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by on March 31, 2011 1 Comment

How many hands does Google have?

There is an old saying that sometimes a company or entity is so big that its left hand doesn’t even know what the right hand is doing…

Google Places a spam farm? Nah.

Evidently the Googleplex has a couple of extra appendages since they classified their own places results as spam according to an article on TechCrunch.
Personally, I think they are just blowing it out of proportion, but when a company gets the size and power of Google, there are always power struggles. Matt Cutts seems like he is pretty straight forward – don’t know him, but his blog and videos are generally blunt and honest.

Either way, if you run a content farm you will get punished and this was just a side effect of the spammer purge that is going on with useless content.

Filed Under: Make Money Online, Website
by on March 31, 2011 1 Comment

You allowed Google, Microsoft, and others to track your location and pass it along…

Not domaining related, but if you browse the web using any modern browser and you don’t explicitly turn off the “Geo” feature of your browser then you “consented” to the EULA of your browser and they are tracking not only the sites you visit, but also from WHERE you are currently… plus they pass it along to any site that asks for it.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but I am in IT and I know a bit about domains and websites – did you REALLY intend to tell all those companies about all the sites you visit, when and where you are physically, etc?  Didn’t think so.  You can do a simple search of how to turn that so called feature off, but here is a link to make it easier to turn of the Geo tracking.

BTW, this isn’t just an evil empire thing – they all do it.  Another thought while I’m at it… if you have a smart phone you might want to do a simple search on what you AGREED to as well… iphone, droid, win… take 2 minutes and come back and tell me that isn’t frightening…  Now go to some of my sites and buy something :)

Filed Under: Website
by on March 31, 2011 9 Comments

7 Website Copywriting Rules,7 Copywriting Mistakes and a Template for free

If you are writing your own content for a website, online store or even a blog you need to be aware of the basics of copywriting.  This goes equally well if you are outsourcing your content as you’ll need to make sure they follow these tips so you will get the most content bang for your money!

The following is the list of copywriting tips and mistakes(rips) I use.  If you like them and want the template I use, I’ll give it to you free and you can use them to ensure you or your staff follow the rules for online copywriting.

Copywriting Tip/Rip #1:

Start your content with (Tip) a great headline or (Rip)just some random irrelevant title.

You do want people to read your content after you spent time writing it, correct?  What most people don’t realize is that if you have a boring headline 80% of people will NEVER read any further.  It shouldn’t, but the title matters… a lot!

My template has some great sample titles you can use.

Copywriting Tip/Rip #2:

(Tip)Provide good, quality content, but (Rip)don’t waste people’s time or bore them.

Write your content with a goal and get to the point.  You don’t need a 1000 word article to get good results when 200 or 300 would do and cover the topic well.  Let’s face it – people get bored and distracted very easily in the age of IM, Twitter, FB, Texting so don’t give them a reason to be distracted.  Less is more most of the time.  You will probably find it difficult to write fewer words at first.  I know I do.  All the time.  :)

Copywriting Tip/Rip #3:

(Tip)Use keywords in the right places or (Rip) use some cute title or saying or quote you love.

This is all about letting the search engines find you and then letting them help you out by indexing you for the keywords you really want indexed.  In your first sentence, preferably the first words, need to be the keywords and phrases you want to rank with in search engines.  Don’t use some cute quote, saying or random intro sentence.  If you can, also use the keyword in your headline, meta titles, meta descriptions, anchor text for links and in any of your images alt tags.

Copywriting Tip/Rip #4:

(Tip)Use keywords in the body of your text and (Rip) use keywords all over your text and repeat them excessively.

You’ve all seen the proverbial web page with keywords reeking out of it and thought, that is stupid, and immediately left.  It may work for a short time because the engines won’t pick up on it initially unless you are truly blatant.  But, in the long run, readers will leave immediately and your ranking will drop.  What you really want is people to come AND STAY on your site so write your content for PEOPLE, not search engines.

Copywriting Tip/Rip #5:

(Tip)Use varying titles, meta titles and meta descriptions or (Rip) use the default or same one for everything.

Always use a keyword or phrase in your titles and meta information, but make sure to change them up some and try to make it relevant to the content as well.  By default many CMS’s like WordPress use a fairly poor SEO default title.  You can vary it yourself or you can set up the post structure where it shows the post title.  Better yet, use a free plugin that will do even more for you by default and help propel your content to the next level of search!

Copywriting Tip/Rip #6:

(Tip)Mention benefits of your site, service or product or (Rip) mention just features, facts and figures.

Features, facts and figures have their place in content, but people really only want to know WIIFM, what’s in it for me.  Do you want to have 58% less plaque on your teeth or do you want to have a dazzling smile that all the hottest people will notice and love?  Thought so!

Copywriting Tip/Rip #7:

(Tip)Tell people what you want them to do or (Rip) let them guess based on your site content or jedi mind tricks.

This is a call to action and you must have one or people will wander aimlessly and probably leave your site.  Tell them to order this now, or contact me now, or sign up for the free newsletter, or even read this other article. 

P.S.  Bonus Tip… Buttons, links and graphics help – especially ugly red flashy ones.  So please

to sign up for my domain name and website RSS feed :)

Almost forgot, if you want my free content template just contact me and I’ll give you the link.

Filed Under: Development, Internet Marketing, Make Money Online, Website
by on March 25, 2011 Leave a Comment

Information diet

I have several projects going on with domains and domain development right now so I’ve decided to go on an information diet.  This is a concept I’ve seen in several places and you can find a lot more about it with a simple search so I won’t bore you with the details. 

What I will say is that if you are like me, you waste a lot of time reading emails, blogs, newsletters, etc and most of that time is poorly spent.  Just like with a weight diet, you don’t need to be consuming anything that will only make you fat…  I’ll keep you updated, but take 5 minutes and don’t read that SEO, marketing, etc post and do this instead – you will thank me later!

Filed Under: Make Money Online