On-Demand Indexing Launched at Google to Favor Fresh Content

One of the main problems of online merchants when they want more traffic is content – sometimes, crawling just doesn’t update your web presence that quickly. This is the reason why Google recently launched what they call “on demand” indexing, which would deal with this indexing problem.
 
Basically, Google thinks like this: people want to get the latest, the freshest content immediately when they do a Google search. For businesses, this is a challenge, but if this means getting more conversions from the visits, then businesses are all ears and all pockets for the improvement.

So what does this kind of Google indexing have to offer online merchants and businesses? First, businesses may now request up to the minute indexing in Google to make sure that the listings for certain keywords would show up-to-the-minute content.
 
Content providers for instance, continually update their pages, and sometimes, crawlers don’t reach them in time for “sales season”. On-demand indexing erases this probability and allows businesses to thrive much more, knowing that the freshest contents are delivered every time.
 
It’s for the customers

Just how important is indexing to a business? Let’s look at a hypothetical online business and see just how important frequent updated indexing is. For example, the business we’re looking at sells Christmas decorations and gifts to people who live in the Midwest. With this alone, the reach of the website is already geographically limited to people in the Midwest, right?
 
Now, just how many websites are there who offer to sell the same products or similar lines of products to the Midwest and possibly nearby regions in the United States as well? Plenty, if you tap in the right keywords.
 
The point here is that often, businesses improve immensely their “online arsenal” when sales season arrives. For the hypothetical business, mid-November to around January is sales season. But what if, by some unfortunate twist of fate, the newer pages with the newest and most wonderful products are not indexed properly by Google due to age, etc.?
 
The answer here is simple: you don’t get the right visitors to your website, and the competitors get the lead on you. This is how important being up-to-date is.

It’s for the businesses

The Internet is such a large place; and with people going at each other competitively, small to medium-sized businesses no longer have the luxury of simply laying around waiting for customers to come, like what people did in the fifties and sixties. If you have a mom and pop shop, you should keep in mind that there are thousands like yourself, splitting the public into so many slices when they come to buy or browse something online.
 
What kinds of websites would benefit from this kind of Google service? Those who are offering “vertical” content, such as whole news articles or tidbits or “news blogs” definitely need this service; these forms of print media need all the right kinds of exposure to be noticed.
 
If you want visitors to your website, remember that in the grand scale of things, more than 40% of visitors click on the number 1 listing on a Google search.

Online Communication That Gets Attention – SEO Keyword Lessons

Embarking on an online communication campaign through your website whether through e-mailers, online newsletters, online forum discussions, surveys, and other forms is not a simple writing and sending process. It takes more than prose to get that online attention that your business needs to generate.

The keyword factor

First and foremost is keyword research which a lot of online communicators tend to neglect. While it is instinctive to have keywords directly illustrative of your business, products, or service, the problem is, hundreds or thousands of other businesses in the same line will have the same instinct. If you have thousands of other firms using the same keywords, you cannot expect to land on the first page of the search results. You need to come up with something that is not only descriptive of your line of business but is also relatively unique to set you apart from the others.

Google has several keyword tools that you can use to find that elusive keyword that will work wonders for your site. Aside from Google, there are other providers that can give you the tool to analyze industry keywords for you so that you will know what keywords your competition are using, and which keywords will set you apart from them. These services offer lots of ideas for you to be able to pick or develop keywords that generate attention.

What’s in a content?

When you have identified those strategic keywords that will go into your title tags and pages, you now craft your contents around those keywords. You develop your page contents and write articles or posts that optimize those keywords. Writing hundreds of articles or pages and pages of prose is not enough; sometimes the briefest, most direct, but full of substantive and strategic keyword use style of content management is better.

Focus and don’t veer away from the identity of your site and business that you are building around those keywords. You have ensured that your titles or keywords are unique so that your site is sifted through the multitude of the competition; now make sure you are consistent. Developing topics or links to and from other sites will happen as you learn to use keywords strategically.

Turn out articles and site contents that will not only catch attention but will really be of use or value to the reader or visitor. When a site visitor finds your contents relevant, a second visit is highly possible. It is very likely this satisfied visitor will refer your site to family, friends, colleagues, and your viewership or readership increases multi-fold.

With research and marketing sense, you can turn out online communications that will warrant the kind of attention to generate business for you. Avoid posting dry contents where the only consideration was to pepper the contents with keywords without ensuring that the overall subject matter or message being delivered is relevant for the reader. Remember, your potential customers will be looking for a solution to their problems and you must offer that solution. You just needed to get them to your site so you’ve optimized your keywords; after you’ve got them to visit your site, make sure these customers find something worthwhile in your site to keep them buying and coming back to your site for more.

The Basics of Content Writing: What You Need to Know

When you dip your feet into web writing, there are two things that you will immediately notice. First, that there are some differences between writing for the web and for print. Sure, the same grammatical rules and some stylistic considerations still apply, but there are also different demands involved in web writing.

Also, some online writing jobs are the same as their print counterparts. However, there are also those jobs that only apply to the web.

These are the basic things that this article covers. Read on and learn more.

The Difference between Web Content and Print

If you look at how content is written on websites and blogs, you’ll easily notice how different it is from the printed page. There are several reasons for this.

In Jakob Nielsen’s article at www.sun.com entitled, ‘Writing for the Web’, he cites three things that make writing for the web different from print. They are: the majority of users only scan the text on a web page, reading from a computer screen is 25% slower than a printed page and web content should be shorter than its printed equivalent.

So from those information, we can say that people do not spend a lot of time reading web content because it’s slower to read than a printed page. That is why shorter content and crisper sentences are favored on the web than fluffier ones. Aside from that, web writers should also make it easier for readers to find exactly what they’re looking for. Otherwise, they’ll click on the Back button right away.

Who Writes on the Web?

A visit at online job boards for writers will show you the various types of web writers there are. And knowing what each type of writer does is important if you want to pursue a career in writing for the web.

Here’s a list and descriptions of some of the most common writing jobs on the internet:

1. Content/Article Writer – this type of writer writes information articles for websites. Most begin as generalists, writing on a wide array of topics such as health, technology, etc. But more experienced ones usually specialize on a specific subject since they have spent more time writing on that subject than anything else and are thus more familiar with it.

2. Copywriter – most webmasters confuse copywriters with content writers thinking that they are one of the same. But content writers focus on writing content that gives information while copywriters write content – specifically known as copy – that persuade readers to do a particular action, e.g. buy a product, sign up for a membership, request more information, etc. Copywriters write sales letters, landing pages and text for home pages, to name a few.

3. PR Writer – PR is short for public relations. What PR writers do is that they write PR materials that are sent to editors of various websites who in turn may publish them as news. Their work is mainly to provide and disseminate information about a product or event that their client requires.

4. Bloggers – this general term refers to writers who post their content on blogs. Some bloggers aim to form the public’s opinion through their pieces, while others make tutorials or provide information about their field of specialty. A blogger can talk about anything depending on the niche that his or her blog covers.

A Closer Look at the Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing

There are many ways of earning money on the internet. And affiliate marketing is one of them. This type of business works through the collaboration between the merchant and the affiliate. The merchant supplies the product, and does all the back end work.  Meanwhile, the affiliate helps the merchant sell that product.

The affiliate earns money from commissions for every sale he or she makes. However, there are also arrangements where commissions are earned through registrations made through the affiliate or the number of clicks on the affiliate’s link to the product.

The arrangement’s ideal. The merchant gets help from affiliates in selling the product and the affiliates earn commissions in return.

But just like everything else, there’s a good and bad side to affiliate marketing. Knowing the good ones helps in keeping the arrangement healthy and profitable. On the other hand, knowing its negative side helps both affiliates and marketers avoid potential blunders right at the beginning.

The Pros of Affiliate Marketing

Let’s begin with the pros of affiliate marketing. On the side of the merchants, this kind of set-up helps them reach a bigger market which they otherwise can’t if they alone did the selling. And by getting the right affiliates, they can sell their products to the right customers. Having a well-targeted audience helps minimize time and money wasted from poor marketing.

Affiliate marketing also benefits affiliates. First, there’s convenience. Affiliates only need to sell the product and they’ll get a commission. They don’t need to worry about other things such as creating and developing the product, product support, bookkeeping, and other back end tasks. Aside from that, affiliates only need to make a small investment to get into affiliate marketing. Some programs even allow affiliates to sign up for free.

The Risks Involved in Affiliate Marketing

There’s also certain risks involved in affiliate marketing. For merchants, they take a risk once they ask other people to help sell their products. There are affiliates who resort to illegal means just to make a sale. Some would make promises that the product can’t actually deliver just so they’d make a sale. Marketers of course would lose money from unsatisfied customers who would demand to have their money back.

It’s therefore important that they choose their affiliates carefully. This minimizes the risk involved in the process.

Affiliates also take a certain amount of risk when joining an affiliate program. They risk the possibility of being scammed by supposed merchants who shut down their operations before the affiliates even get paid. Some unscrupulous merchants also decrease commissions at whim so affiliates should beware of them.

All in all, affiliate marketing is a good way of earning money on the internet. Merchants can use this to earn passive income while affiliates can make money from commissions alone or use affiliate marketing to complement their other income streams.

Although there are risks involved in this kind of arrangement, both marketers and affiliates can protect themselves by spending time knowing the person they’re working with. It takes both parties to make affiliate marketing work. And with the right chemistry, they can assure themselves of earning a healthy income from this form of business.

Web Journals: From Traditional Blogs to Video Blogs

In the early days of the internet, people used blogs in order to express themselves and mostly to talk about their lives. Blogs were basically online journals for people willing enough to share a piece of information about their lives to strangers.

Popular Blogs

But blogging has come a long way from then. Blogs now cover a wide range of topics apart from personal musings and rants. Today, they cater to many different interests that range from politics, to show business, to technology.

Some of these blogs have become very popular that their followers number to thousands, even millions. The Huffington Post is one such blog. It is a political blog put by socialite and millionaire Arianna Huffington. A key factor to its popularity is its pool of respected writers that are composed of professional columnists and celebrity bloggers.

Then there’s BoingBoing which is a team blog that aggregates interesting things visitors find on the internet. The topics that they cover range from politics, to art, to technology.

Meanwhile, Problogger is a blog that teaches its readers how to make money from blogging and how to develop and market their blogs. Although posts are generally authored by its owner, Darren Rowse, he sometimes invites other bloggers to write guest posts there.

For the techie crowd, there’s Gizmodo. It is a blog that covers everything about new gadgets and technology.

Then finally, there’s Seth Godin’s blog. Godin is a popular figure in the marketing scene, having authored bestselling books such as Permission Marketing and All Marketers are Liars.

Video Blogs

With the arrival of video sharing sites such as YouTube, blogs have further expanded their reach. Unlike the blogs of the past where posts were only comprised of text and photos, it is now common for a lot of blogs to feature videos.

Blogs that feature mostly video content are commonly referred to as video blogs or vlogs. Video blogs usually offer a richer multimedia experience than traditional text-and-picture blogs because of the added audiovisual experience brought about by videos.

The popularity of video blogs is mainly attributed to the wide availability of broadband connections and the popularity of video sharing sites such as YouTube.com. Also, the availability of cheap video recording devices contributed to this trend. Today, people can record themselves using their computer’s web camera or the built-in cameras on their mobile phones.

Subscribing to Video Blog Entries

Despite the difference in the media that they use, traditional blogs and video blogs share a common method of subscription. Called RSS, it allows visitors to subscribe to so-called RSS feeds.  And when they do, they will get their favorite blog’s latest entries directly to their e-mail or RSS reader.

How Google Makes Searches Worthy of an International Market

Google remains the number one search engine throughout the world because of its company’s internationalist approach to business. Let’s face it – Google means big business for a lot of people. In fact, Google is big business, with many revenues streaming in from all parts of the world.

According to Daphne Dembo, the Engineering Director at Google, the primary goal of Google today is to exist as the most useful and relevant search engine in the world, regardless of the searcher’s geographic specificity, language and culture. This is done primarily by creating broad changes in the algorithms employed by Google.

How does Google deal with the complexities of local language and cultures? The company is fortunate to have had a truly international team of engineers who are, according to Dembo, passionate about making local searches matter to people of all countries.

Just how difficult is the job of making one Google relevant to people of all languages, relying on Google for their research and other needs on the Internet? Very difficult, according to Dembo. Imagine the conundrum of the American query “color” and the UK query “colour”. These two differences in spelling can already pose a problem against international searches.

Training the engine

The infrastructure of Google can support multiple languages through its language model. The language model is a set of processes and algorithms that handle multiple language queries. The language model is “trained” by running different documents through the system.

Recognition is the first step in improving the language model of Google. The system assimilates thousands of terms, idioms and other types of speech through the “training” process. This is done because if Google relies on so-called static dictionaries, chances are colloquial terms and similar developments in local language would be removed from the picture.
 
A social search engine

Perhaps the biggest improvement in Google is incorporating tools that would help enhance the user’s experience of a search. Among these features are the following:
 
•  Correcting spellings – there are some instances that people are already rusty even with their native tongue. Google has a standard list of words, and makes suggestions to enhance the output of the search.
 
•  Diacritical signs – quite a few languages utilize diacritical markings to alter the sounds and meanings of words. This is the case for Russia, Germany, China, France and Greece. The language model of Google was enhancing to further support queries that used diacritical markings.

•  Words with multiple meanings are also taken into the equation. Synonyms are shown in multiple languages to make sure that people can make faster searches.
 
•  Compound words – like English, many European and non-European languages make use of compound words. The engine has been designed in such a way that there is no confusion between two words and another query that joins the two words to form a compound term in query.
 
•  Google wants people to save time. This is the reason why “auto-complete” features are integrated into localized versions of Google. This allows users using different alphabets or scripts to save time by listing probably terms and phrases when a “cue” or starting word is given.

Strategic keyword use and positioning – SEO Lesson

You definitely want people to visit your site. You’ve heard that you need to consider keywords that define your business and title tags that work around those keywords. So you spend hours and days coming up with what you think are the best keywords to describe your site’s message. With that, you need to get your strategy straight.

1. Prioritize

You could have thought of tens if not hundreds of keywords relative to your site’s message. But of course, you cannot expect those ninety or something keywords to fit your title tag or get considered by each and every search engine. Do a shortlist of the keywords you came up with. Come up with the 5, or at most an even ten, really-really relevant keywords that reflect what exactly you wish to convey in your site’s message. When you have them, consider their use in the site content, the frequency, and even where you position them.

2. Don’t hard-sell.

Even if you shortlisted to maybe five keywords, the next temptation is to sprinkle those five into each and every corner or page of your website. It will be ridiculous to have your keyword present in every sentence, sometimes two at a time in a sentence, throughout each page of your site. Even if you are say in the bathroom fixtures business, it is silly to have each page or paragraph of your content peppered with bowl or cistern or bathtub.

Common sensical and strategic positioning of your keywords help you build that important rapport with your publics. Let the interest build gradually and don’t hard-sell.

3. Maintain a structure to your keywords.

Look at your shortlist. From that shortlist, identify again the most important keyword. Put that on top of your list always, whether in the title tag, or in the actual texts. Be as concise but direct as possible. From your keywords, conceptualize on the content as a whole. Your content must build up to the overall message of your site. One other tip is to come up with a theme for your site. The theme will be the source of your keywords and the actual content. Sprinkle prudently and position strategically and relevantly the keywords on the pages of your site. Your keywords about your products or services go naturally to the products or about page but may not sound too good to be seen in the contacts page. Positioning or structuring your keywords is common-sense at the least, and strategy at the most.

4. Be open to diversifying.

Don’t you wish your site makes it to the top 10 searches always, but having a multitude of keywords may not be the answer. If you crowd your site’s contents with this multitude, you not only bore your site visitor, you can even lose credibility. If you want to strengthen or add interest to a specific keyword or content, you may do a separate blog where you reinforce the interest to the content, or do a knol or online forum to be more credible and authoritative.

In strategic keyword selection and positioning, sometimes it’s not always a numbers game.

Add Eye Shadow to a Photo with Photoshop – Photo Editing Lesson

There are many times when a photo you have taken needs editing.  If you are dealing with portraits, you might find that the best editing touch to give the model the look you were going for is to add some more makeup.  This tutorial will show you how to add eye shadow to a photo, giving the model greater depth in the eye area.

Step 1. 

Open the photo and zoom in on the model’s face.  You will want to see the eye area easily.

Step 2. 

Click on New Layer (located in the bottom right) Double click the new layer so that you can give it a name.  Keeping track of layers as you work will ensure that you can easily undo any mistakes that might be made along the way.  Give your layer a name that will help you easily identify it, such as Eye1 or any name you choose.

Step 3.

Click on the color swatch (located on the left side of the screen) and begin choosing your color for the eye shadow.  Once you’ve selected a color click on the brush so that you can paint the color over the eye with the brush tool.

Step 4. 

Adjust the settings for your brush to make sure that the color is not too hard, you will want a soft look.  Also, play with the settings to ensure that the brush is an appropriate size.  You can click on the right and left bracket keys as a shortcut to make the brush size smaller and larger.  Choose 100% opacity for your color settings.

Step 5.

Apply your color over the eye.  It’s okay if it doesn’t look natural as you will be blending the color in later.   Brush the color over the eyelid, above the pupil and under the eyebrow.  Make sure to repeat this step on both eyes, keeping the colors located evenly. 

Step 6. 

Select the blend mode for the layer you are working on (located at the lower right hand portion of your window) and choose overlay.  This will help your new layer pick up some of the colors that were in the previous layer.  Use these colors to create a more natural look. You can create a natural look by adjusting the opacity.  Continue adjusting the opacity until you have a natural yet beautiful eye shadow that blends with the skin tones present.

Step 7. 

Now that your colors are blended, you might want to soften the edges a bit.  To accomplish this go to Filters, Blur, then select Gaussian Blur.  For greater blur, scroll over to the left.  If you want less blur, scroll over towards the right.  Adjust the Gaussian blur until you are satisfied with the appearance of the eye shadow as it appears in the corners of the eye.  Save your image. 

A Webmaster Guide to the Essentials of Creating a Successful Website

So you want to create a website. But you don’t want it to be just any website. You want it to be a successful one.

But before you proceed, you should be aware that creating a successful website is not a matter of chance but of hard work. So if you’re ready to devote your time to building that website that will earn you good profit, then read on.

Several things come into play when developing a website. Let’s divide them into several categories: Content, Layout, Design and Promotion. We’ll talk about them in detail in the succeeding paragraphs.

Content.

Content lies at the heart of your website because it is what people will be looking for before anything else. You must therefore provide great content to your visitors to keep them coming – and returning.

So how do you make great content? First of all, you need to put the keywords on the title tag of your web page. This helps search engines direct visitors to what they’re looking for. But it shouldn’t just be a bunch of senseless keywords. It should be in a form of a headline that catches the visitors’ interest.

From the headline, you should of course direct readers to the body of your content. It should be interesting and should give them what they’re looking for. Otherwise, you won’t just lose a visitor but also a potential customer.

Layout.

Another thing that you should take into account is your site’s layout. Make it logical so that your visitors would know what each part of the site does, where a particular link will take them, etc.

Also, you should make it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for. Because when you frustrate them, they’ll hit the Back button right away.

Design.

Sure you want your site to look pretty. But more than that, you should also make it functional.

Make your text readable. Give readers the option to adjust the text size to a comfortable setting.

Minimize loading times. Your visitors hate to wait, so make file sizes small. Use compression formats such as GIF and PNG to speed up loading of images.

Promotion.

No matter how great the content, layout and design of your site is, those things won’t matter if nobody visits it. That’s where promotion comes in.

Promotion is basically making people aware of your site’s existence. There are several ways doing this. First is to ask the help of your friends in spreading the word about your site. It’s even greater if they own websites or blogs themselves because they can help you promote your site on their respective pages.

You can also promote your site in forums. Just don’t be too blatant with your promotion because the moderators may ban you. A link to your site on your signature often suffices.

Link building also helps spread the word about your blog. But make sure that you only get links from quality websites. Otherwise, your search engine rankings will suffer and people will have a hard time finding you on the web. Better that you get a few high-quality links than tons of low-quality ones.

Finally, if you have money to invest, you should also advertise your website as it can create awareness to the right audience. Aside from that, advertising expands your reach, enabling to reach places on the web you never thought possible.

Add Decorative Borders to Photos in Photoshop – Photo Editing Lesson

A border can be a great addition to any photo, and with Photoshop, there are several ways to add borders.  When used creatively, a border will enhance your photo and cause it to pop off the screen.  Whether printing your photos or displaying them online, you’ll find that knowing how to add borders to photos is a great skill that will come in handy.

Step 1.
 
Open up your photo that you are going to add a border to.  Once it is opened, you will use the Lasso selection tool to draw a shape around the perimeter of your photo.  This shape doesn’t need to be symmetrical. To ensure that your border is creative and decorative, keep it as close to the edge as possible, but make sure that it is drawn freehand and a bit asymmetrical.  This will give it more character when finished.

Step 2.

After you’ve finished drawing your border click on Select and then Save Selection. This will create your selection as a new channel.  Give your selection a name that will help you identify it.  Click OK after you have given your selection a name and deactivate the selection.
 
Step 3.

Now you will go to channels and activate the Alpha Channel by clicking on it.  This will cause your photo to temporarily disappear, leaving only your border.

Step 4.

You are going to use the Diffuse filter to reshape the border until it has the appearance of crumpled paper.  Go to Filters, then Stylize, and select Diffuse. Double check that Normal mode.  Always remember to use your zoom tool to see your work clearly.  Zoom in now so that you can easily determine the shape and width of your border.

Step 5.

Enhance the appearance of torn paper by using Command combined with the Control and F keys. This will give your border a more torn appearance.  Continue repeating the process until you are satisfied with the appearance of the border.

Step 6.

Now you will give the border a soft look.  This will ensure that the border will not contrast too greatly with your photo, but give it a softened background.  Select Filters then Blur and then choose the Gaussian Blur.  Make sure that the Radius is set at 1.0 pixels.  This will give the border a blurred or soft appearance.

Step 7.

Now you are going to bring your photo back and view it with the border around it. Under Channels, select the Alpha 1 channel and place it at the bottom of your palette, where it says Load a Channel as a Selection.  Then select the RGB channel and you will see your photo.

Step 8.

Choose Select and then Inverse.  After it has inverted, press Delete.  Save your new photo with its border.

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