Month: May 2008

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How Not to Lose (Too Many) Visitors When You Move Your Site – Part 1

One of the biggest problems about using free webhosts is that in case you decide to move to a paid one, you may lose some visitors in the process. Don’t despair though. There are several things you can do about this.

Redirect your visitors

1. When a webmaster or blogger reveals their plans to move from a free site to a self-hosted, paid one, they’re often told to use 301 redirects. You may click here to learn more about this method. As you’ll see, the main problem about it is that most free webhosts won’t grant you access to your .htaccess (infamous pun intended). And if you’re a non-technical type, the whole 301 redirection thing will look like a nightmare to you.

2. You might go for a meta-refresh HTML tag instead. This one is much easier to do and I’ve used it myself several years ago. The problem is that several years ago I didn’t know this practice might get me into trouble with search engines. At that time I didn’t care anyway, because my site’s traffic was almost exclusively generated by my networking efforts. If that’s your case as well, or if for any other reason you feel that search engine traffic isn’t so important to you, here’s the code you must place on your homepage, inside the HEAD tags:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="5;url=http://example.com/">

Replace 5 by the amount of seconds a visitor should wait before being actually redirected to the desired address (represented above by “example.com”). Also make sure to include on your homepage a brief message telling your visitors that your website has been moved and that they’ll be automatically redirected within so many seconds. Include a clickable link right below this message, so people can use it if they don’t want to wait and/or if the redirection fails for any reason.

3. Short URL services are yet another option. You could promote the short URL instead of the actual site address, so that your visitors would always be able to find your site, no matter where it’s hosted. The main issue about such services is the fact that by masking your pages’ addresses, they may hinder search engines from indexing your site. Besides, many spammers make use of URL redirection services, giving them a bad reputation that could hurt you in the end. For instance, when leaving a comment on a blog, you might have it marked as spam if you include a link generated by a short URL service.

If you still want to try an URL redirection service, at least make sure to always use your site’s real address when promoting it or building links for it. Display the short URL somewhere on your site (preferably on the main page) and explain to your visitors that it’s an alternative address that they should save for emergencies, i. e., in case a sudden move is needed, they won’t lose sight of your site (another infamous pun intended).

Would you like to suggest any other ways to redirect visitors to other URLs? Do you want to share any tips or links to helpful services and tutorials? Leave a comment, please.

Redirection isn’t the only way to avoid the loss of visitors when you change your site’s host. I’ll show you other alternatives in my next post. You won’t miss it if you subscribe to The WebMaster Blog now.

Karen Zara has been involved in Internet-based projects since 2002. One of them is Abaminds, a blog for content producers that you can visit by clicking here.

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Getting the Authority Bloggers to Comment on Your Content

When you have first started your blog, chances are, you’re going to be writing really exciting content that is going to really entice the readers and excite them. The reason for this is because you are passionate about the topic and that means that you are going to write about all of your passions. This passion-based writing ensures that the contest is fantastic. However, once you’ve written the content, how do you get people to your site to read the content?

In my recent post about building backlinks, I talked about how you could send e-mails to the authorities in your niche with the topics of your most recent article with hopes of getting them to write something about your latest ‘craze.’ But, I wanted to go into a little more detail and tell you a few things that you want to do when you’re doing that.

Because there are times when we just don’t know what to write about, getting an e-mail from a smaller blogger who had an idea can actually help the authority blogger write something new. I can tell you that I have had a hard time figuring out what to write about and then I had a user e-mail me. However, the thing to remember is that you are e-mailing them telling them that you wrote a really awesome article and that you wanted to know their opinion. They’re going to post their opinion on their blog and hopefully link to you.

The first thing that you want to do when you’re e-mailing an authority blogger is ensure that you have the e-mail correct. Obviously, if it’s not correct, you’re not going to get anything done. Once that is done, send them the e-mail. Rather than going into this huge, detailed letter about who you are, what you want to do, blah blah blah, just write them a short note telling them who you are, that you wrote an article about (fill in the topic) and that if they want to get a better idea about who you are, to check out your about page. Here is an example:

Dear Blogger,

My name is Jacob. I recently wrote a blog post about good web designs on my blog. I was wondering if you might take the time to read it and perhaps give me your opinion about it. To get to know me more, check out my about page.

Thanks,

Jacob

By doing the above, you are not wasting their time, you’re telling them what you are offering, and you are keeping it nice and simple. Include a link to your post and your homepage as well as to your about page. Send it off and call it a day.

The one thing to remember is not to pester them. If they are going to write about your post, they will when they do. If they are not, they are not going to write about it. Pestering them is only going to make things worse. It’s only going to make them get frustrated with you and, if they are spiteful, just forget you even more.

Before you are a big time blogger, you need to get the big time bloggers to know you. Networking is key. By sending e-mails out to the big bloggers telling them about what you do and your most recent work, you’re increasing the chances of getting them to write about you. It’s not going guarantee anything, but it is going to increase your chances. And remember…Even if they don’t snag on this one, the next time you e-mail them, they’ll remember you even more. Networking really IS key.

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Why Most SEO Efforts Fail, And How To Make Yours Succeed – Part 2

In the first part of this SEO series Zeaun Zarrieff talked about optimizing your keywords and your meta tags for search engine optimization. Now he continues with how to optimize your page elements, and how to obtain backlinks.

Optimizing Page Element Arrangement.

Market research firms, and university studies, have found that most human beings read webpages from the top left. Search engine companies like Google, Yahoo, and MSN (Microsoft) have learned this and have programmed their search engine spiders to read pages in the same way. This ensures that their results are relevant and appealing to the users. You should take advantage of this by placing your strongest keywords in this area. if you have an image at the top-left like many pages do, then you should give the image a name that ties in with your subject. Believe me, an image named “img00944567.jpg” is less relevant to the search engine than “SEOstats.jpg”. A human being may never notice the difference, but the search engine will. ALT tags can be employed to as well, for greater SEO impact. Make sure that your text mentions the keyword right at the beginning, and a couple of times in the first couple of sentences. Try to fit in common synonyms and other related terms if you can without making your work seem cluttered or “stuffed”.

Obtaining Backlinks

This is perhaps the hardest and most expensive part of the process, unless you have a killer fan base and community behind you that will sing your websites praises and link to you at no cost. If you are not a rock-star, a politician, or me (just kidding) then you probably will need to solicit backlinks from one of a few sources.

  • Article Directories
  • Web Directories
  • Forums
  • Blogs
  • News Sites
  • Others

Article Directories and Web Directories abound on the internet. You should have no problem finding these. Some will charge you a fee to publish your article and/or link, while others will do it for free. In most cases you can make do with the free ones, but even with automated submission software (applications that automatically submit your hyperlink or article to online directories) it is a time-consuming process.
There are lots of companies and individuals who will submit your links and articles for you, at a cost. Look around and find one that fits in your budget and let them do the grunt-work. Just make sure they do list with the reputable directories with a midrange to high PR (Page Rank). Some shady submission companies will charge you a fee, and then just submit you to the directories that they already own (sometimes a process that takes mere seconds) which may not even be listed by the search engines, and thus would be of no benefit to you for SEO purposes.

Forums are weighted very heavily by search engines like Google when it comes to backlink quality, but your link from the forum must be formatted properly and seem relevant. This is where “anchor text” comes into play.

“Anchor text” is the visible label that you see on a hyperlink. Let’s do another example.

“I just bought a motorcycle from an online motorcycle dealer that treated me really well. You should check them out.”

In the above example there is a hyperlink that takes you to a site called “Ebay.com”. Now if I was posting a forum/blog entry for SEO purposes, (to make my site seem more important to a search engine) then this example is a perfect and natural-seeming way to link to the site being promoted. In the search engine’s eyes, the site “www.Ebay.com” moves up the ranks for the search term “motorcycle dealer”. Remember that if a web surfer already knows your full website URL (Uniform Resource Locator) then he/she will almost never search for it. They will just type it in and go there directly. So you gain nothing by linking to your site by name, except for name recognition which will come in due course if you promote properly.

If you neglect any part of this SEO tutorial, make sure it is not obtaining backlinks! No other SEO element is more important to the search engines. The more links you have, the more “buzz” the search engine assumes that your site has, and this gives you the biggest boost in rankings possible. If your backlinks are from sites that already have a high PR (Page Rank) you can almost literally ride their coat-tails up into the heights of search engine glory.

News sites probably won’t be reporting on your website unless you are very popular, unless you are very controversial, or unless you issue a very good press release. We’ll go into press releases another time, but for now just remember that if you really want to enter the big-leagues and get backlinks and mentions from major news outlets online, then you will need to tell them you are alive, and press releases are the way to do it.

And that covers most of the common SEO (Search Engine Optimization) methods and how to do them properly. There are other methods, to be sure. Some above board, and others very devious (so-called Black-Hat SEO), but you now have the information required to enter this vast, yet rewarding realm with your eyes open.

Now go forth and use your newfound power for good instead of evil.

Zeaun Zarrieff is a successful Internet Marketer and owner of Buy-SEO-Elite.com, the #1 promoter of the groundbreaking SEO Application “SEO Elite.”

Zeaun thrives in suburban Chicago, IL.

Article Source: Ezine Articles Expert Zeaun_Zarrieff
Why Most SEO Efforts Fail, And How To Make Yours Succeed

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Why Most SEO Efforts Fail, And How To Make Yours Succeed – Part 1

Why Most SEO Efforts Fail, And How To Make Yours Succeed
By Zeaun Zarrieff

Unfortunately most webmasters and internet marketers fail miserably at managing their search engine presence and rankings. While it is true that Google and the other popular search engines go to great lengths to keep their algorithms and determining factors secret, it is not impossible to accurately predict, and even manage (to a certain extent) how you will be seen, and thus ranked by the search engines.

Enter the billion-dollar industry of SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

SEO is the practice of tailoring certain key elements of your websites to attract the interest of the search engine spiders, to increase your site’s perceived value, and to move higher in the ranks of search engine results.

The methods that are used to accomplish this, although made to seem mysterious and difficult by a veritable legion of “gurus”, are surprisingly simple and can be broken down into the following categories.

  • Optimizing keyword density
  • Optimizing meta tags (Page Title, description, keywords)
  • Optimizing page-element arrangement
  • Obtaining backlinks

Let’s take a short look at the first item, “Optimizing Keyword Density”.

Now why do you suppose that I didn’t say what most SEO “experts” do? They will usually phrase it “Maximizing Keyword Density”, but that advice, while perhaps accurate in the past, is now worse than ineffective. The maximization methodology today will actually hurt your ranking, not help it.

Keyword Density Optimization is really a very simple process. To put it succinctly, Keyword Density Optimization means “Not too much, and not too little:.

Google has done something which is really a stroke of genius. They have calculated how often in normal human-authored writings a word will be repeated naturally when that word is the subject of the writing itself. If your site doesn’t have enough mentions of a given keyword, you get ranked lower because Google decides that your page is not really relevant for that keyword. Thus you wind up lower on the scale than someone which Google decides is more relevant, and thus a better resource for their customers (the web surfers searching for the term).

The opposite end of the spectrum has its peril too. If your web page mentions a given term too often, and too close together, then Google will “penalize” your ranking as unnatural and potentially misleading.

For those not familiar with internet marketing this may seem like strange logic, but I assure you that it is sound. There is a practice called “keyword stuffing” which many internet marketers and webmasters have used to very lucrative results. Indeed many have become millionaires using this technique to draw traffic. But Google has gone to great lengths to stamp out this practice, at least where their search results are concerned.

So you should strive for keyword density that is natural and “normal”. There are certain percentages and formulas that I could share with you, but most of the people reading this article are probably beginners who need to learn the overall concepts before getting too deep into the mathematics and specifics. For now I recommend reading your content after you have written it out loud, as though you were having normal conversation or giving a speech. It should sound natural and normal without too much repetition of terms, but you should repeat your core terms (keywords) enough times in the text that a listener or reader never has a chance to forget what you are promoting, or are talking about. If you want more in-depth information about this or any of the topics discussed here, be sure to visit the link under my name below and sign up for my newsletter, where I go into a lot more detail.

Next up is optimizing meta-tags.

The meta tags that I am referring to here are the “Page Title”, “Description”, and “Keywords”.

Page title is exactly what the name implies. Generally I put the primarily targeted keyword for a given page right at the beginning of the title. This ensures that the search engine will read it first (page title generally is the first entry in the html code of a web page) and that your visitors and potential customers will see in the upper-left corner of their browser windows.

Let me give you a real-world example. Let’s say that I run a website called “www.myfirstwebsite.com” (I do incidentally) and I have a page about “SEO Techniques”. I would format the page title as the following:

“SEO Techniques and Strategies – Explained by My First Website Dot Com”

There is actually very good reason to format my title in this way. The first is because the Search engine, as it ready the HTML code that makes up my web page, will read “SEO Techniques” first. I then throw in the word “Strategies” to make sure that my page is seen as relevant in case the searcher chose the term “SEO Strategies” instead. From there I separate my website name into separate words so as to capture traffic for those individual words, and any combination of them.

Understand, search engines are not as smart as people. You and I can see the title “MyFirstWebsite.com” and our minds automatically separate the words into individual concepts instantaneously. The search engine, being a machine-driven program, doesn’t have it so easy. It has to match all of the letters against its database of English words and choose whether the phrase is a single word, or a mash-up of individual words. This process, takes time and processing power, something seen as a premium in the computing world. Therefore if another site already has those terms separated, they have an advantage, as the search engine sees it. So the page with the phrase “My first website” in the title (already separated) would be seen as more relevant than one with “MyFirstWebsite”, assuming that the searcher typed in “My First Website” as his/her search term.

So the moral to the story is, put your primary keyword at the beginning of your page title.

The same is true for our next topic, “Page Description”.

Start your description with the primary keyword, then move on to explaining why your site is the best for that particular thing or concept. Let’s look at another example:

Which description for a page about SEO is better?

  1. Why should you practice Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? We show you why.
  2. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and why you must master it. A simple tutorial.

If you picked the first one, you really should go see if UPS is hiring. You probably don’t have the eye for Internet Marketing. Most of us can see that any description which makes the reader pass through 4 words before mentioning the thing they are searching for is really poorly written. And if you consider the fact that the vast majority of newbies (beginners) have no idea what the acronym “SEO” actually stands for, then the 1st example makes them pass through seven words before getting to the item that they are looking for (“SEO” in this case). And don’t forget that search engines are much less intelligent than we are. If a user searches for “SEO” and your page description doesn’t mention SEO until word number seven, then you have really hurt your chances of ranking highly for that keyword.

Now the 2nd choice is, in my humble opinion, a work of art. Look at what we have done.

  1. Mentioned the primary keyword (subject) first (SEO).
  2. Mentioned the secondary keyword second (Search Engine Optimization).
  3. Given a hidden (subliminal) command (“You Should Master It”.
  4. Used a “power word” (“Master”).
  5. Given a “newbie magnet” term (“simple tutorial”).
  6. Included a feel-good word (“simple”).
  7. Included a very common search term (“tutorial”).

Don’t be intimidated by the terms used above (newbie magnet, subliminal command, power words, etc.). There’s not enough space to go into them here, but my newsletter explains these all in detail. Let’s move on.

In part 2 of the series, Zeaun Zarrierff will talk about how to optimize your page elements, and how to obtain backlinks. Make sure you don’t miss the conclusion of this great article on search engine optimization by Subscribeing to The WebMaster Blog now.

Zeaun Zarrieff is a successful Internet Marketer and owner of Buy-SEO-Elite.com, the #1 promoter of the groundbreaking SEO Application “SEO Elite.”

Zeaun thrives in suburban Chicago, IL.

Article Source: Ezine Articles Expert Zeaun_Zarrieff
Why Most SEO Efforts Fail, And How To Make Yours Succeed

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Getting More Backlinks with the Right Keywords for Your Blog

When you start a blog, you’re incredibly excited and you start to really cram out the content. I can remember when I started my first blog, I had time stamped about four articles and I was writing more and more. The first few articles were published and I waited…waited…waited…And no traffic came. So I tried some more articles and I waited…The same thing happened. Now, when I started this blog, I was brand new in blogging. Since then, though, I have determined what my problem was: no one could find me.

But, not only could people not find me, search engines could not find me. When you’re running any kind of website, whether it is a forum, blog, or content site, you want the search engines to find you. They bring the traffic that is going to click ads and sign up for affiliate offers far more than any other kind of lead to your site. I realized this and went in search of some information to try and increase my ‘findability.’ I realized that I needed to build links to get people to my blog. However, I also needed to use the right keywords.

What I pieced together was a series of steps that I felt would increase my ‘findability.’ They’re not full proof as nothing in this world is, but they are an effective method in increasing the number of backlinks you receive as well as increasing your keyword rankings in the search engines. Take from this list as you please. However, here are some methods to increase both:

    • Join a couple of forums in your niche and put a link to your blog in your signature. However, not only are you going to put the link in your signature, you’re going to use the anchor text (keywords) that you want to rank for on the search engines.
    • When you write a blog post that is really good, send an e-mail to the authorities in your niche and let them know that you wrote it. Sometimes, they are looking for ideas and they’ll link back to you for giving them an idea.
    • Another thing to do when you write an awesome post is submit it to an authority blog in your niche for a guest blog post. By doing this, you’re getting on their blog, but you’re using the keyword YOU want rather than the one that they think you may want.
    • Comment a minimum of ten times a day on different blogs. I found that if I commented on different blogs at least ten times a day, I would start to become a part of the communities and people would know who I was.
    • Consider holding a contest. By holding a contest, you’re going to determine how they can win. If you’re link building, tell them that to be entered in the contest, they need to link to you with the keyword you want. My advice, though, is to have a couple of keywords rather than one.
    • Finally…Consider having a budget and going out to purchase some links. If you purchase the right links, you can really get the ‘findability’ that you want as well as the ranking in the search engines. But, do it the right way else suffer the great Google Ban!

    The trick to getting good backlinks and strong keywords is to be in control. Pick a few keywords that you want to rank for. Also, don’t JUST link to your homepage. If you wrote a very cool article, link to that article with a very specific (or not so specific) keyword. By doing this, you’ll get traffic to individual blog posts and not just the main blog.

    All in all, what you want to do is make it so people and search engines can find you. By using the above steps, what you are guaranteeing is that you are increasing your backlinks and, on top of that, making sure that the keywords you rank for in the search engines are the ones that you want to maximize traffic. By doing this, you’re going to really increase your exposure to the blogosphere. Try it out…See what happens.

    Jacob is an avid guitar player as well as a biology major in college with hopes of becoming a professor. When not blogging on The Webmaster Blog, he is over at his political opinion blog.

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    Web Hosts Dedicated IP vs. Shared IP

    Before we get into the reasons a dedicated IP is far more better than a shared IP let’s go over the difference a little. A shared IP would be like getting a birthday cake and sharing it with 10 complete strangers. You don’t know where their hands have been and you don’t know what they’ve done with those hands. A dedicated IP would be like having a birthday cake to yourself. You know exactly where you’ve been and exactly where your hands have been. With the growing number of spammy website’s and black hat webmasters on the internet today, having your website on a shared hosting provider using a shared server IP could get your site blacklisted, blocked, and even penalized by search engines. A dedicated IP is just that, dedicated. Your website is the only website using that IP address meaning you control your own destiny. Many easy website hosting providers offer dedicated IP’s for their customer’s who wish to take advantage of them. Paying the extra $2-$4 a month for a dedicated IP may not be such a bad idea. It could save your hard work from getting blocked by Google, Yahoo, and other popular search engine due to someone else’s bad spamming habits.

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    Free Webhosts: Should You Still Care About Them? – Part 3

    In the previous part of our free webhosting series, we discussed the advantages to having your sites hosted for free, as opposed to the disadvantages mentioned in the first part.

    Now you have enough information to support your decision. If you choose to try a free webhost — even when you are aware of its probable limitations and risks — , there are still several factors that you should take into consideration before picking any company.

    Here are some things to keep in mind when choosing a free webhost:

    1. Make sure the free webhosting provider offers exactly what you need. Will they let you display your own ads on your pages? Which file types are allowed? Are MySQL databases available to users? Can you build your site from scratch or do you have to stick to pre-made templates?

    2. Your site may not need as much bandwidth and disk space as you think. So, don’t get easily impressed at free webhosts that offer vast amounts of either. Otherwise you will expose yourself to the risk of having an unpleasant surprise some months later… when the company modifies their features in the most drastic way possible (in case you’re wondering: yes, it’s happened to me). Please take this piece of advice: pick a free webhost that offers realistic packages.

    3. Always take the time to visit several sites or blogs hosted by the free webhosting company you’re interested in. Many free webhosts have directories. Others will display links to some users on their front page. In any case, try to study the sites, analyse their load time and take a good look at the default ads forced by the webhost (if any).

    4. If you plan to make money from your site or blog, study all the possibilities *before* starting your site. If you save this task for a later time, you will be disappointed when you are rejected by potential advertisers because your site is hosted for free. So, analyse the money-making opportunities available to free webhosting users before you do anything else.

    5. Does the free webhosting provider make it easy to access their sign up page? If it doesn’t, don’t host your site there. I’ve seen a free webhost do a rather ambitious startup campaign, but when I visited their site and tried to register, their sign up page didn’t load. All webhosting companies are subject to downtime, of course. But let’s just say that an inner voice advised me to stay away from that specific one because it had overpromised and underdelivered.

    6. Don’t let anyone make you feel less important just because you chose a free webhost. Many (arrogant, prejudiced) people state that they won’t even visit a site if they know it is hosted for free. In fact, some of those people are able to make ruder statements on this subject. They will want to make you feel worthless. Now, tell me: can you please everyone at once? Of course you can’t. So, relax, forget the offences and just do what you feel that is right for you at this moment.

    A final word of wisdom that applies to both free and paid webhost users: never ever forget to back up your sites regularly. Don’t rely solely on the back up facilities offered by your webhost, no matter how reliable they appear to be. Bad things can happen to the best companies. Accept this fact and do what you can to prevent the loss of your precious files.

    As always, feel free to leave comments and share your own tips and pieces of info regarding free webhosts.

    And this is the end of the free webhosting series. Or is it?

    While writing this final article, I just came up with enough ideas for a whole new post. So, click here now to subscribe to our feed and you will soon be reading tips on how not to lose visitors when you move from a free webhost to a paid one.

    Karen Zara has been involved with Internet-based projects since 2002. She is the creator of Abaminds, a blog for content producers that you can visit by clicking here.

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    How may I contact you? Nowhere to submit this question to a FAQ!

    The web gurus have already revealed the secrets to building successful websites ages ago: attractive design and good content.

    However, apparently, most of them neglected the need to mention other small but important details or factors which might make or break an ultimate website: for example, uniqueness of content, website promotion and whether there is any contact information on the website.

    I will like to discuss here about the importance of having contact information on websites. I shall leave the topics of unique content and website promotion for another articles at other times.

    Have you ever used an online service or visited a website where the information or help pages provided are unclear at best and you have no choice but to seek clarification from the support or webmaster? I have personally experienced a recurring system problems with a major free email provider, and I have no means of contacting the support because its support ticket system was faulty as well. I bet you can imagine my frustration, especially when I try to think of the possible reasons why a major free email provider is afraid to list its email. Is it afraid of spam? I am not going to mention the name of this free email provider here, I just want to get my message across…

    Now, the absence of any contact information whatsoever on a website will not only frustrate the visitors and turn them away, it will also possibly attract some unfavorable allegations and presumptions will be made about the webmaster or the website itself:

    • the webmaster is paranoid and anti-social
    • the website or blog is a spam website or blog (splog), hence no contact information is provided and commenting is also disabled
    • the webmaster is a newbie, which explains the unclear information which is expected because he couldn’t even list down his contact information

    Before the more experienced webmasters and black-hat webdevelopers flame me for writing this post, I will like to state here that I know some websites deliberately left out contact information as part of their marketing strategies. These people know what they are doing and are obviously profiting from their unusual web strategies, but for the rest of us, especially for those in the service industry, should follow common sense and do that which is highly recommended: provide at least 1 way for your visitors to contact you. Not all web users are super geeks who like to do Whois lookup just to find out the webmaster’s email address. There are also other problems to consider like Whois privacy protection and webmasters who use free providers’ subdomains.

    What are the advantages of listing your contact information on website?

    I could probably write another article, elaborating about the advantages you could expect when you list your contact information on your websites but I want to keep this article short, just to raise awareness about importance of contact information on websites, so here I list down the advantages in a simplified form:

    • visitors can submit feedback, error reports, broken links, etc.
    • prospective advertisers can contact you to buy an advertisement space, review or link
    • other webmasters might want to contact you for joint venture, sponsor deals and link exchange
    • some visitors are interested to know more about the person behind a website and to make new friend

    There are many ways to include your contact information on your websites but you will have to consider the possible risk of spams. Therefore, it is recommended to display your email, address and telephone number in images rather than easily copied texts or even better, integrate a contact form into your website or blog. In upcoming articles, I will show how to integrate a contact form into blogs (Blogger and WordPress) and websites (HTML/PHP). If you are interested in the upcoming articles, do consider subscribing to The WebMaster Blog feed now for them to be delivered direct to you.

    So, what is your opinion about this issue? Could you live your webmaster existence without providing contact information on any of your websites? Or do you prefer to interact with as many people as possible, minus the spam visitors?

    BobbyT is a 23-year-old blogger, freelance writer and internet marketeer wannabe. You can visit his blog at http://bobbytoat.blogspot.com

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    The Basics of Domain Flipping

    Domaining or Domain Flipping has been a very profitable business for a number of years, now. It has been going through a bit of a recession as of late, but that’s probably due to the influx of newbies and scammers to the business. As long as you present yourself well, and show that you are not a scammer, then you will have no trouble in the domain flipping business. Also, since everything in this business is done online, after you’ve flipped your first domain, you can be like “Yeah, I make money online!”

    Domain flipping is in and of itself, extremely simple. All you have to do is register a new domain that is available, and sell it for more than you registered it more. For a registrar, I recommend Namecheap. Namecheap allows you to transfer funds for a PayPal account that does not have a credit card attached to it, unlike GoDaddy, or some other registrars. As a bonus, I will tell you Namecheap’s coupon code for this month; It’s MAYFLOWERS. Now, what I just explained is the very basis of domain flipping, but it might only make you $1-$30 depending on the domain you get.

    If you’re wanting to make more than $30 a pop, they you’re going to have to invest time, resources, and maybe even some money into the business. First of all, people want domains with some sort of traffic. There are a variety of ways you can obtain traffic, but there are two good free options. These two free options are, PPC websites, and StumbleUpon. PPC websites are easy, but they take up some of your precious time, but they are a viable option for the domainer who isn’t lazy, and has a lot of free time. Basically, you click on ads, and/or view other people’s websites in exchange for credits, which you can use to put your website in the site viewer. This will guarantee that people will view your website for at least 30 seconds, and can bring some significant traffic to your website. Most people know what StumbleUpon is, but just in case you don’t know, it is a social bookmarking site, where you submit websites and people vote thumb up or thumbs down and can give reviews when they “Stumble” onto it, which means they clicked the Stumble button which gave them a random website according to their interest. Another good way to advertise the website and get free traffic is to put the link in your signature in any forums you are active in. Now, this link will appear under every single post you make, and if you are active on forums like I am, then that is a lot of links, and a lot of potential visitors.

    Putting good original content on your site is also a good idea. This will increase the value of the site, which will allow you to sell the content with the domain to increase your profits. You can hire a freelance writer like myself to write the content for you, or you can save the money and just do it yourself. See Jacob’s post on Hiring and Running Effective Content Writers if you are looking to hire freelancers. Doing it yourself is a viable option in this case, even if you are not the best writer, because as long as it is original and SEO friendly, meaning keyword rich, it will serve its purpose of driving free traffic from search engines. You can also include links to other privately owned websites in your content. The private website owners are almost always curious as to who is linking to them, and will most always visit the site that is linking to them, which in this case i s yours. Even if they just visit one time, that’s more than no one visiting you site. Also, think of how many links you can include in one page or article; that’s exactly how man back visits you can expect from other webmasters, who will be unknowingly helping you flip domains.

    Now that you have the domain, and its getting traffic, you’ll need to track it. Otherwise, you’ll have no proof that it is receiving traffic, and you won’t be able to sell the domain for what it’s really worth. I recommend Google Analytics for this, as it is completely free and completely comprehensive. The reporting takes a little while, but you shouldn’t mind because the service you are getting is great, and it’s from Google, so you know it’s reliable. On the subject of selling, there are two types of places I suggest that you sell domains. There are forums such as DigitalPoint and SitePoint, where you can buy and sell domains that are on the cheaper side. Then they are domain auction sites like Sedo with listing fees and commissions similar to eBay. Obviously, Sedo is going to be better for domains that are going to cost more money, where the listing fees and commissions won’t wipe out your profits from your domains. Forum selling and buying is completely safe so long as you are cautious. I got a domain for only $6 on there that I plan to develop and then flip, I just always make sure the person has iTrader, or I have seen them do successful deals before, or hopefully both.

    Now that you know everything you’ll need to do to start flipping your domains, go out and do it! Let me know how my guide helped you, and if you have any more questions, I’ll try to answer them.