 |
Breaking
eBusiness and Search News |
|
 |
Understanding The Use Of Canonical Tags
Last week we learned of the magical new Link Element which was announced at SMX West which was purported to resolve a longstanding problem with duplicate content by pointing search engines to a single URL for pages which could have multiple paths to the same content.
Using Canonical URL Tags On Your Site
Last week we learned of the magical new Link Element which was announced at SMX West which was purported to resolve a longstanding problem with duplicate content by pointing search engines to a single URL for pages which could have multiple paths to the same content.
Starting A Career In SEO
In October of 2006, when I was first interviewing for in-house SEO positions, I wrote a series of articles on SEO job searches (listed below) and incorporated my own research on Salary ranges for SEO.
SEO Solution to Tag Clouds
Saw this great tag cloud cartoon on ReadWriteWeb (RWW) this weekend and it prompted this blog post. I've got a mini-rant on this topic due to my constant advocacy for tag clouds and resistance from everyone I recommend them to.
Tag Cloud Solutions for SEO
Saw this great tag cloud cartoon on ReadWriteWeb (RWW) this weekend and it prompted this blog post. I've got a mini-rant on this topic due to my constant advocacy for tag clouds and resistance from everyone I recommend them to.
What Comes Before the Dot in Open TLD's?
As I mentioned in my post about that very odd ICANN decision to open up Top Level Domains (TLD's) to virtually any words, it seems like a rather odd move toward confusion and a blow to the concept of Intellectual Property rights.
Dot Me Domain Names Might Target Social MEdia Sites
In keeping with the focus on user generated content from social MEdia sites, it could be that this new domain name may actually get legs and walk away with a target audience currently using .name domains.
Dot Org Domains get a Price Increase
According to Jacqui Cheng of Ars Technica, the Public Interest Registry has announced a .60 cent increase in wholesale prices for the dot org (.org) domain fee.
Google-Owned Domain Names
Most web savvy types know that Google is an ICANN approved domain registrar - and even though they have publicly stated that they have no intention of selling domain names themselves, they can directly access domain records and monitor ownership data.
Grow Your Business by Getting Online Now!
Without a web site address to call home, a business is homeless. It's seen by customers as the equivalent of working with a computer in the dusty corner of the garage near the clothes dryer lint trap.
One Million Dot Ca Domains
One of the frustrations of ecommerce entrepreneurs who do business worldwide (especially those of us in the publishing and information business) is the inability to legally register top level domains (TLD's) in those countries we serve outside of our own.
MSN Live Banning Reciprocal Link Exchange Spam
The headline above may be a bit premature as the claimed email received from MSN search team by a SearchEngineWatch forums member has not been acknowledged as coming from Microsoft. A quote:
SEO Job Interview: Ten Tips For Corporate SEO
Over the past year I've interviewed for a half dozen SEO jobs at substantial companies where they've decided to stop out-sourcing and bring the SEO position in-house.
Facilitating Social Media Optimization (SMO)
What follows is a Q&A with AddThis.com co-founder Dom Vonarburg.
Don't Risk Losing Your Business Domain Name!
I Can't Remember Where I Purchased My Domain Name!
Google Sitemaps For the XML Challenged
Google recently announced a change to their "Sitemaps" program. It went from a protocol meant for Python programmers and XML wizards to a much kinder, gentler (and friendlier to webmasters) program to help get all of your pages crawled and indexed. It's called "Google Webmaster Central".
SES: Link Baiting - Experienced Marketers Only
Link building sessions at Search Engine Strategies shows are always popular and draw some of the most substantial crowds from the ranks of webmasters and corporate SEO's attending conferences.
SES: Schmidt on Privacy, Proprietary Algorithms
The sensitivity of search string data is suddenly on everyone's mind due to news of the AOL data leak on a research site this week.
SES: Google, Yahoo & MSN Research Laboratories
The Research Laboratories session at SES San Jose 2006 brought representatives from the top 3 engines to talk about how projects emerge from their labs to become actual search tools.
SES: SE Algorithms: Can you Please Them All?
Search engine specialists use to spend inordinate amounts of time creating pages that ranked well at just one search engine due to algorithmic weighting of known and very specific ranking factors.
SES San Jose 2006: Leveraging Social Media
Attending morning SES (Search Engine Strategies) sessions after a 4am wake-up, airport crowds, public transit shuffles and schlepping luggage all morning - I was a bit cranky by the time I finally arrived at the San Jose Convention Center for morning sessions.
Silly SEO Mistakes, Stumbles & Blunders of Ecommerce Webmasters
Web business owners commit some SEO & ranking gaffes, sometimes without even knowing what they've done. In the manner of a Letterman top ten list, I'd like to offer the worst in the hope that I can prevent you making the same mistakes.
Google Big Daddy SearchQuake About to Rumble Your Ranking?
Running ranking reports for clients is a standard part of an SEO's job.
PageRank Panhandlers Beg Links on Street Corners - Get a Job!
I get a steady stream of link requests for three of my own sites and a half dozen others that I manage for clients. For about the last year, I've had a standard template reply that I send to all link panhandlers.
Live Up to Title - Involving the Audience
Search Engine Watch Forums Live! was promoted on the Jupiter Media JupiterEvents.com site like this: "This informal, half-day event offers attendees the opportunity to meet several moderators of the SearchEngineWatch Discussion Forums in person...
Avoid Duplicate Content Penalty on PPC Landing Pages!
There are recent posts in marketing forums worrying over "duplicate content" penalties concerns when creating pages intended as Pay-Per-Click landing pages. First a couple of definitions:
Torpedo and Sink the Ship SS Search Engine Rankings
I was recently contacted by one of my best clients who asked me what I thought of his decision to make a major change to one of his highly ranked pages.
Article Marketing Shams and Linking Shills in Web Content
It's stunning sometimes how far article marketing has come over the last few years as an effective means of promoting business through educational articles.
Rock Your Rank With A Dynamite Text Link at Yahoo Directory
Last week a client called me excitedly exclaiming that their Google PageRank had jumped a notch and their targeted keyword term now ranked #23 (up from #45) for their competitive search phrase.
Search Engine Spiders Lost Without Guidance - Post This Sign!
Robots.txt Signpost Warns Trespassers From Private Property
Web Content Barn Blasted by Shotgun Software by Article Marketers
As we prepared to move our 12,000 article database from one server to another and make a serious business of it, instead of the formerly free service, hosted on free servers and delivered by free email accounts, we took a serious look around at the article marketing business as well as the paid web content business to see what others were doing and test theories about the value of web content.
Bugaboos of Article Marketing in Web Content Management Systems (CMS)
One of the most common blunders by those using article marketing to distribute free reprint articles is to include periods after domain names at the end of sentences.
Article Marketing Fox in the Competitor Hen House - Or Chicken Little?
I recently was asked by an author to remove a free content article from a client web site where we had posted it (with several others from different authors) to increase topical relevancy at a site that fit the article perfectly.
Release from Google Sandbox Only to Search the Playground
The Google Sandbox Effect has been discussed at length in our case study of a new website first crawled in May by Googlebot.
Yahoo, MSN, Google Lost in a Sandbox
Seventy-two days ago Googlebot first showed up and crawled over 250 pages of a brand new domain in an experiment that has had an odd cartoonish character to it, where unexplained things happen with sometimes dark foreboding, a kind of Fantasia online.
Big Sandbox for Google, AskJeeves & Yahoo. MSN Indexes Quickest
Listing delays that have come to be called the Google Sandbox effect are actually true in practice at each of four top tier search engines in one form or another.
Playing in Googlebot's Sandbox with Slurp, Teoma & MSNbot Spiders Display Distinctly Differing Personalities
There has been endless webmaster speculation and worry about the so-called "Google Sandbox" - the indexing time delay for new domain names - rumored to last for at least 45 days from the date of first "discovery" by Googlebot. This recognized listing delay came to be called the "Google Sandbox effect."
40 Million Credit Cards Hacked - YOU as Identity Theft Victim
Saturday, MasterCard blamed a vendor of ALL credit card providers called CardSystems Solutions, Inc., a third-party processor of payment card data, as the source of loss of 40 million consumers credit card information.
Search Ranked #1 for "Invisible Entrepreneurs" But No Traffic?
I am ranked #1 for that silly phrase at Google. So What?
You Cannot Hide From Public Record Search Engines
As a search engine optimization specialist, I often run across search engines of different sorts than most people are aware of.
Cult of Linking Needs Exorcist to Cast Out Linking Demons!
Have you ever known someone who has blind faith to a religous sect or self-improvement group and has been taken in by a charismatic leader? The devotion to the cause is seemingly blind and support in donated time or financial contribution exceeds all reason?
Press Releases New SEO Back Door to Top Rankings
Greg Jarboe, President and co-founder of SEO-PR revealed a blockbuster secret back door to top search engine ranking when he presented to a comparitively small share of attendees at WebMasterWorld.com World of Search #7 conference. Jarboe presented a case study of client WineZap.com showing their press release which was distributed online in July of 2004.
Linking Advice From Experts at WebMaster World of Search
Link building has become an integral part of search engine marketing and positioning. The topic is inevitably the subject of many web conference programs and the WebMaster World of Search conference was no exception.
Don't Be A Reciprocal Linking Turkey!
I had an email exchange with an SEO client today after his webmaster called him pushing reciprocal linking software (when all this web designer was after was to generate some extra work from a client that hasn't needed him for awhile). Then that client called me after he received my email de- nouncing the software, fully convinced by a follow-up phone call from his web designer that the reciprocal linking soft- ware WAS valuable.
Search Conference Vindicates SEO Basics, Exposes Bad Boy SEO
The 2004 "World of Search" conference at Las Vegas Convention Center began Tuesday, November 15, with a short welcome and conference kudos and credits from WebMasterWorld.com (WMW) head Brett Tabke.
Can Toll Free 800 Number Domains Pay Off?
The toll free number 1-800-Get-Rich belongs to the Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City. Perfect vanity number for a casino, right?
Google Spyware? Bad Guys & Spies Using Google Desktop Search
I suppose I was naive when I cheered the new Google Desktop Search tool thinking it was ONLY a great way to help ease my computer info-glut and help organize my hundreds of hard-drive stored documents, emails and files. It seems that now I have to worry about how bad guys and busybodies will use it to spy on me!
Google Desktop Search versus Microsoft Windows Search
Google Desktop Search Software can't find your lost keys or tell you where you left the Tivo remote control, or that your glasses are on top of your head, where you left them. But the beta software from Google Labs is nothing short of mandatory for those with more emails, Word documents, Powerpoint, Excel and PDF files than they know what to do with. That's me.
Throw Away Your Money on Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization consists of some relatively arcane issues that are not obvious to anyone. That I can be thankful for, I suppose, or I wouldn't continue to be in demand as an SEO specialist. But why do clients throw money out the window with developers who don't understand they are bulldozing down site naming structure and careful page architecture when they do a site redesign?
The New MSN Search May Be a Google Killer!
The Second Look at MSN's Search technology is available for public beta testing.
SEO Case Study: Attorneys Chasing Vioxx Organic Search Ranking
Last week the drug manufacturer Merck pulled their pain relief medication Vioxx (rofecoxib) from the market due to studies linking higher incidence of heart attacks and strokes to long term use of their medication. The highly profitable medicine was aimed at Rheumatoid Arthritis sufferers and others who weren't able to stomach aspirin, which is arguably more effective than Vioxx is for most pain relief.
Testimonials as Linking Strategy - Twist to Link Campaigns
Standard, well-worn marketing techniques sometimes gain some polish when you rework them a bit. Everyone knows that happy customer testimonials are a valuable addition to your business marketing materials and your web site. Glowing comments from those who have had a good experience with your product or service are successful relationships with your customers and clients - publishing them on your web site shows visitors how successfully you have dealt with previous customers.
Linking Psychosis is Treatable. Link Obsession & PageRank
Search Engine Optimization has become inextricably linked with linking schemes over the last couple of years.
Affiliate Programs Worthless for 80% of Affiliate Marketers
No doubt you've heard of the 80/20 rule - which states that 20 percent of affiliates generate 80% of affiliate income, and conversely, remaining 80 percent of affiliates generate only 20 percent of all income for most affiliate programs.
Google Bombing or Incremental Tool for Search Engine Ranking?
I visited the WebProWorld forums and stumbled across a topic "New Google Bombing Technique" and was startled to see that the topic had been viewed over 22,000 times! It is by far the most active of the forums in the "Search Engine Insider Reports" section.
Sites Abandoned by Googlebot
As a search engine optimization specialist I often optimize existing web pages for small business clients, upload them to the site and see pages re-indexed by Google within a week.
Searches Performed : Lies and Statistics
Yahoo abruptly quit using Google as a search partner last week in a surprise move that has the search industry now scrambling for statistics to analyze and numbers to bandy about. I'd like to share some rarely discussed statistics and numbers with you here. First the numbers and stats from the press, then I'll share a few of my own. Here are the stats that are getting the most attention for the Yahoo search story.
Search Engine Predictions for 2004
After being asked to contribute some predictions for 2004 to a search engine newsletter, I found it so much fun to make my search cynicism tangible that I took it seriously.
Affiliate University - How to Succeed as a Publisher Online Is Contextual Advertising About to Rock your World Wide Web?
The role of a trusted third party to handle the complexities of affiliate marketing is a hotly contested market niche on the web. The players range from very large and complex (like LinkShare and beFree) to small programs for small business like MyAffiliateProgram.com & even affiliate tracking built into simple shopping cart software such as 1ShoppingCart.com.
Press Release SEO - Media Kit Linking Campaign
Search Engine Optimization requires strategizing as well as optimizing for SEO firms seeking online visibility for their clients. Last month a client of our firm sought counsel on their web strategy for an already optimized site. We had tightened up their keywords, focused their content and appropriately titled each well crafted page.
Basics of Search Engine Submission in a Changed Search World
To Search Engine Optimizers, who submit client sites on a regular basis to the search engines, it can seem as though submitting sites via the standard forms at those sites is the most mundane and routine part of our jobs. It's easy to forget the host of small business webmasters out there who do it themselves and need guidance through the maze of submission confusion.
Creative Commons Replacing Copyright?
Plagiarism is an issue that has always plagued writers online and those of us that offer our stuff for free are most at risk for this.
You've got an EXCELLENT Idea! Now What?
Q: How do I protect an idea before I do any thing else with it?
Google Drives 70% of all Web Traffic! Wake Up MSN, YAHOO!
A recent post in a discussion list suggested that Google is becoming the Microsoft of search (dominating web search as Microsoft dominates PC operating systems). So I decided to research a theory - one I'd developed about search engine traffic. I dug into the traffic stats on three of my own sites and those of several clients that I monitor traffic for.
Google Adsense Could Mean Death to Affiliate Programs!
The popular search engine, Google has introduced a dramatic new contextual advertising service called Adsense. This new program could mean death to affiliate programs on those web sites that qualify for the Adsense program. Why would Google advertising affect affiliate programs? Because Google is making Adsense ads available to smaller content rich sites.
How to Qualify for Google Adsense Contextual Advertising
Recently I wrote an article about Google Adsense contextual advertising innovation that was introduced by the popular search engine to allow "Content" web sites to profit from advertising. Suddenly it has become possible for those who have an intense interest in nearly any focused subject to gather information, resources and commentary to publish a profitable web site.
Simplified SEO for Small Business Webmasters - TEXT!
Small business webmasters often believe search engine optimization is a complex and mysterious art that they must struggle to understand and master. It couldn't be further from the truth. SEO is basic and simple - TEXT.
Shopping Search and the Small Online Retailer
Shopping search is something all large portal sites attempt to
incorporate into their search functionality in one way or another,
but knowing where you are getting your results from is the
difficult part for most of us. The biggest issue is that nobody
really understands that a search engine is made up of multiple
resources and that is especially true of shopping search.
How to Create a "Link-To-Us" Page
Most webmasters are very aware of the value of having quality links from well regarded, high traffic web sites pointing to their own site. Professional webmasters will always provide linking graphics, instructions and sample text to those webmasters willing to link to them.
Crawl The Web Like Google
Oh, for the simplicity of the good old days of 1995! Where all a web site owner had to do was put important keywords about her web site in the metatags of the HTML code of the front page of her site with a clear description and title to rank well in the search engines and make it easy for web searchers to find her.
Linking Campaign Increases Google PageRank But Only if Google Knows - So Tell Them!
A client recently contacted me pointing out that their linking campaign was starting to pay off handsomely by gaining links at a nearly astounding rate of about 200 a week! He asked how he could be certain that those sites that linked to his were spidered and indexed by the search engines, thereby increasing his PageRank at Google. Those of you who'd like a primer on PageRank can visit the following URL's to learn more.
Linking Campaign Increases Google PageRank
A client recently contacted me pointing out that their linking campaign was starting to pay off handsomely by gaining links at a nearly astounding rate of about 200 a week! He asked how he could be certain that those sites that linked to his were spidered and indexed by the search engines, thereby increasing his PageRank™ at Google. Those of you who'd like a primer on PageRank™ can visit the following URL's to learn more.
Search for Survivors Follows AltaVista/Overture/Fast Searchquake
The ground moves with a confusing shift sideways, followed by a bump, then a lurch and finally a massive rumbling explosion that splits the earth and swallows whatever is in its path on the surface. This happens with disturbing regularity lately and aftershocks knock formerly solid firms off their strong foundations. Infoseek, Go.com, Direct Hit and Excite collapse.
What Makes Apple so Delicious?
Trade shows will naturally draw those with high end interest and the technical knowledge that leads to that jargon spewed by keynote speakers. Enterprise-speak vendors display their wares and attendees at break-out sessions are full of techno-geeks seeking the latest knowledge enhancement for their narrow interest area. InternetWorld 2002 was no different.
Computers Freedom and Privacy 2002
Last week I attended the Computers, Freedom & Privacy (CFP2002) conference where I heard four days of discussion and debate from attorneys, corporate leaders, politicians and privacy advocates over issues of civil liberties, privacy and commerce.
What Do Marketers Sell? Only the Good Stuff!
This week I was suddenly struck by the fact that I sell dozens of products and services that I never see, some I've never used and many that I didn't even know about before that company hired me.
Super Snooper
You've heard enough about Big Brother to last a lifetime, so I've renamed him Super Snooper to spare you the cliche during this discussion.
Honey, I Shrunk the Chip!
Let's get small, real small, and then we can go anywhere! No, I'm not advocating we shrink ourselves, but rather discussing dramatic changes coming now that computers can be tiny and inexpensive. Recent movement in conservative, and previously very scarce venture capital investments (in two notable areas) suggests a brave new world of inexpensive, ubiquitous computing could be approaching.
I - I - iMac! Hype Meets Analysts
What new product gets more press attention than a new Porsche? What can generate more buzz than bear at a beehive? It's a bird, it's a plane . . . it's super fruit! Apple Computer can and does get that kind of attention, and it does so regularly. Hyperbole begins well in advance of each semiannual MacWorld, and begins with the Mac publications and rumor sites. Every Mac devotee imagines a revolutionary new product which answers their every fantasy, whether it be super fast or super cool.
This Passport PREVENTS Travel!
Last week Microsoft bCentral required all users of it's ListBuilder Service to sign up for and use the Microsoft .NET passport system by converting to that system before allowing log-in to their existing accounts.
Cookies Anyone?
There is one particular issue that relates specifically to the web and your surfing, buying and e-mailing habits. You should know by now that every site you visit can place a "cookie" on your hardrive which will record a few crumbs of information about you.
Bioterrorism Affects Email
At a time when critical issues of national importance are being discussed in basement rooms at the US Capitol due to Anthrax laced letters sent to government offices, email has become more important than ever for person-to-person communications. Bioterrorism has now impacted even email. No worry that you'll get sick when you next check your email inbox since terrorists have not yet figured out how to send those powdery spores via email attachments (digitizing Anthrax spores seems to kill the little critters).
Munchkins Want Advice from Monsters? Not!
I was sipping my morning "wake-cup" of coffee over the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle this weekend when I came across an article by staff writer John Batteiger referencing web sites useful to small business. Great, I thought, I'd love more of those valuable resources. Silly me.
Information Wants to Be Free
From the Web2001 Internet and Mobile conference and exposition at the Moscone convention center in San Francisco August 4-8, comes an interesting set of keynote speakers offered to attendees. Rather than major computer or software company CEO's, we have commentators on our culture speaking to a conference full of web developers and corporate strategists charged with developing web initiatives.
Focus, Focus, Focus: The Key to Online Success
The key to online success is specialization and niche marketing. There, I've said it and I won't take it back! You've heard endless advice whispered from every corner of the web and shouted from the rooftops by every major web marketing guru. Now I'm offering it myself in the hope that I finally get it! I'm as guilty as any webmaster of jumping at the latest affiliate program that offers "200 PERCENT PAYOUT" or leaping on the "Submit your site to SIX MILLION SEARCH ENGINES" banner I see on every site.
Do You Know Who Owns Your Words?
Writing for the web creates a lot of new questions about who owns all those words circulating out there on web sites, in ezines and in ebooks. What about the CD's created from many of those words in all those digital forms all over the web? Instead of books or articles or columns, it's all being re-named "Content".
Big Brother Bill: It's 1984 all over Again!
Most of the commentary over the George Orwell's novel, "1984" that occured in that year, was derision, saying that now it was quite clear that the eerie picture painted of "Big Brother" was unlikely, and certainly not possible.
Maybe Women Should Run the Web!
We all know that the idea of business on the web came on with a roar and now lies whimpering and licking its wounds in the safety of the shadows. Who was the enemy? Who or what was it that clawed and scraped the potential of online business so brutally that early enthusiasts are now seen as foolish, wild- eyed dreamers? What brought down an idea that was bigger and more powerful than a raging beast at full roar?
Rock & Roll In Your Email?
You groggily stumble from bed and turn on the computer as you pass by on your way to the kitchen. Returning with the morning's first cup of coffee you fire up your browser and log-on to the web as you take the first few eye-opening sips. Downloading your personal email, you notice your favorite Bruce Springsteen song title in the subject line of the seventh email message and open it first.
Green and Grinning After Four Years Online
Four years of experience in most endeavors doesn't add up to much authority and wisdom for the vast majority of students. It usually means a green and grinning graduate in a cap and gown nervously looking past a dangling tassle to a future of job interviews and resume polishing career maneuvers.
The Oscar for WebSite of the Year goes to! . . . . [drumroll]
Although web awards are never a truly big deal by current standards established by major television events like the Grammy's or the Oscars, they are actively sought by web developers and small businesses online for their efforts.
Ya Just Gotta Believe!
Gamblers are a breed apart, they just KNOW they're gonna hit the big one someday. Some will even bet their life on that one "sure thing" that is gonna make 'em rich when they strike the jackpot. They'll bet the house, the car, or their future on a lucky feeling, a tingle in their hands as they roll the dice, or maybe Lady Luck will whisper in their ear telling them to bet it all and spin the roulette wheel "Just One More Time!"
Speak English Will Ya?
I know a nice retired couple that used to like foreign travel and used to take yearly trips abroad and used to regularly broaden their horizons and expand their experience through cruises, tours and vacations. I say *used to* because they quit traveling after a trip to Portugal where they got very frustrated because, "Those people don't speak English!"
Lighten Up! Enjoy Your Time Online!
This week I did what we all do occasionally, I "hit the wall" in my marathon run for online success, That point in the race that feels like you have smacked face first into a solid brick barrier and can't possibly continue on.
WebSite Moving Day! New Home for the Home Page
Moving is an inevitable event for most of us. Over the last 25 years I have moved an average of once per year! First it was that exciting move out on my own to attend college, then came the reluctant bouncing between relatives, bad apartments, incompatible room-mates and then, just about graduation time, the perfect apartment! Oh Well.
Nightmare on Web Street!
I need access to online database tools from my host and call them up to ask about availability. OK, I find that it costs a few bucks a month extra to access those tools for my site. Hmmmm. Well I've got someone telling me that their host is offering those very same tools and more storage space for half of what I'm paying!
Roadmap to Pay-for-Placement
The "paid placement" search results model introduced by GoTo.com has become an accepted method of advertising online and should be considered a very viable and attractive option in your small business marketing budget. Get out your roadmap and let's GoTo!
Techno Gizmo Gadget
There is an infomercial running these days by a company that makes a Techno-Gizmo Gadget. The production values are high, the writing is clever and the goal is the clear. Get this "gadget" into the hands of consumers and it allows immediate interactive advertising! Use this goody, connected to your computer to scan a bar code on a product and you are taken immediately to a web page with more info! I can't imagine what more I'd want to know about my soda-pop, but what a great idea for interactive learning!
Business Failure Here! FREE!!
I want to yell at someone or give 'em a good poke in the nose for this! How could they do this to me? What gives them the right to blow off my best customers, to rob me of potential business and make my clients angry at me? How dare they do this!! I'm just fuming and ready to explode! Don't get too close to me right now!
Seven Secrets of Grassroots Internet Marketing
Marketing your small business online can look like a complex and daunting task when getting started with your ecommerce enabled web presence. But listen folks, there just ain't that much to it! Lend me an ear while I set the record straight.
Email Piracy, Email Privacy?
How much sensitive information do you send via email? Email piracy is usually not a major issue for small businesses online. If only because there's not enough *money* at stake for expensive industrial espionage and undercutting by competitors who beat you to the punch in launching a new idea because they worked out how to intercept your emails to a business partner.
Linking is a Basic Necessity of Online Business
First, I'd like to offer my apologies to those of you who don't know and use HTML coding. If you use WYSIWYG web authoring tools then you may as well only read the first half of this article. I'm not sure it's possible to follow these suggestions if you don't write your own HTML code. I know that you can insert code in most editors, but each varies. It's worth looking up in your instructions though, because linking is critical to your site!
Disinter . . . What?
Another new B2B buzzword? D I S I N T E R M E D I A T I O N
The first time I saw the term, I ignored it, thinking the writer was a journalist charmed with a new word. The next time I saw "disintermediation" was in an internet journal for Information Technology Specialists so I thought I had better pay attention, but still there was no definition offered. So I went to dictionary.com and looked up the term. Where I found the following:
Do I love the Web? You Bet Your ASP!
The proliferation of Application Service Providers, or ASP's, is making me very happy! They host software on their own servers which obviates the need for me to own the software and allows testing of programs on machines that couldn't possibly run that software.
Domain Name Hijacking!
Domain names are becoming "hot" property - as in *theft* for resale. More and more companies are finding they cannot get their trademarked names as a domain name because so few good names are left. But sometimes it's outright extortion as when a Fortune 500 company name is reserved by someone that has no intention of developing a site under the domain, but simply "parks" it somewhere and waits to be contacted by the big boys to purchase the name for astronomical fees.
Privacy Concerns Online Increasing Daily!
A major issue for small to medium sized business online is PRIVACY if they collect information from visitors to their site. New laws are being passed that require site operators to maintain the privacy of surfers that provide personal information to site owners. A law recently came into effect called the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) that can lead to fines of $15,000 for non-compliance PER VIOLATION. Sites that collect information from children under 13 are required by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to get "verifiable parental permission" before collecting ANY information from kids.
Don't Be Naive! Check Out Potential Joint Venture Partners!
If you have very little internet experience, it's important to find someone you trust that *does* have experience online to help you with your idea development. Doing business online is very different than offline. If your idea is something that could easily be adopted and developed, obviously you need to protect the idea from an unscrupulous potential partner.
There's No Place Like My Home Page!
In operating WebSite101 I get one question *far* more often than others. So I thought I'd address the single question more frequently asked than any other online query,
What Can't be Done Online?
O.K. I admit that title is a bit of hyperbole, but it seems to be going that direction, doesn't it? WebSite101 has long been an advocate of bringing *all* businesses, big and small online. We have focused most of our energy on bringing the home office online, assuring that mom and pop businesses get their share of the internet pie.
How to benefit from the proliferation of free information
Everybody's doin' it! eBooks, eBooklets, eReports, eGads! The problem with all of this e-information scattered about the web on so many far-flung sites is that it's impossible to find them all. That's only a problem if you're paid to get that information circulated! The guy out looking for your client's products may be searching for every piece of information he can get his hands on about your client's widgets.
|
|
|
 eBUSINESS
RESOURCES |
|
|
 |
|
| About
WebProNews |
WebProNews is the number
one source for eBusiness News. Over 5 million eBusiness professionals read
WebProNews and other iEntry business and tech publications.
WebProNews provides real-time coverage of internet
business.
Free Email Newsletters:
|
|
|
|
