|
|
|
=> 1. Marketing News/Resources
=> 2. Feature Article- "Getting Your
Site Seen by Search Engines"
=> 3. Net Hot Spots!
=> 4. Sites to Help
=> 5. Site Promotion Software & More
=> 6. Guest Columnist- "Understanding
Copyright Law"
=> 7. E-Books / Ezine Resources
=> 8. Other Valuable Ezines
=> 9. Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information
<*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*>
|
 Note
From Merle: |
Hi Kids,
A day late and a dollar short. So, what else is new. Since you're not paying for it beggars can't be choosers. Right? Yea, Yea, I'm kidding. I do have a great sense of humor you know. I have to. You should meet my boyfriend. Sometimes I think it's his sole mission to slowly drive me insane. Don't tell him but it's working <grin> As the song says "I'm not Crazy, I'm just a little Unwell"...Love that song it's by Matchbox 20.
So what's new? Things are changing as usual quickly on the Net. When I look at how things were 5 years ago to how it is now it just amazes me. With the passing of the Can Sp.m Act many are scampering to comply and others are running scared. I think there's been a lot of hype as far as the new law goes and if you do the right thing and you're not some sicko crazed sp.mmer I really think you'll be fine.
Many are using this new fear on the Net to sell products and services. Feeding off of people's fears to make a sale is nothing new but it doesn't make it right. I'm not saying some of these aren't great products just don't like the fear tactics they use. Make sure you're in compliance and you'll be fine. My problem with the new law is it really will do nothing to stop the flow of real crap that makes its way into my mailbox each and everyday. The real sp.mmers usually hide overseas behind smoke and mirrors and are almost impossible to track down.
If you need to read over the new law you'll
find it
here..http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/108s877.html
Snow, snow and more snow. Here in Northeast
Ohio we're still in the deep freeze. If I didn't know better
I'd swear I lived in Antarctica. Mind you I've never been
there but that's sure what it feels like. With temps hovering
around 0 degrees even my dogs don't want to go outside. Not
that I blame them as I don't want to
venture out unless I have too. Maybe my blood's thinning but
damn I hate the cold.....brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. If you live in
a warm climate and have a spare room and want a houseguest
drop me a line. I'm really fun, at least that's what my friends
tell me (LOL).
Did you hear about Captain Kangaroo? Now I'm going to date myself but I remember watching him and Mr. Greenjeans as a small child. Loved that show. His passing certainly makes me feel old. How sad.
I really would appreciate your helping me out.. Go to http://AdvancedSurvey and type 8244 into the "take a survey" box # on the right hand side. If you do you'll be entered into a drawing for a free ad each and every month.
As always send any comments or suggestions to:mailto:merle@mcpromotions.com
***This Issue's Free Ad Contest Winner***
Today's contest winner for a free ad in this ezine is: Clyde
Harris.
Send in your ad and I'll get it in the next issue.
If you'd like a chance to win fill out the survey by clicking on the link at the bottom of this ezine. A winner is picked for every issue.
Thanks again for joining me.
Warmest Regards,
http://www.MCPromotions.com/
http://www.EzineAdAuction.com/
http://www.MerlesWorld.com
| Discussion
Question of the Week: |
The question of the week....on the discussion board is...
"Do you think the new Can Spam Act
will do any real good?"
To POST your comments hop over to the board at..
http://www.mcpromotions.com/webbbs/config.pl
I look forward to reading your comments. No Spam it will be deleted. You'll find some great resources in today's ezine so what are you waiting for....Let's go.....
<*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*>
|
|
1) Marketing News |
Google Developing Ad Service
http://tinyurl.com/28czg
-------
AOL and Enhanced Whitelist
http://tinyurl.com/36ckf
------
What you need to know and do about the CAN-SPAM
Act
http://tinyurl.com/2oq5v
-----
The Guys and Gals in Blue
http://tinyurl.com/yt9sl
Go Back Up
|
2) Feature Article |
"Getting Your Site Seen by Search Engines"
By Karyn Greenstreet
Is your website listed on search engines? When people search for you, does your site show up on page 1 or page 20 of the search engine results?
Optimizing your site to get it ranked highly on the search engines can be a complicated subject. To simplify things, it's helpful to first understand how search engines add sites to their database. Then we'll cover some tips that you can put on your own website that will help you to get listed on search engines and get a higher ranking.
The Major Players
Let's start off with the major search engines, the ones that most people use. Google is the most widely used search engine with Yahoo and MSN searches following close behind. While there are thousands of search engines, it's always a good idea to start with submitting your website to the three largest. Why? Because 95% of all searches go through either Google, Yahoo or MSN.
Who Is Powered by Whom?
Many search engines do not have their own database, but rely instead upon data supplied by someone else. This is important to know so that you can submit your site to the most popular search engine databases first. For example, AOL Search and Yahoo Search get data from Google, while MSN and HotBot get some data from Inktomi.
How Search Engines Read Your Site
There are two ways search engines read your site: automated (crawlers) and human-entered (directories). Crawlers follow the links found on your site and enter your site into their search database based on text they find on your pages. This text is either found on your public pages, or the text keywords found in behind-the -scenes "meta tags". The amount of your keywords found on your page, the more weight it has with the search engines and the higher your ranking. But in case yOu think you can load your page with keywords in order to fool the search engine, think again. Search engines are smart and you can be penalized for "spamming" keywords on your website. Major crawlers include Google, AltaVista and Inktomi.
Human Directories are few and far between. Just imagine hiring enough people to research the millions of website on the Internet! It's no wonder they're steadily being replaced by automated crawlers. Yahoo is one of the most famous human directories, where real people actually evaluate your site and categorize it in their database directory. More and more these search engines are relying on partial automation for categorizing and listing new sites in the search engine database. In addition, getting your listing in a Directory for free can take months. Some human directories are charging a fee for business sites to be included in their directory.
How Search Engines Index and Rank Your Site
Search engines use several techniques to determine which category your site belongs in and what keywords or key phrases people will use to find your site when using the search engine.
When submitting your site to search engines, they will ask you four things: the title of your site, a short description of your site, your keywords or key phrases (what words or phrases people typically use to search for sites like yours) and what category your site belongs in. Then they will often crawl your site, checking to see if the keywords/key phrases you supplied match the text on your website. And remember, you will be penalized for spamming your keywords and rank LOWER because of it. Also it's important to note that search engines can not read the text in graphics, so if you are using a graphic-based navigation or have your keywords on a graphic next to your logo, the search engine will not notice it.
Some search engines will rank your site based on your title, description and keywords that are supplied behind-the-scenes in special coding called "meta tags." While not every search engine will read meta tags, it certainly can't hurt to use them. Again, there are rules: your Title meta tag can't be more than 100 characters, your Description meta tag can't be more than 250 characters, and your Keyword meta tag can't be more than 1,000 characters. And anti-spamming of keywords applies to meta tags as well - no more than six instances of the same word in your Keyword meta tag or you'll be penalized by the search engine. For example, if my key phrases include "business coach," "starting a business," and "small business coach," that counts as two uses of the word "coach" and three uses of the word "business".
Submitting Your Site to Search Engines
Once your site is primed and ready for the search engines, then you have to submit it to them. You have two choices: either go to each search engine and submit your site individually, or use a search engine submission tool. Remember that the majority of searchers use either Google, Yahoo or MSN, so consider submitting to those first. You'll often find a link on their main page where you can add a site to their search engine. If you want to automate the process, use an automated submission tool. Make sure the submission search tool you select will analyze your site to tell you if you're really ready to submit, then submit your site to the top search engines for you.
Preparing your site for submission to search engines can feel like a daunting task. With these tips in mind, you'll save yourself a lot of time and frustration when it comes time to submitting your site and rank higher in search results.
See you on the Internet!
---------------------------------------------
© Karyn Greenstreet 2004.
Karyn Greenstreet is a Self Employment Expert with 23 years
of self-employment and computer industry experience. She
shares tips, techniques and strategies with self-employed
people to create and grow their businesses, stay focused
and motivated, and perform at their peak. Visit her website
at http://www.PassionForBusiness.com
--------------------------------------------
Go Back Up
<*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*>
|
|
3) Net Hot Spots |
W Blogger
"The w.bloggar is an application that targets to be an
interface between the user and his blog(s), in other
words, is a Post and Template editor,with server al
features and resources that the browser based blog
editors can not offer. " Post and Publish on Blogger,
b2, MovableType,Nucleus, BigBlogTool, BlogWorks XML
Blogalia and Drupal blogs.
----------
MailBlocks
I'm not one for using challenge response email systems but
lately I've been forced down that road due to one of my
domains being taken over with sp.m. I have to say I
love the one I'm using and now Mailblocks is offering
a free version. If you're being buried with junk in your
inbox you might want to try this, for free how bad
can it hurt.
Go Back Up
|
4) Sites to Help |
WebPage Analyzer
"Test your web site speed with this free
web-based
analyzer. Enter a URL below to calculate page size,
composition, and page download time. The script
calculates the size of individual elements and finds
the total for each type of web page component.
Based on these page characteristics the script then
offers advice on how to improve page display time
and website speed."
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/
--------
Yahoo for Small Business
If you're a small business owner and have
been wanting to make the transition onto the
Web check out Yahoo's offerings. Web Hosting,
Domains, Merchant Accounts, Business Mail,
Marketing Tools.
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/index.php
---------
Search Engine Marketing
If you need help understanding the search engines
and who's feeding who this site is a great place
to start. It's loaded with articles and helpful
info that will help you get your site optimized
and listed with all of the majors.
Go Back Up
<*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*>
|
------------------------------------------
QUICK TIP
---------------------------------------
CSS Tip
You know how to use CSS to make your links do
really cool things when hovered over or clicked
on right? But did you know they have to go in
a certain order to work.
Always like this:
a:link
a:visited
a:hover
a:active
Go Back Up
|
5) Site Promotion Software & More |
Cloudmark Spamnet
New from Cloudmark the largest online sp(m voting
community with over a half a million members. Now
they offer a version for Outlook Express they originally
only had a version that worked with Outlook. Vote on
what is and isn't sp,m and keep it out of your inbox.
I've personally used this and it works great. This
software is still in Beta at this time but you can
download it fr.e for 30 days and find out for yourself
just how well it works when it comes to keeping your
inbox clean.
http://tinyurl.com/37266
---------
Good Keywords
Good Keywords is a free Windows software for finding
the perfect set of keywords for your web pages.
Knowing the right keywords to target is very
important because your site should provide what
people are searching for.
-------
Link Popularity Checker
"Link Popularity Check is a freeware program that
checks the link popularity status of your web site
on several search engines and compares it to other
web sites on the Internet (for example your
competitors)."
http://www.checkyourlinkpopularity.com/
Go Back Up
<*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*>
|
|
6) Guest Article |
"What You Need to Know About Internet Copyright Law"
by Jim Phillips
I don't think there is any area of the Internet so misunderstood as copyright law.
Terms like "work of authorship", "fair use" and "derivative works" are confusing.
Many people do not know how to copyright their own work.
This article gives you a quick overview of current copyright law as it applies to small business owners and freelancers on the Internet.
I am not a lawyer and this article does not constitute legal advice. If you have questions about a specific situation, contact an attorney.
What is a copyright?
A copyright is protection under the Federal Copyright Act of 1976 which states that the original author of a creative work has the exclusive right to control who makes copies of the work and who modifies the work to create a new "derivative" work.
You can sell or license the right to copy your work. If you create the work as part of your job responsibilities - if you write software code, for example - your employer is the author of the work.
If anyone else copies, rents or distributes your copyrighted work they must have your permission or pay you a fee.
What is "fair use"?
The "fair use" doctrine allows you to use someone else's work in a limited way without permission.
Two common examples of fair use are the use of movie clips in film reviews and the use of the slides you saw in your Art History class by your professor for educational purposes.
Fair use is intended to facilitate commentary, reporting, parody, and education. Fair use does not harm the commercial value of the work.
How do I get a copyright?
Your creative work is protected when it is "fixed" in a permanent ("tangible") form. This can mean words written on paper, music recorded on a CD, or a computer graphic saved to disk.
You do not need to put a copyright notice on your work or register your copyright to protect your work.
However, if you plan to sue for copyright infringement, you will need to register your copyright with the Copyright Office. This registration:
* Preserves your right to sue for copyright infringement
* Entitles you to statutory (rather than actual) damages if
your copyright is infringed
The current fee to register your copyright is $30.00.
Who owns the copyright to my work?
You, as the author, own the copyright to all of your original work unless the work was produced as part of your employment. If you are an employer and your employee creates the work within the scope of his or her job duties, you own the copyright as the employer.
What cannot be copyrighted?
Anything that does not include original work cannot be copyrighted.
Examples of things that cannot be copyrighted include altering typefaces or colors on a logo, a list of ingredients in a recipe, or an idea.
Remember, you can copyright the expression of an idea, but not the idea itself. A mathematical equation cannot be copyrighted. An article explaining a mathematical equation is protected under copyright law. In addition, copyright law does not protect works in the public domain, such as the works of Shakespeare, government publications, and material whose copyright has expired.
Can I copyright my website?
You can copyright the content of your website, including articles, artwork, photographs, and audio files.
You can also copyright your weekly or monthly newsletter using a group registration for a serial publication, also available through the US Copyright Office.
How do I get permission to use someone else's copyrighted material?
Contact the author of the copyrighted work directly and ask for his/her permission. The permission should be granted in writing.
Remember, do not use other people's work on your website without permission.
Even if you are not charging for a copy of someone else's work, you do not have the right to copy or distribute material protected by copyright law.
You may find yourself sued for copyright infringement.
Library of Congress Copyright Office http://www.copyright.gov/
The Copyright Website http://www.benedict.com/default.asp
----------------------
Quick Tips on Supercharging Your Internet Marketing! Subscribe
at http://www.tips.1securehost.com.
Feel free to republish this article in your own ezine or Web
site.
Go Back Up
|
7) Ebook & Ezine Resources |
"Are You an Ezine Publisher?"
Are you tired of constantly looking for new content for each issue? Search no more. Browse our huge database of FREE articles written by some of the Net's Top Experts. Browse now at.... http://www.Family-Content.com
--------
The New iCop Business Directory
Brand spanking new and put together by jl of iCop find
out who the good guys are when it comes to doing
business online. This PDF Manual shows you every
member of The International Council of Online
Professionals" so you'll know who you can trust.
Free
http://www.i-Cop.org/direct.htm
Go Back Up
|
8) Other Valuable Ezines- Ad Swaps |
If you would like to swap ads send your ezine
information
to mailto:swap@mcpromotions.com
Merle's Mission Ezine is your one-stop
resource for everything Internet. Learn to put your online time
to better use by knowing where the BEST sites are located. Includes:
FR<E Software, HOT Sites that will hep you improve your own
website, Informative Articles by some of today's online Experts
that will show you exactly how to be Successful online. STOP
wasting your valuable time....Subscribe Today by sending mailto:subscribe@merlesworld.com
or visit http://www.merlesworld.com/newsletter.htm
Go Back Up
<*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*>
|
|
9) Important Info- How to Unsubscribe |
If you are not a subscriber and would like to be please send mailto:subscribe@mcpromotions.com If you would like to be taken off our mailing list Click Here.
Read Past Issues Here....
http://www.MCPromotionsPress.com
Grab
my Blogs RSS Feed
http://feeds.blogstreet.com/39794.rss
http://www.MCPromotions.com
Merle's Cyber Promotions - Send comments to Merle
Tell me what you like, what you don't like, ask me a question
or suggest a topic for a future issue.
*PLEASE DONATE*
If you enjoy this ezine and feel you have gained valuable information from it please donate through the Amazon Honor System. Your donations will help to keep this ezine and the website FREE and help buy "the boys" more dog cookies ....go to.... http://tinyurl.com/2ji9
Would you like your Ad featured in this ezine? It will be viewed by over 4,200 subscribers. My list is clean. If you're email bounces you'll be unsubscribed the very first time it happens.
**Solo Ads Also Available**For current ad rates:mailto:ad_rates@mcpromotions.com
***************************************
I am currently in need of testimonials for this ezine. Send
to mailto:testimonials@mcpromotions.com
Go Back Up
*********Win a Free Ad in This Ezine:*********
If you still haven't taken the demographic survey you still can and you'll pick up a free gift in the process and be entered to win a FREE ad in this ezine- Drawing held every two weeks.Go to http://www.advancedsurvey.com/ and type 8244 into the "take a survey" box on the right hand side.
PS. One other note if anyone is in need of a
programmer for simple script installation or anything else
contact my guy David
Black he's wonderful and I highly recommend him. Just
tell him what you need and he'll dash off a quote to you.
He also does website hosting with superior customer service.
I love this guy!
----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>
If you'd like my online marketing articles to appear "like
magic" on your website check out my Free
syndication feed.
----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>-
Disclaimer. The information contained in this archive is provided 'as is' without warranty of any kind. The entire risk as to the results and the performance of the information is assumed by the user, and in no event shall Merle's Cyber Promotions be liable for any consequential, incidental or direct damages suffered in the course of using the information in this archive. Use of the information contained in this archive are governed by their respective license agreements and may contain restrictions on use. This newsletter is for informational purposes only. We respect your privacy and do not share our mailing list with anyone. of any kind. All comments in this newsletter are the opinion of the publisher only. Copyright 2001-204 All Rights Reserved
* Back
Issues
|
| Marketing Help | |
|
|
|
Latest Posts from Duncan's "Marketing
Strategy" Forum.
|
|
|
|