We want to highlight two words that get people to the top of the search engines and make your website profitable—Consistent and Intentional Promotion.

With every website, we do the right things to make sure that your website has potential to be found in the search engines. From the menu coding to on-page content, we build potential into every website. The days of simply building a website correctly and getting results are nearly gone. It used to be that all you did was put content on your site and you are done. However, with the competition on the WWW, more must happen to get your site to the top of the search engines and to see results. You need to be consistent and intentional if you want your website to produce results.

Consistent Website Promotion

Consistency is the key to success in nearly every area of life. Failing to be consistent only leads to frustration and eventual failure. In the world of website promotion, Google (et al) take into account freshness. If you are consistently adding new information to your site, you will see results. Also, consistently building links to your site through other websites, blogs and forums are the keys to success.

Intentional Website Promotion

When you have a plan for promoting your website, you will do more than the one who sporadically adds information. Consider your website as an ongoing experiment. We have over 100 clients and a number of our own personal websites. Through this vast experimentation, we are finding a number of ways to intentionally promote your site. We have clients that secure articles written from their own clients. Another has 10 years worth of print articles in their filing cabinets. Getting this content on their own site is intentional. Why not consider writing a “Top 10” list for your own website. We have and we get traffic directly to that page.

Summary

Every industry can benefit from a consistent and intentional promotion of their website. If your website has become “stale” let us work with you to find ways to freshen it up. If you are beginning a website, keep in mind that if you want your website to be a top producer, it will be a continual project, not simply a one month endeavor.

This week, we are purchasing a new server which improves the hardware and software. We are happy with our current server, but things have improved to such a degree that we chose to implement a new server instead of upgrading our current one.

As a result, this new server will be faster and more secure than ever. There will be no downtime for either website or email. We will take care of everything “behind the scenes.”

This will be a month long process for us. There will be no cost increase for hosting. We may ask you for access to your domain name to point it to the new server, but for most of our hosting clients, we have that information. You will simply be notified by email when we change.

We anticipate only one change that will affect you—strong passwords.

If you have access to the CPanel and/or use WordPress for your site, we will increase the security of passwords. The days of simple passwords are about over. This is unfortunate, but unavoidable. With scammers and hackers, no amount of advanced technology can ever replace the need for a strong password. Of course, having a notebook full of passwords and usernames may not be your desire, there are online password vaults and browser tools (e.g., Roboform) that can store these for you.

Email marketing is very effective! Did you know that one survey, research company finds that email marketing is now ranked above the search engines for helping your business. Let us introduce you to iContact, a very easy-to-use email campaign management program.

For some time, we have recommended AWeber and Constant Contact as our favorite campaign resource. However, a new company is now offering better rates and has some advantages.

iContact Fits Budgets Better

From the table below, you will find that iConstant is either cheaper or the same price as the cheapest solution. The great thing is that iContact offers more flexibility due to more pricing levels.

iContact is Easy-to-Use

With pre-filled templates, you do not need to know how to code. You can choose WYSIWYG [fn1 “What You See Is What You Get] templates.

The charts and reporting features are very clear. You can see instantly how many email subscribers added and dropped as well how many opened your email.

Constant Contact is as easy as iContact, however you will pay more for that service. AWeber needs to make some progress here.

Summary

We are very happy with the flexibility and pricing structure of iContact. Consider enhancing your marketing with iContact. Click here to start a free trial!

The latest “buzz” is LocalAdLinkUSA. It is a MLM designed to build a network of people that sell the product, LocalAdLink. Unlike search engine marketing, LocalAdLink is expensive and will not perform as the hype suggests.

What is LocalAdLink?

Most simply, LocalAdLink is a directory of businesses. When you use LocalAdLink, you can find local businesses that advertise through LocalAdLink. It is a new directory introduced in late 2007. This is why it is not a good bargain…

LocalAdLink is more expensive than having your own website. To have your own page in LocalAdLink, you will pay at least $49.95 a month for the smallest package to $200 a month for the premium package. Each business has its own page with a map, a place for information and reviews. Google already provides this as a free service AND will give you local search coverage. If you were to hire a website developer to create a simple web page, such as you will get from LocalAdLink, you will pay a one-time fee of around $500 ($60 every year after for hosting). With the smallest package from LocalAdLink, you will spend $600 for a page, each year!

LocalAdLink has vague language which causes their network marketers to misunderstand what they are selling. LocalAdLink says “…business clients rotate in top positions throughout LocalAdLink’s distribution of partnering sites such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, MySpace, BOOMj and hundreds more.” What are these “top positions?" LocalAdLink says that they will get you a “top position” in Google. They can do so through the “sponsored links.” Sponsored links are the yellow rectangular boxes. LocalAdLink simply purchases a few clicks to get you into Google’s rectangular Ad box. They are simply selling you some Google AdWords. So, when they say they are getting you into distribution with partnering sites, they are doing so primarily through Google AdWords. LocalAdLink may get you search engine results in the main part of Google, but their pages are designed to give you the most minimal ability to gain that position. If you want to rank for local terms, you can do that for free through Google. Or, you can build your own website and perform some Search Engine Optimization to get ahead of everyone else.

LocalAdLink will not get you the traffic, and business, you expect. It is universally known that Google (Yahoo & MSN) are the places to go to find information. Having based their business model on Google AdWords, LocalAdLink will, at best, get you only 10% of what you could get with your own website or Google local listing.

LocalAdLink is based on an early 1990s approach to internet marketing. In the ‘90s, most people went to DMOZ to search through lists of businesses to find information. When Google came out in 1997, it changed the way searching is done. Very few people use, and will use, LocalAdLink for searching for businesses. People use Google, Yahoo and MSN to find their information. YellowPages.com and MerchantCircle have millions more businesses in their directory. You can get a page through them. The downside is, even with the popularity, you will get virtually no traffic through these kinds of directories.

As a MLM, LocalAdLink is Designed Primarily for Expanding Their Network, not Your Business

On the testimonial pages provided to LocalAdLink marketers, it is obvious that LocalAdLink is primarily important to the one selling the services, not the end-user, you! The popularity of LocalAdLink is not in that it brings clients to your business. The popularity is found among those selling the product. notice the testimonials below. They do not speak of the quality of service for you, the customer.

After working as an engineer where I oversaw the development of the newest and fastest microchips in the world, I decided I was missing out on some of the important things in life. I chose to become a full time LocalAdLink Independent Sales Representative. Not only have my wife and I opened a great business opportunity, but I’ve been able to spend the important hours with my sons that I had been missing. Tucker A.

I think the key to success is to be honest, sincere and have a real desire to help people. After you begin to do that your business just grows. One person tells another, and you build your business. We owe it to people to share the LocalAdLink opportunity with them. Nanette G.

The LocalAdLink compensation plan is very clear about what we earn. People have to just DO IT. Get out on the street, talk to the people, explain the business, and you will see the results. Zoila A.

We try to provide the service our downline members need. Then these people have success and take good care of their LocalAdLink customers and build for the future. Jean A.

Compare the above testimonials with the ones on our homepage. You will then see the difference…

Here is the Webpage LocalAdLink Provides

Pictures say a thousand words. Here is one business’ webpage. Can you find the business?

Notice that the business “Sal’s Smokehouse & Pizza” is pushed far below LocalAdLink’s own advertising. Again, LocalAdLink is primarily about LocalAdLink, not your business as this screenshot demonstrates.

How to Get Local Results for FAR LESS Money than LocalAdLink

LocalAdLink’s markets the idea that local results are best for local companies. If you don’t have the ability to go global, we agree. However, LocalAdLink is not a good choice. As we mentioned above, Google offers Local Results for free. LocalAdLink cannot and will never be able to supercede Google’s local results. Consider the search below:

Not only are we the first result in the “Top Ten” local business results, we are the first organic position.

Consider another result. Dunckel Veterinarian Hospital currently has a page through LocalAdLink. When searching for their site “veterinarian Davison Michigan”, we do not find LocalAdLink ANYWHERE! ¹

So, with all of the hype and marketing pitches of LocalAdLink, this veterinary hospital is doing well on its own…without the help of LocalAdLink.

We are professional search engine experts. Let us help you “cut through” the LocalAdLink hype and get you real results!

I Can Rank You #1 in Google for "Leprechaun Freckles!!!!"

Website designers often find that they rank well for various words and phrases in Google and the other search engines. Unfortunately, this gives typical website designers a false assurance in their abilities. They think they are able to rank websites for all kinds of important terms. I have seen website designers promise their clients that they could rank for competitive real estate, industrial, financial, legal and medical terms. I have clients that have suffered from these unrealistic expectations promised by their web people.

The problem is it only takes a title on a web page and some terms in the content to rank for many words and phrases. It that is all that is done, 99.99999% of these phrases are worthless. Leprechaun Freckles is a worthless phrase. It does not bring ANY traffic. No one searches for "leprechaun freckles." There is no competition for the term.

We do not want you to rank for terms that will not bring a lot of relevant traffic. We will research with you to find the best terms according to your niches. Our clients are educated and know how to build businesses through the search engines.

The next time you hear a website developer tell you that they rank people on the first page of Google, ask them "For what terms and do those terms bring traffic?" Anyone can rank for "Leprechaun Freckles!"

Adding a file to your posts and pages with LiveWriter is rather simple after you add a “Plug-in” to LiveWriter. Here are the instructions for adding the plugin and adding files after you properly install the plugin.

Installing the Plugin to Add Files

Click on the “Add a Plug-in…” icon on the bottom right of your screen.

After clicking on the icon, you will be taken to a web page. Scroll down the page to find the plugin called “Insert File(s).” Click “download”

Follow the instructions to install.

After installing, you should close LiveWriter and open.

After opening LiveWriter, Maximize the LiveWriter window.

You will see the new icon called “Insert File(s)…”

Using the Plugin to Add Files

Click the “Insert File(s)…” link and a dialogue box will open.

Click the “…” to navigate to the file on your harddrive.

Add text in the “Text to appear as link:” field.

Hit “Insert” and you are finished.

Well…I did everything and my file did not upload

The issue may be related to how your blog was set up. If the file did not upload, do this:

1) Select the “My Blog uses FTP” as well.

2) If that does not work, contact your webmaster and ask for instructions on how to configure the FTP settings.

Passwords, usernames, Aargh! Like most people, over the years I used one username and one password for everything. Now, that is impossible. Some sites want a capital letter, number and a symbol in the password. The password must be between 6-12 characters… so on and so forth! It is a nightmare!

I manage over 100 websites. For each site, I may have two different login identities. That is a ton of usernames and passwords! I tried RoboForm and found this tool to be invaluable! It is a critical tool I use multiple times daily. Here’s the goods…

1. When I installed Roboform, it automatically gathered all of the usernames and passwords stored in my browsers. I forgot I had created identities on certain sites! In fact, Roboform reminded me of some great sites!
2. With Roboform, all you simply do is click on a favorites-styled toolbar, navigate to your favorite and click. Roboform automatically takes you to the webpage, enters your login information and submits within a second or two! This saves time!!!
3. Are you still living in 1997 and want a printed list of all your logins? Roboform has a one-click function that prints an alphabetically organized list of your passwords.
4. “What if someone steals my laptop?!” God forbid. It happens. Roboform has a feature that asks for your overall password so no one can access your information.

The cost for Roboform is negligible when it comes to a software tool. It costs only $29.95. It comes with free lifetime updates!

To get a free, fully-working trial of Roboform, click the banner below.

Robot Friendly? What is a robot and why should I make my website friendly to him?

Robots (also called spiders) are programs developed by Google and other search engine companies which visit your website daily and gather information from your site. These are welcome guests and must have access to your site if you want to appear well in the search engines.

Not all websites are robot-friendly. How is that? The worst websites are those which do not have any content at all. They may appear to have content (in images), but there is no actual text on the page. Some of these websites are nicely designed and have text in the graphics. However, robots are not human and cannot read text in graphics. See this nicely designed site. It only has text in the pictures. If you were a robot, you would see nothing! That is unfortunate.

We have clients that used to have websites such as these. They paid good money for a nicely designed site, only to have it never do anything in the search engines. We are able to take sites like the one above and maintain the design, yet give the robots some content that they can read.

What about Content?

Your first page is most important. If you prevent robots from getting to the content on your first page or your first page has content, but the menu is all images, you are asking for trouble.

First, is your site made in such a way that your main content is not on the first page? Have you heard of a “splash” page? It is either a graphic animation or timed initial page that lacks in content. Here is an example of a site with a splash page. Notice that after 5 seconds, the initial page goes to the most content-oriented page. While this is not the worst example, it is not good. The robots do not wait 5 seconds. They will either travel through the links on the first page or bounce right off the site. The only thing salvaging this site is that they have a link to the home page on their splash page.

Second, I find home pages with decent content. However, the links to internal pages are all graphics or complicated scripts. Robots cannot follow graphics and still stumble through the scripts. Here is a website that virtually blocks the robots from crawling into the internal pages. These things are not always noticeable to those who do not know coding. However, a webmaster should be able to identify them. In this particular example. The look can remain exactly the same if they just used some robot-friendly coding for their links.

Third, do you have a lot of content on your site? Many people do not like to see content on their site. Many people devour the content and will read through it all. From the statistics/analytics that I have seen, most people spend at least 3-4 minutes reading through the material. Do not be afraid of content. It is the ONLY way you will get good rankings and tons of traffic. One of my favorite examples of a site which has tons of traffic and is one of the most prominent dating sites is www.match.com. When you go to their site, you will see primarily graphics. Scroll down the page. Notice the content? This is huge!

Let’s visit another highly competitive website, www.myweddingfavors.com. Scroll down their page. Look at all of the links to all of the internal pages. This site is HUGE on content.

Content is for your visitors first, robots second!

Let’s face it, robots do not purchase your products. They simply crawl your content. The more content you have, the more traffic you will gain. Give the robots plenty of content. However, when you write your content, do so in a way that it sells your product or gives your visitors the information they seek. So, when you have content on your site, think about your visitors then the robots.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) does not need to be complicated. Here is an Interview with my 11 year old daughter.

This week (September 2, 2008), Google released Google Chrome. It is a new browser that will compete with Internet Explorer, FireFox and Safari. Here is a quick overview of what I think about Chrome.

• As a website developer, I have to use Chrome to see if websites look and function the same.
• As an internet surfer, I love to use Chrome from the standpoint of its speed and clean interface.
• As a search engine professional, I cannot use Chrome. It is brand new (of this posting) and still lacks some valuable plug-ins and tools. I am sure that many will adapt FireFox’s plugins to adapt with Chrome.

Click Here to Get Google Chrome

Why I already love Chrome.

• Speed: Even with a 5mb broadband connection, the loading speed of webpages is significantly faster than Internet Explorer and FireFox. In fact, it is blazingly fast! I tried to install Safari on two of my PCs, but I cannot get it to run, so I cannot compare the speed with Safari.
• Forms: The boxes on forms are highlighted in a yellow/orange that makes it easy to see where I am at when completing forms.
• Spell Checking: While Chrome highlights misspelled words (unlike IE), it does not give suggestions.
• Tabbing: IE7 and FireFox have great tabbing systems which allow you to open multiple windows. Chrome improves on this and allows you to drag an open tab down to have it as its own stand alone window. This will come in handy when you have to view two different sites at the same time. You don’t have to open Chrome again. Just click and drag a tab.
• Browser Crashing: If your browser crashes, Chrome keeps in memory your last open pages when you restart.
• Hyperlinks: When you hover over a hyperlink, a cool status bar fades in on the bottom of your browser showing you exactly where the link is taking you. This fades in and out when you hover. This is an improvement over FireFox.
• Find: This is also an improvement. The field requires far less mouse movement. The find field shows up in the upper right corner of your screen (not the bottom left as in FireFox). The find feature also shows how many times the query appears on the page and on which particular instance you are on currently. When I search in FireFox, I find myself hitting “next” and not realizing right away that I already found that particular instance.
• Memory Management: Do you notice your browser getting sluggish? Perhaps you have opened a window that requires too many resources. You can simply “right click” over a tab and see the task manager.
• Generous Font Size in URL: I like the larger pixel size in the browser field.

Why it will take me some time to really love Chrome

• Tools and Plugins: As noted above, since Chrome is so new, the currrent tools and plugins I use with FireFox are not available in Chrome.
• Spell Checking: As noted above, does not give the corrections, it only shows misspellings.
• Importing Bookmarks: I imported my bookmarks from FireFox during the installation of Chrome. They did not transfer over
• Multiple Search Engines: IE7 and FireFox have multiple search engines quickly accessible in field on the upper right hand of their browser. Chrome only allows you to set up one search engine at a time.
• NO RSS FEED INDICATOR: Now, come on Google! Get it together! Where is it? How can I tell if a website has a RSS feed? This is probably the most notorious blunder of all.

Below is a video on Google Chrome