The SEO Paradox

Could spending thousands of dollars, and months of effort to improve your page ranking, lead to your URL being penalized or even black listed from a search engines index?

If you are foolish enough to resort to questionable SEO strategies, or hire an SEO consultant who does; the answer is a resounding yes.                                                                                                            There are no short cuts to improved performance at the search engines, no guaranteed formulas for overnight success. Promises of instant results, or a cast iron top listing should be greeting with a healthy dose of skepticism.

If you choose to forego the task of optimization yourself, there are plenty of reputable consultants online to choose from, but you would be well advised to ask what methods they will employ. If you or your consultants are tempted to consider the use of hidden text and keywords, hidden links, keyword stuffing, link farms or cloaking, you might want to think again.

If an SEO consultant suggests submitting your URL to 10,000 search engines and directories wouldn't you want to know exactly where it will end up? After all, we're talking about the credibility and reputation of your Web site.

Trying to artificially boost your ranking at the search engines is poor strategy. Their algorithms will not differentiate between a premeditated attempt to trick your way to a top ranking, or your innocent use of a consultant who employs such methods, but the result may be that your site suffers either way.

If you are flirting with questionable SEO methods, you should ask yourself a few questions before you proceed:

• What are you trying to achieve?
• Does your strategy add value to your site and does it help those searching for the content you provide?
• Is your site simply a collection of commercial and affiliate links, or does it deliver valuable content and good information to your visitors?
• Would you feel comfortable explaining your SEO strategy with the owner of a competing site?

Google are constantly manipulating their search engine algorithm, in an effort to deliver a better product; Information that is more accurate, more relevant and delivers increased value to their users. Rather than try to do an end run around the Google search engine algorithm, consider embracing that doctrine.

A good, solid and ethical SEO strategy requires plenty of hard work and patience. The potential rewards are not limited to your site alone, but also to those of your link partners and most of all, the internet users who are searching for the service or information that you provide.

You can always fall back on the services of an SEO consultant if all else fails. You may find however, that a sustained effort focusing on some simple fundamentals, delivers the results you are looking for.

Keep it simple… make sure your site is well built, easily navigated and that your URL, page titles and headings are human reader, as well as search engine friendly. Simple text which describes the content of your page is most effective.

Content above all else, will start the traffic snowball rolling. Create good, original content, update it regularly and keep adding to it. Not only does this provide your readers with the incentive to refer your site to others and visit you on a regular basis, but it also attracts the attention of search engine spiders. The spiders will return to your site more often if they notice that you frequently update or add fresh content.

Quality content is also a primer for effective link exchanging. Approach other good quality sites related to your theme and explore the value of a link exchange agreement. Search engines don't just look at the number of links pointing to your site, but also whether those links come from sites containing content which is related to yours.

If you haven't submitted your sites to the major search engines, do so by following their submission guidelines. You should also consider submitting your site to the Yahoo Directory and the Open Directory Project, but again, be patient, it can take months to get listed and with both Yahoo and DMOZ, a submission is no guarantee that your site will be accepted.

Questionable SEO strategies will always exist, as will the many people who choose to use them, but a far greater feeling of satisfaction will result, through the use of an ethical approach which leaves your credibility and the reputation of your site intact.

The Truth about Search Engine Optimization

While the basics of Search Engine Optimization or SEO are pretty much textbook, it isn't the textbooks that you're competing with, it's the competition ... who within the most competative markets make it almost impossible to get to that search engine position of being number one. Discovering the Truth about Search Engine Optimization will require an analysis of every factor of optimization.

Professional SEO

Profession Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is more than simply understanding the goal of a website. The real SEO Professional, or real 'Search Engine Optimizer', will do extensive query-based keyword research because they know professional optimization needs a strong keyword foundation.

SEO professionals ask the all important question ... Who is the "target audience" or the "target market" ... and then, they work to create a website that brings their content to that audience through the search engines.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves:

-Optimizing every page's page titles, meta tags, attributes, anchor text and more. - Theming of the primary domain, sub-domains and supporting web properties (such as blogs, forums and companion websites). - Content is king ... and paramount to good optimization.

- Search engine friendly GUI navigation (internal linking strategy). - A must have 'inbound link' building strategy (external links coming in).

The professional SEO (search engine optimization) knows that if you want to be found in the top of the search results for a competitive keyword term, you have to cover all your search engine optimization basics and more. That means both, exceptional website on-page and external off-page SEO, as well as a fully comprehensive link strategy.

Professional SEO Company

Any Professional SEO worth hiring understands that effective SEO (search engine optimization) constant continuing education because the search engine algorithms and the rules search engines use to position a web page within the search engine results page (serp) are always changing. The search engine most challenging to the SEO professional is Google. Here's Google's tips on things to look for in an SEO company.

Be wary of SEO firms that send you email out of the blue. - No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. - Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do. - You should never have to link to an SEO. - Some SEOs may try to sell you the ability to type keywords directly into the browser address bar. - Choose wisely. - Be sure to understand where the money goes. - Talk to many SEOs, and ask other SEOs if they would recommend the firm you're considering. - Make sure you're protected legally.

- Professional SEO Strategy and Conversion

The truly Professional SEO and Search Engine Optimization Company understands that there are other considerations to be kept in mind.

For example, a website must not only be optimized for search engine spider algorithms, but it also has to remain optimized for the visitor as well. Ranking number one in all the major search engines is what gets the visitors to your website, but then the website must convert those visitors into actual sales.

Professional SEO is like Royalty

If content is king, then website design is queen. The combination of the two, if done correctly, will produce results for both your search engine rankings and your revenue. While keyword location, weight (absolute and relative), density, proximity, frequency, keyword targeting ... is a important part of the puzzle, how the code for the website is created and the linking strategies are equally considered royalty in the world of the professional optimizer. The knowledge of how best to accomplish that is always changing and that's why a real SEO professional who is on top of the trends, can be worth gold to the success of your business.

Do you want to learn more about search engine optimization, website marketing, read informational articles on the search industry, and learn how to achieve good search engine position and ranking? Visit our Website Development, Website Marketing Articles and Tutorials pages at http://www.wildwolf.ws and http://wild-wolf.com today.

Sports Betting Affiliate Program Secrets: Super Online Gambling Affiliates

The world of a sports betting affiliate is one that is as full of variety and opportunity as that of the industry it serves. Online sports betting has become one of the largest industries on the Internet both in terms of financial turnover and membership. It's notoriety and popularity have meant that year on year the membership numbers swell. It has developed into an online phenomenon, raking in billions each year. But through affiliate programs this wealth can finally be redistributed to Internet users of all sizes and stature.

The affiliate program works as a reward system for website owners, who host advertisements from companies, in this case that of sports betting sites. For the affiliate this is a golden opportunity to make their web space into a useful earning plot rather than a stagnant place. The affiliate receives all of the banners, text links and even in some cases e-mail documents ready for mass sending, for absolutely nothing. Therefore there is no implied risk or up front capital that is necessary to begin a venture into the world of affiliate marketing. The simplicity and ease with which new affiliates can obtain this paraphernalia is one of the key reasons why so many have joined this, and other affiliate marketing programs on the Internet.

The other reason that so many have decided to host affiliate sports betting banners is the simple monetary factor. Most affiliate programs may offer you a small percentage of a sale or a few dollars up front for passing on a customer, but look smartly in the sports betting field and the rewards are much higher. Imagine for example earning not just a small percentage for a one off bet or a couple of months, but between 20 and 35% of a player's entire lifetime on a site. This introduces the availability of some serious money into the equation, and is also what has drawn many people into becoming serious sports betting affiliates. The more fully signed up betting customers an affiliate can attract, the more they are liable to earn, therefore the onus is well and truly on affiliates to get out there and sell their product.

In turn the affiliate is also supplying the sports betting site with hugely valuable and potentially lucrative customers. The affiliate is more than pleased to earn just 25% whilst the sports betting site is benefiting from the remaining 75%, which may be slightly depleted but far better than nothing. Many affiliate programs also protect the affiliates from making a loss, something that even bookmakers are susceptible to. Therefore the sports betting site does have the element of risk on their side, but it is an industry born out of such things, so it is barely surprising. The beauty of the affiliate marketing program is the success that it reaps. Simply by rewarding affiliates handsomely the sites get what they want, and just by adding banners the affiliate gets the money they want. It is a win win situation, in which both parties do all they can to promote themselves and each other in order to profit further from the financial rewards.

Publishing A Newsletter

Today, many websites offer a free newsletter. Newsletters, from the receiving end, can be a great source for information that is delivered to your in-box. You can simply save the newsletter for future reference, something many people do. From the publisher's standpoint, though, a newsletter is a fantastic idea as it gives you a database of people who are interested in what you have to offer. Marketers know the value of this. But, aside from the potential financial benefit of such a mailing list, a newsletter is also a great way to keep in touch with users who may have only surfed across your website once. They may, on a whim, sign up for your newsletter and, thus, you have a way to keep in touch with them at a later date. You can also use your mailing list as a source for demographics information or opinions. Want to start a new feature on your site and want to know whether it will work or not? Survey the members of your mailing list.

So, let's take a look at what needs to be looked at to start your newsletter.

Length
It would be easy to send your users a long, winding email that requires them to scroll a long way to read the whole thing. However, in practice, this doesn't work very well. You want to keep your newsletter as brief as you can. If you include an article in your mailing, keep it brief and to the point. If the article is long, you could publish a portion of it and direct them to your website to read the rest of it.

Size
Newsletter size goes hand-in-hand with length, but with HTML newsletters being the norm today, it is possible to have very bloated HTML that does something that could be done otherwise with much less code. In short, then, keep your HTML efficient so that the size of the newsletter in kilobytes does not become too large. Remember, you're sending a lot of them (stress on the server) to people who may still have dial-up (slow download speeds).

Frequency
You need to decide how often you will publish your newsletter. Most are published weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. If anything is published more often than that, be sure to make that very clear to new subscribers because mailings that are sent too often will cause some to unsubscribe because they find it annoying. Also, once you commit to a frequency, stick to it. If a newsletter is sent irregularly, people will find it useless or will not respect it. However, if it comes at the same time with constant frequency, they will come to expect it and you will gain the respect of having done what you said you would do.

Format
Most newsletters are offered in both HTML and Text formats and this is your best bet. Most users prefer HTML and HTML provides you with more flexibility to get your message across. Text emails are very plain looking, however they are smaller in size and readable in any email client (some email clients still have a hard time with HTML). It is best to publish in both formats and give subscribers a choice.

Method of Sending
You need to research and find a way to send your newsletter. Sending mass email is fairly server intensive, depending on the size of your mailing list. For very large lists, it is usual to go to an outside newsletter hosting company to publish the newsletter. These companies have dedicated servers and powerful mass email software in order to send your newsletter without a burp. If you send the newsletter in-house and your list is large, you will want to pay attention to how the mail is sent. We use a PHP-based system designed in house which throttles out-going email depending on site traffic - our way of placing a governor on the rate of sending and not drag our sites to a crawl.

How often to write articles and where should I keep them?

On the one hand I don't want to have to submit more than one article a day, I use a posting utility but yet I still have to log in to each site and submit to each site. But on the other hand there are days when I come up with many different subjects, different ideas, that would make great articles. I have created a specific directory to keep these articles organized but there still is the problem of having to open an article and using the copy and paste function having to copy and paste the subject, the article body and then having to go through my article for the keywords.

I have a great solution that solves all of this. I am using a free utility where I can create articles on my desktop and with a click of a button that article will be automatically posted to my blog. Now when it comes time to submit another article I'll just submit one of these posts from my blog. If you want to ever know what utilities I use just email me and I will tell you. I used to include all of these in my articles, posts, but some of these article directories then think I am promoting these products and they don't approve my article.

I have learned this past week that writing and submitting articles is the fastest way to become known as an authority. I created several articles this past weekend and submitted them right away. This was on Saturday and by Tuesday of this week, when doing a search on my name, I saw my articles with the links back to my site. I have spent money on solo ads, created a Google adwords campaign, joined several traffic exchanges, posted on forums and when all is said and done the creating and submitting of articles so far has been the fastest. I still have not seen any sales but I expect that when end users read my stories that they will come to my site and follow the links I have there to my other sites. This, hopefully, will produce sales for me.

Another post I will be making today will be on using traffic exchanges and how to get the most from them. A famous book said that in order to see results in this world you have to be like A purple Cow, you need to stand out from everybody else. I consider myself to be a Purple cow. I do things differnetly than most people and I will always post what I learn and discover.

Another great benefit of writing and publishing articles is that I can use all the links as reference in a special section of my resume. I am always looking at new opportunities and if i want to gain some work writing content i can use these links as references.