Archive for November, 2006

Search Engines are not that stupid – and content is still king

Saturday, November 4th, 2006

They say “content is king”. Is it true?

If you’re fairly experienced with websites, search engines and traffic in general, you might have heard this before. If you’re really into internet marketing, you’ve heard this time and again.

And I will wholly and totally confirm it: Content IS king.

Stop using gimmicks and META tags and sneaky tricks that “guarantee” traffic explosions and nuclear hazards. Stop stealing other people’s content, either through XML, RSS, or whatever XHDHTML you might think of. Duplicate and junk content is OUT. Quality, timely, visitor-oriented content is IN. Big time! Read on to find out more.

High-value, focused content keeps the Internet world spinning properly on its axis. It’s the fundamental behavior that keeps EVERYONE happy.
(Ken Envoy)

FACT: Search Engines are not that stupid.

Many people, books, websites and articles will tell you about how searchengine go for “tags”, “keyword density”, “keyword-rich domains”, so on and so forth. When I was running my first web sites, back in 1998, you could fool them with meta tags. A year after, meta tags were in total decline, and, shortly after, they were practically dead. Then came Google with its revolutionary system. And along came the SEO guys, spreading their wisdom: “Put the keywords in the title, in the first paragraph, in H1, H2 and H15 and you’re done”. Try to do that today for a top keyword and see if you succeed.

Is my website’s domain name, www.InternetMyBusiness.com keyword-rich? Yes, it is. Is this of any use? NO. I didn’t get high search engine rankings explosive SEO results because of it.

The bottom line is: things are evolving. Things are not static and neither are the search engines. They learn how to deal with tricks and no gimmick is gonna work on the long run.

ANOTHER FACT: Search Engines detect ‘duplicate content’.

Therefore, you’re not that smart if you just copy and paste a bunch of words, or if you ’suck’ them through XML or RSS.

ANOTHER FACT: Searchengines love content, and so do people.

The internet is all about content. You already knew that, right?

ANOTHER FACT: Quality matters You already knew that as well. But I just feel many people still need a confirmation. Through the
quality of the content you provide you gain credibility, respect, popularity AND high conversion rates and sales.

What are the conclusions of this article?

1. Start creating content. Right now. You invest a little time and effort, but it pays.
2. Stop dreaming of that magic trick that will bring you free content and 1687.48987.8947987 visitors in 24 hours without you lifting a finger.
3. Concentrate on quality AND on quantity – this is the right order.

Take your time to deliver quality and enjoy the results.

:)
What’s nice about the end of this article is that I am not trying to persuade you into buying anything.
I’ll just let you know that I run a website where I share all my knowledge on internet marketing with you people for free.
Because the best things in life are free .
Maphler
http://www.internetmybusiness.com/

About the author:
P T Birlea shares all his knowledge with you for free on http://www.internetmybusiness.com – his website features straight-to-the-point, simple, comprehensive tutorials AND a free 5-day bootcamp (limited availability).

Test and Track Your Marketing Strategies

Saturday, November 4th, 2006

Developing and implementing a strategic marketing plan is an essential part of your success. However, unless you’re testing and tracking your strategies, you may be losing a great deal of time and money.

You can dramatically increase your sales simply by taking the time to test and track your results. Not only will it help you to determine what’s working and what’s not, but it will also enable you to focus your efforts on the strategies that produce results.

When testing your marketing strategies, keep in mind, a strategy that produces results for one person may not produce results for you. There is no ’set in stone’ strategy that works for everyone. You must develop your own style and technique and test your results to determine what works for you. Below are some ad tracking resources to assist you in your testing and tracking endeavors.

Ad Tracking CGI Scripts

LnkinLite
http://www.dtp-aus.com/cgiscript/lnkinlte.shtml

If you’re looking for a simple way to track clickthroughs, then LnkinLite may be your answer. This free script will enable you to easily keep track of the number of clicks a specific link receives. Instead of using your standard link within your advertising, you can use a link created by this script. It will track the number of clickthroughs and instantly redirect your visitors to your URL.

Willmaster’s ProLinkz
http://www.prolinkz.com/

This powerful script is a link creator, tracker, disguiser and manager all in one. It will enable you to create uniquely coded links that redirect to any URL you specify and count all hits and referrers.

Cost – $45.00

AdTrackZ
http://www.adtrackz.com/

This script will enable you to set up an entire ad tracking campaign including statistical reports for referring URLs, what browsers your visitors have installed, what operating systems your visitors are using and much more.

Cost – $47.00

Ad Tracking Services

LinkCounter
http://www.linkcounter.com

A free service that tracks the clickthrough rates of your links. In addition to tracking your links, LinkCounter hides the URL of the link destination. This will prevent users from removing or changing your affiliate ID when visiting an affiliate site through your link.

HyperTracker
http://www.hypertracker.com

The PRO version of HyperTracker contains a number of advanced features including: unlimited advertising campaigns, tracking of sales and actions, special scripts that let you promote your own website address in your campaigns and much more.

Cost – Starting at $10.95 mo. They also offer a free version.

Adminder
http://www.adminder.com

An online tracking system that will enable you to track an entire advertising campaign. It will enable you to see how many visitors were generated by each of your ads, keep track of sales that were generated by each ad and calculates the cost-per-click, cost-per-sale, and click-to-sale ratios for each ad.

Cost – $19.95 mo. (for a limited time)

Statcruncher
http://www.Statcruncher.com

Statcruncher tracks and reports exactly which ads, banners and links are producing results. They provide you with access to their powerful web-tracking system that will enable you to track your ad campaigns 24 hours a day in real time.

Cost – $49.00 yr.

If you’d rather not use any of the products and services listed above, you can use some alternative methods. Below are some example tracking methods you can use to track your response rates:

URL

You can track your ads simply by adding some special coding to your URL. To code your URL, add a question mark followed by a special tracking code to the end of your web address. Your coded link will still open your web page. Your code should look something like this:

http://www.yourdomain.com/?ad1

The text after the question mark should identify a specific ad. You can code it however you’d like.

To view your results, you’ll need to look at your log files. Your code will be displayed within your log files beside your URL.

Email

You can track your email responses to specific ads by using the email subject. Select a specific word to be placed within the email subject for each ad. Although you can request that a certain word be placed within the email subject, many times it won’t be supplied. To avoid this problem, you can create a special email link that will automatically fill in the subject when clicked on. Your link should look something like this:

mailto:you@yourdomain.com?subject=ad1

Testing and tracking your strategies is an essential part of doing business. By concentrating your efforts on strategies that produce results, you can not only increase your sales, but you’ll also save yourself a great deal of time and money.

Copyright © Shelley Lowery

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, Web Design Mastery. http://www.webdesignmastery.com And, Ebook Starter – Give Your Ebooks the look and feel of a REAL book. http://www.ebookstarter.com Visit Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to Etips and receive a copy of the acclaimed ebook, “Killer Internet Marketing Strategies.” http://www.web-source.net