What are they looking for?

When you want to find something on the web, chances are good that you start by typing in a keyword or phrase into a search engine. When someone goes looking for products, services, or content like your site's, you want them to see your site at the top of the search results. The way to achieve this is by strategically positioning your site to maximize your search engine ranking on the most important keywords and phrases. But how to decide which keywords matter most to your site?

Tried and True Methods

There are several ways to find your strategic keywords, but there are a few obvious sources. First of all, think of what words you would use to search for your site's content. The next obvious place to look is in the "keywords" META tags and page titles of other web sites. Finally, look at newsgroups, mailing lists, and discussion groups on similar subjects to make sure you haven't missed any keywords. Simply browsing the subject lines of a few days worth of newsgroup postings will probably give you all the keywords you need.

Now, there's a Better Way...

So, you've got a list of keywords written down. Now it's time to find out which ones really matter to web surfers. We'll accomplish this by taking advantage of a "pay per click" search engine and a "pay for placement" site. For each keyword or phrase on your list, try it out to see how popular that search is.

After finding out how popular each keyword or phrase on your list really is, you can focus your search engine positioning efforts in the right place. Nearly every web site operator in your field of interest is trying to maximize their ranking on the most popular keywords. You may not be able to reach anywhere near the top of the list for your most prized keywords. Now that you know how popular each one is, though, you can work your way down the list until you start to hit pay dirt.

Always try to rank well on the most popular terms, but don't forget that sometimes the best gold is a little farther down the mine shaft. We've gotten quite a few hits from the term "Web site promotion toolkit," but it may take us months to see a top 20 position for "Web site promotion." While we tweak our doorway pages for the most popular search terms in our field, we're still getting traffic from several search engines. And that's the way this game is played.

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Due to the success of the Google search engine, other major search engines have decided to change the method used to rank Web pages. Unlike other search engines, which rely mainly on keywords or meta-search technology to find the most relevant Web pages, Google offers an advanced technology called PageRank to deliver the most relevant results.

Due to the success of Google, major search engines have decided to adopt a similar ranking system to Google's. The new ranking system will measure and rank the number of links that are directed towards a particular Web site. Not only is the number of links important, but the quality of the links also very important. Therefore, a link from a popular site such as Yahoo is going to give your site a higher rating.

You'll notice the first three links are from Yahoo. It would be logical to conclude that out of all the pages linking to eboz.com, Yahoo's links are given the highest rating.

To search for Web pages linking to your site, simply search for: "links: yourdomain.com".

Get Your Site Linked

Ok, we've established that you need other Web sites to link to your site to improve its chances of receiving a high ranking. So, where do you find these link partners?

Well, since you can find out who links to your site, it's just as easy to find out who's linking to your competitors' Web sites. Simply use the same search formula, but replace your domain with that of a competitor.

It would seem logical to conclude that sites who would link to your competitors would more than likely be willing to link to yours as well. Now you can steal some of the traffic your competitors have been getting from these sites! The great thing about this technique is that sites that link to you are likely to stay linked to you for a long time. Some links will be removed as Web pages change. You simply replace those lost links by finding new sites.

So how do you go about getting a site to link to yours? Simple. Just ask! You may be surprised to find how receptive webmasters are to these proposals.

It might seem like a lot of work to personalize every single email, but it will greatly enhance your chances of success. That extra touch of personalization can be the difference between the recipient reading your email or sending it to the trash bin in 2 seconds. In your email, clearly explain exactly how you believe a link to your site would benefit their visitors.

When you contact the webmaster of the site, make your email appear as personal as possible. Address each by his or her name. Usually you can find it in their Web site somewhere. Also add your direct contact information to your email; full name, company, address, and phone number.

Make it easy for them to link to you. Offer a variety of links; banners, buttons, and text links. Email them the HTML link code, so all they have to do is copy and paste the code into their pages. This will dramatically increase the odds of them agreeing to add your link.

Some webmasters will want something in return. In that case you can either offer a link back to their site, or offer them a payback in terms of a commission for each visitor they refer. You can buy software that will keep track of these links.

By persuading other Web sites to link to yours, your search engine rankings will improve greatly. In addition they will be sharing some of their traffic with you. Another bonus is that as their sites grow, your site will grow with them -- without any extra effort on your part!

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At its most basic Affiliate Marketing is simply the establishment of a relationship between two or more website owners for their mutual financial benefit.


The majority of websites are established to promote products or a service of some kind, yet they are little use if no-one knows about their existence. A website operator may decide to leave the generation of visitor traffic to his site to the various search engines. However, most search engines work by simply taking account of the number of other sites linking to yours as a measure of your popularity. Affiliate Marketing is a way to take advantage of this fact to generate revenue, not only for you through your own site, but also for those sites that point visitors in your direction.

For most of the 20th Century, the traditional sales and marketing model was predicated on spreading your message as far and wide as possible. Traditionally, this was done through media advertising, direct marketing to potential customers and the use of sales teams, both direct and indirect. In many ways, Affiliate Marketing takes this model and applies it to the Internet - with one crucial difference. In traditional marketing, the message is spread hoping that it will reach prospective customers - an outward-bound style of marketing; with Affiliate Marketing, the potential customers are drawn towards the product information - an inward-bound marketing model that is far more effective.

In the early days of the World Wide Web, the message was spread through mutual link exchanges. A simple mechanism where one website would exchange a link with another on the basis of “I’ll tell my visitors about your website, if you tell yours about mine.” However this was little more than a “hand-shake” type arrangement with no incentive for links to be promoted and no financial benefits attached.

Affiliate Marketing takes that concept and expands it.

Assume that you are a store selling a popular commodity item such as books. While you want people to come to your bookstore, it would also be a good revenue generator if people purchased books through your website, saving you overhead and enabling you to order books from the distributors as they are purchased, cutting inventory and reducing risk. So how do you get people to come to your website to buy the books they are interested in?

Offer to pay anyone who sends a visitor from their website to yours a small percentage of any resulting sales.

The owners of that website now have both a benefit from the link and an incentive to promote your store. You can almost guarantee that your link will go from being buried on the “Links” page to being on the front page of their site. They will also spread the word among people of the same interests, and before long you have more people supplying revenue generating links to your site. The link exchange has now become “Look at this cool site and these cool products – Go visit it.”

Now you have an Affiliate Marketing program in place.

So one simple definition of an affiliate marketing program is that a producer (X) establishes a relationship with another website owner or publisher (Y) wherein he provides a financial benefit for Y to direct visitors to X’s website.

Of course, the more associate publishers that content producer signs up, the broader his reach and the more revenue will be generated.

Learn from Affiliate Junktion

Affiliate Junktion, a global leader in providing internet marketing and affiliate marketing services, is now recruiting new affiliates to join the Affiliate Junktion Program. It is completely FREE to join, with 1-on-1 personal support from your very own dedicated Affiliate Manager.

When you join the Affiliate Junktion Program you can expect quality results, superior personal support and a steady, ongoing income online through their performance-based program.



They set a high industry standard for program quality and provide the most sophisticated tools available. Affiliate Junktion operates the only truly global affiliate marketing network where you are guaranteed to earn.

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Almost everyone enjoyed art class, but let's be honest--there was probably only one kid in each classroom with actual talent. Such is the case with true Web design. So you may not be a brilliant artist, but you can probably create a credible Web site design that serves the purpose of attracting attention. If your graphic art talent is limited to stick figures and cartoon landscapes, well then, this article may be for you.

Know Your Limitations

Honestly judge your own abilities. You know the level of artistic talent you possess, so operate within your limits. If you can't draw two straight lines, stick to computer-generated graphics. If you don't know the difference between a pixel and a palette, perhaps you're better off with text effects. If art is important to your Web site's business, don't be afraid to consider hiring a professional.

Know Your Tools

If you expect to create professional-caliber graphics with Adobe Photoshop the first time you boot up the software, then you're in for a surprise. Chances are you'll either create a big mess or get frustrated pretty quickly. If you've never used any kind of graphics-editor before, give yourself time to learn. Find software that has a number of creative built-in special effects and makes your first-time images look better than average.

Familiarize yourself with dingbats--these are little pieces of icon art that a talented illustrator has developed and turned into a font. There are thousands of them available for download on the Internet for free or a small fee. Each letter corresponds with a graphic; for instance, type the letter A, and you'll have a beautiful coat of arms. Dingbats come in all shapes and sizes and can look like buttons, arrows or caricatures.

If you aren't a whiz at HTML, consider a WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) layout editor like FrontPage or WebSite Creator by CM4all. This type of site-editor makes it easy to envision your final Web pages--the changes you make in your template will be reflected nearly identically on your Web site.

If you do know a little something about programming and Web page design, consider building your site with external, included files. One of the most important rules of good Web design is a consistent look and feel, starting with the navigation. The navigation should look and operate the same on every page. If you construct your navigation within an external file that is included at page load, you can save yourself tons of repetitive efforts.

If you want to add a new section, instead changing the navigation on hundreds of pages, you merely change the included file and you've added more functionality. There are probably other pieces of your site that will appear on every page. If so, put them in external files--you'll be glad you did.

Plan Ahead

This step is essential from the most gifted professional to the earliest beginner. Even if you can't draw or program, you can visualize. Spend a lot of pre-computer time conjuring images in your head. Try to transform those images to paper so you'll remember what you had in mind.

Use Photographs

For the no-talent artist, photography becomes the ultimate substitute for computer-generated art. Buy a digital camera or a scanner. If you need a graphic that looks like a pumpkin patch, take a picture of one. Want to create that perfect background scene to set the mood? There's no better realization than the actual thing. Props in photography can serve an equally compelling purpose as that omni-filtered vector you spent days developing. If you don't have the money or inclination to do digital photography, there are plenty of stock catalogs available for a reasonable fee.

In summary, why make it harder on yourself than it needs to be? If you get intimidated by the marvelous professional artists out there, you'll never give yourself a chance. Some of the most enjoyable sites on the Web are created by people who wouldn't be able to dAZzle anyone with their artistic skills--but understand how to use the tools and techniques that are available to every Web designer.

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In some ways, this tip might be the most important. Every Web site should fall under one of the following categories:

• Informational: Serve as a resource for information about a trade, product or cause.
• Service-oriented: Offer a service, sell a product or advertise a company.
• Personal/entertainment: Keep visitors engaged via your articles, stories, blog or multimedia.

If your site doesn't fall into one of these three categories, you may want spend more time brainstorming and planning your site. Try to come up with a mission statement to keep your goal in focus. If you're going to publish a Web site, do it because you feel you have something of value to offer to your audience.

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Your Web site is simply part of your business, and it should reflect the way you do business. While thousands of words have been written outlining the rules of Web design, perhaps the most important one is for you to be yourself online.

If you tend to be conservative in the way you conduct your business, don't publish a Web site with loud colors and an informal tone simply because some tutorial said that's the way it should be. The tone will end up feeling awkward and forced. A Web site that engages, informs and entertains will benefit your business, but remember--you can accomplish those goals the same way you're comfortable doing them offline.

Bottom line--you don't need to change anything about your business' identity because you're putting it online.

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A common misconception about Web development and Web marketing is that customer service is not a requirement. But putting your business online means that you're creating another channel of contact with your customers--they're going to expect replies to their e-mails.

Listen to your visitors for the same reason you would seek external advice on personal issues, or edits to your writing. It's hard to be objective about something you've created.

It's a good idea to insert an e-mail contact link somewhere highly visible on the homepage. Encourage users to leave a comment about the site. Sure, you'll get more e-mail than usual, but this is direct feedback from your customers. Use it constructively to improve your Web site's ease of use and clarity. Plus, you might even receive a positive comment every now and then.

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Have you ever run across a site that hasn't been updated in the past year or more? Did that company or organization seem more or less professional to you?

Update your site. Make sure all your content is fresh. You may think that you have a wealth of material and that it could take the average visitor months to finish it, but not everybody will be interested to read it all. If someone visits your site, finds a good article and enjoys it, they will likely come back at some point to read more. But if nothing changes, your visitor isn't likely to come back again.

Once you stop staying on top of your site, so will your visitors. Sometimes there simply isn't time to make updates as often as you would like. Maybe set an update goal for yourself when you're planning, and stick to it. If you're launching a blog, there will be an expectation of regular updates, so you'll want to set reminders to ensure those updates happen. But if you're launching a simple online presence for your uncle's sleepy accounting practice, then you could probably go months without an update.

An honest understanding of a particular Web site's needs at the outset will help keep it from going stale too quickly.

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Content is the backbone of your Web site. When writing your content, reflect on the planning stage and specifically, your mission statement. Every bit of content should relate to the mission statement. If your mission statement is to make people laugh, then anything that isn't funny should be left out. If your mission statement is to inform people about whales, then you shouldn't talk about browser updates.

Don't create filler content. Plan your content as you planned your site. Use short declarative sentences, bulleted lists and descriptive subheadings so that your content is scan-able.

Don't steal content from other Web sites. Do your own research and share your own opinions.

Keep the content going. Update your site and your content regularly. Don't put something up and leave it there for years.

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Your customers have to understand what your point is. Keep your message simple and clear. If you do a lot of writing on your site, be direct and to the point.

Use one-word menus, alt text descriptions in your image tags or window.status Javascripts. Try not to use too many colors, and try not to use contrasting colors. Your visitors should have an idea of where to go and what to do as soon as the page has loaded.

Don't move your Web site's navigation all over the place. Keep menus in one place. Keep your links to the left, right or top of your page, and content in the middle.

Leave plenty of white space. Crowding images and text together will give your site a noisy, confusing feel. White space directs the eye where it needs to go.

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Your site has to be organized. Keep your directory structure clean. Remember the flow chart you created in the planning phase? Each branch of that chart deserves its own directory. Create a directory for images, and create directories for every other section of your site.

If you leave everything in one or two folders, maintaining it will be an absolute nightmare. The more you update, the less organized it becomes. Finally, you'll get to the point where it takes longer to navigate the server than it does to create the updates themselves.

If you move pages around a lot, try to use absolute URLs (http://www.yoursite.com/file.html) instead of relative URLs (/file.html) for your graphics and links. It's easier to work with absolute URLs than to fix 50 broken links every time you move a page.

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If your Web site is slow, customers will leave before the graphics load. Sometimes when users encounter a graphics-intensive site, they search for an alternative while that page is loading. Your customers will do the same. Optimize your Web site's graphics and code so that it loads quickly.

Try using Macromedia Fireworks, Adobe Image Ready or Photoshop to optimize your graphics. Make the size of your graphic files as small as possible without compromising too much on image quality.

Optimize your code. There are several utilities that will eliminate extra data from HTML files to make a page smaller in size. Use them on every page on your site. Try iWebTool.com's Optimizer or search for "HTML optimizer" to find other similar tools.

Reuse graphics. Avoid creating extra graphics when you can use an existing one. A different graphic might make the site look nicer, but the existing graphic will have loaded and be in the visitor's cache. Your pages will load faster if a visitor's browser only has to download the new HTML.

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Your site should have a similar theme throughout its entire design, so if you decide to enhance your homepage by changing colors or graphics, remember that you'll want to carry over the theme to your subsequent pages to give your site a unified feel.

If you are not design-savvy or artistically inclined, consider enlisting outside help with the artistic elements of your Web site. Paying for graphics or hiring a professional designer is worth the investment if your goal is a Web site that you'll use as a serious business tool.

First, figure out what color scheme you want. Establish what colors represent you the best. Usually two colors are enough. You don't want your colors to be too subtle, nor do you want them to be too vibrant.

Now sketch out your graphics/buttons. Try to keep the colors down. Lots of colors are not only distracting, they are also larger files. Keep your graphics clear and easy to decipher. If you plan to have any effects, such as rollovers, try to do it as subtly as possible.

Before you create graphics, lay out the site out without graphics. Use tables and table backgrounds to illustrate the color of the site. Create a rough draft of your home page. Show your draft to other members of the team or friends, and listen to their opinions. Sometimes the best feedback can come from people who aren't Web-savvy.

If you aren't satisfied with the draft, create another one and repeat the same process. Create as many as it takes and don't work on anything else until you've settled on a final layout.

Once you're satisfied with your layout, create the graphics and plug them in. You may find that what you had initially planned doesn't work with the final layout. That's okay. It's inevitable that adjustments will be made during the creative process.

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Invest some time in planning your Web site and it will pay off. A well-planned Web site will serve your customers better and help you achieve your business goals. Try the following exercise:

First, prepare a mission statement. A sentence or two should be plenty. Try to summarize exactly what you are trying to accomplish with the site. Once you've done that, the rest of the planning simply becomes a means towards arriving at your mission statement. If you begin to lose sight of your mission statement, write it on the top of all your outlines, or use it as the title of your template pages.

Now sit down with a notepad and a pen. Lay out a site map in a flow chart style. This chart should show all the pages you intend to create for your Web site and how they fit together.

Once you have your site map drawn, outline your homepage on paper. Draw your tables and the names of the pages linked from the homepage. Sketch your graphics out and position them. Note where you want to place scripts or animations. Even if you aren't the world's greatest artist or your handwriting is tough to decipher, you're on your way to painting that picture in your head.

Now, outline each individual page you link to from your homepage. As you begin each page, ask yourself the purpose of the page. Sometimes you'll find there is little purpose in a page and delete it from the site map. That's fine; it's best to find your flaws before you're too deep into the project.

Your vision will probably change to some degree during the creation process, forcing you to edit the map or redesign some of the pages. When that happens, get the same notepad out, and modify from there. Laying out a site on paper is faster than laying it out in code.

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Get the most out of your Internet presence by considering these ten key points when creating your Web site:

1. Planning
2. Design
3. Speed
4. Organization
5. Clarity
6. Content
7. Service
8. Administration
9. Personality
10. Usefulness

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