Everybody likes to hang out don’t they? Every culture has places to go and people to see. We all have experienced or have witnessed people counting the minutes until work is done so they can hit the scene, haven’t we?

The world social scene has expanded beyond imagination. And it couldn’t have come at a better time for those who find meeting people awkward and difficult. For those people the new social outlet would circumvent those problems and fears.

The Internet opened a door to meet and greet people without the face to face or phone to phone clumsy interaction. The advent of chat rooms, discussion sites, and the social networks relieved the self conscious feelings of inadequate looks or intelligence and so on. These outlets allowed people to relax and get comfortable with a vast audience on the web. The Internet social explosion has also allowed anyone and everyone to locate and keep up with friends all over the place.

Sadly these social outlets also gave incentive for poor judgment like pretending to be someone you are not or deceiving others for dishonest gain. But this discussion is not about the degenerates of society. Instead we are going to review how these social sites are more than just social outlets. They are in fact marketing tools for your web page.

Let’s focus on the popular social sites. Why? For one their overwhelming success is phenomenal. Let’s check it out.

As of January 2009, Facebook boasts over 68,000,000 users who visit over a BILLION times a month! Myspace is packing over 58,000,000 subscribers who frequent the site over 800,000,000 times a month! Twitter has risen to an estimated 6,000,000 subscribers who visit over 50,000,000 times a month! Linkedin, which is more of a business themed social outlet, has over 11,000,000 subscribers and over 40,000,000 hits a month! And there are plenty more. We are narrowing our target to the biggies of the big ones.

The moral of the story is that these sites have turned into prime and fertile ground to announce to the world about your web page. The basic premise of these social outlets is that you create an account and build a nice lay out. You then invite or befriend as many people on the network as you can. As you build this “friend list” you are linked to their social page. This means you have access to all of them and you can invite them, inform them, and include them in all of your activity.

The ideal application of this is to keep open dialog with all of your friends and give them incentive and compelling reasons to visit your page and any page you have linked on your social pages. And if you reviewed the numbers above you can see the potential number of persons you can reach or invite. In fact you will learn to find those who would be more inclined to the topic, interest, or theme of your web site.

So is that it? No. The concept is that simple but the effort and thought behind the application and practice is a bit more involved. As we have already discussed, you need to spend considerable time searching out like minded friends to add to your network. And then you need to be persistent and creative in getting the word out to those in your network.

Now there is something else to consider. Often times people use their personal site to spring board their business site. Whether it is a blog, an e-tail site, information site, a tutorial, and so on, many people have successfully followed through with the task at hand and their traffic has increased. And this is a good model to imitate. But here is some food for thought.

There are those people who do not like mixing business with pleasure. And there are some of us who have quite an eclectic and broad spectrum of interests. So there may be cause to ask yourself “should I use my personal social page as my sole promotional page for my web site?”

Yes, there are a number of Internet marketing wizards who find separating our business venture from a personal site is advantageous. Now that does not mean we shouldn’t use our personal site to promote our business site. What it means is we are adding a page dedicated to the business page.

Here are a couple of examples: You have a Myspace/Facebook/Twitter page “named” Tom Terrific (your name of course). On this page you Tweet away about your life and friends but you also promote your site TomsToys.com. However you also maintain a Twitter/Myspace/Facebook page aptly “named” TomsToys. Or you have your Facebook/Myspace/Twitter page “named” Jenny of Hearts. And as you blog and blurb about your interests and wonderful life you promote your informative blog about arts and crafts “named” JennysCreations.com. Likewise you maintain an additional social page devoted to Jenny’sCreations featuring what you have going on and what is available there.

Often times the seasoned marketers use multiple social outlet sites (Facebook,Myspace,Twitter,etc), usually the big 3 or 4, but why not more? Also often times you can link your actual business page with these social outlet sites. There is an awesome feature in fact, for example if you post an article or content it may automatically or easily be bookmarked to your social pages straight from your business page. Cool huh?

So don’t go insane trying to re-invent the marketing wheel. Use your social sanity and make use of the growing social scene and plug away on your social networks.

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Copyright © 2009 BevyHost.com.

Everybody should be aware of the potential you have in your hands –the Internet as an amazing tool for business- and all the advantages –mainly in costs and effectiveness- you will have for that.

If you are using Twitter to empower your business relationships as well make them more efficient, you are using the right tool for that.

When you are overwhelmed in building business online, Twitter is one of the best tools –based on online social networking- to help you to empower that and your business relationships stronger and receive a higher revenue for your business or organization.

I would like to share with you four (4) basic ways that are going to help you a lot in this process.

1. Start defining your business goals: It is important that you have mind –well defined- which is your business strategy. Sometimes we use twitter as a way to know people for business and for getting more traffic. When you properly define which are the goals you want to achieve you will be more aware about how to define your business strategy based in improving your business relationships.
2. Add value to Twittersphere: There are several people using Twitter but no everybody ad value to what I call the “Twittersphere”. When you do interesting things that call the attention of your follower they will realize you are a different people with a different purpose. So, this is a wonderful opportunity to make them be part of your business network more actively.
3. Help twitter followers answering questions: When you answer questions and bring solutions to problems that your followers can have, this is another wise way to add value but in a more personalized way.
4. The more followers you have the more powerful you are: You should get as more followers as you can so that your message is passed along to a network of people who is interested in what you are saying to the point of sharing your same message with their own followers.

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Copyright © 2009 BevyHost.com.

Everyday businesses fail and more often than not people give up. Why is that? And what about you?

We are inundated daily with advertising and testimonials strewn all over the Internet telling us how easy it is to start your own Internet enterprise. And the money? It is going to flow like a river flowing with milk and honey, according to the “how to get rich” experts.

While there is no specific answer to why people fail or give up, there are factors to be identified and to be learned from. In fact one reason people fail or give up is tied to what we just mentioned. That is the “get rich” proclamations and the “snake oil salesman” hawking their “get rich” programs.

The impact of the reality that most, if not all, of these methods do not work and are a complete waste of time, naturally turns many people off. Thus the people who give these programs a whirl are destined to fail and are led to inevitably give up.

Then you have a percentage of people who consider a setback or a series of mistakes a failure. Whereas most people that are successful are not intimidated by stumbling, floundering or even facing rejection. Realistically and practically speaking what separates those who quit from those who forge ahead, is focus. And nothing creates an urgency and desire to remain focused more than having goals and objectives.

What is it that you want to accomplish with your Internet activity? The thing is, no matter where you are on the business landscape, whether a beginner, novice, or a seasoned pro you need to lay out attainable objectives. Then you need to follow a solid game plan to achieve your objectives.

A misconception that some of us fall for is also something we should try and avoid. Your marketing and management game plan should cover the entire basis. This includes online and offline applications, but there are more simple steps that people mistakenly overlook or have a misunderstanding of.

Many companies and individuals continually fail to grasp that not everyone has the same computer capabilities as they do. Yes, many of us have the bandwidth and the more recent technology to enjoy the glitzy glam of an electrifying web page. But many of us do not. So we would like to warn web masters out there that it is better to have a little less flash than to have a lot less viewers. What good is an eye pleasing extravaganza if many people do not have the loading capacity?

Another “must do” is to have someone or learn how to submit your site to search engines. There are professional Internet marketing services that can help you and there are web sites that provide free help. Simply type in search engine registration in your search engine bar of choice and you will see some of the helpful sites to choose from.

What about those who have a web page that invites people to join through a subscription or as a member?, or what about those who are building a mailing list? The experience of many marketing veterans and numerous studies suggest that people do not like being asked too many questions; so keep the information collecting to a bare minimum, as little as possible in fact. Some people have estimated that for every question you ask after their name and email (contact) information, you lose up to 15% of the people you got to go that far. So it doesn’t take a genius to realize that the more questions you ask, the more people that are going to bail on you.

Finally it is imperative that we remind you to let common sense direct your enthusiasm and emotions. Do not be hasty and do not be afraid to make a mistake. Of course, as this discussion implies, the trick is to avoid as many mistakes as we can. Most of all do not hesitate to get assistance or additional opinions.

Listen up Internet nation, we all need reminders, yes even the simplest of reminders. This is the part where you stop reading and start reviewing your strategy to see if there is something simple that you have overlooked. This is also the part where I tell you to stay in the course and don’t worry about the past. Then I tell you to keep your focus, try and avoid the mistakes, but above all don’t give up!

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You got a loose screw or a broken household item? Maybe your car or a kitchen appliance needs some attention? Perhaps you just got some furniture or another item that needs assembled? So “who you gonna call?”

Most likely you are going to break out the tools and have a go at it. Even if you don’t consider yourself Mr. Fix It, chances are you have handled a screwdriver a time or two. Then again perhaps you are a handy man, thus making it more likely that you will have success with your tools.

When it comes to building, managing, and promoting your web site the need and benefit of web tools are just as important. Why is that people may wonder? And what kind of web tools are available? For that matter, where do you find the toolbox?

For the purposes of this discussion we are going to focus on the proper use of keywords. Equally as relevant we are going to review the value and need of keywords. What kind of keywords are we talking about?

As many of you know, the large percentage of Internet surfers use search engines to locate web sites that address or contain information they wish to view and digest. Obviously the most famous search engines are Google, Yahoo, and now Bing. Most surfers do not recall or have the exact name of the web site they are looking for so they use these search engines to assist them.

By simply typing in a relevant word or a “keyword” that is descriptive or related to the site they desire to find, the search engine will present a search result list. Usually that will jog the memory or offer satisfactory options for the Internet traveler. This is where the use of keywords is valuable.

Practically speaking if someone is seeking information, product, or services that you offer, your aim is to have your web page feature high on the search result list that is produced in response to the words the Net surfer types in. For this to happen, then your site needs to contain a nice array of popular or keywords words that are related to your site and its content.

The more tag words you implement combined with the likelihood they are applied, will improve the promotion miles you can gain from them. At the same time, and seemingly illogical, over use of individual keywords can have little or negative effect on our page ranking. “How do I know what is enough and not too much?” one would naturally ask.

You can use a simple percentage formula that is called by some keyword density. According to some who analyze the effectiveness of keywords, you want keep the keyword density in the 3% to 8% range, which plainly speaking means that you should not use any keyword more than 8% of the total words in your content. So if you have a post of 300 words, than no keyword should be used more than 24 times for optimum effect. At the other end of the range is 3%, meaning you will employ some keywords at least 9 times each in a 300 word post. Now keep in mind this is not an exact science so don’t be calling down evil upon me if this formula does not work 100% of the time.

Clearly the use of keywords is not the only variable to successful web marketing and search engine rankings. For example the location of keywords is important. If, for instance, your post is about classic Corvettes, you would not save your use of the words like Chevrolet and car until the last paragraph, nor would use those words 9 times in the first paragraph of your 300 word post.

Though it is important to use your premium keywords in the beginning of and in the description of your post, you want to cleverly disperse your keywords woven throughout your content. “For crying out loud, I am still confused, frustrated, and totally clueless” some of you are rebutting. Don’t worry you are not alone.

That is why help is available. Hey many of us can’t fix our car or our appliances, or like me, you hate to put book shelves together. So you let the “professionals” use their toolbox, nothing wrong with that. Search engine services, like Google, have on line tools that will analyze your site and/or the content you feature and give you valuable suggestions for keywords to use.

Many of them have keyword tracking tools that provide a chart for you to see how many people have used the keywords they are recommending. So you can see for yourself which ones are better when compared to others. Of course you will use an appropriate number of them.

So as we rap up this powwow, it is vital that we remind you of a couple tidbits. As is always the case, success breeds success. By all means use words that are productively working for you. Matter of fact, and also always applicable, you can view the success of others and the keywords used by other web masters with sites similar to yours. You can even track their keyword responses to know just how effective each of their tag words is.

In conclusion, please, and I mean please, keep in mind this is not a word “game”. You need to use keywords in conjunction with quality content. Many web promoters try and cheat the system and spam a post with a saturation of keywords or tags. Or they write a post with the right formula of keyword use but the content is senseless and completely pointless. If you want keywords to work for your Internet promotion, than you must use them appropriately.

Now you have the secret or at least the toolbox.

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Copyright © 2009 BevyHost.com.

When two worlds collide it can sometimes spell disaster but it also can spell relief. No, this is not a Rolaids commercial. But check this out.

As you well know the computer age is upon us and the use of computers in the work environment is more the rule than the exception. Better yet the Internet has become way more than a way to entertain web surfers. It has become an integral part of operations for many a companies.

Let’s ruminate on this for a minute then. In today’s economy many of us are seeking alternate forms of employment or maybe even establishing a career or a career change. These colliding worlds may spell relief or opportunity for you.

The EQUATION is like this:
World #1 = a well paying job in the technical world of computer applications colliding with World #2 = you’re love for all things computer and/or Internet.

Oddly enough you may have heard of this equation and didn’t even know it. “I don’t think so” you say? Have you ever caught a glimpse of those IT Tech commercials or classifieds looking for Technical support?

Well while you were making popcorn during that commercial or skimming through the job listings, you may have been missing a golden opportunity for you. You bet your buttered kernels you did. That is because the more industry and retail companies implement computer technology, the more Tech support is going to be needed and the more Tech supporters will be hired.

Okay, maybe you just don’t know what Technical Support is? Either that or you’re just being difficult. I’ll go with the ‘you don’t know what Technical Support is’ option.

Basically it is a service that covers computer/electronic services and offers assistance with technical products such as mobile phones, televisions, other electronic/mechanical gadgets, and most definitely computers. It is a problem solving service but also offers training services to customers. There are also times when customization of programming is involved.

Zeroing in on the computer angle in particular, we find an abundance of jobs to be filled. As we directed our attention to earlier, many companies have Internet and general computer use at work for them in their offices. From mom and pop shops to mega corporations. Here are some examples of what we are talking about:

• Automated equipment and machinery
• Retailing through web sites
• Point of Sale done with computer “cash registers”
• Inventory and Data storage
• Shipping and Receiving
• Tracking of goods and Product research
• Tracking of sales
• Product development and design
• Customer information and trend tracking research
• Human resources for employee work force

And there are more applications than this in fact. All of these applications require a system to be designed, developed, customized at times, and maintained. This calls for a tech support team. Often times the work can even be done via the Internet. Nevertheless a place for you may be waiting.

There are companies who specialize in tech support and are hired as a service and there are companies that employ an in house staff of tech supporters. There are independent “one man operations” that offer their expertise for smaller shops or smaller businesses. You may be at a computer, in a lab or design room, or on the road troubleshooting and repairing/building. Regardless the demand is there and growing.

Where do you fit in? The answer to that is on you my friend. Looks like “you gots some thingin’ to do” (see Quickdraw McGraw) or when translated, “you have some thinking to do”. Go online or visit a local Community College or University and look into what the Technical Support world has to offer you. Peruse the classifieds and witness the demand in your area for Technical supporters. Now in the event you live in the wilderness don’t fret my young or not so young apprentice. You may have an ‘in your home’ on-line opportunity or it may be time you move to civilization.

The point is if you want to combine your love of the Net and computers with earning a nice paycheck than this is a viable game plan. Get at it!

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Copyright © 2009 BevyHost.com.

If you have any connection to the news in the USA than you have heard of the infamous buyout plans that are allegedly supposed to jump start an ailing economy. Realistically unless you work for AIG ( and I say that tongue and cheek) you aren’t going to benefit from any Government bailouts.

Frankly anyone who thinks that any of these loans and payouts are going to help the general public is an eternal optimist and I don’t know ……… drunk? Okay so I am a cynic by nature. But the point is maybe you don’t need the Government or the stock market to bail you out. Excuse me?

Yeah many of us slave at our day job and come home and enjoy our family time. And then many of us also have a little hobby time on the side. Maybe we work on our car, sew, read, knit, paint, watch tv, or spend some time on the Internet, or a combination there of.

Some of us, actually many of us, have sought out or have thought about getting a second job. Or maybe we are in a layoff or hardly working. Nevertheless did you realize that you have an outlet to create a source of income right in your house? You’re looking at it now!

Yes, I know you have heard people advertising “get rich while you’re scratching your butt” and you looked these ads up or tried them to no avail. Most of them usually involving some misleading rah rah rah scheme that just piles up your email inbox with garbage you don’t want. Or it means fooling others into the same dumb scheme for a few bucks for each sucker you can bring in. But that is not you.

In contrast however there are legitimate avenues of income out there. It is a matter of you patiently sifting through the lame and smarmy stuff. But the more you do so the better you will become at it. Where do you start?

First it is helpful to understand what is happening on the Internet. It is quite fascinating in fact. And there are many things going on in unison. Like what? Here is an overview.

1. The Internet technology is growing at unprecedented speed. Some report that technology doubles every 2 years! Regardless of just how accurate that is there is no question that things are moving forward very quickly.
2. Proven ways of making income are getting easier. People who are already way ahead of you are willing to help you as a way to boost their own income.
3. Buying and selling over the Internet continues to be on the rise.
4. People looking for news, stories, and information on line is also on a meteoric rise.
5. The amount of and the value of advertising keeps expanding and ascending upward.
6. A word of caution though is “Nothing happens overnight”.

Where do you fit in? The next step is to find out what it is that you would like to do and what options you have. Here are some examples.

• Do I want to run a blog?
• Do I want to sell products or a service over the Internet?
• Do I want to be a writer of articles, stories, or eBooks?
• Do I want to run a forum?
• Do I want to be a web manager or designer?

The next step is understanding how money is made on the Internet. Naturally we then need to determine which of these will be put to work for us, the main ones being as follows.

• Affiliate marketing
• Adsense marketing
• Banner ads
• Email ad sprees / Newsletters
• Hosting services
• Web design services

So as you can see this is a pro active method of taking your own economic future by the neck and creating a source of income. The plan then will start by making reachable goals and then taking the Internet one rung or one crossbeam at a time.

Are you still holding your breath waiting for the Government and there bailouts to kick in? Yeah well, before you die from lack of oxygen take advantage of methods that have been proven to work. Get yourself going in the budding and mushrooming world of the Internet. It is waiting for you!

FOOTER:

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Copyright © 2009 BevyHost.com.

Have you ever watched a surfer at his craft? Not metaphorically speaking that is, I mean a “dude” or “dudette” in the ocean. It can be very interesting in some ways. Or maybe I am easily amused? Stay with me on this one nevertheless.

As you view the mighty waters crashing the beach with a majestic display of power and rhythm the surfer sees another day of opportunity. You watch as they saunter into the water with board under their arm as if it were a newspaper, only to plop it down and hop on laying stomach to board, then wading out into mother nature’s rinse cycle.

As they bob over and through the perpetually serene constancy of the incoming waves they set their site on the spot where the shoreline and the massive expanse meet. This is where the waves crest and are most inviting. As the surfer settles into their slot they then sit upright with their legs straddling their board and often turn and become parallel with the coastline. Then they begin their calculation.

Here is where it becomes interesting to me. Why? Because they have an uncanny or better yet a trained eye as to what to expect and what to look for. They know what to make of it when they see it. Yes indeed as the waves begin to build I often think to myself and sometimes embarrassingly say out loud on the beach, “wow this is going to be a big one”. And the surfer shakes it off like a baseball pitcher who doesn’t like what pitch the catcher called for. And in the meantime the waves continue to build and approach the shore.

But then there it is, the next “one”. The seasoned Kahuna stations himself and then begins to paddle into position. And then he or she calculates the moment when the wave is ready to be boarded and they try to lacerate the surging mass of ocean. And in the end it’s all good “brah”.

A lesson can be learned here for the e – tailer’s and Internet entrepreneurs reading this. When it comes to the activity of your web page do you know what you are seeing? Do you understand the numbers and what to do with them?

The simple fact is that selling product and advertising has certain indicators that help you in your aim to make money. A good salesman understands that the good waves are coming. It is basically a numbers game. Bluntly put 1 out of “?” or ?% of your traffic will result in sales.

In retail and advertising this is called a conversion number. Now while it is not an exact science it is something to be on top of or at least aware of. It is also a number that will often vary for explainable reasons. For example if you sell bathing suits you can expect a rise and dip in conversion numbers due to a seasonal pattern. But it should also be noted that some business people are just better marketers, may have more perceived desired items, or work harder than others.

When it comes down to the conversion number the fact is it should help you approach things in a more strategic and methodical method. Picture our surfer again. The Kahuna is not willy-nilly, arbitrary, or random. Candidly speaking we should not be any of those things either with our Internet scheme and practice.

One good thing is that in general conversion rates are fairly consistent. So while you should learn how to determine your conversion rate for your specific scenario you can start with this reference point. Time has revealed that roughly speaking a business conversion rate usually falls into the 1 – 3 % range. In other words relatively speaking, 1 to 3 out of every hundred people who visit your web page will act upon it. Again remember we are including all types of business models here. So while this is pretty accurate for a ball park view, this may not be the case in your business. But assuming you are doing the basic business applications it shouldn’t likely be lower than 1 out 100. Now if you are new or totally clueless there is no telling what that translates into. Your conversion rate would be unpredicatable and illogical in that case.

So while you are mulling that over and making it one of your new goals to calculate your own conversion table here is some more helpful tips that will help you boost or maintain your conversion numbers.

1. Well defined site: Everything should be simple enough for a kid to find information and items. Not to say it should be a “goo goo, ga ga” or “I know you are an idiot” type of a presentation. Just simple and conducive to being fast. For example many sites have a search option. Is yours set up to work quickly and accurately?
2. Right product at the right price: There is a fine line between reacting to competitors and knowing your own business. Do your own research and make informed decisions. Don’t just match the other guy or copy the other gal.
3. The easier and faster your shopping cart is the more sales you will complete. You don’t want people to bail on you because it is taking too long to purchase something from you, do you?
4. Woo the customer with attractive options. Sales is a visual medium. That doesn’t mean you offer everything under the sun either. Assortment is a good word to apply.
5. FREE always works! Any way you can offer free in your promotions and sales is a good thing. But DISCOUNT is also a good word and is likewise very effective.
6. Do not leave room for confusion or questions. You have been shopping, you know what people want to know. Include that information. The more veiled references and/or implications instead of direct communication you have the lower you conversion rate will be. People get enough of that from politicians and smarmy sales people.

You ready to crunch those numbers? Ready to ride the waves? Apply yourself to this and you will be the Big Kahuna of the web world of business!

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Copyright © 2009 BevyHost.com.

Is beauty in the eye of the beholder or is it only skin deep? “But looks aren’t everything” they say. So does beauty really matter?

We are kidding ourselves if don’t recognize that the way things appear to our eyes doesn’t influence the way we react to things, because it most certainly does influence us one way or another. And while the way we look at things is subjective in many ways, it is important that we consider presenting things in an eye appealing manner.

When it comes to the design of your website it is not just a matter of eye candy. Yes in some ways we want a funky fresh, trendy, eye catching, and hot look to our web page. But there is also the functional “beauty” or aesthetics of a web design.

Indeed after your visitors are past the “wow, look at this page” stage, you want their eyes to feel comfortable while reading your content and viewing any pictures or videos you provide. You want their choices to be clearly identified and easily navigated also.

Have you seen the recent campaign of a popular American beer company where they use the phrase “DRINKABILITY” as their catch phrase? Their objective is to suggest that drinking their beer will be a pleasurable experience in every way. It’s more than taste they say. Well this is your aim and your goal, at least in principle. To provide a good beer?

No silly, your goal is to provide “READABILITY” on your web page. Of course, you can always provide yourself with a good beer while you’re working on your web site but that is another story. Readability however is very important to your web design. And honestly even many professional web designers do not grasp this. They are too enamored with the flash and techno gimmickry. As a result many times you get a headache from viewing the site or you get frustrated trying to read the content or find your way around the site.

This is exactly what you want to avoid. You want people to easily read your content and find everything with little effort. In order to do this you may consider a few ideas:

• Have a nice contrast of colors between background and text. You shouldn’t have to strain to read the text nor should you be blinded by the color of the text.
• Use bullet points when appropriate or simply break up the text as often as the flow of the content allows for. This will assure easier reading.
• Try to be creative but not overly wordy. You don’t want to be too short or too long in your article/story content. However if you are making a sales pitch with content, you may want to tighten it up and get to the point quickly while being skillfully clever.
• If you are using a background that features logos, artful depictions, or patterns than you really need to use creative symmetry to be sure that your text and layout doesn’t clash.
• Use a simple font. While there are many choice and peachy options in the font department, remember readability trumps fancy schmancy type every time.

Another tool to help you in the designing of your happening web page with professional readability is the use of HTML. Which stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. Most computers are set up to employ this nifty tool.

HTML is not a programming tool. It is a markup language that consists of mark up tags. A simple example of this is the mark up tag < p > (without space); this tells your computer that a new paragraph is beginning. Basically speaking using HTML is a way of creating a more graphically pleasing text by having more control of placement and using color, symmetry, and a variety of fonts. Thus using HTML can up the ante and aid you in crafting a sweet but very readable web page.

To master HTML can take some time and practice but there are many places you can turn to learn it, whether through an on line course, a course at a local school, or through a friend/mentor who is well versed in HTML use you can become HTML capable.

Bottom line here folks is simple. If you want your blog or product page to pop, you need to put some serious forethought and preparation into it. Looks may not be everything, and realistically speaking they are not, but you want to have an attractive eye package to present your well maintained and thought provoking material. And it all should look good together.

So ask yourself how are the web sites I like set up? What style of web sites do my friends and co -workers prefer? How much of your personality can I present through my web page? How can I combine the allure of the eyes and the mind? How can I make my web design shine?

Do this and you will be one up on your competitors!

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Copyright © 2009 BevyHost.com.

Can too much of a good thing turn out to be a bad thing? It sure can. One or two aspirins may help your headache but what if you take 8? You may enjoy a beverage of choice now and again but what happens when you overdo it? Pizza is an eaters delight but too much leads to some serious cellulite!

Keeping with this line of thought, we need to consider a few thoughts concerning promoting by email invitation. It should also be noted that spreading the word by using email is very productive. However we should use caution and be respectful of those who do not enjoy the irritating emails that are often sent and filed as spam. You and I don’t like them either, truth be told.

This is where you need to be careful. In the worst case scenario an Internet Service Provider can shut you down if you are black listed as a spammer. First of all let’s review what is considered spam. In general spam is:

• It can be email sent by a company or individual to persons you have no prior contact with
• Sending an email to persons who have requested to be removed from your list

What does all this mean? First of all there are a few do not’s or should we say never do’s to follow;

• DO NOT misrepresent yourself in any way! For starters if you would like to send newsletters and other news related to your sight and you are planning on approaching new people you have never had prior contact with; by all means introduce yourself in a professional and non-abrasive manner. Give them a quick purpose for your email and ask politely if they would like to receive future promotions.
• Above all do not address your email with a phony or misleading subject title of your email.
• Do not offer something fraudulent or imply any falsehoods.
• Do not use a bogus address as if it came from someone else.
• Make it clear that you are inviting them to your site but you will gladly remove them from your list if they are not interested in your web page. Or provide an easy way to remove themselves in your email invitation.

Any emailing list that you receive from someone else or a list providing service should be handled with care. Do you know where this list was compiled from? Nevertheless if you are clear and up front with your approach and your honest intentions you will be fine. Of course you should always be absolutely forthright and providing the opportunity for those recipients an easy way to be removed from your emailing list as noted above.

As a safeguard and courtesy, ask if those receiving your invitation would like to get your newsletter or update messages instead of just sending one their way. So what do we have here so far?

Let’s say you have a web page selling a weight loss supplement. I use that as an example because that is always a lightning rod topic for the good and sad to say, the bad. People have abused this vital and beneficial topic, so as a result people are on the spam alert when it comes down to it.

Perhaps the subject of your email could be a generic you don’t know me type title. “May I introduce myself?” for example. Then be sure your email is direct from there. “Hello, my name is so and so and I have a web site that I thought you may enjoy. My link is “xxxx”. On my site you will find helpful information along with a wonderful product….. blah blah blah.” At the end be sure you include “If you are not interested I understand, simply click here and I will be sure not to contact you again” or something to that effect.

It may also be helpful if you ask your friends to supply you with contacts of their friends that they know may like to hear about you. And at least in your introduction you can point out you have a mutual friend.

Also, when talking to strangers it is wise to be very brief and to the point. If they are interested you will have plenty of opportunity to add more information later.

Face it my friends, we live in a world of over the top telemarketing and spammers as it is. So people are already irritated by obnoxious and deceptive sales methods. And at the same time most of us have received cordial and genuine emails or other types of sales calls and curiously heard them out. Heck I have even bought things from telemarketers or people coming to my door. There is a variety of useful items out there.

So it’s all about balance, presentation and motive. If you are sincere and not perceived as sly or tricky, people will give you a minute and give it a thought. If you disregard people’s privacy and are illusory or disingenuous then you are going to be marked as a spammer and an irritant. Don’t be the latter, please.

There you have it, just a few words of caution and a little pep talk for you. In the end I bid adieu and say good luck with your web page. Keep at it, believe in what you are doing and above all have some fun while you’re earning some money!

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Have you ever heard that saying? “It is only as strong as the weakest link”. Yeah my brother, who is 13 years my senior reminded me of that a million times. You see we are both musicians and he having a head start in life, would pass this gem on every time I would complain about the present band I was in. You know something? He was right, the saying really holds water.

I don’t want sound like a prima-donna or a gift to the music world, but it is true, your band will only be as good as the weakest link. Ideally if you are a good musician, it would be nice if you were the weakest link. That way your band will be at least good, and you will likely learn a lot from the band mates that are even better than you.

But we aren’t here to discuss music groups. No, we are here to discuss reminders in basic search ranking.

When marketing your web page and utilizing Search Engine Optimization (SEO), there are a few things we need to be clear on.

Content is of utmost importance, but blogging alone will not bring the “peeps” or should we say the “masses” to your site. Of course you do need to maintain fresh and appealing content for the traffic you create.

Putting the word out by posting your link or address on forums is also a helpful tool but that too will not get the job done on its own. For one, it may take a while for you to have found the “right” forums that will prove productive for your particular site. For a simple example, if your web page is for the purpose of selling a cook book, you might not get much response posting your site link on a motorcycle club forum or a UFO watchers site, even if it is a site that may seem relevant, like perhaps a meet people forum. You may conclude, hey woman are always looking for recipes to try out on their dates. Maybe that is true, but the relevance may be a bit of a stretch on your part. You need to think carefully on this one.

Writing blogs about your blog or your web page is also good but this too has a target audience, which is fine. However, let’s face it not many people like to create content to get people to see the content they are already feeling pressure to create. Did that make sense? In other words, many of you are not as prolific at writing as others so you therefore do not want to be constantly writing and creating articles about your web page. Nevertheless, don’t overlook this approach on occasion. In fact consider the option of paying a writer to do it for you.

Affiliate or partnership marketing is very good for bringing people over for a visit. You may post your site on a variety of sites for people to see and click your link. You may even set up a Pay Per Click (PPC) whereby you compensate others to bring people your way. The bummer here is this will most likely not have any influence on your search page ranking.

That brings us to backlinks. This is also a very effective way to increase your traffic and page ranking. But here is where our old cliché comes in “it’s only as good as the weakest link”. Yes, major search engines like Google, have a set method of following who is paying attention or viewing what. But even those things are weighted by the information that Google (or any search engine) programs it to respond to.

So the trick is finding the links that Google (or said search engine) “prefers”. Simply put, find high ranking sites and grab hold of their “skirt tails” by way of backlinks. You will find yourself climbing the ranks of search engine result pages in no time.

Do your homework and get more familiar with the various items that effect search rankings. Learn more about what high ranking sites are out there and attractive for your link. And remember the more popular or successful they are, will only help your cause.

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Your web site is looking good and yet there it sits with little activity. The road less traveled is often lonely and frustrating isn’t it? How do you turn that road into a super highway?

Chances are that you have applied some sort of strategy to attract more visitors and that is wonderful. Or maybe you are clueless as to what methods are out there to put into motion.

For the complete newbie, you need to put forth the same amount of effort into marketing your site as you did to building it. You no doubt had to be taught software applications new to you, along with computer related operations you were not familiar with before. Now it’s time to shampoo, rinse and repeat!

Yes you need to continue learning and acquiring marketing skills in a similar fashion. You will need to learn about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), use and selection of keywords, web directories, search engine ranking, cross linking, back linking, finding your target or niche market, affiliation/partnerships, various forms of advertising, etc.

As for the above mentioned cyber user with some working knowledge of how to be noticed, it may simply be a matter of reviewing your steps and deciding if you missed something. Sometimes in business we find that we may have overlooked a few details and as a result need to re-apply our strategy with a new conviction to those details.

All too often our product may be similar to other items on the market. Therefore we need to be sure that we don’t market ourselves with the same keywords or anything else that could lead to confusion. Obviously there will be certain areas where your product is going to compete on some level with the other like items. But innovation and creativity can set you apart from the others.

Also your choice of affiliates and partners can create a gap between you and your competitors. The stronger your marketing team is the more successful you will be. Sometimes it is that simple and basic.

Speaking of simple. Be sure to commit to doing the smaller and seemingly trivial things. Like changing the look of your site and ads periodically. Keep your marketing and traffic building campaign fresh and eye pleasing.

Sticking with the simple theme we ask. Have you listed your site on a web directory or a site index? There are popular useful ones. Ask your fellow web masters which ones they have found most useful. And of course check them out on your own.

Maybe you are trying too many things at one time for you to manage. When it comes to making money on the Internet perhaps you need to streamline your efforts when it comes to your revenue making tools. Why is this? Face it, not all of us are as organized and focused as others. Many of us are not multi taskers in the purest form. Some of us have less time to devote than others. So we will probably see more results if we take care of all the simple things first and maybe add one more detailed oriented concept to our traffic building campaign. For example you may consider pay-per-click ads and learn the nuances of that and once you have mastered that you can move on to adding another web traffic tool on top of that.

Now if the nature of your site is more of a writing outlet for you there are a couple different options to consider. If you are managing a blog or a forum for example, you may consider actually paying people to visit your site. This will promote your site in a few different ways. For one it will ensure a steady flow of hits to your site as well as generate a word of mouth campaign.

I recently read an instance where a web master had a formula of how to do this. For every dollar he or she pays into the web site he or she makes sure they are getting at least $3 in return in revenue. The old “you have to spend money to make money” approach.

As we touched on earlier in our discussion key words are a proven tool in creating a traffic jam on your site. It is easy and tricky at the same time however. To some degree your product or the nature of your site will dictate some of the keywords you will utilize.

Proceed with caution though. For example say your target or niche market is repairing or restoring automobiles. That can cover a wide variety of areas and tempt you to use any number of key words that can be misleading or get lost in a search engine shuffle with the hordes of other mechanics who have their own web site. Remember there are any number of other car related web sites that will likely consider the same keywords. And while you inevitably will end up using some keywords that will match your competitors, be sure you give thought to adding as many unique keywords as possible.

For example instead of “restoring old Chevy’s” you may use “bring Old Chevy’s back to life”. Or promote specific articles by make and year. Or if you are talking about repairs, highlight specific repairs. Instead of “repairing your car” you could use “fixing that Ford tranny”. This is called targeting a niche audience by way of sub niche phrasing.

When it comes to using keywords it would behoove you to learn as much as you can about how they work. You also have the luxury of using on line keyword tools that are available to all of us. Many of them are free. They will not only help you select key words you may have overlooked but they will tell you which keywords are being searched the most by the world of net surfers.

Hopefully this brief review will help you evaluate the present direction you have chosen concerning traffic building toward your site. Or hopefully it has given the new web masters ideas of where to start or how not to be impatient.

It is good to remember 2 important fundamental truths also. #1 – As a general rule most businesses take time to hit their stride. So don’t panic or give up if you are not making the money you envisioned in a short period of time. This is one of those moments where the phrase “it’s a marathon not a sprint” applies. #2 – The more organized and disciplined you are, the more you will reach the goals you have made for yourself. Keep track of what you have done and of what you are doing. Keep things as simple as you need to. There is no shame in staying within your personal abilities.

Before you know it people will be stopping by your site and checking out. Uh oh! That means someone has more work to do.

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