Internet Quick Tips 2002-2003

Generating Advertising Revenues with Google's AdSense 

Last week, Google began it's AdSense program where everyday webmaster's like you, can display Google's AdWords on your website. Google pays you each time a visitor clicks on one of the ads.

Google won't disclose just how the revenues are shared, but they say, "our goal is to enable publishers to make as much or more than they could with other advertising networks."

You have to apply to be accepted into the program. You cannot place the ads on a personal web page nor can you have "excessive" advertising already on your page. Be sure to read through all the program policies before you start.

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Sure a Splash Page is Pretty, but Should You Use One?

A splash page is the front page of a website that simply has a nice graphic or Flash movie and a link to click to enter the website. You may be thinking about using a splash page or even already have a splash page on your home page. Sure, it's beautiful and you may have even spent a pretty penny on it, but a splash page could be doing you more harm than good.

What we're telling you is nothing new, but we still see a lot of splash pages out there, so we thought we'd pass on the unfortunate drawbacks of splash pages:
 

1. Your home page should convey to your visitor what your site is all about. You have only a few seconds to do this. By having a splash page, you are creating an extra step for your visitors to complete before they know what you are all about - they must click to enter. Web surfers are impatient people and they may just click on to the next website instead of spending the extra time on your site.

2. More importantly, you could be wasting your search engine rankings on a pretty picture. Many search engines give a lot of weight to your home page. You need to make sure your home page includes great content with your targeted keywords or you lose out. If you just have a graphic (possibly with an ALT tag) and a link, there's virtually nothing for a search engine to index.

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If you are an eBay expert, you might want to consider joining eBay's Trading Assistants Program. Its a program that matches you up with people who need help getting their auctions up and these people actually pay you for your service. Check it out at http://pages.ebay.com/tradingassistants.html

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Separate Domains Could Mean Higher Search Engine Rankings

Does your website have a number of different themes? You might have better search engine rankings if those different themes were on different domains. For example, if you sell party supplies and you also offer a business opportunity selling party supplies ~ you have two themes. One is to sell products, the other is to sell an opportunity. You can divide these themes into two domains. Many search engines seem to give more importance to the home page of domain and by having separate sites linking together, you serve to improve your link popularity.

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Many large search engines offering pay-per-click services have measures (although they are not foolproof) in place to prevent unscrupulous competitors and just all round stupid people from endlessly clicking on your paid link. Whatever pay-per-click you use, be sure the search engine has some measures in place to protect you from this and be sure to protect yourself as well. Look for the following:

 - repeat clicks from the same IP
- repeat clicks from the same geographic location
- a large and sudden change in the number of clicks on a particular keyword
Of course, these don't necessarily mean that you have fraud on your hands, but if you do see these trends, alert your pay-per-click provider.

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Are you listed on Froogle, Google's new comparison shopping index? Froogle uses the same spidering technology as Google, so theoretically, if you sell products and you comply to a few of their regulations, you should automatically be listed. If you're not listed, you can submit your site and find out more about Froogle, by clicking here.

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Want Google to index your page more than once per month? It seems that changing your web page content will have Google's spider visiting more often. We change our content on this site on almost a daily basis. However, the content on wahmcopywriter, our sister site, is changed less frequently. Google visits and caches our new pages on InternetBasedMoms every week or so.

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Did you know that Inktomi is the only large search engine (outside its partners that use Inktomi to power their searches) that uses the keyword meta tag? Do include keywords on every page, but don't knock yourself out trying to formulate unique ones for each of your pages.

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Did you know that most people expect a reply to their email within one hour? This can be a difficult demand to meet if you're trying to work around a family and run a business. Be sure to post your business hours on your web site so people know when it is reasonable to expect a reply. Do your best to be prompt during those hours. Although customers are important, you also need to take care of what's most important ~ family.

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Spam is fact of online biz life. If your email address is anywhere on the Internet, a spammer will pick it up.
1. Do not reply to spam.
2. Do not block a spammer's address.

WHY? These two things will only serve to let the spammer know that you actively use this email address. Even if you block the original address, spammers change their addresses all the time and will mail you again from another address.

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Google does not readily index dynamically generated web pages. Google says that because their crawler can easily overwhelm and crash sites serving dynamic content, they limit the number of dynamically generated pages they crawl. This means if you have an ASP or PHP site, not all your pages may be indexed. It also means if you exchange links with someone who places your link on a dynamically generated page, your link may not likely be indexed by Google.

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Keep your home page quick loading so people don't run away before you page is loaded: 1. Make it a short document, not a long scrolling one.
2. Minimize the graphics on your home page.

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Time Saver - While working on the computer, close your email program. If you need to access information in your email, then switch your setting to work offline. Email is time consuming. If you set aside only a few times per day to work on email - you will find you are more effective.

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Frames Pages - If you have a frames page, NEVER link to another website (unless it belongs to you) within your frame. You MUST have the link open in a new window. First, it is confusing for your visitors who will still see your URL at the top of their browser. Second, it is unethical to make it look as though your web page is providing the content found on another web page.
The html to fix your links is: <a target="_blank"href="http://www.LINK.com">

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Getting Subscribers - Offer an incentive for people to sign up for your newsletter or ezine - a free gift, an entry into a draw - and of course, always remember to tell the potential subscriber why they need your newsletter. Appeal to your target audiences interests and needs.

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Graphics on Your Server - Download graphics to your own server instead of taking them from another server. First, the fewer servers you connect to, the faster your page loads. Second, if the originator deletes the graphic or her server is down, the graphics will not show on your page.

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Find a "signature pal" for your email. You still include your signature on all your email, but you also include your signature pal's signature too. They do the same in return. It's another way to double your Internet Based Mom Power! Tip contributed by Tara at The Candle Coop

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Link Your Pages - Make sure you link the pages of your website together. This helps your visitors navigate through your site and it helps increase your link popularity - thus increasing your search engine ranking. Search engines will index links within your site.

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When placing an ad on another web page or in a newsletter, always include your email address in the ad content. Many people may not want to wade through the information on your web site; they appreciate the personal service of hearing from you directly.

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Web Page Content & Keywords - Be sure to include your keywords in the text of your home page. Many search engines determine the relevancy of your web page based on the text on your page.

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Make your email signature interesting. Don't just simply list your URL. You want to make the person want to click on your link. Include a limited time offer or a reason to click now!

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When exchanging links with a web site, have the link you place on your site open in a new window. You don't want to lose the visitors to your site.
 

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