Eric

Many times over and over the same questions are asked, “How do I get my site in Google?”  Well in theory, this is very simple.  Have a good site with a lot of good content.  However, with as many sites as there are in the net, Google has to constantly evolve their ranking algorithm.  Approx. every 6 months, Google does a purge on their system.  Sites that are so so usually don’t make the cut and get dropped.  Rankings and all.  But can you blame them?  They search millions of sites everyday, constantly finding new ones.  With an indexing system as large as theirs, they have to find a way to maintain a way to keep their databases as efficient as possible.

It has been said that new domains don’t get ranked, as true as that maybe, I’ve had plenty of brand new domains start return results within a matter of months.  But what are the criteria on getting your site indexed and cached by Google?  Here are some tips that will surely get you’re site noticed.

First of all, not all sites will get in.  You must understand that.  What makes a site get in?  HTML coding.  Simple as that.  The downfall to many sites seeking that organic natural rankings fail to properly set their site up with clean HTML code.  When Google and other search engines come in to evaluate your site the first time around, they will usually stick around for the first 10kb of the site.  If the first 10kb of your site is bogged down with code, guess what, the search engine will not find any content, turn around, leave, and throw your site at the end of the list to be read.  This will pretty much ensure the next time Googlebot or other search engines spiders will come around again sometime when boy bands decide to come out of the closet.  HTML coding is one of the most important aspects of Search Engine Optimization that people fail to realize.

Second, read able text links are key.  Search Engines cannot read JavaScript or follow JavaScript links.  So don’t use them.  If possible, a clean linkshould be used.  Ex.

<a href=”your_page.html” title=”Page Name”>Page Name</a>

This link is easily read by search engines.   The “title” attribute gives the spider a good idea on what it is to expect.  A good idea, stuff the keyword the end page is targeted towards in that spot.

Third, theme your site.  If your site revolves around “Widgets”, make it only about widgets.  Do not try and add other categories to your site, as this will throw off the “theme” and drop your chances of getting the main keywords or key phrases targeted.

Fourth, CONTENT!!!! Good quality content with just enough keyword repetition is in order.  Content should be betwen 200 and 300 words, and about 3 paragraphs.  Make sure the content is unique, and actually provides good information to the readers.  No one wants to read or visit a site with useless content.  Most of the stuff on this blog is useless information. But people keep reading it for some reason.  (I know it baffles me off too).  All the content on your page should have a certain amount keyword density and repetition.  You should only target no more than 3 keywords per page.  Keep in mind, you are still going for a theme on the site.   If it is widgets, then stick to widgets.  Do no have content on why the sky is blue.  It has no relevance to widgets and Google will doc you for it.

Fifth, links.  Good content will automatically have links generated back to the page.  This is what you want, and what you are aiming for.  If you don’t have time to wait around for it, surf the net and find other sites related to your site, and ask for a link exchange.  Be sure before you put their link up on your site, that they put one up for you.  Check back often to ensure they didn’t take it down.  If they did, you just gave them a one way link.  One way links weight more than 2 way links.  So the idea is to get as many one way links back to your site or landing page.  Often time posting in forums related to you site with your link in the signature works.  Posting in blogs with a link back to your site works too.  I don’t do it for my site, however, I do it a lot for sites I am promoting.  Not to mention, this drives free traffic to your site, esp if the page has a lot of traffic to it.

Sixth, change your content often.  Make weekly updates if you can. Add pages.  Constantly make changes to your site.  This will keep the spiders hungry ad coming back for more.  This blog gets on average a visit from Googlebot about every 2 days if not everyday.  I personally don’t see why considering I post to this once a decade, but they seem to like it.  If you can, make daily changes, even if they are small.
Seventh, use a site map.  Have a site map built just for the purposes of having all links in your site in one page.  If you can, use the Google SiteMaps feature to let Google know how often you make changes to your site.

Generally, getting our site into search engines is not hard.  Follow these 7 steps and you should be good.  There are of course a lot of other factors that go with really optimizing a site, however as a starter, these are good steps to follow when trying to get your site noticed by the search engines.

Keeping heavy loads off of a database can be a tedious task in itself.  Many times multiple instances are created, creating multiple connections to the database that hog resources when in fact only one instance and connection is needed.  With PHP5, database abstraction layers are built into the core.  PDO, although it has it’s deficiencies, can be a good starting point for creating a simple database abstraction layer.  However, learning how to use one single instance throughout the life of the page is the key to balancing server load and enhancing performance.

Starting off with a simple “autoload” file I find is helpful.

<?php
include( ‘autoload.php’ );
?>

The autoload file doesn’t have to be complicated.  It can be a basic file that creates all instances to be used through out the page, not to mention autoload classes that can be called else where throughout the script.

autoload.php

<?php
include( ‘config.php’);

// loop to auto load class files

/* Single Database initiation to be used throughout the script */

$dsn = “mysql:host=localhost;dbname=my_database”;
$dbuser = “my_database_username”;
$dbpass = “my_database_password”;

$database = new PDO( $dsn, $dbuser, $dbpass );
?>

Typically it is better to define the database info in a global configuration file that will typically not change.  It keeps all important variables that will be used multiple times in one place.  But this autoload file defines the variable $database that will be used throughout the rest of the page.  This will create on instance and most importantly, 1 connection to the database to be used.

On the file that will be needing, not mention allowing class and objects to use this instance can be accomplished this way:

File:

<?php
include( ‘autoload.php’);

$sql = “select * from my_table”;

$stmt = $database->prepare( $sql );
$stmt->execute();

while( $rows = $stmt->fetchAll() )
{
// Do Something
}
?>

Passing and allowing usage in objects:

<?php
include( ‘autoload.php’ );

$helper = new helper( $database );

echo $helper->displayView();
?>

The class file:

<?php
class helper
{
private $database;

public function __construct( $database )
{
$this->database = $database;
}

public function displayView()
{
// do something
$sql = “some sql statmet”;
$stmt = $this->database->prepare( $sql );
$stmt->execute();

while( $rows = $stmt->fetchAll() )
{
// Do something
}
}
?>

As you can see, this allows one single database thread to be used across the entire page freeing resources on the server making it more efficient.

For more information on PDO visit the manual at http://www.php.net/pdo.

I recently got the MagicJack in mail. I saw a commercial on it while moving from North Carolina.  This has been so far one of the best things I have gotten.  I can make phone calls anywhere in the United States, for as long as I want and as much as I want for $20 a year.  Not a bad deal.  At first I thought it was bogus, but this product is true to it’s name.  I get voicemail, call waiting, caller id, and all the basics you get with most telephone companies.

However, there are its limitations.  Unfortunately, fax does not work with it, and if it does, I haven’t been able to figure it out. I just might not be the technology geek that I thought I was.  Also there is no feature to transfer your existing number to this “telephone line”.

One of the main reasons I bought this, was for deployements.  Soon enough the Marine Corps and Navy is going to deploy me to go play in the sandbox.  I can bring this with me, find an internet connection, hook it  up, and bam!  I got me a telephone back to the US.  People can still call my normal number and still get me without paying international charges.  I think this is one of best things for our troops deployed or stationed overseas.  They can still have a United States based telephone number while being outside of the United States.  They can call their friends and family without the costs of international charges, and vice versa, their friends and family can call them with no international charges…..all for $20 a year and $40 the initial year.

It just doesn’t get better than that.  I think if they can fix the fax issue, Vonage, move over, there is no way any phone provider can compete with this one.

For you who don’t already know what GoogleCash and other programs like this are designed around using Google Adwords to make money, Its plain and simple, its affiliate marketing. Do these work? They most certainly do, if you know what you are doing.

Affiliate marketing has been around for quite sometime. Many big name companies offer affiliate programs. In a nutshell, you will earn commission of every sale or lead that you generate from your affiliate link. These programs are designed to teach you affiliate marketing and making money online through advertising through Google.

However what they fail to tell you is that although this may work, it is a very involved process. I personally have never read it, however I do have a copy of it that was given to me. But I have decided to give a basic walk through.

Affiliate marketing can be achieved through several possible mediums. Google Adwords, or pay per click campaigns is a method of driving traffic immediately. Another method is email marketing and banner advertising. Though many will agree and disagree, email marketing and banner marketing are still considered to be the most successful in your return of investment (ROI). However the best and cheapest method will be of course search engine optimization (considered the best, however takes a long time to achieve).

Starters, you will need to find an affiiliate network. Major networks include Commission Junction, Hydra, and CPA Empire. From here you can search through affiliate programs. If you know of sites you frequent a lot to purchase products, you can always check their site for an affiliate program. Many sites are offering them now, and for good reason. As an affiliate marketer, you do the advertising for them!

Once you have decided what affiliate network or affiliate program you wish to go with, the next step is building landing pages, or a landing site. These pages and sites are designed to convince and drive the viewer to click on the link and purchase the product, generating you commission. These sites or pages should be well thought out and planned. These sites or landing pages should be informative and help guide the reader to click that link. It is simple as that.

Once you have your site finished, the next step, advertising. Google Adwords is one of the biggest online advertising site. Although as big as they are, I have also had great success with Yahoo! Search Marketing. For beginning, you may use these, or Microsoft Adcenter. There are many vouchers you can find to start you off. Google Adwords and Yahoo! Search Marketing often times has $50 vouchers to start you off. Microsoft Adcenter has a $75 voucher you can use on sign up. I have a recent post offering voucher codes for Adcenter. They are only good on your initial sign up. Microsoft Adcenter and Google Adwords will charge an initial $5 that you can spend to set up the account. Yahoo! Search Marketing will charge between $30+for your initial deposit into the account.

Once you have set up your PPC (Pay Per Click) account, the next step, is selecting keywords for search, and writing your ad. Keywords or key phrases are what is used in the search box to find your ad. Take for example you are promoting a car buying site. You may want to use keywords such as “cars” or “buy cars”. It is a good idea to find at least 50 keyphrases and keywords. This might be hard, but there are tools out there such ad WordTracker that can help generate them. It is better to select keyphrases atleast 3 words long, like “buy car online” or “buy used cars online”. These are more targeted, and will filter out trash clicks. Remember, everytime someone clicks your ad, you will get charged no matter if they complete the offer or not. So it is better to start “pre-qualifying” your audience now. It will save you money. Clicks to your site mean nothing if they do not convert. Conversion is everything. You can have 1000 visitors to your site, but if only 2 of them convert into a sale, then it really doesn’t matter.

Example, lets say you pay $.10 a click, and each converted sale pays $10.00. If you get 1000 clicks at $.10 a click, you just spent $100.00. If only 2 of them convert at $10.00 a sale, then you got $20.00 back, but lost $80.00 in advertising costs. Hence why it is so important to pre-qualify your traffic. This is done buy keywords and keyphrases used, and how your ad is written. You do not want every person clicking through, it will only cost you more, and lower your chances of making this a successful campaign.

Once your keywords and keyphrases have been chosen, it is often best to write 2 ads, and monitor to see which one has a better conversion rate. This is known as split testing ads. If you haven’t done so, I would recommend getting a PPC tracking software. Prosper202 makes a good freeone. All you need is a domain or sub domain set up to install it on. Once you set it up and set up the campaigns and programs, you can generate tracking links to use on your ads to monitor the user from the time they come in through the search engine to the time they leave or go to the publishers/advertisers site. For more information on setting up a PPC Campaign, look through internet marketing forums. If you sign up for a PPC Managers account on google, there is free videos and tutorials that google offers for you to watch and learn.

After your campaign is set up, monitor the account for atleast 2 days. Look for conversion rates on keywords. Delete the keywords that are not converting and wasting money. There are always keywords that are wasting money. Group your keywords in ad groups. Make sure the similar keywords are in one ad group, and link that ad group to the appropriate landing page on your site for that keyword. If you send them to a general landing page, and they were looking for turbocharged cars, chances are, they will leave the site since they may not want to go searching your site to find what they are looking for. Not having ad groups is the quickest way to waste precious clicks and yield a high page abandonment rate. Continue to monitor, tweak keywords and tweak ads. Within a couple of days, your campaign should be making money. If you are still negative after 400 clicks or about a week, then its probably time to move on to another campaign, since this current one is apparently not working. Granted the way you set up your PPC campaign can cause you to fail no matter what campaign you do. Hence why it is a good idea to really understand pay per click campaigns and managment.

Other forms of online advertising include email marketing, banner advertising, search engine optimization, social networking bookmarking sites, social networking sites, and online classifieds. Believe it or not, online classifieds do drive a good amount of possible leads. May not make you rich, but its still free traffic. For my own independent consulting advertising, I use only free classifieds, and it generates enough leads for me where I do not need to pay for advertising. But of course, it may not work for your campaign. It all depends on how you setup your site. However, advertising and driving traffic doesn’t have to stop after the internet, viral marketing, or word of mouth marketing works the best. You can also do flyers and mailers, or any other type of advertising you can think of.

If you want to know more, I recommend reading SitePoint.com’s Forums. There is a section dedicated to internet marketing, and has a lot of helpful postings from seasoned veterans in the industry. If you do decide to persue affiliate marketing, I wish you the best of luck.