Technorati Tags: free trial, internet marketing, internet marketing newbie, keyword research, lead generation, linkedin, market samurai, network marketing, search engine optimisation, seo, seo golden rules, traffic generation

One of the key concepts for the new internet marketer to grasp is search engine optimisation (SEO) or, put simply, how to get your site to appear in the search engine rankings for a given search term.

There are many ways to tweak your site so that it is search-engine friendly; making sure your chosen keyword appears in the title, the body text, even in any image titles are basics for what is known as on-page SEO.

However the real benefit is in off-page SEO, and that entails generating backlinks TO your website from other websites. The common method of achieving this is through Article Marketing; that is to write an article relating to whichever niche it is you are marketing and to submit that to article directories along with a backlink to your own site, with the link suitably titled to include your keyword of course (something known as 'anchor text').

At this point you may be thinking: "oh no, does this mean I have to write lots of articles and submit them to a raft of different websites to get the backlinks?" Yes it does, but there are ways to make the process easier. 

One such way is to use the Article Marketing Robot. You can find out more by clicking the link, but essentially what it does is take a lot of the drudgery out of the process, by using the tool to submit your article automatically to a whole variety of article hosting sites out there. It can schedule your articles to go up when you want, or it can 'blast' them. One other feature which the new marketer will find essential is the 'spin' feature. This allows you to change aspects of the article text so that the exact same wording doesn't appear everywhere. For search engines to recognise the links, this is vital.

Presently they are offering the tool as a 30-day no quibble trial; try it out for 30 days and if unsatisfied, they will refund your money. The tool is already available at a discounted rate and is a highly-recommended tool if you need to boost your search engine rankings.  Click the image to order:

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: anchor text, article marketing, article marketing robot, article spinning, article submission, automated article submission, backlinks, Internet Marketing SEO, keyword anchor text, keywords, linkedin, off-page seo, on-page seo, search engine optimisation, search engine rankings, seo

Technorati Tags: internet marketing, Internet Marketing SEO, Internet Marketing Services, linkedin

Technorati Tags: linkedin

Pixlr is a real godsend for internet marketers; it puts the basic features of popular editing software such as Photoshop in the hands of anyone with a computer – you no longer need to install anything, just navigate to www.pixlr.com/editor and away you go.  If you are setting up a Facebook page this video will show how you can use the online editor to create your own graphic to use on the page. They are usually 200×600 pixels and so our graphic is created to those dimensions. Hopefully those of you who are using the editor have better taste than I did when making this demonstration – I do not recommend blending purple and yellow together!

Technorati Tags: linkedin

I've just been playing about with Pixlr, a browser-based image editor. This tool is a real boon for anyone who wants to edit their photos or create a new graphic from scratch, but is either away from their regular computer with a software editor installed on it (such as Photoshop or the GIMP) or perhaps does not have an editor on the machine. This tool offers much of the familiarity of the Photoshop desktop, along with a tool palette with all the everyday options included, but is accessible from anywhere and is free, to boot.  You can edit an image either stored on your machine, or from a URL, or from an image saved in your Facebook, Picasa or Flickr galleries, and once you have finished editing it you can also save the finished image online.  The video shows a quick demonstration of Pixlr, I have used it to demonstrate that it can emulate layer masking in Photoshop, which means you can, for example change the colour of a car bonnet (as I have shown).

The video may be viewed in full-screen if desired – click the icon in the bottom right of the control bar to expand. 

The other use for this tool is of course the ability to make customised graphics; if for example you have a Facebook page and need to create a sidebar or another image for use on it, you can do so on this editor and upload it.  Network marketers will therefore find this to be a fabulous asset; a future video will show how the Pixlr tool can create a graphic in much the same way as would be done in Photoshop. 

There are also plugins for Firefox and for Google Chrome so that you can screen-grab any image or graphic from the web and edit it in Pixlr. 

Pixlr Screen Grabber for Firefox 

Pixlr Screen Grabber for Google Chrome

For more sophisticated image editing, of course, the free tool cannot match the vast amount of options and settings in the Adobe product but, for a free utility accessible from any computer (provided it is Flash-enabled and of a reasonable specification) Pixlr is a real game-changer for people who wish to get creative. I look forward to getting more familiar with this editor over the coming weeks.  

To try it out for yourself please follow the link below. 

www.pixlr.com

Technorati Tags: linkedin

As I write this post Twitter are rolling out their new user interface. It will start showing for some users from tonight, but will appear for everyone over the next few weeks. The main change that is grabbing the attention is that you can now play embedded videos within your Twitter page (something that users of Power Twitter for Firefox/Chrome/Safari have already been able to do for some time); there are some more nice looking features coming too which include the ability to click a tweet and see additional information within a panel relating to the author of that tweet, and a new ‘mini profile’ panel which appears when you click a username. That means it will no longer take you away from your current page; it will give you the information about that user in its own box. They’ve also redesigned the interface to give easy access to mentions, searches, lists and retweets.

There is a preview video already up which gives a short overview of the changes to the interface; watch it here.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this improves the user experience, and with my training hat on (I’m currently giving training on the use of Twitter to local business people) it’s an exciting time to be involved in this industry.

A full review of the new Twitter interface will appear here once I get access to it and have had chance to get to grips with it!

Technorati Tags: linkedin

Google unveiled a new feature tonight: Google Instant. The change means that Google now serves up search results IMMEDIATELY you commence typing in the search box, as opposed to only serving results when you press the button. It appears to be an extension of their existing suggestion feature, where it would serve up search terms in a drop-down box based on what you’ve already typed in. That still happens, but now, as you type, search results appear and change the more text you input into the search field.  Fans of the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ feature may wonder what’s happened to that button; the feature is now incorporated into those suggested search terms in the drop-down box. Mouse over the search term and you will see the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ feature there.

To make use of this new feature you must be signed into Google; those using the standard search page without having a Google account will remain unaffected.  Of course the option can be disabled if you are signed in; it is enabled by default.

Google claim that the new feature will save around two to five seconds per query. For internet marketers, the implications are as yet unknown, but as the existing suggestion feature is often used for keyword research, it’s very possible that this new feature could be used to aid that process along.  I’m keen to see how this changes the rules and how we can get the best from this new tool, and I look forward to trying it out over the coming weeks.

Here is Google’s introduction and demonstration video which explains the new feature:

Give it a whirl and see what you think of it!

Technorati Tags: linkedin

Nowadays, personal computers and the internet are an essential part of our lives. People do many things online such as chat, do their shopping, or their banking. However the more things we do online, , the more open we are to potential security threats . The threat could be a hacker using your PC as a ‘zombie’; a platform from which to launch attacks on other personal computersor they may want to access your private data, a practice commonly called ‘phishing’. All of us who use a PC to do anything online should know of the dangers, and here we will list some techniques to help you protect yourself.

1) Back up your important information and store it away from the computer. Modern computers are equipped with DVD-R drives and this simplifies the task of storing your data to a blank disc to be filed. Alternatively, consider an external hard drive.

2) Update and patch your operating system, browser, and software frequently. Windows now includes an automated update where the latest patches are downloaded to your machine for you to apply on the next restart. Alternatively you can access it from the Control Panel (Start-Control Panel-Windows Update). For older versions of Windows (e.g. XP) you can check online for patches at windowsupdate.microsoft.com. Keep in mind that older versions of Windows may no longer be supported by Microsoft, so for most effective security protection keep your operating system as up-to-date as you can. In the same way keep your browser updated; most browsers have an option to check for updates from the Help menu.

3) Install a firewall. A good firewall will block viruses and trojans from getting onto your machine, and anything you are unaware of that is trying to access the internet without your knowledge will be stopped. Windows Firewall is included with Vista and Windows 7 (and is by default turned on), but you may wish to consider a third- party product such as the well-regarded ZoneAlarm (www.zonealarm.com).

4) Check your browser security settings. If you’re using Internet Explorer go to Tools then Internet Options, then choose the Security tab. By default, the level is set to ‘medium-high’. Set this to ‘high’ to block Active-X and Javascript, which can be used by hackers to plant more trojans on your machine. You are able to maintain a list of ‘trusted sites’ (click the green tick for this zone) and add the addresses of those sites you do trust and they will not be blocked the same way as untrusted websites. Firefox security settings are accessed by clicking Tools then Options, then selecting the Security tab.

5) Make sure you have antivirus software. Highly important! Most personal computers come with a version of McAfee or Norton which is valid for 30 days, but to keep receiving updates you have to subscribe to them. If you do not have these or wish to use a free antivirus solution, AVG or Avast both offer free versions; when you install either of these it is vital that these are set to automatically update so that the latest antivirus patches are downloaded regularly.

6) Beware of email attachments. A typical way of passing a virus around is via an email attachment, it is possible to scan these using your anti-virus software but in general, if you do not recognise the sender, do not trust the attachment. In addition, you may get a mail from an address that appears genuine, but is actually a hacker impersonating a genuine company (this is a typical ‘phishing’ method).

7) Don’t run programs from unknown sources. Again, your anti-virus software should be able to scan and detect viruses hidden in downloaded files, but use good sense. In addition, beware of forwarding on a program, the source of which is unknown to you, it could have a funny joke in it but if a friend or co-worker gets a virus from it, you could land yourself in trouble.

8 ) Set your machine to show filename extensions. By default, Windows hides file extensions ‘for known file types’. This should be disabled, you do this by going to Tools, then Folder Options, and selecting the View tab in Explorer. In Vista or later, the menu bar is hidden – to reveal it, press the ALT key once and it will show in Explorer, then proceed as described.

9) If you’re not using the computer, turn it off! Nothing can get to your computer while it’s switched off, so when you’re not using it, shut it down.

10) Make a bootable CD or pen drive so that if your machine ever does get damaged, you can still start it up. Modern computers no longer use floppy drives which often were used so that you could boot from a floppy if the worst happened, so you would need to use your CD drive or USB pen drive instead. A good way to get to your computer is to have a bootable operating system on a CD or DVD, such as Ubuntu. It will run live from the disk, so if you cannot start your machine normally, you can still reach the files and if necessary retrieve them. Ubuntu is a free operating system based on Linux, and you can get it at http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

These are some of the basic steps we should all take so that if things do go wrong, we can recover.

Technorati Tags: linkedin

No matter how careful you are, there’s a good chance your computer will eventually have some sort of spyware hidden away. Even my own machine has been hit, which goes to prove the point. There are too many Windows computers out there with no protection against spyware, and this is why it is spreading rapidly. Alarmingly, they are cropping up ever more frequently. According to a 2005 study by AOL and the National Cyber-Security Alliance, 61 percent of surveyed users’ computers had some form of spyware. 92 percent of surveyed users with spyware reported that they did not know of its presence, and 91 percent reported that they had not given permission for the installation of the spyware. (source: wikipedia)

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware) defines spyware thus:

“Spyware is a type of malware that is installed on computers and collects little bits of information at a time about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user, and can be difficult to detect. Typically, spyware is secretly installed on the user’s personal computer. Sometimes, however, spywares such as keyloggers are installed by the owner of a shared, corporate, or public computer on purpose in order to secretly monitor other users.

While the term spyware suggests that software that secretly monitors the user’s computing, the functions of spyware extend well beyond simple monitoring. Spyware programs can collect various types of personal information, such as Internet surfing habits and sites that have been visited, but can also interfere with user control of the computer in other ways, such as installing additional software and redirecting Web browser activity. Spyware is known to change computer settings, resulting in slow connection speeds, different home pages, and/or loss of Internet or functionality of other programs. In an attempt to increase the understanding of spyware, a more formal classification of its included software types is captured under the term privacy-invasive software.”

There are less harmful forms of spyware like tracking cookies, but these are still compromising your privacy However much of the spyware out there is dangerous. It is vital to keep this off your machine, or if it is on there already, it must be destroyed before it can do damage such as reveal your bank details. Here are some tools you really should consider installing on your machine to scan for and delete unwanted spyware. Bear in mind you may need to run several of these tools to eradicate problems completely; no tool will find everything so it is best to run them in conjunction.

i) Ad-Aware from Lavasoft is a well-known anti-spyware tool, as of July 2010 it is at release 8.3. It’s available in several versions including a free version for personal use only. (http://www.lavasoft.com) For those who pay, there are added features such as a firewall, anti-rootkit detection and even parental control.

ii) Spybot (http://www.safer-networking.org) is a widely-known freeware tool for the detection and removal of spyware.
It is currently at release 1.6.2, and updates are frequently released. It also now includes TeaTimer, which alerts the user to any changes in the Windows Registry. As the registry should only be changed when a program is updated, installed or uninstalled, an unexpected alert can thus mean spyware is present. It is known to conflict with some commercial security programs however, such as Norton or McAfee, so it may be worth considering the use of another anti-virus program such as AVG or Avast to run alongside Spybot.

iii) Malwarebytes Anti-Malware comes in two forms: a paid and a free version. The free version, although functional, must be run manually whereas the paid form can be set up to run scheduled scans as well as provide real-time protection. It is intended to detect spyware or malware that other programs miss, so even if you find that scans on your existing tools show as clean, consider running this tool too as you have more chance of finding a deeply-hidden bit of spyware the more tools you use.
Make sure to use these tools in addition to any existing tools you have in order to maintain your security; it is insufficient nowadays just to rely on your current anti-virus solution. Above all, be sure to actually run these scans frequently; it is even more important to do so if your computer is shared with other members of your family.  (http://www.malwarebytes.org)

Despite all this however, it may be that it proves impossible to remove some particularly nasty forms of spyware. Some programs are detected, removed, then recreate themselves on the next reboot and it’s nigh-on impossible to figure out what is causing it. If all else fails, the only solution is a complete rebuild of your computer. For this reason, it is essential to take regular backups of your important data (preferably to external hard drives or recordable DVD) so that if the worst happens, you can rebuild it and restore your data once that is done. The best time to ensure you are protected from spyware is to get it set up when your computer is new or newly-rebuilt.