I just stumbled onto an article spinner that makes rewriting articles really fast and simple. It actually is pretty impressive and makes creating unique content easy.

What does an article spinner do?

An article spinner allows you to take any content be it an article, PLR content, etc. and unique-ify it… ie. it replaces synonyms in your copy with words that virtually mean the same thing allowing you to easily reword your content.

What can an article spinner be used for?

• Generating unique content that doesn’t get penalized for being duplicate content by search engines.
• Generating multiple copies of the same content for use in different online marketing campaigns or on different websites.
• Rewriting product descriptions for affiliate marketing promotions
• Helping writing students find synonyms to build their vocabulary and rewrite reports.

Is it an Article rewriter?

Yes and no. Yes it replaces words and phrases but your articles will still sound the same. So, you can increase your chances of getting by duplicate content filters but overall for a real article rewrite it is suggested you do further manual edits. ie. make additions and subtractions and maybe use a different perspective.

How can an article spinner help to generate traffic?

Face it creating content takes time and money. For the best ROI you can duplicate your existing content and syndicate it across the web without fear that it will be seen as duplicate content and be de-indexed. Doing this helps you generate more traffic by allowing you to target many new keyword phrases you might not have otherwise thought of. WHat it comes down to is multiplying your content.

This article spinner software works fast replacing all identified synonyms in an article.. or you can go through one by one if you want. So the downside of software like is that it has the potential to be abused by people creating spammy content for the web. I definitely advice against using this software for that. I can tell you it pays to create valuable because it has a longer shelf life. That means it must be legible and not be some gibberish pumped out by a piece of software.

So in saying that although The Best Spinner is very powerful and time saving you still should spend some time proofreading your spun articles. But yes, it does work fast and save you a lot of time which is why I purchased a copy of it.

If you’re looking for a great article spinner to save you some time and help you create original and unique content then check out The Best Spinner. You can get a copy of it until Feb. 5th for half off.

Article Spinner Features:

Hands-down the BEST built-in thesaurus with hundreds of thousands of entries added by Actual users writing real-world articles!

The fastest, easiest interface for spinning articles and creating unique content with lightening speed.

Unlimited nested spinning — go as a many levels deep as you want. Various color coding for up to four nested levels.

Fast individual article rewrites with the built in “word replacement” functionality.

Full-sentence and paragraph spinning.

Enables saving “Favorite” synonym lists for terms you commonly use in your articles — and replaces them ALL with one click of a button.

Permits using all users’ “Favorite” synonym lists to actually kick-start your article spinning!

Generates up to 100 spun versions of your article at a time into a ZIP file or automatically generates one spun version on screen that you can copy to the Windows clipboard.

Export to virtually any other spin format for compatibility with other systems.

Display article word count and uniqueness percentage.

The thesaurus updates constantly as the thousands of users work in the system.

Supports thesauri in English, Spanish, French and German.

View more info about The Best Spinner around.. and remember you can get a discount until Feb. 5th of 50% off.

Just released is a new template that streams all your feeds from twitter, youtube, facebook, vimeo etc onto one page.  This template is perfect for anyone who has an extra domain laying around that you want to use as a promotional tool.  Or you can install it on your current site.

Frank is a template for displaying a stream of social activity online. Frank can read, cache, and display all the items and updates in your WordPress, Twitter, Flickr, Vimeo, YouTube, and/or any other RSS or Atom feed you throw at it.

Some of Frank’s Features:

• Digest mutliple feeds and display them all in one place.
• Includes eight color schemes to choose from.
• Create a lifestream for yourself, a marketing page, an affiliate page, or collection of content from your favorite sites.
• Broadcast a high visibility Newsflash at the top of your page.
• Custom fonts powered by Cufon.
• Frank is flexible, display one feed or twenty.
• Pagination of items with the ability to set # of items per page.

So how much does Frank cost?  An unbelievable $12.  Go check it out.

Download my free report below.

So I was one of the 5 winners of the Envato referral competition, came in 2nd place.  Many people wondered how many referrals it took and I’m sure some were wondering how the winners did it.  Then a new competition was launched where you can win $3,500 if you create the most popular bookmark collection (by votes).  So that got me thinking…

It’s pretty easy to create a collection of bookmarks but I wanted to go one step further and create something I think is of real value.  And that is a collection of files you can use to earn money with along with a How-to guide.  So I went about writing a 23 page report on how to make money from the Envato marketplace that I’m offering as a free download.

Inside I show you one of the methods I use to generate over a thousand dollars a month in commissions.

You can download it by clicking the link below.  It’s in PDF format.  So check it out and let me know what you think.

In the report I show screenshots of my earnings from last month (June 2009) which I think you might find interesting.

**This Report Has Been Downloaded Over 600 Times Since June 2009**

Enter your real name and primary email below to gain instant access to my free report below.

Why am I asking for your name and email?.. Simply to keep you up-to-date on free updates to the report.  Don’t worry your info won’t be shared with anyone.  I hate spam as much or more than you do.

Please feel free to leave a comment below if you found this report useful.

It’s been a slow year so far on this blog and I appologize.  I’ve been busy, been sick  and have had a hard time getting out of the holiday/winter lulls. I know it’s February now but January seemed to just drag on and on.  Anyway, since it’s been slow I thought I’d recycle some content that I wrote recently.  It is basically a proposal, or part of it anyway for a company who came to me wanting to enter the US market for their back pain product.  I ended up writing up this great 10+ page proposal all for nothing because well they didn’t choose me.  Since there is some useful info in it I thought I’d share it with you instead of letting it go to waste.  It is by no means a comprehensive how-to guide.

It explains keyword research a bit and what is needed to dominate Google for competitive keywords.  So here it is…

Google’s Keyword Tool – Understanding The Numbers

Here are examples of the two keywords you suggested you wanted to rank for “muscle pain” and “back pain”. As you can see below there are different numbers of searches performed for each which pertain to the way in which people search. The match types are “broad”, “exact” and “phrase”.

Broad Match means those keywords appear anywhere in the search parameter ex. “lower back pain” counts in that given search volume just as “back pain relief” or even “relieve my back pain”. It basicaly means those keywords “back” or “pain” appear anywhere and in any order when someone does a search. This is why it has the largest search volume.

Exact Match means that the person searching searched for exactly that phrase with no other keywords. This is why the search volume is lower than both Broad and Phrase matches.

Phrase Match means that the keyword was included in a search in that exact order. People searching might still include other keywords in their search but the order inwhich the keywords appear is always in the same order. So these keyword phrases would count towards that monthly search volume: “back pain relief”, “back pain medication”, but not “pain in lower back”.

The reason I am pointing this out is because you noted you want to rank for “muscle pain” and “back pain” which from a Broad Match perspective has a very high monthly search volume. That might lead you to believe you’ll receive 2+ million unique visitors a month if you rank #1 for the term “back pain” but this is not the case.

These Broad Match search volume numbers come from hundreds in not thousands of different keyword phrases. You’d have to rank #1 for every single one to receive that many visitors a month.

A large portion of searches performed each month come from what are called “long tail keywords”. That basically means keyword phrases that have atleast 4 words in them. An example would be “How to cure back pain”.

To rank on the first page of Google or any other search engine you need to focus on several very competitive keywords but also have a large number of pages focused on smaller related “long tail” keywords.

So if you do a search on Google for “back pain” you’ll notice that the sites that are on the first page are very large sites containing hundreds of pages. Sites like webmd.com and wikipedia.org are very hard, if not impossible to beat when it comes to SEO. They are considered authoritative sites and will most likely never fall off the first page under such competitive keywords.

But you’ll notice a website ranked #9 on that page cure-back-pain.org that is operated by an individual who spent a lot of time writing articles about back pain and doing SEO so he ranks on the first page. He actually started the site in 2006 so it has been online for 2 years now. The age of a website also plays a role in SEO but I’ll explain more about that later.

The reason I am pointing out his website is because he has hundreds of pages of content on his website and that is one of the main reasons why he is ranking so well.

To rank as well as his website you’re going to need hundreds of pages of content all related to back pain. You’re going to have to create a portal of information related to the symptoms people have and then explain how your products can help relieve these symptoms.

I am focusing on the keyword “back pain” because that is one of the keywords you mentioned but I noticed you have other products that you’ll be selling from your site as well. Your product line contains items such as herbal tea, safron capsules, Tibetan rhodiola capsules etc. that are all considered natural medicines.

My thoughts are that you could focus on the natural aspect of your products. Or the fact that your products are Tibetan medicines.

One option you have is developing a portal about Tibetan medicine and the benefits of natural remedies for instance. This is possibly what you were trying to accomplish with your site *url deleted*.

SEO is a long term strategy and one that has a greater return on investment than say PPC advertising because once you do the work and build up a resourceful site you can reap the rewards of organic search traffic for years to come. And since 70% of people click on sites listed in the organic search results over the ads that appear alongside them you’ll fair far better in terms of converting traffic to buyers.

How to Rank on The First Page of Google For Your Keywords

I’m going to now advise you of what is required for your company to dominate the U.S. market using internet marketing tactics such as SEO, affiliate marketing and social networking.

The main goal is to achieve maximum visibility wherever people are active online whether it be from an internet search or an online community. You want to be the first thing people see when they go online to look for help with their ailments.

To accomplish this you must apply a comprehensive online marketing strategy that will ensure your brand is at the forefront of major search terms, related websites, communities and social networks.

1. An ecommerce website with these features:

• SEO friendly meaning URLs are static and meta titles and descriptions can be controlled for every product page.
• Affiliate tracking so an affiliate program can be operated and run successfuly.
• Built in CMS so content can be added easily.
• W3C-standards compatible meaning everyone can see your store in the same way, regardless of which web browser they use.
• Ability to accept all major forms of payment including Paypal, Google Checkout etc.
• Ability to detect the geographical location of a customer and shows prices in their local currency.
• Integration with UPS, UPS online tools, USPS, FedEx, Canada Post, Australia Post and Royal Mail for live shipping quotes.
• Single page checkout system as well as guest checkout which make it easy to order.
• Complete backend for customers so they can view orders, track their shipments and order easily in the future.

Along with your products you should have at least 100 other content pages explaining the benefits of each product. In depth articles about how your products help customers as well as news and company info should be provided.

This ecommerce website should be hosted on a dedicated server which would have dedicated resources for it including a dedicated IP address. This adds a level of security that you cannot receive when dealing with shared hosting. Of course the site would be protected by 128 bit industry-standard SSL security.

2. An information portal with these features:

• SEO optimized including static URLs. This includes optimized Meta titles, descriptions, content and site structure.
• Ability to easily add content by multiple authors online via browser.
• Between 300-500 articles related to your products. These articles would be optimized for search engines but also humans so they are of high quality.
• A complete user forum (bulletin board) where people can join in discussions. This forum would be optimized for search engines so the pages and content get indexed on search engines.

3. Social Networking

Because a majority of people online are spending their time on social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook it is essential to add this to your online marketing strategy. It is fundamental to be proactive on such sites and be engaged in conversations related to your products.

• Myspace page optimized with your search terms and product info.
• Facebook business page

4. Press Release Distribution

Press releases are an excellent method for not only announcing news to the public but also for SEO.

5. Article Distribution

Articles written around keywords you are targeting should be written, optimized and submitted to the major article repositories online. Many of these articles are redistributed on news and personal websites that further help build your link popularity.

6. Social Media Optimization

Just like article repository websites there are websites that focus on user generated content such as hubpages.com and squidoo.com where you can create and distribute your own content. These sites are an essential part of creating buzz and interest around your product as well as driving traffic to your main website.

7. Satellite Websites

Because of the vast majority of keywords you’ll be optimizing for it is suggested you create a number of satellite websites. Satellite websites are smaller informational websites optimized around alternative keywords. These sites would be focused on one main keyword such as “arthritis pain relief” and would contain unique information related solely to arthritis and relieving pain.

These Satellite websites would collect and drive traffic to your main ecommerce website to increase sales and also help boost the ranking of your main site.

8. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is another essential component of online marketing that I suggest you implement. Affiliate marketing gives incentives to website owners and online marketers to promote your products online.

Affiliates drive traffic to your ecommerce store via their own websites, PPC ads with banners and text links you provide them so that they receive a commission when someone purchases your products. You pay out commissions only after an order is made.

A complete affiliate program can be implemented along with program management and ad creation.

9. Aquiring Websites

One method to fasttrack brand visibility online is to purhase existing websites that already rank for keywords that we want to rank for.

After doing some initial research I’ve found atleast one person who is willing to sell their website. I can aquire more info and negotiate a deal with them or others to see if it is worthwhile to pursue.

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So that is where I am stopping.  It gives you an overview of what I propose needed to be done to not only enter but dominate major keywords on Google.  This is a pretty big project and by no means do you need to do all of these things if you are a small business.  Of course the more marketing you do that is focused the better.

I hope someone finds this info useful.  I figured I’d post it instead of letting it sit in a folder on my hard drive.

The world is facing economic hardships. The economy however hasn’t come to a complete halt though. People are still looking for photographers and photographers are trying even harder to increase business now that times are a little bit tougher.

(The things I list in this post aren’t solely for photographers btw, they’re for anyone who has a business.)

This is the time when strong businesses thrive and the weak fail. This is the time when it’s essential to hone your marketing skills to bring in new business.

If you’re a photographer and you want to boost your business in these trying times then there are things you can do when you’re not shooting to increase your revenues. I’m going to focus on the web because it’s the cheapest method of marketing and the easiest way to bring in new clients.

To a lot of people search engines are their main means of bringing in new sales (it is for me). That is because they rank on Google, Yahoo or even MSN for keywords people are using to find what they offer. If you’re the first business people find when they go online to look for information or services this means increased sales. That is why SEO has gotten so popular over the years.

If you build your site in accordance to SEO guidelines then you’ll be on your way to the top of the search engines. There are many rules to SEO but if you follow just a few you’ll be doing better than 90% of other photographers in your market. So the first of the 3 ways is making sure your site is as SEO optimized as possible.

1. You Gotta Optimize

1. Make sure your site is SEO friendly. If you’re using a service where your site is easy to update and contains flash then most likely your site is not SEO friendly. If you’re paying a monthly fee to host and maintain your photography site then there is a good chance your site is really being hurt by this. When you skimp on your site you pay in the long run.
2. Make sure you blog every day. If you don’t currently blog then you’re missing out period. The more you blog the more Google and other search engines will spider your site and this will increase your traffic and rankings. And when you blog from a blog that is SEO optimized you can really see the difference.
3. Make sure you do at least some basic keyword research to figure out what people are actually searching for. There are free tools online that you can use to find this info out. Search Google for the word Keywords and you’ll find the most popular one. Type in your location and photographer and see how many numbers come up.
4. Make sure you use H tags in your web pages. H tags are basic heading tags in HTML that specify a title and specify to search engines what a page is about. So if the topic of your page is Photography Services be sure to include that title in between H tags, specifically H1 tags. There are many basic HTML guides out there you can learn how to do this from.
5. Make sure you use very specific title tags for your pages. Title tags specify what shows up in the browsers title. You know the very top of the browser. Search engines take the title tag very seriously and you should too. The more focused the better.
6. Make sure you network with other photographers. If you have friends who are photographers then exchange links with them. The more links you have to your site from related sites then the better your site will rank. Be sure your link partners use the main keyword you’re optimizing for in the link text they use to link to you.
7. Make sure you do not use a splash page on your site. A splash page is usually a flash animation that is an intro to the main part of your site. It usually contains flash and sometimes music. Splash pages are outdated and should never be used on a site. And I mean never if you ever want to rank well on any search engine.
8. Make sure your site isn’t solely in flash. If it is you’re sacrificing rankings. You need real textual content on your site search engines can read. If you can’t get away from flash make sure you include pages on your site that are linked to from the footer or non flash section that include keywords you want to rank for.
9. Make sure you’re getting new incoming links each month. Incoming links are links from other related websites. You can get new links to your site by writing and distributing articles like this one, distributing press releases, writing killer blog posts that people willingly want to link to or exchanging links. There are many ways to get links and that is just a few ideas.

2. You Gotta Be Found Locally

The second method has to do with local search. You can rank on Google very quickly by listing your site as a business in your local area. All you have to do is search Google for “Google Local Business” and the first listing that shows up is Google’s where you can add your business.

What this does is allow you to list your business details including your URL to Google Local and also Google Maps. People searching for your service or business can then find you more easily in their location. Local business listings show up before organic listings in most cases. This depends on what keywords people are using to search of course, but being listed in Google Local is an easy way to get a front page listing in a matter of days.

Another way to get attention is giving away coupons. Google printable coupons are a free and easy way to bring in more business. You decide what your coupons should say, then customers print them out and bring them to your store.

3. You Gotta Be Social

The third method is social networking. Networking is crucial to any business and has become a lot easier due to the many social networks online now. If you’re a true marketer you can’t ignore the fact that Myspace, Facebook, Linkedin and even Youtube have millions of users who are all interested in certain things, have certain connections and all have needs.

If you’re not taking advantage of social networking right now then you are missing out on a huge audience. Youtube alone has already surpassed Yahoo as the second largest searched site on the web. That means more people search Youtube then they do Yahoo.

People might be on Youtube for different reasons but you can take advantage of this by educating, entertaining or even showing off your work. You already have digital media in the form of photographs. Put those photos into a slideshow video and upload it to Youtube, Googe Video, Yahoo Video, Vimeo, Revver, Viddler, Metacafe or even AOL.   To simplify things you can upload to multiple sites in one fell swoop using a service called Tubemogul.

Don’t forget to brand your videos with a URL back to your site. You can use free video editing software from Microsoft called Movie Maker, Videospin from Pinnacle or even Jumpcut. Brand your videos with your logo, URL and even by giving a quick presentation at the end which includes yourself talking. People love to see other people talking. They should be seeing you next! If you haven’t capitalized on social networking yet then shame on you. The world is out there waiting for you.

If you want to take all your marketing efforts to a new level then give something of value away for free. Give away a PDF ebook on how to take the best photographs, how to save money on their next photo shoot or how to make their photos last a lifetime. If you can put together an informing ebook on a topic people will enjoy and value you’ve just gone a step further than the majority of photographers out there. And this will set you apart big time.

The economy is bad. Everyone knows it. But it’s not the end. If you have some free time right now be sure you are making every effort to market yourself. Marketing online is the cheapest and easiest method available. And don’t forget the offline world where the majority of people reside. That’s very important too.  I’ll talk more about marketing offline in a future post.  Good luck!

You hear a lot of SEO experts and people in general online talking about how you should submit your website to website directories to gain backlinks.  And you see directory submission services charging to submit your site to 1000 directories for pennies.  Well I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to submit your site to hundreds of directories and I’d actually advise against it.

1. For one, the majority of directories online won’t pass any value onto your site because they don’t have Pagerank.  In the big lists of directories some people publish you will only find a select few that actually have Pagerank on their subpages.  That means you won’t be receiving any Pagerank if that is what you’re after.

2. For Two, Google and other search engines can tell what sites are directories and may not even count the links on those sites merely because they want to dissuade people from having the ability of buying a link.  So paying for a link on some of these directories might be is a total waste of time and money.

3. Gaining hundreds or even a thousand links at a time from directories might actually harm your site in that the search engines see this as you trying to gain a bunch of backlinks in a short period of time by buying them.  If there is any reason why your site would gain so many backlinks in a short period it should be because you wrote some content so good that tons of people linked to you or you created something and shared it where a link back to your site was built in.. ie an awesome wordpress template, a wordpress widget, etc.

I advise if you are thinking about submitting your site to web directories to stick with niche directories, ie. ones that are related to your site.  If you’re a photographer then I’d submit my site to only directories for photographers, not general all-purpose directories.

But there is an exception to this.  The best directory online that you should definitely consider submitting your site to is Best of the Web’s directory.  Established in 1994 this directory has stood the test of time and is maintained by some very nice people.  And your link will actually be picked up by Google and other search engines.  And they offer 60 days of free advertising if you are looking for a top sponsored link on any of their pages.  Botw.org is by far the one directory I’d recommend to get listed on.  Even over Yahoo’s or Dmoz.org.

SEO WordPress theme video where I reveal Brian Clark reveals some aspects of the theme I’m using here and why it’s great for SEO.  I go over the main aspects of why this theme is SEO friendly.

You can read more in dept at my post titled “Best WordPress SEO Theme“.

If you want you can purchase this theme here.

This article appeared in ETR’s newsletter today and I could not help but to post it here.  I think it is insightful for many reasons but I also want to express my opinion on the matter as a designer who understands the importance of copy in marketing, how crucial it is to SEO and also that good design really does make a difference.

I’m actually posting two seperate articles here by ETR because they seem to be conflicting slightly.  And it’s a testament how a few small phrases can make such a difference.

In the first article David Cross points out “Why Your Website ‘Design’ Shouldn’t Be Your Top Concern”. And “Your website design does matter… but probably less than you think. And a lot less than your website designer thinks”.

Now, these aren’t the main points David is trying to make.  What the article overall is saying is that the words you use on your site matter the most.  Sure you can have a fancy design but if your presentation is lacking in good copy then your nicely designed website won’t matter that much.

In the second article Michael Masterson states “But it’s been proven that images have a potentially huge impact on revenues. In fact, a colleague of mine was able to double his response rates in the mail just with good graphic design.” And “When you’ve got ‘pretty’ sales promotions, websites, and e-letters, you’ll have a healthy and successful business.”

What you’ll get from reading both articles is that both images(design) and copy matter.  How you package your content matters.

Give these articles a read and let me know what you think in the comments box.

A Word Is Worth 1,000 Pictures

By David Cross

For almost a month, “Alma” went back and forth with her Web developer on which illustration to use on her company website’s homepage. Should it be the lavender flowers? The bluebell-carpeted scene of springtime in the woods? Or would the photo of the healthy-looking young yoga instructor best convey what the site was about?

Everyone in Alma’s company had a different opinion. And changing one illustration on the homepage meant other graphics on the site needed to be changed to reflect the “core” image of the business.

It’s a situation that replays itself every day in website agencies and Web development companies around the world.

Now there’s no doubt that good graphic design can make or break a marketing campaign. A well-chosen, well-placed image can double, triple, or quadruple response rates. However, the design of your website is a whole different animal. Taking a close look at some recent research may offer a startling insight into what I’m talking about…

Nielsen Norman Group recently ran a battery of website usability studies using eye-tracking technology. In the studies, people were asked to perform a variety of tasks on different websites, such as “open an account” at an online bank or “find a local pizza restaurant” or “buy a black suit with a blue tie.” While they were engaged in these tasks, hidden infrared cameras monitored their eye movements to see what they looked at and where their gaze was fixed. From the data, the researchers drew “heat maps” that showed which parts of each Web page were looked at the most. Areas colored red indicated where the study participants spent the greatest amount of time. Yellow and blue indicated fewer eye fixations. And gray areas were those that didn’t attract any fixations.

In every case, statistically significant patterns emerged.

Here are three results that you should be aware of in order to make your website stronger and more appealing to your visitors:

• Banners and ads are ignored. People almost never pay attention to anything that looks like an advertisement, whether or not it actually is one. This is true of banners anywhere within a Web page.

• Images are ignored. Images receive similar scant attention fixations, with the exception of faces and “cleavage and other ‘private’ body parts.”

• Text is universally “interesting.” What all the study participants fixated on was plain text or written content.

Why Your Website “Design” Shouldn’t Be Your Top Concern

Your website design does matter… but probably less than you think. And a lot less than your website designer thinks (or would like to bill you for).

Think of your website as a dinner plate and your articles and other content as the dinner. Sure, you want an overall presentation that is attractive. But the food is the most important part of the meal. The plate itself should not be garish or bland. It should complement the meal and showcase it in the best light possible.

Almost all the websites and e-mail promotions that took Agora Inc., the parent company of Early to Rise, to its first $100 million in online sales were about as un-designed as you could imagine. They were mainly all text and headlines. In fact, Agora’s websites looked – and still look – very similar to the longer direct-mail sales letters you receive in the mail. According to many Web designers, these sites shouldn’t work any more than a bumblebee should be able to fly (because it breaks every rule of aerodynamics). But fly it does.

It is important for all Web designers to know where people look when they visit a Web page. Most people are looking for information, facts, or advice. And they want a website that gets that job done. If they are engrossed in a story or buried deep in content, they don’t want distractions and they don’t want to look away.

Plus, if your most important content is “hiding” in a banner or graphic, you could be missing plenty of opportunities to convert site visitors to paying customers.

Recognize the power of words. If you are considering placing a photo or other graphic on your site, ask yourself whether, instead, there is a way to express what you’re trying to communicate with words. Research and experience bears out that this will probably produce a better result.

What Does Matter?

Most website critiques focus on the look and feel of the site, its visual design and layout. But what matters primarily for most websites and to most people is text.

For this, there are a number of guidelines you can adopt:

• Make it easy to skim-read your Web pages. Online, people skim-read and scan for information. So break up your Web content with logical headings and subheadings. Use bullet points to break up paragraphs, and use bold type to make important words stand out.

Try skim-reading your Web pages yourself – or, better still, have a customer do it for you. See if they have any trouble understanding the page and moving onto the next step (signing up for your e-mail newsletter or purchasing something).

• Think “elevator pitch.” An “elevator pitch” explains what you do, what your product or service does, and, especially, what it does for the customer. And it does so in the time it takes to move between two floors in an elevator.

The first two paragraphs on any Web page should state the most important information in an easy-to-grasp way. If a site visitor reads those two paragraphs, there’s a better chance that they’ll continue reading the rest of the page.

• Begin with useful information. Beginning page titles, headings, subheads, paragraphs, and bullet points with information-carrying words will help your site visitors as they skim-read. People generally notice the first words of any block of text more than the later words. Make it simple for people to find what they need.

Creating content-rich rather than image-heavy websites is still unfashionable. Many designers still treat the Web more like printed advertising media and focus on graphical embellishments – which often end up being largely ignored. Even seasoned Web designers forget the power of words.

Above all else, make sure your website has useful, easy-to-skim information. Work with your graphic and Web designers to ensure that your design supports the content rather than overwhelms it. You’ll better serve your website visitors… and have a better chance of converting them into e-letter subscribers or paying customers.

Is Your Marketing “Pretty” Enough?

By Suzanne Richardson

Erika Laguna, ETR’s graphic designer, said, “My goal is to make ETR’s marketing efforts look pretty.”

Everyone laughed. The entire ETR team had gathered for a staff meeting, and each member was revealing his or her daily goal.

Little did we know that Erika wasn’t making a joke. She was 100 percent serious!

“What does pretty mean in our business?” asked Michael Masterson. “Does anyone know?”

Erika was the only one who spoke up. “Something that’s pretty brings in more money.”

“That’s right,” said Michael. “In direct response, pretty means graphic design that understands and supports the written word… and the selling process. Something can’t be pretty just for pretty’s sake. It’s about directing the reader’s eye and making an emotional message consistent with the sales message.”

“Did you know that graphic design used to get short shrift in the world of marketing?” Michael went on. “For the longest time, direct marketers believed that all that mattered was the copy. But it’s been proven that images have a potentially huge impact on revenues. In fact, a colleague of mine was able to double his response rates in the mail just with good graphic design.”

And it’s worked for ETR, too. Our marketing team tested one Yahoo banner ad against another. They were able to quadruple the number of clicks the banner ad received just by changing the image that appeared on it.

So how can you make graphic design work for you?

Test.

Michael recommends that you test different graphic formats to see what type of responses you get. That’s the best way to see what’s “pretty” to your customers. When you’ve got “pretty” sales promotions, websites, and e-letters, you’ll have a healthy and successful business.

This article is provided courtesy of Early To Rise, an e-zine dedicated to making money, improving your health and quality of life. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

Again if you have any thoughts on this matter I’d love to hear them.  Tell me what you think.

Flash Hosting provides Commission Junction’s advertisers and publishers with a new type of link creative… Flash banner ads.

Feature short, non-interactive animated banner ads.

They automatically start, have continuous play and generally last approximately 5-15 seconds.

Use advertiser created Flash (.swf) files, which are created using Adobe Flash software or with other programs capable of writing .swf files.

Commission Junction hosts and tracks these links just like other link types. You can obtain link code for Flash links the same way you do for all other link types via the CJ Account ManagerTM.

What are the key benefits of Flash Hosting for publishers?

Flash Hosting simplifies the process of an advertiser creating and offering Flash links via the CJ Account Manager, meaning that more advertisers may be inclined to start offering Flash links. In addition, industry research points to rich media, such as Flash, driving higher conversion rates than their standard .GIF/.JPEG counterparts.

Who can use Flash links?

All publishers can utilize Flash links once their joined advertisers offer them.

What do clients need to do to begin using Flash Links?

Once an advertiser begins offering the Flash ads, you can immediately begin to obtain the Flash link code as you would for any other link type. Please note that you can only obtain HTML code for Flash links (no JavaScript).

When will Flash Ads be available?

Flash Ads will be available starting August 29, 2008.

Are you looking for the best wordpress theme for SEO out of the box?  Since you’re looking for a (SEO) search engine optimized wordpress theme I’d thought I’d give a rave review of what I think is not only the best wordpress theme ever designed, but one that is SEO friendly and highly customizable.

I’m talking about the Thesis theme developed by Chris Pearson of Pearsonified.

Not only is Thesis well developed it is very robust giving bloggers many options for customization.  And yeah, it’s the best wordpress theme I’ve seen where someone took the time to work in things that are important to SEO.  And I’m talking mostly about page structure here… mainly the use of H tags.

H Tags and SEO

If you’re like me you’ve spent hundreds of dollars on wordpress themes over the years only to have to go into the code to fix the H tag structure used.  Which is a pain when you have to upgrade wordpress and the theme frequently.  I can’t count how many wordpress themes I’ve come across where the H tag structure is totally screwed up.  Meaning, H1, H2, H3 and even H4 tags are used for things like the titles in the sidebar.

H tags are really important to SEO, so each page of your site should only have one H1 tag, and subsequent H tags directly in your post content.  You shouldn’t have H2 and H3 tags wrapped around things that aren’t related to your post… ie.  Blogroll, Recent Posts, Pages, Calendar, etc.

If you want to see what I’m talking about you need to be using the Web Developer toolbar to disable the CSS of your site… or try it on this one to see what I’m talking about.  The post title should be an H1 tag and any subheadings in H2… and H3.

Thesis takes care of this for you and does a perfect job at it.  Right out of the box Thesis includes only a single H1 tag on each page, including the homepage.  Post titles on your homepage are in H2 which is correct.  On sub pages the Post title is H1… not the title of your blog (if you’re using text instead of a graphic) and any subheadings you use in your post are the only ones that appear on the page.  Perfect!

Title Tags in Thesis

Again Thesis gives you some options on the way to display Title tags in your pages.  Which is very helpful.  In your wordpress dashboard navigate to Design > Thesis Options to set the following options.

Home page settings:
Show site name in title
Show site tagline in title
Show tagline before title

All other pages:
Append site name to page titles

Because I’m super picky about my title tags here (for obvious SEO reasons) I’ve decided to add my own custom bit of code to display page titles.  If you look at the titles of my pages you’ll notice they’re only the post title or page title, nothing else.  That’s because I want my titles to be super targeted.  Including “Jeff Hendrickson Design” to the ends of my page titles only waters down the keyphrases I’m targeting.  So I leave it out.

Here’s the code I use to achieve this: (NOTE: You no longer have to use custom code to achieve this… it’s built into the admin of Thesis now.. Sweet!)

<title><?php if (is_home () ) { bloginfo(‘name’); } elseif ( is_category() ) {
single_cat_title(); echo ” – “; bloginfo(‘name’);
} elseif (is_single() || is_page() ) {
single_post_title();
} elseif (is_search() ) {
bloginfo(‘name’); echo ” search results: “; echo wp_specialchars($s);
} else { wp_title(”,true); }
?></title>

Add Custom Meta Description Tags

Thesis allows you to easily add and edit Meta Description tags within each post or page by simply adding your description to a custom field.  All you have to do is add a custom field called “meta” to your post or page and insert your desired text.  This means you don’t need any extra SEO plugins to achieve custom Meta descriptions for your blog.

Also to make your category page titles more SEO friendly and unique you can change the titles of your category pages by simply adding a custom field “meta” to your categories.  This gives your category pages a more SEO friendly title then they would have otherwise.

Page Content Structure

The page’s content structure is very nice indeed in Thesis.  Your post title (H1 tag) and post content are high up on the page meaning your content is closer to the top of the page in the source code.  This means your page’s main content is the first thing Google or any search engine sees.  They don’t have to wade through countless links and basically all the stuff in your sidebars because your sidebar content appears after your main content in the source code.  You should see this if you view my site using the Web Developer toolbar and disable CSS.

Conclusion

If you’re a blogger using wordpress and you care about traffic and search engine rankings I suggest you pick up Thesis and try it out for yourself.  I only touched on the SEO aspects of Thesis but there are a ton of other great features that make it the theme I will be using here and on clients sites for some time to come.  It comes with lifetime updates as well and I’ve already seen some really sweet new features being added in the last update.  I am looking forward to what comes next.  My hats off to Chris and the team that developed and are continuing development of Thesis.  I appreciate it.

If you’re in the market for the best ever SEO wordpress theme then go get a copy of Thesis.  It’s currently $87 for a single license.   A drop in the bucket if you’re monetizing your site through search engine optimization efforts.

Thesis Updates

Thesis 1.6 has just been released.  It comes packed with a lot of new features that I think are pretty cool and much needed.  Check out this video on some of the new features. This video is on setting up drop down navigation…

As you can see Chris added new features that allow you to edit and customize your navigation menu easily from within the wordpress admin.  Pretty powerful.

In the below video Chris goes more in depth on setting up a site and doing customizations.

I’ve been using Thesis for well over a year on this site and can say without a doubt that it’s the best SEO theme ever produced and probably the best supported and most updated theme out there.  Even when I’m tempted to change the theme just for something different I don’t because I don’t want to have to go through all the customization and upgrade headaches other themes make you go through.  With Thesis it’s a lot more simple.

Grab a copy of Thesis and see for yourself.