Webmaster and SEO Blog May Archive

If you have a website, you've got tons of time invested and some amount of money. Imagine a hobby that doesn't cost you, but actually pays you instead. Your website can be just that, if you do it right.

Google Adsense – If you only take one advertiser, use them. The ads are unobtrusive, largely relevant to your site's pages, and can pay almost as well as anything. You'll need to play with colors, placement, and layout, but it can easily pay you $1 to $10 per thousand pages read.

Value Click, Burst and Tribal Fusion – These are old school throwbacks with so much money built in they haven't yet had the decency to die. The ads are not relevant to your site, are sometimes offensive (despite the ad filters), but they can pay alright. If you offer "user edited" comment, even if it's just forums or comments on articles, you may not be accepted into these so-so networks.

Commission Junction – Avoid them at all costs. You can make a couple bucks if you buy stuff yourself through your site, but unless you show a million pages a month, you're not going to see a noticeable benefit from it. Also, their tracking system is unreliable at best, and you'll miss many commissions you're due.

Amazon – Amazon.com has a pretty interesting system. You can list relevant books, movies and other items, and earn decent (though small) commissions from the sales. Amazon is an honest, diligent company. Sites like Pimp Central have low traffic, but still earn money from targeted, niche products offered by Amazon.

Private, Direct Ads – The very best way to handle ads is by selling them yourself. You'll need a good sales pitch, a PayPal account and some reasonable way to track the ads. You can use a full-featured free system like PHPAdsNews, or integrate it through your Google Adsense account.

What to Look for in a Web Host

When picking a host for your website, consider these guidelines.

1 – "Free Hosts" are never free. There is fine print and you need to find the catch. They may put ads on your site, severely limit your storage or bandwidth so that you'll still end up paying, or end up owning your content or domain name. Cheap hosting is much better.

2 – Make sure you get enough bandwidth for what you're doing. 10-20 gigs a month if you run mostly text with a few, reasonably sized photos. You should be able to get this kind of hosting for much less than $20/month.

3 – If you plan to have more than one site, get a hosting plan that allows for multiple domains on the same, single account. BlueHost.com allows unlimited domains, and does it cheap.

4 – Check out their service reputation. They should offer a member forum and an actual telephone number for times when things go bad.

5 – Look for included ad-ons like PHPNuke, PHPBB2, Joomla and WordPress. If you want a content management system (CMS), it's ideal to have it included with your package.

6 – No package is cheap, especially those offering "unlimited bandwidth", if your site runs so slow that your readers can't see it. Make sure the host doesn't have a thousand sites on a single server, or you'll find your neighbors traffic slowing down your site.

7 – If you're planning on hosting video on your site, look for a much bigger, much more expensive package. You'll still pay less than $50/month, but consider letting YouTube or Revver host your video, which you can imbed right back into your site.

8 – If you're going to have an adult site, find an adult host. Most companies don't permit that sort of content, but you can still find plenty of great hosts just the same.

How to Choose Your Domain Name

There are some really terrible domain names out there, but still some really great ones you can pick for your site. Here are a few guidelines to bear in mind when picking your name.

1 – No numbers. If you want www.YourSite.com, but find it taken, don't use www.1YourSite.com. It may help search engines, but you should cater to people, not search engines.

2 – Stick with dot-com extensions. If you go big as "Craig's List", you'll give up tons of traffic and profit by having the dot-org, instead of the dot-com. Avoid weird ones like dot-TV and dot-biz like the plague.

3 – No hyphens. www.YourSite.com is far better than www.Your-Site.com. People don't remember dashes.

4 – If your name is available, like www.FirstLast.com, take it. If not, it's okay to add a middle initial. Use www.FirstMLast.com if it's free. Easily check availability at WhoIs.sc.

5 – Two words are better than three. www.YourSite.com is better than www.YourSiteName.com. Easier to remember, harder to mistype, and shorter, which is better. Three can still be very good though.

6 – Avoid adding "the" to your domain, if possible. If you own www.TheSiteName.com, word of mouth will goof it and go first to www.SiteName.com from your promotion.

7 – Don't be afraid to invent a new word for your name. Napster was a short, phoenetic, invented word, and everybody found it, remembered it and had no problem typing it. Besides that, you can invent a brand this way. Keep it simple, short, and easy to guess the spelling.

8 – If you're committed to the name, register for the maximum 10-years, and never sweat about losing it by forgetting to renew it.

9 – Last advice, don't pay too much. $12 is a good maximum, but always read the fine print before selecting a registrar.

Web-Rings are Dead, and Never Really Lived

In case you've got your new site and you're looking to promote it here and there, forget the concept of Web Rings. They are just about useless these days, and really weren't worth all that much back in the day.

1 – They're a very old-school method of website promotion. They haven't kept up with the dynamic changes in the web.

2 – Even back when they "worked", they could only deliver maybe 10 clicks a day, but were highly prone to unfair abuses by unscrupulous webmasters.

3 – A couple clicks won't do you any good, but the code used may goof up your site's templates.

4 – If you have a blog, sign up for Technorati. It's better and smarter than Web-Rings.

5 – Join DMOZ.org by getting linked and listed in the appropriate category. You'll get as much traffic and even more links around the web.

Web Rings were a good idea, but they never really caught any traction, and never much worked in the first place. Today, you'll be lucky if you can consider it a joke.

TechShark.net Interview

Name of your website?

TechShark.net

Your name?

Chris Townsend

Your Location (city, etc)

Orlando

When did you start your website and why?

Me and my partners started TechShark.net in 2005 in Honolulu, HI With our Data Center in Fremont, CA opened in 2006, and our new Marketing Center in Orlando, Fl 2007. We started TechShark.net so we could kiss our bosses goodbye!

Please give us a short summary of your website, business model, etc

TechShark.net offers the expertise you need to reach out to consumers or a defined audience and drive traffic to your website. With the right strategy and planning, search engine optimization can turn your website into a powerful lead generation tool.

Read more: TechShark.net Interview [click]

Realetic, Dhaka Interview

Name of your website? Realetic, Dhaka Your name? Rumel Your Location (city, etc) dahakadhaka When did you start your website and why? To provide lo cost solution Please give us a short summary of your website, business model, etc Realetic is a Global IT Solution providing firm including high quality web design, media works & Software solution. It runs from Canada. Our main target is to provide low cost service . We believe Whole world is a one bussiness market. penser globalement. Read more: Realetic, Dhaka Interview [click] Tags: web design • web interview • 0 Comments. - Permalink

Pajama Professional Interview By Interviewer at 05/24/07 01:47 Name of your website? Pajama Professional Your name? Sara Christensen Your Location (city, etc) Silverdale When did you start your website and why? I started my blog in March. I've written blogs since they were first introduced, but decided it was time to try my hand at monetizing one. Please give us a short summary of your website, business model, etc Pajama Professional is a blog featuring free and inexpensive ways to make money online, blog reviews and resource recommendations. Read more: Pajama Professional Interview [click] Tags: make money • web interview • 0 Comments. - Permalink Ebits Online Interview By Interviewer at 05/23/07 06:45 Name of your website? Ebits Online Your name? Alex Bengo Your Location (city, etc) Nairobi When did you start your website and why? In August 2006 just after graduating from University. My dream was to operate a reputable web design and web marketing company that will offer cost-effective web solutions to its clients in Kenya, so the website was a starting point. Please give us a short summary of your website, business model, etc The website is dynamically designed using HTML, CSS and PHP. It gives complete information about the company and the services offered. Read more: Ebits Online Interview [click] Tags: web design • web interview • 0 Comments. - Permalink • Page 1 • Page 2 • Page 3 • Page 4 • Page 5 •