As with anything and everything to do with being online, fads come and go, methods come and go, and strategies come and go.

So it’s not that surprising to see that, especially under these current economic times, revisiting your web site’s keywords may be in order.

Here’s a 4:50 video that gives you a heads up on what you might consider doing to your website – and I say might because, as stated at the top trends come and go. If your website is well positioned, you may not want to change your keywords so much as add on a few (and I do mean a few, never spam your keyword meta tags and/or content) to fit more in line with current conditions: (more…)

I’ve known Melanie Milletics for a while now (list building secrets), and I’ve been hanging onto a notice of hers called, “What is a Magic Blog Post?” for a few days.

Today is the day I made the time to go read (and you should, too).

There are certain vital points she makes that really impact your posts (or your website for that matter) that I won’t rehash, she’s stated them quite nicely. However, I did notice a glaring what I’ll call “mistake” within her post. A mistake I see way too many web site and blog owners make – not coding their click-able links to open in new windows!

Such a small thing, with such huge implications!

When you are reading, and someone mentions a resource or reference to even more information (and assuming you are really interested), ten to one you’re going to click that link (like above) – which is also what I (and anyone else with common sense) is praying that you will do – it’s there to be clicked for a reason.

Yet after you click on it, do you think I want you to disappear for good? Of course not! I want you back to either finish up reading and/or to take the time to look around (use the search bar on this blog), watch the videos (there are even more “how to’s” in the right hand sidebar on a wide range of topics, that’s just one example), and (of course) COMMENT about what you’re reading.

So that simple bit of code – your “target” to open in a new window or blank window is critical.

You work hard to get your visitor, don’t let them just slip through your fingers. The coding is:

target=”_blank”

To see it in action, just right click anywhere on this page outside the framework of the blog itself (in other words pick a “white area” even if it’s colored, but doesn’t have words) and View Source (in IE) or View Page Source (in Firefox).

o  Go up under EDIT on your browser (very top)

o  Choose FIND and type in Milletics (it’s unique and only mentioned once on this page – okay twice but this one doesn’t count there’s no link involved)

o  Now look closely at the coding just prior to her name.

See how the code is put together? See the “target” part?

You can hand code this yourself in HTML or if you are a WordPress blog user, from the what-you-see-is-what-you-get view, just highlight the words, click on the little chain to make the link, and then select TARGET (new window).

Website owners you really need to do this, too.

It’s actually very sad to me when I see someone just willingly giving up their visitor. Don’t make me hunt to get back to you!

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Please COMMENT, we love feedback!

On March 6th we decided to get the software disc for something called Google Traffic Explosion. It sounded interesting, though we were willing to bet it would turn out to be one of those kinds of information – mostly glitz less substance. However, we were (at the time) open minded about the whole thing… so we ordered.

Now three weeks when by with nary a word from the person who signed their name “Warren Knight” to the end of the sales letter.

No notice of any kind.

So I wrote, expecting a reply – which did not come.

However, the next day the disc DID arrive – from Singapore, thrown into a regular envelope without packing of any kind and of course it arrived BROKEN.

Thus started my emails to the person (assuming it was Warren Knight with his name being on the sales page) using the email address given to me on our receipt qinzzy@gmail.com.

When those emails went unanswered, we tried BetaTestersOnly@gmail.com (since this is where the guy wanted feedback and we were sure he’d be monitoring THAT account, right?) Wrong!

So off to Paypal where I open a message communication with this person sending damaged goods (btw, this cost $54.95 including shipping).

Again no reply. Escalating it to dispute only to discover, well basically we are screwed (excuse my French) since it was not an eBay product.

The best paypal would say was IF there were enough complaints, they’d probably investigate.

So not only did we receive damaged product, and the person responsible for sending it, “Internet Millionaire Makers” 10 Anson Road #26-04, International Plaza, Singapore completely ignores our emails and we are now completely out of the money spent in good faith, I thought I’d post this questionable person’s betterwhois information so YOU don’t get taken in.

Registrant:
Jonathan Wellman
Singapore
Singapore, Singapore 650103
Singapore

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: GOOGLETRAFFICEXPLOSION.COM
Created on: 05-Mar-09
Expires on: 05-Mar-10
Last Updated on: 06-Mar-09

Administrative Contact:
Wellman, Jonathan qinzzy@gmail.com
Singapore
Singapore, Singapore 650103
Singapore
97651234

Technical Contact:
Wellman, Jonathan qinzzy@gmail.com
Singapore
Singapore, Singapore 650103
Singapore
97651234

In addition, this website also uses the nameservers from internetmillionairecode.com – which is Jo Han Mok’s website.

If ANYONE involved in this shipped software program had bothered to reply I would not be writing this, but nothing burns my butt so much as a merchant that doesn’t appear to give a damn whether his customer is burned or not.

I will tell you all my emails were upfront and totally polite. I merely pointed out the software disc, again not packaged at all for shipping halfway around the world, arrived damaged and requested our money back.

So… let this be a lesson (for us) and you. If you cannot contact whoever you are buying whatever from – via email, telelphone or a responsive support ticket area keep moving.

There are plenty of legitimate, honest, caring, and admirable people out there TO buy from… the world doesn’t need this…

Yes… I’m totally ticked off!

People like this give other people doing business online upfront and honest a bad rep. It’s no wonder I get so many emails and phone calls from people totally surprised we EXIST and answer the inquries.

Should the persons reponsible for this miscarriage of justice reply to this post AND refund AND send a working disc, we would definitely see it in our hearts to update all readers.

However, we’re not holding our breath…

Hopefully you are running some statistical accounting method on your website and/or blog like Google Analytics. By tracking the information in and out of your site, you will also be made aware of pages that either got lost in the shuffle, were eliminated completely but still referenced elsewhere on your site (that you forgot to remove the link to), or pages seach engines like Google (for reasons unknown) expect to be there, but aren’t.

These are known as your 404 page errors, and letting them pile up can be a time consuming task to set straight and (potentially) hurt your standings.

Mostly they are just a pain in the neck to get search engines like Google to stop seeing. In fact, years ago on a completely different hosting server, I did use the cgi-bin (we don’t now). And, even though the hosting had changed numerous times, those cgi-bin 404 errors kept haunting me. So when I saw a recent incoming newsletter about this problem, I figured it’s a good time to give everyone either a heads up or reminder to track these down and eliminate them.

In fact, Mary Peng of Web Analytics World has recently put out an article on how to make the most of those inevitable 404 errors. She writes:

No matter what type of site you may have, 404 errors may cost you something. It might not be money, but it’s costing you something. Retail sites could be losing money. Other types of sites, however, may be losing something just as valuable… pageviews… return visitors… things like that….

The truth is, your site could potentially do that extra 10-25%, you just don’t benefit from it because your visitors are encountering 404 page not found errors. These visitors can be potential browsers and buyers, but once they hit that 404 page, they’ll leave and bring their money to another site.

Within her article, she also suggests another resource that gives you some great suggestions on how to fix up your 404 errors.

You’ll also discover some very interesting and creative ways you can make those dreaded 404 errors more entertaining. Here are more cool ways web owners have created their 404 pages.

So don’t wait too long. Do stay on top of these “lost pages.” Put them to valuable use and never lose another visitor to your site again.

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