Webmaster Advice

Ero-Advertising Review...Getting Started

2009-06-18T19:52:00.000-07:00

Ero-Advertising Review 1:
Getting Started With Ero-Advertising.

After Google Adsense banned one of my celebrity blogs with a claim of inappropriate content, I had to look for other solutions. Since when does a celebrity photo blogs that may have ummm...a few paparazzi beach shots every now, constitutes getting banned? In the wake of that, I decided to publish a bit more racy content on the blog. Ero-Advertising is one of the options I came across. Ero-Advertising most certainly would not be an option for an all-ages site and would classify as an "Adult Publisher."

- The Sign-Up...Very easy and painless. Not much info is needed besides your name, email and address.

- The Payment Options: PayPal, EPassPorte and bank Transfers... I'm sold, I entered my PayPal email.

- The Ads... You have an option to create AdSpaces, which are either fixed advertisement spaces or you can set fixed price per period for advertisers to buy. The Types of Ad spaces are endless: Text Advertisements, Banner Advertisements, Video Advertisements and more, with numerous size options. This definitely was a plus for me.

- The Pay...I tested it out for 7 days on pages with low impressions, all fixed advertisement. I haven't had advertisers buy ads due to just setting that option today. Based on the clicks, which I've been getting between 01 to 03 cents per click. Money can definitely be made by placing ads on high traffic pages. Not to mention, when advertisers buy spaces, the earning can only get better.

I'm giving this a shot and I will have updates. I recommend trying Ero-Advertising for yourself.

Click Here to Try Ero-Advertising
Real Time Account Activation

Link Bucks: Getting Started... Is it a Scam?

2009-06-18T06:10:00.000-07:00

Link Bucks Review 1:
Getting Started With Link Bucks... Is it a Scam?

On my quest to generate some more cash for my websites and blogs, I came across Link Bucks. Their slogan "Make money when people leave your website!" caught my attention immediately. Why is that? Well seeing that link-exchanges and blogrolls are a major part of my websites and blogs, to cash in on exiting visitors seemed like a logical option. I honestly did not question if it was a scam, more-so than whether their implementation on my site would affect my regular visitors adversely, with annoying pop-under, and misleading redirects. Based on past experiences of exit pop ups, I questioned whether it would be worth it.

To my surprise, I was very happy with the flexibility Link Bucks gives to customize links. Three options are available: Creating a "Single Link," "Multiple Links" and a "Full Page Script." Which can be customized to your liking using an extremely user friendly dashboard. All three allows a webmaster to define Frequency Cap of redirects, (Which comes in handy for say, Picture galleries on your site), Target Options (to open the redirected link in another page).

Redirects are either Intermission Pages or a Top Banner, with 2 types of target ads...Clean which is safe for all ages, and Adult Ads...

"Intermission Ads" 1$/2000 clicks
"Top Banner Ads": 1$/4250 clicks
"Popup Ads": 1$/2500 clicks

So far I've been using Intermission Ads, and the CPM seems accurate, I will keep you posted.

Click the Link Below to give it a try...

Top 10 ways to make more money with Google Adsense

2007-08-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

Top 10 ways to make more money with Google Adsense

There are some simple tips that you can use to make more money from your websites. If you have an existing website, doing one or all of the following should results in an increase in your Adsense income, literally overnight:-

1. Build more pages
2. Change the standard Adsense link to match those on your site
3. Resist the tempation to change the "text" colour to anything other than black!
4. Don't have borders or coloured backgrounds, unless it matches your page (just put FFFFFF as your colour choice for the border)
5. Do choose a URL colour that doesn't stand out - grey or dark blue seem to work for some people
6. Opt out of the “onsite advertiser sign up” - all this does is place the words “Advertise on this site” on your pages, making it even more obvious that this is an advert and not part of the text. You can do this by going to “my account” and editing your subscription to this service.
7. Don't waste time with banner ads
8. Have more than one Adsense ad on each page - use the new text link adverts at the top of your site, a box ad near the top of your page and a further ad near the bottom of your page
9. Make the Adsense ads blend with your page, they should look as if they are part of the text.
10. Do sign up to free information from people (e.g. Michael Cheney and William Charlwood). They offer free courses to help promote their products, but this alone can be invaluable information.

This article was submitted by Jennifer Carter, author of Home Internet Businesses Blog

Jen started her own home internet businesses in 2005 and writes articles to share her experiences in building an online business. http://pr-gb.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=4612

Who Owns The Black Internet?

2007-08-06T14:34:00.000-07:00

One collection of high-profile African American-related domains is valued at over $20 million.

Columbus, OH - Who owns the Black internet? This is a seemingly easy question that anyone might be able to answer by simply doing a bit of research. But the implications of the question reach beyond simply a major corporation that might have under its umbrella a plethora of black owned websites or businesses at its beck and call. A much smaller and more far-reaching company has been buying up websites with the word “black” included in its domain address or some other term denoting its Afrocentric focus. This means that ownership falls into the hands of two black entrepreneurs.

Dante Lee and William Moss, founders of Diversity City Media and HBCU Connect - marketing firms that help companies target black consumers - have purchased a host of names (see list below) they hope will give them the edge on the Black internet.

For the past 8 years, Lee and Moss have been honing in on new names and established names to register or buyout. Their quest has already locked out numerous potential businesses from claiming the domain names. This strategic move ensures that black websites are owned and promoted by people of color.

Black internet real estate is an important commodity. Lee and Moss realized the value of these names and have now cornered the market. Their most recent acquisitions are HBCU.com, BlackSpeakers.com, BlackNovels.com, and BlackHistory.com, all of which are high profile domains. Their objective is to control how African Americans use the internet - basically, to ensure that the black experience is expressed from the black perspective, rather than through the lens of mainstream media.

Many of their high-profile domains, such as BlackNews.com, are already in use as popular online destinations. Others, such as BlackNovels.com are used to generate revenue through affiliate programs. They hold domains such as eDiversity.com for potential re-branding opportunities in the future.

Lee and Moss (who recently formed Lee Moss Media) both run companies that together generate over $1 million a year. Their plan is to build an empire that will create jobs and other opportunities for those in the African American community, allowing them to create a new empire for people of color.

"I know our companies are worth a lot, but these domains we own are worth even more," Lee says. "For instance, we own BlackNovels.com, AfricanAmericanNovels.com, StreetNovels.com, HipHopNovels.com, UrbanNovels.com, and StreetFiction.com. The street novel industry is quickly approaching the billion dollar mark, and one day someone will want to pay a lot for these domains."

Not only is the move a great way to reclaim the Black internet, but a strategic investment that allows Lee and Moss to decide who will be the voice of African Americans.

Below is a partial list of high-profile domains that they own:

Domains Currently In Use:
BlackNews.com
BlackPR.com
BlackJobs.com
BlackStudents.com
BlackExperts.com
BlackSpeakers.com
HBCU.com (currently branded as HBCUconnect.com)
BlackHistory.com (launching in September 2007)

Book-Related Domains:
BlackNovels.com
HipHopNovels.com
AfricanAmericanNovels.com
StreetNovels.com
StreetFiction.com
BlackBookReview.com
HispanicNovels.com

PR-Related Domains:
DiversityPR.com
MulticulturalPR.com
UrbanPR.com
GospelPR.com
HipHopPR.com
AfricanAmericanPR.com
EthnicPR.com
LatinoPR.com
MinorityPR.com
BlackPublicists.com
BlackPublicity.com
BlackPublicRelations.com
BlackPressReleases.com

Marketing-Related Domains:
AfricanAmericanMarketing.com
UrbanMarketing.com
HBCUmarkting.com
GLBTmarketing.com
eDiversity.com
eMulticultural.com
BlackHR.com

Consumer-Related Domains:
BlackConsumer.com
BlackConsumers.com
BlackBuyingPower.com

Education-Related Domains:
HBCU.com
HBCU.net
HBCU.TV

News-Related Domains:
BlackNews.com
BlackNews.net
BlackNews.org
BlackNews.TV
MinorityNews.com
HBCUnews.com

PRESS CONTACT:
Dante Lee
Diversity City Media
614-595-6063
dante@diversitycity.com
www.diversitycity.com

Domain names dominate Internet real estate

2007-08-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

BY EMILY PICKRELL | emily.pickrell@newsday.com
August 6, 2007 - NewsDay.com

It may surprise you to find out that the Brooklyn Bridge is indeed for sale, at least virtually.

A visit to brooklynbridge.org lists it as a domain address offered for sale in the virtual real estate market, available for an unspecified price.

Several Long Island addresses are also up for grabs.

Al Triolo of Commack owns LI.com and said he has received a $500,000 bid through broker Sedo.com, a domain name broker that lists li.com as its most desirable of the 8 million addresses in its portfolio.

What makes names valuable Although this may sound like a lot of cash for an online address, other two-letter domains have sold at six-digit price tags, including et.com for $225,000 and ol.com for $125,000, according to Domain Industry News Magazine.

"Two-letter domains are very, very valuable," said Jeremiah Johnston, chief operating officer of Sedo.com, who explained that domain names that are short and easy to remember tend to draw the highest prices. "People who have the real key, generic terms essentially own a valuable piece of real estate."

Desirable domain site names can translate into big business, and catchy geographic sites are high on the list of such addresses - such as huntington.com - because they easily attract new site visitors.

But don't assume that address has anything to do with the Town of Huntington.

Instead, a Midwestern bank, Huntington Bank, owns it - and there's little chance that will change.

"We are proud of our Web site," said Jeri Grier-Ball, a spokeswoman for Huntington Bancshares, Inc., of Columbus, Ohio. "Pelatiah Huntington established this bank in 1866, and we were among the first banks to launch online banking and an online site in 1996."

Geographic domains "are very popular in general," said Sedo's Johnston. "They're a fantastic domain name, because they are not capable of being trademarked. They are completely up for grabs."

Variations on a theme

Since the popularization of the Internet in the 1990s, individuals have been able to register domain addresses for a relatively small fee, typically about $8 a year, resulting in widespread investment in potentially desirable addresses, including community names and geographic locations.

In the 1990s, the state of New York recommended a standard for official town domain addresses, and although some towns adhered to the specifications, others registered shorter names. Huntington's official Web site can be found at town.huntington.ny.us, for example, while Islip's site is www.isliptown.org.

Huntington's address comes up in the fourth position on a Google search for "Huntington" and first place on a search for "Huntington, New York." Islip's address comes up second on a search for "Islip," right after a site dedicated to the Long Island MacArthur Airport in Islip.

"We used the standard state naming convention to register our domain name," said Joan Cergol, a spokeswoman for Huntington Supervisor Frank Petrone. "We've never found a reason to change it because we've never had a problem with people accessing our site."

Investors who bought up several names with the hopes of selling them at a profit "were very smart, because those are going to be very valuable," said David Reid, owner of NYLI Web Technologies Inc., a Bohemia company that offers domain registration. "As the Internet gets even bigger, those people are going to be happier and happier that they have that Web site name."

The domain of business

A number of related businesses, such as associatedcities .com, now promote this virtual real estate and assist domain site owners who have the rights to a particular city, such as newyorkcity.com, in promoting the value of the domain name through site construction and advertising.

Entrepreneurs still look for ways to build up value in new local real estate, such as a local businessman who is trying to promote the value of ".li" Web sites as a Long Island resource.

Some speculators hoped that local organizations might purchase location Web sites, said Moke McGowan, president of the Long Island Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"When Web sites first came out, there were individuals who bought up tons of URL names and held on to them in hopes of selling them to folks like ourselves," said McGowan.

Instead, the Long Island Convention and Visitors Bureau has looked for less expensive domain names that could be part of a larger marketing strategy, while still being quickly identifiable via a Web search. One example: discover longisland.com, which the board purchased for $300.

"We've never tried to register town names; there's no reason for us to do that," McGowan said. "It's not the domain name that's going to be the major attraction. The whole search engine optimization and key words are associated with a Web site, and that tells the search engine where to go."

As for Triolo, he says he's thinking long and hard about the offer.

"I bought li.com with the idea of developing a portal, but I never had the opportunity to develop that," said Triolo, who says he bought the domain about five years ago, but never developed a Web site with content, instead renting out space on the site to local advertisers.

"LI.com is the most wanted domain of the Sedo domain sites. I average about three to five offers a day for the site. If the offer comes that I'm happy with, I'm done."

MONDAY FOCUS

Getting a handle online

Official municipality sites on the Internet have the option of using domain suffixes for their Web sites:

".gov" - reserved exclusively for governments within the United States

".us" - once limited to governmental entities, has been opened up to U.S. citizens, residents or organizations or foreign entities with a presence in the United States.

Municipalities can also choose to use ".org" and ".com"

The World's First Domain Name Barter Trading Portal

2007-08-06T14:26:00.000-07:00

Online Domain Name Swapping Marketplace Launches on the 4th of July 2007.

Penang Island, Malaysia (PRWEB) July 24, 2007 -- Swapnames.com is the industry's free and safe marketplace for everyone to literally trade their domain names or websites in return for other, more valuable domain names.

With SwapNames, domain owners can now actively search out domains of interest, offer their own domains to swap, as well as receive swap offers from other domain owners. Additionally, the site acts as a domain name marketplace where users have the option of buying or selling valuable e-properties. All listings on SwapNames have both a fixed selling price and a trade value, which creates valuable exposure to easily market and sell or trade domains.

Presently, there are no open, 'free-for-all' marketplaces just for domain name barter trading. All other domain name marketplaces are either auction houses or 'for sale listing' sites. With the launch of SwapNames, the domain name industry now has its very own true-blue barter trading portal.

The idea for SwapNames was inspired by a man named Kyle MacDonald who traded one red paperclip for a different item, and continued trading his items until, 14 trades later, he owned a house. SwapNames' founder Koay Al Vin, after reading about the One Red Paperclip project, immediately related the idea to the hundreds of domain names he had invested in.

"Most of my lesser quality domain names could not be sold, and were left undeveloped and gathering 'digital dust'. I could not properly monetize the names, and renewal dates were drawing nearer!" said Koay. "Because of the circumstances, I had to actively search out fellow domain owners to barter trade my names with theirs. Today, every domainer in the same boat can actively 'trade-up' their domains and that is an extra alternative instead of just letting their domains expire," he added.

"I knew that this industry was really in need of a platform for people to swap their existing domains. Now, everyone can diversify their portfolio of domains the way Kyle MacDonald did, but this time it will be for virtual pieces of properties: domain names."

About SwapNames

Swapnames.com (http://www.swapnames.com) was founded by a Malaysian-based domain investor and entrepreneur, Koay Al Vin.

With a little help from a kind angel investor and some money made from a domain name sale, Koay hired a talented programming team from India to chase his vision. He dreams of a totally new marketplace where domain name 'trade-ups' could potentially be among the mainstream tools for domain investors.

SwapNames, Inc was incorporated in Delaware, USA and operates from a tiny, but beautiful, island in Malaysia called Penang.

One other virtual property founded also by Koay is DNHour.com (http://www.dnhour.com), another industry's first. It is a DIGG-style domain industry news portal.

Network Communications, Inc. Signs Multi-Year Adwords Deal with Google

2007-08-06T14:21:00.000-07:00

RISMEDIA, August 7, 2007 –Network Communications, Inc. (NCI), a publisher of printed and online real estate information, has announced a three-year partnership with Google to offer AdWords™ and other local products from Google to the real estate industry. The signed deal makes NCI the first company in the real estate marketplace that Google has partnered with in this way and will help drive more quality traffic to NCI advertisers’ sites, the company says.

“We are excited to offer our advertisers the opportunity to expand their online presence through Google AdWords,” says Glenn Goad, executive vice president, Consumer Strategy for NCI, Inc. “Real estate sources today have multiplied. The model for how consumers search for and sell homes continues to change and the Internet has been a driving force behind this evolution. Our partnership with Google allows us to provide even more highly effective and targeted online real estate marketing services and products to our customers.”

Goad adds, “NCI is committed to partnering with the most established, market-leading companies that strategically complement our current offerings. Google’s leadership in search and online advertising, combined with our leading real estate portal and expertise in local real estate advertising will deliver top online services to our advertisers.”

NCI offers its customers a wealth of real estate information, found both in print and online. The company distributes over 13 million magazines every month to consumers who are looking to buy, sell rent or renovate a home. NCI’s network of more than a dozen online distribution partners delivers more than 50 million unique visitors monthly. With over 20 established brands including The Real Estate Book, Apartment Finder, New Home Finder and Unique Homes, NCI is the number one provider of online and print real estate leads in North America.

Google AdWords is currently used by hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide to gain new customers in a cost-effective way. With the Google AdWords advertising program, NCI customers can advertise themselves on the top Web property in all major global markets. This gives businesses full control over their budgets, allowing them to stop or pause their campaign, monitor their spending or change their advertising messages at any time.

For more information, visit www.livingchoices.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Please send them to realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Two Logical Paths To Targeted Marketing: Google And Yahoo

2007-08-06T14:17:00.000-07:00

Yahoo (YHOO) has been attempting to move toward what some advertisers regard as the ultimate manifestation of marketing: ads tailored to the individual.

With the announcement of its SmartAds product, Yahoo is claiming that it can target narrower groups of individuals and target ads more directly to the characteristics of that group. By analyzing users' past web behavior combined with what a user is currently doing, Yahoo says it can more accurately determine the kinds of ads that a particular group of users should see. Yahoo's new technology will then cobble together the appropriate pieces to present a complete banner ad tailored to that group.

Google (GOOG) has chosen to pursue a different path and has announced that it does not intend to pursue behavioral targeting. It have opted instead to refine its flagship technology around search ads. The enhancement it's currently testing includes the previous search terms as well as the current search terms to determine what ads to show to users. This approach requires no knowledge of the user's past behavior on the web and uses only the user's current session.
internet money
The benefit of this new approach is based on the contention that a user will do several searches to research a subject area. By addressing ads to the "theme" the user is searching on, it is anticipated that the ads will be more relevant for that user.

Google has been working hard to maintain a consumer-friendly posture. This approach to ad targeting is being touted as preserving user privacy and to a great extent, it does. Clearly, it does much more to maintain user privacy than the recently announced policy of setting cookies to expire (the cookie announcement has been criticized in the blogosphere as not really accomplishing much).

Why the two approaches to targeted marketing?

Each company is playing to its strengths. Google is indisputably the dominant search engine. That has created a powerful revenue stream from search-related advertising. Continuously refining the technology behind search ads is a logical progression. Using the lessons learned in search advertising probably allows tuning of the AdSense process whereby ads are served based on the content of the pages where they are hosted.

Yahoo's strength is content; as opposed to Google, Yahoo has more traffic that comes for the content as opposed to search. Building a new strategy around configurable banner advertising makes more sense than trying to beat Google in search advertising. Because there is more variety of content around which to place ads, Yahoo can benefit from the new style of behavioral targeting as well as the old style of behavioral targeting where ads were placed on sites that expected traffic from users with specific interests (placing car ads on sites for car enthusiasts, for example). Meanwhile, the Panama technology for search advertising that Yahoo recently rolled out at least keeps them in the game though not on a par with Google.

With all these different methods of serving ads and all the visitors that they get, why can't Yahoo be more profitable?

With search ads, and by extension AdSense (both can be considered contextual advertising), Google just sticks to core functionality and grows market share and earnings.

Where would you put your money?

Disclosure: I have no positions in either Google or Yahoo.
http://blog.trade-radar.com

Google Tests New "Show More" & Related Words AdSense Units

2007-08-06T14:11:00.000-07:00

Google AdSense has been busy testing new AdSense units this weekend, with two new formats spotted in the wild.

The first comes via a DigitalPoint Forums thread, where dozens of publishers are noticing related words at the bottom of their normal AdSense units. Here is an image of one ad in action. Notice the related words at the bottom of the ad:

These resemble AdSense link units placed in the bottom of regular text ad units.

The second Google AdSense test is a "show more" link found at the bottom of Google ads. I found this at iBrowseHere.com , and here is a screen shot of it in action.

Clicking on the "Show More" link takes you to a new page with related ads.
http://searchengineland.com/070806-093307.php

Google's policies aid and promote the distribution of unrestricted libel across the Internet?

2007-08-04T12:32:00.000-07:00

Google: A Conduit of Harm
London, England 07/31/07 - "Google's policies, in effect, aid and promote the distribution of unrestricted libel right across the Internet. With individuals and companies alike suffering the consequences, dotWORLDS believes that immediate action needs to be taken to halt the damage that is being caused.

Brian Retkin Director of dotWORLDS asks whether such irresponsible and reckless behaviour is grounds for Google's exclusion from participation in the FCC Wireless auctions and whether Google should now be prevented from direct access to personal mobile phones?

Only yesterday in a shocking report shown on the British television program Panorama, Ms Rachel Whetstone of Google, during a rather unsympathetic interview about the plight of children threatened with violence, appeared to insist that it was everybody else's responsibility (except Google's) to monitor brutality, bullying and any other unlawful activity on Google's own websites. It seems the protection of the young does not get much of a rating on Ms Whetstone's or Google's list of priorities.

Unbelievably during the same program, Google's management were given clips of illegal activity that had been uploaded on to one of their websites "YouTube". Google's considered response was that the content - which showed children handling guns and attacking police cars - was acceptable subject matter and that furthermore, Google would neither remove nor delete it.

Says dotWORLDS, "In our own complaint against Google, we have for years tried to persuade them to act properly. However, there seems little incentive for Google or other search engines to clean up their act. At the end of the day, they are still raking in the "pay-per-click.

Of course Google are aware that any of the content they publish on their websites may be complete and utter nonsense, as is acknowledged in Section 14, subsection 2, part (c) of Google's own Terms of Service":

14.2 (c) In particular, Google, its Subsidiaries and Affiliates, and licensors do not represent or warrant to you that: any information obtained by you as a result of your use of the Services will be accurate or reliable

As well as the providing the ability to deliver intimidating and threatening "data" unchecked to almost anyone on the Internet, Google now want to send "data" directly to hundreds of millions of people directly to their mobile phones. Says dotWORLDS, "people are getting worried".

With around twice the amount of lobbyists in Washington as anybody else and with access to mind boggling amounts of funding, it seems that in matters of slander and defamation, Google is in danger of building a global conduit of harm that is unrivalled anywhere.

So the question is, should Google's plans for access to your personal mobile phone be brought to a halt until Google put their own house in order. Unfortunately whilst uncertainty persists, the damage spreads. Still, firms like dotWORLDS are continuing their fight to redress the balance.

Says dotWORLDS "If Google can't or won't monitor themselves, then eventually others will have do the job for them. The rules are already starting to change".

Internet domain names the new 21st century real estate

2007-08-04T12:30:00.000-07:00

The Associated Press

NEW YORK: Inside a midtown hotel, Larry Fischer is on his cell phone with a financial backer as his partner Ari Goldberger does quick research on a laptop computer.

They are bidding furiously at this auction of Internet domain names, with hopes of snagging megayachts.com. The duo won't be deterred. They want this name.

"$110,000 (€79,693), yes or no? Quick," Fischer barks at Eli, the investor at the end of the phone.

Someone else makes a bid for $120,000 (€86,938). Fischer and Goldberger up the ante, and then again.

Going once, going twice ... sold to Fischer and Goldberger for $150,000 (€108,672).

"You got it," a smiling Fischer tells Eli.

These are boom times in an estimated $2 billion (€1.45 billion) industry that involves the buying and selling of domain names. When people type the generic names into their Web browser's address field, sites that generate pay-per-click advertising revenue appear. Such "direct navigation" bypasses search engines.

"This industry is like the wild, wild West right now and people have no idea how fast it's growing," said Jerry Nolte, managing partner of Domainer's Magazine, a new trade publication devoted to this little-known world.

Some believe the industry's market value could reach $4 billion (€2.9 billion) by 2010 as people continue to purchase approximately 90,000 names a day and the number of domain registrars swells.

At the end of first quarter 2007, at least 128 million domain names had been registered worldwide, a 31 percent increase over the previous year, according to VeriSign Inc., which runs some of the core domain name directories for the Internet.

"It's not about words," said Monte Cahn, founder and CEO of Moniker.com, a company that specializes in domain asset management and held the Manhattan auction. "It's like real estate. This industry is only about a decade old. People looked at domain names as a commodity. It's a piece of real estate on the Web that can't be replaced. It's your stake in the ground, your stake in the Internet."

At the Manhattan auction, Fischer and Goldberger snatched up four names for more than $1.2 million (€870,000) and a fifth for a client, representing only a handful of the names sold for a total of $12.4 million (€9 million) during both the live and silent auction.

The auctions were held during a domain conference in June that attracts some of the biggest players in this niche business.

One name — creditcheck.com — went for $3 million (€2.2 million) but paled in comparison to the sale of sex.com, which sold for $12 million (€8.7 million) last year, according to Cahn, who knew the site's buyer and seller.

Fischer, 44, and Goldberger, 46, figured there was money to be made early.

Goldberger's entry into the business was unorthodox to say the least. In 1996, the Hearst Corp. sued him, alleging trademark infringement after Goldberger registered esqwire.com, which resembles one of the company's magazines.

The two sides eventually settled and Goldberger, a lawyer, was allowed to keep the name. Word got out that Goldberger knew something about the thorny legal issues involving Internet domain names and people began approaching him for advice.

Goldberger's fascination with the burgeoning industry was sealed.

"I was an entrepreneur strapped into this suit-and-tie job," Goldberger said. "Kind of a square peg in a round whole and this lawsuit just kind of changed everything for me."

He eventually left the respected Philadelphia law firm where he worked in 1997 and joined a small startup in Manhattan called mail.com, which was buying up domain names.

Goldberger began collaborating with Fischer in 2001, building their portfolio of domain names. Together, they became a formidable yet quirky team.

Two years later, they created a company called smartname.com, which they sold earlier this year. The company took names and provided content and links for owners, getting a cut of the advertising revenue. At one point, smartname.com represented 150 owners with about 150,000 domain names, generating 50 million unique visitors a month.

Most of the sites are lucrative for their advertising dollars. For example, megayachts.com isn't an actual yachting site, but it contains numerous ads and links for real yacht companies, boats and cruises. The owners of the site get paid each time a viewer clicks on one of those links.

Goldberger and Fischer declined to say how much money they make from pay-per-click advertising.

Bob Parsons, CEO and founder of domain registration company GoDaddy.com, says this type of business is fairly straightforward.

"They make their money in two ways," Parsons said. "One way is through the traffic they get and the other is the appreciation of the name."

Parson didn't think there was anything wrong with the practice as long as those involved weren't using names trademarked by others.

"Domain names are becoming 21st century real estate," Parsons said. "Just owning a domain name as an investment, I don't see a problem with that."

Anthony Malutta, a lawyer who specializes in trademark law at a San Francisco law firm, sees fewer trademark infringement cases thanks to improved laws.

"Trademark law involving domain laws is much clearer and much easier to understand," he said. "It's pretty clear that registering a domain name that corresponds to somebody's trademark is actionable. As to generics, they're just hoping to capture traffic. You're just counting on people typing in generic names instead of using a search engine like Google."

Malutta said domainers like Goldberger and Fischer are not "gaming the system" which in his opinion would mean registering domain names and then cybersquatting — driving revenue off somebody else's trademarked name like Coca-Cola.

Over the years, Goldberger and Fischer have sharpened their formula for acquiring domain names and developing the sites using a fairly simple template, relying on research, savvy and plenty of instinct.

"You either know it or don't by hearing the name," Fischer says.

They look for names that hit the "sweet spot" — short words that describe a high-value product or services related to it. Words that allow them to own a category such as bald.com and cardiology.com, two of the domain names they bought at the auction.

To help figure out a word's potential value, they see how many hits it will produce using Google. They also troll lists of names with domain registrations set to expire, enabling them to get a jump on buying it.

They don't bother with dot-nets or the others.

"Dot-com is king," Goldberger said. "Dot-net is worthless."

But there's a big divide between thinking of a good name and getting it. There's usually a chase, with Fischer trying to persuade owners to sell the names after he locates the owners unless it's up for auction.

"He's kind of like a rhinoceros," Goldberger says about Fischer. "He chases them up a tree and waits them out. He has patience and determination. You got to be aggressive. It's a tough game now. It's like the gold rush. The first guys did really well then it became more difficult."

And expensive. Five years ago, the duo could get a good name for $10,000 (€7,245). Now the minimum is more like $100,000 (€72,448) — as the auction proved. The cheapest name they bought at the auction was blogging.com for $135,000 (€97,805). Other names sold for considerably less like irishwhiskey.com ($8,000, €5,796) and Jewishdeli.com ($9,000, €6,520).

At the moment, Fischer, Goldberger and Eli are sitting on their names. They've recently turned down million-dollar offers for stocks.com and home.com.

But as white-hot as this business has been, it might not continue to mint millionaires.

"How long will this model last?" Malutta asked. "It's definitely a temporal piece of real estate. As technology evolves, maybe direct navigation will fall off the charts and there goes your property."

___

Associated Press investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York contributed to this report.

Useful Information on Registering Domain Names

2007-08-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

Written by EditorsChoice
Tuesday, 31 July 2007

Registering a domain name has become a very simple, common procedure. People all over the world from all kind of different countries register domain names for different purposes. So if you are also interested in registering a domain name, there are some things you should know before starting the entire procedure.

There are many aspects regarding the procedure of registering a domain name. Some domain names are available from some resources but some others aren’t yet on the market. Consequently, if you want to use a certain domain name you have no other choice but using the services of that domain name’s registrars. If you are wondering what a domain registrar is, you should know that they are being approved by the ICANN or the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The purpose of this organisation is to help people like you in getting a domain name.

The first thing you should know is the fact that nobody can access and change the leading data base of that domain name you are using. This is possible because InterNIC is dealing with the leading data base, together with the domain name registrars. In the end, the domain name registrars are in charge of everything when it comes to registering a domain name. And if you are wondering what the leading data base might be, here is the answer. The leading database is a database which contains the entire necessary documentation on all the domain names registered until the date you register too.

Another thing you should be aware of is the fact that some domain name registrars sometimes happen to be out of the list. It is most likely that these registrars are actually taking hold for registering a domain name and they are in the end reselling the domain name for the accredited domain name registrar.

But these kinds of registrars don’t do this registering thing for free. In most cases they state their fee for registering domain names. The price is actually a fee paid every year which is usually paid by the domain name holders and consumers. These domain name registrars are also offering some discounts for those who will register for longer than a year. The longest period of domain name registration is maximum 10 years.

In conclusion, registering domain names has become a very common thing to do. You just have to pay the fee and there you are: you have registered for a domain name!

For an established site to facilitate the buying and selling of domain names, domain name ownership , domain names trading just visit us.

Article Source: http://www.answer-site.com

Speculators Pile Into Brand New Domain Names

2007-08-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

It may be early days but it seems that some speculators have really bought into the idea of the newly released domain names. With top level domains like ".USA" and ".MUSIC" now available, there's a lot of choice as users can create almost anything they like.

August 3, 2007 (TransWorldNews)

dotWORLDS ISP (www.dotworlds.net) reports a sudden and massive uptake in registrations and now believes that this new surge can only be speculator led.

"Normally when users register domain names, they configure them immediately so they will resolve to websites. However, at the moment we are seeing a both individuals and companies simply parking large groups of domains, in combinations that may have potential in the future” says dotWORLDS.

Right now, dotWORLDS are offering all their domain names free, so other than the time involved there would seem to be no risk.. With catchy sounding names such as "www.sex.usa", "www.business.usa" and "www.my.world" already taken, there could be some interesting negotiations ahead.

Is this a winning combination? For those who have already registered, only time will tell.

About dotWORLDS.

dotWORLDS Ltd specializes in providing the widest range of fully personalized Internet domain names, email addresses, hosting plans and data storage - completely free - through its global infrastructure.

For further details, please see website www.dotworlds.net.

Domain name gold rush hits cyberland

2007-08-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

Carolyn Johnson
August 4, 2007

THE web addresses businesses and people online call home have spawned the equivalent of a real estate boom in the real world with speculators, appraisers, developers and brokers turning the names typed in navigation bars into hefty profits.

"It is a global, multibillion-dollar industry," says Peter Lamson, senior vice-president of NameMedia Inc's domain marketplace in Boston. "Customers need to find your doorstep. A brick-and-mortar business needs an attractive address, and it's no different online."

In the 1990s, speculators registered internet domain names on the cheap, often hoping to make a lucrative flip selling them to someone else.

When the tech bubble burst, many were left with little more than words.

But as money has flooded back into web businesses, online advertising has grown explosively, rising by nearly a third each year for the past three years. Domain names have become a hot investment.

"There's value there - a few of these companies think they're worth half a billion because they've got all this waterfront property," says Todd Dagres, co-founder of Spark Capital, which invests in media, technology and entertainment. "Right now, the stock's rising because we're in a fairly frothy market."

Backed by venture capital firms, NameMedia has raised $US100 million ($116 million) and owns 750,000 domain names as well as marketplaces where people can buy or sell names.

Internet Real Estate Group takes a luxury developer's approach to the domain names game. The company turns a select number of premium domains - site names that are instantly recognisable, such as jeans.com, chocolate.com, or software.com - into fully fledged internet businesses with content, ads and products for sale.

Taking another tack, Sedo.com, a German company, handles more than $US3 million of transactions every month, acting as a kind of eBay for domain names.

DN Journal, an online publication that follows the industry, has tracked five sales this year that topped $US1 million each - including porn.com and seniors.com.

"In real estate, if you built a building and were offered three times what you paid for it in a week, you'd be thrilled," said Mike "Zappy" Zapolin, a founder of the internet real estate group, Zapolin.

"A piece of virtual real estate, on the other hand, may cost a thousand or a million, but bring in 50 times greater return. It's like buying Madison Avenue 110 years ago."

The Boston Globe

Why Google is the service of choice for sploggers?

2007-07-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

GUARDIAN NEWS SERVICE
By Michael Pollitt

Spam bloggers are making cash from the search giant's AdSense - but they face opposition froma very determined man

What's the difference between WordPress.com and Google's Blogger? Both offer a free blog hosting service that's easy for first-time bloggers to use; you can set up your own blog in a matter of minutes. But if you're planning on setting up a spam blog - or "splog" - don't try your luck at WordPress. While Google's Blogger is sometimes described as a haven for splogs, with some estimates suggesting that three-quarters of the blogs there are just empty spam, WordPress.com keeps the tricksters out, with splogs estimated at just 1% of the total.

Splogs are about making money (Cashing in on fake blogs, November 17 2005, tinyurl.com/2t5frc) by unethical means. Their creators design spam blogs to achieve high search engine rankings by filling them with questionable or stolen content that is added automatically. Set up a few thousand splogs, use Google's AdSense ad-serving programme to line the pages of the blog with paid-for click-through adverts, and the money rolls in while polluting search results for everyone else.

There are probably millions of splogs, which are constantly being deleted by their hosting services. Technorati, which monitors 86m blogs, reckons between 3,000 and 7,000 splogs are created each day, peaking at 11,000 last December.

The spam-fuelled money-go-round works like this. Advertisers pay Google, Google pays its AdSense publishers, and some of the latter either create splogs or pay professional sploggers to do so. When users click on AdSense links, it encourages sploggers to create more splogs, and that makes for increasingly useless search engine results.

An anonymous American who calls himself "Splogfighter" (fightsplog.blogspot.com) has battled splogs on Blogger for two years by reporting them to Google. He has detected at least 1m splogs including, earlier this year, a splogger in charge of a record 265,000. His database contains details of 13m blogs; he has even created a visual method for watching when they're created (tinyurl.com/2k6xr3 and right).

"It used to be that a splog will have lots of links but almost all of them would be pointing to a web page on a single domain or to a single IP address. The newer splogs now contain a number of links that point to a large number of domains," says Splogfighter. "I think people are paying spammers to create these splogs so they can get traffic to their site, which ultimately translates to AdSense revenue."

Not every splogger wants to become a Mr Big. Splogfighter sees many sploggers with small numbers of splogs carrying AdSense adverts or links that point at "made for AdSense" sites - which only exist to carry advertisements. His dilemma is whether his time is better spent finding and reporting a thousand sploggers with 10 splogs each, or 10 sploggers with 1,000 splogs each.

"Then there are so-called professional sploggers. They generate large blocks of splogs with links that point to websites that are not owned by one individual. The number of these professional sploggers is pretty small but they tend to keep generating splogs indefinitely," he says.

"Google is making money every time someone clicks on an ad shown on splogs or on MFA [made for AdSense] sites that are linked from splogs. I have reported hundreds of AdSense accounts of sploggers, but very few had their AdSense account taken away."

Two months ago, Splogfighter saw the splog problem quadruple, although more recently, he says, Google has started to block and delete splogs in large numbers - leaving him optimistic but isolated. Google has contacted him only once, to offer lunch and a gift from the Google store.

"Google has been very much silent. There are times when I'm largely ignored. They do actually respond quickly to sploggers that create tens of thousands of splogs," says Splogfighter. "Google has more resources and engineering know-how to tackle this than me. This is more of a priority issue than a technical one."

And what is Google doing? Over the past month, we have contacted Google several times trying to find out how many blogs there are on Blogger, and how many splogs and AdSense accounts are terminated for abuse each month. But our questions have gone unanswered.

"We've always had a policy that publishers are not to create web pages specifically for ads, and we are actively enforcing this," says Google. What about Splogfighter's campaign against splogs on Blogger? "We can't comment on the issues raised by this site [Splogfighter]."

Why then does WordPress.com, which also offers free blog hosting, have so little trouble? In part, because Matt Mullenweg, WordPress's founder, makes cracking down on splogs one of his priorities.

"For WordPress.com, keeping splogs off the system is as much economics as anything else," says Mullenweg. "I like to think that the internet's perception of WordPress is better because we're vigilant against spammy content."

Users of WordPress.com are encouraged to report splogs. Says Mullenweg: "We respond within hours to any splog report, 24 hours a day."

There's another, perhaps essential, difference: WordPress.com doesn't allow AdSense ads. Might that be the reason why sploggers haven't prospered there?

Mullenweg plans to allow users to add Google's AdSense to their blogs. But will this open the floodgates to sploggers? "Part of the WordPress brand is high-quality blogs, and we're not going to do anything to damage that. We have an extraordinary number of really high-quality blogs, and some of them could do quite well with AdSense," says Mullenweg. "We plan to make it a paid upgrade, at least $15 (GBP7.45) a year per blog, and our policies on splogs or spammy content aren't going to change."

Another perspective on splogs comes from Jonathan Bailey, who runs Plagiarism Today (plagiarismtoday.com), a site about online plagiarism, content theft and copyright issues. Copying helps splogs multiply, thanks to programs that create Blogger-hosted splogs automatically and then fill them with relevant content stolen from the internet. While Bailey can advise how to limit this, finding the culprits is another matter.

"Chasing sploggers, generally, is not worth it. The software that these guys use can generate thousands of spam blogs an hour. Even the people who gave them the blog to use don't know who they really are," says Bailey.

Advertisers should also consider where their adverts are being presented, says Bailey: "If they find out that their adverts are being displayed on these junk sites they're not going to want to spend as much. Google, for better or worse, has its hand in every aspect of spam blogging. It finances them through AdSense, hosts them through Blogger and directs traffic to them via the search engine."

There is, Bailey believes, some pain ahead for Google: "These sites do make Google money and are not going to be done away with without both spending money to stop them, and losing at least some business."

Without figures from Google, how much pain there might be is frustratingly unknown. Other than Splogfighter's monthly data, there are no reliable figures available that put Google's splog problem into perspective. And that's badly needed to help clear - or damn - the company's name.

"It appears that Google's response boils down to 'trust us'. They, to date, have offered no real evidence of their efforts and, have kept all attempts to gather information at arm's length," says Bailey.

"This is in stark contrast to other search engines, like Microsoft, that have published papers on their spam-fighting techniques and seem to be taking pride in their efforts. Google could take a few simple, but harsh, steps and practically stop spam blogs on its Blogspot [Blogger] service; similar improvements could stop the abuse of AdSense."

Splogfighter continues to keep a close eye on the numbers, noting a recent monthly fall in his splog detections from 575,000 to 275,000 with cautious optimism. While he believes Google is deleting a lot of splogs, he's now going to ramp up data collection and test some new identification methods.

But as long as Google keeps quiet about the true extent of its splog problem, he could have a long battle ahead.

Earn More by Section Targeting Google Adsense

2007-07-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

Earn More by Section Targeting Google Adsense
By Rodney Goldston
July 26, 2007
(americanchronicle.com)

Ever wonder why the your Google Adsense ads don't make good sense at all. In this article I will teach you about section targeting to insure that your Google Ads match up with the content of your web pages.

What is section targeting?

Section targeting allows you to suggest sections of your text and HTML content that you'd like Google to emphasize or downplay when matching ads to your site's content.

By providing Google with your suggestions, you can assist them in improving your ad targeting. Only those familiar with HTML should attempt to implement section targeting. To implement section targeting, you'll need to add a set of special HTML comment tags to your code. These tags will mark the beginning and end of whichever section(s) you'd like to emphasize or de-emphasize for ad targeting.

The HTML tags to emphasize a page section take the following format:

You can also designate sections you'd like to have ignored by adding a (weight=ignore) to the starting tag:

With these tags added to your HTML code, your final code may look like the following:

This is the text of your webpage. Most of your content resides here.

You can use section targeting to make suggestions about as many sections of a page as you like. However, please be aware that results are not guaranteed, and that it may take up to 2 weeks before website crawlers take into account any changes you've made to your site.

In order to properly implement this feature, you'll need to include a significant amount of content within the section targeting tags. Including insufficient content may result in less relevant ads or PSAs. In addition, please keep in mind that this feature should only be used to emphasize significant sections of your site's relevant content. It is against Google's program policies to manipulate the ad targeting to result in ads that are not relevant to the content of your pages.
Rodney Goldston is an Entrepreneur, and Sales & Marketing expert with more than a decade of experience. Lucent Technologies, Subaru America, Great American Opportunities, and GMAC are just a few of the companies that have benefited from

Rodney's sales & marketing expertise.

He is the owner of the internet marketing website www.AskBigPapa.com which provides support for internet marketing entrepreneurs.

Rodney provides sales and marketing consulting services and can be reached via his websites AskBigPapa.com or RodneyGoldston.com

HTML Declaration

2007-07-27T01:19:00.000-07:00

So, You Want An HTML Declaration, Huh?
By Joe Burns

If you've made your way through the HTML Goodies site, then you probably have looked at the source of some of my documents. I know some of you are looking because every now and again, I get a letter asking what that strange, cryptic command right at the top stands for. If you don't know what I mean, this is the command:

That's a strange looking thing, huh? It's called an "HTML Declaration." Basically it's declaring what version of HTML the browser is to use when reading this document. It also tells the viewer, if they care to look. It's long, but rather easy to understand. Here's what it means:

!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC proclaims this is an HTML document type that can be read by public browsers.

-//W3C represents the HTML organization that denotes what HTML commands are to be used and what are not. You can visit their WWW page at http://www.w3.org and read about HTML until your brain is full.

//DTD HTML 3.2 stands for Document Type Description HyperText MarkUp Language (version) 3.2.

//EN means the document will be written in the English language.

If you were attempting to write HTML using the commands set aside in HTML 4.0, then you would change the header above from 3.2 to 4.0. Now, I'm not talking browsers here. I am talking version of HTML. Again, if you'd like to read about new and older versions of HTML and what makes them different, go to http://www.w3.org. 4.0 is out and there are reams of paper on what it will do.

My assumption is that once you read this, you will right away ask if you need to hurry and put the command on your pages. I don't have a good answer for you there. I knew that would come up so I contacted my brain trust of HTML people. One said yes, one said no, the other said to do it if you remember. Not exactly the consensus of answers I was looking for.
So, do you use it? Yes. I do on every page now. I started putting it on when I first learned about it. Some of my very early pages do not have the command and I'm in no real hurry to get it on them. Mainly because the pages use very early, and very basic, commands that do not belong to a higher version of HTML. Besides, if you do not have a declaration, I've been told the default is the highest HTML version. I would not be doing myself any good by altering the page.

I'll give you a couple rules of thumb that one of the HTML big-heads told me. If you're using META commands or plan to use HTML validators... use the declaration.

...and of course, any comments regarding the use of these commands will be cheerfully accepted. If you know something I don't, tell me. I'll post it if I feel others should know.

(html goodies)

Keep Your Website Search Friendly

2007-07-27T00:02:00.001-07:00

Keep Your Website Search Friendly

By Sharon Housley

So you have a fantastic website but no one ever visits. You may ask? Why? Your website should be designed with search engines in mind. Too many web designers are graphic artists that excel at image manipulation, but lack a basic understanding of search engine optimization. Web design and search engine optimization (SEO) should not be mutually exclusive. Webmasters should have a clear understanding of both design techniques and how the search engines work.

Incredible graphics on a website without any traffic, will do little to fill the coffers. Follow these basic guidelines to ensure that your website will be visited and attractive.

1. Navigation

Both humans and crawlers (search engines) need to be able to navigate your website. Avoid using technology that prohibits the search engine's ability to spider web pages. The majority of search engines have the ability to follow the links on a website if you use standard HTML. Observe normal convention and make the links obvious and available to all website visitors.

2. Easy to Read

Fonts should be legible and webmasters should utilize white space judiciously. Text on the web page should be easy to read.

3. Speed

Avoid using overly large graphics that are slow to load. Remember you only have mere seconds to capture the visitors attention, do not waste precious seconds with web pages that are slow to load. Search engines too will become impatient and give up on your website if it takes too long to view the content. As a result you should avoid using free hosting services that might be unreliable or slow to respond if you receive any web traffic surges.

4. Consistency

Your website should maintain a consistent look and feel. In other words, all the pages on the website should have a similar look, color scheme and navigation.

5. Above the Fold

The most important information on the your web page should appear above the "fold". This means that the website visitor should be able to view the most important content without having to use the scroll bar.

6. Contact Information

Include corporate contact information on the website. This lends your company credibility, anyone can pretend to be anyone or anything. Including contact information on a website shows that you are a serious and legitimate business entity.

7. Avoid Javascript /Ajax

Javascript and Ajax are cool, but they are not search friendly. It is best to stick with good old HTML. Search engines at this point are unable to spider the website contents that are displayed using Javascript. This is also true of websites that are dynamically updated with Ajax. Chances are the body of your website will help your website rank well; do not waste the search engine opportunity by using Javascript or Ajax.

8. Meta Data Matters

Each and every web page on the website should contain a unique title and description. Many search engines extract meta data from the website header and use it to classify and categorize the web pages listing. The web page title and description should relate to the webpage contents.

9. Keywords Naturally

Use website keywords and keyword phrases in the web copy in a natural way. Search engines are starting to discern unnatural text, machine generated content and content that is cobbled together by a bot. Write your website's content for humans not search engines.

10. Web Page Focus

Each web page on a website should focus on one or two keywords or keyword phrases, no more no less. The keywords should be incorporated into the meta tags, and web copy.

An optimized website can bring search traffic and visitors who have a natural interest in your product or service. Optimization should be part of the design process. Before hiring a web designer make sure they understand both your design needs and search engine optimization.

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com audio recording and editing software.

Web U: Get More Bang for Your SEO Buck

2007-07-26T23:57:00.000-07:00

OMMA Magazine
High traffic is no longer a satisfactory measure of success

For first few years of my search engine optimization life, I preached the tenet that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. In essence, I saw my job in SEO to be very clearly defined: If you do what I tell you to do, you will enjoy great search engine rankings and lots of great targeted free traffic. What's that, you say? Your conversion rate is terrible? All this new traffic doesn't equal new revenue? Converting the traffic into revenue was the client's responsibility, not mine. If a Web site wasn't conducive to conversion or the user had trouble using the shopping cart, I wasn't responsible. I was just the SEO guy, right?

But now, that particular paradigm is outdated. You can be the world's greatest at SEO, but if your clients aren't getting a decent return on investment from what they spend on you, I almost guarantee they won't renew for year two. Not only are you doing your clients a disservice, but you're tarnishing the reputation of yourself and your agency, not to mention losing future revenue.

I propose that we redefine SEO. Rather than merely driving relevant traffic, I think SEO should be the practice of generating and converting organic search engine traffic, measuring it by raw traffic, ranking numbers, conversion rate, and new revenue year over year.

In other words, we need to lead the horse to water and convince him he's thirsty.

One possibility is to use a multivariate approach in hopes of creating a more fully - optimized shopping experience for natural traffic. If you're not familiar with multivariate testing, think of it as a/b split testing on steroids. With multivariate testing, you can define as many elements on a page as you'd like and rotate as many different creatives in those slots as you like. A good multivariate tool will load up every conceivable combination of those elements, gather the data over a set time period and report back to you on which combination converted the best.

For example, did you ever notice how most brand traffic lands on your home page? Even product terms that contain branded verbiage often get a home page ranking ahead of a product page. Most home pages are pretty generic and usually run creative speaking to a straight brand message or weekly deal. How do you refine that on the fly to positively impact conversion? With a good multivariate tool, it's relatively simple.

Some tools have the ability to recognize a search engine referral and identify the search term to define the creative displayed in the marketing modules on the home page. SEO managers then populate the "hero image" with a product related to the search and then load the complimentary products into the secondary marketing modules. The test also can involve different hero creative.

For example, if a buyer lands on the home page after a search for headphones, the SEO agency can then analyze the effectiveness of three possible hero images: a guy wearing headphones, a girl wearing headphones and some headphones by themselves. All three images are loaded into the tool. After a couple of weeks, we have hard data telling us what combination or technique was most successful in converting natural search traffic into buyers.

As the search world becomes increasingly more complex, SEO agencies can no longer point to large traffic numbers to justify pay checks and consulting fees. We need to address the business of conversion and revenue, and multivariate testing is an excellent way to see how much bang you're getting for your SEO budget. By adapting to this new SEO milieu, our campaigns will be more streamlined than ever. Look into multivariate testing, and start holding your SEO agency or consultant to specific success criteria, beyond just raw natural search referrals.

Todd Friesen is director of search engine optimization, Range Online Media, and a monthly columnist for OMMA magazine. (todd@rangeonlinemedia.com)

Online Newspaper Web Site Traffic Up

2007-07-26T23:54:00.000-07:00

Online Newspaper Web Site Traffic Up
JULY 27, 2007

An average of 37.3% of all active US Internet users visited newspaper Web sites during the second quarter of 2007, according to Nielsen//NetRatings analysis conducted for the Newspaper Association of America. That is up 7.7% over the same period a year ago, and it is a record high.

Newspaper Web site visitors also generated nearly 2.7 billion page views per month during the quarter.

More than 60 million people visited newspaper Web sites during May 2007 alone, up 6.7% over May 2006.

Time spent at newspaper Web sites increased as well, to 7.2 billion total minutes during the quarter.
emarketer.com

Making Money Online And The Scams

2007-07-21T15:32:00.000-07:00

Written by Joel Teo
Thursday, 19 July 2007

Making money online is possible, but finding a way that works for you can be very confusing, frustrating, time consuming, and sometimes expensive. There are a lot of legitimate money making sites out there, but there are also a lot of scams that are just trying to get rich at your expense. There are a few ways to spot the scams, so you do not end up wasting any time or money on these.

There are a lot of websites out there who offer to show you how to make money online, but they want you to pay them for it. This is one of the most common scams. What these sites are selling is information, which in this modern day and age you can get for free right off the Internet. These sites have usually compiled a list of related sites which may also require money. It is a big waste of money to pay for this information when you do not have to.

Another common scam is an e-mail which asks you to be a representative for a company that doesn't have a office in the United States. This e-mail offers to give you the position and all you have to do is cash money orders or checks from customers in the United States who will make them out in your name. This is a huge scam, and the checks or money orders are either stolen or they are copies which are not valid. Once you cash these through your bank and send out the balance after your fee, the thing bounces and you are on the hook for the whole amount. This can lead to serious legal and financial trouble, so it is a good idea to stay away from any venture that requires you to cash checks or money orders and turn over part of the proceeds.

Another scam in making money on the Internet are websites and companies that guarantee you will make hundreds of dollars by taking online surveys, but want you to sign up for products and services. These are not actually paid surveys, it is simply a pay to sign up type of program, and these sometimes require a credit card. Legitimate paid survey companies pay you for your opinions, not to sign up for products and services.

You can avoid some of the most common scams concerning making money online if you follow a few rules. Legitimate paid survey companies pay you, and they never ask you to have a credit card or to pay for something. If someone wants you to cash financial documents and send them part of the funds, stay away and do not cash anything. If you receive any of these documents through the mail then turn them in to the postal inspector. And never pay for information that you can find for free online. Spending a little time can help you save money as well as make money online.

Copyright © 2007 Joel Teo. All rights reserved.

Make Money Online With Domain Names

2007-07-21T15:28:00.000-07:00

Make Money Online With Domain Names
Written by Joel Teo
Friday, 20 July 2007

Domain names have become a very popular way to make money online, and some of these names may go for quite a profit. When the Internet first became popular, there were some people who had the foresight to buy the rights to some domain names that are very sought after. A domain name becomes
public if the website owner forgets to renew the name with the provider, so it becomes a public domain name. These public domain names are available for purchase or lease.

Some investors will snatch up domain names when they become available, and then resell or lease the domain name to a website to be used for redirecting traffic to that site. The investor makes money and the website that gets the rights to the domain name can increase their traffic considerably. This process requires you to get the rights to use the domain name, and then sell it to a competing business which offers the same products or services.

There is also a market for domain names with the original owner who let the domain name lapse, most of the time because of simple forgetfullness. A lot of times these owners have invested considerable time, effort, and money into their website, so they are more than willing to pay to keep it. These owners will usually buy the domain name back from you if given a chance, sometimes at a large profit.

A third way to make money online with domain names is to buy up generic domain names that contain certain industry ketwords, and then offer to sell them within that industry to redirect traffic to the buyer's main website. The generic keywords will vary from industry to industry, so finding out the best keywords for the industry you are targeting is a good idea with this method. Generic domain names like horsecare.com, or accountingnow.com will have interested buyers in these industries, so finding one is just a matter of marketing your service to find the buyers.

Making money online with domain names can be a very lucrative source of income if it is done properly. Public domain names become available constantly, mostly because of a negligence to renew them. The three main markets for domain names include buyers who wish to use the domain name to redirect traffic to their own website, buyers who have lost the domain name because they forgot to renew it and have spent a lot to create the site, so they are willing to pay to regain the domain name, and domain names that contain industry specific generic keywords.

You can also make money with domain names by gathering up generic domain names that contain buzz words within an industry and offering them to the highest bidder to be redirected toward a main site. As an example, if you had control of a URL like "conferencecallnow.com" chances are you would find interest on the part of a number of the teleconferencing companies around the world. It is relatively easy to make money selling domain names that are generic but still apply to a particular service offering.

To make money with domain names, you have to have an eye for what will resell in a reasonable amount of time, understand what the market will bear, and have plenty of answers to the question "how can I make money with a domain name?" Any speculator who can do this will know exactly how to make money from public domain names.

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More Than $680,000 in Premium Domain Names Sold During the Affiliate Summit East Domain Name Auctions

2007-07-21T15:25:00.000-07:00

POMPANO BEACH, Fla., July 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Moniker, the first and only provider of Domain Asset Management(TM) services, today announced that it sold more than U.S. $680,000 in premium domain names during its inaugural Live and online Silent domain name auctions at the Affiliate Summit East at the Hotel Intercontinental, Miami.

Moniker has pioneered the domain name auction, hosting over 10 Live and Silent auctions since 2004 selling nearly $40 million worth of domains combined at past events.

The Live Auction took place during the Summit on July 9; the concurrent online Silent Auction closed July 17. The combined events sold over 150 domain names. Top sales included:

Passover.com $100,000 (Silent Auction) Pay.mobi $50,000 (Silent Auction) FileCabinet.com $47,060 (Silent Auction) BadBoys.com $45,000 (Live Auction) PrescriptionMedication.com $40,000 (Live Auction) AffiliateDirectory.com $30,000 (Live Auction) Sitcoms.com $25,000 (Live Auction)

"This was the first time that we brought a domain name auction to Affiliate Summit and were pleased that we were able to inform a new group of buyers about the benefits of domains and online assets for their businesses," said Monte Cahn, co-founder and CEO of Moniker.com. "Like other verticals, we expect the demand for domains within the affiliate market to grow considerably in the near term."

"We are delighted to see the Affiliate Summit savvy entrepreneurs pick up on some great domain names. Affiliate marketers know the value of virtual real-estate and are looking forward to attending future auctions at our upcoming events," said Missy Ward, Affiliate Summit Co-Founder.

The Moniker domain name auction at the Affiliate Summit East allowed online affiliate marketers to understand the tools, such as domain names, that will allow their business to prosper in the future.

"From direct navigation via generic domain names to increasing your site page rank, domain names provide savvy online marketers with a way to purchase the direct source of traffic," Cahn noted. "Individuals who purchased domains at this auction have established a foundation for future web growth online."

Mark Your Calendar: Upcoming Domain Name Auctions

Moniker is also hosting a variety of domain name auctions at industry events and conferences around the country. Upcoming events include:

Event Date Location Internext August 3-5, 2007 Hollywood, Fla. T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami October 8-12, 2007 Miami Associated Cities GeoDomain Expo November 15-17, 2007 San Francisco Casino Affiliate Convention November 28-29, 2007 Macau, China WebmasterWorld December 4-7, 2007 Las Vegas

Individuals interested in submitting domain names for the auctions at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami should contact sales@moniker.com or 800-688-6311. The deadline for submitting domains for consideration is Wednesday, August 1.

Official auction dates, rules and procedures for all Moniker Live and Silent Auctions - including Affiliate Summit East, Internext and T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami - can be found by visiting http://www.moniker.com/auction.

About Moniker

Moniker is the first and only provider of Domain Asset Management(TM), a complete set of business services that provide companies a single-point-of- access to help manage and maximize the value of their domains. These services include name creation, registration, acquisition, portfolio management, appraisal and escrow services, traffic monetization and after-market sales - all backed by unsurpassed customer service and security.

With more than a decade of experience, Moniker is a top 10 domain registrar, holds the industry's highest customer retention rate and pioneered the industry's first domain appraisal formula. It is considered the industry's premier marketplace to buy and sell domain names.

Customers include savvy investors, Web entrepreneurs and forward-thinking global companies, including Marchex, Nokta, Future Media Architects, AOL, Yahoo, the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, Lions Gate Films, Bank of America, Microsoft, Jupitermedia, Geosigns, Mainstream Advertising and many others.

Moniker, with headquarters in Pompano Beach, Florida, is an operating unit of Seevast Corporation, a company of marketing services firms that drive sales, build brands and leverage core assets for their clients. Moniker

CONTACT: Erin E. Burke, +1-212-367-6837, erin.burke@eurorscg.com, for
Moniker

Fasthosts Experiences Downtime

2007-07-21T15:22:00.000-07:00

Fasthosts Experiences Downtime
July 19, 2007 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Web analytics firm Netcraft (netcraft.com) announced on Thursday that UK Web hosting provider Fasthosts Internet (fasthosts.co.uk) suffered extended downtime on Monday night due to an electrical problem.

According to reports, Fasthosts told customers that the outage resulted from a problem in the electrical equipment that distributes power to the servers. While there was no fire, a fire alarm was triggered, which in some scenarios can prompt staff to cut power to parts of the data center for safety reasons, says Netcraft.

Fasthosts, which was bought last year by 1&1 Internet, hosts more than 605,000 Web sites, making it one of the UK's top three Web hosting operations.

Last week, Netcraft announced the results of its July 2007 survey, which received responses from 125,626,329 sites, an increase of 3.62 million sites from the June survey.

The Web Host Industry Week in Review

2007-07-21T15:18:00.000-07:00

The Web Host Industry Week in Review
By Liam Eagle, theWHIR.com
July 20, 2007 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- This week's Web hosting news hit all the high notes, with some significant acquisition activity, the launch of several new facilities and even a major award handed out by a hosting superpower

On Wednesday, disaster recovery solution provider SunGard announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire managed hosting and colocation provider VeriCenter, which will become part of the SunGard Availability Services package. By acquiring VeriCenter, SunGard says it is increasing economies of scale and broadening its service offerings to include more dedicated and shared resources for specific customer needs. The VeriCenter products complement SunGard's offerings that maximize the availability of networks, systems, data and applications.

Late last week UK Web hosting provider Pipex Communications reported that it had entered an agreement to sell its consumer broadband and voice subsidiaries to IP transit provider Tiscali for approximately £210 million. The subsidiaries changing hands include Switch2 Telecoms, Pipex Homecall, Toucan Residential, Pipex Internet and Toucan Residential Ireland. Following the sale, Pipex's business will be focused on three divisions, including Web Hosting, business services and Pipex wireless.

And on a somewhat smaller scale, Web hosting provider Weberz said Monday it had completed the acquisition of UK hosting provider Relio Hosting, which has been offering shared and reseller hosting based on H-Sphere since 2002. A long time partner, says Weberz, Relio will fit nicely into the Weberz network.

While several hosting providers added by acquisition this week, others announced growth from the construction side, expanding their footprints through building facilities.

Dedicated server host SoftLayer Technologies announced on Wednesday that it had added facilities and office space, building a 6,000 square-foot network operations center in Dallas, Texas. In addition to the NOC, which began operations on July 1, the company is also expanding its corporate headquarters by 20,000 square feet and adding capacity for 12,000 additional dedicated servers to its existing data center.

On Friday, content delivery network operator Internap Network Services announced that it had completed an expansion to its origin point of presence in London, England, improving on its ability to provide content delivery service on a global scale. The build-out adds capacity and redundancy to the company's services. The London POP is the first of three major expansions the company announced in April.

And along with all the expansion, one Web host saw a high-level recognition of its services this week as Rackspace Managed Hosting was named 2007 Worldwide Hosting Service Provider of the year by Microsoft. Rackspace says this is the third time in the last six years it has won the partner of the year award. Its most significant move as a partner this year, says the company, was the global launch of managed Microsoft Exchange, which the company offers as a simple, scalable managed solution.

Also this week, Rackspace announced that it had added two executives to its management team. The company named Frederick Mendler vice president of Fanatical Support for its managed hosting division. And Klee Kleber will serve as vice president of worldwide marketing. Mendler has been with Rackspace for more than four years. Kleber spent 10 years in marketing positions with Dell.

Most of the big stories in this week's news were fairly self contained, and promised no obvious spillover into future news. But next week's big stories should be easy enough to predict, as much of theWHIR's attention will be focused on the goings-on at HotsingCon 2007, where it is already assured that at least a few major announcements are planned.

Tutorial: Types of Web hosting services

2007-07-20T00:13:00.000-07:00

Tutorial: Types of Web hosting services

* Free web hosting service: is free, (sometimes) advertisement-supported web hosting, and is often limited when compared to paid hosting.

* Shared web hosting service: one's Web site is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. A shared website may be hosted with a reseller.

* Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a provider. Resellers' accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a colocated server.

* Virtual Dedicated Server: slicing up a server into virtual servers. each user feels like they're on their own dedicated server, but they're actually sharing a server with many other users. The users may have root access to their own virtual space.

* Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for Dedicated plans. The user has full administrative access to the box, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.

* Managed hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, they are allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management tools. The user is disallowed full control so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user the modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The user typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client.

* Colocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service. In most cases, the colocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client's machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or changes.

* Clustered hosting: having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization.

Some specific types of hosting provided by web host service providers:

* File hosting service: hosts not web pages but files
* Image hosting service
* Video hosting service
* Blog hosting service
* One-click hosting
* Shopping cart software

(Wikipedia)

Dedicated, Reseller Host Gator Subsidiary, Enables Multiple C Class Web Hosting

2007-07-20T00:10:00.000-07:00

Houston, Texas - (The Hosting News) - July 11, 2007 - Shared, dedicated and reseller web hosting firm, Host Gator, has been a top web hosting provider since 2005. With the recent release of its Search Engine Optimization Hosting Services, the new division of Host Gator is designed to enable customers to host on multiple C classes.

SEO Hosting was developed to enable webmasters to host websites from one control panel (WHM) and assign each account it's own different Class C IP address. Otherwise search engines will penalize sites that have the same C class and are linking to each other. With multiple C Class capabilities, customers no longer have to work with different web hosting providers to overcome this problem and can consolidate all websites on SEO Hosting.

SEO Hosting plans to offer useful tools in the future to its customers as well as provide search engine optimization advice from guest experts on its blog.

The new service originally stemmed from customers regularly asking Host Gator for multiple C Class capabilities because of their belief that search engines will penalize sites that have the same C class and are linking to each other. With multiple C Class capabilities, customers no longer have to work with different hosting providers to overcome this problem and can consolidate all their sites on SEO Hosting.

Brent Oxley, President of Host Gator noted, ''With the importance of high organic rankings on web search engines, businesses are looking to maximize every advantage that will help them improve their results. We found that companies were signing up with multiple locations in order to host different C Classes. SEO Hosting allows these customers the ability to consolidate all their accounts onto a single server and host, saving them time and money.''

SEO Hosting is on Host Gator's network with The Planet, where sites are on servers at all four of The Planet's data centers in Dallas, TX and are accessible via a fully meshed and redundant Certified Cisco Network featuring ten backbone providers.

Examples of some C Class hosting plans include:

- 5 C Classes for $7 per C-Class
- 30 C Classes for $5.75 per C-Class
- 50 C Classes for $4.75 per C-Class

Every hosting plan includes cPanel and WHM Control Panel, separate C Class IPs and nameservers, Linux hosting with Apache, unlimited domains, FTP accounts and MySQL databases. In addition, all hosting plans are covered by 24x7x365 support with instant backups and no contracts required. SEO Hosting is offering a 30-day money back guarantee with instant free setup for new customers.

Mr. Oxley added, ''The initial response has been extremely encouraging, and we expect the strong demand to continue. Customers are also reassured that SEO Hosting is backed by Host Gator's reputation for top-notch service and support.''

SEO Hosting is a division of Host Gator, a provider of shared, dedicated and reseller web hosting. SEO Hosting was created as a search engine optimization hosting service for businesses desiring to maximize web presence. SEO Hosting has offices in Houston, Texas and its data center operations are co-located out of The Planet's facility in Dallas, Texas, enabling it to access Tier-1 backbone providers such as UUNet, Sprint, Level 3, Global Crossing, Verio, AT and T and AboveNet.

Host Gator is a provider of shared, dedicated and reseller web hosting services focused on the consumer and small business markets. Founded in 2002, Host Gator has become a leader in reseller hosting, assisting over 11,000 businesses become web hosting companies. Host Gator is home to 60,000 customers and over 600,000 web sites. Host Gator has offices in Houston, Texas and its data center operations are co-located out of The Planet's facility in Dallas, Texas, enabling it to access Tier-1 backbone providers such as UUNet, Sprint, Level 3, Global Crossing, Verio and AT and T. HostGator's shared hosting plans are supported by HostGator's 24/7/365 phone support, and comes with a 99.9% uptime and 30-day money-back guarantee.

To learn more about SEO Hosting, please visit: www.seohosting.com.

For more information about the SEO Hosting from Host Gator's blog, please visit: http://web-hosting-provider.blogspot.com.

Reseller Web Hosting, Powered by SWsoft, Enhanced by Future Hosting

2007-07-20T00:07:00.000-07:00

Livonia, Michigan - (The Hosting News) - July 17, 2007 - Web hosting and Internet solutions company, Future Hosting, LLC, has unveiled its premium reseller program for Virtual Private Servers (VPS), including access to discounted services, which may be resold at customer's desired rates. Resellers must be pre-approved to participate in the program, and are required to provide Level 1 technical support to their own clients.

Vikram Patel, CEO of Future Hosting explained, ''Our reseller program is focused on quality at every level. With our redundant datacenter infrastructure and fully managed servers, we provide our resellers with the tools they need to deliver outstanding hosting services to their clients. On the same token, we have rigid quality control requirements our resellers must meet. Ultimately, it is the end users who benefit most.''

Resellers are encouraged to include value-add services, such as hosted applications, consultation, or marketing solutions to their packages. In doing so, they will be able to distinguish their services from other hosts.

Mr. Patel continued, ''Our aim is to have truly successful resellers. By setting forth rigorous requirements and providing resellers with the tools, knowledge and resources they need, we hope this program will be as successful as our existing hosting offerings.''

The reseller program is powered by SWSoft's HSPcomplete, which allows resellers to easily maintain their own storefront, provisioning, billing and management system. Qualified resellers are provided with access to HSPcomplete at no additional charge, allowing them to take advantage of the product’s core functions without spending thousands on licensing.

Founded in 2001, Future Hosting is privately held Internet Solutions provider specializing in managed hosting, including both Dedicated Servers and Virtual Private Servers. The company has developed competitive pricing models, and offers a 3-hour Service Level Agreement. Future Hosting is based in Livonia, Michigan.

Founded in 1999, SWsoft is a recognized leader in server automation and virtualization software. With more than 10,000 customers in over 100 countries, SWsoft's suite of products delivers proven performance, reliability, manageability and value. With offices around the world; SWsoft is a high growth company, funded by Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Venture Partners and Intel Capital, offering comprehensive solutions – transparently integrated through the OPEN FUSION Initiative - including Virtuozzo, Plesk, SiteBuilder, HSPcomplete and PEM.

For more information about the premium Reseller program, please visit: www.futurehosting.biz/resellerprogram.html.

To learn more about Future Hosting, please visit: www.futurehosting.biz.

Dedicated Web Hosting Firm, The Planet, Premieres Unmetered Bandwidth Promo

2007-07-20T00:05:00.000-07:00

Houston, Texas - (The Hosting News) - July 19, 2007 - The Planet privately held dedicated hosting company, has debuted two mid-summer promotions for new server orders. The Double Down promotion offers twice the RAM, hard-drive space or bandwidth, at no additional cost. The second offer features unmetered bandwidth, with unlimited access to a 10Mbps uplink from the firm's multiple Tier-1 providers.

The unmetered bandwidth offer is priced at $50 per month, including a $250 per month plan, for users to access a 20Mbps uplink.

Urvish Vashi, Director of Product Management at The Planet remarked, ''Increasing server performance and direct connections to the Internet via Tier-1 telecom providers are two of the most critical areas of focus for building a Web based business. Through our aggressive seasonal promotions, we're delivering the ideal price performance package for servers and unmetered bandwidth with 10Mbps to 20Mbps uplinks. With Double Down, we're providing the ability to increase server performance at no additional cost.''

The Planet's network is designed without single points of failure, which means the network operates with full redundancy for its core routers and distribution switches. The company also offers carrier diversity, with connections to seven Tier-1 telecommunications providers. As a result, customers never face obstacles or suffer from poor peering connections, sub-optimal routing paths, or congested or oversold networks that limit the power, speed and availability of their sites.

Ultimately, The Planet endeavors to provide the following:

* High level of network capacity and speed to deliver peak performance
* Instant scalability to handle even the largest spikes in network traffic
* Parallel, redundant, multi-tiered network routing and switching architecture to assure reliability and stability
* Multiple layer network security that prevents Delayed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks from harming businesses
* Knowledgeable experts with a passion for excellence and a commitment to operate the best networks in the business
The Planet is a leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 22,000 small and medium size businesses and 2.8 million web sites worldwide, using the best choice of servers, software tools and support, backed by state-of-the-art facilities and network connectivity.

The Double Down and unmetered bandwidth offers will be available until Friday, August 31, or while supplies last.

For more information about The Planet, please visit: www.theplanet.com.

New "No Pay Per Click" Search Engine Offers Advertisers Unlimited Website Traffic

2007-07-16T14:38:00.000-07:00

Tacoma, WA -- July 16, 2007 -- Searchforithere.com , a new search engine website dedicated to driving quality traffic to websites is offering innovative and unbeatable prices. Sites can be listed for a flat fee of $34.99 per month regardless of traffic. Advertisers often pay that price in a few hours on Google, Yahoo or MSN.

Paul Festian of Tacoma, WA and Rob White of Gig Harbor, WA say their site is set up for all types of business and e-commerce sites. Owner Paul Festian stated "Our site is for the customer who has less time, as well as the frugal shopper."

Advertisers will have up to 5 different packages to choose from. Rob adds, "our search engine will not have per click charges. This will keep cost down for our customers. We are also working with the professional SEO web marketing company, manualsubmitters.com, an SEO optimization company out of Phoenix, AZ to provide internet marketing world wide. Their marketing expertise is far reaching and will drive traffic to the site. Their back-links and article submission plans will help any business succeed."

Owner Paul Festian stated "I want the business owner to concentrate on making a profit and taking care of their customers while not concerning themselves with high advertising prices" Searchforithere.com not only offers “no pay per click” search engine listings but website hosting for as low as $7.95 per month and low cost domain names at $8.75 per year.

Searchforithere.com's goal and mission is to link customers to its advertisers. Festian concludes, "our search optimization is designed for the customers to shop easily and find what they are seeking."

Media Contact:
Paul Festian- President
Web Site: http://www.Searchforithere.com Site Listing/Hosting/Domain Names
Phone: (253) 752-6528
Fax:(253)-752-4068
E-mail: pressrelations@searchforithere.com

Books: Learn SEO -- SEO Essentials for a Top 10 Search Engine Ranking

2007-07-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

As a kickoff to the release of his new book "SEO Essentials For A Top 10 Search Engine Ranking", Eric Brown is currently in the process of conducting a search engine optimization challenge regarding one of his websites. The SEO challenge Mr. Brown is conducting is to see how long it will take him to achieve a highly visible search engine ranking for a popular keyword phrase related to his new website SEO Tips 4 U, where his new book will be sold exclusively starting August 1st, 2007.

Augusta, GA (PRWEB) July 16, 2007 -- Eric Brown, the author of "SEO Essentials For A Top 10 Search Engine Ranking", which is scheduled for release on August 1st, 2007, has developed a theory and approach to search engine optimization SEO that will eliminate the need for many people to pursue outside help regarding search engine optimization services, training and information. In addition, his new book will significantly change the way many people currently learn and use search engine optimization SEO.

As a kickoff to the release of his new book, Eric Brown is currently in the process of conducting a search engine optimization challenge regarding one of his websites.

The SEO challenge Mr. Brown is conducting is to see how long it will take him to achieve a highly visible search engine ranking for a popular keyword phrase related to his new website SEO Tips 4 U, where his new book "SEO Essentials For A Top 10 Search Engine Ranking" will be sold exclusively starting August 1st, 2007.

Mr. Brown faces an uphill battle during his SEO challenge because his new website domain name is less than one year old, the website has only been in full operation less than 30 days and it resides in one of the most competitive niche markets on the Internet -- search engine optimization.

Moreover, his search engine optimization challenge officially began on July 1st, 2007, so the clock has already started to tick on his SEO challenge.

Eric Brown's goal related to the challenge is to achieve a top 10 search engine ranking in Google, Yahoo and MSN search engines by September 30th, 2007 for the keyword phrase "learn seo".

What makes this SEO challenge so interesting and exciting is that the theory, approach, thoughts and methods used during the search engine optimization challenge, by Eric Brown, all will be taken directly from his new book "SEO Essentials For A Top 10 Search Engine Ranking".

Eric Brown is conducting this SEO challenge to show website owners, website participants and interested followers that top 10 search engine rankings are possible for anyone and can be accomplished by anyone even in highly competitive niche markets such as real estate, travel and search engine optimization.

Regarding Eric Brown, he is neither an SEO professional nor a part of the SEO industry.

Mr. Brown does not own a search engine optimization company or charge people for SEO related services.

To the contrary, Eric Brown is a website owner just like the millions of website owners currently operating websites on the Internet today. He just happens to know a lot about search engine optimization SEO.

He currently owns several website businesses, all of which, have achieved and currently maintain top 10 search engines rankings at major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN for popular keyword phrases in the websites' niche markets.

Eric Brown earned an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Georgia Southern University and a graduate degree in Computer Information Science from Georgia Southwestern University, which he used to help him start a custom software design and development company 13 years ago that he still owns and operates today along with numerous Internet website businesses where he utilizes his talent for search engine optimization to achieve and maintain many top 10 search engine rankings for his niche market websites.

He wrote his upcoming book "SEO Essentials For A Top 10 Search Engine Ranking" to provide a voice for website owners and website participants.

As a website owner himself, he provides a different viewpoint on search engine optimization SEO, which is fresh, innovative, effective, affordable and sorely needed.

For more information on Eric Brown's theory and approach to search engine optimization along with additional information on his new book "SEO Essentials For A Top 10 Search Engine Ranking", please click the hyperlink shown here: Learn SEO.

Keep track of Eric Brown's day-to-day search engine rankings for the keyword phrase "Learn SEO" regarding his SEO challenge. Please click the hyperlink shown here: SEO Challenge to view his day-to-day search engine rankings and to inform others of his SEO challenge, which is currently ongoing.

SEO for domain names or How to choose a catchy web address

2007-07-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

When building a website the point will come where a domain name (also called web address or URL) has to be chosen. Sound easy at first, but there is more to it. A websites domain name influences your search engines ranking as web crawlers judge a fitting title as a match. The result is a higher ranking.

What do you need to consider?

1) you want to promote your brand, so it would be a good to include the companies' name in the domain name.

2) a reference to the service or product offered on the website is also useful - search engines check if the websites content relates to the domain.

3) make sure that the domain name is not too long, since the "type-in" traffic is likely to drop down - plainly - the web address should be easy to remember!

It is getting more difficult to find the right domain name as so many are already taken. Friends or family can possibly help with brainstorming for names. They can also judge from an outside point of view just as your clients or web visitors.

Last but not least: Before you finally buy a domain name, always check if you do not have any legal or trademark indications in all the countries you wish to trade in.

Contact Tetridia on +44 (0)20 8144 6655 for more information on how to raise your marketing to the next level using Search Engine Optimisation.

How To Effectively Serve Ads

2007-07-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

Ad serving is one of the most effective ways to generate income through the internet. A lot of webmasters put advertisements on their site to earn some bucks, and most of them are unsuccessful in doing this. What are the reasons? Here are SOME of them:

* They concentrate too much on the ads, and in effect, they tend to ignore their content and products for the visitors.
* They put too much ads on the site that no one wants to visit it any more. Some people are immune to ads already, they often avoid sites which have been “bombed” by banner and text advertisements.

Now, I know that one of your online goals is to earn some money through the net, and I think that you know that ad serving plays an important role in getting this goal done. But how can you earn if no one is actually interested in the ads that you’re displaying? It is time that you learn how to effectively serve advertisements, and I will give some guidelines and tips on how to do it.

Choose a good ad network. Before you even think of earning money from ad serving, choose a reputable ad network first. You might be able to generate a lot of funds, but what if the ad network doesn’t pay you? All your efforts would be wasted. Deciding which ad network to join can be hard, especially if you do not know if they are trustworthy or not. Reading some reviews from other publishers will help, so I recommend doing that.

In case you’re wondering what ad network I would suggest, it would be AdToll. Why? Their support is very good and each publisher gets an account manager. Thus, your questions will be answered as fast as lightning.

Decide what kind of program is appropriate for your site. There are CPC (cost-per-click) programs, CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) programs and CPA (cost-per-action) programs. Choose wisely, as this decision can affect your earnings. CPC programs will pay you each time an ad gets a click, CPM programs have rate for every one thousand ad views, and CPA programs will pay you only if a visitor takes an action (makes a purchase, subscribes, or something similar to those).

CPA programs may not be the best choice for humor sites, as the visitors are not spenders. For arcade sites, CPM might be the key to maximizing your earnings, since a lot of people visit arcade websites.

Expose your ads. Your advertisements should be seen. If you really want to earn money, don’t hide your ads in one lonely corner. Put them where your visitors would most likely see them so that you can increase the chance of getting some clicks. If you want more information about this, check this post: Ad Placement Tips

Use a good combination of colors. Matching or blending the colors of your ad units with the look of your website will really aid in earning some money. People will see your ads as something interesting and something that can help them find the information that they need; not something which will just disturb and annoy them.

Serve relevant ads. Who would click an ad which does not interest him? If your site is about instant messaging, do not present ads about art galleries. Show some relevant ads and most likely, people will be intrigued and click on them. You may also try putting ads which you think might interest your readers. For example, serving technology related ads on a gaming website might be good.

My conclusion: Do not make a website just to serve ads, write good content for your visitors. Don’t make your ads the center of attention, but present them in such a manner that they’ll be noticed and you’ll earn a bit of money from them.
(The WWW Observer)

Choosing The Right Domain Name

2007-07-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

Choosing the right domain name is very crucial. It can affect your search engine rankings and your website’s visibility. People often think a lot before purchasing a domain name. Sometimes, after a person has decided which domain name to use, the domain that he wanted has already been taken.

When choosing a domain name, you have to be fast, because someone might take it if you can’t decide quickly. But don’t just purchase without thinking — you might regret it. Ask yourself the following questions before buying a domain name.

Is the domain name recognizable? Does the domain name describe your product?

Obviously, your domain name must be your company’s name or be atleast related to your products.

If your company is called The Black Shoe, consider the domain names theblackshoe.com or blackshoe.com. But remember, a keyword-rich domain name would rank higher in search engines than the company’s name itself. So consider buying shoes.com or anything related to your product and redirect that domain to your main site to get more visitors.

Is the domain name easy to remember?

If your website is named John Jack Doe’s Very Nice and Useful Website, do not buy johnjackdoesveryniceandusefulwebsite.com! This will make it hard to remember, and your visitors might forget your URL because it is too long!

Instead, buy johnjack.com, jjdoe.com or something similar.

Is the domain name readable/pronounceable?

It will really be better if your domain name is readable or pronounceable. Imagine having the domain name hhgsuryguiryt123.net. How will you tell people about your website? I think it would really be embarrassing, especially to your customers, if you cannot even pronounce your own domain name.

Is the domain name unique?

You might want to buy theimagescanners.com for your company The Image Scanners, which scans images for a price. But what if there is a completely different site which uses the domain imagescanners.com and sells scanners (the hardware)?

The best thing to do is to backorder the domain to ensure that all your visitors are lead to your website. If not, just stick with the imagescanners.com and be sure to tell all your customers that imagescanners.com is NOT yours.

If you have the budget, try buying the name with all the extensions (.com, .net, .org, etc…) to be certain that it would be completely yours. Just redirect the others to the main site so that you won’t have to copy all your site’s content again and again.

(THE WWW Observer)

Tutorial: For SEO Beginners: Twelve Definitions You Need To Know

2007-07-11T01:10:00.000-07:00

For SEO Beginners: Twelve Definitions You Need To Know
By Mike Tekula (c) 2007

SEO is a trade that exists solely on the internet, and even then it is comprised almost entirely of the hot air of so-called “expert opinion.” Plenty of it blowing around these days as search maintains position as one of the most important marketplaces in the modern business world. Many DIY webmasters will end up searching for blog entries, articles, informational web sites, etc to help get them up to speed. The problem is that in most cases certain key terms are flung around like household names while the people doing the flinging are way out of touch with the average web browser. What some of us don’t realize is that not everyone knows even the basics of SEO.

This líst of twelve SEO-related definitions in alphabetical order (with notes) serves as a great companion for your initial SEO reading. Read alone it will get you up to speed on some key terminology that you’ll need to know to intelligently engage the ever-changing world of SEO.

• Algorithms.

A search algorithm is, in short, the incredibly complex mathematical formula that a search engine uses to “rank” web sites for keywords. Based on a huge number of variables and calculations, algorithms are among the most closely-guarded secrets on the internet. Why? Imagine if they were leaked - suddenly the less-than-honest would have a very specific guideline to follow in climbing to the top of search results in a less-than-organic way, ruining the quality of Google’s search results and their entire competitive advantage with it.

• Bot or Bots. See “crawlers”

• Crawlers.

Googlebot, for example, is a search engine crawler. Googlebot periodically traverses the web in record time, indexing content, links - everything contained in page source code - and storing it in Google’s search index. Then, when a user visits Google and enters a search phrase, the index, filtered by the algorithm, is what the user gets. Please note: there is some delay in this process since the results you’re getting are from the index and not the live web.

• Directories.

When webmasters realized just how much power inbound links have in determining search rankings they quickly set out to do two things: 1) get inbound links and 2) set up web sites where other webmasters could achieve inbound links (meaning big traffíc revenues for the site). Hence the directory farms you’ll find today. Link building has been a priority on the líst of any SEO-savvy webmaster for years, and as a result “quick fix” directories that allow streamlined listing submissions get a ton of traffíc. However, Google and the other major search engines are on to this tactic, and the word among SEO “experts” is that the benefits of listing your site at directories are diminished if not gone.

• Frames.

Frames are a way of laying out a website with multiple documents in one browser window. Essentially, there is one main document which contains the frameset tag - this document specifies the dimensions/placement of the frames and also the documents that will “populate” those frames. From an SEO standpoint the use of frames for your layout is not recommended. Since frames do not use links in the same way, and since links may point to one frame from another, they may cause serious problems for crawlers. Additionally, there are almost no uses for frames that can’t either be 1) duplicated with other methods or 2) thrown away without much fuss. If your site was built with frames and you’re thinking you don’t want to rebuild - it might be tough luck if you’re interested in optimizing for search. Consider it a learning experience - build yourself a CSS-based layout.

• Gateway Pages.
Also “doorway pages.” Although there isn’t a real consensus about what these pages are, their function is always cited as their definition. In other words, these pages are created to “rank well in search engines” by playing to the algorithms. Often viewed as “spammy,” “gray hat” or even “black hat.” However, any page written with search in mind, and geared towards search, can be construed to be a “gateway page.” The difference between a page well-optimized for search and a “gateway page?” No clear lines there, but quality of content is probably the determining factor.

• HTML.

Okay, most of you probably know this one, but there are probably some of you who don’t. HTML stands for Hyper-Text Mark-up Language, and it is the core building block that has made the web the greatest modern tool for business, social, informational, political and any other causes. Search engines look exclusively at a web page’s HTML code to determine its relevance. Therefore, it’s a good idea to pay attention to HTML and familiarize yourself with proper tagging techniques if you’re hoping to get a good handle on SEO.

• Link Popularity.

Inbound links are probably the most important optimization point for web pages. Number,quality, trust - these are all factors that affect the value of an inbound link. Going back to the HTML root of search, link popularity (in terms of quantity) measures how many pages point to your site using anchor text ( link text ).

• Link Building.

In short, the process of gaining links at other web sites pointing in to pages on your own.

• Link Baiting.

The process of generating high-quality content on your pages that users will appreciate and link to voluntarily.

• Meta Tags.

Meta tags are found at the top of a page’s source code. They are used to specify certain things that might not be found in the page content. They also allow webmasters to put up certain “flags” that search engine crawlers can react to. There are many Meta tags available for use, and many of them can help with SEO to a great extent and for a variety of purposes. However, Meta tags are no longer used in the way they originally were - as a place to stuff keywords to drive your site up in rankings. Some webmasters out there are still doing this, but they are decidedly behind the times and unaware of the impending, or already cast-down, penalties.

• Robots. See "crawlers."

• Search Engines.

If you don’t know what a search engine is congratulations on finally making it out from under that rock. Search engines are essentially programs that scan an existing index of the web based on a query of search terms, or keywords, that a user enters. However, the word more commonly refers to companies as a whole - Google, for example, controls a search engine, while Googlebot is the crawler that gathers content for its index, but most users and webmasters think of a search engine as the whole package.

• Search Engine Marketing.

Most often this refers to Pay-Per-Click marketing in which an advertiser bids on chosen keywords and writes several ads to be displayed should their bid achieve placement. These ads are displayed in the “sponsored” section of search engine result pages (SERPS). However, in some circles this term is used to refer to any action taken to gain rankings both paid and organic.

• Search Engine Optimization.

This one is open to interpretation. It is quite often used to encapsulate a huge amount of different tactics. On-site optimization, off-site optimization (link building, etc) and many other techniques all feasibly fall under the SEO blanket. However, there is an obvious difference between optimizing a page’s code to be clean and search friendly and writing link bait that will be popular and get linked to.

• Search Engine Results Pages

(SERPs). The pages resulting from a search engine query run by a user. Webmasters review these pages to determine where their pages are ranking for certain search terms.

• Sp@mming.

Basically, any unnatural effort to bring a page higher in search results. What constitutes sp@m is open to some interpretation, but the only interpretation you need to worry about is that of the major search engines. If Google, for example, considers a technique “spammy” you’d be wise to cease at once.

• Spiders. "crawlers."

• Submission.

For SEO this has traditionally meant submitting a web site to search engines so they’ll know about and crawl it. SEO firms offered submission services as a big selling point to bring in clients.
However, for a long time now submitting your site to search engines hasn’t done jack. They’re all much smarter now - just focus
on gaining quality inbound links and your site will be indexed in no time. This is just a sample of the core vocabulary associated with SEO. Is this all you need to know? Absolutely not. But in my experience these are the words and phrases that newcomers have the most trouble with. If these definitions help one person have a better understanding of SEO, then I will be satisfied.

About The Author

Mike Tekula handles SEO, SEM, usability and standards-compliance for NewSunGraphics,
a Long Island, New York firm offering Search Engine
Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, W3C-Compliant web design using full CSS
layouts and all things web design/development.
(SiteProNews)

Top 10 Ways to Improve Search Engine Ranking

2007-07-11T00:44:00.000-07:00

Top 10 Ways to Improve Search Engine Ranking
By Darren Dunner (c) 2007

My top 10 ways to improve search engine rankings are based on 7 years of banging my
head against the world wide web's search engines and reading numerous books on top 10 SEO tactics.Let me say first of all that there are a lot of books, sources and tutorials thatmake promises of getting your website into the top 10 spots on themajor search engines.Most of these are self promoting and the end result is that you have to hire these people to accomplish the things they say you can do on your own.

So I want to preface this by saying that this article on how to improve search engine rankings is not necessarily a do-it-your-self guide. In fact, the art of SEO can be
time consuming and irritating to say the least. Some methods require the help of companies like mine so I write this in hopes that you will understand what it really takes to gain exposure, realize what you can do on your own and determine when you need assistance.

One final point I want to make is "Don't use any SEO Company that can't explain what
it is doing and that makes claims of using secrët software that you can nevër see or use". Yes, SEO can be complex but not to the point that you can't understand what is being done. A good SEO company is able to educate you on what is being done and explain that it is best to leave some techniques to the experts.

My 10 Ways to Improve Search Engine Ranking

1. If you are using a shared host, ask your host for a dedicated IP address for your site. This means that no one on the net shares this IP with your site. It is yours and yours alone. Many shared servers have tons of related sites on them. Having your own IP separates you from those sites.

2. Make sure your site validates as a search engine friendly site. The best site to use for this purpose is The World Wide Web Consortium. Their markup validation service will tell you if your site conforms to W3C standards and whether or not the search engines can read
your site. If your site has errors, these may stop the bots from properly indexing your site.

3. Make sure you have a contact page with an address and telephone number and a form of some sort so people can contact you. Don't líst your email on
the site unless you want spammers to send you tons of junk mail. Make sure the
förm you use on the site uses captcha (challenge-response system). Have a Privacy Policy Page and Terms of Services page and ensure that they have at least 300 words of text each. Most sites have these pages, but I
strongly recommend you not copy. Find examples, but use your own words and include keywords related to your site. Make the pages personal to the reader.

4. Every page on your site should have at least 300 words or more. Don't write a 2 paragraph page that has little to no real information. Provide details and give examples.

5. Create a FAQ or Tutorial page on your site. Make each subject link to its own page and focus each page on 1 or 2 keywords. As a start, try to add 10 of these types of pages to your site. You can come up with ideas for FAQ's or Tutorials by reviewing your industry and trying to determine what people might not understand about it and the kinds of questíons they might ask. Then post the questíons and the answers. This is an easy way to add great content to your site and to help potential clients feel secure about your service.

6. Add a blog to your site. Have your blog designed to match your site so that as it draws traffíc your readers know this is your main site of business. This will add value to your site, plus improve your search engine rankings. Create categories and write frequently about your industry to keep your readers interested and your content fresh.

7. Create Link Bait using your blog. There are very few services that offër this on a professional level and it can be very complex. I suggest leaving this service to the professionals because it requires time and knowledge and can be difficult and frustrating to do. The idea is to add unique and detailed content about your industry which creates enough buzz through various channels to motivate others to refer and link back to your blog. This can be a huge asset to your business because many writers love to provide plugs to quality content.

8. Post to Directory sites that have good inner page rank, especially on the page where your site will be listed. Use unique anchor text for each posting. Again, this may be one of those tasks best left to professionals because, if done correctly, your site's search engine ranking can be dramatically improved and, if done incorrectly, can be a waste of time, effort and money.

9. Text Link Brokering is another creative and effective way to build more anchor text back links. Find related and quality ranked sites that will líst your
site in text format. Generally, this requires a one time, monthly or yearly fee.

10. If you have a product or service to sell, offër affilíate incentives. Post these incentives on affilíate forums and elsewhere to generate interest in getting others to promote your service for you. Be sure you have a solid affilíate back end in place to provide your affilíates with dependable stats and access. Then, have people write reviews on your program's
tracking and payout reliability to generate additional buzz.

The 10 points noted above are by no means a complete líst of what you could
do to improve your site's search engine ranking, but if you focus your efforts on these 10 areas, rest assured you will see both an íncrease in traffíc and higher rankings.

About The Author
Darren Dunner - www.the-content-writers.com has been writing
and providing these services for over 7 years.

(SiteProNews)

Role of Domain Registrars to Change Over Next 5 Years

2007-07-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

Released: Monday, July 9th, 2007 (Domain Name Wire.com)
What role will domain registrars play in five years?

Today, we think of domain name registrars as the place to go to register domain names. But this role will change over the next five years.

Why? If you think “all of the good names are already registered” now, think about what the landscape will look like in five years. Here are some predictions for domain registrars:

1. Registrars become domain managers, not “registrars”. The central role of a registrar will be to provide management tools for customers’ large portfolios of domains and to manage renewals. The registrars with the best management tools will prevail.

2. Registrars depend on aftermarket sales instead of initial registrations. Aftermarket domain name exchanges are integrating with registrars to offer alternatives when a domain is not available. Look for this to become the norm going forward. In fact, registrars will change their search algorithms to push aftermarket sales instead of new registrations.

3. Commercial registrars own the bulk of domain names. Large registrars already keep some of the best expiring domains for themselves. They also have some of the best intelligence about domains including which domain names people are searching for. Registrars will profit off the backs of their customers and snatch up significant domain inventory — something they can turn around and sell on the aftermarket.

Of course, here’s another scenario: There are approximately 37^63 possible .com domains to be registered in roman characters alone (26 letters, ten digits, and hyphens). “True” IDNs come online, expanding the domain pool exponentially. New extensions become the norm. Registrars see explosive growth in registrations.

Nevertheless, I believe registrars that offer the best account management and embrace the aftermarket will be the ones to thrive.

If you agree with this view, then it makes sense for registrars today to offer the lowest possible price for registrations. If they continue to offer reasonable renewal prices and good account management tools, customers won’t transfer out domains. The more customers they lock up today, the more they’ll have in the future.

Web Hosting Show Interviews HostSearch Web Editor

2007-07-10T19:51:00.000-07:00

July 10, 2007 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – "International web hosting media rock star” Mitch Keeler interviewed John Hughes, the Web Editor of HostSearch.com (http://www.hostsearch.com) recently. The Web Hosting Show offers a platform for a lively and highly entertaining presentation of Mitch Keeler’s unique perspective on all things web hosting. The site features insights on current web hosting affairs and offers a regular audio ‘podcast’ with interviews, gossip, news and views. According to Mr. Keeler, HostSearch.com was interviewed because he regards it as being “one of the cornerstones of the web hosting industry”.

“HostSearch is one of the most established, most influential and most widely respected web hosting directories on the web,” said Mr. Keeler. “Just by viewing their front page you can see they tackle everything from hosting interviews, to news and discussions. There is a lot of good quality content there for you to comb through no matter if you are a web hosting guru or just a guy that got his first web site. I like Host Search because it is a resource everybody can get something out of,” suggested Mr. Keeler in his interview preamble.

During the interview, Mr. Keeler asked Mr. Hughes a number of questions about HostSearch.com, its role, and its unique features. The interview also considered some of the broader issues related to the web hosting industry at large. Asked whether hosting is lacking innovation, or is filled with it if you know where to look, Mr. Hughes expressed his confidence in the individuals involved in the industry, but had some words of caution about the direction it is taking.

“There are a lot of very talented people in web hosting, there’s no doubt about that,” suggested Mr. Hughes. “But my concern with the web hosting industry is this increasing perception that web hosting is merely a commodity, and I think with this perception, it really does devalue the importance of the industry. I think it undermines what the industry is all about. If I think of a commodity, I think of something which has an abundance and something which I can’t really contribute to in terms of its development or its production.”

Mr. Hughes went on to suggest that the survival of the web hosting industry as we currently know it may depend on people inside the industry taking charge of its direction. “I think as this perception of web hosting as a commodity increases,” continued Mr. Hughes, “I think that web hosts see themselves merely as purveyors of current technologies, so whether its open source or technologies developed by bigger players, web hosts are merely people who provide what’s currently available. I believe that’s quite dangerous for web hosting, because unless people inject some innovation into it, unless people take some responsibility for the future of the industry, the industry will be entirely dependent on bigger players who produce those technologies, and as a result the consolidation that we have seen over the last couple of years will continue. And my concern is that a thriving industry will fall into the hands of maybe one or two major players.”

A full recording of the interview is available on The Web Hosting Show under the title “Interview With a Host Searcher - Episode 113” (http://www.webhostingshow.com/2007/07/09/interview-with-a-host-searcher-episode-113/).

Web Hosting Provider, Sun, Debuts Video Solution at Tribeca Film Festival

2007-07-10T19:49:00.000-07:00

New York, New York - (Website Hosting Directory) - July 10, 2007 - Web hosting and software development company, Sun Microsystems, has debuted a new video delivery over IP platform, including high streaming throughput. Unveiled with Nortel at New York's Tribeca Film Festival, the Sun Streaming System is considered the industry's first massively scalable and cost-effective video delivery platform for cable and telecommunications operators.

The new solution was designed to help operators increase subscriber revenue by offering new video-based services and personalized, unique video streams to each consumer. Unveiled at the 6th annual Tribeca Film Festival in Lower Manhattan, a world-class venue for the international film community to demonstrate the power of film, the system leverages the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS) to deliver the highest video streaming capacity in the industry by enabling cost-effective personalized video delivery over existing optical network infrastructure -- consequently reshaping the economics and quality of video delivery services.

Designed by Sun co-founder, Chief Architect and Senior Vice President, Andy Bechtolsheim, Sun's cutting-edge system design enables the Sun Streaming System to support up to 160,000 simultaneous, unique video streams at the rate of 2Mbps and a price of less than $50 per stream for complete video headend -- which is approximately 10 times the streaming capacity of competitive platforms. Thirty-two integrated 10 Gigabit Ethernet optical networking ports combine multiplexing, switching and routing all in one high-density video streaming package.

Mr. Bechtolsheim explained, ''Video on demand and IPTV are expected to become widely available by 2010. The Sun Streaming System's revolutionary design allows operators to capitalize on that market opportunity and deliver unique content and relevant advertising to each subscriber, increasing revenue for operators and advertisers. As the first industry solution to offer 160,000 video streams per switch, it is also the industry's most scalable and cost-effective solution. We are extremely excited to see where the industry will go with this new architecture.''

The Sun Streaming System is an integrated platform that is composed of a distributed software suite running on Sun Fire x64 systems, storage and switching technologies. Key components of the Sun Streaming System are the new Sun Streaming Software, the new Sun Fire X4950 Streaming Switch, the Sun Fire X4500 data server and the Sun Fire X4100 systems, which together provide the highest streaming throughput in the video services industry at the lowest cost: -- Sun Streaming Software: Based on open industry standards, the Sun Streaming Software is a single point of control to operate and manage the entire video streaming system. The software enables operators to reduce time to market for deploying new services by supporting more than 20 video streaming features, such as: MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 formats; bit-rate support from 1Mbps to 20 Mbps; standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) streaming; encrypted and clear content streaming; at least six trick-play settings; Network Personal Video Recorder (nPVR) capabilities; and splicing and personalized playlists for permission-based target advertising. Open software standards, such as CORBA, XML, HTTP and RTSP, allow operators to easily integrate third-party components for an end-to-end video headend solution. -- Sun Fire X4950 Streaming Switch: A scalable memory cache-based content switching and streaming engine, the Sun Fire X4950 Streaming Switch provides the highest available streaming density at 320 Gbps and up to 2 terabytes (TB) of memory to enable scalable video streaming with a low cost per stream. -- Sun Fire X4500 server: By integrating state of the art server and storage technologies, the Sun Fire X4500 server powered by Second- Generation AMD Opteron(TM) processors delivers the performance of a four-way x64 server and the highest storage density available, with 24 TB of storage in seven inches of rack space for up to 9,400 hours of 2Mbps video content storage. Customers, Partners and ISVs Show Support for Sun Streaming System's Market-Changing Economics Sun is aligning with several resellers, partners and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), including EDS and Nortel, to bring the Sun Streaming System's market-changing economics to customers in the video services industry.

Sameer Sheth, General Manager, Video Solutions, Nortel remarked, ''Nortel is focused on IPTV as a critical enabler of our video strategy, which aims to help our carrier customers increase revenues by adding video- rich applications to their services mix. As we work to transform networks to accommodate the increasing requirements of video, we are partnering with the best of the industry's best to provide the most comprehensive, best-performing IPTV solution to our customers.''

Sue Chevins, Global Leader, Communications, Media and Entertainment Industry at EDS offered, ''The Sun Streaming System, which combines high performance in a cost-effective platform, will facilitate the introduction of competitive new video applications and is a strong addition to Nortel's IPTV solution ecosystem. The Sun Streaming System is a best-of-breed solution that allows customers to consolidate their infrastructure and save on management costs. This breakthrough platform is a key part of EDS' Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) strategy. It allows us to leverage the innovation of an Agility Alliance partner to augment our core Managed Services competencies as Sun's preferred Systems Integration partner in the IPTV marketplace.''

Early access and beta customers such as Acetrax of Europe have already been testing the Sun Streaming System. In addition, a number of ISV and Independent Hardware Vendor (IHV) solutions have been integrated and tested with the system, bringing together an end-to-end deployment architecture for video delivery services. These partners include Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB), AMD, Amino, Digisoft.tv, Harmonic, IMAKE Software, Juniper Networks, Minerva Networks, TANDBERG Television, Tellabs, Verimatrix and Widevine.

Sun develops technologies designed to power some of the world's most comprehensive markets, in more than 100 countries.

To learn more about the Sun Streaming System, please visit: www.sun.com/servers/networking/streamingsystem/perspectives.xml

Web Hosting Provider, Host The Best, Reopens Software Company

2007-07-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

Bronx, New York - (Website Hosting Directory) - July 10, 2007 - Web hosting solutions company, Host The Best, has initiated a relaunch of its software division. Originally a sub-project of the HostTheBest.com website, the expanded division was developed due to increased interest and sales of the software.

HTB Software offers a variety of solutions for individuals and organizations, ranging from solutions such as Instant Messengers, FTP Clients, and Popup Blockers, to scripts such as a Download Logger and SHOUTcast Panel. In addition, cost effective solutions have been instituted, featuring lower priced monthly payments on software, or options to pay a higher priced, one time fee for lifetime product access. In addition, some items include source codes available for purchase.

Also included in HTB Software's offerings, is the availability of custom software development, designed for exclusive use, in whichever manner that the client company deems appropriate, complete with source code. All of the company offerings include customer support, via telephone, instant messenger, or e-mail.

Host The Best offers scalable Internet hosting solutions to small and medium businesses, with efficient, value-driven business models, including VPS and Shared Web Hosting services combined with fast and competent technical support. Host The Best employs a support staff of professionals including representatives with extensive technical and customer service training in areas such as MCP, MCSE, CCNA, and A+.

Enterprise SEO Project Pricing: One Size Does Not Fit All

2007-07-06T00:51:00.000-07:00

By Chris Boggs | July 6, 2007

Search Engine Optimization, some will argue, is a standard process of improving a Web site’s ability to rank in search engines for phrases relevant to the site’s theme. It doesn’t matter if the site is for-profit, non-profit, or simply serves as an educational medium – improving the depth of the content and its visibility to search engine spiders and helping to ensure that links exist to the site’s pages from relevant, trustworthy sites will, in most cases, be enough to help the site rank better.

Although the basics are essentially the same, the project-defined specifics of an enterprise-level SEO engagement will never be exactly the same. For that matter, the specifics will often differ quite greatly. SEO is not a one-size-fits-all solution. In our large agency, we provide SEO proposals to offices and clients around the world from our global SEO service handler in Philadelphia.

This week, I will define what happens from the moment our business development (BD) specialists get a request for proposal (RFP) to the moment that proposal is delivered to the prospective SEO client.
The Estimator

Unfortunately, we have yet to create a technology similar to that which exists in the fabled “Bat Cave” that predicts the required course of action for Batman and Robin. Instead, we scope out potential SEO projects on a case-by-case basis. The BD provides the RFP (or often a detailed oral request for an estimate) to the SEO Group Director, who then assigns a Senior Account Manager (SAM) the task of preparing an “estimator” spreadsheet, which will help price the project appropriately. (For a reminder on how the team is structured, please see my third Outsourced column, "An Inside View of the Agency.)

The SAM who prepares the estimator will, 99 percent of the time, be in charge of that project, should the business be won. This is very important because it puts the onus on the SAM to very accurately estimate the resources required for the project. Once the SAM has started the estimator, he or she will assign various sections of the client and competitive site analyses to engineers and analysts on the team, getting their input on the number of hours required for each task.

The estimator is an Excel spreadsheet that accounts for all possible tasks associated with a project. Each month of the project is then mapped out by allocating hours toward each task line item. Some hours (such as reconfiguring redirects or URL structure recommendations) are valued higher than others (such as keyword research or directory link-building). Based on formulas, the total hours required then dictate the cost of the project, once any pass-through costs such as directory submission fees are added.

Naturally, year-long projects will usually cost more than the six-month projects, but in some cases shorter projects can end up costing nearly as much, based on the requirements for the particular project. In another column, we can go into detail as to why some projects may consume more resources over six months than over an entire year. However, in short, some sites need more work in order to be ranked while others need less, perhaps over a longer period of time (read link building or ongoing new content optimization).
The SEO Task Line Items

The following list describes the major elements of the estimator sheet. Of course, we cannot describe every single line item, and should we, some people would undoubtedly say we missed something.

1. Client Communications – Time is usually allotted for the kick-off call and ongoing calls with the client teams.
2. Team Communications – Time is allotted for meetings held weekly or even at a greater frequency, depending on the project and the SAM.
3. Baseline Reporting – At the onset of every engagement, baseline saturation, ranking, and inbound linking reports are prepared for the client.
4. Competitive Analyses – Depending on the industry, these can take significantly more time than one would expect, but they will be very valuable in helping craft SEO strategy, as well as in monitoring future ranking shifts revealing whether the competitors are new or old enemies.
5. Tactical: Engineer-Level – Issues that exist with site structure that can lead to anything from duplicate content problems to the inability to get pages indexed, as well as URL format considerations. Often, time must be specified for communication with engineers and developers working with the client or as separate vendors.
6. Tactical: Content/Analyst-Level – Issues with META, ALT, and on-page content, both text and image or video/audio.
7. Tactical: Linking – Includes time for link analysis beyond information derived from the baseline and competitor analysis reports.
8. Reporting – Ongoing reporting offered at different tiers.
9. Management – The SAM time that does not fall into one of the above categories.

Note that each task is usually accompanied with notes specific to the project for use by the BD when completing the sale. The client does not see the estimator, but instead gets a formal proposal that incorporates many of these notes supporting the projected hours required to “fix the problem.”
A Warning to Marketing Managers Soliciting SEO Project Proposals

Scoping an enterprise SEO project takes time. If you represent a large organization and receive a response to an RFP within hours, or even a couple of days, you may wish to consider how much time the agency or SEM put into scoping your specific project. If you have received a proposal that looks like it went through a cookie-cutter before being baked, you may need to wash down the results with more than milk.

(Search Engine Watch)

Web Host Free Rider Web Hosting Provides SEO Service

2007-07-06T00:46:00.000-07:00

July 7, 2007 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Web host Free Rider Web Hosting (http://www.frwh.net) is providing a Search Engine Optimization service, it was announced recently. The new service allows owners to optimize websites in a bid to get higher rankings in search engine results.

Free Rider’s Traffic Blazer service looks at several aspects of a website, including keyword usage, frame and Flash usage, and “whether the website can be read by search engine spiders”. Traffic Blazer also enables customers to submit a website to search engines and directories, and provides reports on where a website appears in search results. The Deluxe and Premium versions of the service offer detailed website statistics.

"It is important for webmasters to get their web sites as high as possible in the search engine results," explained Free Rider Web Hosting’s CEO, Simon Drain. "Google handles 200 million searches every day. Most people only look at the first few pages of search results, so web sites that are further down in the results are missing out on a lot of traffic."

Mr. Drain recommends that Traffic Blazer is used as only part of “a larger scheme” to increase ranking. "Other factors are also important," he explained. "Google, for example, takes the number of external links to the site in to account. This means that webmasters need to work on several areas, such as asking other webmasters to link to their web site. Traffic Blazer is useful for optimizing a website and for submitting to search engines; however, it is not a panacea in itself."

MacTranslator OSX 2.0 - Diagrams from Code

2007-07-05T00:26:00.000-07:00

Placitas, NM, June 23, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Excel Software began shipping MacTranslator 2.0 for generating graphic models from source code. This major upgrade adds PHP support and namespaces for other languages to organize captured code design.

PHP is a modern language for web site development that supports procedural and object-oriented programming with integrated database support. UML class diagrams show PHP classes, interfaces, relationships and class member details. Structure charts show the hierarchical structure of function calls for each thread of execution. MacTranslator scans PHP source code to extract design information to a text file that is imported into the MacA&D modeling tool to generate models.

MacA&D supports Class diagrams and Structure Chart diagrams enriched with PHP language specific details. Within MacA&D, diagrams contain objects linked directly to the associated code. An integrated code browser provides seamless navigation between diagrams and code.

MacTranslator generates models and dictionary information from legacy source code, class frameworks, open source projects and other reusable code assets. It provides a fully automated, step-by-step process to quickly create diagrams and dictionary information that documents an unfamiliar project.

* Project Scalability to Millions of Code Lines Across Thousands of Files and Folders
* Class Models from Object-Oriented C++, Objective-C, Java, Delphi or PHP
* Rich Data Models from SQL
* Structure Charts from Procedural C, Pascal, Basic, Fortran or PHP
* Multi-Level Diagrams with Objects Linked to Associated Source Code
* Data Types, Arguments, Namespaces and Comments Captured from Code

PHP programs are event driven by end-user actions like clicking a button or selecting a menu on a web page. A user event often triggers a thread of execution that involves dozens or even thousands of PHP code lines to run. Together, MacA&D and MacTranslator can shift through and identify each thread of execution. A separate Structure Chart is generated for each thread. Reused branches of a program are presented on a shared child diagram. The process is automated so little human effort is required to reveal the structure of existing code.

MacTranslator is a Universal Binary application for Intel and PPC Macintosh computers priced at $495. See www.excelsoftware.com for product information, pricing, demos and secure online ordering.

Excel Software
Ph: (505) 771-3719
Fax: (505) 771-3718
Web: www.excelsoftware.com
Email: info@excelsoftware.com

MacA&D OSX 2.2 - Software Design for PHP and Enhanced Code Generation

2007-07-05T00:22:00.000-07:00

Placitas, NM, June 22, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Excel Software is shipping MacA&D OSX 2.2 for system and software modeling, requirement management, code generation, reengineering and project reports. This major release supports PHP design and code generation plus enhanced requirement management, diagram generation and editing. The new Global Search dialog scans thousands of text files and folders in seconds for matching text or wildcard patterns.

PHP is a modern scripting language for procedural and object-oriented programming. It drives popular web sites that often grow into large-scale development projects. MacA&D adds PHP code generation from class diagrams and structure charts. Often PHP programs provide the glue between web pages and a database engine. Data models can be drawn in MacA&D to design a database and generate the SQL schema.

Code generation capabilities in MacA&D have been enhanced for other languages including C, Pascal, Fortran, Basic, C++, Objective-C, Java, Delphi and SQL. New customization options give the developer control over content and format of generated code, how code files are named and where they are stored. One click on the Generate Code button creates code from selected objects on a class or structure model.

Requirement entries are defined as structured information in a Requirement Definition dialog controlled by a template with user-defined field and value choices. MacA&D 2.2 enables template changes to be applied across existing entries. Requirement entries can be checked for missing or inconsistent data. Entries can be linked to any kind of target document, diagram or specific diagram objects to provide two-way traceability. New capabilities simplify linking and navigating between many requirement entries and targets. The enhanced Requirement Matrix window presents data through user-defined views and queries.

Diagram editors for process, state, structure, class, data, object and task models have been enhanced with a new geometric shape tool, new caption properties, grid lines, scroll wheel support and an object size synchronization dialog. The new Shape Properties dialog supports 48 geometric shapes, border color, fill color, shadows and line thickness. Text can be added and positioned within each shape.

Designers control class members (attributes, operations, properties and events) and details (access, data type and arguments) displayed on class diagrams with checkbox options and presentation rules. To enhance productivity, detail dialogs now have Up and Down buttons to navigate between class members.

MacA&D is a Universal Binary application for Intel or PPC based Macintosh computers. The Standard edition is $495, Desktop edition is $1195 and Developer edition is $1995. See www.excelsoftware.com for information.

Excel Software
Ph: (505) 771-3719
Fax: (505) 771-3718
Web: www.excelsoftware.com
Email: info@excelsoftware.com

xmlBlueprint XML Editor 4.5 is Released

2007-07-05T00:15:00.000-07:00

Soest, Netherlands, July 05, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Monkfish Software has released version 4.5 of xmlBlueprint XML Editor for the Windows platform, priced at US $45.00 per license. Version 4.5 improves the usability of xmlBlueprint in response to user feedback. For a complete list of new features please visit: www.xmlblueprint.com/What-is-new.htm.

About xmlBlueprint XML Editor

xmlBlueprint XML Editor is a value-priced and powerful XML editor for the Windows platform. The occasional user will enjoy its speed and ease-of-use. Power users will appreciate its high-quality XML support, such as context-sensitive XML completion and validation of schemas and XML documents against any schema. All major schema types are supported (DTD, Relax NG Schema, XML Schema).

Users can easily create, edit and run an XSLT Stylesheet and preview the transformation result.

Users can configure xmlBlueprint XML Editor to work with any 3rd party XML validator or XSLT processor. Users can add and run additional tools to further enhance xmlBlueprint’s functionality.

Using the XPath Evaluator, users can visually analyze, test, and debug XPath expressions.

A real-time outline displaying the elements in the XML document provides quick access to the various parts of the document.

Users can collaboratively edit and manage files on remote Web servers via FTP, HTTP, HTTPS (secure HTTP) and WebDAV. The built-in directory tree helps the user to quickly locate and open files. MacOS, UNIX and Windows file formats are automatically recognized.

xmlBlueprint XML Editor fully supports the Unicode UTF-8 and UTF-16 standards on all Windows versions, including Windows ’98. This allows the user to edit files for the Asian/Pacific and Eastern European regions.

Availability and Pricing

xmlBlueprint XML Editor runs under Windows '98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista, costs US $45.00, and may be purchased securely online at: www.xmlblueprint.com/Buy.htm.

The price includes free e-mail technical support and free updates until the next major release. A 10 days free trial version may be downloaded from: www.xmlblueprint.com/Download.htm.

About Monkfish Software

Monkfish Software is based in the Netherlands. For more information about xmlBlueprint, contact us by sending e-mail to support@xmlblueprint.com or visit our website at www.xmlblueprint.com.

Free Rider Web Hosting Offers Search Engine Optimization Tool

2007-07-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

Scottsdale, AZ, July 03, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Free Rider Web Hosting has introduced a new service that allows customers to optimize their web sites to help get higher rankings in search engine results. Traffic Blazer, which costs from $29.95 per year, looks at several aspects of the web site, including the use of keywords, frame and Flash usage, and whether the web site can be read by search engine spiders.

Traffic Blazer also helps customers to submit their web site to search engines and directories, and then provides reports on where the web site is appearing in search results.

The Deluxe and Premium versions of Traffic Blazer provide additional services, such as the ability to view detailed statistics about the web site, and to send emails to customers.

"It is important for webmasters to get their web sites as high as possible in the search engine results," said Simon Drain, CEO of Free Rider Web Hosting. "Google handles 200 million searches every day. Most people only look at the first few pages of search results, so web sites that are further down in the results are missing out on a lot of traffic."

Simon Drain recommends that customer use Traffic Blazer as part of a larger scheme to increase their search engine ranking. "Other factors are also important," explained Simon. "Google, for example, takes the number of external links to the site in to account. This means that webmasters need to work on several areas, such as asking other webmasters to link to their web site. Traffic Blazer is useful for optimizing a web site and for submitting to search engines; however, it is not a panacea in itself."

For more information about Traffic Blazer, visit http://www.frwh.net

Negative SEO is Possible, Yet Difficult, Says Matt Cutts

2007-07-04T23:56:00.000-07:00

(Seroundtable.com :Tamar Weinberg in Google Optimization at July 4, 2007)

Two posts in DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld post point to a very interesting Forbes article on a lesser known practice of SEO known as "Google bowling" or "negative SEO." In this tactic, search engine optimizers force competitor websites down in the rankings so that the desired client's website has more visibility.

According to Brendon Scott, who sells this service to clients, this is indeed possible.

"I understand the rules of search," Scott says. "And once you understand the rules, you can use them not just constructively, but also destructively."

And Google's Webmaster Guidelines say "There's almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index," which leaves room for these deceptive practices to occur.

This is confirmed by Matt Cutts in the article:

Matt Cutts, a senior software engineer for Google, says that piling links onto a competitor's site to reduce its search rank isn't impossible, but it's extremely difficult. "We try to be mindful of when a technique can be abused and make our algorithm robust against it," he says. "I won't go out on a limb and say it's impossible. But Google bowling is much more inviting as an idea than it is in practice."

Interesting article, especially in light of our findings that competitors do try to trash rankings. DigitalPoint Forums members believe that it's definitely eye-opening:

Maybe this will put an end to all of the people who keep saying that if you got penalized you must have deserved it, and cut back on someone of the "Google knows everything" groupies.

Barry has written more on Search Engine Land. According to the article, there are 7 ways you can impact your competitors negatively:

1. Google Bowling
2. Tattling
3. Google Insulation
4. Copyright Takedown Notices
5. Copied Content
6. Denial of Service
7. Click Fraud

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

This entry was written on July 2nd and scheduled to be posted on July 4th.

Top Paying Google Adsense Keywords

2007-07-04T03:58:00.000-07:00

Top paying google adsense keywords for mortgages:
2nd mortgage loans $41.66
refinance second mortgages $41.40
best refinance mortgage rate $48.31
refinancing mortgage loans $48.06
fixed rate second mortgages $50.07

Top paying google adsense keywords for insurance:
free auto insurance quote $53.69
auto insurance specialist $49.63
inexpensive auto insurance $42.54
car insurance quotes $39.74
compare auto insurance $39.09

Top paying google adsense keywords for medical:
mesothelioma treatment options $64.84
cancer caused by asbestos $47.48
mesothelioma $52.85
mesothelioma lawyer $47.65
mesothelioma attorneys $52.19
mesothelioma diagnosis $45.22
mesothelioma research $50.08
mesothelioma peritoneum $66.52
mesothelioma death $69.13
cure for mesothelioma $68.34
asbestos cancer $43.79

Top paying google adsense keywords for loans:
private student loan consolidation $53.41
consolidate student loans $47.33
consolidate college loans $45.37
education loan consolidation $58.05
loan consolidation rates $43.29
financial aid consolidation $30.38

Top paying google adsense keywords for web hosting:
managed dedicated server hosting $30.74
dedicated sql server hosting $30.10
managed server hosting $34.53
buy a domain name $26.07

Yahoo!'s Official "SmartAds" Press Release

2007-07-04T03:42:00.000-07:00

Yahoo!'s New "SmartAds" Meld Brand and Direct Response Advertising
Innovative, Patent-Pending Ad Delivery Platform Allows Marketers to Present Highly Targeted Online Display Ads in Real Time to Match a User's Distinctive, Expressed Interests

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jul 02, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Innovative, Patent-Pending Ad Delivery Platform Allows Marketers to Present Highly Targeted Online Display Ads in Real Time to Match a User's Distinctive, Expressed Interests

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today announced the launch of Yahoo! SmartAds, a new, innovative advertising platform that allows marketers to deliver powerful, tailored display ads to highly targeted audiences. SmartAds combines Yahoo!'s leading consumer insights and rich media capabilities with new ad serving technology that automatically converts marketers' creative campaign elements and targeted offerings into highly-customized and relevant display ads.

"Yahoo!'s SmartAds gives marketers what they want from online advertising: the ability to deliver customized marketing messages to consumers, and still engage very large audiences with their brand," said Todd Teresi, Yahoo!'s senior vice president of display marketplaces. "By enabling marketers to reach consumers on a more tailored basis and helping creative agencies support those customized campaigns, we can provide an even more engaging, relevant online experience to the more than 500 million users of Yahoo! branded products and services."

Yahoo! SmartAds is powered by Yahoo!'s leading behavioral, demographic and geographic targeting capabilities and aim to connect users with what they are looking for based on their distinctive, expressed interests. For example, if a user is browsing for hybrid cars in Yahoo! Autos and has selected San Francisco as their default location in Yahoo! Weather, Yahoo!'s SmartAds platform can assemble and deliver a display ad in real time that showcases a hybrid vehicle from a major auto brand, as well as local dealer information and current lease rates. This provides a relevant experience to the user and allows the marketer to reach a user who is likely to become a customer.

In addition, Yahoo!'s patent-pending SmartAds platform allows advertisers and agencies to design a single set of individual creative components, provide Yahoo! with that artwork and a feed to their entire database of offers, then allow Yahoo!'s SmartAds technology to automatically generate the hundreds - if not thousands - of unique ad combinations based on those components. This helps advertisers and agencies scale to take full advantage of all of Yahoo!'s audience targeting capabilities while maintaining control over how their brand is presented.

"Yahoo!'s SmartAds is the breakthrough marriage of brand and direct marketing that advertisers have been waiting for," said David Kenny, Chairman, Digitas and Publicis Groupe Digital. "By combining its huge audience, dynamic ad creation capabilities and deep knowledge of user interests, Yahoo! has developed a true innovation that will benefit agencies and its clients, especially companies with a large number of offers to present to many audience segments."

Yahoo! is taking a phased approach to the SmartAds platform, making it available first on its owned and operated properties to travel industry advertisers in the U.S. The company has plans to expand it to additional vertical industries over the coming months and, in the future, deliver Smart Ads on its broader network of sites. In testing conducted on Yahoo! FareChase, SmartAds generally resulted in click through rates of two to three times higher than static, non-customized display ads using the same targeting and placement.

Yahoo! SmartAds furthers the company's long-term advertising and publishing vision: To build the industry's leading advertising and publishing ecosystem - both on and off Yahoo!'s network - and transform how advertisers connect to and engage with their customers. For more information about SmartAds or to view an online demonstration, visit: http://advertising.yahoo.com/smartads.

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo!'s mission is to connect people to their passions, their communities, and the world's knowledge. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

Yahoo! and the Yahoo! logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Yahoo! Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning Yahoo! SmartAds (including without limitation the statements contained in the quotations from management in this press release), as well as Yahoo!'s strategic and operational plans. Actual events or results may differ materially from those described in this press release due to a number of risks and uncertainties. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, competition from similar competing services or competitors, and the possibility that the performance, acceptance of or response to Yahoo! SmartAds may not occur as anticipated or described. More information about potential factors that could affect Company's business and financial results is included under the captions, "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," in Yahoo!'s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2007 which are on file with the SEC and available at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

SOURCE: Yahoo! Inc.

Yahoo! Inc.
Gaude Lydia Paez, 818-524-4580
gaude@yahoo-inc.com
Cathy LaRocca, 408-349-5188 (Investor Relations)
cathy@yahoo-inc.com

Yahoo Launches Personalized SmartAds System

2007-07-04T03:37:00.000-07:00

Yahoo said that, in tests, SmartAds resulted in click-through rates that were two to three times higher than similarly placed, untargeted display ads.

By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
Jul 2, 2007 06:00 PM

In the wake of a major executive shake-up that included the recent resignation of CEO Terry Semel, Yahoo Monday introduced new online advertising technology to help it regain ground against Google.

Yahoo SmartAds is a dynamic ad-assembly platform that lets advertisers deliver display ads that have been personalized in real time using demographic and behavioral data. Display ads, long an area of strength for Yahoo, emphasize brands and logos; keyword search ads rely on text to get users to click on them.

"Yahoo's SmartAds gives marketers what they want from online advertising: the ability to deliver customized marketing messages to consumers and still engage very large audiences with their brand," said Todd Teresi, Yahoo's senior VP of display marketplaces, in a statement. "By enabling marketers to reach consumers on a more tailored basis and helping creative agencies support those customized campaigns, we can provide an even more engaging, relevant online experience to the more than 500 million users of Yahoo branded products and services."

As an example, Yahoo SmartAds might note that a Yahoo user browsing Yahoo Autos for hybrid cars had entered a San Francisco ZIP code in Yahoo Weather. Yahoo's ad platform would then create a display ad on the fly to feature a hybrid from an advertising automaker that includes local dealer information, current prices, and lease rates.

Yahoo plans to roll out SmartAds in phases. Initially, it is making the service available across its online properties to U.S.-based travel industry advertisers. According to a company spokesperson, Yahoo aims to add three or four additional market segments by year's end. The company also aims to make SmartAds available off-network, on the sites of partners such as eBay, Comcast, and Web properties served by RightMedia's ad network, once Yahoo's acquisition of RightMedia closes.

In tests, Yahoo said SmartAds resulted in click-through rates that were two to three times higher than similarly placed, untargeted display ads.

A key advantage of SmartAds for advertisers will be the ability to dynamically generate hundreds or thousands of different variants of a given ad using the same set of graphic and data elements.

One of Google's stated reasons for purchasing of online ad company DoubleClick is to improve its ability to deliver targeted display ads.

(Credit:InformationWeek.com)

Google Adsense Policies

2007-07-04T03:26:00.000-07:00

by Terry Detty
July 03, 2007

Google Adsense is a program that allows businesses to advertise on other websites. The business only pays the host website when a consumer clicks on the link to take them to their website. This is a very effective way of advertising because of the millions of people who access the internet every day. It is also a low cost marketing method that businesses of all sizes can benefit from. Websites are eager to host advertisements for other businesses because it doesn’t cost them anything and they earn money for doing it when consumers choose to follow the link from a particular advertisement.

If you are interested in using Google Adsense to advertise then you need to make sure you are aware of their policies. This will make the process smoother for you and eliminate any misunderstandings down the road. This can be a great money maker or advertising tool, but only when it is used correctly.

There is no long term contract with Google Adsense. You can choose to leave the program at any time. You will need to provide written notice by mail or email to Google. All ads will be removed from your website within ten days. They also have the right to discontinue your business from the program at any time for not following their policies. You do have the right to file an appeal if your account is canceled. This gives you the opportunity to discuss the situation with a Google Adsense representative.

You must be approved by Google Adsense before you are allowed to be a part of the program either as a host site for advertisements or to post your ads. The owner of the website must be at least 18 years of age. The approval process involves an application that you complete with information on your website including keywords. You will have a response to your application within two days. Make sure it is completed entirely or your application will be denied.

All communications must take place with Google. This means if you have concerns or issues about an advertisement your business has on a website or about an ad you are hosting on your website everything goes through Google. The two businesses are not to discuss the issue between each other. Google does not guarantee a set amount of clicks or earnings for a host website. It also doesn’t guarantee any increase in traffic or sales for a business. Google Adsense has the right to use the name of businesses participating in the program for presentations, marketing, and financial reports. Users of Google Adsense are required to pay for the amount of pay per clicks their ads received as outlined. Adsense accounts are non-transferable under any circumstances. They can’t be resold to another provider. A maximum of three ads per webpage can be displayed. Advertisements can’t be placed on webpages that don’t contain content for your website. A webpage can’t be used for the sole purpose of displaying ads to make money. Click fraud is not acceptable at all by Google Adsense. It damages the reputation of the program and costs the advertisers a great deal of money. Any website hosting advertisements that is believed to be involved in Click Fraud will be banned from using the program. If you chose to use Google Adsense to advertise your business, protect it from Click fraud by purchasing Click Fraud software.

Google Adsense is a great opportunity for businesses to advertise their products and services on various websites and pay only for the number of consumers who click on the link to go to that businesses website. It is also a great way for a business to make money by hosting advertisements for other businesses. Understanding the policies of Google Adsense will help you determine if the program is right for you. It also helps the program work properly for all those involved in it.

Terry Detty
Terry Detty, 42 years old, finds internet marketing his passion. In addition to marketing he enjoys reading, and occasionally gets out for a short walk. Internet advertising with web directory submissions or web directory advertising services increase web traffic.

Google Frees up FeedBurner!

2007-07-04T03:16:00.000-07:00

If you've been blogging for an extended period of time you very likely not only know what FeedBurner is, but you are using it. For everyone else, you likely heard about it when Google stepped in to purchase the service as yet another weapon in their ongoing "arms race" with Microsoft.

Well as a result of that deal, Google has today unleashed FeedBurner's previously monthly-fee based 'Pro' services for free. Simply click on the 'Feedburner Stats Pro' link at the bottom of the 'Analyze' tab and check the 'Item Views' checkbox with the blue 'Pro' icon next to it (the Pro tool 'Reach' has already been automatically upgraded for you). Back on the 'My Feeds' screen you'll even see the same blue 'Pro' icon appear next to your feed name.

Google Operating System is also reporting that FeedBurner MyBrand is now free as well. This is big news as this is the service that allows you serve up FeedBurner-run feeds from your own domain name. Google is clearly moving quickly to bring FeedBurner into the family; the next question has to be when will they integrate AdSense and AdWords with the FeedBurner Ad Network? The advertising is where the money is at for Google, so you can expect such integration to happen soon.

A lot of negativity has come at Google in recent months as they continue to make deals that foster their domination of the Internet sphere; but it's hard to complain when Google is taking previously premium services and dishing them out for free. Yahoo bought MyBlogLog months ago and never opened up their premium services for free.

Healthy competition is a good thing, but who can argue with free?

(Credit: pronetadvertising.com)

Go Daddy Experiences Enormous Growth in Hosting

2007-07-02T02:54:00.000-07:00

June 28, 2007 (DomainInformer.com)

Customers are flocking to GoDaddy.com for their Web site hosting needs, creating major growth in the use of the company’s Web hosting services. The development is part of a big Web industry trend, according to two new reports.

A new survey by independent Internet analyst Netcraft, LTD, shows domain registrars and search portals are marking large gains in Web hosting. At the same time, hosting specialists are falling behind.

“This month’s data yields some of the strongest evidence yet of the power shift in Web hosting,” said Rich Miller of Netcraft. “Go Daddy continues to amass huge numbers of users on its hosting platforms.”

Netcraft recognizes GoDaddy.com as, by far, the number one domain registrar used for hosting. However, GoDaddy.com actually offers a wide variety of services.

“We believe customers are choosing GoDaddy.com because it’s really a full-service Web company, offering not just domain registration, but also hosting, email, SSL Certificates for Web site security, tools to create Web sites and more,” said GoDaddy.com President and Chief Operating Officer Warren Adelman.

“Hosting is an important part of what we do, and we make it easy for people – including the owners of small and medium-size businesses – to go to GoDaddy.com and get everything they need to create and host a Web site,” said Adelman. “We even offer an industry-first hosting community called Metropolis, where hosting customers can find free applications to set up a blog, share images and communicate through forums."

The monthly Netcraft Web server survey looked at responses from more than 122 million Web sites. Netcraft notes Go Daddy has seen “enormous growth” in shared hosting operations. The data also shows the overall Web hosting shift is affecting the entire hosting industry.

“This trend, along with the growth of social networks and image/video hosting services, is prompting deals in the hosting industry, as providers seek the scale and breadth of services to compete,” said Miller.

For example, Netcraft recently reported on two separate mergers between companies that specialize in hosting. According to Netcraft, these deals were designed to provide the combined companies with the scale and resources to compete with “Internet titans like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! and Go Daddy.”

Another independent Internet analyst, Tier1 Research, just released a report saying the mass-market Web hosting sector is in a critical period of transformation with Web service firms not normally thought of as “hosters” now successfully entering the sector. Like the Netcraft research, the Tier1 report also notes an increase in market consolidation to deal with the issue.

Despite other companies’ merger efforts to keep up, Go Daddy continues to experience this major spike in hosting, along with a big jump in domain names under management. Go Daddy currently has more than 22 million domains in its portfolio. Go Daddy continues to increase its popularity with customers by offering new products, affordable prices and top-notch 24-hour-a-day customer service.

Are Cheap Web Hosting Plan Enough?

2007-07-02T02:52:00.000-07:00

Toronto, Ontario (PRWEB) June 30, 2007 -- Web Hosting establishments are constantly spreading their company name throughout the net building up their status hoping to increase reputation. Having said that, consumers look to find a web hosting plan to fit their budget and not only cheap domain names.

To elaborate, in order to satisfy customer's needs web hosting companies compete in full confidence to provide as much benefits as they can in their hosting plans. Faraz Dayvandi, President of CRM www.cashrichmoney.com stated that in order to give the web hosting world what they want, you have to load as much benefits as you can in hosting plans.

Simply a cheap domain name registration is not enough anymore. Such benefits that come in almost every web hosting plans are: 100MB Banner-Free Hosting 1GB Monthly Traffic, 10 Email Accounts, Web/POP Email Access, FTP Access, Website Creator and many more. Is this really enough to satisfy customer's wants?

It certainly takes much more benefits than the ones mentioned above, however in order to decide on a web hosting plan, you need more than benefits. Trust and hacker safe programs are a crucial factor to look in to. Web Hosting companies want their customers to fully trust them and understand that the web hosting corporation they chose is reliable. Having said that, CRM www.cashrichmoney.com has provided such a site where consumers can compare top rated web hosting plans and not have to go struggle searching for it on the net.

CEO of CRM www.cashrichmoney.com Tal Lifschitz quoted, "We believe consumers should have the option to check every web hosting plan on one single web page then decide to make a purchase. This eliminates the stress factor of endlessly looking for it on the internet." Hopefully, web hosting consumers realize the potential of not having to stress out over endless options not given to them.

New Software Technology Helps Small Businesses Compete With Large Corporations Online

2007-07-02T02:32:00.000-07:00

Largo, Fla. (PRWEB) June 28, 2007 - After five years of development, Web Tools and Technology has now released Site Search Architect, a next-generations content management software (CMS) program to help small- to medium-sized businesses compete online with large corporations.

Site Search Architect gives its users the ability to create professional web sites without the need to know any HTML coding. But even more impressive, Site Search Architect automatically incorporates proven and reliable search engine optimization (SEO) techniques into every Web page it creates.

Site Search Architect is the only complete search engine marketing tool on the market
Since the vast majority of Internet users rely on search engines to find products and information, a higher search engine ranking gives businesses an edge against the competition. Businesses that usually can't afford high-paid Internet professionals or SEO firms can now use Site Search Architect to effectively increase the rankings of their Web sites in the major search engines, including Google. SEO Content Management System.

"We developed Site Search Architect to make it easier for smaller businesses to launch successful search engine marketing campaigns," said Dave Barry, President and CEO of Web Tools and Technology. "We used the knowledge and expertise of leading SEO practitioners to develop a cost-effective CMS that actually 'thinks' like an SEO expert."

Site Search Architect organizes and optimizes Web content and backend technical features of Web sites for proper presentation to site visitors and the search engines. These are industry-accepted practices and techniques that increase search engine rankings for the long term. Site Search Architect users never have to worry about getting banned from listings or suffering poor rankings for "spamming" search engines.

Site Search Architect also includes superior lead tracking and traffic statistics to provide users with all the data needed to gauge the effectiveness of their search engine marketing.

"Site Search Architect is the only complete search engine marketing tool on the market," said Mr. Barry. "From initial Web design and search engine optimization, to content management and lead tracking, this is the only CMS a business needs."

Contact:
Joe Webb
Web Tools and Technology
1501 Lake Ave. S.
Largo, FL 33771
Phone: (727) 466-4560
Web Site: www.site-search-architect.com

10 Reasons Why You Should Pay for Search Engine Optimization

2007-07-02T02:14:00.000-07:00

by Ant Onaf (Owner & founder of AntOnaf.com)
PromotionWorld.com - June 29, 2007

Most people who are internet savvy probably would assume it is much easier to do search engine optimization themselves without the need to hire any professional search engine optimization assistance. In some cases this may work, but in most cases this is an absolute injustice for your web business. Marketing is an important and viable aspect of any business and without the proper marketing attention a business can easily fail. The following are 10 reasons why you should hire a professional search engine optimization consultant or SEO company.

Search Engine Optimization Takes Time, Effort, & Dedication

It takes an extreme amount of time, effort, and dedication to successfully complete a search engine optimization campaign. Search engine optimization consultants and companies usually have dedicated time to work on your search engine optimization project, thus giving you a controlled and managed search engine optimization campaign. Large companies as well as many small companies can provide your search engine optimization campaign the SEO effort and architecture it needs. Attempting to dedicate your own time can sometimes be overwhelming and without strict self-discipline you can easily get sidetracked. Additionally, progress for your search engine optimization campaign can take time to see any results, this fact can lessen your motivation to complete your own do-it-yourself search engine optimization campaign.

SEO Tools, SEO Strategy, & SEO Experience Goes a Long Way

The available SEO tools are ever-changing, but most skilled SEO's have a suite of SEO tools which they keep up with and use to execute reports and other processes, such as keyword research, keyword density reports, keyword competition reports, traffic reports, etc. Like any profession you need the necessary tools and essentials to get the job done, the experienced use of SEO tools will aid in any SEO campaign. Professional SEO consultants and companies create SEO strategies and roadmaps to successfully market client websites, this strategic roadmap outlines in detail the planned effort to market clients' websites. SEO strategy is essential for any SEO campaign. Having an experienced SEO professional on your side is always ideal. Experienced SEO's stay up to date with the latest SEO trends and news. By having an experienced SEO your website can impressively gain ranking within a short time and much more effectively, providing greater Return on Investment (ROI).

Search Engine Optimization Is Not Easy

Search engine optimization is not simple, it’s not just starting a website and throwing around hundreds or thousands of links. Those days of search engine optimization are gone. It is now more about strategy, method, and architecture. Search engine optimization is a form of engineering these days. True search engine optimization engineers stay up to date with search engine algorithm and search marketing. Knowing the trends is important, but that doesn't necessarily mean following trends, true search engine optimization engineers use experience, skill, historical methods, and best practices to successfully market websites. Researching trends and not just following trends is very important, a good search engine optimization engineer uses good judgment, to know what methods work and what is borderline unethical or useless methods.

SEO Services Do Not Have to be Very Expensive

Most full SEO campaigns are expensive, but relatively affordable compared to other advertising avenues, such as: print advertising, broadcast advertising, etc. Shop around for SEO Services which match your marketing budget and needs. Do not settle for the first bidder, compare the first bidders’ rate against other SEO companies and consultants rates. Contact various SEO consultants and SEO companies to receive a free custom quote. Negotiate the SEO rate and services until it fits your budget and needs. Get yourself a fair and honest deal that you are satisfied with.

Search Engine Optimization Can Take Your Website to New Heights

It's no secret that having your site rank in the top 10 results on search engines is very rewarding and can provide you with herds of traffic, if you rank for the right keywords. Search engine optimization can excel your website through the ranks and land your website in the top search results for virtually any keyword of your choosing. It is important that the search engine optimization company or consultant you choose targets top search results for all 3 major search engines (Google, Yahoo, & MSN). By having top search results in all 3 major search engines for a popular search term you are surely going to increase website sales and exposure.

Professional & Experienced SEO Services Can Be the Difference Between You and Your Competitors

Most online businesses and services invest in professional and experienced SEO services. The top search results for popular keyword terms usually have professional and experienced SEO companies and consultants in their corner, leading their online marketing campaign. By having professional and experienced SEO's working for you, your website will naturally outrank your competitors who use the do-it-yourself method of SEO services. It is always imperative to stay one step ahead of your competition and it’s more likely you will do so with the aid of professional and experienced SEO services.

Search Engine Optimization Gets You the Best Bang for Your Buck

When you compare search engine optimization with other media advertising efforts such as print advertising, television commercial advertising, and radio broadcast advertising then search engine optimization gives the best bang for your buck. While other advertising methods can cost hundreds of thousands for advertising, search engine optimization cost peanuts compared to these other advertising methods. Let's say you spend $25,000 for a full search engine optimization campaign and you spend (let's say) $100,000 for a television commercial ad which runs for 1 full week at prime time (I know that ad is a whole lot more than that, but this is just an example). The search engine optimization campaign is much cheaper and the return on investment is much greater for the search engine optimization campaign. Why? Because the search engine optimization campaign has a broader reach, it can reach anyone across the globe, while the TV commercial ad is specific for local or nation broadcasting within their network. Secondly, the search engine optimization campaign is much more targeted and relevant to the customer needs, because the customer actually initiated the search and was looking for you, while the TV commercial ad is an interruption to the customers viewing program and the customer is more likely to ignore the commercial ad, especially if it does not entice them.

SEO Services Can Help Increase Business Sales Drastically

Increasing business sales have never been easier. If you have a brick & mortar which sales goods, then it is advised that you also have an online store to sale your goods as well. Having an online business while investing in professional and experienced SEO services will help your business expand and grow drastically. Like any sound business decision, as a business owner you are always looking for new ways to monetize, expand, and stay ahead of competition, SEO services for your online business is the perfect solution for getting this done.

Professional Search Engine Optimization Can Increase Your Search Ranking in a Shorter Time Period

Professional search engine optimization services can get your website ranked in a shorter time than trying to do it yourself. With the aid of professional and experienced search engine optimization your website can rank within the search engines within weeks, maybe even days. Finding the right professional with the skill level you need can be quite rewarding.

Treat Your Website Like a Business

If your website is going to be a part of your financial lifeblood then it is sensible to treat your website as a business and recruit professional search engine optimization services. Good business sense is to outsource or employ others to complete day to day task and projects such as search engine optimization and search engine marketing, so you can have more time to concentrate on running a successful business. Many businesses fail due to the do-it-yourself model. Doing things yourself is 'okay' if the task you are performing is your profession or relates directly to your business service, but trying to do things yourself because its your hobby, interest, or saves you money can be damaging to your business, as you need to treat your website like a business and only seek professional and experienced assistance for your business needs.

I highly encourage that any true website owner who is interested in reaching top search results seriously consider professional and experienced SEO services for a full search engine optimization campaign. SEO services may be an expensive advertising avenue, but as we discussed above it is much cheaper than its other advertising counterparts and the reward is much greater. Search engine optimization has long been a mystery to many people and is foreign to some, but with the help and aid of professional and experienced SEO services you will easily increase website sales, traffic, and exposure. If you employ the right search engine optimization company or consultant I can almost guarantee you will have a rewarding experience and will not regret it.

New Search Engine Marketing Techniques on Four New Web Sites

2007-07-02T02:09:00.000-07:00

Austin, TX (PRWEB) July 2, 2007 -- Austin-based Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firm RefreshWeb announces the launch of three web sites for clients incorporating new, advanced search marketing techniques. The clients are Austin Institute of Real Estate, Breedlove & Associates, and Clifford Law Offices.

The Austin Institute of Real Estate just launched a completely re-designed site as it expands its business, www.austininstitute.com, and launched a sister site, www.thetexasinstitute.com, to gain visibility on a wider range of search terms. Clifford Law Offices, in Chicago, is a growing law firm with a specialty in aviation law; www.cliffordaviationlaw.com was a response to the need for greater visibility on search related to that practice area. Breedlove & Associates (www.breedlove-online.com) are Austin-based tax and payroll specialists, who see this as a way to reach customers by providing free information such as a "nanny tax calculator", and free answers and advice regarding the employer payroll taxes.

An increasing number of companies are choosing to incorporate advanced SEM techniques into web site redesigns
Search Engine Marketing (SEM), the use of advanced Internet-based marketing strategy - such as refinement and close coordination with a company's marketing strategies and lead management, comprehensive use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and extensive link development - is increasingly necessary for the success of a web site.

"An increasing number of companies are choosing to incorporate advanced SEM techniques into web site redesigns", says John Rasco, RefreshWeb CEO, "This includes Search Engine Optimization (SEO), an online marketing strategy that works - and is measurable."

About RefreshWeb
Austin-based RefreshWeb is a business-to-business Internet marketing agency. It applies B2B marketing experience and technical expertise to promote clients' web sites to the top of the results on Google and other search engines.

For more information about RefreshWeb, contact John Rasco at jrasco @ refreshweb.net

(512) 637-5271, 5828 Balcones Dr., Suite 202, Austin, TX 78731. The company's website is www.refreshweb.com

SEO Optimization - What Is It?

2007-06-30T03:09:00.000-07:00

"SEO Optimization" has become a very popular term in the search engine industry.

SEO stands for search engine optimization. Therefore, when using the term "SEO Optimization", the word optimization is obviously unnecessary, but you get that.

SEO (search engine optimization) refers to the process of altering your web site so that it suits a search engine's preferences for a particular keyword, so that the site appears higher in it's listings when someone searches for that keyword.

Each search engine has a different way of deciding how to rank web pages. Some prefer keywords in the TITLE TAG section of your website coding. Others prefer links with keywords in them. Others prefer keywords within certain sections of your website title or body of text. Others prefer pages with a large number of relevant websites linking to them. Other search engines prefer a combination of these and more!

You can quickly see that pleasing each different search engine is a time consuming task. But there's more.

When you alter your website coding to match the requirements of a particular engine, you will do it for a particular keyword only (eg. "gardening equipment"). But if you want to target another keyword (eg. "outdoor landscaping") then you may need to prepare another web page with coding to suit that particular keyword. Then you need to alter it for each search engine again.

You also need to put safeguards in place to make sure that the search engines don't pick up on your several similar pages and consider banning you for "spamdexing".

The list goes on!

(The following was an excerpt from southwestecommerce.com: 30 October 2006)

Submitting To Directories: Yahoo & The Open Directory

2007-06-29T22:15:00.000-07:00

Submitting To Directories: Yahoo & The Open Directory
By Danny Sullivan - March 12, 2007 (Credit: SearchEngineWatch.com)

Directories are search engines powered by human beings. Human editors compile all the listings that directories have. Getting listed with the web's key directories is very important because many people will see these listings. In addition, if you are listed with them, then crawler-based search engines are more likely to find your site and add it to their listings for free.

Preparation

You should prepare before submitting to any directory. This preparation means that you have written a 25 word or less description of your entire web site. That description should make use of the two or three key terms that you hope to be found for.

Consider keyword research to help determine the best keyword phrases for your site rather than guessing at what these terms might be. The What People Search For page has a list of resources that will allow you to do such research.

It is essential that the description you write not make use of marketing language. So, if you sold shoes and wanted to be found for terms such as "athletic shoes" and "running shoes," you might write a "just the facts" description like this:

Purchase athletic shoes, running shoes, hiking boots and other footwear plus try our cross country trail finder.

You would not want a description like this, which is full of marketing hype, and which editors dislike:

World's LARGEST online shoe store with the best prices from the greatest brands!!!!

Submitting To Yahoo

Do a search on Yahoo. You will note the main results that come back are "powered" by Yahoo's crawler (see the Search Engine Results page for what "main" results are). Despite this, Yahoo maintains its own independent "directory" of Web sites, which are compiled by its human editors. As mentioned in Part 2, being listed in this Yahoo Directory MAY potentially help you get included and ranked more favorably in crawler-based results, including Yahoo's.

Yahoo has two submission options: "Standard," which is free, and "Yahoo Directory Submit," which involves a submission fee.

Anyone can use Standard submission to submit for free to a non-commercial category. You'll know the category is non-commercial because if you try to submit to a non-commercial category, the Standard submission option will be offered in addition to the Yahoo Directory Submit paid option, discussed further below.

Why might you choose to pay when the free search engine submission option is available? Simply for a fast turnaround time. If you use the free submit choice, there is no guarantee that your submission will be reviewed quickly or at all.

Your submission to a non-commercial category is more likely to be accepted if your content is not overtly commercial. For example, submitting the home page of a site that sells running shoes is likely to be seen as commercial and not accepted. However, if you have a page within that web site that discusses in depth how to select the right type of shoes for different running races, then that page might be deemed helpful, non-commercial information and thus accepted.

As for commercial categories, Yahoo requires that sites pay a Yahoo Directory Submit submission fee of $299 per year. This fee doesn't guarantee that you will be listed, only that you'll get a yes or no answer about being accepted within seven business days. However, the vast majority of decent sites are accepted.

If accepted, you'll be reevaluated after a year and charged the submission fee again, if you want to stay in Yahoo's commercial area. You should review the traffic received from Yahoo over the past year to decide if it is worth paying the fee again. If not, you can decline to be listed, and you will not be charged.

But what about crawlers? If you originally signed up with Yahoo hoping to influence crawlers, won't dropping your Yahoo directory listing cause you to be dropped by the crawlers? Not necessarily. The crawlers will keep listing your site based on its own merits. Whether the pages within your site will rank well is a separate question. However, after a year of existence, your web site may have other important links pointing at it. This means that losing your link from Yahoo may not have much of an impact on your ranking. If money is tight, you could try dropping the Yahoo listing, only to resubmit if you find it does have an impact on your rankings in crawler-based results.

The annual fee only applies to commercial categories. If you submit to a non-commercial category using Yahoo Directory Submit and get accepted into that area, the fee is charged only once, not on an annual basis. You might get the opposite impression, because you'll keep seeing references to a "recurring annual fee." However, in the terms and conditions for Yahoo Directory Submit, the annual fee is only for sites in the Yahoo Commercial Directory.

How do you submit? If you are submitting for free to a non-commercial category, click on the "Suggest a Site" link that appears at the top right-hand corner of the category page. That will bring up a submission form. Fill it out, and you're done.

If you are paying to submit, you needn't pick a category. Instead, just use the Yahoo Directory Submit Form. From there, Yahoo editors will choose a category for you. All you need do is fill out the form that is presented.

The above tips are the bare essentials to getting listed with Yahoo. If you are in a hurry, you can follow them, and you'll probably get listed and receive some traffic from the service. However, you may want to do even more preparation before submitting to this important service.

Search Engine Watch members have access to a detailed How Yahoo Works page that guides you even more through the process. It explains why it is better to select a category, rather than leaving it to Yahoo's editors when using the Yahoo Directory Submit service. It also explains more about the relationship between your being listed in the Yahoo Directory and your positioning in crawler-based results. To learn more about becoming a member to access this information, visit the membership information page.

Alternatively, you might consider working with a search engine optimization company that has experience in submitting to Yahoo. You'll have to pay for their services, but the price may be worth it in relation to the additional traffic you'll receive from a carefully conducted submission to Yahoo.

Search Engine Watch members have access to the Outsourcing Search Engine Marketing page that lists articles about selecting search engine optimization companies.

Submitting To The Open Directory

The Open Directory Project (aka ODP or DMOZ) is a volunteer-built guide to the web. It is provided as an option at many major search engines, including Google (see the Search Engine Results page for a full list). Given this, being listed with the Open Directory can add value to any site.

The good news is that submission is absolutely free. The bad news is that this means there is no guaranteed turnaround time to getting a yes or no answer about whether you've been accepted. In fact, you may not receive any notification one way or the other.

To submit, locate the category you want to be listed in. Then use the "add URL" link that appears at the top of the category page. Fill out the form, and that's it -- you've submitted.

If you are accepted, you should see your site appear within about three weeks. If this doesn't happen, then you should resubmit. Note that for awhile it took considerably longer than three weeks to be listed in ODP because of editorial delays. In December 2006, ODP announced that "editing is back," so the situaion should be back to normal.

As with Yahoo, it is highly recommended that you take the time to learn more about the Open Directory before submitting, in order to maximize the amount of traffic you may receive.

Search Engine Watch members have access to a detailed How The Open Directory Works page that guides you even more through the process of submitting to that directory. To learn more about becoming a member to access this information, visit the membership information page.

What is a Sitemap file and why should I have one?

2007-06-29T21:52:00.000-07:00

So you still don’t know how important a sitemap may be for your website? Google’s Webmaster Help Center has provided a description that should get you up to par in the decision to create one…

What is a Sitemap file and why should I have one?

You can use a sitemap file to tell us about all the pages on your site, and optionally, to provide information about those pages, such as which are most important and how often they change. Sitemaps are particularly helpful if your site has dynamic content, pages that aren't easily discovered by following links, or if your site is new and has few links to it.

Sitemaps helps speed up the discovery of your pages, which is an important first step in crawling and indexing your pages, but there are many other factors that influence the crawling/indexing processes. Sitemaps lets you tell us information about your pages (which ones you think are most important, how often the pages change), so you can have a voice in these subsequent steps. Other factors include:

* How many sites link to you
* Whether your content is unique and relevant
* Our ability to crawl the pages successfully
* Everything outlined in our webmaster guidelines.

A sitemap provides an additional view into your site (just as your home page and HTML site map do), but sitemaps do not replace our normal methods of crawling the web. Google still searches and indexes your sites in the normal way, whether or not you use this program, and sites are never penalized for using this service. We can't make any predictions or guarantees about when or if your URLs will be crawled or added to our index but over time, as we refine our processes and better understand webmasters' needs, we expect both coverage and time-to-index to improve.

Once you have created your Sitemap, you can add it to your Google Sitemaps account and update it as your site changes.