By Michael Brito (c) 2006

There was a dreadful time in history when the telecom regime (local telephone companies) held consumers captive by charging high prices for telephone service. To make matters worse, this regime would nickel and dime consumers to death for additional features like voicemail, call waiting, caller ID, and call forwarding. Not to mention their customer service or lack thereof, was and still is a horrifying experience. This long history of monopolizing the telecommunication industry has finally come to an end. It’s time for a regime change. Consumers now have an alternative – introducing VoIP.

By Damon G. Zahariades (c) 2006 http://www.WebBusinessToday.com

Getting traffïc from the search engines for competitive keywords is a tough battle. And it’s getting tougher.
This article will help you continue to drive traffïc from Google, Yahoo and MSN while avoiding the sandbox where the bullies hang out.

There’s always someone with a biggër budget and largër staff trying to bump your site from the top ten slots on the search engine results pages (SERPs). In fact, some keywords are so competitive that search engine optimizers (SEOs) resort to tactics that range from mildly scandalous to downright brutal.

By Jim Hedger, StepForth News Editor, StepForth Placement Inc.

StepForth’s methods of providing search engine optimization services for Google rankings have evolved significantly over the past year. Since the release of Google’s March 30, 2005 patent application, “Information retrieval based on historical data“, our SEO and research departments have made site usability and understanding user behaviours a priority.

After reading, analysing and writing about information found in the patent application, we correctly predicted user behaviours were becoming critical factors in Google’s estimation of the relevancy or importance of documents in its index. To meet what we see as the major challenges for our search engine advertising clients in the coming years, we have spun off a SEO friendly web site division, moved to provide several levels of SEO consultancy, and accessed the services of website usability experts.

When marketing your product or service, you need to have a firm understanding of your audience, the message you want to deliver, the offer you’re willing to make, and the optimal timing for your marketing campaign.

Too often novice marketers, even marketing veterans, make costly mistakes that result in poor performance of their marketing campaign. Common marketing mistakes can be avoided with adequate planning, attention to detail, and ongoing measurement and evaluation.

If you’re considering a traditional marketing campaign, an Internet marketing campaign, or something that’s never been tried before, be sure to avoid these common marketing mistakes.

By Jason Lee Miller

Google’s doing something very interesting with all the money they’re making: they’re spending it. CEO Eric Schmidt promised us in January that 2006 would be a huge year for innovation, as the company geared up to launch a lineup of new products in the second and third quarter.

There’s plenty of speculation as to what exactly Google plans to innovate this year. The more sensible will remind the starry-eyed dreamers that the Big G will continue to do what it has been doing.

Namely:

1. Making search searchier through steady improvements

By Joseph Pratt

Could the Sports Illustrated Jinx, where teams and athletes featured on the cover famously flounder soon after publication; have spread to their fellow Time, Inc. weekly Time Magazine? This week the boys from Google are gracing Time’s cover and from their easy smiles (and a byline that mentions Internet domination) you’d think that the transformation is complete: Google has finally “pwned” us all! Well, a theory that there is some kind of jinx fits because Google seems to be getting it from all angles now. But with all the piling on, it’s important to remember that Google’s core business, search advertising, is still very much a winner.

By Mark Daoust

I am always amazëd at the response I receive from people when they find out what I do. When I explain that I own Site-Reference which publishes articles on marketing, website development, and search engine optimization, invariably they get a little gleam in their eye at search engine optimization and ask - “So you could get my website to the top of Google, right?”
Yeah, something like that.

The proper use of search engines is an extremely critical aspect of online marketing. The search engines are the initial way that prospective customers can locate your site. That’s the reason link popularity is so necessary. If your customers can’t find you, you’ll never see any sales.

You may be asking yourself “What is so popular about links”? Well, the short answer to that question is “A lot”. The phrase “Link popularity” alludes to the ranking given to your web site by the search engines. It decides what position your page is given by the search engines when people search for certain keywords contained in your site. You’re probably asking “How do I make my link popular?”

Publishing a newsletter related to your business is one cost effective way to build a loyal customer base. You keep your subscribers updated about your business, latest offerings, as well as new products and services. Ever heard of the saying: Out of sight, out of mind? So, keep your business visible before your subscribers.

Newsletters also allow you to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Provide your subscribers them with well-written content, useful leads and recommendations. People have to buy into you first before they buy into your products or services. They are more inclined to buy from someone who has been there, done it, and achieved success.

Written by Halstatt Pires

Search engine optimization is a much-debated topic and there is a lot of different on the net. Let’s cut through the muck and discuss things you should and shouldn’t pursue to get high rankings.

Before blasting into the subject, we need to define optimization. It simply refers to the manipulation of a site to gain top rankings on the three search engines that dominate the search traffic on the net - Yahoo, Google and MSN. If you do a search on Google, the optimized listings are found in the large section on the left hand side of the page. These are often referred to as organic rankings since you don’t pay for placement. Of course, you manipulated the page for optimization, but we will stick with organic as a name.