Multiple Response Mechanisms... Keep it Simple

It still amazes me how difficult it can be to respond to a marketing offer. Yesterday I received a direct marketing piece with a call to action that said, "To order call 888-123-4567... hours of operation 9 - 4:30PM Monday through Friday". Okay, I don't know about you, but I'm working during those hours and its not always the most convenient time for me to respond to YOUR offer.

This is really just a reminder that in order to optimize effectiveness, for any direct marketing offer, you need to provide multiple options (limit it to 3). Individuals responding should be able to do so in a variety of ways. You need to determine the proper mix, but at a minimum I would suggest the ability to fill out a web form or call.

Additional options should be used depending on your audience. Consider including a business reply card (BRC), a return envelope, a fax number, and email address, etc. based on the traditional marketing communication methods your target audience is using.

As always, test and measure the usage of your response mechanisms. If the majority of people visit your website or jump page to respond, be sure to highlight that option in your marketing piece. Set a priority as well. Something like, "Fast, Faster, Fastest" is a great way to steer people to a preferred response vehicle.

Remember, multiple response mechanisms can increase response rates - but don't forget to keep it simple.

The Importance of Link Text

Just recently someone asked me, "What's the most important thing you need to know about SEO"? That's a great question and one I will answer in this post. Before doing so, let me say that there are search engine optimization guru's out there who can better speak to the more technical and often esoteric aspects of SEO.

In fact yesterday I was viewing some interviews online with some of these folks and they were talking about the GooglePlex and associated algorithms. Way too complicated for me. Again, that's why I created this blog - to share my SEO success with ordinary people (like me!) who want to improve their search engine results.

Okay, so back to the topic at hand. What is the most important thing you need to know about SEO? My answer would be link text What is link text? According to Wikipedia, link text is something that gives the web site user relevant descriptive or contextual information about the content of the link's destination. The link text (also referred to as anchor text) may or may not be related to the actual text of the URL of the link. For example, a hyperlink to the main Marketing Blog page might take this form: replace "[" with "<"


[a href="http://marketing expert.blogspot.com">The Marketing Blog[/a]"

The anchor text in this example is The Marketing Blog; the complex URL http://marketing-expert.blogspot.com displays on the web page as The Marketing Blog, contributing to a clean, easy to read text or document.

Now the answer to our original question... the reason that I consider anchor text to be the most important SEO element is because the anchor text of inbound links is what improves your Google search engine results (among other things of course). I have found in my own SEO efforts that the more links pointing to my site, using my keywords in the anchor text, the better my website does on search engine result placements.

A couple of things to keep in mind. As important as link text is you must continue to focus on on page optimization (metatags, etc.) and off-page optimization (link text, submissions, etc.). If you manage your optimization factors AND focus on building links to your website the right way, you'll see a dramatic improvement in your search results!

Michael Fleischner, Search Engine Optimization Specialist

How to Redesign Your Website for Usability

What do all web browsers have in common? They look for certain consistencies across websites. These consistencies are in core elements that make navigation and utilization efficient and allows them to find information quickly

In this post, Richard Hill suggests a number of ways that you can re-design your website in order to achieve improved usability and layout without starting from scratch. Here are his key suggestions..

Simple Navigation

Navigation that is clear and consistent.

Probably the worst issue is 'lost visitors' – those who are in a maze and don't know where they are in the site. The site should always allow users to easily return to the home page and preferably get to any page with a single click.

Studies have shown that users want to find things quickly, and this means that they prefer menus with intuitive ranking, organization and multiple choices to many layers of simplified menus. The menu links should be placed in a consistent position on every page.

Clarity

Users do not appreciate an over-designed site. A website should be consistent and predictable. For maximum clarity, your site design should be built on a consistent pattern of modular units that all share the same basic layout, graphics etc.

Designing a Website That Meets Their Objectives

Everything above is pretty simple, but how do you ensure that you can achieve it?

The answer is website architecture – an approach to the design and content that brings together not just design and hosting but all aspects of function, design, technical solutions and, most importantly, usability.The distinction may seem academic but imagine trying to publish a magazine using just graphic design and printing whilst ignoring content and editing. It just would not work yet that's what too many people still try to do.

Website Architecture

Defining a website using web architecture requires:

• Site maps
• Flow charts
• Wireframes
• Storyboards
• Templates
• Style guide
• Prototypes

This planning saves you (the client) money. The better the site map, flow chart, wireframe, storyboard, templates, style guide and prototype the more time and money you save because it gives the designer who has to do the graphics and the developer who has to do the programming a blueprint.

We are constantly amazed that people who wouldn't think about building a house, car, ship or whatever will still build a website without an architectural plan.

The benefits of such include:

• Meeting business goals
• Improved usability
• Faster delivery
• Reducing unnecessary features
  

Site Maps

Many people are familiar with site maps on web sites which are generally a cluster of links.

An architectural site map is more of a visual model (blueprint) of the pages of a web site.The representation helps everyone to understand what the site is about and the links required as well as the different page templates that will be needed.

Flow Charts

A flowchart is another pictorial or visual representation to help visualize the content and find flaws in the process from say merchandise selection to final payment.

It's a pictorial summary that shows with symbols and words the steps, sequence, and relationship of the various operations involved and how they are linked so that the flow of visitors and information through the site is optimized.

Wireframes

Wireframes take their name from the skeletal wire structures that underlie a sculpture. Without this foundation, there is no support for the fleshing-out that creates the finished piece.

Wireframes are a basic visual guide to suggest the layout and placement of fundamental design elements on any page. A wireframe shows every click through possibility on your site. It's a "text only" model to allow for the development of variations before any expensive graphic design and programming, but one that also helps to maintain design consistency throughout the site.Creating wireframes allows everyone on the client and developer side to see the site and whether it's 'right' or needs changes without expensive programming. The goal of a wireframe is to ensure your visitors' needs will be met in the website. If you meet their needs, you will meet your objectives.

To create a wireframe requires dialog. You and your developers talk, to translate your business successfully into a website. Nobody knows your business better than you and your developers should listen to ensure the resulting wireframe accurately represents your business. You, however, must answer the questions; questions such as:

• What does a visitor do at this point?
• Where can a visitor go from here?

and ignore questions about what your visitor sees at this point. Sounds easy, but!

Storyboards

Storyboards were first used by Walt Disney to produce cartoons. A storyboard is a "comic" produced to help everyone visualize the scenes and find potential problems before they occur. When creating a film, a storyboard provides a visual layout of events as they are to be seen through the camera. In the case of a website, it is the layout and sequence in which the user or viewer sees the content or information.

However, the wireframe provides the outline for your storyboard. Developers and designers don't need to work in a vacuum - the wireframe guides every design, information architecture, navigation, usability and content consideration. Wireframes define "what is there" while the storyboards define "how it looks".

Templates and Style Guide

Templates are standard layouts containing basic details of a page type that separates the business (follow the $) logic from the presentation (graphics etc) logic so that there can be maximum flexibility in presentation while disrupting the underlying business infrastructure as little as possible.

Style guides document the design requirements for a site. They define font classes and other design conventions (line spacing, font sizes, underlining, bullet types etc.) to be followed in the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) used to provide a library of styles that are used in the various page types in a web site.

Prototypes

A prototype is working model that is not yet finished. It demonstrates the major technical, design, and content features of the site.

A prototype does not have the same testing and documentation as the final product, but allows client and developers to make sure, once again, that the final product works in the way that is wanted and meets the business objectives.

Once you have built your virtual site, it's a lot quicker, easier and cheaper to build the real one.

About The Author
Richard Hill is a director of E-CRM Solutions and has spent many years in senior direct and interactive marketing roles. E-CRM provides EBusiness, ECommerce and Emarketing and ECRM. http://www.e-crm.co.uk/profile/message170807.html

Maybe It's the Packaging?

Thinking about how you're going to reach your marketing goals? Maybe its time to breath new life into your products or services. One way is with new packaging. Take the 100 calorie snack for example. for some, the product is exactly the same... a pretzel, potato chip, or cookie. But the packaging meets a consumer need - calorie management.

It never ceases to amaze me how the 100 calorie snack has taken off. Some may argue that its a new product but I would say its simply repackaging something that already exists. If you have a product in need of revitalization, think about how you might break it down into smaller pieces (ex: 24 hour delivery, selected chapters from a book, etc.).

Fall back on your marketing basics and begin with a segment and a consumer need. The 100 calorie snack was and still is targeted to the calorie conscious individual. They could always count out pretzels one-by-one or it could be packaged that way!

Article Marketing: Your Secret to Improved Search Engine Rankings

The key to improving search engine results is to develop quality links to your website. There are a variety of techniques you can use to get others linking to you. One of the most popular and effective methods is through article marketing.

The concept of article marketing is to take authored content that you create and distribute it to websites in need of content. When you distribute your article, you include links back to your website (usually in the About the Author section). These links help to improve your website’s link popularity and therefore search engine results.

Article marketing is most effective when you can create articles that are of value to a wide audience or targeted niche market. Keep these guidelines in mind when article marketing:

1. Use original article content. There are a variety of ways to write articles. I find the best way to generate articles that improve search engine results is to make sure its an original. There are many websites that offer PLR articles (private label rights), article wizards, and so on. Regardless of how you produce your article, make sure it is one-of-a-kind.

2. Make your articles available on your own website. As a starting point, each time you create original content, post it on you website. Google looks for and diminishes the search results of duplicate content. Therefore, it’s important that you stake a claim for your content by promoting it on your website before any distribution effort.

3. Embed your keywords and keyword phrases. When writing your articles, be sure to include your keywords and keyword phrases throughout your document. Using the proper keywords is essential for website indexing and search engine optimization.

4. Write articles with a minimum of 600 words. A number of websites that accept and distribute articles will only do so if you meet article requirements such as minimum length. Many of these websites process a large number of articles and attempt to reduce spam with a minimum word count requirement of 600 words or more.

5. Use article distribution sites. By submitting your article to the largest article distribution sites you improve the likelihood of your article being repurposed by third party websites. Sites like eZineArticles.com and GoArticles.com are popular resources for webmasters seeking quality content. If webmasters find the information in your article valuable, they’ll repurpose it on their own website. This viral effect can provide significant traffic to your article(s).

6. Include an About the Author section. At the conclusion of your article, be sure to include an About the Author section. This is one of the most important things you can do to build back links to your site. When other websites publish your content they are required to include this section. Make sure that multiple links to your site are present in order to build link popularity and improve your search engine result placements.

7. Be persistent. The benefits of article marketing are seen over time. As a rule of thumb, you should begin any article marketing campaign with a commitment to produce and disseminate a minimum of 10 articles. This gives you a good footprint in your area of expertise and builds a number of backlinks to your website.

Whether you’re new to article marketing or are an experienced article marketer, each article you produce and distribute provides value to your website when executed correctly. Write valuable content, include an about the author section, and use article distribution websites. You’ll quickly discover that article marketing is a great way to promote a product, website or service!

For more marketing articles from marketing experts visit MarketingScoop.com

How to Defend your Website from the Google Content Duplicate Proxy

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the negatives of having duplicate content on your site. Google has already said that they are now taking a closer look at duplicate content in order to weed out those sites that repeat content with the hopes of improving Google search engine results. In this article, you'll learn about the duplicate content debate and how to manage against it...

To understand this issue, you must first understand about Google's Duplicate Content filter. It's simply described thus: Google doesn't want you to search for "blue widget" and have the top 10 search terms returned copies of the same article on how great blue widgets are. They want to give you ONE copy of the Great Blue Widget article, and 9 other different results, just on the off chance that you've already read that article and the other results are actually what you wanted.

To handle this, every time Google spiders and indexes a page, it checks it to see if it's already got a page that is predominantly the same, a duplicate page if you will. Exactly how Google works this out, nobody knows exactly, but it is going to be a combination of some or all of: page text length, page title, headings, keyword densities, checking exactly copy sentence fragments etc. As a result of this duplicate content filter, a whole industry has grown up around trying to get round the filter. Just search for "spin article".

Getting back to the story here, Google indexes a page and lets say it fails it's duplicate content check, what does Google do? These days, it dumps that duplicate page in Google's Supplemental Index. What, you didn't know that Google has 2 indexes? Well they do: the main one, and a supplemental one. Two things are important here: Google will always return results from their Main index if they can; and they will only go to the Supplemental index if they don't get enough joy from their main index. What this means is that if your page is in the supplemental index, it's almost certain that you will never show up in the Search Engine Ranking Pages, unless there is next to no competition for the phrase that was searched for.

This all seems pretty reasonable to me, so what's the problem? Well there's another little step I haven't mentioned yet. What happens if someone copies your page, let's say your homepage of your business website, and when Google indexes that copy, it correctly determines that it's a duplicate. Now Google knows about 2 pages that it knows are duplicates, it has to decide which to dump in the supplemental index, and which to keep in the main one. That's pretty obvious right? But how does Google know which is the original and which is the copy? They don't. Sure they have some clever algorithms to work it out, but even if they are 99% accurate, that leaves a lot of problems for that 1% of times they can get it wrong!

And this is the heart of the exploit, if someone copies your website's homepage say, and manages to convince Google that *their* page is the original, your homepage will get tossed into the supplemental index, never to see the light of day in the Search Engine Ranking Pages again. In case I'm not being clear enough, that's bad! But wait, it gets worse:

It's fair to say that in the case of a person physically copying your page and hostíng it, you can often get them to take it down through the use of copyright lawyers, and cease and desist letters to ISP's and the like, with a quick "Reinclusion Request" to Google. But recently there's a new threat that's a whole lot harder to stop: the use of publicly accessible Proxy websites. (If you don't know what a Proxy is, it's basically a way of making the web run faster by caching content more local to your internet destination. In principle, they are generally a good thing.)

There are many such web proxies out there, and I won't list any here, however I will describe the process: they send out spiders (much like Google's) and they spider your page, take your content, then they host a copy of your website on their proxy site, nominally so that when their users request your page, they can serve up their local copy quickly rather than having to retrieve if off your server. The big issue is that Google can sometimes decide that the proxy copy of your web page is the original, and yours is not.

Worse again, there's some evidence that people are deliberately and maliciously using proxy servers to cache copies of web pages, then using normal (white and black hat) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques to make those proxy pages rank in the search engine, increasing the likelihood that your legitimate page will be the one dumped by the search engines' duplicate content filters. Danger Will Robinson!

Even worse still, some of the proxy spiders actively spoof their origins so that you don't realize that it's a spider from a proxy, as they pretend to be a Googlebot for example, or from Yahoo. This is why the major search engines actively publish guidelines on how to identify and validate their own spiders.

Now for the big question, how can you defend against this? There are several possible solutions, depending on your web hostíng technology and technical competence:

Option 1 - If you are running Apache and PHP on your server, you can set the webhost up to check for search engine spiders that purport to be from the main search engines, and using php and the .htaccess file, you can block proxies from other sources. However this only works for proxies that are playing by the rules and identifying themselves correctly.

Option 2 - If you are using MS Windows and IIS on your server, or if you are on a shared hostíng solution that doesn't give you the ability to do anything clever, it's an awful lot harder and you should take the advice of a professional on how to defend yourself from this kind of attack.

Option 3 - This is currently the best solution available, and applies if you are running a PHP or ASP based website: you set ALL pages robot meta tags to no-index and no-follow, then you implement a PHP or ASP script on each page that checks for valid spiders from the major search engines, and if so, resets the robot meta tags to index and follow. The important distinction here is that it's easier to validate a real spider, and to discount a spider that's trying to spoof you, because the major search engines publish processes and procedures to do this, including IP lookups and the like.

So, stay aware, stay knowledgeable, and stay protected. And if you see that you've suddenly been dumped from the Search Engine Rankings Pages, now you might know why, how and what to do about it.

About the Author
Sophie White is an Internet Marketing and Website Promotion Consultant at Intrinsic Marketing an SEO and Pay-Per-Click firm dedicated to supplying Better Website ROI.

The Science of Email Subject Lines

When writing your email subject lines, the key is to avoid appearing as SPAM to both mail clients as well as humans. In addition, you should always split your email lists and test, test, test. That said, I recently read an article by Jordan Ayan, the CEO of SubscriberMail (www.subscribermail.com), who identified words to avoid in your email subject lines as they will get your email messages blocked.

Top 100 words NOT to use in your subject lines:

• 100% free
• 50% off
• act now
• all words that relate to sex or pornography
• all words that related to cures or medication
• amazing
• anything that looks like you are YELLING
• apply now
• as seen
• as seen on Oprah
• as seen on TV
• Article continues below
• avoid
• be your own boss
• buy
• call now
• cash bonus
• cialis
• click here
• collect
• compare
• consolidate
• contains $$$
• contains word "ad"
• credit
• Dear Friend
• discount
• don't delete
• double your anything
• double your income
• e.x.t.r.a. Punctuation
• earn
• earn $
• earn extra cash
• easy terms
• eliminate debt
• extra income
• fast cash
• financial freedom
• for only
• for you
• FREE
• free
• free access
• free gift
• free info
• free instant
• free offer
• free samples!
• friend
• g a p p y t e x t
• get
• get out of debt
• hello
• herbal
• hidden
• home based
• hot
• information you requested
• instant
• levitra
• life insurance
• limited time
• loans
• lose
• lose weight
• lower your mortgage rate
• lowest insurance rates
• make money
• medicine
• mortgage
• multi level marketing
• notspam
• now only
• numerical digits at the end
• offer
• online degree
• online marketing
• online pharmacy
• only
• open
• opportunity
• promised you
• refinance
• removes
• reverses
• satisfaction
• search engine listings
• serious cash
• starting with a dollar amount
• stop or stops
• teen
• undisclosed recipient
• valium
• vicodin
• winner
• work from home
• xanax
• your family
• Your own
• You're a winner!

It's best to freely develop your email subject lines first, then compare to this list. If one of the words in your subject line appears, simply replace it with a synonym. Remember, your email is only "good" if it gets delivered, read, and acted upon!

Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Alexa Ranking

After spending two years building my own website, I was very disappointed that my Alexa ranking was still higher than one million. Alexa ranks each website based on the number of visitors it receives. The top ranked website, Yahoo! has an Alexa rating of 1 or 2. Less popular sites could be ranked up to 5,000,000.

In order to improve my Alexa rating, I spent about three weeks combing the web to find tips, secrets, and proven strategies for increasing my Alexa ranking. Unfortunately, many of the sites offering advice didn’t even have a high ranking themselves. Finally I discovered a number of sites ranked within the top 100,000 that were all applying the same “Alexa techniques” to improve their ranking. I’ve begun implementing a number of these techniques and have improved my Alexa ranking by 250,000 spots in just one week.

Here’s what you need to know. The basis for many of these techniques is the fact that your Alexa ranking is based reach and page views. However it only counts those who visit your site and have already downloaded the Alexa toolbar. Anyone can download the toolbar for free which is automatically added to your browser and tracks the sites you’re visiting. Increasing visits from those who do not have the Alexa toolbar installed will not help your Alexa ranking.

I’ve summarized the 10 strategies that I’ve discovered and applied to my own website to increase my Alexa ranking. Apply these strategies to your own website and see your ranking climb towards the top.

1. Download the Alexa toolbar and use it every day to visit your own website. Alexa even gives you the ability to co-brand the toolbar with your own logo and give it away. You can download the toolbar here: http://pages.alexa.com/prod_serv/associatetoolbar.html

2. Use Alexa redirection whenever you can. No matter when or where you provide a link to your website, be sure to use the equivalent Alexa redirect URL. For example, when providing a link to my website, I use http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?marketingscoop.com. If you copy this URL into your browser, it will take you to MarketingScoop.com. To use this technique, simply replace the name of my website (marketingscoop) with yours.

3. Encourage your website visitors to add their positive testimonials on Alexa’s detailed listings page for your website. This can be done by placing a link to the appropriate Alexa page on your website and asking visitors to “Click here to rate this website”. You can find your detailed Alexa page here: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/?url=marketingscoop.com. Again, just replace the name of my website (marketingscoop) with yours. By clicking on the URL, visitors will be able to reach your detailed rating page and write a review using the review link located on the left hand side of the page.

4. Write your own site reviews on the top 100 rated Alexa sites and include your redirect URL. The top 500 domains, according to Alexa can be found at http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500 When you write a review, be sure to use the redirection URL we discussed in number 2 above specifically for your website [http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?marketingscoop.com].

5. Download the Alexa ranking button, traffic history graph, info links, and other traffic counters onto the page of your website that receives the most traffic. For example, at the bottom of my home page http://www.marketingscoop.com, I’ve added the Alexa ranking box. You can do the same for your own site by visiting http://www.alexa.com/site/site_stats/signup You’ll notice that I haven’t added the traffic history graph. This is because it wouldn’t look appropriate on my home page and because Alexa is only providing detailed history on the top 100,000 sites. So if you’re not in the top 100,000, site stats would not be available.

6. Take an inexpensive advertisement out on the ExactSeek search directory for only a few dollars per month at ExactSeek.com Search engine results are directly correlated with Alexa rankings. You’ll notice that if a website is highly ranked on ExactSeek, chances are that it will be highly ranked on Alexa.

7. Get listed on as many search engines as possible by placing a free listing in DMOZ. This is the largest human edited directory on the web and is co-branded among hundreds of thousands of sites. Be patient though, it often takes up to 5 months before you see your website listed after submission. Even though it takes longer than it should, you have little say in the matter because it’s so widely used across the Internet.

8. Encourage friends and co-workers to write a review. You'd be amazed at how quickly you can improve your Alexa ranking with the help of a few friends. Invite others to review your site using Alexa. I like to place a "rate this site" link at the bottom of each email I send out, encouraging others to provide a positive rating.

9. Ask your co-workers to download the Alexa toolbar. The more people who download the toolbar and visit your site the better. Once they've installed the toolbar, send them a link to some valuable content on your site. Once they click through the link, they'll receive valuable content and you'll receive Alexa points!

10. Keep Alexa top of mind. When posting in forums, publishing articles, or promoting your site, encourage others to click on your redirect URLs or download the Alexa toolbar. The more you do, the faster you'll achieve a top Alexa ranking.

These simple Alexa strategies are easy to implement and will make a huge difference in your Alexa ranking. Ultimately you want visitors to do more than visit your home page, you want them to interact with your site. Be sure to optimize your home page for SEO purposes, ease of use, and interaction. Creating a positive user experience will get visitors to return again and again.

*Michael Fleischner is a marketing expert and the president of MarketingScoop.com. Visit today for free marketing information and marketing blog directory. Michael has more than 12 years of marketing experience and had appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. Visit his marketing blog for further details.

7 Steps to Developing Effective Newsletters Online

If you have a loyal customer base, but haven't used a regularly scheduled newsletter to communicate with then, then its time to develop a monthly newsletter. Electronic newsletters are a great way to share information, promote your products, and solicit feedback from your most important customers. If you want to develop effective newsletters, you'll need to follow these seven proven tips for creating winning newsletters.

1. Choose a Theme.
The largest pitfall to developing an effective newsletter is the lack of a theme. When creating newsletters on a regular basis (ex: monthly), select a unique theme every month that appeals to your audience. Once you have identified a theme, be sure that your newsletter content focuses on that specific theme throughout its content. This creates a newsletter that is meaningful and positions your company as a meaningful source of information.

2. Allow for Easy Scanning.
If newsletter subscribers are unable to scan your newsletter, you stand a good chance of losing them. The first few seconds are your most important so make them count. Use big, bold headlines, and article descriptions, providing links to the full article or related content areas. By providing article introductions versus an entire article, you make it easier for readers to view your entire newsletter while allowing them to zero in on the content that has the greatest appeal.

3. Use Graphics.
Producing a newsletter that's wall-to-wall text will not be able to keep the interest of even your most savvy reader. Interject graphics, product photos, pictures, and so on throughout your newsletter. This will break up those large blocks of content increase your newsletter's appeal. Make sure your graphics include links to the articles or products they reference as Internet browsers tend to click on pictures or graphics presented online.

4. Include Product or Service Information.
Internet users are very comfortable with product promotion especially when receiving free information or content. They understand that advertising pays the bill and is common among electronic newsletters. So use this information to your advantage. In each newsletter, discuss a featured product or provide a special offer to your newsletter readers. Products or services that are closely aligned with the theme of your newsletter can be ideal. As a rule of thumb, keep the number of products you promote three or less.

5. Proof Your Work.
When creating an electronic newsletter, you should always check your work. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation should be perfect. When users find these types of errors, it signals a lack of care - causing doubt as to the amount of effort used when developing the content presented. The result could very well be an increase in those who unsubscribe or a reduction in overall click-through rates.

6. Be Viral.
Never assume that the person reading your newsletter signed up for it directly. In fact, you should encourage your readers to forward the newsletter to others who may be interested in the content you're providing. Make your newsletter, and each volume of your newsletter, accessible via your website. Additionally, make it easy for new users to sign up through a link in each edition of your newsletter. When users forward a copy to a friend, they can easily subscribe.

7. Don't Forget Can-SPAM.
In the footer of your newsletter, include your company name, address, and contact information. Inform users why they are receiving your newsletter and how than can unsubscribe. Honor all unsubscribe requests within the alloted 10 day requirement. By doing so you are meeting current standards and you'll keep your newsletter subscription list clean.

These newsletter development tips can help you deliver a valuable newsletter that gets read and acted upon. Don't be afraid to experiment and keep relevant content the main focal point of your newsletter. As your newsletters become more sophisticated don't lose site of the basic principles. The tried and true is often the best way to be successful!

Michael Fleischner is a Marketing Expert with more than 12 years of marketing experience. He has appeared on the TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other Major Media. Michael is also the author of The Marketing Blog.

The Marketing Interview

I recently received an email from a fellow marketer who said that he was in the process of "interviewing" the owners of popular and successful blogs. First let me say that I was flattered. I never in a million years would have believed that this "little" marketing blog would have such a loyal following. All I can do is thank each and everyone of you for being so interested in improving your online marketing. Keep the feedback/comments coming!

I thought that the questions the interviewer asked were interesting and have decided to reprint them here. Let me know if you have any additional questions you'd like to have answered:

1. What is your most successful blog (maybe you have other blogs as well)? "The Marketing Blog" available at http://marketing-expert.blogspot.com.

2. How long have been working with it? I launched the blog about a year and a half ago after a number of my customers suggested that I begin providing tactical information that would help them improve their day-to-day Internet marketing.

3. What was your biggest mistake/failure with this blog? My biggest mistake, which has turned into one of my greatest opportunities, was assuming that I knew what to blog about. What I've learned is that you need to blog about those topics your loyal readers find most valuable. This is in essence what blogging is all about. Ranting is fine if you rant with a purpose that can benefit others.

4. How often do you update content on your blog? More often than not, I'm providing posts on a daily basis. The only caveat is that I won't complete a post if it isn't valuable. I don't want to waste anyone's time - especially those who use the information to better themselves or their business.

5. Do you do any search engine optimization for your blog? Some. My primary SEO tactics to date have been related to "on-page" optimization but I also do a little off-page SEO (article marketing, reciprocal linking, etc.)

6. How do you monetize your blog? I monetize my blog in a couple of ways. First and foremost is Google Adsense. I think its a win-win because my blog readers gain access to relevant tools and information. The second, but much less frequent way is through affiliate marketing. We don't push products on ANYONE. That said, if a consumer is seeking a product for a particular purpose, we sometimes offer a suggestion if one of our staff has used a product for the same need. Again, a win-win because we connect product seekers with viable products that have proven to meet a need in the market place.

7. What is the key to success with blogs in your understanding of it? (2-3 sentences maximum). Value... what you blog about must be targeted to your audience and provide sufficient value. Information is only valuable if your readers find it valuable and if it solves a need.

8. What tools/solutions/plugins/platforms do you find to be the most useful for your blog? One feature that I absolutely love is the ability for individuals to sign up to receive blog updates by email. I can't believe how popular this has been. I think its because its so easy to use - you just enter your email and receive updates automatically. This negates the need for feed readers and so on.

Kind Regards,

Michael

Marketing Expert

Page Rank or SEO - Which Is More Important?

Whether you believe in SEO or Page Rank and wonder which is more important, your thinking is irrelevant. You are wasting your time in wondering what is the correct answer to that question, since even if you knew it, there is little you could do to use that information.

Why do I say that? Because SEO, or search engine optimization, is a way of designing your website, and placing content in it, to satisfy search engine algorithms. Search engines are so sophisticated today that if you achieve that, then you will also satisfy visitors to your website. If you satisfy visitors to your website, then they will stay on the page they landed on and read it. They will then click to read other pages on your website and might even make a purchase.

Sure, some will leave right away, but if the search engines feel that your content is good enough for a high placement in their indices for the search term, or keyword, that your visitor used to get to your web page, then it is more likely that you will achieve a relatively high stick rate of people to your site than a lower one.

Now, consider if you thought Google PageRank more important (and PageRank is correct, not Page Rank). You would then spend more of your time trying to get links back to your website than you would properly optimizing your site and filling it with good content. If you were successful in that difficult job, then Google, and possibly other search engines, would líst you a bit higher in their indices, not because their spiders thought your site was relevant to the search term used by the potential visitors, but because other websites thought so.

You will then get visitors to your website, and the page they land on would have to be relevant to the search term they used or they will immediately leave. If it is relevant, they will stay, perhaps visit other web pages and perhaps make a purchase.

So what is the difference? You get basically the same end result. How can you tell which is the more important. There is one simple way to do this, and one that I have used more than once. Design two websites round the same keyword. Make the keyword the name of the website and then apply classical theoretical SEO to one site, including some of the extra special tips that can make the difference between success and failure – in fact that DO make that difference

Now apply only minimal SEO to the other and make sure you have exactly the same content on each, but rewritten to avoid duplicate content or that would negate the test. However, with the second site, you must generate as many links back to your website as possible, using non-reciprocal links where possible, but reciprocal links where necessary. There are a few ways in which you can generate lots of one-way links to selected pages on your site, and you should make that your home page for the purposes of this test.

Wait 4 weeks then check Google, Yahoo and MSN for the position of each of your home pages. You will find that your first website will generally be listed higher for the keyword that both sites are built round. Check again about 3 months later, and you will likely find that website 2 will feature higher as the links start to take effect, but then the first site will overtake it as it generates its own links naturally. Basically, what this proves to me is that it is essential to optimize your website for search engines in the classical way, but that for best results you must also have a good level of links back to your website. There are simple, ways to achieve both, but that would be the topic of another article. However, in the end, if you apply both, then you will achieve best results. I know that there are exceptions to this, and I have highlighted them in some of my ebooks, but generally that is the case.

So, the answer to the question: SEO or Page Rank, is that neither is the more important. They are both equally important, but it is possible to do one better than the other and then you would be tempted to say that your way was best. But you would be wrong!

If you did find what was the best, you couldn't use that information since search engines rules are transitory but good honest content and classical SEO have always prevailed, as has a good number of links that others follow to reach your website.

About The Author
Peter is an expert on audio-visual file formats and codecs and more information on p2p file sharing software can be obtained from his websites LegalAndFree.com and Online-Free-Movies.com where options are presented and the ethics discussed.

Creating the Best Website Layout

If you want your website to be optimized for Search Engines and User Friendly, then you should follow proven design standards. Many of these standards were developed by industry professionals, years of research (not to mention trial and error), and website analytics.

The key design and layout elements which should remain constant are: Masthead across the top – the masthead is where the logo goes and usually the imagery that supports the subject matter on the website.

The left hand column should contain all the primary navigation, which should remain constant across the whole website. It should list all the main categories of the website, so users can find their way around from every page.

The right hand column on the homepage should provide navigation to individual pages in the site which you want to highlight. Or, it can be used for small applications, such as email newsletter sign-up, scrolling news headlines, links to the forum, etc. This column tends to disappear on the content pages to leave more space for the article and images.

Top menu bar – some sites have most of their navigation in the top menu bar which goes across the page under the masthead (take a look at Guardian or Forbes as examples). I don't like this for two reasons. First, it restricts the number of menu links that you can have. Secondly, it usually means that the site has flash based drop down menus to enable them to accommodate more links. Flash menus are not user friendly. They force your reader to search for links to the content they are looking for. Don't make your user work for their answers. Also, search engines find it harder to index sites with flash menus.

Bottom menu bar – This strip at the foot of every page tends to contain links to the site's terms and conditions, privacy statement, sitemap, etc.

The central column contains the content. On the homepage, this can be a combination of an introduction to the website and teasers to articles. On the content pages, the articles and images sit in the central column.

Search top right on every page – this is the search box used to search the content of the website. This is a less rigid placement than it used to be, but you can't go wrong if you place it top right.

Time and date – usually placed on the right hand side under the masthead. This is optional, but does give readers the impression that the site is up-to-date.

Within this layout there is a great deal of flexibility to add your own personality and styles, particularly when you overlay your design on the basic page structure. However, at all times your number one goal should be constant; that is to make your website simple and intuitive, for every reader that visits. To achieve this learn from those sites that have a lot of experience.

Special thanks to Miles Gilford for his contribution.

Making Money with Article Marketing

All of you know how much I love to share tips on easy ways to make money online. I discovered this latest tip while doing some article marketing. As I was distributing one of my own articles, I found an author who claimed to have generated nearly $2,000 from a single article. Of course I was curious as to how he achieved the result because I'm such a big believer in article marketing.

My first thought was that he was using Google adwords tightly integrated into his article. I realized however that this is virtually impossible. Most article distribution sites don't allow for active links to be placed in your articles - only the "About the Author" section.

Then I read on and realized how simple, yet effective his strategy was. Here's the tip: select a topic that is closely aligned to an affiliate product you might be selling. When you create your article, make a subtle mention of a URL (either where additional information, tips, or resources can be found) and continue on with your article.

The URL that you are going to place in your article (example: http://www.google-exposed.com) can be a domain that you purchase. I suggest using Godaddy or another inexpensive provider of URLs. Now the magic happens...

Forward the domain to your affiliate URL which automatically redirects to the vendor's jump page. The end result? When users visit your URL ( ex: http://www.google-exposed.com) you will get credit for all affiliate sales because they have been redirected through your affiliate URL.

When users click on my URL for example, it has been forwarded to http://mfleisch9.bryxen1.hop.clickbank.net/. Upon this URL loading, it redirects to an affiliates jump page (SEO Elite). Each time a user purchases, I earn a commission.

Great strategy... give it a try!

Bookmark Yourself To Success!

Social bookmarking is a way for internet users to store, classify, share, and search Internet bookmarks. In 2005 and 2006, social bookmarking sites, such as del.icio.us, Diigo, Furl, Ma.gnolia, Netvouz, and StumbleUpon became popular. Sites like reddit, Digg, Newsvine, and the new Netscape portal apply social bookmarking to news items. In 2007, IBM announced plans to enter the social software market.

There are a variety of ways to use bookmarks to improve your overall site popularity. What I personally like about social bookmarks is that it’s easy to do and very similar to other optimization methods I use. The way it works is as follows: A user registers for a social bookmarking site. Once they have an account, they browse the internet. When the individual identifies a webpage or piece of content they want to share with others, they bookmark it. Once that content is bookmarked, the bookmark site keeps a record of the bookmark and waits to see if others bookmark the same content or website.

When others bookmark or vote for the same content, that content increases in popularity and the social book marking site ranks it higher than other content on their site. Some of these bookmark sites also let you see the bookmarks of others. That’s what makes it a “social” bookmark. Not only is the general web populace rating Internet content collectively, but they can also see what others are book marking.

What’s even better is that you can use a site like Social Poster (free) found at http://socialposter.com/generator.php to post multiple bookmarks from one location. You will need to register for each of these sites, but once you do the submission process is simple.

After book marking your home page on each of these sites, consider book marking specific content of channel level pages of your site. Creating deep links into your site can enhance your overall Google rankings. And of course, make sure to use the proper link text in your site title and description.

One final word on social bookmarking. Now that you know how to bookmark your site, the next logical step is to make it easy for others to bookmark your site. To do this, simply add a Social Bookmark applet (free) to your site by visiting AddThis.com. They offer a small piece of Javascript you can add to your site in the form of a button.

When users click on the Bookmark button, they can select their specific book marking tool and book mark your content. This makes the process of book marking simple and easy to do.

For more helpful SEO lessons, visit Google Exposed

Making the Most of Google Commands

Quick post today. I just read an article on a popular SEO related news site and was reminded of the fact that many SEO related tools are free - they just take a little getting used to. For example, Google offers a wealth of SEO tools, many of which you can access via Google search.

A prime example of this is Google Search Engine Commands.

These commands can be used by anyone to help you identify information regarding a website that enhances your chances for top Google placement. Here are a few of the commands I've used to improve my understanding of my very own website and the website(s) of my competitors:

Link: Locates links that are pointing to the site.
Site: Displays all of the pages indexed by the Google of the site.
Cache: Shows the last indexed and cached version of a site.
Info: Displays general information about a site.
Related: Shows potential competitors to a given site or site content.

You can use these commands for yourself simply by typing:
Link: http://www.yoururl.com
Site: http://www.yoururl.com
...and so on. Give it a try and see what information Google presents about your own website!

You may also be interested to know that some of these commands will also work with Yahoo and MSN.

Distributing a Press Release the Simple Way

Even though I’ve been in marketing for what seems like an eternity, I’m still amazed at the complexity of trying to do the simplest things – like distributing a press release. When my business wanted to promote a new product, I immediately turned towards PR Web which we’ve been using for more than 5 years.

In an effort to always challenge myself and to find a better service, I did some online research to find other press release distributors. My initial research came back with mention of PRWeb, BusinessWire.com, MarketWire.com, and eMediaWire.com.

Here’s what I found… Business Wire didn’t have any instructions on their site as to how to submit a release for distribution. Quite honestly, I could find any information about the services or value they provide. Maybe its because I don’t care to read websites looking for a reason to use them! Maybe I missed it… I don’t know. The end result is that I’m never visiting BusinessWire.com again.

So then I went to the next one on the list, MarketWire.com. I wanted to learn about their services but I had to go through a registration process first. I was curious so I worked through the process assuming I would find the information I was looking for when I reached the end…WRONG! Not only didn’t I find the information I was looking for but I would have to sign and fax my registration before they’d even show me their services. Different experience but same conclusion, I’m never visiting MarketingWire.com again.

Finally I visited eMediaWire.com. When I opened the site I realized that this was the same as PRWeb. Apparently eMediaWire is the name of their distribution service. None-the-less, I was relieved to find a simple, straight forward approach to press release distribution. Not to mention they offer services for those who need help writing their own press releases. The distribution service is pricey, but after my recent browsing experience I’d have to say that its worth every cent!

The Power of Linking: 7 Strategies for Increasing In-bound Links

The popularity of your website can be directly correlated to the number of sites linking to you. In fact, search engines like Google have been built on the concept of link popularity. To win on the Internet, your website not only needs to be seen as popular, but also garner top search engine results for your identified search terms. In-bound links to your website tell the search engines what they will find when visiting your site.

So now that we've established the importance of inbound links, you should be asking yourself, "How do I get them?" and "Which links are valuable?". Focus on acquiring in-bound links that are from sites offering related content to your own website and that have an established Google PR. Sites from unrelated sites without a Google Page Rank do not provide any benefit.

Inbound links can be acquired in a number of ways. Here are the 7 most popular link strategies you can start using today:

1. Directory Submission. The web has hundreds, if not thousands of link directories. Search for the most popular directories and submit your site. Beware, some directories charge for submitting your link but offer very little value in return. If you are going to pay for a link submission, make sure the site has a high Google PR and garners a lot of traffic.

2. Reciprocal Linking. Exchange links with other popular sites to increase the number of inbound links you receive. There is a good deal of debate in Internet circles today about the validity of reciprocal linking strategies. As long as the link you are receiving is of equal or greater quality to the link your giving, than the concept of reciprocal linking is still valid.

3. Article Submission. Create quality content and distribute it across the web. There are many article directories that offer content to webmasters and allow for mass distribution. The benefit of article submission is that when you submit your article you include and "About the Author" section. This area of your article is posted each time your article appears on a distributed website automatically building links back to your site. The more valuable the article, the more distribution you receive.

4. Social Posting Tools. We all know the power of social networks. Use tools like SocialPoster and others whereby you register and submit your site or article to social networks. The benefit of posting to these sites is that others may recognize and acknowledge your submission, resulting in higher placement. With higher placement comes more links and more link popularity.

5. Gadgets. Develop something worth linking to. Many websites offer free tools that are valuable because they solve a problem. A great example of this is a widget that allows you to find out the Google PR of any site. There are dozens or hundreds of websites that offer this type of tool and users provide links to those sites. Again, find something of value and let others know about it.

6. Press Releases. Have some news to share? A new product? A website launch or perhaps the results of your latest online survey. Visit sites like PRweb and find a distribution option for you. Press releases are pushed out to hundreds if not thousands of site that might run your release. Of course, make sure that you imbed a link back to your website.

7. Blogging. If you have your own blog or post comments on someone else's blog, don't be afraid to mention something of value relating to your site. Perhaps you can point to a Gadget your offer, free services, or an ebook you're offering. Blogging is a powerful tool and easy to implement. If you don't have a blog, start one. You can have your own blog in just a few minutes with today's online providers like Blogger or WordPress.

No matter what strategy you use to improve your link popularity, one thing's for sure. Developing in-bound links to your website is a critical step in achieving website popularity. As your popularity grows, so does your search engine result placement and traffic.