4:16:00 PM
Posted by
WoWeb
Yes, it's true. You can make money from your Web site. How much depends
on how big your site is, how your site is organized and most
importantly, what your site's about. Some subjects just make more money
than others. It's true.
There are a couple different ways you can make
money from your Web site. The obvious way being that you sell something
that people will buy. But that's not what this is about. I'm not
talking about selling items that you have to supply and ship. This is
much simpler.
The first step is signing up for an affiliate
program and the next step is adding affiliate ads to your Web pages.
That's pretty much it. Strategically placing your ads is important too.1
Here are a few of the affiliate programs that you can sign up with to help you make money:
- Google Adsense
- You may or may not be admitted into this program. Google has a lot of
rules about who can and can't use their program. If you do get in
remember, never click on your own ads. This is a pay per click program
and if you get caught clicking on your own ads, and you will, you will
be dropped from the program fast.
- These ads are mostly text ads but
are very eye catching and are self ading. By this I mean that you place
the code on your page for an ad and Google figures out which ads to put
on which pages for you. This is really easy and is a big money maker for
a lot of people
- Amazon.com
- This program is a pay per sale program. You place a link to a
specific product on your Web page. If someone clicks through to
Amazon.com and buys something you make money. A lot of people buy from
Amazon so if you place the right ads on the right pages you just may
make money from this.
- Commission Junction
- Use with caution. This is probably one of the biggest affiliat
programs on the Net. Because of this there are some rules you need to
know. If you don't make money in six months they will charge you a fee
and close your account. I'm not sure of the exact rule but I had this
happen to me once. This is a pay per sale program and they have a lot of
companies to choose from.
- LinkShare
- This is also a pay per sale program. They have a lot of companies you
can choose to use. Place ads to companies that are similar to your site
and don't choose too many. It's tempting to choose a lot of different
companies to place ads to but don't do it. Using the same ads on many
different page is actually better for getting your readers to click on
them.
- Affiliate Fuel
- Some of these ads are pay per sale and some are pay per lead. The
companies advertising here are different than the kinds of companies and
ads you will find on other affiliate programs.
- BeFree - Very similar in structure to LinkShare and Commission Junction. This is a pay per sale program.
3:42:00 PM
Posted by
WoWeb
Getting people to visit your Web site can often be a difficult task,
especially if your Web site is small. There are several main things you
need to consider, and things you need to do, if you are hoping to get
some traffic to your Web site. These are not the only things you can do
to get traffic to your Web site, but they are a good start.
- Keywords
- Every page needs a keyword or keyword phrase. It's best to choose
that keyword or keyword phrase before you start writing the page. Decide
what your page is going to be about and write the page around that
keyword or keyword phrase. If your page is going to be about cat
collars, then make sure you use the phrase "cat collars" several times
while writing the page, especially in the first couple paragraphs.
- Title & Meta Tags
- When considering a title for your page make sure to use the keyword
or key phrase of your page in the title. If you are using HTML, then you
need to be concerned with meta tags. Make sure to use your keywords in
the meta description several times, and the title tags at the top of
your HTML at least twice, and put the keyword in the meta keyword area
too. Meta tags for a page that is about cat collars would look something
like this:
<title>Cat Collars - Cat Collars for your Precious Kitty</title>
<head>
<meta name="keywords" content="cat collars, collars, cats">
<meta
name="description" content="Cat collars for your cat. Your cat will
really love these cat collars. My cat tried these cat collars and really
loved them.">
</head>
- Good Content
- If your page is about something important, is written well, and
includes the right keywords it will probably do well in the search
engines. On top of search engines, other sites will also link to your
page if it is well written.
- Search Engines - Submit your pages to the most popular search engines. Go to each of the search engines and submit your pages to them individually.
- Similar Web Sites
- Find Web sites that are similar to yours and offer to link to their
site in exchange for a link back to your site. If they have a page for
links they will probably do it.
- Forums & Message Boards
- Go to forums and message boards that are about your site and answer
questions or offer advice or even ask questions. Create a signature
under your name for your message posts that links back to your site. If
people like what you wrote on the forum, they may click on your link and
visit your site.
- Update Regularly - If you don't
add content to your site, then why should someone keep coming back.
Update your site regularly with new content and watch your traffic grow.
1:52:00 PM
Posted by
WoWeb
Creating a Web site has never been easier. Google has again outdone
itself with Google Page Creator. There is a waiting list for Google Page
Creator right now and you must have a Google account to even sign up to
sign up for Google Page Creator. To get a Google account you either
have to know someone who already has one and have them send you an
invite or you can get a Google invite by cell phone if you have a cell phone with text messaging.
After
you sign up for an account with Google you will need to request a
Google Page Creator account. To get a Google Page Creator account you
need to go to the Google Page Creator
page. Enter your Google email address, that's the one you received when
you signed up for a Google account, into the box and click on "Add to
Wait List". Then you wait until you receive an email from Google Page
Creator telling you that your Google Page Creator account has been
enabled.
Once your account has been enabled, this could take
weeks or even months, you will be able to create your first Web page in
minutes. The simple to use point and click design will have you creating
great looking Web pages and and an entire Web site without really
thinking too much about how to do it. Google hosts the pages you create
with Google Page Creator too so you know your Web pages will be safe.
There
are 4 different layouts and 41 different styles you can choose for the
look of your Web pages. You can change the way your text looks too.
Choose different colors, styles and size for your words. Make them bold,
italic or change the font style. When you want to add text just click
on the page right in your browser and start typing. When you are ready
to publish your page just click "Publish" and your done.
This is
great for those of us who have very little time, energy or patience to
create a Web site and yet want one or need one. It took me only a couple
minutes to create my first page and you can do it too.
1:09:00 PM
Posted by
WoWeb
For the longest time I was looking for a utility of some kind that could allow visitors to search my site for whatever they wanted. One of the limitations of my web host is that they do not support CGI routines, which means I was limited to external search services.
I checked out several companies which provide these kinds of tools to people. Some of them cost money and some of them were "free" (they get to advertise on the search pages). All of them suffered some fatal flaws that made them almost useless as far as I was concerned.
The biggest problem was that all of these services tended to take users away from my site instead of adding value. By this I mean the search worked fine, but the results were posted on a seperate page which looked nothing like my web pages. They were plastered with advertisements and links to entice my visitors to go somewhere else, which is not the result that I desired.
A second problem that I ran into with one service in particular was performance related. Slow, slow, slow. Another's server seemed to be up and down like a yo-yo.
I had given up completely on adding search to my site when I ran across a URL in someone's signiture in a newsgroup posting. I visited some websites and soon found the perfect add-on search engine.
And I do mean perfect. The free version of this wonderful service allows you to index on a weekly basis up to 500 pages on your web site. The indexing spider understands and honors robot.txt files and allows additional pages to be excluded if necessary. This is great for removing things like awards pages, guestbooks and other similar materials from the search results.
Oh, and you can tailor your results page to look exactly like your web site. Exactly ... a perfect fit. Don't believe me? Try a sample search using my search form at the top of my home page and you'll see what I mean. Perfect.
Atomz is fast, very fast. My site is over 350 pages and the spider requires less than 4 minutes to index the whole thing. Searches seem to require a second or two most of the time, which is very acceptable.
A further advantage is the log files that are created. By examining the indexing logs you can find all of the internal links that are broken, which is wonderful for ensuring that your internal navigation is working perfectly.
Okay, so what's the catch? In the free version, Atomz gets to place a small ad on the top of the results page. That's it. One ad and a logo.
Hmm. It's fast, it's easy to use, and it's totally customizable. Now that's a great tool for webmasters!
12:32:00 PM
Posted by
WoWeb
Okay, so you've created a web site. I'm sure it's a great web site, but no one seems to be visiting. What do you do?
Well, the first thing to do is to check your site over again. Make sure it's finished (or at least there are not under construction signs and gaping holes), that all of the links work, spelling and grammer checked and so on. In other words, put a little polish on your masterpiece. Oh yes, be sure you have metatags and a title on each page.
Now what? Submit to all of the major search engines - BY HAND. There are only ten or so engines and a few major directories (primarily Yahoo.com) so it's not that much work.
Search engines take anywhere from a few days to a few months to get your site listed. DO NOT resubmit more than once a month or you may get dinged for spamming.
While you are waiting, it's time to build a link exchange network. This is a way to build a large amount of traffic to your site - steady traffic from interested audiences.
To begin, add a section to your web site for your link exchange. This could be just a single web page or it could be a real directory with categories or topics. My own web site has over 80 categories and a submit link to allow people to add their own sites. Get as fancy as you want, but please avoid the temptation to make this all automatic using CGI or a free service. Why? Because you most definitely want to censor your list.
What's this about censoring? Be aware that many people will use this (as well as guestbooks) to try and get advertisements posted and you don't need to advertise someone else's affiliate program for free directly on your links pages. On top of that, you will get some submissions for sites you don't like - pornographic sites, for example. So it's a good idea to take a look at each submission and decide if it's appropriate.
Once your page or pages are set up, go surfing. Find your favorite site which is somehow related to your own site. See if you can find his links page or link exchange section. Most really big sites will not have one, but perhaps half of the other sites will.
If you find a link exchange page, follow the directions and submit your request to exchange links. A politely worded email stating your name, the purpose of your site and your URL is all that is usually needed. Now, surf all of the sites in HIS link exchange page. Do the same thing for any site which is related to your own topic.
Don't include any advertisements or anything else in your link exchange request. Personally, I don't even include a signiture line. And be careful not to send more than one request (at least no more than once per month). Why not? You don't want to have any appearance of spamming. You want to appear like what you are - a webmaster who wants to exchange links.
Believe it or not, you will get positive answers to most of your requests. Be sure and add them all as appropriate to your links pages, and always send a thank you message.
What does this buy you? I mean, it's a lot of work. Well, first of all, you are going to generate a lot of traffic just from the webmasters who visit your site to check it out. Since they all presumably have similar interests to your own, they may stick around, sign up for your newsletter and even purchase products. So just by asking you are getting traffic - very targetted traffic.
You will also get a few hits from each link that other webmasters create. Some sites may only generate one or two hits a month, others may create hundreds.
Ah, but there is yet another advantage. This will dramatically increase your search engine ratings, thus giving you a higher listing in some of the major engines. Don't expect that result right away - this can take months, but it is a definite benefit.
On top of that, you will be surfing sites similar to your own. This should give you lots of ideas of things that you can do with your own site. Don't steal anything! But for example, sometimes I'll find an article on a web site which I don't agree with and write my own article rebutting it. Or perhaps I will create a new article which has a different slant. In these instances, you can even propose to the other webmaster that both of your articles reference each other!!
What happens is your site gets better, you build a lot more traffic, and you get to communicating more with people who have similar interests to your own! It's truely a great way to get people to visit your own web site.
10:30:00 PM
Posted by
WoWeb
In this article I'm going to give you a special secret - a secret and tip so powerful, so life-changing that you will never be the same. Read on and learn. The internet (which includes the world wide web, email, newsgroups, discussion lists and many other things) will change the world. I'll go even further - the internet is the biggest change to human society since the wheel was invented.
But wait a minute? The internet is just about surfing around, looking at stuff, chatting with people, and maybe buying something now and then. Isn't it? What's so special about that? I mean, couldn't we always talk to people, buy something and go to the mall and window shop? The internet doesn't change anything, right?
Wrong. Think about it for a minute. You are now connected to literally everyone (potentially at least) on the entire planet. Currently (and this statistic changes daily) you can directly communicate with over 300,000,000 people! In a few years this may top a billion, all available almost instantly!
Never before in human history have so many people had the opportunity to talk to one another.
It gets even better. The other day I surfed to a web site which was in another language. It was in Italian. Normally, say if this was a book, I would have moved on and read something else, but the site looked interesting. So I pulled up a dandy translation tool and within a few minutes I had a decent translation of the page! I could now communicate with someone with whom I didn't even share a common language. That's fantasic!
I needed to write an article on relationships and marriage and I wanted some data. Years ago this would have required going to a library, searching through magazines and books for articles that I wanted. Not these days. I put in my request to a search engine and, after a few tries to get the proper search, I had exactly the references that I needed to complete my article. What would have required perhaps days took less than ten minutes!
You need another example? I needed to buy a CD for my wife. The CD was not easy to find, and I dreaded the search. Using the proper search engines I was able to find what I wanted within minutes, and in less time than it takes me to heat a TV dinner I had the CD ordered and on it's way to my house.
In my field I often need expert consultants very quickly. A machine is down or our email system stops working and I need an answer NOW. Just a quick jump onto the internet, post to the right newsgroups and discussion lists, and in a short time I have exactly what I need.
Wow. I could go on and on. The internet gives you (and everyone) incredible power and control over your environment. And that's the incredible secret and the tip of a lifetime.
You can use the internet in any way that you see fit. You have at your fingertips such an incredible tool that there is, for the first time in history, almost nothing to stand in your way. You've got a product to sell, using the internet you can let people know (without spamming of course) and sell it for little or no cost. You've got an opinion which needs to be told, you can post it to a newsgroup.
You want to tell the entire world about what a great person you are, you can just create a web site and submit it to the search engines. You can even add pictures, sound and movies if you want!
Maybe you want to start a company! You can do it for very little cost without even renting an office on the internet. Maybe you've even got a closet full of old paperback books that you are never going to read - go to an auction site, post their descriptions, and most likely you will find someone who wants to buy them.
You like to talk? Find a chat room and have at it. You like to write poetry? You can easily find a hundred places that will publish it - and if you can't, you can publish it yourself.
For the first time in history, you can do anything that you want from your apartment or your house. Take advantage of this opportunity and the world is yours to enjoy.
