Where is this Going?
Good question. If you are referring to this article, I am somewhat disappointed but if you’re referring to the Internet, we can do business. Most of us have an approximate knowledge of the history behind how and why the Internet was conceived but what we have an even less of an idea about is where is it going. If you haven’t managed to catch one of those documentaries examining the Internet’s past, I won’t waste you’re time by telling you about it when there are probably thousands of websites that can do it more justice than I can in a few lines of text here.

Anyway, back to our question. Where is the Internet going? If we can just continue the analogy of the Internet being a child, it was born in the autumn of 1969 and is now a 36 year old man with more money, more fame, more attention and more admirers than any other person that ever lived. Thankfully the Internet is not a man otherwise it would have an ego even bigger than that of Arnold Schwarzenegger. By the way, he was once asked a serious question “What do you think of gay marriages,” and his answer was “that’s between a man and a woman.”

But jokes aside, we have in fact created a monster that Dr Frankenstein would have been proud of. The Internet touches a very large percentage of the human race. It makes the job of communicating opinions, products, services and a great deal else besides so often so seamless that we cannot help but fall head-over-heals for its mesmerising charm. And yet, behind the façade of colourful pages containing banners, links, images, animations and words, lies an uneasy, almost eerie feeling that we have in fact lost control of this thing we call the Internet.

Have we Lost Control?
Consider this. If, say in five year’s time, it was found that the Internet was causing some serious detriment to human life, could we put a stop to it. I think not. The only precedent that I can think of is the attempt by the Chinese government to sanitise the content to which their people may have access. But, let’s be realistic. It’s almost like trying to stem the Pacific ocean. As long as people use the Internet, it will grow and the more people that use it the faster it will grow. Yes, but grow into what?

Do we Envisage a Happy Ending to the Internet
If we treat it as an invention we can try to predict its future by looking at other inventions that large numbers of people use. Say for example the motor car. The very first one was steam driven and came into being around 1723. That makes it 282 years old. Nowadays, they are everywhere and we couldn’t imagine being without them. As it turns out, it’s not so much the motor car itself that causes us problems (aside from the road accidents) but the exhaust fumes it leaves behind. The trouble with the car is that eventually there will be so many of them, as world population increases, that we shall run out of road space to such an extent that there will be a premium on road usage as opposed to car usage. So I think we can see that the future of the motor car isn’t really that bright.

But there is a great difference between the motor car and the Internet. Like all good inventions, the motor car has one well defined purpose and that is transportation. The Internet, intentionally or otherwise, serves many purposes. E-commerce is but one example. Browsing for information is another function. Entertainment is huge. These purposes in themselves are very large generic entities that branch into a multitude of different facets, all of them purporting to serve the end user.

What I’m trying to get across is that the Internet is not like any other invention. Its purposes are many and each one is a tiny branch upon the countless tentacles emanating from a central mass of major websites that attract the most traffic. If you haven’t already guessed, these are the “good” sides to the internet. What about the sides to it that nobody wants to talk about.

Pornography
There is a statistic that says 90% of all browsing or searching has a connection to or affinity with pornography of one sort or another. We all know this but we don’t really like to talk about it. There is no limit to the depravity that webmasters won’t stoop to in order to feed yet another base desire which is greed. But you may argue that pornography has been with us for a very long time, so why should it worry us now? It’s the method of delivery. If a country wanted to control or censor images of this sort via conventional means, the possible sources could easily be identified, approached and stopped. Television companies, mainstream newspapers and magazines are three examples. It is even possible to curb the purchase of publications by those not of adult age. In addition, there is also the embarrassment factor which may sometimes prevent the prospect from approaching a counter or a till and coming face-to-face with another human being or speaking on the phone to order some illicit cable channel.

I am thinking primarily of the children who make up a large segment of the online population and it is nothing to enter sites that display the most appalling images. And as we all know, the depravity does not stop there. It goes far beyond that for those wishing to pay for services.

Hatred
There are many sites that incite racial, cultural and religious hatred. These do nothing more than fuel people’s prejudices about other people. They are not in the same league as opinion or freedom of speech. If the written word or picture causes tempers to flare and anger to inflame, it has no beneficial effect. On the other hand, if it depicts truth (and we have to be very careful about the facts that led to the truth) it should never be suppressed. These checks and balances, alas, cannot be guaranteed on the Internet. It does not recognise boundaries, taboos and sensitivities because no one can predict the age and background of the visitor.

Illegal Activity
There is of course a plethora of websites and schemes all wanting to scam us out of some amount in return for some idea. No doubt, many thousands fall for these things every day, especially if they are newcomers. Chain letters, pyramid schemes and unsolicited emails are just three examples. Every single aspect of fraudulent activity may be found on the Internet. Happily, we can write articles and visit conscientious websites that genuinely warn people to be aware of such things.

Conclusion
Where is the Internet going? Simple extrapolation shows that the negative sides will grow much faster than the positive ones because there is a lot more of it. This means that come another decade, we could start to see technologies being created to control the Internet perhaps using the United Nations as a means to implement or police the International Internet Community. It will be a pity because, as it is always the case, whenever you take blanket measures to do away with negative activity, there is always damage to the good side as well. It might mean waiting months or years for the vetting process to be finalised before anyone is allowed to start a website. It could be that entire nations maybe disenfranchised from the Internet because they are deemed to be “unsuitable”. These are just some examples of how the Internet might go.

However, we, the users of the Internet can do something about it now. The only way to kill a website is to starve it of visitors. If people were to change their habits and avoid sites that they knew had any of the negative things mentioned above, we could effectively police the Internet ourselves. I have to be honest though and say that given our human nautre, I don’t really hold out much hope of this happening any time soon.

In the meantime, here is a website dedicated to a new book of mine which is a supernatural come science-fiction novel. Please click on http://www.willofdreams.com to visit and learn more about the author and the book. Thank you for your attention.

What’s more important, conversion or rankings? On one side you’ll get the argument that if you achieve top rankings (which drives traffic) but you cannot convert your visitors substantially, your rankings are then wasted. On the other side you’ll hear that if you build your site and are able to generate a substantial conversion rate, but don’t attain top positions in the rankings (and therefore obtain less traffic), then you won’t have anybody to convert.

It’s the modern chicken or the egg question as it pertains to marketing online. Assuming even for a second that you had to sacrifice one for the other, which should you choose?

Ideally, you wouldn’t have to sacrifice either, and in real world practice, you usually don’t. As algorithms get better, and engines like Google have more access to analytical data, how users interact with your site, including page views, time spent on the site and actual conversions will play a significant role in a site’s ability to rank.

This is why, as I stated in a previous article of mine, SEO is Dead, that those employing SEO from the old perspective based on keyword manipulation (on and off the page), without taking usability and other marketing aspects into consideration, are a dying breed. It simply doesn’t work. But even if it did, the point about not being able to convert visitors once they arrive is a valid one. Why pay to drive 10,000 visitors to your site if you can only convert .05%? Wouldn’t it be more lucrative to send only 5,000 visitors to your site and improve your conversion rate to 3%? Absolutely!

But SEO isn’t measured by the number of visitors as is the case with more traditional forms of advertising. Yes, visitors need to be tracked and we do measure for visitor increases, but a SEO campaign is not built around getting your site before X number of people, but rather about capturing as much targeted traffic as possible. Different industries and keywords will produce different traffic numbers.

Ideally, you want to increase your conversion rate as much as possible, but you wouldn’t make a decision to try and capture fewer leads through SEO in order to do so. No, you want to gain site exposure and drive mass amounts of traffic. Obtaining top search engine rankings isn’t the only way to do that, but it is one of the most effective, which means rankings are still very important.

Many in the SEO industry are trying to move away from using rankings as the sole measure of success altogether. I applaud those efforts, and the points made are valid, but I often wonder if it is realistic. Most searchers don’t go past the first, second or third page of results, which means if you don’t have top rankings for your targeted phrases, you’re missing a considerable sum of traffic.

But as I said earlier, top rankings are not the only means to generate traffic. Good SEO can bring traffic from many avenues, not just the search engine. But is that still SEO? No, not in the strictest sense. Can other marketing efforts bring in just as much traffic as top search engine rankings can? Sometimes, but usually this results in a much higher cost.

So, are search engine rankings still important? Yes, rankings are still important, which means SEO is still important. But since SEO is more effective with usability and conversion tracking along with other online forms of marketing, the best SEO is that which offer more than just “top ranking” services.

Stoney deGeyter is president of Pole Position Marketing, a search optimization marketing firm providing SEO and website marketing services since 1998. Stoney is also a part-time instructor at Truckee Meadows Community College, as well as a moderator in the Small Business Ideas Forum. He is the author of his E-Marketing Performance eBook and contributes daily to the E-Marketing Performance marketing blog.

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If you own a web site yourself or know someone that does, you are probably familiar with the importance of internet marketing tools. The site may have a professional design, quality product or service, great content and functionality, but if the right internet marketing strategies are not utilized, your site may not be attracting the key to real success, highly targeted traffic. Getting a lot of consistent traffic has very little to do with the web site itself, but rather how the sites owner or webmaster choose to advertise the site. There are hundreds even thousands of sites competing on the web today, so you must use the most effective internet marketing tools to achieve targeted results.

There are many different internet marketing tools that can be used effectively, all of which are designed to increase your web sites traffic. Simply put, you must find a way to get people to your site. Put yourself in the “shoes” of your prospective visitors and clients. “Where do they go to do web searches?” is a key question that must be answered and can be quite simple to answer, the search engine. The webs most popular sites are search engines and portals, therefore, you should focus your internet marketing efforts to the search engine.

When surfers browse search engines, they will be more inclined to view a site placed high on the search engine, as opposed to a site with poor search engine placement. With that in mind, you must use the correct internet marketing tools to build a strong (high) search engine ranking. This is where the term Search Engine Optimization is derived from. SEO, as it is called commonly, is a set of methods and tactics aimed at improving your search engine ranking and the visibility of your site in search engine results.

Search engines index sites in several ways, one of which is by looking at the keyword density of the web site, or the sites content. Content alone, is one of the most valuable internet marketing tools to utilize. If your site has excellent relevant keywords aimed towards achieving a high search engine ranking, as well as providing valuable information, you can expect a high search engine position. But because of the high competition of web sites using the same internet marketing methods, you must continuously find new and better ways of attracting targeted traffic.

Today, one of the most popular and effective internet marketing tools is the use of Pay Per Click advertising. This method involves bidding for a particular keyword in a specific search engine, the search engine then compares the bids of all the merchants for that specific keyword, and the highest bid gets the top placement for that specific keyword search. For example, if you bid $.75 and a competitor bids $.73, you will be awarded the higher position. This internet marketing tool is being utilized by thousands of web sites on hundreds of PPC search engines. Google Adwords, Yahoo Overture, and the new MSN Adcenter are the three most popular sites who offer pay per click ad services today.

Content and pay per click advertising are just two of many internet marketing tools that you can utilize to improve your search engine optimization and achieve high web site traffic. There are literally hundreds of other techniques and methods, both free and paid, that you can use successfully to increase your sites visitors and profits. Internet marketing tools are the true key to SEO and generating profits in the highly-competitive online business battlefront that we call the Internet.

James Bradley has been involved in internet marketing and affiliate marketing for over 4 years. He has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine. http://www.supermoneymakingsecrets.com

Ebay does a massive amount of business on a global level every day. Last year, in fact, eBay sold 38 billion dollars worth of goods and services. 14% of all transactions that take place online are done via eBay’s auctions. 45,000 people buy products through eBay every day, and it’s only growing as eBay expands and enters new markets. Ebay provides a tremendous amount of opportunity to all people of an entrepreneurial mindset.

So what are people buying on eBay?

The truth is that people are buying anything and everything. Of source, there are some markets that are more popular than others. The billion dollar business takes place in the following categories:

· Clothing. In eBay land, an article of clothing sells every three seconds. Much of this clothing is gently used, bought on clearance, or has been sitting in a closet for years. Power Sellers usually buy wholesale and sell below retail.

· Electronics. This covers a lot of technology - televisions, broken equipment for parts, outdated computers. A digital camera sells every minute on eBay - an important thing to know if you’re constantly upgrading your own technology at home.

· Collectibles. This is the niche lover’s dream. Avid collectors of antiques, artifacts, pop culture, and even used dental equipment swarm to eBay to compete over the next addition to their collection.

· Jewelry. People buy costume jewelry, handcrafted jewelry, wedding bands, precious stones and antiques. The profit margin is usually much better than you will get at an estate sale or pawn shop.

· Sporting goods. Every day somebody throws in the towel and gets rid of that unused ab cruncher, weight bench, or boxing gloves. There always seems to be somebody else that is eager to take that sport or activity on themselves.

· Cars. This is the top grossing category on eBay by far. Ebay sells more cars in a morning than most car dealers sell in a year. This is why many car dealers are taking their hard-to-sell trade-ins and auctioning them off on eBay. Other car sellers on eBay have turned their fixer-upper mentality into a profit by going to local government auctions, replacing parts, and then auctioning the car off to the highest bidder.

No matter what you’re selling on eBay, there is a market for your product. These categories will give you an idea of where the most common profits come from, but don’t think that you can’t carve a niche out in a different category. There is plenty of room to develop, and test, new products on eBay and find your own spot in the market. Just do your research, be creative in your marketing, and make sure your auctions have good descriptions and accurate pictures. And if something isn’t selling, you can always change to a new category or change your product lines. In many cases, you can actually change your entire focus overnight! How many offline retailers can do that?

Matt Bacak, Entrepreneur Magazine e-Biz radio show host became a “#1 Best Selling Author” in just a few short hours and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to Retire From Your Job This Year and Still Make More Money Than the Average Medical Doctor… You Can Do It
Once You Know the Proven Steps Outlined here! ==> http://www.internetmillionairemind.com

A solid Internet marketing strategy will make or break your experience online. Many companies loose millions on bad advice from IT professionals and web design personnel that do not fully understand the complexity involved with an Internet marketing strategy. You should only deal with experts that know and understand the Internet for marketing purposes. Deal with company’s that are proven on how to successfully expose your website for maximum target traffic. Get them to show you high rankings of websites of their clients or their personal websites.

Many companies online businesses went under during the dot com fall because of a weak Internet marketing strategy. Simply put, they were not educated on this at all. There is a misconception that if you have a site live that you be found by search engines for your related terms. This is not accurate.

You website needs a solid foundation for an Internet marketing strategy to work effectively with search engines. This solid foundation is really proper coding in your website’s code, structure of pages, and how you build your website. Now engines are not the only way to market but one of the most effective ways to be found without spending ridiculous amounts of money on advertising your domain name. You can get Free traffic that is ongoing throughout the year because of your website being found on industry keywords relating to your website. All you need is a team of experts to build your website properly for maximum search engine exposure.

Internet Marketing Strategy for your website

Gregg Makarowski is a top search engine specialist helping hundreds of companies achieve high rankings around the globe.

After you have narrowed down the potential problem, you should act to fix it as soon as possible and then resubmit your website to be re-included in the appropriate search engine.

Below are ten things that should be avoided at all costs when performing Search Engine Optimization for your website. If you happen to use one of these techniques listed below, then you are sure to be penalized or banned in one or all of the major search engines.

For help or more information on increasing your page rank, contact Hudson Horizons today.

Click here to automated your Google and Yahoo Sitemaps today.

Hudson Horizons is an e-business product, solution and marketing company specializing in creating highly sophisticated customized websites, web-based software applications and providing e-marketing services for small and mid-sized businesses.

Our vision and ultimate ambition as a company is to always strive to be “The New Light for e-Business.”

By offering new, innovative and extremely competitive products and solutions to our customers, we provide better ways to run and operate their business online.

Unless you’ve been living in a hole for the past ten years, you’ve heard some wild eBay success stories. There was the woman who sold a grilled cheese sandwich that had a burn stained in the shape of the Virgin Mary. (Not only sold it, but grossed a whopping $25,000 for it!) Another man sold a wedding dress way above cost after modeling it on eBay, mostly because of his angry tirade against his ex. Every week, there is another eBay story that seems stranger than the next - usually involving huge sums of money that makes you want to shake your head and ask, “Why would anybody spend money on that?”

While the occasional oddity on eBay creates a great news story, the truth is that millions of items are listed every day in every category - from the mundane to the outright strange. In 2005, it was reported that over 740,000 people had launched their own business using eBay. They’re living the American dream. Who are these brilliant people? Single moms, self-publishers, garage sale junkies, retired folks, information brokers, real estate agents, high school dropouts, students, people with disabilities… And just about everyone else! EBay has created a marketplace where there is room for just about anybody. With over 50 million members, there is a market for just about anything to turn a profit. (Not just the ones that find divinity in their kitchen…)

The thing that seems to hold most people back from starting an eBay business is fear or doubt. Most people don’t believe that they have anything to sell. They think it can’t be simple enough to do in their spare time. They think they don’t have the skills, the products, or the expertise to put their stuff online.

This simply negative thinking packaged as skepticism. EBay has grown up a lot since the days of the beanie baby collectors. If you have something to sell, eBay is the place you can find somebody to sell it to. And you can do it tonight!

One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. It’s a cliché, but it rings true. Don’t believe me? Take a look on eBay. Type something you would never buy (short of actual trash) into the search engine. EBay buyers are a strange bunch - a quick look on eBay will show you auctions where people buy broken equipment, not-so-gently-used shoes, empty plastic containers and stained clothing. People buy things that Goodwill would throw away. You probably wonder why. So do I! The truth is, it doesn’t matter WHY anyone buys your stuff on eBay. All you need to know is that they will.

Here’s my challenge to you. If you’re considering starting an eBay business, but you’re afraid you will fail, for any reason, it’s time to set yourself straight. Walk through your house and think about what is in your garage, your attic, or your basement that you simply haven’t had the time or will to get rid of. Take a decent photograph with a digital camera, write an accurate description and headline (after your spell check) and put the auction up for a week. Start it out at a few cents. Don’t use bold or anything too fancy. (A counter might be handy, though, to see how many people are looking.)

Do this every day for a week. (If you only list one item, you may think it’s a fluke if it sells…)Watch the prices go up. Remember that you’re selling stuff that you don’t think anyone would want to buy. At the end of the week, count your profits. Do you still think that there’s no way you can make a living off of eBay? Imagine the results if you’re selling something that people actually “want to buy”!

Matt Bacak, Entrepreneur Magazine e-Biz radio show host became a “#1 Best Selling Author” in just a few short hours and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to Retire From Your Job This Year and Still Make More Money Than the Average Medical Doctor… You Can Do It
Once You Know the Proven Steps Outlined here! ==> http://www.internetmillionairemind.com

The amount of high-speed Internet access customers in the US will rise from 2.3 million in 1999 to 42 million in 2005, evident to research by Allied Business Intelligence (ABI). Worldwide broadband customers will leap from 5 million in 1999 to 91 million in 2005.

So far, cable modems have been the obvious head in high-speed Internet access when it comes to cheap, multi-megabit data transfer charges, taking over DSL. Cable’s lead is due to an earlier market admission, according to the account “The DSL Solution: ADSL/SDSL Equipment and Subscribers” by ABI, which established that at the end of 1999, high-speed cable Internet service had 2.1 million US subscribers, while DSL had only 500,000 US users.

But DSL suppliers cannot get out the service fast enough. This is due partly to growing promotions highlighting DSL, some suppliers were seeing 50 to 60 percent development in user rates, and occurring major backlogs in process.

While suburban Internet users in the US are starting to leap on the broadband wagon, numerous US businesses have until now to adapt to high-speed Internet access. The whole number of US Internet-connected companies is proposed to boost drastically in the next three years, shooting from 2.96 million businesses in 2000 to 4.48 million in 2003, according to Vertical Systems Group. During this time, broadband connections will rise by 264 percent, while use of dial access will go down 10 percent.

Amid residential clients, countless issues still exist concerning broadband use. According to a study of 1,000 members of Greenfield Online’s Internet-based board by 2Wire, Inc., 51 percent of people in the US do not know if DSL facility is obtainable in their neighbourhood. Younger users are expected to identify if DSL is accessible in their region compared to elder users, the survey established. More than half (53 percent) of Internet users ages 25 to 34 recognize if DSL is offered locally; in contrast with 37 percent of Internet users age 55 and older. Naturally, the superior the earnings, the more probable respondents were to be conscious of DSL. Sixty-four percent of Internet users earing more than $100,000 per year are aware about local DSL service, in comparison to only 39 percent of Internet users making less than $35,000 per year.

There are more and more services available to us online, that we tend to be oblivious to them. To get the most out of the Internet, we need to be aware of technologies evolving and services offered.

Nick Singh runs a website committed to serving customers in finding the best deals on getting a cheap broadband connection. For a comparison of the best ISP’s go to http://www.cheap-broadband-in-the-uk.com.

Starting with last year, we saw the devastation caused by the Tsunami. Entire communities were wiped out, leaving people in remote areas without any way to access the world to ask for help. Then, Katrina hit, again, causing such massive destruction, followed by Rita. The result has been cable and DSL service being completely obliterated, with much of it still down. This means people are still in the Mississippi and Louisiana areas without connection to the outside world.

While satellite internet technology can help in a number of situations, this is by far one of the most beneficial. The reason is that unlike traditional internet technology, satellite internet does not use cables. Instead, satellite internet uses a small, 2-way satellite dish.

For the survivors of natural disasters, this means with just two to three hours of labor, a connection to the outside world is made. Although the technology is high-tech, the price can be very affordable. This means people in these devastated areas can still use computers to reach family and friends, letting them know their safety status without it cost a fortune.

Satellite internet also means that police departments, fire stations, hospitals, nursing homes, and other types of businesses can reach whomever they need, no longer being isolated. The computer is connected using an Ethernet to the satellite modem. Once connected and the satellite mini-dish in place, you will have high-speed internet access. Best of all, this connection can be made with a wireless hub, or if you prefer, a router with the satellite modem, connecting wirelessly.

Today, satellite internet service is fast and affordable. With this, individuals in remote areas that have not been able to reach outside resources any other way can connect quickly and reliably.

If you have been one of the victims of the Tsunami, Katrina, or Rita, and find that you still cannot gain access to the internet because of so much damage to the existing infrastructure, then consider satellite internet to get you up and running for a price you can afford. The service provided is exceptional, with each setup being made specifically for the customer so you have top quality service and performance. With satellite internet, you can get in touch with family and friends, making that important connection.

Satellite internet will also provide you with the means for obtaining dental, medical, education, or other types of records destroyed. You can contact people to order supplies, furniture, medication, and so on, simply by connecting to the internet. Rather than feel as if you have been forgotten and isolated because of the natural disaster, use your computer to take back control of your life, putting the pieces back together so you can move forward, not remain stuck where you are. Satellite internet can help you accomplish just that!

Jacob Minett has been in the satellite industry for over 11 years and is currently helping people get surfing via satellite internet every day. If satellite internet sounds like a solution to your problem then please visit WildBlue Satellite

Anybody looking for a 1976 Nolan Ryan basball card? How about a pair of stirling silver demitasse spoons in your grandmother’s pattern?

The last time I checked, you can find them on eBay, along with a number of basball caps and other misspelled items. Believe it or not, some people still don’t know how to spell check. But, bless their little misspelled harts, because you can use their errors to profit on eBay.

Every day items go up for auction with typos and misspells in the titles. The problem is that a large number of people search for items to buy using the search box, not browsing through the category listings. Therefore, the misspelled items are the ones that usually don’t fetch the bids they deserve because they’re not getting traffic. Sometimes you can pick these items up for a song. And, once you’re done singing what can you do? Resell the item on eBay, properly spelled of course, for quite a nice profit.

Some sellers have even begun to capitalize on eBay misspells by selling programs designed to find misspelled auctions. However, just typing in some of the most common typos and misspells into the search box will often times yield great results. (If the correct spelling automatically pops up, that means there were no items with that particular misspell.)

How do you know what a common typo or misspell is? One way to find them is to go to misspell sites such as www.searchspell.com, where you will find typo and misspell suggestions for any word you type in. Some common typos are often caused by leaving out a letter, such as in basball. You could also type in baseall and see several other items for sale. Transposing letters is another common typo, such as baesball, where, once again, you may find some items for sale.

Another way to utilize misspells on eBay is to include the most popular misspell in your title along with the correct spelling. The reason being that some people mistype or misspell the item they’re searching into the search box. For example, a Jack Lalanne Juicer is often typed in as Jack Lalane Juicer. That is a very common misspell, and numerous people type that into the search box when searching for a Jack Lalanne Juicer. If you type in Lalanne and Lalane into the title you are able to grab both sets of people, those who are spelling it correctly, and those who are not. You’ve just increased traffic to your auction.

Savvy eBay sellers (and buyers) are utilizing typos and misspells to their advantage. Give it a try. You might find yourself stumbling onto quite a few treasures.

Writer’s note: The items listed in the first paragraph, the Nolan Ryan baseball card and the spoons were auctions present on eBay at the time of this writing. However, there were numerous other items with the misspell of basball and stirling silver from which to choose.

Shari Hearn is a writer and owner of http://www.ebaysellingideas.com and http://www.ebaysellingtips.blogspot.com

Everyone knows that top ranked sites get a lot of traffic, BUT is that because they are “top ranked” or is it because they get a lot of traffic that makes them top ranked?

Which comes first the Chicken or the Egg?

The eternal question, here’s a way to answer it, in relation to Search Engines anyway

First, the major Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN, all have different formulas for calculating how they rank a site and these formulas are always changing so it’s impossible to know exactly how to optimize a site for top ranking all the time.

One thing is fairly certain though and it doesn’t matter if this changes or not because the means of achieving a top rank will on its own, provide more traffic than we would get from a top ranking position anyway! I’m talking about INCOMING LINKS.

I’ve seen Log reports from a site ranked consistently in the top 5 positions on all major search engines, which show that less then 20% of all traffic is coming from the search engines, and the rest is coming from incoming and reciprocal links.

To learn more about incoming and reciprocal links go here

Incoming links are links from other sites and pages that send people to our site.
Reciprocal links; are links from our site to someone else’s and a link from them back to our site.

Having a large numbers of reciprocal and incoming links is good because while giving us more traffic it also makes us rank highly in search engines. As explained above it doesn’t matter if we don’t rank so well in the search engines, because we have more traffic from the incoming and reciprocal links anyway. So more traffic better rank, better rank more traffic, it’s perpetual motion!
If you would like to see how Alexa determines ranking here’s a quote from their site.

“The traffic rank is based on three months of aggregated historical traffic data from millions of Alexa Toolbar users and is a combined measure of page views and users (reach).”

(Taken from: http://pages.alexa.com/prod_serv/traffic_learn_more.html)

Bill Boyd, is a full time professional Internet Marketer.
To learn more about Search Engines, and get the rest of the report that this came from, go here: http://www.googlemarketingschool.com/GG3.html

In internet marketing it is so easy to get caught up in what everyone is offering and waste so much of your precious time reading what other people have on offer. This in itself is not a bad thing but if you consider that you probably should have been doing something else and now it is too late and that job will have to wait until tomorrow.

I believe the way to be successful online is to have a set of daily, weekly and monthly goals if you place these goals on a list where you can see them you are more likely to stick to them to achieve them. Everyone wants to achieve their goals so sit down and work out what your goals are. Is one of them to increase traffic to your website, is another to post articles to your blog, is one to make $5,000 in sales in one week. Whatever your goals are you need to write them down and then you need to write down what you need to do to achieve them and start on a daily routine. You must start your days doing what is on your to do list so that you will achieve your goals. If you then have spare time you can do whatever you want but always ensure you are doing what is needed to reach your goal.

Just remember reaching your goal is your priority. Goals will change thru time and when they do just re adjust your to do list to ensure you can achieve your goal. Do not set yourself goals that are unachievable as that is counter productive you need to achieve your goals as you are working so that you feel yourself progressing. It is such a fantastic feeling when you achieve your goals. If you don’t set yourself goals you can often find yourself wasting time and actually not getting anywhere fast and we all want to get somewhere fast don’t we.

So sit down and write yourself a list of goals and then write yourself a list on what you need to do to achieve these goals. It would be a good idea if you could also set yourself a time frame of which to achieve your goal. I have set myself several goals and one is to write and post a minimum of one article a day and to build my opt-in list by the end of the year to 10,000 subscribers.

I wish you all the best of luck with your goal setting and once you do it you will find you will set yourself goals more often and wonder why you never did it in the first place.

(c) Lyn Leckie 2006
http://www.MoneyHomeBiz.com
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Imagine if there was a You Tube that instead of serving comedy videos gave you free information from world leading experts.Imagine if there was a market place that you could search for best in class information using state of the art technology.

Imagine if you could use streaming video information on your own site to increase your visibility and professionalism and to increase your conversion rates on your own websites.

Better still………….Imagine if this was all available for free.

move over you tube …FreeiQ is coming!

Well it is now……….. Move over you tube and clickbank, Brad Fallon has raised the bar and given us Streaming Knowledge in the form of FreeiQ. If you’re an Affiliate Marketeer then freeiQ is definite must have in your armoury of internet marketing tools. The FreeiQ Affiliate Program not only allows you embed quality videos into your web pages (and we all know how that can help conversion rates), but if anybody clicks through from the video and makes a purchase then you earn commission as well.

And that’s not all; if you’re fed up with per session or 15 and 30 day cookies you’re absolutely going to love the 365 day cookie (need I say more).

In addition if you refer a Content Provider then you will enjoy a revenue share on their product sales for an entire year (but obviously no where near what they will earn for promoting their own products).

What more could you ask for?

Content Providers - Christmas Has Come Early with FreeiQ 

If you’re a Content Provider and have your own products then……….Christmas has just come early.  

If you have been around sales and marketing for any time whether it be in internet marketing or business marketing then you will understand the power of targeted marketing and FreeiQ will give you this in abundance.

If you have expert knowledge to share or your own products to promote FreeIQ gives you a portal to share this knowledge withes hordes of hungry information seekers on the internet whatever the time of day.

With today’s demanding audiences video content is considered the best promotional media but, if the knowledge is valuable then it does not matter whether it is audio, video or an e-book.

FreeIQ will stream it for free for you, and using its own ranking algorithm the best content comes to the fore, so the more the market likes your offering the more FreeIQ will automatically promote it for you leaving you to focus your efforts elsewhere.

Click Here For Content Provider Information.

Best in class consumer information

So what about the customers? Well quite simply with no cost for content providers to serve their information and products the customers visiting FreeiQ will be winners as well at the end of the day. With the ability to see what’s hot and what’s not customers can rest assured that they are getting access to the best information available on the web today.

Check out FreeiQ Today

No matter whether you are an internet marketer, a content provider or just looking for quality information be sure you check out FreeiQ today and get in at the beginning.

 Remember, Knowledge=Power=Success

Wishing You Every Success

Part 1 of “How to Build a Site to get Search Engine Rankings” left off with a list of keywords …

Go through your list and make your first cut. Cross off anything with a Results / Search ratio that is clearly higher than the average for your topic. These terms are too competitive. Look for those terms with high bid prices and large numbers of PPC campaigns. These are probably too competitive as well. Finally, stay away from terms with a high search volume when you are just starting out or you’ll likely loose interest before you see any meaningful results.

In this cut you should be looking to narrow your list down to under a hundred potential keywords - around 50 would be better to start with. You should also start to get a feel for what keywords are going to work for this topic. Take a close look at these keywords. Are you still excited about the topic? If not, you should stop here and go back to your short list and start over. Passion is key.

The list you’ve just compiled will contain the keywords that you will turn into your site pages. As you look over this list and begin to do the next step in the analysis process you should be thinking about your primary keyword. This will be the strongest keyword left on your list. You want to pick the word with the most search volume and least results, with few PPC campaigns and low bid costs. This primary keyword will form the basis of your all-important index page and will direct the selection of your domain name.

Don’t settle on your primary keyword just yet though - you still have some data collection and analysis to do.

For each keyword you need to collect another set of data. Again the best way to do this is by creating a spreadsheet or chart to help you record and compile your data. This data set will look at the search engine optimization of your competitors. This information is invaluable in two ways. First, it will show you which keywords represent opportunities for high rankings due to the currently top ranked sites poor optimization. Second, it will show you exactly what you must do to get top rankings for any given keyword.

Create a chart for each keyword listing the URL’s of the top 3 competing sites. You’ve already collected the URL’s so you can start creating your chart. Use the following columns.

1. Site URL
2. Title tag
3. Keywords Meta tag
4. Description Meta Tag
5. H1 tag
6. Bold tag
7. Italics tag
8. underline tag
9. Image alt tag
10. Keyword density
11. First word
12. Last word

These items comprise the bulk of the on page optimization factors. While on page optimization is important to achieving high rankings you won’t get anywhere just by perfecting your on page optimization. Top rankings only come through a combination of on-page and off-page optimization.

Collecting this information is a matter of doing your research. Go to each site and use the View … Source menu option to look at the HTML underlying the page. Identify and record the title tag, keywords meta tag, alt tag and description meta tag. Then use the Find tool in your browser to find the H1 tag, bold, italic and underlined text.

You’re looking for your keyword in these tags. The more often you find your keyword in these tags the more optimized this site is for that particular keyword. More optimized sites are going to be harder to displace because they are usually run by SEO savvy webmasters who will not take a decline in their ranking lightly.

Look at the site and record the first word on the page and last word on the page. Again you’re looking for your keyword. Finally you need to determine the keyword density. The ideal density is between 3%-7%. Less and the keyword isn’t considered very relevant on the page. More and the Search Engines may flag your site for keyword stuffing. You definitely won’t rank well then. You can use this tool to figure out your keyword density. http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-density/. It’s free.

This completes your on-page optimization spreadsheet. Go through each of your keywords and collect this data for all three top competing sites. You should start to see where your best opportunity in this niche is by now but you still have a little more data to collect. So far you have all of the on-page factors of your competition, but the more important part of achieving high-rankings is your off-page optimization.

Off-page optimization boils down to links. The internet is, in essence, nothing more than pages linked together. The search engines determine the importance of a page, in large part, based on the number, quality and relevance of incoming links to that page.

The final component of your data collection is to record the inbound linking information of all inbound links for each of your competitor sites. Once you have completed this rather tedious task you will be ready to make your final decisions about your site keywords.

At this point you will have to sift through all of the data you have collected and decide which keywords to cut and which to use for your site. It’s more important to select keywords that fit a common theme and offer little competitive resistance than it is to select a large list of keywords. Since you are going to save this data you can use it to determine pages to be added later. For now, focus on keywords that you can be successful with. Later as you add pages the weight of your site will help pull them up the rankings.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a few tools that can greatly speed up the process I’ve just laid out. But, before you go out and spend your money on a piece of software I highly recommend that you go through this process at least once manually. It is tedious but it will also give you invaluable insight into the search engine optimization process.

The first tool I use is called Keyword Elite. It automates the process of collecting all of your keyword data as well as the on-page optimization factors of the top ranked sites for each keyword. I highly recommend it.

The second tool I use is called SEO Elite. It allows you to research the linking structure of any website. Once you know what the top ranked site is doing you can duplicate their linking strategy and secure top rankings very quickly.

These two tools combined give you a better insight into the state of your niche market than anything else I’ve found on the net. If you’re serious about SEO you should plan on buying both of these software applications. The alternative is a lot of very tedious work - and I’ve found that that takes all the fun out of the whole process.

Automate the entire website analysis and design process and be sure that you are working from the very best information possible. Keyword Elite and SEO Elite are the only tools you need to dominate any niche market in the search engines with lighting speed.

More and more people are realising that Ebay is not only a marketplace to sell and buy products but also an extremely valuable source of traffic to your own website, the thing is like any business entity Ebay realises this and has various measures in place to prevent an abuse of this.

Let’s start with looking at what exactly Ebay considers to be a link:

A link is any mechanism used to take you off the eBay site, whether static or clickable. This applies to any format used for a link that includes, but is not limited to, text, images, logos or icons.

What this means is that the listing must be solely for the purpose of selling the item, and not for general business advertisements.

Now reading this you would think that they have completely closed the door but they have in fact still left you with plenty of options, what you need to realise that these cannot be direct solicitations to sell outside of the Ebay marketplace. So what exactly can you link to from your auction listings, well you are allowed to:

You are allowed to link to a page that further describes the product for sale, that page may contain links to other pages that offer items for sale outside of eBay. This is permitted, provided the intent of the link is to further describe your item. If you have a logo for any of these links, it may be no greater than 88×33 pixels and it may not flash or otherwise move.

So provide a detailed description of the product and also include your standard menu bar, this not only makes your page part of your sites look and feel but also presents the reader the opportunity to click around and you are also not enticing people to do so.

You are allowed to place one link, and one link only, to your email address so bidders can ask for extra information. Your email address may be a link that opens an email client or web form (no links are permitted off of the web form however). This link must only provide a contact service, making the link direct to sales pages or product offers is in conflict with Ebay policy.

So provide an email contact address that is related to your website, ie. is specific to your domain name. Most internet users are savvy enough to realise that this address is linked to a website and will take a look if they are curious enough.

You are also allowed to link to pages that contain further pictures of the item for sale, these photo pages may also contain “discrete” links to other pages that offer items for sale outside the eBay online marketplace, but may not contain descriptions of or links to specific items on other sites.

So make sure the page fits in with your website and has your usual menus in place and people will take the opportunity to look around your site, DO NOT place descriptions or enticing strap lines to encourage the clicking away from Ebay. You will find that this is not needed and you will generate hits/visitors anyway. Also bear in mind that this page is allowed to have images of other items that you have for sale on Ebay so use it to highlight your offer and also increase traffic to your other auctions on Ebay.

You are also allowed to watermark your images with the address of your website, this is because the images are yours and as such you own the copyright. If they are not your images and are generic images that you don’t have copyright to then you are not allowed to firstly use them and secondly watermark them as your own.

You are allowed to link to your Ebay Shop, other items you have for sale on Ebay and your About Me Page. Your About Me Page is a key means to help develop traffic to your own site.

You are allowed to provide credit to any third part solutions and services that you use to help you generate your listing, for example if you use any of the Free Ebay Templates that we provide then you are allowed to leave in the link acknowledgement that is within the HTML already. The key to this remaining within Ebay policy is that the credit must be:

• No more than 10 words of text (HTML font size 3)
• A logo (88 x 33 pixels)

Importantly it can also only be one of these and not both and must also conform to the below:

• The credit may not contain promotional material about additional services or other information about the company. It should only identify the service provided by the company.
• The credit may link only to the third-party company’s website containing information about the eBay service.
• The service being credited should only be one that the seller is using within that particular listing.
• If an image hosting service is used, sellers may display a credit for the image hosting service provider.

A lot of sellers are starting to use links to pages away from Ebay that detail the terms and conditions of the sale, firstly it is Ebay policy to have these within the listing itself but any such pages that are linked to CANNOT include ANY links to pages outside of the Ebay Marketplace. The simple solution is just to list these in the listing itself and not run the risk of breaking policy.

All the above should maximise the traffic opportunities that Ebay can provide, you must also exercise restraint when using them as going overboard and linking every other sentence for example will be deemed as soliciting off Ebay sales even if the links are allowed in Ebay policy. One of two per listing is more than enough.

Mike - Webmaster and eBay Power Seller at Online Auction Trader your source of Free Ebay Templates

We offer free templates, information and product sourcing to enable you to develop your online auctions into a sustainable, long term income stream.

We also operate a Ebay Forum where any advice can be sought on any aspect of Online Trading.