Want to Work At Home? Web-Based Biz Tips

Perfect for work at home parents

 

 

 

 

Let’s Start With What Doesn’t Work

Anything you see in the newspaper or the back of magazines on making $$$ while working at home is most likely a scam. You’ll have to buy some kind of “kit” required to do the job and you’ll never hear from the goons who scammed you. If anyone is recruiting you to work at home for them, run for the hills.

What Does Work?
Your energy, enthusiasm and your need for more cash each month can lead to a profitable business – an on-line business. Don’t know anything about the world wide web? That’s not a problem. Today, anyone can own a web business without taking out a second mortgage on the house.

The Benefits Of An On-line Business

Low start-up costs
Really, you can have a nice, professional-looking web site up and running on-line for less than $100. True. The web hosting industry is highly-competitive so web hosts (they’re the ones that hook up your store to the web) have to provide a lot of services for a little money. So start looking for the right web host – a host that delivers enough digital space for your enterprise, the tools needed to build a site (it’s all done with templates, just pick and click) and run a site. Go with a web host that offers low monthly fees but packs a wallop with a trunk full of freebies.

Passive Income
If you already have a job, or you’re chasing after the kids all afternoon, you don’t have hours a day to tend to another business. No problem. Once you get your site set up, whether you’re selling products or services, you can automate the entire transaction process from purchase to shipping to customer satisfaction.

Now, don’t think you can just open a little cyber storefront and it’ll generate enough for you to move to the Riviera. If only it were that easy. You will have to spend some time taking care of business but you can minimize that level of participation. What’s even better? You can work when it’s convenient. Put the kids down for a nap and you’ve got an hour to process some orders or handle customer queries. Someone’s got to do it, but there are pop-in software modules that’ll take care of everything from building a great looking storefront, to processing and tracking orders, to shipping and handling, to customer queries.

So, you do have to spend some time running that on-line business but you pick when and how often.

Right Place. Right Time.
The world wide web is the fastest growing medium ever. Faster than newspaper, radio or even TV, which changed our lives in profound ways. The W3 is growing in importance to commerce at a truly phenomenal rate.

That means you’re entering the fastest growing market in the history of the world. Billions are being spent by on-line advertisers who now recognize that the interaction with our computers is much more engaging (addictive) than channel surfing for something – anything – to watch passively.

The web delivers interactivity, billions of pages of indexed text in search engines and the almost irresistible urge to communicate and interact with the rest of the world.

Risk Versus Reward
Always a crucial consideration when starting up a business. How much risk are you taking in order to reap the reward, i.e. the big payoff? In the case of an on-line business, your downside risk is limited to $100 if you do all of the work yourself – and these days you don’t have to know anything about web design to build and run a website.

You can earn a few extra bucks each month to make life a little easier or you could become the next youtube.com, which was sold to Google for $1.6 billion and it had only been on-line for two years!

Okay, it’s not likely that your idea for an on-line business will sell for a billion bucks, but it is likely to deliver some extra earnings – whether it’s a hundred dollars or a couple of thousand – each and every month.

It’s Not Brain Surgery
That’s a fact. There are a lot of dim bulbs on the web who are working at home, naming their own hours and making a living, or at least supplementing the family income.

Start by coming up with the right idea for you. It should be something about which you’re passionate, something you love because you’re going to spend a lot of time working to build your home-based, web-based business.

Next, find the right web host. Shop around. A lot. You can even get free web hosting as long as you’re willing to display the web host’s paid advertising on your “free” site. Not a good way to go.

Find a web host that doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg for a monthly subscription (less than $10 a month is good). Some excellent web hosts cost even less than that. Finally, look at the tool box the web host offers. Does it have everything you need to build and run your on-line business? It should, and you should be able to get all of this for less than you spend at a fast food place for a family dinner.

Build It and They Will Come
There’s software today that does everything but suck up the dust bunnies behind your computer. Site builder software. Merchant account software (so you can accept credit cards). Checkout software with built-in security. Software to measure your site’s performance, start your own blog, advertise and market your web site. There are dozens and dozens of software packs that make it easy to build and run an on-line business. Your kids could administer the site. (Well, maybe not the four-year-old but who knows?)

Here’s the key distinction between work-at-home jobs: if they’re coming after you, you’re about to be scammed. If you’re working to build an at-home business and you started it all on your own, you have to consider the world wide web for its risk versus reward equation.

No, it’s not easy but nothing worth having ever is. You will have to work at it. Pay attention to it and oversee daily functions – on your schedule. And that’s what makes the difference. It’s your business and you receive the benefit of your hard work and solid marketing instincts.

You can do this. For pocket change, just to test the waters. And if you start growing and becoming more profitable, you can gradually build your on-line presence from a small storefront for your hand-made ceramics to “Sue’s Ceramics Barn, Best Prices on the Web.”

Hey, it could happen. The simple fact is, you’ll never know unless you try.

Is Websteading Dead?

   Back in the day, homesteading was one way to get citified folks living in mud        houses out on the lone prairie. And, during the early days of the W3, folks took a      gamble on buying up domain names – sometimes thousands at a time, hoping that   one – just one – would have value to someone in the future.

 

If you’d registered Google (should be spelled Googal but when you’re that big, spelling doesn’t count) you’d be living in a mansion somewhere. Today, all the good domain names have been scooped up so companies are now required to make up names like Spyfu.com (great site) or select names that have nothing to do with products, aka Amazon. Before Mr. Bezos grabbed that now-famous domain, did you associate the river with books, DVDs and sex toys?

 

So, is websteading dead? Well, there are sure enough a lot more gamblers giving it a try and most domain registry services offer the “bulk” option. Even so, you have to wonder.

What’s in a domain name?

 

A website domain is very much like a piece of property. It is owned by someone. It can be bought and sold, traded or transferred. And just as we’ve all witnessed a nice run up in housing prices over the past few years, good domain names appreciate and can (maybe) fetch enough to put your kid through college – if you know what you’re doing and how to maximize your ROI.

Get Reach Quick? Hardly.

If you Google “domain investing” you’ll see that every Tom, Dick and Louise has written the definitive text on how to make billions trading domain names. Oh, yea? Well, if these guys know how to make money trading domain names, why in the world would they tell you – at any price!

 

Skip the “get rich quick” approach for a couple of reasons. First, every really great domain name has already been thought of and registered. Okay, maybe there are one or two yet to be created but the chances of you coming up with the next big thing are like zero. It’s just not going to happen.

However, there are ways to make money in domain investing. Let’s look at a couple of investment opportunities designed for aggressive investors. Please, don’t bet the farm on a domain name.

Know the Market

Would you buy a stock without doing some background research? What if you didn’t understand how the stock market functions? It’s tough enough to make money in domain investing without adding market ignorance to the mix.

Tag several domain trading websites and track them until you get a feel for what sells for what. Really good names can bring some nice money your way. One example: a domain that was purchased in 2000 for $10,000 recently sold for $65,000. That’s a very nice ROI in any investment arena. Of course, it’s the exception to the rule, which is why it got so much media play.

It can happen, but it might take some time. You’re more likely to make $50 on a domain name trade but it’s fun and it is fifty bucks. Just keep it in perspective and only invest what you can afford to lose. 

 

Buying and Appraising the Quality of Domain Names

There are plenty of sites where domain investors buy and sell names with legs, that is, domains that already have a business attached to them. These are attractive to entrepreneurial types interested in building web-based businesses.

Or, sometimes, you’ll find a great domain name, perfect for your on-line venture, for sale on these domain investing and trading websites. No business attached. You’re just buying the name.com. You may have to bid your way to ownership, or make an outright purchase if it really is the perfect domain name.

Either way, you can hire a domain name appraiser – yes, they really exist – who will run all kinds of diagnostics on the name to see how it would do if you bought it. Or, if you aren’t interested in the name for your own use, you can simply take your chances, register one or a bunch of domains for very little and post (it) them for sale or lease.

Building Cyber Equity

Another way to make some cash through domain investing is to register a “good” domain name and then actually generate some revenue through actual sales, Adwords or some other steady income from the website. You are, in fact, building cyber equity, adding value to the domain name by also delivering a functioning website and even some web traffic.

Think of it this way. There are people who make a lot of money “flipping” real estate. They buy a house that needs fixing up, they fix it up and resell at a profit. Or, so the flipper hopes.

Same deal here. You register the domain name, which shouldn’t cost more than a few bucks, you spend a few Sundays getting hooked up with a PPC or affiliate program (or why not 10 PPC and affiliate programs) and you’ve got cash flow that immediately increases the value of the domain name.

A higher page rank will also increase the value of a domain name, so some SEO work may pay off big time when the sale is finally made. If you buy a domain name and simply park it on some host’s server, you aren’t taking full advantage of your investment, even if it’s only a $2.95 domain registration fee. Put the domain to work for you and chances are, you’ll increase its value at the time of sale. And make some extra bucks while waiting for sale day.

Buy Domain Names in Bulk

Once again, take a little time to learn about domain name registrations. There are plenty of sites that’ll give you a significant break on registration when you register in bulk. Some players in this market register 1000s of domain names at a time for maybe a buck or two per registration. Then, they market their inventory. Very risky and not for the faint of heart. 

Know What You Don’t Know

So, if you don’t know much about domain name investing, take the time to learn – to learn how to construct a simple website, to generate income from sources other than direct sales, although if you do have access to a useful product or service, why not use the site for direct sales as well. It only increases the value of your domain name when you can show you’re making $50 bucks a week as an affiliate site for the XYZ company and $100 a week selling products.

 Is Cyber Realty In Your Future?

It is if your expectations are reasonable, you don’t invest more than you can afford to lose and, most importantly, you learn the rules of the game – everything from how the market operates to how to build equity in a domain name.

 If you think of a domain as a “place” just like a home, the market dynamics are similar. The difference? People need a home. They don’t need to spend $5,000 on your really cool domain name. In other words, domain investing isn’t a needs-driven marketplace.

 Remember Beanie Babies?

Basic economics 101: a market is only strong as long as its investors believe in the market’s ability to make a profit. Just a few years back, people were buying up Beanie Babies for investment, spending hundreds and even thousands of dollars for a stuffed toy! Visit eBay today to see what Beanie Babies are selling for. The market in plush collectables lost faith in its ability to generate a profit and the bottom fell out. Overnight!

 Anything, including a domain name, is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. And in the case of domain names, supply far outstrips demand so you better have a good product. Preferably one that’s earning some income.

 And if you get an attractive offer, take it. It’s pretty unlikely that you’ll find another buyer willing to pay bigger bucks for that domain.

 It is a market – domain names – but it’s a fickle market, it isn’t needs-driven and there’s always more supply than demand. Still, by taking a few simple steps, you can add value to a domain name and actually make a few hundred bucks.

 No, it won’t get your kid through college, but it might pay the air fare to get her there. 

Site Security: How Safe Is Your Business

Webwordslinger is a Helium.com Premier Author.

Redundant layers of security are the norm in the corporate realm, but we regularly read that this university, this credit card company or this retail store data has been hacked and is now floating out there in the Ethernet. So, what’s a small business to do? A sole proprietor or a two-man dog-and-pony? How can they assure security?

The Number One Source of Hacker Attacks Is Some One You Know
Yeah, it’s not some 15-year-old in Bora Bora trying to access your MySpace account. The most likely threat is an angry business partner or sub-contractor or, sad to say, a spouse, a kid or your friendly Uncle Bob who comes over every Saturday to balance accounts.

Cures: Limit access to your business computer. It should not be a part of the home computer network. It should be a separate and distinct work station, password protected, off limits to anyone.

Bulk up your passwords, especially when keeping those who know you out. Forget Fluffy 909. An irate spouse’ll figure cat + birthday = password. Use signs, symbols and numbers to create passwords that can’t be defeated by someone you know.

Then There are the War Drivers, War Chalkers, Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses, Key Logger Software and Zombie Computer Armies.

War drivers cruise industrial parks looking for leakage from an office network. All they need is a laptop, an antenna and networking software and they become a part of the office gang.

And all of that other nasty hacker-crap is out there. What can you do?

Protect your work station data and back it up automatically with an outboard hard drive.

 

 

Neighborhood kid or your worst business nightmare

 

 

Use a reputable host who maintains multiple layers of security hardware and software. Ask about access to the server room, ask where the servers are located and ask about on-site security. You can get good shared hosting for about $7.00 a month so we’re not talking breaking the bank, here.

Scan everything.
As an online entrepreneur, your inbox is filled every morning with every thing from the 14th penis enlargement spam this week to actual emails from customers and clients. Separating legitimate email from hacker missives isn’t always easy. However, any good email system will scan incoming, but if you have doubts, perform a separate scan on a piece of email before opening.

Use SSL Encryption
First, no savvy computer buyer is going to place an order if the little ‘s’ in ‘https’ is missing from the address bar of a site, and those that do jeopardize their identify, credit and your business

Maintain Your System Security
You don’t have to pay a bunch for site security software – good stuff. There’s even some OSS out there that professionals use. However, none of this software is going to do any good if it’s data and hasn’t been patched in three years

New bugs, viruses, scams and schemes are unleashed upon our sorry selves and there is no web police. It’s the wild, wild web.

Here’s what you want:

• server side security and lots of it

• SSL certification if you’re transmitting personal information.

• An automatic back up system, i.e. an outboard hard drive

• Quality system security software that performs a daily scan in the background and produces a log for review. Keep log data to track attempts by hackers to breach security.

• A separate system, distinct from a home or office network. A stand-alone impervious to ware drivers, war chalkers and other ne’er-do-wells.

• A hands off policy if you work out of a home office.

• Security scan software – software that equips you to scan individual documents for malware.

• Passwords on steroids. Let ‘em break :q##s6gr))1!sz+++. Never gonna happen.

• Finally, stay vigilant. You never know where a security breach will take place and there’s no 100% guarantee that you can make your business impregnable.

But you can sure make it hard on hackers who are more likely to move on to an open door than try to figure out your redundant layers of server- and system-side security.

Finally, what if the ol’ shanty burns down? All the back-up in the world is now a glob of melted plastic.

Cures: Use an sFTP. This is a secure (that’s what the s means), off-site storage service. It costs a few bucks a month but all f your sensitive data is stored of site so if some neighborhood cat burglar walks off with your laptop, you can still access your sensitive data.

It’s your business. protect it.

editor@webwordslinger.com

webwordslinger.com

Are You Blog Worthy? Get the Most From Your Post

If you don’t have a blog, build one. It’s easy using blog modules that plug in to your existing site. Then start posting content. Then get listed in blog directories. Then keep it fresh. Oh man, that’s a lot of work – especially when this is your second job!

Blogs build traffic and keep it coming back. However, too many site owners either don’t maintain a blog or don’t promote it for maximum benefit. So, here are some tips from your web host provider on maximizing the usefulness of a blog.

Post Your Thoughts on Topic-Related Sites
One way to get noticed, especially by those in the know, is to make posts on other topic-related blogs. You can provide your URL so that readers who find your astute insight are able to follow the trail back to your blog archives.

Blog Archives
And speaking of blog archives, keep a good one. Sort each blog post by date and general subject, i.e. conversion optimization. Unless you’re a great writer with plenty of time on your hands, good content is expensive to develop. Think of blog content as a commodity. An asset for you and others interested in what you have to say.

Stay Focused
And speaking of what you have to say, stay on topic. If your readership (whether 10 or 10,000) turns to you for certain information, meet expectations. If you occasionally go off on a tangent expressing your political views, for example, you’ll lose readership.

Keep It Unique
A change in the Google algorithm will be the topic of the week, and virtually every webmaster blog and forum will be crammed full of erudite opinions on the affect this change will have. In other words, they’ll be so much written on a major topic, you can afford to cover something else. And get noticed.

Make it Attractive
It’s human nature to become bored easily on the dynamic web where things change faster than you can say “keyword stuffing.” So, paragraph after paragraph of text is going to bore even the most dedicated reader or subscriber.

Add some relevant images. Charts and graphs. Eye candy to maintain the reader’s interest. Skip the endless pages of “just” text.

Perform Regular Blog Analysis
Good tracking software will tell you which posts are popular with visitors and which get passed over for whatever reason. Use these metrics to more specifically target the wants and needs of your readers.

The things you want to measure regularly are: number of page views, time spent on site and the source (link) and destination of the reader after leaving your site (do they go to the site or bounce off to another site?). Regular metrics analysis will provide concrete data to demonstrate whether your site blog is performing to expectations.

Write Like You Talk
This is the best advice any blogger or writer will ever receive. Something happens to people when they sit down at the keyboard to write the next blog entry. They become walking thesauruses. They use big, impressive words and long, run-on sentences. Don’t. That kind of writing is great for a master’s dissertation but it does nothing for the readers (except bore them).

Blogs as Linkbait
Some posts are better than others. Market your best posts only. Posts can be tagged and show up on human-based search engines like digg.com and del.icio.us – sites where readers determine how good you are. Don’t oversell every blog entry you write. You’ll start to pickup negative user feedback when readers have seen your post everywhere, or it’s a so-so post.

Blogs make great linkbait (a reason for another site to link to your site) but your efforts to “sell” your content to expand your presence may blow up and backfire with readers and search engines alike.

Use High Traffic Days to Build Your Reputation
When one of your posts is front page news on digg.com or reddit.com, you’re going to see a lot more blog traffic that day sniffing out this high quality linkbait. Use these days, when your traffic jumps 100%, to build on a good thing. Immediately follow up with top-of-the-line posts – as good as the one tagged by enough readers to make it to the top of user-driven search engines. This will establish you as an authority, and your site one worth visiting for the latest.

Don’t Hide Your Blog
Your blog is designed to create stickiness and/or to provide something to subscribers. So, make it easy for users to access your blog. All tags, of course, link to the blog. But, do you have a big, well-labeled blog link on your home page? Is there a BLOG button on the navigation bar? If not, there should be. Make it easy to find your blog and more visitors will find (and read and return because of) it.

Don’t Host Your Blog on a Separate Domain
Some site owners do this to keep things simple. Business side. Blog side. But they’re missing a critical benefit of maintaining a blog (in a subfolder) as a sub-section of their primary domain. Blogs attract all kinds of good stuff. Links, improved PR, “buzz,” new readers and customers (showing up as more traffic in SERPs) offers to contribute to other blogs and so on. Maintain your blog as a section of your main domain to get all of the benefits that come with maintaining a blog.

Start the Conversation
Blogs should generate discussion among readers. They should provoke readers to add a comment – good, bad or indifferent. But what if your posts don’t elicit any response? What should you do?

Shill. Fake it. Salt your posts with a comment or two. Many readers are shy about leaving the first post but will happily jump in once they see what other posters have said. There’s nothing deceitful in starting a conversation – one that grows your site’s popularity.

An up-to-date blog – one that contains useful information for a particular market segment – is a great way to build site traffic and to maintain customer or subscriber interest. But, there are certainly things that every blogger can do to increase readership and squeeze out a few other benefits from blog building. After all, it’s time consuming. You might as well get all you can out of the time you invest.

SEO Client Retention:The Key to Long-Term Success

Building a successful SEO/M consultancy is hard. There’s a lot of competition and a lot of snake oil, SEO voodoo floating around the web, so building a solid reputation – one that leads to referrals and repeat business is essential to long-term business growth.

Once you have a client, you have to keep that client coming back because of the quality services and opinions you offer. You have to build a client base of happy clients. They come back for more. They’re also your best salespeople.

Here are some suggestions for keeping the customer satisfied.

1. Go through an extensive discovery phase. Determine such things as the target demographic, market competition, unique selling position, client objectives, challenges – a top-down analysis of what needs doing. A few hours more at this stage will save days of re-dos in the weeks ahead.

2. Prepare a written SOW. A statement of work describes the work to be undertaken (usually in chronological order), approval milestones, payment schedule, who’s going to do what. The more complete the SOW the more accurate the client’s expectations. Clients hate surprises so get on the same page early.

3. Give a stake to the client. No client is going to quibble with a strategy or design that s/he proposed. Instead of presenting finished pages and data analysis, engage the client and incorporate his or her suggestions into the final product. As best you can, let the client “own” the project.

4. Go proactive. In everything. Offer suggestions and counsel beyond the expectations of the client. If you discover an error you’ve made, call the client to let her know you’re on top of it.

5. Communicate. A lot. Not just approvals, though they’re essential to increased productivity, but also discuss implementation strategies, guerilla marketing tactics and opportunities for future growth of the client’s business.

6. Fix it. If the client ain’t happy, fix it. Period. A happy client will talk you up through his network. An unhappy client will bad mouth you to anyone who will listen. Rely on your SOW only as a last resort. Keep the client happy – even if it’s a loss leader for you.

Growing a stable of regular clients takes time and trust building. It’s an on-going process. But once your regulars are making up 75% of your work time, you don’t have to constantly worry about where the next job is coming from.

editor@webwordslinger.com

How to Make a Digital Video With Punch

Digital video (DV) is SOP on many sites, large and small. The deep pocket sites employ professional, on-screen talent to welcome you to the “World of AdvantoCorp.” Others actually provide useful information.

The fact is, a DV can be very useful in capturing visitor attention and lowering bounce rates. Or, they can be a one-way ticket to another site – any site! It all depends on the impact that digital video makes. You’ve got about 10 seconds. So what you gonna do?

1. Introduce the piece. Use a text burn to introduce the company, and if appropriate, the speaker. If the budget allows for professional talent, burn the company name, URL and logo while the on-screen narrator does his or her dog-and-pony.

This tells viewers they’re in the right place, on the right site and provides the context for the rest of the clip.

2. Production values. We’ve all seen everything from a Fortune 500, high-end production to a wobbly webcam clip on the welcome screen. This video clip represents the client company so it pays to pay for even slightly higher production values.

Don’t use a webcam – even a good one. Use a DVC with higher resolution. Your end product will only be as good as your source material so if you start with a higher res image, it’ll look less grainy when compressed for download.

Use either a seamless backdrop or your best friend’s office to add a professional touch. Wild footage and live audio, with employees walking through the background (or foreground) just plain looks like amateur night. Control the environment as much as possible.

Rent a teleprompter unless you want to be there all night. You can rent one from any A-V rental place for $35 a day and that little gizmo will save hours in shooting/location time – very expensive.

If you can design around live sound and use a voice-over, even better. You control the sound and the images.

Lay in a music bed under the narrator but think of it as aural wallpaper. It’s there but it shouldn’t intrude on the VO.

3. Use text – a lot. Nothing deadlier than 10 minutes of a talking head babbling on. So, break up the talking head shot with text. If the speaker offers a list of advantages, cut to a text build and reveal each benefit on cue.

Use text to emphasize key terms and points. The word, phrase or key point should appear on screen as the VO is saying the term to reinforce with both visual and audio cues.

4. Edit the piece yourself. There are audio editing and video editing packages that’ll handle the basics for less than $500 so if DV is going to be part of your service offerings, the software pays for itself and it’s easy (intuitive) to learn.

Sound Forge comes with Dreamweaver and is an excellent audio editor. You’ve probably used it so you know you can make some additional revenue by mixing your own sound and video clips.

5. Keep it short. Some of these home page DVs run 10 minutes. That slows download times and, frankly, regardless of how charismatic your client, a 10-minute sales pitch on the home page is going to send me screaming from the room, or at least click on the next SERP listing.

Two minutes web time is like 10 minutes in Matrix time so I’d recommend nothing more than two minutes max.

6. Avoid clip art. You can download clips of happy families (frolicking, even), drug arrests, store shots, etc. Use it if it’s all you’ve got but if your client is nearby, shoot the real thing. It’ll take an hour or two. Just set the DVC on auto, point and shoot. Clip art looks cheesy and like clip art.

7. Don’t use auto-run and allow the visitor to stop the clip. I hate auto run. The video clip starts automatically whenever you hit the home page – EVERY time you hit the home page. So a repeat visitor actually has to click to stop the clip. Annoying.

Some visitors don’t want or need a short sales pitch so make viewing optional and put control in the hands of the user.

8. Don’t fade to black. Offer the viewer the option of a replay or to close the DV screen. Also, freeze on the site’s URL. The visitor may not have the time to look at your offerings at that moment, but tonight…

9. General rule of thumb: $1000 a finished minute. Of course, that’s real world. Web world competition drives that price down. By using available marketing assets like brochures, sell sheets and some creative zooms, you should be able to compile a two minute clip in a morning and charge $500 for your effort.

To some, that my seem low but I’ll take the work any time.

10. Finally, if you’ve never shot or cut a video, seek help. Start with a scratch track or the edited and mixed audio. Then synch up clip01, 02 and so on. It’s not hard but it’s probably cheaper to outsource the work if it’s not already in your bag of tricks.

SEO Tips: A Few Chistmas Goodies

 

First, thanks for taking the time to stop by. I hope we can get to know each other better in the months ahead.

Second, since I can’t send each of you a Rolex, I thought I’d provide a few goodies to hang on the ol’ digital Christmas tree.

Wishing you the best of holidays, and a Happy Festivus!

editor@webwordslinger.com

Goodie #1: To best optimize site text, be sure to direct search engine spiders through the use of embedded text links like my blue link above. Bots don’t bounce around like ping-pong balls. They follow links.

The proper placement of embedded text links on each site page will insure your site is completely indexed quickly. Always a good thing.

Goodie #2: Consider using second- and third-tier keywords. These keywords are less popular but if you’re competing against heavy hitting competition in a vertical market, you can actually eliminate some of that competition by employing lesser-used keywords.

True, fewer search engine users will enter your second-tier keywords but you’ll show up on page one of SERPs when those lesser used keywords are entered.

Goodie #3: If you haven’t done so already, submit a site map to Google, Yahoo and Inktomi. This serves as an invitation to get spidered and a site map provides all links so spiders have an easier time properly categorizing your website within the search engine taxonomy.

A little tip: each search engine requires its own formatting regs for site maps which means the development of three different site maps for each of your sites. However, you can purchase site map modules that create a site map of your existing site properly formatted for each SE.

Goodie #4: Employ guerrilla marketing tactics to build a larger web presence. Guerilla marketing is based on two simple premises: (1) it’s free and (2) it employs the resources of other web entities to your advantage – legally.

For example, post a vid-clip to YouTube, create a LinkedIn profile, a FaceBook and MySpace profile, sign up for Twitter – all free opportunities to build web creds and drive traffic – free and legal.

A little tip: My free-to-build blogs are the second leading source of clicks to my site after Google organic so flog the blogs. It works.

Goodie #5 Post hoc ergo propter hoc, which loosely translates to “after this therefore because of this.” It’s a quantum leap in logic that leads us all down the wrong path. Here’s an example.

You launch a PPC campaign and see an immediate boost in traffic. You assume that the boost can be attributed to the PPC campaign simply because that increase occurred after the PPC launch.

That may or may not be the case. That increase in traffic may be the result of any number of factors from improved optimization to the ever-changing algorithms of search engines. This is one of the problems with interpreting metrics and setting your business course based on these performance numbers.

The hard numbers must be assessed and evaluated by you, the site owner. Making business decisions on assumptions derived from metrics can have you sending your marketing dollars down the proverbial rat hole.

There, now, wasn’t that better than a Rolex?

Local SEO Lead Generation: Mining Gold In Your Own Backyard

Because search engine optimizers (SEOs) and marketeers (SEMs) live in the web world, we often overlook the opportunities in our own community. Almost every commercial outlet has a website that’s been collecting digital dust since ’02. Most of these business owners don’t recognize the expanding use of local search and personalized search to find businesses close by.

Local sites can include (at no additional cost, btw), printable maps showing the location of the outlet, written directions, a snapshot of the store front and other helpful features that drive residents of the region to actually visit the local outlet.

Local search is growing by leaps and bounds and local businesses need SEO. Here are some suggestions for generating some local buzz-worthy biz.

1. Advertise in the local newspapers. Yes it’s a dying medium but it’s also one of the best way to reach local business owners. And because the local rag is headed south you can often negotiate better terms for more insertions. It doesn’t hurt to ask.

2. Teach an adult education course on SEO. Solid gold. The folks who sign up understand the importance of on-line marketing and you (in the context of an authority on optimization) are bound to pick up a few clients over the course of the course.

3. Contact local service organizations. The Elks, Knights of Columbus, Lions Club – your community has branches of these service organizations that meet monthly for lunch. And they’re always looking for guest speakers. So, not only do you have the chance to demonstrate your knowledge before community and business leaders, you get the rubber chicken on the house.

4. Join the local Chamber of Commerce. The crème de la crème of the local business community and one of the best networking-lead generation steps you can take. (As a side benefit, your local CoC should offer health coverage at group rates – a little money-saver.)

One final suggestion: In all your local promotional efforts, offer a FREE SITE ANALYSIS. It’s something you’d do any way and it immediately creates a value-added offer. Be straight up in your analysis. If the site’s all set, say so. Don’t use SEO-babble to create a problem where none exists.

However, offer prospects a menu of on- and off-site optimization opportunities. Low cost options like adding revenue streams (there are 10 of them), content syndication and, of course, optimization for local search.

Most small business owners are unaware of the power of the web and lots of those business owners operate in your neighborhood. So, when prospecting for prospects, consider local businesses.

You may even get a free lunch out of the deal.

The Best Ecommerce Website EVER: Amazon Brings Web 2.0 to Life

• Okay, so it’s Amazon.com. We’ve all shopped there. Even my 83-year-old father has a single click checkout PIN. Amazon, as we all know, owns a great deal of space in the e-commerce sector, expanding from books to DVDs and now, (blushing) sexual novelties. Don’t ask me the site search word. I didn’t go there.

  Here’s the thing. Jeff Bezos and the creative minds at Amazon have long employed what are now considered standard issue on ever pushcart site operating on a shoestring. But Amazon, with its far-horizon thinking, saw Web 2.0 long before the rest of the digital realm and integrated the basics of Web 2.0 when we were all dully clicking from one static, one-way site to another.

  Web 1.0
  The first incarnation of the web was pretty straightforward. It was static. It wasn’t very interactive (unless you made a purchase) and it was, for the most part, a one-way street. The site presented its products and you made your buying decision. Period.

  Today, with the deep penetration of DSL and cable into delivery of the web, site designers and webmasters can add a lot more. And Amazon is the perfect example of just how effective these new age principles work.

  Web 2.0
  Web 2.0 is all about engagement – engaging the site visitor. Let’s review how Amazon employs 2.0 tactics.

  Personalized search results
  First, dynamic web pages enable Amazon to personalize my Amazon home page based on my buying history. I receive recommendations generated by items previously bought. Oh, and I’m also greeted by name – all from the big, juicy d-base maintained by Amazon.

  Of course, you can by-pass the recommendations and employ simple dropdown menus to narrow your search.

  Visitor Interaction
  Nobody does it better.

  At Amazon, buyers are encouraged to leave reviews. Heck, if you buy a piece of junk, trash it on Amazon. You’ll feel better and total strangers will be better informed.

  Suggested Products
  If you buy a piece of electronics gear, Amazon will automatically up sell by providing a list of related items and other gear required to hook-in the gizmo – USB cables, e.g.

  Amazon provides:

  other items purchased by those who searched the item you’re considering

  accessories

  upgrades

  free shipping and other useful information intended to keep the Amazon visitor on site longer. Even when you log off, the tireless Amazon.com hits you with one last list of suggestions worth your time.

  I even get a golden box filled with specials targeted especially at me – items on sale and on my list of reading interests.

  Easy Out
  I can save items in my wish list and return later to purchase them. And once I’ve determined my purchase, I can employ Amazon’s One-Click Checkout. Man, making it easy to buy with confidence boosts sales.

  Daily Specials
  There’s always something new on sale at Amazon. Changes daily so I’m tempted to return to see what’s new today – even if I’m not in a buying mood.

  Ease of use, changing content, easy navigation, personalized pages based on an active d-base that creates pages on the fly, one-click out the door – Amazon is doing it right when it comes to on-line commerce.

  And let me just say that I don’t work for Amazon, nor am I in any way affiliated with the company (unless Mr. Bezos would like to drop me a line), so this assessment of Amazon is based on personal experience and my experience with Web 2.0 features.

  Amazon has it all.

Intuitive SERPs

Search engines, as we know them today, will soon join the heap of outdated technologies along with 8-tracks, VHS and DVD. Why? Because search engines collect data on our browsing habits and produces unique results pages based on our past browsing histories.  

If I type in “dogs” as my query word, I’ll get everything from pet stores to the history of the basset hound. And, if I’m using one of the growing number of Chinese search engines, I’ll come up with some recipes, as well. Unfortunately, my broad query provides thousands of results, often requiring me to refine my search to whatever it is I’m looking for. “Dogs” as a query just won’t cut it.

However, that search engine will have in its database a long history of my queries. The SE will know that I order dog chow on-line in bulk and will (1) bring up outlets where I’ve previously purchased dog chow and (2) offer a few hundred SERPs of similar sites to those I’ve frequented in the past.  

Amazon employs this approach to a more “intuitive” search engine my scouring my buying history and offering “MY RECCOMMENDATIONS.” So, my Amazon home page will display different products than those shown on your home page. Very convenient and obviously very effective.

So, the days of the “throw anything out there and let the user decide” will soon come to an end, at least as the default mode. Of course, you’ll always have the option of “SHOW ALL.” This will change the fundamentals of how users search.

Looking for a specific item or type of item. Personal search.

Want the full spectrum? Search all.