By Moe Tamani (c) 2008

not attractive at all. Some of these backgrounds that should be avoided at any cost are:

• A completely black background with light or white text superimposed upon it. Even the best web designers in the world have difficulty achieving an appealing look with this type of background. It gives viewers the impression that you are imperious and condescending and does not do anything to encourage readers to stay on your site. Also, some browsers, when used to print a page, also print background color. This could cause complaints from customers who are not happy about the amount of ink they used in order to print a single page.
• A completely black background with dark words. This is an even worse background choice than the previous one because the words simply cannot be seen without great difficulty. In order to read the text, visitors to your site will have to first highlight the text, a task that will quickly irritate them.
• Complicated, tiled images. Fresh web designers often use this type of background because it is convenient and looks good to them. They should also bear in mind, however, that this type of background can dramatically increase the amount of load time for a website.

Web Design’s Scariest Text

The main reason people visit your site is that they are interested in the content contained within your website. If they are unable to read your text, then there is nothing for them to stay for. Your web design company definitely does not want visitors to find nothing worth reading on your site, so avoid the following pitfalls:

• Centering all your text. A page with all of its text completely centered is unattractive and difficult to read.

• • Overly emphasized text. Some designers bold every other line of text and italicize the rest. This is self-defeating because in attempting to make everything stand out, nothing stands out.
  • Flashing text. Although some people find text that constantly disappears and reappears appealing, it is almost impossible to read, defeating the purpose of even having text in the first place. Text is there to be read!

  Web Design’s Scariest Content

  As a web designer, you should never ignore your content. At the end of the day, the content of your web page is what either draws visitors to your site, or drives them away. You should make sure you include interesting and attention-grabbing content and avoid the following mistakes.

  • Pages consisting solely of links. Pages where every word is a link on its own do not serve any purpose other than to convince visitors never to return to your site.
  • “Funny” content. Including humorous content is risky, at best. Some people may not understand your humor and will need to have it explained to them or, more likely, they will simply leave your site in search of something more interesting that they can actually understand.

  Web Design’s Scariest Multimedia

  Many designers find themselves in love with multimedia and attempt to use it in every project that they undertake. The web design company you work for probably does appreciate your talent with multimedia and, when the situation calls for it, you can showcase your talents to your web design company and your clients. However, designing using multimedia tools is a very time consuming process. You should not let your desire to show off your skills with multimedia compromise the work that you eventually hand in to your clients. You should do your utmost to avoid the following traps:

  • Image overload. Images of all forms, including icons, should not be present in large numbers. As a general rule-of-thumb, anything more than two images is overkill.
  • Overly large images. The readership of your site will not suffer if your images are not of print quality. Large, high quality images take a long time to load and most readers would not care if you had used a low quality image.
  • Embedded audio. Audio streams that play constantly while the page is open are very annoying for visitors who simply want to examine the content of your site. Worse, these audio streams are usually impossible to turn off. If you absolutely must include some form of sound with your web page, you must give your visitors the controls required to turn off the sound if they wish.

  • A scary web design is most definitely not what your web design company hopes that you will produce. The web pages you design should be appealing to readers and help keep them on your site, and not drive them away.

    About The Author
    Moe Tamani is a search engine optimization specialist for SEO 1 Services specializing in SEO web design Brazenwebdesign.com .

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Twitter is one of well over 1000 social networking sites that I know of. I actually have a list of that many, but have only checked out a handful of the most popular ones.

Actually, my list is about 1800 bookmarking and social networking sites. I may share that list with my inner circle soon… after my assistant goes over it with a fine toothed comb

I’ve already shared my list of the most popular (and productive) bookmarking sites in an ebook called, “How To Bookmark Effectively For Massive Free Websíte Traffic!” You can actually download that ebook for free, without needing to opt-ín or fill out any forms at: TheRealSecrets.com

Back to Twitter… Twitter is actually a micro-blogging platform. You register, and then you can “follow” others, and others can “follow” you.

When you log into Twitter, on the homepage you have a window where you can type in messages (”tweets”) of up to 140 characters. When you click the “update” button, everyone who has subscribed to your updates… everyone following you, sees that message instantly… provided they are logged-in to Twitter.

When someone that you’re following updates, and you’re logged-in, you see their posts instantly.

There are Twitter users who post dozens of messages a day. There are Twitter users who seem to stay logged into Twitter and following their friends tweets for hours each day.

At a recent JV Alert Seminar where I was on the expert panel, I watched other panel members, who are also avid Twitter users, actually carrying on conversations over Twitter… right from the stage. They simply pulled out their handheld devices, and twittered away!

While Twitter is fun to just chat with friends, many “capitalists”… like me, wonder if it can be used for conducting business and making sales.

The answer is “Yes, but you shouldn’t post blatant ads on Twitter.”

Instead, you should post links to resources and news, and those links CAN be your affiliate links.

Twitter also has a “Direct Message” feature where you can post a message directly to someone who is following you. No one else sees that message, and using that feature is more appropriate when your post only pertains to one person.

I have made numerous sales via Twitter. Some examples include:

1) When I noticed that the World Internet Summit was hosting a live event in Auckland, New Zealand, on July 17th - 20th, 2008, I twittered about it. This is the first time that they are holding an Internet marketing seminar in a location that doesn’t get very many of those type of events, so I considered it news.

Shortly thereafter, one of my followers from that area, posted a thank you. The next time that I checked my email, I DID notice that he had already registered for the event and that I had earned a nice commission.

2) When Jeff Walker launched Product Launch Formula 2, I tweeted about the bonus package that I offered. I had several followers ask me questions about my package (via direct message) and two of those purchased the package. That earned me nearly $2000.

3) When a friend noticed that I was twittering about how easy it is to earn money marketing to offline businesses as compared to the Internet marketing niche, she posted a link to a product that she suggested I check out.

I clicked on her link and saw that a friend, Rachel Rofe, along with a co-author, Jaime Mintun, had a product that they were selling called “How To Makë $10K In A Weekend.” The product was literally “a seminar in a box.” It contained everything that I needed to conduct local seminars teaching offline businesses about the internet. In fact, the product even included:

• A PowerPoint Presentation that I could use to conduct a 1 or 2-day live seminar.

• Ads that I could run to get commission-only sales people to actually sell the seminar seats for me.
• A script that I could use along with the slides or even give to someone else to conduct the seminar for me.
• Supplemental materials that I could use as bonuses, handouts, or products-for-sale at my seminars.
• Very detailed start-to-finish instructions.

The package literally contained everything that I needed for a local seminar that I was already planning on hosting quarterly in my hometown.

I drooled over the webpage, but didn’t buy right away because I was getting ready to travel to JV Alert Live in Philadelphia that upcoming weekend, and I didn’t want to get side-tracked. However, at the seminar, I got a chance to chat with Rachel Rofe, and she talked me into both getting a copy of the course, AND becoming an affiliate for it.

Wrapping up this story… After going through the course, I fell so “in love” with it, that I twittered about it as well as mentioned it in an ezine editorial. The ezine editorial sold enough copies to earn me nearly $1000, and the tweet, triggered several old friends asking questions about the package. One of those friends subsequently purchased the package.

Those are just a few of the many sales that I’m sure that my twittering has generated. The key is not to just post blatant ads, but when you have something worthy of sharing, and that you know your followers will likely appreciate, then you can generate sales from just pointing out resources.

Aside from direct sales, I’ve noticed dozens of posts on my followers blogs about things that I’ve posted to Twitter. These blog posts were others indirectly promoting me and my products to their audiences.

Your posts on Twitter are also indexed by the search engines, so I’ve noticed my “tweets” showing up in Google for some of my prime keywords. That’s very powerful.

So, there you have a proven formula for marketing your products and services on Twitter without being too “in your face.” The only thing left for you to do is go over to Twitter.com and set up an account. It only takes a few minutes.

Be sure to add me as someone you’re following. My Twitter URL is: http://twitter.com/innercircle1
About The Author
Willie Crawford is founder of The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, Executive Directory of The International Association of Joint Venture Brokers, and co-host of the Internet Marketing Momentum Bootcamp. Have Willie teach you serious marketing firsthand at: InternetMarketingMomentumBootcamp

• 1 Comment

Addicted to purchasing domains like me, or you just need to buy one for a specific money making project idea. Well stop paying full price at godaddy. Just don’t go sharing this everywhere even though it is on a pretty popular website. Instead of pay $10.15 for a domain or whatever it may be i pay $6.95. That doesn’t sound like a big difference but try purchasing dozens of domains at one time and the difference starts to look much nicer. Here you can find the link to Godaddy discount codes and yes they work and are always updated. Sorry this isn’t a long post I just thought i would hook everyone up before the weekend.

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By Bill Platt (c) 2008 the Phantom Writers

Written by Bill Platt, owner of http://www.thephantomwriters.com

Online marketers frequently struggle with the question of how to compete when Google fails to look positively upon a particular website. In this article, I will focus on how to build rankings and drive traffic to your website, using Google and the other search engines.

What Motivates Google’s Algorithm

Over the years, many have tried to claim, even in court, that Google was unfairly keeping their website out of the top of Google’s search results. But, the truth is that Google is not beholden to the needs and desires of the webmasters who want to be on page one of Google’s natural search results.

Instead, Google is beholden to its stockholders and its need to earn profíts. Google has determined that the best way to keep profíts high is to keep Internet users flocking to its websites. Google accomplishes that by giving its users the kind of information they are looking to find, and Google weights its search algorithm towards what Google believes its search audience wants to see in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

It is important for online marketers to understand that it is not always in Google’s best interest for our websites to rank well in Google.

How Important Is Google In Search?

Worldwide, Google is currently providing 78% of all searches.

But in 2007, Google only provided 52% of my website’s total search traffic. Yahoo, Windows Live, Ask, and MSN provided the next 42%. The remaining 6% of my website’s search traffic came from another 55 smaller search engines.

On my website, only 48.8% of my 2007 traffic actually came from search engines. The remaining 51.2% of my website’s quarter million visitors came directly from article placements on other websites, recommendations from other people, forum posts, and from people who have bookmarks for my website.

Tips For Ranking Well For Specific Keywords

It has been my experience that it is easier to rank in 1) MSN / Windows Live, 2) Yahoo, and then 3) Google, in that order. Quite frankly, I have always ignored the role of Ask in the search market. While MSN is the easiest search engine to rank in, it only delivered 4.6% of my total search traffic in 2007.

I read a question in a forum, where the poster was asking how he could get his website to rank well in Google for the search term, “software”.

The truth is that it is nearly impossible in nearly every search engine to rank well in the natural results for such a singular keyword as “software”. In a nutshell, if you want to rank well in Google, you need to build inbound links (IBLs) to your website with your targeted keywords in the links.

But, you don’t want to put all of your links together with one keyword phrase. One of Google’s red flags is when they notice a link to a particular website appearing more than 60% of the time with one specific keyword phrase.

Utilizing a variety of long-tail keywords will actually serve you better in the search-engine ranking puzzle, in more ways than one. After all, when I do a search for software, I don’t type in the search word, “software”. I type in search phrases like: “accounting software”, “small business accounting software”, “windows software accounting small business”, “windows image editing software”, “windows software image editor”, “windows xp photo album manager”, etc.

People searching the keyword “software” have yet to figure out that they are looking for specific kinds of software. Once they do an initial search, they are going to type in more specific search terms to find what they actually want. So, once you start targeting a variety of long-tail keyword phrases, then you will start seeing more success in your search marketing efforts.

How To Start Your Search Engine Optimization Journey

If you are wanting to get into the natural search results of Google and the other search engines, you must know before you dive into the project that getting good rankings in the search engines for your chosen keywords can take a really long time, before you begin seeing results.

While inbound links to your website, targeted to your chosen keywords, will help your website climb in the search results of your favorite search engines, it may be a frustrating journey.

Your competitors want to rank well for the same search terms you do. And since only ten of you can be on page one of the search results, you may have to work really hard to topple those guys already on page one of the results, and you will have to fight to keep your ranking once you get it.

There are some keyword phrases that are nearly impossible to rank for, even if you have really deep pockets. For example, most every keyword phrase for the financial industry will be extremely difficult to rank for in Google. Competition in this industry is fierce, so achieving top search rankings will be tough to say the least.

This is the reason why so many SEO experts encourage marketers to target “low-hanging fruit”. It may be fairly easy to rank well for a four- or five-word search phrase, and extremely expensive to target a two- or three-word search phrase.

My personal approach has always been to rotate through a líst of more than 100 target keyword phrases, over a longer period of time. In doing so, I capture a lot of low-hanging fruit quickly, and at the end of the loop, I am a bit closer to snagging the fruit in the upper branches of the tree. At the end of my líst, I analyze my keywords again to see where I am strong and to see where I am still weak, and then I begin the process again. (According to SEOdigger.com, I have better than 950 keyword phrases in the top twenty results of Google.)

How To Get Links

The challenge most people face when they begin building links to a website is where to get those essential links.

Article marketing is my chosen method for getting inbound links.

Because of Google’s news feed strategy, the initial placement of your article might appear immediately in the SERPs, but then it will disappear. During the news cycle phase of the Google algorithm, new materials are given an added boost in ranking. Once the news cycle is done, any new pages will sink back down to where they would be based on the general Google algorithm.

If you are honest with yourself, you know that every page on the Internet started life with a PageRank Zero, but given enough time, many pages will gain in PageRank, as they begin to be linked. For a more detailed look at the process of how reprint articles gain value for a website in Google’s search index, see my article about “Fishing for Links in Google”.

Utilizing article marketing as a link building method, I have put one website on the map in as little as eight weeks, with only three articles. This website has one #1, one #2, eight results on page one, and twelve results in the top twenty listings of Google. Most of those keywords also rank well in Yahoo and MSN.

On the other hand, on my main website, I started looking at the keyword phrase “article marketing” just eighteen months ago, when my website sat at #79. Today, my website sits at #12 in Google for that keyword phrase.

I believe that given enough time, investment and commitment, I can use article marketing to elevate any web page on the Internet to multiple page-one listings in Google. But, not everyone is willing to make the kind of investment and commitment one needs to get to the top of Google’s search results…

What To Do When You Need Results Now

If you simply cannot wait as long as it takes to build top rankings naturally, then you need to look seriously at Pay-Per-Click advertising models, such those offered through Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing .

Written by Bill Platt, owner of http://www.thephantomwriters.com

• 1 Comment

Introducing Feed Compare, a free web application that you can use for comparing FeedBurner feeds. This tool is great for checking out your competition and noticing trends in growth.Much like comparing website ranks using the Alexa website, you can use Feed Compare to compare your feeds against up to three other feeds. All you have to do is input the name of your feed, and then the name of your competitors feeds.

Features for this tool include: viewing up to 24 months worth of data (other options are: 12 months, 6 months, 3 months and one month). Zoom in on particular timeframes using click and drag. Users can link directly to the feed comparisons chart much like Alexa ‘permalink’ style. And it allows users compare up to 4 feeds at a time.

article from webappers.com

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SEO (Search Engine Optimization) both the bane and boon of many a person’s existence. It’s a known fact that the best way to get traffic to your website is by simply having your site show up in the first page or two of the major search engine’s results. Visitors that come in from those search engine results pages (referred to as SERP) have two main things going for them. They are more likely to buy, and they didn’t cost you any money to get there. Getting your site onto those first two pages can be a struggle, and people are always watching what you are doing and gunning for the top spot. You have to keep aware of all of the latest tactics and methods and measure yourself against your competitors.

Before we go any further it’s important that you understand the nature of SEO. It is not an exact science. The exalted minds inside the Googleplex do not share their secret sauce with the unwashed masses. The reason for this is simple: if they revealed exactly how their logic works, it would be exploited–this has happened before. The methods for performing SEO are based upon the trial and error of many, many internet users as they worked out what works, what doesn’t and what will get your site unindexed - or worse: banned.

Off Page Optimization

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Look, it’s incredibly difficult to be a small business owner! There are employees to manage, customers to please, bills to be paid, and a million other things to consider. And, on top of all of that, you’re still trying to grow your business.

I’m sure you’ve wanted to throw your hands in the air and give up. But…you haven’t. Perhaps you hang on because you can see the potential of your business. In other words, you know you’re sitting on the edge of unbelievable success.

If this describes you, then I’ve got great news! You see, I’ve just completed an e-book:

The Edge of Success: 9 Building Blocks to Double Your Sales

And, I am offering this e-book as a FREE download. In it, small business owners will discover:

• Simple steps to turning prospects into customers, and customers into raving fans
• How to systemize and simplify business management
• Why automation is imperative to small business growth
• The one “secret” every small business owner must know
• And so much more!!!

This book is a powerhouse of information! Information that will grow your company quickly and profitably. The same techniques and tactics in this book have been used by hundreds of companies to easily double, and even triple their current sales. The book is free, but could be worth thousands, or even millions to your bottom line!

So, if you’ve ever felt so close to success you could taste it…you need to read this book. It is the key to pushing your business past its current state and turning it into the business you always dreamed of!

Download The Edge Now!

Within minutes you could be on your way to skyrocketing your income. This is an opportunity (a FREE opportunity) you can’t afford to miss!

Sincerely,
Clate Mask
President, Infusion Software

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It is time to have some icons again. This time, Icojoy is sharing some of the really nice mini icons. These icons are free to use in any kind of project unlimited times. The icons come in 6 different file types, .ico, .icns, .tif, .gif, .bmp, .png. Some of the icons are designed for blogs, dating, player and social networks as well.

Requirements: -
Demo: http://www.icojoy.com/blogs/3/
License: License Free

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Yes, you can design a site to go viral. You can generate traffic through word-of-mouth and linkbaiting, and that’s how I intend to get most of my traffic to my new one. It includes some social techniques mixed with my lessons learned from the last two sites which sadly, no longer exist.

So that you don’t have to watch your best efforts go to waste as I once did, here are some tips to help you on your way.

1. Be unusual: The Internet is way, way to big for vanilla. Vanilla is everywhere. So, find a topic and either approach it from an unusual direction, be controversial, be humorous, but be different.
2. Make it a “.com”: I don’t care if your site is a company or not. When I say “Dot Com” to anyone, they know what it is, because the term is a pop culture phenomenon now. My last sites were “.net” because I was trying to be compliant, but it doesn’t matter. If you have to take a pencil and pad and hammer out URL’s until you can get something you can use with a “.com” extension, do so. It makes your URL much easier to remember.
3. Give it a catchy URL: Another big problem of mine I’ve since fixed, and again, if you have to go at it all day with a pencil and pad, invent a catchy URL. Catchy URL’s are preferably short and memorable in some way. To go viral, they should also be fun. “Google.com” is fun, and look what happened to them.
4. Make it interactive: In Web 2.0, it’s the only way to go. Blog comments, forum postings, and other forms of visitor interactivity are not only expected nowadays, but are a good way to keep your previous visitors returning.
5. If someone wants to social bookmark you, make it easy for them: Mass bookmarking programs, Feedburner Feed Flares, and other things exist so that if your visitors want to bookmark you on their choice of social bookmarking sites, they can. Find the mass bookmarking tool that works best for you, and use it.
6. Images: You have to have them, if only in your header. I’m still working on my site’s images, but you’ll need them in the end. And not just any image, but fun, unusual, or interesting images.
7. Respond to your visitors: Do you have a unique sense of humor, insight, or anything else that helps you stand out from the crowd? Use it to respond to your visitors. Write about their emails. Talk about their issues. They’ll tell their friends about how cool you are, and others will come to visit you.

If you’re designing a site from scratch and want to go viral, remember the tips above. You can get started on the right foot, and will help your advertising efforts go the extra mile with a little viral intent.

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1300+ Free And Quality PNG Icons

Crystal Clear is a high quality & free icon set.

This icon set includes nearly every icon an application may need as it contains 1300+ icons.

Set comes with sizes: 16*16, 22*22, 24*24, 32*32, 48*48, 64*64 and 128*128 in PNG format.

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