Sales from the EDGE
Back Issue #047
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Sales from the EDGE Issue #047
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Sales from the EDGE
Cutting Through The Clutter
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From time to time, the EDGE publishes important updates.
Sent ONLY to SiteSell product owners, the EDGE cuts through
the "white noise" of Web selling, covering only the
important developments that you NEED to capitalize upon.
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February 23, 2004
Issue #047
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SiteSell Value Exchange
If you have NOT yet submitted your site,
you're letting Search Engine rankings go
to your competitor. There's no charge...
http://value-exchange.sitesell.com/
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
o NEWS FROM THE SITESELL EDGE...
1) Beyond ALL Reasonable Doubt
2) Updates to AdSense Site
o FEATURED ARTICLE...
1) Yahoo! and Google Hysteria and Media Mania Coming...
No, You Don't Need Any Vitamin V(alium)
Relax, Ignore the Noise, and Just Keep Building
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~NEWS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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---1---
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Beyond ALL Reasonable Doubt
Remember our $5,000 RESULTS Challenge? It was pretty
simple. Merely find a page from a small business Web host
or business that can show better results than this...
http://results.sitesell.com/
Well, not a single person or company on the Net was able to
provide the "proof of process" that SBI! does. That's
right, of all the zillions of small business Web hosts and
other services...
... in this whole World Wide Web, no one was able to provide
proof that there's a better process (and set of tools to
execute that process) than SBI!. NOTHING comes close.
Not only did we save $5,000, but it was a great way to
survey the Net. I mean, the 5 Pillar Affiliates BLANKETED
it, promoting this challenge to their visitors and readers.
And the bottom line...
It seems the rest of the world is still hung up on
HOSTING... on "getting a site up." But it's NOT about
hosting... not anymore. Hosting has long been mastered --
SBI!'s hosting is fast and reliable, second to none. BUT...
Small businesses should be way, way past that "Wow, I have a
Web site" stage... way past worrying about 99.99% or 99.999%
uptime -- all that has been mastered by any decent host.
NOW it's about success -- and NOTHING succeeds like SBI!.
There's a whole lot of "MARKETINGESE"-speak out there. But
when you boil it all down to "PROVE IT!"... only one company
can say "OK, we will -- here's our certified proof."
At the end of the day, marketing departments may indeed be
able to "baffle them with you-know-what" (cynical old
marketing saying), but SiteSell/SBI! does not need to do
that. Customers deserve much better than "marketing BS."
After all, if you are about to go online, or about to start
a new online business, YOU ARE ABOUT TO MAKE ONE OF THE MOST
IMPORTANT DECISIONS IN YOUR LIFE.
If you get it wrong, if you do not choose to use SBI!, you
will almost certainly lose 1-2 years of your life and
thousands of dollars in expense-and-time costs. That's a
near certainty -- the fatality rate for small business
online startups is sad. Heck...
Even if you do succeed, you'd do it faster, better, cheaper
with SBI!. The rest of the world has just proved that it
can't do the job -- they all failed the challenge.
And SiteSell? SBI!?
For proof that goes BEYOND even results.sitesell.com (the
basis of our original challenge), see this new site...
http://proof.sitesell.com/
It's fair to say that, beyond all reasonable doubt, no other
company/product in the world breeds success like
SiteSell/SBI!. If you are at all considering starting an
online business (or re-starting -- don't be afraid to scrap
a failure and start over correctly)... TAKE YOUR TIME.
Insist on proof. Check out other Web hosting success
stories by entering their domains into Alexa. Compare their
results and proof with ours.
Then decide. No rush. Be sure.
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---2---
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Updates to AdSense Site
AdSense has released a couple of improvements. Read about
them at...
http://adsense.sitesell.com/adsense6.html
They've also produced a nice introduction...
http://adsense.sitesell.com/adsense1.html
(Just look for the red "NEW" gif in the above pages.)
--
For those of you new to AdSense, it's a powerful way to
monetize a well-trafficked, theme-based site. It's almost
as if Google created it just for SBI! owners and said
here...
"Take it, go forth, and monetize."
For more information on how to get the most out of AdSense...
http://adsense.sitesell.com/
--
If you have an infopreneurial site, or are thinking of
starting one, AdSense lays down a "revenue foundation"... a
strong, recurring monthly income. Within 2-3 months of
starting, you should already be earning in a month what SBI!
costs for a year -- and your income grows month after month.
Add other "infopreneurial" monetization models (ex., finder's
fees, affiliate income, and other models that do not even
require you to sell a product or service), and you will grow
that recurring income to thousands of dollars per month...
all by creating information that others seek.
Content -> Traffic -> PREsell --> Monetize
For more information on becoming a successful infopreneur...
http://infopublishing.sitesell.com/
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~FEATURED ARTICLE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PREAMBLE TO THIS IMPORTANT ARTICLE
You probably know that Yahoo! launched its own search
technology on Wednesday, February 18. Already, there has
been a fair amount of hysteria, rumor-mongering, and
misinformation. SBIers avoid all that because SBI! Xpress
(the SBI! e-zine) eliminates all the noise, distills the
good information down to what's important AND "actionable"
(from over 100 zines), AND provides analysis, strategies and
even predictions that almost always turn out to be spot on.
As SBIer Marc Liron, from the U.K., wrote...
---------------------------------------------
Excellent info! I am just so GLAD you guys
are ahead of the field in terms of your
knowledge and the way you place that into
your products!
Saves ME so much time, in fact, come to think
of it I actually can NOT remember the last
time I read any SEO zine. I made a conscious
decision a few months ago to leave that
research to YOU and your team :-)
Marc Liron
updatexp.com
----------------------------------------------
That means a lot (coming from Marc) because Marc is a
sophisticated, successful Webmaster... a certified Microsoft
MVP (Most Valued Professional).
I'll give you a sneak preview of our upcoming launch of the
SBI! Case Studies site by showing you Marc's SBI! experience
(excuse the dust, it has not gone through final editorial)...
http://case-studies.sitesell.com/webmaster-marc.html
--
The main point of SBI! Xpress (SBIX) is to relieve SBIers of
the need to read, worry and fret about info-overload. The
ONLY zine they need is SBIX. We know that the less Net-
savvy are very happy to put themselves into the hands of
SBIX, and SBI! in general, so they can focus on business.
But when a super-savvy Webmaster has drawn the same
conclusion, I know that SBIX is doing the same job as every
other part of SBI!... let people focus on business while
SBI! makes all the obstacles and tech hurdles disappear.
SBIX is probably the most under-publicized part of SBI!,
simply because there are so many marketing e-zines -- but
this one is special since it SAVES you time. And...
Since this Yahoo! story is so important, I'm reprinting the
article directly from the Site Build It! Xpress, to share it
with you. While it was specifically written for SBIers,
THE INFORMATION AND STRATEGIES ARE JUST AS APPLICABLE AND
IMPORTANT FOR YOU.
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Yahoo! and Google Hysteria and Media Mania Coming...
No, You Don't Need Any Vitamin V(alium)
Relax, Ignore the Noise, and Just Keep Building
A major media heat wave is coming. And hopefully, you'll
not get caught up in it. But this one is bound to be so
extensive, that I expect that you can't help but read about
changes at Google and especially about Yahoo!'s brand new
Search Engine (announced by Yahoo! on February 18).
SBIX will be right here, keeping it all straight, in
perspective and telling you how to get the most out of this
major shift in the SE landscape.
-----SIDEBAR----
Remember, there's a huge difference between a
crawler-based Search Engine and a human-
compiled directory. We're talking about
Yahoo's new Search Engine, which is no longer
powered by Google. If you have any haziness
on the difference between an SE and a
directory, review the SBI! Action Guide.
For the first time EVER, Yahoo! now has its
own, proprietary SE and becomes what we call
a PRIMARY Search Engine. As such, it will be
reported not only in the Directory HQ (for
its directory rankings), but we will also be
providing spider-tracking, index-checking and
rank-reporting data for Yahoo! Search in the
SE HQ, since it is no longer Google-powered.
-----SIDEBAR----
All of this was predicted many months ago here, of course.
And Microsoft will be rolling its engine out, but that's
still a ways down the road.
One important note, right now, though. You may notice that
most of your rankings change at Yahoo!. And that's because
Yahoo! was formerly using Google to power its results.
-----SIDEBAR-----
We'll soon be reporting Yahoo! as a PRIMARY
engine in the SE HQ. The Directory HQ will
soon report ONLY directory-proper results.
-----SIDEBAR-----
Since Yahoo! was powered by Google...
If you were doing well at Google, you were doing well at
Yahoo!, too. Yes, you won the Daily Double! But, of course,
you weren't doing so well at Google, you were doubly cursed.
Well now, with Yahoo! rolling out its own brand new Search
Engine, powered by its own technology (which seems NOT to be
Inktomi or at least not 100%), your risk and reward is going
to be spread out among two technologies instead of one.
-----SIDEBAR-----
Yahoo! claims that this new "Yahoo! Search"
is not Inktomi-based, but rather is brand new
technology. Frankly, I don't buy it. Yes,
there are differences in the search results
between Yahoo! Search and Inktomi.
But if Yahoo! built a "new" system that's 90%
Inktomi and 10% tweaking, you'd easily get
substantial changes. After all, why do you
think the frenzied "Google Dance" happens?
No... this is most likely what the marketing
folks call... "Branding." ;-)
Not to mention... if they call this Yahoo!
Search and claim it's brand new technology,
they'll have a whole new way to squeeze
Pay-for-Inclusion money above and beyond
Inktomi's Pay-for-Inclusion fee (more on this
particular angle below).
Or am I getting cynical in my old age? ;-)
-----SIDEBAR-----
Odds are, using SBI!, you're not too far from ranking well
at any engine. Yet that "not too far" can still be too far
away, let's say for Google. Now you've got a second shot to
get some traffic... this time from Yahoo!.
Of course, if you were doing fantastic with Google, you may
find that you've suddenly lost some traffic since Yahoo!'s
ranking algorithm is just different enough to lower your
rankings... or maybe not -- you may be doing the same or
even better, overall.
-----SIDEBAR----
My daughter's anguilla-beaches.com site has
been affected, dropping below some sites that
are clearly inferior -- it almost feels like
a "Google Dance" so no panic here -- we'll
see how the algorithm adjusts and the cream
should rise to the top over time, as usual.
-----SIDEBAR----
The next few weeks will be a state of flux, so don't get too
happy if you're benefitting from these changes... and don't
panic if the reverse is happening.
Just keep building content... and your business.
-----SIDEBAR----
Yahoo!'s Image search is still
powered by Google for now.
-----SIDEBAR----
A question on everyone's mind...
Is it possible to free-submit to Yahoo! Search?
Searchenginewatch.com reports that Yahoo! has added a free
"add URL" box that you can access by becoming a registered
Yahoo! user and logging in to the service...
http://login.yahoo.com/config/login
Well, we joined but we couldn't find that little box.
Instead, Yahoo! notes this in their FAQ...
--------------------------------------------------
How do I add my site to your search engine database?
Yahoo! Search crawls the web every 2-4 weeks
and automatically finds new content for
indexing. If pages already in the Yahoo!
Search index link to your site, it will be
considered for inclusion in the next update
of the index. Getting your site listed in
major directory services such as the Yahoo!
Directory and DMOZ is an excellent way to be
sure that there are links to your site.
--------------------------------------------------
... so my guess for now is... "No add URL box."
Since there is no free "add URL," check your status at
Yahoo!'s new Search Engine (again, this is completely
different from its directory) to decide what to do next.
-----SIDEBAR-----
We'll be spider-tracking and index-checking
and rank-reporting Yahoo! as a primary engine
in the SE HQ shortly, but here's what to do
manually for now, if you want to get a quick
fix -- this will help you appreciate all the
work the good old SE HQ does, day in and day
out, for ALL the engines that it covers :-)
-----SIDEBAR-----
Two steps to see how you're doing at Yahoo! Search...
STEP #1) Find out if your site is currently listed in
Yahoo!'s Search Engine index by entering the following into
the search box at...
http://search.yahoo.com/
---------------------
site:yourdomain.com
---------------------
For example, entering "site:anguilla-beaches.com" turns up
six pages for anguilla-beaches.com.
If you have a ton of pages indexed, congratulations! Go to
the next step to see how they are ranking.
Do you NOT have many pages indexed?
In order to be CERTAIN your content is included, Yahoo! will
be pushing you to use the Inktomi paid inclusion program
(and later, their own Yahoo! paid program, I'm sure)...
"SEARCH SUBMIT—SMALLER SITES"
http://www.inktomi.com/products/web_search/submit.html
Don't miss the IMPORTANT NOTICE on this SEARCH SUBMIT Web page...
----------------------------------------------------------------
IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT INKTOMI SEARCH SUBMIT
Yahoo! Search has transitioned to its own search technology
and is preparing to launch a new inclusion program. As a
bonus for Search Submit customers, Yahoo! Search is
providing a free trial of Yahoo! traffic that will end on
April 15, 2004. When the new inclusion program launches,
Search Submit customers will have the option of joining the
new program for ongoing participation in Yahoo! Search
results.
----------------------------------------------------------------
It's not clear what will happen to the Inktomi program, or
if you'll have to pay extra after April 15, 2004 to be
included in "the new inclusion program." I foresee two
possibilities...
a) They ding us for additional dollars to be included in
Yahoo! Search, while Inktomi powers its current partners so
you STILL feel like you must PAY for that, too...
-----SIDEBAR-----
The new Yahoo!/Inktomi Search powers more
than just Yahoo!. It provides results to
Yahoo! partners such as MSN, About.com, and
others. So there's a fair amount at stake,
and it may well be worthwhile to submit 2-3
of your most important pages if you don't
start ranking well within a few weeks.
-----SIDEBAR-----
b) They roll it ALL into one price and include both Inktomi
and Yahoo! in the "pay-for-inclusion" price. Ha! Ha! Don't
bet on that happening anytime soon, not in this millennium!
--
In other words, if you have paid to be included in Inktomi
or if you do so soon, expect to receive an e-mail from
Yahoo! asking you for more money if you want to be listed in
Yahoo!'s index. Of course, you ALWAYS have the option of
being patient, building content, developing good quality
incoming links, and waiting for Yahoo! Slurp (the Yahoo!
spidering bot) to find you and list you -- when that
happens, of course, we'll report it in the SE HQ (once we
add Yahoo! as a PRIMARY ENGINE, which is a top priority).
My advice? Be patient, build content, and let nature take
its course. Remember, an engine is only as good as the
diversity of all of the sites in its index. Google's free
listings will overwhelm Yahoo!'s engine if Yahoo! ONLY
allows those pages in that pay for inclusion. So if you
follow the SBI! process, building content and good inbound
links, you are bound to get listed in Yahoo! for free.
--
Therefore, the overall recommendation regarding
pay-for-inclusion remains the same...
1) Pay to submit ONLY your most important page or three.
2) Get listed in Open Directory, AND any important theme-
specific directories.
3) Build other good incoming links. (Value Exchange is
invaluable for that.)
4) Build lots and lots of good quality content, especially
for any important keywords that are NOT scoring at Yahoo!.
5) Do NOT tweak to improve pages that ARE ranking at Google.
6) It's always better to build new content rather than to
tweak old content (assuming that your pages are all OK when
you run them through "Analyze It!"). One exception...
If most of your pages are not ranking well at BOTH Google or
Yahoo!, do some tweaking experiments. Increase the number
of keywords, perhaps even going above the Analyze It!
recommendation. Or experiment with a lower density. Every
site faces a different competitive environment, so if you
are not scoring at all, *DO* experiment until you find what
works. Once you "find the range," keep doing what works.
-----SIDEBAR-----
This is the other good reason to submit pages
to Inktomi. Since they spider every 48
hours, you get fast feedback whether your
experiments make a difference in your rankings.
-----SIDEBAR-----
OK, now that you've checked which pages are indexed...
STEP #2) Next, check how those pages are RANKING at Yahoo!
by searching for each of keyword for each page. If you're
scoring well, sit tight.
If you're not scoring well, or even if you don't have many
pages indexed, and if you're willing to be patient...
Keep building new pages, especially new pages that deliver
content on any keywords that may have dropped out of Yahoo!,
again experimenting from page to page to find out what
works. You'll start getting the same free traffic from
Yahoo! that you were getting with Google.
--
And what works at Yahoo!?
OK, straight from the Yahoo!-horse's mouth...
-----------------FROM YAHOO!-----------------
Yahoo! Search Site Guidelines
Yahoo! strives to provide the best search experience on the
Web by directing searchers to high-quality and relevant Web
content in response to a search query.
Pages Yahoo! Wants Included in Its Index
o Original and unique content of genuine value
o Pages designed primarily for humans, with search engine
considerations secondary
o Hyperlinks intended to help people find interesting,
related content, when applicable
o Metadata (including title and description) that
accurately describes the contents of a Web page
o Good Web design in general
Unfortunately, not all Web pages contain information that is
valuable to a user. Some pages are created deliberately to
trick the search engine into offering inappropriate,
redundant or poor-quality search results; this is often
called "spam." Yahoo! does not want these pages in the index.
-----------------/FROM YAHOO!-----------------
KEN'S COMMENT -- Yawn. All SBIers should already be doing this.
-----------------FROM YAHOO!-----------------
What Yahoo! Considers Unwanted
Some, but not all, examples of the more common types of
pages that Yahoo! does not want include:
o Pages that harm accuracy, diversity or relevance of
search results
o Pages dedicated to directing the user to another page
o Pages that have substantially the same content as other
pages
o Sites with numerous, unnecessary virtual hostnames
o Pages in great quantity, automatically generated or of
little value
o Pages using methods to artificially inflate search
engine ranking
o The use of text that is hidden from the user
o Pages that give the search engine different content
than what the end-user sees
o Excessively cross-linking sites to inflate a site's
apparent popularity
o Pages built primarily for the search engines
o Misuse of competitor names
o Multiple sites offering the same content
o Pages that use excessive pop-ups, interfering with user
navigation
o Pages that seem deceptive, fraudulent or provide a poor
user experience
Yahoo!'s Site Guidelines are designed to ensure that
poor-quality pages do not degrade the user experience in any
way. As with Yahoo!'s other guidelines, Yahoo! reserves the
right, at its sole discretion, to take any and all action it
deems appropriate to insure the quality of its index.
-----------------/FROM YAHOO!-----------------
KEN'S COMMENT -- Yawn. No SBIers should be doing this.
Do you see how far "keeping it real" takes you? :-)
-----------------FROM YAHOO!-----------------
How do I improve the ranking of my web site in the search
results?
Generally, you can ensure you have unique and targeted
content for your audience. Here are a few tips that can help
your page be found by a focused search on the Internet:
o Think carefully of the key terms that your users will
search on to find content like yours. Use those terms to
guide the text and construction of your page.
o Users are more likely to click a link if the title
matches their search. Choose terms for the title that match
the concept of your document.
o Use a "description" meta-tag and write your description
accurately and carefully. After the title, the description
is the most important draw for users. Make sure the document
title and description attract the interest of the user but
also fit the content on your site.
o Use a "keyword" meta-tag to list key words for the
document. Use a distinct list of keywords that relate to the
specific page on your site instead of using one broad set of
keywords for every page.
o Keep relevant text and links in HTML. Placing them in
graphics or image maps means search engines can't always
search for the text, and the crawler can't follow links to
your site's other pages. An HTML site map, with a link from
your welcome page, can help make sure all your pages are
crawled.
o Use ALT text for graphics. It's good page design to
accommodate text browsers or visually impaired visitors, and
it helps improve the text content of your page for search
purposes.
o Correspond with webmasters and other content providers
and build rich linkages between related pages.
Note: "Link farms" create links between unrelated pages for
no reason except to increase page link counts. Using link
farms violates Yahoo!'s Site Guidelines and will not improve
your page ranking.
-----------------/FROM YAHOO!-----------------
KEN'S COMMENT -- Yawn. SBIers are doing this. If you are not
tech-savvy and don't understand much of the above, things like
META keyword and META description tags are automatically
created for you by the block-by-block builder. Even though
many experts advised not using META keywords, we have never
abandoned them because we never abused them -- but a lot of
non-SBI! Webmasters will be scrambling to add them back.
We'll test correlations of ALT tags -- we have never found
them to be of importance with Google, but since we did
introduce the IMPORTANT CONCEPT OF GENERATING SOLID TRAFFIC
BY OPTIMIZING FOR "IMAGE SEARCH" last week, and with
Yahoo!'s note (above) this week, we may change our
recommendation to slowly, conservatively, start labeling
your images with ALT tags that use the Specific Keyword of
each page. If we do, that ability will be built into the
block-by-block SiteBuilder, too. It's certainly not a major
factor, but every little bit counts.
So stand by.
Bottom line?
Don't get too happy if you're better off.
Don't get upset if you're worse off.
It's going to be a state of flux for a few weeks, then the
dust will clear and things will settle back down.
We'll be monitoring it all, watching what works... and what
does not... across the incredible database of all SBI!
sites, following all the Search Engine gurus and boards for
the small amount of critical information that emerges, and
we'll keep you updated. AND of course, we will be
updating the tools and HQs to maximize YOUR results.
Because that's what we do. :-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SiteSell Discount Directory~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.sitesell.com/discount-directory.html
Please bookmark this page -- it's the only page that you
will EVER need to buy SiteSell products at an owners-only
discount. For owners of SiteSell products ONLY, it provides
discounts on SiteSell products.
SiteSell Discount Directory
http://www.sitesell.com/discount-directory.html
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Back issues available at...
http://www.sitesell.com/edge/backissues.html
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WANT TO CHANGE THE E-MAIL ADDRESS AT WHICH YOU RECEIVE THIS?
http://www.sitesell.com/change-email.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SiteSell Support...
http://support.sitesell.com/contact-support.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Written by Ken Evoy, M.D.
President, SiteSell.com
(c) copyright 2004 SiteSell.com
Hudson, Quebec
Canada J0P 1J0
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