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Target Affiliates Money is a fast-growing business site where invest money, find affiliates programs, business programs, news today how to make money.


Sorry, but this domain is for sale!(update)

BlogCopy is a site that tracks what readers copy, but also what friends share, from published materials, informing the owners of blogs that was copied, by whom and where he got the information.
Why you'll want to use this tool, well let me tell you why: when someone copies something on your blog, that someone looking for useful information, so you mean that the information sought blog helps you find and make keyword analysis in order to have even more visitors.



blogcopy






This "tool" can be easily installed on Blogspot, WordPress, TypePad, following the instructions on the site BlogCopy.
Use BlogCopy to create a large flow of visitors to have a higher ranking.
With BlogCopy will always know everything is copied and used what information was copied.


Target Affiliates Money is a fast-growing business site where invest money, find affiliates programs, business programs, news today how to make money.

How to Build a Professional Looking Website 



This is how to build a website that you will love and won't have to pay for.

how to build website


 1. Prepare your website plan


Before setting up an account for a free site, decide what the focus of your site will be. Collect Information, pictures, and write some of the text ahead of time to familiarize yourself with your idea and get comfortable with the process. Decide if you will use artwork or photos on your site. Make sure your photos/artwork/music is royalty/copyright free.

2. Research in Google 

Use Google or some other search engine and look for websites offering free websites and compare some of your choices.

 Remember that when using a free service, your website will be supported by advertising to allow you to get in for free.

* Keep in mind if someday you might

* want to bump your freebie site up to a higher level and look for those sites that offer that feature.

* Some sites also offer tools to help the technically challenged in creating their sites. Certain sites also offer levels to get you started off immediately and let you come back later to upgrade and update later as your tech skills grow.

3. Choose your platform


 Choose your website offering free service. Set your password and username and WRITE THEM DOWN. You would not believe how many people actually forget within an hour of setting their accounts up.

4. Research for free  images/sounds/graphics

Use Google or another search engine to find images/sounds/graphics that relate to your site - don't forget to get permission give linkbacks crediting original artwork or material that you are allowed to use.(Linkbacks are small hyperlink graphics or text words with the original creative site's web address that your visitors can click on to see the original creator's site).

5. Use a free editor

Find a free WYSIWYG editor. This stands for What You See Is What You Get and is an excellent way to be introduced to the world of building and creating websites.

6. Search website templates 

Consider using website templates. Utilizing website templates allows you to quickly use a pre-made design which you can choose and replace the text with your own to produce a great looking website. Be sure to look for a simple design layout as more sophisticated templates may be difficult to edit until you’re more skilled. Template galleries can be found at css4free.com and oswd.org.

Tips


* Remember to read the site's rules relating to posting materials (especially copyrighted and mature themed).

* If you have an idea for your site (any idea even if it is idiotic) then jot it down because there is a HUGE chance it will help someone!

* If you are having a hard time figuring out things to put on your navigation bar, then you might look at the requested topics on wikiHow!

* Take your time to your site - make it yours and give it your personality.

* You can get a free version of a great piece of software called Nvu, (pronounced N-View).
This is open source software, which basically means that it is freely available without cost to anyone. Nvu provides lots of advanced features but is simple enough for most first-time users to get a site online.
 Even though it’s free, it can grow with you as you become more comfortable with the software features which can allow you to add more sophisticated elements to your website.

Download your copy at www.nvu.com

* A good site to start with would be Open Source Web Design over at oswd.org. They have a diverse collection of website templates that anyone can download free of charge.

* Google and Yahoo are good sites for this, but require a little bit of HTML knowledge.

* You will have to let go of some of your brainstorm ideas! You can't do everything!

* Be careful when stating opinions that you avoid using full names or offensive materials - freebie sites can be pulled for offensive materials. Moderation is the key!

Tools You'll Need


* Internet access

* Paper and pencil or pen for navigation bar ideas!

* A chunk of free time when you first sit down to start, after that you can spend as much or as little editing, changing, improving and maintaining your site.



Target Affiliates Money is a fast-growing business site where invest money, find affiliates programs, business programs, news today how to make money.
How to Create a Free .tk Domain for Your Website



Everybody is familiar with .com domains, but there are fewer and fewer available. If you would like to have an easy to type domain, try a .tk domain. They're easy to set up and can be free.

1. Go to  freenom.com


freenom











2. Log in to your account 


loggin





3. Come up with a domain name.

google




4. Search to see if it is available.

domain







5. Decide if you want a free or paid domain, then select the appropriate option.

.tk










6. Setup for 12-month free ADC click to continue


setup





7. Review & Checkout
Thank you for your order. You will receive a confirmation email shortly.
If you have any questions about your order, please open a support ticket from your client area and quote your order number.




order














9. My domains area 


free domain










Done! You just create a Free .tk  domain for your website


Tips
* Make an easy-to-remember domain so that your visitors will return to your site.
Target Affiliates Money is a fast-growing business site where invest money, find affiliates programs, business programs, news today how to make money.
To build monthly income, building an affiliate store in Wordpress blog is like putting money in the bank. Every post is like an investment that will pay you back again, and again, and again…



The next 8 weeks will be the busiest time of the year online. More people will search, shop, and buy than ANY OTHER TIME OF YEAR! What you do for these 2 months will determine how much income YOU WILL EARN during that period. Some bloggers and affiliates spend nearly the entire year getting ready for just these 2 months. I have used just about every affiliate product, service, and plugin out there - and for the next two months, I’m going to post a lot about which ones work (and which ones don’t).



I consider this post to be the first in the “How to Build an Affiliate Store in Wordpress” series, but I kind of consider it a sub-section of both How to Build Income Online, and How to Monetize Your Blog series. There will be soo many posts about setting up an affiliate store, I felt an entire series devoted to it was in order.

What is an Affiliate Datafeed?



In the past, I’ve blogged briefly about data feeds twice: Create an Affiliate Store in 5 Minutes From a Data Feed, and Monetize Search Results with Data Feeds in Wordpress.



But now is one plugin! One can be doing all! Look here!


Amazon eStore Affiliates Plugin

Plugin – Full Features List
Works as a plugin for any Wordpress Install.
Compatible with any Wordpress Theme
You can have Amazon Products and Simple Products in the Store at the Same Time (we’ve made a special verification and the products don’t conflict into the Cart Checkout Page)
Choose from any Amazon Location – Worldwide, Amazon Germany, Amazon United Kingdom, Amazon Canada, Amazon France, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Italy, Amazon China, Amazon Spain.
90 days cookies feature - With this feature, when a user is redirected to Amazon, the product is automatically added to cart and kept there for 90 days(this boosts your conversions also!).
On-Site Cart feature! This option will allow your customers to add multiple Amazon Products into Cart and checkout through Amazon’s system with all at once!
Prices setup – Select if you want to import prices only from Seller Amazon, or from other sellers as well (get the lowest price)
Products Variations – Get product variations. Be careful about Yes All variations one product can have a lot of variation, execution time is dramatically increased!
Default publishing- import the products as Published or Draft.
Select how many images to import for each product
Images names – Product title or Random number – This is great for SEO
Cross Selling Items – Select if you wish to display cross-selling products.
Images gallery in the product description – select if you wish to display it or not.
Amazon Reviews Tab – Select if you wish to display amazon reviews
Setup Amazon Access Key ID and Secret Access Key
Setup your affiliate ID’s (You don’t have to specify all affiliate IDs if you are not registered to all programs.)
Setup Main Affiliate ID
One second import! Search for products using the Advanced Search and Bulk Import module. Upon import, all parent categories and subcategories will be imported.
Mass Import products using the CSV module. All you need is an ASINS list.
Facebook Too!Facebook Integration also! With Like Locker! Feature your store on Facebook as well in just a few minutes.
Keep products updated using the Synchronisation Module, you can update Prices, Titles, Reviews, Buy URLs, Descriptions, and SKU.
Setup / Backup Module – install default plugin settings, backup current plugin settings, and backup current eStore products.
True fact – Proof that our Amazon eStore Affiliates Plugin WORKS! (We have a 4.83% rate ^^)

Target Affiliates Money is a fast-growing business site where invest money, find affiliates programs, business programs, news today how to make money.

Start Making Money On The Internet And By Your Own Boss!

A lot of people are making money online today. Even if you do not believe, it is still a fact which will continue to exist. If you have time to waste, well you can postpone and not take action today. But if you want to make a significant change in your life and learn how to start making money on the internet, you will benefit by reading a few tips here.If you are thinking about making money online, you need to be prepared. Initially, there is no guarantee that you will make money even if you put in the effort.

money


The best part of this, you are your own boss and you get to travel around some of the most beautiful places in the world and you are still making money on the internet.Just to make sure I give you more assurance, I will give you the insight into why many people do not make good money on the internet. I am not talking about the few hundreds which the bulk of the internet marketers are making. We are expecting at the minimum a decent four digit income just by following a few simple principles.

The people we are learning from have all learned about how to make money from the internet through spending their time and trying different strategies. These are the people who are now traveling around giving Internet Marketing seminars and also attending other people's Internet Marketing seminars to discuss on what works best in internet marking and answering the millionaire dollar question, "How can I make money on the internet".

So are you still interested? I hope you are because I am just getting to tell you the secret. If you have been trying to do it for a long while and still have not make the big bucks, you might be thinking very hard how to do it better. Or you might be less motivated than you were because the paychecks just do not come in like everyone else promise and you are thinking of giving up.Why? There can be various reasons. Maybe you are following the right methods. Maybe you are not focused enough. And also there is always a learning curve to go through.


Tell you what, you are on the right track. Believe it or not, you are doing the right thing because that is what all the successful internet marketers have gone through. That is why they understand how disappointing it is to have so little success after so much effort they put in. That is why they are willing to share all the simple tips on how you can make money online.


Or maybe you learn here
Target Affiliates Money is a fast-growing business site where invest money, find affiliates programs, business programs, news today how to make money.


Do not like your job? Try Affiliate Marketing Way


Have you felt like you do not like your job?
Do you have to force yourself out of bed every morning to get to work?
Do you grumble the moment you open your eyes because you dread going to meet your boss?
Have you thought about the million dollar question "How can I make money on the internet?"


Do you feel that you can hardly afford any good stuff with your paycheck?
It sounds too good to be true.

Do you feel that after paying the bills, there is not much left from your pay?
You tried to ask for a raise; it didn't work. You tried to change your job; the pay did not change much. You tried taking on another part-time work; it didn't improve your situation too much and you are too tired to enjoy anything after that.


  • No more having to get up extra early in the morning.
  • No more waiting for the public bus. 
  • No more squeezing with other people on the train. 
  • No more getting to office barely on time and getting the disapproval from your boss.



A lot of newbies started with affiliate marketing because they do not need a lot of experience.


  • You are thinking if you had the chance, wouldn't you like to work from the comfort of your own home? 
  • You can be your own boss and pay yourself a good salary to really enjoy the life you wanted.
  • You don't have to waste time to get to work. 
  • You don't have to go to the office in a suit and tie in the hot humid weather. 
  • You don't have to work overtime when you want to go home to have dinner with your family.



Many people have already quit their job and work from home.
They have made it possible on the question "How can I make money from the internet?"
You might not think it is possible but they are all normal people like you and me who wanted to change their lives.

People who are working from home have all started their very own Internet Marketing business. More specifically, they have gone into their own Affiliate Marketing business.

If you think it is difficult to answer the question "How can I make money from the internet", affiliate marketing is the solution. It is one of the easiest ways to make money on the Internet.

Affiliate marketing allows you to start up in the shortest time to promote other peoples products. You get paid a commission on anything that people buy.

They never have to crack their brains because everything you need is available for free. You don't need your own product; you don't have to worry about your stores and inventory. All you have to do is to know what people want to buy and get them to buy the product. Of course, it is always a good idea to get the correct guidance. You could finally spend time with your family. You could finally do what you really enjoy. You could really enjoy life as it should have been all along.

Try Affiliate Marketing Way!


GET YOUR FREE LICENSE WHILST THIS WEBSITE IS STILL ALIVE...


Target Affiliates Money is a fast-growing business site where invest money, find affiliates programs, business programs, news today how to make money.

For Newbies: The Language Of Affiliate Marketing


You are about to encounter a language that you have never heard before – the language of Internet Marketing, as it relates to Affiliate Marketing. It is important that you understand what it all means, to ensure that you are signing up for programs that are worth your time.

begginers



As you will learn later, it is important to read the terms and conditions for affiliates. Sometimes, you will be presented with those terms before you sign up, and sometimes you will be presented with them after you sign up – but it is important that you read them, and it is important that you understand what is being said.

It is also important that you understand what the following terms or abbreviations mean:

For Newbies: The Language Of Affiliate Marketing



  • - CPC –


Cost per click (CPC) is the amount of money an advertiser pays search engines and other Internet publishers for a single click on its advertisement that brings one visitor to its website.This relates to how much it costs for each click an ad or link receives when advertising on a CPC basis. In other words, instead of paying a flat rate for the advertisement, you would pay a certain amount of money for each click the ad receives.



  • - PPC –


Pay Per Click is an Internet advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content sites, such as blogs, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system. This relates to CPC, where you pay for each click that your ad or link receives. Google AdWords is an example of Pay Per Click advertising, but are many of this kind of sites.


  • -CPA –


Cost per action, or cost per acquisition, is an online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for each specified action (a purchase, a form submission, and so on) linked to the advertisement.

Direct response advertisers consider CPA the optimal way to buy online advertising, as an advertiser only pays for the ad when the desired action has occurred. An action can be a product being purchased, a form being filled, etc. (The desired action to be performed is determined by the advertiser.) Google incorporated this model into Google AdSense but shut down the offering in June 2008.

eBay has recently announced a similar pricing called AdContext.Basically, this means that you will pay each time an action is taken. The action may be a click, a sign-up, or a sale.
In fact, many affiliate programs also pay on a CPA basis, meaning that each time someone clicks on your link or signs up to receive information through your link, you earn a little money. Google AdSense is an example of this.


  • -CTR –


Click Through Rate, is a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. A CTR is obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad on a web page by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions). For example, if a banner ad was delivered 100 times (impressions delivered) and one person clicked on it (clicks recorded), then the resulting CTR would be 1 percent.Banner ad click-through rates have fallen over time, currently averaging much less than 1 percent. In most cases, a 2% clickthrough rate would be considered very successful. By selecting an appropriate advertising site with high affinity (e.g. a movie magazine for a movie advertisement), the same banner can achieve a substantially higher CTR. Personalized ads, unusual formats, and more obtrusive ads typically have higher click-through rates than standard banner ads.

CTR is most commonly defined as the number of clicks divided by a number of impressions and generally not in terms of the number of clicks divided by the number of persons who clicked. This is an important distinction. As a person clicks a single advertisement multiple times, the CTR increases using the latter definition, whereas the CTR doesn't change using the former definition. This number is usually represented as a percentage, and it refers to the number of times your ad was clicked on, in relation to how often the ad was viewed.



  • -CPM –


Cost per thousand. The amount of money you pay for every one thousand ad impressions.
Also called cost ‰ and cost per thousand (CPT) (in Latin "miles" means thousand), is a commonly used measurement in advertising. Radio, television, newspaper, magazine, Out-of-home advertising and online advertising can be purchased on the basis of what it costs to show the ad to one thousand viewers (CPM). It is used in marketing as a benchmark to calculate the relative cost of an advertising campaign or an ad message in a given medium. Rather than an absolute cost, CPM estimates the cost per 1000 views of the ad.

An example of computing the CPM:

1. The total cost of running the ad is $15,000.
2. The total audience is 2,400,000 people.
3. CPM is calculated as CPM = $15,000/(2,400,000/1000) = $6.25


  • - URL -


In computing, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a type of Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that specifies where an identified resource is available and the mechanism for retrieving it. In popular usage and in many technical documents and verbal discussions it is often, imprecisely and confusingly, used as a synonym for uniform resource identifier. The confusion in usage stems from historically different interpretations of the semantics of the terms involved. In popular language, a URL is also referred to as a Web address.Uniform Relay Link, otherwise known as a link, or a website address.



  • -Affiliate Link –


A URL or link that is assigned to you by the affiliate program.This is the link that you will promote, as it is used to track your clicks and sales.

  • -Contextual Link or Text Link –

A contextual link is a link that looks like content because it is all text. It may be several words long. A text link is a link such as www.link.com, as opposed to a banner ad.

  • -Charge Back –

This will be an important term to you. This refers to when customers cancel their orders, or have their credit card companies reverse the charges. It basically means that you lose a sale. Some affiliate programs will hold money back each pay period to cover potential charge backs/refunds, and release that money to you after a specified period.


  • - SPAM –



Unsolicited Commercial Email. This term also refers to commercial posts on forums and blogs. Most affiliate programs will have strict anti-spam regulations that you must follow.E-mail spam, also known as junk e-mail, is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by e-mail. A common synonym for spam is unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE). Definitions of spam usually include the aspects that email is unsolicited and sent in bulk. "UCE" refers specifically to unsolicited commercial e-mail.

E-mail spam has steadily, even exponentially grown since the early 1990s to several billion messages a day. Spam has frustrated, confused, and annoyed e-mail users.


  • -Revenue Sharing Program –



This is the same thing as an affiliate program.
Revenue sharing has multiple, related meanings depending on context.
In business, revenue sharing refers to the sharing of profits and losses among different groups. One form shares between the general partner(s) and limited partners in a limited partnership. Another form shares with a company's employees, and another between companies in a business alliance.

On the Internet, revenue sharing is also known as cost per sale, and accounts for about 80% of affiliate compensation programs. E-commerce web site operators using revenue sharing pay affiliates a certain percentage of sales revenues (usually excluding tax, shipping and other 3rd party cost that the customer pays) generated by customers whom the affiliate refer via various advertising methods. Another form of online revenue sharing consists in people working together and registering online in a way similar to that of a corporation, and sharing the proceeds.



  • -Co-Branding –



Some affiliate programs offer co-branding options, where your company name or logo is placed on a reseller’s website, or on the product itself.
Co-branding refers to several different marketing arrangements:

Co-branding is when two companies form an alliance to work together, creating marketing synergy. As described in Co-Branding: The Science of Alliance:
"the term 'co-branding' is relatively new to the business vocabulary and is used to encompass a wide range of marketing activity involving the use of two (and sometimes more) brands. Thus co-branding could be considered to include sponsorships, where Marlboro lends it name to Ferrari or accountants Ernst and Young support the Monet exhibition." ”

Co-branding is an arrangement that associates a single product or service with more than one brand name, or otherwise associates a product with someone other than the principal producer. The typical co-branding agreement involves two or more companies acting in cooperation to associate any of various logos, color schemes, or brand identifiers to a specific product that is contractually designated for this purpose. The object for this is to combine the strength of two brands, in order to increase the premium consumers are willing to pay, make the product or service more resistant to copying by private label manufacturers, or to combine the different perceived properties associated with these brands with a single product.



  • -Referral Link –


The same as an affiliate link, and with this Url, you can direct the refferers on the target .On the web there are multiple referral methods. For example posting the business on a forum or simply posting to friends in a professional network and social network. Another option is to use web-sites focused on referral tracking and bonus distribution. There are also websites that will allow people to insert a referral banner into their directory for a large audience to view.

Referral marketing has many different techniques. It has traditional offline applications. These offline applications have also been optimized for the web. In the offline world, there are a number of systems that can be used to generate more referrals.

  • -Tracking –


The method or software used to record sales, clicks, leads, and other information that has to do with your affiliate link.A tracking system is used for the observing of persons or objects on the move and supplying a timely ordered sequence of location data for further processing.


  • - HTML or HTML Code –



HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. This is the programming language used to build webpages. HTML code generally refers to a small portion of HTML code, such as that needed to place affiliate links or banners on your web pages.

HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for Web pages. It provides a means to describe the structure of text-based information in a document—by denoting certain text as links, headings, paragraphs, lists, and so on—and to supplement that text with interactive forms, embedded images, and other objects.

HTML is written in the form of tags, surrounded by angle brackets. HTML can also describe, to some degree, the appearance and semantics of a document, and can include embedded scripting language code (such as JavaScript) which can affect the behavior of Web browsers and other HTML processors.


  • -Partner Program -



This is the same thing as an affiliate program. A channel partner program helps vendors' product and associated services via the channel. Partner programs apply to a variety of partner types, including value-added resellers.

  • -Super Affiliate –



This refers to anyone who is making a lot of money in affiliate marketing, if you are an affiliate. However, if you have an affiliate program for your own product, this refers to your top affiliates – the ones who are making the most sales for you.


  • -Opt-In –


Opt in e-mail is a term used when someone is given the option to receive "bulk" e-mail, that is, e-mail that is sent to many people at the same time. Typically, this is some sort of mailing list, newsletter, or advertising. Obtaining permission before sending e-mail is critical because without it, the e-mail is Unsolicited Bulk Email, better known as spam.

There are several common forms of opt-in e-mail:


  • Unconfirmed opt-in

A new subscriber first gives his/her address to the list software (for instance, on a Web page), but no steps are taken to make sure that this address actually belongs to the person. This can cause e-mail from the mailing list to be considered spam because simple typos of the email address can cause the email to be sent to someone else. Malicious subscriptions are also possible, as are subscriptions that are due to spammers forging email addresses that are sent to the e-mail address used to subscribe to the mailing list.


  • Confirmed opt-in (COI)

A new subscriber asks to be subscribed to the mailing list, but unlike unconfirmed opt-in, a confirmation e-mail is sent to verify it was really them. Many believe the person must not be added to the mailing list unless an explicit step is taken, such as clicking a special web link or sending back a reply e-mail. This ensures that no person can subscribe someone else out of malice or error. Mail system administrators and non-spam mailing list operators refer to this as confirmed subscription or closed-loop opt-in.

Some marketers call closed loop opt-in "double opt-in."

The term double opt-in was coined by marketers in the late 90s to differentiate it from what they call single opt-in, where a new subscriber to an e-mail list gets a confirmation e-mail telling them they will begin to receive e-mails if they take no action. This is compared to double opt-in where the new subscriber must respond to the confirmation e-mail to be added to the list.

Some marketers contend that double opt-in is like asking for permission twice and that it constitutes unnecessary interference with someone who has already said they want to hear from the marketer.

The term double opt-in has also been co-opted by spammers, diluting its value.


  • -Opt-out-



Instead of giving people the option to be put in the list, they are automatically put in and have the option to be taken out.The term opt-out refers to several methods by which individuals can avoid receiving unsolicited product or service information. This ability is usually associated with direct marketing campaigns such as e-mail marketing, or direct mail. A list of those who have opted out is called a Robinson list.


  • -E-mail Authentication-



E-mail authentication is a technique for validating that a person claiming to possess a particular email address actually does so. This is normally done by sending an email containing a token to the address, and requiring that the party being authenticated supply that token before the authentication proceeds. The email containing the token is usually worded so as to explain the situation to the recipient and discourage them from supplying the nonce (often via visiting a URL) unless they in fact were attempting to authenticate.

For example:
  •  suppose that one party, Alice, operates a website on which visitors can make accounts to participate or gain access to content.

  • Another party, Bob, comes to that website and makes an account. Bob supplies an email address at which he can be contacted, but Alice does not yet know that Bob is being truthful (consciously or not) about the address.

  • Alice sends a token to Bob's email address for an authentication request, asking Bob to click on a particular URL if and only if the recipient of the mail was making an account on Alice's website.

  • Bob receives the mail and clicks the URL, demonstrating to Alice that he controls the email address he claimed to have.

  • If instead a hostile party, Chuck, were to visit Alice's website attempting to masquerade as Bob, he would be unable to register for an account because the confirmation would be sent to Bob's email address, which Chuck does not control.

This degree of email authentication is considered by many anti-spam advocates to be the minimum degree necessary for any opt-in email advertising or other ongoing email communication.This refers to ezine subscriptions, newsletter subscriptions, or email lists in general. Basically, it means that the subscribers on an email list have chosen to receive the information the list owner is sending. Typically, they have confirmed their email address and their request by clicking on a link in a
confirmation email, which is known as double opt-in.

  • -1st Tier and 2nd Tier –



If you are signing up for an affiliate program, directly through the company, you are first tier. If you are signing up under someone else, you are 2nd tier.
However, when someone signs up under you, you are first tier, and they are your 2nd tier. Each tier gets a different commission rate for sales. In other words, when you sign up under someone else, when you make a sale, you get a full commission, and the person you signed up under gets a partial commission.



  • -Joint Ventures –



A joint venture (often abbreviated JV) is an entity formed between two or more parties to undertake economic activity together. The parties agree to create a new entity by both contributing equity, and they then share in the revenues, expenses, and control of the enterprise. The venture can be for one specific project only, or a continuing business relationship such as the Fuji Xerox joint venture. This is in contrast to a strategic alliance, which involves no equity stake by the participants, and is a much less rigid arrangement.

The phrase generally refers to the purpose of the entity and not to a type of entity. Therefore, a joint venture may be a corporation, limited liability company, partnership or other legal structure, depending on a number of considerations such as tax and tort liability.

Joint ventures are similar to affiliate programs, but they operate a bit differently. The concept is the same – one person promotes another person’s product for a commission. However, usually the commissions are bigger, and the person doing the promoting is working directly with the owner of
the product.

Joint ventures are not uncommon in the oil and gas industry, and are often cooperations between a local and foreign company (about 3/4 are international). A joint venture is often seen as a very viable business alternative in this sector, as the companies can complement their skill sets while it offers the foreign company a geographic presence. Studies show a failure rate of 30-61%, and that 60% failed to start or faded away within 5 years. (Osborn, 2003) It is also known that joint ventures in low-developed countries show a greater instability, and that JVs involving government partners have higher incidence of failure (private firms seem to be better equipped to supply key skills, marketing networks etc.) Furthermore, JVs have shown to fail miserably under highly volatile demand and rapid changes in product technology.

Some countries, such as the People's Republic of China and to some extent India, require foreign companies to form joint ventures with domestic firms in order to enter a market. This requirement often forces technology transfers and managerial control to the domestic partner.

Another form joint ventures may take are the Joint Ventures (JV's) in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico dedicated to the conservation of priority bird species and their associated habitats. Each of these JV's is different in how they go about their respective missions but all try to follow the principles of Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC). SHC combines biological planning, conservation design, conservation delivery, and evaluation and monitoring. Gulf Coast Joint Venture, Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture, and Prairie Pothole Joint Venture are just three of the 20+ JV's found in North America.

  • -Direct Mail –



Advertising mail, also known as direct mail, junk mail, or admail, is the delivery of advertising material to recipients of postal mail. The delivery of advertising mail forms a large and growing service for many postal services, and direct mail marketing forms a significant portion of the direct marketing industry. Some organizations attempt to help people opt-out of receiving advertising mail, in many cases motivated by a concern over its negative environmental impact.

Advertising mail includes advertising circulars, catalogs, CDs, “pre-approved” credit card applications, and other commercial merchandising materials delivered to both homes and businesses. It may be addressed to pre-selected individuals, or unaddressed and delivered on a neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood basis. This refers to advertising that is done via postal mail. There are strict laws about direct mail, and many affiliate programs will have terms and conditions relating to direct mail to promote their product.



  • -Cookies –



A cookie is a piece of code that is written to the cookie file on a person’s computer when they click on an affiliate link – or when they visit sites that use cookies, such as sites that require a login. The cookie does not harm your customer’s computer at all and is simply there to make sure that you get
credit for the sale if they come back later to make a purchase.

  • - Affiliate Agreement –



The agreement that usually lists the terms and conditions related to an affiliate program. In most cases, you will agree to the affiliate agreement by checking a box when you fill out an online form to join the program. Some affiliate programs, however, will require you to print out, sign,
and fax the agreement. Make sure you read these agreements.
In affiliate programs, it is the terms of service between the advertiser and the affiliate, which defines and governs the affiliate relationship. The affiliate agreement will specify what both parties are responsible for, payout terms and commission for conversions. Most affiliate programs will ask you to agree to the affiliate agreement before submitting your application to join the program.


  • - Conversion Rate – 



This is the number of sales in relation to the number of clicks received. Usually portrayed as a percentage.In Online Advertising it is the percentage of visitors who take a desired action (e.g. make a purchase or click an ad).

The desired action can take many forms, varying from site to site. Examples include sales of products, membership registrations, newsletter subscriptions, software downloads, or just about any activity beyond simple page browsing.


  • -Commission – 



The amount of money that you as an affiliate will receive per sale. Some companies will list this as a percentage, such as 50%, while others will list it as a dollar figure.The payment of commission as remuneration for services rendered or products sold is a common way to reward salespeople. Payments often will be calculated on the basis of a percentage of the goods sold.

Commission rates are generally based upon the achievement of specific targets which have been agreed between management and the salesperson in question.

Offering monetary compensation in the form of commission alone, or commission in addition to salary rather than simply a fixed salary is intended to create a strong incentive for employees to invest maximum effort into their work. Common industries where a commission is used include car sales, property sales, insurance broking and many other sales jobs.


  • -Associate or Associate Program –


Program associates fill a variety of different roles, including that of an office administrator, strategic planner, and project manager. This role is often found in nonprofits and professional associations, where fundraising and donor programs are key to ensuring the sustainability of the organization.

  • -Banner Ad –



A graphic that is placed on your website and linked to your affiliate link.A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking to the website of the advertiser.
The advertisement is constructed from an image (GIF, JPEG, PNG), JavaScript program or multimedia object employing technologies such as Silverlight, Java, Shockwave or Flash, often employing animation, sound, or video to maximize presence. Images are usually in a high-aspect ratio shape (i.e. either wide and short, or tall and narrow) hence the reference to banners.
These images are usually placed on web pages that have interesting content, such as a newspaper article or an opinion piece.

Typical web banner sized 468×60 pixels.

The web banner is displayed when a web page that references the banner is loaded into a web browser. This event is known as an "impression". When the viewer clicks on the banner, the viewer is directed to the website advertised in the banner. This event is known as a "click-through". In many cases, banners are delivered by a central ad server.

When the advertiser scans their log files and detects that a web user has visited the advertiser's site from the content site by clicking on the banner ad, the advertiser sends the content provider some small amount of money (usually around five to ten US cents). This payback system is often how the content provider is able to pay for the Internet access to supply the content in the first place.

Web banners function the same way as traditional advertisements are intended to function: notifying consumers of the product or service and presenting reasons why the consumer should choose the product in question, although web banners differ in that the results for advertisement campaigns may be monitored real-time and may be targeted to the viewer's interests.

Many web surfers regard these advertisements as highly annoying because they distract from a web page's actual content or waste bandwidth. (Of course, the purpose of the banner ad is to attract attention and many advertisers try to get attention to the advert by making them annoying. Without attracting attention it would provide no revenue for the advertiser or for the content provider.)

Newer web browsers often include options to disable pop-ups or block images from selected websites. Another way of avoiding banners is to use a proxy server that blocks them, such as Privoxy.
If you come across other terms or abbreviations that you aren’t sure of the meaning of, make sure that you stop and go find out what it means before agreeing to anything – or before doing anything.

Not knowing can cause problems later on.
Target Affiliates Money is a fast-growing business site where invest money, find affiliates programs, business programs, news today how to make money.



The Cookies Fortune


Cookies are pieces of information sent by a Web server to a Web browser that the browser software is expected to save and send back to the server whenever the browser makes additional requests from the server.




cookies

Cookies might contain information such as log-in or registration information, shopping cart information, user preferences, and so on. When a server receives a request from a browser that includes a cookie, the server is able to use the information stored in the cookie. 
For example, a server might receive affiliate tracking data from a user's browser that attributes a sale or lead to an affiliate.

A tug of war is going on between affiliates and everybody else over the business of cookies. And as the cookie crumbles, affiliates are losing out because of users disabling and deleting their cookies, because of short expiration times (if cookies are being used at all), and because of other anti-cookie forces of nature.What it all comes down to is something of a virtual Boston Tea Party. Affiliates are giving "click action" without "commission" and they're not going to take it anymore.

Cookies are usually set to expire after a predetermined amount of time and are usually saved in memory until the browser software is closed down, at which time they may be saved to disk if they haven't expired.

The problem is :

It's pretty simple: The average user on the Internet is not buying a product on his or her first visit -- and, in most cases, subsequent visits -- to your site. This negatively affects affiliates if you do not award commission on repeat visits through cookies.

Depending on the type of cookie used and the browser's settings, the browser may or may not accept the cookie, and it may save the cookie for either a short time or a long time.
In a recent poll of affiliate managers from the United States Affiliate Manager Coalition (USAMC), nearly half of the affiliate programs are offering cookies for only 30 days or fewer. More than 10 percent offer no cookies at all.
Since affiliate marketing is based on performance, affiliates are up in arms that their performance is not being fairly tracked.

"The No. 1 fault of affiliate programs is the ability to allow the merchant to set cookies at zero days or a short length of time, such as under five days. This effectively eliminates the chance for affiliates to earn commissions and repeat shopping revenue and all buyers not purchasing on the first click-through," commented Mike Hyland ("Webmaster Mike") of Image Marketing Services.

"The average consumer visits five to seven sites when shopping for a product with a cost of $75 or more, or a technical product like digital cameras, computers, and home electronics, so return-day cookies beyond 10 days are essential," continued Hyland.


-Providing a Cookie Solution

The affiliate solution providers vary in their approach to the use of cookies by merchants. For instance, Commission Junction, Moreniche.com, and Google Affiliate Network enable merchants to edit the cookie length, and this information is made available to affiliates for each merchant.


In addition to the cookie


Affiliates face at the hands of merchants, the general public also presents a hurdle for affiliates to collect their commissions.
In response to the public outcry for more privacy, there is a new standard called the Platform for Privacy Preferences Project (P3P), which mandates that Web sites provide machine-readable versions of data-collection and data-sharing practices.P3P is a browser specification developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) that examines XML tags tied to elements contained in a corporate privacy statement, and then triggers privacy settings matched to a user's set of privacy preferences.

Sites that provide third-party cookies to track e-commerce activity are being encouraged by the W3C to complete P3P requirements. Internet Explorer 6.0, under its default settings, will automatically block many cookies routinely placed on visiting browsers unless a site has acceptable privacy provisions in place.

This feature, known as a "Cookie Cutter," is another cookie concern for affiliates.
Are you a cookie monster? Your company controls whether you are P3P compliant and the number of days that you pay affiliates through cookies. Do the right thing: Comply with the P3P standards, and set those cookies for at least 30 days.

Target Affiliates Money is a fast-growing business site where invest money, find affiliates programs, business programs, news today how to make money.

Traffic with  Article Marketing



Although it’s been a tried and true strategy for years, it seems that bloggers are now catching on to the benefits of article marketing as the competition for traffic intensifies. For those who may not be familiar with the technique, article marketing involves submitting short articles to directories such as
Unique Article Wizard.

traffic


UAW Affiliate signup, with permission for others to republish your work on their blog, website or in their email newsletter. In return, you get one or more links back to the site of your choice.Article marketing was mentioned in strategy ten of the Viral Copy Report. Since it’s an important part of any traffic-building strategy, article marketing is the focus of my next viral marketing update. An article that hits a nerve can end up republished all over the ‘net, each with a nice backlink to your blog or free resource.

This time around, I’ve teamed up with Yaro Starak of Entrepreneur’s Journey. Yaro provides insights into his initial experiences as an article marketer, and his piece serves as a great introduction to the strategy. I follow up with specific tips that can help you get the most out of your article production efforts.The result is a free 10-page PDF article marketing report. Feel free to leave any feedback here in the comments section, or share your own experiences with article marketing.


Hеу еvеrуbоdу іn thіѕ article wе want tо run you thrоugh the fіrѕt ѕtерѕ of applying Mасhіnе Learning аnd Artificial Intеllіgеnсе fоr business аnd growth. We're gonna lооk at what are the "muѕt-hаvеѕ" оf AI аnd mасhіnе lеаrnіngfоr business аnd growth. What аrе thе "should hаvеѕ" and whаt аrе thе "nісе tо hаvеѕ".Sо аt grоwth trіbе we train реорlе іn their fіrѕt steps with AI fоr mаrkеtіng аnd grоwth.

Lеt'ѕ use a ѕmаll аnаlоgу.  Nоw just like thе Industrial Rеvоlutіоn tооkuѕ frоm оnе hоrѕе tо 450 hоrѕеѕ, AI and Machine Lеаrnіng are tаkіng uѕ from оnеbrаіn to thоuѕаndѕ оf brain wоrkіng simultaneously tо hеlр uѕ аnѕwеr buѕіnеѕѕ questions.The first step tо using AI оr mасhіnе lеаrnіng for business іѕ tурісаllу tо knоw what questions you need tо аnѕwеr and bring traffic with article marketing.


Fоr еxаmрlе:


  • "Hоw likely іѕ thаt реrѕоn оn оur wеbѕіtе to buy оur рrоduсt оr ѕеrvісе?"
  • "Hоw muсh іѕ this сuѕtоmеr lіkеlу to buy thіѕ уеаr?"
  • "Whісh оnе оf our сuѕtоmеrѕ іѕ gоіng tо ѕtор using thе рrоduсt soon?"
  • "What characteristics should I ѕеgmеnt my сuѕtоmеrѕ bу?"
  • "What аrе thе main personality traits of my сuѕtоmеrѕ?"


Nоw аlthоugh AI аnd mасhіnе learning are like a thоuѕаnd brains helping уоu іnѕіdе your соmраnу tо answer thеѕе ԛuеѕtіоnѕ. In real time, all оf thеѕе dіffеrеnt ԛuеѕtіоnѕ аrе асtuаllу mоrе оrlеѕѕ mаturе in the mаrkеtіng аnd growth ѕрhеrе. Sоmе оf them are rеаllу mаturеthеу'vе been used an lоt there are mаnу use cases, some оf thеm are lеѕѕ mature they're uр-аnd-соmіng аnd there's асtuаllу not that mаnу uѕе саѕеѕ. Wе'vе асtuаllу gone аhеаd аnd mарреd out for you hоw mаturе each of thеѕе аррlісаtіоnѕ іѕ for mаrkеtіng аnd growth.

Just tо mаkе іt vіѕuаl аnd ѕіmрlе.Nоw at thе very tор wе hаvе predictive аnаlуtісѕ.  Predicting оutсоmеѕ - оftеn futurе оutсоmеѕ - bаѕеd оn historical dаtа.  Prеdісtіvе analytics аllоwѕ Mаrkеtеrѕ аnd Hеаdѕ of Grоwth tо predict thе customers life tіmе vаluе, tо identify customers thаt are mоrе likely tо be loyal аnd, оf соurѕе, tо рrеdісt whether аlеаd іѕ a gооd vаluе оr not - hоw muсh rеѕоurсеѕ аnd tіmе ѕhоuld I spend оnеасh ѕресіfіс lеаd.

  It'ѕ аlѕо аllоwіng uѕ tо рrеdісt hоw muсh a ѕресіfіс customer or grоuр оf сuѕtоmеrѕ will bе wоrth thrоughоut thеіr whоlе customer lifetime. The reason іt'ѕ at thе tор оf our сhаrt is thаt it's ԛuіtе easy to іmрlеmеnt and it's bееn proven аgаіn аnd аgаіn аnd аgаіn.

Whаt'ѕ аlѕо fantastic is thаt уоu dоn'tnееd thаt muсh dаtа to run predictive аnаlуtісѕ.  500 600 700 сuѕtоmеrѕ - аndlооkіng аt thе right historical dаtа - is еnоugh tо yield ѕоmе rеѕultѕ. All rіghtNеxt uр is сluѕtеrіng and сuѕtоmіzаtіоn.  Whеrе аѕ рrеdісtіvе analytics was a form of whаt we саll "ѕuреrvіѕеd lеаrnіng" - where уоu knоw whаt you're lооkіng fоr. Cluѕtеrіng аnd сuѕtоmіzаtіоn іѕ асtuаllу a fоrm оf "unsupervised learning". It's thrоwіng an lоt оf dаtа at thе рrоblеm аnd asking the machine lеаrnіngаlgоrіthm tо fіnd thе patterns fоr уоu.

This is аn іmроrtаnt раrt. In mаrkеtіng and grоwth wе uѕе іt tо іdеntіfу patterns tо find the characteristic thаt аllоw uѕ tоѕеgmеnt our dіffеrеnt сuѕtоmеrѕ.  What are the mаіn characteristics that аrе іmроrtаnt tо differentiate mу customer bаѕе?  Wе саll thіѕ data-driven ѕеgmеntаtіоn. Whеrе аѕ we used tо sort of guеѕѕ whаt thе mаіn сhаrасtеrіѕtісѕ were of оur dіffеrеnt сuѕtоmеr ѕеgmеntѕ. . . nоw we've gоt аn extra vоtе іn thе room in the form оf mасhіnе lеаrnіng.

 Thе rесоmmеndаtіоn еngіnеѕ are uѕuаllу buіltthrоugh a mix оf the twо thаt wе ѕаw juѕt аbоvе.  A mix of unsupervised learning аnd a mix оf ѕuреrvіѕеd learning.  We call іt hуbrіd models. Now with thе mаturіtу thаt we've seen аbоvе in supervised lеаrnіng аnd unsupervised learning, соmраnіеѕ hаvе started to use machine learning to buіld а rесоmmеndаtіоn engines whеrе аѕ bеfоrе wе uѕеd to use "іf-thеn-thаt" ѕtаtеmеntѕ.Alt hоugh wе hеаr a lot about them іn thе рrеѕѕ lіkе Nеtflіx'ѕ recommendation engine or Amazon's rесоmmеndаtіоn еngіnе.

 You аlѕо ѕее that many есоmmеrсе, соntеntmеdіа оr transactional соmраnіеѕ аrеn't асtuаllу using thеm уеt and thеу'rеѕtіll building rесоmmеndаtіоn еngіnеѕ bу hаnd. OK, nоw lеt'ѕ gо tо numbеr four.

Natural lаnguаgе processing оr NLP, as wе call, іt is basically аѕkіng соmрutеrѕ to understand аnd sometimes reproduce human lаnguаgе.Thе аррlісаtіоnѕ іn marketing and grоwth аrе also ԛuіtе іntеrеѕtіng.Althоugh they're nоt thаt mаturе yet we currently use nаturаl lаnguаgе рrосеѕѕіng fоr things lіkе ѕеntіmеnt аnаlуѕіѕ: undеrѕtаndіng what сuѕtоmеrѕ ѕау аbоut us оur рrоduсt or brand оr our соmреtіtоrѕ.Wе саn аlѕо use іt to uncover аn іndісаtіоn оf how a сuѕtоmеrіѕ сurrеntlу fееlіng rіght nоw on a сhаt оr оn a оnlіnе fоrum.OK, nеxt uр іѕ рѕусhо-grарhіс реrѕоnаѕ.  Dеmоgrарhіс segmentation аnd behavioral segmentation have a new frіеnd аnd thіѕ frіеnd is called рѕусhоgrарhіс segmentation.

The рѕусhоgrарhіс is an mіx оf уоur personality уоur іntеrеѕt your аttіtudеѕаnd уоur bеhаvіоr.  This іѕ a fіеld we're еxtrеmеlу excited about and we've оnlуѕсrаtсhеd thе ѕurfасе so fаr.  The wау I lіkе tо ѕummаrіzе іt іѕ thаt іf уоu саnundеrѕtаnd the рѕусhоgrарhісѕ of уоur сuѕtоmеrѕ you wоn't understand "who thеу аrе" but асtuаllу "whу thеу buу" whісh is a grеаt way of dеlіvеrіng the rіght mеѕѕаgе аnd thе rіght рrоduсt to the rіght people. And thіѕ іѕ dіffеrеnt tо the сluѕtеrіng I mеntіоnеd before bесаuѕе іn thіѕ case wе'rе асtuаllуuѕіng machine lеаrnіng tо unсоvеr thе psycho-graphics оf our сuѕtоmеrѕ tо dіѕсоvеr what аrе thе personality trаіtѕ оf оur сuѕtоmеrѕ are.Finally the lаѕt оnе at thе bоttоm of our сhаrt іѕ іmаgе rесоgnіtіоn.

This іѕ асtuаllу thе оnе thаt'ѕ mаkіng thе mоѕt wаvеѕ аnd іt'ѕ gеttіng the most рrеѕѕ оn thе рrоduсt ѕіdе оf thіngѕ. Sеlf drіvіng саr, fасіаl rесоgnіtіоn thе stuff уоu hеаr аbоut еvеrу dау іn thе nеwѕ.Fоr thе mаrkеtіng аnd grоwth side wе'rе ѕtіll сurrеntlу еxрlоrіng applications.Few соmраnіеѕ have асtuаllу ѕtаrtеd to apply this fоr growth and mаrkеtіng.Wе'rе super еxсіtеd аbоut image rесоgnіtіоn fоr mаrkеtіng and grоwth butwе don't believe іt ѕhоuld bе one оf your fіrѕt steps.In what оrdеr ѕhоuld уоu ѕtаrt аррlуіng thіѕ?

Wеll еvеr ѕіnсе wе ѕtаrtеd training mасhіnе lеаrnіng fоrmаrkеtіng and grоwth we've асtuаllу put thеѕе two at the tор as the "muѕt-hаvеѕ"ѕесоndlу we hаvе the "should have" once you've аlrеаdу covered the "muѕt-hаvеѕ"аnd then finally thе "nісе-tо-hаvеѕ" оnсе your соmраnу іѕ mоrе mature with AI аnd mасhіnе lеаrnіng.

Of соurѕе dереndіng оn which ԛuеѕtіоn уоu want tо answer, уоu'rеgоіng to hаvе to ѕtаrt соllесtіng dаtа tо bе аblе tо аnѕwеr thаt ԛuеѕtіоn.Nоw оf соurѕе thіѕ doesn't аррlу to еvеrу ѕіnglе business.All buѕіnеѕѕеѕ аrе different and mауbе the order іѕ dіffеrеnt fоr уоu, but wе hоре thаt this can hеlр уоu іn thе first steps tо аррlуіng nаrrоw Artіfісіаl Intelligence and Mасhіnе Learning tо уоur buѕіnеѕѕ аnd grоw.

Target Affiliates Money is a fast-growing business site where invest money, find affiliates programs, business programs, news today how to make money.

Guide To Promoting Your Shop On The Web And Get Traffic


Getting your website up on the Web is just the first step. Promoting your new site is at least as important as developing the site. We have put together this guide to provide quilters and quilt businesses with the information you need a guide to promoting your shop on the web and get traffic.




search engines


Introduction to Search Engines and Directories: 


Many of the visitors to your website are directed to your site by one of the major search engines and directories. Getting your site listed, and well-placed, on as many of the major search engines and directories as possible is a critical task for the new site owner.

Search Engines


Search engines use crawlers to travel around the web locating all of the websites they can find. The websites found by the crawler are placed into the search engine's index which contains a copy of every web page found by the crawler. The search engine uses proprietary software to sort through the huge index every time a user makes a search request. Each search engine's software uses different criteria to rank the hundreds or thousands of pages that have some relevance to the terms used in the search request. The search engine presents its results to the person conducting the search in rank order with the most relevant web pages listed first.

You usually don't have to submit your site to a search engine to get listed in it, provided there are links from other listed sites pointing to your site. However, many search engines have a web page that allows you to submit your site, usually for free, if you feel a need to take an active role. We do not recommend using any of the services that offer to list your website on hundreds of search engines. The only search engines of importance to you are the biggest ones. Most likely all you'll get from the services that offer you listings on hundreds or search engines is an unnecessary hole in your pocketbook and spam in your e-mailbox.

Directories


Directories are populated via human decision-makers. Directories are organized into main categories and many branching subcategories. To place a website into a directory, you must first determine the category in the directory that is most relevant in your site (e.g. Arts:Crafts:Quilting: Patterns). Then submit your site providing the directory with your URL (e.g. www.yoursite.com), a title, and a short description. A human reviewer will go to your site and, using the directories own criteria, decide whether or not to place your site into the directory. Some directories charge a fee to be listed while others are free.

Combination Search Engines and Directories


Many of the major search engines and directories actually provide hybrid results to searchers. Although Google is best known as a major search engine it also has a categorized directory you can use. Although Yahoo was once known primarily as a directory, it now has its own popular search.

Major Search Engines and Directories


Just a few of the major search engines and directories account for a large percentage of the searches conducted on the Web. The biggest players, by far, are:




The Open Directory (www.dmoz.org) is a volunteer-operated directory that is an important place to list your website. Listings are free, though it can take a long time to get your site listed.

The popularity of different search engines and directories may increase or decrease over time. An excellent resource for finding out about and keeping track of the different search engines and directories is www.searchenginewatch.com

Quilting Specialty Directories

There are also a number of directories that are operated just for quilting or crafting sites, such as the directory of quiet professionals. Use the general search engines and directories listed above to locate these specialty directories and sign up your site.

Optimizing Your Web Pages for the Search Engines


The ranking your pages are given by the search engines is determined by a specific algorithm (like a formula). Although each search engine has its own proprietary algorithm, there are some general design principles you should use in designing web pages that will improve how your pages rank on the search engines.

Selecting Key Phrases


The first step in optimizing a web page for the search engines is to figure out what key phrases you want your page to emphasize (e.g. quilt shop). When people are conducting web searches they enter a keyword or phrase into the search engine and the search engine pulls up what it considers to be the most relevant sites for that word or phrase. What are the search phrases that you want your web pages to show up for?

In selecting key phrases you want to pick phrases that your prospective customers would be likely to use to search for a business like yours. However, you don't want to select a key phrase that has also been used by a huge number of your competitors.

For example, you probably wouldn't want to have your primary key phrase be "quilt". Although many, many searches are conducted each day for the word "quilt" there are also thousands and thousands of websites that come up in any search done for that keyword. What are your chances of being one of the top 10 or 20 sites listed in a search engine out of 30 or 40 thousand competing quilting sites? It is best to focus on fairly specific key phrases rather than single keywords.

There are a number of tools available on the Web to help you select key phrases. The Overture search engine allows you to query its search engine about the popularity of any key phrase. Go to http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion to see how many searches have been conducted over the past month for a key phrase you are considering. You probably won't want to select key phrases that have very few searches done, nor will you want to select key phrases that generate thousands upon thousands of searches.

Another useful tool that gives you an estimate of both the number of searches and the number of competing for websites for a given key phrase is available at WordTracker. WordTracker provides this information for a very low fee and has a free trial also. It's well worth checking out their free offer, at least. If you do use WordTracker's service what you want to find is key phrases that are popular, but that have relatively few sites competing for them.

Google has recently revised the keyword tool they provide businesses using Google's pay per click advertising option. As part of the revision, they've made the tool available for anyone to use for free. Trying out Google's tool is well worth your time. Access it at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. The tool will give you information on a relative quantity of searches on Google for a given key phrase and also the degree of competition for the term. The competition information reflects competition among advertisers for the key phrase, but this information gives you a good clue about competition for their unpaid search results as well.

You will probably want to customize each of your web pages for different key phrases. For example, if you have a shop selling quilt kits, patterns and fabric, customize your home page for the key phrases quilt shop, Florida quilt shop, online Miami Florida quilt shop. Then customize a catalog page focusing on quilt kits for the key phrases quilt kits, baby quilt kits, queen size quilt kits. And so on for the patterns page and the fabrics page and guide to promoting your shop on the web.

Page Design


Once you have settled on your key phrases, you'll want to make sure that the key phrases you have selected for a given web page appear a number of times on that page. Don't go overboard with this to the point of creating meaningless text, but do make sure the phrases repeat on the page. Some search engines will rank your page more highly if the key phrase is repeated more times on the page. However, if you overdo it, some search engines may penalize you for what it considers a spam attempt (an attempt to fool it). Because each search engine has its own rules, there's no way to know where exactly you cross over the line from having a nice high number of repeats and into being penalized for spam.

Some search engines will give you a higher ranking if your key phrases appear near the top of the page (in some cases the first 200 characters), or if they appear in larger type, or inside a major heading HTML tag. On some search engines, it may help your ranking to include your key phrases inside HTML comments, or HTML ALT tags (used to indicate what text should appear in place of a graphic on browsers that do not show graphics). Some web developers have resorted to including invisible text on their web pages (text the same color as the background), but most search engines are wise to that strategy and consider it spam. If a search engine believes your site is using what it considers illegal techniques, it will penalize you, possibly even removing your site from its index.

Designing your web pages can get a bit tricky once you start taking into account how the search engines will interpret your pages.

For example, how do you arrange to include your key phrases near the top of your web pages if, for appearance's sake, you need to have your logo and/or other graphics at the top of your page? What if you've finally figured out that using tables is a great way to help you lay out your web pages, but the use of the table also has the effect of moving your text further down on the page? What if you really like using frames, but now realize that most of the search engines are not very good at reading the content of frames-based pages. There are no easy answers to these design issues. All you can do is design the best pages you can while simultaneously optimizing the page for the search engines.

Meta Tags and Title


There are several lines of HTML coding that can be advantageous to include in the heading area of each of your web pages. The content of your actual web page is specified within the HTML tags. However, every web page has a heading section that precedes the body section of the page. Many search engines will look at three particular lines of code if they appear in the heading area. A sample of these three lines is given below:


The META keywords tag allows you to specify a long (up to 1000 characters) list of keywords for your web page. In creating this list, you will want to repeat your key phrases, but also limit the number of repetitions to avoid spamming. There are no hard and fast rules as to what constitutes too many repetitions. An important trick is to embed key phrases in larger key phrases. For example, quilt shop is one key phrase, as is Florida quilt shop, as is Miami Florida quilt shop, as is online Miami Florida quilt shop. Thus, the example above is getting a lot of mileage out of one appearance of the term quilt shop. The META keywords tag is no longer used by most search engines so there is no need to spend a lot of time and effort developing this tag.

The META description tag allows you to specify a 200 character or less description of your web page. Some of the search engines will use this description, if you have included it, as the description shown in your search engine listing. As with the META keyword tag, include, but don't overuse, your key phrases in the description. For the description, tag makes sure that the description is accurate and enticing to prospective customers who will read it. You want the description to generate click-throughs to your site.

The TITLE tag appears in the title bar at the top of the browser window. Thus, the people visiting your site will see the title you specify. In addition, the search engines consider the TITLE tag very important in ranking your page for key phrases. You will want to work one or more of your key phrases into the TITLE tag, preferably at the beginning. Keep the title meaningful and appealing.

If you are creating a website yourself and don't know HTML, don't panic about the thought of these three tags. Check the software you are using to create your site to see if it gives you an option for adding the tags without actually diving into the HTML yourself. If not, then try copying and pasting the tags we've used as an example of the HTML code for your web pages. Your software will have already generated the tags so don't copy those. Just paste the three tags above the tag on your page. Then substitute your keywords, description, and title for the ones we wrote. Save the page and you should be fine.

Getting Links to your Web Site


In determining what ranking to give a web page most search engines rely heavily on analyzing the links that lead to the page. It is possible to have an extremely well-optimized web page and still receive low rankings from many search engines because there are not any links leading to the site. In fact, if there are no links leading into your site the search engines will not be able to even find your site (except possibly through your proposing the site to them via an add URL facility, if they have one).

Registering your site with directories such as Yahoo, other general directories, and some of the quilt-related directories will provide you with some links, but you will have to take the time to locate lots of additional links to your site. One primary way to acquire links to your site is to offer to exchange links with other sites. You will want to find quilt-related sites that have a reasonably high ranking on top search engines. The search engines do not consider all links as equal and will give your site a higher ranking for having links from sites that 1) share a focus with your site (e.g. quilting) and 2) that have a high search engine ranking.

To improve your ranking on a given search engine do a search on that engine for one of the key phrases you are targeting. Now go and look at the sites that came up in the search results. Is this a site you would like to exchange links with? Do you like the way it looks? Does it have a links page? If you would like to link to this site, then look for a contact page on the site or an email address. Write down the email address and the URL for the site.

At this point, you can either contact the other site and ask for a link exchange or you can first add a link to their site on your links page and then contact them. You may get more positive responses if you first add your link. On the other hand, if you add your link before you contact the other site, you'll end up having to remove some links to sites that do not respond to you.

Try and include a description of the other site with your link to them. The search engines frown on pages that are composed of nothing but links, so make sure that your links page has additional text on it in the form of these site descriptions. Try and get your link exchange partners to include a description of your site too. Include your best key phrases in the description of your site as this will be helpful with your search engine rankings. Also, make sure that at least one, preferably more, of your major key phrases is included in the text that composes the actual hyperlink leading back into your site from the site of your link partner. This hyperlink text is currently considered very important by the search engines.

When contacting another site for a link exchange, your email should say something about the site you are contacting, at least giving their URL. Tell them a little bit about your site and why you think their visitors would appreciate having the connection to your site available. Don't go overboard here and give a big promotional rap. Respectfully ask if they would be willing to provide you with a link from their site to yours. Don't be afraid to ask a second time.

The links you add to your site will not especially benefit you with the search engines, though your visitors may appreciate the extra links. The links coming into your site will benefit you with the search engines plus they may provide you with additional traffic from your link partners.

Getting links is a lot of work. But, if you want to rank well in the search engines without spending a lot of advertising money you will need to get the links.

If you can find other ways to get links from other sites, by all means, do. If you can think of content you can add to your site that would make other sites want to link to your site, then, by all means, add this content. Professional search engine optimizers call this "link bait" and it is an excellent way to get links without having to do a link exchange - if you can come up with a great idea and find a way that other sites will know that your great content is there on your website.