Relayblogger

by Cliff Posey

Finding an affordable web site hosting plan is a must for new businesses or established businesses that are on a budget. Of course, as with most things, this is much easier said than done. There are tons of hosting companies out there that claim to offer free or cheap web site hosting, but many of them have hidden fees or low quality services. A supposedly affordable web site hosting plan can quickly turn into a costly nightmare if you aren’t careful.

This is why it is essential that you do your homework and research a number of hosting companies before making any final decisions.

Comparing Costs:

If you are looking for cheap web site hosting, then you will obviously need to compare the costs that are charged by different hosting companies. Specific costs to look at when searching for an affordable web site hosting plan include site set up fees, monthly or annual maintenance fees, and any other fees that may be associated with the plan. It should be noted that some hosting companies offer free set-up. If you can find a web host who is offering this in addition to low monthly hosting fees, you will of course be much better with this host versus another who makes you pay for the same service. Features Things to compare in addition to the cost when looking for cheap web site hosting services include the amount of storage space received with the plan, the programming languages supported by the web host, and the amount of customer support offered. Some hosting companies will offer all of these features in their basic or most affordable web site hosting plan, and others will not. You will also want to take a look at the other services offered by the web hosting companies that you are considering. Some cheap web site hosting companies provide additional services such as domain name registration and web building tools. If you haven’t purchased a domain name yet or if you need help building your website, you may want to check to see if these services can be combined with the company’s most affordable web hosting plan. This could save you an enormous amount of money.

Other Considerations:

If you have found a cheap web site hosting plan that has all of the features you need to build your web site, there are still a few other things that will need to be taken into consideration before you sign on the dotted line–the most important being reliability. Some hosting companies who offer an affordable web hosting plan have one major downfall: they aren’t always reliable. Because you need the web site to work when people try to access it, reliability is going to be a must. This is why you should always ask hosting companies about downtime before signing up for cheap web site hosting. Last, but not least, you need to make sure that you will have all of the support you need if you choose the most affordable web hosting plan that is being offered to you. Specific things to ask about include technical support response time and customer service representative availability

About the author: Cliff Posey, owner of CRP Marketing, owns and operates http://webbusinesstoolsonline.com. Cliff Posey has also operated several other successful web businesses including Love Song Cards and Radio Career Consultants. The content in this article was developed from his experience in these businesses and his continual research into further business improvements.

by: David Gwee

I recently just pick up a neat trick on how to increase my blog page rank through backlinks with anchor text from high page rank sites for free. How do I do it and why high page rank sites allow this ?

Although I am a newbie blogger but I would like to try this out on my “Internet Network Marketing Blog”(http://www.mlmJedi.com) as anchor text and sees if it works because presently my Internet Network Marketing Page Rank is “0″ !

Its pretty easy and simple. First research for blogs of your Niche or Industry.For me will be the Internet Network Marketing MLM niche.Look for those with Page rank 3 and above.Just Leave a comment, not just those spammy short comments like: Good work or well done.

Contribute and write something worthy of passing their comment moderation.The better or longer you write the higher chances of your comment being approved and thus attract their readers attention to your Blog.

Now come the most important part, you need to fill in your name, email, website URL .We all know that our blog URL will Leave a backlink but if I fill up my name as :”Internet Network Marketing Blog” and yes that is my anchor text and Google will know that “Internet Network Marketing Blog” is my anchor text and its important to my Blog URL .Check out Youtube Video in my blogpost where I test this in http://www.JohnChow.com ’s blogpost title:”The John Chow Effect”’s comment.

Is this tactic workable ? Come watch Youtube video and comment in my blogpost http://www.mlmjedi.com/seo-blogging/how-to-increase-my-internet-network-marketing-blog-page-rank-with-free-backlinks

“How I increase my Internet Network Marketing Blog Page Rank with Free Back links ?” is brought to you by The MLM Jedi.

May the Force be with You

About The Author

David Gwee author of THE Online MLM Blog : http://www.mlmJedi.com an Online MLM Expert shows you How -INSIDER BLUEPRINT- a 100% Profit Affiliate Program featuring “Pay It Forward” & MLM Funded Proposal Advertising Concept, Can EXPLODE Your MLM Leads Online! Go http://www.WhoisJoeschmo.com NOW!

by: Juliette Lee

Many people have taken the plunge and joined the world of affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing allows you to work for yourself and put your skills, hard work and independence together for you. Success in any business will not happen over night. It still takes time and effort to get your affiliate marketing scheme up and running. However, if you are persistent, determined and willing to give it your all, affiliate marketing can be the perfect career opportunity for you.

To become the so called super affiliate, you should really follow the advice of other successful affiliates. They have been through what you are and know what they are talking about. One of the first pieces of advice they give is to concentrate on a niche. Don’t try to sell everything but the kitchen sink. Concentrate on one thing in the early days. Work out the best way to sell it and get going. Once you have some strategies worked out you can always expand.

One you have built up a store house of affiliates, you need to know how to promote. Search engine and the web is usually the best way. If you are confident then you could try pay per click. However, make sure you understand this well. Many affiliates have gone for is option only to find that their profits have been eaten up.

You should take time to know your product and who you are aiming it for. When you understand both well you begin to build up credibility. People will begin to trust you and what you offer. They will feel much better about giving their business over to you rather than others. This will result in higher sales revenue for you and a much stronger business.

Don’t be afraid to diversify. Sign up with more than one merchant. Beware of any merchant that wants you to sign up with them exclusively. By using several merchants you get much more exposure. You are also protecting your self if one merchant goes under or does not pay.

Keep on top of current trends in the market. Be prepared to change if you need to. The world of internet marketing is continually changing. By staying flexible and having a willingness to change you can make these changes work for you rather than against you. Remember, what was working last month may not be this month.

Finally, don’t give up. It is true that many of these affiliate marketing schemes do fail. However, the reason isn’t due to poor products or ideas. It is because people give up way too soon. It takes time to build any business. Just keep at it. Try to do something everyday to promote your business. If you keep it up you will eventually start to see results.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money and work for yourself. You can put your skills and creative knowledge to work for you and not others. Affiliate marketing does take work. You need to build it up like any other business. However, if you stick to the advice in this article and don’t give up, you’ll soon find that your business is booming. Affiliate marketing is a great career opportunity. With hard work and determination you will be well on your way to becoming the super affiliate.

About The Author

Juliette Lee is the editor and CEO of http://www.MyAudioCompanion.com. To find the best audio book titles, please visit http://www.MyAudioCompanion.com

by: Ingrid Nirupama Grzeskowiak

Life is constantly changing. Once in a while there are major shifts happening in our personal lives, in business and our environments. After 12 months of intense research Rich Schefren has come up with a new doctrine called

The Attention Age (Part I)

He is referring to a major change in the marketplace and on the internet which will have great effects on how to be successful in business now and in the near future. Everybody who knows Rich can tell that he is one of the most outstanding business coaches and entrepreneurs available with a long list of people he has helped to create a successful business within a few months. Some well known internet gurus out there today have been asking for his advice. What I like about Rich is his professionality, his clear cut mind penetrating like an arrow, his creativity and his utter commitment to helping people change their lives to the better.

This is one of the reasons I´m writing about his new doctrine “The Attention Age”. A few days ago you might have taken the chance to listen to an interview with Rich Schefren who answered questions and laid out his new vision of internet marketing for Jay Abraham.

Major Shift In Online Marketing

After 12 months of intense research Rich Schefren points out that a general change is taking place in online marketing.As someone who likes to be ahead of the crowd he even makes predictions about what is going to happen in online marketing in the near future.

The Attention Age refers to a new era of how to deal with information. Everybody who has been out in the internet is aware of the fact that we are overwhelmed with information. We receive offers, advertisements daily in our mailboxes, there are newspapers, magazines, tons of articles, forums, other media about almost everything a human brain can come up with.

On the other hand everyone of us is fully engaged doing his job, spending time with his family, friends, hobbies and having little or no spare time left. What is it you choose to do with this little time you might have left? Are you reading your junk mail or exploring the internet for some decent business opportunity? Presumably not.

Would you agree with me that the following statements are true?

1. Most of the people doing business on the internet have problems with information overload.
2. Today time has been very valuable and squarce. Too many people have too little time.
3. Getting attention of potential customers is inevitable for making profits.
4. It has become much more difficult to get the attention of potential customers/members in the times of information overload.

I bet you do. If you own a website, are an internet marketer or even have a brick and mortar business you are certainly well aquainted with the need to advertise your products or opportunities. There are many carbon copies out there and maybe a few individuals who succeed to brand their company name because they thought of something original, something unique and also had the ability to present it as such. But what are the attention leveraging skills?

1. setting priorities
2. short term goals
3. how to deal with information
4. processing information (multitasking)
5. decision making
6. providing value
7. being in front of my customers

In times of information overload business owners need to prioritize their actions and campaigns. They have to watch the progress of their company by looking at the big picture. Rich talks about setting priorities in his “Online Manifesto”, downloaded by thousands of business owners, on his website strategic profits.com. When you are not clear about what comes first and is most important for your company´s progress, you can easily get distracted by all sorts of irrelevant information.

The big picture in mind you should always have some short term goals also to keep yourself motivated and track your progress. The ability to deal with lots of information separates the successful entrepreneur from the opportunity seeker.Today´s internet marketer has to develop the skills of distinguishing between important and unimportant information.The emphasis lies on the word “now”. Which information has some kind of value for my company now, not next week or in the future. You have to practice to scan much information for useful content in a short period of time.

The next step is to decide if the information has value for your business. Integration and processing of information is becoming one of the most challenging tasks in having an internet business today.

Developing and promoting your own product always keep in mind that it must provide value to the customer.

Branding your company or name in a unique way is a must in order to attract the right visitors, customers or clients. Provoking attention and continuously being in front of your customers are two of the most important skills an internet marketer today should concentrate on. The capacity of processing information and getting the attention of potential customers is directly related to success or failure in your business.

About The Author

Ingrid Nirupama Grzeskowiak contributes regularly with her thoughts and insights about various issues of human life. She has helped people solve their personal problems as a teacher and personal development coach in Europe; Nirupama owns a home business at http://www.Go4yourMoney.com

You are welcome to subscribe to her informative business newsletter and visit her business blog at http://Go4yourMoney.com/blog/

by: Peter Nisbet

Improved search engine rank is attainable through good search engine optimization, part of which is the maximizing of your Google Page Rank through intelligent linking with other web pages. In this first part of 2 on the subject of Google Page Rank, we will look at the argument for attaining high listings through a linking strategy.

Google Page Rank is a buzz term at the moment since many believe it to be more important to your search engine listing than search engine optimization. If we ignore for the moment the fact that Page Rank is, in itself, a form of SEO, then there are arguments for and against that belief.

Before we investigate these arguments, let’s understand some fundamentals of search engine listings. First, most search engines list web pages, not domains (websites). What that means is that every web page in a domain has to be relevant to a specific search term if it is to be listed.

Secondly, a search engine customer is the person who is using that engine to seek information. It is not an advertiser or the owner of a website. It is the user seeking information. The form of words that is used by that customer is called a ‘search term’. This becomes a ‘keyword’ when applied to a webmaster trying to anticipate the form of words that a user will employ to search for their information.

A search engine works by analyzing the semantic content of a web page and determining the relative importance of the vocabulary used, taking into account the title tags, the heading tags and the first text it detects. It will also check out text related contextually to what it considers to be the main ‘keywords’ and then rank that page according to how relevant it calculates it to be for the main theme of the page.

It will then examine the number of other web pages that are linked to it, and regard that as a measure of how important, or relevant to the ‘keyword’, that the page is. The value of the links is regarded as peer approval of the content. All of these factors determine how high that page is listed for search terms that are similar contextually to the content of the page.

Without doubt, there are web pages that are listed high in the search engine indices that contain very little in the way of useful content on the keywords for which they are listed, and have virtually no contextual relevance to any search term. However, a careful investigation of these sites will reveal two things.

The first is that many such web pages are frequently listed highly only for relatively obscure search terms. If a search engine customer uses a common search term to find the information they are seeking, they will very rarely be led to a site that has little content other than links, but it is possible. The second is that they contains large numbers of links out to other web pages, and it can be assumed that they have at least an equal number of web pages linking back.

It is possible to find such web pages for many keywords. An example is on the first page on Google for the keyword ‘Data VOIP Solutions’. There is a website there that is comprised only of links. The site itself has little content, but every link leads to either another website that provides useful content, or another internal page full of more links and no content. That is how links can be used to lift a web page high in the SE listings.

Such sites frequently contain only the bare minimum of conventional search engine optimization, but the competition is so low that they gain high listings. You will also find them to contain large numbers of internal pages, every one of which contain the same internal and external links.

It is true, therefore, that it is possible to get a high listing without much content, but with a large number of links. However, is that a legitimate argument for those promoting links against content? Could you reasonably apply that strategy to your website? Could a genuine website really contain thousands of links to other internal pages and external pages on other websites, and still maintain its intended purpose?

In the second part of this article, titled ‘Search Engine Rank: Google Page Rank Misconceptions’ wI will explode some myths about Page Rank, and explain how many people are wasting their time with reciprocal links, and perhaps even losing through them. It may be that a linking strategy is not so much an option, as a choice between the type of website that you want: to provide genuine information or to make money regardless of content.

Improved search engine rank might be synonymous with Google Page Rank, but perhaps only if you want to sacrifice the integrity of your website.

About The Author

Peter Nisbet normally has several pages his website listed within 2 days, and he shows you exactly how he does it on his website http://www.improved-search-engine-rank.com using screenshots and actual examples

by: Daniel Moro

Google AdSense has been revolutionary in terms of providing a way for webmasters to earn revenue from their web sites, particularly for smaller businesses. But are there any good alternatives to Google AdSense?

It is not usually a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket, so you should identify several alternatives. By doing this you may even discover an alternative that is more lucrative for your site, and at the very least you will be prepared in case something happens to AdSense.

Let’s look at some of the best alternatives to Google AdSense advertisements on your web site.

Chitika

Instead of displaying the same old advertising units with text and image ads, Chitika provide active boxes that show targeted products from various manufacturers. Chitika boxes can even show an ad box containing a product alongside several competitors’ products.

Yahoo! Publisher Network

At the time of writing this Yahoo! Publisher Network is still in Beta mode but once it is fully released it should be a viable alternative to Google AdSense. As with AdSense you can provide your web visitors with contextual ads. Yahoo conveniently offers four ways to receive payment including PayPal. That will be welcomed by many international webmasters who grow old while waiting for US checks to arrive and then get cleared through their banks.

Sell Advertising Spots

This is a traditional alternative, but it is still a good one. If you have a strong customer base you should be able to find advertisers to purchase advertising spots on your web site. You can sell spots by the month and offer a discounted option for six and twelve months.

Write Affiliate Advertisements

If you don’t want to spend time trying to attract traditional advertisers you can make your own ads for affiliate products. Check out the thousands of products at ClickBank or Commission Junction. Select several products that closely match your visitors’ interests. Now write affiliate ads, or use image ads with your own affiliate link.

CBprosense

If you don’t want to manually write your own affiliate ads for ClickBank products then you could consider automating the process with CBprosense. It is a tool that will spider your site, analyze its content and then deliver a list of relevant links to the best performing products in the ClickBank marketplace.

These are five of the best alternatives to Google AdSense advertising. There are many more and several that promise to deliver contextual ads. However I suggest that whenever you are considering an alternative that promises contextual ads, do a quick check through your favorite search engine or webmaster forum to see if anyone is actually making any revenue by using their service. It is one thing to promise the technology, and another altogether to have sufficient advertisers to constantly deliver appropriate ads to your site.

About The Author

Daniel Moro has been successfully building online businesses for ten years. Get more information on these Google AdSense alternatives and download a free report on ‘10 Remarkably Effective Traffic Building Techniques’ at http://www.DanielMoro.com/AdsenseAlternatives.htm

by: Daniel Moro

Choosing a good domain name is one of most important steps in setting up your online business, but it’s getting harder and harder to find good names that are still available. You could use a domain name with hyphens, but is that really a good idea?

Let’s quickly review what makes a good domain name. A domain name needs to be relevant, easy to remember, keyword optimized, and free from trademark conflicts. It should also be shorter. Although seven characters or less is ideal, you may have to settle for a domain name that’s a little longer.

So you’ve just set up your new barbecue grills business and now you discover that barbecuegrills.com is already taken. Should you consider hyphenating the domain name to barbecue-grills.com or should you go back to the drawing board?

The first choice should always be to take the name without a hyphen. Having established that, there are some exceptions. Let’s look at hyphenated domain names and when they are might be good to use.

Domains with hyphens can sometimes be a good idea if you really want certain words in your domain name but all the domains without hyphens are already taken.

Another reason to use a hyphen is when the words you plan to use are harder to read without the hyphen. The domain hotellamps.com is harder to read than hotel-lamps.com. That is not necessarily a great domain name but it does serve to illustrate the point that some domains are easier to read with a hyphen.

You might also consider using hyphens for search engine optimization. Some people suggest that using hyphens helps the search engines to distinguish your keywords better. This may be a good option for webmasters whose primary goal is to optimize their sites for traffic from natural search engine rankings. The only catch here is that this could change over time since search engines are constantly adjusting their search algorithms.

Incidentally, if you decide not to use hyphens in your domain name, watch out for any unintended double meanings that might be embarrassing. To illustrate this point a couple of fairly suspicious domain names are therapistfinder.com and molestationnursery.com. In case you are wondering the latter was reportedly the domain for the Mole Station Native Nursery based in New South Wales, Australia, although it seems, fortunately, to have moved.

Whatever reason you have for using a hyphen in your domain name, it would be good to remember one thing. Some people will forget the hyphen when they type your domain name. So whenever you invest in promoting your site, some lucky webmaster who owns the un-hyphenated version of your domain is going to get some free traffic, courtesy of your hard work.

As you can see, there are some situations when using a hyphen in your domain name may be a good decision.

About The Author

Daniel Moro has been successfully building online businesses for ten years. Download your free report on ‘10 Remarkably Effective Traffic Building Techniques’ at http://www.DanielMoro.com/domains.htm

 by: Matthew Bredel

The 21st century saw the boom of the social networking industry. Online social communities have formed and flourished, bridging that space between and among people from different ages, race, and gender. Dozens of social networking sites are now catering to the hobbies and interests of millions of users all over the world.

Social networking began with Classmates.com in 1995. This site’s goal is to help its members find, connect, keep in touch, and form a network with friends and acquaintances from preschool through college, from work, or from the military.

Unlike other networking sites that gained popularity in recent years, Classmates.com uses real names instead of screen names. It also has a rigid privacy policy - the contact information of the member is never revealed within the network unless disclosed one on one by the account owner to another member.

Another social network, SixDegrees.com, emerged in 1997. SixDegrees allows its users to send messages or post bulletins to a list of friends or family members found within their network. SixDegrees faced its early demise four years later, just as the Friendster online community was starting to flourish.

With Friendster, you can invite and add as many friends as you want. You can also upload photos, write blogs and reviews, instant-message other members from your network, and form online groups with those who share the same interests as you have.

At present, Friendster’s social network has more than 40 million registered users. Until around April 2004, Friendster was on the top lead among dozens of other social networking sites. MySpace overtook Friendster in terms of page views, and many other social networking sites like Multiply and Hi5.

MySpace is one of the most popular websites in the Internet these days. Just like Friendster, it allows you to collect a network of friends and share blogs, photos, music, and videos with them. This social networking website is very much popular on English speaking countries, while most people from Asia prefer to use Friendster. MySpace already has more than a hundred million members in 2006.

The two major search engines, Google and Yahoo!, have launched their own social networking sites - orkut and Yahoo! 360°. Most blogging sites also allow you to create a network of friends online.

The thing is, most social networking sites work similarly – they all allow users to expand their network by inviting friends or acquaintances and to share information over the Internet. When you post blogs or files in your account, everyone from your network of friends will be informed of the update through RSS feeds. You also have the option to keep a particular post private to just a few individuals in your network.

Social networks are the best way to increase the number of people in which you are connected with, so if you are into business, you might as well get yourself into social networking to promote your product and increase your sales.

You can choose from hundreds social networking websites available in the web today. However, you might prefer to use a particular networking site in which a lot of your personal friends and contacts are already members. In this way, it’s much easier for you to expand your network and share the contents of your site to other users.

About The Author

Matthew Bredel is the owner of TheWebReviewer: http://www.thewebreviewer.com, Home Based Business Reviews, and http://www.netwebvideo.com: Home Based Business Lessons. Matt currently is located in Southern California and is married with two children.

Here are my votes for Blog Project Three.

• L’Amour De Blog: 3 reasons why blogging is like being in love
• Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After)
• Three is a Magic Number
• 3 Tips for Staying Focused with Small Children
• Three things I want my kids to refrain from saying on our upcoming road trip
• 3 + 3 + 3 Places Where You Can Get Free Icons For All Seasons And Reasons
• The 3 P’s for Creating a Successful Website - Passion, Persistence, and Patience
• 3 Must Do Things For A New Blogger
• 3 Things no one told you about web monetizing
• Three reasons to try a marathon…
  
• 3 Reason Why Entrepreneurs Succeed!
• Top 3 Reasons Why You Have to Work from Home
• 3 Signs that You are in the Wrong Company
• 3 Ways to Track Your Comments

According to TechCrunch Shoppero launched in Germany two months ago and are already among the top 3000 sites in Germany.

Shoppero is a mix between a shopping site and a community. It is possible to link directly to products, making it very similar to an affiliate sale, and advertise on a blog with Shopperos widget.

A blogger making money from Shoppero would 20% in commission for direct sales and 60% in commission for advertising using their widget. There is also some money to be made from writing reviews. I didn’t really understand if that was based on generated traffic or if it the content that is paid for.

This seems to be nice train to catch. I assume this is the kind of community it pays well to be in on from the beginning.