Don't get banned by Google! by Martin Grun
It's a simple question... Are you asking Google to penalize your website?
I'm sure you're probably thinking; Well, of course not! Yet daily I see new people complaining in search engine optimization forums that their websites have been banned by Google and they "have no idea why".
These people claim they've done nothing wrong and are absolutely clueless as to why their site is no longer in Google. The purpose of this lesson is to teach you one VERY important thing. What NOT to do when optimizing your website, to make sure you don't get banned.
How do you know if you've been banned?
First let me show you how to see if you're clearly banned by Google. Often times people think they've been banned, when in reality they've just dropped in ranking and can't find their website.
There are a couple of things you can do.
1. Check Google's search results. 2. View the Google toolbar.
Check Google's search results?
Go to Google and enter your entire URL into Google's search box. In this example we'll use a made up domain name. (www.jkhljkhkjh.com). On a side note, I tried www.somerandomdomain.com and www.fakedomainname.com and both were already taken.
Anyway, we'll go to Google and enter our entire URL and click "search" http://www.jkhljkhkjh.com
Notice that Google says there is no information available for this URL? This means that the URL is no longer in Google's database (a.k.a. index)
If you enter a brand new website into Google, you'll always get this message until the website has been indexed. But, in this case, the website we entered has been banned by Google for some reason is either banned or is brand new. If we know our website was once in Google and do the search I just showed you above, and Google says "Sorry, no information is available for URL [whatever your URL is]", then chances are... you're banned.
Another way you can quickly see if your website has been banned is by:
Viewing the Google Tool Bar
Download the Google Toolbar here: http://toolbar.google.com
Once it's installed, simply visit your website. If the Google toolbar is completely gray, this may meen that you have been banned by Google.
Banned:
* Note: Most SEOs call this "gray barred". (So if you hear that term in an SEO forum, that's what they're referring to)
Not Banned:
Ok, so now we know how to tell if our website has been banned.
What can cause your website to get banned?
There are many onpage ranking factors AND offpage ranking factors that can cause Google to ban your website. Today, we'll focus on only the onpage things that can cause your site to get banned.
Before I begin, I want you to know that many websites still get away with doing some of these things. They DO NOT help your rankings and are simply a waste of time, so don't try them. Sooner or later Google will catch up to these websites and will remove them.
It's just not worth the risk when doing them no longer helps your ranking to begin with.
Hidden Text
Hidden Text is simply text that users can't see when they visit your webpage. Some webmasters will do this so that they can add keywords throughout their webpage without it interferring with what the visitors actually see. Yet, the search engines can still see hidden text.
For example, let's say you have a white background on your website. If you wanted to hide text, you would simply make the color of your text white (#FFFFFF) and users couldn't see it.
I did a quick search in Google and quickly found an example of a website using hidden text. Have a look below:
At first glance, you're probably wondering where the hidden text is...
Let me show you. I went to the website and clicked "ctrl + a" on my keyboard. This will highlight the entire webpage as shown below:
Now we can clearly see the hidden text at the very top left side of their website that says "fat loss body fat abs weight loss diets bodybuilding dieting tips abdominals"
These are keywords that they want to rank well for and want the search engines to see when they first visit their website. Yet, they don't want their visitors to see this text. So, they've made the text white, to blend in with the background.
This website used to be ranked #1 for "fat loss", but I just did another check to see where they're ranked, and they're no longer anywhere to be found... AND it looks like they also removed they're hidden text, but it's probably too late.
Alt image tag spamming
This is another way that people will try to cram keywords into their website, allowing search engines to see their keywords, but not allowing visitors to notice any difference in their website.
The following is a website that wanted to rank well for "cabbage soup diet". What they've done is inserted a graphic of a cabbage. They've then added an alt image tag to the graphic. When a visitors visits the website, and hovers their mouse over the cabbage soup graphic, a little popup will appear.
Notice how many times they've repeated the word "cabbage soup" and "cabbage"? Way too many! It serves no purpose other than to cram as many keywords as possible into their webpage.
The real purpose of an alt image tag is if a user visits your website and the graphic will not load, or is disabled by their web browser, text will appear instead of the graphic. This is often used for blind people.
Alt image spamming is something you want to stay clear of. Using alt image tags are good, but you can overdo it, as you can see above. A good alt image tag in this case would simply be: cabbage soup diet graphic Meta Tag Surfing
What I'm referring to here is when people throw in thousands of the same exact keyword into their meta tags.
For example, the following website is trying to rank well for the keyword "tents".
< name="KEYWORDS" content="tents, TENTS, Tents, tents tents tent supplies, tents, tents tent, tent, Tent, TENTS, tents, Tents,tents, TENTS, Tents, tents tents tent supplies, tents, tents tent, tent, Tent, TENTS, tents, Tents,tents, TENTS, Tents, tents tents tent supplies, tents, tents tent, tent, Tent, TENTS, tents, Tents,tents, TENTS, Tents, tents tents tent supplies, tents, tents tent, tent, Tent, TENTS, tents, Tents tents, TENTS, Tents, tents tents tent supplies, tents, tents tent, tent, Tent, TENTS, tents, Tents">
This is obviously ridiculous. Google, and other search engines no longer use Meta Tags to rank websites.
Google WILL penalize it, and it WILL NOT help you... so, why would anyone do something like this?
Stay away from it.
Title Tag Surfing
The title is what appears in the top left hand corner of your webpage. Below is an example of Title Tag Stuffing.
Don't do it... You only need to include your keyword(s) one time in your title tag.
Anymore than 1 time will only dilute the effect, and if you overdo it as shown above, you may get severely penalized and drop in the rankings.
Those are just a few of the things that people are continuing to do online. These things WILL eventually get your website banned or penalized and WILL NOT help you rank well. It's just a waste of time and effort, plus it's just plain ignorant to waste your time on something that doesn't work and will get your website banned from the search engines anyway.
--
Visit my site to read this article with images. Traffic Building Optimized
About the Author
Helping others build traffic onto their sites.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Friday, May 4, 2007
Kontera ContentLink: An alternative to Google AdSense
Google AdSense now have another competitor - Kontera ContentLink™. Kontera provides contextual ads they called ContentLink™ using what they refer to as their patent-pending technology. You can read more about it by surfing Kontera's site.
It appears to me that there are some improvements of Kontera ContentLink™ over AdSense Text Ads. When you hover your mouse over the ContentLink™, a tool tip (a small box) will appear displaying the full text ad from the advertiser that sponsors that ContentLink™. The visitor then can choose either to ignore the ad or click on it if he find that that is what he is seeking. Furthermore, it either provides a relevant ad or an internal link to another relevant page within your site or network of sites. It may also provide 3rd Party Information Links to external information including dictionaries and encyclopedias. This provides for a better visitor experience and will encourage repeat visits. However, I do not know if publishers are paid for clicks to such sites but I very much doubt it. I will query Kontera and update this post when I receive a response.
A further improvement of Kontera ContentLink™ over AdSense is that Kontera ContentLink™ can display ads even in password protected sites.
However, there is a big difference between Google AdSense and Kontera ContentLink™. Google AdSense are prepared to work with small publishers and imposes no condition on the amount of traffic they receive to their sites, but Kontera ContentLink™ will only approve sites that have over 250,000 page impressions per month. That will rule out many blogs.
It appears to me that there are some improvements of Kontera ContentLink™ over AdSense Text Ads. When you hover your mouse over the ContentLink™, a tool tip (a small box) will appear displaying the full text ad from the advertiser that sponsors that ContentLink™. The visitor then can choose either to ignore the ad or click on it if he find that that is what he is seeking. Furthermore, it either provides a relevant ad or an internal link to another relevant page within your site or network of sites. It may also provide 3rd Party Information Links to external information including dictionaries and encyclopedias. This provides for a better visitor experience and will encourage repeat visits. However, I do not know if publishers are paid for clicks to such sites but I very much doubt it. I will query Kontera and update this post when I receive a response.
A further improvement of Kontera ContentLink™ over AdSense is that Kontera ContentLink™ can display ads even in password protected sites.
However, there is a big difference between Google AdSense and Kontera ContentLink™. Google AdSense are prepared to work with small publishers and imposes no condition on the amount of traffic they receive to their sites, but Kontera ContentLink™ will only approve sites that have over 250,000 page impressions per month. That will rule out many blogs.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
The importance of Domain Name
IP address like 218.111.66.229 is how other people on the Internet find your site, but IP address like this is obviously hard to remember. This is where Domain Name Service (DNS) comes in. It translate a domain name like www.mysite.com to an IP address. A domain name is the text name corresponding to the numeric IP address of a computer on the Internet.
There are long and hard to remember Domain names and there are short and easy Domain names. Obviously, the short and easy to remember Domain names are preferable as it makes it easier for your site visitor to find you on the Internet.
However, with the ubiquitous presence of search engines, remembering domain names are now less important than before and it is now more important that you are easily found by the search engines. A search engine places great importance to the words contained in a domain name. It helps the search engine determine what your site is all about. Having an important key word or words in the domain name as it helps in getting organic traffic. Organic traffic is traffic that comes to your Web site naturally and without being driven there by a specific marketing campaign.
Thus it pays to do serious researching of key words and domain name before you start your website. However, Internet have been around for quite some time now, and a lot of domain names have been registered, some registrants just squating on the name, hoping to make a big buck out of it when someone require it badly.
So you may have done your homework, and have settled on a very desirable domain name, but found that when you try to register the domain, you may find that it is already registered by someone. This is where buydomains.com can play a role. buydomains.com has over 800,000 of the world's finest domains registered with them for sale, and there is a good chance of you being able to find the domain name you want there.
However, buydomains.com doesn't just sell domains. They buy and sell domains, meaning if you have a desirable domain name that you want to sell, you can also do it via buydomains.com. In fact, if you have a talent for spotting good domain names that are likely to be wanted by late comers, you probably can make a tidy sum selling the domains that you registered via buydomains.com.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On a basic level, domain names are important because the Internet's addressing scheme is not very effective without them.
Each computer on the Internet has an Internet protocol (IP) address: a unique string of four numbers separated by periods, such as 165.166.0.2. Since remembering the
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What to Do If the Domain Name You Want Is Taken
Domain Name Basics
Should I Trademark My Domain Name?
Top 10 Mistakes Made When Choosing a Domain Name
See All Related Content
IP addresses of all of your favorite Web sites would be nearly impossible, a group of computer scientists created the domain name system to assign a unique name to each numeric IP address.
But domain names are much more than just a technical shortcut. A short, memorable domain name can make the difference between creating a successful Web presence and getting lost in cyberspace.
A domain name adds credibility to your small business. Having your own domain name makes your company look professional. If you publish your site through an ISP or a free Web hosting site, you'll end up with a URL such as www.yourisp.com/-yourbusiness. This generic address does not inspire confidence in a customer like a www.yourcompany.com domain name does. And since many people don't yet trust the Internet and e-commerce, you'll want to do what you can to prove that your small business deserves their money. If you're not willing to pay the money to register an appropriate domain name, why would consumers think you'd put any effort into creating valuable products or services?
A domain name says you're forward-thinking. Having your own domain name indicates you're part of the Digital Revolution, and it implies that you're up-to-date on emerging technologies. Whether this is true or not, having your own domain name might just put you ahead of your competitors.
There are long and hard to remember Domain names and there are short and easy Domain names. Obviously, the short and easy to remember Domain names are preferable as it makes it easier for your site visitor to find you on the Internet.
However, with the ubiquitous presence of search engines, remembering domain names are now less important than before and it is now more important that you are easily found by the search engines. A search engine places great importance to the words contained in a domain name. It helps the search engine determine what your site is all about. Having an important key word or words in the domain name as it helps in getting organic traffic. Organic traffic is traffic that comes to your Web site naturally and without being driven there by a specific marketing campaign.
Thus it pays to do serious researching of key words and domain name before you start your website. However, Internet have been around for quite some time now, and a lot of domain names have been registered, some registrants just squating on the name, hoping to make a big buck out of it when someone require it badly.
So you may have done your homework, and have settled on a very desirable domain name, but found that when you try to register the domain, you may find that it is already registered by someone. This is where buydomains.com can play a role. buydomains.com has over 800,000 of the world's finest domains registered with them for sale, and there is a good chance of you being able to find the domain name you want there.
However, buydomains.com doesn't just sell domains. They buy and sell domains, meaning if you have a desirable domain name that you want to sell, you can also do it via buydomains.com. In fact, if you have a talent for spotting good domain names that are likely to be wanted by late comers, you probably can make a tidy sum selling the domains that you registered via buydomains.com.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On a basic level, domain names are important because the Internet's addressing scheme is not very effective without them.
Each computer on the Internet has an Internet protocol (IP) address: a unique string of four numbers separated by periods, such as 165.166.0.2. Since remembering the
Related Content
How Much Does It Cost to Buy and Maintain a Domain Name?
What to Do If the Domain Name You Want Is Taken
Domain Name Basics
Should I Trademark My Domain Name?
Top 10 Mistakes Made When Choosing a Domain Name
See All Related Content
IP addresses of all of your favorite Web sites would be nearly impossible, a group of computer scientists created the domain name system to assign a unique name to each numeric IP address.
But domain names are much more than just a technical shortcut. A short, memorable domain name can make the difference between creating a successful Web presence and getting lost in cyberspace.
A domain name adds credibility to your small business. Having your own domain name makes your company look professional. If you publish your site through an ISP or a free Web hosting site, you'll end up with a URL such as www.yourisp.com/-yourbusiness. This generic address does not inspire confidence in a customer like a www.yourcompany.com domain name does. And since many people don't yet trust the Internet and e-commerce, you'll want to do what you can to prove that your small business deserves their money. If you're not willing to pay the money to register an appropriate domain name, why would consumers think you'd put any effort into creating valuable products or services?
A domain name says you're forward-thinking. Having your own domain name indicates you're part of the Digital Revolution, and it implies that you're up-to-date on emerging technologies. Whether this is true or not, having your own domain name might just put you ahead of your competitors.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Blogging: Effective Marketing
Blogging: Effective Marketing
by: Scott Lindsay
Weblogs, or “blogs” were introduced in 1997. As with most new technology the initial users of blogs were those gifted in the field of technology.
The growth of blogging began as the user interface became more simplified requiring no knowledge of HTML or other specialized coding.
Today blogging is used for personal as well as business applications. In the domain of business blogging (B-Blogging) many businesses are seeing the value of a b-blog and are allowing key personnel to blog on company time. The reasons are varied, but a b-blog is useful in presenting the face behind the brand.
The best b-blogs do not look at this format of information sharing as simply a means to say whatever comes to mind. A helpful b-blog for business is one that provides customers with the following.
1) INFORMATION – Customers are interested in the latest news on the products you offer and they may be very interested in the benefits your product or service has to offer.
2) ANNOUNCEMENTS – By providing important new offerings or staff changes, your client may feel more connected to your firm.
3) CONTESTS – In keeping with the fun nature of a b-blog, contests can be conducted through a blog that can supply visitors with a chance to receive promotional products.
4) SALES – If you will be conducting a sale on your products a b-blog can provide an easy way to pass that information along to people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.
5) JUST THE FAQ’S – A b-blog is an effective way to solicit questions and then respond to them in your blog.
One of the key functions of a b-blog is to raise awareness and trust for your products and/or services while keeping things light, informal and highly personable.
B-blogs can be updated as often as you need to and your posts do not need to be exceptionally long. You should say what needs to be said and sign off. By making your comments short and to the point you will likely discover your visitors will respond better than if you insist on drawing things out.
Unlike email, customers who regularly visit b-blogs indicate it is a bonus to see the personality behind the company name. At the end of the day if you have encouraged a customer to remain a customer or if you find new prospects visiting your blog then your goodwill gesture has actually moved from a nice idea to a valuable marketing tool. Isn’t that what you wanted in the first place?
About The Author
Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with High Power Sites at: High Power Sites.
by: Scott Lindsay
Weblogs, or “blogs” were introduced in 1997. As with most new technology the initial users of blogs were those gifted in the field of technology.
The growth of blogging began as the user interface became more simplified requiring no knowledge of HTML or other specialized coding.
Today blogging is used for personal as well as business applications. In the domain of business blogging (B-Blogging) many businesses are seeing the value of a b-blog and are allowing key personnel to blog on company time. The reasons are varied, but a b-blog is useful in presenting the face behind the brand.
The best b-blogs do not look at this format of information sharing as simply a means to say whatever comes to mind. A helpful b-blog for business is one that provides customers with the following.
1) INFORMATION – Customers are interested in the latest news on the products you offer and they may be very interested in the benefits your product or service has to offer.
2) ANNOUNCEMENTS – By providing important new offerings or staff changes, your client may feel more connected to your firm.
3) CONTESTS – In keeping with the fun nature of a b-blog, contests can be conducted through a blog that can supply visitors with a chance to receive promotional products.
4) SALES – If you will be conducting a sale on your products a b-blog can provide an easy way to pass that information along to people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.
5) JUST THE FAQ’S – A b-blog is an effective way to solicit questions and then respond to them in your blog.
One of the key functions of a b-blog is to raise awareness and trust for your products and/or services while keeping things light, informal and highly personable.
B-blogs can be updated as often as you need to and your posts do not need to be exceptionally long. You should say what needs to be said and sign off. By making your comments short and to the point you will likely discover your visitors will respond better than if you insist on drawing things out.
Unlike email, customers who regularly visit b-blogs indicate it is a bonus to see the personality behind the company name. At the end of the day if you have encouraged a customer to remain a customer or if you find new prospects visiting your blog then your goodwill gesture has actually moved from a nice idea to a valuable marketing tool. Isn’t that what you wanted in the first place?
About The Author
Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with High Power Sites at: High Power Sites.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Why Should I Pay for Web Hosting?
Why Should I Pay for Web Hosting?
by: Nate Landerman
The advent of blogging and free blog space has brought about a revolution in web publishing that pushes the boundaries of terms like “webmaster” and “website.” In today’s brave new world of Internet publishing for the masses, the traditional means of building and hosting a personal website has fallen out of favor for many new webmasters.
If you count yourself among the many bloggers who use a free subdomain blog account, you’ll have to think about web hosting sooner or later. Unfortunately, most don’t consider the ramifications until it’s too late. In the beginning, a free blog account or ad-supported web hosting seems like the obvious choice for a personal site. Unfortunately, this decision – or lack thereof - can cause problems down the road. Issues with free hosting and subdomain hosting range from SEO complications to ownership and control issues. Both free and paid hosting have their own merits and drawbacks, of course, so the ultimate decision is yours to make. But understanding these pros and cons is the first step in making a good decision for your site.
Free Hosting
Pros:
• It’s free. This is obviously the single most important advantage of free web hosting.
• It’s easy. Anyone can open an account on Blogger or any number of other free services and instantly get a free website requiring no more effort to publish than writing an email.
• No experience necessary. Anyone can create a site using one of these free services, with no programming, technical, or even HTML knowledge required.
Cons:
• Branding. As your blog or website grows, a subdomain hosting account offers little in the way of branding, and may adversely affect your credibility.
• SEO. If you move away from a subdomain account to your own domain, you will have to start over building links to your new domain.
• No control over ad content. With free hosting, you are at the mercy of your hosting company’s discretion as to what type of ads will be displayed on your site. Pop-ups and ads for adult sites are not uncommon.
• Limited or no accountability for site outages and other problems. When you’re getting something for nothing, it’s all too easy to become the victim of corporate apathy.
Paid Hosting
Pros:
• You can host your own domain. With paid hosting, you can brand your site with your own domain name (e.g. MySite.com) and add legitimacy to your content.
• Control. With paid hosting, you control every aspect of your site, including design and advertising content.
• SEO advantages. With a paid hosting account and domain name, you can build links to your site safely without worrying about whether or not you’ll be changing domain names. In addition, a hosting account allows you programmatic and scripting abilities not usually found in free, pre-built websites.
• Custom site development. Unlike free blogs, a hosted website can typically run a variety of CGI and scripting applications, and can be built any way you choose.
• Accountability and Portability: When you pay for hosting, you hold more leverage over your hosting company in the event of problems. Additionally, by retaining control of your source code and data, you can easily move your site to a new host.
Cons:
• Expense. Though you can get hosting plans as cheap as $2-$3 per month, it’s still a cost that free hosting does not incur.
• Some assembly required. Though many paid hosts offer site builders and blog software as part of the package, it still requires more technical work than signing up for a Blogger account.
• Maintenance. When you create a site yourself, you become responsible for the upkeep of your own code. In fact, you become responsible for just about everything involved with the site except for the server and connectivity.
So in summary, making the right choice between free or blog site hosting and paid hosting is heavily dependent on both you and your site. Though I’ve focused heavily on hosting for blog sites, much of the same information applies to free hosting vs. paid hosting for other types of sites as well. The important thing is to take a good hard look at what you want your site to eventually be, how much effort you’re willing to put into it, and then make your decision.
If you do decide on paid hosting, make sure you look at all options available. Use a web hosting review website such as I Net Publication to compare available options. Not all web hosting is alike, and many hosting companies offer free tools to ease the pain of migration as well as other perks you may not have realized you were missing.
About The Author
Nate Landerman is the owner of www.inetpublication.com, a web hosting review website. This article may be reprinted freely, provided that all links to iNetpublication remain intact.
n.landerman@inetpublication.com
by: Nate Landerman
The advent of blogging and free blog space has brought about a revolution in web publishing that pushes the boundaries of terms like “webmaster” and “website.” In today’s brave new world of Internet publishing for the masses, the traditional means of building and hosting a personal website has fallen out of favor for many new webmasters.
If you count yourself among the many bloggers who use a free subdomain blog account, you’ll have to think about web hosting sooner or later. Unfortunately, most don’t consider the ramifications until it’s too late. In the beginning, a free blog account or ad-supported web hosting seems like the obvious choice for a personal site. Unfortunately, this decision – or lack thereof - can cause problems down the road. Issues with free hosting and subdomain hosting range from SEO complications to ownership and control issues. Both free and paid hosting have their own merits and drawbacks, of course, so the ultimate decision is yours to make. But understanding these pros and cons is the first step in making a good decision for your site.
Free Hosting
Pros:
• It’s free. This is obviously the single most important advantage of free web hosting.
• It’s easy. Anyone can open an account on Blogger or any number of other free services and instantly get a free website requiring no more effort to publish than writing an email.
• No experience necessary. Anyone can create a site using one of these free services, with no programming, technical, or even HTML knowledge required.
Cons:
• Branding. As your blog or website grows, a subdomain hosting account offers little in the way of branding, and may adversely affect your credibility.
• SEO. If you move away from a subdomain account to your own domain, you will have to start over building links to your new domain.
• No control over ad content. With free hosting, you are at the mercy of your hosting company’s discretion as to what type of ads will be displayed on your site. Pop-ups and ads for adult sites are not uncommon.
• Limited or no accountability for site outages and other problems. When you’re getting something for nothing, it’s all too easy to become the victim of corporate apathy.
Paid Hosting
Pros:
• You can host your own domain. With paid hosting, you can brand your site with your own domain name (e.g. MySite.com) and add legitimacy to your content.
• Control. With paid hosting, you control every aspect of your site, including design and advertising content.
• SEO advantages. With a paid hosting account and domain name, you can build links to your site safely without worrying about whether or not you’ll be changing domain names. In addition, a hosting account allows you programmatic and scripting abilities not usually found in free, pre-built websites.
• Custom site development. Unlike free blogs, a hosted website can typically run a variety of CGI and scripting applications, and can be built any way you choose.
• Accountability and Portability: When you pay for hosting, you hold more leverage over your hosting company in the event of problems. Additionally, by retaining control of your source code and data, you can easily move your site to a new host.
Cons:
• Expense. Though you can get hosting plans as cheap as $2-$3 per month, it’s still a cost that free hosting does not incur.
• Some assembly required. Though many paid hosts offer site builders and blog software as part of the package, it still requires more technical work than signing up for a Blogger account.
• Maintenance. When you create a site yourself, you become responsible for the upkeep of your own code. In fact, you become responsible for just about everything involved with the site except for the server and connectivity.
So in summary, making the right choice between free or blog site hosting and paid hosting is heavily dependent on both you and your site. Though I’ve focused heavily on hosting for blog sites, much of the same information applies to free hosting vs. paid hosting for other types of sites as well. The important thing is to take a good hard look at what you want your site to eventually be, how much effort you’re willing to put into it, and then make your decision.
If you do decide on paid hosting, make sure you look at all options available. Use a web hosting review website such as I Net Publication to compare available options. Not all web hosting is alike, and many hosting companies offer free tools to ease the pain of migration as well as other perks you may not have realized you were missing.
About The Author
Nate Landerman is the owner of www.inetpublication.com, a web hosting review website. This article may be reprinted freely, provided that all links to iNetpublication remain intact.
n.landerman@inetpublication.com
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Why Blogging Is Essential To Your Business
Why Blogging Is Essential To Your Business
By: Chet Holcomb
In the 'good old days' - about three years ago - you used to keep in-touch with your customers using phone calls, email messages and face to face meetings. Nowadays the world has changed. People expect even more frequent updates, yet it's nearly impossible to meet with every business contact on a regular basis.
Thankfully, blogging has come to the rescue. Setting up a blog on your web site - and having an associated RSS feed - means you can keep in constant touch with your clients and potential customers. Plus you don't have to email them and they can get your latest news without having to visit your web site.
So how does this all work? A blog is really a fancy name for a web page that gets updated regularly. It's nothing special. There are several methods of writing 'blogs', but they are nothing more than computer programs which allow you to easily update a web page. Far and away the easiest way to start a blog is with a website called blogger.com.
However, for keeping in touch with your customers, RSS is the key. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. What this means is that your blog can be automatically delivered to people who want to read it - you don't have to send it to them and neither do they have to come and collect it. All they need is the address of your RSS Feed and their RSS Newsreader can do the job for them. There are several RSS readers available and new web browsers incorporate the ability to read RSS feeds and keep them updated.
Why Blogging is Essential to Your Business
Whenever you add new content to your blog, the RSS Feed automatically gets updated in everyone's Reader program or web browser. That means you are guaranteed to be able to keep in touch with clients and prospects. You don't have to do anything other than produce the content. Equally, you don't face the problems of email filters and anti-spam programs blocking your email. Furthermore, people tend to read RSS Feeds because they have subscribed to them. Whereas they tend to ignore non urgent emails.
As you can see, there are several advantages to Blogs and RSS Feeds. But it doesn't stop there. Search engines love them. That's because blogs provide fresh and new content - precisely what searchers are looking for. Hence the search engines are actively pushing blogs higher up the search engine ranking. This means if you don't have a blog for your business, you are seriously reducing your chances of a high search engine ranking. You need a blog nowadays to get noticed by the search engines.
So, blogging is essential. Not only does it improve your web presence, it also means you can keep in touch with clients and prospects more easily. And all the marketing research you can find will tell you that keeping in regular touch with your customers is an important component in gaining new business. So get blogging!
About the Author:
Chet Holcomb of Internet Promotions is a successful marketing expert providing advice for web marketers and webmasters on how to promote your website, or product using marketing tools that work.
Read more articles by: Chet Holcomb
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
By: Chet Holcomb
In the 'good old days' - about three years ago - you used to keep in-touch with your customers using phone calls, email messages and face to face meetings. Nowadays the world has changed. People expect even more frequent updates, yet it's nearly impossible to meet with every business contact on a regular basis.
Thankfully, blogging has come to the rescue. Setting up a blog on your web site - and having an associated RSS feed - means you can keep in constant touch with your clients and potential customers. Plus you don't have to email them and they can get your latest news without having to visit your web site.
So how does this all work? A blog is really a fancy name for a web page that gets updated regularly. It's nothing special. There are several methods of writing 'blogs', but they are nothing more than computer programs which allow you to easily update a web page. Far and away the easiest way to start a blog is with a website called blogger.com.
However, for keeping in touch with your customers, RSS is the key. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. What this means is that your blog can be automatically delivered to people who want to read it - you don't have to send it to them and neither do they have to come and collect it. All they need is the address of your RSS Feed and their RSS Newsreader can do the job for them. There are several RSS readers available and new web browsers incorporate the ability to read RSS feeds and keep them updated.
Why Blogging is Essential to Your Business
Whenever you add new content to your blog, the RSS Feed automatically gets updated in everyone's Reader program or web browser. That means you are guaranteed to be able to keep in touch with clients and prospects. You don't have to do anything other than produce the content. Equally, you don't face the problems of email filters and anti-spam programs blocking your email. Furthermore, people tend to read RSS Feeds because they have subscribed to them. Whereas they tend to ignore non urgent emails.
As you can see, there are several advantages to Blogs and RSS Feeds. But it doesn't stop there. Search engines love them. That's because blogs provide fresh and new content - precisely what searchers are looking for. Hence the search engines are actively pushing blogs higher up the search engine ranking. This means if you don't have a blog for your business, you are seriously reducing your chances of a high search engine ranking. You need a blog nowadays to get noticed by the search engines.
So, blogging is essential. Not only does it improve your web presence, it also means you can keep in touch with clients and prospects more easily. And all the marketing research you can find will tell you that keeping in regular touch with your customers is an important component in gaining new business. So get blogging!
About the Author:
Chet Holcomb of Internet Promotions is a successful marketing expert providing advice for web marketers and webmasters on how to promote your website, or product using marketing tools that work.
Read more articles by: Chet Holcomb
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
Friday, December 29, 2006
Best Blogging Software
Best Blogging Software
by: Miles Evans
The blogging platform wars are getting really interesting and much of the discussion I find myself in lately revolves around what is happening with various CMS systems. The market can essentially be defined into 3 major camps: remotely hosted, self hosted, and community based systems. I have used pretty much every blogging platform available and each of them has its ups and downs. In this article I will cover the best options for each area taking into account price, usability, market share and of course SEO potential.
All of these products are either open source, completely free or have a functional free version.
Remotely Hosted Blogging Software
(Note: I cannot really recommend any of these from an SEO stand point as optimizing a domain you do not own or control is obviously not a good marketing plan.)
Blogger
Blogger is completely free and currently owns the majority of the remotely hosted user base, but not by a land slide . Bought out by Google in 1999, Blogger essentially fired up the blogging trend we see today. It is by far the easiest overall solution to use and if you are a novice user looking to throw up some recipes or poetry, this is for you. Blogger is completely free and includes some great features like comments, photo blogging, and a basic community feel with user profiles. Because it is so dumbed down there are some features you may not find with Blogger that are only available through 3rd party add-ons. As a side note Blogger weblogs do quite well in the search engines and this was recently exploited with it being the first choice for spam blogs or splogs. A splog is a weblog used for the sole purpose of gaining inbound links or generating thousands of keyword stuffed pages with Adsense and the like. The recent Google Jagger update cleared a large portion of this up. Free.
Typepad
Released in 2003 Typepad is a product of Sixapart, the makers of Movable Type. it is largely based on MT but there are some major enhancements and differences. Your blog can accomodate one or more photo albums with auto thumbnail generation. You can easily add music, books, and other media to Typelists, which grab a thumbnail from Amazon and other retailers for easily displaying in your sidebar. Typepad is also a great deal more technical than Blogger so a bit of HTML know how is recommended. On that note editing your blog to look the way you want it also quite easy and Typepad blogs are known for being very eye pleasing, intuitive and easy to navigate. In Sixapart's business model Typepad is aimed at regular home and small business users while Movable Type is targeted at larger businesses or for internal intranets. Price: Basic, $4.95 a month; premium, $8.95 to $14.95 a month.
Xanga
These guys originated back in 1999 as a site for sharing book, music and movie reviews. Although it quickly morphed into a full blown blogging tool Xanga still maintains the ability to run a powerful review site. Xanga pulls data from several retailers like Amazon.com including thumbnails, pricing and a cover. The software also is very usable by novices with a powerful WYSIWYG editor allowing for easy HTML editing, adding smilies, links, and other symbols. By using Blog rings it is also easy to interface with Xanga's other 3 million users to share interests, ideas, and of course traffic. Xanga comes in a free and $25 flavor.
Mentions: Blogsome, Blogster, MindSay, Multiply,
Self Hosted Blogging Software
WordPress
WordPress originally began as a mod of an older open source package known as B2. WP is MT's biggest competition and is often the bain of endless Wordpress vs Movabletype style threads around the internet. Although launched just over a year or so ago WP has really taken the blogosphere by storm. And with good reason - Wordpress is completely free under GNU licensing and is packed with many featured you will not find anywhere else. It is also much easier to install and get blogging for novice users and has a very large and helpful community. WP runs on PHP/mySQL and is quite scalable judging from some of the very large and trafficked sites I see using it. It also sports utilities to import files from Movable Type, Textpattern, Greymatter, Blogger, and b2. Wordpress recently upped the ante when Yahoo recently included them on their hosting packages, in addition to MT. I have to admit I am finding myself more and more digging WP and will likely convert Profitpapers to WP as I get time (it can be a biznitch). Wordpress is free.
Movable Type
Aside from maybe Greymatter (the original open source blogging tool), Movabletype dominated the blogging market share in 2002-2004. Released in late 2001, Perl based Movable Type by Sixapart has maintained a large portion of the blogging market share, due mainly to the fact that there is a free version (supporting up to 3 weblogs) and that it is incredibly powerful, intuitive and easy to customize. Template driven Movable Type also sports one of the largest communities of developers and blogging enthusiasts around, meaning lots of support, idea sharing, and of course plugins. Movable Type can be configured to dynamically generate HTML, PHP or any other kind of pages you like, meaning it is incredibly scalable, fast, and loved by spiders. It is perhaps the most well known blogging software for SEO purposes and it what currently powers Profitpapers and several of my other projects. Moveabletype is either Free with 3 authors, 1 weblog, and no support or $69.95 with unlimited weblogs, authors and full support.
Textpattern
Textpattern is the brainchild of Dean Allen and was written to ease publishing of content for those not inclined to learn HTML. Like WP and MT Textpattern runs on PHP and mySQL for easy administration, backups, and power. What really sets textpattern apart from the others is the integration of Textile. Textile is a tool for easily formatting content for those who do not know HTML. WP & MT have modules for textile as well but it is native to the Textpattern system. Another bonus of the app is its superior handling of comment spam due to its smaller market share. On a blogs I maintain running WP and MT I often find myself clearing out spam every day, whereas on some very busy textpattern sites I receive only manual comment spam (not bot driven). TP is open source.
Mentions: Blosxom, LifeType, Serendipity.
Community based Blogging Software
Slash
Waaaaay back in 1997, Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda launched a website known as Chips & Dips, supplied via his student account at Hope College in Michigan. In 1999 Andover.net acquired Slashdot. Shortly after, the underlying code was released as open source software called Slash. Like Movable Type and Greymatter, Slash runs on Perl, but it also has established hooks into MySQL and a very strong track record of scaling to enormous traffic levels. To give you an idea, the term 'slashdotted' originated from acquiring a link on this now infamous and very popular tech news website – and consequently watching your servers melt. If you have never messed around with Slash, you really should as it is quite a powerful platform. Slash is open source.
Scoop
Another well known Perl based community blogging software is Scoop. Scoop is the software that powers Kuro5shin, DailyKos and many other busy community weblogs. Scoop took the Slashdot idea and expanded on it, making the discussion rather than the news the focus of the application. Where Slashdot entries tend to have a link with added commentary pointing readers off the site, Scoop points to stories written by members of the community keeping the reader within your own weblog. Scoop is also well known for handling large volumes of traffic and a large very technical community. Scoop is free .
Drupal
Drupal is a well known open source community blogging platform with a very large community of users and developers. Not only is Drupal free but it is damn powerful. Instead of Perl, which is quite hard to decode at times, even if you are a fluent coder, Drupal uses a PHP/mySQL platform. Drupal is also a very community focused application with a built in forum, download area, and hundreds of other home brewed mods and hacks. If you are looking for a lot of functionality give Drupal a check - the project has become quite mature. It is also much easier to use and customize than either Scoop or Slash. Drupal is also another open source project.
Mentions: LiveJournal, PHP Nuke.
About The Author
Miles Evans writes for Profit Papers where he writes essays on organic SEO, SEM, development and other equally fascinating subjects.
profitpapers@gmail.com
by: Miles Evans
The blogging platform wars are getting really interesting and much of the discussion I find myself in lately revolves around what is happening with various CMS systems. The market can essentially be defined into 3 major camps: remotely hosted, self hosted, and community based systems. I have used pretty much every blogging platform available and each of them has its ups and downs. In this article I will cover the best options for each area taking into account price, usability, market share and of course SEO potential.
All of these products are either open source, completely free or have a functional free version.
Remotely Hosted Blogging Software
(Note: I cannot really recommend any of these from an SEO stand point as optimizing a domain you do not own or control is obviously not a good marketing plan.)
Blogger
Blogger is completely free and currently owns the majority of the remotely hosted user base, but not by a land slide . Bought out by Google in 1999, Blogger essentially fired up the blogging trend we see today. It is by far the easiest overall solution to use and if you are a novice user looking to throw up some recipes or poetry, this is for you. Blogger is completely free and includes some great features like comments, photo blogging, and a basic community feel with user profiles. Because it is so dumbed down there are some features you may not find with Blogger that are only available through 3rd party add-ons. As a side note Blogger weblogs do quite well in the search engines and this was recently exploited with it being the first choice for spam blogs or splogs. A splog is a weblog used for the sole purpose of gaining inbound links or generating thousands of keyword stuffed pages with Adsense and the like. The recent Google Jagger update cleared a large portion of this up. Free.
Typepad
Released in 2003 Typepad is a product of Sixapart, the makers of Movable Type. it is largely based on MT but there are some major enhancements and differences. Your blog can accomodate one or more photo albums with auto thumbnail generation. You can easily add music, books, and other media to Typelists, which grab a thumbnail from Amazon and other retailers for easily displaying in your sidebar. Typepad is also a great deal more technical than Blogger so a bit of HTML know how is recommended. On that note editing your blog to look the way you want it also quite easy and Typepad blogs are known for being very eye pleasing, intuitive and easy to navigate. In Sixapart's business model Typepad is aimed at regular home and small business users while Movable Type is targeted at larger businesses or for internal intranets. Price: Basic, $4.95 a month; premium, $8.95 to $14.95 a month.
Xanga
These guys originated back in 1999 as a site for sharing book, music and movie reviews. Although it quickly morphed into a full blown blogging tool Xanga still maintains the ability to run a powerful review site. Xanga pulls data from several retailers like Amazon.com including thumbnails, pricing and a cover. The software also is very usable by novices with a powerful WYSIWYG editor allowing for easy HTML editing, adding smilies, links, and other symbols. By using Blog rings it is also easy to interface with Xanga's other 3 million users to share interests, ideas, and of course traffic. Xanga comes in a free and $25 flavor.
Mentions: Blogsome, Blogster, MindSay, Multiply,
Self Hosted Blogging Software
WordPress
WordPress originally began as a mod of an older open source package known as B2. WP is MT's biggest competition and is often the bain of endless Wordpress vs Movabletype style threads around the internet. Although launched just over a year or so ago WP has really taken the blogosphere by storm. And with good reason - Wordpress is completely free under GNU licensing and is packed with many featured you will not find anywhere else. It is also much easier to install and get blogging for novice users and has a very large and helpful community. WP runs on PHP/mySQL and is quite scalable judging from some of the very large and trafficked sites I see using it. It also sports utilities to import files from Movable Type, Textpattern, Greymatter, Blogger, and b2. Wordpress recently upped the ante when Yahoo recently included them on their hosting packages, in addition to MT. I have to admit I am finding myself more and more digging WP and will likely convert Profitpapers to WP as I get time (it can be a biznitch). Wordpress is free.
Movable Type
Aside from maybe Greymatter (the original open source blogging tool), Movabletype dominated the blogging market share in 2002-2004. Released in late 2001, Perl based Movable Type by Sixapart has maintained a large portion of the blogging market share, due mainly to the fact that there is a free version (supporting up to 3 weblogs) and that it is incredibly powerful, intuitive and easy to customize. Template driven Movable Type also sports one of the largest communities of developers and blogging enthusiasts around, meaning lots of support, idea sharing, and of course plugins. Movable Type can be configured to dynamically generate HTML, PHP or any other kind of pages you like, meaning it is incredibly scalable, fast, and loved by spiders. It is perhaps the most well known blogging software for SEO purposes and it what currently powers Profitpapers and several of my other projects. Moveabletype is either Free with 3 authors, 1 weblog, and no support or $69.95 with unlimited weblogs, authors and full support.
Textpattern
Textpattern is the brainchild of Dean Allen and was written to ease publishing of content for those not inclined to learn HTML. Like WP and MT Textpattern runs on PHP and mySQL for easy administration, backups, and power. What really sets textpattern apart from the others is the integration of Textile. Textile is a tool for easily formatting content for those who do not know HTML. WP & MT have modules for textile as well but it is native to the Textpattern system. Another bonus of the app is its superior handling of comment spam due to its smaller market share. On a blogs I maintain running WP and MT I often find myself clearing out spam every day, whereas on some very busy textpattern sites I receive only manual comment spam (not bot driven). TP is open source.
Mentions: Blosxom, LifeType, Serendipity.
Community based Blogging Software
Slash
Waaaaay back in 1997, Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda launched a website known as Chips & Dips, supplied via his student account at Hope College in Michigan. In 1999 Andover.net acquired Slashdot. Shortly after, the underlying code was released as open source software called Slash. Like Movable Type and Greymatter, Slash runs on Perl, but it also has established hooks into MySQL and a very strong track record of scaling to enormous traffic levels. To give you an idea, the term 'slashdotted' originated from acquiring a link on this now infamous and very popular tech news website – and consequently watching your servers melt. If you have never messed around with Slash, you really should as it is quite a powerful platform. Slash is open source.
Scoop
Another well known Perl based community blogging software is Scoop. Scoop is the software that powers Kuro5shin, DailyKos and many other busy community weblogs. Scoop took the Slashdot idea and expanded on it, making the discussion rather than the news the focus of the application. Where Slashdot entries tend to have a link with added commentary pointing readers off the site, Scoop points to stories written by members of the community keeping the reader within your own weblog. Scoop is also well known for handling large volumes of traffic and a large very technical community. Scoop is free .
Drupal
Drupal is a well known open source community blogging platform with a very large community of users and developers. Not only is Drupal free but it is damn powerful. Instead of Perl, which is quite hard to decode at times, even if you are a fluent coder, Drupal uses a PHP/mySQL platform. Drupal is also a very community focused application with a built in forum, download area, and hundreds of other home brewed mods and hacks. If you are looking for a lot of functionality give Drupal a check - the project has become quite mature. It is also much easier to use and customize than either Scoop or Slash. Drupal is also another open source project.
Mentions: LiveJournal, PHP Nuke.
About The Author
Miles Evans writes for Profit Papers where he writes essays on organic SEO, SEM, development and other equally fascinating subjects.
profitpapers@gmail.com
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