Search Engine Submission Services Are a Scam - Part II

Search Engine Submission Services Are a Scam - Part II

Written by Scottie Claiborne

Submitting Services Prey on the Unknown

To many business owners with new sites, the claims of submission services sound like a reasonable answer to their web marketing needs. For much less than full SEO services, they get the "comfort" of knowing they are actively promoting their site. Many fall into the too-good-to-be-true trap, simply because they don't have time to do much research.

Often, they will gain some other links during this period that DO actually get them listed in the search engines and they start to see some traffic. Unwittingly, they attribute this "success" to their submitting service and happily continue to pay their $29 a month, while telling all their friends how well it's working for them. Thus the cycle continues and the submitting services continue to not only thrive, but replicate through the industry!

Don't Be Afraid to Turn Off the Submitting Service

I promise you, it's not helping you in the least. We recently had a poster at the High Rankings Forum who insisted he did nothing but page submissions and got great rankings. Further investigation showed that he had links to these pages from the rest of his already-indexed pages. How Often Should I Resubmit My Optimized Site?

*Note- this is a long thread and some erroneous info is given in the first few pages- if you read it, be sure to read all the way through to see the results.

Several of us created pages and even domains to test the submission theory. To date, none of the submitted pages that have no other links pointing to them are in the search engine indexes of the three major engines. Yahoo seemed to take the most notice, actually sending a spider to take a look at the pages submitted, but they didn't "stick".

Understand this:

SUBMITTING YOUR SITE TO CRAWLING SEARCH ENGINES DOES NOT DO ANYTHING.

Submitting your Site to Directories WILL Help

As said above, crawling search engines (with spiders that crawl the web) find and add sites based on following links. To get those links, you should submit your site to directories.

You must submit your site to the human-reviewed directories if you want to be included in them, and an automated program can't do that for you. It can't select the proper category, fill in the various different types of fields requested for each directory, or read and input the "ransom code" (the auto-generated letters and numbers you often have to input to verify that you are a human.)

Software submission programs won't find the niche directories in your industry or locality, and they can't pay the submission fee that a lot of the higher quality directories are charging these days.

When it comes to link-building, the majority of the process is still a manual one, requiring thought, strategy, and careful selection. So stop spending money on that bogus submission service and instead invest in some high-quality directory links or other industry advertising. The effect will be long-term and actually bring in more traffic and sales, not just more offers for low cost drugs, logo designs, and incredible mortgage rates!

This ultimate article is written by Scottie Claiborne. You can find some really nice SEO tips Here.

Blogs owned by vioBlogger. Copyright © 2006. vioB Informations.

Search Engine Submission Services Are a Scam - Part I

Search Engine Submission Services Are a Scam
Written by Scottie Claiborne

Don't Waste Your Budget

Submit your site to 1000 search engines! Build traffic to your site fast and easy- just $29.95 a month! Get millions of visitors a day!

If you've read these claims before and ever wondered what you might be missing by not submitting to thousands of engines daily, I'm here to tell you exactly what you are not missing: your money and lots of e-mail spam.

These services are completely worthless. And yet they are pushed and pushed hard by huge domain registrars, web hosts, web designers and many other credible web professionals, not to mention the spam mails you get for these services daily. Let's walk through the concept behind submitting so you can understand what I mean when I say they are a waste of time, money, and bandwidth.

1. There are not thousands of search engines. Who do you use to search? That's what most other people use as well. There are at most maybe 7 search engines with reasonably large indexes, and only 3 that anyone actually uses for searching in significant numbers.
2. Google, Yahoo, and MSN will find your site by crawling links from other sites. If you don't have at least 1 link from one other page already in the index, you won't rank well for anything, even if the submission does alert the engines that the page exists.
3. Submitting does not get your page in the index or updated any faster. If it makes you feel better to submit, then do it- it won't hurt anything. But automatically submitting monthly, weekly, or daily doesn't help.
4. Your e-mail spam will quadruple. I have tested this with unique emails and submission services- many "submission services" are merely fronts for email list marketers. You are actually paying them to sell your email address.
5. The "1000's of search engines" are often FFA pages on spam sites. (Free-for-All pages). You really don't want your site listed on these sites- it's highly doubtful it will drive useful traffic (if any) or improve your link popularity. They are often feeding grounds for email harvesting bots.
6. If your site is already in the major indexes, submitting it again doesn't help anything. Once your page is indexed, it really doesn't need to be indexed again unless you significantly change the content. Good internal linking should be enough to make sure new and updated pages are found and updated.

to be continued in next post...

This ultimate article is written by Scottie Claiborne. You can find some really nice SEO tips Here.

Blogs owned by vioBlogger. Copyright © 2006. vioB Informations.

We need Global Services Today

We need Global Services Today
An article by vioB

With the ever increasing growth in the Multinational Business and Globalisation of the world, we now constantly need services that are international, that are not just confined in one state or one country but that has their coverage everywhere in the world.


International Roaming:

This term came up with the facility for cellphone users to use their cellphones anywhere in the world, without having to register into a new telephone service everytime when the user enters another state or country.

Today, the idea of International roaming is not just confined to the telecommunications. Many services are now available that give their clients International coverage.


Global Health Insurance

This is one the most wonderful services that came up recently. Imagine your Health Insurance covering you internationally and you can claim them from anywhere in the world, anytime you need ! Sounds great, doesn't it? Well there are Insurance Companies that are eager to provide you with such wonderful facilities as Global Health Insurance. And you can always get free assistance from them anytime.


Internet Bankings and ATMs:

Internet bankings and international ATMs are now everywhere, in every corner of the world. Life is getting simpler day after day. What more we need when we can have any transections anywhere, anytime? No wonder why new services like FirstDirect Internet banking are gaining popularity.


We are constantly globalising today, and we need services that cope up with this pace of globalisation. And we thank all these services for making our life more simple!


An article by vioB
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Forget the "What" - Focus on the "How"

Forget the "What" - Focus on the "How"
A fantastic article by Karon Thackston

If there is one thing copywriters love to talk about it's "Features vs. Benefits." To us it makes all the sense in the world. However, many business owners who want to learn to write their own powerful copy struggle with the concept.

Features are the properties of a product or service. The features of a car might be anti-lock brakes, leather seats, or rear-window defrost. Benefits, on the other hand, show how those features will actually be of benefit (hence the name) to the user. Anti-lock brakes keep you safe if you have to stop quickly. Leather seats are more durable and luxurious than cloth. In copywriting, benefits are much, MUCH more important than features. Let me show you a real-world example.

Stainless Steel Shaft or Priceless Cooking Tool?

Have you ever read a product brochure or Web page that sounded something like this?

The Braun® Multiquick Hand Blender offers a 200-watt motor, stainless steel shaft, five-blade chopper attachment, and aerator head.

How do you feel when you read that description of the hand blender? You're probably thinking, "Well, OK. That sounds all right."

That's how most people feel. It's not very exciting, is it? The thought of a stainless steel shaft doesn't really get your heart pumping and instill the thought that you *need* one of these hand blenders, does it? That's because the copy above focuses on the "what" of the product. Now read this version:

The Braun® Multiquick Hand Blender is a priceless tool for any cook with a busy schedule. Its powerful motor enables you to chop, whip, puree and blend with lightning speed. Its stainless steel shaft holds up to years of use without bending or breaking. The Multiquick's five-blade attachment gives you the ability to finely chop or grate even the hardest cheeses and nuts with ease. And the specially designed aerator head incorporates air into the liquids and sauces you blend, making them light and fluffy. You'll create delicious meals with ease and be out of the kitchen in record time.

The first example focuses on the "what" of the product… the features. It simply lists the nuts and bolts of what the physical product offers. However, the second copy example focuses on the "how" of the product… the benefits. These benefits show the reader how this product will make his/her life easier or better.

Focusing on the "what" and not the "how" of a product or service is a common mistake novice writers make. It is also a deadly mistake that can cost you sales. But how, exactly, do you create benefits out of features? Easily!

Five Easy Steps to Creating Powerful Benefits

Here's my five-step process for turning boring features into eye-popping benefits. Let's use the example of a marketing e-book for this practice session.

• List the features of your product or service. (Created in PDF format, information on email marketing, search engine optimization, PPC ads, etc.)
• Next, list the concerns or needs of your customers. If you don't know… ask them. (Finding affordable ways to promote their websites to bring in the most qualified traffic and increase sales.)
• Next, ask yourself, "Why does this feature matter to my customer?" Write your answers on the list. (PDF format means both PC and Mac users can view the e-book. Search engine optimization is one of the most effective, highly targeted tools there is… and it costs nothing once you learn how to do it.)
• Finally, take it one step further. Ask yourself, "What problem or concern can this feature address?" (Getting more qualified buyers to the reader's website so they can buy!)
• Write down the benefit and you're all done!

So, instead of writing copy about a marketing e-book that reads like this:

"Move It or Lose It" is an e-book for beginners that was created in PDF format. It covers the details of email marketing, search engine optimization, and PPC ads in order to bring you affordable marketing tools you can use.

…you can write copy like this:

"Move It or Lose It" was created especially for new online business owners and covers - in great detail - everything you need to know about the three most popular, economical, and effective marketing methods:

• Search engine optimization: one of the most effective, highly targeted tools there is… and it costs absolutely nothing once you learn how to do it.
• Email marketing: extremely targeted… this marketing method brings in consistently high returns on investment.
• Pay-per-click (PPC) ads: not only inexpensive, but also quick and easy to set up.

"Move It or Lose It" is available for immediate download as a PDF file, meaning both PC and Mac users can take advantage of this powerful information.

Which one sparks your interest more? I thought so!

When it's time to write your next piece of advertising copy, take some time to develop a solid list of benefits. Focusing on the "how" instead of the "what" will practically guarantee a better response and more sales.


This ultimate article is written by Scottie Claiborne. You can find some really nice SEO tips Here.
Blogs owned by vioBlogger. Copyright © 2006. vioB Informations.

The Secret Sauce in Web Site Marketing

The Secret Sauce in Web Site Marketing
An ultimate article by Scottie Claiborne

Web site marketing is about getting people to your site, then convincing them to take action: buy, join, subscribe, read more, etc. I'm going to give you the secret to unlocking the potential in your website. Right now. Absolutely for free. (Of course, if you WANT to send money, feel free to do so!

The Secret is Words.

Hmnn ... not very exciting, is it? You were expecting something flashier and unexpected probably... like special meta tags or coding or a secret search engine ranking recipe. The truth is that many websites just need more descriptive copy.

When many businesss owners set out to build a website, they start by looking at images, themes, and color schemes. They worry over technology like flash and javascript, wanting their site to be "cool" and outdo the competition. Their focus is on the visual and the interactive elements of the site. They pony up thousands of dollars to designers and coders to get that cool, interactive site they feel they must have, then they get someone in the office who's not busy at the moment to throw together some copy. It's almost an afterthought.

All You Need is Words.

OK, maybe that isn't all you need, but words are THE MOST IMPORTANT aspect of your site. The professional that most people think they can do without -the copywriter- is the one who can have the biggest impact on the success of your site. No matter what your website looks like, plain and simple or a triumph of visual graphic art, if the words are right it will convert.

Search Engine Rankings & Customer Conversions

Search engine spiders can't read pictures. They can't read Flash very well, although they are making strides in that direction. The same goes for javascript and other non-HTML technologies; for the most part search engine spiders ignore what they don't understand and look for what they do understand- text.

The words that are visible to people reading the page are the key element that search engine spiders use to determine what your page is about. (The other key element is links- we'll cover that in a future linking article, Threads of the Web.) Once the engine knows what the page is about, they can show that page to people who are searching for the words found on that page. That sounds pretty simplistic, but it's amazing how many pages only contain a picture and a few words, or flash animations, or other non-text items.

Sometimes the text on the page is really an image and not text at all, making the information virtually invisible to search engines. Some designers will tell you that putting the text from the image into the alt attribute of the image will solve the problem, but alt text is virtually ignored these days by the major engines. It's too easy to put irrelevant information in an alt attribute.
While the site owner often thinks the picture says it all and the web designer thinks it is cutting edge, the customer wants to know more. The web is a research tool as well as a marketing medium and when viewing a commercial site people want to know all the benefits, sizes, colors, and configurations.

Words Make All the Difference

A company rents cotton candy machines in Kalamazoo, SC. Their Cotton Candy Machine page has a big picture of a Cotton Candy Machine with "Cotton Candy Machine- $45" under it. Their page title says "Cotton Candy". That's all. A searcher typing in "cotton candy machine rental Kalamazoo" will never be able to find this page, because the search engine doesn't know that is what the page is about!

A potential customer who does find the page may look at it and think, "Hmnn... the other rental place has their machine for $40, I'll call them instead."

You need pictures and words in order to sell effectively.

Let's take our cotton candy example and redo that page in order to get more search hits and more customers calling to book it:

Title: "Cotton Candy Machine Rental in Kalamazoo, SC"
Picture: Nice photo that we already had.
Heading: "Cotton Candy Machine Rental"

Add excitement to your next party or event with our Cotton Candy Machine for rent! The sweet aroma and taste of fresh cotton candy can turn any party into a festival.

You can also raise funds for your organization with our Cotton Candy Machine! Sell cotton candy at your next carnival, festival, or even gatherings such as school PTO meetings or church get-togethers.

The low rental price of just $45 includes delivery, and we can even supply you with cotton candy flosssugar and cones.

Why Rent a Cotton Candy Machine from Our Company?

We are the only company in Kalamazoo, SC that offers a cotton candy machine with a safety bubble for your protection. Our Cotton Candy Machine is cleaned and sanitized after every use and inspected for proper operation before delivery. We'll even review the operating procedures with you when we drop it off.

The Payoff

A search engine will know that page is about cotton candy machine rental in Kalamazoo and your customers will know the benefits of renting from you. By taking the time to put all the information about a product or service and repeating the key terms where they make sense you can:

• Help search engines to know what the page is about
• Give people a reason to buy
• Reinforce your company services or offerings
• Spend less time on the phone/sending e-mails giving out basic information
• Identify the location for local businesses

None of that requires a special copywriter, designer, or programmer. You can do it yourself!
Don't be tempted to sneak in extra words… hidden text is penalized these days and stuffing words in your image alt attributes is a waste of time; most engines completely disregard it. And semi-visible or tiny text looks very unprofessional to your clients- it's just not needed. If you can't work it into the visible copy, you don't need it on the page.

Write a page title that reflects what the page is about, a good meta description, keywords that appear on the page, then put all the information you have about the product or service on that page in visible text for your visitors to read. If your writing skills are lacking, hiring a web copywriter, or even better an SEO copywriter. It may very well be the best investment you can make in your web marketing strategy!


This ultimate article is written by Scottie Claiborne. You can find some really nice SEO tips Here.
Blogs owned by vioBlogger. Copyright © 2006. vioB Informations.

The Hungry Little Spider - An SEO Bedtime Story

The Hungry Little Spider
A SEO story by Scottie Claiborne

Once upon a time, in a land called WWWebdom, there lived a little spider. It was a hungry little spider and it liked to munch up web pages and then keep track of which ones it liked best, so it could tell other people just how good they were.

The little spider never ran out of pages to munch because each page told the spider where to find other yummy pages (links). When lots of pages pointed him to one page, he usually found that page to be very tasty. Also, the more links he found to a specific page, the easier it was to remember it to tell others about.

*Incoming links are important to get your site found and ranked well.

Sometimes people tried to tell the spider which pages they wanted him to try and every so often, he'd check out some of the invitations he received. Usually, those pages weren't attached to any other pages, so the spider would be bored and forget they were there.

*Submitting your site to the search engines doesn't do much good without incoming links.

The spider enjoyed munching all types of pages, but some pages just tasted better than others. When he encountered pages that tried to make him eat a cookie and he refused those. He was on a diet and only ate yummy text.

Sometimes the pages seemed to recreate themselves over and over and they all tasted the same. Blech. Before he knew it, the spider would realize he was full of these repeating pages, so he would just stop and go home. The spider avoided the pages that had session ids all over them and never came back.

*Technical issues like forced cookies and session ID's will prevent your site from being indexed.

Some pages the spider munched on were very sparse. They were filled with fatty images and other things he couldn't eat, like Flash desserts. With only a little text on them, they didn't satify his hunger and he wasn't really sure if they tasted good or not. He didn't return to those pages very often.

The little spider loved big meaty pages with lots and lots of words. He really liked the ones that were well spiced with keyword phrases- it was easy to remember those pages and recommend them to his friends when they asked for a specific phrase.

*Get some real text on your pages and slim down on images. Use your targeted keyword phrases naturally throughout the copy.

Some pages were TOO spicy and the spider didn't like that at all. Especially when he hit a whole pocket of spice that he hadn't expected to be there. He also didn't like ordering one page, but being served another. Whenever he found out that was happening, he never returned to that page.

*Using tricks like keyword stuffing and cloaking can get your site banned by the search engines.

He loved the pages that were always changing a little- they were his favorite. He'd stop by to snack on those pages often. He liked the pages that stayed the same too- he just didn't stop by as often. He preferred to spend his time sampling new or different pages.

*Search engines like fresh, new content. If your content hasn't changed, there's no reason for the spider to index the page again.

While he didn't mind the extra side dishes of table code, CSS, and javascript, he never ate them. He just pushed it all to one side and left it there. He really appreciated the pages that kept the side dishes in separate files so that he didn't have to deal with them.

*Move your CSS and Javascripts to external files.

If he was really stuffed, sometimes he'd just order up the page titles and see what was available, making notes about the flavor of each page and whether he'd like to come back later when he was hungry and eat the whole thing.

*Partial indexing is typically nothing to worry about. Eventually, the page will be indexed, if there are no technical issues.

The spider had several spider friends who all liked the same thing and over time, there were more and more. They hoped one day, to eat every single page in WWWebdom and worked hard to make it come true. The End.



This wonderful story is written by Scottie Claiborne. You can find some really nice SEO tips Here.
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