Leader of other SE: There is no doubt that Google is at the forefront of "great new ideas" for search engines. Google leads and the rest follow. One example is Gmail - more storage space for frëe. Yahoo! was soon to follow with a similarly sized email account for Yahoo! Mail users at no cost. MSN, however, charges for an increased mailbox.

5. Google Earth: Geographic information at your fingertips. Get driving directions and location information for just about anywhere on the globe, and because they use satellite imagery intertwined with maps you get a pretty good idea of what any place looks like.

6. Google Video: A selection of homemade clips, TV shows, movies and viral clips *freely available on the net. (*some TV shows and movies need to be purchased of course)

7. Google Alerts: Need to know when someone has mentioned you, your company or any topic of interest to you on their website? With Google Alerts you are notified *as it happens. (*as Google spiders that site)

These are only but a few things that Google has brought into our lives so to speak.

So ask yourself again - is there really any concern for their progress, or are we benefiting from it at the end of the day?

Forget About It

It's a typical situation where a good company gets too big and people start getting a little uncomfortable about its dominance in society.

So I say forget about all the clutter and focus on the good stuff of which 2006 will bring many new innovations and a whole bunch of new conspiracy theories no doubt.

About The Author
Christine Stander is a professional search engine optimization and online marketing strategist with experience in many facets of search marketing, user behaviour analysis and brand management. For more information please refer to: http://www.altersage.com.

Tags: Google, SEO, Online Marketing

Organic SEO The New Messiah For Webmasters

2006-02-15T16:06:00.000+08:00

Organic SEO seems to be the catch phrase of the moment. However, unlike many other linking tactics and strategies, this one actually works.

What is Organic SEO or Organic Search Engine Optimization?

Explained simply, it's where all your linking structures originates from the content up - in other words, you let all your content created for your sites, blogs and articles do your link building for you.

Actually, the answer is as simple as this article. You're probably experiencing one of the best examples of Organic SEO right this moment by reading this article. Article marketing is pure Organic SEO. You let your article and your author's resource box build one-way links from related niche sites to your site.

But the keyword is content. You must create high quality original content for this system to really develop and flourish. The better the content, the faster your rankings and traffic will grow. By producing valuable content in articles, sites and blogs, you are building real traffic and real links that the search engines salivate over. And they will reward your site with higher rankings and even more traffic.

Try Article Writing...

Frankly, I was rather surprised at the effectiveness of article writing. It seems like such a benevolent little creature. You write about your own experiences on the subject of your site or blog, keeping your articles short, around 500 to 800 words - although some of my best performing articles have been longer, about 900 to 1200 words.

I have only written about 60 articles. But the benefits have been enormous; spreading my content all over the web and building one-way links to my sites and blogs. Some of these articles like the ones in Addme.com or Webpronews.com get archived and will provide good deep PR links for years to come.

There are a few techniques I use to extend the effectiveness of my articles. First, I always start with a keyword or keyword phrase that I want to target with a particular article. I do major, major, major research on my article's keywords - using sites like nichebot.com, overture.com, and a few others.

I check how much competition there is for the keywords. Combining a new keyword with ones you already have positioned high for in the search engines works well. For example, I have optimized my site for the keyword 'Free', it appears throughout my site. When I introduce a new keyword phrase I sometimes combine it with Free. Pick the right keyword combination and you will gain an edge over your competition more quickly.

Always put your keyword phrase into the title of your article. I also make it a habit of not picking the top keywords in a niche, I go for middle ranked keywords - I am better assured that I will rank on the first page SERPs for these lower keywords. Why waste valuable time shooting for the stars when you can easily land on the moon!

I submit my articles mainly to a short list of online article directories ( ezinearticles.com,buzzle.com,isnare.com,goarticles.com,ideamarketers.com, and articlealley.com ) these work the best for me. These sites rank well in the search engines and even though the surfer may go to another site to read your article first, it then delivers a much more warmed up and targeted visitor to your own site.

Other webmasters from your niche will pick up your high quality articles and place them on their sites. Organically growing more related one-way links to your site. Google looks very favorably on these one-way links and will reward your site for having them.

Article marketing is one Organic SEO tactic every website should be using. Instead of paying high prices for seo services, why not write or hire someone to create keyword rich articles for your site. The benefits will surprise you.

Try Blogging...

Blogs are another form of Organic SEO. It also builds links and traffic to your site the natural way - by providing valuable content.

For those marketers and webmasters who practice Organic SEO, the free blogging systems are a godsend. A skilled marketer can legitimately use these online blogging programs to boost their site's rankings, traffic and income. What more can any online marketer or webmaster ask for?

I use numerous blogs to compliment my sites. I base these blogs on the major keywords of my sites. For example, one section on my main Internet Marketing site examines laptop computers, I created a blog with Bloglines.com covering the same topic. Although all the content is different from what you will find on my main site.

I also use Blogger.com because it's owned by Google and is very simple to use. I find posting my weekly ezine on Blogger adds another way I can get my message out to my subscribers. Not to mention, all the linking and pinging a blog brings into play.

I also use the open source software and system, WordPress for another of my blogs on marketing. This is a php database supported program that was a lot less easier to set up on my site than I first expected. It's one of the best blogging systems I have worked with and is highly favored by the search engines. If you're not using it - try it.

In addition, I have just started using LiveJournal for another blog and that system is also very easy to use. I usually post to my blogs once or twice a week, just short helpful tips or links that a visitor or search engine would be interested in. Keep in mind, all these free blogging sites are PR9 or PR10, has to count for something.

Spam has become a problem with many of these blogging systems, I now usually block all comments or moderate them. All this spam just goes to show how effective getting links in related blogs can booster your rankings for competitive keywords.

I have found blogging to be a very effective tool for getting your keywords indexed and ranked very quickly. I also like to use blogs for those golden double-header listings in the SERPs, preferably at the number 1 and 2 spots! That's where you get two listings from your site for a certain keyword on the first page, this I find, brings in a lot more traffic than a single listing.

In art there is something called the Golden Section, a perfect proportion that works magic into any painting or picture. It is an organic and natural effect that appears everywhere in our world. For webmasters, having your site listed 1 and 2 for your keywords has to be another form of the Golden Section, made especially for us.

In that same light, Organic SEO is a natural and effective way for webmasters to grow their links and rankings. Articles and blogs are two special tools we can use to further that natural growth. Create your own Golden Section and give the search engines something to talk about by trying Organic SEO. Build your links and rankings the natural way.

Your site's salvation is only a keystroke away!

About the Author: The author runs a modest Internet Marketing web site where you will find helpful online guides on RSS/Blogging, Laptops, SEO, Spyware Removal, List Building, Internet Fax and quite a few Free Marketing Tools. Copyright © 2006 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Tags: SEO, Online Marketing, Search Marketing, search engine optimisation

Able Net Design can help with all your online marketing needs. We are only 1 click away so contact us now.

Gbuy - What Every Website Owner Must Know

2006-02-14T16:05:00.000+08:00

Every month, it seems, a major company stares down the barrel of Google's brand recognition gun. The company of the month right now happens to be PayPal. The Wall Street Journal published an article on Ebay's Jeff Jordan's preparations for Gbuy, the so called PayPal killer (PayPal is owned by Ebay). Many news sources and blogs are anticipating Gbuy to quickly become a PayPal killer given Google's huge brand name recognition and reach with consumers.

But the whole PayPal killing talk is really much ado about nothing. I have no doubt whatsoever that Google will release Gbuy, but I do have significant doubts as to whether it will actually replace PayPal as many merchant's payment processor of choice. Given Google's recent releases, and given how PayPal has positioned itself in the marketplace, I would not be surprised of Gbuy proves itself to be a significant flop considering all the attention it has been given.

PayPal's Vulnerability

Jeff Jordan of Ebay has every right to be scared, however. Executives have a history of losing their dignity and control when they feel pressured by Google. Steve Ballmer is well known for his professional wrestling-like tirade in which he sent chairs flying and cursed the name of Google, and Yahoo is not much better having publicly given up its quest for search dominance, which in effect was Yahoo executives crying "Uncle!" with the hope that they could finally focus on something that they could actually excel in.

Professional wrestling rant's aside, Jeff Jordan does have reason to be worried. PayPal, unlike Yahoo and Microsoft, is much more vulnerable to a direct attack from Google. The history of PayPal is filled with trouble with CEO's, run-ins with the mafia, and pressure from an Attorney General. This article, however, is not the place for a lesson on the history of PayPal (a book was written for that), regardless of how fascinating it might be.

Article Tip
Did you know that PayPal is one of the few companies with a single letter domain name? Chëck it out: X.com.

The problem with PayPal is that it has not solidified itself in any other market besides the payment option of eBay merchants. The result is that many website owners view PayPal as a 'cheap' option. Furthermore, even though PayPal does allow non-members to purchase items through their system, it is not as easy as many merchant's would like. Many of the problems of PayPal were actually discussed on the forums a while ago.

These problems open up a vulnerability for PayPal. If Google releases a product that improves on the downfalls of PayPal in much the same way that they were able to revolutionize online maps, then PayPal should be worried. Google does have a knack for making web applications that make existing applications look outdated and simplistic.

Why Gbuy Will Not Kill PayPal

Experts have been predicting the wild success of Google in many different industries for some time. When Froogle was released it was thought by many to be a major threat to Amazon.com. Although Gmail has been a success, there have been no reports of Yahoo Mail suffering significant attrition (in fact the buzz over the new Yahoo Mail interface shows just how much interest there is in Yahoo Mail). And although Google News is a highly useful service, it is hardly considered the default news service for most web users.

The fact is, the past few Google releases have been relative failures. Google admitted that they screwed up with their video service (the Apple iPod Video is much more successful and sets the bar much higher than Google is currently meeting). Google Reader was met with a collective 'ho-hum' from the webmaster community (as was Google Pack), and even though Google Sitemaps may be useful, it is still under used. Google Analytics still is not able to accommodate mass signups, and the buzz over analytics has also declined significantly since its release.

Really, if we were to look at Google's recent releases, the only relatively successful releases have been Google's Search (obviously), Adwords and Adsense (also obvious), Google Maps, and Gmail. The fact is, with the exception of Adwords and Adsense, Google has not been very successful in launching commercial products.

Google's Lack of Simplicity for 'Everyday' Users

The problem with most of Google's recent releases has been its lack of simplicity. Google's initial success in search was powered by the extreme simplicity they brought to the process. All the user saw was a search box and search results. What could be more simple? On top of that, search results were stunningly accurate compared to the other results available.

Although Adwords is confusing to many website owners, Adsense also carries the trait of being extraordinarily simple. Add in the benefit of being able to make a significant income from Adsense and it is no wonder that Google has a firm hold on the contextual ad market. For potential advertisers there is no greater reach than Google Adwords.

Yet most of Google's recent releases have either lacked the simplicity that made them the choice for every day users or offer no significant advantages over existing products. If PayPal is genuinely going to be threated by Gbuy, then Google is going to have to perfect the simplicity that PayPal has capitalized on.

Gbuy - Finding a Niche Among Website Owners

A few years back when K-Mart filed for bänkruptcy, I remember listening to an analysis which looked at the reasons why K-Mart was having difficulty. The analyst explained how there were three major players in the mega-stores: Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and Target. Wal-Mart had successfully positioned itself as the price-leader out of the three mega-stores while Target, although still inexpensive, positioned itself as slightly more expensive, but higher quality. K-Mart, in this environment, lacked an identity to shoppers.

Gbuy could very well fall into the same problem. PayPal has done a great job in solidifying itself as the payment solution of choice for millïons of Ebay merchants. In addition, thousands of other website owners have chosen to at least add PayPal as a payment option on their website due to its extreme simplicity for those who have PayPal accounts.

In a best case scenario Gbuy could really only hope to fit in as an alternate payment system to those who have already established how users are supposed to pay for their goods. In all reality, though, the market is crowded, and Ebay users will likely continue to use the integrated, easy to use PayPal over any new-commer - especially of Google fails to make a relatively simple product.

About The Author
Mark Daoust is the owner of Site Reference. If you want to reference this article, please reference it at its original published location.

Tags: Advertising, Marketing, Online Marketing, Search Marketing, Able Net Design

The 7 Most Common Marketing Mistakes

2006-02-13T11:13:00.000+08:00

When marketing your product or service, you need to have a firm understanding of your audience, the message you want to deliver, the offer you're willing to make, and the optimal timing for your marketing campaign.

Too often novice marketers, even marketing veterans, make costly mistakes that result in poor performance of their marketing campaign. Common marketing mistakes can be avoided with adequate planning, attention to detail, and ongoing measurement and evaluation.

If you're considering a traditional marketing campaign, an Internet marketing campaign, or something that's never been tried before, be sure to avoid these common marketing mistakes.

1. Timing.
You may have a great list, a fantastic offer, and even a well designed marketing piece, but if your timing is off, so too will be your results. As an experienced marketer, I have seen some very expensive marketing campaigns that were very compelling but failed to produce results. This is because the campaign reached consumers at a time in which they had no interest in buying the product. For example, trying to sell snow shovels in July would not be considered good timing.

2. Failure to Test Your Headline.
As the first thing your prospect usually reads, the headline is essential for luring your prospective buyer into the message, your offer, and the action you want them to take. Regardless of the medium, you should continually test your headlines (or subject lines) by running split tests and evaluating response. This ensures that your marketing message attracts the largest number of prospective buyers.

3. Failure to Test Your Offer.
In direct marketing, the offer is directly correlated to 40% of your response. If you have the right offer, people respond. There are other factors to consider as well, but providing a compelling offer is required in most instances. Offers can range from discounts to "hurry while supplies last", but the commonality remains. Test your offers for optimizing response.

4. Having a Good List.
Having the best offer and award-winning design is not enough. For many types of marketing campaigns, success is directly tied to having a targeted list. With today's sophisticated list generation tools, you can acquire lists that are highly segmented based on demographics, psychographics, buying behavior, and many other characteristics. The key here is not to be penny wise and pound foolish. If you're wondering where to invest your marketing dollars, spend them on developing a good house list (names you acquire on your own) or by renting/purchasing a well segmented marketing list.

5. Relying on a Single Communication.
On average, consumers are hit with over 2,000 marketing messages everyday. In fact, recent studies have indicated that consumers need to see your marketing message an average of 12 times before they take notice. If there is any truth to the claim in part or in whole, it means that you must communicate to prospects on a regular basis. Placing a single ad in the newspaper or sending a single email cannot deliver effective results. Determine the media that prospects use to gather information and develop an ongoing campaign that works within your budget.

6. Not Measuring Campaign Effectiveness.
Over time, your business is going to do a lot of marketing. Even if you are a small business wondering how you're going to communicate to a prospective audience, you're going to eventually have some type of communication. Regardless of the marketing campaign size or expense, you need to track your results. This can be done with a simple spreadsheet or a multi-million dollar CRM system. The bottom line is you need to record what works and what doesn't so that you can improve your results in the future.

7. Failure to Continue the Dialogue.
After consulting for a number of large companies, I'm still amazed at how many fail to communicate to customers on an ongoing basis. Often times, consumers or businesses only hear from the seller when its time to buy again. If you have an established customer base, chances are you've worked hard to acquire them. You should be spending some of your marketing budget to retain them. Be sure to open a dialogue with customers, solicit their feedback, and communicate with them regularly. This will help to build your business over the long-term.

If you're new to marketing, have experience as a marketing professional, or simply want to improve your current marketing results, be sure to learn from the mistakes of others. To be successful, continually work towards improving your marketing effectiveness. Avoid the 7 most common marketing mistakes, and you're on your way to delivering tangible results.

About the Author: Michael Fleischner is the founder and President of MarketingScoop.com. He has appeared on major media including the TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and more. With more than 12 years of marketing experience, Michael has developed major brands as well as a variety of businesses in need of leading marketing programs. Visit http://www.MarketingScoop.com for further details.

Tags: Marketing, Advertising, Business

Advertising in RSS Feeds

2006-02-10T14:10:00.000+08:00

As publishers have moved towards monetizing RSS feeds, there have been vibrant discussions as to whether advertisements in feeds are viable or whether they will drive subscribers away. At the end of the day while it appears that many are discussing the philosophical approaches to ads in RSS feeds few are taking the time to examine the options available for inserting advertisements in feeds. Ultimately the advertisements served are going to determine the success of RSS as an advertising medium. The ads served must be related to the content contained in the feed. If the RSS feed contains quality content, the ads are relevant, and the volume of ads is in balance with the volume of content served, advertising in RSS feeds will succeed. Take a closer look at some of the ad serving options currently available for RSS feeds.

Review of Current Options

Google AdSense for Feeds

Google's AdSense for Feeds offers contextually targeted advertisements, with a wide selection of advertisers. Google chooses not to divulge the percentage of revenue that is shared with the publisher, so it is difficult if not impossible to predict monthly revenue. The current Google AdSense system for feeds is tied to blogs and does not appear to be overly flexible.

Pheedo

Pheedo displays categorized advertisements rather than contextual advertisements. The upside to this is that Pheedo's advertisements can be used in conjunction with Google AdSense or AdSense for feeds without violating Google's contract. Pheedo works with the publisher to serve advertisements from similar or related categories associated with the feeds contents.

Pheedo's system allows for advanced ad filtering, giving publishers control over keyword ad filtering, specific ad filtering or url filtering. Pheedo's system also allows publishers to sell ads to existing advertisers with whom they already have a relationship. The revenue split is 50% and feeds can be a sponsored flat rate advertisement or a pay-per-click advertisement, where the publisher is only paid if the advertisement is clicked.

Kanoodle for Feeds

Kanoodle's systems for providing advertisements for feeds is similar to Google's but they do not have the breadth of advertisers that Google boasts. Advertisements are served based on topics, not keywords. Kanoodle shares 50% of the revenue generated from the advertisements with the publisher serving the ad.

Evaluating Options

When evaluating feed ad serving solutions consider the following:

1. Ad Relevance
In order to generate revenue from RSS advertisements or for an advertising campaign to succeed using RSS as a channel it is absolutely critical that the advertisements served in the feed contain related content, the more related the content the higher the likelihood that the advertisements will be of interest to the reader and clicked. Also, the closer the content relates to the feeds theme the higher the likelihood the reader will have genuine interest in the product or service being advertised.

2. Ad Ratio
Publishers need to retain control over the frequency of advertisements. Advertisers may be happy because they are reaching a targeted audience and publishers because their advertisements are being clicked and generating revenue, but readers will become frustrated with feeds that are too heavily laden with advertisements.

3. Clearly Denoted as Ads
The debate over editorial control and advertisements rages on. It is generally considered proper net etiquette for publishers to clearly mark advertisements to distinguish them from editorial web content. When selecting a RSS advertising partner consider the context in which the advertisements are displayed. Does it blend with the feed or site, while still being clearly marked sponsored material? Or does the content blend so well that it appears as a product or service endorsement from the publisher? Credibility and reputation online matter, and the segregation of advertisements and ensuring they are properly denoted as such will go a long way to enhance credibility with readers.

Clearly as RSS increases in popularity, publishers will be looking for ways to monetize their content. RSS in advertising is a logical step, and striking a balance between quality, consistent content and occasional related advertisements will lead to the success of advertising in RSS feeds. If the balance is not found, publishers may be forced to move to a subscription RSS feed model.

The Wall Street Journal was one of the first content publishers that announced a subscription model. Rather than embedding advertisements in the RSS content feeds, the Wall Street Journal provides teaser copy and if the subscriber wishes to view the expanded content they are charged a subscription fee.

Time will determine the long term viability of advertisements in RSS feeds. If RSS advertisements perform like the contextual text based ads currently served on websites, RSS advertisements will likely become common place. While the content publishers who specialize in unique, consistent content might find the subscription model more effective.

About The Author
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for FeedForDev an RSS component for developers.

Tags: RSS, Feeds, Advertising, Marketing, Able Net Design

Google Big Daddy SearchQuake About to Rumble Your Ranking?

2006-02-09T11:20:00.000+08:00

Running ranking reports for clients is a standard part of an SEO's job. This week I created a position report for a client - one for which we'd made significant gains in ranking for their targeted search phrase - and proudly sent off the report to them before a scheduled conference call to discuss our progress and status.

The client sent an email upon receiving the report saying "There is something wrong with your report - we rank higher than this report claims." I went back to Google and typed in the search phrases to find rankings exactly where the report showed them the previous day.

I explained to that client that Google has (at last count) nine data centers which serve up search results and that they were getting results from a data center in the Eastern US which showed differing results from results shown to us here in California.

The difference was substantial enough to move the client from page two to page one in the search results and therefore made a dramatic difference in their satisfaction with our work. Differences are rarely that substantial in previously observed ranking reports, so it prompted me to dig a bit deeper into the issue and I sent the note below to the client.

"Take a look at this link where Google datacenter IP addrresses are listed in detail."

http://www.webworkshop.net/seoforum/viewtopic.php?t=548

"Here is an overview of a coming update to all Google datacenters expected in February or March of 2006."

http://directmag.com/searchline/1-25-06-Google-BigDaddy/

"So you ARE ranking better from your area of the country and that particular data center which returns results to you. Things usually update to match in all data centers, but sometimes you may do better in one data center than in others. If you search from each individual IP address in that list discussed in the forum linked above, you'll see different rankings and may find datacenters where you rank at the bottom of page two of results."

You might also search from that new "Big Daddy" data center referenced in that article above, which discusses upcoming Google ranking algorithm changes due soon.

http://66.249.93.104

Where I'm seeing you ranked at #17 (bottom of page two.)

It's a measure of where you might expect to be when Google moves to that new algorithm for all data centers in February or March. (Of course we continue to work to achieve better results before then.)

This upcoming change in algorithm and the interestingly named server "Big Daddy" were publicly posted on Matt Cutts blog for beta testing by SEO's (and other Google Watchers) who read him regularly. (For those who don't know, Cutts is a software engineer at Google & shares SEO tips on his blog)

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/

Of course this news was a bit much for the client to digest in one chunk and he had little time to read the articles I referenced in my note above, but it was enough to assure him that I knew what I was talking about and explain the differences in my report and his own keyword searches at his end of the country. It's a bit odd to try to explain to a client "there are different Googles." Few know or understand this.

Another issue cropped up later in the day when I was doing further research for a different client and found, while we were speaking on the phone, that his results differed from my own on specific query operator searches. We were using the "site:businessdomain.com" query operator and the "allinurl:pick-your-own-URL" query operator to limit search results and got vastly different numbers of results and rankings for the same searches.

The first stunning thing in this example was that we are less than 25 miles apart in Southern California. The second shocker was that I tried simply hitting the "Search" button a second time after getting the first results page and things changed again! All of this happening in a single day makes me believe that some percolating of results is going on as Google eases into an algorithm change.

Perhaps this is not all that unusual, but in seven years of this work, I've not seen the volatility noted in January of 2006. Are we about to have a major SearchQuake? Is Google about to split the earth and spew volcanic new results? Stand by for the BigDaddy SearchQuake sometime this month or next.

About The Author
Mike Banks Valentine blogs on Search Engine developments from http://RealitySEO.com and can be contacted for SEO work at: http://www.seoptimism.com/SEO_Contact.htm. He operates a free web content distribution site at: http://Publish101.com
Tags: Google, google, Search Engine, search-engine

The Secret to Generating Traffic in Online Forums

2006-02-08T16:23:00.000+08:00

The internet has made the world a smaller place. It allows people from different countries to communicate with one another to share ideas and opinions. One of the best places to generate more traffic for someone who has an existing website is through Online forums. By just following some simple tips, more people will visit one site in no time.

1. For this to work, the person should be online most of the time. Since frequent users do the same and always have questions to ask, a great idea will be to give an answer that can help that individual.

The person has to remember that there are also other people who will answer the posted question but if one offers the best answer that is a plus to that individual. It will establish credibility on the part of the person and that user will likely visit the website to see what else can be offered. This will also allow that person to refer the site to other people creating more traffic.

2. Some people believe it pays to be nice and this is true. Forums are also a place where debates occur. By giving an answer in a nice way though one disagrees with the other person, it establishes a sense of respect.

If people see how friendly and courteous one is, this will also entice the users to see what one has to offer in the website.

3. Being an active contributor to the Online forum is a great way of getting noticed. There are a lot of things people want and need to know and by looking for it and informing the person how to also get it, this will make the person a handyman in the web. It will be better if one can write something short about it so the user will have a brief idea if this is relevant in the personís search.

4. Everyone has a certain calling card in getting something done. By putting it in whenever posting an answer in the forum, this will make people know who the good Samaritan is and will want to know more about the website and the services one can offer.

Most people post the name of the person which could be real or fictitious, the email address and the website address so one can easily be reached.

5. Whenever one posts something that is needed by a user, it is advisable to think of a way to make the person go back and visit ones website. If one needs advice on how to pick the right diving equipment, the person can give a short answer then for that person to get more information, that individual has to visit ones website.

The technique to creating more traffic by finding a way to make people visit ones site is called in-context linking. This is also how search engines rank how well ones site compares over others. As more people click on it and are guided to the site, the more important it is. The best way to do this is being active in the web and posting a lot of relevant material for other users.

By following these simple 5 steps, a person will always have a good number of people visiting ones site. Generating more traffic and earning money can be made if the person is willing to give it a great amount of effort. If that person is too lazy to keep the site updated and giving it regular maintenance, then someone can be hired for that job. The individual should just be sure to pay the person well for doing all the hard work.

Making ones website user friendly is essential in making people refer it to others. This can be done by letting friends and family try it first then ask feedback about the site. The most important thing to remember before launching it to the various websites is making sure that ones website is fully operational and will not have problems for users when logging on to it. It is very embarrassing for people to experience problems the first time which will surely discourage one from referring it to others and visiting it again.

About the Author: Daegan Smith the owner of Net MLM Articles and the leader of the fastest growing team of successful home business enterpernuers on the net. Find out how we're creating financial freedom all across the globe and how to get in on the action free => http://www.comlev.com.

Tags: Traffic, Marketing, Internet Marketing, internet-marketing

Web 2.0: The Next Big Thing or the Evolution of a Technology?

2006-02-03T15:26:00.000+08:00

Is it a movement? A revolution? Perhaps a new paradigm? Or, is it a bunch of hype designed to sell a bunch of new software? Just what is Web 2.0?

Well, the term has been around since 2003. It was coined by I-Net pioneer Dale Dougherty and introduced at a conference by Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media, Inc., who has subsequently made attempts at defining just what Web 2.0 means. In his seminal document entitled What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software, O'Reilly describes Web 2.0 as follows:

"Like many important concepts, Web 2.0 doesn't have a hard boundary, but rather, a gravitational core. You can visualize Web 2.0 as a set of principles and practices that tie together a veritable solar system of sites that demonstrate some or all of those principles, at a varying distance from that core."

- Tim O'Reilly

Okay, that's a starting point of sorts - gravitational core, set of principles and practices, veritable solar system. The fact is, O'Reilly, the champion of Web 2.0, has written eloquently on the subject, but after reading his detailed explanation, you still walk away scratching your head. Additional research clearly demonstrates that there's a lack of consensus.

Tim Bray, writing at http://radar.oreilly.com, strongly contests the use of the term Web 2.0, calling it nothing more than a meme. Okay, so what's a meme? Well, we have to go back to 1976 to find the origin of the term created by Richard Dawkins in his text, The Selfish Gene. In it, Dawkins describes memes broadly:

"Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation."

Okay, now we're getting somewhere. Web 2.0 is a catch phrase and one that's getting a lot of attention within the e-commerce community. In fact, since making its way into the collective I-conscious, there have been more than 9 million Google searches for Web 2.0 information. Somebody's interested.

Yes, there's something there, and when you cut through the hype, delete the meme and study the underlying concepts, Web 2.0 does offer some thinking points for every site designer, host and owner. Let's look at some of the parameters of this new way of thinking about the www.

Extreme Trust
A great catch phrase in its own right. Extreme trust is a new vision for using the collective knowledge of Internet users, demonstrated by the ascendancy of Wikipedia. In the world of Web 1.0 (the model for the past decade), the Internet was a source of information. However, the information was static. You could access World Book or The Encyclopedia Britannica on-line, but all you could do is read it, print it out and use it for your child's homework.

Sites, such as Wikipedia and the Open Directory Project are changing this dynamic based on the concept of extreme trust.

Wikipedia is a growing collection of information (over 100,000 unique entries) submitted and edited by volunteers. It changes daily, hourly, providing the latest information from a variety of writers of varying degrees of expertise. Information can be edited by anyone who knows more about the topic than the original poster. In fact, if you access certain topics on Wikipedia, you'll see warnings that certain encyclopedia entries have not been reviewed, and therefore, the content can't be deemed as accurate - yet. However, as more experts, operating under the doctrine of extreme trust, review each Wikipedia entry, the reliability and veracity of the content increases.

Thus, in the Web 1.0 world, people could access information, but not participate in its evolution. In the new age of Web 2.0, the collective intelligence of the world community becomes accessible and utile.

Personal Participation
Another, much-touted aspect of Web 2.0 is personal participation. Personal web sites have been around for years. You could post family pix and tell the world what you did over summer vacation. But, these personal web sites nevër really caught on because of the expense and time required to launch and maintain them.

Enter the web log, aka blog. These personal journals encourage greater, individual participation by enabling anyone with an opinion, idea or random thought to post these personal musings for all the world to see. Bloggers have changed the way information is disseminated. Many have garnered credibility as legitïmate news sources. In fact, bloggers have received press credentials for newsworthy events. They're used by the mainstream media as reference and several of these bloggers have broken major news stories before their largër print and on-line competitors, e.g., Robert Novak's outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative.

The concept of personal participation has also spilled over into the realm of e-commerce, with many on-line businesses offering a blog and/or forum where customers, clients and other interested parties can post their thoughts. Amazon.com is a leader in this area, encouraging its customers to submit reviews of purchased products. In fact, some Amazon reviewers have made names for themselves - and customers seek out their recommendations! As the old, anti-war chant once demanded, Power to the People has been finally realized.

In fact, if you tour the Amazon site, you'll discover opportunities for customer participation on virtually every page. Amazon's subsidiary, Booksurge.com has also simplified the entire publishing process. Authors no longer have to approach traditional publishers, hat in hand, begging to be published. Booksurge and Amazon have made it possible for anyone to write, publish and sell texts through Amazon, B&N, Borders and other on-line outlets. Yes, this is part of the Web 2.0 model.

Static versus Dynamic
Netscape was the browser of choice in the Web 1.0 era. It was published, then updated regularly in various versions identified as Netscape 1.0, 2.0, etc. This was a static business model in which users had to wait for improvements to be made, then download the updates.

Fast forward to the dynamic age of Web 2.0 where Google reigns supreme. Google is a true child of the Internet. It was made to fit with I-net dynamics. Improvements are made and implemented daily - seamlessly. No downloads, no patches required. The result? Google has enabled all of us to access the most obscure factoid in a nanosecond. Its index contains billions of pages of spidered text and as more new sites sprout like mushrooms, more pages are spidered and the index grows.

Google has demonstrated how to do it right. It's highly interactive, it's nevër static and it has created many new avenues for the e-commerce community and for users in search of the name of the pharaoh who was in power when the rotary mill was introduced in Egypt. This has increased productivity exponentially.

The Evolution of Technology
Technology evolves. It builds on what came before. It learns from past mistakes and takes advantage of unrealized opportunities. This is as true of America's Industrial Revolution as it is for the Internet. There were lots of false starts, missteps and abject failures during the rise of technology in the early and mid-1800s. The same is true of the current technological revolution underway on your computer screen daily.

Remember the original Priceline model? You could spend two hours saving 9¢ on a can of peas. Nice try, but no cigar, despite William Shatner's campy commercials. Or, how about buying pet foods on-line? That went down in flames, too. In fact, all you have to do is look at the I-net bubble that burst in 2000 to see the shake-out of what was working and what wasn't. A lot of investors lost a ton of cäsh, but the Net didn't shrivel up and die. In fact, it's more powerful than ever.

Technology doesn't move forward in straight line. It nevër has. There are offshoots, improvements and lots of really, really bad ideas along the way. (Anybody remember the Ford Edsel?) Internet technology is no different, except that the shakeouts occur much faster, the improvements take off much quicker and the really, really bad ideas are really, really expensive. Just ask Shatner. Such is the nature of technological evolution.

So, Is Web 2.0 A Revolution?
Tim O'Reilly and the other promoters of Web 2.0 have done us a service by focusing attention on new uses for the Net. RSS is a radical step forward. Podcasting, though in its infancy, is coming on strong having caught the attention of advertisers as a new means to reach the cutting edge public. In fact, just as anyone can set up and maintain a blog, today the technology exists to set up your own broadcast network complete with specialized shows for niche markets like pregnant parents or home schoolers.

However, Web 2.0 also has aspects of a meme. Many on-line businesses have picked up the term and now proudly display a Web 2.0 logo on their home pages, though the site has virtually no new features.

No, Web 2.0 isn't a new paradigm or a revolution. It's the natural evolution of a technology that's growing at truly heart-stopping speed. What was yesterday won't be tomorrow.

In the weeks and months ahead, we'll take a much closer look at this evolutionary track to sort hype from help, and to assist you in finding new, better ways to increase site traffïc, improve your conversion rate and expand your repeat-customer base.

For now, Google Web 2.0 and start doing your homework. Changes are coming. Will you be ready? If not, you won't be hëre tomorrow.

About The Author
Frederick Townes is the CEO of W3-EDGE Web Design. W3-EDGE specializes in business web design for all sized clients. They also provide quality professional web hostïng through W3-HOSTING.net. Contact Frederick at ftownes@w3-edge.com.

Tags: web 2.0, web2.0, Web, Internet

Monitoring Search Engine Positions

2006-02-02T15:08:00.000+08:00

Since search engines are the first stop for people on the Internet looking for goods or services, the position your website appears in search results is an important factor. If your URL shows up far down the results list, the chances of the consumer never finding you increase incrementally. Once you achieve a high search engine position, it is essential that you make sure you maintain the high ranking you have worked so hard to achieve.

This means you must come up with a strategy to monitor your search engines positions. This strategy is crucial to the success of any marketing campaign. Think of your search engine positions as your online portfolio. Would you let your stock portfolio be ruled by chance and market fluctuations, or would you keep close tabs on your stocks so you could buy and sell when the time is right? This is the way you must consider your search engines positions.

Be aware that at first, after you have launched your search engine campaign and done all the right things to increase your rankings, you will most likely see a continual upward climb. What you need to be on the lookout for is the moment that upward climb reaches a plateau. When this happens, your search engine position campaign moves into stage two, the monitoring and protecting stage.

In stage two, do not be concerned about the short-term fluctuations in your positions. These are similar to the subtle rising and falling of stocks in a portfolio. Short-term movement is an integral part of the whole process. It's the long-term changes that you must watch for and prepare to act on immediately.

Analyzing the long-term trends of search engines positions is imperative. The way in which search engines rank websites may change at the drop of hat. If you are unaware of these changes - many of which are subtle yet can be deadly to your ranking - your position may drop to the bottom of the list before you can get your bearings. To prevent this kind of precipitous drop, you must create a system to monitor your positions on a monthly basis. Devise a chart to keep tabs on your top ranking positions or your top pages, and make sure to watch "the market" closely.

Each search engine uses a formula to compute website rankings. When a search engine changes this formula in any way, it may raise or lower your ranking. Some search engines use a number of different formulas, rotating them so that a formula doesn't become overused or outdated. Depending on which formula is being applied, your search engine position may suddenly drop or rise in rank significantly. Therefore, you must check your positions frequently in order to catch when a search engine changes formulas and what effect it has on your positions.

You must also deal with your competition - a crucial factor you must always be vigilant about. Your competitor's position may suddenly rise, automatically lowering your position. Or their position may drop, pushing your position higher. Each month, expect position changes due to the continual changes that are occurring in your competitor's position, and be prepared to adjust your marketing strategy to compensate for decreased rankings. Monitoring these fluctuations will also give you vital information about how to improve your website to increase your position in search results.

Of course, you must discern what the most popular search engines are in order for your monitoring efforts to be effective. Right now, there are ten popular search engines that direct most of Internet traffic to your sites. The challenge you face is that these top ten may change from month to month.

This means that your must not only monitor your search engine positions, but you must also keep track of the ranking popularity of the search engines you are monitoring. Find out which search engines people use most frequently every month and be sure to live in the present! People are fickle about their favorite search engines, and it takes constant vigilance to follow their dalliances. The search engines they loved when you first launched your campaign may be old news in the next few months. You must adjust your list of engines according to the whims of the Internet users. Check out http://www.searchenginewatch.com for a current list of website favorites.

Another factor to monitor carefully is a sudden drop of your positions in all search engines. This is not the same as monthly fluctuations - this is a neon red warning sign! It could mean a number of different things.

It all your search engine positions have plummeted, it may indicate that search engines spiders - those sneaky programs that seek out your site and rank their positions - have found some type of problem with your website. If you have recently changed the code, for instance, the spider may become utterly confused and consequently drop your positions disastrously. If a spider creeps up on your website when it is down for adjustments or changes, you may actually disappear from a search engine index entirely. Or a search engine may drastically change its formula, and suddenly all of your website come up as irrelevant. If that search engine is a current favorite, it may create a domino effect, causing all of your position to drop in all search engines.

Some search engines rely on the results from other search engines, and it is vital that you know which engines these are and keep track of all the engines they influence. The biggest problem here is that search engines will sometimes change affiliations, and this can create a major shift in the geography of the Internet. For example, recently Yahoo decided to display only results gleaned from Google. So you must not only monitor your own positions, but you must keep abreast of seismic shifts in the landscape of the Internet as a whole.

Finally, pay attention to your keywords. Keywords are the foundation bricks of the entire search engine system, and they demand individual scrutiny in your monitoring efforts. If you have found that a number of your positions have plummeted, it may mean that a page of your website has become invisible or inaccessible to search engine spiders. Or the competition for that particular keyword or phrase has recently rocketed into outer space. In either case, you must act quickly and efficiently to regain lost ground.

Your search engine marketing campaign is an investment. If costs you time and money on a continual basis. Protect this investment as diligently as you would your financial portfolio. In the same way, track your positions from an objective perspective, and monitor your positions on a regular basis. Make sure your time and effort reap rewards by keeping your eye on the big picture - your long-term marketing campaign.

About the Author: Get The Best Business Ideas And Opportunities That Earn Money. http://www.money-earner.com | http://hermandias.blogspot.com
Tags: Search Engines, Seo, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Online Marketing, Able Net Design

Three Steps to Improved Search Engine Rankings

2006-02-01T12:10:00.000+08:00

One of today's hottest marketing buzz phrases is "Search Engine Optimization", or SEO. SEO is the process of configuring an organization's Web site in such a way that when a person goes to Google (or other search engine) and searches for keywords related to the organization, the search engine lists the organization's Web site within its search results in the highest possible position.

SEO can be a valuable promotional tactic within any Web site marketing strategy. However, SEO can also become time consuming because Google, Yahoo, and MSN (the big three) use sophisticated algorithms to index Web content. All three companies continually adjust their algorithms to provide users with the best search results. Therefore, you will need to continually test new techniques to achieve and maintain high rankings.

The AVS Group has researched and developed an SEO model that improves search engine rankings. This article highlights three tactics from our model you can use to improve your own rankings:

1. Select great keywords
2. Convert keywords into traffic
3. Link building

Tactic #1: Select Great Keywords

Your first priority should be to select great keywords that describe your organization and the content within your Web site. It might be tempting to save time by developing a list of keywords, some specific and others broad, and then applying all of them on every page throughout your Web site. However, you will achieve greater results by selecting 10 custom keywords or phrases for each page of content within your site. For example, select 10 keywords and use them exclusively on your home page, followed by 10 different keywords for each subsequent page of content.

When selecting keywords, avoid words that are broad or vague. Broad or vague keywords provide little benefit because likely too many other pages are currently indexed in the search engines using those keywords. To illustrate, let's use AVSGroup.com as an example. Open a new browser window and go to Google. Search on the term "Web Site Design". Look at the upper right corner where Google displays the number of pages currently indexed for the keywords. Google has already indexed about 22 million pages for "Web Site Design".

Instead of competing against 22 million pages for "Web Site Design", AVS chose to optimize a page of content for "Web Strategy Development". This phrase precisely describes one of AVS's Web services, and because fewer pages are indexed, there is a greater likelihood of achieving a high ranking. To illustrate, go back to Google. Search on "Web Strategy Development". Google has indexed 623 pages and AVSGroup.com is the number one ranked site.

Tactic #2: Convert Keywords into Traffic

Once you have selected great keywords, the keywords must be incorporated into the right locations within your Web site to drive more traffic. Some of the best places are within your site's page title, META description, and META keywords. Google, Yahoo, and MSN look for keywords in these locations to help properly index a site's content.

If you are unfamiliar with how to view a page title, open a new browser window and go to AVSGroup.com. The page title is the white text that appears inside the bar at the top left of your browser window.

Next in importance is the META description and META keywords. Both are used to describe the content found on a particular page. To locate the METAs, open a new browser window and go back to AVSGroup.com. Click on the "View" drop down menu within your Internet Explorer window. You will see several options including "View Source". Select "View Source". This will display the HTML used to create the AVSGroup.com home page. At the top of the page, you will see the META description and META keywords.

You will achieve the greatest success if you develop custom page titles, META descriptions, and META keywords for each page within your Web site using the keywords that you selected earlier.

Tactic #3: Link Building

Link building is an SEO term that means requesting other Webmasters to add a link to your Web site within their Web site. This usually takes place in two ways. Webmasters will sometimes add your link within their own site's content because your Web site could be a valuable resource to their site visitors. You can also encourage Webmasters to post your content onto their Web site provided they include a link to your Web site within the credits.

For the first example, open a new browser window and go to www.viroqua-wisconsin.com. Scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see a link that reads "Web site design and development by The AVS Group". This link provides AVSGroup.com with additional traffic if someone were to click the link, but more importantly, the link helps increase our "Page Rank". More on Page Rank later.

Next, open a new browser window and go back to Google. Search on the phrase "e-mail marketing tips". You should see a link that reads "Learn Successful E-mail Marketing Tips" (it might even be the number two ranked site). Click on this link and you will find a Web site that is featuring one of The AVS Group's Resources articles. This is an example of leveraging your Web site content by permitting other Webmasters to post it and provide a link back to your site. Scroll to the bottom of the article and you will see a link to AVSGroup.com.

Your link building activities increase what is known as, "Page Rank". Page Rank is a measure that Google uses to evaluate the relevancy of a Web site's content. If you have hundreds or even thousands of Web sites linking to your Web site using these two examples, Google will consider your Web site to be more relevant. You will earn a higher Page Rank score, resulting in improved search results for your Web site against sites that might even be optimized for the same keywords.

In closing, this article shared three key tactics within our SEO model that you can use to improve your search engine rankings. Because of the complexity of SEO, please let us know if you would like to learn more about our full SEO model. Our Web experts will demonstrate the various tactics within our model and discuss the results.

About the Author: The AVS Group is a marketing, training, and communications company. AVS is in La Crosse, Wisconsin. AVS helps clients communicate and market effectively. AVS can be found online at http://www.avsgroup.com.

Here at Able Net Design we pride our selves in the development of top quality online marketing techniques. Our latest Pay Per Click Advertising campaign will provide almost instant results.

Tags: SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing, internet-marketing, Able Net Design

Can Someone Please Define Internet Marketing

2006-01-31T13:10:00.000+08:00

Back in 1994 after you created a website for your business, marketing was fairly simple. Generally you would make changes to your HTML code for search engine optimization and for the most part promoted your website through offline methods. These may have included business cards, letterhead, print advertising and other such methods. Whether or not your site was listed on the only search engine, Yahoo, at the time was purely based on how well you optimized our web pages. If you did a good job then multiple pages of your site would be listed consecutively for a search.

Twelve years later in 2006 the entire perspective of marketing your site on the web has become a science requiring a degree. Although, we are all eager to market our website on the web we are somewhat unclear how to accomplish this task through a maze of policies set by the Big 3 search engines - Google, MSN and Yahoo. Most businesses would first seek out professional advice. In the process of seeking professional Internet Marketing advice, your story may look something like this.

"By now I had heard about pay-per-click, something called Ad Sense, link exchanges, banner advertising and it all sounds quite confusing. After all as a business owner, my forte is to run my company, not try and figure out how to market a website on the Internet. As I seek out professional advice I get quite a variety of different stories. One person calls themselves Internet marketer and the only thing they provide is Pay-Per-Click advertising campaigns. The next person I speak to also consider their business to be in Internet Marketing, yet the only service provided is Search Engine Optimization. Even that term was somewhat vaguely defined to me. I continue to hear about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but it seems to vary from changes to our website to advertising on the web. I am most definitely puzzled at this point. Can anyone describe what Internet Marketing is actually about?"

Advertising and Marketing has always been handled by professional firms that have college educated individuals and understand the difference between Advertising and Marketing. In case you are wondering, here are the definitions of Advertising and Marketing.

- Marketing is the process or technique of promotion, selling and distributing a product or service.

- Advertising is to make your product or service publicly known; an announcement to call public attention by emphasizing qualities to arouse a desire to purchase.

One of the primary issues of advertising and marketing on the Internet is that you may not necessarily reach someone educated in the field of advertising and marketing. Instead it is someone that has educated themselves about a particular area of Internet Marketing. For instance they may have specialized in Affiliate Marketing or Pay-Per-Click campaigns while another individual may know more about making changes to your website for search engine optimization. Currently these types of services are fragmented and they do require someone with the appropriate skills to manage an entire Internet marketing campaign.

If we take a look at all the different areas of Internet marketing you will find the following in your list:

Research, Analysis, Planning and Strategy
We need to research key phrases and look at the data to determine our title and description.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
I believe it is safe to say that SEO is not advertising on the web. SEO is strictly modifications to your HTML code and website. Making sure your website is HTML validated, density checks, the keywords, phrases, content, alt descriptions, anchor titles and so on are in place for the entire website.

Internet Marketing
This is the actual process of promotion as the definition of marketing was described earlier. Some would call this Natural Propagation Marketing, others will call it Organic marketing. With this form of marketing you can rest assured the shelf life of the efforts put forth can be measured in years.

Internet Advertising
Although, the shelf life of Internet advertising can be measured in seconds and can hemorrhage a business financially, there are three areas of Internet advertising. The first would be to utilize an Internet Advertising Network (IAN) to submit a variety of banners through out a variety of websites in order to narrow your advertising to an area with the most response. Another area is Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns such as Google Ad Sense or Yahoo Search Marketing. Lastly, you may consider direct advertising on websites that you have found to be of value to your business with high page ranking.

Management & Reporting
It is necessary to monitor all the various activities you are pursuing on the web. Internet marketing gives us the ability to measure almost all aspects of our advertising and marketing campaigns with the push of a button. You will want to keep an eye on your website statistics, check your Google page rank, your Alexa traffic ranking, and your link popularity overall to name a few.

If we consider all the various parts that are required for proper business Internet marketing, you will find the industry moving towards consolidation in the future. Equally, we will find that advertising and marketing on the web will eventually fall back to educated professionals who not only understand advertising and marketing, but will now include their education in Internet marketing as well.

About the Author: Melih Oztalay is the CEO of SmartFinds Internet Marketing. Internet marketing is not only about knowledge and experience, but also about imagination. Visit SmartFinds Internet Marketing.

Tags: Internet Marketing, internet-marketing, Marketing, Pay Per Click, pay-per-click, PPC, Able Net Design, SEO, Search Engine Optimization

If You Want To REALLY Promote Your Site, Here's How...

2006-01-30T16:10:00.000+08:00

Site promotion gimmicks and traffïc techniques come and go, but the ones that really work are those that stand the test of time. This article highlights what I consider to be the most effective methods to promote your web site of all time.

1. Get Your Site High In The Search Engines

Getting your site linked high in the search engines for your keywords and keyphrases.

One of the best ways to do this is to ensure your site has a good number of incoming links from quality sites - I discuss how to achieve this with relative ease below.

Also make sure that your site reflects the keywords/keyphrases that you are looking for - they should be in your title tag, your headline tags, and in your initial paragraphs. Don't however over do it, or it will look like "keyword stuffing" and you will do more damage than good - just make sure they are there in a natural fashion.

Don't aim for the most popular keywords, you will have a much harder time achieving success. Do some analysis using a tool such as WordTracker.com, and aim for keywords and keyphrases for which you have a fighting chance.

2. Create A Buzz

If your site offers something new and exciting, it creates a wow factor, and news about your site will spread far and wide with very little further effort on your part.

I stumbled on how effective this was myself almost by accident, when I created one of the very first popup generators online and added it to my first very amateurish web site. It was frëe for people to use, I did no promotion of it whatsoever, but people came from far and wide to use it, it was mentioned in many high profile ezines with large readerships, and it proved so successful that with some further development it turned into a piece of software that I still sell today on one of my sites.

3. Don't Waste Your Visitors

Every visitor that comes to your site is hard-earned - so don't 'waste' them. You want them to come back, to return time and time again. This will ensure your traffïc climbs over time, rather than remains static.

First, ensure your site doesn't scare them away. Make it easy to use, visually appealing, and treat critical emails that you may receive from visitors from time to time like gold - while not all criticisms are valid representations of how the majority of visitors see your site, some of these emails can help you turn your business around if you listen in a positive manner instead of react negatively and defensively.

Secondly, try to subscribe as many visitors as possible to a list, so that you can correspond with them time and time again. Sending them news about your site for example will keep them coming back.

4. Pay-Per-Click Engines

Bidding for keywords on PPCs like Google Adwords won't usually bring you large amounts of traffïc, but if you do it carefully, the traffïc it does bring you should be highly targeted and therefore very valuable.

The trick is to know your stats. Know exactly what your salës conversion rates are per keyword, and how much investmënt on each keyword is viable for you.

For example, let's say your site sells artist pencils:

- If you are bidding $0.30 for the keyword 'pencil', each sale of a box of pencils brings you $10 profït, but if only 1 in 100 clicks for the keyword 'pencil' brings you a sale, you are spending $30 for each sale of $10, which is losing you a large amount of money.

- However, if you are bidding $0.10 for the keyphrase 'artist pencils', and 1 in 25 buys from your site, you are spending $2.50 on each sale that brings you a profït of $10, which is a profitable investmënt - i.e. it brings you a net profït of $7.50 per sale.

Contact us now for more information about how we can setup and manage your pay per click advertising campaign. - Able Net Design

5. Strategic Linking

This can be one of the most important methods to generate traffïc over the long-term. Not only can you receive traffïc direct from the links, the more links there are, the higher your position will tend to be in the search engines.

In my opinion, I've nevër found reciprocal linking strategies particularly effective, i.e. you can spend a great deal of time building up single links to your site, and as they are reciprocal, they are not as effective as the non-reciprocal links that the search engines prefer. The fact is that search engines know about reciprocal linking strategies, and reciprocal links only tell the search engines that you have a reciprocal linking strategy, not that your site is an effective resource that other sites are willingly linking to in a more natural fashion.

The following two methods are in my opinion the most effective ways to build up links, and concentrating on these can repay dividends over the long-term:

a. Article Submissions

The idea here is that you write an article that other webmasters and publishers can freely reprint on their web sites. Other sites and publishers desperately need content - you simply provide it. The pay-off for you is that to reprint it, they have to include your resource box that contains a link to your web site, and in the majority of cases, the link will be of the valuable non-reciprocal kind.

By writing your article and then distributing it as widely as possible, you can end up with hundreds of incoming links to your site from other quality web sites. This can be the most effective site promotion strategy there is.

(For more detailed information on how to do this, you can subscribe to a frëe course at http://www.takanomi.com/publish-articles.php.

b. Your Own Affïliate Program

With an affïliate program, people link to your site and receive a commission on any salës that result from their referrals.

This provides a strong encouragement for others to provide links to your site - the trick is to ensure the affïliate link actually links direct to your domain and not through a third-party site, otherwise they will get the benefit from the link rather than you.

About The Author
Steve Shaw provides systems and software for effective e-marketing. His article distribution system can lead to hundreds of valuable incoming non-reciprocal links to your web site. Find out more at: SubmitYourArticle.com.

Tags: Promotion, Marketing, Online Marketing, Internet Marketing, internet-marketing, Able Net Design

Top 10 Tools to TurboCharge Your Marketing

2006-01-27T17:31:00.000+08:00

Most business owners hate the entire marketing process. I find marketing to be an energizing exercise to showcase my creativity, however, and enjoy it -- when I do it. However, I fall into the same trap as millïons of other small business owners -- I'm so busy with clients (my profit-generating days) that I often push aside my marketing (my business development days).

So, to aid me in my marketing efforts, I try and "get the most bang for the buck" out of what I actually end up doing -- and try to do that with a minimal amount of effort. These are 10 tools that I use in my marketing efforts that help me turbocharge my marketing:

1. Assessment Generator: Like to create an interactive survey or assessment that will help your visitor learn something about his/her life or business? With Assessment Generator, you can create online assessments that you can post to your website to increase your traffïc and attract more clients.

2. AudioAcrobat: AudioAcrobat makes audio streaming fast and simple, whether you want to add an audio greeting or audio testïmonials to your website or send out an audio postcard or record a teleclass.

3. Ezine Director: Ezine Director is a great service for creating, mailing and reporting back on the success of yournewsletter. I love to be able to see how many readers opened my newsletter, who opened the newsletter, and what links they clicked on from the newsletters. EzineDirector offers the service frëe of charge if you send out less than 249 emails per month.

4. FreeAudioConferencing.com: Ever need to meet with colleagues, associates or even family members at a distance but don't want to do it face-to-face? A teleconference bridge line can bring up to 100 people together at one place over a teleconference phöne line. You can also conduct classes and training this way. And best of all, it's frëe!

5. Google News Alerts: Need a quick way to find out who's talking about you online? Want to know on what sites your content might end up? Need to discover what your competitors are up to? Google Alerts let you type in an unlïmited number of search terms, like your name, your company name, your industry, the name of your competitors, etc. Google will then deliver an email alert for any mention of your search term online. This is a wonderful way to track your own PR as well as industry trends.

6. Kickstart Cart: Kickstart Cart is easy to use and setup, and offers the ability to create affïliate programs, follow up with prospective and current customers with autoresponders, create coupons for limited-time offers, as well as enable buyers to immediately download electronic purchases (ebooks, audio files). There is a frëe 30-day trial, but don't sign up until you have the time to test drive it--30 days goes by fast!

7. Press Release Distribution Services: A well-written press release about a new development in your company can earn you great amounts of frëe publicity, at little or nö cost! I use the services that distribute the releases at nö cost, and several of them offer a low-cost upgrade ($10-$30) to expand the reach of your release. To see the listing of the frëe services that I use, visit: http://www.onlinebizcoachingcompany.com/resources.htm.

8. Submit Your Article: If you've ever tried to manually submit your articles to article directories, you'll find it to be a time-consuming task. SubmitYourArticle.com automates this process by allowing you to submit up to four articles each month and then distributes the articles to hundreds of web sites, article directories and ezine publishers. I've just started using this service, and I'm already seeing results!

9. SalesLetter Generator: Need to create a quick one page website for a special program or product you're offering? I often need to do this, but need a bit of help in writing the content. Salesletter Generator asks you a series of questïons about what you're offering, and when you've answered the questïons, generates a one page salës letter in HTML that you can post immediately! It saves me lots of time and energy--much easier than trying to determine how to write this on my own!

10. Typepad: I've tried out several blogging software services, and Typepad is the one that I found to be both simple to use and powerful. You can set up as many blogs as you desire with a Pro account, and you can customize your blog in an infinite number of ways. You can also password-protect your blog and use it as a client-only portal to share info and files with your client base.

Marketing can be a chore, or it can be a creative process that ignites your business. See how these tools can help you turbocharge your marketing plan!

About The Author
Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed professionals make more profït in less time online. To sign up for more FR-E-E tips like these and claim your FR-E-E ebook, TurboCharge Your Productivity: 50 + Tools To Help You Automate Your Business and Make More Profït in Less Time Online!, visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizCoachingCompany.com .

Tags: Marketing, Advertising, Online Marketing, Internet Marketing, Able Net Design

Internet Promotion - Advantages And Disadvantages

2006-01-25T10:34:00.000+08:00

The emergence of globalise trade, increase in foreign investment and cross-border transactions have put many small businesses under pressure to find innovative ways to continue to market their products and services. This is especially difficult given that they often operate on tight marketing budgets.

In the quest for cheap marketing alternatives, these small businesses continue to use conventional marketing tools such as newspaper, magazine, radio and television advertisements, unaware of the advantages that Internet Promotion offers. All too often, these entrepreneurs focus on the disadvantages of Internet Promotion and fail to adequately take advantage of the opportunities that it presents. Moreover, their preoccupation with conventional marketing strategies is driven by a misconception that these are cheaper than Internet Promotion.

To most small business entrepreneurs, marketing or promoting their products or services via the Internet can be a daunting task. However, with adequate information small businesses can benefit significantly from Internet Promotion while minimising the disadvantages that it presents. In fact, it may prove to be the marketing strategy that generates the highest return on investment.

The Advantages

Cost Effective and Enduring Marketing Strategies:
The Internet has become the information superhighway for the buying public. Most persons prefer the hassle free transactions that Internet shopping can offer. As a result, the Internet has become the most powerful selling tool. Internet Promotion offers cost effective ways for small businesses to enhance their product or service distribution networks. For example, the use of portals can help create new marketing channels and logistics, or provide better or faster product access for customers.

In comparison to other forms of marketing, Internet Promotion presents the advantage of reduced budget and storage costs, when compared with printing brochures, producing television or radio advertisements or managing a call centre. It presents a fast and cost effective option for penetrating new markets.

Market Penetration:
With millions of person using the Internet to search for products and services, small businesses can penetrate other markets at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing methods.

Websites act as virtual storefronts, allowing businesses to stay open 24/7. Internet Promotion gives a business greater visibility, thereby creating more opportunities for increasing its customers at relatively low cost. Never before has it been easier for an upstart business to be able to reach out to literally millions of potential customers and to position themselves for success, without the need for costly infrastructure and overwhelming marketing costs. Thanks to the Internet, new businesses can become popular almost overnight.

Low Cost, Instant Communication:
Email makes business communications instant, whether the customer or business affiliate is across the street or across the globe. It makes it easier for customers to maintain contact and readily facilitates repeat purchasing. An effective online strategy can therefore turn a small web business into a virtual cost saver and income-generating machine. The net result is that the small business can gain significant competitive advantage in a given market.

Many online businesses have therefore resorted to the use of ezines, blogs, pop-up ads and other online marketing tools to let customers know about new products or services as well as provide information relevant to their respective industry. The benefits of this strategy are two fold. Marketers can effectively heighten brand awareness for relatively new products on the market whilst strengthening customer relationships, with shorter time frames.

Content is Timeless:
Internet Promotion also provides the advantage of being enduring. Whereas participation at a trade fair or conference loses sales impact, once it is over, and an advertisement in a newspaper or business magazine may quickly lose its sales generating value within a day or two or as soon as the next issue is released; Internet Promotion is often timeless. Apart from the dates and sometimes prices, much of your website content remains valid years after.

Real Time Statistics For Measuring Success of Promotion Campaign:
One of the most significant advantages of Internet Promotion is that its success is measurable. Marketers can use tools that provide real time statistics, on unique visitors, repeat visitors, click through rates (CTR) on advertisements, thereby allowing them to evaluate the effectiveness of a promotion campaign. This enables marketers to determine what works for their particular market and to make timely changes in their marketing strategies.

Time Saving:
Another important advantage of Internet Promotion is that it saves time since it generally does away with counselling on product uses and benefits, service information and sales administration. Visitors can access "frequently asked questions" to help themselves, and can buy online, without the involvement of staff. This saves time and money. So, whether 10 or 10,000 visitors visit the site, the increased cost is marginal whilst the savings can be immense.

But like any business approach, Internet Promotion is not without its risks and weaknesses.

Disadvantages

Difficulty in Attracting Customers:
Small business may not have the resources to pay for paid directory inclusion, pay per click inclusions and often have to rely solely on search engine optimisation or word of mouth to drive traffic to their sites. With millions of businesses selling the same product and services, competing with more established businesses can be frustrating and costly venture for small business.

On the other hand, larger companies can offer promotions, pay for directory inclusions, implement pay per click campaigns as well as employ the "who is who" in internet marketing to develop campaigns that generate traffic and leads.

Difficulty in Evaluating Legitimacy of Transaction:
Another notable disadvantage of doing promoting businesses online is that it may be difficult for the businesspersons and consumers to thoroughly evaluate the legitimacy of a transaction. Small businesses are particularly vulnerable to thieves using stolen credit cards and stolen information to do online transaction.

With Internet credit card and identity fraud on the rise, small businesses are forced to finance costly security measures to reduce their vulnerability to fraudulent transactions.

Salespersons and Customers are Isolated:
Another disadvantage of promotion via the Internet is that the customers and businesspersons are isolated. There is little personal contact between customer and salesperson prior to and after the sales is closed. Thus, the prospect for repeat sales may thus be diminished. Entrepreneurs are therefore compelled to adopt marketing strategies to drive online users back to their site.

From all indications, it appears that the advantages of Internet promotion, far exceed the disadvantages. With adequate knowledge, entrepreneur can benefit significantly from Internet promotion, especially small business owners.

More and more, the growth and outreach of the Internet's, its ease and accessibility for customers is becoming inevitable. Small business would therefore be well advised to start their web advertising function in order to improve their competitiveness online.

About the Author: Carla Lendor is an Internet Marketing and co-publisher of eXplosion! Visit Caricom Single Market Economy (CSME), Caribbean Vacations, Patant Consultants International.

Tags: Internet Marketing, internet-marketing, Marketing, Able Net Design

Marketing Optimization 101 for Blogs

2006-01-24T14:47:00.000+08:00

Truth be told, most blogs aren't really optimized for marketing effectiveness. Even more so, some blogs are absolute marketing machines, but they at the same time fail to fully capitalize on that fact by not being really optimized marketing-wise.

Blogs may be Web 2.0, but bloggers should not ignore some of the good old internet direct marketing tactics that have been working for marketers online almost for a decade or more.

Hëre are the absolute 101 basics you really shouldn't ignore ...

1. Don't Forget E-Mail Delivery

Bloggers are often abandoning or completely ignoring e-mail as a tool to deliver their content to their readers. As an RSS evangelist I certainly believe in using RSS to get your content to the world, but only as a supplement to e-mail delivery.

While RSS provides us with many unique benefits, it is yet to reach mainstream adoption. Until it does, marketers and publishers should not even consider abandoning e-mail delivery, or risk ignoring most of their potential readership.

If you're still wondering why you need e-mail, consider the potential you might be wasting without it. Someone visits your blog, likes the content and would like to be notified as new content of interest becomes available, and he does not know what RSS is or even care. If you fail to capture his e-mail address and consent at that exact moment, he might nevër again return to your site, either because he forgets about it or because dozens of other sites capture his interest even before the next day.

2. E-Zine Publishing Is Still A Must

Publishing a blog is not a replacement for an e-zine. If nothing else, publish a weekly or monthly e-zine of your top blog posts, available in a single easy-to-consume format.

Some simply do not have the time to watch your blog regularly and others will only want to receive a quick summary to get your best and most crucial content. Publishing an e-mail e-zine will do that for you, giving you the opportunïty to communicate with the widest possible long-term audience for your blog.

3. E-Mail And RSS Subscriptions

Providing e-mail (e-zine) and RSS subscriptions is important to the success of any blog. But neither of these will do you much good if your visitors don't actually see them and if you don't give them enough incentive to subscribe.

Foremost, display your e-mail e-zine and RSS subscription information at the top of your blog, instead of somewhere far down where no one will see them.

And second, use enticing copy to get visitors to subscribe. Briefly explain the benefits of subscribing, what kind of content they can expect to receive, and also do not forget about your privacy disclaimer, calming potential subscribers that you will nevër abuse their personal information.

4. Explain RSS

Most internet users still do not know what RSS is or how to use it, and consequently the RSS buttons on your blog mean absolutely nothing to them.

To overcome this problem, create a special RSS presentation page and link to it next to the RSS subscribe button. On that page explain:

- What RSS is
- How the visitor will benefit from using RSS
- Where they can get a frëe RSS aggregator (recommend one yourself!)
- How they can install it (provide step-by-step instructions)
- How they can subscribe to your RSS feeds
- Why they should subscribe to your own RSS feeds
- Then, on this same page, include the links to all of your RSS feeds.

5. Top Content

If you update your blog frequently, your less recent top content keeps being pushed down and down, where most of your blog readers will nevër bother to look for it.

Overcome this frequent blog problem by creating a list of your top posts, clearly displayed and available from each of your pages. Depending on the topic you cover, you might want to place these headlines as close to the top of your blog as possible, in order to quickly entice your new visitors to start reading the best of what you have to offer and then use this content to convert them to loyal readers and subscribers.

6. The Headline

The site or blog headline will tell your visitors what to expect from reading your blog and will answer their key question: "What's in it for me?"

Make sure that your blog headline gives this reason and a story inviting enough for your readers to keep reading.

7. Lead Your Visitors To Your MDA

MDA is the Most Desired Action you want your visitors to take on your site, ranging from a subscription to your e-zine to requesting more information about your services or ordering your product / getting more information about it.

Your blog will be of great help in this area, but only if you actually lead your visitors to this action. Putting this information in your menu simply is not enough.

Experiment putting some copy for your MDA directly below each blog post (on your permanent blog post archives pages) and also prominently in your left- or right-hand columns.

If you're providing multiple services or products, promote each of them next to the appropriate posts, based on post topics.

And yes, this is more important than having dozens of Google AdSense ads on your blog ... if you want to use your blog as part of your marketing mix.

8. Look Different

Blogs are usually not heavily designed and most of them look exactly the same. While light design is one of the positive sides of blogs, you should invest some effort in making your blog stand-out visually. Don't cram it with design, but still make sure it's different than every other blog in the market.

9. Use Your Own Domain

Having a subdomain.typepad.com type sub-domain might be the easiest choice, but don't forget that your domain name is your permanent online address and part of your online brand.

Consequently, invest a couple of dollars to get your own domain name, to enforce your brand, as well as making it easier for your readers to access your blog.

10. Don't Forget Your Keywords

What keywords do you want your content and blog to be found under in the search engines?

Don't forget to implement these keywords in the titles and body content of your blog posts. I'm not saying you should write your posts to please the search engines, but at least keep them in mind and use them when possible, without taking anything away from the actual content.

11. Interact With Your Readers

If you're blogging for business, don't forget about business oriented reader interaction.

Mainly, solicit questïons from your readers, pertaining to your field of expertise, and then respond to them via your blog. Post interesting client case studies. When you get a review, post it or link to it. And so on ...

12. Blog Specific Promotional Tactics 101

a] Intensively market your RSS feeds

b] Ping the search engines and directories after you update your blog, using a frëe service such as http://www.pingomatic.com.

13. Don't Forget About The Content

And of course, none of the above won't make any difference at all if you don't provide high-quality, interesting and frequent content.

These 13 points are of course only the most basic stuff, but enough to help you get on the marketing optimization train.

About The Author
Article by Rok Hrastnik. Find out immediately how you can power your online business with RSS and use it in all of your marketing. Request the frëe 28-page Business Case for RSS report, with easy-to-follow instructions, examples and advice on how to get the most out of RSS in the shortest possible time. Get the frëe download hëre: http://rssdiary.marketingstudies.net/case/index.html?src=sa20
Tags: blogs, Blog, Blogging, Marketing, Internet Marketing

How To :: Effective Link Building through Link Baiting

2006-01-23T14:48:00.000+08:00

There is a tactic out there embraced by bloggers but rarely used by typical websites. It is called Link Baiting.

In this article I explain what link baiting is and how everyone, not just bloggers, can use it to build quality links.

This is a topic that's been around for a while but I don't think a lot of people know what it is, or how to use it to their advantage.

I think the name "Link Baiting" could be considered a black hat technique which is why most people wouldn't consider it as a legitïmate organic tactic.

However link baiting is merely link building with a twist: Rather than hunting out links, you are bringing the links to you through unique and popular site content.

So how does Link Baiting work?

Link Baiting is just like fishing. You publish a new page on a topic (I'll cover those later) and set it free on the web. Hopefully others pick up on the content as fresh and interesting and link to it. The article is the bait, and the link is the catch.

A properly created page can capture huge links on its own with little to no effort from you.

For example, on another site, about a year ago, I wrote an article about the Florida Update. I spend the month or 2 after the initial update analyzing results and I then published my theory on what the update was.

That article has earned 88 links to date. And the best link, in my view, is a link from the ODP from the Google News category.

In fact my article appears in the top 10, and is linked to as a reference in many of the other top listings for a Google search for "Florida Update."

So what was so special about the article?

While I nevër intended for it to be link bait, it turns out it was a typical "hook" page. Performancing blog has a really good summary on link baiting which I will further explain here.

With link building there are essentially 5 types of "hooks" or pages built to encourage links. They are: News, Contrary, Attack, Resource and Humor.

A News hook is one where you report on industry news. But it's not just a rehashing of someone else's post. It should be unique – either a scoop that no one else has caught, or it could even be a summary of various viewpoints. A news hook could also be comprised of a story you have proved to be false.

Contrary hooks are when you contradict what someone else says. It should be someone prominent in the industry and it should be controversial.

For example, if I was to write an article that proclaimed that Danny Sullivan's latest theory was bunk, it would probably generate buzz. Especially if I could provide corroborating evidence backing up my assertion.

Recently Mike Grehan posted just such an article on Clickz in which he again pointed out that he doesn't believe in a Google Sandbox. He even refers to other posts in which the Sandbox has been beaten to death.

Soon after he posted this article (which, by the way was posted just one week ago) many other SEM's jumped on him purporting to have proof of the Sandbox.

And, if you use Yahoo's Site Explorer to look at who links to this article, you will see that Yahoo! Has already picked up on almost 80 links to this one article. I'd say that Mike has done a great job of link baiting!

Attack hooks take the contrary hooks a step further, by launching personal attacks on people taking the debunking of theories to the next level. The original post from SEOmoz was close to an attack hook, but after they edited it, it became less of an attack They reacted to the Mike Grehan article on the Sandbox with some haste and turned it personal. To their credït they did tone it down some, but it's pretty close to a flame. Who knows, maybe this article will be considered an attack on SEOmoz and will generate similar buzz.

A Resource hook is more of an informational page. It's one that aggregates a bunch of information and distills it for visitors.

In fact this site is much like that. We take a bunch of news, distill it to its most meaningful and then provide our interpretation of what it means. Then, others pick up on the article and either repost it, or at least link to it.

Finally is a Humour hook. With this link bait you post jokes, funny stories, weird or funny pictures that you've found or anything else that will warrant a review from others and hopefully a link.

There are tons of blogs devoted to this such as the Obscure Store & Reading Room and Small Town Misfit which scour the web for weird and funny stories and then display them, encouraging others to link to them.

And it must be working – Small Town Misfit has over 1,600 Yahoo! Links while Obscure Store has over 1,700.

So, if you were ever worried about the amount of link building you'd have to do to become an "authority", consider link baiting in your arsenal. It can be a very effective way of building links quickly and easily. Also, it's an effective way to build your reputation and brand online as more and more people learn about you through these links.

About The Author
Rob Sullivan is a SEO Consultant and Writer for Textlinkbrokers.com.

Tags: Linking, Link Building, Links

Monitoring Search Engine Positions

2006-01-20T10:19:00.000+08:00

About the Author: Get The Best Business Ideas And Opportunities That Earn Money. http://www.money-earner.com | http://hermandias.blogspot.com
Tags: SEO, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, Internet Marketing, internet-marketing, Able Net Design

Don't Waste Linking Opportunities By Misusing Link Exchanges

2006-01-19T15:59:00.000+08:00

Only a couple of years ago the 'Link Exchange' was quite new and an excellent place for savvy webmasters to exchange quality links with those who were like-minded. Many Link Exchanges, mostly based on the original few, have sprung up promising an unending stream of reciprocal links with as many sites as you dare dream. There's no problem with this however, they must be used correctly to be of much benefit.

Firstly, it's no great secret that the majority, if not all, who practice reciprocal linking do so in order to improve their PR (Google Page Rank), which in turn, can have a definite effect on one's rankings in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). The actual degree of this effect is anyone's guess as Google have always been extremely secretive about anything regarding the algorithms or components, which decide the SE ranking of any given website (or page for that matter).

PR alone will not do it for you, but I have seen too much evidence that it does definitely help your rankings when you have a 'good' PR provided that the links pointing to your site are from related websites (i.e. sites with similar content whose visitors would be interested in your site). An incoming link is seen as a recommendation or 'vote of confidence' from a website, so the higher the PR of the PAGE the link is from (not just the Home or Index page), the more weight the 'recommendation' from that website carries. So, the upshot is, PR is the reason, result and purpose behind webmasters spending so much time, money and resources building reciprocal and/or incoming links.

To make your efforts and costs more efficient, you need to ensure that you use the Link Exchanges correctly. When you don't, you waste so much time (and that of those you request links from) and you also blow your chance for a good, high PR link a little later down the track.

Most webmasters, when they first list with an Exchange, generally have either a low PR or none at all. Many then proceed to request links from as many sites as their membership allows. Sadly, far too many of them request links from websites, which are not related in the slightest way however, that's not why we're here today. I'd be "flogging a dead horse" if I took up that particular issue (again!). Simply, it seems to me there are still millions out there who, for some reason, think a link from a Lung Cancer website will assist their Poker/Gambling site in the SERPs or a link from a Diet website will help their Real Estate site! I can't understand the mentality...

But I digress (as is one of my faults), back to the issue at hand. Obviously, when requesting links from other sites, you need to take account of the PR issue, as it stands at that time. If you have no PR or a PR1, there is not much chance of being 'granted' a reciprocal link from a PR5 site or page. The problem is, if you request such a link while you're still in the 'low PR' bracket, that site will forever be listed as "requested but rejected", you don't get a second chance once your PR improves. So, six months later, when you have a PR4 (through much sensible and hard work), you can't ask again, the chance is gone.

When you are a PR1 or 2, only request links from sites with PR1, PR2 and maybe some PR3 pages. Don't waste you chance by trying to get high PR sites to link to you while you offer no benefit to them. What they are effectively doing by linking to sites that are much lower than themselves, is giving away some of their "PR Power" to you and getting nothing in return (actually a negative effect) from you.

By the same token, having said this, it's wise when you receive requests from sites that have a PR lower than yours that you don't ALWAYS disregard them. Take a look at the website, consider their Alexa traffic ranking, a good amount of traffic is an indication that the site owner is getting hits. Even if it's via Traffic Exchanges, it proves at least that they're serious about BUILDING their website to be a worthwhile resource and this, to me at least, means PR will come and when it does, you will already have your link from them. It's basically a 'term investment'.

Have a look at their Link pages and see if they are linking sensibly or stupidly. If they're using a 'Directory program', my advice is to give them a miss. They can't possibly be only linking with related content if they have a huge list of different website categories, can they? Simply, take into consideration the entire look and feel of the site. It doesn't take long and you'll be surprised how easily and accurately you'll be able to predict which ones will end up with higher PRs in the next Google 'update', from which you will benefit. It's also worth considering that if a website is banned, those sites that link reciprocally can be affected negatively by 'association'. Yes, it's true!

As with everything else, building a website is a long, continual and time-consuming endeavour, which happens slowly (contrary to what some SEO gurus or 'experts' promise). There are no short cuts, in fact, the Search Engines are now very aware of all the so-called 'tricks' and as far as linking is concerned, a large jump in the amount of incoming links over a short period, especially multiple links from higher PR sites could bring your site under suspicion of using 'unnatural' techniques, such as purchasing high PR links etc, which could get you banned but at best, certainly won't help your cause.

Patience is the key to achieving your website goals and if you don't have it, and are tempted to try the 'short-cuts' or go mad trying to collect as many links as possible from all and sundry, you'll end up much further behind, rather than progress with any great speed. It's true that your PR will increase with links from 'unrelated' sites but these unrelated links can only hurt your chances in the SERPs. Google themselves explain this in their info pages.

Always remember what the ORIGINAL purpose for linking was and why it was practiced and why incoming links were, and still are, valued by the Search Engines. A link from a related site is a 'vote of confidence' that they feel their visitors will benefit from your content and hence, evidence that your website is considered to be of value in a specific category. How can a recommendation from a totally unrelated website carry any weight at all? Of course, it can't and where these types of links exist, it smacks of 'linking to boost PR' without any thought given to the value of the website to the visitors (who are the Search Engine's customers).

This is why linking correctly is so important, even though the motivations have been perverted over recent years into a 'free for all' of link requests from unrelated sites, which frankly, are almost as annoying as spam to me.

About the Author
Stephen Brennan is the Executive Editor of The OnlinePlus Group and Author of the popular title The Affiliate Guide Book. The Group includes a versatile array of Internet products and information services including Buy Viagra Online-Plus.

Tags: Advertising, Marketing, Links, Linking, Link Building, Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing, Able Net Design

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