Whane's Web

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YouTube Partnership Program

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1 Footnotes 1. There has been a alot of buzz about the YouTube Partnership program leaving some working hard to get that invite. The popular belief is that you need about 500 subscribers to get an invite, this is not always true as I recently received an invitation to join after having only 12 subscribers. To understand this, you should first have a basic understanding of how YouTube is monetized. How YouTube is monetized The YouTube monetization system is based on gaining advertising clients. These clients pay Google (YouTube is owned by Google) for clicks to their sites. In order to get a high number of relevant clicks, ads must be paired up with contextually relevant videos that can net a high number of views in as short a period of time as possible. Active subscribers will be among those that view the video first and the idea is that their views and subsequent activity will seed the video increasing its popularity so that others will view it too along with the attached advertisement. A partner is someone that can generate enough views to gain clicks well enough to make YouTube clients happy, as a partner you are paid per click so the more clicks your video generates, the more you will earn. It's possible to have a video receieve 1 million views, and no clicks, or 1000 views and 100 clicks, CTR (click-thru rate) is the measure of the value in clicks your video gains. The typical CTR is usually very low, less than 1% is very common. In Adwords I can personally achieve a CTR span of around 3-7% depending on the content. My personal best is 10.5% and I rarely have anything below 1%. Getting Views So now that you have a basic understanding of how YouTube makes money, it's easy to see that the ultimate goal is to get as many views as possible. If I have 12 subscribers and can gain 5000 views in 2 days then I can achieve the same thing as anyone else with 500 subscribers. In other words, it's not necessarily how many subscribers you have, but its more about your ability to gain views quickly. Another thing to consider here, is the rate at which you gain views. If you have 1000 subscribers and a video that's been up for 2 years with 1 million views, and I have 12 subscribers with a video that's been up for 1 month and has 50,000 views then I am outperforming you regardless of how few subscribers I have. In other words, achieving partner status ultimately depends on your ability to get views, subscribers is just one way to measure potential views. What you should really be asking yourself That said. The question you should be asking is not how to get views, but whether or not your videos would qualify to earn you income, in most cases, the answer is no. There are many aspects that factor in to whether or not your YouTube video can earn you income. Basically, you must own all content contained within the video and have the full permission of anyone appearing in your video. This means you can't do any creative editing using short segments of videos or artwork created by others. So while you might be able to publish videos that contain protected content under the "Fair Use" law, that same video would not qualify as a money-earning partner video. Videos acceptable for revenue sharing Essentially, you must have worldwide distribution rights to everything contained in your video, and it must abide by the official YouTube Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. Examples of things that would make a video ineligible include but are not limited to: Your video contains content that you did not create or get permission to use. This includes: music video images photographs or artwork live events video game footage any other copyrighted content Your video shows people that have not authorized you to publish them Your video has content that would be inappropriate for children. YouTube Partnership videos are limited to content that can be shown to all age groups. The rules are quite strict and there is a good chance that after you apply for the partnership program, not only could you be denied, but you could also find that your videos have been removed for TOS infringement. Even though Fair Use law may permit you to use material created by others, this is not permitted in the YouTube Partnership Program, examples of material not permitted in the program include: material edited together or mashed-up material that has been altered to any degree small music clips, even if under 30 seconds long any random clip or image that you found on the internet any material you paid for such as an MP3 or DVD Additionally, material you use without permission, even if you give proper attribution or credits or if the owner has not sent you a take notice is still not permitted. You can't even sing a song that is protected by copyright. So if you have popular videos consisting of content that you do not own, simply building up your list of subscribers and waiting to become a partner is not going to earn you any additional income unless you drastically change your video content to 100% owned by you. I hope this helps. Feel free to comment. Note: Nothing in this article should be construed as legal advice — it's for informational purposes only.

Why I would vote no on HR3200

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1 Footnotes 1. [[=]] [[/=]]

Orange County Tornado

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1 Footnotes 1. As long as I have lived in OC, I don't recall ever hearing of Tornados here. According to the news, the rainfall is supposed to reach "biblical proportions" and after today I tend to believe it as I experienced another first in OC… hail. There have been scattered reports of funnels forming here and there but none quite taking any deep roots yet, though there has still been some damage (see video below). What I do find fascinating is that the search trends for tornadoes and weather in OC is very high right now, 11 out of 20 of the top trends is relating to this out-of-place weather we are experiencing here. I took a screenshot for posterity. Huntington Beach Pier January 19th, 2010

Youtube User Truthnadv

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1 Footnotes 1. I could be criticized for picking such an easy target, but I stumbled on a youtube video and I have a strong wish to comment. Under the YT pseudonym Truthnadv Doug tells us why he thinks SEO is a scam: "Doug" seems to be confusing SEO with search engine (SE) submission services. There is a difference between the two. Just because you can submit your site to a SE does not mean you are going to rank high for any given search term. Submitting your site isn't even necessary since the SE bots will find you on their own. However, gaining SE rank requires much time and expertise. $150 for a submission service is robbery, but that isn't SEO. SEO is Search Engine Optimization and is used to obtain a high ranking position on any given search engine. SEO is ongoing because as long as you have competitors trying to outrank you then you will need to continuously outperform them. The minimum you can expect to pay is about $300 per month with a rank campaign reaching into the 1000's or even 10's of 1000's of dollars. But is Doug really confused or is he trying to confuse the market? After over 4000 views his video contains no comments and I find it hard to believe that no one has pointed out his error. When I posted my own comment I was met with the "awaiting approval" message, the same is true for his profile page comments. I think Doug's tactic is to downplay legitimate services in order to hype on the vague marketing techniques he attempts to sell on his own site and no… I will not grace him with a dofollow link. Doug, consider yourself "whipped". Feel free to comment, I wont moderate your replies as you do mine. ;)

Facebook And Myspace Are Annoying

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1 Footnotes 1. I recently had a very bad experience with Facebook that has given me cause to re-evaluate both Facebook and Myspace. This is a rant of sorts since I just wasted 2 hours on FaceBook and produced nothing. Social mediums are excellent tools but it seems that a social site should have an underlying purpose to make it useful. For example, YouTube has a common ground that links all of the users, this of course would be the millions of videos uploaded to the site. As a benefit of using YouTube, one may create an account, create a profile page, mark favorites, rate and comment on videos, declare friendships, and exchange PM's. It sounds just like any other social site except that YouTube has a distinct and identifiable use. On the other hand, FaceBook and Myspace exist for the sole purpose of simply being there. Oh sure, the sites have evolved over time to include some useful tools but the underlying premise behind them is simple: Be here. Twitter is in the same boat and while one might argue that it is useful in the fact that you can read other tweats by others, the bottom line is that most people are on Twitter to be seen, not to see. So why do we endure these sites? We endure these sites because we feel that we must not get overlooked. I can't begin to express the number of clients I've had that insisted on having a Myspace and FaceBook profile despite the fact that they already have their own domain. "I want people to be able to find me on Myspace" is a common explanation I get. So here we are, all engaged in self-promotion, we have our blogs, our MySpace and FaceBook pages, we have our twitter accounts, our Digg accounts, and any number of additional social accounts all designed to do just one thing, bring us more exposure and half the time the mechanics of the site fail us so we ended up wasting time trying to figure out why feature a is not working properly instead of working on something more productive.. I fear that these sites may all be a huge time sink, novelties that offer little in terms of well targeted traffic to our main sites. But I, like you, cannot pull away from the social sites because they are so commonly accepted that any business that does not have profile pages may be seen as outside of the loop, I know this and my clients know this.

Google Advanced Search Operators

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1 Footnotes 1. Instead of spending hours looking for a good sites to link from, use search engine operators. Anyone performing SEO needs a handy Google operator cheat sheet. String Result browser games displays all pages that contain the words browser and games "browser games" displays all pages with the exact phrase browser games browser games site:http://pbbg.wikidot.com/ searches only the given site or domain for the phrase or words shown link:http://pbbg.wikidot.com/ displays all sites with links to the page shown allinanchor:browser games displays all sites with links using the anchor text words shown inanchor:browser games displays all sites with links using any of the anchor text words shown allintitle:browser games displays all sites with all words shown that are included within the title bar intitle:browser games displays all sites with any words shown that are included within the title bar View more operators.

Corner Your SEO Niche, Not Your SEO Market

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1 Footnotes 1. A common mistake made by those exploring SEO options is to attempt to corner the entire market. Exploit your niche and it will require less of your time, and yet result in higher conversions. For example: One client I have sells $30,000 custom handcrafted bird cages. I already have him ranked on page 1 of Google, Yahoo, and MSN for terms like Custom Bird Cages, Custom Bird Cages, Custom Parrot Cages, Handcrafted Bird Cages, etc… These terms have low search volume, yet they are well targeted for the type of niche he has cornered. The client also wants to rank for the phrase Bird Cages. Though I'm currently working to get him ranked (I have him up to page 3 now) it is a term that I would not recommend, this is why: The phrase "bird cages" represents a large market while something like "handcrafted bird cages" represents his specific niche. Those searching for "bird cages" using Google have not identified what type of bird cages they are looking for, the result is that they will get a list of lots of sites that cover all types of bird cages and the search engine user will more than likely need to refine their search. Ignoring competitive intelligence for the sake of this article, the phrase "bird cages" with a total page count of 2.6 million is far more competitive than a phrase like "handcrafted bird cages" with a page count of 81 thousand. Working with lower competing words, I was able to achieve page 1 representation on Google for 10 niche phrases relating to custom made bird cages within 2 months, meanwhile, 6 months later, I'm still working to rank "bird cages" on page 1 of Google.

How To Remove The Digg Bar

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1 Footnotes 1. I'm not a huge fan of frames or of framing other sites. Back in 2002 it was common practice to display the content of other sites within a frame that either 1) Convinced the user that you were still on the original linking site or 2) Made it real easy for the user to return back to the linking site. The idea was to keep users on a site for as long as possible increasing their visibility and to hell with all those pesky content providers that had the nerve to post content on their own websites. The practice of framing other sites quickly died down after protest and code efforts to forcefully remove frames. That was 2002. I won't waste any time debating why the Digg Toolbar sucks. Thankfully, Digg had the foresight to see that for some us, the bar would be annoying and decided to give us a way to turn it off. To remove the Digg Bar go to your settings tab, then under "options" in the right navigation panel select "Viewing Preferences".

Custom Styled Google Form

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1 Footnotes 1. I use the free Google forms over at docs.google.com. The innovation of using this service to keep a running record of form submissions within a spread sheet is perfect for my needs. However, I think the form style is ugly and uninventive. This is how you can create a custom styled Google Form: Step 1 After you create your form, click the link at the bottom of the page titled: You can view the published form here. Step 2 Right click anywhere on the form page and then select the View Source option. Step 3 Locate and copy the code between form tags (<form> & </form>) and paste it into a new page using your favorite website editor. Step 4 Now you can style your form just as you would any other web page. If you want a custom confirmation page to replace the Ugly Google confirmation page then you must not have any required fields in your form or else the following code will not work to save the form data to your spread sheet. Find the portion of your code that looks like this: <form action="EMBEDDED-GOOGLE-SPREADSHEET-CODE" method="POST"> … and replace that code with: [[code]] <script type="text/javascript">var submitted=false;</script> <iframe name="hidden_iframe" id="hidden_iframe" style="display:none;" onload="if(submitted) {window.location='URL-OF-CUSTOM-CONFIRMATION-PAGE';}"></iframe> <form action="EMBEDDED-GOOGLE-SPREADSHEET-CODE" method="post" target="hidden_iframe" onsubmit="submitted=true;"> [[/code]]

Seo Competition

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1 Footnotes 1. A common method used to determine how potentially competitive a term may be is to look at the total count of web pages that appear for any given search. However, count is not the final assessment for how competitive a term may be. It’s possible to have a very low count for a very challenging term. For example, let’s say that keyphrase "A" has a count of just 10,000, yet 100 of those are actively engaged in SEO on a daily basis, this means it could be extremely time consuming to compete with 100 SEO experts working on competing sites. Competitive Intelligence is the measure of how competitive a phrase is in terms of SEO. Count is a rough idea of how potentially competitive a phrase can be (and there are different ways to measure count too). 1000’s may enter a marathon, but there may be 10 that really want to win, to finish within 3rd place is not a matter of competing with the total count of those entering the race, but a matter of competing with those 10 that REALLY want to win.

Get 15,000 Twitter Followers

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1 Footnotes 1. If you believe that you tweet great content but can't seem to get others to give you a chance to prove it then you may want to participate in this simple experiment aimed at getting you 20,000 followers in one month. It only takes a few minutes and is one time only: 15,000 Twitter Followers.

Offsite versus onsite Optimization

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1 Footnotes 1. In it’s basic state, SEO is the art of increasing a sites rank within the search engine results pagess (serps). For a novice, there may be some confusion pertaining to how this is actually done. While there are many details that factor into a sites rank (over 200 to be exact) there are two categories of optimization that every site owner should be familiar with, even if you never intend to master SEO. Offsite Optimization Offsite optimization is simple in theory but complex and tedious in practice. Primarily, It requires that others link to your site from their own sites, this is referred to as link popularity and essentially, Google counts each inbound link as a vote for your site. Of course not all links are equal, some may be worth say 5 votes, and others worth, perhaps 100 votes. An experienced SEO professional will generally be able to get good results with link building and an inexperienced link builder could literally spend 100 hours building links that would not benefit her site in the least bit. Onsite Optimization Onsite Optimization refers to the inclusion and placement of keywords directly on your site. For example, if you want to rank for the phrase “advertising agency”, then obviously you will want to include that exact phrase on your site. Each page of a website can be optimized for multiple terms and there are strict guidelines that should be followed or you can risk a ban by Google. Phrases should be placed within the context of your site. For example, rather than just randomly place the phrase “advertising agency” on a page, it’s better to include the phrase within the content, as part of a paragraph. Like offsite link building, there are many factors that determine the value of onsite optimization.

Jimmy Wales Appeal

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1 Footnotes 1. I'm sure that most of you have noticed the recent attempt by Wikipedia to monetize their site. This was followed up with an "appeal" by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales asking us to support Wikipedia with a donation. While I recognize Wikipedia as an asset, I think there are some facts about Wikipedia that are often overlooked, details follow. Wikipedia offers no new or unique data. In fact, it is policy of Wikipedia to include data on subjects that have already been clearly defined. The data stored on Wikipedia is often already copied from other sources verbatim but since Google allocates high authority to Wikipedia, it will rank higher than the source cited within the Wikipedia entry. Wikipedia utilizes the infamous "nofollow" code So what's the problem? Wikipedia utilizes the infamous "nofollow" code attached to all external links, the result of this is that Wikipedia robs the original sources used to compose the article of their deserving Google rank, this is why Wikipedia articles often appear on page 1 when performing a search for any given subject. Think about this carefully, sites that author original content on the subject are usually working to monetize their own sites, then Wikipedia grabs that content, refuses to link back with a valid dofollow link, and ranks higher than the original sources. Since Wikipedia ranks higher than the original sources, it receives more visitors, robbing the original site of their own monetizing efforts (one needs visitors to monetize the site). Wikipedia is saying to Google: "Ignore the original sources and pay attention to us only." To be fair, the original site may have ranked low to begin with, but if Wikipedia truly valued those sources that has made it more popular, then those original sites should benefit with a dofollow link. Attaching the nofollow tag to all outbound links is a measured method of refusing Google PR to the original sources; Wikipedia is saying to Google: "Ignore the original sources and pay attention to us only." Jimmy Wales wants us to "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge…" and then goes on to say "That's our commitment". But I say, that goal has already been achieved with the internet and that Wikipedia is not providing this human knowledge, but is merely collecting it from authority sources that don't get credit in the form of search engine rank the way that Wikipedia does. Wikipedia is driven by more than 150,000 volunteers that relocates information from source A to source B and for this Wikipedia wants 6 million dollars. In my opinion, Wikipedia is the largest Google PR whore on the web and until that changes, I will not support them financially.

2007 Top 100 Domain Sales

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1 Footnotes 1. ||||~ Top 100 Domain Purchases For 2007|| Porn.com $9,500,000 Computer.com $2,100,000 Seniors.com $1,800,000 Tandberg.com $1,500,000 Scores.com $1,180,000 Vista.com $1,250,000 Chinese.com $1,120,008 Guy.com $1,000,000 Topix.com $1,000,000 Poker.de $957,937 Investment.com $900,000 Melbourne.com $700,000 Dollars.com $650,000 Job.at $590,949 Cardiology.com $550,000 SheMale.com $520,000 Rebate.com $500,000 Rebates.com $500,000 Invention.com $500,000 AZ.com $500,000 LI.com $500,000 Greenhouse.com $500,000 SportingGoods.com $450,000 Bald.com $400,000 Iran.com $400,000 CarSales.com $400,000 Cowboys.com $370,000 Gibraltar.com $360,000 Greeting.com $350,000 Supplies.com $323,530 Recycle.co.uk $309,901 Resume.com $300,000 Text.com $300,000 RealEstate.net $300,000 BDSM.com $295,000 Xmas.com $294,200 UI.com $275,000 Table.com $260,000 Locals.com $250,000 Buckhead.com $250,000 Mobile.co.uk $247,921 Yearbook.com $237,500 ET.com $225,000 Spices.com $220,000 Televisions.com $215,000 CrosswordPuzzles.com $210,000 Masculin.com $201,792 Perth.com $200,000 DIY.net $200,000 Settlement.com $200,000 CriminalLawyers.com $195,000 FreeHoroscope.com $185,259 Fly.co.uk $181,042 Chinese.net $180,000 Ringtones.net $175,000 Clock.com $175,000 Campgrounds.com $175,000 Walkers.com $175,000 BoiseIdaho.com $175,000 DreamLife.com $171,750 Promotion.com $170,000 Event.com $165,000 Psychologists.com $160,000 Connected.co.uk $157,931 Via.com $157,500 Poker.mobi $150,000 Guy.com $150,000 MegaYachts.com $150,000 Pottery.com $150,000 OL.com $150,000 InterracialSex.com $150,000 Ringtones.mobi $145,000 Charters.com $140,000 Lips.com $135,000 Zimbabwe.com $130,000 CaribbeanVacations.com $130,000 Sportsbook.mobi $129,800 UB.com $129,420 One.es $128,947 HalfPriceTickets.com $125,000 Supernatural.com $125,000 Exito.com $121,560 HotProperty.com $120,000 PX.com $120,000 Travel.info $116,000 Note.com $115,000 Refresh.com $115,000 Forest.com $110,721 News.mobi $110,000 Cab.com $110,000 Femmes.com $110,000 OTV.com $110,000 UltimateGuitar.com $101,676 Hosting.mobi $101,000 WifeLover.com $100,930 Brisbane.com $100,000 Passover.com $100,000 Debit.com $100,000 Bulk.com $100,000 TreatmentCenters.com $100,000

birdcages.com For $11,330?

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1 Footnotes 1. Recently I approached a domainer that was interested in selling his website birdcages.com. Domainers are lured by the potential profits that can be earned from a single sale. Looking at the top 100 domain transfers for the year 2007, it's easy to see the attraction: Here is the reply I received for my inquiry on birdcages.com and my comments. Hi Wayne, Thank you for your enquiry. A search for "bird cages" shows approximately over 1,300,000 results from Google. He assumes my interest in the name is for ranking purposes. It's a good guess, especially since I'm in the SEM business. Names such as birdcages.net are very much in demand especially as there are more than 60 MILLION domain names currently registered. Sadly, this is his only statement regarding the value of his domain and he makes no attempt to qualify his statement. I suppose that merely stating sites like his are in high demand might be good enough for some, but I like to see numbers. Don't tell me it's in high demand, show me the numbers. But he probably does not have any quailifying data. And pointing out how many domains exist, does not qualify his domain, in fact those 60m domains have nothing to do with the domain I e-mailed him about. If you consider that just recently Fish.com sold for $1,020,000, MyPremierCard.com for $135,250, JMM.com for $55,000 and HorseSupplies.com $52,500 etc there have been many other 5 figure sales - I'm sure that our asking price could be considered an investment for a domain of this quality. An old proverb comes to mind, it's a bit old and tired but in this case, it really does fit: "What's any of that got to do with the price of tea in China?" He is coming up with random domain sale prices, but none of them are related to the domain I'm interested in. This tactic really does not help him, if anything, I think it hurts his ability to sell. If I walk into McDonalds and ask how much for a buger, and the customer service rep begins to ramble on about how much cars, trucks, and credit card charges cost, I've got to wonder what's wrong with him… I mean if I'm asking about a burger, then I want information about a burger. mypremiumcard.com has nothing to do with birdcages.net. jmm.com? Who's that? And horsesupplies.com and fish.com? Sure, they're related to animals, possibly even pets, but the site I'm interested in is about bird cages, I want information on bird cages, not horse supplies or fish. If I did some research, I could qualify the prices for the sites he mentioned, like fish.com for example. One of the reasons fish.com sold for a million was due to the fact it's part of a team of sites aimed at gaining a huge piece of the pet market pie, that includes ferrit.com, horse.com, bird.com, dog.com and garden.com (okay I guess that's not really a pet) Wih just under 1 billion pages, the search term "fish" also has a much high competition rating than "bird cages" at just over 1 million. Likewise, the phrase "bird cages" is searched for an average of 135,000 times per month, but fish is searched for 13,600,000 times per month. The price of this domain is £7,000 Great British Pounds or US $11,330 (close offers may be considered). This is a one off payment for the rights to the domain, however you will be responsible for paying the yearly registration (approx $30). For a currency converter for other currencies please see http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html 11 grand eh? Hmm. He didn't even mention demographic or traffic data, or Google PR which can greatly improve the value of a site. Essentially he bought the site, parked it, then forgot about it and for that he wants $11,000? Okay, let's do the math, since he compared birdcages.com to fish.com let's see if we can succeed where he failed, let's see if we can qualify a price for this domain: Site Competition Popularity Price birdcages.com 1,300,000 135,000 $11,330 fish.com 96,300,000 13,600,000 $1,020,000 Ignoring the price, I'm going to divide the birdcages.com numbers by the fish.com numbers to come up with a value in percent. birdcages.com has a competition rating that is only .013% of fish.com and a popularity rating that is roughly .01% (.0099 but I'm rounding up). This means that in terms of google competition and popularity, birdcages.com is worth about .01-.013% of the fish.com website. Looking at the prices, if $11,330 compares to somewhere between .01 and .013 of $1,020,000 then the price could be seen as a fair price in terms of search stats. $11,330 / $1,020,000 = .011 Well how bout that. Maybe it is a fair price after all. Please note: Transactions are extremely straightforward, totally secure, and can be completed within 24 hours from start to finish. The sale of the name can take place in one of the following ways… He then goes on to explain the various payment options I have. He seems pretty confident that he can get the sale for merely quoting me a price. I wonder just how successful this domainer might be. Kind Regards, Joshua Jaganath NameGiant Ltd Thanks Josh, I hope you don't mind me using your expertise as the point of this article. I would contest your choice to omit qualifying data in your quotes, but I suppose that is your choice to make. Click here for more information about this domain.

Free Seo Tools

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1 Footnotes 1. ++ Here are some free SEO Tools that I have found useful Google Analytics Google Keyword Tool Google Webmaster Tools Google AdWords Traffic Estimator MS Online Commercial Intention Google Global Browser Addon Seo For Firefox seOpen KW Density Better KW Density Free Rank Checker For Firefox TinyURL's for twitter http://tinyurl.com/mapspam http://tinyurl.com/seoforfirefox http://tinyurl.com/seocop http://tinyurl.com/gserps http://tinyurl.com/kwrdtool http://tinyurl.com/cstmform http://tinyurl.com/rankcheck

Your Website In Wikipedia

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1 Footnotes 1. Wikipedia is the #1 reference site on the web. As a result, many promoters find it impossible to resist the notion of creating an entry for their company. The process is difficult but not impossible, and the rules are strict, but not entirely invisible. Note that this is not a guide on how to use the mechanics of Wikpedia. Due to the fact that Wikipedia applies the nofollow tag to every external link on their site, Wikipedia will not directly influence your SEO efforts. However Wikipedia may help with direct traffic or branding. Though there are rules and conditions in place, you can expect for the results of your efforts to be unpredictable. This is due to the fact that Wikipedia editors are biased and have varying opinions of what does and does not constitute promotional entries. Ultimately it may boil down to how well you communicate with a single editor that has taken an interest in your work. If you've come here looking for illicit tricks, you won't find any. I'm not going to show you how to spam Wikipedia with links to your site. My goal, is to show you how to get a legitimate listing into Wikipedia. Ultimately I can't say how this will end for you, all I can do is show you how it will begin. Establishing Notability Before listing your company or site on Wikipedia, it is imperative that you meet Wikipedia’s Notability guidelines. They are summarized here: …Notability is an inclusion criterion based on encyclopedic suitability of a topic for a Wikipedia article. The topic of an article should be notable, or "worthy of notice." Notability is distinct from "fame," "importance," or "popularity," although these may positively correlate with it. "Significant coverage" means that sources address the subject directly in detail, and no original research is needed to extract the content. Significant coverage is more than trivial but may be less than exclusive. Reliable" means sources need editorial integrity to allow verifiable evaluation of notability, per the reliable source guideline. Sources may encompass published works in all forms and media. Availability of secondary sources covering the subject is a good test for notability. "Sources," provide the most objective evidence of notability. The number and nature of reliable sources needed varies depending on the depth of coverage and quality of the sources. Multiple sources are generally preferred. Independent of the subject" excludes works produced by those affiliated with the subject including (but not limited to): self-publicity, advertising, self-published material by the subject, autobiographies, press releases, etc. As you can see, there is a lot of room for bias and interpretation. But in my experience, listing a minimum of three independent and reputable media sources (newspapers, magazines, broadcast news, etc…) that reference or feature your company will suffice for notability. When publishing your company to Wikipedia, you cannot declare that your company is notable, you can only show why you believe your company might be notable, someone else will decide. If you don't have any independent media references showing possible notability, then your listing will qualify for speedy deletion So if you wish to give your entry a fighting chance, you should forgo any publishing attempt until you can show notability as indicated above. Just imagine you are in college and submitting an essay for review, one reason why a college professor would dismiss your essay without even reading it is if you submitted it without showing resources. Is Your Entry Acceptable? Notability is not the only factor in determining the legitimacy of an entry. One way to understand what is acceptable, is to understand what is not acceptable. Wikipedia cannot be used for Self Promotion or Advertising purposes: …Article topics must be third-party verifiable, so articles about very small "garage" or local companies are typically unacceptable. External links to commercial organizations are acceptable if they identify major organizations associated with a topic. Note the use of the word typically, not always. This is where notability comes into play. Entries about companies and products must be written in an objective and unbiased style. Presenting Your Company. You don't have to create a new page to present your company. You can easily introduce your company to Wikipedia by using it as a reference in an existing page. Just be sure that the page you link to is relevant and that your application is contextually appealing. Here are some things to consider before submitting your company as a resource: Check the page history to gauge how others respond to changes made on the page. Check the discussion tab. You may wish to suggest a link within the discussion tab instead of placing it directly. If there is no opposition then there is a greater chance your link will be accepted. If there is some opposition then you can debate it. Make sure your site is ad free. Wikipedia does not like to link to sites with ads. Are there other less popular entires that could benefit from your link? If so you may wish to link there first. Don't link more than once a week, or provide more than a single link at a time. Spammers are easily spotted. Using the one week rule will keep your user profile clean. Don't make the mistake of assuming that you can only link directly to your site. It may be better to link to an article that includes your company as part of the content, esp when that article is relevant to the Wikipedia entry. When looking for exposure using Wikipedia, most tend to think in terms of a new page and a company profile. If you feel you simply must have a page dedicated to your company, then follow these guidelines: Build up your history. Most editors check user histories. If you have an underdeveloped background and then suddenly create a new page for your company, or create a link, then it's obvious that your intent is to use Wikipedia to promote. Ensure your company will pass the notability test. Be sure to include other sources such as competitors. When possible, cite experts. Write in the 3rd person; you are writing about a company, not your company. Officially, Wikipedia cannot be used to promote. Unofficially, every entry, and every link, is promoting someone or something.

Seo Terms

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1 Footnotes 1. * Algo: Algorithm; the methods used by Search Engines to determine SERP. Alt Tag: An HTML attribute used to provide contextual meaning to a link or image. Anchor Text: An HTML attribute that is used to label a link. Backlink: Links originating from a web page and pointing to another website or web page. Conversion: Converting traffic to pre-established goal,s such as making a purchase. CPC: Cost Per Click. Rate of measuring the expense involved with acquiring web traffic. CTR: Click Through Rate. Compares clicks to impressions; Impression: The presentation of an ad. Keywords: Words that are used by search engines to determine the subject of a web page. Keyword Density: How often a keyword or keyword phrase is used on a given web page. PPC: Pay Per Click. PR: Google PageRank. Rank: How well a website measures within a SERP. SE: Search Engine. SEM: Search Engine Marketing. SEO: Search Engine Optimization. SERP: Search Engine Results Page. Title Tag: A meta data element that determines the title of a web page. Dojo (道場): Lit; "Place of the Way". Daimyo (大名): Lit; "Great Ones". Sabaki Do: The Way of Movement. [[include include:footer]]

4 Essential Steps To Seo

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1 Footnotes 1. Now that you know the basics, it's time to put it all together. There are essentially 4 steps to SEO. Step 1) Conduct keyword research. Look for words and phrases that best describe what your site offers. Then look for alternative phrases. Focus on words that are popular with low competition rates. Step 2) Design or redesign your site to be search engine friendly using your primary keywords as part of the content of your site. Use title tags and meta tags. Continue to add fresh content to your site through blogging, CMS, or direct publishing. Step 3) Using your keywords as anchor text, build your backlinks. Set aside x number of hours per week and dedicate that time to link building. Look for links from relevant sites with high PR. Quality is better than quantity, but if you cant find quality, then quantity will work too, it will just take more time. Step 4) Monitor your sites visibility. Install Google Analytics onto your site and keep a spreadsheet of of your primary search terms and how well they rank for the 3 major search engines: Google, Yahoo, & MSN. Check you rank for each word or phrase at least once a month and keep a record. Part 1: Introduction to SEO Part 2: On Site Optimization Part 3: Off Site Optimization Part 4: Keyword Research Part 5: 4 Essential Steps to SEO

Keyword Research

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1 Footnotes 1. An important part of SEO is keyword research. Keyword research is the process of determining which keywords should be associated with your website. Once your keywords are determined, they become the text used in your title tags, meta tags, article content, PPC campaigns, and anchor links. Obviously it is best to conduct keyword research before optimizing your site (or even building it). A typical research model will look at keyword alternatives, competitiveness, and popularity. Ideally, you want to choose popular keywords that have a low competition rating. The easiest way to determine how competitive a keyword might by is to conduct a search using the term to see how many total results the SERP displays. In some cases there may only be a few hundred thousands results, in other cases there could be billions of results. Terms with fewer results can typically be viewed as easier to rank, though there are exceptions. Keyword popularity is the measure of how often a keyword is used in a search. Popular keywords will mean more visitors to your site, but only if you are ranked high enough on the SERP to be seen by them. As you can see, the relationship between competition and popularity is precarious. You may be on the first page for "Orange County Advertising" but if that phrase is rarely used in a search, then being #1 on the SERP wont matter much if you only get 1 or 2 visitors per day for that search phrase. On the other hand, the term "advertising" might bring you 1000's of visitors but the level of competition might make it impossible for you to rank on the first page. So which do you choose, possibly getting 1000's of visitors per day after spending a year building links, or certainly getting 1 or 2 visitors per day after spending a month building links? For most experts, it's both. Don't make the mistake of assuming you can only use a few phrases to associate with your site. There could literally be 1000's of possible keyword combinations. Most sites I promote begin with a minimum of around 40 keywords and keyword phrases. There are plenty of free keyword research tools available online. For coming up with keyword alternatives, you may want to use Trellians Free Search Term Suggestion Tool. And to measure popularity, you may wish to try out Googles Traffic Estimator Part 1: Introduction to SEO Part 2: On Site Optimization Part 3: Off Site Optimization Part 4: Keyword Research Part 5: 4 Essential Steps to SEO

Off Site Optimization

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1 Footnotes 1. Off Site Optimization consists primarily of creating "backlinks" to your site, sometimes also referred to as "inbound links". Links to your site are considered votes by Search Engines. Therefore, the more votes your site gets, the more likely it is to rank higher than other related sites within the SERPS. There are several important factors that must be considered when Link Building. 1) A text link can look like an URL or it can have text attached to it, this text is called anchor text. So for example http://whane-the-whip.wikidot.com/seo-guide is less effective than SEO Guide. They both link to the same page, but the link with Anchor Text communicates what the page is about. 2) The anchor text becomes the keywords used to associate the website linked to so that when you conduct a search, if your search includes those keywords or phrases, then the site is included with the SERPS. Obviously the goal for most is to get enough votes to rank on the 1st page of the SERPS, or even the first position. How many backlinks are required to attain that rank depends in part on the competitiveness of the keyword (see Keyword Research). 3) Google has a method of weighing votes. Some sites that link to yours may give you more credit than others. This is measured in PageRank (PR). PR ranges from 0 to 10. A site with high PR will transfer more credit than a site with lower PR. 4) Relevancy of a page linking to yours is important. If your page is about SEO and you have a backlink from a page about drag racing, then that link will count for less than a link from a page that deals with SEO. Combining PR and relevancy to get high quality backlinks is preferred over spamming your link all over the web. 5) Some sites use an HTML tag called "nofollow". This prevents Google from following the link and in turn prevents the transfer of PR and the association of the anchor text within the link. Ideally, you want links on pages that do not use the "nofollow" code. Part 1: Introduction to SEO Part 2: On Site Optimization Part 3: Off Site Optimization Part 4: Keyword Research Part 5: 4 Essential Steps to SEO

On Site Optimization

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1 Footnotes 1. There are two primary forms of SEO, on site optimization, and off site optimization. On site optimization is tailoring each page of your site to be Search Engine Friendly. This includes some very specific things you can do to improve your sites SERP. 1) Your URL should contain key words relevant to the page content. For example, if your page is related to security services, then the words security and service should both be included within the URL. www.seodjo.wikidot.com/security_services is a much better choice than www.seodjo.wikidot.com/article02938. 2) Pay close attention to the title tag. The title tag is the title of your web page as it appears in the title bar of your internet browser. In HTML format it will look something like this: <title>Seo Dojo</title>. The title should include terms relevant for each individual page of your website and contain words that accurately describe the page. (See the Google Search Engine sample below) 3) Use the description meta tag. This won't necessarily improve your ranking, but it will improve the CTR of the link to your site when your page is displayed on the SERP. The description defines what appears beneath the title of your web page when displayed in Google and other SE's. In HTML format, the description tag will look something like this: <meta name="description" content="Seo Dojo 道場 is a place of instruction and challenge in Sabaki Do and other Seo Techniques."> (See the Google Search Engine sample below) Google Search Engine sample illustrating how the title and description tags are parsed in a search engine. The Title Tag helps with ranking, the description tag helps to generate clicks. Seo Dojo Seo Dojo 道場 is a place of instruction and challenge in Sabaki Do and other Seo Techniques. whane-the-whip.wikidot.com/ - 20k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this 4) Use relevant keywords within the <H1> and <H2> HTML tags once on each page. 5) Use the primary keyword or keyword phrase relating to your page at least once, but no more than 3 times within the content of your page (not including <H> tags or the Title Bar). There are tools that can check the keyword density of any given page but generally speaking, writing an article designed to be read by humans (not Search Engines) will suffice. 6) Make use of (without abusing) the keyword meta tag. No more than 4 keywords or phrases should be used for each page of your site. Example: <meta name="keywords" content="SEO; SEM; Search Engine Optimization; Internet Marketing"> 7) Google makes use of a search engine algorithm known as the freshness algo. The goal is to rank fresh pages with newer content higher than older pages with older content. Therefore one on site practice used to gain new visitors and rank higher is to add new content to your site. This is why blogs tend to rank high. Adding a blog to your site will help with ranking. Part 1: Introduction to SEO Part 2: On Site Optimization Part 3: Off Site Optimization Part 4: Keyword Research Part 5: 4 Essential Steps to SEO

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Comic for February 10, 2010

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Whane's Web