If you have been wondering if Reciprocal linking is still a good idea, then read below. I'll give you Google's opinion on it, as well as mistakes to avoid when linking with other sites and how to correctly do a link exchange.
Google, says yes, links to your site are important! They say to help you get a bigger search engine ranking, make sure other sites link to yours.
By having other sites linking to yours, it helps Google's crawlers find your site and as well gives your site a greater visibility in their search results.
Google uses their PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to display pages that are both important and relevant to each search.
Google interprets links to your site as a "vote" for your site from the other sites. Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives, it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. "Votes" from sites that Google considers "important" will weigh more heavily in determining your search engine ranking.
Therefore, do NOT go out and try to get as many links as possible. Google calls these "unnatural links" that are placed there specifically to make your site look more popular to the search engines. These types of links are link farms, or linking schemes and doorway pages.
Google says in their Webmaster Guidelines:
"Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links."
Link Farms:
I am seeing more and more webmasters asking for "three way links". For example, if you place their link on your site, they will place your link on a different site other than their main site. They try to justify it as a better solution than reciprocating links from your site to theirs by saying it's a one way link to your site from the "link farm".
Therefore, the "three way linkers" do not have any links on their main site. They are getting higher quality sites to link to them, making it appear that their site is more popular.
You get the short end of the stick! Your site's link is now on a site that is nothing more than a "link farm".
Link farms are sites that have nothing but a huge directory of links. The search engines do NOT see these as "important". So therefore, you have just hurt your site by agreeing to a three way link exchange.
There are many reciprocal link management services and link farm products. You will recognize them by the template-based emails offering to exchange links. All of them will want to place your link in nothing but a directory of links (a link farm), where it does not do your site any good at all and will actually harm your search engine ranking.
Awhile back when I realized what was going on, I began declining all "three way link" exchange offers. However, I did keep those in my links directory, which had been submitted before that. Now I see that was also a mistake. My PageRank dropped a point. The PageRanks of my links directory pages that had once been between 1 to 3, dropped to 0.
Therefore I have cleaned up my Links Directory and deleted all sites that were "three way links". You may want to do the same if you want to improve your search engine ranking.
How To Properly Do Reciprocal Link Exchanges:
DO go to websites that are relevant to your site's theme. Check to see if they have a "Links" page or it may be listed as "Link Exchange Program". These are usually listed on websites in the lower left hand or right hand columns or at the bottom of the site.
Follow their instructions for submitting your link, after all you are the one asking them, not the other way around. If they ask you to send an email, do it. If they ask you to fill out a form to submit your request for a link exchange, do so.
Do NOT send them an email without even visiting their site. I get so many emails that say, "I just visited your wonderful site. blah, blah, blah, it would be to both our advantage to exchange links"
I know they did not visit my site, if they did they would have seen the link to my Link Exchange Program which clearly states that I do not do exchanges by email, and they must click on the link and fill out the request form.
I hope this helps you in understanding the significance of links exchanges and how to avoid the pitfalls when building your link exchange program.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/Reciprocal-Linking---Do-Not-Make-This-Mistake/4200320092003355308
Friday, October 5, 2007
The Triple Play Of Referrals
Did you know that there are two types of referrals? Those that come on their own from doing a good job for your clients, and those that you need to generate with a referral marketing program. When you look to use referrals as your main source of leads, you must send your message to the audience that is likely to hear them and respond. This, of course is your target market. As obvious as this may sound, many marketers will network to the wrong audience. Remember those after-hour business network meetings? Nice people, but usually not our market.
I would like to introduce an opportunity to hit the WOMM! jackpot. What I call the Triple Play of Referrals. It is the new and upcoming business called Home Staging. What is Home Staging?
Today, when a homeowner wants to sell, some are hiring a "Home Stager". Home Staging is a design system of creating a "product" out of your home. Making it, in a sense, a "model" home. As any successful product, your home needs to appeal to as many of it’s' target market customers as possible. The goal is to make a good first impression, allowing the buyer to imagine themselves living in your home.
The idea is to de-personalize and remove the clutter from your home. Additionally, a staged home should have great "curb appeal"! That is, looking good from the street in order to entice the buyer into the home. When a home is staged, it will feature each room at its best. You want to create a showcase, so it can sell at the highest price and in the shortest time.
What Stagers do The initial staging consultation is conducted with a visit to the home. The Stager will walk through the home and take notes of its condition. Back at the office an "action plan" is written with suggestions on the work to be done before the staging can take place. Such work might be some packing photos and the collectibles, cleaning the closets and garage, and painting the worn areas. Once such work is complete, the staging of the home can take place. Staging might include rearranging or renting furniture, adding some accessories, or bringing in plants or flowers. Decorators are naturally suited to offering Home Staging since it is a natural extension of their services. The costs to stage depends on the extent of the work, but it is a highly valued service since it can bring back several times the investment by getting a higher selling price. When to Stage?
You will want to stage as soon as you decide to sell the home. With the help of a Realtor, you will have a "brokers' tour" and an "open house". A staged home will stand out among the other homes during these promotional events. By the way, it's never too late to stage a home. It's good to point out, that if a home remains unsold for an extended period of time; it could earn a reputation of being "hard to sell". You should stage your home so that it will maximize the traffic and sell quickly.
Marketing
Realtors love the concept of Home Staging. They are open to listening to your message about your new service. You should market your Home Staging service to Realtors. There are many reasons why Realtors will encourage their clients to stage.
The number one reason is that a Staged Home sells faster and at a higher price then a home that is unstaged. A Staged Home looks great and photographs well. Realtors will have a competitive edge over other similarly priced homes. Sellers feel that their Realtor is demonstrating a real commitment to marketing their home. Finally, why sell a home in "as-is" condition, when you can sell a home that is ready to "move-in".
The Referral Triple Play
Why is home staging a great source of leads? In this new and exciting business, you have an opportunity to make your business aware to three people of influence: the Realtor, the buyer and the seller.
Of all professions that can refer decorators, it is the Realtor that has the greatest influence. It is all about being in the right place, at the right time when decorating decisions are about to be made. Then there is the seller, who would be your staging client. If you do a good staging job, there is an opportunity to decorate her new home as well. Did you know that over 75% of sellers move within 10 miles of their former residence? Finally, there is the buyer. What a way to be introduced to someone just moving into their new home. They purchased the home, love your work, and hopefully will hire you for more.
The term "Staging" is a registered trademark of Staged Homes.com where I received an "Accredited Staging Professional" (ASP) designation after a 3 day course. Home staging is a terrific business; however, the referral opportunities are the greatest bonus. In the few months that I have been offering and marketing Home Staging, I have found this to be an amazing source of great referrals.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/The-Triple-Play-Of-Referrals/4200320092003358242
I would like to introduce an opportunity to hit the WOMM! jackpot. What I call the Triple Play of Referrals. It is the new and upcoming business called Home Staging. What is Home Staging?
Today, when a homeowner wants to sell, some are hiring a "Home Stager". Home Staging is a design system of creating a "product" out of your home. Making it, in a sense, a "model" home. As any successful product, your home needs to appeal to as many of it’s' target market customers as possible. The goal is to make a good first impression, allowing the buyer to imagine themselves living in your home.
The idea is to de-personalize and remove the clutter from your home. Additionally, a staged home should have great "curb appeal"! That is, looking good from the street in order to entice the buyer into the home. When a home is staged, it will feature each room at its best. You want to create a showcase, so it can sell at the highest price and in the shortest time.
What Stagers do The initial staging consultation is conducted with a visit to the home. The Stager will walk through the home and take notes of its condition. Back at the office an "action plan" is written with suggestions on the work to be done before the staging can take place. Such work might be some packing photos and the collectibles, cleaning the closets and garage, and painting the worn areas. Once such work is complete, the staging of the home can take place. Staging might include rearranging or renting furniture, adding some accessories, or bringing in plants or flowers. Decorators are naturally suited to offering Home Staging since it is a natural extension of their services. The costs to stage depends on the extent of the work, but it is a highly valued service since it can bring back several times the investment by getting a higher selling price. When to Stage?
You will want to stage as soon as you decide to sell the home. With the help of a Realtor, you will have a "brokers' tour" and an "open house". A staged home will stand out among the other homes during these promotional events. By the way, it's never too late to stage a home. It's good to point out, that if a home remains unsold for an extended period of time; it could earn a reputation of being "hard to sell". You should stage your home so that it will maximize the traffic and sell quickly.
Marketing
Realtors love the concept of Home Staging. They are open to listening to your message about your new service. You should market your Home Staging service to Realtors. There are many reasons why Realtors will encourage their clients to stage.
The number one reason is that a Staged Home sells faster and at a higher price then a home that is unstaged. A Staged Home looks great and photographs well. Realtors will have a competitive edge over other similarly priced homes. Sellers feel that their Realtor is demonstrating a real commitment to marketing their home. Finally, why sell a home in "as-is" condition, when you can sell a home that is ready to "move-in".
The Referral Triple Play
Why is home staging a great source of leads? In this new and exciting business, you have an opportunity to make your business aware to three people of influence: the Realtor, the buyer and the seller.
Of all professions that can refer decorators, it is the Realtor that has the greatest influence. It is all about being in the right place, at the right time when decorating decisions are about to be made. Then there is the seller, who would be your staging client. If you do a good staging job, there is an opportunity to decorate her new home as well. Did you know that over 75% of sellers move within 10 miles of their former residence? Finally, there is the buyer. What a way to be introduced to someone just moving into their new home. They purchased the home, love your work, and hopefully will hire you for more.
The term "Staging" is a registered trademark of Staged Homes.com where I received an "Accredited Staging Professional" (ASP) designation after a 3 day course. Home staging is a terrific business; however, the referral opportunities are the greatest bonus. In the few months that I have been offering and marketing Home Staging, I have found this to be an amazing source of great referrals.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/The-Triple-Play-Of-Referrals/4200320092003358242
Harnessing the Power of Directory Submission
With so many web sites populating the World Wide Web today, it is but inevitable that these sites become pitted against each other in order to attract the attention of the myriads of readers out there. Anyone who has established and tried to maintain a web site would know that it is one of the toughest things to do – to emerge on top of the search results of any search engine and thus establish a wider base of audience. Yet with the competition come a lot of tools as well. Competition does not mean death for a web site, in fact it is the other way. If you only know what tools and means are available and how to make optimal use of them, you will see your web site come out at the top.
One of the most powerful methods by which you can get your web site noticed by people from anywhere is the world is directory submission. The term itself is pretty explanatory – you submit your site to web directories. The result is that you get incoming one way links to your site. What is the significance of these links? Getting a lot of incoming one way links to your site means that you will obtain a higher position in the search engine results page. This of course translates to more people becoming aware of your site.
In order to make the most of out web directories, you have to know how they work. Each web directory has its own set of rules and criteria. There are no clear and cut rules as to standardization but in general, you have to submit the Anchor Text (that is, the title of your website), a description of your web site, and the URL of your site. In addition to this information, some directories allow you to add meta data such as a key words. Knowing the type of information that web directories make use of, you have to optimize the way you present this information. Using the best possible words for both the anchor text and the description is one way to get the most out of directory submission.
Undoubtedly, the process of submitting to hundreds of web directories can eat up a lot of a person’s time. If you have a lot of time to kill, it would be no problem. However, for those who have other responsibilities to attend to, there is another option – directory submission services. There are entities in existence whose aim is to assist web site owners when it comes to submitting their sites to various web directories. This is a very efficient way of going about directory submission. Aside from manually submitting your site to different directories, they can also help you come up with various anchor texts to increase your exposure. They will give you guarantees as to how many incoming links you can get. In short, they will do all the work for you.
There are a lot of directory submission services out there. All you need to do is check what they have to offer. See if their services suit your needs and preferences. Once you come to terms with them, you won’t have to worry about submitting to web directories anymore.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/Harnessing-the-Power-of-Directory-Submission/4200320092003352776
One of the most powerful methods by which you can get your web site noticed by people from anywhere is the world is directory submission. The term itself is pretty explanatory – you submit your site to web directories. The result is that you get incoming one way links to your site. What is the significance of these links? Getting a lot of incoming one way links to your site means that you will obtain a higher position in the search engine results page. This of course translates to more people becoming aware of your site.
In order to make the most of out web directories, you have to know how they work. Each web directory has its own set of rules and criteria. There are no clear and cut rules as to standardization but in general, you have to submit the Anchor Text (that is, the title of your website), a description of your web site, and the URL of your site. In addition to this information, some directories allow you to add meta data such as a key words. Knowing the type of information that web directories make use of, you have to optimize the way you present this information. Using the best possible words for both the anchor text and the description is one way to get the most out of directory submission.
Undoubtedly, the process of submitting to hundreds of web directories can eat up a lot of a person’s time. If you have a lot of time to kill, it would be no problem. However, for those who have other responsibilities to attend to, there is another option – directory submission services. There are entities in existence whose aim is to assist web site owners when it comes to submitting their sites to various web directories. This is a very efficient way of going about directory submission. Aside from manually submitting your site to different directories, they can also help you come up with various anchor texts to increase your exposure. They will give you guarantees as to how many incoming links you can get. In short, they will do all the work for you.
There are a lot of directory submission services out there. All you need to do is check what they have to offer. See if their services suit your needs and preferences. Once you come to terms with them, you won’t have to worry about submitting to web directories anymore.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/Harnessing-the-Power-of-Directory-Submission/4200320092003352776
Link - Popularity - 2 Secrets to Skyrocket Your Inbound Links
When I got started on my quest for internet marketing success, I had to study a great deal on different subject’s areas pertaining to internet marketing. You name it, from how to build a website, how to writing articles for website content, search engine optimization, email list building, affiliate marketing, creating my own product to marketing the product.
When I set up my first website, I thought if I submit my website to the search engines it will automatically attract traffic but to my dismay weeks went by and no traffic. That is when a friend asked me the question. Do you have any inbound links to your site? I said "what is inbound link or link popularity you are talking about?'' He then went to explain it to me. There are millions of websites online and the more inbound links a website has, the more link popularity it has over another website which has less inbound.
You build a website for traffic to find it when they search for your keyword. The search engines drive traffic to your website and the more inbound links you have, the more popular the search engine sees your website over your competition. Some search engines will drop your website if there are no inbound links. This makes acquiring links to your website a great deal. Let's consider 2 secrets to increase the link popularity to your website.
1. Articles writing - This is one of the easiest and most effective way to get inbound links. Write articles on your keyword with your website address incorporated in the byline or signature of your articles and submit them to articles directories. Checkout goarticle.com and ezinearticles.com. In about a week or 2 you will see inbound links to your site.
2. Get your website link to websites with higher page rank, 5 and above. This is huge. If you are able to do that it will transform your website. Also try and get your sub pages link to your main page so that the search engines can assign link popularity to the sub pages.
Implement these two keys and your links popularity will increase dramatically. I have been able to do it so can you? Great deals of marketers are making money online through these ideas so start now.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/Link---Popularity---2-Secrets-to-Skyrocket-Your-Inbound-Links/4200320092003365539
When I set up my first website, I thought if I submit my website to the search engines it will automatically attract traffic but to my dismay weeks went by and no traffic. That is when a friend asked me the question. Do you have any inbound links to your site? I said "what is inbound link or link popularity you are talking about?'' He then went to explain it to me. There are millions of websites online and the more inbound links a website has, the more link popularity it has over another website which has less inbound.
You build a website for traffic to find it when they search for your keyword. The search engines drive traffic to your website and the more inbound links you have, the more popular the search engine sees your website over your competition. Some search engines will drop your website if there are no inbound links. This makes acquiring links to your website a great deal. Let's consider 2 secrets to increase the link popularity to your website.
1. Articles writing - This is one of the easiest and most effective way to get inbound links. Write articles on your keyword with your website address incorporated in the byline or signature of your articles and submit them to articles directories. Checkout goarticle.com and ezinearticles.com. In about a week or 2 you will see inbound links to your site.
2. Get your website link to websites with higher page rank, 5 and above. This is huge. If you are able to do that it will transform your website. Also try and get your sub pages link to your main page so that the search engines can assign link popularity to the sub pages.
Implement these two keys and your links popularity will increase dramatically. I have been able to do it so can you? Great deals of marketers are making money online through these ideas so start now.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/Link---Popularity---2-Secrets-to-Skyrocket-Your-Inbound-Links/4200320092003365539
The Power Of Link Building
The Web is built on links, and a solid link building strategy is absolutely essential for any business that wants to thrive online. In essence links that point back to your site do two things: they bring you targeted traffic and they enhance your search engine rankings.
By placing your links on another site that is related to your content, you can bring visitors to your site who are interested in the sort of content you offer. And Google, king of the search engines, places more value (and therefore greater rankings) on sites with multiple links pointing back to them.
I’m sure you’ve heard just about every urban myth imaginable regarding the right way vs. the wrong way to generate links back to your site. Let’s forget about all the hoopla for now and look at the simple basics that apply to a good link building campaign.
The first obvious step is to identify placings that offer you targeted exposure. If you have a website about auto repair tips, you need to find sites and directory categories pertaining to auto repair and place your links there.
Simple enough right? So let’s focus on some of the specific types of sites you should be looking to get links from.
Link Directories:
This almost goes without saying, but just to be safe I’ll include it. One way link directories are a good place to submit your links.
Avoid services that offer to broker reciprocal linking between you and other webmasters, as these programs are often viewed as link farms by Google and can get your site booted from the search engine rankings.
Article Submission:
A fantastic way to acquire links back to your site is to write articles related to your site content and submit these to article directories and newsletter publishers. At the end of each article you write you’ll include a resource box (see mine below) that provides links back to your website.
Forum Signatures:
Join forums that are related to the theme of your site and get involved in the discussion. Please do not join a forum and just post a blatant ad about your site, as this will get you ridiculed and possibly deleted; actually join in the conversations, and include a link to your website in your forum signature.
Blog Comments:
You definitely need a blog of your own, but that’s a subject for other articles. In this piece about link building I want you to understand the power of simply posting comments on other people’s blogs.
Find 10 to 20 blogs that relate to your website, and bookmark them or subscribe to their RSS feeds. A few times each week, visit these blogs and post comments on some of the more interesting articles.
You see, when you fill out the comment form you will be asked for your name and website URL, so you can create a hyperlink with your name or business name that leads right back to your site. Be sure that your comments are legitimate contributions and not just some silly ad for your website.
As blogs are often updated regularly, and have many incoming links to them, your comments (and therefore your link backs) are likely to receive a lot of traffic from search engine spiders and real people. So blog comments are a simple but very powerful method for linking back to your site.
Take the contents of this article and put them to use. This is a totally easy, but definitely effective outline for starting a long-term link building campaign that will bring you lots of traffic and good standing with the search engines.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/The-Power-Of-Link-Building/4200320092003368475
By placing your links on another site that is related to your content, you can bring visitors to your site who are interested in the sort of content you offer. And Google, king of the search engines, places more value (and therefore greater rankings) on sites with multiple links pointing back to them.
I’m sure you’ve heard just about every urban myth imaginable regarding the right way vs. the wrong way to generate links back to your site. Let’s forget about all the hoopla for now and look at the simple basics that apply to a good link building campaign.
The first obvious step is to identify placings that offer you targeted exposure. If you have a website about auto repair tips, you need to find sites and directory categories pertaining to auto repair and place your links there.
Simple enough right? So let’s focus on some of the specific types of sites you should be looking to get links from.
Link Directories:
This almost goes without saying, but just to be safe I’ll include it. One way link directories are a good place to submit your links.
Avoid services that offer to broker reciprocal linking between you and other webmasters, as these programs are often viewed as link farms by Google and can get your site booted from the search engine rankings.
Article Submission:
A fantastic way to acquire links back to your site is to write articles related to your site content and submit these to article directories and newsletter publishers. At the end of each article you write you’ll include a resource box (see mine below) that provides links back to your website.
Forum Signatures:
Join forums that are related to the theme of your site and get involved in the discussion. Please do not join a forum and just post a blatant ad about your site, as this will get you ridiculed and possibly deleted; actually join in the conversations, and include a link to your website in your forum signature.
Blog Comments:
You definitely need a blog of your own, but that’s a subject for other articles. In this piece about link building I want you to understand the power of simply posting comments on other people’s blogs.
Find 10 to 20 blogs that relate to your website, and bookmark them or subscribe to their RSS feeds. A few times each week, visit these blogs and post comments on some of the more interesting articles.
You see, when you fill out the comment form you will be asked for your name and website URL, so you can create a hyperlink with your name or business name that leads right back to your site. Be sure that your comments are legitimate contributions and not just some silly ad for your website.
As blogs are often updated regularly, and have many incoming links to them, your comments (and therefore your link backs) are likely to receive a lot of traffic from search engine spiders and real people. So blog comments are a simple but very powerful method for linking back to your site.
Take the contents of this article and put them to use. This is a totally easy, but definitely effective outline for starting a long-term link building campaign that will bring you lots of traffic and good standing with the search engines.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/The-Power-Of-Link-Building/4200320092003368475
ViSolve Offers Free Open Source Squid Support
ViSolve is an Open Source based sofware consulting firm which provides free technical support for Squid, an open source based web caching solution which caches
the frequently used pages and saves bandwidth over complex networks.
Our experienced engineers will help increase your site's uptime through rapid problem analysis and resolution.
Our present clients include large and small ISP's, Corporations, Schools and Net-Cafe's. For ISP's, we provide technical assistance in setting up
high-performance and reliable transparent caches, proxy caches and http-accelarators. We have helped ISP's save precious bandwidth over complex networks. For Corporations and schools, we have helped set up safe, secure, policy-based Internet access.
We also provide customized services including 7X24 support to your organizations.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/ViSolve-Offers-Free-Open-Source-Squid-Support/4200320092003388714
the frequently used pages and saves bandwidth over complex networks.
Our experienced engineers will help increase your site's uptime through rapid problem analysis and resolution.
Our present clients include large and small ISP's, Corporations, Schools and Net-Cafe's. For ISP's, we provide technical assistance in setting up
high-performance and reliable transparent caches, proxy caches and http-accelarators. We have helped ISP's save precious bandwidth over complex networks. For Corporations and schools, we have helped set up safe, secure, policy-based Internet access.
We also provide customized services including 7X24 support to your organizations.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/ViSolve-Offers-Free-Open-Source-Squid-Support/4200320092003388714
How to Use Google PR to Incite A Web Sales Explosion
"Page Rank," sometimes abbreviated PR, was developed by Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Here is how Google describes the "Page Rank" system: Page Rank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important." Important, high-quality sites receive a higher Page Rank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines Page Rank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query. Page Rank is rated on a scale of PR-0 to PR-10. A site with a ranking of PR-10 is much higher than one rated PR-0. When a site has a high page ranking, there will be more opportunities for search engine users to locate and view the site. Thus, more traffic will be routed to that site because it is viewed by the web community as a valuable resource.
What Does This Mean For You?
Well, it all goes back to link pop... If you have a ton of quality, relevant, incoming one-way links to your website, your Google PR is going to shoot through the roof!
A high Google PR means more exposure for you. Heightened exposure leads to more visitors, and more visitors basically means bigger sales. Simple enough.
Ask any successful web developer how to inexpensively gain quality non-reciprocal links and they'll tell you: Find and exchange links with as many websites that relate to your own and also submit to as many directories as you can.
Finding websites to exchange links with can be a very time consuming process if done manually but there are now many software titles on the internet that will make the job a lot simpler and save you loads of time as well and one of the best is called Backlink Submitter and it can be found at http://www.backlinksubmitter.com
Don't forget about directories, they are viewed by web users as a quick and easy way to find valuable resources tailored specifically to their search. As a result of directories' popularity, a submission to a lot of them will generate a great deal of targeted traffic.
There's only one problem: The directory submission process is long and tedious. Some directories, such as Yahoo! Directory, cost up to $300 for one submission. If you're operating on a tight budget, you are better off spreading your money over many smaller directory submissions. Unfortunately, that can take a lot of time.
If you're looking for a better solution, http://www.directorysubmitter.com to find out how to get listed on 1000 of the most popular specialized directories online in a matter of a few hours… all for less than the cost of one website advertisement.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/How-to-Use-Google-PR-to-Incite-A-Web-Sales-Explosion/4200320092003390135
What Does This Mean For You?
Well, it all goes back to link pop... If you have a ton of quality, relevant, incoming one-way links to your website, your Google PR is going to shoot through the roof!
A high Google PR means more exposure for you. Heightened exposure leads to more visitors, and more visitors basically means bigger sales. Simple enough.
Ask any successful web developer how to inexpensively gain quality non-reciprocal links and they'll tell you: Find and exchange links with as many websites that relate to your own and also submit to as many directories as you can.
Finding websites to exchange links with can be a very time consuming process if done manually but there are now many software titles on the internet that will make the job a lot simpler and save you loads of time as well and one of the best is called Backlink Submitter and it can be found at http://www.backlinksubmitter.com
Don't forget about directories, they are viewed by web users as a quick and easy way to find valuable resources tailored specifically to their search. As a result of directories' popularity, a submission to a lot of them will generate a great deal of targeted traffic.
There's only one problem: The directory submission process is long and tedious. Some directories, such as Yahoo! Directory, cost up to $300 for one submission. If you're operating on a tight budget, you are better off spreading your money over many smaller directory submissions. Unfortunately, that can take a lot of time.
If you're looking for a better solution, http://www.directorysubmitter.com to find out how to get listed on 1000 of the most popular specialized directories online in a matter of a few hours… all for less than the cost of one website advertisement.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/How-to-Use-Google-PR-to-Incite-A-Web-Sales-Explosion/4200320092003390135
The Advantage Of Submitting Your Website To Directories Over Search Engines
When it comes to traffic to your website the best traffic you can get is targeted traffic. By that we mean people who want to be on your website. They have found you via some form of marketing and have arrived in a curious state of mind.
One way to get traffic to your website is to submit your website URL to multiple directories. Both free directories and paid directories. This is known as a backlink and can bring you traffic for years to come.
In this article we will look at the advantages a directory submission can give you over what you get from search engines.
The first biggest advantage is time. To get a website or blog to the top of a major search like Google or Yahoo takes time and good search engine optimization practices. Depending on your skill level, that does not happen over night.
When you submit to a directory should submit with search engine optimization in mind. Optimizing your submission around the primary keyword for your website will get a search engine spidering your site quicker than waiting for them to find you on your own.
When you submit you can do it manually meaning you type everything yourself or you can pay a service to do it.
As with many things on the internet it comes down to time and money. Which do you have more of? If you do it manually submit to the correct category that mirrors the theme of your website. Start by submitting to more well known directories that have a higher page rank according to Google.
When you view a directory as a backlink for search engine rankings instead of traffic you will be more willing to submit to a free directory and maybe a paid directory as well. This becomes a matter of budget. Doing a paid submission to a directory like Yahoo could pay off for you in terms of traffic and a quality backlink, but the cost of $299 scares many people off.
Submitting to free directories will give you a backlink that can help you regardless of the PR of the free directory. Remember things on the internet are always changing. A free directory with no PR today can have a PR4 in 3 months.
Ranking high on a search engine for keywords relating to the theme of your site is a worthwhile venture, but you have to view it as a long term project. Directory submissions to both free and paid directories will help you get to that point.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/The-Advantage-Of-Submitting-Your-Website-To-Directories-Over-Search-Engines/4200320092003390802
One way to get traffic to your website is to submit your website URL to multiple directories. Both free directories and paid directories. This is known as a backlink and can bring you traffic for years to come.
In this article we will look at the advantages a directory submission can give you over what you get from search engines.
The first biggest advantage is time. To get a website or blog to the top of a major search like Google or Yahoo takes time and good search engine optimization practices. Depending on your skill level, that does not happen over night.
When you submit to a directory should submit with search engine optimization in mind. Optimizing your submission around the primary keyword for your website will get a search engine spidering your site quicker than waiting for them to find you on your own.
When you submit you can do it manually meaning you type everything yourself or you can pay a service to do it.
As with many things on the internet it comes down to time and money. Which do you have more of? If you do it manually submit to the correct category that mirrors the theme of your website. Start by submitting to more well known directories that have a higher page rank according to Google.
When you view a directory as a backlink for search engine rankings instead of traffic you will be more willing to submit to a free directory and maybe a paid directory as well. This becomes a matter of budget. Doing a paid submission to a directory like Yahoo could pay off for you in terms of traffic and a quality backlink, but the cost of $299 scares many people off.
Submitting to free directories will give you a backlink that can help you regardless of the PR of the free directory. Remember things on the internet are always changing. A free directory with no PR today can have a PR4 in 3 months.
Ranking high on a search engine for keywords relating to the theme of your site is a worthwhile venture, but you have to view it as a long term project. Directory submissions to both free and paid directories will help you get to that point.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/The-Advantage-Of-Submitting-Your-Website-To-Directories-Over-Search-Engines/4200320092003390802
How to Start a Website: The Basic Guide
This guide will show you the steps you should go through before, during, and after your website project. This is by no means a complete account, as I will try to be as industry-nonspecific as possible. Using these steps in your planning process will help to ensure your success online!
Step 1 - Why
Before you do anything, you'd better know why you need to be online. Are you planning a full e-commerce endeavor or just an online advertising brochure? The answer to this will determine the entire scope of your project and should be considered carefully. If you decide now and change your mind later, you'll have to begin the whole planning process again. Be informed and know what you plan to do.
Step 2 - Outline
Now that you know why you're going online, you should begin a general outline and begin brainstorming ideas amongst your partners and affiliates. Set down a rough estimate of the number of pages the site will have, decide the basic style you'd like to achieve, and list every idea you have for the site (outlandish or ordinary).
Step 3 - Rough Draft
Take the list you created in Step 2 and refine it. Mark each item as being "necessary", "valuable", or as a "perk". If you don't know how an item qualifies, it's not "necessary" and therefore is one of the other two. Only items that you MUST have for the site to exist should be listed as necessary. Items such as "logo", "brochure content," "contact info," etc. are considered "necessary." Items such as "email form," "graphical interface," and "product catalog" are "valuable." "Flash animation," "automated link-through-systems," and "really cool graphics" are "perks."
Create three new lists, one for each category: necessary, valuable and perk. On a sticky note, write your proposed budget for this endeavor and paste it to the "necessary" list. Now you have the basics and are ready to begin contacting designers.
Step 4 - Begin Shopping
If you have a small budget, your list of necessary items is fairly small, and you do not see anything on your list which appears complicated or unusual for a website, then just about any good and reputable designer will suffice. In this case, you should shop by price and service instead of portfolio and pizzazz.
If, however, you have a large budget, a complex list of items to accomplish, and you need experience over price, then you'd be better off looking for a large firm of designers who specialize in your type of site or market.
In either case, you should ask up front (on the phone or in your first meeting) if they'll supply a rough site map and/or set of mockup designs for your proposed site. Usually a designer is more than happy to excite you with nifty pictures of your site-to-be. You need this, as this will give you an idea of where the designer wants to go with your site. If it isn't where you want to be, then you'd better get it clear now before you've written a single check for the designer's service!
The sticky note with your budget figure is your guide to not going overboard. Know what you can afford and what you really need. It's easy to go crazy with all of the nifty options and cool widgets, but ask yourself if they're necessary. If they are a good addition or perk, make a note of it. You may use it later during the website's long-term development.
Step 5 - Domain Names
Choosing a domain name is a very important step in getting yourself online. A domain name to your online presence is as important as a name for your business was when you first began. Careful consideration and a lot of thought should be given to your choice of domain. www.yourbusiness.com is a good start. Go to http://www.register.com or any other domain registration site that offers "whois" service (most of them do) and put in your desired domain name. Don't register it yet if it's available, just check. Many of these services also include a list of "suggested alternatives." Look through them; sometimes something you hadn't considered will pop up!
Start a list of domain names you think would be appropriate. Once you have six or eight of them, show them to your spouse, your friends, or anyone else who can give you a fresh perspective. Narrow the list down to two or three names. Mark them 1 (most wanted), 2 (next) and 3 (last). Go online and find a good registrar. You should not pay more than $15 per year for the registration of a com, net or org name. If a service charges more than this, go somewhere else. I recommend www.IsThisDomainTaken.com, but you can use whom you'd like.
Register your domain. I suggest a year to get started. If you're still around this time next year, then go for a longer period. No use spending more than you have to right away!
Step 6 - Initial Designs
Unless your site is very simple and you were extremely prepared in the beginning (probably having done this before), you will have to have your site built in stages. Each stage should be thoroughly considered for every aspect of the site thus far. Check the navigability, the color scheme, the general look and feel, will it sell product or get customers interested, etc. Be sure to spend a lot of time with your designer to discuss these attributes and what you like and dislike. Print the pages of the site out (at least the main page for each section, if it's large) and write and sketch on them to show changes to graphics, text, and whatever else. Write up a detailed list of changes you'd like to see made and present that to your designer. Your designer will not be resentful of this-- don't worry about stepping on toes. This only makes his or her job easier!
No matter how small, every site has at least three design stages: mockup, rough draft, and the final version. Each stage allows changes to be made (even the final one)! Don't let a designer fool you into thinking that you only get to change a site so many times. Until you're happy, the site isn't done no matter what they say. On the flip side of the coin, however, don't be nit-picky or wishy-washy. Know what you want and point it out the first time. Don't change your mind halfway through and force the designer to scrap the whole thing. Likely, if the designer is smart, he or she will refund your deposit (minus a fee for time spent) and bid you farewell. Designers know that a wishy-washy client will never be happy and will do nothing but lose them money. As a professional, a designer has better things to do with his or her time than waste it on a never-happy client.
During this process, you should be considering the customer's point of view while visiting your soon-to-be-launched website. Will your customer want to come back? Will they be disappointed? What will they be expecting when they first type in that URL or click on that link? Your site needs a "draw" or a reason for being. Interesting content, prizes or coupons, and other items are good "draws." Content is best (a tutorial perhaps, or a continually changing tour of your factory…something) as it gives users a reason to show their friends, stay interested, and come back to double-check information they saw.
Step 7 - Begin Marketing
The marketing of your site should begin as soon as you have an idea when it will be complete. When a finish date is set in concrete, then your marketing should begin in earnest. Change all of your printed materials, business cards, letterhead, phone listings, etc. to include your new domain name (URL). Your company's new presence (www.yourcompany.com) should be as important as having your phone number listed. Consider giveaways or other interest-grabbers (freebies are always popular) and use them as a tool to launch your site (see Step 6 above). Promise a lottery, prize, coupons, or anything else that can only be had by visiting the website and entering the contest/printing the coupon. Whatever this "getter" is, make sure it's good enough that people will be interested. Once they're on the site, they should have a reason to stay (see initial designs, Step 6).
Step 8 - Hosting
Now that your site is nearly complete, you'd better find a place to put it! Your choice is web host is very important to the long-term success of your site. You need to make sure of several things before you hand out any money for this service: 1) is the host reliable? 2) will this host be around next year…the year after? 3) how much are they charging? 4) what are the limitations of their service (bandwidth, email accounts, etc.)? 5) will this host be flexible enough to keep up with the increasing demand of your site as it grows? 6) does the host offer several plans that can be easily upgraded to facilitate growth? 7) how quickly do they respond for customer service via email or the telephone?
All of these questions are very important. In the past, before I began hosting my own sites and customers, I would find a lot of competition and narrow it down to one provider using only questions 5-7. Finding a flexible host who also offers great customer service is difficult to find. Generally, if you send an email to your final prospects (after having narrowed the list using questions 1-4), the one who answers first is most likely your best bet. The one who takes longer than 24 hours to respond (including weekends!) should be removed from your list. At this point, you should have no more than one or two prospects. If you have more than one, the final question to ask is "who has the best facility, best hardware, and offers the best technical support?" Check their website or ask them via email what type of facility they are in, how many connections their server has to the outside world, and where the hosting company is located. If you are in the US and your prospective host is offshore, consider whether you want to take this risk. Remember: other countries have different laws and you may not be protected from data theft or other potential problems. As a rule, two outside connections for a server or rack is the bare minimum. The more the merrier here! What kind of machine would they be hosting you on? Check the library or another source of up-to-date magazines and find out what the newest technologies are. Chances are you can take the names of the hardware (RAQ 4 for instance) and guess that a RAQ 3 was the last generation of that machine. The newer the better! The technical support should be equivalent to the server and the facility: more is better!
Step 9 - Site Launch!
Now that your website is complete and you have a host and domain name, you're ready to launch! If all of this happens earlier than your expected or announced date (which it should if all is well), then DO NOT launch your site before the announced time. If you do it too early, you might give the impression that you're over-eager and desperate. Worse, people may believe that you pad all of your estimated dates too heavily and will have less trust in you. Keep in mind, though, that one day early is a far cry from a month early. A day will not hurt, a month could kill. Stick to your plan and don't jump ahead of yourself. Use the extra time to keep hyping your new release. Use screenshots or video captures of the now-finished site to enhance the anticipation. When the time comes, fire away!
Step 10 - Maintenance
Once your site is open to the world, you will begin to deal with the day-to-day items of owning a website. Keeping your site up-to-date and well maintained requires time and effort. Eventually it will become a regular routine and only the details will be different each time. It may sound mundane, but if done right, you will never lose interest in your website. You may need to contract a professional (generally the developer who created your site to begin with) to do your technical updates for you. Or you may wish to keep these updates yourself and learn a little about how a website is built from the inside out. Most likely, you'll hire a professional: and be smart to. Contracts can vary in scope and price. Find the one that fits your needs best and use it. Always take full advantage of what you're being given in a contract. If it's a by-the-hour list (say four hours per month), then utilize all of that time the developer is giving you. Have your marketing department (or whoever fills this role) create new and interesting things to update the site with. Include changing information, tutorials, new features, and other enhancements. Keep the site's focus at the forefront of your ideas, but continue to update and change things. If you create a site and leave it the way it is, changing it yearly or less, your visitor count will begin to drop, as people get wise to your lack of attendance. You change your other marketing regularly to keep them fresh, right? Do that with your website too! The advantage here is that a website is generally cheaper than another form of mass-media advertising, so changes can take place a lot more often.
Step 11 - New Looks
In general, a website should be completely re-vamped to receive an entirely new look or design at least once a year. This helps to keep the content fresh and forces your users to take notice once more. Making an anniversary of it can be an added bonus with plenty of hype and circumstance to build it up feverishly. When a company moves into a new building, they usually make a big deal of the event. Why not with your website too? Several months before you wish to change, consult with your original designer or maintenance provider. Get a tentative quote on the time frame and cost of these changes.
Step 12 - Success!
By the time you're ready for Step 11, you should have an idea of how successful your site has become and projections of how successful it will be if it keeps to its current path. Like most businesses, a website should start out small and become larger and larger as time passes. It should also become more and more popular. After the first year, begin to make more long-term goals and at minimum a yearly prospectus for your site. Goals reaching out as far as three years are not outlandish, but make sure they're flexible enough (and are reviewed for relevancy enough) that they can be altered to meet new challenges or changing viewpoint. Your yearly prospectus should match your first year's goals in scope. If your goal is to have a certain number of visitors per week six months from now, then your prospectus should show how this is going to happen (and whether, realistically, it really can happen). Above all, keep your focus! Know where you want to be, why you want to be there, and how it's going to happen. Your website and your business should share common threads throughout--including their goals. Keep on track and you'll have nothing but success!
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/How-to-Start-a-Website--The-Basic-Guide/4200320092003392233
Step 1 - Why
Before you do anything, you'd better know why you need to be online. Are you planning a full e-commerce endeavor or just an online advertising brochure? The answer to this will determine the entire scope of your project and should be considered carefully. If you decide now and change your mind later, you'll have to begin the whole planning process again. Be informed and know what you plan to do.
Step 2 - Outline
Now that you know why you're going online, you should begin a general outline and begin brainstorming ideas amongst your partners and affiliates. Set down a rough estimate of the number of pages the site will have, decide the basic style you'd like to achieve, and list every idea you have for the site (outlandish or ordinary).
Step 3 - Rough Draft
Take the list you created in Step 2 and refine it. Mark each item as being "necessary", "valuable", or as a "perk". If you don't know how an item qualifies, it's not "necessary" and therefore is one of the other two. Only items that you MUST have for the site to exist should be listed as necessary. Items such as "logo", "brochure content," "contact info," etc. are considered "necessary." Items such as "email form," "graphical interface," and "product catalog" are "valuable." "Flash animation," "automated link-through-systems," and "really cool graphics" are "perks."
Create three new lists, one for each category: necessary, valuable and perk. On a sticky note, write your proposed budget for this endeavor and paste it to the "necessary" list. Now you have the basics and are ready to begin contacting designers.
Step 4 - Begin Shopping
If you have a small budget, your list of necessary items is fairly small, and you do not see anything on your list which appears complicated or unusual for a website, then just about any good and reputable designer will suffice. In this case, you should shop by price and service instead of portfolio and pizzazz.
If, however, you have a large budget, a complex list of items to accomplish, and you need experience over price, then you'd be better off looking for a large firm of designers who specialize in your type of site or market.
In either case, you should ask up front (on the phone or in your first meeting) if they'll supply a rough site map and/or set of mockup designs for your proposed site. Usually a designer is more than happy to excite you with nifty pictures of your site-to-be. You need this, as this will give you an idea of where the designer wants to go with your site. If it isn't where you want to be, then you'd better get it clear now before you've written a single check for the designer's service!
The sticky note with your budget figure is your guide to not going overboard. Know what you can afford and what you really need. It's easy to go crazy with all of the nifty options and cool widgets, but ask yourself if they're necessary. If they are a good addition or perk, make a note of it. You may use it later during the website's long-term development.
Step 5 - Domain Names
Choosing a domain name is a very important step in getting yourself online. A domain name to your online presence is as important as a name for your business was when you first began. Careful consideration and a lot of thought should be given to your choice of domain. www.yourbusiness.com is a good start. Go to http://www.register.com or any other domain registration site that offers "whois" service (most of them do) and put in your desired domain name. Don't register it yet if it's available, just check. Many of these services also include a list of "suggested alternatives." Look through them; sometimes something you hadn't considered will pop up!
Start a list of domain names you think would be appropriate. Once you have six or eight of them, show them to your spouse, your friends, or anyone else who can give you a fresh perspective. Narrow the list down to two or three names. Mark them 1 (most wanted), 2 (next) and 3 (last). Go online and find a good registrar. You should not pay more than $15 per year for the registration of a com, net or org name. If a service charges more than this, go somewhere else. I recommend www.IsThisDomainTaken.com, but you can use whom you'd like.
Register your domain. I suggest a year to get started. If you're still around this time next year, then go for a longer period. No use spending more than you have to right away!
Step 6 - Initial Designs
Unless your site is very simple and you were extremely prepared in the beginning (probably having done this before), you will have to have your site built in stages. Each stage should be thoroughly considered for every aspect of the site thus far. Check the navigability, the color scheme, the general look and feel, will it sell product or get customers interested, etc. Be sure to spend a lot of time with your designer to discuss these attributes and what you like and dislike. Print the pages of the site out (at least the main page for each section, if it's large) and write and sketch on them to show changes to graphics, text, and whatever else. Write up a detailed list of changes you'd like to see made and present that to your designer. Your designer will not be resentful of this-- don't worry about stepping on toes. This only makes his or her job easier!
No matter how small, every site has at least three design stages: mockup, rough draft, and the final version. Each stage allows changes to be made (even the final one)! Don't let a designer fool you into thinking that you only get to change a site so many times. Until you're happy, the site isn't done no matter what they say. On the flip side of the coin, however, don't be nit-picky or wishy-washy. Know what you want and point it out the first time. Don't change your mind halfway through and force the designer to scrap the whole thing. Likely, if the designer is smart, he or she will refund your deposit (minus a fee for time spent) and bid you farewell. Designers know that a wishy-washy client will never be happy and will do nothing but lose them money. As a professional, a designer has better things to do with his or her time than waste it on a never-happy client.
During this process, you should be considering the customer's point of view while visiting your soon-to-be-launched website. Will your customer want to come back? Will they be disappointed? What will they be expecting when they first type in that URL or click on that link? Your site needs a "draw" or a reason for being. Interesting content, prizes or coupons, and other items are good "draws." Content is best (a tutorial perhaps, or a continually changing tour of your factory…something) as it gives users a reason to show their friends, stay interested, and come back to double-check information they saw.
Step 7 - Begin Marketing
The marketing of your site should begin as soon as you have an idea when it will be complete. When a finish date is set in concrete, then your marketing should begin in earnest. Change all of your printed materials, business cards, letterhead, phone listings, etc. to include your new domain name (URL). Your company's new presence (www.yourcompany.com) should be as important as having your phone number listed. Consider giveaways or other interest-grabbers (freebies are always popular) and use them as a tool to launch your site (see Step 6 above). Promise a lottery, prize, coupons, or anything else that can only be had by visiting the website and entering the contest/printing the coupon. Whatever this "getter" is, make sure it's good enough that people will be interested. Once they're on the site, they should have a reason to stay (see initial designs, Step 6).
Step 8 - Hosting
Now that your site is nearly complete, you'd better find a place to put it! Your choice is web host is very important to the long-term success of your site. You need to make sure of several things before you hand out any money for this service: 1) is the host reliable? 2) will this host be around next year…the year after? 3) how much are they charging? 4) what are the limitations of their service (bandwidth, email accounts, etc.)? 5) will this host be flexible enough to keep up with the increasing demand of your site as it grows? 6) does the host offer several plans that can be easily upgraded to facilitate growth? 7) how quickly do they respond for customer service via email or the telephone?
All of these questions are very important. In the past, before I began hosting my own sites and customers, I would find a lot of competition and narrow it down to one provider using only questions 5-7. Finding a flexible host who also offers great customer service is difficult to find. Generally, if you send an email to your final prospects (after having narrowed the list using questions 1-4), the one who answers first is most likely your best bet. The one who takes longer than 24 hours to respond (including weekends!) should be removed from your list. At this point, you should have no more than one or two prospects. If you have more than one, the final question to ask is "who has the best facility, best hardware, and offers the best technical support?" Check their website or ask them via email what type of facility they are in, how many connections their server has to the outside world, and where the hosting company is located. If you are in the US and your prospective host is offshore, consider whether you want to take this risk. Remember: other countries have different laws and you may not be protected from data theft or other potential problems. As a rule, two outside connections for a server or rack is the bare minimum. The more the merrier here! What kind of machine would they be hosting you on? Check the library or another source of up-to-date magazines and find out what the newest technologies are. Chances are you can take the names of the hardware (RAQ 4 for instance) and guess that a RAQ 3 was the last generation of that machine. The newer the better! The technical support should be equivalent to the server and the facility: more is better!
Step 9 - Site Launch!
Now that your website is complete and you have a host and domain name, you're ready to launch! If all of this happens earlier than your expected or announced date (which it should if all is well), then DO NOT launch your site before the announced time. If you do it too early, you might give the impression that you're over-eager and desperate. Worse, people may believe that you pad all of your estimated dates too heavily and will have less trust in you. Keep in mind, though, that one day early is a far cry from a month early. A day will not hurt, a month could kill. Stick to your plan and don't jump ahead of yourself. Use the extra time to keep hyping your new release. Use screenshots or video captures of the now-finished site to enhance the anticipation. When the time comes, fire away!
Step 10 - Maintenance
Once your site is open to the world, you will begin to deal with the day-to-day items of owning a website. Keeping your site up-to-date and well maintained requires time and effort. Eventually it will become a regular routine and only the details will be different each time. It may sound mundane, but if done right, you will never lose interest in your website. You may need to contract a professional (generally the developer who created your site to begin with) to do your technical updates for you. Or you may wish to keep these updates yourself and learn a little about how a website is built from the inside out. Most likely, you'll hire a professional: and be smart to. Contracts can vary in scope and price. Find the one that fits your needs best and use it. Always take full advantage of what you're being given in a contract. If it's a by-the-hour list (say four hours per month), then utilize all of that time the developer is giving you. Have your marketing department (or whoever fills this role) create new and interesting things to update the site with. Include changing information, tutorials, new features, and other enhancements. Keep the site's focus at the forefront of your ideas, but continue to update and change things. If you create a site and leave it the way it is, changing it yearly or less, your visitor count will begin to drop, as people get wise to your lack of attendance. You change your other marketing regularly to keep them fresh, right? Do that with your website too! The advantage here is that a website is generally cheaper than another form of mass-media advertising, so changes can take place a lot more often.
Step 11 - New Looks
In general, a website should be completely re-vamped to receive an entirely new look or design at least once a year. This helps to keep the content fresh and forces your users to take notice once more. Making an anniversary of it can be an added bonus with plenty of hype and circumstance to build it up feverishly. When a company moves into a new building, they usually make a big deal of the event. Why not with your website too? Several months before you wish to change, consult with your original designer or maintenance provider. Get a tentative quote on the time frame and cost of these changes.
Step 12 - Success!
By the time you're ready for Step 11, you should have an idea of how successful your site has become and projections of how successful it will be if it keeps to its current path. Like most businesses, a website should start out small and become larger and larger as time passes. It should also become more and more popular. After the first year, begin to make more long-term goals and at minimum a yearly prospectus for your site. Goals reaching out as far as three years are not outlandish, but make sure they're flexible enough (and are reviewed for relevancy enough) that they can be altered to meet new challenges or changing viewpoint. Your yearly prospectus should match your first year's goals in scope. If your goal is to have a certain number of visitors per week six months from now, then your prospectus should show how this is going to happen (and whether, realistically, it really can happen). Above all, keep your focus! Know where you want to be, why you want to be there, and how it's going to happen. Your website and your business should share common threads throughout--including their goals. Keep on track and you'll have nothing but success!
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/How-to-Start-a-Website--The-Basic-Guide/4200320092003392233
How Important are Back Links?
When setting up your website for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on Google there are several factors you need to look at in order to obtain a high rank on their search engine. Of course your content and meta tags must be inline with positive density percentages and reciprocal links. Google then takes your website and performs a mathematic equation and places a numeric value on your website depending on one of the most important features, reciprocal or back links.
A back link and reciprocal link are identical. They both say the same thing to the Google engine, that your site should be ranked higher in the order because other people find value in what your website has to offer, thus they provide a link to your site. In turn, you keep a closed loop by reciprocating the favor to the other website by extending the same courtesy of a back link. Thus creating a solid network connection. Google likes to see interconnectivity and will reward your website well for planning it this way.
There are drawbacks to the equation. As things change a website that you are affiliated with may drop a hyperlink or a page may get accidentally deleted. When the Google robot goes through your website and finds a dead link it notes that you aren’t keeping good care of your website and punishes your web rank by reducing its point value. If you wish to know what your sites current point value is download The Google Toolbar and search for your website www.yourwebsitename.com in the box and perform a Google web search. Upon reading the full URL, Google will go directly to your site first thus pulling up your home page. There on the toolbar will be a page rank for your website between 1 and 10. 1 being a less visited and noted website and 10 a site that screams traffic 24/7.
Some of the individuals you share reciprocal links with may in fact scan all their links for continuity, should they receive a bounce back for a broken link on your website you can be assured you will receive an email from them. Keeping your website in balance with other sites you share links with will keep the Google engine happy. If you go off and add a company that is not Google friendly, meaning they have no back links you may also lose points.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/How-Important-are-Back-Links-/4200320092003392478
A back link and reciprocal link are identical. They both say the same thing to the Google engine, that your site should be ranked higher in the order because other people find value in what your website has to offer, thus they provide a link to your site. In turn, you keep a closed loop by reciprocating the favor to the other website by extending the same courtesy of a back link. Thus creating a solid network connection. Google likes to see interconnectivity and will reward your website well for planning it this way.
There are drawbacks to the equation. As things change a website that you are affiliated with may drop a hyperlink or a page may get accidentally deleted. When the Google robot goes through your website and finds a dead link it notes that you aren’t keeping good care of your website and punishes your web rank by reducing its point value. If you wish to know what your sites current point value is download The Google Toolbar and search for your website www.yourwebsitename.com in the box and perform a Google web search. Upon reading the full URL, Google will go directly to your site first thus pulling up your home page. There on the toolbar will be a page rank for your website between 1 and 10. 1 being a less visited and noted website and 10 a site that screams traffic 24/7.
Some of the individuals you share reciprocal links with may in fact scan all their links for continuity, should they receive a bounce back for a broken link on your website you can be assured you will receive an email from them. Keeping your website in balance with other sites you share links with will keep the Google engine happy. If you go off and add a company that is not Google friendly, meaning they have no back links you may also lose points.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/How-Important-are-Back-Links-/4200320092003392478
Getting into the Yahoo Directory
To submit to Yahoo directory there are two submission options: "Standard," which is free, and "Yahoo Directory Submit," which involves a submission fee. If you own a non-commercial website then you can use the standard submission option. There is no guarantee that any Yahoo editor will ever get to review your site considering the volume of sites that are submitted every day.
If you want a faster turnaround to get your website indexed quicker then you can go for the paid option even in the non-commercial category. The fee is $299 to submit to Yahoo Directory. The fee for the non-commercial category is one time and is called the submission fee. You will not be refunded the money even if your site is rejected.
For the non-commercial category ensure the following to avoid rejection:
1. The website is not overtly commercial
2. Fully functional site with no broken links or under construction pages
3. User friendly and browser friendly website.
If your website fulfills the above criteria your site will be reviewed and included in the index in about 7-10 business days.
There are many advantages to being listed in the Yahoo Directory. One is there are higher chances of your website being listed in the main results of Yahoo - which are powered by the Yahoo Crawler and also that of other search engines like Google and MSN.
If your site is a purely commercial site and you wish to submit to Yahoo Directory you will have to pay yearly submission fee of $299. This does not guarantee your site's inclusion in the Yahoo directory but most decent sites are accepted provided they satisfy the criteria mentioned above for the non-commercial category.
Every year your site will be re-evaluated after you pay the submission fee and either listed or rejected. You can include your site for a year and then check your traffic and revenue stats to see if you really want to continue being in the Yahoo directory. If it is not worth the money then you decline to be listed. You won't be charged in that case.
If you site got indexed and ranked by virtue of being in Yahoo directories then as long as your site has right on-page and off-page factors it will continue being there even if you longer wish to continue in the Yahoo directory.
Also, being in the top rankings may have got you lot of links from other sites, you might run a linking campaign to get lots of new links for your site, you might have loads of new, quality and relevant content to your site. If you have done all this chances of your being dropped from the indexes are remote.
The Yahoo Directory Submission Process:
Once you have finished designing and constructing your website to the last detail it is simple to submit to Yahoo Directory. For the free submission just click on "Suggest a Site" link that appears at the top page. This will bring up the submission form. Just fill it and you are done.
For the commercial category use the Yahoo Directory Submit Form. Enter the details of your website, pay the submission fee and in about 7-10 business days you should hear from Yahoo about your inclusion or rejection.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/Getting-into-the-Yahoo-Directory/4200320092003394157
If you want a faster turnaround to get your website indexed quicker then you can go for the paid option even in the non-commercial category. The fee is $299 to submit to Yahoo Directory. The fee for the non-commercial category is one time and is called the submission fee. You will not be refunded the money even if your site is rejected.
For the non-commercial category ensure the following to avoid rejection:
1. The website is not overtly commercial
2. Fully functional site with no broken links or under construction pages
3. User friendly and browser friendly website.
If your website fulfills the above criteria your site will be reviewed and included in the index in about 7-10 business days.
There are many advantages to being listed in the Yahoo Directory. One is there are higher chances of your website being listed in the main results of Yahoo - which are powered by the Yahoo Crawler and also that of other search engines like Google and MSN.
If your site is a purely commercial site and you wish to submit to Yahoo Directory you will have to pay yearly submission fee of $299. This does not guarantee your site's inclusion in the Yahoo directory but most decent sites are accepted provided they satisfy the criteria mentioned above for the non-commercial category.
Every year your site will be re-evaluated after you pay the submission fee and either listed or rejected. You can include your site for a year and then check your traffic and revenue stats to see if you really want to continue being in the Yahoo directory. If it is not worth the money then you decline to be listed. You won't be charged in that case.
If you site got indexed and ranked by virtue of being in Yahoo directories then as long as your site has right on-page and off-page factors it will continue being there even if you longer wish to continue in the Yahoo directory.
Also, being in the top rankings may have got you lot of links from other sites, you might run a linking campaign to get lots of new links for your site, you might have loads of new, quality and relevant content to your site. If you have done all this chances of your being dropped from the indexes are remote.
The Yahoo Directory Submission Process:
Once you have finished designing and constructing your website to the last detail it is simple to submit to Yahoo Directory. For the free submission just click on "Suggest a Site" link that appears at the top page. This will bring up the submission form. Just fill it and you are done.
For the commercial category use the Yahoo Directory Submit Form. Enter the details of your website, pay the submission fee and in about 7-10 business days you should hear from Yahoo about your inclusion or rejection.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/Getting-into-the-Yahoo-Directory/4200320092003394157
The Benefits of Spam Blockers
The benefits of spam blockers are immense. They not only save your time, energy and space, but also prevents your PC from getting infected with viruses, phishing, and crashing down of the whole system. Take a look at the various spam blockers and their effective role in giving you a spam free inbox.
In order to realize the benefits of spam blockers, it is best to first know the possible dangers and difficulties that you can face due to spam and junk mails. You must be constantly irritated by these junk mails. But, there are many other reasons to avoid junk mails filtering into your inbox other than just posing as an obstruction to your eye. There are people who can make the spam look as though it is being sent from your own personal computer. This is known as spoofed email address. Once such a thing occurs, your ISP will cut your internet connection, even without your knowledge. You computer system can be effectively slowed down or it can be crashed due to the impact of viruses that comes with spam. This can lead to all your private information being stolen and to being directed to adult sites. They not only steal all your information, but also delete all that you have stored in your PC. The spam blockers are anti spam software, the uses anti spam programs to prevent the occurrence of these incidents by preventing unsolicited mails from entering your inbox.
Spam Blockers-A Protective Shield for your Computer
Another benefit of using spam blocker is it prevents phishing. Phishing is when you get these junk mails that are dressed as official mails like the bank mails. They ask you to enter your pin code and password to view information or to view the attractive deals. In this process, they collect all your information and utilize it. Spam also occupies a lot of memory space on your computer. They may also contain scams that trick people with attractive money offers. Here comes the importance of spam blockers. The spam blockers prevent the messages from entering your inbox. This saves not only the space, but also the other potential threats and damages.
Some of the effective spam blockers and filters include Spam Bully, Spam Inspector, and Zaep. A portable spam filtering solution, SpamArrest makes it easier for you to check for spam even when you don't have access to your computer. It makes use of a webmail along with a spam filtering solution. If you are using Outlook, then Qurb is the best option. Anti spam for outlook includes Spam Bully that keeps your inbox free of spam. Even the SpamPal identifies the well known spammers with the help of spam blacklists. For POP accounts, Death2Spam is extremely effective. MailWasher Pro is secure and a time-saving spam filter that also protect your computer from viruses. Make use of the full benefits of these well known spam blockers and email spam filters to make your computer safe and protected from viruses and spam.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/The-Benefits-of-Spam-Blockers/4200320092003366313
In order to realize the benefits of spam blockers, it is best to first know the possible dangers and difficulties that you can face due to spam and junk mails. You must be constantly irritated by these junk mails. But, there are many other reasons to avoid junk mails filtering into your inbox other than just posing as an obstruction to your eye. There are people who can make the spam look as though it is being sent from your own personal computer. This is known as spoofed email address. Once such a thing occurs, your ISP will cut your internet connection, even without your knowledge. You computer system can be effectively slowed down or it can be crashed due to the impact of viruses that comes with spam. This can lead to all your private information being stolen and to being directed to adult sites. They not only steal all your information, but also delete all that you have stored in your PC. The spam blockers are anti spam software, the uses anti spam programs to prevent the occurrence of these incidents by preventing unsolicited mails from entering your inbox.
Spam Blockers-A Protective Shield for your Computer
Another benefit of using spam blocker is it prevents phishing. Phishing is when you get these junk mails that are dressed as official mails like the bank mails. They ask you to enter your pin code and password to view information or to view the attractive deals. In this process, they collect all your information and utilize it. Spam also occupies a lot of memory space on your computer. They may also contain scams that trick people with attractive money offers. Here comes the importance of spam blockers. The spam blockers prevent the messages from entering your inbox. This saves not only the space, but also the other potential threats and damages.
Some of the effective spam blockers and filters include Spam Bully, Spam Inspector, and Zaep. A portable spam filtering solution, SpamArrest makes it easier for you to check for spam even when you don't have access to your computer. It makes use of a webmail along with a spam filtering solution. If you are using Outlook, then Qurb is the best option. Anti spam for outlook includes Spam Bully that keeps your inbox free of spam. Even the SpamPal identifies the well known spammers with the help of spam blacklists. For POP accounts, Death2Spam is extremely effective. MailWasher Pro is secure and a time-saving spam filter that also protect your computer from viruses. Make use of the full benefits of these well known spam blockers and email spam filters to make your computer safe and protected from viruses and spam.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/The-Benefits-of-Spam-Blockers/4200320092003366313
Why You Should Use A Spyware Removal Tool
All computer users that access the internet should be using a spyware removal tool. If you don't know why then keep reading.
Spyware can have many names including adware, malware, trackware, and snoopware but for most internet users it is not the names they are familiar with but the symptoms of a spyware software infection.
Being infected by spyware software means that your computer will be performing very sluggishly, you will have an increased amount of pop up ads appearing, you homepage may change unexpectedly, and you might also find that you get strange search results whilst browsing the internet.
Make no mistake about it, spyware is a nuisance, and the only thing that will help to keep it from your computer is installing and using a spyware removal tool.
Spyware software left undetected on your computer can have disastrous effects. Once of the greatest threats is identity theft. This may seem a little severe but spyware software can include keyloggers that will capture all your keystrokes including passwords, personal information, and even bank details. So you see a spyware removal tool really is essential.
Spyware Facts You Should Know
Did you know that nine out of ten computers that are connected to the internet become infected with spyware software? When a spyware blocker is installed, 88% of scans will reveal some form of spyware or adware. Spyware does not just come from adult orientated websites; in fact your computer can be infected no matter what your surfing habits.
As you can see installing a spyware blocker really is essential especially if you want to protect your information. Spyware will not go away and you need to stay protected. A spyware removal tool can help you do just this and there are a wide range of free spyware downloads available. Install a spyware blocker now or else turn off your computer.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/Why-You-Should-Use-A-Spyware-Removal-Tool/4200320092003366321
Spyware can have many names including adware, malware, trackware, and snoopware but for most internet users it is not the names they are familiar with but the symptoms of a spyware software infection.
Being infected by spyware software means that your computer will be performing very sluggishly, you will have an increased amount of pop up ads appearing, you homepage may change unexpectedly, and you might also find that you get strange search results whilst browsing the internet.
Make no mistake about it, spyware is a nuisance, and the only thing that will help to keep it from your computer is installing and using a spyware removal tool.
Spyware software left undetected on your computer can have disastrous effects. Once of the greatest threats is identity theft. This may seem a little severe but spyware software can include keyloggers that will capture all your keystrokes including passwords, personal information, and even bank details. So you see a spyware removal tool really is essential.
Spyware Facts You Should Know
Did you know that nine out of ten computers that are connected to the internet become infected with spyware software? When a spyware blocker is installed, 88% of scans will reveal some form of spyware or adware. Spyware does not just come from adult orientated websites; in fact your computer can be infected no matter what your surfing habits.
As you can see installing a spyware blocker really is essential especially if you want to protect your information. Spyware will not go away and you need to stay protected. A spyware removal tool can help you do just this and there are a wide range of free spyware downloads available. Install a spyware blocker now or else turn off your computer.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/Why-You-Should-Use-A-Spyware-Removal-Tool/4200320092003366321
SPAM blocker
Spam is one of the leading causes of email traffic congestion and loss in productivity. Spam is essentially unwanted email, it may be from a known source, but can still be spam mail. Surveys the world over have estimated that thousands of man hours are wasted by corporates the world over, due to useless spam mails.
Impact of spam mail on productivity
Just imagine a regular employee coming to work to discover 30 new mails, it will take him a good 10-15 minutes to figure out which ones are genuine and which one's are just useless spam. Now extrapolate this figure to 10,000 employees, that makes it 2500 man hours a day that are spent filtering spam! And throw in the added complication of viruses from unwanted attachments, one can clearly see that the productivity of a company is being affected by spam. The solution is more often than not to go out and buy expensive spam filtering software that is then installed on each computer and actively scans each mail before it reaches an employee's inbox. An additional virus scanning software also needs to be purchased.
The problem with software on a per computer basis is that its pretty expensive, an anti spam software for 10,000 users can cost nearly half a million dollars including the price of an anti virus software. And then there are software problems that need to be fixed which usually require hiring additional manpower. The solution to this problem is much simpler if there is a separate server, that first receives all the mails for a company, scans them and then forwards them to the company's internal mail server. This ensures that a company does not spend any money on hardware, software and maintenance, and in addition have state of the art spam filtering and email scanning.
How spam filtering services work
Spam filtering services are fast, effective and best of all they take away the headache of actually installing software on each computer and then additional maintenance costs. The first step in installing a spam filtering service is to route all emails to the spam filtering service's server. This is what is called the setup phase and usually takes anywhere between an hour to a day, based on the complexity of the accounts a company has and the level of customization. Once an organization successfully sets up emails to be routed to a spam filtering service's server. The emails are then processed in three steps
Step 1
The emails are first scanned for viruses, trojans and other malware. Spam filtering servers usually have more than one anti-virus scanner, this ensures that every email is not just scanned by a single scanner but actually put through multiple anti-virus scanners, that are updated on a daily basis to make sure that the anti-virus protection is the latest. If any email is infected it is cleaned, if the virus cannot be removed, then based on the client's specifications the email is either deleted or stored separately.
Step 2
Phase two involves putting the email through spam filters, a spam filter actually checks an email for trigger keywords (popular trigger keyword examples are “Cheap Viagra”, “Win cash awards”) and also checks the sender's address against a known database of spammers. Most anti-spam services allow downloading the spam into a spam folder of the inbox, so even if the anti-spam server has accidentally marked genuine mail as spam it is not lost. During the setup phase of the spam filtering service, the client can decide if they want all spam mail deleted or want it forwarded to a spam account.
Step 3
This is the final phase, all mails are virus free, spam free and can either be downloaded at the client's leisure or are automatically forwarded to the client's email server. Once again this depends on the way the client has configured the spam filter service.
It is not necessary that all spam filtering services offer virus scanning, in fact most anti-spam filtering services actually charge a little extra for virus scanning services, the best option for any organization is to look around and find a spam filtering service, that offers all features at attractive pricing.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/SPAM-blocker/4200320092003390569
Impact of spam mail on productivity
Just imagine a regular employee coming to work to discover 30 new mails, it will take him a good 10-15 minutes to figure out which ones are genuine and which one's are just useless spam. Now extrapolate this figure to 10,000 employees, that makes it 2500 man hours a day that are spent filtering spam! And throw in the added complication of viruses from unwanted attachments, one can clearly see that the productivity of a company is being affected by spam. The solution is more often than not to go out and buy expensive spam filtering software that is then installed on each computer and actively scans each mail before it reaches an employee's inbox. An additional virus scanning software also needs to be purchased.
The problem with software on a per computer basis is that its pretty expensive, an anti spam software for 10,000 users can cost nearly half a million dollars including the price of an anti virus software. And then there are software problems that need to be fixed which usually require hiring additional manpower. The solution to this problem is much simpler if there is a separate server, that first receives all the mails for a company, scans them and then forwards them to the company's internal mail server. This ensures that a company does not spend any money on hardware, software and maintenance, and in addition have state of the art spam filtering and email scanning.
How spam filtering services work
Spam filtering services are fast, effective and best of all they take away the headache of actually installing software on each computer and then additional maintenance costs. The first step in installing a spam filtering service is to route all emails to the spam filtering service's server. This is what is called the setup phase and usually takes anywhere between an hour to a day, based on the complexity of the accounts a company has and the level of customization. Once an organization successfully sets up emails to be routed to a spam filtering service's server. The emails are then processed in three steps
Step 1
The emails are first scanned for viruses, trojans and other malware. Spam filtering servers usually have more than one anti-virus scanner, this ensures that every email is not just scanned by a single scanner but actually put through multiple anti-virus scanners, that are updated on a daily basis to make sure that the anti-virus protection is the latest. If any email is infected it is cleaned, if the virus cannot be removed, then based on the client's specifications the email is either deleted or stored separately.
Step 2
Phase two involves putting the email through spam filters, a spam filter actually checks an email for trigger keywords (popular trigger keyword examples are “Cheap Viagra”, “Win cash awards”) and also checks the sender's address against a known database of spammers. Most anti-spam services allow downloading the spam into a spam folder of the inbox, so even if the anti-spam server has accidentally marked genuine mail as spam it is not lost. During the setup phase of the spam filtering service, the client can decide if they want all spam mail deleted or want it forwarded to a spam account.
Step 3
This is the final phase, all mails are virus free, spam free and can either be downloaded at the client's leisure or are automatically forwarded to the client's email server. Once again this depends on the way the client has configured the spam filter service.
It is not necessary that all spam filtering services offer virus scanning, in fact most anti-spam filtering services actually charge a little extra for virus scanning services, the best option for any organization is to look around and find a spam filtering service, that offers all features at attractive pricing.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/SPAM-blocker/4200320092003390569
Spam filter
In 2004, Bill Gates famously said that the spam problem would be solved by 2006. Well, Bill: It's 2007, and we're still waiting.
Everybody makes mistakes. Of course, Mr. Gates doesn't have a crystal ball, so telling what the future holds for spam is little easier for him than it is for the rest of us. Nonetheless, by looking at the current patterns of spam, we can make some estimates regarding the future of spam.
For one thing, statistics show that the problem is set to grow. Spam rates have almost doubled over the past twelve months to over 100 billion spam mails sent per day, and this figure is rising. Spammers have found that affiliate spam is so profitable that they are able to run the risk of legal recourse in their attempts to make money. In this sense, increased spam laws have largely been a disappointment so far, as they seem to impact far too few spammers. Perhaps, then, the future of spam will be defined by what happens in the legislatures and the courts around the world. CAN-SPAM could just be the beginning, and one day mass, unsolicited mail could be banned outright. Should the continuing problems of botnet viruses and other trojans continue, this isn't quite as far-fetched as it sounds.
Spam virus technology, then, is perhaps the most growing part of the spam threat. But surely, as Bill Gates argued, technology exists that can block this. That's true, but it relies on all computer users being tech-savvy enough to install and maintain it - something that's decidely impossible in the rapidly-expanding world of cyberspace. Indeed, those well-informed enough to protect themselves with spam firewall programs and virus checkers may well be in the minority.
So perhaps the solution does not lie with the end user; failing the legal method, perhaps the large technology companies and anti-spam software authors could target the spammers themselves. Perhaps there can be a growth in software that would make spam either virtually impossible, or prohibitively expensive? Indeed, technology in the antispam sector has advanced significantly in the last few years - prompting Gates' notorious remark - and can affect both sender and recipient. To stop spam from being sent, Gates once advocated "charging" mass mailers in computational cycles in order to discourage massive, indiscriminate sending sprees without overly penalising smaller companies. Simply put, Gates sought to end the days when a spam mailer program could fire off tens of thousands of emails in seconds - instead, each email would take several seconds to send. Small businesses dealing with customers in the hundreds, rather than the millions, would not be hit hard, but spammers would need to invest in computer architecture far beyond what they currently use now. What's more, it would render botnets too slow to be worth the risk.
But surely that runs the risk of alienating legitimate marketing firms, or those companies with huge, self-gathered mailing lists. As these are so powerful, perhaps Gates' idea was too far-fetched. Maybe so; hence, the solution may come from the increased use of verification technology. GoodMail is a popular program for some large companies, who pay the GoodMail Systems company for the privelege of attaching a small token of authenticity to their emails, ensuring that certain co-operative ISPs allow their emails safe passage to the end user's inbox. Putting more responsibility with the user was the Caller ID for E-Mail idea, already piloted in the Hotmail spam filter. This is a spam blacklist technique involving the recognition of certain good/bad IP addresses in email headers, and filing the incoming messages accordingly. However, for those whose email providers do not set up this facility for them, it can prove difficult; and with increasingly elaborate spamming techniques - from image spam to phishing and beyond - all being sent from a range of IPs courtesy of hacked, zombie PCs, blocklists may soon grow to be unwieldy.
So, then, perhaps better spam filtering software is the idea. It's certainly seemed to help in the cases of Gmail and some other webmail providers, whose users still suffer from spam, but less so than those who use no protection at all. However, it's difficult to provide a catch-all solution, particularly as image spam and other interesting methods of spam mailings continue to grow. Indeed, one thing that's guaranteed in the future of spam is that spamming techniques will grow more and more advanced - and more and more devious, too.
Putting prevention aside, it seems that spam will continue to grow not only in our inboxes, but elsewhere. Forum spam is increasingly problematic, particularly on message boards using older versions of board software, or those without Captcha tests upon registration. Mobile spam is also growing, with cell phones now the victim of unwanted mass mailing, particularly in the Far East. Indeed, the further down the path of the information age we go, it seems that we can neither run nor hide from spam, no matter what Bill Gates thinks on the matter.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/Spam-filter/4200320092003390820
Everybody makes mistakes. Of course, Mr. Gates doesn't have a crystal ball, so telling what the future holds for spam is little easier for him than it is for the rest of us. Nonetheless, by looking at the current patterns of spam, we can make some estimates regarding the future of spam.
For one thing, statistics show that the problem is set to grow. Spam rates have almost doubled over the past twelve months to over 100 billion spam mails sent per day, and this figure is rising. Spammers have found that affiliate spam is so profitable that they are able to run the risk of legal recourse in their attempts to make money. In this sense, increased spam laws have largely been a disappointment so far, as they seem to impact far too few spammers. Perhaps, then, the future of spam will be defined by what happens in the legislatures and the courts around the world. CAN-SPAM could just be the beginning, and one day mass, unsolicited mail could be banned outright. Should the continuing problems of botnet viruses and other trojans continue, this isn't quite as far-fetched as it sounds.
Spam virus technology, then, is perhaps the most growing part of the spam threat. But surely, as Bill Gates argued, technology exists that can block this. That's true, but it relies on all computer users being tech-savvy enough to install and maintain it - something that's decidely impossible in the rapidly-expanding world of cyberspace. Indeed, those well-informed enough to protect themselves with spam firewall programs and virus checkers may well be in the minority.
So perhaps the solution does not lie with the end user; failing the legal method, perhaps the large technology companies and anti-spam software authors could target the spammers themselves. Perhaps there can be a growth in software that would make spam either virtually impossible, or prohibitively expensive? Indeed, technology in the antispam sector has advanced significantly in the last few years - prompting Gates' notorious remark - and can affect both sender and recipient. To stop spam from being sent, Gates once advocated "charging" mass mailers in computational cycles in order to discourage massive, indiscriminate sending sprees without overly penalising smaller companies. Simply put, Gates sought to end the days when a spam mailer program could fire off tens of thousands of emails in seconds - instead, each email would take several seconds to send. Small businesses dealing with customers in the hundreds, rather than the millions, would not be hit hard, but spammers would need to invest in computer architecture far beyond what they currently use now. What's more, it would render botnets too slow to be worth the risk.
But surely that runs the risk of alienating legitimate marketing firms, or those companies with huge, self-gathered mailing lists. As these are so powerful, perhaps Gates' idea was too far-fetched. Maybe so; hence, the solution may come from the increased use of verification technology. GoodMail is a popular program for some large companies, who pay the GoodMail Systems company for the privelege of attaching a small token of authenticity to their emails, ensuring that certain co-operative ISPs allow their emails safe passage to the end user's inbox. Putting more responsibility with the user was the Caller ID for E-Mail idea, already piloted in the Hotmail spam filter. This is a spam blacklist technique involving the recognition of certain good/bad IP addresses in email headers, and filing the incoming messages accordingly. However, for those whose email providers do not set up this facility for them, it can prove difficult; and with increasingly elaborate spamming techniques - from image spam to phishing and beyond - all being sent from a range of IPs courtesy of hacked, zombie PCs, blocklists may soon grow to be unwieldy.
So, then, perhaps better spam filtering software is the idea. It's certainly seemed to help in the cases of Gmail and some other webmail providers, whose users still suffer from spam, but less so than those who use no protection at all. However, it's difficult to provide a catch-all solution, particularly as image spam and other interesting methods of spam mailings continue to grow. Indeed, one thing that's guaranteed in the future of spam is that spamming techniques will grow more and more advanced - and more and more devious, too.
Putting prevention aside, it seems that spam will continue to grow not only in our inboxes, but elsewhere. Forum spam is increasingly problematic, particularly on message boards using older versions of board software, or those without Captcha tests upon registration. Mobile spam is also growing, with cell phones now the victim of unwanted mass mailing, particularly in the Far East. Indeed, the further down the path of the information age we go, it seems that we can neither run nor hide from spam, no matter what Bill Gates thinks on the matter.
http://www.content.onlypunjab.com/Article/Spam-filter/4200320092003390820
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