Hightide Web Resources Articles, News, and Reviews

by John Elley

1. Offer other web sites free content to post on their web site. Include your link on all of your content. The content should related to your web site because it will be in front of your target audience.
2. When you visit a web site you’ve enjoyed a lot, write a review for the site. Write about the benefits you gain from the web site. Tell them they can publish it on their web site if they link to your web site.

3. Allow other people to publish your e-zine on their web site. Include your web site’s ad and link in each issue you publish. This may also help you increase the number of people that subscribe to your e-zine.

4. Market your web site as a free web book. Design your web site with a title page, table of contents, chapters, etc. Just allow other people to give away the web book by linking to your web site.

5. Give your visitors an instant article directory. Tell your visitors they can instantly add a free article directory to their web site by linking to yours. Just place your ad or banner ad on top of the article directory for your main web site.

6. Allow other web sites to use your discussion board for their web site visitors. Just have them link directly to the discussion board. Include your web sites ad or banner ad at the top of the discussion board.

7. Start a members only web site. Tell visitors what’s in your members only site and what it costs to gain access. Offer them a free membership if, in exchange, they link to your web site.

8. Offer your visitors a free sign up to your affiliate program. Pay them commission to sell your products or services. Just give them an affiliate link to track their sales. People will link to your web site to make extra money.

9. Create your own award site for other web sites. Give the winners a graphic or text link to place on their web site when they win. This will link your web site to theirs and draw more traffic to your web site.

10. Are you an expert on a particular subject? Offer people free consulting via e-mail if, in exchange, they either link to your site. People will consider this a huge value because consulting fees can be very expensive.

11. When you purchase a product and it exceeds your expectations e-mail the business a testimonial. Make sure your statement is detailed. Give them permission to publish it on their web site if they link to your site.

12. Create a directory of web sites on a specific topic. Give people the option of adding the directory to their web site by linking to it. Put your business ad at the top of the directory’s home page.

13. Exchange content with other web sites. You could trade articles, top ten lists, etc. Both parties could include a resource box at the end of the content.

14. Allow people to download software at no charge from your web site, if they link to your web site. The software could be freeware, shareware or demos.

15. Trade other forms of advertising to people that link to your web site. You could trade e-zine ads, print ads, autoresponder ads, classified ads, ebook ads, etc.

16. Give away web space to people for free. Since you are giving it away for free, request they link to your site by placing your ad or banner to the site.

17. Join or create a web ring. A web ring is a group of web sites on a similar subject agreeing to link together. To find a web ring to join type keywords “web rings” into your search engine of choice.

18. Create an online club or association. Tell your visitors what’s included in the membership and what it costs to join. Offer them a free membership if, in exchange, they link to your web site.

19. Allow people to use an online service or utilities from your web site if, in exchange, they link to your web site. The online service could be an e-mail account, search engine submission, web page design, copywriting, proofreading, etc.

20. Offer a free e-book to your web site visitors. The ebook should be related to your target audience. Allow them to give the e-book to their own web site visitors by linking directly to your web site.

You can get free website content here and use it on your website to keep your customers coming back.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

John Elley is the owner of Free-Viral-Advertising.com which is a Free Advertising Service that helps you to get real people to actually visit and look at your website. Click Here to see how the power of Viral Advertising can explode the traffic to your website and increase your business.

by Lauren Hobson

Most small businesses know that a good link building strategy is essential to a web site’s success in the search engines. If you want your site to show up on the first few pages of search results, you really need other credible web sites to “vote” for you by linking to your web site. Up until recently, it was common for web sites to exchange reciprocal links in order to help each other build inbound links to their web sites. But while this used to be a useful strategy, the rules have recently changed and now you must learn how to play the new link-building game!

Be Picky About Reciprocal Links Reciprocal links can sometimes be helpful, but only in very specific instances. In order to be useful, the incoming link (from the other web site) should be on a page that has a higher page rank than the page on your web site containing the link that goes back to them. Plus, the text of the link on the other web site should match one or more of the keywords on your site. If you can get reciprocal links that meet these criteria, then they may be helpful to you in the search engines. Also remember to steer clear of inbound links from link farms, free-for-all sites, and paid links since these are almost always penalized by the search engines.

It’s Not a Democracy The idea of a reciprocal link counting as a “vote” for your web site may be appealing, but there’s also a downside. Each link on your site that goes out to another web site essentially deducts a vote from your site as well. Reciprocal links can be a no-gain situation for you, and could end up hurting your site overall in the eyes of the search engines.

Voting Against Yourself One of the new link-building rules that may surprise you is that one-way outbound links on your site may be a bad idea from a search engine’s point of view. For instance, if you have a “Helpful Links” or “Resources” page on your site that contains one-way outbound links to other sites, you are probably losing lots of ground in the search engines. To avoid these “negative votes” for your site, be sure your outbound links are coded with the NOFOLLOW attribute so the search engines know these outbound links should not be deducted from your web site’s score.

Link Content is Key In order for your links to really be powerful, there must be a relationship between what you say about your web site, and what other people on the web say about your web site. How does a search engine determine this? It’s all in the link text. The text of each inbound link to your site must match the keywords used on your web site, or else the search engines may simply ignore that inbound link.

For example, if you want to rank for the keyword “travel” but the inbound links to your site contain just the name of your company, then there’s no way the search engines will know that these inbound links have anything to do with travel.

Send Your Site to De-Tox Ranking well in the search engines can be a moving target, so it’s important to do everything you can to protect your site. Always try to build inbound links that contain your relevant keywords in the link text, and get rid of the reciprocal links on your site that are not working for you. Also be careful when coding your one-way outbound links so that you aren’t unintentionally “deducting votes” from your own web site. These simple steps can help you build effective inbound links, while avoiding those that may have recently become bad news for your web site’s search engine rankings.

About the Author:
Lauren Hobson is the Editor of Biz Talk Newsletter and the Five Sparrows Marketing Blog from Five Sparrows, LLC. Read the most recent Five Sparrows articles on small business websites and marketing or subscribe at www.fivesparrows.com/biztalk. Copyright 2007

Who says you can’t get anything for free anymore?

I was researching html validation, search engine spiders, and search engine performance today and came across a few websites that made my job SO MUCH easier. I’ve linked them below, so give them a look when you get a chance. On second thought - make a chance, the information’s THAT important.

Free Internet Marketing and SEO Tools - I was particularly impressed with #17, the Spider Viewer. It allows you to see your page as a Search Engine Spider would. I ran some of my websites through and was amazed at the lack of some keywords as well as the abundance of some nonesense! I have a little work to do.

Dr. Watson’s HTML Validator - Again, you enter your url, then you’re presented with a list of “errors” found in your html. Rest assured, there’ll be errors. I read an article on About.com and the author said that their own website had lots of errors. It does, however, point out some basic html validating errors that could be causing problems in other browsers and/or in search engine performance.

Below the list of errors found, you’ll be able to see your html code with numbers before each line - it makes it a cinch to find exactly where the problems lie. Did I find any errors on my websites? Again… I have work to do!

by A Wealth of Words

Keyword articles have quickly become one of the most popular ways for Web site owners to generate traffic and expose people to their marketing messages. These articles can be a great tool for any Web site owner, but keyword articles need to be high in quality or they will not serve their intended purpose. If your articles aren’t attracting visitors or keeping them on your site long enough to sign up for your e-mail list or make a purchase, then you may need to sit down and take a look at how you have been writing them. Use these five tips to improve the quality of your keyword articles.

1. Focus on your audience first and then focus on keywords. One major problem with keyword articles is that they are often so full of keywords that they lose their readability. When you write an article, write it for the reader first. Then you can go back and add keywords to help you optimize the article for your Web site. If you’re not focusing on the reader, the quality of your articles is going to suffer and visitors may become frustrated that they can’t find the information they need.

2. Don’t use misspelled words as keywords. This is another case of not focusing on the reader. Keyword articles with these misspellings may drive some traffic to your site, but it will turn off others who may think you did a poor job writing and proofreading your content.

3. Proofread your articles before posting them on your site or submitting them to directories. First impressions count, and you don’t want a reader’s first impression of your business to be that you make errors and don’t correct them.

4. Use headings and bullets in your keyword articles to make them easier to read. Bold headlines can help break up text and bulleted lists can highlight important information. Because many people only skim pages of text when they use the Web, this will help focus their attention on those content areas that you feel are the most important.

5. Make your keyword articles relevant to your business. For example, if you run a computer repair business, you may have articles about virus protection, common computer problems, troubleshooting tips, and other computer-related topics on your Web site. Articles about lamps or your favorite vacation destination don’t fit in and won’t be of interest to readers who are looking for computer information.

Using keyword articles can be an important marketing and traffic-generation tool for your business. If you follow these five tips and consistently produce quality keyword articles, you can be sure your business will be more successful.

About the Author:
Keyword articles can make or break your business, but quality is key. If you need keyword articles for your Web site or for directory submission, A Wealth of Words can give you quality keyword articles at an affordable price. Find out more about keyword articles and other Web content writing services that can make you money.

by Jim Edwards

Every serious online business owner eats, sleeps and breaths targeted traffic to their website. They spend the most money and time trying to attract first-time visitors to their sites in hopes of generating new sales and subscribers. But, believe it or not, it’s easier to increase your income by simply selling more of the visitors you already get than trying to chase down more traffic.

The solution? Tracking & testing! Probably the most overlooked and underutilized, but certainly the most powerful strategy for increasing sales and opt-in subscriptions. If you spend any time or money on advertising, you must start testing and tracking. Simply put, “tracking” means you measure the effectiveness of each individual advertising source you use to promote your business.

For example, if you advertise in email newsletters, you should know how effective each newsletter ad rates compared to all the others in terms of sales and subscribers generated. This enables you to know whether an ad makes or loses money. Testing means you constantly look for ways to improve your ads in small, incremental amounts that add up over time.

The most common (and effective) tests you can run are A-B split tests, which pit two variables against each other to determine which converts more lookers into buyers. Split testing headlines, price points, and guarantee periods make, from my experience, the best places to start testing.

The reason testing and tracking can double your profits (or more) lies in the power of small, incremental improvements. Lets say, for example, you decide to do a series of split tests on a website that currently converts 1 in every 100 visitors (1% conversion). You test, headline, price, guarantee and a payment plan. If each of the 4 tests yields a .25% increase in conversion, you would not see an increase in sales to 2% (4x.25%), but actually an increase to almost 2.5% since each improvement builds on the last!

The most basic tool in testing and tracking revolves around the use of advertising link tracker software. These tools measure the number of clicks on individual advertisements (text links, banners, pay-per-click ads, etc) and then measure sales or subscriptions generated as a result.

You get two choices with link trackers: a hosted service or software you install on your own server. A hosted service offers the advantage of easy setup and use. Most of the time you just sign up for the service, enter the link you want to track, get your tracking code, and you’re off to the races.

The disadvantage of a hosted service is that, if it gets abused, using the URL of the service in your links can get your emails blocked or your pages banned by search engines. The advantage of hosting the software on your own server is that you maintain a higher degree of technical control and can avoid the banning issues. The main disadvantage of hosting it yourself involves the fact that you really don’t have anyone to call for help if something goes wrong.

One of the most popular hosted link trackers online is HyperTracker.com, though I’ve not used the service. My favorite link tracker is actually part of an integrated e-commerce system at http://www.MysiteSales.com. This service enables you to track your sales and subscriptions made through the shopping cart.

Two options for software you install on your own server are Dynatracker.com and ProAnalyzer.com. Both provide decent link tracking, though no system I’ve tested provides 100% accurate results. But, with that said, failure to test means you’re leaving money on the table by wasting visitors you could otherwise convert to buyers with basic effort at improving your sales messages.

Copyright 2006 Jim Edwards

Check out this One-Stop Ads, Visitors, Clicks, Actions & Sales Conversion Tracking / Split Testing Solution at: http://GoTo-Pro.com/silver/716

About the Author:
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by-step and click-by-click how to get your own money-making videos posted online… “Finally! A Quick and Easy Way For YOU To Painlessly Create, Post and PROFIT From Your Own Money-Making Online Videos… Without Being a Computer Geek or Paying Outrageous Fees To A Webmaster!” => http://www.WebsiteVideoSecrets.com

by William McRea

The Internet is full of Saturday Morning Bloggers. These bloggers ignore their blogs all week, then they post a few dozen articles in their blog and then spend a few hours adding comments to other blogs. This is a great way to spend a Saturday, but it provides very little SEO marketing benefits.

Search engines need a steady flow of content. Most blogs that appear in a web search have a post that has been published within the last few hours. Dozens of blog search engines operate for the sole purpose of alerting the big five search engines of new content. The posts that you publish on Saturday are already out of the lists by Sunday afternoon. That is why it is important to provide the search engines with fresh content daily.

A steady stream of content is so important that some blog software programs have a delayed publishing plug-in. This lets the blogger upload multiple articles at one time, but it waits until a pre-determined time to publish each one. This is a great idea, but it is only half the solution.

The blog search engines must be pinged shortly after the blog is posted. There are several good pinging services on the web. Most of them ping a few dozen blog search engines, telling them that your blog has new content.

This confuses most bloggers. They believe that tagging an article with a blog search engine like Technorati or Del.icio.us is all they need to do. Tagging is a method of introducing a list of your articles to potential readers. Tagging has nothing to do with building in-bound links or a web pages rank. Tagging is for peoples benefits. Pinging is for the benefit of search engines.

Publishing one blog a day and then pinging the blog search engines will ensure that the big five search engines never forget your blog. www.weblogs.com gives a visual of how blog pinging works. Each of the blog posts that appear on the page have pinged the blog search engines.

An overly simplified method of explaining pinging is by comparing it to crawling a webpage. Instead of waiting for a robot to crawl the blog, ping the search engine while the news is still fresh.

Another excellent strategy is to invite your reader to leave a comment. Comments are picked up by search engines as new content. The only problem with allowing comments it the potential from comment spam.

About the Author:
The Commentator is a unique program that blocks comment spam, while it builds a double opt in mailing list. For more information visit The Commentator.

I’m a Stephen Pierce fan and have been since I first heard him speak. If he writes it, I read it….If he says it, I listen…

Below is a great article by the man, himself, that deals with getting traffic to your website. Read it carefully and put his words into practice. Also, be sure to check out Rush Hour Web Traffic.

10 Sure-Fire Phrases That Will Increase Your Website Traffic
by Stephen Pierce

1. “Bookmark This Web Site Now” Tell your visitors to bookmark your web site. They may see your web site listed in their bookmarks and visit again. You should also give then a good reason to bookmark your site. For example tell them you add new content everyday.

2. “Subscribe To Our Free E-zine” Tell your visitors to subscribe to your e-zine. When they subscribe you’ll capture their e-mail address. Every time they read your e-zine, it will remind them to return to your site.

3. “Participate On Our Discussion Board” Ask your visitors to participate on your online discussion board. By participating they will meet other people. By meeting other people, they will revisit your web site on a regular basis to stay in contact with them.

4. “Sign Our Guestbook” Ask your visitors to sign your guest book. When people sign your guestbook you may get valuable feedback or constructive criticism on how to improve your web site. This may help you increase traffic to your web site.

5. “Use Our Free Content On Your Site Or In Your E-zine” Allow your visitors to use your articles on their own web site or in their e-zine. Just ask them to include your resource box. This will spread your advertising all over the internet.

6. “Refer This Web Site To A Friend” Ask your visitors to refer your web site to a friend(s). They may know someone that would benefit from visiting your web site.

7. “Fill Out Our Online Survey” Ask visitors to fill out your online survey or questionnaire. You could use it to get valuable feedback on ways to improve your web site to increase traffic.

8. “Enter Our Contests” Ask your visitors to enter your online contest or sweepstakes. People love to win stuff, and they will visit your web site to try.

9. “Give Away Our Freebie To Your Visitors” Allow your visitors to give away your online freebies to people that visit your web site. Include your ad on the freebie and those freebies will multiply your traffic.

10. “Join Our Affiliate Program” Allow your visitors to make money selling your products or services. This will increase your traffic because they will link to your web site.

Be sure to visit http://www.rushhourwebtraffic.com/rhwt.html for 12 online videos detailing dirt-cheap easy ways to drive tons more traffic to your website… FAST!

BONUS: Here are 5 High Powered Ways To Increase Your Traffic

1. Trade links with other web sites. They should be related to the subject of your web site. Instead of trading links, you could also trade banner ads, half page ads, classified ads, etc.

2. Start an e-zine for your web site. When people read each issue they’ll be reminded to revisit your web site. They’ll see your product ad more than just once which will increase your orders.

3. Form an online community. It could be an online message board, e-mail discussion list or chat room. When people get involved in your community they will regularly return to communicate with others.

4. Write articles and submit them to e-zines, web sites and magazines that accept article submissions. Include your business information and web address at the end of the article.

5. Give away an electronic freebie with your ad on it. Allow your visitors to also give the freebie away. This’ll increase your ad exposure and attract people to your web site at the same time.

Get 12 “Cheap & Ugly” Web Traffic Strategies. If You’ve Got No Budget, No Computer Skills… And No Traffic… Then Here Are Some “No-Brainer”, “Do-It-On-The-Cheap” Instant Traffic Solutions. Check them out here at http://www.rushhourwebtraffic.com/rhwt.html

by Alan Zunec

Have you ever wondered why certain web pages go to the top of search engines, why others never get found? Well that is why it is important to understand and educate yourself about the search engines and what they can do for your business. With more and more businesses turning to an online presence, you really need to add this to your marketing mix. Search engines like GOOGLE, YAHOO and MSN, can do a wonder for your results. There are millions of Internet users around the planet and often they will use a search term to find a product or service that they need.

What is the value of search engines? Well, it is like having an employee work for your every day. Plus with your web presence you automatically build credibility to your end user. Having a web presence allows your customers to come back to help you build your bottom line of contacts. Just imagine how much referral business potential is out there, if you utilize the power of the Internet. This product is only becoming more superior then ever. Many companies hire search engine experts to help get their companies ranked on the popular sites.

As with any business, you really want to see the results that are required. As everything else, it will take time. A search engine is a top-notch tool if utilized accordingly and you definitely can reap the benefits. Understanding how they work is half the battle. A good web team can definitely help you strategize and make things happen. All things take planning and good execution. The power of the search engines can bring a potential of thousands of new customers to your existing business every year that will definitely keep you busy.

About the Author:
Showing you how to be successful online with web building tools thru http://www.broadwavestudios.com/ and giving you tips on search engines via http://www.broadwavestudios.com/Client-Success.html.

If you’re like me, you type in the address to your favorite search engine over 20 times a day. (Research, research, research and the occasional nosiness). That’s why a recent article caught my attention. Every search carries with it a little bit of risk. Read the article linked below to see what you (and I) can do to prevent problems.

THE DANGEROUS SIDE OF SEARCH ENGINES

Increase Sales By Flying Under Your Prospects’ “Radar Defenses”

- by Jim Edwards

(c) Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved http://www.thenetreporter.com =====================================

How do you persuade someone to do what you want them to do?

A whole world of marketing exists around us trying to do that every minute of the day. Do you even notice it anymore or, like your prospects, have you subconsciously set up a system of “radar defenses” against the daily bombardment of marketing messages?

Take a minute and count up the advertising methods which fight for your attention (and money) every day. Just the basic list includes:

· Yellow page ads

· Newspaper and magazine ads

· Postcards, catalogs, and direct mail circulars in your “snail mail” box

· Radio pitches interrupting the flow of your favorite songs

· TV ads - about 20 minutes worth per hour now

· Hundreds of storefronts, “mega” malls, and strip malls

· Highway billboards by the thousands

· Circulars hung on your doorknob

· Illegal signs on stop signs and telephone poles

· Legitimate email messages

· Spam email or UCE (unsolicited commercial email)

Just these 11 sources can overwhelm your brain with marketing messages. Like trapped rats, people develop defenses against this never-ending onslaught. They throw up a wall or a “radar defense” that goes into action the minute they smell a “pitch” or a sales job. Don’t blame them. We all do it!

So how can you get around this psychological wall against the constant sales and marketing messages? Well, the answer does NOT lie in hitting people with more frequent and obnoxious advertising or sly, sneaky tactics. You might get them to trust you for a minute, but it will backfire in the long run.

You must do two things instead:

1. First, you must establish credibility for yourself and your business as an expert.

2. Second, you must reduce their fears about doing business with you.

Doing these two things will get you past their defenses and allow you the opportunity to persuade them to buy your product.

So how do you accomplish these two “simple” things? What will win someone’s attention, raise your credibility, and lower their fear factor all at the same time? The one-word answer really applies to most everyone.

Trust!

If a seller can get behind your defenses with information which makes you trust them, then that credibility will carry over into a sale much of the time.

How can you get this credibility?

Well, take this next fact as online marketing “gospel,” for many people have proven its effectiveness.

Fact: Publishing and promoting with free articles gives you one of the most powerful opportunities available to tip the buyer’s credibility scale in your favor.

How can we prove this works? Quite easily actually. Take a break from reading this and go check out a newspaper or magazine for a minute.

Which do you trust more, the ads or the articles? Most people will choose the articles hands down. Why? Because the articles don’t try to “sell” you anything. Instead, they hand out useful information for educational or other practical purposes.

Most of us grew up in a culture which says we can believe and “trust” what appears in the standard “news” or “information” format. In other words, if it appears in print, then we can believe and trust the author.

So go ahead! Use this lifetime of conditioning to your advantage in selling your products and services!

Very few things will create an atmosphere of trust and confidence in people as reading one of your articles on a subject that greatly interests them. It shows you know your business. It also demonstrates you will do more than just try to sell them something.

Publishing articles literally lets you fly under their advertising “radar defenses.”

So remember these points when deciding whether or not to use articles to promote your business:

1. Few things create as much trust and confidence in the minds of potential customers as reading an article you wrote on a subject which specifically and intensely interests them.

2. Articles establish credibility quickly because, right or wrong, we’ve all been trained to trust the “news.”

3. An article, or series of articles, will differentiate you from the competition, who bombard people with nothing but sales messages.

4. Providing content-rich, non-sales-oriented articles will also help build and solidify your relationship with existing customers so they give you repeat business.

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About the Author
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co- author of an amazing new ebook, “Turn Words Into Traffic,” that will teach you how to use free articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate link! Click Here ==> http://hop.clickbank.net/?gemgem20/ezarticles