Saturday, 9 June 2012

Evidence That Keyword Domain Name Rank High On Google Search Results

When it comes to choosing a domain name for a new website there is always a debate, keywords domain name vs generic name. I have read many articles on this topic and the conclusion was there was no advantage having keywords in your domain name. But there is new scientific evidence that seems to prove that having a Keyword Domain name could put your site on top of Google search results.

Searchmetrics just released a study on SEO that shows key factors used by Google to rank sites. The highlight was evidence that Keyword domain names have an edge.

“The biggest unknown in SEO is always the algorithm. Many myths and rumors surround the “what” and “how” of Google results. Although SEO experts won’t be able to know the specific algorithm used, by examining the data you can figure out how best to influence results.”"At Searchmetrics, we continually aggregate billions of data points a month and naturally look for the answer to the question: “Which factors are relevant for a good ranking in Google search results?”
“With this study, from February and March 2012 data, we get closer to the answer based on an analysis of 10,000 selected top-keywords, 300,000 websites and millions of links, shares and tweets.”
“The data shows that all of the factors that have a positive effect on SEO in the U.K. also have a positive effect on SEO in the U.S. although to different degrees and perhaps in a different order of importance from other variables. “
“A few highlights from our analysis
Signals That Google Uses To Rank Websites On search Results
  • Social media signals show extremely high correlation: social signals from Facebook, Twitter and Google+ are frequently
    associated with good rankings in Google’s index. This is interesting in particular for the UK, which
    hasn’t had such a strong correlation with social signals up to this point.
  •  Too much advertising is detrimental: for the first time we are seeing sites with too many advertisements struggling to rank well. However, the problem correlates only to AdSense adblockers.
  • Backlinks are still important but quantity is not the only important thing: even though the number of backlinks is still the most powerful factor, links with stop words and ‘nofollow’ should also be included in the link-mix.
  • Brands leverage classic SEO signals: apparently pages with strong brands do not need be as concerned with the areas of title tags, headings etc. According to our figures, this group operates under different rules.
  • Keyword domains still frequently attract top results: despite all the rumors to the contrary, keyword domains are still alive and well and are often in the top rankings.
If you needed evidence that keyword domain names are better than generic domain name. This is it.
Other sources. the domains.

How I Make $70,000 Selling Art Works On My Website

I have read so many success stories on how to make money with a website but nothing beats the story of Steve Gadlin. Steve has built a successfull internet business by drawing kindergarten-style pictures of cats.

Believe it or not, Gadlin sells drawings like this one above for $10 a piece. Seriously, who buys these drawings? It is not a laughing matter because in the last one year he’s sold over 7,000 drawings and has a 4 to 6 week order backlog.Awesome!

Steve Gadlin (How I Make $70,000 Selling Art Works On My Website) story was first reported by Venture Beat.

“I wanted to create an experiment where I could do all the things people who create businesses do, and do it with just a widget,” Gadlin told VentureBeat. Initially, in early 2011, the site consisted of exactly two things: an embedded YouTube video, and a PayPal button. Clients watched the video, ordered a cat drawing, and paid $10. Then Gadlin drew it on paper and snail-mailed it to each customer. 

Selling art works online has never been easy but Steve makes it look so easy. Steve's websites is iwanttodrawacatforyou.com.

As his success has spread around multiple copycat sites are cropping up with artists who want to sketch an elephant or dog for you. Credit to steve for teaching us you don't need to think big to succeed. Think Small!

Have an inspiring day.

Friday, 8 June 2012

How I Use Youtube Videos To Drive More Traffic To My Websites

The reason why I focus on creating Youtube videos is because Youtube behaves like a search engine. When people want to get information on a certain topic they go to Google to find and read about it. But for some people reading is not enough, they want to watch and listen to someone explain things. This type of people use Youtube to digest information. If you are not targeting this type of web users you are losing on free traffic. 

To target this Youtube users, I upload short videos on Youtube. The videos content is on short tutorials that can be explained in under 4 minutes. The big challenge on Youtube is how to get the viewer to visit your website.

These are the things I do to get viewers of my Youtube Videos To visit My sites and blogs.

1. Have a link at the description. After uploading the videos I make sure I add a detailed relevant description. My intro is "This video is produced and provided by Kicker Hosting, for more free videos visit www.kickerhosting.com"

2. Introduce your website quickly at the beginning of the video (just quickly in a branded intro) so that users know who made the video and have your brand in their head. If you videos is eye catching they will know where to find you.

3. Wear Branded T-shirts. I don't show my face on my videos but if you are comfortable appearing on your youtube videos, wear a T-shirt with your website URL on the front. 

5. Keep the Youtube Videos Short - The truth is online audiences have a short attention spun. Few people are persistence and patient enough to watch and listen to a 1 hour video presentation. A long video will bore them and make them switch to another Youtube video.

4. Call To Action At The end. Am never shy at the end. I ask the viewer to visit my site. e.g. To find out more on this topic visit: www.mysitehere.com.

5.Showcase Other Free Videos. Weave mentions of your other free tutorials into the script of the video (make sure it is relevant and appropriate).

To Your success!


Thursday, 7 June 2012

6 Free & Premium Wordpress E-Commerce Template

Wordpress is popularly known as a blogging platform but the truth is wordpress can also be used to build e-commerce websites or online store. The look and feel of your store can be enhanced by installing an e-commerce wordpress templates. There are two types of wordpress templates, free and premium.

The following is collection of 6 e-commerce Wordpress templates that you can download for free or purchase and upload them to your site.

On the blogging platform, free themes out number the premium themes. but when it comes to e-commerce wordpress templates it is the other way round. There are few free templates but hundreds of premium templates.

The Best Wordpress E-commerce Templates 
Estore Theme

eStore wordpress template provides an elegant solution for those looking to sell products online. The theme is easy to configure, and offers integration options with some of the most popular (and free) ecommerce plugins, including eShop and Simple PayPal Shopping cart. Also, due to the open-ended nature of the design, adding support for additional shopping carts won't cause a headache. If you are ready to bring your business online, then get started today with eStore!

estore is available for just $39 at eleganttheme.

Boutique Template 

Boutiques give you the power to open your own online storefront. The theme has been built to integrate with some of the most popular eCommerce plugins available, allowing people to use their favorite system without any conflicts.

Boutique theme is available for just $39 from elegantthemes.

Download These 3 Free Wordpress E-commerce Templates

Teeshort Theme
This green color free e-commerce wordpress template is designed for a store designed to sell T-shirts. it can also be sued to sell any kind of clothing online, anything from shorts, lingerie and shoes.
Teeshort is designed by woocommerce themes. You can choose from basic theme and standard theme. The basic them can be downloaded free of charge while the price of standard theme is $75. The main difference being the standard template has life time support.

Velvet Sky Wordpress E-commerceTheme
This free e-commerce wordpress template is women centric. Good for selling women products. The warm, natural brown colours within the theme portray much comfort and will hopefully provide your customers with a very calm and engaging environment in which they can find the items they’re searching for in no time.
Designed by Dapurpixel and Promoted by smashing magazine. If you are planning to selling lipstick and perfume to women, then consider velvet sky theme.

Kelontong Wordpress E-commerce Theme
This free e-commerce wordpress template was designed with apple in mind but with a little bit of creativity it can be perfect for selling electronic goods such as camera, phone and computer accesories.
The kelontong is designed by iCreativeLabs.

3 Premium Wordpress E-commerce Templates.

The Vineyard: A WordPress eCommerce Theme
This premium e-commerce template is a perfect theme for a site that sells wine online. The Vineyard is a complete, flexable and beautiful eCommerce WordPress theme. The specificly designed store pages will show off your products perfectly. It fully supports the cart66 plugin for a complete webshop experience. Packed with options, custom widgets and shortcodes, this theme will not dissapoint!


The theme is promoted by Theme Forest.

Icarus Business eCommerce Template
This e-commerce wordpress template is perfect for an online furniture store. Good design for showcasing your catalog.


Another e-commerce wordpress theme from Theme Forest.

Store Wordpress ecommerce Template
This wordpress e-commerce template is good for selling organic product. If you sell those multi level marketing products you may consider this theme. The Store template is a great ecommerce WordPress theme, with a really good-looking and functional interface; it’s easy-to install and maintain with accessible backend administration.


The theme’s creators are available for pre-sales questions and customer support.

Monday, 4 June 2012

Sample Letter : How To Approach Advertisers To Advertise On Your Site

All website owners who sell direct advertising from their website have "Advertise Here" page. While some advertisers will contact you after reading your “Advertise Here” page, the rest of them will need to be directly approached by you. In that case, it is a good idea to create a standard letter/sample letter/template to contact the advertisers.

There is no “one size fits all” solution here, but you can follow some general guidelines:

1. Introduce yourself and quickly explain what the email is about
2. Explain why you decided to contact them and what they have to gain
3. Give details about your site (traffic, subscribers, topic, audience)
4. Give details about the advertising options (location on the site, max number of advertisers, monthly price)
5. Target websites relevant to your niche, preferably websites that sell related products or services.

Here Is A sample letter or template that you can use to Approach advertisers to advertise on your website. 

To : Email Address
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
Dear (Website owner name),
I have the pleasure to offer my services to bring to your website a bumper crop of web traffic and business by advertising for you in my website. 

While visiting your website I noticed some of the products you sell (give examples) are products that visitors to my website are interested in. Last month alone (1200 ) visitors read articles related to (add products here)

kickerhosting.com has become a craze for more than 6 years. The average monthly visitors stand at _________ thousand. These visitors had _________ pageviews. The visitors demographic is ________ years. Visitors primarily come from country A, B, and C or state A, B, and C. To verify these data, check out our doubleclick ad planner page (Set up a doubleclick ad planner page for your site and link to it). 

A copy of the advertisement tariff is enclosed.

Please feel free to call me at 123-4567 or drop me an e-mail so that we can discuss this further. If I don't hear from you by the end of next week I will follow up with you and see if we can set up a meeting at your convenience.

Yours faithfully
Your Name
Your website Name

Florida-Based Company Offers Free SEO Package

A Florida-based web marketing agency Webhead Interactive from Tampa is honoring their roots as a Tampa small business with a promotion that will award one Tampa-based company a free SEO package.

This Free SEO Package is valued at more than $5,000.

Tampa small businesses can enter to win this valuable package through the Webhead Interactive Facebook page. Businesses will need to submit a short video about their business and why they should be selected as the winner. The winning business will need to be solely located in Tampa Florida, and have an existing website that is suited for optimization. The SEO package, valued at over $5,000, will include a one-month on-site SEO setup and 5 subsequent months of SEO service. Webhead Interactive will develop the actual SEO strategy based on the winner’s industry and competitive landscape.

Should you take this offer of a free SEO service?
OFFCOURSE YES! Quality SEO work is tedious and never cheap and if a top notch company throws you a freebie, grab it with both hands.

Benefits of Free SEO Service
A free SEO deal is like in law industry "NO WIN NO FEE" The SEO company will do the work and if you are not satisfied with your final rankings you wont pay a penny.

Apart from saving you $5,000 you will benefit from the reports they will be sending. The reports will give you insights on how proper SEO is done. This kind of education is priceless. Even if you don't commit to their SEO services you will be left holding onto valuable info.

To enter the Webhead Interactive free SEO service AKA“Giving Local a Leg Up” contest, submit a video for your business by first liking their facebook page and then submitting through the Facebook Contest by midnight, June 18th. For more information on Webhead Interactive, visit http://www.webheadinteractive.com, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, or Google +.

Saturday, 2 June 2012

Traffic Tips For A E-Commerce Website

E-commerce websites live and die by traffic. The more visitor that come to your site the higher your chance of selling a product. On the other hand if visitors don't visit your e-commerce website you won't make a sale. 

Based on my experience, I believe you can dramatically increase your e-commerce website traffic by following these ten suggestions. 

Write Product Description Worth sharing.  
If you are not writing product description that will awe your readers, smarter marketing for you e-commerce website will not fix the problem. Begin by creating an eye catching title that makes people want to read what you have to say.

Write Consistently. 
You can’t expect to increase traffic to your e-commerce website if you don’t add new product descriptions on a daily basis. It is a fact, E-commerce websites with a bigger catalog get majority of web traffic. Frequency equals visibility.

Get A Brandable domain name. 
Think of amazon.com and zappos.com. Those names are great names because they are unique. Don't give in to the temptation of having your product name on the domain. Unique names are the best for a e-commerce website in the long term. By getting a unique name you make it easy on your readers to remember and to pass along your website name. The more they share your domain name with friends the more visitors you should get. 

Make it easy to subscribe to your website Newsletter. 
You don’t want to depend on your website visitors to remember to come back to your e-commerce website. Instead, you want them to subscribe, so they get every new article you write. They should be able to do so by either RSS or email. (Use both.) Position these two buttons prominently so that those who want to subscribe don’t have to hunt for them.

Optimize your articles for SEO. 
You want people to be able to find you when they Google one of your keywords or your name. Make sure you include product keyword in the title, at the introduction, sub titles and within the article. Please, don't overdo it because the articles won't be readable. 

Set Up Facebook page for your e-commerce website
If you want to build visibility for your e-commerce site, you must go where the people are. Today, more and more people gather online in places like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+. These social sites are becoming a major refferal of traffic. Make sure you set up a page for your e-commerce website with this social sites.

Invite Product Reviews. 
Start by making it easy for your visitors to review products. Research shows people are more likely to purchase when they read recommendation by fellow buyers .     

To You Success!