All idea about google yahoo ebay

A proposal for Yahoo/MSN to beat Google

2006-08-13T03:18:00.000-07:00

Post on lifeisaventure

A Billion-Dollar Question for Yahoo and MSN
Here is a proposal for Yahoo or MSN to gain $1B from Google:

Here is a proposal for Yahoo or MSN to gain $1B from Google:

As I wrote yesterday, every bit of your online life may be recorded in a database in Google, Yahoo or MSN. Google already said that they would not change this policy despite the grave privacy issues raised by the AOL data debacle.

If Yahoo or MSN comes out and says that they will not keep any of such records (or just keep the raw data for a short period for internal analysis), I bet there will be a noticeable shift from Google to Yahoo or MSN. If there is 20% shift, that’s a billion dollar! Simple:-)

Here is a billion-dollar question: will Yahoo or MSN do it?

Read full article: lifeisaventure

Google to scan 9 Million books from the library at Stanford University

2006-08-13T03:10:00.000-07:00

By Bob Thompson

If it is really true that Google is going to digitize the roughly 9 million books in the libraries of Stanford University, then you can be sure that the folks who brought you the world's most ambitious search engine will come, in due time, for call number E169 D3.

Google workers will pull Lillian Dean's 1950 travelogue "This Is Our Land" -- the story of one family's "pleasant and soul-satisfying auto journey across our continent" -- from a shelf in the second-floor stacks of the Cecil H. Green Library. They will place the slim blue volume on a book cart, wheel it into a Google truck backed up to the library's loading dock and whisk it a few miles southeast to the Googleplex, the $100 billion-plus company's sprawling, campuslike headquarters in Mountain View. There, at an undisclosed location, it will be scanned and added to the ever-expanding universe of digitally searchable knowledge.

Read full article: washingtonpost

How To See the New Google Video Interface

2006-08-13T02:55:00.000-07:00

Post by Michael Arrington on TechCrunch

We mentioned that Google is testing out a new interface for watching videos in a post yesterday. Razvan Antonescu, emailed me with a tip on how to see the new interface for yourself. Google Blogoscoped also wrote about this.

Read full article: TechCrunch

Google Porn?

2006-08-13T02:47:00.000-07:00

Post by Michael Arrington on TechCrunch

People watching Google Video closely noticed a change this week in the upload area - the restrictions on uploading "pornographic or obscene" material is now just a restriction on "obscene" material. They've also added a "mature and adult" category to the genres and removed (I believe) a box on the initial uploading page that must be checked where the uploader certifies that the "video is not pornographic or obscene material".

This may or may not mean Google is allowing, or preparing to allow, porn. Videos containing nudity are clearly available on the site, and many were uploaded months ago (for example, is this porn?). But nothing hardcore seems to be on the site.

Read full article: TechCrunch

Google's Blogger unblocked (again) in China

2006-08-13T02:36:00.000-07:00

Posted by Daniel Fleshbourne on neowin

Google's free Web log service, Blogger, is once again accessible from Beijing without the use of a proxy server, indicating that apparent government efforts to block the site have been lifted.

Access to Blogger was restored on Thursday. The site has largely been inaccessible from China since late 2002, when government censors apparently blocked access to Google's search engine and other sites. Last year, Blogger was accessible during a three-month period that stretched from mid-October until December, when the service once again became inaccessible. Chinese officials rarely discuss their Internet censorship efforts.The lack of disclosure sometimes makes it difficult to determine when a site is being blocked or is not accessible for technical reasons. However, in cases such as Blogger, where a site is inaccessible for long periods of time, the culprit is usually government intervention.

Source: http://www.neowin.net

Ebay Business - Longer Bidding Time The Bigger The Bank Balance

2006-04-09T03:25:00.000-07:00

Optimizing web pages for high rankings in the search engines involved two main processes. Firstly there is the on-page factors which include what keywords you place where on the page itself. The second, and more important process is getting the off-page factors right - incoming links.

This article explores mainly the on-page factors. As the competition for a keyword phrase increases, off-page factors become more important to good rankings and these often mask the effects of on-page factors making it impossible to see what on-page factors are important. For this reason, I am going to look at a high ranking page with low levels of competition in Google.

First, let's consider what we mean by competition.

There are two ways to look at competition in Google. There is the competition a page has when you type the phrase with quotes, and the competition when you type the words without quotes. The number of results returned by Google in each case is YOUR competition.

The main differences between these two types of search are as follows:

Search with Quotes - this returns only those pages that have been "optimized" for the exact phrase.

Search without Quotes - this returns all pages that have been "optimized" for the words making up the phrase.

e.g. (in simple terms)

a) If you search Google for

alsatian dog

Google returns 41,000 competing pages.

b) If you search Google for

"alsatian dog"

Google returns 6,390 competing pages.

In (a) above, there are 41,000 pages that refer to alsatian AND dog, but not necessarily to alsatian dog.

In (b) above, there are 6,390 pages that refer to the exact phrase alsatian dog.

Now, if you want to rank well for the term "alsatian dog" on Google, you only have to compete with 6,390 other pages for this exact term.

However, there are 41,000 - 6,390 = 34,610 other pages that are related to this search, and might still beat you if Google sees them as more relevant than your page.

We have discussed before the importance of link reputation and PR in ranking. It is possible for a high PR page to rank well for a term like alsatian dog, even if it does not have the exact phrase on the page.

This fact clouds the issue somewhat, and so although I recommend searching with quotes to find the real competition, I also recommend that you look at the top few results in Google (as searched without quotes) to determine how important those "partial match" pages are.

A quick search at:

http://www.prsearch.net/

for alsatian dog, shows me that the top pages for this search without quotes have a low PR (0-3) and many of those pages have 0 incoming links.

The same search at PRSearch.net using quotes around the phrase show very similar results. The competing pages for the exact term have low PR and low incoming links.

This phrase should be easy to target and get top rankings if done properly.

A word of warning: Because the PR reported on the Google toolbar is out of date (see earlier), you cannot be 100% sure of the PR of the pages, even using a site like PRSearch. They will use the same formula that the toolbar uses, and so will be equally out of date. Only Google knows the exact PR it is using in its ranking for any one page.

A second check I often do is to check what the PR of the homepage of the site that is ranking well, as this gives me an indication of how important the site as a whole is. For the phrase alsatian dog (with or without quotes), the top page is:

http://www.castleofspirits.com/stories02/alsatian.html

The homepage

http://www.castleofspirits.com

has a PR of 6 - quite an important site.

However, there is no link to the alsatian page on the homepage, so the PR 6 homepage wont directly help towards the high ranking of the alsatian dog web page.

Doing a backward links check on Google does not help since there are no backlinks listed for this top ranking page.

OK, putting on my detective hat, I see a link at the bottom of the Alsatian page called "March 02 Ghost Stories". There is another link to "Ghost Story Page".

Clicking on the link to Ghost Story Page, I am taken to a PR 5 page:

http://www.castleofspirits.com/storypg.html

where I find a link to March 2002 Ghost Stories. Clicking that link takes me to a PR 3 page:

http://www.castleofspirits.com/stories02/mch2002.html

And on this page I find a link to Ghostly Alsatian dog.

So, the top ranking alsatian dog page has one link I know of from a PR 3 page. I might assume that this site also has a sitemap (although I cannot find one) where it contains a second link to the alsatian dog page. That means a total of 2 links, both internal.

I can assume from this that the alsatian page with a PR 2 is probably the correct PR, and the page itself has very few incoming links. I am confident that if I targeted the phrase alsatian dog, I would easily get a top ranking.

The phrase alsatian dog is therefore an EASY phrase to target.

As a final check I went to the searchguild difficulty tool mentioned in section 6 of this newsletter and typed my phrase into that. The Search Guild rates this term as EASY.

With relatively few off-page factors contributing to the high ranking of this page, I can only assume that the on-page factors are what makes this page stand out from the rest and rank at number 1 on Google.

There are a variety of tools available for calculating density, but I use a tool I wrote for myself and is not available for purchase.

Running this URL through my tool tells me a lot of useful information.

Density of the phrase "alsatian dog" on the page is 0.49%

The keyword is found ONCE in the title (11.11%), and TWICE in the main text on the page (a density of just 0.34%).

The keyword is not found in any header or meta tag!

As a second check I always look at what I call the partial density. That is the sum of the densities of all words that make up the phrase.

e.g. the phrase "alsatian dog" is made up of two words - alsatian AND dog. I look at the density of alsatian, and the density of dog, and combine the two densities.

This is useful because it tells me the density on the page of the words that make up the phrase (remember it is possible to rank well without the exact phrase on the page) - a kind of simplified page reputation.

The partial density of this page is 3.09%, made up of 7 occurrences of alsatian, and 12 occurrences of dog. This page is obviously about alsatians and dogs!

Let's look at the prominence of this phrase on the page. First an explanation of what prominence means.

Prominence is a measure of where on the page a word exists.

A prominence of 100 would mean it was the first word on the page.

A prominence of 1 would indicate it was the last word on the page.

A prominence of 50% would indicate it was the middle word on the page.

If the phrase was the first word (100% prominence) and the last word (1% prominence) on the page, the average prominence on the page would be about 50%. That means the keywords are well spread out on the page. As prominence increases, the keyword is found higher up the page, as it decreases, it is found lower down the page.

For analysis of top ranking pages, I look at not only the average prominence of ALL occurrences of the phrase on my page

i.e. how the keywords are spaced out on the page,

but also the prominence of the first occurrence on the page.

i.e. how close to the start of the document is the phrase first found?

The prominence of the first occurrence of the phrase alsatian dog is 99.67%. That means it is almost the first phrase on the page (only the word ghost comes before it).

The average prominence of the whole page for this term is 62.62%. That means that the keywords are distributed more in the upper portion of the page. Haven't I always told you that it was important to get your main keyword in the top one-third of the page?.

This page is a good one to study. It shows a top ranking page for a low competitive keyword phrase. Because of the low competition, incoming links and PR are less important (though if you have both, you could dominate this phrase), while on-page factors will make or break the ranking.

Even though the exact phrase is only found 3 times on the page, the fact that the phrase is in the title of the document and in the body text seems to be enough. This low density is backed up by using the words that make up the phrase several times on the page. Google will be in no doubt what this page is about.

A final help to the ranking of this page is the filename. Notice that part of the keyword phrase is found in the filename - alsatian.html

*****************************************************
Andy Williams is author of the free, ezSEO internet marketing newsletter, offering subscribers up-to-date information on all aspects of internet marketing.
*****************************************************

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_Williams

Google Algorithm Problems

2006-04-03T04:06:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed anything different with Google lately? The Webmaster community certainly has, and if recent talk on several search engine optimization (SEO) forums is an indicator, Webmasters are very frustrated. For approximately two years Google has introduced a series of algorithm and filter changes that have led to unpredictable search engine results, and many clean (non-spam) websites have been dropped from the rankings. Google updates used to be monthly, and then quarterly. Now with so many servers, there seems to be several different search engine results rolling through the servers at any time during a quarter. Part of this is the recent Big Daddy update, which is a Google infrastructure update as much as an algorithm update. We believe Big Daddy is using a 64 bit architecture. Pages seem to go from a first page ranking to a spot on the 100th page, or worse yet to the Supplemental index. Google algorithm changes started in November 2003 with the Florida update, which now ranks as a legendary event in the Webmaster community. Then came updates named Austin, Brandy, Bourbon, and Jagger. Now we are dealing with the BigDaddy!

The algorithm problems seem to fall into 4 categories. There are canonical issues, duplicate content issues, the Sandbox, and supplemental page issues.

1. Canonical Issues: these occur when a search engine treats www.yourdomain.com, yourdomain.com, and yourdomain.com/index.html all as different websites. When Google does this, it then flags the different copies as duplicate content and penalizes them. Also, if the site not penalized is http://yourdomain.com, but all of the websites link to your website using www.yourdomain.com, then the version left in the index will have no ranking. These are basic issues that other major search engines, such as Yahoo and MSN, have no problem dealing with. Google is possibly the greatest search engine in the world (ranking themselves as a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10). They provide tremendous results for a wide range of topics, and yet they cannot get some basic indexing issues resolved.

2. The Sandbox: this has become one of the legends of the search engine world. It appears that websites, or links to them, are “sandboxed” for a period before they are given full rank in the index, kind of like a maturing time. Some even think it is only applied to a set of competitive keywords, because they were the ones being manipulated the most. The Sandbox existence is debated, and Google has never officially confirmed it. The hypothesis behind the Sandbox is that Google knows that someone cannot create a 100,000 page website overnight, so they have implemented a type of time penalty for new links and sites before fully making the index.

3. Duplicate Content Issues: these have become a major issue on the Internet. Because web pages drive search engine rankings, black hat SEOs (search engine optimizers) started duplicating entire sites’ content under their own domain name, thereby instantly producing a ton of web pages instantly (an example of this would be to download an Encyclopedia onto your website). Due to this abuse, Google aggressively attacked duplicate content abusers with their algorithm updates. But in the process they knocked out many legitimate sites as collateral damage. One example occurs when someone scraps your website. Google sees both sites and may determine the legitimate one to be the duplicate. About the only thing a Webmaster can do is track down these sites as they are scrapped, and submit a spam report to Google. Another big issue with duplicate content is that there are a lot of legitimate uses of duplicate content. News feeds are the most obvious example. A news story is covered by many websites because it is content the viewers want. Any filter will inevitably catch some legitimate uses.

4. Supplemental Page Issues: Webmasters fondly refer to this as Supplemental Hell. This issue has been reported on places like Webmasterworld for over a year, but a major shake up around February 23rd has led to a huge outcry from the Webmaster community. This recent shakeup was part of the ongoing BigDaddy rollout that should finish this month. This issue is still unclear, but here is what we know. Google has 2 indexes: the Main index that you get when you search, and the Supplemental index that contains pages that are old, no longer active, have received errors, etc. The Supplemental index is a type of graveyard where web pages go when they are no longer deemed active. No one disputes the need for a Supplemental index. The problem, though, is that active, recent, and clean pages have been showing up in the Supplemental index. Like a dungeon, once they go in they rarely come out. This issue has been reported with a low noise level for over a year, but the recent February upset has led to a lot of discussion around it. There is not a lot we know about this issue, and no one can seem to find a common cause leading to it.

Google updates were once fairly predictable, with monthly updates that Webmasters anticipated with both joy and angst. Google followed a well published algorithm that gives each website a Page Rank, which is a number given to each webpage based on the number and rank of other web pages pointing to it. When someone searches on a term, all of the web pages deemed relevant are then ordered by their Page Rank. Google uses a number of factors such as keyword density, page titles, meta tags, and header tags to determine which pages are relevant. This original algorithm favored incoming links and the anchor text of them. The more links you got with an anchor text, the better you ranked for that keyword.

As Google gained the bulk of internet searches in the early part of the decade, ranking well in their engine became highly coveted. Add to this the release of Google’s Adsense program, and it became very lucrative. If a website could rank high for a popular keyword, they could run Google ads under Adsense and split the revenue with Google! This combination led to an avalanche of SEO’ing like the Webmaster world had never seen. The whole nature of links between websites changed. Websites used to link to one another because it was good information for their visitors. But now that link to another website could reduce your search engine rankings, and if it is a link to a competitor, it might boost his.

In Google’s algorithm, links coming into your website boost the site’s Page Rank (PR), while links from your web pages to other sites reduce your PR. People started creating link farms, doing reciprocal link partnerships, and buying/selling links. Webmasters started linking to each other for mutual ranking help or money, instead of quality content for their visitors. This also led to the wholesale Scraping of websites. Black hat SEO’s will take the whole content of a website, put Google’s ad on it, get a few high powered incoming links, and the next thing you know they are ranking high in Google and generating revenue from Google’s adsense without providing any unique website content. Worse yet, as Google tries to go after this duplicate content, they sometimes get the real company instead of the scraper.

This is all part of the cat and mouse game that has become the Google algorithm. Once Google realized the manipulation that was happening, they decided to aggressively alter their algorithms to prevent it. After all, their goal is to find the most relevant results for their searchers. At the same time, they also faced huge growth with the internet explosion. This has led to a period of unstable updates, causing many top ranking websites to disappear while many spam and scrapped websites remain. In spite of Google’s efforts, every change seems to catch more quality websites. Many spam sites and websites that violate Google’s guidelines are caught, but there is an endless tide of more spam websites taking their place.

Some people might believe that this is not a problem. Google is there to provide the best relevant listings for what people are searching on, and for the most part the end user has not noticed an issue with Google’s listings. If they only drop thousands of listings out of millions, then the results are still very good. These problems may not be affecting Google’s bottom line now, but having a search engine that cannot be evolved without producing unintended results will hurt them over time in several ways. First, as the competition from MSN and Yahoo grows, having the best results will no longer be a given, and these drops in quality listings will hurt them.

Next, to stay competitive Google will need to continue to change their algorithms. This will be harder if they cannot make changes without producing unintended results. Finally, having the Webmaster community lose faith in them will make them vulnerable to competition. Webmasters provide Google with two things. They are the word of mouth experts. Also, they run the websites that use Google’s Adsense program. Unlike other monopolies, it is easy to switch search engines. People might also criticize Webmasters for relying on a business model that requires free search engine traffic. Fluctuations in ranking are part of the internet business, and most Webmasters realize this. Webmasters are simply asking Google to fix bugs that cause unintended issues with their sites.

Most Webmasters may blame ranking losses on Google and their bugs. But the truth is that many Webmasters do violate some of the guidelines that Google lays out. Most consider it harmless to bend the rules a little, and assume this is not the reason their websites have issues. In some cases, though, Google is right and has just tweaked its algorithm in the right direction. Here is an example: Google seems to be watching the incoming links to your site to make sure they don’t have the same anchor text (this is the text used in the link on the website linking to you). If too many links use the same anchor text, Google discounts these links. This was originally done by some people to inflate their rankings. Other people did it because one anchor text usually makes sense. This is not really a black hat SEO trick, and it is not called out in Google’s guidelines, but it has caused some websites to lose rank.

Webmasters realize that Google needs to fight spam and black hat SEO manipulation. And to their credit, there is a Google Engineer named Matt Cutts who has a Blog site and participates in SEO forums to assist Webmasters. But given the revenue impact that Google rankings have on companies, Webmasters would like to see even more communication around the known issues, and help with identifying future algorithm issues. No one expects Google to reveal their algorithm or what changes they are making. Rumor on the forum boards speculates that Google is currently looking at items like the age of the domain name, websites on the same ip, and frequency of fresh content. It would be nice from a Webmaster standpoint to be able to report potential bugs to Google, and get a response. It is in Google’s best interest to have a bug free algorithm. This will in turn will provide the best search engine results for everyone.

About the Author: Rachel Ringler is Vice President of Advantage1 Web Services, Inc., which owns a network of Web Hosting Informational Websites including Hostchart.com, Resellerconnection.com, and Foundhost.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rachel_Ringler

Web Hosting: Simple, Easy, and Understandable

2006-03-29T03:41:00.000-08:00

Web hosting is essential for individuals and companies that want to start and run a website. Unless you have a server that is always on and has a static IP address, you will need the services of a web hosting company. You have gone through the domain registration process and web hosting is the next step.

What does a typical web host provide? Well, the most important services they provide are mentioned above. Again, web hosts provide you with a server that is always on and an IP address that does not change. The server must always be on so that people can find your website at any time of the day. The server must have a static IP so that the website can always be located. Beyond these two basics, web hosts provide speed, website space, database access, script ability, email capability, and more. A list of typical web hosting services is provided below.

Typical Web Hosting Features
- Disk Storage
- File Transfer
- Email Accounts
- FTP Access
- CGI
- FrontPage Extensions
- Website Statistics

So what should you look for in a web host? Start by identifying web hosting services that you think are critical. I suggest you look at uptime, server space, database connectivity, scripting ability (.NET, PHP), bandwidth allowance, number of email addresses, support, and the administration interface. Once you have decided on your own list of web host essentials, make a list of 3 – 5 qualified candidates. Take your list of web hosts and find the corresponding monthly rate for each. Now you have apples to apples comparison of web hosts that you can sort by monthly hosting fees. Find a web host that is within your budget and do a further investigation of their web hosting solution. Once you have identified a web hosting company that meets all your needs, then you are ready to sign up. A list of potential web hosting companies can be found below. Perhaps it will help you along in your search. You may also want to get a copy of our summarized web hosting checklist to use in your analysis.

Web Hosts:
- FortuneCity
- BraveNet.com
- Yahoo! Small Business
- iPowerWeb

For more information on web hosting and the companies that provide them, simply run a search for “web hosting” on Google and you will get plenty of addtional information.

Jason D. Barrett is currently focused on writing informative articles for InfoBriefs.com, child insurance articles for ChildInsure.com, and technology articles for ScoutTechnology.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jason_D._Barrett

How to Build Your Own Website - More Steps

2006-03-29T02:58:00.000-08:00

To build a website, there are four methods to choose from:

FIRST METHOD:
Get a professional designer to build the site for you:

It is expensive in creation process, site maintenance and development.

SECOND METHOD:
Designing the site with free website hosting:

In this case, just sign in the website that offers this service, and start building your own website.

Free Hosting Sites:
http://geocities.yahoo.com/
http://www.angelfire.lycos.com/
http://www.tripod.lycos.com/
http://www.freeservers.com

Disadvantages of this method (Free Web Hosting):
• Small size-Limited web page space
• Can't create interactive features (message boards, online ordering, etc.)
• Advertisements-May have banners and/or pop ads on your homepage
• Long and hard to remember web address (instead of yourdomain.com)
• No branded email addresses (you@yourdomain.com)
• Weak technical support-Poor help and support options
• May not be free forever
• No seriousness to the site

So it is better to choose a cheap Hosting sites with reasonable prices, you will get a better quality and a higher credibility.

THIRD METHOD:
Professional Web Hosting:

Design the site by a web page designer program (computer software) and use one of the hosting sites.

Web Page designer programs:
There is a lot of computer software available to help you build and manage your website, you may use one or more of them:
1. Microsoft FrontPage
2. Macromedia Dreamweaver/Fireworks Studio
3. Adobe GoLive/Adobe ImageStyler
4. Flash & Swish

FrontPage program is the famous and most important one.

Sites to learn Front Page:
http://www.fgcu.edu/support/office2000/frontpage/
http://www.bhsu.edu/university_comm/web_services/FP_tutorials.html
http://www.electricteacher.com/tutorial2.htm

Sites for Domain Name:
• Yahoo - http://www.yahoo.com/
• Godaddy - http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/default.asp
• EV1Servers - http://ev1servers.net/
• Stargate - http://stargate.com/
• Actnowdomains - http://actnowdomains.com/

Sites For Web Hosting:
• Yahoo - http://www.yahoo.com/
• Powweb - http://powweb.com/
• Ev1servers - http://ev1servers.net/
• Stargate - http://stargate.com/
• UCVHost - http://ucvhost.com/
• Servermatrix - http://servermatrix.com/
• Infinology- http://infinology.com/

Because this method needs to learn a new program with the knowledge of HTML, so it is not our recommended method.

FOURTH METHOD: (recommended method)
Build the site with SiteBuilder and choose the Hosting package:

This method is the easiest and fastest way to create a website without any previous knowledge of web site building and without any HTML experience. You can start right now and build your website immediately.

If you can point and click with a mouse, then you can build your own website right now!

Web Hosting with Site Builder:
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/index.php

The Yahoo! SiteBuilder (as an example) opens with a Welcome Screen that provides links to built-in tutorials titled “Getting Started with Yahoo! SiteBuilder”

The Getting Started Tutorial covers subjects like:
• How to Start a New Page
• How to Add Text
• How to create tables
• How to Place Images
• How to add links
• How to use templates
• How to publish and upload web pages
• and much more!

More Site Builders:
• Actnowdomains- http://www.actnowdomains.com
• Site Build It.- http://buildit.sitesell.com/main/home.html
• EasyHost - http://www.easyhost.com/
• Fasthosts -http://www.fasthosts.co.uk/
• Interland - http://www.interland.com/
• BlueVoda - http://www.bluevoda.com/
• SiteRightNow - www.SiteRightNow.com
• ipowerweb - http://www.ipowerweb.com/
• CoffeeCup- http://www.coffeecup.com/bigcup/

Enjoy!

Faraj Balousha
Civil Engineer, Architect, Webmaster
Sketch-Plus Inc.,
http://www.sketch-plus.com/
http://www.creating-website-stores.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Faraj_Balousha

Make 100% Commission on Your Affiliate Sales!

2006-03-29T02:57:00.000-08:00

If you've been involved in making money on the internet, you will no doubt have tried affiliate marketing at some point. For the uninitiated, affiliate marketing is the process of selling another person's product for a percentage of the product cost. This is a great way to get your internet marketing efforts up and running quickly and generate some instant profits, you can refer prospects to a sales page using Google Adwords within a few hours or by ezine advertising in a couple of days.

But although affiliate marketing is a great opportunity for quick profits it has several disadvantages, the biggest of which is that you don't get to keep all the money! This article is focusing only on information products so we'll ignore the measly 10 - 15% of offer for hard goods at online stores like Amazon etc, but even with info products the norm is around the 50% mark.

So ask yourself this – why should you go to all the bother and expense of generating a sale when you only get to keep half of the money? Wouldn't you rather keep it all?

There is a way to keep 100% of your "affiliate" sales, by securing the resale rights to the product. If you own or have right to resell the product, you get to keep all of the money instead of having a large percentage of it deducted by the vendor.

Now doesn't that sound better?

There are several ways that you can obtain resale rights to all sorts of information products and packages. Firstly you could just do a search on Google or Yahoo for "resale rights" and "information" or "software". These will return a lot of results and you could uncover some good products that you can sell using this method. Watch out however for packages that are stuffed with tired old books that everyone's already read - nobody will buy these.

Then there's our old friend eBay. Again you may find the odd one or two new titles that you can buy and get resale rights to, but the vast majority of ebooks on sale at online auctions are very low priced products that have become devalued by being undercut by one vendor after another. You will not make very much money on products that are selling for 99 cents on eBay!

The only real way to make money with resale rights is to buy good quality, fresh, exciting products that are in demand. Make it your business to search out high quality top-end material that you can buy the rights for and you will be able to sell it for months and even years to come.

Article by Ian McIntosh, for resale rights to over 20 fresh top quality resale rights information products and FREE lifetime updates take a look at http://www.resalerightsgold.com.

Please feel free to use this article for any purpose as long as there is a live link to the site.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_Mcintosh

Google Adwords Copywriting and the Taguchi Method

2006-03-29T02:55:00.000-08:00

For people that are always probing the secrets to Google Adwords, testing different ads that get a better clickthrough rate, so that you can reduce your costs, is an ongoing game.

Taguchi gives a new level of this testing.

For those not familiar with the Taguchi method, the basic idea is that instead of simple split testing, you can test many variables at once. So instead of testing two web pages, each with a different headline, you can test 40 different versions of the page, like different headlines, different graphics, different forms, including a testimonial or not, shifting the order of copy, whatever you can think of.

What the system does then is uses some complicated math to figure out which factors contribute the most to your desired outcome, and you can then rapidly look at all the factors and make your optimized page.

The way marketers have been testing things for years, simple A/B split testing, is much different. You make two pages, each with a different headline, and do a test to find the winner.

Then you make two different pages where you change something else, and find a winner from that. By the time you have tested all 40 elements, you would have spent a lot of money and time in testing indeed!

One of my first thoughts when I started reading about this method was how it could be applied to Adwords. If you could test for one keyword, all the combinations that could get your ad the best response and optimize it dynamically, that would be pretty hot.

At the bottom of this article I'll give you a lot of interesting links I found so you can learn more about Taguchi and all the software that is available, and if you find something new I'd appreciate it if you drop me a line and let me know.

Now, for Adwords enthusiasts, the obvious question is, can Taguchi help me optimize automatically to get the best Adwords ads out there and destroy my competition? Well, the answer is a tentative yes

The interview the profit doctors did with the guy who talked about the "Taguchi method" of multi-testing many variables at once, instead of simple a/b split testing, got me interested in looking to see if there were any resources that cost less than $150,000 per test.

Actually at the SES convention there was a company called http://www.optimost.com/ , which did tests like this for companies like ask.com and ebay, for around $30,000 per test, and I am sure they are using the Taguchi method for this.

They have refined their stuff and have programs for ad agencies, and their system is very sophisticated, and very expensive.

There is another company that does this for fortune 500 companies called http://www.fortpoint.com/ that has clients like colombia house, accenture, wal mart, timberland, monster, Zales, sharper image, you get the idea.

Obviously this is a pretty cool service to use for ourselves, and then possibly to offer to our clients for big bucks.

I did a little searching and there is a guy who has actually made a software for $247 that uses this method, and he has a tutorial on how it works here:

http://www.splittestaccelerator.com and the demo at:

http://www.splittestaccelerator.com/STA_Demo/STA_Demo.html

The demo has some html code in it, but you could get the idea watching it how to set this up.

This one is the most user friendly, and uses my favorite technology, php/mysql. You install it on your website.

The Taguchi method can be used for a lot of other things besides marketing, like in manufacturing where you want to test a whole bunch of different factors of design of a piston or engine, for example, something to get optimum results.

If you are a math wizard, and can handle a program with kind of an arcane interface, for 2000 bucks you can buy this program that runs on your desktop, or get an academic version for 99 bucks.

http://nutek-us.com/wp-q4w.html#orderqt4 is where to go for that. It is a bit of an egghead solution.

Also of interest is this, http://convertmoretraffic.com/split-testing-software/, which requires you to have a membership where you keep paying each month.

So far, the $247 guy is my favorite.

Here's a bunch of other links to learn more if you are interested:

http://www.qualitytrainingportal.com
http://www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c020311a.asp

http://www.marketing-ideas.org/Taguchi-Method.php?PC=blogger-Taguchi-Method

www.Taguchinow.com

http://www.ee.iitb.ac.in/~apte/CV_PRA_Taguchi_INTRO.htm very eggheaded tutorial

www.design.caltech.edu/Research/Publications/90f.pdf

http://www.vertster.com this guy offers a system for 250 bucks a month

http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/old/14903851.htm

http://www.sitespect.com/?OVRAW=Taguchi%20method&OVKEY=Taguchi&OVMTC=advanced These guys are similar to optimost- no prices probably means its pretty expensive

http://www.amazon.com/ mostly has books about the Taguchi method. Hopefully this taguchi amazon link willl get you there.

Even more:

http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780872634688
http://www.aicos.com/Courses/TaguE.html
http://www.isixsigma.com/forum/showthread.asp?messageID=31014
http://www.dnh.mv.net/ipusers/rm/loss.htm
http://www.eng.morgan.edu/~amalash/R-DES.html
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/wiley041/2004011335.html
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19940012609_1994012609.pdf

If you find some more interesting links, or better yet, some php/mysql software we can all use, please send them to me and I'll include them in future versions of this article.

Steve Blom is one of the founders of In Touch Media Group (ITOU), a publicly traded company. For free adwords tips, tutorials and online videos, visit http://www.adwordstraining.org

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Blom

Seecrets on Google: Almost Everything You Want to Know About Google

2006-03-29T02:54:00.000-08:00

Google News

The stories are not fact-checked. Its reporters are not journalists [words from CNN’s Global Edition]. Available in Australia English, Canada English, Hong Kong English, India English, Singapore English, United Kingdom English, Sanskrit, Tang Dynasty Chinese and Esperanto. For real news, see MSN News or Yahoo News.

Google Do-No-Evil

This mantra is well enshrined in Google’s philosophy. Perhaps, they are considering using the same logic as President Clinton during the Lewinsky episode. "We don’t do evil, maybe we’ve done a few bad things – nosirree, we’re not evil. Killing 20 million Native Americans is evil. Trampling on one billion individuals privacy is not evil, a wee bad perhaps".

Google Collective Consciousness in Real-time

[Below are extracts from Google’s pages. This author’s comments are enclosed in square brackets.]

"Google captured the top searches and institutionalized them as the Google Zeitgeist [German for spirit of the time], a real-time window into the collective consciousness.

Pulling together interesting search trends and patterns requires Google’s human and computing power together. Search statistics are automatically generated based on the millions of searches conducted on Google over a given period of time - weekly, monthly, and annually. With some help from humans [read manipulated], and a pigeon or two when they have time, these statistics and trends make their way from the depths of Google's hard drives [read kept indefinitely] to become the Google Zeitgeist report.

We should note that in compiling the Zeitgeist, no individual searcher's information is available or accessible to us [who are you kidding]. What you see here is a cumulative snapshot of interesting queries people are asking – some over time, some within country domains, and some on Google.com – that perhaps reveal a bit of the human condition. We appreciate the contribution all Google users make to these fascinating bits of information [to sell to governments, repressive or not, to spy on its own people at grossly inflated prices]."

To protect your own privacy, readers should neutralize their searches, that is entering an additional and opposite search for each real search. Examples are birthday parties, funeral services; marriage advice, divorce cases; open source, software patents; george w bush, cleverness; you should get the picture now.

Google GMail

Having pried into the collective consciousness is apparently not enough. Now the target is the individual’s private thoughts and persona through the owner’s emails. The tips on neutrality cannot be easily applied to emails. To safeguard your privacy, use crypto. Newbies are encouraged to read "A Gentle Introduction to Cryptography".

Google Translate

[Original paragraph from Marketing Plan for Joe Nogood Gift Store] Perhaps, a possible topic may be "Gift-Receiving Habits of Bushmen Americans", the ones concentrated in the D.C. area. Bushmen use strange language like "I wish to caveat my response" which is hardly understandable by the public. A follow-up article like "Bushmen Gifts – the Impact on Iraq’s Economy" may provide the scholarly reputation for Joe, a must-read for think tanks around the world.

[Google Translated to German] Möglicherweise kann ein mögliches Thema "Gewohnheiten der Buschmannamerikaner Geschenk-Empfangen", die, die im DC-Bereich konzentriert werden. Buschmänner verwenden merkwürdige Sprache wie "ich wünschen zum Einspruch meine Antwort", die durch die Öffentlichkeit kaum verständlich ist. Ein Anschlußartikel wie "Buschmanngeschenke - die Auswirkung auf Wirtschaft des Iraks" kann das gelehrte Renommee für Joe zur Verfügung stellen, müssen-las für denken Behälter um die Welt.

[Google Translated back from German] Possibly a possible topic "habits of the shrub man Americans gift receiving" can, who, who are concentrated within the DC range. Shrub men use strange language as "I wish for the objection my answer", which is hardly understandable because of the public. A connection article like "shrub man gifts - the effect on economics of the Iraq" can make the scholarly reputation available for Joe, must-read for thinks containers around the world.

This author dare not translate the above into French using Google Translate. Given the French ambivalence with Americana [read Google]; a real war may just break out.

Google Map

The advanced imagery has a resolution of one foot [30 cm. for the rest of the world]. If a stark naked man appeared, his pride and joy would not qualify to be a pixel [dot] but, his obese a** can.

Google Wallet [Payment Beta]

This will be in beta until Google’s researchers solved the paradox – where will the growth be after Google cleaned out everybody of their money. Stay tuned folks. Meanwhile, please remember "In God we trust, others pay cash – there are no trails for data-miners".

Google We’re Recruiting Open-source Marketing

PageRank was a phenomenal success. There are thousands who slogged and promoted this idea without being paid a cent. Now, Google is looking to recruit many more to promote PageTrust. Remember, the marketing of this idea is open-source, so for all your tireless promotional efforts, you will receive no compensation from Google. The personnel at Google will cheer you on and feast on gourmet food.

Google We’re Hiring

There are many positions available for experienced personnel from the intelligence community. Having a high security clearance from your country of domicile is a prized asset. Personnel from NSA, KGB, MI5, Mossad are cordially invited to send in their resume. Those with extensive experience from Zimbabwe, Myanmar, North Korea and defunct units of Saddam’s Intelligence are also welcomed.

Exceptional talents who can convert technical analysis [stock charting] ideas into software patents are highly sought.

Technical experts in artificial intelligence [especially from Google rivals – there is a current lawsuit] are also encouraged to e-mail in their applications.

Stan Seecrets Postulate: "Using a single argument to derive at a conclusion is propaganda, using multiple arguments is persuasion." [No elaboration required.]

The author, Stan Seecrets, is a veteran software developer with 25+ years experience. © Copyright 2005, Stan Seecrets. All rights reserved. For more of his articles and website promotion, visit http://www.seecrets.biz or http://www.rushprnews.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stan_Seecrets

What is Gmail?

2006-03-29T02:53:00.000-08:00

Like most other prime search engines, the ability to freely giveaway an email account is a positive tool that signals to the user community that this search engine is here to stay! Google is no different in this approach. Recently, Google has been beta testing Gmail. Google’s very own email services repository. Best of all, it’s free! Well, it’s going to be free, its currently available only in Beta mode, if you are lucky enough to have received an invitation to sign up for a complimentary account you currently enjoy the benefits of ubiquitous Gmail.

Found at gmail.google.com, users were at a frenzied pace to secure the names and aliases that may be snatched up once the floodgates were open. People are exclusively invited to partake in the beta testing were selling their names and invitations for quite a handsome sum on eBay. Most users will have to wait until Gmail goes live before actually trying it out. However with all the functionality at a price like this, how could anyone refuse?

Unlike MSN and Yahoo! Google’s approach to space was a little more liberal. Google provides 1000 MB of storage space so you would never have to worry about limited space requirements. All messages are displayed intact as well as the replies. Messages can be searched upon as well. Google’s approach was to give as much flexibility to the user so the user in turn would use only Google.

Much like the anti-pop up ad theory of The Google Toolbar, there will be an anti-Spam product built into Gmail that will help thwart out unsolicited email.

Currently, new users can ask for a preview address from Google, although there is no guarantee they will get one. Interested parties should go to http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/about.html and fill in their email addresses at the bottom of the page.

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.sitetube.com. Visit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jakob_Jelling

Tips for a Successful Web Site Auction

2006-03-29T02:52:00.000-08:00

I have seen many unsuccessful site auctions here recently, and most of those can be attributed to insufficient information being published by the seller.

A good site description will make potential buyers feel comfortable in bidding on your web site. The more you can tell a potential buyer, the more potential buyers you will have. And, of course, a larger number of bidders will naturally raise the selling price.

Bidders are willing to pay more for a well-documented site, because they are more comfortable that they will be able to avoid hidden surprises after the purchase.

Here are a few tips to help you create a winning auction for your web site:

State Your Revenue

The simple majority of website buyers are looking for revenue-generating properties.

State your revenue numbers up-front and you won't have to deal with a steady stream of questions regarding those numbers during the sale.

List all of the sites revenue streams, including AdSense, YPN, Commission Junction, and Link Sales.

If a revenue stream (such as a link sale) is scheduled to end at some point, document that point.

For sites costing over $500, be prepared to show proof of revenue for the previous twelve months. For sites costing over $5,000, be prepared to show proof of revenue over the previous three years.

List Your Obligations

If you have traded or sold links, those links should be maintained. Document this for the prospective buyer.

Set a BIN Price

Set a BIN (Buy It Now) price, and make it a reasonable one.

Many buyers will ignore auctions without a BIN price.

A BIN price which is too high will discourage potential buyers because they will believe that you are not negotiating in the proper range.

A BIN price which is too low can cost you considerable lost revenue. If your site sells for BIN on day one, you set your BIN price too low!

Set an Auction End Date

All seasoned web site buyers will ignore an auction with no set end date.

In addition, a set end date raises last-minute interest -- which is where prices really go up.

Set a Starting Price

Setting a starting price informs buyers of the low-end of the price range for the web site and makes them much more comfortable in placing a bid.

Remember, you know more about your web site than any potential buyer.

Document Outbound Co-Op Weight

Many buyers are looking to buy web sites with significant weight in the Digital Point Co-Op.

If your site has 500 or more pages, put the on it so that you can tell potential buyers how much Co-Op weight they will receive.

Document Inbound Co-Op Weight

If you are pointing Digital Point Co-Op Weight at the website, this will boost the Page Rank, traffic, and revenue of the web site.

Document how much Co-Op weight you are pointing to the site and how long you are willing to maintain that arrangement after a sale.

Document Links from Other Sites in Your Private Network

If you have links from your other web sites pointing to the site you are selling, document those links. Tell prospective buyers how long you will maintain those links after a sale.

Mention Your PageRank

Mention your PageRank, to save everyone from having to look it up. The easier you make it for a prospective buyer to place a bid, the more bidders you will have and the higher the final closing price will be.

Mention Your Page Count

Document your page count in each of the major search engines: Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

Document the Registration Date

Document the date your domain was registered.

Document the Technical Requirements

If the site is built upon a CMS, document the CMS.

If the web site was built using a script, mention that script.

If the site can only run under Unix, document that. Do the same if the site can only run under Microsoft Windows.

Document the Bandwidth Costs

For download, graphics, and proxy sites, document the sites bandwidth usage and what you are paying for that bandwidth.

Concerns over the cost of bandwidth discourage many bidders from those types of web sites.

Place AdSense on the Web Site

Even if the web site has never used AdSense before, place AdSense code on the site to show to bidders that the site has not been banned from AdSense.

Document Rights Which You Will Retain

If you intend to retain the right to use the content of the web site elsewhere, document that. Do the same if you intend to resell the web site content again.

On the other hand, if you are selling the web site and exclusive rights to the content -- mention that too. That can significantly raise the price of the web site.

Conclusion

These tips should help you to receive maximum value for your web site.

These tips will also help to prevent a stream of warning messages from potential buyers from derailing your auction thread.

In addition these tips are designed to prevent misunderstandings and the resulting loss to your reputation which will arise if a buyer becomes uphappy after a sale.

Best wishes on the successful sale of your web site!

Will Spencer is the author of The Internet Search Engines FAQ, Buying and Selling on eBay, and Entrepreneur Support.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=William_Spencer

5 Easy Steps for Best Marketing Results

2006-03-29T02:49:00.000-08:00

There are essentially 5 easy steps, following which you can get the maximum for your marketing and exposure of the product on the Internet.

Quite simply most people use search engines to find out about the various products, personalities, listing, companies and services on these 4 big ones. Clearly if you are not present on any of these, then you are a loser.

However if you are present on any of them, chances are that you can be found on all of them, thus from here you have already started getting exposure. These are

- Goggle
- Yahoo
- Ebay
- Amazon

The 5 easy steps are

1. Build a Google friendly website –

This essentially means that when a search is performed, you should be listed among the top ten on the search. If you are among the top ten, then you can get the maximum exposure.

Lets face it, when searching for keywords; the first ten have the maximum number of hits as compared to others. This is what gets the maximum exposure leading to the moolah.

Some of the resources that you can utilize are

- Search engine optimization – getting a higher ranking using bullet lists to guide robots
- Twelve steps to highest search engine placement
- Seven reasons a web site can be de listed by search engine

2. http://www.prweb.com

This is a free site. Here you can write your own product review and post it on the site as a press release. By doing this you achieve the following

- Google robots find a link from the website and you can be placed on a better Google ranking, helping you to get maximum exposure
- Gives a chance to the media to read about your product.

Visit the site and you can learn more about it and how to use it more for your advantage

3. Create a listing for your product at ebay –

Ebay has an immense product category having many sub categories. Plus there are millions of users who are both buyers and sellers. Listing your product on ebay can give you instant exposure. Not only that you get listed on the Google website too. This is because Google and ebay have an affiliate arrangement. Therefore if you are searching on Google, then an ad word will point to ebay.

Listing on Ebay also gives you exposure to a number of other search engines as well.

4. Amazon.com

Amazon is a wonderful site on which you not only get instant eyeball but there is a potential of sale for the products that you have listed. Distributors, resellers, buyers, researchers etc can review your product.

5. Using the Google ad words

This is a very simple and an effective way of getting your product to be seen by the right people. What you would do essentially is to add a list of keywords and phrases with your product therefore when any person searches for these keywords or phrases, their search result immediately yield your product.

Therefore there is instant exposure. Google and Ebay have an arrangement. Therefore the listing on ebay also appears on Ebay and vice versa. In a sense, you get dual exposure.

There are many other websites, which have arrangement with Google, therefore Google ad words are also used by them, whenever some body performs a search on the phrases and keywords that you have associated with your product or ad.

Coverage on the 4 big ones

Getting a full coverage on the four big search engines optimizes your exposure of the ad. In this way, more number of people can see the ad. This can lead to further potential sales for the products and the services that you developed or wish to sell.

This article was written by Craig Dawber of smarket-associates.com Need advice and guidance with your online business check out the resources found in this website.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Craig_Dawber

Has Google Indexed Your Site ?

2006-03-29T02:48:00.000-08:00

So has Google found your site yet?

Over the last 12 months Google has undergone many changes to the way it looks at and lists your site.

This week sees another upgrade in Google.

As any search engine or member of the public will tell you, Google or any other search engine MUST provide the most relevant listings for a search query.

One of the major changes that Google is implementing is that it will not display more than one AdWords listings for the same company Domain Name. At present they also try to have only one listing (with a secondary) per website domain displayed in the top search results.

This affects mainly affiliated member sites.

This also affects companies that provide a member program. Say if you were using Google AdWords and there are 5 members from your company paying to use AdWords only one listing will be displayed and this will be the highest bid for that keyword.

In another words the average Joe Marketer will have to pay a high price to have his AdWord listing displayed.

For Google and for the Google search user this provides a more defined search. There will not be 5 AdWords placed for the same company or merchant as has been the case in the past.

With 3 or 4 AdWords for the same company displayed, allowed a person who paid a bid of 50 cents to be displayed at the bottom of the list while someone who could afford to pay five dollars for the same keyword to have his link at the top of the page. You stood a chance when your AdWord was displayed, now you have to have the highest bid at that particular time.

BUT, this is not an insurmountable problem. This is where owning your own Domain name and web site is a must.

At present many search engines only allow one plus a secondary listing for any one domain to be displayed in their top page or two of their search results.

NOTE:
There is no easy way around not owning your own domain.

Getting your affiliated member site listed in a search engine is becoming almost impossible, especially when you consider that there are tens and even hundreds of thousands of other members belonging to the same company, promoting their member site too.

This can and will affect many companies as they rely on their members to promote the companies site though pay per click - AdWords and standard search engine listing.

With odds of one hundred thousand to one you have better odds of winning the lotteries.

Once marketers understand the concept of creating their own website, one of the next hurdles they face is the content for their site. What so often happens is that they do not consider themselves as copy writers, so they copy the content from their member site. I have seen this many times where marketers websites are almost exact copies of their companies site.

The definition of a search engine is to provide the most relevant search results for a specific search.

Google are only trying to live up to this definition. So as they are only allowing one AdWord display listing for any one company or domain, Google are also only allowing one page with the exact same content to be displayed.

If your web page is a duplicate of your companies page, then your page is very likely to receive a duplicate content penalty with Google.

In other words if your site has been indexed by Google and they find your page to be an exact copy of another page, it is highly likely your page will receive the penalty and not the company site.

Remember that the Google Bot's are checking and indexing around eight billion pages each month. It takes a very powerful computer system to keep track of all those pages and the content on those pages to return relevant searches. It doesn't take to much brain power to realize that as Google indexes a page it can also compare your page with the thousands that fit into your product, service or information category.

It is generally thought that for a 1st offense your page will be removed from their index for 30 days then for the 2nd offense for 60 days then for a 3rd offense your page will be removed for 90 days. After the 3rd offence you can forget about Google.

But it gets worse, if your page contains duplicate content and Google spots it, for the time your page is cooling off for 30 days it affects the rest of your site as you will no doubt have many links in the site map etc, to the banned page so this can and does affect your whole sites ranking.

The news is not all bad as anyone who has the ability to consider marketing any product and is prepared to attempt creating a web site, also has the ability to reword and rewrite the content from their company site.

Most other pay per click search engines or ones that accept paid inclusion like Overture already use similar policies that Google is now implementing.

There are exceptions to the duplicate rule like RSS News feeds, Directories, ezine article Directories and sites like Ebay and Yahoo stores where these individual stores use the Yahoo or eBay domain name.

Using good common sense, you should never have any problems with Google or other search engines as you are promoting your website as your own unique sales display.

Don't get me wrong Google is my first choice in Search Engines.

Google offers many f`ree tools for web masters. You can find some of tools listed here.

http://www.google.com/help/features.html

If you to Google.com search, you can check the links to your Website. (incoming links). Where I have www.internet-income-index in the search box, you would type in your website domain.

"+www.internet-income-index.+com

Now if I can get 151 links back to my site without submitting it to search engines, think what you can do...

Most Internet Marketers average between 20 and 50 links using the Google links tool.

My point is if you add one link to your website in a single Internet directory, Google and other search engines will find you and your site just by following the link you placed in that one directory.

If you check issue 103 of this ezine dated May 26 - 2004 Google only had 2 links to my ezine site listed.

I have placed a link on my other personally owned sites and have added ezine articles I have written in a couple of Ezine Article Directories. You will find EzineArticles.com will be listed above my site in a search for my ezine site as they are a very high profile site.

The higher the profile or page rank Google gives any site that you have your site link in, the higher Google is likely to rate your site providing you have played by Googles rules.

Did you know that many search engines consider you have 2 sites one with http;//www. in front of your domain and one with just the http;//yourdomain.com plus if you have a sub-domain name like http://www.search.yourdomain.com they treat this generally as a different domain or website. The word search is the sub-domain in this instance.

But it is far easier to promote just the one domain as opposed to promoting 3 variations of the one domain name. I know that from past experience after I listed it in the Dmoz.org Directory without "www."

http://VoipConference.info

"+www.voipconference.+info with 21 incoming links

compared to 320 incoming links (without the www.) "+voipconference.+info

TIP,
Domain Name Branding your website using a one off name like Google or eBay is still best when it comes to search engine marketing and for domain name recognition if you are prepared to invest the time and money, but if your budget is limited then using a domain name that describes your business or includes keywords relating to your product or service is equally good.

May Google be kind to your site.

PETER GREEN.

Editor of ~ The INDEX ~ ezine.

Editor@Internet-income-index.com

http://www.Internet-Income-Index.com

Your Free Weekly Internet Marketing News, Ideas, Resources and Sources Ezine.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Green

How To Know What Is Selling On Ebay

2006-03-29T02:47:00.000-08:00

Ebay auctions can be easy to start but hard to finish with a winning bidder. If you use auctions, you have to know what is popular, otherwise you are going to have lots of closed auctions with high fees and no profit.

Ebay success depends on research. You can start your research offline by searching the newspaper for advertisements. Basically the advertisements which you see on the cover of most of the newspapers are going to be for what most people are buying on Ebay. You are going to want to promote whatever these ads are promoting.

Most of the new music and movies which are released on Tuesdays are going to be great sellers on Ebay.

Another way to know what is popular on Ebay is to go the Seller Central area on Ebay website. This area tells you what is popular based on what you are selling and what Ebay is currently promoting on its website's home page. You can just buy some of these items and put them up for sale.

Andale.com offer a great service but it is not free. For a small monthly payment, this service will tell you what is hot for any given day ordered from the most popular to the least popular. Not only that, it will tell you what day to start your auction, how many days to run it for, what price to start your bidding at, and what is the best day for buy it now auctions. They offer charts and stats to help you too.

You can go a bit further into the research by trying another service called Word Tracker available at wordtracker.com. This tells you what the most popular search term on the internet is on different search engines. When you find a popular search term on a search engine like Yahoo or Google you can request that your term be submitted free, but it can take a while. You should do that if you have an Ebay store.

If you have an auction running and you find a popular search term based on your item, just use a pay per click (PPC) service for the search engine you want to use. Overture is the PPC for Yahoo and Adwords is for Google’s PPC. Each of these services allow you to bid a certain amount for a term, and when someone clicks on your term, you are charged that amount. Only use a few keywords when you start using a pay per click service, then you can add more later.

Using these tips and services you should become very successful on Ebay but remember to research before you put something on Ebay to sell.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Online Auctions

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Russell

Top Investments and Stock Picks for 2006

2006-03-29T02:46:00.000-08:00

If you read the headlines today you will hear everything from recession, decline, slow start, etc... Everyone is commenting on losses or very marginal gains. Yet there are some investors like me that did really well in the last few years and are continuing to do well - and none of us fell for the late night TV investing scams (and they are ALL scams). Instead we were smart. This is how we did it and what we like (and you can verify the results or progress of these stocks by looking up their ticker symbols on the search engines Google and Yahoo):

1) Diversification is key - you need to have some percentage of your assets in mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETF's). I recommend IJR (iShares S&P SmallCap 600 IJR Style/Mkt Cap ETF) as it follows the market, doesnt have wild fluctuations and always, consistently grows and pays dividends at the same time. IJR will be a great bet for a 20-30% gain in 2006.

2) Oil, natural gas and energy are king and anyone that says otherwise is an idiot. They will continue to grow and produce record profits throughout 2006. I highly recommend XTO - Cross Timbers Oil Co. Through the last 3 years their stock has grown over 800% and split numerous times. They are a definite ace in the hole and a runaway favorite. Great, solid management and a definite winner. I also like PNY, Piedmont Natural Gas. They are very consistent and produce very solid yields that they are always increasing. It won't produce the high returns of XTO, but a solid performer. XTO can be a highly volatile stock and is a rollercoaster of a ride at times but will produce solid results over time. PNY is a safe, solid investment and natural gas prices are only going to go up.

3) Hotels and travel - One name says it all CHH - Choice Hotels, they own most of your local Comfort inns and such. They average 50-60% gains per year and pay a slight dividend on top of that. A solid performer that tends to buck the economy.

4) Banks and financial institutions - BPOP, Popular Inc. The main latino bank of Puerto Rico and expanding into the U.S. You can buy it cheap right now and they are prime for a takeover - $$$. Solid dividends also and low price for a bank. Good investment value.

5) Mortgage companies - we will always need houses and a solid, customer service oriented company with a great record is a good buy. AHM (American Home Mortgage)- high yield, solid company, will produce great returns for 2006. Enough said.

6) Ebay, Yahoo, Google, Intel - You need to have a piece of the internet pie, but with whom? Ebay is your best bet. There is no competition - Yahoo tried and can't get their auctions off the ground. The others have simple technology that is easily copied and the risk is great and the returns limited. Google is questionable as it has risen well, but others with big pockets are stepping in hard - Yahoo and MSN.

Search engines like Google rise fast out of nowhere, but then they usually fall back into oblivion. Google is smart, though and is trying to diversify into other fields - maps, online libraries, gmail, etc... so they will stay, but I would go for Ebay. Ebay is trying to do what Walmart did - Expand into China, Japan, Korea, etc... With billions of new customers and no competition the skys the limit. Ebay will be rock solid for 2006.

There you have it. A safe, diversified group of true, proven performers that will guarantee you a great 2006. Also, they are all available through low cost trading companies - I recommend Sharebuilder.com - you can't beat $4 trades and their easy to use site. There is no need for a commissioned investment advisor (all they do is charge you extra money and fees, lie, and they can't possibly even come close to the workhorses I listed above). Do yourself a favor and print this out. If you care about your friends give it to them. Put it in your email lists. If you believe in helping others and making the world a better place then pass it on to everyone you can. These stocks will provide you and everyone else with solid gains for years. And a greater chance at financial freedom and the best thing is it didn't cost you a penny.

Just do me a favor and visit and promote my sites listed below (www.mdwholesale.com and www.bestskinpeel.com).

David Maillie is a chemist with over 12 years experience in biochemical research and clynical analysis. He is an alumni of Cornell University and specializes in biochemical synthesis for public, private, and governmental interests. He holds numerous patents including his recently awarded patent for headlight cleaner and restorer. He can be reached at M.D. Wholesale: http://www.mdwholesale.com and at http://www.bestskinpeel.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Maillie

Google vs eBay, or Google vs YahooBay?

2006-03-29T02:42:00.000-08:00

The media is full of stories and analysis on Google’s announcement of GoogleBase, a user-database, that predict thet Google is taking sure steps towards eBay’s turf.

eBay is slowly and surely falling prey to its supremely powerful, but easy to copy and rather narrow core business model of facilitating B:C and C:C e-commerce. Needless to say, Google’s entry into their turf will be a big blow. Google will, no doubt, hit eBay where there is a low-hanging fruit waiting to be picked: eBay’s sordid user interface. In the 10 years of its existence, eBay has not bothered to address this glaring weakness. Google does clean User Experiences very well, and my bet would be that they will cream eBay on this topic. Also interesting is their introduction of a user-generated database, which will enable applications such as Yahoo! Stores easily, too. Potent combination.

I said once before, that Yahoo should acquire eBay. eBay’s market cap is $52 Billion, whereas Yahoo’s is $50 Billion. It would roughly be a merger of equals, but I believe Yahoo’s future is far more promising than eBay’s. Hence, judging by futures, Yahoo ought to acquire eBay.

Product Search and Search Engine Marketing are key areas that, as industries, need to reside together. Amazon realized it, and launched A9, their very own search engine. However, Search is a competitive business, and an overnight search giant will not be created at this stage of the game. I don’t recommend, therefore, that eBay also follows suit.

However, at least 5 different properties that Yahoo has could tremendously leverage eBay: Small Business, Stores, Search, Shopping, and Overture. Finally, as Yahoo unfolds its content and personalization strategies, there will be a tremendous further opportunity to build value on top of their existing framework.

Not the least, but last, Meg Whitman has indicated that she wants out. Terry Semel, however, is dedicated and focused.

Then?

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur and Strategy Consultant Sramana Mitra writes about Entrepreneurship, Business Strategy, Emerging Technology, Market Moves, and sundry other topics in her Blog "Sramana Mitra on Strategy". Read more of her writings at http://www.sramanamitra.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sramana_Mitra