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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.

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Digg! Marketing Giant

For Webmasters and Bloggers, not knowing about Digg is like not knowing how to breathe. Digg is a place where you submit news, articles, videos and other media content. Then, readers of Digg can Digg your submission up or down! If enough people find your submission interesting you might even make the front page of Digg. If you do, get your servers ready, because you will get a ton of traffic!

Once you have created your blog or website, the next thing you need to focus on is bringing in visitors. But with hundreds or even thousands of websites on the same topic as yours, readers will have a hard time finding you unless you make a consistent effort to market your blog or website. This is where Digg comes in. You may have seen Digg icons all around the Internet, and even Dugg articles that you found interesting on a blog. What you might not know is that Digg is a powerful marketing tool, which if used correctly, should automatically bring hundreds, if not thousands of visitors to your Blog.

Start with a niche you feel passionate about. If your blog covers sports opinions, focus on submitting articles to the Sports section of Digg.  If you submit one article a day 7 days a week, you should easily get your first 100 visitors. You have to remember, however, that consistency is key to marketing your blog. You have to submit an article everyday, in order to get your visitors.
In the end, it all comes down to being consistent and passionate about your Blog. If the passion dies, the readership falls. If readership falls, the passion dies. Therefore, try to write out a plan, which you can follow that will guide you at building your readership on the Internet.

Leon Basin is a 23-year-old freelance writer, researcher, poet, webmaster, blogger and author. You can find out more about Leon at Leon’s Blog.

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The Importance of Having a Good Design for Your Site

When an idea enters your head for a website, the common mistake that people make is they want to rush, as fast as they can, to get the site up on the web. They go out and buy the domain name, they get hosting, they write some articles (if that’s the kind of site) and they put the site on the web. Can anyone here see the problem? They did not spend any time on trying to get a good theme for their website. They were in such a rush to get the site online because they think it will make so much money, they spent no time ensuring that the site had a design that was worth anything.

The common mistake that so many people make when they start a new site is they don’t spend the time (or the money) to get a well constructed design for their site. They find the first thing that they think looks decent and they put it up, not really caring if there are some broken links and images that just don’t fit because in their eyes, it’s really only the content on the site that matters. I agree that the content is what matters; however, what is the very first thing that the visitor is going to see when they come to the site? The design.

The first thing that the visitor is going to see when they come to your site is whether the design looks good or if it looks bad. They are not going to read the articles in the first five seconds. They are going to, chances are, look around and either say, “Wow, this looks really cool” or say, “Wow, this looks really bad.” You don’t want to be the second one.

To prevent against that happening, when you do decide on an awesome idea for a site, spend a bit of money and get a nice design. Get one that fits your niche. If you’re talking about the environment and going green, I don’t recommend that you use black and red for the site. I personally don’t think environment when I see that. Also spend some time really getting a good logo designed. Get one that people are going to stop and say, “Wow!” You want to get the ‘wow’ effect. That will cement the site in their head and by doing that, they will come back again and again.

If your site is one that you want to make big then you should be willing to take the time and potentially spend the money on finding a good design. First impressions are key for anything, whether it is a website or anything else for that matter. If you are going out to dinner with a boss, you want to take the time to really look good. The first impression, if good, could mean that you would be given a promotion. It can also mean negative things.

So, take the time and the money to get a good design. I’m not saying spend hundreds of dollars on one. Just spend some time to try and find one that will suit your site. And, if you have the money, spend it on really getting a good design. The first impression will bring people back to your site time and time again. That is, of course, if the content is also good. But, that’s another topic for another time. Get a good design. First impressions are everything.

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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Free Webhosts: Should You Still Care About Them? – Part 2

In the first part of this series, I talked about the disadvantages to hosting your site or blog for free. In case you think those statements were a bit too radical, let me confess one thing: I agree with you. I do believe that free webhosts aren’t necessarily the root of all evil.

Here are some reasons why free webhosts shouldn’t be totally ignored by webmasters and bloggers:

1. Free! Does that word ring a bell? We all know it does. Although one might say that all free things have little or no value, that’s not always the case. And let’s not forget that there are times in life when our financial issues are so serious that every single penny we can save makes a huge difference to us — or to our family. Besides, depending on the country you live in, paid webhosting may not be as affordable as it’s usually said to be.

2. Is it harder to make money from sites hosted for free? Probably. Is it impossible? Certainly not. There are still some advertisers who will want to buy ad spots and reviews from such sites. Affiliate marketing is another option to take into consideration, as well as certain pay-per-click programs (AdSense anyone?). Several bloggers and webmasters who use free webhosts are generating decent income from their pages. Some of them will even teach you how to achieve similar results.

3. Many of the complaints about free webhosting are made by people who are unable to follow rules. If you choose a free webhost that doesn’t allow adult content and still you insist in running an adult-oriented portal on their servers, you just aren’t entitled to whine when your site is deleted. It’s really that simple.

4. Unstable people shouldn’t spend their money with paid webhosting. Some individuals suddenly fall in love with a singer or band and proceed to create sites, blogs, photoblogs and forums devoted to their idols. A year later they realise that they couldn’t care less. And then they feel a bit ridiculous for having spent money for reasons that now they admit to be futile. If you recognised yourself in this description — replace “singer or band” by any subject that might inspire sudden yet temporary feelings in you –, free webhosting is the way to go.

5. Free webhosts are great for test sites. By the way, I’m going to post a whole series about test sites here. Subscribe to The WebMaster Blog now and you’ll have my new article series delivered to your favourite feed reader within the next weeks.

If you can think of yet more reasons why free webhosts aren’t that evil after all, please post them on the comment form.

In my next article I will give you some advice on when and how to choose a free webhost.

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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Google To Launch “Friend Connect” On Monday

Don’t they say good things come in threes? Well, regardless, we
’ve heard from multiple sources that Google will launch a new product on Monday called “Friend Connect,” which will be a set of APIs for Open Social participants to pull profile information from social networks into third party websites.

read more | digg story

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Hiring and Running Effective Content Writers

When you run one site for yourself, it is very easy to update it yourself and grow it. If you’re running a content site, typically it’s on a topic that you enjoy, so updating it is easy. For instance, I run a blog about politics and it is easy to update because I love politics. However, like a lot of business people, you want to expand your network. Perhaps you decide to take on a second site. And then a third. If you continue to take on sites, you’re going to be stretching yourself thinner and thinner. If you continue to grow, you won’t be able to do all the work without neglecting to work on other sites in your network.

So, what do you do? You are left deciding to either sell off some of the sites or you do what a lot of other webmasters have done: hire content writers. Hiring a content writer can be a very effective method in getting content for your site allowing you to get more work done and, hopefully, get more money in your bank. However, there are some things to look for when you are hiring content writers and some questions to ask yourself. Here’s what I do when I start to hire content writers.

  • Determine what you are looking to gain. Are you trying to publish as many content sites as you can or are you trying to create authority sites that people are going to continue coming back.
  • Based on the above thought, you have to then ask yourself what your goals are. Are you looking for the writer to become a regular writer and replace you, or to just write a few articles a week, leaving you with some work?
  • How big is your budget? Based on what you are looking to do should determine what your budget is. If you want to make a bunch of content sites, you can get away with paying a lot less than if you want to create an authority site.
  • How much do you pay? The numbers that I recommend are a penny or two for small content sites that you are looking to just flip. However, for authority sites, I recommend three or four cents a word minimum. Keep in mind that you are getting what you pay for and if you want your site to be considered an authority, the content needs to be very good.
  • Consider offering a percentage of the earnings rather than paying per article. If you are intending on making the site huge and making a lot, offer either a percentage of the earnings earned on the site or offer to put one of their ad blocks on their article so that they can continue to make money for as long as the site is up.

Hiring content writers can be an incredibly effective method in expanding your network of sites, but you need to ensure that you’ve got the capital and the plan to make the articles that you pay for the best they can be. Hiring a content writer shouldn’t just be posting on a webmaster forum saying “We want to hire people.” Really determine what you want and really try and find the best writers. And, if you don’t have the capital up front, offer to give them an ad spot on the site. They might like that because it means they’ll make money over time.

Content writing is a very simple thing to understand once you ask yourself the above five points. Whenever I hire writers, I sit down and try and determine what I am looking to do. Sometimes, I just want a very simple article written that will appear nice so that I can sell it as fast as possible. However, when I am creating a site that I intend on making very big and an authority site, I only hire the very best. And the budget follows behind that plan. So, consider what your goals are and how much you can afford before you start hiring content writers. Your success will be apparent if you do.

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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Free Webhosts: Should You Still Care About Them? – Part 1

For many people, the “free vs. paid webhosting” debate is over. They would just say that there is enough evidence that free webhosting isn’t worth anyone’s time.

Here are some of the reasons why all webmasters and bloggers should prefer paid webhosts over the free ones:

1. Sites and blogs hosted for free make you look unprofessional. Since domain names and paid webhosting are both cheap, if you still choose free alternatives your visitors may see you as a person who shouldn’t be taken seriously.

2. A direct consequence of the aforementioned problem is the fact that many advertisers won’t do business with you unless you have a self-hosted site.

3. There’s no such thing as truly free webhosting. There is always a catch. Undesired advertising is the most common one. On the other hand, many free webhosts won’t allow you to display your own ads on your pages.

4. When you choose a free webhost for your blog or site, your pages aren’t really yours. They belong to the hosting provider. It means that company can do everything they want, which includes the possibility of going out of business without any previous warning. Yes, it means that your site could disappear at any moment.

5. Many free webhosting providers impose tight limits regarding site customisation, coding and file types. As a result, you may not be able to create databases, use javascript, display flash animations and so on.

Could you mention any other reasons why free webhosts aren’t as good as their paid counterparts? If so, please leave a comment.

This is where most articles about free webhosting would end. But this one is going to be different. After all, I’m sure you didn’t come to The WebMaster Blog just to read the same old stuff that you’ve already found on many other blogs. This is why my next post will present an alternative way to view this topic.

Do not miss this series’ second part: click here to subscribe to our feed.

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.