Exchange links

When you look for people to swap links with, make sure that you don’t reduce the quality or content of your own site. You don’t want users to click straight through without reading your content; you want them to take action on your own site rather than have them leave empty handed.

One way to stop them from running away too quickly is to create a “Webmasters Resource Page” and link to that page from your homepage. This doesn’t take away from the content on your homepage and the links are just one click away rather than being buried deep within the site, giving value to your partners.

In any case, you want to be sure that your site is more than just a page full of links. If your site contains more links than content, it will look like a link farm and it will certainly not be attractive to webmasters, search engines or users.

Picking your partner

Your link partners should be sites your target market will visit. Think about your product and its subject area and brainstorm to determine where people interested in your product might be looking online.

For example, if you’re trying to shift your book about blackjack strategy, it makes sense that the people visiting online casinos would make great customers. Online casinos then could be good partners. Identify top-ranked, high quality casino sites and find the email address, telephone number and snail mail address of their webmasters.

You can also identify your competitors and see where they trade links. After all why reinvent the wheel when you can use your competitors hard work!

Seven Top Tips For Requesting reciprocal Links…

1. Before you contact webmasters, place a link to their site on your resource page to assure them that you will actually provide a quality link.

2. Create a subject line that will encourage them to read your message rather than deleting it - you don’t want them to think you’re spamming them. (Something about their site or product is sure to capture their attention; they will open it, thinking you’re a potential customer.) Hint - subscribe to their ezine and then reply using the ezine subject line as the subject of your reply.

3. Begin your message by talking about your visit to their site and what you found interesting about it. Detail your product or service in one line and ask them to exchange links with you.

4. Tell them in detail where you have placed their link, include the precise URL, tell them where to find their link on the page and emphasize that it is only one click away from your homepage.

5. Tell them that if you don’t hear back from them in a specific number of days, you will consider that to a negative response and that you will remove their link from your site. Give them enough time to respond but don’t leave it open ended.

6. Sending a reciprocal link request by email is becoming less and less effective due to Spam filters and the high volume of email traffic received by webmasters of busy sites. Try sending your request on a postcard or better still make a phone call.

7. Tell the webmaster how they will benefit from the reciprocal linking arrangement - explain what’s in it for them and use your selling and persuasion skills!

Copyright John Taylor PhD August 2005 - All rights reserved.]]>

You just bought yourself a new computer! Can’t wait to get it out of the box. Maybe you have had a computer before and maybe this is your second or third computer. And, you don’t want to have all those problems you hear about. This is the time to think ahead and go for a positive online experience.

You should realize that while you are unpacking your new machine, there are people all over the world who are plotting to spoil your computer with maliscious, well-thought out plans. Your computer will endure attacks moments after you go online. This is why we all have to use antivirus protection. You and I just have no choice. The single most important program on your computer is your anti virus program. And, it should be a really good one. Everything on your computer, from your valuable software, your work, to your personal financial records is contantly at risk. I will explain some of the features you should look for in anti-virus software.

Most of us make our choice on price alone. That is, after we use the product that comes with our computers. This is not the way to choose something so important. You need to look at several products before making your decision.

Look at your available options. Start with the anti virus software that came with your PC. You can get started by getting that software up and running. Don’t try to postpone using anti-virus software. After a period of time, your software needs updated. While you are online, your software should be allowed to make daily updates. It is very important to make the first update as soon as your new computer is online for the first time. It is very likely there have been a lot of new threats and viruses introduced since the computer left the factory. Updating the software is the best way to keep your computer protected against these new online dangers.

As you use the software that came with your new computer, it is a good idea to make a list of what you like – and don’t like – about it. Is it easy to update? Is it user friendly? Is it easy to see any problems? Does the software notify you if the update could not be completed? Are updates made available on a daily basis?

Now, you have a basis for establishing what to look for in anti-virus software. Read all you can online to get even more information. Some anti virus companies make their software available in trial versions, so be sure to check out a number of different products before deciding which one best suits your needs. Some of the best is free, without a trial.

Take some time to get the best protection you can for your computer. And, periodically back up your files. Al little planning can make your computer experience an enjoyable experience.]]>

Since we have up to date anti-virus and firewall software on our computer, we assumed we were safe. Not so! It seems this is not enough to keep away the hackers as the software does not prevent “Spyware” from being installed on your computer.

“Spyware” is software that gets onto your computer and literally “spies” on your activities. The spying can range from relatively harmless use of cookies tracking you across multiple websites… to extremely dangerous “keystroke loggers” which record passwords, credit cards, and other personal data. That data then gets relayed to the person who put the software on your computer.

Spyware gets on your computer in one of several different ways.

First, it rides along with software you download from the ‘Net and install on your system.

Second, they come as email attachments (much like viruses) and automatically install themselves on your computer when you open the email message.

Third, hackers find an open port on your computer and use the “back door” to install basically anything they want.

And fourth, the more malicious types, like keystroke loggers, can even get installed by someone with direct physical access to your computer such as an employer, suspicious spouse, business competitor, or someone who wants to know exactly what you’re doing.

So how do you protect yourself against these malicious hackers? You need a program that specifically scans your system for the tens-of-thousands of existing spyware programs along with the new ones appearing daily.

Below are two programs which specifically check for and remove spyware from your system:

“Spybot Search & Destroy” - http://www.safer-networking.org
“Ad Aware” - http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

You may have spyware lurking on your computer right now so protect yourself today by downloading one of the above programs!

As a point of reference, we contacted E-gold and informed them that we had been hacked. We provided them with the account number of the person who received the funds and asked for a contact e-mail address on the person. E-gold informed us that they could not provide that information without a “court order” and that basically there was no way of getting the money back!

Take action today to protect yourself from this growing threat! The bottom line is: - Keep your anti-virus program current

- Install a firewall
- Carefully screen software before installing it
- Scan specifically for spyware weekly
- Stay current on this growing threat.]]>

“I had two boxes full of [applications] that I sent out,” Melson said. Her hard work paid off. This fall, Melson will enter her freshman year at Florida A&M University with three scholarships totaling $80,000.

With rising college costs, more students are turning to scholarships to supplement their financial aid package. Scholarships are frequently offered by sources such as companies and organizations. In addition, many colleges and universities offer awards exclusively for their students.

Where to Find Scholarships

Like Melson, many students take advantage of free online scholarship databases such as FastWeb.com, the largest scholarship search site on the Internet. Web sites like these match students’ profiles to various scholarships for which they may be eligible.

“It’s a very efficient way to look for aid,” said Patti Cohen, vice president of the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation. “Scholarship search sites have a staff that is always updating the scholarships. We always encourage students to look online for scholarships.”

Keep in mind that students shouldn’t ever have to pay for a scholarship service. The best and most legitimate scholarship databases are free and available on the Web.

Scholarships can also be as close as city hall. Many community and civic organizations offer college scholarships for students, as do local firefighter and police departments. And don’t forget about cultural institutions, which frequently offer grants to talented aspiring artists.

Eligibility

A widespread myth about scholarships holds that only students with high grades will win. In fact, many of the best scholarship programs are designed for students with talents and interests in fields as diverse as music, community service, science and writing, to name just a few. Frequently, these programs are entirely “grade blind” or use a grade point average strictly as a preliminary cutoff point — say, a 2.0 minimum GPA.

“We don’t heavily weigh GPA, test scores or other quantitative measures of a student’s ability,” said Dr. Carrie Besnette, program director of the Daniel’s Fund scholarship. “We look past that, at a student’s background, whether they’ve worked . . . and other factors to determine a student’s persistence.”

The key to finding scholarships is to think broadly. What is the student’s college major or field of interest? What are his or her career goals? Is he or she involved in any extracurricular activities, student organizations or volunteer work?

“I [was] enrolled in honors classes, but I knew that there were kids who were going to have higher GPAs than me,” Melson said. “So in every application, I stressed my main goal, which is to give back to my community.”

In addition, a student’s state of residence can open up a number of scholarships. Many state governments offer financial assistance to in-state students, and some scholarships are specific to certain counties or cities.

But don’t stop there. Scholarship seekers should also take inventory of their parents’ background and affiliations. Many companies offer scholarships for the children of employees, as do the military and organizations such as the Elks Association.

Applying for Scholarships

Some students make the mistake of thinking that they maximize their chances of winning by pouring all their energy into one or two scholarships. Applying for scholarships is partially a numbers game — the more you apply for, the better your odds of winning.

No scholarship is too small. Even a couple hundred dollars can help cover costs like books for a term, a month’s phone bill or that spring break “research” trip to Cancun. In addition, winning smaller awards can enhance a student’s application for a larger scholarship prize.

“You have a better chance to receive a smaller award, and all that money adds up,” Melson said. “If you win a smaller scholarship, use that money to pay for room and board.”

While every scholarship has its own application process, students can save time by gathering materials that are required by many scholarship providers: financial information, including family income and tax forms; SAT or ACT scores; a portfolio of work samples (typically needed for “artistic” scholarships); and a resume with the student’s academic background, extracurricular activities, and work or internship experience (if any).

It’s never too early or late to start a scholarship search. Some organizations award college scholarships as early as junior high school, while others target graduate students or adult returning students.

So don’t be discouraged by the price tag on your dream school. You just might be eligible for a scholarship that can help you foot the bill.

“Scholarships are free money,” Melson said. “There’s money out there for everything, but you have to apply. You have nothing to lose but the cost of a stamp.”

FastWeb is the largest scholarship database site on the Internet. For more information or to sign up, visit www.fastweb.com.

Courtesy of ARA Content]]>

Laptop, and all of a sudden the strangest thing happens.
The screen goes black, extinquished like a candle in the
wind.

A message appears saying: “The file hal.dll is missing or
corrupt. Windows can not start.” Well you know that 95% of
computer glitches are solved by a simple reboot, so
click…oops, can’t click, no Windows. Ok then, you reset,
and you think you are sure to be OK when the reboot
completes.

Wrong! The same error message appears “The file hal.dll is
missing or corrupt. Windows can not start.” How is it
possible for one measly file to kill your system?

DISASTER…What to do now? Phone your tech friend and ask
his advice. He tells you the bad news. You are obliged to
re-install Windows from the original disc! Oh My God! Will
I lose all my programs and data? Yes, you will have to re-
install all your programs. No your data may be safe, but
only if you don’t have to reformat your hard disc.

But, your friend asks, I hope you have all your backups.

DO YOU, because that is the key to saving your business.
You know that in today’s business world, 95% of your
business information is stored on your computer. This
applies not only to online businesses, but also to offline
ones. In this paperless society of ours, business people
are printing less and less of all their transactions.

Think hard. Where the heck did I hide my original Windows
disc? Really, are you organized enough that you can easily
find your original installation discs, along with the code
numbers they need to re-install.

You own some programs you downloaded off the Net, but they
are stored on your hard drive. Are they backed up? When is
the last time you backed up your data, the lifeblood of
your business.

What backup system do you use? Do you use the old-
fashioned tape systems, or do you backup to CD or DVD?
Whichever one you use, the key is that your backups must be
frequent enough to keep you out of major trouble.

Program backups do not have to be constantly repeated like
Data does. Programs do not change, unless you downloaded an
update. Then your update must be saved on your hard drive,
and also backed up.

Data includes so many different things that it’s easy to
forget to back up some items. ‘My Documents’ contains much
of the data, but not nearly all. Do you know where your
Favorite links are stored? Where is your email that you
saved? Along with your email address book, Microsoft hides
these files quite well.

It took me weeks to find, and then remember where they are
hidden in Documents and Settings. I never did find the
email settings, so have not saved those.

Bottom line: what should you back up, and how often?

Whatever media you use, you must have at least 2 current
backups of everything, and preferably 3. If you use CD or
DVD, have you ever noticed how some discs suddenly become
unreadable, and for no apparent reason. It happens oh too
frequently.. I lose up to 15% this way. CDs have an
expected shelf life of maybe 2 years. Some will surely last
longer, too many die prematurely.

Does that mean you should not use CDs or DVDs to back up?
Of course you should. It is the cheapest backup system I know about. But you MUST have more than one copy. I prefer 3.
The proof of this comes when you save your business by
being able to start over because your backups are up to
date.

Imagine if you lose all your programs and have to buy them
over again.

Imagine if you lose all your emails that have your
registration codes for the programs you bought online. And
what about all the sales and purchase data in your emails.
What about your contact list, your email lists, etc.

Imagine losing all your accounting data that you must have
for year-end tax reporting!

Enough said. Programs already backed up on 2 or 3 copies only need to be updated by adding new programs you buy, and upgrades that come out.

Data should be backed up based on the frequency of your
transactions. It could be daily, or every 2 or 3 days if
your business is in the early growth stage..

Without backups…your business may be dead in the water!
Don’t get careless. You may say I will save a disc or two
by backing up less often. Why? One CD-rom disc costs a
buck. Big deal when it means life or death for your
business.

Why take chances. Can anyone predict when you will have a
problem, a computer crash, a new virus? Of course not.
Don’t live dangerously, this is not a thrill ride, it is
your life.

Fred Farah
copyright 2004

Best Affiliate Products and Niche Market Strategies
Subscribe to Niche Market Strategies Newsletter
And Niche Madness 7-day email course
http://www.bestaffiliateproducts.com/]]>

One of these is downtime. There is really no point in spending so much time and money constructing a good site and then ending up in a situation where people cannot access your site. So when choosing your web host from the thousands of low cost web hosts out there, there are a few things you should do to ensure that downtime does not kill your business as you use a low cost web host.

Beware of the bandwidth time bomb

It is important to digest properly how much bandwidth and storage space you are getting for your monthly fee. Bandwidth is a real time bomb because one day your site will become very popular and attract very high traffic that will require more bandwidth. This could happen sooner than you expect and it makes plenty of sense to find out exactly what your options are when you suddenly need a lot more bandwidth. Otherwise you risk having extended downtime when it is most critical that you do not have it, so as to retain the high traffic that you are attracting.

Get technical and you will know if the host has a stable server system

Most good web hosting services will post specifications of their web servers on their sites. Analyzing this information will help a client get a good idea of how stable the web host’s server system is. The more stable, the less the likelihood of frequent downtimes. Most people are not technical, but almost everybody knows somebody who can help them analyze the technical jargon at the web hosts’ site.

Check your site several times during the day and the night too

Most webmasters get so busy that they hardly have the time to check their own sites. It is absolutely critical that this is done. It is even worth the effort and cash of hiring somebody to do it for you on a regular basis through out the day. Not only should you get your site’s accessibility regular tested but you should also test everything on the site and make sure that it works. This is the only way your visitors are going to gauge you and what sort of business you run, so take the trouble to make sure that your site is not only up all the time, but that it is also running properly.

In conclusion, it is possible to get a low cost host who delivers, but it will require a lot of work and checking from your end. A web host directory will obviously be very useful here.]]>

With the API, programmers can use most any web programming language, such as PHP, ASP, Perl, .NET, and Java. Google’s Web API provides “data hooks” that allow a remote program to access certain portions of Google easily.

You must be very aware of the Google Web API Terms of Service. You must obtain a developer key that you will include in each API use, you are allowed only 1,000 automated queries per day, and perhaps most important, you may not use the Google API for commercial purposes. It is only for your personal use, and you of course may not violate any laws or copyright protection.

Google provides a developer’s kit to help you get started. Data is interchanged between Google and the application program using an XML structure, so the results from Google should be relatively easy to parse even for only moderately experienced developers. If you have problems or questions, Google offers Getting Help, Reference and FAQ links, and you will find help and discussions on any of several forums should you need more help. Just search Google - from the search box!]]>

But when you think of the most successful web sites, what names come to mind? Names like Google, Yahoo! Amazon, AOL, Kazaa (for better or worse), and Hotmail.

The late-1990s mantra about the web being a disruptive technology that would destroy traditional companies may have been overstated. But a decade and a half into the web’s existence, it is clear that the world’s leading corporations have been sidelined on the web.

The biggest shopping site is not walmart.com but amazon.com. The biggest map site is not randmcnally.com but mapquest.com.

Established companies have usually only been able to buy their way into this market through acquisitions (as with Microsoft’s purchase of Hotmail, which it used as a base for creating MSN).

Why, with few exceptions, were the world’s most successful web sites not launched by the world’s most successful corporations?

Many Big Name Companies’ Web Sites a Vast Waste of Time for Visitors

The McDonald’s web site talks about food, but has no real menu. The Coca-Cola USA web site has no clear ingredients list or nutritional information, no recipes for floats or mixed drinks, no company history, and nothing else useful to people who like Coke. All that information has been inexplicably located on the “company” page, which on every other web site is used for investor relations. The Johnson and Johnson web site has useful information if you can access it—when the author attempted to open it, it crashed two different web browsers (Internet Explorer and Mozilla) before finally yielding (to the Opera browser).

Many big-name companies’ web sites offer lessons in what not to do in web design. The biggest lesson by far is not to sacrifice usability in an attempt to look cool, and never forget why your users came to your site in the first place. McDonald’s may be the world’s largest restaurant chain, but it didn’t get that way because of its web site.

Why Big-Budget Websites Are More Often Bombs than Blockbusters

The web sites of many successful corporations (both B2C and B2B) are like big-budget Hollywood movies that spend millions on stars and special effects, and a quarter of a percent of the budget on the script. Worse, the special effects of blockbuster web sites are far more annoying than impressive.

Special Effect that Bombs Number 1: Flash!

When web sites don’t offer any content—any useful information to read—what do they put up there instead? Spinning Coke bottles. Chicken McNuggets and French fries that zoom out toward you when you position your cursor over them. Changing pictures of generic-looking office buildings and men in suits (on the web site of real estate giant CB Richard Ellis—but that essentially describes the generic look of many corporate web sites).

Of course, Flash can be used as a way to present content—words, both printed and recorded, and pictures that actually illustrate something. But more often, it is used to impress. And most often, it ends up annoying. Who wants to spend the better part of a minute waiting for a rotation of generic pictures of smiling models?

Special Effect that Bombs Number 2: Splash Screens

You type in duracell.com expecting information on batteries—which you will find, if you have the patience not to hit the “back” button while the site shows a picture of a battery revolving painfully slowly.

On http://www.mcdonalds.com you’re met with pictures of happy children playing with Ronald McDonald and a menu to select what country you’re from.

Johnson’s and Johnson’s web site shows a logo before automatically redirecting you to the main page—that is if it doesn’t crash your browser first (which happened when the author tried to access the page on May 2, 2004 ).

Another way big consumer corporations’ web sites from Schick to Mercedes-Benz to Thomas Cooke waste your time with splash pages is by making you choose what country you’re visiting from. This could have been detected automatically, or at least, useful worldwide content could have been placed on the homepage, with an option to choose a country prominently displayed.

Splash pages are the internet equivalent of making patrons wait in line out front before letting them inside. Unless a site belongs to a night club or a professional services firm with too much business, keeping people outside can’t be a good idea.

Special Effect that Bombs Number 3: Overbuilt or Badly Built “Dynamic” Functionality

Every web surfer has a story about a shopping cart that malfunctioned just when they were about to click “purchase” on something they really wanted. Or a detailed form that lost all the information after the “submit” button was pressed.

Sometimes, malfunctioning dynamic content can distort the way an entire site presents itself. If the dynamic content is so complex that it presents problems for many users, it is unlikely the dynamic content is worth it. When I visited disney.com in May 2004, my first greeting was a message that your computer is sufficiently up-to-date (or not) to handle the site.

In short, you may want your small or medium-sized business to get as big as Coca Cola or Disney, but you’ll never get there if your website looks like theirs do.]]>

According to the blog entitled “Color Blender” which was posted by Neil last October 27, 2004 at www.eightlines.com, the author mentioned that this Color Blender allows you to take two colors and see blends of up to 10 different ones from which you can get their HTML Hex codes.

How can you do it? It’s actually as simple as 1-2-3. The following procedures were also mentioned in the said article. First, you need to pick a color value format, input two valid CSS color values in the format you chose, and pick the number of midpoints you’d like to see. During this step, the palette will show the colors you input as well as the requested number of midpoint colors and the values of those colors. All numbers are rounded to the nearest integer. When you click on a square in the “waterfall” display, it will fill in the appropriate value for whichever input is highlighted. And, when you switch between value formats, it will translate whatever values are in place. Clicking on the “Clear” button removes all values and colors, but does not change the current value format.

With this, graphic art professionals and web developers can now experiment more in the color combinations in their projects thus, making them more creative and innovative in their line of work. I would like to commend the programmers of this simple yet so important program. More power!]]>

I’ve been doing a lot of research with regards to blogging and came across a case of a 19 year old kid who was making something ridiculous like $50,000 a year with a blog on mobile phones, from his bedroom! This is an extraordinary case but clearly there is a good earning potential through blogs, however they do take time to grow and build up a readership.

Blogs provide a very simple, quick and easy means to add fresh content to your website. As I’m sure you’ve heard many times over ‘content is king’ from a search engines’ view point and by providing high quality, regularly updated content your website should benefit with regards to your search engine ranking.

By providing fresh, high quality relevant content you will gain an increase of both first time visitors and repeat visitors, they will come back to check out your new content. Providing it’s interesting, relevant and useful to them, you will begin to build relationships with your readers, increasing your credibility and building their trust in you and your business.

These repeat visitors will be exposed to your messages more and begin to trust you and your recommendations. This in turn will fuel sales and referrals. Just make sure you don’t recommend a product you haven’t tried, if it is bad you will lose all credibility.

Whenever you buy a new product, review it in your blog and be brutally honest, your readers will love you for it. Take a completely unbiased view point and talk about both the positives and negatives of each product. In essence you are providing more of an insight into the product than the sales page itself, this will help convert those prospects that are ‘sitting on the fence’ so to speak. As it has been shown that prospects are seven to ten times more likely to buy from a blog recommendation than from other sources!

There are many ways in which you can monetize your blog, for example, by using it as a tool to promote your own products or affiliate programs. Other ways that you can generate extra income through your blog are through the Google Adsense program, selling banner/link space as your traffic increases or by adding you own opt-in sign up form to which you send your newsletter or other targeted offers.

Your blog can be syndicated using RSS, enabling savvy webmasters to use your blog content on their web pages. This benefits them as they have regularly updated fresh content for their website and benefits you through increased exposure, free targeted traffic and extra inbound links.

To get the most benefit from my blog I use a technique called ‘blogging and pinging’, whereby every time I post to my blog, I ping Ping-o-matic.com to inform the search engines and blog directories I’ve updated my blog.

You should submit your blog feed to blog directories to gain more exposure. You can do this manually however, these are three automated sources that I have had the most success using and best of all…they are free!

http://pingomatic.com/
http://www.rssfeedpromoter.com/.
http://www.feedsubmitter.com/

Be passionate about your blog, love your blog. If you do not then it will become obvious through your posts and you are unlikely to be anywhere near as successful as you could be.

Add to your blog regularly provide good quality content and reviews and you will be on your way to blogging success.]]>