Online Marketing From Home

Review: The Real Reason For The Failure Of Online Businesses

Several months ago Paul Smithson sent out a survey asking this question: “What is the ONE thing that prevents most online businesses from succeeding?”

Note: In case you are not familiar with who Paul Smithson is, he is the founder of XSitePro. (You have probably seen their slogan “The Internet Marketer’s Alternative To FrontPage And DreamWeaver”)

Anyway, he was absolutely stunned by the survey results and identified five major problems that people seem to encounter, again and again.

After extensive research he has just released the first report in a series of new reports he is working on. I have just finished reading it and must say I was really impressed!

Best part? It is free! No opt-in is required, no one-time offer… In fact, it is 48 pages of great, well- written and thought provoking content.

By the way, there is absolutely no financial benefit in it for me recommending this report. I simply think it is a great report that may really benefit a lot of marketers!

Suggest you download your report straight away from the download page, get yourself a nice glass of wine or a cup of tea, sit back, relax and enjoy the report. It is really worth reading.

To your success!
Francois du Toit

Buying links to artificially boost PageRank has become quite common in recent years, despite obvious disapproval from Google.

During the last Google PageRank update (October / November) many sites got severely penalized by Google for buying or selling links that pass PageRank. (Several of these sites took a big hit, such as dropping from a PR 6 to a PR 3)

Although many webmasters have reported that the drop in PageRank has not adversely affected their rankings in Google (organic traffic), the long-term impact is not yet evident…

Note: I recently posted an article here titled The Truth About The NoFollow Attribute where I explain the significance of Google PageRank as well as the NoFollow attribute. Suggest you refer to this article for a better understanding of what is meant by “PageRank” and “NoFollow”, if you are not familiar with these terms.

Paid Links and Link Schemes
  
Google is very clear about the fact that paid links that pass PageRank is in violation of their webmaster guidelines and can have a negative impact on your site’s ranking in their search results.

“Your site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating”

“Some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results”

Google specifically includes “Buying or selling links that pass PageRank” as an example of a link scheme.

Source: Google – Link Schemes

In fact, Google even goes as far as encouraging people to report any site that is buying or selling links that pass PageRank.

Source: Google – Why should I report paid links to Google?

What about paid advertising links?

This is what Google has to say about paid advertising links:

QUOTE

Not all paid links violate our guidelines. Buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web when done for advertising purposes, and not for manipulation of search results. Links purchased for advertising should be designated as such. This can be done in several ways, such as:

• Adding a rel=”nofollow” attribute to the <a> tag
• Redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file

UNQUOTE

Source: Google – Why should I report paid links to Google?

When may it be worth it to buy links that pass PageRank?

In principle, it is not worth it if you are serious about search engine optimization. The fact that many webmasters have gotten away with it for a long time does not mean the risk of being discovered by Google is low.

Google is continuously working on improving their already advanced algorithm and trying to outsmart them for short-term gain is not very smart. I guess the question should be: “Do you feel lucky?”

I can only think of one case scenario where you may not care about the potential negative impact of buying links that pass PageRank, namely if you have no interest in how well your site ranks in Google.

Some webmasters could not care less about Google and PageRank. They are mainly interested in buying links on high traffic sites in order to get traffic. They do not rely on organic traffic. This is often the case when a webmaster is using a squeeze page, simply to build his list or subscriber base.

On the other hand, if you are serious about building a website or blog that will rank well in the search engines then I would strongly advise you against paying for links that pass PageRank. 

All the best,
Francois du Toit

Book Review: 20 Ways To Make $100 Per Day Online

I originally reviewed “20 Ways To Make $100 Per Day Online” after receiving a pre-release copy from Willie Crawford. In fact, if you have already visited the sales page of the book you would have seen my testimonial…

Based on several emails I have received, and comments posted on various internet marketing forums, it is clear that many people have some misconceptions about “20 Ways To Make $100 Per Day Online”, hence the reason for this blog post.

I have seen comments such as “Must I use all 20 methods to make $100 per day online?” and “How can one man come up with 20 different ways to make $100 per day online? Is he using all 20 ways to make money everyday?”

Good questions. There is nothing wrong in being a bit skeptical! With all the rubbish being sold on the internet as “the next best thing since a slice of bread” many new marketers have burned their fingers and developed a healthy dose of skepticism.

This is what I believe: (Those of you that have read my free book Digging For Gold Nuggets will be familiar with this)

There are many ways to make money online. There is no such thing as a “best” way. The best way for me may not necessarily be the best way for you. In order to become highly successful you need to focus on one strategy at a time until you have mastered it.

Many highly successful marketers make all their money from only one discipline. I don’t know of any guru who is an expert in everything. Some are good selling products on eBay, others excel at affiliate marketing or Search Engine Optimization. But, nobody knows everything!

Ok, let’s have a good hard look at “20 Ways To Make $100 Per Day Money Online”.

First of all, the book was not written by Willie Crawford. Yes, he did write some chapters but it was basically a team effort involving several members of “The Internet Marketing Inner Circle”.

You see, Willie Crawford is a highly experienced and successful internet marketer but Willie is honest enough to admit that he cannot be an expert in every single way you can make money online. Nobody can for that matter, but Willie is humble enough to admit it.

What Willie has done is something that I have never seen done before and I have read hundreds of internet marketing books, reports and articles. He selected a group of marketers that each specialize in a certain field, has a proven track record of earning at least $100 per day online, and asked each one of them to write a chapter in “20 Ways To Make $100 Per Day Online”, explaining exactly how he or she does it.

I must be honest and admit that some of the contributors I have never heard of before I read the book, but I shall certainly remember them in the future! On the other hand, some contributors such as Patrick Pretty and Dr. Mani are well known marketers that I highly respect.

Secondly, and this is the thing that most impressed me from “20 Ways To Make $100 Per Day Online”… The idea is not to try and combine 20 different ways to make $100 per day online. You can make $100 per day online with any one of the ways described in the book.

The idea is to find one method that you are interested in and feel comfortable with. You basically have several contributors with proven track records explaining to you how they earn $100 per day online. It is up to you to decide what you want to you.
 
This is not some flimsy report. It is a comprehensive book of 247 pages packed full of “how to do it” information.

It sells for only $27, meaning you get 20 different ways of making $100 per day online for only $1.35 each! I am not even going to elaborate on this point. It is a no-brainer…

Should you buy this book?

It depends. No book is right for all people…

You should buy it if… You are not currently making $100 per day online, have not found the right way to make money online and need some help from people that are not only talking about making money but are actually making money.

You should not buy it if… You are currently making $100 per day online or are well on your way to making $100 per day online, following a method that is right for you. In other words, if you have something good going already just keep on going. 

If you are not sure it is the right book for you after reading this review, don’t buy it! I sincerely believe it can help many people but please remember that it is up to you to make it work. Reading the book is not enough. You have to take action. If you are only mildly interested in internet marketing or don’t really have the time for it right now, please put your wallet away. I would not want you to buy a book that is not right for you.

Interested in buying? Have a look at the sales page by clicking the following link 20 Ways To Make $100 Per Day Online. It should answer any outstanding questions you may have.

P.S. If you feel this book can add value to your internet marketing I would like to offer you a deal that I have not seen anywhere else. Why? Because I like to put my money where my mouth is… If you buy the book using the website link on this page and are not convinced that it is worth at least $27, I shall personally refund you the $27 straight into your Paypal account. Time limit? None! Conditions? None!   

P.P.S. Here is the link again: 20 Ways To Make $100 Per Day Online

All the best,
Francois du Toit

Should you use hyphens or dashes in a domain name?

I often come across new forum posts where someone is asking whether he or she should hyphenate a domain name. What really irritates me are some of the answers that are posted to these questions…

Answers such as “Don’t use more than two hyphens, maximum three”, or “Don’t use hyphens, they are used by keyword spammers”. What rubbish!

There are two issues to consider as far as hyphens are concerned, namely:
1. SEO or Search Engine Optimization, and
2. Natural Search Queries (done by people like you and me)

1. Hyphens and SEO

Does Google penalize sites using hyphens or dashes in their domain name or url?

This is what Matt Cutts of Google has to say on this topic:

Google doesn’t algorithmically penalize for dashes in the url. Of course I can only speak for Google, not other search engines. And bear in mind that if your domain looks like buy-cheap-viagra-online-while-consolidating-your-debt-so-you-can-play-texas-holdem-while-watching-porn.com, that may still attract attention for other reasons.
Source: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/

I have not been able to find any evidence supporting the theory that hyphens should be limited to say one or two, or three at the most.

Will hyphens in a domain name help you to rank better in the search engines?

There is no evidence to suggest that, all else being equal, a site with a domain name such as “online-marketing.com” will rank higher than “onlinemarketing.com” for the keywords online marketing.

Hyphens are first and foremost word separators. Google has no problem identifying “onlinemarketing” as “online” and “marketing”.

There may be some phrases that should rather be hyphenated in order to avoid possible confusion, such as “booksexchange” – Is it “books exchange” or “book sex change”?

Not using a hyphen means a search engines will have to segment the phrase. Google uses a very advanced algorithm and should normally not have any problems segmenting words and phrases. However, the same cannot be assumed for all search engines…

Should hyphens be used in the “path” of a domain name?

Note: Everything after the slash (/) is called a path. For example, in mysite.com/example/ the path is example.

Well, this is an easy question to answer.

Matt Cutts of Google was a guest speaker at the WordCamp 2007 Conference (held in San Francisco) and delivered a presentation entitled “Whitehat SEO tips for bloggers”.

According to Matt, using dashes or hyphens are certainly preferable to using underscores or no spaces.

Once again, Google may not necessarily have a problem segmenting phrases but other search engines may have some trouble. However, Matt also pointed out that there is no need to make changes to existing paths although he recommended using hyphens for new paths.

For further information, refer to:
http://2007.wordcamp.org/schedule/search-engine-optimization/
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/whitehat-seo-tips-for-bloggers/

2. Natural Search Queries
 
If we forget about search engines and SEO for a moment there are many arguments for and against using hyphens in domain names.

Arguments against using hyphens

a. It looks unprofessional
 
It is all in the eye of the beholder!

Some people may think that onlinemarketingromhome.com looks better than online-marketing-from-home.com… I don’t agree, but that is only my view. I don’t think there is really a right or wrong answer here.

b. People do not like to type in hyphens

This is a good argument. When I hear about a new website, I automatically type it as a one word .com url. Even if I know it has hyphens I may still forget to insert them.

Most people will assume that a domain name contains no hyphens. If you have a hyphenated domain name you may end up sending a lot of traffic to your competitor that owns the same domain name without hyphens!

c. It makes the domain name longer

True, but as far as I am concerned, it is neither here nor there. Not a very strong argument.

d. Makes the domain name more complicated

I often have some trouble explaining to people over the phone what a hyphen or dash sign looks like. Some people will use an underscore (_) or even a slash (/) since they may not be that familiar with the term. (Not something most people use on a daily basis)

It is much easier to say “it is one word…”

Arguments in favor of using hyphens

Excluding any SEO arguments, the only real advantage to using a hyphenated domain name is that it looks better, i.e. more visually appealing or recognizable.

This is especially true in the case of long domain names or when words in certain phrases start and end with the same letters, for example:

article-encyclopedia.com looks better than articleencyclopedia.com
make-money-working-on-the-internet.com looks better than makemoneyworkingontheinternet.com

Decisions on whether or not to use hyphenated domain names should be taken on a case by case basis. It is ridiculous to make a blanket statement such as “avoid hyphenating domain names”, or “hyphenated domain names are better for SEO”. 

As a matter of interest, I own online-marketing-from-home.com and onlinemarketingfromhome.com. It was not easy to decide on what version to use!

In the end I felt online-marketing-from-home.com was the right choice and I am using onlinemarketingfromhome.com as a redirect, so it does not really matter what version people type into their browsers, they will still end up on my blog.

To be totally honest, if I could not have obtained onlinemarketingfromhome.com I would not have even considered registering and using online-marketing-from-home.com.

My advice is to always try to register both versions (with and without hyphens) of a domain name, especially a keyword rich domain name that you have long-term plans for.

All the best,
Francois du Toit

Private Label Rights or PLR’s, as it is commonly referred to, is often misunderstood or misinterpreted, especially by new online marketers. However, I have also come across some experienced internet marketers that make assumptions about the meaning of the term without really understanding it…

Why is it so important to understand the meaning of PLR or Private Label Rights?

Well, I recently had two unpleasant experiences… I am going to save you the details. Suffice to say that if you are planning on buying or selling a product with “rights” you need to make sure that you, as well as the buyer / seller, are on the same page! 

The main problem is that there is no generally accepted definition of Private Label Rights or PLR’s. It can mean many different things to different people. Get it wrong or make the wrong assumption and you may be in for a nasty surprise.  

Let’s quickly have a look at the most common “rights” you can receive when buying a product. I am specifically referring to ebooks although many software programs are also sold with these “rights”.

Personal Rights or Personal Usage Rights  

Unless a product comes with any other “rights” you should assume that you only have personal rights – It is only for your own personal use. You may not change it, divulge the information to others, plagiarize it, sell it, or give it away. 

Resell Rights / RR

Remark: Many people use the term “Resale” i/o “Resell”. Does not matter. It’s the same thing.

By acquiring Resell Rights you are entitled to sell the product to others. However, your buyers may not sell the product as well. They will only have “personal rights”.

As is the case with Personal Rights, you may not change it, divulge the information to others, or copy / plagiarize it.

Note: Some resell right sellers might allow you to “re-brand” parts of the ebook (normally affiliate links) but you may not change anything else.

Many resell right sellers impose restrictions on how you may sell the product. They may stipulate that the ebook must not be given away for free but must be sold (for any price) or not below a certain price. Many also stipulate that it may not be sold on auction sites, such as eBay – Afraid the value of the product will be devalued.

Note: Some will allow you to give the ebook away for free as a bonus to another product you are selling or an incentive for people to subscribe to your newsletter or ezine, but will not allow you to give it away as a standalone product.

Master Resell Rights / MRR

Master Resell Rights or MRR is similar to Resell Rights, with one exception:

You may also allow your buyers to sell the product to their own customers.

Important: (Many people get this wrong)

Master Resell Rights can be either Transferable, or Non-Transferable.

Transferable MRR – With Transferable Master Resell Rights you may also pass the MRR to your customers and they may also pass the MRR to their customers, etc.

Non-Transferable MRR – With Non-Transferable Master Resell Rights you may only pass Resell Rights to your customers, not MRR. In other words, your customers may sell the product to their customers but their customers are not allowed to sell it as well.

Private Label Rights / PLR

By acquiring Private Label Rights you are normally entitled to change the product as if you created it, e.g. edit the content, break the ebook up into articles and add your name as the author. 

Note (1): Some sellers will require you to change at least a certain percentage of the ebook before selling it while others will allow you to sell the ebook “as is” (you can simply add your name as the author).

Note (2): It is normal for sellers to stipulate that you cannot claim copyright unless you have made significant changes. (It will be a ridiculous for 20 people to claim copyright to the same PLR ebook that none of have them have written in the first place…)

Important: (Many people get this wrong)

Private Label Rights can be either Limited, or Unlimited.

Limited PLR’s – Certain restrictions are placed on what you may to with the PLR’s. The most “common” restriction is that you are not allowed to sell or give away the PLR’s to anyone.   

Unlimited PLR’s – As the term implies, you can basically do anything with the ebook as no restrictions are imposed or implied.

Advice For Buyers    

Never make assumptions. If you are buying a product with Resell Rights, Master Resell Rights or Private Label Rights and are not 100% sure what right you are getting, always contact the seller for clarification. Get it black on white and file it in a safe place!

Tip: Very often sellers include a “read-me” file in a zip folder when you buy and download a product, stipulating your “rights”. Make a point of printing & filing your “rights”. You are not going to remember it!

Advice For Sellers

Be very clear what rights you are offering. Don’t just say “Private Label Rights” or “PLR’s” without further clarification, unless you really do not care at all what the buyer does with the product. Protect yourself by being as specific as possible.

Trust this article has clarified some of the more important points surrounding “rights” in general and Private Label Rights / PLR’s in particular. 

TechSmith Corporation, the company behind Camtasia, is currently running a fantastic special offer!

You can download a fully functional version of Camtasia Studio 3.1.3 for FREE and upgrade (optional) to Camtasia Studio 5.0 for only $149, a massive discount of $150 on the regular sales price of $299!

Before I get into the details on how to claim your free download…

If you have any plans on creating your own products, now or in the future, using screen videos can dramatically boost your profits. Does not matter whether you create a screen video product or use screen videos to compliment and add value to an ebook. The possibilities are endless.

I have no doubt that using videos for online marketing purposes will only increase in the future. It is certainly not only a fad. You only have to consider the popularity of YouTube to understand the massive popularity and potential of using videos.

Ok, here is how you can get Camtasia Studio 3:

Step 1. Download the program by clicking on the following link:

Download Camtasia Studio

Note: It is an .exe file and will therefore not work on Mac. Furthermore, it is quite a large download (28.2 MB) so if you are using a dialup connection, please be patient. 

Step 2. Click on the following link to register your copy. TechSmith will email you a “software key” that you need to activate your copy.

Register & Get Software Key

Don’t feel under any obligation to upgrade to Camtasia Studio 5.0 – Getting an upgrade for only $149 is an excellent bargain. However, you don’t need to upgrade straight away.

What I suggest is the following: Download Camtasia Studio 3 and learn how to use it. Experiment, play around, and create some sample videos. Have fun! You will soon know whether it is something that will benefit your online business.

Tip: I am not sure for how long you will be able to download a free version of Camtasia 3. I suggest you download it without delay, even if you do not currently have the time to try it out.   

Before I forget… If you have any concerns about making videos, thinking that it is difficult or will take you a long time to master using Camtasia, I seriously recommend you acquire Kevin Riley’s product “Recipe For Producing Hot Video Tutorials With Camtasia”.

It is a comprehensive 61 page report full of tips and easy to understand screenshots. It only costs $9.95 and I can guarantee you that this very small investment will save you a lot of time and effort!          

Step 3. (Optional but highly recommended) Download “Recipe For Producing Hot Video Tutorials With Camtasia”.

Thanks for reading and enjoy Camtasia 3!

Francois du Toit

Review: Recipe For Plucking Low Hanging Fruit From The Internet by Kevin Riley

I often get comments from new internet marketers saying things like “I want to make money online but have no money to invest”, or “I don’t know how to build a website”, or “What is the easiest way to start my online business”…

Well, Kevin Riley has just launched his latest “money making recipe” called “Recipe For Plucking Low Hanging Fruit From The Internet” and I am going to try my best to give you a totally objective review.

Note: I do not believe in pushing any product. Not all products are right for all marketers. The best I can do is to provide you with an objective review and my recommendation – Only YOU can decide if it is the right product for you.   

What is the book about?

Many new internet marketers try too hard when they just get started. They want to make a fortune online within a very short period of time. They want to compete with experienced marketers for the “top hanging fruit on the tree” (profitable but normally very competitive markets).  

Kevin Riley provides a step-by-step blueprint showing how new marketers can easily build a profitable online business by focusing on “low hanging fruit” (smaller markets with fewer competitors, but profitable nonetheless!).

He explains how any new marketer or “newbie” can make money online by promoting other people’s products (affiliate marketing). “Recipe For Plucking Low Hanging Fruit From The Internet” provides a detailed step-by-step action plan.

What do I like from the book?
 
First of all, “Recipe For Plucking Low Hanging Fruit From The Internet” is not a “what to do” book but a “how to do it” book. It is a comprehensive 112 page blueprint showing the exact steps anyone can follow to start a profitable online business from home working only a couple of hours per week, part-time.

By following Kevin Riley’s blueprint:
- You do not need a website
- You do not need your own product
- You do not need to invest any money to get started
- You have no monthly expenses
- You do not need a “list” (subscribers or members)

What don’t I like from the book?  

I think Kevin should have recommended a couple of ways to boost earnings by making some small investments. However, I guess his whole point was to illustrate how you can make money online without spending any money… 

Some of the income claims made in the book - how much money can be made by following the step-by-step action plan – seems a bit unrealistic. Not impossible but unlikely, especially in the beginning.   

My Recommendation:

I have no hesitation in highly recommending “Recipe For Plucking Low Hanging Fruit From The Internet” to all new or inexperienced internet marketers. Kevin Riley also offers a money-back-guarantee, making it a no-brainer deal.

For more info, visit the sales page of Recipe For Plucking Low Hanging Fruit From The Internet.

If you are already making money online with affiliate marketing, are a semi-experienced or experienced online marketer, this book will most likely not help to increase your current income.

Still in doubt?   

Kevin Riley has very generously agreed that I may provide a FREE copy of Part 1 of “Recipe For Plucking Low Hanging Fruit From The Internet” to all my ezine members and readers of my blog.

You can download Part 1 by simply clicking on the following link: Plucking Low Hanging Fruit From The Internet

I have no doubt that after reading Part 1 you will no longer have any doubts on whether or not “Recipe For Plucking Low Hanging Fruit From The Internet” can be a valuable addition to your online marketing success.

The NoFollow attribute or NoFollow “tag”, as it is often referred to, has led to many heated debates amongst webmasters since it was first introduced by Google.

Although the debate on whether the NoFollow attribute should have been introduced, or should be used by webmasters, will probably never end, there are many misconceptions about it. I trust this post will clarify many of these misconceptions.

Let’s start at the beginning… What is the NoFollow attribute? Why did Google introduce it? Why do I need to know about it?      

What is the NoFollow attribute?

The NoFollow attribute is a bit of code that looks like this: rel=”nofollow”. It is not part of the visible content on a website or blog. It is used by webmasters to inform search engines, such as Google, how they should treat hyperlinks.

Example of a hyperlink not using the rel=”nofollow” attribute:
<a href=”http://www.website.com/”>My Website</a>

Example of a hyperlink using the rel=”nofollow” attribute:
<a href=”http://www.website.com/” rel=”nofollow”>My Website</a>

In both above mentioned examples the phrase My Website (Anchor Text) will look identical and will be a clickable hyperlink. However, by using the NoFollow attribute in the second example Google will not give the link any credit.

To quote Google: “When Google sees the attribute (rel=”nofollow”) on hyperlinks, those links won’t get any credit when we rank websites in our search results”.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/01/preventing-comment-spam.html

The best way to establish whether a website or blog is using the NoFollow attribute is to follow the following easy steps:
Step 1: Open the site in your browser
Step 2: Right click
Step 3: Left click on “View Source”
Step 4: Left click on “Find”
Step 5: Type in: nofollow

Should the site be using the rel=”nofollow” attribute it will be displayed.

Why did Google introduce it?

The simple answer is to combat comment spam. For example, to discourage comments like “For cheap Viagra click here” to be posted on blogs.

Before the NoFollow attribute was introduced comments could be posted on blogs, resulting in the poster getting a hyperlink (backlink) to his site as well as some traffic (site visitors) from people clicking on the hyperlink.

Backlinks from sites that use the NoFollow attribute are basically worthless.       

Google felt that if blogs were to use the rel=”nofollow” attribute that fewer spam comments would be posted just to get backlinks.

The main arguments against using the NoFollow attribute are:

1. If Mr. A makes a good comment on the blog of Mr. B (adds fresh content to the blog) surely he should be entitled to get some “link juice” from the blog for his efforts. If he does not get any “link juice” will he still take the time to post good comments in the hope that it will result in some traffic to his own site?  

2. Surely the owner of the blog can decide to pre-moderate all comments first before they appear live on the site and, even if he does not pre-moderate them, he can still delete all inappropriate and spam comments.

3. It has not had the desired effect of reducing comment spam.

4. Blogs, such as Wordpress blogs can combat spam by using selected plug-ins that can help identify and prevent comment spam.

Note: The NoFollow attribute is set as default on all new Wordpress blogs but can be removed by the blog owner.  

In my opinion, the main reason why Google introduced the rel=”nofollow” attribute was not really to help sites combat comment spam but to prevent the manipulation of Google’s algorithm.    
 
This is a bold statement. In order to understand its significance we have to understand the importance that hyperlinks play in Google’s algorithm, and we have to understand the significance of PageRank (Google Trade Mark).

According to Google, the heart of their software is PageRank - “A system for ranking web pages”. In the eyes of Google a link from page A to page B is a “vote” by page A for page B. The more “votes” a page gets the more important that page becomes.    
http://www.google.com/technology/index.html

Note: Relevancy plays a big role. For example, a link from page A (pornographic site) to page B (desert recipes site) is not relevant and will largely be discounted.

Google makes no secret about the fact that “webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.”
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34432&hl=en
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40349&ctx=related 

The number of relevant links from high-quality sites determine the PageRank of a web page (on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest). All else being equal, web pages with a high PageRank will rank higher in the search engines for a specific keyword or key phrase than web pages with a low PageRank.

Note: Google does not rank sites only based on PageRank. There are many other factors they take into consideration. However, the fact remains that PageRank is an important factor.

When blogs started increasing in popularity Google realized they had a serious problem on their hands. Many people would spend hours every day just posting little comments on relevant and high-quality blogs to get one-way hyperlinks back to their own sites, thereby increasing the importance of their own sites as well as their search engine rankings. 

If Google left this unattended it would make a mockery of their PageRank system. They realized that many webmasters did not pre-moderate or moderate comments, often due to the fact that some blogs have hundreds of blog entries and many webmasters simply do not have the time to review all comments.

Based on the above, it can be argued that Google did themselves a favor by introducing the NoFollow attribute and that combating comment spam to help webmasters was of secondary concern. After all, the rel=”nofollow” link does not prevent spam comments from being posted and it does not prevent the hyperlinks from being clickable, sending traffic to the spammer’s website or blog.

Are there any advantages for webmasters to use the NoFollow attribute?

Absolutely!

1. It does limit content spam

Many spammers specifically look for blogs that do not use the NoFollow attribute and will not post comments on blogs that do. It is hard to estimate by how much spam comments have been reduced thanks to the NoFollow attribute.

I still see a lot of comment spam on blogs that do use the rel=”nofollow” attribute, presumably posted by people that have not checked whether or not the blog is using this attribute or by people that don’t care and simply post comments in the hope that it will generate some traffic to their website or blog.

I have seen some webmasters complain that using the NoFollow attribute has had a negative impact on people posting comments… Well, I would rather have fewer comments posted on my blog than many stupid comments from people that are only after backlinks, have nothing really to contribute and will probably never visit my blog again after posting!

2. It is important who you are linking to!    

As previously mentioned, a link from page A to page B is seen by Google as a “vote” by page A for page B. You cannot control the sites linking to your site but you can control the links from your site to other sites.

Google is very clear that webmasters should take care who they link to. According to Google: “Avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected by those links”.
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769

Checking out hundreds of posts and links to make sure they are not links to “bad neighborhoods” is practically just about impossible and a waste of time. 

By not using the rel=”nofollow” attribute you run a huge risk that at least some of the links on your site may point to “bad neighborhoods” and that Google may rightly penalize your site.

By using the NoFollow attribute you are basically saying to Google “I did not post this link, someone else did. The fact that this link is on my site should not be seen as a “vote” from my site to the other site.

People that post on blogs only to get backlinks will obviously be disappointed by the rel=”nofollow” attribute. What some webmasters do not realize is that even if a site does not use the NoFollow attribute, and is relevant to your own site, that if the site has a lot of hyperlinks the value of a hyperlink to your own site is very much watered down… Anyway, maybe this will be a good topic for a future blog entry.   

Thanks for reading this very long blog entry on the NoFollow attribute. I trust you have not had too much trouble staying awake. Looking forward to reading your comments!   

This is my first post on Online Marketing From Home and I thought it would be the right opportunity to inform you why I have created this blog.

Online Marketing From Home has been launched to meet the following objectives:

1. To overcome email deliverability problems

Email deliverability has become a major problem in recent years. It is expected that in the months and years to follow it will become more and more difficult to get past spam filters.

Sadly, it is a case of everyone paying the price thanks to some trolls that believe you have to spam people to get attention. We all hate spam! The problem is that it is getting more difficult to get emails delivered to people that have genuinely requested the information.

I use Aweber as my autoresponder (great company) and recently wanted to send a message to my list informing them of a great product I just reviewed. I felt it could really benefit them. I simply could not get my “spam score” to an acceptable level…

P.S. A high spam score means chances are good your message will not be delivered and will get blocked as spam.  

Eventually I contacted Aweber and asked them to review my message as I simply could not figure out what was causing my spam score to be so high. According to Aweber there was a single digit culprit, a $ sign I included in my headline. They indicated that this was enough for many ISP’s to block my message as spam!

You have probably noticed how many words such as “money” are spelt “m.oney”, “m*o*n*e*y” or something similar just to get past spam filters. Well, I really dislike having to sound like a moron because I am just trying to get a simple email delivered!

Solution? Yes, you guessed it… Blogging. I can say all I want and say it the way I want to without worrying that my message will be blocked! I simply need to notify all interested parties that I have a new message on my blog and that’s it. Great!

2. A great way to communicate and interact with members

One of the things that has always irritated me from email marketing is the lack of interaction with members. In many ways, it is like a big black hole! You send an email, not even sure it has been received and rarely get any feedback.I would like Online Marketing From Home to be different.

I love hearing from people on my list or anybody for that matter. If you like a blog post, say it! If you want to add something or make a constructive comment, do it!

I am not positioning myself as this great guru that knows it all. I think even the most experienced marketers learn new stuff all the time and it is important to be open-minded.

I look forward to learning from the insights of other people, regardless of their experience level or how much money they are making. If you have something interesting to share, please feel free to do so.

3. Can review previous posts

I  have new members joining my lists on a daily basis and many people will only stumble upon this site for the first time many months or years from now.

I have always had a policy of not regurgitating content. I know most people would quickly unsubscribe from my lists if I start sending them the same emails all over again once every couple of months!

The downside is that many new subscribers will miss out on some really helpful content… Well, I hope to solve this problem with Online Marketing From Home since all posts will be archived and can be referred to at any time in the future.

It goes without saying that the success of a blog depends on quality posts. Without quality posts nobody will visit Online Marketing From Home and this blog will turn into a monologue. Lol, I am too young to start talking to myself. Well, there you have it.

Thanks for reading and wishing you all the very best!

Francois du Toit