Well Google has gone on and done it again... It's purchase of YouTube for 1.2 Billion. Why did it pay so much? Many people think Google has paid too much for the website, while others have said that Google has purchased YouTube for all of their web traffic, but it still might be speculative. I think that they knew exactly what kind of traffic they were purchasing and exactly what that traffic did.

You see, a little over a year ago, Google began offering webmasters a 'free' tool that would give webmasters the ability to track their traffic and visitors. Well the flip side of it is that Google would also have this same information. Google knows where the visitors come from, where they go in the website, and how long they stay on each page, along with a lot of other statistics. I think Google know far more about what it was purchasing that most people gave them credit for. Don't think that any of the tools Google provides for free aren't used in some way to mine information. In today's internet economy, the one with the information wins.

It will be interesting to see what other purchases Google will make in the following months....

Tags: google - youtube - analytics

Online ecommerce is growing rapidly, and with that is the growing opportunity for fraud and scams. As Internet users, it is our responsibility to take some precautions that will make our online transactions safer.

One area we need to take responsibility for is protecting our online payment information. Online payment providers have come and gone, but one of them, Paypal, has been around for a while and has become the target of scammers. While this may be alarming, there are actually some very simple steps you can take to keep your Paypal account safe from scammers.

1. Never Click on Any of the Links Listed in a 'Paypal' Email

No matter how official the email you get from Paypal looks, never click on any of the links in the email. Instead of clicking on the links, open up a browser window, and type in paypal.com to go directly to their site from you browser.

As a rule of thumb, only log into the paypal site if you type in the address into the address bar of the browser yourself.



If you get an email that seems official, but looks suspicious, then forward the email to spoof(at)paypal.com where they will be able to tell you if it was a valid email from them or not. To avoid confusion, Paypal will usually never send you an email telling you to log into their site from a link in their email.

2. How to Tell if the Email is Legitimate

If you get an email from Paypal telling you that your account has closed or some other urgent matter, there are things you can look at that will give you a good idea if the email is legitimate or not.



The way to do this is to select the menu selection in your mail program that allows you to look at the source code for the email. Locate the link (just search the page for the link text that sends you to Paypal of the link and you should find the link).



The link should look something like the following:



< a href='http : //{urladdress}'>{link text you just searched for}< / a>



here is an example of a spoofed link..



http://ipox.xx.com.my/xxxxxx/paypal.com/xxxxx



Notice that the domain name is actually 'ipox.xx.com.my'.

You can see a paypal.com in the line, but that is actually the name of a directory in 'ipox.xx.com.my'. If you click the link in the email, your browser will actually go to 'ipox.xx.com.my', which will be a very official looking Paypal page, but will not have any association with Paypal whatsoever. Users will think that they are at paypal because they see a paypal.com in the URL in their address bar, and they see the Paypal login page, but they couldn't be more wrong!



These poor unsuspecting users will type in their username and password and will get a message such as the site is down for maintenance or some other fake message about why they can't see their account information. At this point it is too late. They have given a phisher (scammer) their real username and password.

3. What Do Some of the Spam Messages Look Like?

These artificial phishing (scamming) messages come in many forms. One form is the typical 'Your account is going to be deleted if you don't log in right away'.

Another message looks something like, 'We have seen unusual activity on your account and it has been suspended'.

Yet another message, and this style seems to be newer, is "Receipt of your payment to SOMECOMPANYNAME".



If you will notice that all of these messages get to the heart of human behavioral responses and put us immediately into an emotional state where we are less likely to use are intellect and just immediately react to the message. If we imprint tip #1 into our brains, which is never click on any of the links in an email that looks like it comes from Paypal, we can help to overcome this reaction whenever these or other messages appear.

4. What to Do If You Entered Your Paypal Account Information into One of These Phishing Sites.

If you got caught up in the emotion and entered your Paypal information before you realized it was a fake scam site, you should immediately go to Paypal.com, log in and change your password. You should also monitor your account for any unauthorized activity. Should you see any activity, immediately fill out the 'unauthorized activity form' found in the 'Protection Policies' section of the help center on the website.



If you are really feeling vulnerable, call the support desk and immediately report the incident to a support specialist.





We can make our online Paypal transactions safer by using the tips listed. While there are certainly many exceptions, many of these online fraud situations occur from mistakes on the part of the user, and not the payment processing company, or merchant. Online safety 101 should be a mandatory class for anyone entering the Internet world today, however using a good dose of common sense will take you quite far.






Do you want more information? See these articles on online commerce at http://www.yourecommerceinfo.com/ecommerce-articles
For a course on how to make your website ecommerce enabled, go to http://www.psiphonconsulting.com/onlineform.html
.

(Create High Quality Articles)


Keywords: Paypal, ecommerce, Security, Online Security,

Psiphon Consulting is pleased to announce it's partnership with the website http://Askanexpertblog.com

This website allows professionals show their expertise to online visitors in their area of specialty. It promotes them as they build up their reputation in the online arena and will allow them to form online relationships with their online following.

The only catch is that there can only be one expert in field, much the way a leads group is run..... So those that are slow to get into the site and post their bios and blog entries, will lose out...

We are very excited about this endeavor and look forward to seeing where this goes.

Keywords: blogging, professional blogs

Every day, a growing number of people venture into the world of online commerce, or ecommerce, in order to sell their goods and services online. When merchants first venture into the online realm, they can get in over their heads by using solutions that are too costly, too complex, or just have way too many features than what the merchants truly need.

The good news is that there are solutions that allow the first time online ecommerce merchant the opportunity to sell their products and services with much less committment and cost on the part of the merchant. Solutions such as Paypal offer the first time ecommerce merchant the opportunity to go into the online realm and get their feet wet without drowning. One must follow the standard safety precautions associated with solutions such as Paypal and they can be on their way to earning an online income.

The next section will go over what you the merchant, will need to consider if you think a payment processing system like Paypal will be work for you or not.

1. Low monthly business volume on your ecommerce website

If you don't have a lot of sales on your ecommerce site, and especially if they are low ticket items, then you may want to consider using a pay-as-you go type of merchant account system such as Paypal. Usually these types of payment processing solutions have a higher percentage rate that they charge the merchant. Sometimes it can be as high as 15% of the price of the item being sold by the online merchant.



Typical merchant accounts usually have a monthly charge associated with the account, whether you sell anything online or not. They also have a lower percentage rate they charge the merchant, so for higher volumes, the merchant will end up saving money with this solution.



When deciding what type of merchant account you should get, you will want to determine the costs associated with merchant processing based on estimated monthly sales volumes. For instance, if you expect to sell 15 items that cost $25 each on average, then determine how much a third party processor like Paypal would charge you for that, and then how much a standard merchant account processor would charge you for the month based upon the same volume. You will find that in going through this excercise, you will discover a break-even point at which you will pay less using a standard merchant account as opposed to the third party processor such as Paypal.

2. You are new to the whole ecommerce concept

If you are new to selling your product or service online (ecommerce), then it may make sense to use a 3rd party processor, such as Paypal to handle your online payments. This way, you aren't forced into any long term contracts, and can discontinue using it if your business isn't working. In most cases you can do this without having to continue to pay additional fees, such as a monthly service charge, to the this type of merchant account processor. With Paypal, it is easy to start up the online processing again without any additional costs, if you choose to give your online business another try.

3. You sell your items on Ebay

Ebay is one of the largest selling platforms on the Internet today. Ebay became so successful, they even purchased Paypal. Ebay does accept payments through other means besides Paypal, but they set it up so that it is easier to perform your transactions through Paypal than other methods.



If you are doing a huge number of transactions through Ebay, it may make more sense to use your own merchant processing account as you will save a lot of money. However the average Ebay seller usually doesn't have the volume to justify using their own online merchant account unless they are already using it for another online business.

Different needs for the ecommerce merchant require different solutions. By no means is there a "one size fits all" type of solution. Merchant processing solutions that work well for one online merchant, may spell disaster for another. The best thing an online merchant can do is to determine their expected sales volume, and their needs, and then find a solution that best serves them. For merchants who are new to ecommerce, and don't expect to generate a lot of volume, Paypal can be a good solution to get them started.

Learn what kinds of tools you need to become a successful online merchant at this ecommerce resource site. Read these ecommerce articles and take this free ecommerce course to learn what you need to know.

Paypal Solutions.

(Create High Quality Articles)

Keywords: ecommerce, paypal

I have been singing the virtues of writing your own articles for the past year now and I must say that it really is interesting to see how things play out in this arena.

I was looking at my stat logs the other day for a site that I run, and I
just happened to follow some links to determine where the traffic originated from. Lo and behold I found someone had included my article in an ebook they
had created. Not only were they giving away the ebook, but they had given master giveaway rights to all those who would get the book.

In a nutshell, not only were they promoting my website, but they were encouraging, their visitors to promote my website as well.

The power of your own articles, you just have to love it! This is a great illustration of why writing your own articles instead of using re-hashed private label articles is much better. Original content will always stand out. It will make you stand out and your business stand out as well.

Keywords: Article Submission, article promotion

Learn what not to do when writing and submitting articles to article directories. Doing these things can get your article deleted and possibly your author account banned!
Articles are a great way to get added exposure to your website and business, and also a great way to increase your status as an expert in your field. Because of this fact, article writing and article submissions have skyrocketed. It is still an effective form of advertising, but you must be careful not to do things that will waste your time and effort. As an article directory manager, there are some things I see that cause me to delete articles that are submitted to the article directories I manage. These are 80% of the reasons I delete articles, so if you manage to avoid these problems, you will probably have a very good chance of getting your articles accepted by many of the article directories.

Submit Articles That are Relevant To the Article Directory Subject

Most article directories are general in nature and have a subject in just about every area, but there are now more article directories popping up that have more narrowly focused and specific subjects. These are called the niche article directories. They are not as large as the general directories, but their subject matter is much more highly relevant to a specific niche.



Visitors like to focus on these niche directory sites because they don't have to wade through thousands of unrelated articles. Article directory managers like to manage these sites because they are much easier to manage. niche directories don't grow as fast, but when it comes to having a site that is tightly focused, it's hard to beat for bringing value to the sites visitors.



Having said that, it still amazes me to see so many people placing obviously irrelevant articles in these directories. As an article directory manager, these articles get deleted without a second thought. Continuous offenders will get their accounts deleted. It does no good to continue this practice and only promotes bad will.

Don't Submit Articles That Are Taken Unchanged From Reprint Rights Packages

The overabundance of private label articles rising out of nowhere, creates a lot of temptation to just take the article, add a new headline and post it willy-nilly to all of the article directories you can find. This tactic is becoming less and less likely to work as article directory managers are now aware of the article redundancy. No one wants to have a site with 10,000 articles only to find that there are really 3,000 unique articles. When I find articles that are like this, I delete both articles from the directory.



Remember, most article directory owners are wanting to provide value to their visitors first and foremost (I did say 'most' as there are always exceptions). Having someone slog through 10 articles where the only difference is the synonyms used, isn't providing the reader much value. Article directory managers who care about their visitors will usually delete these types of articles, and sometimes the accounts of the repeated offending article submitter.

Link to Decent Sites in Your Resource Box

A nice benefit to reading articles is that it allows the reader to go to another site to find more information if they are interested in the subject of the article. Nothing is more disappointing than clicking the link on the resource box and going to a site that ends up advertising viagra or some other completely unrelated and questionable topic.



Look at it this way, if you don't feel comfortable sending your own mother to the site, then you can probably bet that someone who is reading about gardening tips or home repair isn't going to be too happy about ending up at a site like that either. I have deleted some, what I thought were good articles, because they went to these sites, or they went to some really crappy software generated site that provided the reader absolutely no additional value. Those article submissions unfortuantely were a wasted effort.



Think of it this way, as linking becomes more important, in the eyes of the search engines, do you think people are going to willingly want to link to sites that are sure to get banned, if they haven't been banned already?

Write Articles That Are a Useful Length

Articles that are too short (usually less than 350 words) are considered more like blog entries or extended ads. Article directory owners like articles that provide value to their readers, because articles that are higher quality will be picked up by more website and ezine publishers who are looking for quality content.



Articles that provide value usually solve a problem, tell a reader where they can find information to solve a problem and why it is a good source to use, give the reader a fresh spin on a particular topic, or just educate the reader about how to do something. Articles that are only a few paragraphs usually tend to be glorified ads to a product or service. You will get much more mileage out of writing valuable content, with a link back to your site in the resource box, than by writing 3 or 4 paragraphs as to why someone should use your product or service.

Writing and submitting articles to article directories can be a very worthwhile marketing activity, however you can waste a lot of your valuable time if you use the techniques that will get your article deleted. Just use common sense about what you write, how you write it and your submission process, and you can enjoy rewards that article publishing can bring you.
Find out more about how to use web content to generate or increase your online income? Go to thisarticle directory to see more articles about how to earn an income from content. For more information ecommerce you'll want to get this online course while it is still free.
Online Ecommerce Course.
Create High Quality Articles


Keywords: article directories, article submission

Prepare for an update in our website design. We are changing the look and feel of our site, adding some services, removing others and we are also going to be reviewing products and services that will help you with your internet experience.

Stay tuned for these updates!

We have all see these deals from time to time "Lifetime Web Hosting! Pay one price for the lifetime of your account!" On the surface the deal seems to be good. But is it? There are several questions you should ask yourself before you consider such a deal, because you may not get your money's worth out of it, and you may experience some other unfortunate consequences. So how do you know if lifetime web hosting is right for you?

1. How long will you have your web hosting account?

The first question to ask yourself is how long will you have a hosting account for the particular site you are building? The way most lifetime hosting offers work is they determine how long (in months) an average customer stays with their company and multiply that number by their monthly selling price for a web hosting account. They will then use that number to determine how much to charge as a one time hosting fee.



If you are only planning to have your account for 1 year or less, it probably isn't worth it to purchase a lifetime web hosting account, as you will be charged a premium for your hosting account.



If you plan on keeping your account for more than 2 or 3 years, it may be worth the price, but you will have to answer the following questions to see if a lifetime hosting account is really for you.

2. Is your web site going to require a lot of resources?

If you plan on having a web site that has a high amount of traffic, or will actively use a database, you may want to re-think your purchase. Companies that sell lifetime hosting accounts make money from you once, but their expenses happen every month. As a result, they have to continue to sell lifetime web hosting accounts in order to make enough income to pay their expenses, which gives them a strong motive to minimize.



One of the expenses, is server space and capacity. The more servers a web hosting company has, the more their monthly expenses are. One way to reduce their expenses, is to put more hosting accounts on a server than it can reasonably handle with the expectation that most websites will not use the full capacity of their account. Many times, these servers are oversold on space and bandwidth (think of an airline selling more tickets than they have seats for a specific flight).



The result is that sites on these servers tend to be slower than average, and if you have a site that has a lot of traffic, many of your visitors may have trouble getting to your site, and will leave before your web page shows up in their browser.



If this situation isn't important to you, the next question is certainly one you should be asking yourself.

3. What is the refund policy of the hosting company?

Since many of the servers in these lifetime hosting companies are overloaded, they usually take a zero tolerance policy on any web site that causes any extra load on the server, which may cause it to crash, and it can be a one strike and your out, with no refund.



On over-extended servers, (servers with more hosting accounts on them than they have capacity for), it is very easy to create an overload on the server. It can be as simple as having a lot of page views from the traffic the website gets, or having your blog attacked by a bunch of robot scripts trying to post comment spam to your blog. There is nothing you can do about it in these cases, but it can cause a server that is already at it's limit, to crash.



If this happens after only 6 months into your web hosting contract, you may be totally out of luck and have your site shut down with no refund. In this case, it would have been a very expensive hosting service. Be sure to check the terms of service before purchasing this type of hosting.

4. Do you expect a high level of customer service?

The quality of the customer service goes along with the theme of reducing expenses. One of the first places most customers experience in expense cutting is the level of customer service. Much of the time, customer service is outsourced and overseas. There may be language barriers to contend with as well as some delays in getting your questions answered, and problems resolved. Sometimes you may have to deal with less experienced hosting administrators, but by no means do you find the less experienced customer service representatives only in the lifetime web hosting arena.



This is an important factor to consider because if the customer service is really bad, you may be forced to leave the hosting company and walk away from your entire hosting investment. Be sure to get as much information as you can about the particular company you are considering, especially their level of customer service and their technical competency.





When asking the question, "Is lifetime web hosting right for me?" you want to determine what kind of site you plan on having, and how you plan to use it (will there be heavy traffic or not?), how long you plan on having your web site up, and some other factors such as how important are things such as customer service to you. In a limited number of circumstances, lifetime web hosting can be a deal as it is better than free hosting, but if you step outside of the limited situations, you may end up paying a lot more than you bargained for.

Look for resource sites to help you with deciding how to pick your web hosting.
Are you confused about all of this online and web hosting stuff?
B. Hopkins of http://psiphonconsulting.com Internet Business Developers answers these questions. You can also go to http://Yourecommercesite.com where you will find more information and reviews about ecommerce and Internet services.
http://www.yourecommercesite.com.
Create High Quality Articles



Keywords: Web Hosting, Website

Ebooks are a common and easy way for consultants, and experts to promote their services, build up their reputation as an expert in their field, and generate an additional income stream. The problem is, most consultants are not experienced writers, and without the help of outsourcing their project, most of them would not even consider creating an ebook. Outsourcing, or hiring a ghost writer to write the ebook for the consultant will save them time, and in most cases, produce a more professional product than the consultant could ever create for themselves. However, the waters can be a bit choppy for the consultant new to creating ebooks and ghost writing. Following this simple secret should keep the boat from rocking too much in the waters of the ghost writing ocean.

Be Sure to Avoid the Bait and Switch
Be sure to avoid the bait and switch if you are using an online outsourcing clearinghouse such as scriptlance or other clearing house site. The way these clearing houses work, is a merchant, or buyer who wants to have an ebook written, places a project online describing the ebook and the details (number of pages, subject matter, etc.) Bidders, or contractors, who are located world-wide, will then bid on the project and place their bids in the buyer's project area. The buyer then looks over the bids, and selects a contractor, or writer based on whatever the criteria that is important to the buyer.



For the any buyer whose main audience is U.S. based, their requirements will typically include having the ebook written in common U.S. English. If it isn't, then it should be a requirement because buyers come from all over the world, and their command of spoken U.S. English isn't always as high as a buyer of an ebook project might like it to be.



In order to see what the contractor, or writer's style is like, it is a good idea to get a sample of their writing. Instead of using samples they provide. Have them write an article based on your specifications. Include, topic, length, format (a how to, a narrative, etc.) and maybe keyword density. Be prepared to pay the writer for the sample, as they are doing work for you. Another benefit of having them write a sample article is that you can use the article to promote the ebook you are having written, so it would be best to have them write the sample article on the same topic as the ebook.



The bait and switch comes in after you receive the sample article. What some writers do, is they have someone else write the sample article for them. This other individual usually has the credentials that the merchant is looking for and will usually do a very good job on the sample article. They will also offer to do the job at a very reasonable price, and in most cases, will tend to win the project.



Once the project begins, or very soon after the project begins, the style of writing suddenly changes and reads as if it is a bad translation into English. What has happened, is the project winner has switched writers on the merchant, and has used a cheaper writer who's command of the English language isn't as good. So what is a buyer to do?



A buyer can choose to terminate the project if the quality of the content doesn't improve immediately. They can then re-bid the project and choose a different writer. Or a buyer can choose to continue having the project completed and then do the rewrites and editing themselves. The second option is usually chosen by buyers who have a lot of time on their hands, are very familiar with the subject of the ebook, and like to write, but have difficulty coming up with an ebook structure. Most buyers will tend to choose the first option as the reason they are outsourcing their ebook in the first place is they don't know the subject and don't have much time.
Ways to avoid the problem
The best way to not get caught in the bait and switch is to avoid it all together. Buyers should put very explicit instructions in their projects that whoever writes the sample article is the writer that will be expected to complete the project. The buyer will be selected on a large part based on the article and a change in the writer gives the buyer absolute right to cancel the project without payment.



Make it clear that the writer should bid on the project based on this criteria. This should screen out writers who practice the bait and switch techniques.



It is important for the buyer to have the writer send them the results on at the minimum, a weekly basis for longer projects, and every few days for shorter projects. That way, the buyer can catch things much earlier and have them corrected before the project is complete. This promotes good will between the buyer and the writer, and will shorten the project time.


Entering the world of ebook publishing can be exciting and open up many doors for the merchant or consultant. Navigating through the pitfalls isn't so difficult as one might think, and avoiding them will certainly make your ebook project much more enjoyable and profitable. There are many sites you can visit that have more information about ebooks and web content such as http://allwebcontent.com and http://specialistebooks.com . Visit these sites today to begin educating yourself about how consultants and merchants can use ebooks to help build their businesses.

Looking for more information about web content and creating ebooks? Educate yourself easily and quickly with ebooks that give you step by step instructions on how to create ebooks, from content to cover. Visit specialistebooks.com today and
http://specialistebooks.com.
Create High Quality Articles


Keywords: Ebook Outsourcing, ebooks

The storm brewing about the need for content and continuously adding content to your website is growing louder by the day. As a result, many enterprising entrepreneurs are finding ways to fill a need that is growing.

Many new products and services have arisen that have done things from taking articles already on the web and changing words here and there to create new articles, to private label articles, to taking articles and adding header and footer content to the article.

With all of these solutions, none of them beat the method of creating your own content, which keeps original authors happy, and and your visitors happy at the same time. Any search engine benefits are the icing on the cake.

1. Original Content Avoids Copyright Issues

With the increasing tools that are available to determine if content has been copied or plagerized, it is becoming easier to find out who has been stealing your content. It will be a matter of time before more stringent laws are created that will deal with these infringements. Fortuneately, it doesn't take that much effort to take an idea and write it in your own words.

2. Writing Your Own Articles Makes You Stand Out from the Crowd

There is a growing number of private label and reprint rights article packages that are on the web today. The problem is that there is usually no cap to the number of memberships they will sell. Given the fact that a large percentage of people don't take the time to make changes to the content, there will be a number of articles out on the web that are carbon copies of each other other than the author's name.



How much of an expert will you look like if your article looks like everyone elses? If anything, it will actually hurt your credibility with your audience and make you look like someone who is far from an expert. After all, experts are experts because they know things other people don't, right? How can you look like an expert if your articles is the same as everyone elses?



Even more importantly, people will begin to discount the information in the article as being of very little value. This is not a great thing to do to your web visitors.

3. Your Original Content Adds Value to Your Website or Newsletter.

Everyone has a way of expressing opinions, ideas and information. When you write your content, articles, whatever, in your own words, you are allowing a wider audience to absorb the information you are helping to disseminate. Not everyone will read information the same way, and when you add your own style of communicating, you will connect with the visitors that also communicate in the same way that you do.

4. Your Content Extends Your Branding

Your style of communicating is a form of branding. It helps to separate you from the masses. On the Internet, there are very few things that can be used to make you unique, and give you something that people can relate to. One of the most effective things that people can use is the way they use their words to communicate an idea. Your style of words is unique unto you, and using a rehashed private lable article denies you of your chance to add your personality to your communication pieces.



Obviously, for those that put up spam content sites, branding and creating a unique identity is the last thing on their mind, but for those types of sites, it is becoming more difficult to be successful on the web.

Kudos to those who continue to create their own original content and not fall victim to the seduction of quick and easy content that is just too easy to misuse. While private label articles may have their place in certain circumstances, if not used with caution, they may not bring you the benefits you had hoped for.

Creating and distributing your own articles is easier when you are helped through the process of writing an article. There are some services out there such as drivetraffictomywebsite.com that can step a user through the process of creating a quality article the provides value to the visitor, and calls their interest to want to learn more.

Original content is the best way to go, as it will help you stand out from the crowd, and will bring added value to your visitors.
Find resources and articles about all kinds of content on the web. Rate the ones you find most valuable, and/or submit your own articles. Don't miss out on valuable information. For more articles by B. Hopkins, visit this web content resource site today:
http://www.allwebcontent.com.
Create High Quality Articles

Keywords: article writing, articles

There are many wine and winery related web sites available on the web. It now becomes increasingly important to stand out from the crowd of websites. There are many things that wine websites can do to make their websites stand out and make the visitors come back again and again to their site. Things that can be done to keep visitors coming back include adding forums, a blog, or a lot of articles. While these solutions are good, they can be quite time intensive and require some effort to maintain.

This article is going to talk about some of the quick things wine-related sites can do to make their sites sticky, that don't require a lot of effort and are easier to maintain, if any maintenance is required at all.

1. Add a Featured Monthly Wine

At a minimum of every month, add a featured wine of the month that you place on your front page. You can use wines that have won awards in different states or countries. If you really want to cater to your visitors, you should find out where most of your visitors come from and feature the wine from that country. It is relatively easy to find out where your visitors come from through tracking software that is available on the Internet. Once you decide on a wine, you can really add value by including information about the region the wine came from and even a little bit about the winery the wine came from. You'll be surprised at how willing some winery owners will be willing to provide you with information about their winery if it means additional exposure for them.

2. Allow Your Visitors to Vote on a Featured Wine

Should you decide to feature a monthly wine, you could allow your website visitors to vote on the featured wine. The wine with the most votes would be the one you feature. You can make it easy and provide a multiple choice of no more than 5 to 6 wines to choose from. Place the poll on the front page of your website where it is easily seen. There are a lot of scripts available on the web today that are free and can allow you to put this feature on your site relatively quiclky.

3. Add a Winery Search Function to Your Website

Another thing that can add value to your site is giving the ability for your visitors to search for wineries. There are sites like officialwinery.com that allow website owners to place code they provide on their own website, and visitors will be able to search the extensive winery database available on officialwinery.com. Visitors will come back often to find wineries in their own area, or areas they may visit on a trip. Adding this type of code to your wine or winery site is rather quick and easy and can be done within 5 minutes.

There are many things a wine-related website owner can do to make their website sticky, and keep the visitors coming back. Some things are relatively simple, yet they can make a big difference in the effectiveness of the website. Visitors love ease and convenience and website owners can do things that can quickly and easily deliver these features. These features can be done on your own, or found as scripts in the Internet. Spice up your site today and keep those visitors coming back.
B. Hopkins from http://Psiphonconsulting.com, a website development company, helps businesses build their web presence on the internet.
http://mywinesnow.com.
Create High Quality Articles


Keywords: wine website, wine marketing

E-commerce is a growing process that more and more businesses are realizing is necessary to have as part of their business model. Unfortunately it can be a complicated solution that requires knowledge of many back-end functional components that most entrepreneurs aren't familiar with.

This article will discuss the specific components that are required to create an ecommerce web site. It will discuss what the components are, and what they do.

1. Sign up with a quality web hosting provider

Choose a web hosting provider that gives you at least one SQL database, and can do server side scripting, such as SHTML, PHP, and/or CGI scripting. You want a service that will give you at least 300Mb of space, and will give you at least 5 email accounts if possible.



If you can afford it, you should request your own IP address, so you don't have to share your IP address with lots of other web site owners, some of who could be spammers. It only costs a few dollars extra to obtain your own IP address in most cases anyway.

2. Use a good shopping cart

The shopping cart is used to keep track of your visitors desired purchases. In order to serve a multiple number of visitors, your shopping cart needs to do the following:



1) Allow multiple simultaneous users.

2) Keep a running total of the costs.

3) Finalize the order.



Sometimes a shopping cart is located on the same server as your web site, and sometimes it is located on a different server altogether. There are usually many reasons for doing both.

3. Create a good database

The database is usually kept on the same server as your ecommerce site. This will usually mean that you will need to get a hosting plan that gives you a database. SQL is a typical database that comes with many hosting accounts.



The database is usually used to:



1) Keep customer data

2) Create customer personalization

3) Keep product data

4) Hold shopping cart contents

5) Integrate with other systems

4. Accept credit cards

You will want the ability to accept credit cards. Sure, you can run an ecommerce business by using fax, and/or requiring people to send in your checks, but you will be leaving a lot of money on the table if you don't accept credit cards in one form or another.

5. Use a secure socket layer

A secure socket layer allows encrypts the data between the customer's computer and your web server. It keeps prying eyes from sneaking a peek at sensitive data, such as credit card info. You can run a business without it, and you may get some sales, but the vast majority of people will not purchase from your web site if they don't see the secure connection indicator on their web browser. Different browsers indicate the secure connection in different ways.

6. Use a payment gateway

A payment gateway collects the credit card info and sales info (price, customer info, etc.) and does some sort of basic fraud check, to make sure the credit card isn't stolen, etc.

It charges the customer's credit card and deposits the money into your bank account.

7. Acquire a merchant account

A merchant account allows your business to charge sales to credit cards. It is basically a type of agreement between your business and a bank.

8. Get a separate business bank account

You will need a bank account that will accept the deposits for the credit card charges. As with most everything else, business bank accounts vary in features and costs based upon the servicing bank.

Creating a Web site to sell requires complex technology, but it can be relatively straightforward. There are services that can easily provide the required functionality, and in most cases, the greatest challenge is deciding what kinds of services you need, and then being able to connect the pieces together.

Find out exactly what you need to quickly get your web
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Create High Quality Articles


Keywords: ecommerce, shopping cart, payment processing, professional online commerce

If you want a website that brings in the search engines AND keeps visitors on your website, you need to have information that is relevant, informative and well written. However, when using methods that are designed to attract search engines, the content still needs to be keyword-rich. How can you keep content keyword rich and still be of value to the visitor?

1. Write articles that are helpful, but not too long

The more words you can say something on the better. Keep articles short (400-800 words) or the search engines may not ‘read’ all the way through. Creating many articles and optimizing the content in the article will allow you to target more keywords than if you try to cram them all onto one article.



Content such an artice, is useful for creating traffic, pleasing the search engines and offering valuable information to your visitors.

2. Write articles that are relevant to your business or website

Keeping to a theme when writing your articles, will help your website both with the search engines and visitors. Keyword-rich articles will likely be relevant or you wouldn’t choose them. If you are allowing others to post your articles on their sites, the tighter the focus of the subject of your articles, the better your site will rank in the search engines for specific keywords.

3. Write articles that are informative

Getting traffic is not valuable to you if people leave your site right away. Providing informative content will keep visitors on your site longer, and is also important to ‘smarter’ search engines which also pick up on the content.



If your articles are made up of keywords and phrases strung together, the search engine may discount it. There are grammatical rules that some search engines may use as a basis for weeding out optimized sites from the truly informative sites.



Obviously the search engines won’t really know if the content is of any value to your visitors – only you can know that – but if you are taking the time to sit and write editorial for your website, you’d do well to make it of value to the reader.

4. Make your articles unique

The algorithms are constantly changing, but currently it has been stated that the search engines don’t like duplicate content. That is why many affiliate businesses that set up new websites for each member are often unable to make a top showing in the search engine results becasue of too many of the same website.



Writing your own articles or hiring a ghost writer to write them for you will work better. Using 'free to reprint' articles may work, depending on the amount of times that work has been reprinted. In every case, do not duplicate the webpage of another site – both for ethical reasons and the fact that it will not bode well for your search engine status.



If you are using a template site you will need to change a significant amount of the information in order to create a site that the search engines will consider as unique. You can do this by changing your web page title, meta tags, introducing paragraph and by inserting links or editorial blocks within the article body.



Unique content is also important to visitors who may be viewing other related websites and are looking for fresh information on the topic. By providing unique content you will stand out from the crowd.

5. Write articles that are rich in keywords

Keywords are very important to search engines. The words you think that people looking for your information or product might use in the search engines are called ‘keywords’. The search engine acts like a Yellow Pages phone book. People look up a topic by word or phrase and find the related entries listed.



Your traffic will depend largely on if you choose the right words. If you use words that no one is searching for – or words that are highly competitive – your chances of being found through the search engines goes down dramatically.



One way to find the right keywords is to find out what words are most popular for searches. Using a word harvester or a Keyword Selector Tool will allow you to find out approximately how many searches have been made for your selected keywords. You may find some similar words or phrases that have even higher amounts of searches than your first selection.



The key to finding the best words for your content is to use the most general term first and then find more specific words or phrases that relate to your website. For example; if you are looking for words for a children’s education site, you might first look up the words ‘children’ or ‘education’ to discover the most searched term related to your topic. Perhaps you’ll see ‘child education’ or ‘teaching children’ are more commonly searched terms than ‘children’s education’.



When you’ve found words or phrases that are commonly searched for you can find details on the competition for these words in the PPC area by using the View Bids Tool, also in the Overture Resource Center. If the word has high bids or many bidders you can consider that the competition will also be high in the natural search engine results. Check it out for yourself. If the natural search is bringing up sites that lack appropriate content you may be able to top them with your own keyword-rich content.




How do you write successful articles that are designed to bring visitors to your website? Find out more about a service that takes you through this step by step process:
http://www.drivetraffictomywebsite.com/sya.html.
Create High Quality Articles

Keywords: ecommerce, ecommerce website

The popularity of articles and article directories is growing rapidly. As a manager of an article directory, I see hundreds of articles of various quality that run through the site. Some of the more common errors I see are described in the following paragraphs. Authors who follow these tips will increase the effectiveness of their articles.

1. Write Articles Using an Effective Headline

Getting the article read is the most important job of the author. The most effective thing you can do to get your article read is to have an effective headline.



Your headline should either address a problem or state a solution that will entice your readers to want more. If you don't know how to write a headline that will engage the reader, try to remember headlines that you have seen that caused you to continue reading the article. Chances are, if you wanted to read more, then you can be sure that headline produced the same reaction in others - unless it was so specific as to only address a very small percentage of the population.



Other reasources that you can use to help you with your headlines are on the web. Places like drivetraffictomywebsite.com helps the user to create effective headlines based upon templates, and other examples of popular headlines. There are also good ebooks out there on how to write effective web copy that teaches you how to create effective headlines.

2. Follow the Article Directory Submission Guidelines

Make sure you respect the article directory owners by following their submission guidelines. If their article directory site is about gardens and flowers, don't submit your credit card article to their directory. Chances are, it won't get accepted, and it will cause bad blood between you and the article directory owner. If you would ever need a favor from the directory owner in the future, you can kiss that chance good-bye if you are perceived as spamming their article directory with totally unrelated articles.



More often than not, articles have to be accepted before they are displayed on the directory site. Spamming the directory with a lot of unrelated articles in the hopes that one will slip through will more often than not, get your account suspended before any articles slip through. Make it easy on yourself, and the directory owner and just follow the submission guidelines. There are plenty of directories out there where you can submit your related articles.

3. Use An Effective Resource Box in Your Article

The resource box is typically your best shot to get the reader of the article to do something beyond read the article. This is where you would put the call to action to get the reader to join your mailing list, visit your site, send you an email, etc.



An effective resource box should start off stating a problem and how it can be solved in about 1 sentence. It should also explain who your are, or what your site is about, and how someone can get more information about the problem you stated.



One effective use of a resource box contains a link to an autoresponder series that the reader can subscribe to in order to get more information. This is an excellent call to action that gives the author the chance to have repeated contact with the reader in the future, and gives the author a chance to build a relationship with the reader.

Articles can be a great way to bring exposure to yourself, your business and your website, but if they are not written, and promoted effectively, a lot of efforts can go to waste. Learning to write and promote effective articles is not difficult, and there are many resources available, such as those listed on http://allwebcontent.com, where one can find all kinds of information about how to create, promote, and use content. Visit this site today to find out more resources about how to create and promote web content.
Are you looking to use articles to give more exposure to your website, but aren't sure how to do it? Allwebcontent.com is a site that promotes quality web content by helping new authors find resources to teach them how to create their own content. Use their online article directory to find how to write articles, and learn all the secrets of what you can do with your articles:
http://www.allwebcontent.com/articles.
Create High Quality Articles


Keywords: article directory submission, article directory

If you have a small budget, or you are very interested in writing your own articles, you should make yourself familiar with the necessary steps required when writing articles for business use.

Writing commentary can be a great way to get exposure for your business or website if it is done properly. Your articles have to be informative, effective and provide value. If they fall short, you won\'t get as much value from your editorial efforts.

1. Create a draft for writing your article

Before you start writing your article, you should begin with a draft of your information. Regardless of whether you are writing a paragraph, an article, or a book you should brainstorm and write down the basic thought or information that you are trying to put across to your audience.



Many times a writer will go back to the preliminary form for reference or as a starting point if the first efforts are not to the writer\'s liking. By preparing a draft you will not need to worry about whether you remembered the points that needed to be covered or what the purpose of the writing was.



You may only need a few words or brief sentences for your draft. Writing your thoughts as well as your references or quotes down ahead of time will free your mind to create compelling content without trying to hold all the important details in your head as you work.



If you are writing an article or report you should just write the thoughts down as they come to you for your first draft. You can go back and edit it when you\'ve put everything on paper.



If you’re writing longer content, such as a book, you need to create a table of contents along with a brief summary of each chapter as a basis for getting started.



Do not be concerned with proofreading or accuracy on your first draft. If you need to do more research or check a fact you can go back and do it later. When writing an article, or page content, getting started can be the hardest piece for most writers. Avoid getting caught up in making it perfect the first time and you will discover it is much easier to progress from beginning to end without too much stress.

2. Make the content of your article clear

When you’ve finished writing the first draft of your article, you will need to read it over from start to finish and make notations of areas that need clarification or rewording.



Sometimes the information you write for your composition or story makes sense to you but is not clear to others. This can easily happen when your writing is based on information you already know but are taking for granted that your audience is also aware of. Even if your readers SHOULD have some knowledge or experience of your topic, if you don’t clarify the basis for your comments they may find the information confusing or misleading.



Carefully read over your information or ask for an impartial opinion. If you must do the final check for yourself it is easier to catch mistakes if you leave the information for a while and go back to it later for a fresh look. Try to look at it from the viewpoint of your reader and determine if they would understand the language and explanations easily.

3. Check your articles for accuracy and proofread.

When your writing is completed it is important to check it for accuracy. Are all the dates, statistics or facts accurate? Are you using proper spelling, especially for names and places?



It is very easy for readers to double check your information when they are browsing the internet. If something strikes them as being \'off\' they may actually go see if what you state is referenced somewhere else on the internet.



Proofreading should always be done before publishing your content. Using a spell checking program on your computer will catch most spelling errors but you should try to have a second party review the final copy to catch mistakes that you may have overlooked.

Writing your own content can give you a great sense of accomplishment and ownership. While trying to maintain a professional writing style can be very important, it is also important to let your own personality and style to shine through so your audience can connect with you.

Learn about a system that makes article writing easy and fun! If you are spending time and money promoting articles for your business, this system can help you promote articles that get read and get traffic without needing the skills of an experienced copywriter:
Create High Quality Articles


Keywords: articles, write content, content, create content

With the recent realization that content is the way to go as far as the search engines are concerned, you see many business popping up selling "private label" content in the form of articles, and other types of website content. This will end up catering to those that take little time to truly make it private label. What will end up happening is that most users will end up slapping a new title on the article, if they bother to do that at all, and placing it on their website, or just submitting it in masse to the various article submission directories.

This will work for a short while, untill the search engines change their algorithms and article directories put in better filtering capabilities to weed out very similiar articles, and eventually delete them.

My question is this.... If you are going to go through all the trouble to get your content out, wouldn't it make more sense to provide original content? Wouldn't it be better in the long run? You will probably receive short term gains, but wouldn't you rather have long term success? You are putting the work in anyway, why not give yourself an edge? The benefits will be ten-fold down the road.

Look at it this way; Placing original content begins to give you a personality, and a better image out on the net. People listen to people with a personality moreso than a clone. Your visitors will find value in what you are offering at your site, and will tend to return more often.

Web sites will be more willing to link to you, and lastly, you won't have to worry about getting knocked out of the search engines with their next update.... Personally, I don't subscribe to the theory of doing everything online based upon if the search engines will like it or not.

Worry about if your visitors like your website. It's what matters the most anyway.....

Well, it has been too long to have created this blog. I have done many for other people and have never done one for myself. Well this is the time for me to do that now. Before I figured that I didn't have anything to say, but I guess I do now.

I will be discussing Internet topics that relate to businesses. I will be covering a number of areas from marketing to programming. Feel free to leave comments on anything that may be discussed here. I welcome your feedback, provided that it is feedback and not flaming. I can get enough of that in front of my grill.

Use a step by step process to create quality articles designed to draw traffic