How To Drive Traffic, Branding, Credibility & Sales Through The Roof

Copyright © 2005 Diana Barnum Moving Ahead Communications http://movingaheadcommunications.com

It's no secret that people are jumping on the Internet to find quality content. The Top Yahoo! and Google News Searches for 2005* alone show that surfers are interested in a variety of topics; Janet Jackson, Hurricane Katrina, tsunami, Xbox 360, Brad Pitt, Michael Jackson, American Idol, Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie, Harry Potter and more.

However, a constant dilemma for websites is to keep up with quality content control. How to get traffic to sites with credible information that will not only bring traffic but also revenue to keep the company – and site - in the black is a major concern.

"Content site publishers need good, quality content VERY badly, and now we are giving content creators the tools to give publishers exactly what they need," said Jack Humphrey, managing partner in the exclusive Content Desk Charter Members publishing group and Content Propulsion Lab partner.

And Humphrey's toolbox for quality content includes a focus on four main tools, all encompassed in a membership site:

1. Community – A focus on community invites members to share ideas & industry news, network, give and get feedback, & help each other on a member forum, adding an interactive dimension. Too many other content programs focus only on tools.

2. Learning – Instruction via multiple methods; audio, video, text, workshops, webinars, etc. helps more people get the most out of content creation and syndication. Not everyone learns the same.

3. Technology – Instead of purchasing a software that will become outdated, why not join a group and subscribe to a "team" effort. Let the membership site worry about software updates, tech issues and keeping up with the latest search engine and other Internet changes while you focus on your production.

4. Profits – Lots of membership sites offering tools generally include a User or Help Guide. That's it. Why not be part of a team effort instead? An ideal model is one where profit is the name of the game across the board & a main focus in training efforts; i.e. a great return on investment (ROI), where the membership site helps members profit with more links, traffic, search engine positioning and sales.

Humphrey's Content Desk (CD) is an Internet content syndication center and a source of high-quality, targeted content for webmasters with a group of professional content site network publishers. His CD recently announced the opening of its new cousin site, Content Propulsion Lab (CPL), the epicenter for website owners, writers, creative people, PR specialists, and marketing experts who want easy tools and expert training all in one place to dominate today's Internet's "New Media."

"New Media" marketing deals with high quality content creation methods along with mass syndication of that content in order to drive traffic, branding, credibility, and sales through the roof... in any niche" explained Humphrey. "Podcasting, massive article syndication networks, streaming audio and video, and RSS combine to create a marketing science that is just coming into play in a big way on the web."

Unlike Content Desk's exclusive Charter Member site that caps membership at 400, Content Propulsion Lab has no limit to the number of members accepted. During the official launch, new sign ups will receive $30 off their monthly membership fee. After the first 150 early bird spots are sold, the price goes up.

CPL Partners with Jack Humphrey include Mark Braunstein, Peter Lenkefi, Willie Crawford and Diana Barnum.

To learn more about Content Desk and check on the availability of limited openings at their exclusive Content Site Builder, visit http://presssuccess.com/csb . To learn more about creating and syndicating your content, visit Content Propulsion Lab at http://presssuccess.com/cpl . Email: supp...@contentdesk.com for help.

* "The Year in Search: A 2005 Review," By Enid Burns, clickz.com (Dec. 2005).

--------------------------------------------------------------------- By Diana Barnum, president of http://movingaheadcommunications.com and CEO of http://ohiohelp.net . For help with marketing, public relations and writing, email d...@ohiohelp.net or call: (614) 529-9459.

Website Optimization - A SEO Specialist Reveals All

Copyright © 2005 Robert Fuess Spiderweb Logic http://www.SpiderwebLogic.com

Website optimization is the first step in promoting your website. Those with foresight and deeper pockets will have a SEO-savvy webmaster (such as myself) build the website that is optimized from the start. Otherwise, a website may need a SEO-facelift later to help it be digestible to the search engines - and to make it obvious to the search engines that the keywords you are trying to be found under are truly relevant to your website. Like any specialty, performing website optimization involves skills, special tools, and a willingness to keep up with current changes in the market.

Unfortunately, hiring an SEO expert can be quite expensive. For those who want to do it themselves, here are the steps.

BOOKMARK THESE TOOLS! YOU WILL need them!

The first step in website optimization is to make sure you have well-formatted HTML. I would encourage you to use the following tool to check this: http://validator.w3.org/ Do your best to get your website as close to conformance as possible.

If you use CSS, then use a CSS validator at http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator-uri.html There is rarely an excuse for not having it validate here.

If you follow most of the suggestions for having valid HTML code your web pages will be more digestible for the search engines, as well as being much more cross-browser compliant. You should also do this after any significant edit of the web page - to ensure that it is still compliant.

The second step in website optimization is to work on the Meta tags and the title tag for each page in your site. These are in the header of your web page document and need to be tailored to attract users who type in one of a select group of keywords. If you need a tool to help generate these, use this meta tag generator tool here (http://www.spiderweblogic.com/HTML-Meta-Tag-Generator.aspx) that I built.

The Title Tag:

The title tag is, of the three, the most important for the major search engines. Don't make this too long - normally no more than 6 words. But have your most important keywords here. Some SEO specialists advise that even the order of the text here is significant. They suggest that if you place your company name in the title, that it should be placed last so the other keywords are being considered with greater weight.

The Meta-Keywords Tag:

This is now of lesser importance than before, due to abuse by webmasters to achieve high rankings. However, it is still important and is required by many of the smaller search engines. Make sure that you don't repeat any keyword or keyword phrase more than three times. That would be considered Spam (bad SEO tactics) by the search engines. Remember, your visitors will see the title of the web page. Make it useful to them as well.

The Meta-Description Tag:

This is of higher importance than the keywords tag. Several search engines use it when they show your listing. It needs to encourage your potential visitors to visit your website. Of course, having keywords in here is important. But keep the primary purpose in mind as you write it. Here too, you should make sure that you don't repeat any keyword or keyword phrase more than three times.

Each page in your website needs its own tailored title, meta- description, and meta-keywords tag. These need to be focused on the keywords you are trying for. (These are the words or phrases you want to be found at when people are doing searches.) These shouldn't normally be the same on every page. They should be customized to the content that is on that page. You should also keep your visitors in mind as you write them.

The third step is to work on your content - especially on your home page. Ideally you would have between 800 - 1200 words of text. It should have your most important keywords at the top, middle and the bottom of the text. If possible, use an "h1" tag at the top for your title - and have your most important keyword imbedded in it. Also, have some of your keywords in a sentence or phrase that is bolded. Keep it natural for your visitors to read. If it doesn't look natural, you will loose any visitors you have attracted.

The fourth step in website optimization is to edit your links and your images to make full use of the "title" and "alt" attributes.

Text links can have a "title" attribute. The content is to more fully describe your link. When you put your mouse over the link, the content of the "title" attribute is displayed. I would encourage you to tailor the description so that it contains at least one of your keywords - but keep it accurate - that it really does describe the link. It must make sense to the common user.

Images HTML tags can have an "alt" attribute. It is used to describe an image when you put a mouse over it. It is also used for different devices for seeing impaired. Also, it is used when the user decides not to show images with the web site. They will see this text instead. (It is the "Alternate Text" for the image.) Try to incorporate some keywords here too - but keep with the spirit of being the "alternate text" for the image.

If you are using tables, you may even include a table "summary" attribute. The purpose of this attribute is to assist for those with disabilities to understand the contents and structure of a table. Keep all summary comments within that purpose - and add keywords only where appropriate. Note that these summary attributes may cause your web page validator to spit up an error - but this is newer item that is encouraged.

The fifth step is to have a good menu system or a site map. Search engines follow links to find the different pages in your site. If your navigation is one of those JavaScript drop-down menus or Flash menus, the search engines may not find all of your pages unless you have an alternative non-JavaScript link path that they can follow. If you use the fancy JavaScript links, you should have a hard link to a site map on every page. The site map should have a real non-JavaScript list of links that the search engines can follow to map out your whole site. As a standard policy I tend to avoid the JavaScript links in the menus.

OPTIONAL:

If you haven't chosen a domain name yet, you may strongly consider having your top keyword phrase in the domain name, with the words separated by dashes. This is an excellent idea, but not always feasible. Many companies already have a domain name selected, or prefer to use their company name as the domain name. This is a business decision left up to the customer.

THINGS NOT TO DO:

Don't create and market mirror sites though to accomplish this trick either. Sites that are identical in content, but have a different domain name are considered SPAM (bad/taboo) by the search engines. They don't appreciate such tricks, and the ranking of both websites will suffer for it.

Also, don't get too crazy with stuffing keywords where they don't belong or by repeating keywords or by having keywords in hidden layers. Search engines don't like that and will ban your site.

SEO SOFTWARE TO BUY:

I have used SEO Studio to do website analysis during my optimization. This has been an invaluable tool for analyzing how saturated my keywords are in a particular web page. It is reasonably priced and I have been very satisfied with the performance. It is easy to see such things as keyword density relevance for the whole web page. It also is helpful in showing where the keywords are not (and can be). You will learn a lot about website optimization just by using this tool!

NOW WHAT?

After all this "Search Engine Optimization" you need to do a human review your website - is it natural/useful/helpful for the human visitor? Remember, getting website traffic is only half the game. This site needs to quickly convert them into paying customers.

Once it is "Optimized", then you need to let the search engines know that you exist. Only after it is ready should you tell them about it. But this is a subject for another article. Do a search of different article warehouse or SEO news sources. You will find a lot of information on this.

WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION NEWS SOURCES:

Since there are new quirks in the website optimization and website promotion that come out all the time - some that apply to all search engines, and some that apply to a particular one, it is wise to keep up to date. I strongly encourage you to join a couple of relevant mailing lists!

I really like the news sources from Entireweb.com. If you submit a site through them, I would encourage you to accept their free newsletters. They have great content. http://www.entireweb.com/submit_site/

Another place to get really great articles on website optimization or promotion is http://www.SiteProNews.com They also allow you to subscribe to their articles. Do this!

If you are serious about keeping up with your website positioning, keep up with the news. You will find these resources invaluable!

--------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert Fuess is a veteran website designer who specializes in making dynamic search engine optimized websites. http://www.SpiderwebLogic.com | http://www.SchoolAndTeacher.com

The SMART Method Helps You Succeed At Anything!

Copyright © 2002-2005 Gordon Bellows Info Daddy Net http://www.InfoDaddy.net

The focus of this article is goal setting, which is an important part of turning your dreams into reality. A goal is simply a target you aim at with your ambitions and aspirations. No matter what you want to accomplish having a goal greatly improves your chances of making it happen.

Since having goals is a smart thing to do, use each letter of the word smart to represent an element of goal setting. This helps you remember the basics.

S - Set M - Measure A - Action R - Review T - Transition

Set - Setting a goal is nothing more than selecting something you want to change or something you want to attain. You should have some idea of how much time and effort is needed to reach your goal. Be realistic because trying to reach a goal that is far beyond what you are capable of may lead to disappointment. Saving money for a down payment on a new house is a good goal. However, be sure the home you want is within the budget of your expected future income.

Measure - You need a way to measure your progress. It is good to establish some milestones along the way and make each milestone a mini-goal. Concentrate on getting to one milestone at a time. Splitting a major goal into small mini-goals may make it easier to be successful. For example, if you want to lose fifty pounds, it's better to work on losing 5-8 pounds per month rather than thinking about all 50 pounds. People in MLM might want to set a mini-goal of sponsoring so many people each month.

Action - Take action and do what is needed to reach each of your milestones. If you are on a weight loss program, the action might include low fat meals and exercise. For saving money, the action is to put aside a set amount each payday. Taking the needed action may require tenacity, persistence, as well as drive and determination to reach your goal.

Review - Review your progress on a regular basis to determine if you are on track with your original milestone schedule. It may be necessary to revise your mini-goals, either the way they are measured or the time it takes to reach each one. It is always better to revise the mini-goals and continue on toward your major goal instead of giving up all together.

Transition - As you reach each milestone, and especially when the major goal is achieved, you will see/feel a transition of a sort. This transition is a change from the way it used to be to the way it is now as your new reality emerges. Some changes may be rather subtle, but you can take pride knowing that you set a goal and made a difference by taking action.

Making a New Year's resolution is good. However, all too often, nothing becomes of the resolution because it was just a good thought and not a real goal. It is important to understand why you want to make a change.

Understanding the reason for wanting to reach a goal and how the change might benefit you can be a powerful motivation for you to make it happen.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- Gordon Bellows is the resource coordinator at InfoDaddy.net It's a goldmine of information for all areas of your life... self-improvement, dating, marriage, children, beauty/style, weight loss, natural remedies, cancer treatments, pets & pet health, travel, play guitar/piano, credit repair and more! See page after page of good news at http://www.InfoDaddy.net

What Is Drop Shipping?

Copyright © 2005 Chris Malta People have been distributing products since before the first mastodon skinner traded a fur coat for a flint axe. Here's how it works. Let's say ABC Manufacturers makes a product called Mom's Ankle Wax. We'll say that Mom's Ankle Wax has been around for years. It's a very well known brand name product. It will without a doubt give you the shiniest ankles on your block, and everybody wants some. ABC Manufacturers makes Mom's Ankle Wax, but they don't sell it directly to the public. They're a manufacturing operation. They're far too busy melting paraffin and waxing test ankles to go around building stores all over the place. They need distributors; companies who will take their product and distribute it to the places that will sell it. For years, ABC Manufacturers has sold Mom's Ankle Wax to a company called DEF Distributors. The founder of DEF Distributors knew Mom herself, back in the old days when she made her Ankle Wax by hand, out in the turkey barn. Today, DEF Distributors buys Mom's Ankle Wax by the truckload. They pay $5.00 a case for it, which is a very good price. It's such a good price, it has it's own name: the Manufacturer's Wholesale Price. However, DEF Distributors does not sell it to the general public either. They are a distributor. They distribute Mom's Ankle Wax. DEF Distributors works with a chain of retail stores called Wax R Us. This place was founded by a retail business visionary who saw the incredible potential of Mom's Ankle Wax a long time ago. Today there are Wax R Us retail stores on every street corner in every major city in the country. Wax R Us buys truckloads of Mom's Ankle Wax from DEF Distributors for $10.00 a case. So, DEF Distributors makes $5.00 on every case of Mom's Ankle Wax they sell to Wax R Us retail stores. This makes DEF Distributors very happy. Cases and cases of Mom's Ankle Wax arrive in the stockrooms of Wax R Us stores everywhere. The Wax R Us employees open those cases, and pull 12 cans of Mom's Ankle Wax out of each case. With their pricing guns, they stick a price of $4.50 on each and every can. Wax R Us stores make a total of $44.00 on each case of Mom's Ankle Wax. (12 cans x 4.50 per can = 54.00, minus the 10.00 they paid for the case = 44.00). Wax R Us is even happier than DEF Distributors. However, the happiest people of all are the people who can stroll into Wax R Us and purchase a can of Mom's Ankle Wax for only $4.50. They think this is a great price, and they're walking around with the shiniest ankles in town. Well, that's it…basic product distribution. The manufacturer sells to the distributor, the distributor sells to the retailer, and the retailer sells to the end user (the customer). The manufacturer, the distributor and the retailer all make money because the customer is willing to spend money for the product. Drop Shipping has been around for a long time, too. Probably as long as mail order catalogs; maybe longer. If you want to use a buzzword to impress a corporate type, call it "second party addressing". Above, we talked about the manufacturer-distributor

-retailer relationship. When you use drop shipping to sell products on the Internet, (or anywhere else), YOU become the RETAILER in that relationship. It should be noted here, if only to keep the Punctuation Police happy, that if you use the method of drop shipping in your business, YOU are not the "drop shipper". The company(s) who supply the products to your customers for you is the drop shipper. YOU become a "Stockless Retailer". Here's how drop shipping works. 1.) You open an Internet Store, with a shopping cart and the ability to accept credit cards. 2.) You find a distributor who is willing to drop ship the products you want to sell. 3.) You establish an account as a retailer with the Wholesale Supplier you choose. 4.) You receive images and descriptions of the products you want to sell from the Wholesale Supplier and post them on your Internet Store. 5.) A customer surfs into your Internet Store, and falls in love with a product that you have priced at, say, $80. They purchase the item with their credit card. Your Store charges their credit card $80 plus your shipping fee. 6.) You turn around and email the order to your Wholesale Supplier, along with the customer's name and address. 7.) The Wholesale Supplier sends the product directly to your customer, with YOUR Store's name on the package. 8.) The Wholesale Supplier charges you the wholesale price of, say, $45.00, plus shipping. 9.) Your customer gets a cool product from your store shipped to their door, and they tell all their friends about you, and you make even more money. There you have it. You just made a $35.00 profit on one item. You didn't have to buy a whole bunch of the product and keep it in your warehouse, hoping you would sell it. You didn't have to pay to have it shipped to you, and then pay to ship it to your customer. All you did was send an email to your Wholesale Supplier. That's the drop shipping process in a nutshell! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Chris Malta Worldwide Brands, Inc. We provide sourcing for legitimate Wholesale Suppliers on the Internet. For more info, please visit: http://www.WholesaleTradingClub.com