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How To Optimize Your Website For Google’s Top 10 Ranking - More Steps

March 17th, 2008 by hostbox

Search engine optimization is the process of choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a website, and ensuring that the website places well when those keyword phrases are part of a Web search.

ON-PAGE OPTIMIZATION FACTORS:

The Major Factors Are:

Meta Tags, Header Tags, Text-body tag and Alt image tags:

1- META TAGS:

Meta Tags are code in your HTML that is invisible to the visitors of your web site but are read by some web spiders and search engines.

Meta tags used by a large percentage of the top search engines as one of the main guidelines on how they will index your site

The Main Meta Tags are:

? Title Tag
? Description Tag
? Keyword Tag

Targeting the right keywords:

Do keyword research- it is very important in building traffic

To do your keyword research visit this website http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Select a short list of 3 to 4 keywords

Title tag:

The page title should include ONLY your main keywords. The least amount of words you can place in the title, the more weight Google will give to each of the keywords and the higher you will rank.

The title is the most important piece of information search engines use to index Web pages. Include the title of your page and 3-5 important keywords. Format your site title as follows:

Site title, keyword1, keyword2, keyword3

You may use your URL, or the name of your company as your site title.

? Make sure it specifically describes your product or service,
? Makes proper use of 3 or 4 keywords,
? Use between 10 and 80 characters long.

Tips:

? Taken out all of the “ands”
? Replaced one of the “ands” with a “|” character
? Always Combine Your Keywords In The Page Title

Description Tag:

The Meta description tag describes your site’s content, giving search engines’ spiders an accurate summary filled with multiple keywords.

? Use a descriptive paragraph or sentence that is relevant to your page.
? If possible, use a sentence or paragraph that is present in the content of your page
? Use up to 500 characters, including spaces.

Keyword Tag:

Use a list of keywords that are relevant to the content of your web page. Use your url as the first key word and separate the keywords with commas. Format the key words as follows:

www.sketch-plus.com, keyword1, keyword2, keyword3, …..

Add 5-10 Keywords

? For best results a tag sized between 50 and 250 characters.
? Note that keywords should be separated with commas.

Free Meta Tag Analyzer:

This Meta tag analysis tool will help you analyze your web pages and
check for search engine compatibility.
http://www.hypergurl.com/form.html

More Sites for SEO:

http://www.submitnet.net/
http://www.submitexpress.com/

2- HEADER TAGS:

Headers are used to break entries up into logical sections.

Add h1 header tags- (Place your most important keyword) it’s best to place your h1 header tag on the top left hand or top/middle portion of your page.

When Google reads a webpage, it views the text from the top left hand side of the page to the bottom right hand side of the page.

Add h2 header tags- (Place your 2nd most important keyword) should be placed somewhere towards the top half of your webpage.

3- TEXT- BODY TAG:

The body element defines the documents’ body. It contains all the contents of the document (like text, images, colors, graphics, etc.).

? When writing the content, try to evenly sprinkle your main keywords throughout the copy. Don’t overdo it though.
? Try to mention each keyword in a natural way as you are writing
? Include at least one of the keywords per 1-2 paragraphs, depending on how large your page is.
? Make sure to mention your main keyword at the very top left and the very bottom right hand side of the webpage
? Bolding, italicizing and underlining…Once we’ve finished writing the copy, we should go through and bold, italicize, or underline some of the keywords only 1 time each, maximum.
? Any keyword must be used 4 times or more in your site’s HTML body. This is highly recommended for best ranking results.
? Avoid Excessive Keywords- No word to be used more than 30 times throughout the page.

4- ALT IMAGE TAGS:

ALT tags are images’ descriptions.

? Place your keyword 1 in the alt image tag of the very top image in your webpage.
? Place your other 2 keywords plus an extra word like “picture” or “image in the alt image tag of 2 more graphics throughout your webpage.

LOAD TIME ANALYSIS:

If your Web site does not load in 12 seconds or less with a 56k connection, statistics show that about 45% of visitors will leave the site.

? Optimized you site for 56k modem users- Load time 12 second or less.
? Try to keep your homepage under 50k and your other pages under 40k.

SEARCH ENGINE GUIDELINES:

Always remember this general rule when building your site: “Search engines do not like to be fooled”. Do not try to manipulate your listings through sneaky methods. Provide useful, relevant content, and you will never have to worry about search engine guideline violations.

? Hidden Text - you never hide text.
? Excessive Keywords-Use keywords naturally in sentences and paragraphs.
? No word to be used more than 30 times throughout the page.
? Repeated Keywords- No keywords to be repeated multiple times in a row. We recommend using keywords naturally in sentences and paragraphs.
? Doorway Pages- Doorway pages are discouraged by most search engines.
? Harmful Redirects- Redirecting pages have a hard time being indexed by search engines.
? Frame Issues- It is recommended for sites that use frames to implement a descriptive NOFRAMES tag with relevant text content.
? Macromedia Flash Issues- Don’t create all-Flash pages for any content you want to get indexed - instead, put that content in the HTML portion of the page.

Enjoy!

Faraj Balousha is the founder of http://www.49adwinners.com and http://www.Sketch-Plus.com, he enjoys giving tips on how to design and develop your website. Do you want to learn about website design? Well, visit http://www.Creating-Website-Stores.com today!

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Affordable Website Design

March 16th, 2008 by hostbox

How do we know if a web design is affordable? Affordable website design is when there will be an obvious return on investment, over a set term. But the costs do not just stop at the website build itself. One has to look at whole expected life cycle of the website. Here are some ways that you can have a more affordable web site design development at the initial purchase stage.

The initial meetings usually get drafted into the cost of the website. Traveling to a client takes time and money so preparation is the key here. Find someone local, and get a minimum of three quotes. It may take more than one meeting to decide who to choose so here is where your preparation pays off. Know what you want, know how it should be achieved and reduce the number of meetings needed.

The actual design of a website can be very costly or very affordable, if you know what you want then it is more affordable. There are plenty of templates out there and even more websites, so if you leave it to a designer to build from scratch it will cost. The current trend is for simplistic design and since you have your own logo it should not be too hard to sketch together a style of your liking, simplistic design should not cost a lot of money. The important part for us is the content of the website so make sure that the design does not crowd this content.

The website has to be hosted somewhere and web hosting comes in various forms. Make sure that it suits what you need. If you have a ten page website which you aim to grow to a hundred page website, and one page averages at 110KB, then you should be looking at a web space of around 11MB. Take into account additional or larger images so triple it to be safe to start with at around 35MB. ? Do not pay for a 500MB website hosting when you only need 35MB.

Are they building the site from scratch or are they using open source software. If they build it from scratch, it is highly likely that the costs will be very high due to testing and development. Also, the support costs will be high as it is bespoke. Open source software is developed by the community and supported by the community. More than one web Design Company can take over a website built from open source software and support it without problem. If you use open source then there will probably also be pre built training packages on how to use it. Again reducing the cost and making the website more affordable.

Open source software is free software which web design companies can use and manipulate to suit their needs. The web designers still put in a lot of effort to make it look and behave as you like it but the engine of the website is normally already been and can be adapted to various situations.

So, as a starting point to a more affordable website design, have a good idea of the design you want. Try and opt for open source software. Have a guess at your web hosting needs and question if you think it is too much.

Neil MacLeod runs http://www.web-studio.co.uk/ providing web site and web marketing services in Buckinghamshire. Neil has been building websites since 1999 and is a founding member of http://www.itwebnetwork.co.uk.

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Web Hosting - Let Me Explain

March 16th, 2008 by hostbox

If you want a website, then before you do anything else, you’re going to need to get some web hosting.

You might not be too sure exactly how the web works, but don’t worry - it’s quite complicated, and you don’t really need to know about it until you want to make your own website. Basically, every time you go to a website, you connect to another computer (called a server) that sends you copies of that website’s pages. Server have to be powerful, as thousands of people could be asking for those pages every second on the web’s biggest sites.

For a small site, you don’t need your own server. You could set your own computer up to run as a server, but you would have to leave it switched on and connected to the Internet all day long, and if your site got even a little bit popular then your connection probably wouldn’t be able to handle it. Instead, what most people do is rent some space on one of those larger servers, paying a different monthly fee depending on how much data their visitors download and for any extra features they need.

If you want a website, then, the first thing you should do is find which one of these web hosts is best for you - that is, whose server you should rent space on. Much like looking to rent a home, this is really a matter of personal taste. Paying more is no guarantee of quality, as many hosts prey on their customers’ lack of understanding to charge unjustifiably high prices. In general, the best way to find a good web hosting company is to ask around, read reviews, and ask on forums for people’s experiences. You’ll often find that what seemed like a good deal is actually a disaster, and be steered towards something much better.

John Gibb is the owner of web-hostng-advice-and-info2k.info, for more information on web hosting check out http://www.web-hostng-advice-and-info2k.info

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Seven Steps To Financing Your Online Community

March 15th, 2008 by hostbox

Setting up a message board on your site is an excellent way to build a community of loyal customers. Your community members can help each other use your product effectively and provide you with fresh ideas. The message board itself gives your customers reason to return to your site often, sometimes even daily. So, the next time they need your product — guess who they think of first…you! And even better, customers will tell their friends about your products and your community, resulting in viral growth that will keep the incoming pouring in.

Or so it would seem.

Let’s take a look at the reality of setting up a message board.

Jenny, a cloth diaper seller, decides to setup a forum so her customers can share diaper care tips, parenting advice and ideas for new product designs. She chooses the message board software recommended by her hosting company and hires a web designer for installation and customization of the forum. Then she emails all her customers about the new site.

A few months later, her forum is booming! New members are signing up daily. Search engines eat up the content on the message board, boosting her page rank and helping her site appear high in the rankings for many related keyword phrases. The problem? She’s using up too much bandwidth for her existing hosting account. She purchases a larger account and the community continues to grow.

But then her hosting company contacts her and tells her that the forum is using up too many server resources. She needs to move to a dedicated server. She looks at several $99 per month server options — but they don’t include the technical support she will need. The hosting companies that do include the support she needs cost several hundred dollars per month — more than she can support on her own.

Jenny is faced with a choice that many small business have had to make: Close the message board to the public or shut it down completely.

Both options will hurt her business.

But wait.

Those aren’t the only choices that Jenny has. She can also monetize the site. Her community is the best asset off her website. She should be taking advantage of the traffic to it and monetize the site.

Monetizing a site means leveraging the traffic and resources it provides to earn money — at least enough to pay server costs. Jenny has many option available to her to create streams of income from her message board. Below of seven of them:

1. One of the most common methods for generating income from a community is to place banner and text ads in the header, footer and sidebar sections. If these banners appeal to your community (work at home moms advertising to each other, for example), this could be a lucrative endeavor. However, there is a downside. Ad blockers may prevent your community members from seeing the advertisements. Your members may ignore the ads. And if you place too many ads on the site, it becomes cluttered and may drive potential members away.

2. You could charge a membership fee for the community. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this for a product support community. However, you may setup special forums within the message board, that are for paid members. Perhaps these paid members would have first access to new products. Be creative, talk to your members and find out what they would find valuable.

3. Join affiliate programs of complimentary businesses and promote them on your website through advertisements, articles and community messages. For example, Jenny is sells cloth diapers that she makes. She could join an affiliate program that sells diaper covers, liners, wool soakers, baby wipes, etc. Join venture partnerships with these businesses would also be an excellent way to earn additional revenue through community promotion.

4. Jenny already sells a physical product to her community members. She can add to her arsenal by creating a digital product. Perhaps an ebook on the benefits of attachment parenting, or how to convince dad that cloth is best. Talk to your community members, and consider what you know about your target market.

5. You can accept donations from your community members. The downside of this is that oftentimes people attach strings to gives (such as donations) which can cause problems later on, if you make a decision regarding your forum that said donator does not agree with. In my opinion, you’d be better off offering an upgraded membership, in which your community members purchase specific upgrades and agree to follow your rules, in exchange for a set amount of money.

6. Selling targeted sponsorships is an option that I haven’t seen around much. However, you can charge more for them than for regular advertising. In a targeted sponsorship, a company pays for advertising space in a specific section of your website. For example, if Jenny has a forum on her community dedicated to breastfeeding babies (who are cloth diapers, naturally), a company selling cloth breast pads may sponsor the just that forum. Jenny would place a banner or text ads in just that forum. Perhaps she could promote the company in articles or her posts in that forum as well, depending on her agreement with the company.

7. You may use a combination of all of these things to diversify your income so if one source of revenue dries up, you’re not left holding a hefty server fee with no money.

While online communities can be a great asset to a community, they can also be a huge liability in terms of server fees and time spent moderating the community itself. Planned wisely and carefully monetized, a community can pay for itself.

Michelle Waters is the work at home mom behind Shop Kit Plus, an complete website and shopping cart solution for home business moms who want to sell their products on the internet. Find out how Shop Kit Plus can help you create a more successful online business at http://www.shopkitplus.com.

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Web Languages: PHP vs. ASP.NET

March 13th, 2008 by hostbox

While the average web developer has a lot of options these days. It’s really more of a bi-partisan system between ASP.NET and PHP, the rest being just independents. The battle rages between the supporters of the two languages, with no clear winner every coming out. While both can be used to complete the same project, it really depends on what you’re looking for: price, speed, security, etc.

ASP.NET

If you program in ASP.NET you’ll typically get too responses from the other side. Either you’re rich (or your company is) or you’re a Microsoft lover. While the name comes from Microsoft’s old ASP technology, they made a huge leap with the .NET Framework, and the CLR allows you to use other languages for back end processing: typically Visual Basic.NET or C#.

ASP.NET’s strength lies in object oriented features, and it’s flexibility. Because of the CLR you can have C# programmers and VB.NET programmers working on the same project, or switch languages half way through and not have to rewrite all of your old classes. The .NET class library is organized into inheritable classes based around particular tasks, such as working with XML or image manipulation, so a lot of the more common tasks have been already handled for you.

Visual Studio .NET is a massive development IDE that (as long as your computer is fast enough) will shave tons of time of your coding. It has built in debugging along with IntelliSense, which allows for auto-completion of methods and variables so you don’t have to memorize everything.

On the down side, ASP.NET is expensive. One it uses tons more resources on the web server so you’ll require either better server or more servers in the farm. Windows 2003 and Visual Studio .NET are pretty tough on the pocket book as well. It’s extremely rare for an ASP.NET app not to be running on IIS. And if you pay attention to any of the bug reports, you’ll notice that Windows and IIS have had a bit of a history with vulnerabilities being exploited.

PHP

PHP works in combination of HTML to display dynamic elements on the page. PHP only parses code within its delimiters, such as . Anything outside its delimiters is sent directly to the output and not parsed by PHP.

PHP strength lies mostly in LAMP. The LAMP architecture has become popular in the Web industry as a way of deploying inexpensive, reliable, scalable, secure web applications. PHP is commonly used as the P in this bundle alongside Linux, Apache and MySQL. PHP can be used with a large number of relational database management systems, runs on all of the most popular web servers and is available for many different operating systems. This flexibility means that PHP has a wide installation base across the Internet; over 18 million Internet domains are currently hosted on servers with PHP installed.

With PHP 5 finally came exception handling and true OOP, but it still lack namespacing to prevent class naming collisions. PHP’s type checking is very loose, potentially causing problems. Another drawback is that variables in PHP are not really considered to have a type. Finally, for some reason big corporations feel that if they’re not paying for something, then it’s not worth buying. If that’s you’re company’s mentality, they just need to wake up and check out all the awesome free software that’s out there.

So Which Is Better?

We’ll I have my opinions and you may have yours as well. But in general, PHP is cheap, secure, fast, and reliable, while ASP.NET has quicker development time and is easier due to its class library system can probably be maintained more easily. Both are great languages, and it’s up to you to make the decision.

Kevin Jordan is a software engineer and the creator of Scratch Projects. A web site dedicated to teaching others to program through actual programming projects instead of just giving away code snippets.

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FTP Hosting for Beginners lesson 101

March 13th, 2008 by hostbox

Have you ever realized why the Internet is so popular? It is because the Internet provides us with easy and fast access to all types of information and knowledge. It is the perfect platform to share information, gain knowledge, send messages, listen to music, and view graphics.

However, if you face problems in transferring this information, then the very purpose of using the Internet will fail. This is where you need the help of FTP Hosting service.

The FTP Hosting service helps you to transfer files over the Internet irrespective of the length and size of the files. The files to be transferred using FTP Hosting service can come in the form of web pages, media files, image files or text files.

Difference between Transferring Files via Emails and FTP Hosting Service

FTP Hosting service makes use of a safe and sound online file storage system. It is in this storage system that the FTP Hosting service allows you to upload all the files, irrespective of their type and size. Once you have finished uploading all the desired files, the recipient of the respective files can easily download them according to their preferred time.

You may feel that even the email can serve this purpose of transferring files. But, there are size restrictions in an email, and the email services fail to transfer large files. You may face a situation where you need to transfer files of size over 100MB - 300MB. This is when you require the help of FTP Hosting service. Moreover, emails allow you to send files from one person to another. FTP Hosting allows you to store the files in an online secured storage system from where the recipients can easily download their respective files.

How Secured is FTP Hosting?

You will be considered a good candidate for FTP Hosting service if you share large files with a number of vendors and clients. The FTP Hosting service provides you with multiple accounts, with the help of which you can easily upload and download files to and from your vendors and clients. Since this whole process involves handling a number of accounts, FTP Hosting service will also provide you with secured passwords for all the individual accounts, thus preventing one client from viewing files for other clients.

FTP Hosting service is mainly used in various organizations and firms including designer, medical practice, law, art, transcription, engineering firms and other organizations that require secure transfer of heavy files.

FTP Server & FTP Client

FTP in “FTP Hosting” stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP is one of the fastest and the most effective ways of transferring large files over the Internet. In order to perform FTP Hosting, you will require two types of computers - FTP Server and FTP Client.

FTP Server - This computer runs the FTP server software. It keeps track of requests by the Client computers for connecting to a file that is uploaded on the online storage system.

FTP Client - This computer runs the FTP client software. It instigates connection to the FTP server. Once the connection is established, the client can download and upload files to and from the server, edit, delete or rename files on the server.

FTP Software

To make sure that the two computers required for FTP Hosting, FTP Server and FTP Client, are working effectively, you will require FTP Software. The software runs on the Server and Client computers and handles the smooth transferring of the files. Almost all the FTP Hosting software are easy to use. All you need to do is - install the application, fill in details of site address, name and related information, and just connect. Once connection has been restored, you can easily upload files from your PC to the site and download the files from the site to the local drive of your computer.

A number of FTP Hosting software are available - both for server and client programs. Some of them are:

WS FTP - as file transfer client software, it is the most popular. With the help of this secure software, you can quickly and easily manage all the digital information. It helps to compress files into .zip format during file transfer. It guarantees security of data with the help of 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) keys and SSL transfers.

FTP Explorer - this allows you to resume file download even after an interruption. This FTP client software is modeled after Windows Explorer interface.

Cute FTP - this is one of the widely used shareware FTP programs. This FTP Client software is developed by GlobalSCAPE. Their enhanced tools help them to manage complex data.

FTP Hosting costs only a fraction of the cost that you pay for sending files via UPS, Fed-X and various postal services. Moreover, the risk of damage and delay and the associated delivery costs are not there. Usually, you will need to pay only $3.50 every week. However, if you go for a monthly payment, you only need to pay $25.00 every month.
Mike Jewson is a Network Engineer with “InstantFTPsites.com”. You can learn more about “FTP Hosting” services online at http://www.InstantFTPsites.com

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Making A Website Using Website Templates

March 12th, 2008 by hostbox

There are some amazing websites on the net these days. It used to be that if you wanted a really good website it would cost you thousands of dollars and months of time. Not any more! The quality and availability of website templates these days makes it easy for anyone to have an amazing website quickly and easily.

Initially you may be overwhelmed by the choices in templates for your site. There are many sites that have many different templates available. This is a good thing though. Just take some time up front before you begin searching to identify the type of site you are going to make. Once you have done this it will be easy to sort through the different templates as most good sites have them categorized for you.

Theme or category isn’t the only thing to decide however. Once you’ve found the template you want to use for your website you then need to decide on the leve of customization you want for it. If it is a good site then you will be able to change things like color, font and logo without to much trouble. Other changes should also be avaialable to you but will be more difficult to implement. You may need certain software or have to pay an additional fee for example.

A quick side-note on web hosting. In choosing your template you should be sure of what features your hosting company provides you. Depending on the template your server may need to support certain functions. PHP is a good example. Many free or discount hosting companies don’t provide scripting to their clients. Be sure you check before choosing your template.

Some last notes on website templates. Whether you need a template for a - system like osCommerece, PHP Nuke,phpBB or a custom site of your own, you can find one quickly and easily. Some research and organization on your part will save you time and money in the end. Don’t be fooled by some of the free template sites you see out there. You always get what you pay for.

D. David Dugan recommends the web hosting solutions offered by DD&C at http://hosting.dugancom.com and the website templates at http://templates.divinfo.com.

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How To Create Your Own e-Commerce Site

March 12th, 2008 by hostbox

E-commerce is touted as one of the most viable online business opportunities on the Web today. In comparison to traditional brick and mortar businesses, e-commerce site requires minimal start-up cost and is relatively low-risk. However that does not imply creating an e-commerce site is a simple process, neither does it guarantee your future success. The purpose of this article is to walk you through the necessary steps and plans you would need in order to set up a successful e-commerce site.

Un-earth Your Niche

The very first thing to do is find your niche. Examine your hobbies and interests for potential business ideas. If you love soccer, consider selling soccer supplies or team uniforms, online. Focusing on your expertise or something you have great passion for would give you an advantage over competitors who do not have in-depth knowledge of that niche.

Research Your Niche

Once you’ve whittled down a few ideas, explore each one further. Ask yourself these questions: How many people are looking for your services? Where do they go and find people like yourself? How many searches are created for your product or service on Google? You may not have a budget to create demand, so it’s safer and cheaper to go where the demand already exists.

Scope out Your Competitors

Research your competitors inside out. Spend time to check out their websites and compare their products and services. Give yourself an idea of what you’re up against, so you can create your e-commerce site as professional as, or even better than theirs.

Write Your Business Plan

You want to have a foolproof business plan for your business. Work out a detailed formula - including your site theme, goals, business strategies. It’s also a good idea to keep a record of expenditures, sales, profits etc. Your business cannot just be a ‘me-too’ business online. Develop a powerful USP (Unique Selling Position) that sets you apart from your competitors and makes you stand out from the crowd!

Create Your Website

Register a good domain name as marketing tactic. Name that ends in *.com is best of all. Try to include relevant keywords that properly describe your business or product if possible.

A well-designed website creates a good first impression with your prospects. Get yourself a professional website template at an affordable price and customize it to suit your need. Most templates can be easily customized using common HTML editors and simple graphics software.

You’ll want your website content to target specific keywords for high search engines ranking and traffic flow. This can be done by creating informative articles, product reviews, descriptions and comparisons. If you’re short on time, many SEO (search engine optimization) experts are willing to help you out for a reasonable price.

Host Your Website

Find a dependable hosting company to host your website on their servers. A quick search on Google for “web hosting” should bring up hundreds of companies ready to do business with you. Select a reliable web host that provides adequate disk space and bandwidth with e-commerce scripts supporting features. Domain name-specific email accounts must also be available to give a professional image.

Your website files can be uploaded using a simple FTP program or file uploading service in your hosting account. Technical support personnel from your hosting company should walk you through the steps to upload your files and launch your website.

Implement a Shopping Cart

An e-commerce site is never complete without a secure shopping cart. The best option you can consider is a remotely hosted shopping cart which takes the burden of maintaining security and credit card numbers off your shoulder. Most remote shopping carts can be configured to look similar to your website so your customers may not realize that they have left your website when making a payment.

If a remote shopping cart is not within your budget, there are still lots of third party credit card processing companies that are ready to process your credit card orders using their merchant account for a small fee. Some popular ones to you can check out are ClickBank, PayPal and 2CheckOut.

Marketing and Promotion

You have identified your niche, set up your e-commerce site and you are good to go. Now comes the most crucial part - promoting your site! This could be a full-time career option for most people. Either you can learn to do this yourself or you can have an expert do it for you.

Begin by submitting your site to major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Dmoz, etc. You also need to optimize your site using profitable keywords and keyword-rich content. There are lots more business promotion strategies such as advertising, link exchange, e-zine promotion etc. which you may need to explore to create your online presence and build traffic.

Setting up your e-commerce site is sure a lot of work, but it’s just the first step. Making it successful is even more work, but the pay-offs can be rewarding. Remember, success can be yours provided you work hard and smart!

Lewis Low is the founding editor of OnlineBizPromo.com. For more Practical Online Business Ideas and Work-From-Home Opportunities, visit his Work-At-Home directory at www.OnlineBizPromo.com

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CCNA Exam Tutorial: MAC Addressing Formats And Broadcasts

March 11th, 2008 by hostbox

Your CCNA exam success depends on your mastery of networking, routing, and switching fundamentals. Those fundamentals have to include knowledge of MAC addresses, so let’s take a close look at Media Access Control addressing.

A typical MAC address looks something like this:

af-14-b3-c2-14-45

You may be wondering why we’ve got letters and numbers in this address. MAC addresses are expressed in hexadecimal, which gives us the ability to express more values with the same number of bits. Theoretically, every single NIC in the world should have a totally unique MAC address, and the only way to do this is to express MAC addresses in hexadecimal.

MAC addresses are actually made up of two parts, so let’s take another look at the one I showed you earlier.

af-14-b3-c2-14-45

The first half of that address (af-14-b3) is the Organizationally Unique Identifier. This particular OUI would belong to one and only one vendor, making it “organizationally unique”. The second half of the address is a combination of hex characters that this particular vendor has not used before with this particular OUI, sometimes called the Device ID.

Breaking the example down into its two parts:

? af-14-b3 is the OUI

? c2-14-45 is the Device ID

In this way, the MAC address should be unique from any other MAC address in existence. (The use of hex means we can have 281,474,976,710,656 possible combinations.)

Note the highest hex value is f. If all values in a MAC address are set to f, that’s the MAC broadcast address. Expressing a hex value in upper or lower case does not change the value, so both of the following are the same address.

Watch out for any MAC address that contains a letter that comes after “F” in the alphabet - that’s an invalid address. For example, both of the following MAC addresses are invalid.

11-22-33-44-55-hf
Rf-12-34-45-56-67

MAC addresses can be expressed with hyphens, as we’ve seen so far in this chapter, or with colons. They can also be expressed in a format similar to IP addresses. To illustrate, all of the following MAC addresses are the same address and are all valid ways of expressing a MAC address.

aa-bb-cc-dd-ee-34
aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:34
aabb.ccdd.ee34

While we spend most of our time working with IP addresses, data can’t be transmitted from one point to another without the right MAC addresses. In tomorrow’s CCNA exam tutorial, we’ll take a look at how switches build a table of MAC addresses and the actions a switch can take with incoming frames. See you then

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage (http://www.thebryantadvantage.com ), home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, and The Ultimate CCNA and CCNP Study Packages.

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Why It’s Important To Have New Content On Your Website?

March 10th, 2008 by hostbox

Have you ever wondered how people get a number one ranking on the search engines? Is it because they are special? Is it because they know the Internet gurus? Is it because they have paid to become number one or is it more likely because they constantly update the content on their website?

Content rules. The search engines employ ’spiders’ that ‘crawl’ and index the many millions of webpages out there. They are looking for new and ‘fresh’ content. Why? It’s in the best interest of the search engines to always look for new content because their advertisers and people who wish to advertise with that search engine want to know what interests people so they can target that interest.

Advertisers will not pay for content that is stale or not updated because yesterday’s news is the reason for today’s business failure.

As a website builder business owner this can be succinctly summarised:

* New content = new visitors
* New visitors = better chance of sales
* Better chance of sales results from better and new content

This method is not magic. Since it is in the best interest of the search engine’s spiders to always be on the lookout for fresh and new content and if your website is producing fresh and new content (at least once a day) the ’spiders’ will continue to ‘crawl’ and index your website.

Think of this as a reward. The search engines are rewarding you for posting information that may be useful. The more useful the information becomes, the more you will be linked and your rankings will increase. Because your website and its’ information is useful, more advertisers are attracted to the search engines and they make money from the advertising revenue.

As a website builder owner, you can save literally thousands of dollars by employing the method of keeping your content new and fresh. If you combine this with some of the search engine campaigns you will have incredible success.

Mark Gerrard is the Development Manager of the Freestart Website Builder Platform. See our website builder in action at http://www.freestart.com

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