Need a web site? What kind? How big? What do you want to do with it? These are some of the questions you should consider and research before even setting a web site up. We'll give you a few tips here to help you make a more informed choice.
What's In a Domain Name and How Important Are They To You?
A domain name is a web site address and can be used only once. They are usually made up of words or letters so they are easier to remember and can be more relevant to a person or business. Extensions are the codes at the end of a domain name. The extensions signify which country the domain name belongs to, i.e., .ws belongs to Samoa and .us belongs to the United States.
Getting just the right domain name may be important to you if you need recognition for a product, service, event or your own name. In this case, you may want a web site name with a .ws extension, because you may more likely find just the name you're looking for. Dot com and dot net still have some names available, but many of them have been used up after the dot com boom of the late 1990's.
Domain names can also be more important to you if you want a domain name that relates to something you know is being searched for on the Internet and if you want to be found when people are searching for that name or keyword. Some of the larger search engines like MSN and Google still give a higher ranking faster to a web site that has the keyword being searched for - in the web site or domain name address. If a this is important to you, it might be a good idea to find out what is being searched for on the Internet that relates to the domain name you have in mind before you choose one.
Handy keyword tools that can help you do this can be found at http://inventory.overture.com and http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com . Just put a word or phrase related to the domain name you have in mind into the search box window. They will search all the related terms that were searched for last month on the Internet, and tell you how many times they were searched for. These tools can also identify related keywords you can use for your web site title and on your web site pages that will help you achieve higher rankings in the Internet search engines for those keywords, but this is a whole other topic reserved for a later discussion.
Think About How You Want To Use Your Web Site...
What would you do with a web site? Teach? Show and tell? Make money? Build an email list? Have fun? There are so many options on the Internet today, that it could be mind boggling to a newbie. Doing a little research on the Internet before setting a web site up is a very good idea. It will help you become familiar with all the different web site options and features available so you can make a better choice before you get started.
Some of the things you'll need to consider before setting up a web site are:
Q: What do you want the web site to accomplish?
A: Teach? Show and tell? Make money? Build an email list? Have fun?
Q: How many pages will you need - 3, 5, 10 or more pages?
A: Some web sites limit the number of pages or bandwidth available.
Q: How much should you pay per month?
A: This can vary from usually $3.95 to $100 or more, depending on available features.
Q: What is disk space?
A: How much space is available for your web site words, pictures, reviews, etc.
Q: What is bandwidth?
A: How many times and how many people can access your site during a period.
Q: What is down time?
A: How reliable is the server that your web site is on?
Q: What is security and do you need it?
A: Yes. Protection from hackers. Secure service available for your customers.
Does Size Really Matter?
As you can see, there are many things to consider before setting up a web site, but making the right choices up front can save you much time, effort and headache in the long run. If you set up a web site on a server that only allows 5 pages of space, and you find you need more down the road, you would need to move your web site and domain name to a new server, which could be quite involved. It may be easier for you to make a better choice up front if you have all the options available to you ahead of time. A suggestion would be to type into your search box window top 10 hosting or best hosting to get more information to help you make the right choice before setting up a web site.
Bottom line, investigate your options and be prepared. Size really does matter.
About the Author
Global Domains International is an online business opportunity that offers many unique features, including making the sales for you. You may read an in-depth article and learn more by going to http://globaldomainsint.ws . DMarie Holtz, the author, has a B.S. in business and 10 years experience marketing online.
Showing posts with label Keywords. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Keywords. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Bid Directories: An Exciting New Way to Buy Text Links
Bid-for-position web directories, or simply "bid directories", are an exciting new way to buy text links. As the name suggests these directories allow site owners and visitors to bid for a higher position in the listings. Traditional web directories, by contrast, list links by some predetermined criterion, such as alphabetical order, Google PageRank, listing date, and so on. Bid directories allow people not only to bid for a top position but also to increase their bids as needed to maintain the position.
Why buy text links? A site without links is like a business in the middle of nowhere. Links are the electronic roads that connects your site with the rest of the world. If "location, location, location" is the mantra for a building a successful brick-and-mortar business, then "links, links, links" should be one for a successful website. Besides being a source for direct traffic, text links help drive traffic to a site indirectly by increasing a site's rankings in search engine results.
Although natural links, i.e. links placed voluntarily by other webmasters to your site, are preferable to purchased ones, it may not be practical to rely on natural links alone, especially for a commercial site that competes with countless others offering similar products and services. Unless your site is truly unique and useful to people, a category to which most sites do not belong, buying links may be your best option to increase your link popularity.
The rules for buying text links on bid directories are similar to those on other sites. Simply put, you should buy links in a way that simulates natural linking. Your link profile looks more natural when your inbound links come from directories with a range of Google PageRanks (PR). Although there is natural tendency to target only high-PR directories, a link on a promising new bid directory, which may or may not have a PageRank, can be a good investment down the line. Besides, PR means nothing to other search engines, including Yahoo!, MSN, and AOL.
Perhaps the most important factor for deciding whether or not to buy a link on a certain bid directory is how aggressively it is marketed. The first question to ask is, how many other sites link to the directory in question? But marketing goes beyond the sheer number of inbound links. The next question to ask is, where are the links are coming from? You can get an idea of a site's link profile by querying "link:www.domainofinterest.com" (without the quotes) on Yahoo!. While inbound links from competing bid directories is certainly one way to build links to the directory, it should not be the only way. The directory's links look more natural when they come from diverse sources, including article directories, social bookmarking sites, blogs, and forums.
The Google PageRank of a directory is often a good indicator of how aggressively it is marketed, but PR could also be one of deception. For instance, an unscrupulous webmaster might replace the content of an existing PR-7 site with a potentially more lucrative bid directory and market it as a "PR-7 bid directory". A tell-tale sign that this has occurred is when the domain name of the directory has nothing to do with web directories or search engines. Another good sign is when its category subpages are PR-0 or do not have PRs at all. That is not even to mention the many ways bogus PRs might be obtained.
Most bid directories are made from commercially available scripts customized to the siteowners' tastes. The level of customization is indicative of the directory owner's effort to stand out from the crowd and often their commitment to do whatever it takes to make their site succeed. So, all else being equal, it's better to go with a bid directory with a highly customized design than one that looks like a hundred others.
Many bid directories categorize links alphabetically by the first letters of their titles, as a telephone book lists people's names. These directories are not particularly useful to visitors looking for sites on a particular topic, say gardening. Visitors should not have to click on every letter from A through Z to find sites pertaining to gardening. Considerable time would be saved if the sites were categorized by topic, e.g. "Home and Garden", rather than the first letter of their titles. More importantly, links that are grouped with others of similar content are viewed as more relevant by the search engines than those grouped with unrelated sites. As an advertiser, you'll get more for your money from a directory that sifts sites into topical categories than one that uses alphabetical categories-- all else being equal.
Let me end this article with a word of caution. While bid directories should be a part of your link building campaign, don't put all your eggs in one basket by relying too heavily on them. There is a bit of a novelty factor in bid directories, and no one knows whether they will set a new trend in advertising or eventually die down as another fad.
Oudam is the webmaster of www.Top15Links.com, a bid-for-position web directory that allow site owners and visitors to bid for one of the top 15 position in each category. The top 15 links of all categories are prominently displayed on the home page. Top15Links.com employs a winning marketing strategy that puts 80% of link revenues back into promoting the site.
Oudam Em
Oudam is the publisher of http://BusinessCurrents.net, a free online article directory providing quality re-printable content.
Why buy text links? A site without links is like a business in the middle of nowhere. Links are the electronic roads that connects your site with the rest of the world. If "location, location, location" is the mantra for a building a successful brick-and-mortar business, then "links, links, links" should be one for a successful website. Besides being a source for direct traffic, text links help drive traffic to a site indirectly by increasing a site's rankings in search engine results.
Although natural links, i.e. links placed voluntarily by other webmasters to your site, are preferable to purchased ones, it may not be practical to rely on natural links alone, especially for a commercial site that competes with countless others offering similar products and services. Unless your site is truly unique and useful to people, a category to which most sites do not belong, buying links may be your best option to increase your link popularity.
The rules for buying text links on bid directories are similar to those on other sites. Simply put, you should buy links in a way that simulates natural linking. Your link profile looks more natural when your inbound links come from directories with a range of Google PageRanks (PR). Although there is natural tendency to target only high-PR directories, a link on a promising new bid directory, which may or may not have a PageRank, can be a good investment down the line. Besides, PR means nothing to other search engines, including Yahoo!, MSN, and AOL.
Perhaps the most important factor for deciding whether or not to buy a link on a certain bid directory is how aggressively it is marketed. The first question to ask is, how many other sites link to the directory in question? But marketing goes beyond the sheer number of inbound links. The next question to ask is, where are the links are coming from? You can get an idea of a site's link profile by querying "link:www.domainofinterest.com" (without the quotes) on Yahoo!. While inbound links from competing bid directories is certainly one way to build links to the directory, it should not be the only way. The directory's links look more natural when they come from diverse sources, including article directories, social bookmarking sites, blogs, and forums.
The Google PageRank of a directory is often a good indicator of how aggressively it is marketed, but PR could also be one of deception. For instance, an unscrupulous webmaster might replace the content of an existing PR-7 site with a potentially more lucrative bid directory and market it as a "PR-7 bid directory". A tell-tale sign that this has occurred is when the domain name of the directory has nothing to do with web directories or search engines. Another good sign is when its category subpages are PR-0 or do not have PRs at all. That is not even to mention the many ways bogus PRs might be obtained.
Most bid directories are made from commercially available scripts customized to the siteowners' tastes. The level of customization is indicative of the directory owner's effort to stand out from the crowd and often their commitment to do whatever it takes to make their site succeed. So, all else being equal, it's better to go with a bid directory with a highly customized design than one that looks like a hundred others.
Many bid directories categorize links alphabetically by the first letters of their titles, as a telephone book lists people's names. These directories are not particularly useful to visitors looking for sites on a particular topic, say gardening. Visitors should not have to click on every letter from A through Z to find sites pertaining to gardening. Considerable time would be saved if the sites were categorized by topic, e.g. "Home and Garden", rather than the first letter of their titles. More importantly, links that are grouped with others of similar content are viewed as more relevant by the search engines than those grouped with unrelated sites. As an advertiser, you'll get more for your money from a directory that sifts sites into topical categories than one that uses alphabetical categories-- all else being equal.
Let me end this article with a word of caution. While bid directories should be a part of your link building campaign, don't put all your eggs in one basket by relying too heavily on them. There is a bit of a novelty factor in bid directories, and no one knows whether they will set a new trend in advertising or eventually die down as another fad.
Oudam is the webmaster of www.Top15Links.com, a bid-for-position web directory that allow site owners and visitors to bid for one of the top 15 position in each category. The top 15 links of all categories are prominently displayed on the home page. Top15Links.com employs a winning marketing strategy that puts 80% of link revenues back into promoting the site.
Oudam Em
Oudam is the publisher of http://BusinessCurrents.net, a free online article directory providing quality re-printable content.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Picking Great Keywords
To all those using Google AdWords to promote their products the concept of keywords is a sacred one. The effectiveness of their keywords in attracting business is often the deciding factor between success and failure.
An unsuccessful AdWords campaign can lead to hundreds of dollars in wasted advertising as their ads fail to draw in productive leads but still generate plenty of idle interest among the portion of internet browsers with little else to do but browse through the "Sponsored Ads" to see what there is to see.
What they don't know is that luck really has nothing to do with it and neither does careful research, in finding profitable keywords.
Yes, a quick glance at a search engine's database will show the keywords which generated the most business over an established period of time; however, these keywords are going to generate hundreds of pages of results due to their popularity and internet browsers are not going to look beyond the first five to ten. That means that anything on the remaining ninety pages is going to go unviewed.
It is evident that an ad must be among the first pages to be assured of some kind of success. What does that have to do with keywords? To be assured of their ads showing up on the first 5 or 10 pages, those very prime spots, a marketer will have to have one of the higher bids on that keyword.
That means that they are going to need to pay more for each time their advertisement is clicked than the people on the other ninety-nine pages if they wish for their ad to appear on the first page.
This may not seem like much, but when one takes the time to consider the fact that the advertiser is going to have to pay that sum each and every time that the ad is clicked, whether it generates a sale or not, the potential for lost advertising dollars is tremendous. Therefore, each ad is going to have to be as effective as possible in order to justify the amount of money being spent on it.
For each ad to be successful it is important that the keyword be as successful as possible.
An optimal keyword should be narrow enough so that it can narrow the field down (like "little league football" rather than "football") but you also want it to be broad enough that someone would actually search for it.
Anyone having difficulty selecting keywords for their advertisements can use any one of the vast array of tools available through Google's AdWords site, www.adwords.google.com.
By: Kirt Christensen
Kirt Christensen's dynamic flair in AdWords Management as he managed over $612,000 of annual ppc advertising for clients, has them raving about him! managemypayperclick.com
An unsuccessful AdWords campaign can lead to hundreds of dollars in wasted advertising as their ads fail to draw in productive leads but still generate plenty of idle interest among the portion of internet browsers with little else to do but browse through the "Sponsored Ads" to see what there is to see.
What they don't know is that luck really has nothing to do with it and neither does careful research, in finding profitable keywords.
Yes, a quick glance at a search engine's database will show the keywords which generated the most business over an established period of time; however, these keywords are going to generate hundreds of pages of results due to their popularity and internet browsers are not going to look beyond the first five to ten. That means that anything on the remaining ninety pages is going to go unviewed.
It is evident that an ad must be among the first pages to be assured of some kind of success. What does that have to do with keywords? To be assured of their ads showing up on the first 5 or 10 pages, those very prime spots, a marketer will have to have one of the higher bids on that keyword.
That means that they are going to need to pay more for each time their advertisement is clicked than the people on the other ninety-nine pages if they wish for their ad to appear on the first page.
This may not seem like much, but when one takes the time to consider the fact that the advertiser is going to have to pay that sum each and every time that the ad is clicked, whether it generates a sale or not, the potential for lost advertising dollars is tremendous. Therefore, each ad is going to have to be as effective as possible in order to justify the amount of money being spent on it.
For each ad to be successful it is important that the keyword be as successful as possible.
An optimal keyword should be narrow enough so that it can narrow the field down (like "little league football" rather than "football") but you also want it to be broad enough that someone would actually search for it.
Anyone having difficulty selecting keywords for their advertisements can use any one of the vast array of tools available through Google's AdWords site, www.adwords.google.com.
By: Kirt Christensen
Kirt Christensen's dynamic flair in AdWords Management as he managed over $612,000 of annual ppc advertising for clients, has them raving about him! managemypayperclick.com
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