The Edge of Success: 9 Building Blocks to Double Your Sales
05 May
Posted by admin as Get Traffic for your website
Look, it’s incredibly difficult to be a small business owner! There are employees to manage, customers to please, bills to be paid, and a million other things to consider. And, on top of all of that, you’re still trying to grow your business.
I’m sure you’ve wanted to throw your hands in the air and give up. But…you haven’t. Perhaps you hang on because you can see the potential of your business. In other words, you know you’re sitting on the edge of unbelievable success.
If this describes you, then I’ve got great news! You see, I’ve just completed an e-book:
The Edge of Success: 9 Building Blocks to Double Your Sales
And, I am offering this e-book as a FREE download. In it, small business owners will discover:
- Simple steps to turning prospects into customers, and customers into raving fans
- How to systemize and simplify business management
- Why automation is imperative to small business growth
- The one “secret” every small business owner must know
- And so much more!!!
This book is a powerhouse of information! Information that will grow your company quickly and profitably. The same techniques and tactics in this book have been used by hundreds of companies to easily double, and even triple their current sales. The book is free, but could be worth thousands, or even millions to your bottom line!
So, if you’ve ever felt so close to success you could taste it…you need to read this book. It is the key to pushing your business past its current state and turning it into the business you always dreamed of!
Within minutes you could be on your way to skyrocketing your income. This is an opportunity (a FREE opportunity) you can’t afford to miss!
Sincerely,
Clate Mask
President, Infusion Software
It is time to have some icons again. This time, Icojoy is sharing some of the really nice mini icons. These icons are free to use in any kind of project unlimited times. The icons come in 6 different file types, .ico, .icns, .tif, .gif, .bmp, .png. Some of the icons are designed for blogs, dating, player and social networks as well.
Requirements: -
Demo: http://www.icojoy.com/blogs/3/
License: License Free
Yes, you can design a site to go viral. You can generate traffic through word-of-mouth and linkbaiting, and that’s how I intend to get most of my traffic to my new one. It includes some social techniques mixed with my lessons learned from the last two sites which sadly, no longer exist.
So that you don’t have to watch your best efforts go to waste as I once did, here are some tips to help you on your way.
- Be unusual: The Internet is way, way to big for vanilla. Vanilla is everywhere. So, find a topic and either approach it from an unusual direction, be controversial, be humorous, but be different.
- Make it a “.com”: I don’t care if your site is a company or not. When I say “Dot Com” to anyone, they know what it is, because the term is a pop culture phenomenon now. My last sites were “.net” because I was trying to be compliant, but it doesn’t matter. If you have to take a pencil and pad and hammer out URL’s until you can get something you can use with a “.com” extension, do so. It makes your URL much easier to remember.
- Give it a catchy URL: Another big problem of mine I’ve since fixed, and again, if you have to go at it all day with a pencil and pad, invent a catchy URL. Catchy URL’s are preferably short and memorable in some way. To go viral, they should also be fun. “Google.com” is fun, and look what happened to them.
- Make it interactive: In Web 2.0, it’s the only way to go. Blog comments, forum postings, and other forms of visitor interactivity are not only expected nowadays, but are a good way to keep your previous visitors returning.
- If someone wants to social bookmark you, make it easy for them: Mass bookmarking programs, Feedburner Feed Flares, and other things exist so that if your visitors want to bookmark you on their choice of social bookmarking sites, they can. Find the mass bookmarking tool that works best for you, and use it.
- Images: You have to have them, if only in your header. I’m still working on my site’s images, but you’ll need them in the end. And not just any image, but fun, unusual, or interesting images.
- Respond to your visitors: Do you have a unique sense of humor, insight, or anything else that helps you stand out from the crowd? Use it to respond to your visitors. Write about their emails. Talk about their issues. They’ll tell their friends about how cool you are, and others will come to visit you.
If you’re designing a site from scratch and want to go viral, remember the tips above. You can get started on the right foot, and will help your advertising efforts go the extra mile with a little viral intent.
1300+ Free And Quality PNG Icons
Crystal Clear is a high quality & free icon set.
This icon set includes nearly every icon an application may need as it contains 1300+ icons.
Set comes with sizes: 16*16, 22*22, 24*24, 32*32, 48*48, 64*64 and 128*128 in PNG format.
Improve your Search Engine Position with Sitemaps
11 Apr
Posted by admin as Get Traffic for your website, WebMaster Resources
A sitemap is a little-known secret to enhancing your Web site’s position in the search engine listings. No, it’s not a killer secret that will draw in thousands of new visitors overnight, but it is an important addition to your toolset, and not hard to implement. This article will tell you why you need a sitemap, and how to create one and submit it to the search engines.
The term “sitemap” can refer to two different things. Many large, complex Web sites provide a visual sitemap that visitors can use for quick navigation, if they already know roughly where they want to go. If your site is large or complex, you should provide one of these sitemaps for your visitors.
But this article is about the other kind of sitemap: The kind that is made for the search engines, like Google, to use in indexing your site. There are several forms that these sitemaps can take, but we’ll get to that a little later.
First of all, let’s consider why you even need a sitemap. Google and the other search engines will index your site even if you don’t have a sitemap. However, there are four main advantages to having a sitemap:
1. If your site uses non-HTML links, such as Macromedia Flash menus or JavaScript menus, the search engines will not be able to follow these links, and so they will not find all of your pages. A code-driven site must use a sitemap.
2. A sitemap tells the search engines which pages on your site are more important, and which are less important. This prevents the less important pages from competing with your own pages in the listings.
3. A sitemap tells the search engines which pages on your site are updated more frequently than others. This enables the search engines to ignore your static pages, increasing the likelihood that they will have the most current data on your most dynamic pages.
4. A sitemap enables you to tell the search engines when you have added or updated your site’s content. To some extent, this puts you in control of making the search engines aware of your latest content. Of course, it doesn’t force the search engines to do your bidding, but it tends to make it easier for users to find your new pages more quickly.
So, what is a sitemap?
As mentioned above, there are many possible forms of sitemaps, but we’ll concentrate on the most useful kind, the XML sitemap format created and promulgated by sitemaps.org. This protocol, currently known as “Sitemap 0.90,” is maintained and endorsed jointly by Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Ask, so you know it is pretty much a universal standard.
An XML sitemap consists of a list of pages on your Web site, and standard information about each page. Here is an example:
< url >
< loc >http://www.freelancesubmit.com
< lastmod >2008-04-07< /lastmod >
< changefreq >never
< priority >0.3
< /url >
…
< url >
< loc >http://www.freelancesubmit.com
< lastmod >2008-04-07
< changefreq >weekly
< priority >0.8
< /url >
…
Don’t worry about the technical details of formatting the XML. We’ll talk about tools that will create this for you in a moment.
There are three things to notice about each entry:
1. LastMod. Tell the search engines the last date (and time) you changed this page. That will tell them which ones they ought to index right away, and which ones they can ignore.
2. ChangeFreq. In case you’re not updating your sitemap all the time, this will give the search engines a clue as to how often they ought to check each page.
3. Priority. This tells the search engines the relative importance of this page, compared to all the other pages in your site.
In assigning a value for “Priority,” on a scale of 0.0 to 1.0, determine which pages are most important and which are least important within your site. We’re not telling the search engines that this “Services” page is in the 80th percentile of all pages on the Web, but it is far more important than the “Index” page within this site. That’s where we want our visitors to end up.
It’s easy to identify pages within your site which are lowest priority. Some examples:
- Privacy Policy - “Contact us” - “About us”
Please don’t misunderstand this. It’s not that your “Privacy Policy” page is unimportant and so you might as well not have one. It’s that your “Privacy Policy” is important enough to take for granted: Your visitors will find it when they need it. But for search engine purposes, you’d rather direct them to the pages where you actually do your business.
So, how do you create a sitemap?
There are a number of software tools that will create a sitemap by reading your site’s content. You will have to adjust the results, especially the “Priority” settings, but most of these do a pretty good job. Search the Web for “sitemap generator,” or for any of the following specific free tools:
- SitemapDoc - XML-Sitemaps - AuditMyPC Google Sitemap Generator
And once you have your sitemap, what do you do with it?
There are three things to do, in sequence:
1. Place the sitemap file into the root directory of your Web server, alongside your main “index” file. And each time you update it, place the new copy there.
2. Notify the major search engines of your new sitemap file each time you update it. For Google, this means to submit it from within “Webmaster Tools.” For other major search engines, search on that search engine for “submit sitemap,” and you’ll probably find where to enter the URL of your sitemap file.
3. Place a reference to the sitemap file in your robots.txt file, as “Sitemap: http://www.freelancesubmit.com
Once you have your sitemap created and submitted, don’t forget to maintain it. Each time you add a page to your Web site, add it to your sitemap. Each time you update a page on your Web site, update its “lastmod” setting in your sitemap. Try adjusting the “priority” of your pages from time to time to see if it improves the performance of that particular page. And each time you modify your sitemap, resubmit it to the major search engines.
Woopra Realtime Web Tracking & Analytics Tool
is a web-tracking & analysis tool. It is mainly targeted for small to medium websites ranging from few hundreds up to tens of thousands of daily page views. Essentially, it is targeted for blogs interested in the most minuscule details of every single action. In addition, Woopra provides a precise real-time streaming of every single activity on the website. Woopra also features a clean interface, including many graphical visualization components, such as charts, maps, panels… Along with many other clean and advanced options that make Woopra an ideal solution for webmasters who desire to discern all the aspects of their website. Here are the main features of Woopra.
Live Tracking
Webmaster will be immediately updated with all the actions taking place on his website. Woopra makes tracking seamless with its inherent live technology.
Rich Interface
Woopra provides an intuitive interface to display complex data sets (such as maps, charts, etc…) , without discarding the balance between design and function, creating elegant data visualizations.
Activity Search
Woopra log shows you all the events on your website in chronological order, offering an outstanding tool to go back in time and identify all the actions that took place.
Instant Messaging
Woopra enables you to engage your visitors by starting a conversation with them; a friendly popup will appear on the web page to establish the chat. Also, Woopra provides your visitors with a special link on the page, to be able to start a conversation.
Notifications
By putting valuable information around real-time data, Woopra provides an on-demand notification component highlight operational data and apply intelligence to make the data actionable and to spot special events.
Developer Tools
For developers and enthusiast users, Woopra provides a full featured API that allows extracting a website’s data into several common web 2.0 formats, making it useful for use within your own application.
Do you have a good product? A good sales letter? But graphically its just blah. Well theres tons of little things that you could do to make it stand out. One of the things i have found a free collection for you.
Badges are maybe the most famous design elements of the Web 2.0 design trend.
They are commonly used to emphasize information, sometimes as buttons, in logos, and sure, for the “beta information” of web applications. When used creatively, they are really powerful.
I have collected 36 Web 2.0 badges from the websites which I like the designs of them and hope you will like and inspire.
Intracard (few more badges in the website)
evelMerch
Lesly Garreau
Full Phat Design
Voll
Mr Uptime
Orolix
Split The Atom
West Side Organics
Danny Blackman
blond
Slice’r’us
SeoMoz Web 2.0 Awards
Whisher
CellSwapper
Joopz
TEO
Freshwebjobs
Mes pixels
Hellofreaks
DESUDESU
Visuale
Closedbags
loopnote
Grunge Badge
TeamManager.se
dateyard
Iris Interactive
ShinyLetter
FreshBooks
Jersey Sushi
Only A Blog
By Erin Ferree (c) 2008
You’ve decided to build a website. Great! Your first step is to determine its structure - the pages you want to include and the information you want provide to visitors. But how to begin?
Your first instinct may be to make your site different from everyone else’s. After all, trying to differentiate your business is what you’ve been doing throughout your branding process.
Building a Website is Like Building a Custom Home
When you create a custom house, you can arrange your floor plan however you want, paint the walls as you please and fill the house with furniture you love. Your goal is to create a unique space that stands out from everyone else’s.
In the same vein, there are elements of your website where standing out makes sense. For example, the overall look of your site and your copy should be different from other sites - especially those of your competitors.
Differentiating your website is good for your small business - to a point. What you don’t want to do is reengineer its basic structure.
Standing Out Isn’t Always the Stable Way to Build
Underneath it all, even the most unique custom home has the same foundation and spacing between studs in the wall as every other house on the block.
By following underlying principles of construction, builders help ensure that the house is structurally sound. Why not use the same approach when it comes to your website? That way, your site is far more likely to work well for you.
To use site building rules, of course, you need to know what they are.
Rule 1: Do Competitive Research
Before someone sets out to build a custom house, they’ll probably do quite a lot of research—looking at other houses, determining the architectural styles that appeal to them, and perhaps even checking out homes in the neighborhood where they want to build.
The same goes for your website. You need find out what you’re up against. Once you’re familiar with competitors’ sites, you can make sure that your site will not only be different in the right places, such as look and feel and content, but that it will also be comparable in the right places.
Most likely, your competitors have been building their sites for some time - and probably updating them to answer customer questions and market their businesses more strongly. You don’t want prospects to pass you by because your site doesn’t answer an important question that a competitor has addressed.
Visiting other sites and making notes of basic structure, business information presented, customer questions answered and even relevant tools and articles gives you a jump start on creating a site that facilitates apples-to-apples comparisons.
Rule 2: Plan Your Site Architecture
As you may suspect, planning your site architecture is like drawing up architectural plans for a custom house, where you plan just what you’ll include and what will go in each space. For example, do you want a library? A formal dining room? And where will you put the piano?
Similarly, for your website, you must decide the pages you’ll include and the information on each page.
When planning your site architecture, think about what you’d like your website to do for your business. Do you want it to bring in clients and close sales? If so, pricing information and even a shopping cart can help do that. Do you need your site to get media attention? Then a Media Room might be the key. Make sure to include the pages and content required to get the job done.
In addition, think about how you plan to expand your website in the future. At the beginning, designing a website of more than 10 pages can overwhelm a small business - both in terms of budget and time required to write the content.
But, if you create an expanded site map at the beginning - a website wish list if you will - then you and your website strategist can determine which pages will be most important in helping you reach your goals. You’ll also have a clear roadmap you can use to add on to your website as your budget and schedule allow. For more about the pages to include on your website, see this article: Pages To Include On Your Website.
Rule 3: Name Your Pages in a Way That Makes Sense
Have you ever walked into an unfamiliar house and been unable to find your way around? You probably asked the hostess where the kitchen was so you could drop off your pot luck dish or the way to the bathroom.
On a website, though, visitors don’t have the luxury of asking where things are. So you want to make it as easy as possible for them to find the information that they need.
Some small businesses want navigation button names to be clever or interesting. But, it’s important to think about the website visit from your customers’ or prospects’ point of view. They often come to your site looking for specific information. Even if they’re just browsing, they want an organized way to look around - where clicking a link takes them to the page they expect. Remember that visitors don’t have a lot of time or the patience to bumble around your site.
You see the same navigation buttons on every site you visit for a good reason. Established usage conventions have trained visitors to look for names like “Services,” “About” and “Contact” when they’re out browsing around. Capitalize on this and your visitors will be able to find what they’re looking for quickly - keeping your site and your business in their good graces.
Following these three simple rules makes it much more likely that your website is structurally sound and that your visitors will have a great experience there instead of a frustrating one.
| Logo | PR | Alexa | Space | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
7 | 1,316 | 1GB | Take me there |
 |
7 | 72,973 | 1GB | Take me there |
 |
6 | 741 | Unlimited | Take me there |
 |
6 | 110 | 1GB | Take me there |
 |
6 | 93 | 12GB | Take me there |
 |
6 | 136 | Unlimited | Take me there |
 |
6 | 15 | 50GB | Take me there |
 |
5 | 3,746 | 1GB | Take me there |
 |
5 | 314 | 300MB | Take me there |
 |
5 | 8,173 | 25GB | Take me there |
For optimizing a website in means of SEO, you may have to deal with many manual tasks like submiting to search engines, checking the keyword density of pages, searching for any missing alt tags & more.
Web CEO, one of the most popular softwares in this area, lets you manage the SEO-side of unlimited number of websites with a very informative interface.
Web CEO comes with a lots of featured free edition & much more featured paid editions.
I’ve been using Web CEO for a long time and one of the best features of it is the advices after analyzing pages. Rather than just telling the problems, Web CEO informs you about how to solve them in a detailed way.
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