1. Search Engines – People type in certain terms to a search engine (such as Google), and websites connected with those terms come up as search results.  Example: A person types “how can I help African children” into a search engine, and one of the pages “shoesforall.org” comes up as a result, explaining how their donation will help get shoes to African children.
2. Direct referrals from other websites – Example: Another charity which provides food to poor children has a website called food4all.org, (a made-up name at the time of this writing) which has a page with links to other charities. One of these links leads to to shoesforall.org. A person visits food4all.org, arrives to the “links” page, and clicks on the link to shoesforall.org.
3. Word of mouth and offline Advertising – This includes offline referrals, where people tell others to visit your Shoes For All website, people emailing eachother about the Shoes for All movement, people passing around business cards with URLs of shoesforall.org websites, and even notices and billboards which advertise the URLs of the websites, bumper stickers, etc.

The first method – search engines – is possibly the most important one, because of its potentials to reach anyone and everyone who might be interested in the “Shoes for All” movement (even if they have never heard of the movement before).

Your goal is to have your website come up as often as possible in search results, whenever people search for related keywords.

There will be a few main keywords that result in visits to your sites, and there will be some variations of those keywords.

For example, your sites might receive traffic from these main keywords:

A bar graph of these keywords would look like this:

If you look at the above bar graph and imagine that the blue bars represent an animal, with the head on the left and a long tail on the right.

This is where the term “long tail” comes from.

Long tail keywords are the words and terms which individually are not searched for often, but cumulatively can add up to a lot of traffic.

Long tail keywords basically include the many variations of your main keywords, which can be used to find your organization’s websites. Each variation in itself does not get a large volume of searches, but all combined, they get a considerable amount.

Sometimes when you are driving traffic to a new website, its best to start off by focusing on the long-tail keywords.  The reason for this is that they often have far less competition than your main keywords.  Once you have begun to rank well for plenty of long tail keywords, and receive good traffic from them, it is much easier to go after your main keywords.  On could say that you have your foot on the first rung of the ladder.

It’s also good to research long-tail keywords because it gives you an idea of what information people are looking for.

When people type in a search term, they are generally stating their problem. It is something they are trying to solve – whether they are trying to find out the location of the nearest pizza parlor, how to pay less taxes, or where they can find a funny video so they can forget about life for a little while!

When your website appears in the search result, it should give the solution to that problem. People may have never heard of your organization before. All they know is that they are looking for information on something, and they are trying to solve some kind of problem. If your organization has a solution, or an answer to that problem, it should come up as a result when people type in those search terms!

That seems obvious, but it is far too often overlooked.

When a person types in “charity for children,” your shoesforall.org website should be amongst the search results.  And it should also be there when they type in “shoes for children,” “help Burmese kids,” “donate to charity in Ecuador,” or whatever the case may be – providing that the organization has branches in those areas, and providing that it runs programs which help solve those problems.

In the beginning it takes work to get traffic to a website and get it up in the rankings.  By targeting long-tail keywords to start off with, you can build a stable base of traffic and start building up some momentum.  Then you can go after the big ones.

This post was originally published on Websites and Webhosting at Driving Traffic to Your Website.

You might already know what many of these terms – but many people don’t.  And as you are reading, you might realize that you yourself didn’t know what all of these words really meant, even when you thought you did.

What is the Internet?

The Internet (or the “net” for short) is an enormous network of computers all over the world, which are connected together with wires, cables, wireless transmissions, and satellite signals.

What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is the address of a website (which is a specific group of files or pages under that domain name). For example: websitesandwebhosting.com is the domain name for the website called “Websites and Webhosting.” This website could have many pages inside it, but the address of every page would include “websitesandwebhosting.com.” For example, the following web pages all fall under the domain name websitesandwebhosting.com:

http://websitesandwebhosting.com/webmaster-resources/
http://websitesandwebhosting.com/email-marketing-free-trial/
http://websitesandwebhosting.com/books-ebooks-training/
http://websitesandwebhosting.com/website-building/website-building-services/

What is a Website?

A website is a group of pages which are linked together under one domain name. So, for example, all of the files which are linked together under the domain name websitesandwebhosting.com are referred to as one website.

What is a URL?

“URL” stands for “uniform resource locator.” It is the exact address of any particular page or file on the Internet. (The pages and files are considered to be “resources.”) Most websites have many pages, and each page has its own URL. Here are some examples of URLs:

http://websitesandwebhosting.com/books-ebooks-training/

http://websitesandwebhosting.com/email-marketing-free-trial/

What is a Hyperlink?

A hyperlink (also called a “link” for short”) is a piece of text or an image which connects web pages and files together, usually on the Internet. If you hover your mouse pointer over a hyperlink and you click on it, it normally leads you to some other web page, file, or image. One can also put hyperlinks into a document or an eBook. This is a hyperlink

What is a Search Engine?

Some websites have special computer programs which you can use to search for information. These are called “search engines.” A search engine can rapidly look through millions of websites on the Internet to help you find the information you are looking for. When you type a word or phrase or phrase into a search engine, it displays a list of websites which should have information and pages about the term you typed in. Technically speaking, the search engine is actually the computer program which searches for information, not the website itself. But we tend to refer to websites which use search engines as “search engines.” So the term “search engine” has come to refer to not only the computer programs which search, but the websites which use these programs. The following websites are examples of search engines:

www.Google.com

www.Yahoo.com

www.MSN.com

www.AOL.com

What is a Keyword?

A keyword is an important word which represents the subject you are searching for information about (if you are searching for information). When you are publishing information on the Internet, a keyword is an important word which represents the subject you are writing about. When you publish photos, videos, or sound files, the a keyword is a word which describes the image, video, or sound. If you are searching for “dogs” and you type “dog collars” into a Search Engine, your keyword is “dogs.” If you are publishing a website about dogs, your main keyword would be “dog” or “dogs.”

What is a Key Phrase?

A key phrase is just like a keyword, except it is a group of keywords. An example of a key phrase would be “dog collars.” But most people use the term “keyword” to refer to both keywords and key phrases. I will use the word “keyword” to refer to both keywords and key phrases, as many people do. Its simply easier than continuously saying “keyword or key phrase.”

What is a Search Engine Results Position?

A Search Engine Results Position (or SERP) is the position of a website on the results for a search engine, after a particular keyword is typed in. As I write this book, the URL en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog is #1 in the Google SERPs for the keyword “dog.” What that means is that when I type “dog” into the Google Search Engine, the Number 1 result which shows up is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog.

What is Page Rank?

When people refer to “page rank” they are normally referring to “Google Page Rank.” The Google Search Engine has a way of rating the value of different pages on the Internet, from 0-10. Later on in this book I will tell you how to find out the page rank of different pages when needed (its very simple).

What is an IP Address?

Every computer in the world has its own number which is assigned to it. Its kind of like a street address, but its a string of numbers which other computers can understand. IP addresses in different parts of the world begin with different numbers. IP stands for “Internet Protocol.” The definition of Protocol is “the rules which determine the format and transfer of information on a computer.”

What is the World Wide Web?

The World Wide Web (also referred to as “www” or “the web”) is a term referring to the giant network of computers all over the world which are connected on the Internet. If you imagine all of these connections around the world, it looks a lot like a huge spider web of inter-connection. It is basically a synonym for the word “Internet.”

What’s a Web Server?

A web server (or server) is a big powerful computer where the pages and files of websites are stored. The server is running all the time (ideally) so that anyone can access them via the Internet. Usually web servers belong to big companies which have the entire purpose of storing website and files so that they can be accessed by others via Internet. These companies are called “web hosting companies” or “web hosts.” An example of a web host is my web host, Hostgator My websites, for example, are stored on one of Host Gator’s servers, in Texas, USA. If you visit one of my sites, such as www.WebsitesWebhosting.com, you will be reading the pages which are stored on the server in Texas. If a tornado has just ripped through my server, you will not be able to see my website, you will see an error message instead, like “Internal Server Error.” (Sound familiar?)

What is a Webmaster?

A webmaster is a person who owns and creates one or more website.

What Does “Download” Mean?”

When you find a file on the Internet and you save it onto the computer you are using (the one you are typing on or a storage device connected to it) this is called “downloading.”

What Does “Upload” Mean?

When you take a file from your own computer and send to another computer on the Internet, usually a server, this is called “uploading” the file. You can upload files to your own server if you are creating a website. You can also upload files to other people’s servers. When you publish a video on a website like YouTube you have to upload the file to that website’s server.

What is a Blog?

The word blog is short for weblog. It is a type of a website. The entries in a blog are made in the style of a journal, and they are displayed in reverse-chronological order, with the most recent entry “at the top,” or on the front page. Originally, blogs were used like online journals or diaries. People would post their day-to-day thoughts and ideas on blogs. Blogs became a medium for displaying artistic creations, discussing news events, sharing the latest recipes with friends, and announcing accomplishments. Businesses also began to use blogs in order to keep their customers up to date with the latest developments. Modern day blogs have expanded into much broader use, and they have become increasingly popular for a variety of reasons. This will be discussed in more detail, later on in this book.

What is a Blog Post?

A single entry on a blog is a blog post. Blog posts are made chronologically and the most recent posts usually show up on the front page of the blog. To look at older posts, you usually search through the blog archives section.

What is a Comment?

When you come across a blog, video, image, or similar page on the Internet, you will often be given the opportunity to leave a comment. This will usually be in a space beneath the video, picture, or written text. A comment is a short message, opinion, or idea which you leave in response to whatever has been displayed on the page. Later on in this book you will learn why comments are very important.

What is “Online” and “Offline?”

When a person or computer is connected to the Internet, the person or computer is online. When the person or computer is not connected, the person is offline.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization (or SEO, for short) is the process of putting a website into an optimum condition so that it will be found as frequently as possible by people searching for relevant information on the Internet. For example, if you had a webite which sold dog accessories, you would want as many people as possible to visit your website, and you would want those people to be dog owners or dog lovers, or anyone who might be interested in buying a dog accessory from you. You would want people to find your website toward the top of the search results when they type in “dog accessories,” “dog toys,” “dog collars,” “dog seat covers,” “dog leashes …” and the list goes on. Anything you do in order to get more relevant traffic to your website through search engines is called “Search Engine Optimization” or “SEO.” There are different aspects of SEO, and there are right and wrong ways to do it. This will be covered later in this book where appropriate.

What is “Black Hat” and “White Hat” SEO?

In a nutshell, ethical SEO techniques are called “White Hat” SEO, and dishonest SEO Techniques are called “Black Hat SEO.” Different people have different ideas of what falls under which category, but once you have a basic understanding, it is pretty easy to tell the difference. Black Hat SEO techniques are often characterized by efforts to “trick” the search engines, or to shortcut one’s way to success. They are not workable in the long term, and are harmful to one’s reputation as well as to the effectiveness of one’s SEO efforts. Black Hat SEO techniques can even get websites removed from the Search Engine results entirely, because Search Engines don’t like black hatters.

What’s an Algorithm?

An algorithm is a computer program which goes through a series of steps in order to solve a problem or make a decision. Search engines use algorithms to determine which results should be displayed, and in which sequence, when a person performs a search. Search engines constantly change their algorithms in an effort to display the highest-quality and most relevant search results possible to their users.

What’s a Browser?

A browser, or web brower, is a computer program which is used to view and work with pages and documents on the Internet. The names of two popular browsers are Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

What is Internet Marketing?

The use of the Internet to promote one’s company, cause, product, message, or website is referred to as “Internet Marketing.” Internet Marketing is most commonly associate with income-generating activities, since most Internet Marketers are using the Internet in order to earn money (by selling products or services, or by selling advertising space on their websites). Internet Marketing, however, can be applied to any activity in which one wants to spread a message or promote an idea.

What is a Social Networking Website?

A social networking website allows many different users to create their own profile page with information about themselves, publish content, interact with other users, create and join groups, make friends, send messages to eachother, share photos and videos, etc. Examples of popular social networking websites are MySpace and Facebook. There are many different types of social networking websites. Each is unique in some way. Different types of social networks are tailored for different purposes or different types of people. Some focus on particular subject matter, such as YouTube (a vido sharing site), Flickr (a photo sharing site), and Blog Catalog (a social network for bloggers). Social networking sites usually allow you to pubish links to your own websites or to other sites which interest you.

What is a Social Bookmarking Site?

A social bookmarking site is a type of social networking site, with two main purposes:

1. To allow you to store and organize records of websites and pages you find, so that you can find them again easily later on. When you store a record of a webpage you like, this is called “bookmarking” the page.
2. To allow you to share your bookmarks with other people who have similar interests, and to search for useful content among other people’s bookmarks.

An example of a social bookmarking site is Delicious.

What is Spam?

Spam could be defined as unwanted, unwelcome, or uninvited communication which is sent in some way via the Internet. The type of spam we are most familiar with is unwanted and uninvited bulk email, which is usually sent out to large numbers of people. The person sending the spam emails is usually trying to get money – whether by trying to sell something, or by trying to steal people’s personal information so that their bank accounts can be hacked. There are many other forms of spam. Some examples are:

• Leaving irrelevant and self promoting messages and comments on other people’s websites, leaving a link to one’s own site in the comment, in hopes of generating traffic to one’s own website.
• Creating hundreds of copies of the exact same website and publishing it under many domain names, in hopes of getting more traffic.
• Sending out unhelpful, unwelcome, and inappropriate friend-invitations or messages on social networking sites, in hopes of getting more traffic or sales for oneself.
• Creating numerous social network or social bookmark profiles which have little value in themselves, with the sole purpose of publishing links to one’s own websites.

There are other examples but this should give you an idea. Spammers are very badly thought of, and are heavily rejected, in the online world. Some forms of spam are also illegal. But its not hard to follow the rules once one has a basic understanding of them.

Summary

Okay. If you are relatively new to this subject, you might feel like I have just given you a lot to digest at once.  If you are familiar with the Internet, then none of this may be new to you.

I have just touched on these basic definitions so that future articles and concepts will be easier to understand.  After all, when one doesn’t have a grasp on basic concepts, it is easy to get confused later on down the line.   If you forget what one of these terms means, you can always refer back to this post.

This post was originally published on Websites and Webhosting at Basic Definitions.

This is to give more detailed information on the features that are included with our basic blog setup for small and large businesses, or for personal use.  In case of any upgrades or changes, this post will be updated with the most recent information.

These features are included wherever they are applicable, so long the necessary relevant information has been provided.

Admin Area – Your blog comes with a professional admin area, and a central control area known as a dashboard.  This is your “back office” where you can make changes, adjust settings, and administer your blog.  Once the setup of your blog is complete, we will give you login information so that you can enter your dashboard area whenever you need to, in order to update or modify your blog.

A Variety of Blog Themes to Choose From – The theme of your blog is its overall design, general layout, coloring, look, and feel.  You will be able to choose from hundreds themes for your blog, or you can let us choose the theme we think is best.  For some premium themes, prices may vary slightly.

Full Subscription Setup – Your blog will be set up with a full subscription service so that your visitors can choose to be notified whenever you post on your blog.  They can choose to be notified by email, or by RSS (RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication).

Automatic DataBase Backup – A backup file of your blog’s content can be set up to be sent to you regularly by email.

Comment Moderation – You will have the option to moderate all comments that are left on your blog.  This means that when a visitor leaves a comment, you can chose to approve or disapprove it, before it is published.

Anti-Spam – Your blog will be programmed to detect spam comments and protect you from them.  You will have the option to view these comments if you like, in order to verify that they are spam.  (Usually spam comments are marked accordingly by your blog, but occasionally a valid comment is labeled as spam, in which case you will have the option to manually approve it for posting.)

Broken Link Checker – When one of your posts contains a broken link (a link which leads nowhere, which can occur due to typographical errors or because the page that the link leads to has moved), you will be notified of this on your dashboard.  Any time you log on, you will be able to see any broken links and repair them rapidly and easily.

Web Stats and Analytics – Your blog will be tracked by popular and well-established web analytics and analysis tools so that you can see how much traffic you are getting, where your traffic is coming from, and more.

Automatic Sitemap Generator – Your blog will be set up to generate and automatically update its own sitemap.

Sitemap Submission Your sitemap will be submitted to Google so that your pages can be found and easily indexed in by Google’s Search Engine.

Social Networking Integration – At the bottom of each blog post, a small button or group of buttons can appear which allows your visitors to easily share your content with others, by email or by using social networks and social bookmarking sites.  (This is optional and may not apply to some designs).

Twitter Updates – If you have a Twitter account, you can set your blog up to post a notification on Twitter every time you add a new post.

Facebook Updates – Allows you to have your blog automatically post a link to new entries on your Facebook account whenever you add a new post.

Subscribe to Comments – When a visitor comments on one of your blog posts, this feature allows them to subscribe to be informed by email, whenever a new comment is made on that post.

Comment Editor – Allows your visitors to edit their comments after they have submitted them.

Theme Authenticity Checker – In case you choose to add new themes to your blog in the future (other than those we have already loaded) this feature will allow you to check those themes for malicious or troublesome code.

Privacy Policy and Disclaimer - If needed, we can create a Privacy Policy and/or Disclaimer page for your blog.  (This does not constitute legal advice and is used at your own discretion.)

Search Engine Optimization – Your blog will be optimized for Search Engines in the following manner:

• Each post will have meta data created automatically.  This helps your content be found more easily when internet users search for related terms online.  This meta data includes your post title, description, and keywords.  You will also have the option of manually entering your own title, description, and keywords, or your blog will create it for you automatically based on the titles and content of your posts.
• Automatic tagging.  When we have a list of keywords related to your blog’s subject matter, we can set your blog up to automatically add those keywords to your posts whenever the same words occur within the body of the text.  The keywords can be added both as tags (visible to the visitor) and keywords (only visible to Search Engines and important for SEO).  Please note, this feature only works with compatible themes.
• Your blog will be programmed to notify, or “ping” numerous other blog-related websites whenever you publish a new post.  This helps you to get more traffic to your blog.  We will also program your blog so that no “over-pinging” occurs when you edit your posts or if you create many posts in a short time period.
• Additional SEO features will be set up which might be difficult to understand (and possibly uninteresting) for clients with limited technical knowledge in this field.  If you would like further information on these, please contact us.

Centralized Plugin Management – Many of the above functions are performed by small software elements called “plugins.”  These plugins need to be updated from time to time, and as you become more familiar with blogging, you might find that you want to install new plugins.  Your blog will have a centralized plugin management area where you can easily add and update plugins.

(Note: The plugins we configure for your blog are created by individual developers.  After your blog is turned over to you, you will be responsible for ensuring that your website and its software is updated regularly.  This is not difficult.  Additionally, we can provide no warranty or future guarantees regarding your website’s software or related plugins.)

One Month Free Support – After your blog is set up, you may have questions or need advice about how to perform different tasks within your admin panel.  Feel free to email us with any questions you have and we will do everything we can to assist you.

Additional Features As Applicable – Dependent on the nature of your business or website, we may choose to install additional features which we think would be appropriate and useful for your blog.

Prices, Terms, and Additional Information

For additional information and pricing, please see the following pages:

• Services and Fees
• Payment Terms

If you  have any additional questions or would like an estimate or quote for your project, please  contact us.

This post was originally published on Websites and Webhosting at Blog Installation Service.

While it is simple and free to allow people to subscribe to your blog, it is even more valuable to have your own email list and subscription service.

This allows you to build up lists of subscribers whom you can email whenever you want. There are numerous possibilities with such a service, such as the following:

1. Allow your visitors and subscribers to sign up for your website or company newsletter, and send it to them via email.
2. Create an series of emails with tips or training, and allow you website visitors to sign up for it as a free course. In this way, you can add more names to your list. You can use this email service to build up trust, create an interest in your own products, and get repeat traffic to your websites.
3. Offer a series of emails to customers after they have received one of your products or services. Use this series to educate them on how to use your product or service to their best advantage. Where applicable, you can also recommend follow-up services or products which will complement their earlier purchase.
4. Offer a free gift (such as a digital download) to newsletter subscribers, and then follow it up as per #2 or #3 above.
5. Send important news or updates to subscribers, which you want to keep separate from your blog,
6. Inform subscribers of new events, updates, contests, celebrations, etc.
7. Maintain different lists of subscribers for different purposes and send them tailor-made email series
8. The list goes on and on …

Probably the most reputable and reliable company for this purpose is Aweber. This service is used by some of the most professional Internet Marketers online, as well as small businesses and large businesses alike.

Aweber will host all of your email lists, allow you to send emails to your contacts and customize your settings, and it also helps you to ensure you are compliant with anti-spam laws and other related regulations. You can also customize your emails with special formatting, banners, branding, and more. This is an extremely affordable service and very professional.

If you would like to try out this service for free, you can do so at this link.

Another very popular email marketing and subscription service which is also used by many professionals is GetResponse. This company is a competitor of Aweber and might be worth looking into as well.

This post was originally published on Websites and Webhosting at Email Marketing.

Paid Training, Books, and Reference Materials

• Honest Riches
• The Master Plan
• Adobe Dreamweaver for Dummies
• WordPress for Dummies
• Social Power Linking
• Authority Site Center

Free Training, Books, and Reference Materials

• Jack Humphrey’s Authority Black Book
• SEO Made Easy
• Internet Marketing Sins
• Adwords Made Easy
• Computer Security
• Scams Every Internet Marketer Should Beware Of

Unreviewed eBooks:

I have not reviewed the following eBooks yet but they come from sources I generally trust, so I am including them here.

• Blog Profits Blueprint by Yaro Starak
• Building a Business Not a Blog
• Free Report: Your Mother Was Right

This post was originally published on Websites and Webhosting at Books, eBooks, & Training.