5 Benefits of Hosting Your Site On Your Domain Name

December 2, 2009 at 1:13 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Many people understand the immense benefits of hosting their blogs on their own domain.

Advantages of domain name

If you are serious about wanting to earn money on the internet, then you will need to set up a blog and host it on your domain. Below are some benefits of hosting your own blog on your domain.

1. Full control over everything about your blog.

You can have your own layout and design for your blog, which means you can have a blog that matches your website logo. You can make your blog as unique as you want.

This gives you an edge against other competing blogs in the same niche which may have similar layouts. You also have complete freedom to do anything you want with your blog.

2. Easier For People To Remember

By hosting your blog on your domain name, you make it easier for people to remember your blog.

3. Can Develop and Promote Own Brand.

You can make your blog headings similar to your website. In terms of search engine optimization (SEO) and advertising, this is very important because you will be advertising and optimizing your own domain and your own brand.

SEO is also effective to do with your own domain name that includes your keywords. This will increase your blog’s visibility on search engines.

4. Added Security.

This means that you don’t have to worry about losing your information or getting locked out of your account.

5. Professional Image

Your company looks more professional by having your online business logo on your blog. This gives you ad edge against other competing website or blogs.

Hence, if you are serious about your online business, you must consider hosting your blog on your own domain.

Visit ShopWiki This Christmas

November 19, 2009 at 1:08 am | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

The recession may be technically over but many people are still struggling with job losses and pay cuts.

With Americans facing lesser discretionary income. this Christmas is expected to be cold, not just the temperature but also empty shopping malls and lacklustre retail sales.

But Christmas is a season of giving. We can still shop around for gifts, only thing is that we have to stretch our dollar and sought out the best deals.

For a start, why not browse through ShopWiki.com first to get an idea of whether your shopping list fits into your budget.

I love ShopWiki as it is a revolutionized online shopping portal which finds finds every store on the internet by crawling like Google.

Unlike traditional shopping sites where the stores are mostly PAID for placement, ShopWiki is not biased and will give shoppers a comprehensive comparison shopping guide on anything for sale. This will translate to better deals and more savings.

I am looking to get a new laptop next month as my old laptop has seen better days. It has served and traveled with me for the last 2 years and suffered a lot of wear and tear, what with the screen cracking and the surface badly scarred.

Now is a good time to buy as the recession has forced many laptop manufacturers to be more competitive in lowering their prices while offering better design and specifications.

As for my wife, she will be looking to bolster her wardrobe but I have to remind her not to rack up my credit card bills, so no designer fashions this year!

20 Practical SEO Tips For Webmasters

October 30, 2009 at 12:40 pm | In SEO | Leave a Comment
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There are many tips for the DIY webmaster who wants to boost their search engine rankings. Unfortunately, not many succeed or they take ages for any visible effects.

The other alternative is to hire a professional who will charge an arm and leg to get a visible boost in SEO rank and you don’t what kind of illegal strategies they are using.

Here is 20 special SEO tips for the DIY webmasters which are practical and do not need too much money.

1) Get your site ready.

The first thing you need to do is make sure that your site is ready for Search Engine Optimization. You do not want your visitors to arrive to an unfinished and incomplete site.

2) Avoid Javascript.

If you absolutely MUST use Java script drop down menus, image maps or image links, be sure to put text links somewhere on the page for the spiders to follow.

3) Content is King.

Be sure to have good, well-written and unique content that will focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase.

4) Build Backlinks.

If content is king, then links are queen. Build a network of quality back links using your keyword phrase as the link. Remember, it must be relevant too.

5) Don’t obsess over PageRank.

It is just one part of the ranking algorithm. Even Google doesn’t treat it seriously. A site with lower PR can actually outrank one with a higher PR.

6) Focus on Titles.

Be sure you have a unique, keyword focused Title tag on every page of your site. And, if you MUST have the name of your company in it, put it at the end. Unless you are a household name, your business name will get few searches.

7) Keep it Fresh!

Fresh content can help improve your rankings. Add new, useful content to your pages on a regular basis. Content freshness adds relevancy to your site in the eyes of the search engines.

8) The Key to Good Links.

Be sure links to your site and within your site use your keyword phrase. In other words, if your target is “blue widgets” then link to “blue widgets” instead of a simple detail lacking “Click here” link.

9) Phrasing it Correctly.

Focus on search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text (“our Palm Springs store” not “our store”) to help you get found in local searches.

10) Don’t Design Blindly.

Don’t design your web site without considering SEO. If you’re not the web designer then make sure this person understands your expectations for organic SEO.

11) Keep Adding Keywords.

Use keywords and keyword phrases appropriately in text links, image ALT attributes and even your domain name.

12) Don’t Split Your Link Juice.

Check for canonicalization issues – www and non-www domains. Decide which you want to use and 301 redirect the other to it. In other words, if http://www.domain.com is your preference, then http://domain.com should redirect to it.

13) Ditch the Long Names.

Check the link to your home page throughout your site. Is index.html appended to your domain name? If so, you’re splitting your links. Outside links go to http://www.domain.com and internal links go to http://www.domain.com/index.html. Ditch the index.html or default.php or whatever the page is and always link back to your domain.

14) Don’t Use Frames and Flash!

Frames, Flash and AJAX all share a common problem – you can’t link to a single page. Spiders can crawl text, not Flash or images. Use them sparingly for best SEO results.

15) What Really Counts.

Your URL file extension doesn’t matter. You can use .html, .htm, .asp, .php, etc. and it won’t make a difference as far as your SEO is concerned.

16) Get Indexed Quickly.

A new web site may be sand-boxed for months. Submitting through Google’s regular submission form is no guarantee of being indexed quickly. The quickest way is to get a link on another quality site, and submitting to several free search engines.

17) Start a Blog.

If your site content doesn’t change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three times a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.

18) Quality Counts.

When link building, think quality, not quantity. One single, good, authoritative link can do a lot more for you than a dozen poor quality links, which can actually hurt you.

19) Don’t Abuse The System.

Search engines want natural language content. Don’t try to stuff your text with keywords. It won’t work. Search engines look at how many times a term is in your content and if it is abnormally high, your rankings will drop.

20) Avoid Bad Neighborhood.

If you are on a shared server, do a blacklist check to be sure you’re not on a proxy with a spammer or banned site. Their negative notoriety could affect your own rankings.

SEO Mistakes To Avoid

October 12, 2009 at 12:15 pm | In SEO | Leave a Comment
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To make sure we rank highly in serps, we must avoid stupid SEO mistakes. Optimizing a website for search engines requires a lot of consistent effort and working smart.

1. The first thing to remember is that we should not expect instant results. People give up because they thought ranking high in search engines can be done overnight.

2. It is very important to keep adding new content to your blog. This way search engines visits a blog more often.

3. The other thing is that you need to build links to your website or blog in order to improve your ranking on search engines. Google updates Page rank around every 3 months so we have time to correct mistakes.

The other step is to use different SEO strategies and tools. You may want to rank high not only on Google but different search engines too. Try to exchange links with websites and blogs that have high popularity rank. That would be good to list you what you should do to get better rankings.

4. Sprinkle your content with keywords and phrases specific to your niche. This involves research. Just try to think what people may search on Google, what phrase they can type and avoid using untargeted keywords. Also use tags in your blog title. This will give you a desired result.

When you have done everything possible, wait patiently and not rush into black hat techniques. Desired results will come eventually after applying the right SEO strategies and tips.

5 Free Ways to Market Your Blog

September 20, 2009 at 1:00 pm | In advertising, article marketing | Leave a Comment
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The recession has hit everybody’s wallets. For those who depend on Google Adsense, they will need to work harder to increase page views, while also competing with other bloggers in your niche to earn the same amount of money in the past.

If you have a low budget, you don’t want to pay a high rate to advertise your blog and risk not getting a return on your investment; nor do you want to do an adwords campaign. You want quick, easy and free ideas for marketing your blog.

Here are five free ways to promote your blog.

1. Social Networking.

In the web 2.0 times we currently live in, this may seem like a dead giveaway, yet many bloggers don’t take full advantage of it. Make sure you use the social networks and take advantage of the sites that are most advantageous to you. Create aFacebook fan page, develop a fan base on Twitter and promote your blog on these social outlets.

2. Article Submission.

Similar to social networking, article submission is another way to get your blog in front of more eyes. Stumbleupon appears to be the best place for submitting blog posts, but other good submission sites include Digg, Sphinn and Mixx. This also has SEO value by building links.

3. Guest and sponsored posting.

This can have a couple different benefits for your blog. By having guests posts, the guest often promotes their posts, and therefore your blog, through their different networks. Depending on the authority and size of your blog, you can often charge a rate for sponsored posts.

4. Optimize your content.

You should check your search engine rankings every few weeks to see where you stand and continually look at ways you can rank higher by including new keywords and stregthening your current keywords.

5. Participate in blog carnivals.

You can often participate in at least one blog carnival on a monthly, if not a weekly basis. These offer dual purposes, as they build links and promote your blog.

Google On Page SEO Tips & Strategies

September 2, 2009 at 12:07 pm | In SEO | Leave a Comment
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Great tips from Aaron of SEO Book. You will learn search engine optimization techniques that will help your site rank better in Google’s search results.

Check out the video.

Branding And Google PageRank

August 13, 2009 at 12:57 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Is Google favoring big brands and corporations? It seems ‘authority websites’ are being given priority in the rankings while smaller or less efficient companies run the risk of slipping under Google’s radar. There is now a “heavy emphasis” on branding

By permitting certain sites to rank highly for valuable and popular keywords that haven’t necessarily appeared in their backlink profiles, it certainly seems that the big brands are being strongly favoured. But is this a good thing?

One one hand, global brands tend to rank higher since they have the budget to promote their products, content and reputation. The SEO and PR teams of corporate brands are able to push their results up the SERPs and force negative press lower downwards.

But people could lose faith in Google if results are manipulated as Google has always an impartial brand, giving a voice to quality sites who are not necessarily big brands. Their mantra is to high quality search results for any search term entered by a user.

Still, small time owners need not be daunted. Google want to priortize “words like trust, authority, reputation, PageRank, high-quality”, and it is therefore of the highest importance to ensure these factors are being taken into consideration when carrying out SEO and website design for any company.

Bad quality SEO, website design, and weaker companies will slide down the rankings, meaning that for those doing the right things, Google will not abandon you.

If you can add brand awareness and development to the mix, the sky’s the limit.

Cute Costumes From Princess Time Toys

August 10, 2009 at 10:59 am | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

One of my greatest frustration as a child was not being able to go to Disneyland and see Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. It is a place where children and even adults will be mesmerized.

Unfortunately, my parents were too poor then to afford a trip to Disneyland and I am content to watch Disney cartoons, movies and play with toys. I am also interested in wearing and collecting their shirts and cups too.

Since I am grown-up, I have been to Disneyland on two occasions (in America and Hong Kong) with my family. It has fulfilled my long awaited dream.

We have so much fun there but because the place is so big, it was impossible to explore all the entertainment in the short span of 2-3 days. We plan to be back soon possibly this summer.

My daughter absolutely adores Cinderella’s Castle. Of all the Disney princesses, Cinderella is her favorite. It is a bed-time story which she never tire of hearing and reading.

I am not surprised that my daughter likes the Cinderella story. The beautiful gown and accesories allows the wearer to be the center of attraction at a party and dazzles her beau.  Cinderella can have all the fun she wants until midnight when everything will go back to how they originally are. That is so much better than the restrictions and curfew we impose on her.

Well, we don’t have a fairy godmother here to grant her the adventure but we can certainly buy a Cinderella gown for her to wear during the upcoming Halloween. Thanks to Princess Time Toys.

Princess Time Toys carries an amazing collection of Halloween costumes for girls. Besides the Disneyland costumes, you can take a look at other outfits – yoga set, the pink striped rugby polo outfit, the soccer uniform, etc.

As for my little boy, he loves the white, soft and silkly Bichon Frise which has excellent lifelike details. The snuggly dog is a perfect bedtime friend for him.

If you are interested in costumes or accessories for the 2009 Halloween season, please visit the site to find out more. You will not be disappointed with the wide array of costumes for kids ages 1-9 as well as adult women.

Unhealthy SEO Practices

July 25, 2009 at 1:48 pm | In SEO, search engines | Leave a Comment
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Stay Away From Unlawful Content
Search engines will not put up with any unlawful use of copyrighted content nor will they promote any website that condones illegal behavior. Stay far away from any unlawful activities and do not raise any suspicions amongst search engines.

Do Not Hide Content
One sure way to get blocked from a search engine is to hide content. This is a black hat method of SEO accomplished by coloring text the same color as the background of a website so that only a search engine spider can find it.

Do Not Practice Any Cloaking
Cloaking, serving up different content to search engines than to actual users, is highly banned by search engines and is also a sure fire way to be blacklisted immediately.

Do Not Use Doorway Pages
Doorway pages were once popular however, search engines have caught on and know when you are pretending to be one thing when you are not. Stay away from doorway pages and take down any that you might currently have set up.

Do Not Reuse (Duplicate) Content
Using the same content from page to page on your website does not make it more relevant nor bigger. It’s also important not to copy or duplicate content from any other websites as search engines will pick up on this as well.

Improve Your Internal Link Structure

July 5, 2009 at 1:51 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Internal Link Structure is one of the most important aspects of on-site SEO and at the same time one of the most complex issues. With all honesty, it would take whole post dedicated to it to be even close to explaining basics. So instead of trying to explain such a broad and complex subject as a whole I’ll focus on the effect that internal links have on rankings of specific pages.

Internal link popularity of a specific page is very important and significantly affects its rankings compared to some other on-site SEO factors. Basic rule is that the more popular certain page is within website’s internal link structure better it ranks.

This is particularly important for long tail keywords. Linking certain page from home page and some other popular pages on your website that pass a lot of link juice, especially if you can get proper anchor text for those internal links, will boost rankings for long tails a lot.

Certain pages might get top rankings despite lacking backlinks if enough inbound links point to it. This is really good because it can help you get some important pages, for example certain product page on your ecommerce website or some article which you’d really like to receive more attention, that may be buried deep within the site to front rows by simply linking to them.

Before I sign out I’d like to make something clear. Weights given to different factor are, at the time of writing, more or less accurate but that doesn’t mean things are set in stone and that they won’t change. In fact you can rely on the fact that some factors will influence SERPs more or less as time passes with search engines constantly working in improving and changing their algorithms.

Another thing I’d like to point out is that at least two important things were not included in list: introduction of rel=”canonical” and changes to how nofollow works. Reason behind decision not to write about them is pretty simple – both of these, at the time of writing, deserve a separate post so trying to squeeze them into this post would simply be too much.

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