Beware of Link Farms

If you think by joining link farms and stuffing your site with as many links as possible will make your site popular in search engines, then you are highly mistaken. Your bad linking habits and strategies might get you even banned from the search engines.

Link farming or link stuffing is the phenomenon where sites start linking to other websites for the only reason of increasing their website’s link popularity without even bothering to check whether they are linking to relevant and related websites or not. Google has come to understand this dirty trick of some unethical webmasters and hates link farms. And anyone who indulges in link farming is branded spam by Google and may even get removed from Google’s index. The reason being that Google does not want irrelevant websites to be linked with others as it decreases the site's value to visitors and damages the image of the Web as provider of useful content to the visitors. Just imagine a clothes’ site linking to a music site does not make sense at all and costs precious time to the surfers.

The search engines are taking a very serious stand against all link farmers and Google’s spam policy states clearly to disregard link stuffing when building the index and computing static rank and to reduce the static rank of documents containing it.

So all I can do is to warn you and make you aware of the heavy price that you may have to pay if you displease the search engines with unethical link farming. Linking is good, but only with related and relevant websites, otherwise you are just calling trouble for your website.

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Seniors/Aged Form a Valuable Chunk Of Online Buyers: Don't Neglect Them

A website plays a very important role in marketing your business online to the senior citizens. According to a recent survey, there has been 47% increase in the number of online senior surfers between 2000 and 2004 alone. This increase has been due to many reasons, like, a desire to stay in touch with news and events, checking up for medical/health related information, researching for products/ services to purchase offline, make online shopping purchases, researching for stocks, etc.

If the target audience for your business is the older people, you need to keep the following things in mind in order to modify your website accordingly:

Since the older population has visibility problems, it is better to use less content and in a larger font. Also provide the users with an option to enlarge the font or text size, if need be.

Use a font type that is easily read by the older surfers, like sans-serif font as that is not condensed and double space body text.

It is better to design with high contrast and avoid reversed type and patterned backgrounds. Also use dark text on light backgrounds.

Avoid web jargon and the language that the younger generation is used to. Use terminology that is simple and easily understood by the older people. The older people may not be aware of terms like emoticon, IM, message board etc. So keep this in mind while writing for the seniors.

Be very clear and precise in explaining what the users are expected to do after clicking on a button. The reason being that the senior citizens tend to be more cautious while surfing on the internet, so explain things thoroughly yet concisely.

Your linking strategy should be straightforward where you use clear ways of showing links as blue or underlined.

Don't design a very hi-fi or difficult website. Your site design has to be simple, and stable with the navigation being easy and hassle-free. It is important to foster confidence and loyalty in the surfers if you want to win them over.

Last but not the least important is the testing of your website by some senior surfers before you actually launch it.

So if you want to make profits and earn good money from the senior online buyers, make sure you cater to their needs and give them what they want in an easy, comfortable and time saving way.

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Understand the Difference Between a Marketing Plan and a Communication Plan

Generally people confuse between a marketing plan and a communication plan, thinking both of them to be the same. But they are highly mistaken because both plans are different and have their own importance in web marketing.

A marketing plan is a broad term that includes a lot within itself, whereas a communication plan is a small part of the marketing plan. A communication plan concentrates specifically on developing strategies to spread the word about your business, products or services. Public Relations, advertising, seminars, speaking presentations, etc., all form a part of the communication plan.

On the other hand, a marketing plan begins with the creation of a strong, strategic marketing foundation for the communications plan. Basically, a marketing plan is concerned about the goals and objectives of your business,and not just the communication activities. It also pays attention to the packaging, pricing, and selling strategies of you products or services, keeping in mind your competitors and their strategies also. The main concern of the marketing plan is to come up with a uinque selling point for your product or service so that it is uniquely placed in the minds of your prospects and customers.

A communication plan comes after a marketing plan when you need to send a message out to the world about your products or services. Once a strong, and innovative marketing plan is in place,your communication plan comes into picture. You may do without a communication plan, but not without a marketing plan. It is most essential for the success of your business.

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Contribution of Pay-per-click in Increased Blog Traffic

Any new invention, discovery, and technology takes time to become popular and beneficial for people. At the same time, not every new thing is completely fool-proof. It can have both positive and negative effects. But, if you use it judiciously and and have thorough knowledge about its working, applicability, and usage, it can turn out to be 'a million dollar baby' for you.Take the case of Pay-per-click advertising. If you know how to tap the potential of this unique and great online advertising strategy, you may be able to increase your blog traffic tremendously. But the key to success here is knowledge, research, and constant monitoring, involved in the execution of PPC.

Are you paying the right amount for the right keywords?

Money is a big player in the PPC game. You must know how to pick up the right keywords at the right prices, so that you getyour money's worth. Your profits must outweigh your investment.

Is your advertisement worth the effort and money spent on it?

The PPC advertisements are like the trailer of a movie. If the trailer doesn't excite the audience, why would they see the movie?So be sure that in limited words, you convince, attract, and make the visitors click on your paid advertisement.

Where does your advertisement take the visitors?

You advertised about a blog on latest fashion trends, and the excited, interested, innocent visitor clicks on your ad. Poor guy! what he finds on your landing page is a long monotonous piece on history of fashion. Give the visitors what they want, and give them to the point, relevant information that they are hungry for.

Ultimately, everything boils down to one thing- EDUCATION. Immerse yourself in gathering as much knowledge as possible aboutPPC, test that knowledge by investing in learning the do's and dont's from a PPC pro, someone who has been using thisstrategy successfully to run his business. This investment of money would help you in the long run than wasting your hard earnedcash in hit and trial method.
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Understand SEO Algorithms for Better Optimization

Being a searcher or search engine optimization expert, it is always beneficial to understand the algorithms and technologies powering the search engines. You need not pass an exam to prove your expertise, but it would do no harm if you delved a little deeper into the SEO mechanics and how it works. We know SEO is all about calculations, analysis and deductions on the basis of the websites' purpose, target audience and overall construction. We need to work out the statistics and logic involved in using some specific techniques, strategies and tools as against the others. And if we are not well versed with the dynamics of the whole concept of SEO, the algorithms and technologies being used, applied or being tested every now and then, I'm sorry to say, we are not keeping pace with the changing times and ever faster changing technological aspects of the Webworld. Also a technically sound and updated SEO will always have an extra edge over a novice or a person who though knows about SEO, but is not in touch with what's happening out there in the search engines and their changing algorithms. Take the example of a doctor who is pretty good in his job, but is not abreast with the latest and most updated changes and developments in the medical world. In other words, he is not research saavy or well tuned with the changes as well as workings of newest developments in his field of expertise. Do you think, such a doctor will be able to do justice to the needs and requirements of the patients? I don't think so. Similarly, understanding the changes taking place in the SEO world and their repercursions on the way you optimize the web site can make a hell lot of difference to the way you view the web pages or optimize them in the future.

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