1. - One of the most popular ‘home business’ jobs is associate marketing. This is usually accomplished through businesses which offer affiliate programs that you can join up with. Most famous concerns have a lot of recognizable brands to offer to affiliate marketers. Selling other peoples’ goods and earning a fee is the easiest way to get going.

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2. - If you’re not familiar with search-engine marketing, it’s necessary to understand how it works. You use search-engines to get surfers to visit your web site. 80 to 95 per-cent of your sites surfers will come from search engines, unless you’ve created a ‘viral’ product of your own, or a ‘buzzing’ forum or blog.

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3. - Social-media should be given due consideration. Social media sites are changing the way people connect with one another. Your success or failure is decided by your approach. The most important part of a successful social media plan is the content on your profile page. Use them to your advantage. Micro-blogging sites can have embedded web addresses that tell users about products. Free blog networks can help you build search engine optimisation into your web sites as well. There are tons of ways to exploit social media. Look to other media types to publicise your wares.

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4. - A simple method of making money on the internet is to sell domain names. You can approach businesses which are already on the internet and present to them a domain-name superior than the one they’ve got. If a business thinks your jazzy name would be beneficial for them, you can set to doing a deal with them. If you’ve a flair for this form of thing an eight dollar investment can pay off hugely.

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5. - Making a website is fairly easy, that’s only half the battle. It’s also important to drive traffic and learn how to sell your website. The problem with working on the web is that 99 per-cent of these cash-making opportunities offered are a waste of time and (your) cash.

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affiliate marketing help | internet affiliate marketing | affiliate internet marketing

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6. - Don’t only click on every advert you come across to find income sources; try to find networked groups of WAHMs (work-at-home moms) who have found success in earning money on the web or off and ask them for tips. They can give you some ideas about which programmes are actually worth investing in. Investigate message-boards and forums. Some message-boards allow users to post links in the body of a message. Make sure you read all the forum policies carefully prior to attempting this, or you may be banned for spamming.

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7. - The difficult part of selling online is staying with the enterprise until it begins to make a profit. You find advice spammed all over the Web, but how much of it can you believe in? Internet scams exist in their thousands, each one designed to bait suckers with the promise of quick and easy cash.

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8. - Pay Per Click (PPC) might well bring in a good conversion, but each click costs cash. The majority of professional marketing experts will tell you that getting involved in Natural Search is excellent value for your cash.

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9. - Toddle over to Clickbank.com to find the most recent products. Look for a product that’s popular, but make sure it’s one you know something about. Potential purchasers discount marketers that are ignorant of the product they’re selling, which causes them to be more unlikely to buy it.

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10. - Article writing is a fine means of website or self promotion. You can also author articles for other people for money, but the most webmasters will offer you is about twenty-five dollars, and often it’s a lot less. Article directories allow you to include a promo piece about yourself and your website to encourage people to visit it. You can also get more potential clients by creating an e-book and using blogs to publicize these.

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11. - Online success is easy; it just requires a plan. Most webmasters just try anything and everything, haphazardly. You can contact a wide range of consumers and communicate with anyone in the world, speedily. You can use your email opt-in list to send data about your special offers, products and newsletters; whatever you think your potential customers want.

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12. - Keywords are very important to your websites traffic campaign, but how you make use of them is also significant. Some websites do “key word stuffing” where they create near-random sequences of words to draw in search engine bots. Search engines have algorithms that can catch this and will penalise rather than promote the offending website.

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13. - Associate programmes are a very useful source of cash-flow. Most internet promotion strategists make the mistake of not developing their client base enough to actually sell their product. Affiliate programs can build your prospect base quickly.

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14. - If you have a web site set up, you need to design it. All your site needs to include is a review page about your products with user testimonials stating that each item works well and is worth purchasing.

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15. - You can try reciprocal linking. This is an agreement between website owners to hyperlink to each others’ websites. It’s a good way get a web site off the ground, but you need one-way backlinks to get search-engine ‘love’. It’s a good idea to link to sites that sell compatible but not competing items.

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16. - Most people who want to earn money via the internet start out working part-time to see if it’s a worthy project before jumping in and stumping up a big investment. Dropship opportunities give you a chance to give it a go for little to no money investment upfront. Create a database of websites that have the kind of viewership your product requires so you can emulate their wheezes and techniques. In drop shipping the vendor simply organises the deal and makes cash from it when a third party company ships it. There’s much less effort involved and it gives excellent rewards if you discover your niche. You can increase trust in your product range by distributing information about them through email newsletters.

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17. - Commit time to testing out various strategies in order to discover the ones that work best. Select a business type that you find agreeable and that you are keen on. Then research the industry. Start your own website or blog. Build a mailing list. Replicated associate sites won’t provide that for you. Start with what you know.

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18. - Be cautious of worldwide web marketing scams; they can take every euro you have. Most scams sound good. If you stick to affiliate marketing, you can’t go too badly wrong, unless you invest in PPC marketing to get traffic, and select the wrong keywords.

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19. - SEO (search-engine optimization) is the means whereby you push your web site up Search-Engine Result Pages (SERPs). At least 80% of all internet traffic now starts at a search engine. You can engage an SEO expert, but choose carefully; an inexpert one can destroy your rankings and get your website banned. Always get references on reputable webmaster forums. A top notch web marketing company will work very closely with your server logs, web analytics, and any additional statistics they can get hold of. This helps the creation and optimization of any ad campaign.

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20. - Blogging can draw visitors by co-ordinating link-exchanges with other blogs and making more contacts within the blogging community.

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21. - You can do everything from freelance work, such as writing or web design, to selling goods you’ve sourced yourself on the internet. If you’d rather work in a steady job you can get into remote admin, telecommuting, and work-from-home opportunities.

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22. - One-way backlink building is a method to publicize your site. Paid links allow you to get listed in web directories that post good quality web sites and offer links to your sites for a fee.

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23. - The more visitors you draw the greater the possibility of more money. Place content-rich pages on each one of your web sites and include keywords that will climb to the top of search-engine results and increase traffic volumes. Research in advance, don’t just work on an ad-hoc basis.

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24. - Purchase a web address that’s very similar to to the affiliate marketing product you’re trying to publicise. Do not, however, infringe on the copyright of a registered brand. That may annoy the brand owner.

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25. - An excellent way to make money online is by generating and then flipping web sites. You can either flog your own website, or you may buy a new website, increase its worth, and then sell it on. Site-flipping can be risky; it calls for a large amount of upfront investment. Thanks to the growth of greater usability, purchasing and selling web sites has become easier. It is considered a regular business venture, and people are making nice money from it. The market is always looking for good web sites. If more traffic is attracted to your website each day, the value of your domain will be higher. Before putting a website up for sale, make it look nice and attractive. Ensure it meets the specifications of likely buyers. Web sites that flog other sites ask for minimal data about your website, such as how many visitors it attracts and how much revenue you are earning from it monthly. The more transparent the data is, the simpler it will be for you to sell. When buyers are convinced about the quality of your site, they will start bidding.

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26. - When your enterprise is off the ground, if your product is not selling, drop it and try another. Do not hang about hoping that it will sell; it probably won’t.

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27. - Increase hits using keywords. You can find tons of keyword suggestion tools that generate a list of keywords on a chosen niche. You can make use of these to attract potential customers to your sales page. Most associate marketing programmes offer up to 75 percent commission on every sign-up you generate for them, so they do all the hard labour, and you rake in the cash! What you are doing is being their sales rep. Salesmen are traditionally very well remunerated, as they bring the money in.

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28. - Online promotion requires brand name exposure. Content on your site needs to be optimised. Get your name all over the Internet in order to generate worthwhile visitor numbers. Targetted traffic is what you’re aiming for; if you get a viral video on Youtube about hang-gliding, but you’re selling mortgages, you won’t make any moolah off it.

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29. - Blogs are handy for generating interest, but don’t think you can get one well-known in a few days. As a way into marketing, they are fairly quick and easy to set up. Research web-based tutorials and related forums. Or you can hire someone else to create the blog for you. For the time being a hosting account with Cpanel and Fantastico installed will allow you to install a no-frills blog at the press of a button.

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30. - There are a variety of alternatives for researching internet marketing. These alternatives include reading paperback books, reading affiliate marketers blogs, lurking in webmaster forums, clever search engine queries and paying attention to other successful online marketing campaigns.

I hope these few simple suggestions will be of some use to you in your marketing efforts.

1. - Examine Fees Charged. There are many different services out there and as a result there are diverse fees assessed to transactions. If you utilize credit-card processing services you will be charged: A monthly fee, a discount rate which is essentially a percentage of the price of the product sold and a transaction fee. There are also other fees applied by some providers so you should watch out for that.

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2. - Telltale Signs You Need One. A company that has high revenue and takes in large sums of cash each month, as well as companies with special ecommerce needs and those that are high risk. Fully assess your venture as well as potential services to make sure you find the right fit. It is important to base your decision on all the data rather than just the fees.

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3. - If you believe you have found the perfect merchant a/c service because the discount rate is very low, the application processing is free, and approval is guaranteed then you’re likely making a mistake. You sign up for one of these low-discount, overnight-approval account providers. Then, several weeks after your company information has been reviewed you receive your real discount rates, transaction fees, and other fees associated with your account which are nowhere near the ‘economical’ or ‘free’ plan you thought applied for.

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4. - Receiving payments online is not as simple as you might think and when a client purchases something online there are three steps the cash goes through before it actually gets to your bank a/c. These include a payment gateway, Internet merchant account, and your site.

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5. - Payment Gateway. This is basically Internet code that communicates the payment information made on your internet site to the Internet merchant provider. In this process you’ll be able to accept all the credit or debit card data the provider needs in order to process the payment including full name and address, credit-card number, type of card, expiration date, phone number and any other required info. Once all of this info is collected the card may then be billed. After the payment gateway has accepted the payment info details they are transferred to the credit-card processing account provider which is simply a financial institution that allows you to process credit-card payments. The payment gateway provides the bank with the info and then the credit-card can be billed.

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6. - Don’t expect to toddle down to your local bank and receive cc processing a/c services because they most likely are not available. There are many online credit card credit-card processing account services that do offer this service however and will probably be your best bet.

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merchant account services | merchant account providers

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7. - The billing process will be completed on and integrated with your internet site where the client will finish the order processing and then be able to sign out or print confirmation numbers that the order was placed successfully. While there seems to be a lot involved in processing a simple online order it actually occurs rapidly and most clients never know their data is traveling to so many places.

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8. - Rates: You are likely interested in the average fees charged by these companies. Since there are so many different online credit-card credit-card processing a/c providers on the Internet to choose from there are also a multitude of payment structures. In general, however, rates include: Application fee due up front, Discount rate, Termination fee, Monthly fee, Transaction rate and a variety of Miscellaneous fees.

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9. - Things to avoid, if you can: a) Expensive credit-card processing softwares rental or hire-purchase. b) Monthly fees. c) High discounts (the % of your sales they keep). d) Fat fees up front (anything over $500 is a joke). e) Salesmen calling you up with a scripted pitch. f) Getting lumbered with renting their shopping cart software as well. Also if they want a down-payment, and the size of their application fee. And the usual monthly minimums, discounts etc.

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10. - Internet merchant accounts: If you have a merchant a/c you can take credit card from anyone in any country, but if you are taking them over the phone or the internet you must be authorised for ‘card not present’ transactions. If you’re taking credit-card details over the internet, specify that you want an _internet_ credit card processing a/c. This is important. ‘Card not present’ transactions attract more fraud; if you do them with an ordinary cc processing a/c you risk losing it.

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11. - Set up a secure order form on the internet, and get ecommerce merchant accounts, you can trade world-wide. Ecommerce credit-card processing a/cs come in two varieties: Third party, whereby you ‘pimp’ off somebody else’s account, and a true ecommerce credit-card processing a/c, which is yours and yours alone. This latter option not as handy as it sounds if your payment gateway vendor (the service that funnels your orders to the bank) doesn’t have good fraud protection. If you’re just starting out, or you have a low volume of sales, utilize a third-party provider to start with. See how it goes, get a feel for the business, then change.

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12. - If your ecommerce cc processing account is terminated for reasons of fraud, you will find it very hard to get another one. Effectively, you go on a blacklist. The good news is that most gateway vendors now have good fraud protection. Still, vigilance is necessary. If an order seems suspicious, a bit too good to be true, it probably is.

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13. - If you have a bank a/c of years standing, a good credit rating, or a business bank account, there’s no reason you can’t get an ecommerce cc processing account.

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14. - If you want to sell on the internet, you need to accept credit cards. To accept credit-cards, you need a cc processing a/c, or access to one. There’re two ways of getting this: Get your own credit-card processing account, or ‘pimp’ off somebody else’s.

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15. - You can utilise a third-party to process your payments. They take a percentage of the sale. These are very good if you’re just beginning in business or you have a small business. They also offer more options for payment. This encourages sales. Here are some popular ones: 2Checkout.Com, WorldPay.Com, PayPal.Com and Google Checkout.

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16. - Chargebacks: A chargeback occurs when somebody asks their cc company for a refund. They claim they didn’t get the goods, or they bought the goods, or the products were not as advertised. This is passed on to the processor, who in turn debits the merchant. Or drops him entirely. You don’t want too many of these.

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17. - Don’t leave large amounts of money ‘on deposit’ in any web-based company; they’re not banks, and even banks go bust sometimes.

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18. - Third-party factoring sites have to be very stringent; they are answerable to their own credit-card processing account provider. Too many bogus orders and they go out of business. This is why third-party factoring services like 2Checkout are very useful to a greenhorn merchant: fraud prevention. They can screen out dodgy orders.

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19. - Most sellers would like to think they can sell worldwide. The fact is most of the world is impoverished; MOST countries can’t afford your products. So some citizens attempt to acquire them illicitly. A smart merchant would forbid most of the world from accessing his cart and only accept orders from the USA, Australia, Canada, Western Europe and New Zealand, and his home country. Harsh, but you’ll rest easier at night.

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20. - If an order looks dodgy, it probably is. Contact the client by email or ‘phone. If you don’t get a satisfactory reply or doubts remain, refund the card. Don’t let greed cause you to make a mistake.

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21. - When you’re making $1000+ a month, get your own cc processing a/c. Look for ‘merchant services’ at your local bank. Having one’s own credit card processing a/c means paying less in processing fees.

I hope these few beginner ideas will be of some use to you in looking for inexpensive merchant account services.

1. - Benefits Of Incorporation: 1. You protect yourself and your personal assets from liabilities that may be incurred by your company. 2. You get more tax credits and can avail of more tax deductions. 3. You give your company a separate juridical ‘persona’ that is distinct from the owner(s). You protect your enterprise by placing it under a corporate ‘mantle’. 4. You expand your company and give it the necessary boost for growth instead of inhibiting such growth by grasping on to it. 5. You lengthen the lifespan of your enterprise even if something happens to you or to the other owners of the venture. 6. You increase the capitalisation of your business by getting more backers who will share the profits and losses.

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2. - Legal ‘Personality’: Choose which legal personality you want to give your company. You can choose to make it a stock or non profit, a limited liability firm or a general or close corporation.

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3. - Name: Choose a name for your company and have it reserved if possible because another enterprise might register that name ahead of you. Be sure that the name you choose does not have the words insurance, university, bank, college or other words that are not legally permitted.

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4. - Money: Decide on the amount of start-up capitalisation or the number of shares that would be authorised for the corporation. Also carefully choose a financial institution i.e. bank. This will be the place to hold your money and is an important decision.

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5. - Place Of Incorporation: The country or state where you will set up your enterprise is also very important since there are locations that are more corporate-friendly than others. Make sure that you choose a state that will provide the maximum benefits for your company tax-wise.

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business incorporation | company incorporation | small business incorporation

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6. - Location: Your enterprise location is important. This will decide legally how you ought to run your business, it will also have a good deal to do with how successful your company is. Your business needs a location that promotes the future of the company.

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7. - Stability: One of the top mistakes your peers have made in the past, is moving their venture around too many times. When selecting your company incorporation, you need to have a definite location in mind. Likewise your enterprise name should stay the same from the beginning. This will promote the popularity of your product or service.

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8. - Directors: Only file your articles of incorporation after you have decided on your board members or board of directors depending on the type of concern you have decided to form.

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9. - Research Your Market. The financial success of your company will rely on understanding the service or product you will sell. In order to grow successfully in any enterprise you must research your industry. This will allow you to pick a name and a strategy for your venture.

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10. - Marketing: Define a clear marketing strategy. Getting publicity about the possibilities of your service or product is most important. However your strategy is implemented, you need to effectively and clearly expedite this important task. If expenses are an issue, keep your marketing traditional; perhaps an ad in the yellow pages and distributing business cards.

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11. - Chamber Of Commerce: Attend local Chamber of Commerce meetings. Many people do not realise that county Chamber of Commerce organisations hold meetings attended by local company owners. There may also be other obscure company owner associations. When you’re beginning your enterprise’s incorporation, these meetings can be invaluable.

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12. - The Small Business Organization (USA). If you’re starting your corporation the local office of the SBO can be a rewarding visit. They have loads of information about the business you’re starting in, the laws governing incorporation, the process to start your corporation and the requisites to keep it going.

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13. - Secretary of State Office (USA): The responsibility of governing your company as it pertains to state law is done by the Secretary of State in your home state. They’ll be able to give you every legal requirement needed to run your corporation.

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14. - Hire A Business Attorney. Your business incorporation might seem to be a big puzzle to you. A business attorney will understand each step that should be taken and will know where to file all of the documentation.

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15. - You Will Need An Accountant. Financial years, payroll, taxes and benefits; these are just a few of the items you ought to be familiar with to run your business. They can be handled by a licensed accountant much more effectively than trying to juggle everything by yourself.

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16. - An accountant can help you in many ways. Not only in making the best fiscal decisions for your company incorporation process, but also transforming your financial procedures. This could make a big difference when incorporating. It can bring many financial benefits particularly in the area of taxation.

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17. - Make sure each partner’s benefits, responsibilities and role are clearly defined from the outset. You ought to also ensure your enterprise has an exit strategy for each partner. This will protect all parties joining your venture.

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18. - Your company incorporation is a staged process. Ensure you do not dash through anything. Cautious planning and taking your time can help you succeed.

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19. - Keep your corporation issues and your personal life separate. Otherwise, you’re sabotaging the reasons you ever incorporated in the first place. If you have partners, it’s necessary to have specific partner-exit process in place. It will define the buy-and-sell parameters of a partner’s business interest. This can halt serious financial and legal issues from arising. Each procedure your concern will follow needs to be set down in the by-laws of your incorporation.

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20. - Most small businesses are classed as sole proprietorships or partnerships. This means that the venture is owned by one or two people, sometimes more. Having this classification would be good if the venture grows and it earns big profits because then only the owners share in the profit. However, when the enterprise goes down and it has to repay its creditors, the personal property of the owner(s) may be vulnerable to seizure. Incorporating the venture as a separate ‘body’ (corpus) means that the liability of owners to creditors would only be up to the amount of his/their investment in the enterprise.

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21. - Sole Proprietorship. In a small enterprise owned by one, two or more people and classified as either a sole partnership or proprietorship, the majority of expenses incurred (even operating expenses) are considered outgoings of the owners and can not be used for tax deductions.

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22. - Small enterprises classified as sole proprietorships or partnerships don’t enjoy a separate juridical ‘personality’ so the ‘persona’ of the business is attached to the ‘personality’ of the owners. This means they are liable for anything that happens to the business and to all who suffer damages from such events.

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23. - Sole proprietorships or partnerships are taxed heavily compared to corporations which have lower taxes imposed. Corporations can also apply for a lot of tax deductions. This makes a big difference to their profitability.

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24. - Small enterprises which are unincorporated have to fend for themselves unlike corporations which can hide under the cloak of the corporate veil. Under this principle the courts won’t interfere with the operations and business decisions of a corporation unless very necessary. The court will only lift the veil of corporate independence when it is proven that it is causing harm to other people.

I hope these few handy suggestions will help you in registering a company incorporation.

1. - A concession is basically an agreement between the franchise vendor and the franchisee that permits the franchisee to use the rights of the logos and trademarks of the franchisor in running the business. The franchise buyer is also permitted to offer the goods of the franchise seller by keeping to a legal agreement that protects the interests of both. There is usually an initial concession fee, and ongoing royalty payments.

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2. - Once you buy a franchise, you sell goods and services that are already recognised and are given training and support that assist you in succeeding in your company. However, not all concessions can be a guaranteed success. Purchasing a franchise allows you to operate a company and on coughing up a franchise fee of a few grand, you follow a format decided by the franchise seller and not your own.

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3. - Purchasing a franchise may reduce investment risks as you are associated with an established company. This could be costly to you. There are some fees that you’ll have to bear like the franchise fee which runs to several thousand to several hundred thousand and royalty payments to be made to the owner, which are usually fixed; a percentage of either your weekly or monthly gross income. Even if you have not earned a large amount through the company it’ll still be necessary to pay royalties without fail.

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4. - When you purchase a franchise, remember that the franchise seller usually controls the conduct of the company to ensure uniformity in all the outlets. With these controls, you may find it hard to inhibit your using your own judgment and ideas.

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5. - A breach in the franchise contract may cause you to lose the right to the franchise. If the contract is for a short time, then there is no guarantee of its renewal. The owner has the right to end the agreement if you fail to pay royalties or fail to keep to the performance standards and sales restrictions set out in the agreement. And once the agreement has terminated, you lose out on your investment. A concession agreement usually lasts for 15 to 20 years, after which the franchise vendor can decline any renewal of the agreement.

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Buying a franchise | Finding a franchise | Starting a franchise

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6. - Look for discounts that numerous franchisors have acquired and look for additional benefits. Starting a franchise has the benefit of not starting from scratch because five percent of businesses succeed in the first five years while seventy-five percent of franchises succeed in their first five years.

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7. - Ask other entrepreneurs about the pros and cons of joining a particular franchise before investing time and money. Even ‘though you will have help and support and a plan if you join a franchise, there will still be hard work. Research about each franchise since they will present different pros and cons and assess each one and find a franchise that gives you a great package and has an operating system in place and make sure they’ll train and guide you.

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8. - Expect to pay a good deal more if you buy a franchise since it has a brand name that will attract clients. A lesser-known franchise might be cheaper but still costly. If you’re short on cash you can start on the internet and advertise on free advertising websites. There is no miracle franchise and even if it’s well known, it won’t work without hard graft on your part. You will need your personal qualities and skills to make a good franchise concession bloom.

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9. - Variances: Are there any variances allowed by the franchise vendor in their contracts? If so, what are they? Find out if you’ll be paid back for the goodwill you build into your franchise if you decide to sell it back to the franchise vendor under the right of first refusal.

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10. - Most of the advertising you need is already done in many venues so you just need to let folks know that there is a branch of X where your concession is. Speak with a current franchisee since they’ll be able to tell you what it’s like having a name-brand franchise to work for but remember that they can be biased. Speak to a variety of franchisees from different regions to get an overall picture.

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11. - Experience: Have you experience in the industry of the franchise you want to buy? If not, have you considered working in that kind of business before committing to acquiring a franchise in that area?

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12. - More established franchises cost a lot more money but provide the likelihood of a greater rate of success. Less established franchises cost much less money and pose a greater investment-risk to the investor. Cautious research is required.

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13. - Support. Different franchise vendors have their own forms of support in order to assist a new business owner get his business up and running. When beginning with a franchise discover what form of support the franchise seller offers and decide which franchise vendor proffers more training and support benefits for the amount of money invested.

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14. - Financial Aid. With the costly nature of franchises some franchise sellers are known to proffer aid to their franchise buyers in order to help them finance buying a franchise - you might want to take a look at such assistance before coming to a decision.

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15. - Reputation. The greater the amount of reputation your franchise vendor has the easier it will be in starting a franchise. Everybody who dwells in a developed country is aware of McDonalds and most folks believe that a McDonalds restaurant anywhere in the world is owned by a single company. By starting a franchise with a high reputation you get customers by not even trying but by the name of the franchisor alone. That’s a good enterprise. You ought to find a franchisor with status to match the price paid for the concession brand.

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16. - Established Businesses. It pays to invest in concessions which have an established reputation and which have had years of success because these franchisors will do the most to assist their franchise purchasers and stop them from failing in order to preserve their good name. The wealth of experience they have and the amount of support they’re willing to provide rubs off on anybody looking at starting a franchise through them.

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17. - Diverse Benefits. Different franchise vendors provide different benefits to their franchisees. Discover these benefits and discounts, as any of these companies ought to be eager to discuss them with their potential franchisees.

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18. - Starting a franchise is like trying to ride a bicycle with help at hand. Starting an independent company is like doing the same thing except without assistance. Taking on a franchise is a simpler means to becoming an entrepreneur without taking on most risks most entrepreneurs experience.

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19. - Cost. Cost is an important factor not only in setting up an enterprise but in almost all else in this life. When it comes to the expense of acquiring a franchise venture it might seem a wee bit too costly compared to setting up your own company from nothing but you have to take into account not just the short-term costs but the long-term ones also. If you decide you can bear the cost and you can benefit more from the possibilities a franchise business has to proffer then it is sensible to go the way of buying one, otherwise you kick off your own business from scratch.

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20. - Experience. Some enterprise fields need a greater measure of experience than others. Venturing into an enterprise minus prior knowledge or experience is hazardous. Of course you can learn on the job or as the enterprise grows but this is a costly choice. Purchasing a franchise company gives you the means to benefit from the training and support offered by the franchise seller. It also helps you avoid common snares related to the business; that way you can profit with few mistakes.

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21. - Name Recognition. A franchise business usually comes with a readily recognisable and well-known name. The brand-name of a franchise venture is one of the top-most reasons for purchasing a franchise in the first place. Without an easily recognisable brand you may be much better-off saving yourself the money and starting your own venture from scratch.

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22. - Competition. The threat of competition to an enterprise is all too real. The competition can knock your enterprise out of the running before it even begins. A franchise business in an area with tough competition has the potential to succeed better due to the name-recognition factor. Folks will readily identify with a popular venture even if there are other ready alternatives.

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23. - Support and Training. All companies need some form of support and a franchise enterprise is much more likely to get the required support from a franchise seller. A venture starting from nothing may have to depend on backup that costs money and which may not necessarily be relevant to the particular situation at hand.

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24. - Establish how long the franchise has been in a franchise system since newer franchises are riskier. Remember that by joining a franchise you join a system that works, that worked out the ‘kinks’ that abound in a new business and has an established brand and lots of marketing already done. However, even if they’ve been established for a long time does not mean they are successful by default.

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25. - Conditions: You should understand the exceptions and conditions associated with using the brand. Also ask whether the franchisor owns patents or copyrights on the the products you’ll be selling or the equipment you’ll be using.

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26. - Leasing: Will you be required to lease signs, fixtures or equipment and, if so, are the fees reasonable? You ought to ask whether the franchise seller provides in-house financing and what the terms are. In addition, find out whether any additional fees beyond those discussed in the initial documentation are required.

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27. - Franchise vendors are always willing to train their franchise buyers in all aspects of the enterprise. Their job is making business-owners out of their franchisees, proffering operations-training and an established enterprise model. You can choose the enterprise you want, get educated about it and then set to making money.

Here are a few suggestions for those researching effective web design and marketing:

- Use Freelances For Jobs You Lack The Skills For. Is your budget tight? Try scriptlance.com or rentacoder.com. The key to getting the best work is to a) be as specific as possible as to what you want and b) write your spec in simple, concise terms. Your project will likely be done by somebody who’s first language is not English. Most web marketers give an inexact specification and get work they’re displeased with. Pick someone who’s had a lot of favourable reviews recently. Pay in increments. Use the freelance site’s escrow service. Don’t expect to get more than you stumped up for, and don’t be a cheapskate; if somebody does a good job, they deserve a bonus, not quibbling.

- Pay Freelancers To Make Software For You And Give It Away Free. This can work very well indeed. Research the most popular freeware PHP scripts; can you think of an addon you could get developed and have your own link inserted into it?

- Beware The Latest $49/$97/$149 Software. There are hordes of web marketers who’ve realised that the best way of earning cash on the web is to exploit other web entrepreneurs, as there are a multitude of them. This often takes the form of packaging up, in a service or software, an idea that was novel six months ago. By the time Joe WebMaestro gets wind of it, it’s on the way out. Research it thoroughly before coughing up cash for it. Seek out independent reviews.

- Beware Of The Guru! There are a multitude of semi-famous marketers and their followers out there flogging videos, books and courses on how to earn lolly in web marketing. They are marketing tips on how to do marketing! Nice work if you can get it. The best advice you can find about internet marketing is on webmaster forums. Even then, you need to use your own personal noise filter to sniff out the gold from the dross.

- Clean Up Your HTML. Dreamweaver adds lots of extra blank space to HTML code, and breaks lines. This is especially annoying in meta tags. Use EditPad’s ‘Find and Replace’ function to get rid of newlines and double blank spaces in your pages.

- Submit Articles To Article Directories. What you need is a service or a software that will do this for you automatically. Submission by hand is soul-destroying. Ask in web marketer discussion boards about the latest softwares and services.

- Handy Freeware: 1. NVU Web Editor. This is a pretty good freeware web page editor. 2. GIMP Image Editor. This is an effective image and photo manipulation package. 3. OpenOffice, an alternative to the Microsoft office suite. This can save you thousands if you need to buy multiple licences. 4. SimplyMepis. This a Linux operating system package. Like Damn Small Linux, it can be run from a CD; handy in emergencies.

- A Super-Simple Site: Use a text-to-html generator to create internet pages from text files. Then use an index generator to make an index HTML page of these files. Tart these pages up in a WYSIWYG page editor. Then FTP upload them to your webhosting account. Voila! A super-simple website. Want something fancier? Acquire a net hosting account with Cpanel and Fantastico. Look for the ‘Wordpress’ option in Fantastico, and install it. Then acquire a search engine optimized theme for your blog; the default install isn’t search engine friendly.

I hope these few handy pointers will help you in getting handy web design and marketing done quickly.

The replies I got were enlightening. So much so, I made a list of things applicants did wrong. Here it is.

I should point out I was initially prepared to give everyone a fair go. After the first twenty-odd emails, my attitude changed. I was looking for reasons to delete applicants. I only needed one successful one; with 100+ replies it was getting to be a headache, so I decided a brutal approach was needed.

Here are things to look out for when choosing a web designer:

1. Failure to read the spec.

Many applicants couldn’t write properly in the English language. Many were individuals only. Result: instant deletion.

2. Failure to address the spec’s criteria.

Applicants bragged about how great they were. Many copy-and-pasted standard marketing guff about ’solutions’ and ‘partnerships’ into their emails.

3. Lots of jargon.

You quickly tune this out. Anyone dealing with web companies probably gets a lot of this. Applicants should talk to the client about *the client’s* site and *their* needs, and avoid techno-babble.

4a. ‘Coming soon’ client-listing pages.

They say they”ve done work for lots of clients, then put up a ‘coming soon’ sign on the web page where their client list is supposed to be. Hmmmm.

4b. ‘Under construction’ pages on their company web site.

Something you’d see on an amateur’s site. Another reason to bin their application.

4c. They only put up pictures of sites they’ve done, rather than links to the actual sites.

I’d like to see some working example sites. Pictures can be faked, and they don’t show background programming.

4e. No mention of their main web site URL.

I tried guessing from the email address. After a while I didn’t bother.

4f. No hyperlinks at all.

Just a short email spiel saying “I am great designer, hire me”. Next!

5. Using Yahoo.com or Hotmail.com for their email address.

A pro designer wouldn’t use a freebie email address service. Basic web hosting costs $5 a month these days.

I can conceive that a web designer might use a freebie account for some special purpose, but their own domain name is a basic advert that could go out in each email they send.

6. Bad spelling and grammar.

Western civilisation is doomed, if using SMS jargon becomes the standard way to write to people. It doesn’t impress old frts lik me, fr strtrs Especially if they’re looking for work where good spelling and grammar are important.

7. Front-loading Flash designs.

I admit it, I don’t like Flash. I especially don’t like it when it loads slowly on my broadband connection. I suppose it might impress an ignorant client, who doesn’t know the economic consequences of having a Flash-heavy site.

8. Not phoning the employer.

If a web site designer can communicate clearly over the telephone, that, coupled with a good application, puts them streets ahead of the email-only applicant.

8a. Leaving unclear phone messages.

9. Too far away.

Most replies will come from from India, Ukraine, Romania etc. Anyone who is closer to home stands out.

10. Gives rates per hour.

Web design jobs can be clearly defined, in terms of time, work and software required. A definite price can be agreed on in advance. It’s called a contract. Otherwise, a web designer can leave you open to escalating bills, and themselves to mission-creep.

10. Delays applying.

The first few applications are more scrutinised. After that, fatigue set in. After one hundred, only an applicant who seems a real prospect should be given more than five seconds’ scrutiny.

Now, need to get a web site done quickly? Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

1. Define The Job.

What do you want the site to do? Successful projects are ones where the intent is well-defined. Avoid going off half-cocked buying software or services you don’t need. Changes mid-build can be very expensive; just like building a bricks-and-mortar house!

2. Suit The Design To The Purpose.

Do you just want a simple site, like a placeholder? Do you want something even an amateur can edit? Or do you want a CMS with Ajax and a coffee maker?

Get a web hosting account with Cpanel and Fantastico. Look for the ‘Wordpress’ option in Fantastico, and install it. Then get a search-engine optimised theme for your blog; the default install isn’t search-engine friendly.

Hey presto, you’ve got a Web 2.0 site! Blogs are good because Google likes them, and you can edit them easily from their admin panel.
Want something more complicated? That’s where a web designer comes in.

3. Use Freelances For Jobs You Lack The Skills For.

Is your budget tight? Try http://www.scriptlance.com or http://www.rentacoder.com. The key to getting the best work is to a) be as specific as possible as to what you want and b) write your specification in simple, concise terms. Your work will likely be done by someone who’s first language is not English. Most people give a vague specification and get work they’re not happy with.

Pick someone who’s had a lot of favourable reviews recently. Pay in stages. Use the freelance site’s escrow service. Don’t expect to get more than you paid for, and don’t be cheap; if someone does a good job, they deserve a bonus, not carping.

4. Promotion Is As Important As Content.

A site can only be good if people know about it. Promotion on the internet is mainly a) ‘Word of mouth’ and b) Links. The latter help you site move up the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). So you need a site which has something people really want (which will generate word of mouth) and backlinks to get free search engine traffic.

Links can be garnered from free articles, press releases and submitting your site to a few directories. Fire them off, then forget about them.

5. The More You Learn, The Better, But …

It’s good to learn how the software works. You can customise it, or fix it if it goes wrong. You can talk to a developer in his language.

But …

Try to keep your eyes on the prize; the end goal of the project. Avoid getting bogged down in minutiae. The internet if full of geeks living in their mom’s basement who know the ins and outs of every software you can think of. Their bosses are the ones making the _real_ money.

Focus on the end goal; you’ll make better decisions and the getting there will be much less stressful.

About the author: T. O’ Donnell is a website design consultant and web designer living in London, UK.

Before you know it, you have a monster on your hands. This monster is eating up your time and energy and money.

Here are a few tricks I’ve learned to save you time and money with your web design.

1. Avoid Windows servers, if you can.

I’ll admit I’ve never used one. I’ve had too much trouble with Windows on the PC, to risk it on my web sites. Most geeks favour Unix. It’s been around longer, and is more stable. Web hosts offering Unix variants like Linux have always been cheaper. They also seem to offer a wider range of toys. I need SSI (Server Side Includes), SSH (secure Telnet), 10 MySQL databases, Cpanel, PHPMyAdmin and a UK IP number. And you can get this for $15 a month.

If you’re in business for yourself, consider Unix/Linux. If you want to be a full-time employee, consider Windows/Microsoft. Many businesses use it, as it’s compatible with their office software, they like that a major company supports it, and they distrust something that’s free.

2. Server Side Includes are the poor man’s CMS.

Each web page can be ’stitched’ together using Server Side Includes (SSI). You can ‘call’ a header and footer HTML file, using SSI, in each web page. That way, you can make site-wide changes in an instant. For example, you can add Google Adsense to the top or bottom of your site immediately.

Dreamweaver (http://www.macromedia.com) can display SSI pages correctly. This is another reason, one of many, for its popularity as a HTML editor.

3. Which CMS to use?

A Content Management System is very handy if you have a community-based website, or want to let others add content to your site. It must have a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) add-on. This means a novice can type in formatted HTML the same way he could a formatted Word document. He presses on-screen buttons to bold or underline words, and make hyperlinks.

Another keyword to look out for is HTMLArea. This means someone has made an addon to cause all ‘textarea’ form boxes to have word-processor-style buttons above them. This allows someone who doesn’t know HTML to add it to your CMS. Saves YOU having to do it, and that is good [grin].

Many are free. I can’t really recommend one at the moment, except perhaps Mambo (http://www.mamboserver.com) and Wordpress (http://www.wordpress.org). I’ve tried quite a few others, especially PHPNuke.

A CMS allows you to set up a website with professional features in a day. The downside is you can spend weeks customising it. You may find, as I did with PHPNuke, that it’s unsecure, that it can behave eccentrically, and that essential third-party addons may not work properly.

A CMS is for geeks with time on their hands. I would dearly love to be able to point to one and say to the small businessman “Put your trust in this”. I can’t yet.

4. Put keywords in the HTML.

Fairly obvious, but webmasters don’t go far enough. *Any* image name, ALT tag, form field, bolded word or hyperlink can have a keyword in it. So why not do it?

This is where someone who tweaks his HTML code by hand gains a great advantage. Newlines and double blank spaces are redundant in HTML. A large document can have thousands of these. They obfuscate your Search Engine Optimsation (SEO) efforts.

Use a text editor that can strip them out, like Editpad (http://www.editpadpro.com), or a HTML optimiser. Broken lines are not ideal either. Dreamweaver can ‘break’ a tag or keyword at an inappropriate place. Why make it hard for a search engine to promote your page? Strip out the junk, and put in the keywords.

5. Put at least 500 words of paragraphed text in.

If your web pages have the same header, footer, left side-bar, right side-bar, and only a small bit of text in the middle, you may suffer a duplicate content penalty. This means a search engine deems your site has duplicate pages. It considers it an attempt to spam its database, and so shoves it way down its Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS).

If you can’t write your own articles, get someone to do it for you at a freelance site like ScriptLance (http://www.scriptlance.com). You can get free articles at sites like EzineArticles (http://www.ezinearticles.com).

6. Offer people what THEY want, not what YOU think they should have.

This is most important. Before making a site, go for a walk in town. Sit down on a park bench, and try to figure out what people really want; not need, WANT. Then figure out how you can get in on that business with your site.

People want sex, drugs, gambling, money, a house, a car, good food, nice clothes, self esteem. The first three are disreputable. Promote them, and get cut off from sections of society.

It makes me laugh when I see pornographers saying ‘it’s just a business, I’m not doing any harm’. They’re making money *because* their subject matter is taboo. Most people don’t want to be associated with pornography or pornographers. Likewise, a bar owner isn’t welcome everywhere, and casino bosses rub shoulders with the underworld.

If you ever want to be on the school board, or run for local office, keep away from dubious content.

Look at what people really want, AND which will make your family proud, and then proceed with gusto.

About the author: T. O’ Donnell (Ecommerce Web Designer) is an ecommerce consultant in London, UK. His latest projects are a mortgage calculator and ebook, available at Mortgages UK.

However, I propose that its influence on the internet is not entirely benign. Webmasters are victims of its great success. How? Read on, and find out.

1. Google Knows Your Business (Better Than You Do).

- You use Google Search: Google knows roughly where you live. It knows what you like.
- You use the Google Toolbar, unmodified: Google knows all the sites you visit.
- You use Google Adwords: Google knows what niches you’re targeting. And which ad copy works.
- You use Google Adsense: Google knows which of your pages are most successful in getting clicks.
- You use Google Analytics or Webmaster Tools: Why not _give_ them your business while you’re at it?

Use two or more of the above and Google knows more about your business than you do. Would you be happy if a competitor had access to that data? Or your government? But you trust Google. Because it’s a _nice_ company.

2. Google PageRank Defeats Its Purpose.

Google PageRank (PR) has led to sites linking out to unrelated and substandard sites, for money. Why is this a problem? Well, Google itself rates a site according to the ‘link popularity’ of the sites linking to it. If your site has links from high PR sites, your site appears higher in Google searches.

Thus, Google created a problem for itself. Webmasters take payments to link out to sites that are unrelated and/or mediocre. This skews Google’s own rating system. It can also screw the site selling links, as linking out to ‘bad neighbourhoods’ can earn it a penalty.

Sites selling or abusing PR may retain the magic green bar, but cannot pass it on to sites they link to; another penalty. Naive webmasters then buy expensive links which don’t work as they wished.

More perverse still is that a whole industry has sprung up around selling and manipulating links based on PR. This distracts webmasters away from what should be their true goal; making great sites that can thrive purely by ‘word of mouth’.

I used to wonder why some webmasters would fret in forums, asking when the next PR update would occur. Now I realise that for some it was because they could charge more for their links.

3. Google Is Stuck In An Adsense-Spam Loop.

Google Adsense A.K.A ‘The Webmaster’s Dole’. This is a major source of income for semi-pro webmasters.

It’s given rise to the phenomenon of MFA (Made For Adsense) websites. Previously webmasters did it for the love (mostly). Now they’re putting up pages about subjects they’re not interested in, purely to get clicks on these ads. Result: low-quality websites which disappoint naive surfers.

The irony is, Google Search is constantly having to tweak its algorithm, to filter out sites like these. The ‘black hat’ webmaster’s response? Churn out a hundred more. Not so much fun for the ‘white hat’ webmaster ‘though; he may find that his one-and-only website, the labour of years, falls foul of a Google penalty. Why? Because it accidentally matches the ‘footprint’ of a spammy site.

Thus, Google is stuck in a recursive loop of its own making:

- Google Adsense encourages spam, which …
- Google Search tries to filter out, which …
- Collaterally penalises legit webmasters, who …
- Buy more links from high-PageRank sites to boost their perceived popularity and/or
- Make more sub-substandard web pages to keep their revenues up, which …
- Google Search tries to filter out.

Prior to Adsense, a webmaster had to sell his own stuff, establish good affiliate relations with other companies, or get three million visitors so _some_ would click on his crude ‘pay-per-click’ banners.

Now all he has to do is insert Adsense and make money immediately. Even if it’s not enough to live on, it encourages him to make more websites, plus more pages, equalling more money.

4. Google Penalties Cause Webmaster Neurosis.

No one, including the ‘black hat’ webmaster, is too bothered when a penalty happens to a spam site. However, they can easily happen to a ‘white hat’ site too. A webmaster reads the latest tricks on a webmaster forum, goes a little too far with ’search engine optimisation’ then BAM! He wakes up one morning, checks his stats, and gets a nasty surprise. Or he does nothing at all, and still gets a penalty; his site inadvertently ‘fits the profile’.

Result: Many profitless hours spent researching the cause, and fixing it. If he has employees, he may have to ‘let them go’: “Happy Christmas, don’t come back in the New Year”.

5. If You Ain’t Ranking On Google, You’re Invisible.

Google has a near-monopoly on search. Because Google is a benevolent company, unlike the ‘Beast of Redmond’, webmasters don’t mind this. In fact, many _love_ Google. Visit any webmaster forum, and see how often Google features in them as a topic.

The problem for the webmaster is when his site doesn’t appear on Google. Not too bad if he’s just starting out, but catastrophic if he has one website he’s monetised nicely, and it drops out of the index.

6. Conclusion.

- Spam goes up;
- Quality content goes down;
- Google techs run ever-finer tweaks on their algorithm;
- More borderline websites get booted;
- Webmasters are driven cracked in pursuit of Adsense gold, PageRank or avoiding penalties;
- Google amasses huge amounts of extremely valuable consumer data.

The average surfer never sees this. He may wonder why the same search a day later doesn’t throw up the same sites. But he won’t change search engines; there’s no real competition.

Lest you think I’m a Google-hater, I’m not. I like Google, a lot. I’ve used Adwords and Adsense, and Search, of course. I’ve put up pages spurred by thoughts of Adsense riches. I know what Google has to fight to clear the cr*p out of its index.

I just wish fewer webmasters were Google-twitchers, and that Google Search had more competition. Webmaster discussions are dominated by one search engine. Yahoo and MSN are a very poor second and third. Naive webmasters will find that a near-monopoly is never good for business, even with a company whose laudable motto is ‘Do No Evil’.

About the author: T. O’ Donnell runs sites offering free Wordpress templates, loan calculator software and free chat rooms in London, UK.

1. Make a note of the error message, and type it in Google. Remove your unique paths and file names. Someone else has had the same problem, and some nice person will have posted a solution.

2. If it’s a server error, repeat what caused the error. Go quickly to the error log on your web hosting control panel. Any clues there?

3. Read the README file. Have it open on-screen when you’re setting up the script.

4. Use a text editor like Wordpad or Notepad to edit scripts. Simply put, your editor should not change anything beyond the bare text that you type on screen. Microsoft Word will alter your formatting, with unhappy consequences.

5. Avoid wrapping lines. Check that your editor is not set to do this.

6. Avoid putting characters like ” , ‘ ; in if you don’t know what you’re doing.

The server may read these as programming code. Apostrophes and other non-alphabet characters can be ‘escaped’ out of a script by putting a backward slash in front of them.

7. Get the paths to required files correct in the script itself and in the html files involved. Telnet to your site, and use the pwd command: ‘pwd somename’ (without the apostrophes) to find where directories and programs are on your server.

8. Windows (MS-DOS) may insert carriage returns which cause errors in Unix. In Perl, You need to have a line break after #!/usr/bin/perl. It appears to be there, but you may have to insert it manually via Telnet. Otherwise you may get an error.

9. Permissions: Set permissions of scripts to 705 (e.g. ‘CHMOD 705 yourscript.cgi’ in a telnet session). CHMOD 606 for text files the script may need to read or write to. CHMOD 707 any file or sub-directory the script author asks you to. The rest can usually be left at the default 644.

(The use of 0 here in permissions is to stop people in the same ‘group’ as you peeking at your files).

10. Upload scripts in ASCII mode only, or you’ll get errors in them (the text will be shifted around if you upload in Binary).

FTP files with the extensions .tar.gz, .zip, and image files, in BINARY mode only.

11. Check whether you’ve put a trailing forward-slash where you’re not supposed to, or not inserted one when you’re supposed to!

12. Email addresses in a script may need a backward-slash before the @ to work.

13. Don’t change too many things at once. Do the absolute minimum to get the script working, then change one thing at a time.

14. If you are changing the HTML code of a form page that posts to the script: Clear your browser’s cache. You may still be loading an old version of your page, with tags that your script now won’t recognise.

Your ISP may also be using its cache of your web page. Try connecting via another ISP, or use a proxy service like http://www.Anonymouse.ws to view your page.

15. The error ‘document contains no data’ in your browser usually means a path or a file name is wrong. It can also mean the file you’re calling is 0 bytes in size.

16. Don’t try setting scripts up when you’re tired. If you’ve been working for hours, take a break, or go to bed!

17. It’s a fact that, after all this, your script might have a bug. Check any discussion boards at the vendor’s website, or general webmaster forums, to see if this is a common problem. Report exactly what problems you’re having, and your server set-up, to the programmers. It’s unlikely you’re the first person to have it.

T. O Donnell http://www.tigertom.net is an ecommerce consultant currently developing a free dating service and meta search engine in London, UK.

Then I heard about ‘blogs’ and ‘blogging’. Being smart, I picked Wordpress, the most popular software. How clever, I thought. If you get the WYSIWYG editor going, anyone can put up a web site. Very democratic.

This encouraged my to post my outermost thoughts; on politics, London, and personal gripes. As a webmaster, I watched to see Google index them. “Here we go”, I thought, “soon, my jewels of extrospection will belong to the ages”.

Except Google didn’t like my blog. It wouldn’t index much beyond the front page. Why, why, why?

Duplicate content? I set it to put only one post per page.

No improvement.

I looked at what Google was indexing. Then I looked at the blog HTML. Soon, all became clear.

In sum:

- Wordpress was still duplicating my content, and

- It had no proper META tags, and

- There was a lot irrelevant HTML, and

- The layout obscured the content.

I had a quick search on Google to find search engine optimisation tips. There is a plugin ‘head META description’ ( http://guff.szub.net/plugins/ ). But I didn’t use that, oh no.

For some reason, I got the notion that a complete theme would be the ticket. I tried modifying an existing one myself. Better, but not perfect. Google was starting to index more pages, but they all had the same title. My missives to an uncaring world were being ignored.

So I got someone else to do one, based on my criteria, which were:

- Grab a META ‘title’ from the blog post ‘title’;

- Grab a META ‘description’ from the blog ‘excerpts’;

- Put a ROBOTS ‘noindex’ tag in non-content pages.

But that wasn’t enough. For best SEO results you need to configure Wordpress brutally. You have to be _mean_ to it. You have to _man_ enough.

I did a bit of research and came up with to following tips.

WARNING: They are extreme. If you already have good rankings, making radical changes to your URLs may affect them. In my case:

- Moving my blog http://www.ttblog.co.uk to the root web directory,

- MOD_REWRITING its URLs, and

- Removing a 301 redirect,

… caused my PageRank to go to 0. BUT, page indexing was unaffected.

This was temporary, as Google saw it as ’suspect’ behaviour. I had radically changed my site.

Here are the tips, for real _men_, who can look in the face of internet death and laugh:

1. Activate permalinks by going to ‘Options/Permalinks’. You may have to enable Apache MOD_REWRITE on your web account.

1a. Shorten the permalinks code to just the %postname% variable. Don’t bother with the date codes. This keeps your URLs short.

2. Point your blog in the uppermost directory possible. http://www.ttblog.co.uk is better than http://www.ttblog.co.uk/wordpress/

So a typical post would look like

http://www.ttblog.co.uk/Im-hard-as-nails-me/

rather than

http://www.ttblog.co.uk/wordpress/2006/08/03/Im-hard-as-nails-me/

3. Then install an SEO’d theme.

My blog posts are now being indexed beautifully. The Google ’site:’ command returns all my posts, and little else.

For my next challenge, I take on Windows XP, and turn it into an operating system.

T. O’ Donnell is an personal development author running sites about things like Wordpress templates in London UK.