closed blog

Great Articles From Site Pro News

The 10 BestResources for CSS

Stop the Slaughter of Innocent Copy!

7 Steps to Creating Your Own Podcast

I Can't Afford a Publicity/Public Relations Campaign ...

The Impact of Personalization on SEO

11 Ways To Drive Traffic Away From Your Website

MOVING ON - SEOAware.com is Where My New Blog Is...

Well, I really liked blogger a lot, but I think it is time to move on for a variety of reasons. Anyway, the new blog is at SEOAware.com

Need a Great, Affordable, Interactive Web Site? I Found a Way to Have it ALL!

We have moved to SEOAware.com

SEOs want to win $1,000? If you are creative you can! ;-)

We have moved to SEOAware.com

Trying to Learn CSS?

We have moved to SEOAware.com

Problogger Posts You Must Read- My Favorites For The Week

We have moved to SEOAware.com

Great 2006 Article From SEO Book That Can Still Be Useful In 2007

We have moved to SEOAware.com

101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006
http://www.seobook.com/archives/001792.shtml

Idea On How to Keep Your Business Blogs Updated Regularly

We have moved to SEOAware.com

On vacation

Just thought I Would mention that I am on vacation. I am in Oklahoma...will be back in Florida on the 17th of June... :-)

Bruce Clay Newsletter Has Important Article You Need To Read

BACK TO BASICS: Optimizing Content for Universal Search

Another Great Article on SiteProNews.com

Why Most "SEOs" Need to Learn to Shut Up By Mark Daoust (c) 2007
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This is all I can offer today; I have so much work I don't know which way to turn.

Have Good Day!

What is an Alt-tag?

We have moved to SEOAware.com

I have decided to merge my two SEO Blogs...

I don't have time to have two so, I am going to post some of the entries from there here...then you won't have to go back and forth and I won't either. :-) Sorry for the confusion!

LSI Algorithm

We have moved to SEOAware.com

Another Post on Keyword Stuffing + Info on Meta Tag Stuffing

We have moved to SEOAware.com

Link to a Must Read Article- All businesses can benefit from this article.

Ten Stories That Can Sell Anything By Jerry Bader (c) 2007

http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2007/may/11.html

Shopping Carts- Designersi.com

I blogged about Prostores.com and at the time I did not realize that they took a chunk of every sale made. If I had known I wouldn't have reviewed them. Sorry about that, my friendly readers.

I would recommend checking out DesignersI.com. There is a 15 day trial that allows you to try our their software and look at their features. I have been using it and enjoying the flexibility. They have two plans if you want to build it yourself and two if you want have it built for you:

Build-It-Yourself

Professional Plan - (Green 1)$39.95/Month$ 30.00 One time account activation fee

• Build-it-yourself site building tool and email. You can build your 40-page hosted website in no time using the internets most advanced website builder.
• No contracts
• Web hosting included
• 40 Meg Hard Drive Space
• 80 pages
• 10 email addresses
• Webmail
• eMarketing tools
• Search engine optimization
• Site traffic reporting tools

Platinum Plan - (Green 2)$59.95/Month $60.00 One time account activation fee

Build-it-yourself site building tool and email.

• No contracts
• Web hosting included
• 80 Meg Hard Drive Space
• 15 email addresses
• 1000 pages
• Webmail
• eCommerce package
• eMarketing tools
• Search engine optimization
• Site traffic reporting tools

Build-It-For-Me (Orange Plan)

Professional (orange-1) $499.00 One time set-up/design fee$39.95/Month

• No contracts
• Web hosting included
• 40 Meg Hard Drive Space
• 80 pages
• 10 email addresses
• Webmail
• eMarketing tools
• Search engine optimization
• Site traffic reporting tools
• 48 hour turnaround
• Web pros work for you
• Search engine optimization
• 5 web pages designed
• 1 customized header

Platinum Plan - (Orange 2)$749.00 One time set-up/design fee$59.95/

• No contracts
• Web hosting included
• 80 Meg Hard Drive Space
• 15 email addresses
• 1000 pages
• Webmail
• eCommerce package
• eMarketing tools
• Search engine optimization
• Site traffic reporting tools
• Initial store set-up—up to 20 products
• 48 hour turnaround
• Web pros work for you
• Search engine optimization
• 8 web pages designed
• 3 customized headers
  
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All plans have Ebay and PayPal integration. I have to say that creating pages and subpages is extremely easy. I also love the following features

Store Settings: You can activate your Shopping Cart Indicator and choose when and where you display your Privacy and/or Refund Policies, plus prompt an eNewsletter sign-up at check-out.

Shipping & Tax Zones: Determine your delivery options and calculate shipping and tax costs passed on to your customer at the time of order depending on their geographic location.
Sales & Promotions: Manage sale and discount offers and create promotional codes to extend discounts to preferred customers.

PayPal® Payment Settings: Allow your customers to process transactions through the Internet’s most popular E-Commerce Gateway for small business – PayPal®. With over 50 million users worldwide, PayPal® is the recognized standard on the web, ensuring the highest levels of security and reliability.

eBay® Integration: Sell your products on eBay®, The world's most popular and largest Online Marketplace.

Payment Gateway Settings: They offer numerous gateways to handle online transactions.

Visually Appealing Templates: The templates are nice and classy. Some of the nicest templates I have seen yet.

Military Encryption: I don't think I even need to expand on this.

You can also create newsletters, visitor polls, create captions, easily add your custom logo and manage the layout of the page.

The 15 day trial has allowed me to choose a template and create a store that I can look at and decide if I want to invest in it (and I do). In addition, the templates can be modified to become wider. FTP set up is available.

I have spent the last week reading every review on every shopping cart there is. I have asked advice, I have used trial periods and there is nothing I like more than the Designersi shopping cart web builder. I spoke with one of their managers today and he stressed that superior customer service is what sets their company apart from the others. So if you have a question, call them. You will be surprised at how polite and friendly they are.

Win SEO Training from Bruce Clay...Coooooooooooooool!

Bruce Clay is having a contest and you can win passes to the Search Marketing Expo conference in Seattle next Month. They want to reward a reader and that reader gets to choose a non-profit organization to attend. Transportation and lodging is the responsibility of the winner.

For more info check out Bruce Clay

If You Have a Business, YOU NEED a Web Presence

I know that there are a lot of businesses out there doing fine without a web site, but the truth is no matter how well you are doing you need a web presence. There are still some people in the world who are not into using the net; I don't know many, but I know they are out there. You need to be thinking about the millions that are using it.

People are searching the web every second of the day trying to find a business they can trust and/or they are trying to learn about what services they need. They are researching and if you do not have a site people can learn nothing from you or about you.

So, when it comes down to choosing a handy man, who do you think people will trust? A guy in the phone book or a guy on the net with a nice web site, that details his services and experience? I know who I would choose. In today's world you can have every thing you have ever wanted on the net inexpensively. There is no need to spend your child's college fund to develop a web presence. This is not a requirement. I wrote about GoDaddy and the great prices they offer because they allow anyone to acquire an attractive web site, with all the additional features a business could need.

You can easily develop a web presence and not only make more money, but also create a business reputation people can trust. If you do not have a web site there are several ways to attain one affordably. To create an influential web presence you will need an attractive web site, an optimized web site and you will need to market your business & web site.


Below are some places where you can begin creating a web presence affordably. Some are more affordable than others.

Melissa Fach
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GoDaddy.com offers:

• GoDaddy.com Hosting Plans ranging from $3.19-11.99 a month


• Blog Hosting 2.99 a month


• SSL Certificates from GoDaddy.com -Single Certificate (19.99-17.99), 6-1 ($69.99-55.99 a year) and Wildcard (199.99-159.99)


• GoDaddy.com Virtual Dedicated Hosting -$23.99-99.99 a month


• Quick Podcast from GoDaddy.com -$42.24-19.99


• Dedicated Servers at GoDaddy.com - $63.99-301.90


• GoDaddy.com Quick Shopping Cart® - $7.99-49.99


• .MOBI Domains from GoDaddy.com-$14.99 per year


• WebsiteTonight®- Three plans- 5 pages, 10 pages & Unlimited pages which includes 4GB Disk Space, 200 GB Bandwith, 400 Email Accounts & Unlimited Email Forwards will cost $11.69 for 12 months or $10.39 for 24 months- Website Tonight has a content management system that allows you change and update your photos and content easily. You can also have forms for visitors, a forum, a mobi site, a shopping cart, secure payment by credit cards, as many pictures as you want, files your clients can download and you can easily add HTML adds from CJ to make money. It is easy to customize the templates. Oh and you have a great web stats section for free.

GoDaddy offers a lot more, but that is a quick rundown.

Network Solutions

• Do it Yourself Websites- $4.95-12.46 a month.


• Do it for Me- design fee-$399-1399 plus $49.95


• E-commerce packages Standard $49 set-up-fee and $49.95 a month- Premium $99 set-up-fee and $99.95 a month


• Web Hosting $996-29.13 a month


• Email $1.67 a month per mailbox (500 MB of storage 20 MB of attachments)


• SSL Certificates start at $89 a year


• Web Analytics- 3 plans - $12.95 a month, $29.95 a month, 59.95 a year

Pro Stores by Ebay- For those wanting an estore

• A 30% discount off the ProStores monthly subscription price following the free trial for eBay Stores sellers.


• A one month free trial for anyone.


• PayPal is intregrated into the site (this is great- I have some clients that have large businesses that way to pay me via PayPal- nice feature)


• Web Site Hosting and Set-Up Tools- step-by-step design wizard- no HTML knowledge needed. You can use templates or create your own through Dreamweaver or use their design services.


• Merchandising and Marketing Tools


• Payment and Order Management Tools


• Inventory Management and Reporting


• Very easy to upload products and create subcategories.


• Cross Promote & Featured Products


• Marketing tools submit your listings to Froogle, Yahoo Shopping, Shopping.com, Shopzilla
  Search Engine Optimization Manager- Makes optimizing EASY for you!


• Ebay Integration


• Email Marketing


• Promotions Tools- Free Shipping, Discounts


• Easy-to-use shopping cart


• Multiple Payment Options, Payment Gateways and Secure Checkout


• Real-Time Shipping Service Integration


• Order manager- pending orders, completed orders, orders shipping, credits, order history etc.


• Automatically notifies you when you are low on inventory and easy to hide a product when you run out.


• Real-time reports on sales that are also customizable.
  Performance Analysis


• 24/7 Support and Interactive Resources.

Free Extensive Web Stats- Google Analytics This link will send you to another blog entry that is very long on Google Analytics.

Want to open an eStore affordably? There is a new option available...

Ebay has opened ProStores.com. I actually learned about them through CJ. I went to their site and reviewed everything. One thing I have discovered is that when you use companies with a solid economic foundation you tend to get more reliability and more options than other companies are able to offer. ProStores.com offers an interactive tour that details all their features.

I like ProStores because obtaining a shopping cart that is optimizable is CRUCIAL for any ecommerce business! ProStores.com has an SEO manager that is easy to use and it was created for optimum performance.

ProStores offers:

• A 30% discount off the ProStores monthly subscription price following the free trial for eBay Stores sellers.
• A one month free trial for anyone.
• PayPal is intregrated into the site (this is great- I have some clients that have large businesses that way to pay me via PayPal- nice feature)
• Web Site Hosting and Set-Up Tools- step-by-step design wizard- no HTML knowledge needed. You can use templates or create your own through Dreamweaver or use their design services.
• Merchandising and Marketing Tools
• Payment and Order Management Tools
• Inventory Management and Reporting
• Very easy to upload products and create subcategories.
• Cross Promote & Featured Products
• Marketing tools submit your listings to Froogle, Yahoo Shopping, Shopping.com, Shopzilla
• Search Engine Optimization Manager- Makes optimizing EASY for you!
• Ebay Integration
• Email Marketing
• Promotions Tools- Free Shipping, Discounts.
• Easy-to-use shopping cart
• Multiple Payment Options, Payment Gateways and Secure Checkout
• Real-Time Shipping Service Integration
• Order manager- pending orders, completed orders, orders shipping, credits, order history etc.
• Automatically notifies you when you are low on inventory and easy to hide a product when you run out.
• Real-time reports on sales that are also customizable.
• Performance Analysis
• 24/7 Support and Interactive Resources.

As you can see ProStores.com has all the features you need to have a successful online store, but most importantly it is easy to optimize. You do not have to be a pro to optimize your product pages with their SEO manager.

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I know how much it can cost for an optimized shopping cart. I have written numerous articles on why ecommerce businesses need them and the negatives of not having one. Now, it is affordable for everyone- large and small businesses. It is a great idea and a potential money maker for you.

Melissa Fach- Sarasota SEO Copywriter

Regarding Virginia Tech- Off Topic Obviously

First let me say that I am praying for all the students, the parents, the victims and their families. I have a teenager and I know how much I worry dropping him off at high school everyday. I know the parents are terrified and worried sick and I know there are many that feel blessed that their children are alright.

This has become a very tough world and I really feel like our government officials need to find a way to remove the massive amount of stress parents deal with. When our kids are really young we have to worry about kidnappings and child molestors. As they age we still need to worry about these things and then we have to add school violence throughout middle and high school. Now, we can clearly see that we cannot stop worrying about school violence when they go to college.

When you combine these worries with other worries, such as drug & alcohol abuse, HIV, girlfriend/boyfriend issues, teen driving, rape etc. you can see that parents have an enormous amount of things to worry about. I do believe people have a right to own a gun, but there needs to be some major changes in this country. How many more young people have to die before people understand that major change is needed?

Someone needs to TRULY step up and make some changes. I feel President Bush's statement was as true as any statement could be...

"Schools should be places of safety, sanctuary and learning. When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom in every American community."

Melissa Fach
PanacaWriting.com

The Basics of Keywords and Keyword Phrases

Keywords and keyword phrases are used to differentiate your web site from your competitors' web sites. For example, if you sell fences made of wood in Sarasota and your competitor sells aluminum fences in Sarasota you could use the following phrases to optimize your site:

• Sarasota Wood Fencing
• Wood Fencing Sarasota
• Wood Fence Materials Sarasota
• Sarasota Wooden Fencing.

Basically, you come come up with a combination of keywords to set your site apart from your competitor's. The goal is to help Internet users find your site. When you optimize your web site, properly, with effective keyword phrases and other Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies you are essentially helping your web site become more visible on the search engines. You want people to find your site when they are looking for the product and/or services you provide.

HOWEVER, you may want to include the phrase " Sarasota aluminum fences" within your site somewhere. Your site could show up along with your competitors in the search engines, if it is optimized properly. You may not sell aluminum fences, but you could explain why wood is better and possibly gain a client.

SEO

SEO is all about helping businesses gain higher ranking on the search engines. We all know that there is only so far we are going to go when searching for an item or service on the web. If your business is on page 5 of Google, Yahoo or MSN you may not be seen very often. Page one of Google is always the goal, but this goal is not accomplished easily. A lot of research and consistent work is needed to attain this goal.

If you are hoping to have an optimized web site it is wise to consult an SEO company for help. There are many areas of a web site that must be optimized and a properly coded web site is essential for success. There are many other areas that cannot be ignored and I will discuss these in the upcoming weeks.