Having enjoyed reading your
biographical, They
can't take that away from me... I
would love to post your article (for my) course for
seniors entitled Autobiography and Journaling ... and
let them read your article as a good example of what
I call the reader's writer, clearly expressed and easy
to read. (Howell)
The French language has
always appealed to me ... so I enjoyed Lavinia's
experiences en
France! (Di Sullivan, Perth, Australia)
I am an American and an
expat here since 1990. I have been a subscriber to Writing
Tip for a few years now and look forward to the Friday
editions. I archive by creating topics of the tips
relevant to me and often refer. (Mary, Lagos, Nigeria)
WRITERS!
Write
Your Own Best Seller!
This
year, don't just read a best-seller ... Write
your own using the software program that works
in the same way J K Rowling writes her Harry
Potter novels!
Who said Aussies would
bet on two flies crawling up a wall? Now I know
better! (Bill Denham, Chicago, USA)
I enjoy reading your page
every week, Jennifer, it's never boring and there's always
something to bring a smile to my face! (Kenny Dima,
Tenerife, Spain)
Great newsletter -
originally found this site after searching for
clarification on a contentious
point amongst work colleagues. Just had to look at old
issues and now look forward to Fridays (Juliet Wallace,
Manchester, ENGLAND)
10 Steps
to Better Search Engine Rankings by John Buchanan
Quick Tip
Greetings,
This week, John Buchanan offers ten
tips to improve your ranking on the search engines. No matter what all the gurus
say about search engines losing their importance - they're always going to be
the first choice for the majority of "ordinary" web users (and isn't
that all of us?)
While we're on the topic of
searching ... if you're serious about your business, you'll know that you
always need to do some research before you can expect to succeed and the Quick
Tip shows you how to conduct your searches.
Kind regards,
Jennifer
P.S. If you're in the market for a
new (or used) car, here's an excellent service that I'm associated with:
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Understanding exactly what it takes to attain a top ranking
page (or pages) can sometimes seem like a somewhat difficult
task. Regardless of your experience in search engine
promotion, we've all, at one time or another, sat in front
of the computer frustrated and ready to call it quits.
Sound familiar? It should. It's actually fairly normal. That
is why I have put together a list of the top 10 things you
can do to help assure that you will find your site's pages
sitting proudly at the top of the results.
Keep in mind, these are only basic principles and are in no
way meant to be a complete guide to search engine promotion.
They are intended to give you a general outline to follow
when developing your site.
With all that being said, let's jump right in ok?
1. Do your keyword research. Yes, I know this is harped on
constantly (heck I do a lot of harping myself), but it is
the single most important aspect of search engine
optimization. If you don't know how your visitors search for
your product or service, then you are shooting in the dark.
Don't just assume you know how they are going to try and
find you. Use a service like http://www.wordtracker.com
to
develop a good and comprehensive list of keywords. Visit
your competition and look at the terms they use in the
keywords tag and throughout their pages. Spend a good bit of
time on this because it will payoff big down the road. Once
you have your list, rank the phrases in order of importance
starting with your most important keyword phrase.
2.Now you have your keywords list. It is time to start
getting the text for your pages ready. When doing so, you
will want each of your pages to focus on one of the keyword
phrases from your list. Your homepage should focus on your
most important phrase and each subsequent subpage should
focus on another keyword phrase. Ideally, you should never
focus on more than one or two keyword phrases per page.
Trying to focus on more than this will dilute the theme of
the page and could have a negative effect on your rankings.
You will hear a lot of talk about keyword density. While
this is important, don't spend every waking hour trying to
hit the perfect density. With so many other things such as
link popularity, themes, etc. being taken into account,
hitting the exact density is becoming less and less
important. A good rule of thumb is to shoot for a density
between 3% and 5%.
3. Now let's talk title tags. The title tag is one of the most
important elements of your page. The engines put more weight
on the title tag than any other single element of your page.
Your title tag should ALWAYS contain the keyword phrase you
have chosen to target for that page. Keep the tag short, no
more than about 6 words generally, but make it appealing.
The goal here is make the title appealing to visitors but
also short enough that you don't take away from the
importance of your keyword phrase.
4. Try to keep your pages as simple as possible. Things such as
frames, excessive javascript, flash, too many graphics or
image maps can have a negative affect on your search engine
rankings. A good rule of thumb is that the simpler the page,
the better it will generally rank. Even tables, when used
too much can break up the flow of the text on a page and
hurt your chances at a top ranking.
5.Good
solid content is always important. While you will
occasionally see top ranking sites with very little content,
you will have a much better time getting and keeping a top
ranking with good content. This not only gives the engines
more to index, but it gives your visitors something to read
and absorb.
6. Think big. What does this mean? Quite simply, it means that
a site of 30 or more pages has, at least, 6 times the
chances to get a top ranking as a site of 5 pages. The more
pages your site has with good, solid, quality content, the
more keyword phrases you can target and the more chances you
have of attaining a top ranking.
7. Create a good system of internal linking. You should be able
to get to just about any page on your site within no more
than 3 clicks. Consider creating a site map with links to
all of the pages within your site. This will assist the
engines in properly indexing your site. When creating your
internal links try to use the actual keyword phrase that you
will be targeting on the page you are linking to as the link
text. Many engines look at the visible text of a hyperlink
as a description of the target page. If the visible text
matches the focus of that page, it will help to give that
page a boost in the rankings.
8. Work hard to build your sites external link popularity. This
can be a long and arduous task, but it is crucial to your
success. All of the top engines use link popularity quite
heavily when ranking sites. It is important to note that it
is not only the quantity of links that is important but also
the quality of those links. One link from a site such as
Yahoo is worth as much or more than 100 links from unknown
sites. Also remember, it is important that you link to other
sites. When linking to other sites, or attempting to get
them to link to you, always shoot for sites that are of a
similar theme as your site.
9. Monitor your rankings in the search engines and make
adjustments accordingly. This is best accomplished through
a program like WebPosition Gold, Top Dog, or other similar
programs. If you see your position starting to slide, look
at the sites that have overtaken you and see if you can
determine a pattern. This will tell you what you need to do
to regain your position.
10. Whew! We've covered a lot. Now that you're at this step keep
at it. If you don't get a top ranking right off the bat
don't get discouraged. Heck, how did your first attempt at
an omelette turn out? Give yourself some time to get
accustomed to this new field. Keep tracking your progress,
analyzing the competition, and making adjustments, and in no
time at all, you will find yourself sitting comfortably on
that elusive first page.
Good Luck and Happy Optimizing!
John Buchanan is the author of the book "The Insider's Guide
to Dominating The Search Engines," and publisher of a FREE
monthly newsletter "The Search Engine Bulletin." Visit us at http://www.se-secrets.com for more
information or to sign up
for the newsletter.
For a
step-by-step guide on how to create an ebook or InfoProduct that could be the
basis of an online business for you, click here: http://www.write101.com/letters/profits
And here
are 10 little snippets to make that upper lip twitch ... just a bit ...
1. COFFEE.EXE Missing - Insert Cup and
Press Any Key
2. <-------- The information went
data way
3. The name is Baud......, James
Baud.
4. Access denied--nah nah na nah
nah!
5. Why doesn't DOS ever say
"EXCELLENT command or filename!"
6. Ethernet (n): something used to
catch the etherbunny
7. Shell to DOS...Come in DOS, do you
copy? Shell to DOS...
8. ASCII stupid question, get a stupid
ANSI!
9. Press any key to continue or any
other key to quit...
10. Go ahead, make my data!
Thanks to Laurie for finding these :)
The Hypnotic Power of
Confusion
by Joe Vitale
"Did you walk to work or carry a lunch?"
Huh?
My father asked me that question more than 25 years ago. I
still remember it. Why? Because it's a ridiculous question.
How can you use this secret right now? Don't be afraid to be
confusing. People tend to sort out whatever you say anyway and
make sense out of it using their own terms. If you are
describing your product in great detail, be willing to toss in
something odd. It may increase sales.
Joe Vitale is recognized by many to be one of the greatest
living copywriters. His latest project, the Hypnotic Writer's
Swipe File is a collection of over 1,550 copywriting gems that
took him years to compile. This is his personal swipe file that
he uses to create world famous sales letters responsible for
generating millions and millions of dollars of revenue.
When you're in business, you must
know what people want to buy, what they can afford to pay, what your competition
is charging, where you can get the best supplies and so on. This sort of
research has been made easier by the Internet - but it's still just as time
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Finding personal/company assets
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research
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addresses
Conducting productive
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Recovering Judicial Settlements
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Verifying professional licensing
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If you think your business could
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