Top Level Domain Names For Sale

Although acquiring a domain name seems to be a small part of any web promotional strategy, it has a bigger effect. Domain is the online identity of any individual and business. So, it needs to fulfill the requirements it is supposed to carry out. Successful domain name registration is the key to flourishing web ventures. Domain registration firms will offer you numerous names. You have to carefully choose the names that best suit your business. The basic objective behind choosing the most fitting domain name is to garner maximum amount of traffic and stay ahead of business rivals.

Top-level domain names will offer you superior web exposure in the form of better search engine rankings. There is no denying of the fact that top web visitors get to their desired web sites through search engines. Search engines in a way generate massive web traffic. If you want to redirect that vast flow traffic to your website, you need to have a search engine-friendly domain name. The domain names figure prominently in the leading engine listings. If you grab those names, your job of gaining terrific web exposure will get simpler. The IP address and corresponding domain name you want to opt for should complement your purpose – that’s the rule for selecting domain names.

While choosing the domain names, you should also make sure that the names you are planning to go for should reflect your company’s name or the products and services. You should only purchase a domain name when you are confident that it will promote your cause more prominently on the web. The domain names usually are available on contracts. Buying domain name is not an expensive affair. You can own your favorite domain name with a minimum investment. If you are wise in selecting your domain, you will definitely get the maximum result.

Domain Names For Sale provides detailed information on Domain Names For Sale, Business Domain Names For Sale, Cheap Domain Names For Sale, Top Level Domain Names For Sale and more. Domain Names For Sale is affiliated with Free Domain Name Searches.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Valentino

Domain Names For Sale

A domain name is a distinctive group of characters or numbers that is assigned to an Internet website. If you want to expand your business on the web, you have to buy a suitable domain name. Thus you can develop a worldwide clientele. Potential customers will be able to access you easily. Web visitors are the lifelines of the online businesses. Domain names give them the power to attract more and more visitors. The demand for domain names is always on a high. So is the popularity of domain registration companies.

Whether you own an online shopping mart, mortgage lending service or insurance service, the domain registration companies will offer you relevant names. Those who are selling software and vacation packages can also earn greater exposure by opting for suitable domain names. If you search the Internet extensively, you will also find some domain names that are already listed on major search engines with plum positions. Those sites attract huge amount of traffic on a regular basis. So, it will be easier for you to spread your business on the web with them. You will find various domain names capable of taking your mission further by garnering more and more traffic.

The first step to stay ahead on the web is to find out some exquisite domain names at affordable prices. After all, it’s all about making everyone aware of your online existence. In this era of cutthroat competition, you need to have a relevant and effective domain name to back you up. The domain names should match your objectives so as to flourish on the web. The job is challenging, no doubt. But with a powerful and effective domain name, you will be able to achieve your goal. The personal and business website owners should opt for the best domain names without any delay to seize the initiative.

Domain Names For Sale provides detailed information on Domain Names For Sale, Business Domain Names For Sale, Cheap Domain Names For Sale, Top Level Domain Names For Sale and more. Domain Names For Sale is affiliated with Free Domain Name Searches.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Valentino

Tracking Your Website Statistics To Improve Your Site's Success

So you've got your new website up and running and you've done some advertising to get people to visit. How do you know whether they're actually coming or not?

Most web hosting plans include some sort of statistics package. This software will tell you all kinds of information about your visitors, not just how many you're getting.

All visitors coming to your website get logged by your web server. They automatically create log files with information like your visitors' origin (their IP address), what browser software they're using, the pages they looked at, how long they stayed on your site, whether they arrived by clicking a link from a search engine and if so, they keywords they used when running the search.

The trouble with these log files is they're practically impossible to make sense out of. They're really just long lists of numbers and words that are very cryptic and hard for the average person to decipher.

Statistics software will take these hard-to-understand logs and convert them into a format that is easy for the average person to understand. Most of them will create both reports and charts to show you what your visitors are doing on your site.

Statistics programs are included with most hosting plans. There are a few different ones available, so it will depend on your host, but they're usually accessed through the control panel for your website.

Three of the most popular stats packages are Analog, AWStats and Webalizer. Part of the reason they're so popular is because they are all free.

What Do You Really Need to Know?

These stats programs give you all kinds of interesting information about your website traffic, but not all of it is really that important.

For example, they will all show you the number of hits your website has received. Hits are a little misleading though - they're not the number of people visiting your site.

Hits are actually requests for files, so every single file that gets requested logs 1 hit. If you home page has 6 images and 2 include files, your stats software will register 9 hits every time that page gets loaded (1 for the page itself, 6 for the images and 2 for the includes).

Some of the more important stats to look at include:

- Number of visits
- Page views (you can use this to see which pages are most popular)
- Popular entry and exit pages
- Referring sites
- Referring keywords, if referred from a search engine

By tracking these stats and tweaking things that are related to them you can improve your site's success with your visitors, whether that means more sales, staying on the site longer, more people signing up for your email newsletter, or anything else.

John Lenaghan writes about e-commerce web site hosting and other website hosting topics on the Hosting Report website. Find out more at http://www.hostingreport.org.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Lenaghan

Russian Spammers Learning English to SPAM Your Inbox

How do Russian Spammers get customers in the Western World? Well unlike many of the illegal aliens here coming from Mexico they are learning English and using this to their advantage to SPAM all of us? While we are busy complaining about illegal aliens closing some 80 hospitals in California due to anchor baby free deliveries and over crowding our Prison Systems, which is where we ought to put these Russian Spammers.

Recently I received this email message addressed to me as a US Business Person; “I offer you the services in advertising in Internet: 1. Bulk e-mail spam. We have many email lists from all world. Sent 1 million email cost - $200.00 and if you order great volumes of dispatches that the price for one million for only $100.00” and they even have a website; more information - http://interneo.ru/eng/mailspam.html .

Of course our Federal Trade Commission is impotent in Enforcing the billions of Viagra SPAM each day and cannot seem to stop these Russian Spammers. Why is it that the FTC constantly sends out press releases on how they are fighting the war in SPAM, and yet the SPAM keeps increasing. It is as if the real International Terrorists are Spammers and Scammers who hire them and yet our Justice Department is unable to fulfill their obligation. Consider this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow

Lockspam Free 3.0 Released!

6 August, 2004: Polesoft Inc., home of Professional anti spam software, announced today that Lockspam Free 3.0 (see also Lockspam Pro 3.0 in the end) is now available.

Some features of Lockspam Free 3.0 antispam software:

1. Function with Most POP3 Mail Clients Lockspam Free 3.0 can work with mail clients like Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Incredimail, Mozilla, Pegasus Mail, The Bat!, Foxmail, i.Scribe and many other mail clients.

2. Support Multi-User Mode Lockspam also support multi-user OS, like Windows XP, install once, works for all.

3. Apply Advanced Filtering Rules Lockspam Free 3.0 has a 6-step filtering process for probable spam messages. Allowed List > Allowed Keywords > Blocked List > Blocked Keywords > Polesoft Security Pack > heuristic Polesoft Anti-spam Engine.

a) User definable Allowed/Blocked Keywords In addition to the sophisticated lists contained in Lockspam Free 3.0 and updated daily.

b) Polesoft Security Pack More and more emails contain viruses. To combat this growing problem Polesoft have made available the Security Pack. The Security Pack contains pattern files of recent virus attachments and those scanned by Anti-Virus products. If any attachment matches the pattern files the message is regarded as spam and sent to the Polesoft Antispam folder.

c) Polesoft Antispam Engine Polesoft Antispam Engine is based on Bayesian filtering and heuristically learns users' preferences and follows their logic in differentiating spam and normal mails.

Polesoft Behavior Pattern Recognition* and Polesoft Beneficiary Black List (BBL)* are core technologies that can be applied and updated only wth registered copy of Lockspam Pro.

4. Automatically Scan Incoming Mails Lockspam Free 3.0 starts to work and deals with incoming mails automatically.

5. Automatically Import Contact Lists Right after installation, Lockspam Import Wizard will fetch all your contact lists from Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express.

6. Automatically Check for Updates Lockspam will check for updates automatically, thus ensuring your mail box is equipped against the latest spam.

7. Free and Frequent Updates For Free users, updates for these services are available:

a) Polesoft Security Pack, which can easily spot and quarantine virus spam.

b) Polesoft heuristic Anti-spam Engine.

For Lockspam Pro users, there are two more available:

a) Daily updated Beneficiary Black List (BBL).

b) New Add-in Installation Packages for Outlook and Outlook Express

8. Weed Out Spam in East Asian Languages Polesoft Anti-spam Engine can easily analyse the content of emails in East Asian languages, as well as English.

9. Training Lockspam Is Easy Lockspam is easy to teach. By Blocking spam and Unblocking innocent mails, Lockspam will learn your preferences and judge mails in line with your logic.

10. Looking for Probable Spam Is Easy

a) Emails identified as spam are stored in the delete folder.

b) Emails identified as probable spam are stored in the Polesoft Antispam folder with [Polesoft Antispam] added to the subject line.

Lockspam Free 3.0 is available in a full featured 14 day evaluation version from the Polesoft site. To learn more about the differences between Lockspam Free version and Lockspam Pro version, please visit Lockspam Version Comparisons http://www.polesoft.com/product_lockspam37.html .

To summarize, Lockspam Free Version 3.0 answers the urgent need for safe anti spam software on the desktop. Lockspam Free 3.0 can update to Lockspam Pro 3.0 ($29.95) and will continue to receive free updates for the lifetime of the product ensuring that your mailbox is always safe from spam.

The CEO of Polesoft, Lytton Liou said, "We hope our patent-pending technology will help to bring back the ease freedom of communicating through the internet without the irritation and timewasting caused by the spammers".

Safety should be the key ingredient regarding spam issue. Polesoft, your safe antispam way.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sophie_Ao

Quickly Eliminate 100% of Your Junk Email

Why do so many people think I need to take Viagra? I guess it’s for the same reason others believe I want to re-finance my home, invest in a new stock and sell my business.

Like you, I routinely receive more junk emails than legitimate ones. Do I look stupid or do they really think I want the latest virus by opening any attachment which accompanies an unsolicited email? Aren’t there laws against spamming and why don’t they work? Perhaps these are questions for other articles. What you need to know now is that I have found a way to keep unwanted emails from ever seeing your inbox.

For the past year I have been using a program called “Boxtrapper”. Until this time I had been relying on various spam filters that used keywords or other factors to determine if an email was spam. The success rate for this type of filtering varied as spammers eventually found ways around the “formula” being used by the filter. For example, the word “Valium” may be flagged as a spam indicator while the misspelled version, “Va Lium”, would get by unnoticed. This is just one of many examples of how spammers manipulate words to beat filtering. The biggest problem is when spammers “spoof” the header information in an email so it’s nearly impossible to trace who sent the message. I have even seen instances of people receiving spam emails that appear to have come from themselves!

When you try to beat the spammers on this level you quickly find yourself running in circles and sadly realizing this is an ineffective way to guard against every spam email. A friend suggested I try “Boxtrapper” because it had eliminated ALL spam from his inbox. Since I have many email accounts, I decided to try it on my personal address and test its effectiveness. Immediately I could see the difference.

The reason “Boxtrapper” is so effective is because of it’s “opt-in” design. Basically, no email can reach you unless the sender has confirmed they are legitimate. Once they have been confirmed, their email address is added to a “whitelist”. I’m sure you’ve heard the term “blacklist”, which is used to filter out names. In this case a whitelist is maintained to show who is allowed to email you.

To better understand how “Boxtrapper” works, I will explain what happens when a legitimate email from a friend comes your way. First, when a friend sends you an email, he will automatically receive an email reply (known as an “auto response”). This email will tell him to simply hit his “Reply” button and resend in order to be added to your list of accepted senders. You can fully customize the auto response message so it reads exactly how you prefer.

For example, this is how my auto response reads:

------------------------------------------------------------

Hello,

Since I get way too much spam, I have enabled a feature on my email account which requires verification that you are the real sender.

To complete this verification, simply reply to this message and leave the subject line intact.

Once you are added to my "whitelist" of accepted senders I will receive your message and you will not have to complete another verification.

--------------------------------------------------------------

You can also enter the email addresses of all your friends, family, and business contacts ahead of time so they never receive the initial auto response. If you subscribe to newsletters or receive monthly statements from your bank you can add their return addresses into your whitelist so you never miss a message. If anyone else happens to email you, all they have to do is reply to the auto response and they are added to your whitelist. At any given time you are able to view a list of emails awaiting verification (known as a “queue”). You can manually allow emails through to your Inbox or wait until they are verified.

Now the big question – what happens to all the spam? Since spammers are not going to verify they received your auto response, all spam email will be caught in your queue of emails awaiting verification and never proceed to your inbox. This means the only emails you are going to receive are those by approved senders. You will soon find that most emails awaiting verification are unsolicited, junk emails.

Since enabling “Boxtrapper” on one of my personal email addresses it has completely eliminated all incoming spam. I know many who use this feature and they are extremely pleased with not having to waste time sorting through and deleting unsolicited emails. While most spam filters use complex formulas to find out if an email is garbage, “Boxtrapper” is able to quickly determine if the sender is real. So, how can you start making this feature work for you?

Because “Boxtrapper” is not sold in stores or a program you can readily download and install on your computer, it’s one of the best kept secrets on the web. This feature is normally bundled with other email services provided by either your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or website host (most likely, the latter). By the way, I don’t have any stock in “Boxtrapper”. For some reason, they never sent me an email asking me to invest.

Copyright 2005 Anthony Vita

Anthony Vita started his own successful web hosting business, Web Feat, Inc, in 1997. Since then, Anthony has been helping businesses and individuals worldwide to achieve an online presence. Contact Anthony today by email: avita@webfeathost.com or the web: http://www.webfeathost.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anthony_Vita

How To Avoid Spam Robots

Despite the fact that Federal legislation (the CANSPAM act) made it illegal, harvesting email addresses from the web using automated robots remains alive and well.

Spammers who need fresh email addresses release software spider programs that comb the Internet and suck email addresses off Web pages, guest books, and anywhere else you might post your email address.

Once they get your email address, spammers will trade it around like 5th graders with a new pack of Pokemon cards at recess and you can expect the avalanche of email to begin flooding your inbox.

In order to combat this still rampant practice of stealing email addresses from websites and sending people email they don't want, the following tips should help protect you.

** Break It Up **

Obviously the best way to avoid getting picked up by an email harvester is not to post your email anywhere on anyone's website (including your own).

If the only way someone can get your email is if you give it to them, that creates a similar situation to operating with an unlisted phone number.

If telemarketers can't get your phone number, they can't call.

If you must post your email address, post it in a way that a robot won't recognize it as an email address. Instead of posting YOURNAME@YOURDOMAIN.COM, you can put YOURNAME (AT) YOURDOMAIN.COM and then, in parenthesis, put (replace AT with @ to email me).

Though it seems like an extra step for legitimate email, you'll find it a very effective technique.

** Use An Image **

Currently, online spiders (ANY spider, including search engines) cannot read text that appears in a graphic or picture. If you must display an email address on a page, then do it by typing your email address into your favorite graphics program and saving the image as a .gif or .jpg. Then post the image onto your web page so people can see the email, but spiders cannot. This too creates an extra step for people because they must type in your email address, but it's an effective solution if you must display an email address on your own website.

** Use An Email Form **

Another way to cut down on spam originating from your own website is simply not to display an email at all.

Instead, allow customers and prospects to contact you through a form where they fill in fields, click a button, and your website emails you their message.

A note of caution: make sure the form script you use does not keep your email address visible in the form code.

If the form code contains the email address, spam robots can find it even though you don't see it on the page.

** Make It Hard To Guess **

Sometimes you'll get unsolicited email because a spammer guessed your email address.

It's not a far stretch to imagine that someone probably has the email Jim@yourdomain.com, so spammers will do a "dictionary" attack on common usernames.

One way to defeat this is to place a "dot" (.) in your email address, such as Jim.Edwards@yourdomain.com. The dot makes it virtually impossible for spammers to guess your email address.

© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved

http://www.thenetreporter.com

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...

Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months... without spending a dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jim_Edwards

Spam The Spammer - Will It Work?

Spam is everywhere. It’s the “in-box lunch meat” nobody likes, wants or looks forward too. Unfortunately, many folks enjoy “eating” this product because if they didn’t, there wouldn’t be any. Read on…

The federal government’s ill-conceived CAN-SPAM Act did little more than make a few legislators feel better about themselves. Did this legislation stop spam? No. Did it at least slow down the flow of spam? Nope.

You can’t eliminate a problem by treating the symptoms. If you want to eradicate a problem, you must make its environment one that will not support it.

There’s a new plan recently hatched by some well-intentioned folks at Blue Security that several of my clients have asked about. On the surface, it sounds like a good idea but, in my humble opinion, the model is fatally flawed. Here’s the scoop…

1. You sign up for their "list" which is basically a "do not spam me list" and that gives them the authorization to act on your behalf.

2. You then have to send EACH spam message to them for inclusion on their list.

3. They then send the spammer a "stop order" (which, if they can even find the spammer, will be ignored).

4. They then flood the spammer with basically a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack hoping to bring down the spammer's server.

This all sounds great until you think about it rationally...

1. Spammers use "open relays" and hundreds of addresses to prevent you from finding their originating location.

2. The "stop order" they send is just their way of fulfilling the letter of the law under the CAN-Spam act.

3. The part I have the biggest problem with is they then effectively BECOME A SPAMMER by sending thousands of messages in a Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDoS). This is the same thing hackers do when they bring down a website by sending so much traffic to a server it basically shuts down.

4. Most spam is sent from your neighbor's PC. I spend a great amount of my time cleaning “bad guys” from client’s computers. There are MILLIONS of "zombie computers" that are infected with auto-dialers and trojans that are being used without the owner's knowledge to send spam. Don’t believe me? Just run Counter Spy on grandma’s PC and tell me what you find!

5. How long do you really think it will be until the spammers turn the tables on Blue Security and initiate their own DDoS attack? It will be interesting to watch.

Other fight-back tactics against spammers have failed in the past. Last year, Lycos Europe rolled out a screensaver that conducted DDoS attacks against known spammers. Within days, however, Lycos buckled under pressure from security groups, which called it vigilantism, and ISPs who worried that attacks originating from their members would make them liable to legal action on the part of spammers.

Spam will NEVER go away until you attack its real source engine. If you don't order anything from a spammer and don't even click on his link to open the message, the monetary incentive for spam is removed. Spammers operate under the same economic rules as the rest of us...supply and demand.

Take away the demand and you eliminate the supply. Simple.

Allan Gunnneson is the CEO of Gunner Web Group (http://www.gunnnerweb.com), a website design and marketing company based in Kansas.

Online reprint rights granted as long as the article is published in its entirety, including links (http://www.gunnerweb.com).

Copyright © Gunner Web Group, 2005

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Allan_Gunneson

Are You A Spam Zombie?

Over the past few years you've all become familiar with the terms spam, spam filter, whitelists, blacklists and a whole myriad of other terminology associated with the problem of spam. You now have to add a new and extremely worrying phrase to that list - spam zombie.

With the net closing in around them spammers are looking for new and more inventive ways to send out their junk email. Spam filters and challenge response systems are becoming progressively more intelligent and blocking more spam each day. What was a spammer to do? The spammers took the next step - infiltrating your PC and using it as a spamming tool.

When most of you think of the word zombie you're reminded of old B movies with groaning zombies chasing the terrified actress through a castle, swamp or whatever low cost setting the movie revolved around. Spam zombies are, however, far more real and far more dangerous.

A spam zombie is when your computer is taken over by a type of virus called a Trojan. Once this Trojan virus is on your computer it sets up an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) application which allows it to begin sending email directly from your PC to tens of thousands of victims. This all happens invisibly in the background and can be difficult to detect for even the experienced computer user.

How do these Trojans get onto your computer? As in most cases they come from porn, warez or similar sites. One of the first spam zombie trojans to appear became available via a link on sites promising viewers free access to a porno webcam. One click later and the Trojan is installed on your computer ready to send out spam. Phatbot and Proxy-Guzu are two of the more common Trojans used for the purpose of turning your computer into a spam zombie.

How can you check if your computer has become a spam zombie? Make absolutely certain that both your anti-virus and firewall software have current detection signatures and have been completely patched and updated. Working online without taking these necessary security precautions is simply asking for trouble.

Internet Service Providers are under huge pressure to quarantine the IP address of any computer which has been turned into a spam zombie. This is done on the basis that the ISP risks their entire IP range being blacklisted or banned by some spam filtering services or companies.

The very least you owe yourself is to run a full virus and spyware scan on your computer today. You might be unpleasantly surprised at what you'll find lurking there.

This article provided courtesy of Spam-site.com which reviews spam blocker software and other anti spam utilties.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Niall_Roche

Is Your Website Blacklisted?

A blacklist, as the name implies, is a list of people or companies who have met with the disapproval of others. In the online world a blacklist refers to those people who have been marked as responsible for generating spam in a very big way. Blacklists are also known as blocklists.

Blacklists are used to combat spam in a very specific way. When spam is reported to one of the relevant spam fighting organizations the IP address the spam originated from is added to a banned or blacklisted IP addresslist. An IP address is the unique location of you or your website on the internet - think of it as your "home address" online. To put it simply every www.domain.com Internet address has a matching IP address. Any email coming from your website domain also has a corresponding IP address. If your IP address is present on a blacklist then you're potentially wasting your time sending email to customers.

Why are you wasting your time? Modern spam blockers come with the most common blacklists installed and/or allow you to import updated blacklists into your spam blocker. This allows to you block a huge amount of spam but you may also, potentially, block legitimate email. Blacklists are not foolproof.

There are two types of IP address:

Dynamic - changes every time you connect to the Internet. Most commonly used for dialup Internet access. Spammers love these because they're very hard to track and 100% disposable.

Fixed/Static - All websites, most large companies and some individuals use fixed IP addresses. This can cause huge problems if they're reported for spamming.

When an IP address (dynamic or fixed ) is reported for sending spam it's added to a blacklist. There are three different types of blacklists:

Temporary

An IP address placed on a temporary blacklist will have email coming from that IP address blocked for several hours.

After a few hours the offending IP address is removed from the blacklist.

Permanent

When an IP address is added to a permanent blacklist any email server configured to block email from this list will never receive email from that range of IP addresses again.

Comprehensive

This is the most damaging of blacklists. Not only does it block a single IP address it also blocks the IP addresses next to it. For example if the IP address 192.156.66.67 was added to a comprehensive blacklist then all IP addresses close to 192.156.66.67 will also be blocked. This can be a huge problem for those website owners using virtual hosting because if your host has ever appeared on a blacklist then you're also on the same blacklist, by default, because of the shared hosting from the same IP range.

It's important for all website owners to check whether or not they're on a blacklist. You'll need your IP address (available from your webhost) and you can check your blacklist status at: www.mail-abuse.org/cgi-bin/lookup

Blacklists are a necessary evil due to the volume of spam being sent each day but are not an exact science. Take a few moments from your day and ensure that your website or email address is not being blocked.

This article was provided courtesy of Spam-site.com which reviews and tests spam blockers for the business and end user.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Niall_Roche

20 Words That Kill - At Least When It Comes to Spam Filters

Spam, spam, spam. It's terrible not only for those of us on the receiving end, but for those of us who SEND e-mail.

This deluge of irritating junk has unfortunately interfered with legitimate e-zine publishers, because we're caught in the anti-spam crossfire. If you publish any type of e-mail publication, there's a likely chance that your e-zine is NOT reaching a portion of your readers. Why? Their Internet service provider (ISP) or e-mail program uses a spam filter.

These software programs search for words and phrases that are typical of spam and assign each incoming e-mail a "score." If your e-mail has too many of these words and phrases, you receive a high score, and you may be blocked.

TOP 20 "KILLER" WORDS/PHRASES YOU MAY BE USING

While there are other words that will cost you more "points" than these do (e.g. sexual phrases), here are the most common "trigger" words and phrases that you may be using in your e-zine:

amazing
cancel at any time
check or money order
click here
congratulations
dear friend
e-mail marketing
for only ($)
for free
great offer
guarantee
increase sales
order now
promise you
risk free
special promotion
this is not spam
to be removed
unsubscribe
winner
WHAT'S A PUBLISHER TO DO?

You have two choices when it comes to beating the filters. One is to avoid using these words and phrases altogether. I've found that hard to do. For example, in a recent issue, I discussed how to use your e-zine to increase business. Unfortunately the word "increase" cost me a fat 1.4 points in SpamAssassin, one of the most popular filter programs.

Your second choice is to disguise these words and phrases in clever ways by inserting keyboard symbols within them and/or replacing a letter in them with a symbol. The trick is not to make it too cryptic — you want your readers to be able to understand what you're saying. For example, in my e-zine, I use "fr*ee" for free.

While some spam filters pick up on this trick and penalize you for doing it by adding onto your score, I've found that the points this tactic costs you penalize you much less than using the words and phrases themselves. It's not a perfect solution, but it's working for now.

TEST BEFORE YOU SEND

It's a great idea to test how YOUR e-zine stacks up before you send it out. The good news is you can do this for FREE.

Lyris' Content Checker (http://www.lyris.com/contentchecker) tells you how your e-zine ranks in Spam Assassin. All you do is copy your e-zine text and paste it into the box on their site. They'll run your free report and e-mail a copy to you. It usually arrives within minutes.

The report will tell you exactly which words are costing you points. Usually you should only be concerned if your score is over 5 points. If so, you can either delete those words or disguise them, as I mentioned above.

I test each issue of my e-zines in Content Checker before I publish them, and often I'm surprised (and relieved) that my score is low. That makes me a happy publisher. : )

(c) 1999-2002 Alexandria K. Brown

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," is author of the award-winning manual, "Boost Business With Your Own E-zine." To learn more about her book and sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit her site at http://EzineQueenTutorial.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alexandria_K._Brown

How To Stop Unwanted Email Spam

You can stop unwanted email spam, you can choose to reduce spam email or you can do nothing and continue to be annoyed. Those are your only choices because spam email is not likely to go away.

Every single one of us would love to stop unwanted emails but only a very small percentage of people do anything except complain about spam.

You might remember a couple of years ago they passed a new federal spam law that was supposed to eliminate spam email. So why is spam still around and why is it so difficult to get rid of it?

Email spammers buy lists of email addresses from list brokers, who compile their lists by harvesting email addresses from the Internet. Then they send millions of unwanted email messages to these email addresses with one click of a mouse.

Email spammers make huge amounts of money from these lists and that's why they do it. These email spammers are breaking the federal spam law, The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, in every way possible.

This federal spam law, which became effective January 1, 2004, is next to impossible to enforce. Email spammers make so much money they can afford to outsmart The Federal Trade Commission with sophisticated technology.

Now that you know the origin of spam email and why email spammers are sending this junk you realize that spam is not likely to ever go away. But that doesn't mean you can't do anything about it. Here are a couple of ways to significantly reduce spam that won't cost you a cent.

Don't display your email address in newsgroup postings, chat rooms or in an online service's membership directory. Sometimes email spammers use these sources to harvest email addresses.

Another thing you can do is create two email addresses with one for personal messages and the other for public use, such as in newsgroups or chat rooms.

You can also create an account at a disposable or free email address service. You can then have those emails forwarded to your permanent email address. If the disposable address starts to receive spam, you can turn if off without affecting the permanent address.

You should also create a unique email address because email spammers often use dictionary attacks to sort through possible name combinations at some Internet Service Providers. A common name, like johndoe or thesmiths may get more spam than a unique name like fx721OMe9.

Check your email account to see if it provides a tool to filter out potential spam or a way to channel spam into a bulk email folder. When you're choosing an Internet Service Provider consider what email options they offer.

If you want to end your headaches, you can stop unwanted email spam altogether. All it takes is installing an Internet spam filter. Most are reasonably priced between $25 and $40 depending on where you get it.

Once you install an Internet spam filter you'll wonder why it took you so long because it takes all of the frustration away from your email.

A good Internet spam filter will completely eliminate spam email and that lets you take back control of your Internet message Inbox. You'll have to find something else to get annoyed about because a good Internet spam filter will block 100% of unwanted spam.

Internet spam filters stop unwanted email forever, and after all, isn't that the idea?

Copyright © 2005 Spyware Information.com All Rights Reserved.

This article is provided by http://www.spyware-information.com We offer you the safest, most effective and easy-to-use Internet spam filter available, blocking 100% of unwanted spam at http://www.spyware-information.com/anti-spam-filter.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gary_Gresham

Email Chain Letters - Harmless Fun or Not?

I'm sure I'm not the only person on the planet that remembers getting the occasional chain letter in school.. you know, the kind that was actually written with a pen or pencil on paper that told you either something wonderful would happen or something terrible would happen or both if you did or didn't send out 20 copies within 7 days. Ugh. I still remember my fingers cramping as I tediously re-wrote the letter 20 times and the looks on my friends faces when they realized the note i just passed them was leading them to the same path of wasted paper.

Things have changed a lot since then;

Not just the venue has changed though, now we not only get poems with promises of good luck or threats of doom for not following instructions, we get petitions, promises of rewards from big companies, plea's to call your local government person because of some pending law that will be devastating to someone or something, and suggestions to boycott popular companies because of some alleged injustice they have performed. (Just imagine the phone calls these companies get!)

I get amusing chain letters in my email box occasionally mixed in with some urban legends and Christian Internet hoaxes for variety and before I knew better I'd give a little laugh, a roll of the eyes and pass it on to the 10 required friends with the promise that something good would happen in 10 days (or that I would escape a horrific tragedy)

Oh but then I learned. I learned about SPAM and about how to finally change my email address when it got overwhelming!

Perpetuating email chain letters is not a good idea. I read recently that most Internet service providers prohibit it in their terms of service... hmm... I will have to read those terms to see what else I'm not allowed to do! But it is with good reason that they have these rules.

You know the old 'phrase' I tell 2 friends and they tell 2 friends and they tell 2 friends... yada yada yada... well imagine what happens when you forward that silly email to your 20 friends and they each send it to their 20 friends... well already you've got 420 copies going out to cyberspace and taking up bandwidth and bogging down servers all over the place - especially if your 20 people are co-workers on the same email system!

What else is wrong with it? Well you've just added your name, or at least email address to a long and growing list of which you have no control over. This is like sending out an engraved invitation to spammers and scammers all over the world and suddenly the note from Aunt Joan is burried among 50 emails trying to sell you everything from viagra to stocks and bonds.

So what can you do? Well, the first and most obvious is delete it. But sometimes it's a cute story or a joke or some other reason to smile or chuckle and we all need some of that now and again so you want to forward it? Take these steps to do it safely.

After you've clicked forward go through the email, delete all the email addresses that are hanging on to the mail of all the people that have recieved it with you.

Leave only the portion of the email that you think is funny or cute and take out all the instructions to forward to 10 - 20 - or 50 people and what will happen if you don't

Use the bcc: field for the emails of the people you're going to send it to to keep their emails from being passed on if one of them chooses to forward it.

Finally, while I definately recommend against it, some people are just too superstisious to let a chain letter break. If you MUST continue a chain letter, still follow steps 1 and 3 above and get yourself a disposable email address for this purpose. Belive me, if you've never had to change your email address to get rid of the junk, you don't want to find out how fun it is! Remember, it's not just advising your friends and family and co-workers of the new email, but many of your online accounts use your email address if not for signing in, for getting lost passwords etc. How frustrating to go to get the status of some account and when you realize you can't remember the password the only option is to have it emailed to you and you didn't update the account!

So, get a disposable email address and use it for forwarding chain letters (if you have to) but also for signing up for things on the Internet! Then when the spam hits the fan, you can just delete the account and get a new one.

Lisa Campbell
Newbie Guide to CyberJunk

Other Web Sites:
Parenting an Intense Child
Web and Logo Design at Affordable Prices

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lisa_Campbell

Email Spam Filters

In today's fast-paced world, emails have become perhaps the most widely used mode of communication. Whether it’s personal or professional, the person you may wish to contact is always just an email away. Instant, and extremely user friendly, emails have increasingly become an integral part of day-to-day communication. However, unwanted spam is a major hassle that email lovers face every hour. Every time we access our mail box, it is flooded with mails which are completely unsolicited. These spam mails are not only annoying, they can even contain dangerous viruses. To counter the spam, email spam filters are extensively used.

Email is broadly categorized into Web-based email like Yahoo, Hotmail and Rediffmail, and client-based email like Outlook Express or Eudora. Both types of emails have different setups and require unique spam filters to effectively block spam.

Web based emails usually have free spam filters. These filters may be content-based or work on the basis of a pre-provided blacklist of spammers. Spam filters for client-based email are generally of three types: server side filters, standalone filters, and integrated filters.

Server-side filters check the spam at the ISP location, whereas stand-alone filters reside on the PC and wash out spam from the email as the user receives it. Integrated filter/clients eliminate spam, in a manner similar to web-based anti-spam systems. These types of filters require every new sender to verify their address.

Stand-alone filters are by far the most extensively used spam filters for client-based mails, as they not only offer the best spam removal rates, but also do not require the user to alter or switch the email clients.

Empower your PC with any of the innumerable spam filters now available to enjoy a junk-free email experience.

Spam Filters provides detailed information on Spam Filters, Email Spam Filters, Free Spam Filters, Best Spam Filters and more. Spam Filters is affiliated with Spam Blockers.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eddie_Tobey

Adsense: How to Make Money With Ads by Google

The chances are that you've seen "Ads by Google" on a variety of websites and perhaps wondered what they were all about. The fact is that you can probably get "Ads by Google" on your own site and if you do, you can look forward to getting paid by Google.

The system is called Google AdSense and it does two things really neatly.

First of all it allows virtually any website owner to make some money without having to do too much - all you do is paste some code that Google gives you into your web pages. This code creates the ads that you see and when someone clicks on one of these ads they go to the advertiser's site. The advertiser is then charged for the click by Google and Google shares the money with you. You don't have to worry about billing a load of different companies or anything else: this is all done for you as part of the AdSense service.

That much is fairly straightforward and good news.

But the really clever thing about AdSense is that the ads you see on your site are relevant to your content - automatically. So if you have a web page about mobile phones you'll see ads about mobile phones on it. If you have a web page about holidays in Tasmania, you'll see ads for holidays in Tasmania on it. Google's technology scans your web page and decides what it is about and then searches its database of well over 175,000 advertisers to find the ads that are most suitable for your page.

By making the ads relevant to your site, Google does you two favors: the ads can enhance the overall experience a visitor to your site gets which means they are likely to return, and because the ads are relevant to your visitor, they are likely to get clicked on.

And when they get clicked on, you make money.

To make most money with Google AdSense you need to develop web pages that are about high value topics. In other words, build content on your site that is likely to attract ads that pay highly when clicked because not all ads are worth the same.

In fact some ads pay many dollars a click whereas others only pay a few cents.

The art of maximizing your AdSense income is to understand how to attract high paying ads onto your pages and then drive a lot of traffic to those pages. Once you've done that you can look forward to getting paid by Google on a regular basis which makes Google AdSense one of the most attractive affiliate programs on the internet today.

William Charlwood
Author: The Definitive Guide to Google AdSense

For more information including a free 5-day course on maximizing your AdSense income visit ProsperitySense.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=William_Charlwood

Guaranteed Web Site Advertising

Paying for web site advertising services is more advantageous than handling your own web site or your company’s promotional concerns. This gives you more time to focus on other essential aspects of your business. Besides, these service providers know all the ins and outs of web site advertising.

There is also a risk in entrusting your website to service providers, especially those offering cheap and sometimes free advertising services. The question is, how do you know you are not paying for senseless hype just for guaranteed web site advertising?

Here are two important things you should consider in choosing an advertising company: where do they list your website, and what are their core services and add-on services.

Since the main goal of website advertising is to deliver targeted traffic to your site, it is beneficial if your site is indexed on major search engines and online directories. The more search engines and directories your site appears on, the better, as this increases probability of attracting more consumers.

Aside from listing your site to major search engines and directories, the advertising company must have guaranteed web site advertising techniques such as link exchanges, pay per click, email marketing, banner ads, press releases, newsletters and blogs.

Exchanging links is one of the most effective and affordable means of driving targeted traffic to your website. This is done by sending other websites (high quality and highly related sites) text or keywords where a link to your website is attached (use keywords that people are most likely to use in the search engines).

Pay per click is another guaranteed web site advertising technique and is becoming very popular nowadays. This allows you to make your own ads, and lets you decide when they should appear. The good thing about this is you only pay when somebody clicks through a link to your site.

Does the advertising company provide high quality content or articles for your website? If it does, then it’s a perfect choice. A very good quality content that is, rich in information and necessary keywords used in major search engines is good way to keep your site users coming back.

Web Site Advertising provides detailed information on Web Site Advertising, Guaranteed Web Site Advertising, Cheap Web Site Advertising, Free Web Site Advertising and more. Web Site Advertising is affiliated with Web Site Promotion Software.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eddie_Tobey

The Online Business Lottery

The Kentucky Lottery ran a commercial for their $100,000 scratch off game a couple years ago that went something like this:

Monday, guy gets up, buys a lottery ticket, goes to work, wins $100,000.
Tuesday, guy gets up, buys a lottery ticket, goes to work, wins $100,000.
Wednesday, guy gets up, buys a lottery ticket, goes to work, wins $100,000.
Thursday, guy gets up, buys a lottery ticket, goes to work, wins $100,000.
Friday, guy sleeps in.

I sometimes wonder how many of my fellow Kentuckians played that game every day thinking it was their “ticket” to fortune. I think some people are tempted to look at web business the same way:

All you need to do is sign up and the money will pour in, you can quit your job, travel the world, be somebody important.

The reality is far different.

Online business is not like buying a lottery ticket, it is a business. If you run your online business like a business it will quickly make you wealthy. If you treat it like a hobby or some “get rich quick” ploy, you’ll end up broke.

Here’s the steps you need to take to create your own fortune on the internet:

1. Identify a market niche you can reach at a profit.
2. Identify a need within that market niche.
3. Secure a product that will meet that need.
4. Put up a website marketing that product.
5. Market your website.
Now each of those steps does take effort, research and planning. Done properly these steps will dependably make you a full-time income your first year and wealthy in five.

Kevin Bidwell owns http://www.All-In-One-Business.com and has helped 4,953 people start a business from home. Visit now to pick up your own free How to Start a Business from Home guide now.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kevin_Bidwell

How Alan's Website Could Easily Make More Money

My Australian friend, Alan, recently got in touch for advice on how to make more money from his recently set up website. Alan is into natural health treatments, so his simplehealthmaintenance.com website is one that offers natural solutions to health problems.

Alan asked for my advice as to how to monetize the site, knowing that I have had success with Google Adsense.

First off, Alan needs to consider whether sales are his primary objective. If so, the addition of Adsense to the site, whilst bringing in extra income, might reduce potential sales.

Adding Adsense to his site would be a quick & easy way to make money. I suggested a horizontal Adsense link, just below the main navigation bar which runs across his index or home page. This would look natural and looks like part of the website navigation.

Also, the addition of a Google skyscraper unit on the right of his page would add value to the site, and also increase his income, but without detracting from his primary objective of sales.

Now, Alan is an expert on health, but not so good at search engine optimization. His heading for the page of “Simple health treatments by non-invasive electronic acupuncture” may explain what the page is about, but it isn’t going to get him hordes of traffic from the search engines – no-one is looking for either “simple health treatments” or “non-invasive electronic acupuncture”! Zoom along to Overture and check out their keyword selector tool in the resource centre if you want to see just what it is that people are searching for.

I suggested to Alan that he look at which words which people were searching for. Although he is happy to buy traffic for the site, using the pay per click engines (e.g. Adwords & Overture). This makes it easy to get a top search engine ranking for particular words or phrases (known as keywords) but can prove an expensive way of getting traffic.

Improving his “natural” search engine rankings, so that people found his site when typing in the keywords, would reduce Alan’s costs and increase his profit margins considerably.

This is relatively easy to do, and in fact I ran this for Alan myself using Wordtracker. This is a handy piece of software which allows you to look at the supply and demand of particular keywords and spot gaps in the market, also known as niches.

In this case, just one of the keywords which came up as in high demand but low supply was “pain management with acupuncture”. Alan would do well to either use these keywords as part of his homepage or to create a new page with this title and heading, together with suitable webcopy.

By putting these keywords at the beginning and end of a new page of copy, very soon this will start to get ranked well by the search engines and receive visitors who arrive for free!

One other easy suggestion for Alan to implement, since he is also a writer, is to write a couple of articles on the subject of natural healing and acupuncture and to submit them to Article Directory sites, such as Ezine Articles. This is a effective and natural way to get traffic to your site with minimum effort.

Watch out for your profit margins Alan – they’ll be going way up – just as you implement these few simple changes!

For our free course on making money with your own home based internet business, visit how to set up your own online business.

This article was submitted by Jen Carter, writer for the How to Earn a Million Dollars website.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jennifer_Carter

10 Ways to Market Your Website Offline!

So you want to market your website? First of all make sure that you have a good domain name. You want a name that is easy to remember and that says something to those who see it. It doesn’t have to be a full website; it can just be a name that redirects to your company site or any other site.

So now you have a name and you’re ready to market it. There are many ways to market online, however you can market offline with much success. Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Vehicles – Your vehicle is a billboard that you drive everyday! Have your site on your vehicle. You can do magnetic signs from your company or local print shop, or vinyl letters. Go a step further and leave cards on your own windshield when you park it! People will take them.

2. Mail & Packages - Stamp or write your website on all mail. My site is stamped on every bill or letter that I mail. I also sell on eBay occasionally and I always have my website in RED letters across the box. Many people see that box during the mail process. Be sure to include a business card inside the envelope or package for whoever is receiving it.

3. Clothing - Wear clothes with your website on them. Be a walking billboard for your company. People will ask you questions. Buttons work well too!

4. Flyers & Cards - Use your website on all marketing materials and leave them everywhere you go. I post them on bulletin boards, in laundry mats, grocery stores, and everywhere that I go throughout the day. Keep a roll of tape with you in case there are no push pins. Tape a card to the inside door of bathroom stalls. Sounds silly, but you can bet anyone who sits down will read it!!

5. Checks - Have your website printed on your personal and business checks. You never know who may see it.

6. Auctions - Donate items to auctions and use your website name instead of your name. It will say donated (Your Website) in the program for all to see.

7. Classified Ads - Small inexpensive classified newspaper ads work well, especially if you have a good domain name.

8. Signs - Road signs work well. Keep in mind they may not stay up long before they are taken down, but lots of people may see them while they are up. Just use a few words and your website. Simple is best.

9. Voicemail - Leave your website on your voicemail. If you’re not available to answer the phone, they’ll get a reminder to visit your website.

10. Out of the Box - Think out of the box! Bus benches, shopping carts, sides of barns, restaurant placemats, floats in parades, and anything you can think of that will get people’s attention! Go beyond the ordinary.

Lisa Schulte is a mom of 4 boys who all help with the family business. She loves helping others who wish to Work From Home! http://www.WorkFromHomeToday.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lisa_Schulte

Key Tips for Attracting Visitors to Your Site

Building a website is one thing, publicizing it is other. There are so many WebPages with good quality content, which are never read by the appropriate people because of low rankings and unattractive features.

Utilizing your website as your business tool is simultaneously an art and a science. To learn it, there are a few key tips. Those are very important to look in your site, so that it comes in more views and attracts more visitors.

HomePage: Keep it easy and simple: --

1. Do not put all the information on the home page of your site. It causes confusion in visitor’s mind. Have tips and roots with just enough descriptions, so that visitor finds root of everything they demand.

2. Home page should be looking like the center of the site from where, a visitor can go anywhere in easy steps of clicks.

3. Home page can contain some of the most important products of your business, which are the centralized attraction of you firm or website.

4. Do not overcrowd your homepage with the words; there must be brief content, which is navigating, informative and not too much to read.

5. Few striking lines like- “ most comfortable for beginners” or “Step by step learning guide for novice” are good to put with you products.

Links: --

1. There should be links on your home page so that every visitor finds it very easy to reach directly any section he wants. Never put other sites link with those otherwise your visitor can be diverted from you site.

2. A proper made and attractive sitemap is very necessary for the website; it gives the facility to novice as well as expert users to watch whole details of your site at once. In addition, the site maps are very necessary to be submitted to all main search engines so you get traffic from the search engines as well.

3. Links of other sites are very necessary because those links increases your ranking in search engines. Those links should be put in the lower parts of you pages or with the product details, where the link provides the relevant site.

Content: --

Web Content is the life of Website. Web Content is the most important factor in attracting more visitors to your site. Here are things to look in it: --

1. The competition between the same product websites is chiefly won by the best quality web content. Visitors find it easy to understand and like to use the same site repeatedly. Even such visitors like to tell the site address to their friends and family, so that others also use the facility and it results into permanent visitors of your site.

2. Keywords and links are necessary to increase you ranking,, but it must be looked that your content is not compromising with the quality for other reasons.

3. Content should be brief and effective, it should offer all information in less words. It should not be so brief that it results in a tough to understand content and visitors deflect.

4. It should always be relevant to your website and products.

5. Content should not be describing history, technical details, and greatness of inventors or irrelevant absurd. Visitors come to use the site as shop. They do not like education until the site is a guiding one, E-book site or explanation website.

Search Engine Optimization: --

Even A perfect Website cannot get enough visitors, until it is not related to the big Internet linkage system.

1. Most of the visitors come to your site by the search engines or the ads you provide on others sites.

The biggest number of you visitors is from the search engines.

2. The website should be submitted to all big search engines.

3. The website should contain keyword rich and links rich contain so that it results in higher search engine ranking and attract more visitors.

4. You should decide the keywords by assuming, what your visitors will type, when they will need to find a site like yours one.

5. Links also higher the ranking of your website, so put the relevant links on your pages, which adds more arms in the octopus of your site’s connections. The bigger the octopus, easier it is to reach for the spiders and robots of search engines.

Ads: --

1. Ads are always very important in marketing. Your ads should be appearing on all the relevant main websites, where your visitors have a large probability to go.

2. Ad should have a strong punch line, which appeals the visitor. It should not have wordy outline, but just some lines should be creating fascination and suspense as if you provide some thing very important.

Other tips: -

There are some more things which are important in getting visitors to your website.

1. The URL of the website should be easy to remember and better if it is attractive, so visitors put it on their tong easily.

2. There should be availability to bookmark your website. Once a visitor bookmarks you, you get a permanent customer.

3. Website should be regularly updating, people like to see new things whenever they enters the site again.

4. You should learn and understand the traffic increasing tips and procedures also, and should go to increase traffic.

Those are the main basic tip, which helps you to get visitors to your site and to increase your product’s sell as well as improve you business in this E-age.

Charles Preston is the president of Click Response. Click Response offers small businesses a search engine optimization service that guarantees 1st page ranking at an affordable price.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Charles_G_Preston

Read This Before you Submit to Web Directories

As the number of websites grow everyday, it is becoming increasingly difficult for a new site to attain good rankings on search engines. Since major search engines factor link popularity heavily into their ranking algorithms, building relevant links to your site is perhaps the single most important component of search engine optimization.

For a new site with no or few inbound links, buying text links on more established related sites could provide a boost to your link popularity. But this strategy could prove prohibitively expensive, especially in a highly competitive market where you'd have to buy lots of links to catch up with the competition.

Web directory listing represents a viable alternative to link buying. Apart from driving traffic to your site through direct referrals, web directories provide one-way inbound links to your site, boosting your link popularity and ultimately improving your search rankings.

There are thousands of web directories on the net, with dozens sprouting up every day. Some are general directories; others cater to specific niches. Some are free; others charge inclusion fees. Some are free only if you provide a reciprocal link in return. Many feature both free and paid listings.

The main advantage of a paid listing is the luxury of having your site listed quickly above everyone else's. Free submissions may take several weeks or months for review. If you work on a limited budget, you may want to submit to a handful of paid directories and a few hundred free ones.

Some directories charge inclusion fees that are too high for the listing to be cost effective. When considering a paid listing, look at not only the Google PageRank of the homepage of directory, but also that of the subpage where your link will actually reside. While it may seem like a good deal to have your site listed on a PR5 directory for $15, the offer becomes far less attractive when you find out that the internal page where your link is placed is only PR2.

If you've ever submitted to web directories before, I don't have to convince you that the process is extremely tedious and time-consuming, especially when you submit to a large number of them. Unlike search engines that send out robots to index web pages, web directories rely on more detailed submission forms to gather information about your site. Since each submitted site must be reviewed by a real person, most directories require that submissions are also performed by a real person, as opposed to an automatic script. Many directories use a visual code verification process to prevent automated submissions. Apart from complying with the directory's guidelines, manual submission is the only way to ensure that your site is submitted to the proper category.

Because of the time involved in manually submitting your site and the sheer number of directories on the web, it's important that you know which directories to submit to. Obviously, you'd want to submit to only the high-PR directories and avoid the low-PR ones, right? Not really. Just because a directory has a low PR does not mean that it's not worth submitting to. The directory may be brand new and has not been around long enough to be ranked by Google. In contrast to the more established directories that continually experience a back-log of submissions, newer directories tend to review and list sites more quickly. As the directory becomes more popular, so will your link. So, don't judge a directory solely by its PageRank; rather, base your decision on the overall quality of the directory.

Another important thing to look at is whether or not the directory you submit to is search engine friendly. Search engines like static web pages whose contents stay the same regardless of who visits the page, or when they visit, not dynamic pages that are created on-the-fly. Browse to a couple of categories and look at URL in the navigation bar. If the URL looks like, http://www.godirectory.org/links.php?ax=list⊂=42&cat_id=245, it's probably not search engine friendly. An example of a static, search engine friendly URL is http://www.godirectory.org/dir/713/index.html (notice the ".html" suffix).

Another question to ask is: How easy it is to submit to the directory? How many hoops do you have to jump through to get to the submission form? When you finally get to the form, how many fields does the form have? A directory should ask for pertinent information like your name, email, URL, link title, link description, and keywords, but it should not look like a job application. With the exception of a handful of major directories like DMOZ and Yahoo, you should not have to spend more than 3 to 4 minutes to submit your site.

Another consideration is whether or not the directory has a category specific enough for your site. For optimal SEO benefits from your listing, your link should grouped under a specific category containing sites whose contents are related to yours. Such a grouping makes your listing more relevant in the eyes of the search engines, as well as providing an easier way for visitors to the directory to find your site.

Simply having your site listed on a directory is not enough. Your choice of the link title can determine how much impact your listing will have on your search engine rankings. Ideally, your link title (or "anchor text") should contain the keywords that you want others to search for to get to your site. Since most web directories require a unique link title, however, it may not be possible to select a common phrase like "Free Web Directory" as your link title. This title is likely already taken by another web directory. Simply prefixing the phrase with your domain name, e.g. "GoDirectory.org Free Web Directory", would make the title unique.

Oftentimes, a directory would have several related categories that are suitable for your site. How do you decide which one to submit to? Ideally, you'd want to submit to the category that has the highest PageRank. However, this may not turn out to be the wisest choice as your link may be buried among a zillion other listings. Going with a lower-PR category with fewer competing links may prove to be more beneficial. When choosing from multiple related categories, choose one with a good balance of relevancy, Pagerank, number of competing listings.

In sum, submitting to web directories is a highly effective link building strategy that should be an integral part of any search engine optimization campaign. Manually submitting to a large number of directories is both laborious and time-consuming. Just keep the above points in mind to make the most of your time.

Oudam Em is the webmaster of http://www.UnlimitedTraffic.net, a site that offers a wide range of cost-effective web traffic solutions. Visit his site to use his manual web directory submission service to quickly submit your site to up to 500 search engine friendly web directories.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Oudam_Em

Google PR Fact And Fiction...What Does It Really Mean To Your Site?

Being an administrator of quite a few websites and the goto guy for many of the day to day operations, promoting and editor of many of these sites, I find myself shaking my head at many of the beliefs that webmasters have regarding aspects of their SEO and promoting of their sites.

Here is a thread from one my SEO forums which touches on the misconceptions about the Google PR system:

Member Post - Can anyone help me out here we have a google pr of 3 how do i get this higher i have already over 1000 websites linking to my site whats my next step check out our site? Thanks so much btw this forum is kool

SEO Pro - Don't put too much faith in your PR ranking. Yes it's good when you need to exchange links but don't expect to much from a higher PR. Better results will come from proper marketing and optimization geared towards your target market.

Member Reply - Your pr is also 3 im looking for someone that can pick up my pr to a 4 or a 5

Now disregarding the fact that his reply was condicending at best, he like many is completely off base in his conception of what PR means. So lets take a look at a few facts.

Heres what the pagerank encyclopedia says:

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, EHandler: no quick summary. Follow link. (by page A, EHandler: no quick summary. Follow link. (for page B. But, EHandler: no quick summary. Follow link. (Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, EHandler: no quick summary. Follow link. (or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."

_________________

In otherwords you could have some of the most important pages on the net linkwise, and near zero traffic with a high PR... conversely you could have some of the weakest links according to PR and have a volume of traffic to kill for.

Page rank is really misunderstood. It isn't a clear, definative way to view a page as being "at the top" of any given search or even as a traffic benchmark. Take engineseeker.com vs netshoppers.com ; We both have solid PR5s yet engineseeker is ranked 3800 (up280) with an average of a 300/M daily traffic. Netshoppers is at 210,000 (D62,000) with an 8/M. We both have 5s, but there is an obvious difference.

Don't give PR more credit than it's value as a link evaluation...thats about all it is. Shoot for quality backlinks,targeted keyword phrases and PPC if you can afford it, you'll be much happier with the outcome a couple months down the road. You will see your sites PR rise with the quality of the backlinks that you gain. As your links go so does your websites PR.

I really try to post articles that are easy to read and understand with a ton of enjoyability and a hint of credibilty. We all know that he who retires with the highest Alexa ranking wins! or... gets a condo in Florida as a consolation prize. Can I have my condo now? :)

Steven Havill, Sr.
Founding partner of IC Online Services.
Current projects include NetShoppers.com - Shopping Directory, USFree.Net - Progressive Internet Community Portal and Areforever.com...etc We have many projects on the boards along stickits on all the monitors of the ones we just don't have time to get to. If you get a chance stop by to say hello, we are always around to help in any way we can.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steven_Havill

Free Ways to Promote your Site

1. Submit your site into free search engine submission sites. Make sure that you submit your site to google, yahoo, and msn. One site that submits to search engines is www.submitexpress.com/

2. Submit your site to ffa sites. FFA sites are sites that are made for the purpose of letting people post one way links. One service that submits to ffa sites is blastomatic.com.

3. Join viral marketing sites. Some let you get guaranteed traffic from a certain amount of visitors as long as you visit certain sites. There is also some sites that get you more ads for referring people to join. One example is http://www.adtrackclassifieds.com/?mid=957

4. Another thing to do is to join link exchange sites. These sites let you swap links with other members in an organized, effective and often free way. One example is www.linkmarket.net

5. Another way is to write articles. Since getting many links to your site on the net makes your search engine rankings higher, you can get more links by putting your link in articles you write. The articles can be on any subject, and there are many article directories or other types of websites that accept articles.

6. Another good way is to write press releases. In the press releases you can include news about your webpage such as new features. These are just some of the top ways to generate traffic for your site.

Nahom Kidanemariam is a student and webmaster of http://eduhelper.tripod.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nahom_Kidanemariam

Pay For Action Adsense – A Fundamental Problem

Ever inventive, Google has been sending out emails to select Adsense publishers regarding a new pay for action program. This is bad news for publishers promoting Adsense.

Pay For Action Adsense – A Fundamental Problem

If you are reading this, you probably know what Adsense is and are using it. If not, it is a program whereby Google allows sites to place ads from the Adwords program on their site. When a visitor to your site clicks one of the ads, you get a cut of the bid price from Google. It is a simple program that surprisingly generates a significant amount of revenue.

Google is now beta testing a new version of Adsense it is calling pay for action. While Google is not providing much information, the program apparently is an attempt to convert Adsense into one giant affiliate program. Instead of paying publishers for clicks on ads, the program will only pay a commission if a person clicks on one of the ads on your site and takes the relevant action on the advertiser’s site. In this case, it appears the action is buying whatever is offered or becoming a lead. In exchange for killing the click revenue aspect of Adsense, you apparently get a cut off the commission for whatever revenue is generated by the advertiser from your traffic.

There are a number of problems with this approach. First, Google offers no explanation of how it will account for sites that list phone numbers for orders, a method used by customers that Google can’t hope to track. Second, Google has offered no indication of how revenues will be generated from sites offering services such as lawyers, doctors and so on. A vast majority of people clicking onto these sites will telephone or email the business, which makes tracking a very difficult game. Admittedly, the program is in beta testing, so Google may come up with solutions for all of these issues. There is, however, a more fundamental problem.

The pay for action program contains one inherent flaw. It eliminates the motivation of the advertiser to have a good, fast site that converts and proper customer service. All indications are the advertisers will be able to use the platform for free and only pay commissions to Google which are split with us, the publishers. If so, what motivation does the advertiser have to improve their site? What motivation does the advertiser have to satisfy customers? In my honest opinion, the answer is very little. Yes, they want to get more sales, but what do they really care if they are getting a bunch of free traffic?

If I told you I would send you 100,000 visitors a day and you had to pay me a commission only on sales, how much would you work to improve the site? Be honest. Perhaps you would work on it for a month or so, but after that human nature would take over. We all know of sites out there that haven’t been touched in years because they have so many affiliates producing tons of traffic that they can just kick back and collect cash.

I fully understand that Google is trying to deal with click fraud, click bots and so on. Perhaps the pay for action program will be the solution when it is ultimately finalized. Perhaps it will be the greatest thing since, well, Google. My experience, however, is that a majority of affiliate programs are iffy at best, otherwise I would be promoting them instead of Adsense!

Again, it is to early to draw any conclusions regarding Google’s move, but people with Adsense ads on their site should take notice. This is a fundamental change that redistributes the risks and benefits of the Adsense program. I bet Yahoo is salivating about the prospects for its Publisher Network if Google goes ahead. Personally, I planned to stay with Adsense for as long as it was offered, but have my doubts now. If I wanted to partner with other sites, I would have done it a long time ago.

Halstatt Pires is with MarketingTitan.com - providing internet marketing services.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Halstatt_Pires

Web Hosting Reseller Plans

Some web hosting companies sell large amounts of hosting space with the understanding that their customer will turn that space into a business. These web hosting reseller plans offer another dynamic in the web hosting industry, because it allows for the existence of other hosting companies and also provides people with business opportunity.

Web hosting reseller plans are perfect for someone such as a web designer or graphic designer who also creates websites. It is often valuable to offer customers the option of using the same person who developed the site to provide the web hosting and also the website management. This option isn’t necessarily less expensive, but it is more convenient. Also keep in mind that these companies or individuals may also offer to manage your site for an extra fee.

You don’t need to be a web designer or graphic designer to utilize the web hosting reseller plans, and it is also an excellent home business opportunity. Find a web hosting reseller plan that seems to deliver the best product at the highest value. You will need to create a business plan that will help you analyze the market and create a fairly unique service. You will also need to figure out how to market your business and also create a website. You can search the Internet or find a book on starting a home business to do your initial research. You can also take a class.

Web hosting reseller plans are the perfect option for someone who wants to buy a large amount of web space to either start their own home business or enhance an already existing business. This seems to be an excellent way to increase your income. This option can also help benefit your customers because it may offer a more affordable option for them.

Web Hosting Plans provides detailed information on Web Hosting Plans, Affordable Web Hosting Plans, Small Business Web Hosting Plans, Web Hosting Reseller Plans and more. Web Hosting Plans is affiliated with Affordable Web Hosting Packages.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Max_Bellamy

Getting Hits To Your Site The Right Way

One tried and proven solution is by writing a small article about your site and submitting it to an S.E.O. and content provider site. People visit these sites every day to discover articles which they can include in their own site. These articles, which can cover all sorts of topics from angling to zoo-keeping, are designed to provide a taste of what your own site contains.

They would usually be about one small part of your own site, but are sufficiently interesting to make a reader click on the link to your site so that they can find out more information, thus leading to a greater number of hits.

They should be relatively short, say 400 to 500 words, so that a reader will not become bored by them. Research has shown that if a visitor to a web site does not have their attention grabbed within about 5 seconds, or less, they will move on.

Some article submission sites, like bookwired.com, will offer, in addition to hosting your article, an article writing service. You provide them with an idea of the style you want, a description of your site and they will provide you with an article.

Some sites will expect you to submit the article to them for hosting, while others will give you the article so that you choose where to submit it. Whatever you choose, copyright of the article always remains with you, and this is acknowledged by a small statement that the content was provided by whoever. There is also usually a link to the article writer, thus ensuring that your site receives a measure of promotion.

Submitting an article is generally a straightforward procedure. You choose the content provider you wish to submit your article to, register with them, and you are then able to submit your article.

If you would like some more information on the subject of site promotion and article submission, visit http://www.bookwired.com

RSS News and events from Bookwired- http://bookwired.com/backend.php

For more information about Article Writing for your site, visit http://bookwired.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Randy_Redhawk

How To Fully Automate Your Website So You Don't Waste Time Working

So you don’t have a way of managing all of the customer responses coming through your inbox? I can relate, please let me share a personal story.

When I first started my online business, I didn’t know what an autoresponder was, and I was intimidated by setting one up on my site. I simply had an HTML form set up that would send e-mail address of people that wanted my newsletter straight to my inbox. I can only imagine the amount of money that I was leaving on the table. I had no way of responding back to my potential customers. When I saw a newsletter signup come into my inbox, I would copy and paste a reply back to them.

The times have changed. Not only is the above situation not acceptable, but there’s no way you can effectively grow your business without an autoresponder.

After all, since you now have your website set up to sell your e-book, you are going to need a way to handle the various types of correspondence being sent to you from potential customers.

Autoresponders are an effective and economical innovation (software program) designed to “respond” to any messages a website receives. Thousands of online businesses use autoresponders to send a confirmation “thank you” notice when anyone registers with their email address on the site. Think of them as an answering machine for your website.

Using an autoresponder is a critical component to having a successful ebook business. Not only do you need to respond to messages and inquiries, you must implement an email sales campaign to promote your ebook. If you were to try to manage the emails yourself, the task will eventually become impractical and extremely time consuming. You could hire someone to answer them, but when your site is receiving several hundred hits a day with an average of 50% registering to receive more information; you would need to hire several people thus making the cost very prohibitive. In business, “time is money and money is time”, and online, and autoresponder is the only solution.

If you do not have an autoresponder, you will lose sales, and lots of them. If you are not using an auto email program to get these non-committals to return to your site, you will not be able to sell your ebook to them. It’s really as simple as that.

How does an autorepsonder work? By utilizing the information you input into the programs, the Autoresponder will automatically answer any email or sign-up your site receives. You can even program a variety of responses and how many times you want to send your customers an email; plus any sales receipts, download information and access, support problems – can all be effectively handled by an autoresponder. Obviously if there is a support situation, you or your webmaster will need to step in and fix the problem, but the autoresponder can easily let the customer know that someone will be emailing them soon to help.

Due to the nature of your business (e-book sales), you will need a variety of email autoresponses depending upon the situation. A typical list of responses for an e-book sales site might include some or all of the following:

1) Thank you response for visiting and signing up;

2) Free newsletter emailed to all sign-ups;

3) Special offer emails to entice purchase;

4) Purchase notification/invoice;

5) Thank you for purchasing;

6) Informing of your newest e-book;

7) Offer free course/bonus for signing up;

8) Notification of problems/complaints received from customers;

9) Notification of feedback received.

Basically the uses of the program are endless, in fact anything that you would want emailed to several customers can be handled through an autoresponder. And just like the almost limitless uses, there are a vast number of autoresponder companies vying to handle your e-business correspondence.

Many sites have free autoresponder programs available which handle minimal email tasks; however because you are trying to sell ebooks, you should look for a system or service that does not limit the capabilities of your emails. Make sure you get unlimited email size plus you will need the ability to send multiple emails to the same person over a period of time. Remember, the reason for sending several emails over a course of time is based on the fact that most customers (about 60% - 70%) do not purchase on their first visit. If they are interested in learning more about your ebook, they will sign up for more information. And this is when you use an autoresponder to send multiple targeted information emails to drive those reluctant customers back to your site for the purchase. You will also want to have the ability to track your emails to assess the effectiveness of such a campaign. We use www.aweber.com and www.getresponse.com is also a good solution.

The messages you will want to send will depend upon the reason for the need to respond. One way you can handle this by having multiple email addresses for your site. Here is a short list of email addresses you will need:

1) support@yoursite.com

2) Yourname@yoursite.com

3) Yourassistant@yoursite.com

4) sales@yoursite.com

If you need additional addresses, do not hesitate to set them up and use them; the more you categorize your customer’s emails, the better you, your webmaster and your autorepsonder program will work. The autoresponder will know the difference between newsletter sign-ups, customer logins, purchases, and so on. This is all configured in the program, as is sending notification emails for receipt of a customer’s inquiry at one of your listed email addresses. Again, you or your webmaster will manually have to answer any inquiries received at a site listed address. Unfortunately at this moment in time, autoresponders cannot read and answer emails. I would imagine that sometime in the not too distance future this will become a possibility. One can always hope!

Now you understand why autoresponders are an important if not critical ingredient in developing a productive, functioning, 24/7 e-book sales site. Using one will help increase your sales, drive those hesitant potential customers back to your site and take care of those everyday tasks associated with having a professional and courteous Internet business. Offering excellent customer service is a significant business building tool, especially for online businesses when a customer assesses you and your site faster than you realize.

About The Author
David Hennebery is the owner and creator of a very successful ebook called ebookprofitmaker. He is regarded as an expert in eBook marketing and selling. To contact him email . Receive 35% ebook discount for reading this article.For more details visit http://www.ebookprofitmaker.com/articleoffer.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Hennebery

Fresh Content

Are you looking for fresh content for your website? It makes sense that if you can get your hands on free content you should be using it.

We live in a sea of information. And information overload is an increasingly common complaint. Part of the complaint arises because we get hit with different headlines that point to the same content. So we waste time on things that have no added value.

When you email your list or put up content on your site, and assuming you want to generate loyalty, it's necessary that you have fresh content others haven't seen a dozen times elsewhere.

If this makes sense to you, here are some ideas you can use to EASILY generate content that is fresh with a minimal amount of time and effort.

First of all, think about a subject in which you are interested. Let's say it's make money online. Now if you're not aware of it, let me put you in the picture. Most people do web searches from Google's home page and stop there. Not at all creative. Not at all digging for information from which to develop original content.

So let's go exploring...

1 - Google has lots of tools besides just web searches. They let you check the news.

http://news.google.com

As of this writing, there are 8,549 news items listed by Google on the word make money online. Bet you could easily do a summary of some of these articles and create your own content. But let's not stop there.

2 - Google also has "groups."

http://groups.google.com

These are folks who like to discuss *your* subject. So now you can go even farther. Look up make money online in their groups. Now this information is potentially gold. Why? Because you can see what it is about make money online that lots of folks are interested in.

Think you might be able to do a little research and come up with a free or even a for-profit report that gives them what they want?

Check out Google's other tools, too. You can even get research info from universities through Google. Start here: http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/

3 - Next method: Do this search (keeping in the punctuation as written):

+make money online +free +filetype:pdf

As of this writing, Google shows 2,210,000 hits for this query. What you get here are free downloads in pdf format about your subject.

Now you can't simply copy and use it as your own information. You have to create your writing in your own words. But there's no law that says you can't summarize what you find in other people's works. To make the point, you could even call your work something like: "Survey Report: Latest from the Make Money Online Front!"

4 - Go to Alexa.com. Do a search on your subject, in this example, make money online. It provides the exact same results as Google because it's powered by Google. So why bother, right? Wrong. Because Alexa *does* provide value added information.

When you do the search, you don't want to click the link that takes you to the listed site. Instead you want to follow the link that says "Site info." When you do this, you'll find a section called: "People who visit this page also visit." This can be very valuable because it potentially shows *what the marketplace is interested in.* This can enable you to tailor your information product to what people want.

These are just some of the easy ways to branch out your explorations and find current information for your website.

One program that helps people start their own internet business with fresh content is the Plugin Profit Site. With this online business you are set up with your own money making website, email marketing newsletter and follow up training in 3 easy steps. For less than $80 you will get your own personal website with an enewsletter for 400 days without writing a single word.

About The Author
Jeff Schuman Team-Schuman.Com contains the best make money online and make money websites available today. If you want to make money check us out here: http://www.team-schuman.com/fresh-content.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_Schuman

Server Side Includes (SSI) with ASP

Server Side Includes (SSI) with ASP

People often have identical sections of code spread throughout many ASP pages, typically code at the top of the page (usually referred to as the header) and the lower part of the page (the footer). Similarly, you may have code that performs a certain set of instructions that you are repeating across multiple pages. Consider an example:-

<%
If foobar="yes" then
response.write "YES!"
Else
response.write "NOT YES!"
End if
%>

Ok, ok... it's simple, but imagine that you used this on multiple pages. What's wrong with this picture?

Well... you don't have to think about that long before realising that if you ever wanted to change something about that piece of code, you'd have your work cut out. you would have to change every page... everyone has done this at some stage and luckily most usually take the steps to learn a way around this problem.

If we could save our valuable chunk of code into a file and have that file accessed whenever we needed the code, then we no longer have a problem when it comes to changing things, as we simply update one file. Include files or Server Side Includes (SSI) as they are more commonly known are a powerful way to not only save time when it comes to maintaining and updating a site, but also increase efficiency and speed of that site too!

Ok, lets see how we use an include file... to start with we need to use one of two methods. The first one allows for including files relatively. By that I mean relative to the directory the ASP file that is using the include file resides. The second method includes files virtually. Including files virtually means that the path is taken from the root directory.

Consider that we are going to have a file (/main/somefile.asp) include another file (/includes/someinclude.asp).

To demonstrate, relative inclusion, look at this:-

<%
Response.Write "executing included code now"
%>

<%
Response.write "done executing included code"
%>

And here, we give an example of the other method, virtual inclusion:-

<%
Response.Write "executing included code now"
%>

<%
Response.write "done executing included code"
%>

Note the slight difference between the two methods. With virtual inclusion, you can move the file that calls upon the include file anywhere without affecting the outcome, because the path is always relative to the root. The same cannot be said however for relative inclusion. If you move a file that is using relative inclusion to a different directory, you'll most likely find the relative path is no longer correct.

From the examples above, you may also notice that both methods, when calling the include do so OUTSIDE of the ASP script block. This because #include declarations are not interpreted by ASP. Include files are included before a single line of ASP is processed which means the following WONT work:-

%lt;%
Page=request.form("page")
%>


We were attempting to perform a dynamic include and I would be the first to admit that the above would be very useful indeed if in fact it were possible. I do intend to cover a few methods that work around this set back but I know you will now be itching to get started right away on using include files to even worry about this, so I will cover it in a future article.

I hope that you have found the above informative and hope it inspires you all to write code that's more efficient and more easily maintained.

Rob Collyer, experienced with 20 years programming knowledge and site administrator of www.webforumz.com - Copyright 2003-2004

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rob_Collyer