WAH Business News

The Difference between hits, page views & unique visitors

2006-03-22T04:25:00.000-08:00

There is often a big misconception in many WAHM Forums between hits, page views and unique visitor stats. Many websites slap on a website counter that counts "hits" thinking that the over exaggerated number this type of counter generates will show their site visitors that their website receives a huge number of visitors on a daily basis.

However, if you are a work at home business buying effective real estate on-line you should be aware of the vast difference between hits, page views & unique visitors counters found on websites. When I say "real estate" I'm talking about ad spots or ad spaces.

Hits, visitors, visits, page views: what are the differences?

definition of a hit: each file sent to a browser by a web server is an individual hit.

In other words, a visitor comes to your homepage which contains not just the html file for that page, but also contains image files. All of this put together will generate the hit counter to count that many hits for that one page.

definition of a page view: a page view is each time a visitor views a webpage on your site, irrespective of how many hits are generated. Pages are comprised of files. Every image in a page is a separate file. When a visitor looks at a page (i.e. a page view), they may see numerous images, graphics, pictures etc. and generate multiple hits.

For example, if you have a page with 7 pictures, then a request to a server to view that page generates 8 hits (7 for the pictures, and one for the html file). A page view can contain hundreds of hits. Notice that page view counts are similar to hit counts.

Technically, a hit counter is a page counter, as it measures and presents the same information, the only difference being in name. Page counters often provide a service that measures page views on multiple pages of a website, as opposed to hit counters, which are typically used to count hits on a single page.

definition of a visit: a visit happens when someone or something (robot) visits your site. It consists of one or more page views/ hits. One visitor can have many visits to your site.

definition of a visitor: a visitor is the browser of a person who accepts a cookie. Opentracker tracks cookies through a javascript. By this definition, a visitor is a human being, and their actions are 'human' events, because only humans use javascript to navigate the internet. If a cookie is not accepted, then an IP numbers is used to track visitors.

Technically speaking, “one visitor” means “one person” based on the definition of a unique visitor. So that if someone continuously visits your site over long periods of time, they will be recorded only as one visitor. This of course depends on the time frame you have programmed your counter. In other words, your counter settings can allow you to set your unique visitor count to start counting a unique visit after 30 minutes has elapase. Meaning, if that person returns to your website again in an hour, their visit will be considered a unique visit and will be logged as a returning visitor in your counter log analysis as well as your unique visitor stat.

What will show in your unique visitor counter value will be the amount of time one visitor has requested to view your website within every 30 minute time span. It is recommended that you set your Maximum Visit Length between 1 hour to 6 hours. Basically, a visitor won't come back to your website immediately usually a returning unique visitor will bookmark a favorite website and return within a day or two or more.

Your visit to your website, should not be logged into your counter value. Many web counters allow each account to block the owner's website visit to their own website. However, there are many web counter's that do not allow you to block your visits, so make sure you find and install one that will allow you this function. A web owner's visit can over inflate a web counter because their visits are being logged. Of course it is often imperative for web owner's to visit their website to make sure that their changes or additions are showing up correctly. If your site is being maintained by a web designer, make sure that their visits are not being logged as well.

In summation, if you plan to pay for advertising 0n any website, you should make sure that the counter value is registering "Unique Visitor" hits and not "hits or page views". Many site owner's have invisible counters installed on their website and deem it "unprofessional" to have a counter in full view.

The counter stats should be public for anyone who offers advertising on their website. How else can a potential ad customer decide whether or not the site is worth spending ad money on? Of course, the counter value should not be the deciding factor when any business owner decides to put their hard earned advertising dollars on any website.

Google PageRank: Not Worth the Worry

2006-03-20T17:41:00.000-08:00

In the wahm forums and groups the need to understand page ranks have been a pretty hot topic. I found an advertising company on-line that would pay me $5 per purchased advertised link because at the time I had a PR4. I figured why not, it helps to pay the bills, lol . . . besides I was able to choose the websites that could add their links to this section of my website.

This sample does mean a high PR will net you the ability to request higher advertising dollars for your high PR valued real estate space on-line. But I can attest to the fact that my advertising clients don't really care about the PR of my website, the usual question is where I place in Search Engine results and what are the keywords.

Yes, Page Ranks are important but it depends on who you talk to. Some would say that a listing in the top page of Search Engine results is most important while others think a PR3 is not as good as a PR4 website.

The article below will hopeful help to explain what a Page Rank is and why you shouldn't be too pre-occupied with it.

Google PageRank: Not Worth the Worry
By John Metzler

I notice that a lot of webmasters are obsessed with Google PageRank (Entire sections of SEO forums are even devoted to PR). Web sites do not live and die by their PageRank. A PR 6 web site may rank lower than a site with a PR 5 due to other Search Engine Optimization factors. Search engine results are not proportional to a web site's PageRank value.

The PageRank value is a representation of a web site's internal and external link structure. Internally, your web site's pages should be easily accessible from each other and use anchor text relevant to the theme of the web site. Externally speaking, outbound links should be good quality and/or relevant to your web site's content. And finally, it is widely known that incoming links also contribute quite a bit to PageRank. There is obviously much more to achieving good search engine rankings that the above linking strategies.

With that being said, many webmasters become obsessed with the PageRank of their web sites and consider it to be the bottom line of any search engine marketing campaign. This type of thinking can cloud a much more important issue of whether or not the client has seen an improvement in search engine placement and web site traffic. Always base your achievements on specific rankings for keywords that have been well-researched. If you go parading around about achieving a PageRank of 6 for your client, he or she won't care if they aren't seeing a return on their investment, now will they?

If you're working to increase your link popularity through reciprocal links and refuse to link to web sites that are lower than PR 5, rethink your strategy. Well-designed, well-ranked sites with informative content are always a safe bet to link out to. That was my basic strategy with a client of mine, www.1bbweb.com.

They have a PageRank 4 (at the time of writing this article, January 2005) and rank at #6 on Google for 'bed and breakfast directory' (without quotes). The #7 result has a PR 6 and the next three spots in the first page of results are PR 5 web sites, all higher than my client. This example is repeated throughout the Web and proves that preoccupying yourself with PageRank can result in losing sight of more important ranking factors.

An expert at organic SEO, John Metzler has held executive positions in the search engine marketing industry since 2001. He is the President of FreshPromo, a Canadian-based SEO firm.

My notes:

In the second paragraph the article states "The PageRank value is a representation of a web site's internal and external link structure. Internally, your web site's pages should be easily accessible from each other and use anchor text relevant to the theme of the web site."

I want to dissect this statement a bit. If the PR value is indeed representative of your link structure then this is the reason why many websites do not go beyond a PR#2.

I have seen many websites where there aren't any relevant anchor text to their internal or external links. Many also do not create their navigation to make it easy for their visitors to manuever around on their sites. I'm talking about those sites that have external links the loads into the same browser or internal links that loads into a new window or links that take you completely to another section of their website and you can't find a link to get back to where you were without clicking on your "Back" button at the top of your browser page.

Aside from site navigation that makes sense, optimizing your webpage with topic specific keywords and content as well as providing relevant content go hand in hand. I've seen some websites that weren't very pleasant to look at, but guess what, when I did a search I landed on their website because they were at the top of the search engine results.

Take my website for instance:
The Work At Home Business Mall was a PR3 before I launched it. It stayed as a PR#4 for several months and now it is a PR#5. When I did my SEO for the site it raised my PR one more value.

Site navigation for a site that is full of information and resource is difficult, but it can be done. PR values are important but not as important as being on the top page results of any search engine.

Good luck with your website and until next time, "here's to your success on-line!"

Keeping Your Website's Content Relevant

2006-03-20T07:20:00.000-08:00

Continuing with the topic of Search Engine Algorithm. Last article explained the need to have relevant content for your website including having links that have contents relevant to your website. The article below by John Metzler explains how you can achieve this process and why it is necessary for High Search Engine Page Ranking. I have made bold some words in this article to make sure these key elements are not missed.

Keeping Your Website's Content Relevant
By John Metzler

Visitors and search engines love content-rich web sites, but just having a lot of content on your web site is not enough. It all has to be relevant to a main topic with each page or section of the web site having a specific theme (And yes, this includes any resource or links pages the site may have). Each page should have its own topic and content should not stray to a different topic.

If you are promoting your graphic design business and have a page on business card design, stay on the topic and refrain from using a page title such as "Graphic Design company in Vancouver, Canada - business cards, logos, letterheads". Your want the business card design to be the most important key phrase.

There are two main reasons for content relevancy. The first is so that visitors have an easy time understanding the flow of your web site. Visitors who have to search through multiple pages to find the information they're looking for won't be visitors much longer. The average web site user takes about three seconds to decide whether or not stay on a site. A clear idea of what your site is about should be apparent immediately, followed by easy navigation to other pages that display further topics in more detail.

The second reason for keeping content relevant throughout your web site is for search engine algorithms. Keyword relevancy is an important part of search engine optimization. The more relevant your web site's content is for a specific term, the more likely the site is to show up near the top of search results for the term.

Keyword density is another big deal with search engines. There is an optimal ratio of key terms to the overall amount of text that must be used for search engine optimization purposes. The more unrelated terms that are used consistently throughout the content will bring down the percentage of more important keywords. Keyword density matters throughout an entire web site, not just on certain pages.

Other areas to keep an eye on are the contact page, about us page, and any other pages that you may not think are important to have optimized for search engines such as advertising info, privacy policy, etc. For instance, some web sites have pages devoted to reciprocal links. There's nothing wrong with them unless you link out to a lot of unrelated web sites. The keywords that are used in the anchor text and surrounding description text will detract from your overall site content if they are not related. Incoming links from unrelated sites are fine, but keep in mind that the links page counts as part of your web site as a whole.

Consider using a reciprocal links page as more of a resource for visitors instead of a long list of irrelevant sites. This not only appeases search engines but your visitors as well. And as mentioned before, both visitors and search engines should be kept in mind when creating web site content.

An expert at organic SEO, John Metzler has held executive positions in the search engine marketing industry since 2001. He is the President of FreshPromo, a Canadian-based SEO firm.

My notes:

Many of us are guilty of many if not all of the actions above. Before learning SEO I never considred optimizing my Contact Page, did you? What I did to start re-doing my website was to start making sure that the important sections (main entry pages, i.e. home page, category main pages, etc) were optimized for the content of each page. The home page I optimized by making sure that I had relevant "anchor text link" titles for each link whether it was within my domain or outbound leading to some other website. This also includes image comment tags. I also had to make sure that I didn't over saturate using just enough main keyword within each type of optimization tactic used.

This wasn't an easy feat but worth the effort. I did this type of technique for each of the important portal pages that were used as entry to my website. In my experience the homepage is by far the hardest to optimize. Why? Because it is the main hub of your domain, it has to contain most of your keyword specific target words.

How did I do in the Google Jagger? I lost a few ground in some of my chosen keywords, but with the optimization and making sure that I wasn't breaking any rules, the website is now doing well and listed again in Google taking number one in my keyword "Work at Home Business Mall".

Although Google is a very important Search Engine I must emphasize that there are other powerful and frequently used search engines as well and you should not create your website just for one particular search engine. The main thing to remember when creating or redeveloping your website for top Search Engine Page Ranking is to make sure that you follow these simple rules:

Figure out what your website is all about and tune in to a handful of topic specifc keywords to target. These targets will be your basis when you create links to other websites or considering a link exchange with another site. Remember, you can be a craft store providing relevant content with articles on making crafts, craft show links, craft related materials and products, etc . . . In other words, just because you are in the business of making handmade crafts does not mean you do not have other venues related to crafts that can be used to create information for your website visitors.
Make sure that your Anchor Text is related to your keywords. If you are a craft store for instance the link text to your website should not be just the name of your store, it should include your main keywords. This can be done to specific sections of your website as well if exchanging links with relevant websites.
Investigate the website you plan to link to or considering a link exchange with.
Do not use Frames on your homepage or any major entry pages of your website, use SSI instead.
Make sure that your site load time is within 5 seconds.
Optimize your website as your building it and if you're in the process of redoing it, take one chunk or section at a time.
Don't create your website just for Search Engines, remember your site is for potential customers not just search engines.

I hope this article was helpful for your future or present SEO attempts. My next post will be more about Search Engines but more specifically your Page Ranking.

Predicting Search Engine Algorithm Changes

2006-03-20T06:47:00.000-08:00

If you have been to this blog before this article is going to help you realize that you need to change the way you have your website or at least help you understand what a "search algorithm" is all about.

Predicting SearchEngine Algorithm Changes

By John Metzler

With moderate search engine optimization knowledge, some common sense, and a resourceful and imaginative mind, one can keep his or her web site in good standing with search engines even through the most significant algorithm changes. The recent Google update of October/November 2005, dubbed "Jagger", is what inspired me to write this, as I saw some web sites that previously ranked in the top 20 results for extremely competitive keywords suddenly drop down to the 70th page. Yes, the ebb and flow of search engine rankings is nothing to write home about, but when a web site doesn't regain many ranking spots after such a drop it can tell us that the SEO done on the site may have had some long-term flaws. In this case, the SEO team had not done a good job predicting the direction a search engine would take with its algorithm.

Impossible to predict, you say? Not quite. The ideas behind Google's algorithm come from the minds of fellow humans, not supercomputers. I'm not suggesting that it's easy to "crack the code" so to speak because the actual math behind it is extremely complicated. However, it is possible to understand the general direction that a search engine algorithm will take by keeping in mind that any component of SEO which is possible to manipulate to an abnormal extent will eventually be weighted less and finally rendered obsolete.

One of the first such areas of a web site that started to get abused by webmasters trying to raise their rankings was the keywords meta tag. The tag allows a webmaster to list the web site's most important keywords so the search engine knows when to display that site as a result for a matching search. It was only a matter of time until people started stuffing the tag with irrelevant words that were searched for more frequently than relevant words in an attempt to fool the algorithm. And they did fool it, but not for long. The keywords meta tag was identified as an area that was too susceptible to misuse and was subsequently de-valued to the point where the Google algorithm today doesn't even recognize it when scanning a web page.

Another early tactic which is all but obsolete is repeating keywords at the bottom of a web page and hiding them by changing the color of the text to match the background color. Search engines noticed that this text was not relevant to the visitor and red-flagged sites that employed this method of SEO.

This information is quite basic, but the idea behind the aforementioned algorithm shifts several years ago is still relevant today. With the Jagger update in full swing, people in the SEO world are taking notice that reciprocal links may very well be going the way of the keywords meta tag. (i.e. extinct) Webmasters across the world have long been obsessed with link exchanges and many profitable web sites exist offering services that help webmasters swap links with ease. But with a little foresight, one can see that link trading has its days numbered, as web sites have obtained thousands of incoming links from webmasters who may have nevër even viewed the web site they are trading with. In other words, web site popularity is being manipulated by excessively and unnaturally using an SEO method.

So with keyword meta tags, keyword stuffing within content, and nöw link exchanges simply a part of SEO history, what will be targeted in the future? Well, let's start with what search engines currently look at when ranking a web site and go from there:

On-page Textual Content

In the future, look for search engines to utilize ontological analysis of text. In other words, not only your main keywords will play a factor in your rankings, but also words that relate to them. For example, someone trying to sell NFL jerseys online would naturally mention the names of teams and star players. In the past, algorithms might have skipped over those names, deemed them irrelevant to a search for "NFL jerseys." But in the future, search engines will reward those web sites with a higher ranking than those that excessively repeat just "NFL jerseys." With ontological analysis, web sites that speak of not only the main keywords but other relevant words can expect higher rankings.

The Conclusion: Write your web site content for your visitors, not search engines. The more naturally written sites can expect to see better results in the future.

Offering Large Amounts of Content

This can frequently take the form of dynamic pages. Even nöw, search engines can have a difficult time with dynamic content on web sites. These pages usually have lengthy URLs consisting of numbers and characters such as &, =, and ? The common problem is that the content changes so frequently on these dynamic pages that the page becomes "old" in the search engine's database, thus leaving searchers seeing results that contain old information. Since many dynamic pages are created by web sites displaying hundreds or thousands of products they sell, and the number of people selling items on the Internet will obviously increase in the coming years, you can expect that search engines will improve their technology and do a better job indexing dynamic content in the future.

The Conclusion: Put yourself ahead of the game if you are selling products online and invest in database and shopping cart software that is SEO-friendly.

Incoming Links

Once thought to be a very difficult thing to manipulate, incoming links to one's web site have been abused by crafty SEOs and webmasters the world over. It is finally at a point where Google is doing a revamp of what constitutes a "vote from [one site to another]" as they explain it in their webmaster resources section. Link exchanges are worth significantly less nöw than ever to the point where the only real value in obtaining them is to make sure a new web site gets crawled by search engine spiders.

Over the years, many web sites reached top spot for competitive keywords by flexing their financial muscle and buying thousands of text links pointing to their site with keywords in the anchor text. Usually these links would appear like advertisements along sidebars or navigation areas of web sites. Essentially this was an indirect way of paying for high Google rankings, something which Google is no doubt trying to combat with each passing algorithm update. One idea of thought is that different areas of a web page from a visual point of view will be weighted differently. For example, if a web site adds a link to your site within the middle of their page text, that link should count for more than one at the bottom of the site near the copyright information.

This brings up the value of content distribution. By writing articles, giving away free resources, or offering something else of value to people, you can create a significant amount of content on other web sites that will include a link back to your own.

The Conclusion: It all starts with useful content. If you are providing your web site visitors with useful information, chances are many other sites will want to do the same. SEO doesn't start with trying to cheat the algorithm; it starts with an understanding of what search engines look for in a quality web site.

About The Author
An expert at organic SEO, John Metzler has held executive positions in the search engine marketing industry since 2001. He is the President of FreshPromo, a Canadian-based SEO firm, and services American clients through SEOTampa.com.

My Thoughts:

This article speaks volumes but will many listen? As a web developer I've always told anyone who asked that relevant content is key to getting higher ranking especially in the Google Search Engine. However, I visit websites whose owners have been asking for SEO help in forums and taking classes supposed free SEO classes and aside from making making their website look a little better, all they are managing to do is advertise the group that this class is being advertised in.

A few years ago I purchased a search submission software and started immersing myself in the machination of SEO techniques. I have read and studied the search engine reports that my program has spat out. The report is a bit daunting considering at any given time the report can run over 300 pages, but if diligently studied you can learn what can be done to improve ones website.

Meta Keyword tag is useful only if used to create the specific keywords for the particular page. In other words, each page with meta tag keywords should concentrate on the important keyword aspects of that particular page.

My Work at Home Business Mall advertising creation for my clients provides this type of service. I make sure that each of my clients full page advertisement is related to what is being written on their advertisement page. I have gone as far as making sure that each article uses this type of technique. The Work at Home Business Mall is huge but slowly and surely I have been able to use this technique and make necessary changes to major important portal pages of the website.

To figure out if this technique has been worth it, I run a Search Engine Ranking report once a month. This report tells me which keywords the Work at Home Business Mall has been picked up by major Search Engines, what URL, what position, what page and what the page ranking is. Yes, page ranking, each page has a ranking which is decisively important when you are trying to make sure that each page of your website is seen and picked up by search engines.

The last SER that I ran was very exciting! The Work at Home Business Mall is now taking #1 position on the first page of many search engine (Google, MSN, Yahoo, Hot Bot, Ask, Netscape, etc . .. ) for the keywords that I have chosen.

In summation, I hope this article proves helpful for anyone who comes upon this blog. Relevant Content, page specific keyword meta tags, link text title and relevant link exchange is what helps any website get their site in the top pages of the major search engines.

The next set of entries that I make in this blog will be articles on Search Engine Optimization and Building your Small Work at Home Business website for better ranking in the Search Engines.

SEO Web Content: Good Writing, Good Business

2005-10-31T20:06:00.000-08:00

As a website copywriter, I hear this myth repeated back to me all the time by new clients and prospects. "Don't bother search-engine-optimizing the content," they say. "Just make sure it is well written and the keywords will flow naturally into the content." Or, they repeat the words of so many self-styled gurus: "don’t write for the search engines, write for the people who will be reading what you write."

If you're one of the people who believe there's a conflict of interest between search engines and humans, you're operating under two misconceptions:

* Misconception 1: you know more about what people want to read on the web than the search engines do.

* Misconception 2: you or your writer will just naturally write the content that people or search engines want, without consciously trying to meet their demands.

Why Search Engines Know More about Your Website Visitors than You "I want a well-written web page, not a list of keywords." It frightens me a bit when I hear this, since it demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what search engines do.

A search engine is not simply a massive find function, like the one in the "Edit" menu of Microsoft applications. It does not just pull up any page that has the keyword in it X number of times. If it did, all pages that show up on search engine results would simply contain a list of the keywords.

Ultimately, writing for the search engines means writing for web surfers. Think about it: services like Google thrive on giving people the pages they want to read. If they consistently failed to give people what they wanted, people would stop using them.

What Your Website's Visitors Want to Read

Most of the time, people don't want to read on the web. Reading on a screen hurts the eyes. It doesn't help that a lot of web pages make it harder with text that's too small, backgrounds that are colored rather than white, and lots of extraneous graphics.

Besides, when it comes to reading matter, there is an overabundance of choice on the web, more than any library on earth. Of that, an unfortunate amount isn’t worth reading. Time must be rationed.

In fact, people treat a web page much as a search engine does: they scan it. In particular, they scan it for the keywords they entered into the search engine. If they arrived via a link from another website, they are still looking for words and phrases related to their interest--which are generally the same as the keywords people enter into search engines.

In short, Nobel-prize-winning literature makes bad web content. You have to write specifically for the web. That's why the web hasn't fueled much of a resurgence in the short story or other literary writing, dashing many hopes. Ebook versions of paper books have also disappointed expectations.

Newspapers are the only paper publications that have made a smooth online transition, precisely because they are written in short, to-the-point paragraphs that are easy to scan.

Still Think Good SEO Web Content Makes for Bad Reading?

You've just read almost to the end of a piece of search-engine-optimized web content. This article was optimized for the keywords, "SEO," "search engine," "search engines," "keyword," "keywords," "search engine optimization," and "writing."

The keywords were present in headings and throughout the content. The content itself is easy to scan: paragraphs of one-three sentences, broken up by sub-headings every four paragraphs or so.

Naturally, those keywords are too broad for this page to have a chance of ranking high in search engines for them. But this page will get some of the atypical search keywords that account for as many as half of all searches. So, if someone types in a phrase like, "keyword writing search engine optimized content," this page would have a pretty good chance of showing up.

To be sure, this article is on the long side for a web page. Most people won’t even scan more than 600 words of text; 250-500 is ideal.

But this article is destined primarily to be shown in an email newsletter, where attention spans are longer since people are more confident the source of the content can be trusted to repay their investment of time. Besides, as a well-structured page, it can be split into two or three pages according to the subheadings.

In short, there’s much more to writing well for the web than just writing well. If you’ve had enough sense to have your web content written professionally, have enough sense to take the advice of most website copywriters: search-engine-optimization for keywords and good web writing are the same thing.

Author Resource: Joel Walsh is a professional content writer and founder of UpMarket Content, whose site offers information on getting great website content: http://upmarketcontent.com/website-content [When posting on the web, please hyperlink this text as the visible anchor text: "website content"]

Work at Home Opportunity

2005-10-31T19:53:00.000-08:00

Work from Home- This is a great company that offers you the opportunity to sell quality products from 4 different catalogs. You can also choose to sell on-line with your own website containing all of the products from each catalog. The website creation is done for free with no hosting or maintenance charge. You can choose to do just become an e-consultant and just be content to promote your website or glorious quality products or choose to host home parties, e-parties and more!

Fabulous holiday home décor, gorgeous gift items for the holidays and seasonless homedecorating items that will keep your home looking beautiful throughout the year. It’s all inside our 2004 Feelings of Christmas® line, our most impressive collection of home decorating and gift items ever.

A World of Cooking™ is a wonderful selection of fine cooking products brought to you from around the world. Each item has been chosen especially for the Richmont sales force and customers. Choose a category on the left to begin shopping.

Fine Jewelry for gift giving and those special occasions and just because!

Want to preserve special memories -- from old photos to a child’s best painting -- in a special way?Permanently place your favorite photos and images on a variety of products with Creations. Our one-of-a-kind product line helps you place special images on dozens of customizable items you can use everyday! Create a beautifully designed treasure with one of our fabulous Creative Design Templates. Or use your imagination and make your own one-of-a-kind treasure

Find out more about this opportunity visit the Richmont Direct Website.

UPDATE: Richmont Direct is no longer accept Free E-Consultant Positions. It will now cost $19.95 to join as an E-Consultant. You will receive your website, catalogs, paperwork & a coupon worth $19.95 toward the upgrade to a Party Consultant.

New Internet Phone

2005-10-31T19:51:00.001-08:00

I was watching the television a couple of nights ago and saw a commercial for an internet company giving away free Internet Phone numbers. Couldn't remember the name of the company nor the URL, so I did a search on Google.

I don't think this was the same company but this company does provide a free internet phone. InPhonex is the name of the company you can go and check out the information by clicking here.

I signed up for a basic Free membership and created a phone number that I could easily remember. What is so good about this type of service? For me eventually I think it would be great as a business line so I don't have to use my home line for business or connect up another line again just to use as a business phone.

The free basic membership gives you unlimited Internet calling and faxing. This is what I have so far. I would like to eventually sign up for the Premium Membership which is $9.95 per month which comes with 5 additional phone lines, but this means I also have to purchase a Hard Phone (cheapest one is $49.00) that will be connected to my computer using a USP port (will cost $59.95), so this will have to wait.

The downside to the free basic membership is that you can only receive phones calls from those that have signed up for this free service and of course you need to have a microphone.

The upside to this type of service I think will be the fact that I can use this as a business line. This is a good system for those that have dial up internet connections. However, it will require paying for the Premium Membership plan.

I wouldn't recommend this if you're just starting out on-line. What I mean is that you should make sure that you're able to make enough profit and have a good enough customer base that you will be able to afford the $9.95 monthly charge and make back the money that you will need to spend on your equipment.

However, I think this is going to be the new wave of the future for phone calls. The phone company is going to have a hissy fit when everyone starts using this type of system!

Site Promotion - Banner Exchange

2005-10-31T19:51:00.000-08:00

Exchanging links other website owners is one of the greatest and fastest way to get exposure on the internet, plus it also helps fulfill one of the major criteria's for the Search Engines.

I will list all of the banner exchanges that I belong to with this subject "Site Promotion" so that it'll be easier for anyone to locate the info.

I belong to Adland Pro which is a networking area but I also am a member of their Banner Exchange Program, click on the banner below to get more information.

If you're a Mom doing business on-line then the following banner exchange programs is a great way to get your site found.

For Business Linking click on this one below

Show Your Site Banner Exchange Program

Will add more banner exchange programs later.

Free Merchant Account

2005-10-31T19:44:00.000-08:00

One of the best finds I've come across while trying to set up my e-commerce business was a FREE Merchant Account. I've been with this company for several years and have never had any problems using them. There is a fee for receiving money if you decide to create a business account but it is minimal considering how much it would cost you to just to apply for a merchant account elsewhere.

Pay Pal is widely used by e-merchants in the United States as well as many International companies. It is the main payment processor for Ebay Auctioneers. It can process major credit cards as well as e-checks processed through your customers Pay Pal account.

If you need a free and easy to use Merchant Account then check out Pay Pal's safe, encrypted and secured payment system. The best part about this system is that sign up is completely free. As a business account you can even receive an ATM Debit/Credit card to gain access to your funds at anytime using the thousands of ATM machines located all over the world.

Their customer support is fast and efficient. Once they actually froze my account because there was a mysterious transaction that was out of the norm.

They sent me a message and I gave them a call. They were right! My account information was somehow gotten and someone was charging me for a service I didn't buy. Pay Pal customer service gave me the options I needed to take care of the matter and my account was safe again.

I was very impressed with the way they handled this situation. I didn't expect them to actually sit there and peruse through my transactions to see if there is anything out of the ordinary. I can't say that everyone feels the same way about Pay Pal but my experience with them has been smooth sailing without any hitches.

So, if you're just starting out and need a venue to process your on-line payments or is using a Merchant Account that is draining your profits, I suggest you give Pay Pal a try. The sign up is free for a personal or business account and you can cancel at anytime.

United WAHM Alliance a much needed resource

2005-10-31T11:48:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I added anything to this blog. I do have some very exciting news to share. Let me first explain why I even ventured into creating yet another website. My friend and I have been with a group for some time and talking about some of the rules that didn't make sense to us got us thinking. We're partnering to create a niche business for the work at home Mom's. A business that took 2 years of research.

Anyway, the past few months have been pretty frustrating for the both of us. We created an ebook and allowed other work at home Mom's to advertise in it. However, this ebook was to be given away for free. When this ebook was completed, we wanted to allow other work at home Mom's to give this away for free on their website. Thinking that this group we were both in advertises that they help Mom's in business we should post a message in the group. I also noticed months before that my messages weren't being approved so I asked my friend and partner to send a message through. Her message wasn't approved. It was a very simple message stating that she had an ebook that others can give away from their website. No name of the ebook, not even a description or a link was provided. Her message did not get approved!

She was told that it was against the rule to advertise an ebook that had advertisement of other websites. There was no way of for them to know what was contained in this ebook nor away to find out if there was even advertisement. But, it was denied on this basis.

Emails went back and forth with my friend and the owner of this group. Final decision the ebook could not be given away even though it was revealed that 95% of the ads belonged to members of this group.

The idea of United WAHM Alliance was borne from this frustration and of course as I research our niche business I also found that many Work at Home resources for Mom's were missing one or more thing. I guess we've been on-line long enough to know that it was time to do something about this.

United WAHM Alliance is starting out with two groups. One is Google Groups and one in Yahoo Groups, of course both is just to help generate membership.

Our Groups allow for advertising on Mondays Only. Yes, a bit restrictive however, members can submit one ad message per type of ad on Mondays. So, if a member has several websites, have different types of sales, these ads can be submitted on Mondays with a message per type of advertisement.

It's pretty much like most wahm groups, lol . . possible, lol . . read on . .

Our group members can add their numerous website links to our Member's Directory as well as submit their Member Profile to be added to our Member Showcase. This is just the beginning member benefits for membership within our groups.

The groups are just the tip of the iceberg.

The main featue of United WAHM Alliance will be our website! It will provide more information and resource than any other WAHM site on-line. Information is key to helping one succeed with business especially on-line. We plan to provide 4+ topics each month with each topic containing 30+ articles, topics are niche businesses, family oriented, health and fitness and more! This article repository will grow each month as new topics are added each containing 30+ articles.

We will also create bulletin boards for every possible type of networking needed. Yes, we plan to allow our members to dictate what type of bulletin boards they will need and created as needed. Member's will also be able to request for private boards. We have creatively made it possible for certain bulletin boards to be available to our non-member visitors, this will help our members gain exposure to certain aspects of their business to everyone that visits the website.

What else will we provide, an ebook repository. We have several hundreds that members will be able to download for free. We also have webmaster tools and business tools that members will be able to download and keep for free. We will also put up ebooks & tools that our members can purchase at a discount to resell and make money with. A library filled with copy and paste scripts for website development.

A Classified Ad section to inclue garage sales and bartering. Auction Site for our members. Chat Room for holding virtual on-line home parties and more!

We will also provide discount on Advertisement in our Network of websites, we own more than a dozen at last count. We will also partner with other WAHM websites to help provide more venues for affordable advertisements for our members.

Monthly Awards will feature not one but as many members as we have websites. All winners will be featured on the homepages of our network of websites as well as in an on-line virtual magazine that is sent out on a monthly basis to over 500+ subscribers. We also create ebooks so when one is in the process of being made we will feature yet again another member to be added into the new ebook creation.

United WAHM Alliance is truly dedicated to providing the needs of work at home Mom's and any Mom wishing to become a work at home Mom.

Is it free? The groups are free to join, we however require a link on each member's website or in an email signature.

The website membership, that won't be free. Yikes, you say! Well, we are not an organization and we are not claiming non-profit. This is a business but we do promise to provide what we say we will provide. How many wahm site's out there will provide Member Profile's where the member tells us what to put down in a full page profile? This allows each of our members to add links to each of their on-line business for free exposure!

How much do you think you'd pay to gain 24 hour access 7 days a week to a growing library of information on your type of niche business or any other type of niche business? How much would you pay to learn how to create your own website? How much would you pay to purchase all the free ebooks, web tools and business tools that we will provide for free? Do other wahm websites provide this? Well, some do provide a few of what we will be offering our members, but what they cannot provide is the multitude of exposure and resources that United WAHM Alliance will provide.

So how much will it cost? We're not quite sure yet, lol . .sorry we do know one thing! As work at home Mom's ourselves we know that many Mom's do not have a budget and when we feel we find something that will be worth the money we shell out it better be affordable and worth every penny or more or we won't let go of our money. The membership fee will be between $25 - $50 per year. We're not quite sure yet if we plan to do yearly subscriptions or monthly. We will however, offer a 7 day free trial. This is the tentavie introductory pricing that we're thinking of. This pricing of course will increase as resource increases, meaning our expense for keeping the site going.

Our group members will of course receive a discount and of course from our groups we will find our Founding Members.

Are you curious yet? Stay tuned for more news on United WAHM Alliance or just visit the developing website to see what is slowly taking shape. If you want to get more information about the development of our website you may want to join our Group. If you are interested in becoming a crucial part of this website your group membership will allow you to apply for the Founding Members positions. It will be limited and we will screen applicants to make sure that each of our founding members will indeed share our view of providing valuable time and resources to help build and grow each of our member's businesses.

Direct Matches for your Business Networking Venture

2005-09-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

Business Owners and Internet Marketers can advertise their Company, Product, or Service for free as part of DirectMatches online business and personal matchmaking service.

Through its comprehensive, free profile system, DirectMatches is able to offer a powerful forum for professionals from every industry to advertise their business, product, or service to thousands of members!

Professionals and Business Owners can join for free and post their comprehensive business profile.

To register for a free business profile, visit: Business Owners and Internet Marketers can advertise their Company, Product, or Service for free as part of DirectMatches? online matchmaking service.

Through its comprehensive, free profile system, DirectMatches is able to offer a powerful forum for professionals from every industry to advertise their business, product, or service to thousands of members!

Professionals and Business Owners can join for free and post their comprehensive business profile.

To register for a free business profile, visit: http://www.directmatches.com/mombiz

Please note: You need to click on the link to become a member. Going straight to the URL without the Sponsor Name will not get you access to registration.

This is a great community for finding people who are in the same profession, sharing knowledge as well as a wonderful place to Network and find specific business contacts.

Mass ads to blogs & more - Use Myblogblaster

2005-08-31T21:01:00.000-07:00

Just opened -MyBlogBlaster has exclusive use of myblogblaster blogs, is using exclsuive blogs on the other blogsites (safelists.com, webstars2k, blogger.com).

It also sends your ad to - two - safe lists.We own one of them so are able to make iteasy on you by not having you join and receive return emails or anything. But yet, you can send daily to the entire member database.

You will send to safelists.com safelist all with - one - push of a button.

Wow huh?

But, that is not all - it also sends to tons of FFA's links. So you definitely have it all covered.

This is an extra blog reach and extra ad reach elsewhere using both of these fabulous sites.

Plus get two people assigned to your downline, Several had made a sale just from that alone.

Try is free today!

It uses some exclusive databases so you can not get the use of this advertising from anywhere else.

2005 Holiday Internet Sales Guide - Are you Listed?

2005-08-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

Big advertising explosion!

WAHM's Helping WAHM's promote each other's business while helping to provide quality products and discounts for the Internet Holiday Surfing Shoppers! We’re gearing up for the biggest shopping holidays of the year!!!

Get Ready for Holiday Sales!

Reserve your Coupon Ad Spot in the 2005 Holiday Internet Sales Guide!

$5 for the FIRST Coupon and $1 each for each additional coupon!

Got more than one home based business, are you a consultant for various Direct Sales Companies! Just $5 for the first coupon and $1 for each additional company! WHAT A DEAL!

This is open only to the Work at Home Mom’s.

The e-book will be provided for FREE Download to visitors of our network of websites with total Hits of over 3,000 per day, over 600+ yahoo group members, 300 of which are Christmas Fanatics looking for Christmas Gifts.

Aggressive Advertisement to Search Engines, Network webpages, Banner Traffic Accounts, Blogs, Various Newsletters, PLUS Download Link provided for each and every participating WAHM! Meaning aside from the aggressive advertisement, each participating WAHM will help to advertise this FREE to Download E-Book.

This e-book filled with Coupons from Work at Home Mom’s On-Line Businesses, will also include Holiday Crafts, Holiday Printables, Holiday Recipes, and more to help encourage many internet surfers and shoppers to download this FREE E-Book featuring coupons to help them with their Holiday Shopping Gift Giving List!

E-Book will be created ready for printing! This will allow each participating wahm to print out the e-book and give it away for free as Mom Pack Fillers, to friends, family and colleagues and anywhere that it is allowed. Print them out and send them to school with your kids to give to their teachers!

Mom’s helping Mom’s! Generate Sales and Lead! Join the 2005 Holiday Internet Sales Guide E-Book! Most affordably priced advertising you’ll ever find broadcasted throughout the World Wide Web and off-line by participating WAHM’s!

You can’t afford to be left out of this E-Book! Reserve your spot today at http://www.wahm-services.com/holiday-sales-guide-2005.htm Get all the details and information!

You can say that it has been done, there are many coupon e-books that are provided free on-line. This one is different!

If 25 Merchants decided to put their coupon advertisement in this E-Book. Each having websites, and just say some have at least 2 websites. Each site averages 300 unique visitors per month.

Aside from the aggressive advertisement that WAHM Services will be doing, let's break down the Advertising Explosion that's never been done. Yes, we do agree that there are many coupon holiday e-books out there. But there is one website that provides the advertisement and many don't provide the free content that will ensure a 75% chance of it being downloaded.

25 merchants x 2 websites = 50 websites providing free e-book download

average of 50% of their visitors will download the free e-book

150 x 50 websites = 7,500 internet shoppers

7,500 possible Holiday Shoppers viewing this e-book with free holiday crafts, holiday recipes, holiday printables and discount coupons to shop on-line helping them to purchase their personal and gift giving needs!

Not to mention that each participating merchant will have the ability to print out the ready to print e-book to give away for free:

Give out as Filler Exchange
Give to friends and family
Give to their colleagues at work
Give to their kids teachers
Leave at the doctor's office
Leave anywhere they're allowed

Internet Advertisement done by each and every participating merchant + print publication!

That's the advertising explosion that's never been done before!

If you're serious about your home based business and you are a work at home Mom, your coupon in this e-book at $5 for the first coupon will be the best advertising dollars that you've ever spent!

Reserve your spot today at http://www.wahm-services.com/holiday-sales-guide-2005.htm

FREE ADVERTISING AVAILABLE!!!

Bring Traffic to your Website Free!

2005-07-21T13:33:00.000-07:00

There area so many free to join programs out there that assures you that they can bring you traffic, simple, easy and free! I've joined many programs, tried to work it and eventually ended up forgetting about it. I hate downloading anything that I have to add to my internt tool bars, don't have the space and they can be bothersome.

When I launched the WAH Business Mall I was told about this program it's very new and hasn't been on-line too long. Signed up and added my URL's that I wanted to advertise in this free advertising surf for credit program.

Now, wait before you think oh, my God, another surf for credit program! This one is easy and it can be done automatically by your computer. Plus, the owners provide some great rewards for surfing and if you're like me I like to get things for free with minimal fuss and work, lol . .

This program allows you to choose your surfing option, I have mine on automatic surf. Each time I'm not on my computer, I let the computer surf for me. All I have to do is come back and check on it every 20 minutes or so to click on the "Continue" button and go back to cleaning, making dinner or doing laundry. I even put it on right before I go to bed, of course it will stop surfing but at least I've got some credits going into my account while I get ready for bed.

The first thing I do in the morning is turn on my monitor and click Continue again and off I go to make my coffee and get ready to start my morning. When I'm reading my emails I haveit on. It does interrupt you when it changes to another new site which is every 25 seconds, but you just have to click back to window you were working on.

I don't recommend automatically surfing for credits if you're working on a website, cause the program tends to disturb your concentration.

The program allows you to add up to 5 URL's for free. Your websites will be added to the Advertisement Rotation and when members start surfing they will see your website. Not a small ad, but your complete website. They have the option to open your site into another browser to check out what you have.

The WAH Business Mall has received over 600 visitors from this program and I only joined it the first week or so in June. You can see this in my 5 days Referral data on the bottom of my home page at http://www.my-biz.net

From time to time they sponsor a manual surfing and auto surf contest. One is being held right now and I'm in 2nd place to receive 45,000 credits. Of course I need to get 3,500 webpages but since yesterday program has surfed over 700 websites for me automatically. The other good thing is that this program allows you to sell your surplus credits.

Why am I excited about this free program, because for once I actually found a program that does what it says. Plus it's free and their auto surfing means I don't have to do anything but open up my auto surf URL and let the program do it for me while I do other things. It's a great way to utilize your spare time off the computer.

I almost forgot to mention that you also get cash for surfing. Okay, it's not going to make you rich cause it's less than a penny but hey, it's something, lol . .
Now, without further ado, lol . . here is the link to get your Free Traffic Referring great for bringing up your Traffic Ranking, minimal work done in your sleep program.

Check your website layout

2005-07-08T08:53:00.000-07:00

The new website development trend is to create web layouts that is viewable by most of the browsers used to access the internet.

The layout that is being used now is to have a table in the middle or the left side of the screen with spaces on either side or on the right hand side.

The reason is pretty self explanatory, to make sure that any computer can view your website content without having to use their scroller too much.

Sometimes however, the many novice that create websites tend to use up the entire page to create their layout which makes it hard for those that use Mac or browsers that are using WebTv or those that use the Netscape browser using a Mac computer which has a screen size of 470x300.

Unless you have developed your website where your tables automatically contract and retract to the size of any browser, you should make sure that your site content is being viewed with minimal work required by your visitors. To see how your website looks in different browsers, go to AnyBrowser.com to see how others using various browsers and computers will view your website.

Fourth of July Ad Special - Permanent Listing

2005-07-03T11:28:00.000-07:00

If you’re looking for a very affordable place to advertise your home business then look no further! We offer FULL PAGE UNLIMITED TEXT plus images plus the ability to request ad maintenance monthly and total text content overhaul every six months.

This is a PERMANENT LISTING – one time fee, no renewal fee and you get
UNLIMITED TEXT CONTENT + images + ad maintenance!

We’re new and We’re raising fast in Statistics and Ranking! We officially launched on
June 1^st, 2005

Let’s look at our statistics – which you can check out by going to http://www.my-biz.net/index.htm#stats and our Search and Ranking Report is open to the public at http://www.creativejunction.net/searchreports/wahbizmall/

we have a Google Page Rank #4

As of June 27, we have 4,277 website links you can view this at
http://www.creativejunction.net/searchreports/wahbizmall/linktrend-062705.htm

Our website is in the top position and in between top 1 – 5 search engine page results in many major search engines you can see it here
http://www.creativejunction.net/searchreports/wahbizmall/SERanking061705.htm

Our site is optimized for the keyword “work at home business” you can check this out and see how Google Rates our webpage against the top websites with this keyword target at
http://www.creativejunction.net/searchreports/wahbizmall/top10-optimizer-061705.htm

And we’re just getting started!

Our site is submitted to search engines on a monthly basis. To several hundred classifieds, ffa, directories and databases every 14 days.

We have PPC Search Engine advertisement account with targeted words: work at home
business, homeworkers job leads directory.

We have Paid Search Engine Inclusion account

We actively locate and do link exchanges on a daily basis

Our next big advertising ad promotion purchase is Targeted Advertisements. So, we’re not done yet when it comes to spending money to make sure that we get the exposure we need until we saturate the internet without website!

Come Along for the Ride!

There aren’t that many sites that can boast this type of stats in one month! Especially one that has just launched! We can!

Spend your Advertising Budget Wisely! Join the Work at Home Business Mall!

SPECIAL FOURTH OF JULY AD SPECIAL

$50 Permanent Listing

Full Page Unlimited Text + Images + ad maintenance

For more information and to take advantage of this special go to

http://www.my-biz.net/main/special_ad_promo.php

The Price of Freedom

2005-07-01T08:26:00.000-07:00

Some of you may already have seen this but it will not hurt to read it twice. Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't.

So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots and those that have come after. All that have sacrificed so we may live as we live today. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.

Remember: freedom is never free!

Why would I put this on this business blog? Because without the sacrifices of those that have come before and those that continually sacrifice and protect our way of life, we wouldn't be doing business on-line and maybe not even have this freedom that the internet avails to us. Many of us do take this for granted and we never think about those who made this possible. So, business is business, but without the ultimate sacrifices of others who knows where we'd be?

Recommended Home Business

2005-06-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

How To Make Money With Scrapbooking

e-book by ScrapBookingProfits.com

I thought I would highlight an e-book for a Home Business anyone can start - Scrapbooking! This e-book will give you step by step information on how to create a successful Scrapbooking Home Business.

You'll be told Where to get your hands on FREE scrapbooking layouts ... over 2,000 pages of instant "print your own" scrapbook supplies ...

FREE samples ... tips ... alphabets ... frames ... clip art ... templates AND SO MUCH MORE! You'll also be told how to SAVE HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS ON MATERIALS! Where to go to in order to get merchandise at BULK reductions. Plus learn How to market your business on the internet (even if you’re a complete "computer dummy").

Scrapbooking is a great business and it's booming! Everyone is getting back to trying preserving those wonderful memorable family moments and a well designed scrap book can do that for them. Imagine you supplying them the layout and cute graphics to help enhance their family scrapbooks? This e-book will show you how to do this successfully. The price of this e-book is less than $25 plus it comes 12 additional marketing, advertising and business e-books.

New Articles Added in the WAH Business Mall

2005-06-29T10:34:00.000-07:00

I will start to put up brief lead in article write up for the numberous articles that have been submitted for publication in the WAH Business Mall.

The articles in the database are available for reprint as long as you leave everything intact and provide the resource information, you can reproduce the articles in your e-zine, printed newsletter or magazine or your website. Please make sure to give credit where credit is due.

How To Organize A Seminar Or An Event
Resource by Matt Bacak

Seminars and events have always been implemented as a holistic experience to participants. Thus, organizing an event requires extensive planning and preparation with most work implemented at least a few months before the actual event. Most of the time, seminars seem to run like clockwork with all events flowing . . . . Click to read more

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Why Your Internet Business Is Like The Stock Market
Resource by Patty Gale

As savvy stock market investors know, chasing after the one "hot stock" with the possibility of bringing instant riches is not a wise idea. You know the old saying, "Don't put your eggs in one basket". This type of thinking carries a high risk. If your stock goes up and you are smart enough to sell, then you've made money. Click to read more

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School Fundraisers - How To Raise Twice The Money With Half The Sweat
Resource by Travis Sago

Finding the successful keywords is crucial in order to get not only a lot but the right quality. If your members, parents or donors wear clothes, watch t.v. or read books you have the beginning ingredients to a sweet recipe for a great year-round school fundraiser.
Click to read more

Slow Computer, slow page load?

2005-06-21T17:56:00.000-07:00

I use up my temporary internet file cache almost every other day and then wonder why the heck my computer is not doing what I want it to do, which of course is to load the webpages I want as soon as I click on them.

Sometimes I'm working on a webpage and my copy and paste doesn't work. I try to send emails and the Outlook takes forever to send the message and of course there's the hundreds of emails that I receive everyday and those created in html that takes more than 5 seconds to load.

If you're anything like me when I want to check out a site or send out an email or do anything on my computer I want it done immediately.

Well, unfortunately my husband says that's impossible with the amount of things that I do on this computer, not to mention the amount of email that's saved for later viewing, lol . .

Thank God I have someone who can tell me what the problem is.

The Temporary Internet Files is there for a good reason. It stores all of the places that you've visted, yes your history of internet surfing and of course depending on how many days you have set it, it can take up quite a bit of space.

Why does it keep these pages for you? Well, for the same reason why I'm writing about it, so I can access it immediately. You see the computer holds this history so when you want to see it again, it'll load it up really quickly because it's already been cached in your computer.

However, because I develop websites, every single time I click on "Preview" in my Front Page editor, my computer automatically creates a Temporary Internet File of the page that I am trying to preview.

If your household is like mine, we have more than one person using the computer. Fortunately, my kids have their own computer now and my husband and I share the new one. Only two people shouldn't create that many temporary files right? Wrong, he's a programmer so he's on this as much as he can doing stuff that takes up so much time. He is pretty good about dumping the "Trash" but just not the Temporary Internet Files".

I've made it a habit now to make sure I delete at least a few thousand emails that I get every day, just deleted over 3,000 the other day and today my computer is slowing down again. I hate emptying the Temporary Internet Files. Why? Because it can take over an hour just to do that function.

So, if you're having problems with slow computer system and it's not a virus, it's your Temporary Internet Files. Make sure to empty it at least once a week of you love to surf the net, maybe twice a week.

How do you delete your Temporary Internet Files? Do the following:

With your Browser Open
Click on "Tools"
Then click on "Internet Options"
Under Temprary Internet Files
Click on "Delete files"
A pop up window will open click on "OK" don't tick the box that ask you to delete Offline content, someone might have sychronized a website for offline work.

Once you click on OK your computer will start the slow process of deleting all of your Temporary Internet Files.

That should speed up your internet connection a little.

If you've got a lot of saved emails, save them to your computer or better yet, open up your Notepad and copy and paste the important information you need and save it as a Text Document in your computer. Delete all emails that you don't need and this also should help your computer process faster.

I'm currently deleting my Temporary Internet Files. Of course this means I can't do anything for awhile but publish this post.

Inbound Links

2005-06-18T09:01:00.000-07:00

Exchanging links, banners and traffic is one of the fastest way to get your website noticed before the search engine sends their robot spiders to catalog any website.

It's pretty easy, join some webrings, submit link exchange forms, join banner exchanges and when you've done say . . . maybe 20 of them in one day, you think, ahhh a job well done!

Well, that depends on whose point of view, lol . . since we highly want Google to give us its blessings, then it is "IT" that we need to satisfy. How does Google or the many search engines give us their blessings for a job well done when we exchange links and so forth? Giving us high ranking position in the search result pages when our keywords or keyword phrases are used in the search criteria of major search engines. Whew! Long sentence!

What has this got to do with link exchanges? A heck of a lot!

The habit of most web masters is to seek out and populate the internet with their link exchange information.

Question here is this - Is your submitted text that describes your site title and site description helping you receive the ultimate search engine nod? What about a wink?

Here's one of the algorithm that the major search engines use to program their robot spiders.

Read the keywords, make sure that the site complies with keyword density, make sure that the content pertains to the site keywords and make sure that the outbound links are related to the site content, make sure that the internal links provides keyword text, make sure that images have description, make sure that the site does not have hidden text in small print with the same color font as the background . . . . okay, there's more for this string, but you get the picture.

If it is so important that you create your website to fulfill your most important keywords and keyword phrases and these keywords and phrases and written in the visible text content to fulfill keyword density. What makes anyone think that submitting their site for link exchanges allows you to veer off what you've written down on your site title and meta tag description?

Inbound Links is what I'm talking about, these are links created of your site on other websites.

The way you write your Site Description is important. The text you write for your description is important. The way they link to your website is important.

Each of these will help build your site ranking with the search engines.

Fulfill Link Popularity - Fulfill linking to websites with like content - Fulfill your keyword search engine page rank popularity.

In summation this is how you should submit your site for link exchanges.

Use your page title wisely. It should contain your main keywords or keyword phrase. It should be no more than 15 words and no more than 84 characters including spaces and symbols.

My main keyword phrase is "work at home business", I've changed my site title several times and is now using this title " Work at home business, direct sales work at home job leads, work at home directory."

Use your text description wisely. Like in the title it should contain your keywords or keyword phrase, no more than 28 words and no more than 164 characters including spaces and symbols.

I do a lot of link exchanges but I tend to do only text link exchanges. They are more beneficial than image links.

When you submit your site for link exchanges make sure you utilize your title well, the search engine robots will read it when spidering the sites you've linked to.

My site would be linked like this in the textarea below.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.my-biz.net/">Work at home business, direct sales work at home job leads, work at home directory</a>

Work at home business, direct sales work at home job leads, work at home directory

Notice that the clickable link has my keywords and when these keywords or keyword phrases are used as a search criteria it will be brought up in the page results of search engines. Imagine submitting your site to text link exchange websites that have like content. It will help boost your link popularity, fulfill one of the major criterion of search engines to link to like sites, and help give your search engine page ranking a boost when all your link exchange text coincide with your main keywords and keyword phrases and if your site title is used as the clickable link.

The thing to accomplish is that you want your site using link text that is in relation to your main keyword target. You want the search engine to give you points for spidering websites that have your link and keywords associated.

You will want to do the same exact thing for your site description. Use your keywords as often as you can.

Exchange with as many websites that have similar contents to your websites but make sure that you not only get "Inbound Links" but effective inbound links to help your search engine page ranking.

Networking why it's important for your on-line business

2005-06-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

Networking is crucial for many reasons and can help your business survive on-line. There are so many websites that are created by web developers or novices each and every day. 10 years ago, it was an average of 5,000 new websites per day. Can you imagine how many are coming up every day now? Especially in this day an age where the need to be a stay home parent is more of a priority than to increase one's financial gain. Life has made many of use want to provide a better foundation for our children, spend more time with our better halves and create the family scenario that once we saw on television years ago.

Okay, I'm getting a bit nostalgic, lol . .so the point I'm getting at is that we now use our computers not just to surf for information, but as a means to generate income. So, the website is built, but their aren't many visitors and guess what that means no generation of income.

This is the reason why networking and belonging to internet groups is a crucial ingredient when doing business on-line. When we use to hear the old cliche "the world is your oyster", well, it really is if you're on-line. You can make an impact as well as make contact with people you may never meet from all over this globe. Someone in Canada might be looking for something you provide or you might find someone who is at the other end of the United States that can produce your products or provide you with products that you may not have known about if you didn't network or join internet groups.

I must warn you however, that within these groups still lies the human trecherous minds of those that will do anything to get ahead and some forget that their is someone with feelings using the keyboard. Yes, I'm sure there are many of these types of people you may have come across, but if you can ignore most of them and brush them off like a grain of sand, you will find many jewels in these types of forums.

I belong to several wonderful forums on-line that have netted me with some great networking partners and friends.

Network with other small business owner's and get your business promoted with AdlandPro's Traffic Exchange free advertisement program. You are allowed to build your own personal webpage and post your classfieds and meet some really great small business owners in this forum. It doesn't hurt that you can get your advertisement posted once a month to their network of members for free either, lol . .

List Dot.com will allow you to Network and send your business ads to your Opt-In List. This is free and you can send out messages to those that opt-in to your list that will be advertised for free.

Join one of the fastest growing networks on-line. Create your own advertising area, join hundreds of topic specific groups to fit your specific business needs. I belong to several groups at Ryze. I must warn you though, you'll receive a ton of messages once you sign up for groups. Make sure that you change your profile where you only receive messages from messages you've posted or you will be bombarded with hundreds of emails. A bit of a nuisance, but not bad since you will meet many new faces and it is a great way to advertise your business for free.

Well, there is quite a bit more places that I can write about, but for now this will have to do. Network and meet people on-line by joining networking forums, bulletin boards and internet groups. You'll be surprised at how fast your website will get viewed and the worst that can happen? You may actually start getting more sales!

Almost forgot, I should mention my WAH Business Ad Promotion Group. Okay, not exactly a networking group, but you can save discounts on advertising on my network of sites. But, this is not why I'm mentioning this group. I am going to create an e-coupon book to be given away for free in the beginning of October just in time for the biggest shopping days of the year, Christmas! This group will be provided with details on this project so if you want to get your business noticed, you may want to join this free group.

Until I think of something else to write! Enjoy your day!

Hiring a Professional to create your Website

2005-06-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

I've always found it amazing at the amount of money that many I've come across have paid to get their website created. Unfortunately, I hear stories where the web designer didn't do exactly what they wanted; took their money and didn't want to complete it unless they forked up more money; or they can't do any maintenance on their site because they don't know how to do simple maintenance.

These have been the kinds of stories that I've heard since being on-line. Hence, one of the biggest reasons why I decided to become a web developer. I don't think many understand that there is a vast difference between a web designer and a web developer. Now, this might piss off many with the Web Designer title, but I've visited many web designers sites and their portfolio of clients and have found that although the site looks nice enough the html source is not well developed to fulfill the at least most of the search engine criterion.

A web designer is a graphics designer with some advanced html skills. A web developer is proficient in advance HTML maybe not every single aspect but they also know how customize and install scripts as well as PHP or ASP driven program, they are the ones that will make sure that their client understands the need to create keyword density web pages, install static html link exchange programs, insert alt tags for links and images, create a navigation hub that will be easy to use for their client's site visitors, insert all necessary meta tags, help provide clients guidance and information to survive on-line or at least make sure that they know how to get their site seen by the internet surfers before the search engines actually catalog their site.

Their is a myth that many web designers believe. You cannot get a Google Page Rank of 3 if you haven't been on-line for a year. Well, the WAH Business Mall was officially launched on June 1st, 2005. However, before the launch 30 days to be exact the Page Rank indicator that I put on the home page came up with a Google Page Rank of #4. This is also the same story with the Mom Biz Network which is not completely done yet.

How then do you know if you're hiring a Web Developer that knows what they're doing or just a Web Designer who is great at creating graphics and has maybe some advance knowledge with HTML?

Before you send your money to anyone that tells you they can create your website, please do the following:

Ask a lot of questions, I know you might not know the type of questions to ask. But, do send your would be web developer samples of websites you would like developed for you. This will give you an idea of how much they'll charge you.
View their website source code. This will tell you a lot of how they really develop webpages. Meta Tags are not just keywords, title and description. There is so much more that can be added to help your site get cataloged by the search engines and in it's proper categories as well as the ever important meta tag that tells the robot spiders to come back to your site to read all of your new additions to re-catalog it again. How do you view their source code? Click on "View" which is located at the top of your browser window, then click on "Source" in the drop down window. You'll see the html source code that is used for creating any website.
By all means follow the links provided on their portfolio of clients. Check out their html source codes as well.
What kinds of terms are they offering when it comes to their graphics? Will they give you copyright of the images and graphics created specifically for your site? This is something very important to know, some may turn around and tell you that you cannot have another web developer re-do your website because they not you own the copyright of all the images created specifically for your website, that you have already paid for.
How many layout choices will they give you? This too is something you need to know.
Get all prices up front, be careful of the hidden charges. I've heard many stories where shopping carts were installed and when the client asked why the site graphics and color theme didn't match their site, they were told that would be another charge. Don't fall into this type of hidden after you hire cost. Ask for all pricing up front.
Put down a down payment, do not send all of your money up front. This is a big no, no. This is how many get burned. Yes, you can sue, but technically they have you beat before you even think of suing them. You see, in order for you to sue anyone who is not in your state or county, you need to go to their court to process and get your results. Yes, it's a bit unfair, but until their is an Internet Court, there really isn't much of a recourse to getting your money back. You can report the business to Better Business Bureau, tell all your friends about them, but as far as getting your money back, well . . How do I know these things, well aside from being a law buff, I have many relatives that are lawyers and have had to write up many different types of documents filled with law jargons that many wouldn't understand. The law is there to protect the consumer but on the internet it is a bit hard to chase someone you've never met. So, be very careful with your money and how much you pay up front for this type of work. Many will allow you to put down a percentage of the work before getting started, some will tell you that they want a certain amount after the work has started and of course the rest of the balance immediately after you've approved the work.

Okay, I discussed what you should do, but please be aware that a web designer or a web developer can also only go by what you tell them. A web developer will:

Answer all of your questions to your satisfaction.
Want to call you on the phone to make sure that they understand all of the emails that they've received from you.
They will ask lots and lots of questions, which might be confusing to you, but this is necessary.
Have an enormous amount of patience because many clients do not understand the machinations of creating a website. It may require a lot of explain on their end, but explaining to make the client understand is part of the job.
Require payment from you before a job is started and require payment from you at least 24 hours after the job is completed.
Require you to answer their messages as soon as possible. This means answering the questions that is asked in their messages and making sure that you reply with the message they sent originally so they know what you are answering. Maybe this is tedious but you need to remember you may not be the only client they're working with at the time. This type of message reply will keep your site creation fresh in their mind and if you reply as soon as possible they don't need to try to figure out where they were at when you replied to their message.
Fulfill 3 criteria's: 1: Develop a website that is easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing in appearance to your site visitor; 2: Develop a search engine friendly optimized website to fulfill most of the major search engine criterions; 3: Client Satisfaction.

These are just some of the things that you should know before you hire someone to create your website. Do your homework first. Search the internet for the type of sites that you want created. Make sure you know exactly the type of text content you're going to have for each of the webpages you're going to want created. Compare pricing and type of work done. Know exactly what you want as far as how many webpages, names of your webpages, categories for your site and what kind of programs you want installed. If you want to install a shopping cart, please check them out to see which one you really want to use. All shopping carts have demo sites and feature listing for their products. If you want to be able to maintain your site afterwards, which I highly recommend then you should check out the Content Management Programs. These have many features that allow you to add your own content as well as adminster who can access these content all in one control administrative panel.

One more thing, make sure that you hire someone that will make you a real homepage. What I mean is one that is search engine friendly, does not have frames, in-line or otherwise and does not just contain your "enter" image or word. Your homepage should be rich in keyword density and provide proper meta tags for the search engines. Do not have them create just a "doorway" page, many of these barely comply to the major search engine criterions.