Search Engines - Buying Keywords - Inside Story
Posted by internet marketing in Internet Marketing on October 23rd, 2009
Buying Your Keywords to appear in Browser Address Search Bars –
It seems like about two or three times per month we get a phone call that extol a ’sure-fire’ way to drive key word directed traffic to your law firm’s website. At first blush the pitch sounds very appealing: You can purchase keywords so that when someone types that specific keyword into their Internet browser they will be taken direct to your website.
Like many such scams, it takes further investigation to get the real facts. There are several variations of these plans and they all sound like you would be passing up a terrific opportunity if you do not immediately sign up to ‘own’ your important keywords.
After some in depth questioning, the real story can be summarized by the cliché “If it seems too good to be true, it often is. Like most scams, this one is based on a kernel of truth, embellished by the omission of material facts.
Here is what we found out:
One plan only works if the keyword is typed into the browsers address bar, not a search bar. The address bar is where the name of your website appears like
http://www.your-site-here.com. Most people do not type search phrases into this bar. Plus, in order to work, the person must have downloaded a program that replaces or modifies their Internet browser. This is the real key to this plan. These program modifiers are usually downloaded without the full knowledge of the public. Many times they believe they are installing an enhancement that will add some minor function to their browser at no cost.
In reality, they are being misled as to the real purpose of the program.
The other version of these ‘purchase your keywords’ programs is similar to the above plan, but has the search box of the Internet browser modified to redirect the searcher to the paid-for websites.
With both variations, the key to their operation is that they only work with a modified Internet browser. Many times, such software is known as spyware and piggybacked on some freeware
program to mislead the public into installing the software.
This raises some important questions. Do you want to participate in such a misleading program?
Also, the key to the potential success of such plans is the installed base of the modified browsers. Here is where you will hear all types of claims as to the installed base. However, judging from the comments on various Webmaster forums, it seems that this installed base is too small to be cost effective.
Just for fun, on the last two of these solicitation calls, I pretended to be interested. (One was in reference to a San Diego real estate site and the other was a Houston legal website where we are the Webmasters.)
I asked the caller about their installed base of rigged browsers. Needless to say, I received extraordinarily high figures. They tried to get me to sign up immediately, because the keywords I could get now might be purchased at any moment by others. When I asked them to please email or fax over some verifiable information on the numbers, I received assurances the information would be sent shortly. Surprise, surprise, no information was ever sent! The same scenario was duplicated when I requested a list of a few local attorneys who were using the service for at least six months.
Also, with many free programs designed to find and remove such spyware, upgrading of systems and computers, it is debatable whether this installed base will be increasing or
decreasing. Will your investment create a profitable return?
Again, based on Webmaster forums, it seems to be the consensus that you will get more visitors to your website by sliding your business card under the windshield wipers of cars in a supermarket parking lot.
Copyright 2005 Promotions Unlimited. All rights reserved.
[Sponsored] Bryan Seawell is the proud owner of this article and he owns a site called: “home solar kits“. See how he can help you with his site: “home solar kits” and allow him to share with you his best known secrets here at his exclusive site, “home solar kits“. Thank you for your trust and belief in Bryan. Hope it will benefit you and others. Have a wonderful day ahead. [Sponsored]
Publishing A Newsletter
Posted by internet marketing in Internet Marketing on October 23rd, 2009
Today, many websites offer a free newsletter. Newsletters, from the receiving end, can be a great source for information that is delivered to your in-box. You can simply save the newsletter for future reference, something many people do. From the publisher’s standpoint, though, a newsletter is a fantastic idea as it gives you a database of people who are interested in what you have to offer. Marketers know the value of this. But, aside from the potential financial benefit of such a mailing list, a newsletter is also a great way to keep in touch with users who may have only surfed across your website once. They may, on a whim, sign up for your newsletter and, thus, you have a way to keep in touch with them at a later date. You can also use your mailing list as a source for demographics information or opinions. Want to start a new feature on your site and want to know whether it will work or not? Survey the members of your mailing list.
So, let’s take a look at what needs to be looked at to start your newsletter.
Length
It would be easy to send your users a long, winding email that requires them to scroll a long way to read the whole thing. However, in practice, this doesn’t work very well. You want to keep your newsletter as brief as you can. If you include an article in your mailing, keep it brief and to the point. If the article is long, you could publish a portion of it and direct them to your website to read the rest of it.
Size
Newsletter size goes hand-in-hand with length, but with HTML newsletters being the norm today, it is possible to have very bloated HTML that does something that could be done otherwise with much less code. In short, then, keep your HTML efficient so that the size of the newsletter in kilobytes does not become too large. Remember, you’re sending a lot of them (stress on the server) to people who may still have dial-up (slow download speeds).
Frequency
You need to decide how often you will publish your newsletter. Most are published weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. If anything is published more often than that, be sure to make that very clear to new subscribers because mailings that are sent too often will cause some to unsubscribe because they find it annoying. Also, once you commit to a frequency, stick to it. If a newsletter is sent irregularly, people will find it useless or will not respect it. However, if it comes at the same time with constant frequency, they will come to expect it and you will gain the respect of having done what you said you would do.
Format
Most newsletters are offered in both HTML and Text formats and this is your best bet. Most users prefer HTML and HTML provides you with more flexibility to get your message across. Text emails are very plain looking, however they are smaller in size and readable in any email client (some email clients still have a hard time with HTML). It is best to publish in both formats and give subscribers a choice.
Method of Sending
You need to research and find a way to send your newsletter. Sending mass email is fairly server intensive, depending on the size of your mailing list. For very large lists, it is usual to go to an outside newsletter hosting company to publish the newsletter. These companies have dedicated servers and powerful mass email software in order to send your newsletter without a burp. If you send the newsletter in-house and your list is large, you will want to pay attention to how the mail is sent. We use a PHP-based system designed in house which throttles out-going email depending on site traffic - our way of placing a governor on the rate of sending and not drag our sites to a crawl.
Promotion
When you start your newsletter, you will need to promote for subscribers. If your site is already pretty well trafficked, your job just got a lot easier. Put the subscription form up on your website and begin to collect addresses. You will find that the rate of sign-ups will be very dependent on your site traffic. This action will result in sign-ups, however you may find that the rate of new sign-ups is still rather slow. You need to get their attention. A popup window is a popular and very workable way to do this. While many users don’t like pop ups, this is a use of the popup which makes a lot of sense because it is so workable. Your subscription rate can easily double with this alone. When setting up the popup, use a cookie to ensure that a user does not see the ad more than once for a certain timeframe. You might even want to mention this in the popup itself so that people who are more easily annoyed by them may calm down a bit. Set the popup to appear on their first page view or some other interval. When your code opens the popup, set the cookie. In subsequent page views, your code will detect the cookie and not open the window again.
Aside from the popup, make your subscription form prominent on your website. If you have a forum, see about putting an option into the registration process which will add them to your mailing list when they sign up. Also, invite people to invite friends to your mailing list.
Opt in and Double Opt In
An opt-in mailing list means that a person can visit your site, enter an email address and that address is subscribed. Double opt-in means that when they enter the email address, the system sends them an email which contains a link which they need to click to confirm their subscription. This two-stage setup provides more security because you know the address is valid and that the person signing up is indeed subscribing their own email and not somebody else. The opt-in method will result in much higher subscription rates because you do not need to get the user to do anything else once they enter their address. Double opt-in is more secure, however you will have people who simply do not confirm, therefore the subscription rate will be slower. IF you are after sheer numbers, opt-in is you best method of address collection. However, this method is more open to fraudulent emails. If you use double opt-in, you may want to have a system which will send them a few reminders over time if they do not confirm. In using opt-in, at least send them an email confirming their subscription, with an option to unsubscribe right then and there if they are not the ones who subscribed the address. You might even want to include the IP address of the person who signed them up.
A newsletter is an excellent marketing resource for your website and, if you have not begun one, you should strongly consider it.
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Safeharbor; Ebay’s Own Scotland Yard.
Posted by internet marketing in Internet Marketing on October 23rd, 2009
SafeHarbor are the eBay police department. If you break the rules, commit fraud or try to buy something you’re not supposed to, they’ll be after you.
When You Don’t Pay.
This is the most common rule buyers break – it’s all too easy to just change your mind and try to get out of the auction. eBay regards every auction as a contract, and will punish you if you don’t go through with your end of the deal. If you decide not to pay then expect to get a few nasty warning emails from eBay threatening you with banning if you do it again. Not to mention, of course, that you’ll get a big negative ‘DID NOT PAY’ feedback comment from the seller.
So There Are Things You Can’t Buy on eBay?
Yes, there are: more things than you’d expect. It makes sense that you can’t buy firearms, for example, but you also can’t buy fireworks – eBay are worried about the risks of sending them in the post. Laws in many countries mean that you can’t buy alcohol or tobacco. You can’t buy illegal or prescription drugs, stocks and shares, or lottery tickets. No underwear, either. You can’t buy any little pet puppies or kittens, as animals are banned. If items infringe on copyright, like pirate CDs or software, then they’re not allowed either.
eBay’s policy is controversial, not least because it is somewhat random in its enforcement – and there have been accusations that they’re more responsive to the copyright concerns of big businesses than to auctions for items that might actually be dangerous. If they do decide to go after you or the seller, though, they will cancel the auction and may also suspend your accounts.
Fraud.
eBay runs remarkably well considering how unregulated it is, but there are still fraudsters. If you are a victim of fraud – for example, you pay for an item that never turns up – then SafeHarbor will investigate for you. eBay’s standard purchase protection will give you up to $200 back if your claim is successful. Be aware, though, that this can take a few months.
In addition, if you paid by PayPal, then they can usually reverse the transaction relatively easily and get you more (if not all) of your money back. This is another reason why many buyers prefer to use PayPal. Some sellers are a little scared of the effectiveness of the refund system, as they can send out items in good faith only to find that their buyer was fraudulent and the transaction has been reversed. If you’re worried about fraud, as a buyer, you should always use PayPal.
What’s that? You don’t know how to use PayPal? Well, luckily for you, the next article is all about using PayPal to improve your eBay life.
[Sponsored] Bryan Seawell is the proud owner of this article and he owns a site called: “diy solar power“. See how he can help you with his site: “diy solar power” and allow him to share with you his best known secrets here at his exclusive site, “diy solar power“. Thank you for your trust and belief in Bryan. Hope it will benefit you and others. Have a wonderful day ahead. [Sponsored]
The 4 Ws Of Junk Email
Posted by internet marketing in Internet Marketing on October 23rd, 2009
Junk e-mail or spam has become the scourge of the modern computer world. It eats bandwidth. Spam is like a disease. It doesn’t care about age, religion, wealth. It doesn’t discriminate. Junk e-mail affects us all.
There are 4 keys to the junk mail question
– Who, What, Where and Why.
Who they are
The typical profile of a junk mail sender is as follows. Male, 18 – 30 years of age, single, technically competent and with little regard for their status as a public nuisance. There are female junk mailers out there but, unfortunately, this is predominantly a male preserve.
What they use to send spam
There are many tools available to the spam merchant. The main ones are e-mail extractors, newsgroup harvesters and CD lists. E-mail extractors are programs which wander around the Internet gathering e-mail addresses from websites and often from web
based forums (unprotected forums). A “good” e-mail extractor can gather 15,000 e-mail addresses per hour. Newsgroup harvesters
are programs which search through newsgroups for valid e-mail addresses. Most newsgroups users are aware of this and take
measures to counteractthese harvesting programs. Despite these measures a newsgroup harvester application can gather
20,000 – 30,000 e-mail addresses in an hour. CD lists are one of the worst sources. 90 million e-mail addresses available on a single CD for as little as $20. A lot of the addresses on these
CDs would be junk (many would no longer exist) but an equally large number of theseaddresses would be valid. A CD like this is a junk mailers dream.
Where they do it from
Those involved in sending out bulk e-mail are “entrepreneurs” or at least they think so. The vast majority of those involved
in the spam business are self-employed and work from home. Sending spam is almost the ideal home based business. You name your hours and the business itself is almost automatic. Maximum gain from minimum effort.
Why they do it
Their motivation is money. Considerable amounts of cash actually. Each spammer who sends out 1,000,000 junk e-mails is certain of approximately 100 sales. Many of the products they sell are worth $50 - $100 dollars to them in commission. Yes. Shocking isn’t it? The average bulk mailer earns in excess of $100,000 per year!
Maximum return for minimum effort. Unless of course you get caught and get jail time.
[Sponsored] Bryan Seawell is the proud owner of this article and he owns a site called: “save power“. See how he can help you with his site: “magnets 4 energy” and allow him to share with you his best known secrets here at his exclusive site, “magnets 4 energy review“. Thank you for your trust and belief in Bryan. Hope it will benefit you and others. Have a wonderful day ahead. [Sponsored]
Seecrets On Website Promotion: The Hard Truths On Writing Free-Reprint Articles
Posted by internet marketing in Internet Marketing on October 23rd, 2009
Experts in website promotion all agree on this: get as many inbound links as possible. To achieve this, write free-reprint articles, sent them to major article depositories and soon you will have hundreds, if not thousands of inbound links. That is the hype, the razzmatazz. The experiences of this techie turned internet writer may provide some useful pointers.
This author started with a clean website and wrote 5 articles in as many weeks. There is nothing else.
Within a week, this author’s site got a #1 ranking from Google, using the author’s name as the keyword and has stayed there during this period. MSN finally gave a #1 ranking after wavering between 8 and 12. For 2 to 3 days, Yahoo ranked it as #1 or #2, after which, the ranking disappeared altogether.
There are about 100 sites which reprinted these 5 articles. Many did not activate the link found in the author’s bio. The three major search engines reported a total of 48 inbound links. MSN reported 34 links, Yahoo 13 and Google 1. All in all, this author’s site received about 100 visits from various countries. One article appeared in foreign-language site from Brazil.
Do not be surprised at meeting the odd article pirate. This particular website strips the author’s bio, changed the title slightly, take the whole article in word for word and claim the article as his original creation. Looking at this site closely, it is easy to spot the various styles of different writers, yet this article pirate claimed authorship of all those articles.
This author’s personal take.
Have lower expectations - taking a digit or two off from the figures is closer to reality for most writers.
Choose the right topics. Writing about celebrities, hair are popular topics. There is one particular article on hair in places where the sun has hardly shone before, which had over 30,000 hits in an article-submission site alone. In contrast, articles written by this author on cryptography and technical analysis have only 100 hits. How these popular topics are related to your website’s theme will need your creativity at its best.
Consider using teenagers and young people as your test-market. If they do not read your articles, chances are, few would.
Submission to article sites is an exercise in patience. The author still wonders how some experts still claim there are hundreds of article submission sites, when there are only tens of listed article depositories. Probably, they may be referring to the thousands of one-theme sites such as web marketing.
Despite some flaws, this author still recommends article-writing as a web promotion tool. Seeing your articles accepted by 100 sites and read by thousands is indeed gratifying. Seeing your opinion being quoted and discussed in forums is exhilarating. Seeing one of your articles being blatantly pirated provides a new badge of honor – how many articles get pirated anyway? The internet, like everyone else, is imperfect.
Stan Seecrets’ Postulate: “Website promotion is a journey of a million sweats. Savor each drop and it will taste like honey.”
[Sponsored] Bryan Seawell is the proud owner of this article and he owns a site called: “home wind energy“. See how he can help you with his site: “home wind energy” and allow him to share with you his best known secrets here at his exclusive site, “home wind energy“. Thank you for your trust and belief in Bryan. Hope it will benefit you and others. Have a wonderful day ahead. [Sponsored]
Newsbytes From The World Wide Web
Posted by internet marketing in Internet Marketing on October 23rd, 2009
** Google Desktop Live **
Google’s free desktop search utility made it out of the “beta” stage and users can now download a finished 1.0 version from http://desktop.google.com for free.
With improvements over the “beta” version released in 2004, the finished version not only allows you to search your own computer for Microsoft Office documents, emails, and instant messaging history, but now supports music, video, images, PDF files, and the Firefox and Netscape Web browsers.
In their never-ending quest to make their name synonymous with “search,” Google’s Desktop Search utility makes a bold step towards dominating the desktop search market.
Available for Windows XP and Windows 2000, Google’s desktop search remains miles ahead of MSN and Yahoo!, who released their own beta version desktop search utilities several months after Google.
Google also chose to create an environment friendly to third-party software developers by encouraging them to develop “plug ins” that expand the capabilities of their Desktop Search application.
By allowing others to add their “two-cents” to the program, Google will further cement their position as the leader in this emerging field of “desktop” search.
** MP3 Player Wars Boiling Over **
In response to Apple’s iPod Shuffle, a low priced flash memory MP3 audio player, Sony announced plans to offer a comparably low priced MP3 player in the $100 to $150 range.
This in response to complaints from consumers that Sony’s past MP3 player offerings rated too expensive next to the feature-rich iPpod.
Consumers can expect several developments in response to Sony’s entry into the “Under $150″ MP3 player market.
First, increased use of the portable players will cause related businesses selling the actual MP3’s and accessories to experience continued growth, both online and offline.
Second, a new trend known as “pod casting” is getting set to explode.
“Pod casting” involves content providers (radio dj’s, entrepreneurs, columnists, musicians) creating MP3 audio content and then making it super simple for listeners to automatically download these “broadcasts” online and listen to them at their convenience.
The fact that consumers can now get their hands on the equipment to download and listen to these broadcasts so cheaply means a whole world of amateur dj’s and talk show hosts is about to hit the cyber-airwaves.
Though you’ve heard rumblings about it, and people are grasping around in the dark trying to get a grip on how to implement it, now you can actually plan to see and hear about the widespread use of “pod casting” in the very near future since a potential audience of listeners with the right equipment is now set to grow.
** Associated Press Offers RSS Feeds **
The Associated Press now offers RSS feeds of their top news stories. RSS (Real Simple Syndication) makes it possible for content providers to offer instant updates to their readers without sending email.
Anyone with an RSS reader such as FeedDemon (www.feeddemon.com) can receive and read RSS feeds.
Traditionally, the Associated Press marketed their services exclusively to newspapers and online sources such as Yahoo! News.
Now, by offering their RSS feeds directly to consumers at www.ap.org, the Associated Press is obviously seeking to bypass online news sources and go directly to the consumer.
The fact that the world’s oldest and largest news source has chosen to start offering content this way demonstrates quite clearly that RSS is fast coming of age as an acceptable mass-communication medium and that widespread consumer adoption is imminent.
Soon, there’ll be an RSS reader on every computer desktop and the use of RSS will become as widespread as email.
[Sponsored] Bryan Seawell is the proud owner of this article and he owns a site called: “energy saving tips“. See how he can help you with his site: “energy saving tips” and allow him to share with you his best known secrets here at his exclusive site, “energy saving tips“. Thank you for your trust and belief in Bryan. Hope it will benefit you and others. Have a wonderful day ahead. [Sponsored]
Should Paypal Be Your Only Ebay Payment Option?
Posted by internet marketing in Internet Marketing on October 23rd, 2009
You may have noticed that many sellers list PayPal as the only payment option they accept – they simply can’t be bothered cashing cheques and money orders, never mind any of the other strange ways some people want to pay. Like all things in life, though, PayPal has its advantages and disadvantages. Let’s take a look at what PayPal can do for you, and what it can’t.
The Disadvantages.
PayPal is very vulnerable to fraud, and it’s you as the seller who’ll be paying the price when it happens. What’s more, they do take a percentage from every transaction that you could be keeping if your buyers were paying by cheque.
You might also have noticed that PayPal come from the eBay school of customer service, enjoying such pastimes as hiding their phone number and only ever sending out automated responses to emailed queries. PayPal has an unusual number of campaigners against it, most of them people who’ve had their accounts frozen and had to chase PayPal for months for thousands of dollars. Some of these people recently filed a class action lawsuit against PayPal, claiming damages for lost business – and they won. This alone should make you cautious about using PayPal.
The Advantages.
PayPal is quick and easy for buyers to use, and is certainly a more secure and reassuring way to accept credit cards than signing up for your own merchant account. You’ll probably also find that it’s cheaper for you.
That’s before you even consider that eBay buyers are more eager to buy from someone who accepts PayPal, as it saves them all sorts of hassle with posting payment and then waiting around. PayPal lets you give speedier customer service.
But Should You Use It Exclusively?
The most important thing about only accepting PayPal is, again, a matter of customer service: some of your potential customers might not have or want a PayPal account. Not everyone loves electronic payments – some fear them, and like eBay because it is one of the few places on the Internet where many sellers will accept payment by more traditional methods. Do you want these people as customers, or don’t you?
You might notice that some people are aware of the issues of PayPal and refuse to use it, but still want to pay electronically. For these rare cases, it’s worth opening an account at a well-known PayPal rival that has a better reputation – the current favourite seems to be NoChex (http://www.nochex.com), which offers free chargeback protection.
NoChex is quite a lot better than PayPal by most standards, but just doesn’t have the same market penetration or convenience of use on eBay. Still, there’s nothing stopping you from accepting both, just as long as you make it clear that you do on your auctions. If you find that you really prefer NoChex to PayPal, then you could offer your buyers a discount for paying through NoChex.
Once you’ve got the payment, the next thing you need to do is ship the items. In the next email, we’ll take a look at what you should write on your eBay shipping boxes.
[Sponsored] Bryan Seawell is the proud owner of this article and he owns a site called: “save power“. See how he can help you with his site: “self made solar energy” and allow him to share with you his best known secrets here at his exclusive site, “self made solar energy review“. Thank you for your trust and belief in Bryan. Hope it will benefit you and others. Have a wonderful day ahead. [Sponsored]
RSS Reader Is A Life Raft Saving Us From Getting Lost In A Sea Of Useless Information.
Posted by internet marketing in Internet Marketing on October 23rd, 2009
One of the main problems with the Internet these days is the fact that there is so much information out there; it can be quite hard to find the particular knowledge that you’re looking for. It can often feel like you’re surfing waves of thick chocolate fudge sauce and your honeycomb board has a crack that’s getting wider by the second. Over stimulus is the issue here; you wanted to read opinions from music enthusiasts about music, and every second blog article had to do with new punk hairdo trends and which band has the coolest tattoos. How can we find only the content we’re looking for without getting bogged down in miscellaneous information that erodes both time and patience?
The answer is in context. There’s now a way to sift through the cacophony of babble and wisdom to find exactly what you’re looking for. Instead of having to join clubs and organizations and receive their newsletters via email at their convenience you can now have control over what you receive. Having to search through millions of blogs to find the few you like has now become an obsolete task. The new system is called an RSS Reader: ‘Rich site summary’ or ‘really simple syndication’ are the common definitions of this software. The process begins by signing up to receive automatic updates from blogs and other Web sites that distribute summaries of their latest postings to your reader. You then find which ones you like and delete the rest. You can keep adding new sites until you have literally hundreds of informative connections in your areas of specific interest.
Another great aspect of the RSS Reader program is the fact that you can put in key words of interest and the computer will surf the Web for you and add new blogs and web sites to your list, rating them according to the terms you have selected. You then scan over these and add the ones you feel are relevant, deleting the detritus. Eventually you will have an email-style formatted file where you can search through all your favourite writers, news, and topics’ latest information. Then you also have functions such as ‘comment’ so you can automatically share your input with your fellow humans. Or, you can reply to the ‘messages’ and actually communicate with the producers of the ideas.
This will really help to decentralise the information sharing processes of the current top-down mass communication systems like the media. We can hear multiple opinions on an issue and give our own views, instead of being told one story that is heavily affected by the company’s personal perspective of the situation.
So, you can see this has the potential for something quite big. Less time wasted, finding all the knowledge you’re looking for, and sharing your opinion and meeting others similar to yourself has never been so easy. The RSS Reader is a knife cutting away all the useless packaging, revealing the true content of the gift of the Internet.
[Sponsored] Bryan Seawell is the proud owner of this article and he owns a site called: “diy solar power“. See how he can help you with his site: “diy solar power” and allow him to share with you his best known secrets here at his exclusive site, “diy solar power“. Thank you for your trust and belief in Bryan. Hope it will benefit you and others. Have a wonderful day ahead. [Sponsored]
Steps To Becoming A Web Host Reseller
Posted by internet marketing in Internet Marketing on October 23rd, 2009
You’ve decided to get a reseller web hosting account to resell web space. What now? Here’s a step-by-step guide.
1. Choose the platform you want to use.
More open source software programs are available for Linux than for Windows, which makes Linux less expensive. While most programs (Perl, PHP, Flash, etc.) run on both platforms, a few run on only Windows or Linux. A site that requires ASP or MS Access, for example, requires a Windows platform.
2. Choose the control panel you want to use.
Control panels for websites range from very basic to loaded with features. As a reseller, you’ll also have a control panel for you to set up and control hosting accounts.
In Choosing Your Hosting Automation Software, we compare several control panels, all of which offer good features for web host resellers.
3. Choose your web host.
The web host company that you choose for your reseller account is a key decision — your business success depends on the quality of your host. Factors to consider when choosing a web host for a reseller account:
The platform and control panel
Account features
The company’s reputation — search for online reviews by clients
The record of server uptime
The level of support — how fast does tech support respond to support requests, especially time-sensitive ones?
Flexibility — does the web host have packages that allow you to upgrade when your needs increase? Will they customize plans if necessary?
How long the web host has been in business — while a new web host may be very good, many web hosting businesses fail within the first year
Price — consider what is included in the price
Get Started with reseller hosting. http://www.websitesource.com
4. Set up your hosting plans and prices
Divide your bandwidth by your disk space to find out the ratio of bandwidth to disk space that you can offer. Take into account any ratios that differ if you upgrade to a larger package, and then base your packages on that ratio.
For pricing, consider what competitors charge, but also factor in any additional services you’ll be offering.
5. Develop a business website
You have three main choices for website development:
Create a website using an existing website template http://www.websitesource.com/clientarea/reseller_website_templates.shtml
Hire a designer or a design company to design your site for you http://design.websitesource.com/design/elements_custom-work.php
If you have web design skills, design your site yourself
Include all the information that clients will want to know about your services and company.
6. Make your site e-commerce ready
To be able to accept payments for hosting accounts, you’ll to set up:
An SSL certificate
A merchant account
A payment gateway
7. Set up a helpdesk
A helpdesk allows clients to contact you with support requests and you to track and respond to those requests.
8. Set up billing
With an automated billing system, clients are billed and payments are registered with little effort on your part. Most billing software licenses are priced per month or per year, with some billing software companies offering prices for lifetime licenses.
Some popular billing and payment processing systems:
Modernbill http://www.modernbill.com/
ClientExec http://www.clientexec.com/
WHM.Autopilot http://www.whmautopilot.com/
Whois.Cart http://www.whoiscart.net/
When you choose a billing software program, check if it’s compatible with your server platform and if support is included.
9. Create a welcome email
After you set up hosting accounts for your clients, you’ll need to send them a welcome email. Include in this email:
A confirmation of the plan details
The nameserver names
A username and temporary password
A link to the control panel
Links to your knowledge base / FAQ and to your helpdesk
10. Market your website
Submit your site to search engines. Tell your family, friends, and business acquaintances about your website. Include a link to it in your signature line in outgoing emails. But don’t stop there — market your website http://www.marketingcontrolpanel.com via incoming links, advertising, newsletters, and special offers.
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Real Estate Website Scams
Posted by internet marketing in Internet Marketing on October 23rd, 2009
Many still say the Internet is like the Wild West. When it comes to the proliferation of scams, this is certainly true! As webmaster for over two dozen legal, real estate, and other business oriented websites, we receive a lot of email and phone solicitations. Often our clients ask our opinion on an Internet service or software product. We have researched and found the majority of offers directed toward real estate firms are what I call the half-truth variety.
It is interesting that these offers directed at small to mid-size firms are like live Internet viruses, they seem to mutate over time. The core remains, but, the exterior packaging (a.k.a. sales pitch) appears totally different.
One of the most enduring of such Internet scams is the offer to list your real estate site in an Internet real estate directory at what appears to be a huge savings over a legitimate real estate directory. The perpetrators of such scams provide impressive ‘traffic’ figures, and in many cases, even show that their directory is listed on the first page of a major directory.
Looking at one scam in detail revealed the following facts:
A. Traffic figures can be manipulated. For about $50, anyone can purchase ‘traffic’ directed to any site. The way this ‘traffic’ is generated is the problem. The majority is machine generated overseas, or funneled through MLM /porn/music sites. In either case, your site will register visits but no business will ever be generated.
B. For placements on the first page of major search engines, there are two highly used methods. The first method, usually just makes the statement that the site has page one placement. Ask further and it is usually the name of the directory that has page one placement. The directory name might be www.real-estate-intercontinental-directory1.com and a search for real estate international directory1 could appear on page one of many search engines. However, how many potential real estate clients in Houston, Texas, will be likely to type in this exact directory name into their search engine? What they may use will be phrases like: Houston real estate, Houston TX MLS, Houston Texas agents, etc.
The other method used is bidding on popular real estate phrases on the major pay-for-click search engine programs. The problem here is that these ‘sponsored’ ads have to be differentiated from the real or ‘organic’ results. Once spending limits on the bids are reached, or the bidding program is terminated, the standing vanishes. After all, these standings were only achieved by cash payment, not a properly designed and optimized real estate website. Another factor to consider here is that current webmaster opinions suggest 50 to 70% of searchers skip over such ‘sponsored’ listings in favor of the ‘organic’ listings.
Almost any high school student can create a ‘real estate directory’ with an impressive sounding name like www.professional-real-estate-advice-directory1.com, but do you really want to be listed there? Believe it or not, many naive agents have taken the bait. I asked one such agent what results he had achieved during almost a year with the listing. The reply was NO BUSINESS, and he believed they never received any phone calls. I then asked why he chose to advertise with this firm. The reply was because they only charged $49 for a full page ad for one year.
A far better investment for a real estate website would be a top website submission program such as the one at: http://www.websitetrafficbuilders.com/url-placement-search-engines.htm
The old adage of “You get what you pay for” really applies here. Be careful out there, very careful!
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