5 Steps to High-Value Web Content

1. Choose the right author.

2. Choose the right topic.

3. Address all sides of the topic.

4. Add supporting graphics, pictures, etc.

5. Link to related resources, both on your site and elsewhere.Let’s look at each of these steps in greater detail.

1. Choose the Right Author

I once worked for a company who let their web programmers write the instructions for their online ordering process. Big mistake. If their audience were programmers as well, this might be okay. But most of their customers had limited technical skills. So when these people encountered online instructions such as “Validate parameters before advancing” … the customers would often become dead in the water.

This is a prime example of choosing the wrong author for web writing. Sure, the programmers’ input is important. After all, they built the thing. But they should not be the voice of customer guidance. A skilled web writer (someone with usability experience) would have “translated” these instructions to say something like “Please fill in all required information before moving to the next screen.”

Here’s the key to this. The best author for your small business website content is not always the person who knows the most about the product or service from a technical standpoint. Often, it’s best to have an in-house writer who plays the go-between role of “consumer advocate,” getting the information from one group and translating it for another group.

2. Choose the Right Topic

If your small business only offers one product or service, then that will likely be the topic of your web content. In this case, I would focus on choosing the right angle as well. Don’t tell people what you want them to know — this is an outdated way of thinking about public information, especially when it comes to small business website content. Instead, find out what people want to know about the types of products you offer, and use your web content to address those questions or concerns.If your small business only offers one product or service, then that will likely be the topic of your web content. In this case, I would focus on choosing the right angle as well. Don’t tell people what you want them to know — this is an outdated way of thinking about public information, especially when it comes to small business website content. Instead, find out what people want to know about the types of products you offer, and use your web content to address those questions or concerns.If you are writing web content for a company that has many products or services, you will have to spend more time choosing topics first and choosing your angle second. In this case, it becomes more about topic organization than anything. Large websites with many topics are ideally suited for a category and sub-category system: These are our products >> And this is product ‘A’ >> And this is a web page that explains product ‘A’ in detail. If your small business only offers one product or service, then that will likely be the topic of your web content. In this case, I would focus on choosing the right angle as well. Don’t tell people what you want them to know — this is an outdated way of thinking about public information, especially when it comes to small business website content. Instead, find out what people want to know about the types of products you offer, and use your web content to address those questions or concerns.If you are writing web content for a company that has many products or services, you will have to spend more time choosing topics first and choosing your angle second. In this case, it becomes more about topic organization than anything. Large websites with many topics are ideally suited for a category and sub-category system: These are our products >> And this is product ‘A’ >> And this is a web page that explains product ‘A’ in detail.

3. Address All Sides of the Topic

If your small business only offers one product or service, then that will likely be the topic of your web content. In this case, I would focus on choosing the right angle as well. Don’t tell people what you want them to know — this is an outdated way of thinking about public information, especially when it comes to small business website content. Instead, find out what people want to know about the types of products you offer, and use your web content to address those questions or concerns.If you are writing web content for a company that has many products or services, you will have to spend more time choosing topics first and choosing your angle second. In this case, it becomes more about topic organization than anything. Large websites with many topics are ideally suited for a category and sub-category system: These are our products >> And this is product ‘A’ >> And this is a web page that explains product ‘A’ in detail.Whether you’re writing about one of your products, or you’re creating a tutorial of some kind, you need to cover all the angles. There’s nothing worse than website content that leaves the job only half-done, telling you why a certain thing is important but not pursuing that lead.

If your small business only offers one product or service, then that will likely be the topic of your web content. In this case, I would focus on choosing the right angle as well. Don’t tell people what you want them to know — this is an outdated way of thinking about public information, especially when it comes to small business website content. Instead, find out what people want to know about the types of products you offer, and use your web content to address those questions or concerns.If you are writing web content for a company that has many products or services, you will have to spend more time choosing topics first and choosing your angle second. In this case, it becomes more about topic organization than anything. Large websites with many topics are ideally suited for a category and sub-category system: These are our products >> And this is product ‘A’ >> And this is a web page that explains product ‘A’ in detail.Whether you’re writing about one of your products, or you’re creating a tutorial of some kind, you need to cover all the angles. There’s nothing worse than website content that leaves the job only half-done, telling you why a certain thing is important but not pursuing that lead.When you are close to a certain topic — as is the case with people who create a product or service — it’s easy to assume everyone else understands it as well as you do. But the opposite is usually true, so you need to explain all sides of a topic when you write content for your small business website.

Want to keep your pages relatively short for easy reading? You can do that while still offering complete information. That’s what hyperlinks are for!

4. Link to Related Resources

Here’s the key to developing great content for your small business website. Try to create authority documents that others in your field would link to and recommend to others. One of the key criteria for a resource document is that it links to plenty of supporting information, both on the same website and elsewhere on the web.

In addition to being good for your readers, this kind of useful content will make other webmasters more inclined to link to your website. This adds to your link “popularity” and can further improve the search engine ranking of your small business website.

When writing a particular web page, try to think of it as “the ultimate guide to [blank].” This is the first step to creating the kind of authority documents that eventually dominate the search engines and drive endless web traffic for the authors. But it’s rarely possible to create an “ultimate guide” to anything in just one page, so be liberal about linking to other sources on your own website and elsewhere (as long as they are not direct competitors).

5. Add Supporting Graphics, Pictures, Etc.

Reading online can be hard on the eyeballs. You can make the reader’s job easier in two ways. First, you can format your content appropriately for web reading (short paragraphs, narrow text columns, lots of bullet points, headers, sub-headers, etc.). Secondly, you can add supporting images and helpful graphics.

Well-placed graphics can improve website content in a number of ways. Images are more enticing than text upon first glance, so they can help attract and retain readers. They also help you clarify your message with visual reinforcement.

Conclusion

I have a motto I use regarding website content. “If it’s not worth putting online, don’t put it online.” This is my reminder to myself that I need to use the techniques outlined above to create superior website content. Because that’s the kind of content that leads to online success. Apply these lessons to your small business website and watch your own success increase!

About the Author: Brandon Cornett operates a web marketing firm in Austin, Texas and is a web writer at large for dozens of websites and blogs. Learn more by visiting http://www.austinseoguy.com.

1. Begin with properly formatted Meta Tags.
The meta tags, including your title tag, description tag, and keywords tag, are important for classifying your web page and communicating to the major search engines the content of your page. Although meta tags are not as important as they once were, they are used for many purposes including how your listing appears in search engine results lists.

2. Focus on keyword density.
Are you trying to optimize for a particular keyword or keyword phrase? Keyword density is the concentration (as a percentage) of your keyword phrase on a particular web page. Keyword density should range between 2 and 8% To determine your keyword density on a given page, divide the number of times your keyword appears by the total word count of the page.

3. Use proper page formatting.
Search engines love to see emphasis. You can identify your keywords with specialized tags such as title tags (h1, h2, etc.) and properly formatted text. Be sure to bold, italicize, and underline your keywords at least once on the page you are trying to optimize.

4. Generate links to your website through article marketing and link building activities.
Submit original content to article directories and authoritative sites in order to generate back links. When a third party website links to your site, search engines take notice - improving your overall search result placements. Build as many back links as you can.

5. Obtain listings in Web directories.
Large directories like the Yahoo! Directory, DMOZ and others are important to improving your overall search results. Many websites use these directories to display websites when users search on a particular term. If you’re not included in the directory, your website may never appear as a search result option.

6. Use social bookmarks to generate inbound links.
By bookmarking your website or webpage on popular social bookmarking sites, such as Reddit, Digg, or Del.icio.us, web browsers are pointed to your website and valuable links are created. This strategy is essential for making users aware of your content and generating interest. Many sites will provide links to valuable content.

7. Be persistent.
By applying search engine optimization techniques on a regular basis, you’re sure to improve your Google placements. The key however is to remain vigilant and continually apply seo even when you’ve achieved a number one ranking. Do so ensures that you will remain in the top position.These strategies are important for anyone interested in improving search results for their website. Begin any search engine optimization effort with a thorough review of your website’s strengths and weaknesses. Once you’ve identified areas for improvement, separated into on-page areas and off-page areas, you’re ready to being promoting your website.

About the Author: Michael Fleischner is an Internet marketing expert with more than 12 years of marketing experience. He has appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. Read Michael’s latest book on how to improve search engine rankings and visit http://goodmarketingtips.blogspot.com/ to receive your free daily SEO advice. 

If your email inbox is like many, the answer is hundreds, maybe even thousands. How do they get there? Honestly, your email address can be given out once to the wrong person or company who then sells it and the rest is history. Additionally, there are companies who basically scan the internet for loose emails. They find them in forums, chat rooms, and so on and consolidate them and then send you that lovely SPAM or they sell them to other spammers. The end result is an abundance of ‘junk’ in your email box including some things you’d just as soon not ever see.

SPAM can contain files or viruses that are harmful to your computer and any person you email or send files to. SPAM can contain scams designed to steal your identity or trick you into giving them money or personal information. In 2003 the CAN SPAM bill was passed requiring businesses to ask permission before they send an email to customers or website visitors. However, that doesn’t mean everyone follows the laws, certainly not those intent on spamming you. Your email inbox is proof of that.

So how do you prevent getting all this SPAM?

Some people have two email addresses. One that they provide to friends, family and business associates and another that they use when they’re shopping online, visiting forums or chat rooms and any time they’re asked for an email address. This is a fine solution, however it doesn’t prevent you from receiving SPAM, you just don’t have to deal with it on a daily basis.

The better solution might be to look into SPAM blockers and filters. These tools enable you to keep your one or two email addresses and not worry about having to deal with SPAM.

It is helpful to look for an email provider that offers SPAM blocking and filtering services. For example, Gmail and Hotmail both offer SPAM filtering. Most of your SPAM will fall into your ‘junk’ or ‘SPAM’ folder. When SPAM does sneak through their filter, because spammers are constantly updating their technology, then all you have to do is use the reporting tool in your email program and those messages will not sneak through again. This helps email providers stay on top of the spammers and keeps them out of your inbox in the future.

There are also external providers and software programs that you can utilize to help keep SPAM out of your inbox. Many of these services come with a fee, however if you’re receiving hundreds of SPAM messages each day, it may be worth the money. There are also open source SPAM blockers like SPAM Assassin that are available and effective.

Open source or paid, there is an abundance SPAM filtering programs available online. Look for reputable companies with a solid track record. Once you’ve signed up with one, the general approach is to download the software first. Once it is up and running you will run the program each time you start your computer, before you check your email, and it will filter the SPAM.

In the battle against SPAM it is important to know that you have many businesses and organizations on your side. Your ISP or your browser may also have tools you can use to block or filter SPAM. Many anti virus and firewall software providers offer SPAM blocking features. The point is, you don’t have to deal with those ugly, offensive, and potentially harmful SPAM messages in your email. There are options. Take advantage of them, free yourself from the junk, and help fight the battle against spammers by filtering and reporting them.

About the Author: 

Amy Derr seeks to help business owners and organizations market themselves effectively online. She is a Professional Web Designer who owns and operates Insiteful Web Design (http://www.insitefulwebdesign.com/), a full-service web design firm.

This article may be reprinted as long as the “About the Author” blurb stays in place.

You probably have seen this three-letter acronym in the course of your internet surfing. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary; syndicating means republishing an article that comes from another source such as a website. A RSS feed is a means of publicizing updates about websites. It may or may not include a summary and photos of the latest posting. But those that provide summaries (thus Rich Site Summary) allow users to skim through the article so that they can decide later on if they want to access the website source. The RSS feed usually contains the title of the update originating from the website. It is also usually the link to the website source.

What are the Benefits of RSS?

RSS provides benefits to both readers (users) and web publishers.

1. It gives you the latest updates. Whether it is about the weather, new music, software upgrade, local news, or a new posting from a rarely-updated site, you can learn about the latest as soon as it comes out.

2. It saves on surfing time. Since an RSS feed provides a summary of the related article, it saves the user’s time by helping s/he decide on which items to prioritize when reading or browsing the net.

3. It gives the power of subscription to the user. Users are given a free-hand on which websites to subscribe to in their RSS aggregators which they can change at any time they decide differently.

4. It lessens the clutter in your inbox. Although your email address will be required to enjoy the services of online RSS aggregators, RSS does not use your email address to send the updates.

5. It is sp@m free. Unlike email subscriptions, RSS does not make use of your email address to send updates thus your privacy is kept safe from sp@m mails.

6. Unsubscribing is hassle-free. Unlike email subscriptions where the user is asked questions on why s/he is unsubscribing and then the user is asked to confirm unsubscribing, all you have to do is to delete the RSS feed from your aggregator.

7. It can be used as an advertising or marketing tool. Users who subscribe to or syndicate product websites receive the latest news on products and services without the website sending sp@m mail. This is advantageous to both the web user and the website owner since advertising becomes targeted; those who are actually interested in their products are kept posted.

What are the Drawbacks of RSS?

The disadvantages of RSS stem from user-preference concerns and the fact that it is a new technology.

1. Some users prefer receiving email updates over an RSS feed.

2. Graphics and photos do not appear in all RSS feeds. For conciseness and ease of publication, RSS feeds do not display the photos from the original site in announcing the update except for some web-based aggregators.

3. The identity of the source website can be confusing. Since RSS feeds do not display the actual URL or name of the website, it can sometimes get confusing on what feed a user is actually reading.

4. Publishers cannot determine how many users are subscribed to their feed and the frequency of their visits. Moreover, they do not know the reasons why users unsubscribe which could be important in improving their advertising.

5. RSS feeds create higher traffic and demands on the server. Most readers still prefer the whole update over a brief summary of the entry, thus they still access the site.

6. Since it is a new technology, many sites still do not support RSS.

How Do I Start Using RSS?

There are two things needed: an RSS feed and an RSS aggregator or reader. The RSS feed comes from an RSS-supported website. There are also websites that provide a directory of RSS feeds from different websites. An RSS aggregator is used to read the RSS feed from the source website. It scans and collects data on the latest RSS feeds from the worldwide web.

An aggregator comes in two forms: a downloadable program, also known as a desktop aggregator, and an online or web-based aggregator. Downloadable aggregators may require payment before they can be acquired, while internet-based aggregators are usually free. All you need to do is to register an account and you are ready to use their services. Both versions allow you to customize, or choose, which RSS feeds to enter. Paid aggregators are usually chosen by more experienced users and they usually allow more freedom in customizing feeds.

RSS and Internet Marketing

The original idea of RSS came from Netscape, where the intention was to provide a means for users to customize their personal homepages with links to websites that were of interest to them, similar to bookmarking websites.

The application of RSS to internet marketing was an unforeseen development to RSS technology developers. Since users are given the freedom to add RSS feeds to their aggregators, those who are interested in particular products and services available on the internet can now be notified real time. Marketing becomes more specific to interested people and not a hit-and-miss operation.

Medium to big-scale companies who intend to use RSS for marketing their products and services should consider linking up with email account providers, (e.g. Yahoo, MSN, Google mail); networking websites (e.g. Friendster, Multiply, My Space, Hi5); websites of newspapers and television network websites (e.g. New York Times, CNN). Smaller companies can also look at networking websites as well as personal blog websites (e.g. Blogspot) and websites of clubs and organizations that would probably make use of their products or services e.g. a fishing supplies store can look for the website of their local fishing club for possible RSS marketing.

Clearly, RSS is an innovation in worldwide web information management as well as online marketíng. We can expect better RSS technology in the not-so-distant future as its popularity increases among users and website owners alike.

About The Author
Werner Schamberger is CEO of Homework Online and Best Articles Online. He is an entrepreneur and author.

It has been almost ten years since CSS was first introduced to the World Wide Web and till today, Web developers and designers have not ceased to sing its praises.  CSS, which stands for Cascading Style Sheets, is a stylesheet language which has been sort of a revelation for both, Web developers and designers alike.  The reason for this is apparent - CSS has made Web design so much simpler by separating document structure from style.  A simple process nonetheless, but the benefits reaped are profound, as you’ll soon see.

As a stylesheet language, CSS requires a document written in markup language to perform its tasks.  The best known markup language today is HTML, short for HyperText Markup Language.  Almost everybody who has ever used the Internet has heard of HTML, even if they aren’t professional Web designers.  Every webpage is powered by this language and variants of it.

But, if you had been an early adopter of the Web back in the early 90s, you can attest to the fact that HTML was really bare-boned.  Reason being, it was originally conceived to describe only parts of a document and had very little concern for appearance and presentation.  Then came Mosaic and HTML was forced to evolve into something more than just a structural markup language due to the increasing demands for better web presentations.

Web developers and designers were clamoring for HTML to contribute more functionality like boldfacing and italicizing texts, something HTML wasn’t equipped to do.  But that didn’t stop HTML from introducing new elements like FONT and BIG into its language in an attempt to satisfy the masses.  The results as expected, were frustrating.

Websites were being built with extraneous HTML elements at the expense of useful content, which presented a few considerable issues, mainly, unstructured Web pages.  Unstructured Web pages made and still make content indexing in search engines very grueling and this was certainly something that Web businesses seeking coveted high search engine rankings were concerned about. 

What may appear to be an innocuous FONT tag used in place of a H1 tag for page titles, can have disastrous consequences as far as search engine optimization is concerned.  This can mean the difference between attaining the number one spot on Google’s front page, or not being indexed at all, something that in today’s new economics of commerce, can either make or break a business.

But just when website owners were resigned to the fact of having to cope with bloated HTML code on their sites, CSS presents itself with aplomb.  Though it made its grand entrance onto the World Wide Web in 1996, CSS is only now starting to be recognized by the masses as a necessary element of any Web design process.  Here’s why.

CSS removes the presentational markup burden that HTML had to carry and allows HTML to perform what it does best – structural markup.  So, what CSS does is create a much richer document appearance by separating presentation and structure.  This is a sample of what CSS is capable of:

• Allows you to define the color on text
• Allows you to define the color of any element
• Gives you control over spacing of elements
• Allows you to create borders around elements
• Gives you control over the presentational style of texts.  You can very easily capitalize, italicize, bold, underline, or space texts as you see fit.

Perhaps the most telling contribution of CSS is the amount of time it saves a Web designer.  Where in HTML, a Web designer had to explicitly describe the presentational attributes, often repeatedly throughout the document, CSS only requires a separate stylesheet.  This stylesheet acts as the centralized command center for the entire document’s styles.  This also makes it extremely easy for a website owner to make changes to his or her site without having to trouble the designer for a simple tweak in heading color.

This is also a huge advantage for website owners who manage large content-based sites of over a thousand pages.  Because this single stylesheet can be applied to multiple pages simply by linking it, a website owner can achieve a very consistent look throughout the website and make changes to thousands of pages by editing only a single line on the stylesheet.  Without CSS, this process would have necessitated a visit to every single one of those thousand or more pages to make that simple edit.  Now you see why Web designers are so fond of CSS.

This element of a single stylesheet has also allowed websites to become much smaller in size, having been stripped of all that bloated code that HTML was once guilty of serving.  Lighter weight websites mean faster download and loading speeds for Web users, which can only mean that it’ll only be a matter of time before they too join in with Web designers in the song of praise for CSS.

About the Author: 

Amy Derr seeks to help business owners and organizations market themselves effectively online. She is a Professional Web Designer who owns and operates Insiteful Web Design (http://www.insitefulwebdesign.com/), a full-service web design firm.

This article may be reprinted as long as the “About the Author” blurb stays in place.

Link popularity is defined as the number of sites that are linking to your site. Some websites have thousands or even millions of sites linking to them, while others might have only a few. The search engines use the number of inbound links your site has as a measure of how important your site is, which translates into your search engine ranking.

The actual number of links to your site is not the only variable used to calculate your link popularity. The search engines also examine the relevance of the links to the subject matter of your site. For example, if a website that sells vitamins has 4,000 inbound links, but the source of most of the links are websites that have nothing to do with vitamins, then the algorithm that search engines use to determine link popularity will take that into account, and the link popularity score will not be very good.

It is possible for a website with a relatively small number of quality inbound links to be ranked higher than a site with a bunch of irrelevant or insignificant links. If I have a website that offers quotes for auto insurance, and I have 800 quality inbound links, then I might receive a much higher search engine ranking than another mortgage site that has 3,000 links that stem from link farms or Free For All (FFA) pages.

If you try to acquire inbound by using link farms or FFA pages, not only will it hurt your search engine ranking, but you might get permanently removed from the search engine listings. Links farms are sites where you can instantly exchange links with all the sites listed in that directory. FFA pages are pointless link directories. The search engines usually discount any links that come from either of these sources.

Now that we understand what link popularity is and how it works, we need to look specifically at how Google measures it. They use a number of variables in their algorithm to calculate your overall link score. The higher your score, the higher you will be ranked in the search listings.

One factor that Google uses in their algorithm, obviously, is the total number of sites linking to you. The more links you have, the higher your score will be. However, their algorithm is a little more complicated than that, and it is possible for a website with fewer links to be ranked higher than a website that has more links.

The reason for this is because Google also measures the quality of your links. If your website is about vitamins, and the site linking to you is a video game site, then that is not considered a quality link. The link still helps your score, but the link would help your score much more if it were from a website whose subject matter is the same as yours.

Also, Google gives a higher score to a link if it comes from a page that has actual content that relates to your keywords. For example, if your site is about jewelry, and another jewelry website has posted a link to your site on their links page, that link is not as valuable as a link to your site coming from a blog or a message board where a lot of information about jewelry is being written or discussed.

Also, they give an even higher score to a link if it contains anchor text that matches one of the keywords that describes your site. For example, if I have a site that sells lawnmowers, and a blog about lawnmowers has posted a link to my site, it helps my score even more if the link text (also known as anchor text) is LAWNMOWERS. To learn more about anchor text, go to a search engine and look up ANCHOR TEXT and you will be able to learn about it.

Another factor used by Google to score your link popularity is the diversity of keywords contained on sites linking to you. For example, if you have a site that sells handbags, and all the links to your site are from other sites that contain nothing but the keyword HANDBAGS, Google considers that to be abnormal. To get a higher score, you need to have links coming from sites that contain a variety of keywords related to handbags, such as BUY HANDBAGS, LEATHER HANDBAGS, etc.

It is difficult to increase your link popularity, but now that you understand how your score is calculated, you can devise a plan to improve your score. You might want to consider posting to forums and blogs that contain information that is related to your site, and when you post, include a link to your site.

About the Author: Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make an HTML form.

Can the small websites compete with the big guys?

I’m often asked by small business owners if they stand a chance against larger websites when it comes to organic search results. My response is that size doesn’t matter. When it comes to improving natural search results, it’s all about the keywords you choose and how competitive those keywords are.

What makes a keyword competitive?

One way to determine the competitiveness of a search term is to simply type that search term into Google and notice the number of web pages that contain that search term. This number appears in the upper right-hand corner of the search results page and appears as, “Results 1 - 10 of about 228,000,000 for [your search term here].”

The large number you see gives you an indication of how many websites contain the keyword term or phrase you’re searching for. Not all of these sites would necessarily be competitors, but have been indexed by Google none-the-less. From my perspective, when this number is less than 3 or 4 million, the particular search term would not be all that competitive in and of itself.

Determining just how competitive the search term is.

There are a variety of methods to determine true keyword effectiveness (KEI, etc.). However, if you’re just a regular person trying to figure out how difficult it will be to rank well for a particular keyword, consider the following. In addition to the number of sites that contain your keyword, how well optimized are the top 3 sites that appear on the search result. You can determine this by:

1. Visiting the site and determining the Google PR of the page. This information is available by downloading the Google toolbar and looking in your browser. You will see a green bar and ranking (ex: PR5), which tells you how Google ranks this page/website with regard to popularity. Any site with a Google PR6 or better is well established and will be difficult to outrank in the near term.

2. Visit Google and type, “link:www.competitorwebsite.com”. Be sure to replace ‘competitorwebsite’ with the website name you are researching. Remember, this should be a website that appears on the Google search result for the keyword term or phrase you’re researching. This will tell you how many sites are linking to this particular website. The larger the number the more difficult it will be to outrank.

3. Look at the website code. Simply visit the competitor’s website and go to “View”, “View Source”. Look for the meta tags of “Title”, “Description”, and “Keywords”. Are the meta tags at the very top of the page? Does the website also use h1, h2, and h3 tags? If so, they probably know something about SEO and have applied some on-page optimization techniques.

Using the above will give you a good sense of whether of not you can compete for given keywords. As you’ve figured out by now, a company’s size is no indication of their level of experience in optimizing their own website. You’d be surprise of the type (and size) of companies that call me for SEO advice.

Keep this in mind the next time you think that size matters!

About the Author: Michael Fleischner is an Internet marketing expert with more than 12 years of marketing experience. To discover how to improve search engine rankings on Google and other major search engines visit http://www.webmastersbookofsecrets.com and the Marketing Blog.

Copyright infringement is a very common occurrence on the World Wide Web. How do you protect yourself? And, what can you do if someone steals your content?

It’s important for you to know that anything you have written is copyrighted. You can register a copyright, but you don’t need to in order for it to be illegal for someone to copy or reproduce your work without your permission. Any written text, painting, drawing, musical composition, photograph or computer program, be they published or not is protected by copyright law. Unfortunately, just because your work is copyrighted doesn’t mean it is safe. Some individuals don’t know that copyright laws apply to the internet, and others simply don’t care.

With millions of websites out there, it’s difficult to know if your website has been targeted by thieves. A great tool to use in the protection of your website content is www.copyscape.com. Simply enter your website URL and it will scan the web for you. This is a free service, but if you have been a frequent victim of copyright infringement, you might want to consider their paid service, which automatically scans the web regularly for any duplicates of your content.

What do you do if you are one of the unfortunate victims of copyright infringement? How can you deal with the offender and avoid the high cost of litigation? The following are some simple steps that you can take to ensure that the infringer removes your material from their website.

1. Contact the offender. You can usually visit the “contact” page of the offender’s website to obtain their contact information. If for some reason you can’t find their coordinates that way, you can perform a search for “who is” to find many sites that can provide information about the website owner by simply entering their URL. The website owner’s contact information should be posted here, but if not, their website host will be and you should contact them. Keep your first contact civil. Calling or emailing the responsible individual with a stern, yet professional demeanor will be much more effective than yelling or name calling. Remember that the owner of the site isn’t necessarily the writer, and if they are, then being nasty may not have the desired effect and in fact may create more problems for you in the long run.

2. Send a cease and desist order. If your initial contact didn’t get the desired results, your next step should be to send a cease and desist order. You do not need to hire a lawyer to create one for you. A simple search for “cease and desist order templates” should give you an order that can be altered to meet your needs. Send one copy by email and one copy by registered mail and make it look as official as possible. Include a date by which the material should be removed. You want the offender to know that you mean business.

3. If action is still not taken, send a cease and desist order to the offending party’s web host. Again, the host information is available by performing a search for “who is”. The majority of hosts will take action by temporarily removing the offender’s site until the copied material is removed.

4. The situation should be resolved at step 3, but one more step that can be taken is to notify search engines of the infringement. Performing a search for the “DMCA” or “Digital Millennium Copyright Act” policies for each search engine will provide the information you need to contact each of them in order to request that the offender’s website be removed.

Finally, it’s always advisable to protect yourself by keeping records of the dates your content was placed on your site. This ensures that the other party can be proven wrong it they claim to have posted their content first.

Placing your website and it’s content on the internet for the world to see is a proud moment. It’s nearly impossible for you to be able to prevent the theft of its content, but the next best thing is knowing what to do if it does happen.

About the Author: Kelly Sims is a Virtual Assistant and Owner of Virtually There VA Services. To find out more about virtual assistance and how using a Virtual Assistant can simplify your life and increase your profitability, visit her website at => http://www.virtuallythereva.com. While you’re there, don’t forget to sign up for her free monthly newsletter providing useful information that enhances and simplifies the lives of busy entrepreneurs.

The most important task is search engine submission and optimization. There are many different search engines and directories on the internet where you can submit your web site. You need to sign up for a monthly submission plan with a credible search engine submission service. There are hundreds of these submission services on the internet; you can find them by doing a search on Google.

However, be wary of submission services that claim to be able to submit your site to 75,000 search engines. These unscrupulous submitters will submit your website to FFA pages and bogus link pages that can actually get you banned permanently from the search engines. You should only do business with submission services that submit only to the major search engines and directories.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is even more important. To optimize a site, you need to maximize your keyword density and optimize the positioning for the words or phrases for which you want to be listed. And, you need to use proper Meta tags so that the search engines can interpret your web pages.

If you do not know how to optimize your web site, you should search for an optimization consultant on Google. Avoid SEO experts who want to charge you $1,000 per month or more. Their goal is to bleed you dry before you figure out that they really can not help improve your ranking. Stick to providers who will optimize your site for a reasonable fee.

More important than SEO is link popularity. Link popularity is the number of web sites that currently link to your site. The more inbound links you acquire, the higher your search engine ranking will be.

There are several ways you can increase your number of inbound links. You can submit your site to free directories, or join a link exchange and trade links with other sites, or, you can author articles and press releases and submit them to article directories. When webmasters looking for free content place your article on their site, they must link back to your website.

If you are not patient enough to wait for your search engine ranking to improve, you can attract visitors to your web site right away by using pay-per-click (PPC). With PPC, you pay a certain cost per click to have an ad for your web page run at or near the top of the search engines. This can be extremely costly and ineffective. It is not uncommon for webmasters to blow thousands of dollars on PPC advertising and make only a few sales.

The best way to promote your site, if you are actually selling something, is through an affiliate program. You need to provide an affiliate code to other online merchants so that they will place your banner on their site; every time you make a sale that resulted from an affiliate referral, the affiliate gets a commission. You will have to consult with an experienced programmer who can set up the program so that the affiliate codes can be tracked properly.

Some internet companies have thousands of affiliates, and get all the business they would ever need or want this way; and it costs you nothing. To recruit affiliates, you should submit your affiliate program to directories where you can list your affiliate program for free or for a small price. The best way to find affiliates is by listing your program on forums or message boards frequented by webmasters who are looking to generate additional revenue for their online business.

I hope this information will help you with your internet marketing efforts. No website can become an overnight sensation; it takes time and effort. But, if you work diligently and follow each of the procedures outlined in the article, you should do fine.

About the Author: Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make an HTML form.