Search Engine Secrets: Using Tags
 by: Mark Lawson

In your web pages, there are hidden areas of the page that the casual browser doesn’t see, but that the search engines sure do. These are called tags, and come in two basic types: first the header tags, which are found at the top of web pages, and second the heading tags, which mark the parts of your text in the page that will be used as titles and subtitles in articles. One other form of tag, alternate text, should be filled out as well.

Header Tags

Most of the tags in your header are called metatags or meta tags; they apply to the entire page and, in HTML, are at the top of your document. In graphic web page design tools like Frontpage or Dreamweaver, if you right-click and select page properties, you’ll find these in the first tab that opens.

When the web first opened to the public, metatags were a critical tool enabling the primitive spiders and search engines of that time to determine how to catalog a page. The idea was that you’d tell the spiders where your page was supposed to be catalogued by how you filled in your metatags, and they’d ensure you were listed properly.

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Tis the season to leverage customer interest data for successful email marketing.

All of the information gathered throughout the year from customer purchases, customer feedback surveys, and other behavior offers direct marketers necessary direction for conceptualizing a successful email campaign.

Further, these customer data strengthen email promotions, ensuring the best possible message targets each individual customer. In the audio book, "Sound Advice on Email Marketing," author Peter McCormick sites the example of a sporting goods retailer that uses customer knowledge to devise a series of successful promotions. Offers for discounts on golf clubs, golf vacations, and pro golfer apparel specials speak to a particular set of customers’ affinity for golf.

As with any direct mail campaign, one key to optimizing customer response is compelling each customer to open the email. Here, McCormick says attention to the email subject line is crucial, and suggests one winning strategy is to incorporate the call-to-action ? what you want your customer to do ? into the subject line. McCormick says, "Don’t let your message get lost on the customer. The key to making the message obvious to the customer begins with a dynamic call to action in the email subject line that is carried throughout the body of the email."

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The search engine giants are locked in an all out power struggle to get your attention and patronage.

Over the past 6 months there have been many changes. The big guys are getting even bigger, but there are a number of new players vying for your patronage too.

The top three Search Engines are Yahoo, MSN and Google. It would seem that Yahoo serves the most searches followed by MSN and then Google.

Only a year ago Google supplied both Yahoo and MSN with search listings. Yahoo has progresses from a Directory to a fully fledged search engine as has MSN with the launch of their new Search Engine. However Google still supplies search results to many other search engines including AOL, Alexa and a host of small and medium sized search engines.

It is my belief that any small business owner should know the basics of search engine placement and it is surprisingly easy to list your Web site, but even easier to get it ignored or even black listed by search engines.

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What I’m about to explain to you will change to way you do your online marketing Today, Tomorrow and Years to come with little effort on your part.

This simple But effective technique involves the use of a ‘Pop-Up’ on your website, but, the difference between this technique and just a standard ‘Pop-Up’ or ‘Exit Pop-Up’ as we all see them is that when your potential prospects see them they are more then willing to give you there Name and Email address.

Why you ask?

Because your offering them something of Value for FREE.

As you well know the word ‘Free’ is one of the most Powerful words on the internet when used correctly and when combined with an ‘Pop-Up’… it could make you alot of extra money with little effort.

As a marketer myself, a simple Name and Email Address is worth hundreds, if not thousands of extra dollars a year if I collect and follow-up my leads properly, but, the questions that always seem to arise are…

…How do I do it? …What steps do I need to take?

So… now that I have your attention, let me explain to you how this can be achieved in a simple ‘Step-By-Step’ fashion.

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Have you ever got one of those silly emails that offers to let you own a keyword? Silly question. How many such emails do you get every day?

A number of such services regularly email me offering keyword ownership of premium keywords for $300/year. They say that anyone can type the keyword I bought in the address bar of Internet explorer, instead of typing in a URL, and they will be sent directly to my site. In total it seems that there are about 2% of Internet users worldwide who have enabled one type or another of this system, spread out between a few competitive services.

Data shows that between 4% and 7% of search queries are performed by entering something in the address bar. By default for IE users, these searches are automatically routed through to MSN search. Many of us however have installed so much software over time, and unknowingly, some of this software has re-routed these search queries to other search portals, such as iGetNet, or others. This often happens if you’ve installed any file sharing software. We have all heard / read about how many extra ‘features’ come with programs like Kazaa. This means that your default search from the address bar may no longer be MSN, and may have been rerouted elsewhere, but the basic principle still applies. Of the queries that are actually run from an address bar, at least half of them are unintentionally instigated by people mistyping the desired URL. This means that between 2% and 4% of Internet users actually search via their address bar.

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The Power of Article Submission
 by: Dr. Tim Ong

If you’re a webmaster, one of the best and most cost effective ways to generate traffic to your website is through article submission. Sometimes one well written article is all that it takes to propel your website to new heights, as is the case with one article I wrote called “Achieving Optimum Health”.

After almost five years of webmastering a website for self improvement and doing all kinds of things to get my site noticed, this article literally transformed my online life from one on life support to a progressively profitable online business.

I wrote this article sometime back and submitted it first to SelfGrowth.com and a few other sites. From there, the article was picked up by other webmasters who posted it on their websites. From these new websites, the same process repeated itself… other webmasters picked it up, posted it on their sites and more webmasters picked it up and it goes on and on. It has a viral effect.

How does that benefit me or my website?

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The basic principles used successfully by brick and mortar storefronts in moving your potential clients through a successful sales process is also the most effective way on the web.

But how?

You do this by following the five step process in your marketing strategy by attracting potential clients, building trust, helping them choose the right product, presenting the product, and then closing the sale.

Step One- Marketing / prospecting:

Prospecting is the delivery of qualified visitors to your website. It can be achieved by many forms, such as, search engine marketing, pay-per-clicks, and e-mail advertising that draw people to your site.

Once they are there, it’s your responsibility to show them how your product can fill the void in the marketplace and what sets your product apart from the rest. Deliver your ‘Unique Selling Proposition’, USP.

Step two- Building trust:

Just like in a brick and mortar business where you greet a person when they walk in the door or physically help them find what they are looking for, you can build trust by doing similar things on your website by the elements that surround the design and development of your website.

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Yes, if need more web traffic, this free list building tool could be a painless way to steadily build more prospects, more web traffic, and more income.

If you are in business for the long haul and have the guts to persevere…

If you could advertise directly to to 362,797 Targeted Leads — 100% FREE! each and every week, would your business grow?

What if they were a different 362,797 leads every week… would that be better?

And what if you could do that withoug spam accusations?

What if these were people who are eager to join a profitable home based business or your multi-tier affiliate program - like yours?

That would be pretty darn good - if it’s really free, really spam, free and it really happens!

Now let’s say you’re already promoting your income opportunity somehow.

You’re paying for ads, generating search engine referrals, and otherwise out there marketing.

But not everybody joins or spends money with you right?

Some will even follow your links, insert their own affiliate code, and rob you of a commission!

Obviously they’re not very interested in help you. They’re only looking out for number 1… them!

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Free Website Promotion…Why Not?
 by: Ken Crowe

Can you ever avail of free website promotion? Is that even feasible?

Of course yes! Nowadays, your Mini website can amass huge traffic in no time, thanks to free website promotion.

How does this free website promotion go anyway? What are things to be done?

1. Enlist your website.

Look for the hottest Internet directories and enlist your site there. This is the easiest and most effective free website promotion tactic. Start with this step and the rest of the good things will follow.

Just don’t forget to prep your website and make it all spruced up for a higher chance to get accepted in your directory of choice.

2. Know your forums.

One reason why forums are created is for free website promotion for everyone. Log in, post actively, let them know about your site in every post and you attract instant visitors right there.

3. Write a press release.

Release your writing prowess and start up a press release that advertises your site! This is a free website promotion tactic that you can do anytime. Type a brief paragraph or two and email it to your friends, colleagues, internet e-zines, newspapers and other media and massive traffic will come to you pronto!

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Are You Really Measuring for Return on Investment (ROI) with Search Engine Optimization?

Puzzling studies and reports suggest that businesses are missing out when it comes to ROI, including a whole host of metrics that should confirm or shape search engine marketing strategies.

You can’t accomplish much if you’re not even implementing SEO the right way. We’ve seen web site after web site that includes scores of individual keywords in the META keyword set (that many search engines ignore anyway). The SEO team not only used the wrong individual keywords (search phrases are better), but they didn’t bother to include keywords in the page title or description. And, of course, they didn’t think it was worth their time to focus on multiple pages? not just the homepage.

Hint: If you’re selling dinnerware, "laundry" probably shouldn’t be one of your keywords.

A WebTrends report cited in an eMarketer in 2004 showed the following ROI:

Using Complete ROI analysis 35.4%

Click-through rates only 24.2%

Conversion metrics 18.7%

Don’t measure 21.7%

Barely one third figured a thorough ROI analysis was worth the effort.

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