I hear it all the time.. “I can’t get my web page images to look like they suppose to”.

Its a common problem with “newby” web masters.

They design a great looking page in Microsoft Frontpage, and they do a preview and everything looks just great. They then publish the page to their website, either using Frontpages’s publish option or via a FTP tool such as WS_FTP, or CutFTP.

Then, with great expectations they call up the page in their favourite web browser ,and they are immediately disappointed.

The images don’t display, they just show up either as a grey-bordered rectangle or as a small red “X” in a box..

What could have gone wrong ?

Everyone who makes websites, has made this mistake when they first start out.

The answer is very simple.

The problem is that the image they linked to in MS FrontPage (on their desktop) reference, resides in a different directory to where it lives on the server.

On the PC, they may have accessed an images that lives in c:\work\myimages\small-pictures\, and so the path to that image in web pages says exactly that.. The trouble is.. “c:\work\myimages\small-pictures\” is not a valid directory on the server..

The easiest solution is :
On the PC, first collect all images you want to use, and place them in the same directory as the web pages you are working on resides.
Then link to those images in that local directory.

Now when you copy the files (web page and images) up to your website, you images will show up on your web pages.

When was the last time you took a long critical look at your business card?

I’d bet you haven’t really thought about it since you initially got them printed.

Let’s stop for just a moment and ask, what is the point of your business card? Is it to simply fill the wallets of prospective clients, or is it something that should be driving more sales to your business?

I bet you answered in the latter. So what should your business card look like then?

A few of the essential things it must contain:
1. What your company can do for the customer
2. What you personally do, if it’s not obvious from the business description
3. Your name,
4. Your best contact number (don’t use a switchboard number, use your direct number and show your cell-phone number)
5. Your company’s name

I have listed the criteria for the business card in a particular order. Do you notice something strange? I have put the company’s name last!

Your business card should be a “mini” sales letter for your business.

The card should have an attention grabbing headline that will attract prospects like a magnet.

Imagine if you where a plumber, your headline could read something like
“Need a plumber; we are only 8 minutes away!”

Don’t you think it would grab someone’s attention, especially if they desperately needed a plumber and were frantically looking around for your card, while standing knee deep in water from a leaking toilet.

The last thing they want to do is try and remember what your company name is, so they can call you.

Make sure you include a proper working telephone number, its amazing the number of cards I have received, that have a disconnected number on it.

Include your cell-phone’s number as well. Its will make getting hold of you even easier.

Include your company name last… It’s the least important thing on your card.
Just remember the old marketing saying “No-one is interested in your business, they are only interested in what you can do for them”

So think about turning your business card into a sales magnet…

Maybe its time for a re-think and possibly a redesign of your existing business card.

Remember, it should be your ‘mini’ salesman in a client’s wallet.

You want the card to keep reminding the client every time they see it, with what you do and what you can do for them.

Registering a domain name is seen by many newcomers to the web as a really complicated, highly technical task that the average mortal cannot do.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

You only need to bits of information on hand when you register your domain name:

- What you are going to call this domain

- and your web hosting DNS values, these are give to you by your hosting company and look something like:
NS1.WEBSITEWELCOM.COM and
NS2.WEBSITEWELCOME.COM

They are almost always provided to you in pairs.

So first go to a reputable domain name registrar.
I suggest using either www.Better-Domain-Names.com or www.Godaddy.com

These may not be the cheapest registrars currently on the web but their service, and reliability are incredible. I generally work on the principle “You get what you pay for”, and never a truer thing can be said about domain name registrars.

OK, lets walk through the process of registering a domain name:

Using your web browser, visit a domain registrar. Usually on the front page there is a search option to check if the domain name you want is available.

Lets say for example, that you are trying to register a domain name for your Dog Training website.

So you type in dogtraining.com press enter, and it comes back that that domain is already take.
Now, I would suggest that you place prefix and or suffix words to the domain name you are after.
So you could try:

betterdogtraining.com
bestdogtraining.com
dogtrainingnewsletter.com
dogtraininganswers.com

You could also try placing dashes “-” in your domain names to separate words.
Admittedly, there are a group of search engine optimization people who currently believe that the search engines are now starting to penalize sites with ‘dashes” in them.
Another thing, sites that do not contain dashes and do not have any numbers in them, generally seller for a higher price.
So if you think you might sell your domain sometime in the future, then it may be advisable to avoid using both dashes and numbers.

Lets say, that you find dogtraininganswers.com is available.
So you move to the next page. Generally this asks you for the details of the person that is going to be the owner of this domain. Generally this will be your name, address, phone number etc.

Next the system will ask you for how long you want to register your domain for, the minimum period is 1 year and the maximum I have seen is 10 years. Most people go for the 1 year period, only because it costs the least.
On the Better-Domain-names.com screen and the Godaddy.com page, you will see a link that says:
“If hosting your site elsewhere, please click here to set name servers”

Please set your name servers now (using the name server values given to you by your hosting company), otherwise if you have to come back and change the default name servers at a later date. the problem is that it generally takes a long time for the name servers to propagate around the net and you could wait several days for this to happen. But if you set them now, they should propagate within a few minutes, maybe half an hour at the most.

Once you have keyed in *both* name servers values, you then move onto the payment screen where you key in your credit card details.

Here you may see an option called “Auto Renew”. Check this box!
This allows you to renew the domain automatically when its term expires. Any good domain name registrar should send you an multiple emails before the domain is set to expire, and if you take no action on these emails, then the domain will get automatically renewed.
If you don’t set this “Auto renew” option, then system will let the domain lapse and it becomes available for some else to purchase.

Once you press the “submit” button, it will take just a few seconds for that new domain name to be yours.

As most web masters would know, getting links to your website so that you can increase its traffic and web popularity is not an easy task.

There are basically two types of links:
1. Reciprocal Links, and
2. One way links

Reciprocal Links
Reciprocal Links occur when 2 different web-masters agree to exchange links with one another.
It essentially is an agreement where they say to each other, “I’ll give you a link if you’ll give me a link”.
Generaly these type of links are quite easy to acquire.

The most common method of getting these types of links, is to send out hundreds of emails to web-masters that have sites in the same “niche” or “category” as your site, asking if they would be interested in exchanging links.
The success ratio is not high, but it does work.
The problem is that the search engines, in the past few years, have really started to downgrade the value of reciprocal links, and so now more and more web masters are looking for ways to get one way links.

One way links
One way links are a lot harder to acquire, and so the search engines have started to value them much highly.
The best way to acquire one way links are :

1. Writing articles and submitting them to article directories
2. Developing quality content that other web master will want to link to.
3. Submitting your sites to Link Directories.

The first 2 options on the above list are very closely related.
The more unique, topical and easy to read your content is, the more likely you will get other people linking to your website. But other people won’t link to you if they don’t know you exist! This is when writing articles becomes very important, and its is a strategy I strongly suggest you implement.

But a good way to get your sites spidered and indexed faster, is to submitting your site to link directories.

There are literally thousands of link directories out there, some good some bad.
The best list of SEO friendly link directories is can be found at http://info.vilesilencer.com

Simply click on the “Quick Links: Excel Download” link in the tool bar (just below the banner image) and download an Excel spreadsheet of about 350-400 SEO friendly link directories that you can submit your site to.
Once you submit your site to a directory, there is no guarantee that will will approve the listing! A number of sites will simply turn you down becuase of the sheer amount of listing submission they are receiving.

The only way to use this list is to manually submit your site to each and everyone on the list!
This takes a lot of time, and you rapidly get frustrated typing in the same information over and over again.

So, to overcome this problem I have developed a new software application called “Directory Link Submitter”

Directory Link Submitter allows you to rapidly submit your site to over 300 SEO friendly websites.
All you have to to is click on a directory that you would like to submit your site to, then choose an appropriate category for your site.
Find the “Add A Link” button, and then simply hit the submit button, and your site is submitted to the directory.
No retyping in your site details over and over! Its fast and its a lot easier than doing it all manually and I’m offering it at a 50% discount for all subscribers.

Simply pop on round to http://www.DirectoryLinkSubmitter.com/specialoffer/ and check it out..

To your linking success..

Bruce

For anyone to be able to find your website, you are going to need other sites to link to it. A link exchange is where you put a link to another site on your website in exchange for them putting your link to your website on their page. Generally this is easier said then done!

Most people want to know what is in it for them. So if you’ve got a site that has an Alexa ranking of around 1 million, then expect sub 100,000 sites to be interested in a link exchange.

So when starting out, look for similar niched sites as yours and have the same sort of popularity.

Search engines rank sites on how many incoming links you have from other sites. Even if the other sites are not that popular, all the incoming links you get will raise your site’s popularity. Then, the more exchanges you do with more popular your site will become. Yes, this is a slow process, but over time, very effective.

Exchanging links with a poor quality site is not going to do you any good. I also would suggest you manually visit the other site and contact the owner through the site contact page. Don’t go through these link farms or services that get you a million links in a day. They will bury you with the search engines. You have to do this manually and one link at a time. I suggest trying to get at least 1 link a week, but, you don’t want to get more than 10% of the total links to your site through this method. So find other ways of getting incoming links, like through article writing.

Link exchanges aren’t going to get you tons of traffic overnight. This is a day to day process. But, if you keep at it, over time, you will start to notice a decent increase in traffic.

Try my very own Directory Link Submitter program to get links t your website.

Just come across this blog post on merchantos.com showing how to find old, abandoned authority websits that you could possible buy for a song.

The idea is good.

Search a DMOZ category and find all sites that have not been updated for quite some time.

Then get the WHOIS info for the site and contact the owner and offer to buy it off them..

A great idea, check out the posting at : http://www.merchantos.com/makebeta/tools/sitefinder301/

One of my side projects I’ve been working on for almost 11 months now is the concept of business directories.

Here you create a directory listing all business within a niche (say fishing clubs) in a particular geographic region.

You then target these companies using offline methods and charge them either a recurring monthly fee or yearly fee to have their business listed in your directory.

Lets say you setup a directory for scrapbookers, and doing research you find their are 500 companies in a particluar area related either directly or in-directly to the craft of scrap booking.

You managed to convince 100 of them to advertise in your site for just $100 a year (an absolute pittance, as that is less than $10 per month).

Now lets do the numbers..

100 companies each paying $100 per year = $10,000 per year!! Not bad hey!

Now lets imagine we got 200 of them involved, and becuase we are give them tons of bonuses (most offline businesses have never experienced the concept of bonuses before) you manage to chareg $500 a year. Thats still just over $40 a month!

Now lets do the maths again.

200 companies x $500 per year = $100,000 per year from one website.

So how many of these $100k website do you want!!

Check out SiteByTonight and start making it happen.

IS YOUR NICHE WORTH GOING AFTER?

So you have a list of interests, and and you’ve narrowed it down to a very specific keyword phrase.

You now have your keyword phrase. Guess what?This doesn’t necessarily mean this is what you’re going to be focusing on for your business.Huh? Did I hear that right?

Yes, you heard that right. See, just because you have an interest in something, doesn’t mean other people are going to have an interest in it. And even if they do, if you’re going to go up against a million other sites promoting the same niche, you are going to have one heck of a tough time getting your piece of the pie. This is why I advise people to stay AWAY from Internet marketing. Why? It’s a jungle. Yes, you can make it work. I did. But why beat your brains against a stone wall when you can find something that is more like hitting a pillow.

So let’s take my own choice of health. I decided to go with the more narrowed keyword phrase “Alternative Treatments For Acne.”

Great, now what?

Well, let’s see what our demand and competition is.

How do we do this?

Well, the competition is easy. Just go to Google and type in, with the quotes YOUR keyword phrase. I’ll type in mine.

I get 37,000 sites coming up with that keyword phrase. Okay, not too bad.

Now, let’s see how many monthly searches we get.

To do this, go to a keyword suggestion tool and type in the same phrase.

I use many. Here’s one of them, its called NicheBot

http://www.hearder.com/keywords

It’s one of the easiest tool to use.

Now, type in your keyword phrase, again with the quotes, and see how many monthly searches you get.

In my case, not too good. My original phrase only got 2 monthly searches. And even the best word in my list, “Acne” only got 1688 monthly searches and it’s not very targeted. What I mean by targeted is this.

Does everybody who types in acne into a search engine want an alternative treatment? Some may simply be looking up what causes it. That’s why you want your target phrase to be as specific as possible.

So let’s see what we have.

1688 searches for a non targeted phrase and over 37,000 sites to go up against. I don’t know about you but I don’t like those odds. Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t pursue this, but if you do, I just want you to understand what you’re going to be up against. It will be an uphill battle.

Ideally, you want to find a keyword phrase where you have about 1000 - 2000 competing sites and about 5,000 to 10,000 searches a month. Believe it or not, these ratios exist. They’re not easy to find but they do exist. And when you latch onto a niche with very little competition and a good number of monthly searches, you’ve basically found yourself a goldmine. The key is cashing in on it.

Just keep repeating the above process until you find a niche that you are happy with. It may take some time, but it’s time well spent.

Every day I get asked about getting my websites to rank better but also asked about getting more traffic to your site.

There’s no point in having a website that has the best sales letter, 7 part mini-course, built in affiliate program and what-nots if the the site doesn’t get enough traffic.

If you have traffic, you can sell just about anything you want.. Traffic is king!

Things to make sure your website has to make it rank high in the search engines :

1. A keyword optimized title. Find your niches hottest keyword and make it the title of your site.

2. If possible use the keyword in your domain name

3. make sure you have a killer website description. It should be a “mini” headline for your site. Someone will read it on the search engine and should be moived to click on your link and come visit your site.

4. make sure you have a keyword description tag. NOTE: Don’t use more than 10-12 keywords and the keywords MUST appear on your page. Don’t go into keyword stuffing, its a “red flag’ for search engines!!

5. Make sure your site has lots of links coming into it.. I mean LOTS!!!  Don’t get too hung up on the whole link relevance myth. Just lots of links from other ranked webpages will give your site a tremendous bost.

6. make sure that at least your top 5 keywords (based on keyword research, not what you think your customers search for) appear on your website . Otherwise you will never get anywhere.

Keep doing the above 6 steps and you will be well and truely on your way to better search engine traffic..

Till next time..

Bruce