What's in a Domain Name? The Changing Internet

Generic, top-level domain names, or gTLD, such as .com or .net, are the sorters of the Internet. They serve the single purpose of identifying the database in which a domain name is registered. The .gov component of whitehouse.gov, for instance, identifies the domain name as registered in the "government" database. The .com in microsoft.com identifies that domain name as registered in the "commercial" database.

The best known gTLDs are .com, .org, .edu, .net and .gov. Lesser known gTLDs include .info, .biz, .name and .tel.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, is the nonprofit corporation that oversees the distribution of domain names. In the 10 years since ICANN's inception, ICANN has permitted the number of gTLDs to grow to 21. ICANN believed that creating additional gTLDs risked confusing users of the Internet.

That has now changed. In June, ICANN reversed its long-held position and announced that it would allow an unlimited number of generic top-level domains.

The genesis for the change may reside in a 2005 report on the Internet from the National Academy of Sciences. The report addressed the technical feasibility of greatly expanding the number of registrations of gTLDs. The academy focused particularly on the ability of the servers that make the Internet possible to withstand an increase in the number of gTLDs. It concluded that the servers could easily handle the greater demand, pointing out that the .com gTLD alone was easily processing the 20 billion queries it received daily.

According to ICANN, its decision to open up the domain name space will lead to greater competition and lower costs for the public when registering domain names. Additionally, the well-known gTLDs are crowded. Every word in the English language and every letter combination between two and five letters in length, for instance, have been registered as a domain name under the .com gTLD.

The cost of applying for a new gTLD guarantees that there will not be a stampede of new applicants. ICANN has tentatively set the fee for a gTLD application at a steep and non-refundable $185,000. Once registered, a gTLD will also carry an annual maintenance fee of at least at $75,000. ICANN has stated that it believes the high fees to be necessary for it to recoup the $12 million already spent implementing the open gTLD system.

The fees will probably decline in time, and smaller businesses will then be able to obtain their own gTLDs. Lower fees, however, will carry a downside as well. There may emerge the kind of frenzied speculation for gTLDs that occurred in the 1990s in connection with domain names. In addition, abusers of the current Internet domain-name regime will be able translate their illicit behavior to the new gTLD space.

For so long as the fees for a gTLD application remain high, however, there should be few abuses occurring, such as cybersquatting, typosquatting and domain tasting.

Typosquatters register as their own domain names, misspellings of popular domain names. Web users who expect to land on the popular domain name's Web site, but who unintentionally misspell the domain name, are directed instead to the typosquatter's Web site. Undoubtedly, the somewhat greater complexity of domain names in which both the gTLD and the sub-domain are less familiar than ".com" will lead to a greater number of mistyped domain names, benefiting typosquatters.

Domain name tasting takes advantage of the five-day trial period that a registrant of a new domain name receives. During the five-day trial period, the prospective registrant can test the domain name for its profitability on a pay-per-click basis. If profitable, the tester simply retains the domain name. If not profitable, the tester relinquishes the domain name at the end of the five days and receives a full refund of the registration fee.

This inventory of potential ways in which gTLDs can be misused underscores the need for gTLD owners to obtain a trademark or service mark registration for their gTLD from at least one national trademark office, such as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. A registration serves as a governmental imprimatur of a trademark owner's claim to rights embodied in a registration. It carries considerable weight in dispute resolution proceedings against Internet abusers of the registered mark.

The appeal to businesses of owning their own gTLDs lies in the ability it provides to use the company name or one of their brands in place of .com or .net. If Amazon.com, for instance, were to obtain .amazon as its gTLD, it could use the sub-domain portion of the .amazon gTLD as a directory to its Web site. The domain names book.amazon and dvd.amazon, for example, could direct Web browsers to the book and DVD sections of its Web site, respectively.

Ownership of a popular gTLD could also benefit the placement in search results of Web sites operated under the gTLD. A search engine's algorithm might weigh the number of hits that a gTLD receives in its assessment of the relevance of a Web site to a query.

Marketers may find that a gTLD permits greater emphasis of a name or brand. Businesses that own their own gTLDs will not only be able to identify all of their business functions under a single gTLD. Additionally, in the sub-domain portion, a business will be able to customize content for its community, such as for employees, vendors, customers and the like.

Owners of gTLDs will also have greater assurance that security measures for the gTLD are adequate. They will have complete control over those safeguards in place for protecting against Internet threats.

The availability of new gTLDs, may also offer the chance to obtain a gTLD to those who were foreclosed from registering a name or mark under the .com gTLD.

In October, ICANN issued a draft manual of procedure for processing gTLD applications.

ICANN is expected to open a 45-day window in the first quarter of 2009, for submitting applications for gTLDs. The first round of gTLD registrations are expected to be granted in the second quarter of 2009. Individuals are not eligible to own gTLDs.

Processing of an application for a new gTLD, will begin with comparison of the applied for gTLD with other applications and registrations. The comparison will be conducted by both a computer algorithm and by a human.

The applicant itself will also be assessed. A successful applicant for a gTLD must show that it has the financial, technical and operational capability to deploy a gTLD. An entity that meets these requirements and obtains its own gTLD is referred to as a registry. As a registry, the owner of a gTLD oversees the maintenance of the authoritative master database of all domain names registered under the registry's gTLD. A registry is also responsible for ensuring that computers anywhere in the world can route traffic to and from the registry's gTLD.

The U.S.-based company VeriSign Inc., for instance, is the registry for .com.

The gTLDs granted under the new policy will fall into one of two categories: "open" and "community-based." Open gTLDs will be available for any purpose. "Community-based" gTLDs will be operated only for the benefit of groups, consisting of a defined community with a restricted population. To qualify for a community gTLD, the community must be clearly identified and organized in an established community; the gTLD must be endorsed by the community; there must be a connection between the gTLD and the community; and the applicant for the gTLD must establish a registration and use policy.

Geographical gTLDs include any word or combination of letters that represent a country or territory name; a subnational jurisdiction such as a county, province or state; a city name; or a continent or any U.N. region. Geographical name gTLDs permit a Web user to narrow his or her search results for a particular product or service to a locality of interest.

Geographical names or abbreviations, such as .london, .philly, and .dc are likely to face strong demand from applicants. ICANN intends to resolve competing claims for geographical names by requiring each applicant to prove its authorization to register the geographical name as a gTLD. Applicants will need to show support or at least the absence of an objection by the relevant government or public authority for the name.

This change to an unlimited number of gTLDs is not universally applauded. For some, the new gTLDs may simply add to the difficulty of browsing the Web. They may more easily remember a domain name under the familiar .com or .net gTLDs than under a welter of different gTLDs.

Additionally, a .com gTLD is more likely to land a user directly on a home page, while a gTLD and its sub-domain name may lead to an internal page of a Web site which the Web user did not intend to visit.

The potentially limitless number of gTLDs, will also hobble the ability of trademark owners to pre-emptively register domain names, in order to deny them to cybersquatters. Under the current scheme where there is only a limited number of gTLDs, a trademark owner can register an important trademark across the major gTLDs. For example, Acme Tools might pre-emptively register acmetools.com, acmetools.biz, acmetools.net and so on. These pre-emptive registrations prevent cybersquatters from improperly registering the Acme Tools domain names first.

With unlimited gTLDs, pre-emptive domain name registration will be much less effective, if feasible at all. Instead, in place of across the board pre-emptive domain name registrations, trademark owners will need to systematically monitor the Web and gTLDs to detect improper use of their names and brands.

The format adopted for resolving gTLD disputes closely resembles the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy, which is familiar to many trademark owners. Any party with standing to object, as defined by the manual of procedure, can do so. An objection can be based on a conflict with the objector's own gTLD, on a conflict with the objector's legal rights, on the grounds of morality and public order or on the fact that a community gTLD is non-representative.

Objections based on morality and public order will inevitably lead to questions as to whose standards should apply and who has standing to raise an objection. Potential applications for .xxx as a gTLD from purveyors of adult entertainment or for .free from a Chinese democracy movement, raise standing and subject matter issues emblematic of the difficulties that enforcing the morality and public order criteria will face.

Where multiple applicants apply for an identical or similar gTLD, all applications that pass the evaluation process will be resolved by comparative evaluation or auction.

The availability of new gTLDs will change the way Internet traffic is managed, conflicts are processed, companies conduct their marketing and trademark owners protect their rights. Whether the value of a gTLD proves to be commensurate with its cost will remain unanswered for at least several years.

Stephen Meyers is a partner with Woodcock Washburn in Philadelphia. His practice is concentrated in trademarks and copyrights, both litigation and transactional. His articles have appeared in national and regional publications and he authored the chapter on e-commerce for the Thomson-West treatise "Computer Software."

Webdesign: Importance

The World Wide Web was released to the public in the early 90’s. It wasn’t until 1996 that the usage of the word “Internet” became a commonplace for most people. The Internet, sometimes called simply “the Net,” is an international system of computer networks that allows users to send and receive information from other computers (Rhie). This concept influenced many corporations to expand their services worldwide by developing an online presence through the implementation of a company website. It was only a matter of time before the Internet became a global marketplace for virtually everything. Investors and business owners began buying web space and hiring web designers to develop their online web presence. Having a professionally designed business website is an important component of success for any company doing business in the 21st century.

Registering a strategic domain is one of the most fundamental steps in the early developing stages of a professional website. A domain is a unique name assigned to an IP Address that identifies an internet website (MacDonald). It can make or break the success of any company trying to establish an online identity. When choosing a domain name it is important to incorporate the company’s brand name or key phrases that correspond to that business. This allows customers to easily access the company website directly or through any major search engines. An efficient domain name is easy to remember and works well with TV and Radio advertising. The most common domains are “.com”, “.net”, and “.org”. Competition for domain space is higher than ever since the average cost has dropped dramatically. The longer consumers wait to purchase their online web space, the more likely the domain name they want will already be taken.

Competition is so high that every single 3-character “.com” domain name has already been registered (Hayward).A professionally designed business website must be both aesthetically pleasing and encompass a strategically designed page layout. If the look and feel does not appeal to a potential customer, they are most likely going to leave, never to be seen again. It is important that the sites navigation structure is featured on every page of the website and is in a location that the user can easily identify.

This allows potential customers to access the information they are looking for without becoming frustrated. Today’s professionals use third party web application software like Adobe Dreamweaver to achieve that professional look along with a structurally sound design. The use of template based layouts allows for complex navigation structures and advanced page features. Professional web designers also use the latest web markup language to produce fully customized websites. Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS, are a series of instructions that specify how text should appear on a Web page. You can use CSS to set specific styles for text, borders, and other elements, and apply these styles to your entire Web site (Nigrerio). The importance of using CSS instead of standard HTML Markup language is endless.

Cascading style sheets offer the highest amount of customization, along with faster loading times and cross-browser compatibility. Cross-browser refers to the ability for a website, web application, HTML document or client-side script to support multiple web browsers (Geraci). In lemans terms, a website designed in CSS will be displayed properly on different browsers, operating systems, and mobile devices. This is useful to any business that offers products or services to a wide variety of customers. Fast loading times is another key component for any professional website. Although most users today use cable, DSL, or broadband, it is important that the customer doesn’t wait. Since CSS uses about half the amount of text compared to a regular HTML document, the page is loaded much faster.

This leaves room for higher quality images and other media solutions to be incorporated into the design. However, even the most attractive, fast loading, and cross-browser compatible websites are not successful unless they can be found online.A website is not complete until it is considered to be search engine friendly. After the final build of a website is complete it is important for the website to undergo MTM. Meta Tag Marketing is the process of fine tuning the content of a site along with the html and meta tags so that it can be found in the search engines. (Mark) This allows a website to establish a higher rank under certain keywords and key phrases that pertain to your business. Having a website that is not search engine friendly is like having a billboard advertisement in the middle of the woods, no one is going to see it. MTM allows a business to move higher on the search engines to increase qualified traffic to their website.

The more traffic being driven to a website significantly increases the chances of a potential customer purchasing services and referring more unique visitors.A strategic domain name, cascading style sheet design, and search engine optimization implementation are three key components to a professionally designed business website. Once these elements are combined, it is just a matter of time before the true benefits of having a website are revealed.Everything from the latest news to celebrity gossip can be found on the internet.

When people are looking for information they turn to the computer. The internet allows a business to display what they have to offer through text, images, flash presentations, and user interactive web sites. A company can also setup online shopping carts that allow them to sell products online. Any business today that does not have a company website is looked at as incomplete. There are so many benefits a professional business website has to offer any company that is looking to compete in today’s marketplace.

The web is one of the most effective and cheapest methods of advertising available. For about the same cost of a small one time newspaper ad, a company can have a 4 or 5 page web site, open 24 hours a day with the potential to reach millions of people. Potential customers can obtain product information when they want it, not when a business is open. Many people will turn to a business that supplied them with product information when they needed it, which in many cases is outside normal trading hours.Having a website allows small businesses to compete on the same playing field as the larger corporations. It has a low cost of entry and allows any company to market at a global level. A website works around the clock with little effort to keep it running. A professional developer can analyze any existing promotional materials and integrate these elements into a coherent design for an authentic online web presence.

This allows for a more custom marketing presence that can’t be obtained by just using templates included with off-the-shelf software packages or online services.In conclusion, having a professionally designed business website is an important component of success in today’s competitive market. The internet allows companies across the world to establish them as a credible and professional business. Building a website is like building a house; you must start off with a strong foundation before you can add more bricks. Registering a strategic domain name, developing a CSS design template, and optimizing a website under keywords and key phrases are all key components to establishing a professional website. A business website is the ultimate form of customer service that can be provided to any client.

Creating Search Engine Friendly Pages

There is no point in building a website unless there are visitors coming in. A major source of traffic for most sites on the Internet is search engines like Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Altavista and so on. Hence, by designing a search engine friendly site, you will be able to rank easily in search engines and obtain more visitors.
Major search engines use programs called crawlers or robots to index websites to list on their search result pages. They follow links to a page, reads the content of the page and record it in their own database, pulling up the listing as people search for it.

If you want to make your site indexed easily, you should avoid using frames on your website. Frames will only confuse search engine robots and they might even abandon your site because of that. Moreover, frames make it difficult for users to bookmark a specific page on your site without using long, complicated scripts.

Do not present important information in Flash movies or in images. Search engine robots can only read text on your source code so if you present important words in Flash movies and images rather than textual form, your search engine ranking will be affected dramatically.

Use meta tags accordingly on each and every page of your site so that search engine robots know at first glance what that particular page is about and whether or not to index it. By using meta tags, you are making the search engine robot's job easier so they will crawl and index your site more frequently.

Stop using wrong HTML tags like to style your page. Use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) instead because they are more effective and efficient. By using CSS, you can eliminate redundant HTML tags and make your pages much lighter and faster to load.

Microsoft May Be Running Out of Time on Yahoo Deal

May 2 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer may be running out of time to clinch his proposed purchase of Yahoo! Inc. as the Internet company forges tighter ties with Google Inc.

Microsoft was leaning toward making a hostile bid as of last night, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Yahoo may agree to use Google's Web advertising software within a week, the newspaper reported. The decision would build on a test program the companies ran last month.

After three months of pressing Yahoo to give up looking at alternatives and agree to a deal with Microsoft, Ballmer faces a potential setback. An accord with Google may spur Yahoo's sales and give it a better chance of staying independent, pressuring Microsoft to raise its $44.6 billion bid.

``The board and management of Yahoo are trying to retain independence at all costs,'' said Laura Martin, an analyst at New York-based Soleil Securities Corp. who has a ``hold'' rating on Yahoo shares.

Yahoo's test of Google's ad system initially applied to 3 percent of its search queries. If the company extends that to all of them, it may generate more than $1 billion in incremental cash flow, Citigroup Inc.'s Mark Mahaney said in a report last month.

The San Francisco-based analyst, who advises investors to buy Yahoo, said then that the deal might force Microsoft to boost its $31-a-share bid. Last month, Ballmer gave Yahoo a deadline to negotiate a deal at the original price, which the Internet company ignored.

Walk Away

Ballmer said yesterday that he would walk away from the purchase before he overpays for Yahoo, the Sunnyvale, California- based owner of the second-most popular Internet search engine.

``I know exactly what I think Yahoo is worth to me, exactly,'' Ballmer said in a meeting with employees, according to remarks provided by spokesman Frank Shaw. ``I won't go a dime above, and I will go to what I think it's worth if that gets the deal done.''

Yahoo spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler and Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich declined to comment. Shaw didn't return a call late yesterday.

Yahoo has repeatedly turned down the bid since Microsoft's first approach Jan. 31. Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, would use the takeover to bolster competition with Google, the leader in the $41 billion online advertising market.

Jerry Yang, Yahoo's CEO, has said the offer is too low. Ballmer, who gave the company until April 26 to agree to a deal, let the deadline pass without taking action.

Microsoft's Options

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft may make a friendly deal with Yahoo, start a proxy fight to replace Yahoo's board or abandon the bid, Ballmer said at the meeting. The company will make an announcement in ``very short order,'' he said.

``Not getting this done is putting a substantial amount of pressure on him,'' said Rob Enderle, president of the research firm Enderle Group in San Jose, California.

Microsoft rose 8 cents to $29.48 in trading before exchanges opened after closing at $29.40 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares have dropped since Jan. 31, pulling the value of the half- cash, half-stock deal to $29.48, based on yesterday's close. Yahoo climbed 89 cents to $27.70 in early trading.

Google may be using its Yahoo partnership to delay the deal, Enderle said.

``Google wants it to go as long as possible,'' he said. ``The longer this goes on, the happier Google is.''

Google Fights

Yahoo said last month that it would test displaying ads sold by Google next to Internet search results. The trial would last as long as two weeks, the company said.

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft sell text links that appear next to search results, charging advertisers when they are clicked. Google generates more revenue from each search query, so a partnership may boost Yahoo's revenue.

Yahoo and Google may strike a nonexclusive partnership, meaning that the system could display ads from competitors, including Microsoft's, the Journal said. That approach is designed to keep antitrust authorities from blocking the deal, the newspaper said.

The U.S. Justice Department is reviewing the initial test, Mountain View, California-based Google said last month. The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee would examine any formal partnership between Google and Yahoo, Chairman Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat, said last month.

``Regulators will not allow this,'' Soleil's Martin said. ``It would put all of Internet advertising into the hands of Google, the predominant search marketer on the Web.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Amy Thomson in New York at athomson6@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Thaw in San Francisco at jthaw@bloomberg.net

Blogs Build Up Back Links in Search Engines

One of the most powerful online tools that any online entrepreneur can use to quickly build up back links pointing to their sites is a blog or web log as it used to be referred to in the early days.

Actually there are very few other online tools that can be as effective as a blog in helping a webmaster build up the number of back links pointing to their site at high speed. Link Bait Articles and Blogs One of the most effective techniques to use with blogging is to create a link bait article on your blog.

Link bait articles as the name suggests is the kind of article that provokes others to link to it. To succeed with link bait articles, you will need to be very focused about what you want to achieve because there are various techniques and the worst mistake you can make is to try and combine several of them instead of selecting one.

The most common technique is to target the most popular blogger for a well orchestrated campaign. You can contradict them on a certain controversial issue for instance. The idea here is to create a buzz around the controversy. The more people discuss the issue the more they will want to link to your article as they refer to it. If you have access to explosive industry news that nobody else has, this is yet another way to create a link bait article or post.

It will help if your news item is closely related to a hot topic of debate or discussion that is going on at the moment. Remember that the objective here is to accumulate a high number of back links as quickly as possible pointing to your site.

The effect of this will be to dramatically increase traffic to your site immediately and gradually to help improve your ranking with search engines so that you get even more traffic coming in directly from search engines. Using Blogs to Create a Presence and Winning Image Yet another way in which you can use blogs effectively is in creating a presence for yourself and an effective image. This is very easy to do. All you need to do is to launch a blog that shows off your expertise. And then to attract attention to yourself visit other blogs that cover a similar subject to what you are an expert in. Give free advice and useful incites but make sure that you do not link back to your site in your comments.

Just concentrate on building up the right image you want as an expert in your field. If you do this effectively, two things will happen. Firstly sooner or later those reading your comments will start to look for your site. Finding it should not be too difficult because most blog software links back to your site using your name.

The blogs that do not do this like blogger will link back to your profile and so all you have to do is update your profile and it will be very easy to find your site. The last resort is to use your name on a search engine which most folks are able to do very easily.

The second thing that will happen is that as traffic to your blog grows, so will the back links to your site Link to Other Blogs to Receive More Links Than You Can Handle This strategy may look suspect but it usually works like a charm. It is based on the simple golden rule of life that to receive, one has to give first. All you have to do is to create a useful blog with plenty of valuable information and then link to other blogs and sites that are useful resources for further information concerning what you have discussed on your blog.

Now while it is true that not every site you link to will link back, the truth is that some will and if you continue with this practice for a reasonable period of time, you will end up with a sizeable amount of back links pointing to your site. Blogs are very valuable online tools for helping any webmaster quickly build up their traffic and back links.

Why it's a BAD Idea to Promote Hot Selling Products on eBay

Do a quick search on Google, Yahoo, or your favorite auction resource site, and you'll quickly discover there are several software programs targeted to vendors who want to promote hot selling products on eBay.

The infatuation with hot selling products exists because sellers believe if you target items that have a robust sales pattern, you'll have a better chance at profiting on eBay. This is both true and false.

Yes... hot selling products can improve your bottom line. But unfortunately by the time the average eBay seller (a) realizes what the hot selling products are, (b) purchases stock to sell on eBay, and (c) actually puts the items up for sale, the demand is already being met by other eBay sellers who probably started the hot selling product trend some time ago.

Not only that, with thousands of people also having access to the same hot selling product lists, you'll have to contend with other eBay vendors who have the exact same ideas that you do. So you'll be up against the original sellers who are currently feeding the demand, AND doing the tango with newer sellers who have jumped on the same hot selling product bandwagon that you did.

Okay maybe this won't happen to you. But suppose it does. What if competition becomes so great that prices start dipping below the wholesale cost that you paid for the item? (It happens all the time on eBay.) And what if you lose $100, $200, or even $1,000 on inventory that you thought would be flying off the shelf? Suddenly that hot selling item is looking rather cold sitting in your garage collecting dust.

So if not hot selling products on eBay, then what? Do what the majority of PowerSellers do. Sell what you want, instead of what's hot. Repeat after me, "Every day ordinary items sell extremely well on eBay... Every day ordinary items sell extremely well on eBay... Every day ordinary items sell extremely well on eBay." Allow this to become your mantra, because it is very much true.

I know this from first-hand experience as I analyze top sellers instead of hot products. And my research has continuously shown me that mediocre products don't necessarily translate into mediocre sales. For instance, there's a seller right now who clears about $1,000-$2,000 a week selling magnets. And that's AFTER eBay and PayPal fee's. Another seller promotes homemade CD's to a specific audience and clears $900-$2,000 a week.

A few sellers make $500-$700+ a week - after expenses - promoting public domain information. And the cool thing about public domain information is that anybody can sell it because it's free. So that's pure profit by selling something they never paid for. Talk about the ultimate arbitrage opportunity!

The ultimate key in succeeding no matter what product you end up selling, is to build a successful strategy. To figure out 'how' to profitably market what you have, instead of chasing after the next great thing. Because once you have the strategy part down, you can sell anything on eBay and make it a hot seller to your bank account.

What Does a Good Sales Web Page Need?

I have a background in sales and public relations which transfers nicely to the internet, which is just another form of media with the same human beings with the same wants, needs and reactions as those who read the newspaper and watch TV.

As a means of increasing my affiliate products income, as of the date of writing this, I've been going to topic related websites in order to secure interesting products and services I may offer to others for a commission. Because I'm already Clickbank merchant, using them to pay my own affiliate partners and take my orders, I did my search for other merchants using the same service.

What I found is this: The great thing about the internet is anyone can try to start making money by making a sales web page. The bad thing about the internet is anyone can try to start making money by making a sales web page.

That's right folks, with no training whatsoever you to can get started and make many of the same mistakes I've seen on some of these websites some of which may still even be uncorrected on my huge whatever you need discount type site.

Here are some of the conclusions I developed while studying these sites for product inclusion and sales potential:

1.Use Your Title Tag Home Page doesn't give anyone including search engines enough with which to work. Would you open the door to a building without sufficient signage? Then why should a prospective buyer click on the link on a search engine that says Index?

2.Description tags Come Second to Importance
This is the description that search engines will use. It's your job in your description not just to describe, but to sell me on the idea of clicking on your link to visit your site. If your sales pitch sounds better than your description then put some of that pitch into your description tag!
Two book stores happen to be located side by side. Both have attractive store names, but one is offering comfortable chairs and coffee as you browse. The other store may offer the same thing but how do I know that without the description of the benefits of going into that book store? Which store would I go into? Which link would you click? The one describing benefits or the one with just the title?

3.A Large Font Descriptive Compelling Title
Okay, I'm at your page, you have about five seconds to get me to stay on your page and keep reading, listening, watching etc..
How to Take Strikes and Counter-Attack Even When You're Hurt http://KirkhamsebooksMartialArt/Martial_Arts_Videos/
This title obviously attracts martial artists, boxers and those interested in self-defense.

Graphics
Due to an experiment in making my sales pages copy and pasteable into emails some of my pages are lacking graphics. Graphics include a book cover please. Some of my older books still lack book covers and I'm finding a good titled, colorful book cover will attract attention, give prospects more confidence in your product and therefore potentially increase sales.
Samples

When I go to an off line book store, I'll read the cover, read the inside flap, table of contents and flip through pages. Admittedly, I'm still correcting this in some of my own ebooks, but I see the importance in giving the public the same options as they would in an off line book store. Providing a downloadable free version of your ebook would give your prospects the same privileges as if they trekked through the rain, paid $3.00 per gallon for gas and drove to their local book store. An on-line version with the page linked should be considered as an alternate option.

This will help with search engines and help with a problem I myself have. I will often download a sample of a product and sometimes not look at it for over a month. 'What's the hurry', I think to myself, 'it's on my hard drive.' Sometimes I feel reading it online will tempt me faster to buy.
Customer Service

Okay you're at the book store and you have a question about a book or you can't find the book you're looking for. So you look for the staff, which are no where to be found. What do you do? Well hopefully go to my book store, but probably go to the the next book store down the street, find an attentive staff member, get your questions answered and buy your book there. By the way, which book store will you refer your friends to?

My fellow authors and business friends, all of this is true on the internet, only your competitors are only a click away not a block away.
Don't worry about spam, you have filters just like a book store may have a staff member to screen calls. Worry more about having better communication with your guests than your one click away competitors have with theirs.

Post Visit Contact
Ever notice how book stores will do everything possible to stay in contact with you and get you to come back. They know you may not buy that expensive book, CD or DVD on your first visit. Being a multi-product store as opposed to a single product as some of you are including myself, the book store will send you offers and discounts in both snail mail and email. Every book store and coffee shop I walk into has a card for me they punch every purchase I make and after a set number I get a free product.

Do not forget about your prospects after they buy or after they leave your site.
The big point here being you're losing a lot of sales and future sales without offering incentives to stay in contact with your previous visitors as well as making it to their advantage to revisit your site due to fresh content. Do you archive your newsletters on your website with a link to those archives on the newsletter you're sending out? Do all of your newsletters contain a clickable link to your sales page. Giving prospects a chance to read your archives could peak their interest enough to buy your product. The links to your sales page will help your search engine ranking a bit as well.

Conclusion
Familiarity leads to comfort, comfort leads to confidence, confidence leads to increased sales and happy clients confident enough to buy again from you and refer others to your website. The next time you go to a successful book store or comparable off line store similar to your product or service, think to yourself, are my guests offered the same benefits?

How to scrutinize your web design professional when building your accessible website

In all extent, creating something by with a tiny basic knowledge can be stunning and exigent task for all in any view. Stunning because, you are going to produce something by holding elfin knowledge on it and exigent because of the ways and means that one needs to take in order to finish the development.

When you're starting a new online business your first wish to create a website that will looks to be specialized and decipherable. Then you have to search for the best web design professional who will guide you the traditions to build the creative website design which will represent you and your business theme. What are the symbols for a graceful professional website builder? How to identify affordable and accessible web design? Who will save you wealth by combining numerous features of a traditional website program into attractive website? These may be your thoughts arises in your mind but it is viewed that ethical productive website builders are also easy to use. They offer you a way to fabricate a small business website design without the need of knowing a lot of technical stuff or html.

When choosing a cheap professional website builder, just remember to judge the following features which are crucial when building a productive handsome web presence for your business:

1. To build a professional-looking website they must have little bit basic knowledge on FTP, HTML, web designing styles and java script. If these are all new to you, you should learn them through different online resources and tutorials.

2. They should identify your target market and then made a vast RND on it. Remember, they will be creating your website for that market. They should realize the criteria and features of the visitor’s means what they would like to see on your site, as well as the content.

3. Advice them to study your competitors. Recommend them to visit the websites of your competitors and identify the things they used to effectively attract visitors.

4. Plan ahead. Write down the sections and features you would like to be included in your website and discus with them. Combine your ideas with the demands of your potential clients.

5. Navigation should be in first preference when they build your website. Make sure that your website is easy to navigate. Make sure that all buttons and links can be easily located. Also, put a link on every page that will take your visitors to you homepage.

6. Suggest them to consider effective color combination. You can't simply use pink and red on your website just because they are your favorite colors. Advocate them, to build your website look professional; you will need to stick with neutral colors.

7. Advice them to make your homepage tantalizing. This is the first page that will be presented to your visitors. Thus you have to concentrate on it vastly. Make sure that it is eye-catching so your visitors will be convinced to explore the whole website.

8. Advocate them to seal your website with unique quality content. Make your website will be a great resource of information to entice your visitors to visit again that site.

9. Shopping cart - When someone is fascinated in a product or service on your site, you'll need to have a shopping cart for them to place that item. Consult with your web design professional about this function. If the builder you're looking at doesn't provide this, you might want to look elsewhere.

10. Templates and image libraries - Some website builders have templates and they will suggest you to use any of them, and some even provide gallery images that you can add to your site. However, a really good professional website builder will have more than just a few. It is better to you to create just what you have in mind. Efficiently designed websites might be a little costly issue but it is a good to one time investment. Online business is fast grabbing up and more and more people turn to shop online as it is time saving and cost effective views. Thus you have to consider the emotions of those visitors who will visit your website and your simple idea to restrict them into your site in long time basic.

Strategic Domain Name Selection for Increasing Traffic and Conversion Rates

The days of a domain name being just a web address are long gone; today, domain names are a critical element of your marketing toolbox. In this presentation, learn how you can build a portfolio of traffic-generating “Direct Navigation” domain names to drive additional traffic to your web site while simultaneously increasing conversion rates.

“Direct Navigation” domain names—essentially highly-targeted descriptive domain names that users type directly into their browser—are one of the fastest growing advertising channels: in 2007, nearly 10% of all paid search clicks—an estimated $1 billion worth—were derived from direct navigation portals.

Do you know how to take advantage of direct navigation traffic? Who are these users who search via domain names rather than Google, and how can you best sell to them?Via case studies and empirical research, Johnston will help attendees learn:

What is direct navigation traffic?

How does your choice of domain name effect search engine placement?

How does your choice of domain effect your ad click-through rates?

How can you capture traffic from users “searching without a search engine?”

How can you build a portfolio of descriptive domain names that will generate targeted traffic for
many years to come?

Blogging for Profit and Traffic

Blogging for profit involves specific knowledge of how to make money online, although if you are only blogging for traffic then you are guaranteed that if you link your website to your blog.
In order to blog for profit, or to make money in other words, you need to understand the principles of Google Adsense, a selling advertising space on your blog and affiliate marketing.

You could also advertise your products on your blog if you have any to sell, but you will likely be doing the selling from your website and that is another technique altogether. Before discussing ways in which you can use your blog to make money, let’s first discuss your blog, and where you are operating it from.

If your blog is a Blogger or Wordpress blog hosted by either of these two, then your options are very limited when compared to uploading your own blogging software from wordpress.org. If you are serious about blogging for money then you should do so from your own website. If you have no web host as yet, and are seeking one from which to operate your blog, then make sure that your host offers MySQL.

You will need that to run Wordpress from your website. The reason that Wordpress is recommended is that it is the best blogging software online if you have your own website. If you do not, then many people prefer Blogger, although others still use Wordpress from the Wordpress.com site. I will not go further into this because it is not the object of this article, which is to recommend ways of making money from a blog.

First register with Google Adsense. Enter that into your browser and follow all of the instructions. You will be able to offer adverts on your blog, and will be paid every time somebody clicks on an advert. They don’t have to buy anything, just click on the advert. You should place your Adsense blocks somewhere on your sidebar, and also at the bottom of your blog so that when people have finished reading they have something to click on.

If your reader reaches the end of your article, page of blog, it means that are interested in what are writing, otherwise they would have left and clicked on to somewhere else. If you have nothing at the end of the post or the page, then people will feel somewhat let down. If you provide them with something to do, even just to click on an advert that interests them, then that is what they are liable to do.

The theme of the adverts are determined by the Google contextual algorithm often called LSI, that determines the theme of your content through the vocabulary that you use in it. You can also offer affiliate links on your blog: links to products being sold by others whereby you get a proportion of the sales price for each sales (frequently 50%).

You can find lots of affiliate products to sell on Clickbank.com. or simply by entering the term into your favourite search engine. These links can take the form of banner ads, text links or clickable logo, and you can place them anywhere on your blog. This applies predominantly for blogs run from your own website, where you have total editing over the html of the various components of your blog: the stylesheet that controls each complete page, the headers, footers, sidebars and everything else that makes up your blog.

You do not have this degree of control over a hosted blog. If you want to use your blog to make real money, then it is necessary to have your blog on your own website rather than on a blog host such as Bloggit or Wordpress.com.

There are other ways in which to use your blog to make money, and blogging for profit and traffic is a combination of many sources of income and traffic generation techniques. Once you understand how to use these, you will find your blog a lot more useful than just a simple website. Pete has been blogging for less than a year, but already his blogs are making him good money. Find out how he does it on his blog Blog on Blog and also check out his website Create a Blog for more information on how to use blogs to make money and generate traffic to your website.

Traffic Generation and Affordable SEO Services

In order to help you achieve the type of traffic you need to make your online business a success, we shall look at each of these statements separately and discuss what options are available to enable you to attract the visitors that are essential to your online future.

Although there are ways to attract traffic other than through search engine optimization, it is definitely to your benefit if you can secure traffic by means of the free advertising that a high listing in search engines such as Google and Yahoo can provide you with. There are many ways in which you can make your website as search engine friendly as possible and improve its capacity for traffic generation. Did you notice the mistake I just made there? I mentioned websites in the same sentence as search engine.

True search engines look at web pages, not web sites. More on that in a minute. In order to make it easier for me (and you) I am going to apply the name Google whenever I write about ‘search engine’, since although Yahoo, MSN, Altavista, Ask, etc are important, no one can deny that Google is the biggest search engine. Not only that, but it was the first true search engine. Yahoo started life off as a web directory, and if your site was not in the Yahoo directory, it would not be listed in a search. Now, however, in addition to being a website directory, Yahoo, MSN and Ask are true web search engines, the same as Google.

I will explain the difference later from my website that you can access from the link in my Resource Box. For the moment, accept the fact that Google and the other true search engines crawl the whole World Wide Web for the web pages that are most relevant to the search term that your customers are using to find the information they are seeking. Did you notice what I just wrote there? ‘Web pages’? Not ‘web sites’ but web pages, as I mentioned earlier. Google and the rest list individual web pages in order of relevance to its interpretation of the words that your potential visitors use to find their information.

That is very important to keep in mind. How do they do that? How do the search engines decide what is relevant and what is not to a character string – that is all that your search term is. That is another story really, but it is connected with what is commonly termed ‘Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)’, a misnomer for a mathematical statistical analysis of the vocabulary on each of your web pages.

I say misnomer, because LSI is not an indexing technique, but an analysis method that uses character strings and known juxtaposition of characters, to determine what you are writing about through the use of contextual relevance of the whole passage of your text to the keyword, or theme, that you have highlighted by means of the search engine optimization techniques available to you. Nobody can make a web page LSI compliant, or ‘use’ LSI on a website. It is akin to saying that you can use probability equations to write an article on fly fishing. It is a nonsense that even the best known internet gurus believe, unless they are lying to us and I sure that they would not do that. They must therefore be more ignorant than we believed them to be, which explains quite a lot all things considered. Which of the two options would they admit to I wonder. You no longer need the oft-quoted 1% - 3% keyword density on your web page, but instead more vocabulary and content on your page that makes the topic of that page clear, without any doubt, to software that parses our page for its meaning in additional to human readers who can tell that at a glance. You have to use more vocabulary than just repeat the keyword or Google and the rest of the search engines will not list your page.

The most affordable SEO services will provide you with the small things that you do to your individual web pages to improve your listing position and traffic generation capability. Such services need not be expensive, although the sites you find online that offer them tend to charge high prices since they are targeting large companies rather than individuals with single small websites of a hundred pages or less. One technique that they all mention, however, is the use of meta tags. Many get it wrong! The only important meta tags are the Title and Description tags. You should also point out to the spiders what your more important vocabulary is by use of H tags, bold text, italics and underlining. Google appreciates that, but while you might be rewarded for doing so, you will not be punished for not doing so.

There is a massive difference between breaking the rules and failing to give a helping hand. Your linking strategy is of critical importance, and you must have a good number of links back to your web page from other relevant web pages. Take note of the two important words I have used there: ‘pages’ and ‘relevant’.

I could write 10 pages on Google PageRank without doing it justice, so won’t start now. Just believe me that you get a share of the Google PageRank of a page linking to yours (not of the home page of that site), and since most linking pages are designed only to hold URL links and consequently contain masses of other links on them, then your share is practically zilch. Do not therefore give a website a link from your home page that reciprocates with one from deep inside the directory structure that provides you with absolutely no benefit. You cannot lose PageRank by providing a link, but why should you give more than you get. Come to an arrangement: you will provide a link from your PR 5 page if the other party reciprocates. Not if their link is from a PR 0 page. There are many more ways in which you can legally attract search engines to your website and achieve high listings and to generate loads of traffic.

There are also many illegal methods of doing so. It is the end result that counts, but before you can even begin to understand what the term ‘black hat’ means, you must first understand what SEO means! Traffic generation is critical to your success, and if you can find affordable SEO services to help you to achieve that, then you are most of the way there. The effect that good search engine optimization has on the generation of traffic to selected pages within your website cannot be over-estimated and will likely determine your future over the next year.

Peter enjoys the game of contesting the search engines with his SEO techniques, and this article is continued on his web page Traffic Generation. His site Seociousalso provides screenshots of how he gets his sites in Google’s top 10 only a few days after submission using one of his simple website designs.

Choosing Small Business Website Names

I disagree with the comment made by some web developers that all the good domain names are taken. Search engine optimization, or seo, does not depend heavily on the www name you select. For my clients just starting out the decision choosing small business website names has never been an issue. It is a fact that all the 3 character and 4 character domain names with the key extensions are taken. Furthermore, I agree that a vast number of choice domain names are no longer available; however, the selection of a suitable www domain for your small business is possible if you remain flexible.

The real value in the name you choose from a search perspective is how easy it is to spell and remember. Of the two types of visitors to your site, the human visitors and search engines, the ability of a person to remember your domain name and spell it correctly to pass it on to others outweighs any SEO value. Search engines are robots and don't care. Using words like "greatest", "best", or other exaggerated terms in your domain name is thought by some to be a disadvantage and penalized by search engines.

Search algorithms change often and likewise that theory, and although you may not be penalized for using such words, consider the reaction of your human visitors. They may not stick around if they feel you boast without the content to back it up. For a serious small business commercial enterprise, my advice is avoiding adjectives in the domain name entirely. In some cases new clients approach me to redesign an existing website, and it surprises me that some of the basics are overlooked. For example, a commercial enterprise in business for profit should not select a dot ORG domain simply because the dot COM was taken. This was the case from a conversation with a client interested in a site makeover.

Their ORG version was online for two years with little or no backlinks or serious indexing from search engines. The mindset of getting one particular name should be reconsidered especially if it's your first online venture. Here's a breakdown of the most desirable domain extensions and the usual purpose of each: COM - Commercial for profit enterprise INFO - Information only related website NET - Companies providing internet services ORG - Non-profit organizations Certainly there are many more like BIZ, US, WS, and others which are all reasonable choices, but for your commercial small business my recommendation is always acquire a dot COM www domain name. The client mentioned earlier did not realize a dot ORG was intended for a non-commercial enterprise, and they decided the poor website SEO performance was something that justified getting a new dot COM. We easily found an available www domain using their company initials and one key word about their target market which is medical. Despite my advice that they keep the existing site and simply change the theme, they decided to just let it go when it expired. My commercial site choice was my first and last name, and very unique at that. Using your name is okay, and expected if you're famous. There is, however, little or no value as far as keywords in my www domain to attract visitors, so is that a mistake for search engine optimization? Certainly not.

The fact that I have collected more than 100 screenshots of generic phrases relative to my business that made Google page one is evidence the content, not the domain, is key. Here's some advice to help you when choosing a new dot COM small business website domain name. Start out with a list of about 10 domain names that you would like to have. Next, make a list of market related single word terms about what you do and the customer base you service. If your market is localized, consider geographical terms that relate to where you sell or provide services. Spend 30 minutes brainstorming to come up with the initial names and additional lists of single word terms. You may want another list of significant initials. Next, search for "WhoIs" in Google to find free online services that keep a database of available domain names, and follow the link in the search results. Each database has a search box which allows you to input the domain name and extension. Begin with your first choice and work down the list and keep track of available names for review later. It may not be easy, so try combinations of the key terms as you continue to search, and keep in mind you want a domain name that is easy to spell and remember. By the time you're done you should have a half dozen or more available names, so take your time and select the best one, and then register the name immediately. Tip: The domain name may not be significant for search engine optimization, but the length of your registration can be. My advice is registering domains for 2 years minimum, and 5 to 10 years if that's in your budget. Search engines consider that the length of your registration reflects your commitment to be online long term, so at today's prices 5 years is practical and should cost less than $50 USD. There's nothing wrong with getting the dot COM domain name you want, and then registering the other major extensions that are available for the same name.

If you are highly successful in your online venture, having the other extensions registered in your name prevents others from attempting to take advantage of your reputation by association. In conclusion, the concept that all the good domain names are taken is a myth. You may not get exactly what you want, but practical options are available with a little research and due diligence. Jim Degerstrom writes small business advice based on 30 years in management, sales, and marketing, including GM or President of small companies in 5 states. He is proficient in website and graphic art design, and runs his online Small Business Resource Center and offers advice on his Small Business Advice Blog from Kissimmee, Florida USA.

Your chance for online success?

When building a business and a brand on the Web, your chosen domain name is everything. Website domain names - the Internet address the helps Web surfers find your site - are the backbone on which we all locate things on the Web and thus are the communications glue that makes the web work as well as it does.

For any new or existing business, selecting a domain name can be the most challenging and frustrating process that a business can undertake. This process can often times cause an existing business to change it’s name to fit a domain name. It simply is getting harder to find a good name that has not been registered.