Steps to Reducing SPAM in Your Inbox

Spam first made its mark in the world in 1978 when Gary Thuerk, Marketing Director of Digital Equipment Technology sent an email solicitation to 400 employees at Arpnet. The email created a few sales, but it also created fierce backlash. Today, more than 180 billion spam messages are sent out each day to over 1 billion Internet users. This staggering statistic makes it clear why spam is such a major problem for Internet users. Many companies are working hard to solve the spam problem, but the first step to stopping spam starts with the consumer.

By following the steps below, Internet users can reduce the number of spam email messages they receive in their inbox.

Before an Invasion of Spam

Software:
Choose email providers that offer built-in spam protection services. Look for service providers that promote a high success rate of blocking spam email.

Spam Filters:
Spam is a cat and mouse game. Spammers are constantly looking for ways to bypass filters. Regularly check your spam filter software if you're using non-web based email to make sure it is up to date. If you're using web-based email,m make sure your webmail provider is working hard to protect you from spam.

Improve Security:
A firewall may be one of the most important applications on a computer. It acts as a barrier between hackers and the computer, and prevents access to unauthorized information.

Limit Email Dispersal:
When performing online transactions, thoroughly scan the page for any checked and unchecked boxes. Some companies will word these boxes in a way to increase the likelihood of a consumer opting-in to their email campaigns.

Shop From Known Vendors:
Shopping from known vendors can greatly reduce the threat of spam email. Many companies are guilty of selling email addresses to third parties, which are then used for spam. The company's privacy policy is supposed to list their intended uses of your personal information, such as whether they will sell your email address to third parties. Consumers can check the Better Business Bureau's and the FTC's (Federal Trade Commission) websites for lists of reputable companies and for lists of violators.

Once Spam Becomes a Problem

Internet users should avoid opening spam. It should be immediately deleted. Pay close attention to the senders email address as most spammers use deceptive subject lines intended to promote opening. If opened, avoid attachments, which may contain viruses, and do not purchase goods or donate to charities solicited in the message. Many spam email messages will have unsubscribe links at the bottom of the message, as dictated by the CAN-SPAM Act.

If consumers find themselves with an inbox full of spam, they can also report the spam emails to their Internet Service Provider.

There are numerous companies and organizations designed to regulate the Internet and protect users. But, it is important that Internet users are informed of the threats of spam. By following the stated suggestions and by not falling victim to the ploys of spammers, users can help put spammers out of business, and keep their inbox free of junk email.

»»  lanjuuut...

7 Free Search Engine Optimization and Writing Tools

Traffic. Everyone wants free traffic, and what better way to get it than optimizing your site?
There are some very simple things that you can do to optimize your site. If you want to get more from your website, then implement these strategies, use these tools, and make your website spider food for the search engines.

Below are some of the best sites I have found for optimizing my sites.

1. Check your site.
Before you start tweaking your site, you need to make sure that it's either in Google or not banned by Google.

The truth is, you want to optimize your site for Google, which is now the number one search engine in the world.

It won't do you any good to optimize your site if Google won't accept it.

Use this tool to check your site.

Google Banned - http://www.googlebanned.com

2. Toolkits
If you can find the tools you need in a collection, this will save you a lot of time, as well as frustration because you will know exactly what you need to do to properly optimize your site.

You'll want to check different aspects of your site like page rank, metatag information, and links. Nothing will drive your potential customers away faster than broken links.

This site, in addition to offering a forum on search engine optimization, also offers a nice collection of tools for helping you optimize your site.

SEO Chat - http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools

These two sites also offer search engine optimization tools. It's really a matter of preference, as well as what tools you need to optimize your site.

Add Me - http://www.addme.com
Evrsoft - http://www.evrsoft.com

3. SEO Software
You can also use software to help you optimize your site. Where software will help you the most is to actually help you optimize your site for the keywords you are trying to target. It's a waste of time to optimize your site if you haven't optimized for the right keywords.

This is the software I use, and it's free. It works for both MAC and PC, and it has some of the best documentation I've ever seen on search engine optimization because it's written for the average person. It also includes a basic search engine optimization training course, a 50 page manual, and excellent, step by step directions for preparing your website for the search engines.

Web CEO - http://www.webceo.com

4. ROR Generator/Robots Text Generator
A what?

ROR is similar to a robots.txt file in that it gives information about your site. The difference is that an ROR file is in XML format.

You can use this generator to create an ROR file for your site, and then paste a button to the main page of your website. When the search engines spider your site, they'll spider this file and have a better description of what your site is about.

I would also recommend that you create a robots.txt file because this will tell the search engines what not to spider on your site. If you own a members' area, or you sell anything, you don't want the search engines spidering your download pages.<
ROR Generator - http://www.rorweb.com/rorgenerator.php
Robots Text Generator - http://www.searchenginepromotionhelp.com/m/robots-text-creator/simple-robots-creator.php

5. Site Map
A site map is not only a great tool for letting your customers know where everything is located on your site, it can also help you with the search engines.

By creating a site map, you will have an index of all the pages on your website. When the search engines spider your site, they'll find all of the pages. This will help you with your rankings.

Creating a site map, especially if you have hundreds, or even thousands of pages on your site, can be very time consuming. This generator will speed up the process.

Spider Map Creator - http://www.searchenginepromotionhelp.com/m/spider-map/creator.php

6. XML Site Generator
Google is now offering webmasters a chance to submit an XML site map.

An XML sitemap is a search engine friendly sitemap of your site. This isn't written for your visitors though. It's written for the search engines so that they can find all of the pages on your website.

Even if you include a sitemap on your site for your visitors, I would still recommend that you use an XML sitemap. This can speed the process of getting your site indexed by Google. This is an easy way to make sure that all of your pages get indexed.

Creating a sitemap is easy. You can use the generator listed below. Once you've created your sitemap, submit it to Google.

XML Site Maps - http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/index.php

Submit your sitemap to Google - https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login

7. Linking
There's been a lot of talk about linking because linking is one of the most important strategies for getting high ranking in the search engines.

The more links you have pointing back to your site, the higher the page rank you will get, as well as creating a way for others to find you. You can use this strategy to get referrals from other sites, which is free traffic. It's targeted, and you are being recommended by another site.

Before building your linking strategy though, you should check your popularity. See who you are linked to first.

Link Popularity Checker - http://www.marketleap.com/siteindex/default.htm

Once you have checked your link popularity, begin by building links back to your site. Below are two sites that offer directories you can submit your site to.

Directory Manager - http://www.123promotion.co.uk/directorymanager/

Free directories that don't require a link back - http://www.directoriezsubmission.com/free-web-directories.htm

Linking can drive a lot of traffic to your site. The more backlinks you have pointing back to your site, the more popular it will be. You'll also get a lot more traffic.

Before you start to market, complete your site. Optimize it for the search engines, and use these tools to help you get higher rankings.

»»  lanjuuut...

Ebay Ebook Success: Using Reviews and Guides to Promote your eBay Store

In my last article I discussed how to effectively promote your eBay store using your About Me page. In that article I outlined that it was one of the most underutilised promotion opportunities on eBay. Ebay Reviews and Guides are a new introduction by eBay, but are just as underutilised by eBay sellers as the About Me page. In this article I will discuss how you can utilise this excellent feature to promote your eBay store:

1) What is an eBay Review or Guide?:- A review is simply your own personal review of any product on the eBay market, for example a CD, DVD, book etc. You give the product a rating out of five and then write a brief personal review about what you liked, didn't like etc. A guide can be on absolutely anything you are qualified to give advice on. I convert these newsletter articles into "Ebook Success" guides on eBay which complement my eBay store. However, guides don't necessarily have to relate to your eBay store. If for example, you enjoy fishing then you could write guides related to fishing.

2) Why should I write an eBay Review or Guide?:- I would personally recommend writing guides over reviews. The reason for this is that when you write a review the only credit you receive is a small link to your eBay feedback profile. When you write a guide you receive a link back to your eBay feedback profile, eBay store, eBay About Me page, and some of your active listings. Anyway, whether you choose to write a review or guide, the reason for doing so is promotion. People reading your review or guide will be made aware of your eBay presence, may click on a link to one of your pages, and this may even lead to a sale.

3) What should I write my eBay Review or Guide on?:- As I mentioned earlier I write "Ebook Success" guides which are basically converted copies of these newsletter articles. However, the possibilities are endless. Just think of your hobbies, your job, or anything else which you know enough about to write a series of guides on. Everyone can write about at least ONE THING. Once you have found your topic, break it down into small, relevant guides. If you're really, really struggling to find a topic for a guide, then write a review on a product that you own. Although the promotion will not be as great as the promotion you would receive from a guide, it still provides you with free promotion.

That's all there is to it. Keep writing regular guides and if they are good people will rate them positively. The more positive ratings you get, the higher your reviewer rank gets. Also, the more guides you write, the more pages you have on eBay promoting your listings, your store, and your feedback. Since reviews and guides are relatively new and haven't fully taken off yet, it's best to get in now, while the majority of eBayers are not writing reviews and guides. That way when it takes off on a larger scale, you will already have a solid foundation upon which to build. To write your own eBay review or guide go to http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/. If you want to see view my reviews and guides for some inspiration then go to http://search.reviews.ebay.co.uk/members/ebookcavern. This is a promotional opportunity that you should not pass up. For five minutes writing, you can have a free, long term, promotional tool at your disposal.

»»  lanjuuut...

How To Massively Increase Traffic To Your Website

This article gives advice and information on how to increase traffic to your website. There is obviously no point in having a superb looking, content rich site if only a few people can see it.

One of the best ways of gaining additional traffic is to build up the number of backward links you have pointing to your website. The best form of link is a one-way link, where a website adds a link to your site but does not get one back from you. There are a number of ways of obtaining these type of links including:

Writing articles. Writing articles like this one has many benefits. Other webmasters may add the article to their blog or website and this creates you a one-way link. The people reading the article are also potential visitors to your site.

Purchasing a text-link advert on a quality site. If the site in question has a high page rank value, this is then passed onto your site. The advert itself just like any advert can also attract people to your site.

Joining in debates in various forums. I enjoy reading and contributing to forums. Not only do I learn a great deal, I am also able to get links back to my sites when I make a comment.

Submitting your site to directories.

Making comments on other peoples blogs. This is my least favourite of all of these examples as it can be seen as spam. Other people however do think it can prove to beneficial. I must say that I stay away from anything that could be seen as spam.

Where possible the website which includes a link to your site needs to be in the same industry as your own website. These backward links have a much higher value in the eyes of the search engines.

I have to admit that it is extremely hard to obtain these type of links especially on a one-way basis.

What we therefore need is a solution and here it is. I believe it is a good idea to build a network of sites on the same theme as the main website. Each of the sites in the network has a link pointing to the main site and after promoting each of the sites, you will then have a number of themed and powerful one-way backward links which will make the original site like an authority in its own field.

If you are struggling to find content you could use other peoples articles to help you. It is a good idea to have each of the sites in the network on a different server. This however can be very expensive and therefore for a smaller business may not be best advice.

To help fund the cost of the network you could add google adsense onto all of the new sites. This may not bring in huge amounts of money but could go some way to helping with hosting and domain renewal costs.

In the future this network could be worth thousands of pounds if you have spent enough time promoting each site. At this stage you have the option of selling the network and relaxing or enjoying the benefits yourself that it will no doubt bring.

I believe the writing of quality articles for re-print and the building of themed network websites is the future of the internet for people who want to be successful webmasters. Good luck.

»»  lanjuuut...

URL is one of the important elements of SEO and affects your Page Rank.

How important are URLs in SEO?
Importance of URLs from the SEO point of view is highly controversial question. In the hundreds of search engine algorithms is it an important one to be looked by the search engines? According to some SEO experts, placing keywords in the URL is vital for your website but highlighting your brand name in the URL is equally important. On the other side some SEO gurus never support keyword rich URLS while indexed by the search engines.
What exactly constitutes a search engine friendly URL?
There should be bit relevance between the URL text and the content on the corresponding webpage. This level of relevance between the URL text and the content on the corresponding webpage determines the page success on the search engine algorithm level. Relevant URLs seems informative to the web browsers and search engine spiders also supported by the search engine spiders. Targeting keywords in the web URL is a great idea to get higher ranking in the search engine results.
Keyword oriented Vs Brand Promoting URL

Does your URL should be keyword rich or it should be promoting your brand is a million dollar question. If you are using a keyword oriented URL it is definitely going to boost up your website at SEO level but it will be unable to promote your brand identity in the market. So what should be the best idea? A search engine friendly URL or a URL reflecting your brand name?

Your URL is the first step of your online presence used for you branding in the market. The URL should be catchy and appealing for the web users but it should be search engine friendly as well and it will be another advantage. While crawling the web pages search engine spiders also consider pages having the search term in the URL. So, search engine friendly or keyword rich URL will definitely be going to boost up your online business by ranking you top on the search engines.

All the major search engines do support the indexing of keyword rich URLs. Portion of the URL matching to the search query is always displayed in bold in the Google and Yahoo search engine results. Top 20 URLs is the search engine results are which contain the search string.

Some characteristics of the successful URLs are as follows:
Ideal URLs are short and simple. Shorter is always better. Short web addresses are always top on the popularity charts as they are easy to remember so the typing mistakes are least possible with short URLS.
A successful URL should be the descriptive one. The URLs should be a preview of your products and services.
A URL easy to remember always performs better as compared to the complicated one.
A successful URL requires a bit creativity to combine with the unique feature of simplicity and descriptiveness to display it in the first encounter. For example, a URL after your name or your firm's name, may not-in the long run-be the best choice.

»»  lanjuuut...

Making money online with blogs

When you think of the term blog, does it represent money to you? Do you believe that you could make money with this new craze? Well let it be known, that yes people really are generating more business to their companies and they are making money. When it comes right down to it, blogging can easily enlarge your net authority, and increase credibility and market value. Some people even claim that they are only in business because blogging has made it possible for them. They also claim that the business they have gotten has increased significantly as a result of it.

The object is to have a niche and to keep everything small; if you are looking for range of view or balance you will find yourself lost in the shuffle. The general premise of a blog is to sell an idea, anyone who makes blogs are not merely asking for money because of the blog itself, the ideas are the star of the show and the blog is merely the vessel to transport it to the clients. It is one of the best ways to gain reputation in business networking, this in turn leads to more business and finally to what you have been striving for which is profit. They are kind of like a tool that you need to transport information in short bursts, as to not confuse or overwhelm the customer. By keeping them short, many business people believe that the original message or core idea remains intact. There is thought amongst the net industry that far more intangible ideas and products are being peddled online these days, this in turn decreases paid content value, rerouting the connection between the business and the client is the primary goal.

One of the best methods to date, to generate business and profit is to employ a good blogger. Bloggers have a way of gaining trust; they also can capture the market with the use of strategic reputation. Microsoft is one of the leading employers of the blogging trend, and uses the blogs on all their sites and sales pitches. Microsoft feels that if they have multiple blogs that give small portions of information and tid-bits, of needed content they can reach a broader market and keep people informed on what they are doing in the business and any market adjustments that may come your way. If more companies go this route, you could easily see a change in the face of business. Faster communication between client and company, more precise information packets that are not stressing to understand, and an overall cleaner appearance are the goal with the blogging industry. These little vessels of information just may be here to stay.

»»  lanjuuut...

SEO-Develop Body Text

SEO service Delhi (e-fuzion) have been finalized it is now time to start using them to optimize the site. Once the title and Meta tags of the site have been optimized its time to start with optimizing the content of the site with key words. Body may consist of headings, pictures, tables, frames, forms and of text paragraphs. Therefore, we an include key words and key phrases with in. In case of tables, frames, forms it can include keywords and key phrases in their respective headings. One thing to consider is that key words and key phrases must be included in descending order of their importance. It is recommended that at least four or five informative paragraphs should be included on each page totaling to at least 100-250 or above words. SEO Services Delhi (e-fuzion) includes targeted key words and key phases in the first paragraph of the body text since some search engines access the first few lines of web page to show as description in the search resulting. Key words and key phases used in different part of the web page body text is a very important method of search engine optimization (SEO). As search engines boost the search result listing on the basis of key words and key phrases included in domain name, URLs of directory pages, Page directory, anchor tags, Alt tags etc. There fore, SEO Services Delhi (e-fuzion) safely say that one of the main components of search engine optimization.

It is also used to describe the contents of the picture or graphic while down loading that image or picture or while moving on to other page. Some time, alt tag is also used to describe the contents of the image when the browser is using graphic-off mode. Although only SEO Services Delhi (e-fuzion) uses this factor to boost page rank but it is advisable to use comment tags with key words to organize page content which helps in easy editing and review.

»»  lanjuuut...

Questions To Ask Yourself When Buying A New Sewing Machine

Questions To Ask Yourself When Buying A New Sewing Machine

Buying a sewing machine can be a daunting experience, as well as an exciting one, a little like buying a new car, remember you might be committing to spending a few hundred dollars and a sewing machine is something you are going to use a lot, you need to make sure that the one you spend your money on is really the right one for you.

So how do you make the decision on the sewing machine that is right for you? Well the first thing to do is decide what you need the sewing machine for, is it just some light repair work or something more complicated? Are you going to use it on just one type of material or many different fabrics? Is the brand you have at the moment the one you wish to purchase this time?

Are there certain functions on the sewing machine that you must have, list the features the machine needs in three categories, these should be features I must have on my sewing machine, features I would like to have and other features that would just be a bonus and might make you try something new with your sewing machine because they are there. When you do make a buying decision ensure that all the functions from your first list are available, as these are the ones you need and use, also ensure that most of your I would like to see features are also available as these are also the ones you would use most and do not get sold on features that are not on the first two lists as you will probably not use them.

Is there something about your current sewing machine you love, does it have that one killer function or is it easy to use for one reason that you would like to see in your new sewing machine. The oboist is also something you should be asking yourself about, is there something I hate about my old machine that I want to avoid with my new one?

Once you have thought through these questions and have answered them as fully as you can, you can start to look at and test the sewing machines in your stockists, please make sure that it is you who tests the sewing machines you are interested in, do not let the sales person demonstrate it for you, they will not be coming home with you when you make the purchase and it is you that needs to feel comfortable and confident in your new sewing machine, if you regularly use one type of material then take a piece with you to test the sewing machine on, the same is true if you use one function more than the others, please test it in the store before you consider making that purchase.

The final thing I would like to talk about is price, as I said earlier you might be paying hundreds of dollars for the sewing machine of your dreams, when you have found the make and model you are interested in make a note of the details, model numbers are great to use to search for on the internet and compare prices on line with those on the high street, you know you like the machine now you just have to find it at the best possible price

»»  lanjuuut...

Ten Benefits For Having Your Articles Published

1. You will be known as an expert on the topics you write about and this endears potential customers to you before they even visit your website. In fact, this is 700%-1000% times more effective than regular advertising. There is no better way to "pre-sell" your prospects than article marketing. This will also give you and your business extra credibility which will help you competes against your competitors.

2. You will build brand equity for you, your web site, your business and even your expertise by submitting articles to e-zines. Prospects and customers will begin to have in mind what you can do for them.

3. You get extra exposure if the e-zine publisher archives their e-zine on their site; especially blogging is so common today. People want to read the back issues before they make the decision to subscribe. The more ezines publish your articles, the wider your market is on the internet. Remember, there's no such thing as people just stop by in front of your online shop, in this case, your website.

4. You'll gain people's trust and increase your credibility. If they read your article and like it, they won't be as hesitant to buy your products and services or they will at least sign up your e-zines. Nothing is better than getting pre-sold traffics through your articles; this sure will increase your profits.

5. Create a free viral marketing for you by allowing e-zine publishers to publish your articles in their free e-books. Since people give them away, your author resource box at the end of the body of each of your articles acts as an advertisement for your business will multiply all over the internet.

6. Free ads barter trading by getting an article-exchange joint venture deal run your joint venture partner's articles in your own e-zine, and then they run yours in their e-zine as an exchange. This benefits both ways.

7. You could buy ads space in other e-zines that don't publish your articles and find customers that you may have not been able to reach before, every article being published in the e-zines is like casting a wider net to reach new customers and traffic that would have never found your articles or website before.

8. Your article might have chance to be placed on publisher's home page. If they publish each issue on their home page, this will build link popularity for your website. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) "Link Pop" strategy by definition, the more links your website has by other sites, the greater importance bestowed upon your website when major search engines rank your site. Having articles in publish in many e-zines help you build great link popularity; link popularity builds traffic to your website.

9. Build VSP (Virtual Sales Person) and place them in as many e-zines as you can submit to. Your articles act like your sales person who will sell and do marketing for you. To have a successful business, you have to leverage your work in your business.

10. Another great way to multiply your income is by getting paid by people who want to hire you to write articles and books for them, or even ask you to speak at seminars.

»»  lanjuuut...

Web Design

In today's market, it is essential for every business to have a presence on the web – and the web design of the site is a key factor to the site's success in boosting the visibility and profitability of the business. The Internet is often the first place that potential customers look when searching for a business to meet their needs, and a well designed, clearly presented and informative website will assure them of the expert service or products available from the business the site promotes. A web presence also means a global presence – the possibility of reaching customers from all corners of the world, and it also means that regular updates on new services or price specials can be posted to inform customers immediately and effectively. In this way, the web design of an inviting site can be one of business' biggest assets for success.

It is often the case that businesses fear that the cost of high quality web designs will be prohibitive. While more and more people are gaining a clearer understanding of web design and how it works, for many people it just seems too expensive and complicated an option. However, there are many simple and cost-effective web design solutions available that will create a quality site for as little as a few hundred dollars. Once a site is well designed, maintaining and updating it is often very easy – and most importantly, worth it in terms of the return on a little effort. For a fairly simple site that will feature only basic information, such as the nature of the business, location and perhaps some specials or coupons, it may be a case of investing in some software that will provide templates for creating a simple site-by-numbers. However, for a more vibrant, active site that will fully represent the business online – and possibly allow for an e-commerce capability – it is worth looking to a professional web design company. Many offer competitive deals and the cost will be unquestionably offset by the greater traffic to the site that a professional site can generate.

In addition to strong web design, a professional company will also be skilled in SEO – search engine optimization. Studies have shown that potential customers will rarely explore beyond the first page or two of results generated by a search engine, so it is important to ensure that the site promoting your business will be among the top results. The key here is well-structured web pages and an effective use of the keywords that customers use to search. In general, text-rich pages have been shown to perform better in search engine results, and it is important to hit the right balance between cultivating the optimum search engine results and designing web pages that are easy to read and navigate. A clear "call to action" button – such as a contact form or "for more information contact" – is important too. Online browsers tend to have very little patience for looking for hard-to-find contact information.

For a website to be the most effective marketing and selling tool possible, both the web design and how it is marketed to have a high visibility online presence are important factors to consider. Submitting to search engines, ensuring the site is designed for SEO, and cross linking with relevant sites are all factors that will help to ensure a high web presence for the site, and therefore business. A professional web design company has the design skills and online marketing experience and know-how to create a website that will be an optimum selling tool in the world's biggest sales market.

»»  lanjuuut...

Optimum utilisation of Manual Traffic Exchanges in a marketing strategy

The advantage of gaining critical mass in a marketing strategy can never be over- emphasised....and "auto Traffic Exchanges" can be the critical element to keep the wheel of your marketing strategy rolling.

It is happening with monotonous regularity that every newbie internet marketer wants results from "Day 1" and every pro marketer will vouch for the fact that they have undergone significant stresses and strains to reach where they have reached.

This prelude gives us an inkling of the position of manual traffic exchange users. A beginning is made with full gusto....and it is not long before the levels of motivation and enthusiasm come crashing down.

Here are some tips and tricks which will go a long way in making optimim utilisation of "Manual Traffic Exchanges" and bridging the gap between thory and practice.

1) Surf, surf and surf for at least a couple of months. Do not expect any results...because you seldom get them within two months.Patience is a virtue which is seldom practiced.


2) Do not make the mistake of including the URL of your internet opportunity on each and every manual traffic exchange you are participating....instead...use some of your traffic exchange affiliate links to derive the benefits of residual traffic in the long run.

3) Refer, refer and refer by cross promoting your affiliate link in Traffic Exchange A with Traffic Exchange B and so on.

4)Use "Splash pages" for promoting in "Manual Traffic exchanges"

5) Do not....please...do not use pop-ups and other distracting stuff to de-motivate your prospective downline in those precious 15-30 seconds he or she has a glimpse at your website. It's all to well to have them on the homepage of your website...but never put a pop-up on your splash pages...for all you know, the traffic exchange might reject your pop up splash page in the first place.

6) Use the magic of compounding which results in the power of residual traffic by building a good downline base.

7) Pick and choose your traffic exchanges and keep a note of the benefits offered. For example :
a) Referral structure for earning downline credits
b) Credits Ratio for own surfing
c) Free credits and bonus for being an active member
d)Ongoing contests
e) Read between the lines....
A traffic exchange may give free bonus credits for reading emails sent to members or a traffic exchange may give bonus credits for surfing 25 websites daily. Just imagine the misfortune you are going through if you surf between 20-24 websites on that exchange everybody. Further, it is always better to actively refer members in those traffic exchanges offering at least 20% credits in two to three levels.

8)Use the option to transfer credits to potential downline members if they join under you. Many traffic exchanges offer this option either through the traffic exchange or from the member's area.

9)Get into swap deals with other traffic exchange members. Statistics tell us that a majority of traffic exchange members join traffic exchanges directly from the homepage.
Do not commit the same mistake. Let's assume you are a member of Traffic Exchange A and you want to join Traffic Exchange B. It would benefit you greatly if you can post an offer in a forum you participate in that you are willing to join Traffic Exchange B under anyone who is willing to join under you in Traffic Exchange A. This is a win-win situation for both... you and the person you are doing the swap deal with.

10) Do use an affiliate link cloaker to get better response rates whenever you promote affiliate links. Use "Manual Traffic Exchanges" as a critical cog in the wheel of your marketing strategy. Do not commit the mistake of assuming that it is the wheel itself. Integrate other promotion methods like forums, safelists, blogs, rss feeds, search engine optimisation techniques,
ezine advertisements, joint venturing with other webmasters, etc. The possibilities are endless. Use "your brain" ...and...."your common-sense" to catapult yourself to the top of the ladder of success.

»»  lanjuuut...

6 Easy Ways to Create a Website

1. Conceptualize an idea. Think what you like your future website to be. What audience will you cater? Everything you do must redound to their fulfillment. They will be visiting to get what they need. Be sure that their needs are answered. That way they will be satisfied and will keep coming for more. Not only that, they can recommend your site to their friends if they find it functional and nice.

2. Find a host. Having a host is not that expensive. In fact you can get one at $70 for two years. However, if you don want to spend a single penny, there are lots of sites that are hosting for free. The only consideration is that their banner must be placed in your site. That for one is a great deal, isn't it?

3. Start with your first page. Do the layout and design your first page. It will be easier and better if you have basic knowledge in HTML. Though there are hundreds of What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editors, but you will create a better site using HTML. There are tutorial sections available online. Take advantage on them and apply your knowledge to the web design you are creating.

4. Edit your page. Observe the loading and the navigation. Are they doing well? How about the web design, is it pleasing to the eyes? Are the fonts readable? Is the content helpful? Are there errors in spelling and grammar? Better check all these little details. They may be tiny details but they make up the whole website. Be careful in dealing with them. If there is a need to redo the page do it. It will be disastrous if you are displaying a total trash.


5. Do the rest of the pages. The goal is to attract visitors, keep them and to gain more.

Edit, proofread and edit more. It pays off to have everything in order. Never sacrifice the quality of your website. It is your frontline. It is the one capable of attracting visitors that makes your business sell.

6. Submit the pages to your host. After you are done with the pages and the editing, you can submit them to your host. Wait for it to be shown in the net. Do not forget to update the pages regularly. You have to be updated in order not to lose your target market. Otherwise, they will look for a better site that can satisfy their needs. You don't want that to happen, do you?

You may not realize it but your site is already done

»»  lanjuuut...

Why Advertise on Craigslist?

Advertising on Craigslist is worthwhile for just about any business offering products or services. Whether these products are offered through ecommerce websites or physical stores, the business owners can see financial gains through advertising on Craigslist. Firstly unlike other advertising opportunities there is very little risk involved in posting on Craigslist. With the exception of job postings and housing postings in specific markets, advertising is free on Craigslist. Users are asked to agree to the terms of service of the community and are expected to follow specific guidelines when posting advertisements but there are no financial obligations to those placing advertisements on Craigslist. This means those who post advertisements do not have to be concerned with whether or not the advertisement they place will meet their expectations in terms of sales generated.

Reaching Potential Customers on Craigslist
Another reason why posting advertisements for products or services on Craigslist is so worthwhile is the likelihood of reaching a large audience of potential customers. A review of the Craigslist fact sheet reveals pertinent information regarding the amount of traffic the website receives. According to this information Craigslist receives approximately four billion page views each month with ten million people using Craigslist each month. From these statistics it is clear that advertisements placed on Craiglist are likely to receive at least some attention from potential clients.

With so many visitors using Craigslist each month the advertising possibilities are limitless, however, there are no guarantee any of these visitors will be interested in your products or services. Like any marketing campaign, your advertisements on Craigslist must be intriguing, informative and in a location where you will reach your target audience.

Finding Your Target Audience on Craigslist
We've already discussed the number of visitors using Craigslist each month but the key to taking advantage of these numbers is to target your advertising in a way aimed at reaching your target audience as opposed to a wide audience of individuals who have no specific interest in your products or services. It is much more worthwhile to reach a small audience of those with a keen interest in your products or services than to reach a much larger audience of those who are not interested. Those who have an interest in your products or services are your target audience.

The key to reaching your target audience on Craigslist is placing your advertisement in the most appropriate locations. Craigslist has a specific section for businesses to advertise their services. This section is broken down into a number of categories. Those who are in the business of computer repair would be wise to place their advertisement in the computer section as opposed to the automotive section because individuals looking for computer help will naturally migrate to the computer section. It may sometimes be appropriate to place an advertisement in more than one section. This is acceptable as long as it does not cross the line to spamming the section.

If there is not a specific section for the products or services offered by your business there are a couple of options. Business owners can place an advertisement in the section for small business advertisements where it might be found by those doing a search in this section. Alternately the business owner can contact Craigslist to suggest the addition of a new category. They might be willing to oblige if they believe this category warrants an addition.

The Difference between Advertising and Spamming
Advertising on Craigslist is one thing but spamming is quite another. Placing an advertisement in an appropriate section of Craigslist is acceptable; however, placing the same advertisement in nearly every section of Craigslist websites for a number of different geographical regions is considered spam. Spam is ineffective for a number of reasons. First of all potential customers who see a particular advertisement in a number of different locations are likely to recognize the spamming techniques and be less inclined to patronize this business. Also, if Craigslist detects the practice of spamming they may delete all of the postings and could potentially ban advertisements from the individual in the future.

»»  lanjuuut...

Drive Traffic to Your Website With Articles

 Many people begin their online road to riches dream by starting up a website and trying to sell a product they have created themselves. They may have written an e-book, recorded a cd of original songs, or knitted some lovely potholders with pictures of cats on them.
Enormous volumes of hype have been published with the claim that the internet is an easy, if not mindless, way to riches. The internet is now a global advertising grid, and millions of people surf each day for things they would like to buy, learn about, or discover. They search for the needle in the electronic haystack that suits their fancy for the moment. Shopping online has now become reasonably safe.Search engines use complex algorithms (mathematical formulae) to determine if the content of a website matches its owners claims. Self-proclaimed experts who follow this route for exposure must research every day to ensure their success. The search engine companies themselves keep their algorithms secret to avoid unscrupulous marketers taking unfair advantage of the whole internet shopping and surfing experience.So what is a potholder seller to do? Search engine experts can charge upwards of $25,000 to guarantee that your site might be the first to be found when someone enters a search. That's a whole lot of lovely cat potholders. Some very easy and free methods are available to drive traffic to your website. One of them is writing simple articles. You're reading this one right now, aren't you?Hundreds of "article directories" exist on the web just for this purpose. The main and simplest thing people search for on the internet is information. People want to know about something, and often a good place to find a snippet of information is in an article directory. Thousands of 500-1500 word articles have been written and published on the internet, and people love to read them. If they are short and informative, they will become popular to read, and not too time consuming.Then once your website is up on the net, write a brief, helpful article about your product. Target the style and content of your writing to suit your friends and customers, and also yourself. The average newspaper is written for a grade 9 level reader, and tabloids are written for a grade 6 level or lower. Writing on the internet runs the whole gamut of education. Explain a problem that needs to be solved, and at the end provide a solution. Sales copy is more involved than this, but an article should be entertaining, or fit the parameters of a possible search.
The most important part of the article, besides the content and the attention grabbing headline, is a live link to your website in the author's bio at the bottom. More often than not, the reader will click the link, if it is live, to see what other information might be available on that particular subject. This link must lead straight to your potholder website. A reader is less likely to copy and paste your website address into their browser if another similar article is listed in the directory.Write a short paragraph stating your expertise with cat potholders, and invite the reader to visit your website. This will be your "author's bio". If someone does read the whole article, they are often curious who wrote it, if it covers the subject they are interested in. Most article directories will accept html code in the bio box.Search for the words "article directory", and make a list of as many as you can. Most directories are free to read and submit your articles to. Registration is usually necessary, with your email as the username. Get another free email address to use specifically for article submission to avoid any trouble with spam.After you have submitted your article, it may take a few days for publication. Check back to the directory to see if your article is published and your link is working. Then do it all again. The articles will stay published forever, or as long as the directory exists. Over time, people will continue to read your article, and click back to your website. If you submit your article to 20 directories, and 40 people interested in cat potholders read it, that's 800 more potential customers from one article. If you have the time to write 20 little articles, and submit them to 40 directories, and 40 people read each one over time, well you do the arithmetic.Article submission is one easy, quick and guaranteed way to direct some website traffic your way, and at almost no cost. Give it a try, you'll be amazed.

»»  lanjuuut...

Good Articles Recommend Top Rank by SEO

After doing SEO fake inscription, you require identifying your theme substance. People with search engines are looking for in sequence. Does some research concerning your creation or examine previous to you instigate. Make several comments. Which generate a pleasurable and educational commentary but it is palpable that you don’t know what you are talking about, this will revolve readers off keep in mind, and readers are credible customers. You are also need to investigate your keywords when secret language SEO articles. The majority frequently searched keywords may not be the most excellent, as a lot of extra webmasters will be use the identical ones. You may desire to try use a less commonly searched but more embattled keyword or phrase to draw higher excellence travel to your website. One major drawback of SEO copywriting is overusing keywords. You do require a convinced keyword compactness to draw the concentration of search engines, but you do not desire to use the identical one too numerous era. A superior rule of thumb is to utilize your keyword concerning one time every one hundred words. You should as well feel concerning encompass a little less important keywords, and functioning them into the remains of your commentary as glowing. Which compose sure you work them into the transcript in an ordinary approach. An article that is perceptibly no more than an urn for keywords can be a intersection for the person who reads. Finally, while you include printed your commentary, proofread and spell-check it. Your article ought to not surround enchantment or syntax errors. Many readers will consider sloppy writing to be a sign of laziness, and possibly of incompetence. Remember, the purpose of SEO copywriting is to attract visitors to your website who will hopefully turn into customers for your business. The last thing you want to do is give your readers a negative impression of your product or service by encompassing scruffily on paper critique on your website.

There as further to writing SEO commentary than by means of keywords. The commentary ought to be well-crafted and enlightening as glowing. Work your keywords into the editorial in an approach that is expected, and do not overeat them. An article can be entirely search engine optimized, but if it is not understandable, it will do you no first-class. Keep in mind, your target audience is the person who reads, not the search engine.

»»  lanjuuut...

Is Your Domain Name SEO Friendly?

When you first start an Internet business one of the first items on the list, after you've written your business model, is getting a domain name. In years past it wasn't as difficult to find a decent name for your site. Today however, it's not as easy to get your dot com name. The process of registering a name has improved substantially but the availability for descriptive names is far more difficult. Why is this a problem you may ask? It's more of a problem for small and home business sites than it is for larger companies. The reason is simple and I can sum it up in one word: money.
Larger companies, especially public companies have the funding to advertise their new sites, therefore they don't really need to have names that reflect the type of business they are in. I can site a perfect example, Go Daddy.com, has absolutely nothing to do with the type of business Go Daddy is in. But being the largest register of domain names, GoDaddy can advertise on all media levels to get business including buying advertising time on the Super Bowl! If you are starting a home based business on the Internet, I'll bet that you won't be buying time on television not to mention next year's Super Bowl.
Okay, where am I going with all of this? You are on a limited budget when you start your business and you must rely on free traffic to your site, because without traffic you have no business. This is what I described in my article on organic traffic a few weeks ago. In order to get substantial traffic to your site you'll need to have an optimized site. This all has to do with keywords and something called keyword density. You achieve this by having your most important keywords dispersed throughout your website and your domain name. (See I did come to the point of this article.)
Most SEO, search engine optimization, programs first look at the domain name and your major keywords. They look to see if your domain name and site title have any commonality. If they do your site receives extra points in the SEO algorithm, (a logical step-by-step procedure for solving a mathematical problem in a finite number of steps, often involving repetition of the same basic operation.) I hope that I haven't lost you here because all of this is very important, especially to home based Internet business owners.
Most SEO programs will constantly refer back to the domain name and those words which match the dominate keyword phrases that you have chosen. When your site is optimized, search engines will pick up your scent, so to speak, and you will have great placement and positioning on searches that have your keywords. All of this amounts to substantial traffic.
I'm not an expert on SEO and I don't pretend to be but I've spent my share of time in attempting to understand it and how it effects my site. I can recommend two areas of my site that I think are beneficial to you: Web Site Design and Search Engine Optimization at http://www.homebusinessresearch.com There are a lot of submission services as well. Some of them are good and some of them are not so good. Try to optimize first.

»»  lanjuuut...

How Important Is Website Design?

In this article I will be writing about Website Design, how it affects sales, and how it compares in importance to other aspects of Website Management. Lets list the different aspects of owning or managing a Website.
Domain Name: How important is the domain name you choose for your Website? Many people say it is not important at all, yet I have number one listings in Google, Yahoo, and MSN for the key phrases that exactly match my domain name. It matters a lot.
You need a domain name that matches keywords and phrases you will also use in your Website that people are searching for. Many people think their company name should be their domain name. If you have a lot of money for advertising to make your company name something people search for, I agree with you. If you do not have that ad budget, then you need a generic domain name that is a phrase people already search for.
Web Hosting: How important is choosing the right Web Hosting Service for your Website? Again, this is important in many ways. You need your Website to load fast. If your Website loads slow, people will leave without buying anything. You also need to choose a Web Hosting Service that gives good tech support. There are a lot more things to consider when choosing a good Web Hosting Service, but make sure you rate this high on your list of things that are important to your Website.
Web Design: How important is Website Design? Your Website needs to look professional and trustworthy in order to create buyer confidence. A poorly designed Website will cost you sales. However, and this is the part that web designers will hate me for, it is not as important as many of the other aspects of Website ownership and management.
Many web designers know nothing about search engine optimization, picking a good domain name, hosting, Website promotion, or other issues. They only know design. That is a good thing in my opinion, but they should let their customers know they are a designer and cannot help their Website be competitive in the marketplace. Yes, there are some designers that know more than just design, but many do not. Keep this in mind.
A beautiful Website that gets no traffic and makes no money might as well be an ugly Website. An ugly Website that has traffic and makes money gets more beautiful by the dollar.
Search Engine Optimization: How important is SEO to my Website? Extremely important! Again, many web designers do not know how to properly optimize a Website for the search engines. It is important to have someone who specializes in SEO to go over your Website and make sure it is ready to get crawled and indexed by the search engines.
There was a time when SEO was all-inclusive with link building, Website promotion, search engine marketing, etc. Times have changed somewhat and the search engines have become more complicated, so now many people specialize in certain aspects of SEO.
I define SEO as coding the Website properly, writing text that contains the proper amount and correct keywords and phrases, search engine submissions, and some link building techniques.
Search Engine Marketing: What is SEM and how important is this to my Website? Search Engine Marketing by my own definition is marketing your Website through Google Adwords, MSN AdCenter, and other keyword purchasing programs as well as purchasing links, ads, and sponsored listings.
Again, many people are specializing in an area they have success with these days. I am very good at SEO, but I have limited experience with SEM. Therefore, I can make your Website ready to be crawled, do link building, and write text that helps you attract good search engine rank and traffic, but I would not be the guy you would hire to manage your Adwords program.
Website Promotion: Yet another category with a relationship to SEO and SEM. How important is this category? In my opinion it tops the list. What is Website Promotion? This category includes Article Marketing, Press Releases, Link Popularity, Buying Traffic, Blogging, Forum Posting and more.
Why do I consider it more important? First, none of the things mentioned here can stand-alone. You need to consider all of the different aspects as important. However, search engines change constantly. Depending on search engines for all or most of your traffic and sales is putting your life in Google's hands basically since they account for 60% of all searches now.
If you are comfortable with one company having that much control over how well you do on the web, then ignore Website promotion and just do SEO and SEM. You need traffic from many different sources if you want to be successful. That way if one source dies out, you are not affected nearly as much as someone who only had one or a few sources of traffic would be.
Focus on getting traffic from every source you can. Post comments in Blogs and Forums related to your topic. That means actually join the forums or blogs and actually get involved in the conversations there and post quality comments. Be helpful to people at the forums and blogs. Ask questions. No one will mind that a link in your SIG line goes to your Website is you are a real participant. If they do object at that point, find a new place to join.
Start your own Blog. You can put up two if you really want to benefit from Blogging. A Blog within your domain name or on a subdomain can help you add fresh content to your website more often. That helps with the SEO. You can build a Blog on another domain name and promote links to pages within your Website and benefit from a little link popularity while also giving customers another way to find your Website. Doorway pages used to be the way to go. Blogs on their own domain name have replaced doorway pages as the way to go.
Article Marketing means writing articles and submitting them to article directories, writing quality articles and offering them to topic-relative high-traffic Websites as exclusive content, and press releases are a great source of traffic that builds link popularity as well. The traffic you get from people who read your article are many more times likely to convert to a sale than the traffic you get from search engines.
I will get new customers and signups due to this article you are reading right now. Article Marketing and Website Promotion work very well.
I hope this article has helped you to understand that owning or managing a Website is about a lot more than just getting a domain name, designing a Website, and picking a host. "If you build it, they will come" does not apply to Websites.

»»  lanjuuut...

An Internet Business Can be Your Financial Saftey Net!

The other day I was talking to a couple of my friends at a coffee shop and we were discussing the inability for average workers to get ahead. John had just received some money from a relative and had spent the day trying to get a good rate for his investment. He had only been offered 5.5% and wanted more.
He had $10,000 to invest and was happy with an interest rate of 5.75%. The best "at call" rate he had found after much research with financial institutions. He was after a safe investment during these uncertain times.
My other friend responded, "I wish I had the spare $10,000 to invest in the first place!". He went on to say that how difficult he found it to save any money after paying his bills each week. (Something you hear all the time)
We got out the napkin and a pen and looked at the situation. He had put all his efforts into running around to get an extra 0.25% on his money!
So instead of getting $550 in interest on his ten grand for the next 12 months, he would now be receiving $575.... Big deal....
An extra $25 for the year! He probably spent that much driving around and in phone calls.
What a waste of time and energy if you think about it!
My other friend on the other hand would love to have an extra $10,000 to invest. However, his day job does not allow him to save enough to "get ahead".
But.... He possesses a crucial ingredient that can earn the extra money he desires.... The ingredient is.... His "spare time".
Without changing or giving up your "day job", asking for a pay rise, or finding a second part time job....
The average PC literate person can earn a substantial extra income from home just by selling simple information products they create themselves based on what they "already know" and all in their spare time.
Marketing information.... Information people want, in the form of ebooks, ebooklets, special reports, audio tapes, video's and CD-roms is still the best home based Internet business you can start.
It's as true today as it was four years ago on the Internet.
People often ask me if it is really possible to earn decent money on the Internet if you only have a few spare hours in a day to devote to your online business. Surely the law of business prohibits you from "gaining a lot for very little"?
Here is the key that many people new to online business MISS....
You might only work 2 spare hours a day on your little Web business BUT your Web business (your website) WORKS FULL TIME 24 hours a day for you!... This is the reason why it does not take much of your time and yet can return far more than an hourly wage for the ACTUAL hours you put in.
Having a well-constructed website that sells for you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on "autopilot" is like having an "electronic employee or salesman" working for you and presenting your product perfectly every time.
It's a business that works unmanned... Like a shop that never closes.
But you know.... It's not just the money you make, it's about establishing something else....A "safety Net" in hard times....
A small insurance policy should the worst happen.
Nobody can retrench you from your own business. A business that can never go broke either.... You can even set up a free website and perform zero cost marketing promotions. Zero overheads. Maximum profits.
That's how I started and you can do the same.
Even in hard times.... War, Anthrax scares, recession, have not effected my online business. Sales may not have increased, but they have not declined.
You may also think that you need "talent", writing skills and a certain level of education to succeed in running an online information product business. Not so, the world is full of educated and talented failures. What you do need however is "persistence" and a dogged determination to succeed.
So if you don't have spare money to invest, like my friend did, don't worry, 12 months from now you will have much more than my other friend who has invested his money to earn a measly interest of $575!!
You could have the same $10,000 plus an ongoing income from investing your "spare time" instead.
So next time you put your feet up in your spare hours, consider investing some of those hours up online!

»»  lanjuuut...

Make Your Website Stand Out With an Icon Design

There are many web design icon sites that, with a price, help you design your own icon. These icon design sites have icon design groups that work from the look and feel of your web site or with any images; you give them, to design an icon compliant with multiple browsers. The icon design is available in different sizes like 256 color, 32x32 and 16x16 pixel designs.

Delivery of the custom made icon graphic design takes about three to four days. If there are any changes, you can make one set of revisions to the icon design at no additional cost. If at all you wish to design your own icon, all you have to do is to use any free design icon web site. Here you have to open the program, and select the icon size and color from its dropdown menu.

Your icon is created with your specifications. (Internet Explorer entertains icon designs of 16x16 pixels size only and ignores others). Now you can see a large window containing squares; this is your icon canvas. Each square represents a pixel, which you can edit to your requirements. Then you use the tools on the left-hand side of your screen to edit these pixels and to design the icon. If you cannot design your own icon, use an image that has to either be copied or pasted on the icon canvas or by pasting your image from a file.

In the case of design your own buddy icon, you have to go to a design buddy icon website. Here you have to right click the icon you like, and save it in the computer. Then, in instant messenger, you have to click on one of your buddy icons, which then take you to the buddy icon preferences page. You have to scroll to 'my buddy icon' and click that, and then select browse

and find where you saved your coolbuddy icon and select it from there. Your buddy icon is now set! You find that there are some of your favorite sites in the Internet Explorer 5 and above, having an icon displayed beside the link. This icon is a Favicon. Displaying a Favicon with a website makes the website stand out, and build brand awareness. This provides viewers with an instant recognition of your website.

»»  lanjuuut...

Over Optimizing Article make your Site Blacklisted from Search Engine

A keyword is a word that is going to be placed in your article several times, not just once as that would make every word a keyword. Keyword density is crucial parts of optimizing your articles for search engines. But it is important to note that there is also such a thing as over optimizing your articles for particular words, this is known as keyword stuffing.

When you over optimizing your article with stuff keywords in an article a search engine spider will detect that you are trying to trick it into placing your article high in the search engine results for that word, and will instead punish your site and your page for doing such. This may even affect the rankings of your other pages or get your site blacklisted from a major search engine if you are found keyword stuffing too many times.

Keyword density is how many times your keyword is placed in your article. Most use a percentage to determine how many times they will put a keyword in an article. For instance, if you have a 400 word article and want to achieve a keyword density of 6%, then you will need to have the keyword in your article exactly 24 times. An effective article must have a keyword density between three until eight percent from overall article. If you use very high density and over optimize your article search engine will marked your article as a spam.

Having the right keyword density in your article makes it more likely that you will make money off of that article because it will go up in the search engine results and be seen by more people. But you must remember please be careful when you optimize your article don't over optimize your articles with very high keyword density, you will get your site blacklisted from a major search engine.

»»  lanjuuut...

Why and How to Use Templates Effectively

In desktop publishing, templates are pre-designed documents that we can use to create business cards, brochures, greeting cards, or other desktop documents. Some types of templates include:
Mix and match elements using a Wizard or by choosing items from a list that the software assembles into our final product.

Pre-designed formats for documents where all we add are our own words in place of dummy or placeholder text. Graphics and typestyles are part of the template.

Pre-designed formats for documents that have placeholders (grid lines, boxes, dummy text) for key elements, text and graphics. We add our own text and graphics and choose the appropriate typefaces.
Many programs include their own set of designer templates for a variety of documents.

You can also design and save your own templates. Let's look at some of the ways that templates can work for you.

* Pros & Cons of Using Templates

You might have heard (or even thought it yourself) "Real designers don't use templates" or, "Templates are a substitute for real design." But there are times when using one is the most appropriate choice. Some times and ways that templates can work for you:

- Save time with templates.

- Offer your client a less expensive alternative to your original, made completely from scratch designs.

- Use templates for routine forms for your own use (invoices, etc.) so you can spend more time on client work.

- Maintain consistency with newsletters or between related marketing pieces.

- If you're a non-designer, use templates to give a more professional edge to your own marketing materials.

- Build your first Web page with templates until you become more comfortable with Web publishing.

- Maintain page-to-page consistency in a large Web site and simplify updates.

Remember, in many cases templates are designed by well-known designers. We often look at the work of others for inspiration, using templates is simply another way of borrowing from the talents of those around us. Starting with a template is a smart idea. However, there are still many ways to personalize them without sacrificing the benefits of speed, variety, and consistency.

* Tips for Using and Personalizing Templates

- Use some of these suggestions to make the most of the templates you use:

- Choose an Appropriate Template. Pick a template layout that is appropriate to the job. Selecting a design that is inappropriate or that requires too many alterations defeats the purpose of using a template in the first place.

- Change the Template Graphics. Add your own clip art and graphics in place of any pre-selected graphics used in the template. Graphics also include rules (lines). Change the size or placement to better fit your own text.

- Change the Template Fonts. Some templates come with font specifications. They are just suggestions. Be sure to choose a typeface that is appropriate to the design of the template. Some layouts and some typefaces have their own casual or formal tone. It's usually best to stay close to the type choices (if any) used in the original template if you're unsure.

- Change the Text Formating. Change the leading or alignment of the text. Add text embellishments such as initial caps or bullet lists.

- Change the Template Color Scheme & Paper. The layout is only one part of the overall design. Simply changing the paper or changing the colors used in your document can cause dramatic changes - even when the layout stays the same.

- Change the Template Layout. While one of the main reasons to use a template is to have an instant layout, a few simple changes can make that layout perfect. Flip the template or just move an element or two around.

- Save Your Modified or New Template. Whether it's a modified template design or one you've created from scratch - save it as a template. If it's right for one job, it may be right for another. If it is a newsletter or one of many pieces in a coordinated marketing package, you save yourself time down the line.

- Use Templates for Inspiration. Ever found yourself staring at a blank piece of paper or a blank screen, unsure of where to begin? Use templates as a starting point. Just browsing through the various templates - even ones unrelated to your current design project - can give you ideas and start you on the road to laying out your own original masterpiece.
In desktop publishing, templates are pre-designed documents that we can use to create business cards, brochures, greeting cards, or other desktop documents. Some types of templates include:
Mix and match elements using a Wizard or by choosing items from a list that the software assembles into our final product.
Pre-designed formats for documents where all we add are our own words in place of dummy or placeholder text. Graphics and typestyles are part of the template.
Pre-designed formats for documents that have placeholders (grid lines, boxes, dummy text) for key elements, text and graphics. We add our own text and graphics and choose the appropriate typefaces.
Many programs include their own set of designer templates for a variety of documents.
You can also design and save your own templates. Let's look at some of the ways that templates can work for you.

* Pros & Cons of Using Templates

You might have heard (or even thought it yourself) "Real designers don't use templates" or, "Templates are a substitute for real design." But there are times when using one is the most appropriate choice. Some times and ways that templates can work for you:

- Save time with templates.
- Offer your client a less expensive alternative to your original, made completely from scratch designs.
- Use templates for routine forms for your own use (invoices, etc.) so you can spend more time on client work.
- Maintain consistency with newsletters or between related marketing pieces.
- If you're a non-designer, use templates to give a more professional edge to your own marketing materials.
- Build your first Web page with templates until you become more comfortable with Web publishing.
- Maintain page-to-page consistency in a large Web site and simplify updates.

Remember, in many cases templates are designed by well-known designers. We often look at the work of others for inspiration, using templates is simply another way of borrowing from the talents of those around us. Starting with a template is a smart idea. However, there are still many ways to personalize them without sacrificing the benefits of speed, variety, and consistency.

* Tips for Using and Personalizing Templates
- Use some of these suggestions to make the most of the templates you use:
- Choose an Appropriate Template. Pick a template layout that is appropriate to the job. Selecting a design that is inappropriate or that requires too many alterations defeats the purpose of using a template in the first place.
- Change the Template Graphics. Add your own clip art and graphics in place of any pre-selected graphics used in the template. Graphics also include rules (lines). Change the size or placement to better fit your own text.
- Change the Template Fonts. Some templates come with font specifications. They are just suggestions. Be sure to choose a typeface that is appropriate to the design of the template. Some layouts and some typefaces have their own casual or formal tone. It's usually best to stay close to the type choices (if any) used in the original template if you're unsure.
- Change the Text Formating. Change the leading or alignment of the text. Add text embellishments such as initial caps or bullet lists.
- Change the Template Color Scheme & Paper. The layout is only one part of the overall design. Simply changing the paper or changing the colors used in your document can cause dramatic changes - even when the layout stays the same.
- Change the Template Layout. While one of the main reasons to use a template is to have an instant layout, a few simple changes can make that layout perfect. Flip the template or just move an element or two around.
- Save Your Modified or New Template. Whether it's a modified template design or one you've created from scratch - save it as a template. If it's right for one job, it may be right for another. If it is a newsletter or one of many pieces in a coordinated marketing package, you save yourself time down the line.
- Use Templates for Inspiration. Ever found yourself staring at a blank piece of paper or a blank screen, unsure of where to begin? Use templates as a starting point. Just browsing through the various templates - even ones unrelated to your current design project - can give you ideas and start you on the road to laying out your own original masterpiece.

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