Are You Losing Visitors With Broken Links? How To Fix Them

September 3rd, 2010

There are lots of times that a website builder or owner would encounter broken links and 404 (webpage cannot be uncovered errors), resulting within the loss with the website’s hard-earned and valued traffic. This article will talk about how that may be quickly resolved.

Being a website builder, I know for a simple fact that one of the most widespread headaches that a lot of website builders have to deal with are broken hyperlinks.  Broken links are not necessarily out of carelessness as most on the time, they’re a result of editing your site’s web site file names which in turn changes that file name’s URL. If the previous URL has already been indexed by lookup engines, it may well show up in seek results and clicking it will lead to a blank webpage or 404 (webpage can’t be found) errors.

A frequent example is when you change a site URL for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes. After you alter a site URL, the old URL will now lead to a blank page. If taken to a particular degree, these mishaps could even get your web page blacklisted within the minds of one’s followers, leading towards the demise of one’s site’s reason for existence. Seek Engines do not like damaged inbound links too, and this could hurt your rankings.

Fixing Broken Links The Painful Way

In case you built your web site the conventional way, ie with an HTML editor like Dreamweaver, the usual approach to fixing damaged back links is editing the .htaccess file. If you’re not a web developer, I can totally forgive you for not knowing what that’s. Being a matter of simple fact, not all website builders even know what that may be! As well as if you may locate the .htaccess file, the text in there would look so gibberish you wouldn’t understand what’s going on in there as well as should you handle to know how to edit it, manually editing every and every single damaged link is not a pleasant experience.

A WordPress Plugin To Save The Day: The Redirection Plugin

The major advantage of using the free website builder WordPress to create a website is that it allows us to install plugins. These plugins could be employed to increase the functionality of WordPress, making it a much more efficient, reliable and effortless to utilize website builder.

The Redirection plugin comes in handy when it comes to transferring pages from an old website, editing webpage names and URLs, or deleting pages as all these can result in damaged hyperlinks. It’s so easy to use and you don’t ought to cope with incomprehensible codes. It also allows you to effectively manage their permanent redirections, follow their 404 errors (“File not found” site), and tie up loose ends in general. This plugin can also provide logs of all redirected URLs, enable you to select redirection methods for instance redirect based upon login status, redirect to some random pages in your web site, or redirect based on the referrer! An additional feature I like a lot about it’s it permits you to get rid of or add www to all your WordPress pages. In my case, I like to get rid of it.

When you would like to get the redirection plugin, you may download it from our plugin resource web page. When installed and set-up, you can sit back and relax. Your broken one way links will be taken care of.

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Affiliate Marketing Tips - Profitable and Powerful Conversion Boosters

September 2nd, 2010

Affiliate marketing can be a wealth building activity, and the proof is in the number of millionaires who made their cash from selling affiliate products. You may be surprised to know that probably most of them started with nothing, or very little, and they just built their empires. But no matter what you do, you’ll need to bring your game with you because if you’re not willing to do the work, then it’ll feel like a ball and chain around your neck. Another thing is that if you have any hopes of succeeding, then you’ll need to learn about what you want to do and then take action. You’ll discover an easier time getting to where you want to be if you implement those two actions items. We’ll move forward now and discuss some excellent and proven suggestions regarding affiliate marketing that you can employ as soon as possible. Meanwhile, you can also refer to Google Supremacy and Ultimate CPA Blueprint

The key to any affiliate promotion is traffic. In order to get a good return on your investment, you need to drive targeted visitors to your offers. When you first start out, the best method to drive up traffic is article marketing as it will cost you nothing. You can promote any type of affiliate product with articles and get targeted traffic coming your way. Since these visitors are already interested in your product they will convert very well. The only catch when submitting an article is that most article directories won’t allow you to directly promote an affiliate. To get around this, simply create a redirect link within the article to send visitors to the actual offer. If you do not wish to create a redirect directly to your promotion, you can use it to drive traffic to a landing page, as well. A landing page allows you collect the prospective customers emails before forwarding them to the offer. This accomplishes two things at once - you are getting direct sales as well as building up your email list. So article marketing can not only help you sell your affiliate products but also helps you create a long term business if done right. There are a lot of excellent reasons to pay attention to the content on your site, or blog. Obviously, this content needs to be related to whatever product you’re promoting on the site. You’ll receive better responses from your visitors, and better search engine results, if your content is unique and offers value. Maintain an overall clean looking layout for your site. Don’t mess it up by loading too many banners or graphics. You don’t want to distract from your content or annoy your readers with clutter. Those are the kinds of issues that decrease site conversions for your most wanted response. It is highly recommended by Internet Marketers

You should write your copy for your promotions so people understand the benefits of them. The fact is that people are selfish, and they want to know what is in it for them, so that’s why it’s important to always discuss the benefits.

Save the hard sell approach for someone else because people don’t respond well to it. There are far too many IM marketers who mess that one up pretty badly. You’ll have greater success if you avoid writing in hype and only talk to them about the product benefits and what they’ll get. One approach is to find good examples highlighting the benefits, or you can discuss your own experiences with the product. Avoid being boring or dull when you write about it, but also avoid the hype. In conclusion, affiliate marketing isn’t something that you can succeed overnight. But once you’ve invested the time, you will really see results. So the best way to go about it is trial and error. Remember, as the business evolves, so will your understanding of it.

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Success with Small Business Websites

September 2nd, 2010

In today’s world every business whether big or small need a website, be it a manufacturing unit or a home based small business and even planning to setup a new business, every one of these need to have websites. Even those people who are planning to launch a new business have to have a website for their business. Many new opportunities comes through these Small Business Websites and the business owners might also get new opportunities for business.

The correct nature of activities of a business should be conveyed by these websites and also the company’s image should form such that people find it competent and professional in approach. To illustrate such an image of the business, these websites should be loaded with adequate info which should also be presented effectively.

Out of the quite a few web designing companies, it is crucial to choose one that will make the ideal website according to the needs, and is a difficult task. One should be sure of what he requires and if the web development provider can give those. The availability of the attending staff, when required is another main factor to be looked at. The business owners should also ensure that the agency should offer services in the long run before entering into a professional relationship with the firm. The contract need to be handed over only if the company owner is happy with everything the firm offers.

A notable factor is the knowledge and expertise of the providers involved in designing the websites for small businesses, SME’s and individuals, to ensure that the competence and overall performance can be examined. It’s important to ensure that they look after the needs of the small business and pay attention to the marketing aspect also.

These websites also contain the ability to build businesses free from economic downturn and in any condition the marketability of these businesses doesn’t get affected. Small business websites also helps to get good marketability and is a determining factor when there is a business recession since it is much cheaper yet very efficient than any conventional advertisement.

Several business opportunities are possible through small business websites as they are the mediums to get first hand relations with prospective clients and they’re also capable of adding new customers. A great layout can open up several newer opportunities than a poorly designed website. Professionally designed websites have a long lasting effect in the minds of the prospective consumers.

Considering the price for getting a website specially designed by professionals is another important issue for small businesses. The small business websites should contain the essential components that a business requires to be marketed well and the providers designing this should be compared for competitive prices prior to signing a contract.

There is another ways to appraise these web designing agencies is through after sales support that they’re required to give. They’re also supposed to give one month free post sales service to make alterations if needed. Look for web designing firms that provide some additional services such as logo designing, Seo solutions, and some affordable services for small business websites.

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VIDEO: Installing Google Analytics on a WordPress Blog

August 29th, 2010

Google Analytics is a free program offered by Google that facilitates you to record your homepage viewers and generate in-depth analysis and reports about your domain traffic. To utilize Google Analytics, you need to have a Google account. Surprisingly, you may not even realize you have a Google account. If you have a Gmail account, or a YouTube account, then you already have a Google account. You may use this same account info to sign in and commence setting up your Google Analytics account.

Get your Google Analytics Account configured:

1. Log onto Google Analytics
2. Insert URL account name
3. Select time zone
4. Click on Continue
5. Read and agree to Terms of Service
6. Click on Create New Account

Using your Google account and your Google password, go ahead and sign in to Google Analytics. If you don’t have any of the aforesaid accounts, don’t hesitate to sign up for a Gmail account if you want to obtain access to your Google Analytics account. Just log onto http://www.gmail.com to begin the email establishment process. Or, if you choose, you can just obtain a Google Analytics account by clicking on Sign Up on the Google Analytics website.

The very first thing you need to do is insert your homepage URL name. This name will also setup your account name. Next, select the time zone or territory. Then, click on Continue.

The next step in getting your Google Analytics account setup is to read and agree to the Terms of Service. Feel free to take your time now to read through the Terms and Conditions. Be sure you have an understanding of what Google will do with the info it will receive from your web site. Most of the Terms of Service will contain legal jargon, but if you are troubled about privacy issues or how the data is attained or stored, then you will certainly want to take a minute to go through through the Terms of Service.

Once you have agreed to the Terms of Service, you can click on “Yes, I agree to the terms and conditions.” Then, you must click on Create New Account to get going.

What types of web-sites can Google Analytics monitor?

Let us begin on tracking your homepage using Google Analytics. There are quite a lot of types of internet sites that Google Analytics can trend. This includes tracking single domains, multiple subdomains, or multiple top-level domains. And, if you happen to be a Google AdWords user, then you may possibly also wish to merge your AdWords data with your Analytics data. This is a specially usable function that assists to combine and blend the data more efficiently.

Insert Google Analytics code into your Wordpress Dashboard

Next, proceed and locate the Google Analytics code. You will need this code later on, so make it a point to find it now just before logging onto WordPress. This is the code that works to compile data from your domain and bring it into your Google Analytics account.

1. Access WordPress
2. Click on Appearance
3. Click on Editor
4. Verify editable theme files (themes need to be writable)
5. Correct permissions using FTP, if necessary

Now, let us log onto your WordPress dashboard. Next, click on Appearance. Next, click on Editor to begin editing the current theme that is being used. Take note that each of your theme files should be made writable, so if you observe a message that says, “You need to make this file writable” then you need to fix the permission settings by using FTP to your WordPress theme.

Modifying FTP Permissions on WordPress themes

1. Access your FTP account
2. Click on wp-content
3. Access Themes folder
4. Select all files
5. Right click, choose File Permissions
6. Set this to “777”
7. Refresh the page
8. Confirm Update File button
9. Find the footer file (footer.php)
10. Click on the footer file
11. Validate functionality

If you need to change permissions, let’s take care of this step now. With your FTP account, click on wp-content. Then, navigate to the Themes folder. Look for the theme that you are presently using. Once you have located the theme, and assuming you are currently using the default theme, go ahead and select each of files. Then, right click and select File Permissions. You must set this to “777”.

Next, you may wish to reload the page. If you scroll down, you should find an Update File button. This button means your files are now editable. Next, you must look for the Footer file, which is called footer.php. Proceed to click on the file name. You will be able to see that it will open the Footer file.

Insert the Google Analytics code in WordPress:

1. Copy the Google Analytics code
2. Return to WordPress
3. Paste code before body tag
4. Click on Update File

Now, you will need to refer back and reference the Google Analytics code. Come back to the Google Analytics code screen and copy the code.Next, return to the WordPress dashboard and paste the complete code above the BODY tag. Next, click on Update File.

Confirm your configurations in Google Analytics:

1. Come back to Google Analytics home page
2. Click on Save and Finish
3. Dismiss warning message
4. In 2 hours, return to Google Analytics
5. Click on Edit
6. Click on Check Status
7. Validate functionality

Next, you have to come back to Google Analytics. Click on Save and Finish.

You will see that WordPress capability has been incorporated into your Google Analytics account, nevertheless, take note of the warning message. The warning message will inform you that Google Analytics is unable to pick up the webpage Link, and not able to report on stats. Of course, this warning will be remedied within a couple of hours once you allow the program to commence processing and gathering the applicable data. To confirm, you can come back to Google Analytics in a few hours. Click on Edit, then you can click on Check Status.

If you’ve successfully loaded Google Analytics for use with WordPress, you will be prompted with a confirmation which reads, “Analytics has been successfully installed and data is being gathered now.” If you come back in 24 hours, you will be able to see some rather beneficial stats and insights into your site visitors.

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Cheap Web Site Hosting Tips

August 28th, 2010

Finding an affordable web site hosting plan is a must for individuals or new businesses that are on a budget. As usual, this is much easier said than done.

Many hosting companies claim to offer cheap domain name web hosting, but a lot of them have low quality services or jack up the prices with hidden fees. A supposedly affordable web site hosting plan can quickly turn into a costly nightmare if you aren’t careful. This is why it is essential that you do your homework and research a number of hosting companies before making any final decisions.

Comparing Costs

When looking for cheap web hosting, then you will probably want to compare the costs involved by different hosting services. Costs to look for when searching for a cheap web hosting plan include a setup fee, monthly or annual fees, plus any other extra fees that may be associated with the plan.

It should be noted that some hosting companies offer free set-up. If you can find a web host who is offering this in addition to low monthly hosting fees, you will of course be much better with this host versus another who makes you pay for the same service.

Features

Things to consider in addition to the cost when looking for cheap web hosting, include the amount of storage space, the web programming languages supported by the host, and the amount of customer support offered. Some hosting companies will offer all of these features in their basic or most affordable web site hosting plan, and others will not.

You will also want to take a look at the other services offered by the web hosting companies that you are considering. Some web site hosting companies provide additional services such as cheap domain name registration and web building tools. If you haven’t purchased a domain name yet or if you need help building your website, you may want to check to see if these services can be combined with the company’s most affordable web hosting plan. This could save you an enormous amount of money.

Other Considerations

If you have found a cheap web site hosting plan that has all of the features you need to build your web site, there are still a few other things that will need to be taken into consideration before you sign on the dotted line — the most important being reliability.

Some hosting companies who offer an affordable web hosting plan have one major downfall: they aren’t always reliable. You need your web site to be up when people try to access it. Reliability is essential. You should always ask or find out about a hosting companies downtime, before signing up. Last, but not least, you should make sure that the hosting plan you choose has the technical support you will need. Specific things to ask about include technical support response time and customer service representative availability.

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