Website Marketing Resource

Five FAQ about Google PageRank

1. What is PageRank and why should I care about it?

PageRank is a formula that assigns a value to every page in the Google index. Google displays search results based on an algorithm which includes the value of PageRank. So the higher your site’s PageRank, the more likely it is that you will receive a top listing on the search result page when someone types in the keywords for your site.

2. How can I view the PageRank of my own or other websites?

It’s very simple to see anyone’s PageRank. Just download and install the Google toolbar. It’s a very quick and easy install. Just be sure to choose the Advanced option during the install so the PageRank of each site you visit will be displayed on the toolbar.

3. How is PageRank calculated?

I’ve seen a formula for PageRank posted on Internet websites and forums but have failed to see anyone give a satisfactory explanation of the formula. The formula appears so complex you would probably have to be a mathematician to even have a chance to decipher it anyway. It looks something like this:

Master copywriter Robert Collier often used a technique to get people to read more of his sales letters. You can use this same technique right now to increase the readership of your web pages and emails.

I’ll get to it in a moment. For now, let me tell you a couple of things about readership in general, and the importance of using long versus short copy, in most cases.

If you’re one of those marketers that rebel against the idea of long copy, and insist that people don’t read it, listen up. If you’re copy is boring, or unsubstantiated, or fails to promise the delivery of an expected benefit, then you are absolutely right.

But if you promise the expected benefit, and use engaging copy that’s firing on all cylinders, effectively attracting attention, building interest, desire, and action, have no fear.

Your prospects will read as many words as necessary to convince themselves to become buyers. That could mean thousands of words, depending what you are asking them to do.

If the price is significant, or the thing you are selling demands a significant change of behavior, or even if you are operating in a very mature, hotly competitive commodity market, you just cannot expect people to decide favorably with minimal information.

So what is all the talk about having a lot of “content” on my website? And what is “content” exactly? And how will it help my business grow and prosper? I get these questions from my internet students all of the time. Let me say this?Having a lot of great content is one of the key ingredients to those websites that are successful and profitable.

Once I explain the value of content to my students they almost always chime back with “but I can’t write!” Never fear, there is always an answer for the creative mind.

1. Don’t Like to Write - Find Those that Do

One of the simplest solutions if you don’t like to write is to find those that do. Where? Elance.com is a good place to start. They have all kinds of writers that write on all subjects. Sign up for an account and post a job. Try to be as specific as possible as to your writing needs. For example, topic, style, word count and so on. You will receive back bids from a numbers of authors. Read what they have to say and read their sample works. A little tip: if you go with the cheapest guy on the block, you will probably get poor work. So it is better to at least go middle of the road in terms of pricing. Expect to pay a minimum of $15 an article for about 400 words or so. Another little tip is to give 2 authors the same project and see which one produces the better work.

The old ways are not always the best ways.

The traditional model of making money from affiliate products was simple. Create an interesting website geared to a specific theme, slap up some banners for affiliate products that were related to your theme, and sit back, hoping that some of the audience your website drew would click on those banners, giving you some sales. If you really wanted to get creative you might have done some email campaigns for specific products on the side.

But email campaigns are mostly ineffective (and God-forbid you should spam anyone). And banner advertisements don’t generally work. And websites take a long time to build, and promote. And even longer to get good ranking in the search engines.

So it was a slow steady process. There were no ‘quick routes’ to affiliate gold.

Until now.

Hang on to your hats, ladies & gentlemen, because pay-per-click advertising is here!

Pay-per-click search engines like Google AdWords and Overture offer an exciting way to quickly bring highly-targeted, highly-motivated people who want to buy straight to your affiliate products and services. You don’t even have to have a website.

Finding the GOLD!!!

G’Day from the kitchen table of Scott Wilson

Time to deliver on our promise of hot and usable information to help you learn and grow an online business.

Did you know?

Most people who start an Internet business usually come up with a product idea, spend months creating it, spend heaps doing it and then take it to the market.

Does this sound familiar to you?

Then they wonder why the people aren’t bashing down their door to buy it!

Have you ever heard the saying ‘Build it and they will come?’

Well not so with the Internet!

First you must find out if anyone is even remotely interested in your new product. There are many ways to get this information.

Here are three ideas for you…

1) Go to http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ and you can find out how many people have actually typed in the key words and phrases that relate to your product idea.

2) Go to Google and type in the most popular key words and phrases you found and see what if any sponsored links appear on the right hand side. This will tell you if there is competition out there trying to sell to this market.

People are always wanting to attract more visitors to their website. We all would like to see more traffic, however what are the best ways to promote a website, which does not cost an arm and a leg?

1. Pay per click advertising.

Pay per click advertising is becoming more and more popular with programs such as Google adwords reporting bigger profits on a regular basis. This is a way of getting your website on the first or second pages by you paying an advertising fee. You set the amount you are happy to pay per click and when somebody clicks on your ad, you have an extra visitor, however at a cost to you. It is important to remember not to spend more on the pay per click advertising than what you are likely to earn etc.

2. Writing articles.

Writing articles such as this one is a good way of promoting your website. Article websites such as http://www.ezinearticles.com and http://www.goarticles.com allow you to submit your articles for free. Other webmasters are able to use your articles on their website which gives you an extra backward link as you are able to add you website address at the bottom of the article. People who are reading the article on the article websites are also potential visitors.

If I sent you an email that said: "The Big Bear is being replaced by Giant Eagle." you probably would have no idea what I was talking about. First you would try to figure out what "Big Bear" and "Giant Eagle" meant. You would surmise that these must be important names because they are capitalized ? but you still don’t have enough information to go on.

At this point you have only 3 possible choices:

This article is intended as a guide for webmasters who want to display automatically updated content on their website in the form of RSS feeds. In this article I will cover the easiest method to implement using javascript for displaying RSS on websites to create additional dynamic content. This will allow you to display headlines from syndicated content around the web on your website.

RSS to Javascript.

By far the easiest method is to use client side javascript to parse and display the headlines on your site. To achieve this all you need to do is cut and paste some HTML or javascript code into the web page where you want the RSS feed headlines to display.

To achieve this there are several sites that offer a free service that will allow you to select a few options to choose your feed source and display formatting parameters. You will then be presented with some javascript code that you can cut and paste into your website.

Now before I give you the address of the sites that offer this service freely there are a few points I need to clarify with you. Although you will achieve your goal of displaying dynamic content on your site in a few short minutes there are some downsides to this method.

Webmasters always anxiously wait for a search engine update. Those who rank well want to see their sites get even better. Those who didn’t do well expect a major boost. Those whose sites get de-indexed anticipate a major comeback. Those who just started new sites bet on their sites will make into the first page of search engine result pages (SERPs) for their targeting keywords. Of course, not everyone will be happy about the results of search engine updates. After all, search engine traffic is a zero-sum game - someone loses and someone gains. Then, the webmasters start preparing for next update.

The Business Reasons Behind The Major Updates

All major search engines claim that they strive to present search results to users with the highest quality. But the business of search engine is business. What they won’t tell us is that there’re many business reasons for every major search engine updates. Search engine traffic is hot commodity - it’s free and has higher conversion rate since the searchers are very close to make their buying decisions. The downside of the search traffic for webmasters is that they don’t have control at all. Your sites may be ranked #1 today, but nowhere next day.

The idea of paying $1000 for a marketing package to MOST people would be a nonsense.

After all, think of all the other wonderful things you could buy with $1000.

If I was merely spending $1000 then I would find it difficult myself but that it is not the way I think and it DEFINITELY makes all the difference. When I am buying anything online I always weigh up the odds. The question I ask myself is this: Will I be able to profit from this service, strategy or marketing product within a reasonable amount of time?

I have always thought like this, even from my beginnings online……. I would buy into a product or service, join their affiliate program and then put everything into promoting this product/service until the service became free to me and eventually made me a profit.

This my friend is part of the mindset that seperates winners from losers…….

Winners’ predominant thought is - How much will I make?

Losers’ predominant thought IS - How much will it cost me?

It’s back to the half full, half empty analogy.