| LED Digest 2014: Yahoo's Valuable Link |
|
|
|
================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest post, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. August 24, 2005 Issue #2014 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Yahoo Directory Listings Worthwhile? ==-- ~ Mike Banks Valentine "It is the most important and valuable text link you could ever purchase." --== Email Filtering ==-- ~ Joe Halbrook "Allowing ISP filters...is dangerous business." --== Meta Tags Count! ==-- ~ Steve Pronger "In any event you can easily put your proof to the test." --== E-book Options ==-- ~ Reg Charie "Paying $100 a month for hosting and fees is not necessary." ~ Nancy Cardinali "Okay, one more time..." ~ Kathryn Martyn "You'll be so much better off if you stop focusing on the fear or loss..." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Open Source & Microsoft ==-- ~ Paul Baugher ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Mike Banks Valentine Subject: Yahoo Listing > Every year the Yahoo mosquito wonders back looking for an > easy [vein] and we willingly [bare] some flesh without any real > way of knowing if the resulting welt and itching sensation is > worth the pain. - Clint Whitsett, LED 2006 That expensive Yahoo Directory listing has one little known benefit to your website. It is the most important and valuable text link you could ever purchase. That one link from one source will do your ranking more good than any other single link (except possibly the Open Directory). I've had several SEO clients see a leap in ranking for targeted search terms a week or so after that Yahoo Directory link goes live for them. Many clients have argued with me about the value of that Yahoo Directory text link. But at $299, the yearly fee is cheaper than many of those commercial text link ads sites and does far more for your ranking in search engines OTHER than Yahoo. Why? Purely the value of the link. Search engines know that only sites of reasonable quality submit and get accepted into Yahoo Directory. They know that serious businesses will pay that yearly fee, while marginal or hobby sites will not pay that $299 every year. I've seen client sites jump from positions on page three at MSN search to top 5 positions on page one of the MSN SERP's. Mike Banks Valentine http://seoptimism.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Joe Halbrook Subject: Email filters > ISP filters can be good but sometimes certain important > emails can be deleted that way. That's why I like to handle > email filtering by myself... I wouldn't suggest that people > delegate everything related to email filtering to their ISP. - Dejan Bizinger, LED 2013 Dejan emphasizes a critical point, when it comes to email filtering: Allowing ISP filters (that may be too stringent), which individual mailbox owners cannot control, is dangerous business. If your ISP has implemented filtering and does not allow you any measure of control over the filtering of your personal mailbox(es), you need to ask why not, or when they will provide such control. Otherwise, they should expect to lose your business. They are attempting to become the guardian of your email communication. And if that communication is the lifeblood of your business, you're in a dangerous position. RBLs (real-time blacklists) used by ISPs are simply not the solution, mostly because spammers can easily circumvent blacklists - they just change their Sending address on each broadcast! Blacklists also fail because there is no such "one size fits all" solution. Especially, if blacklisted (and filtered) email is simply deleted, allowing the recipient no access to it. Individualized custom whitelisting is the only time-tested proven answer, since spammers can't circumvent whitelisting, when everything else is considered unwanted email. (See comment by Allan Gardyne cited below.) Every mailbox is unique. And each mailbox owner needs to be able to define filtering characteristics individually -- by Sender, by Domain, by Subject Line content, etc. The key to successful email management involves flexibility in the filtering solution. And it must allow individual mailbox owners the ability to control the filtering characteristics of their own mailbox(es). > I use a variety of email addresses for different purposes, > such as subscribing to newsletters, joining affiliate programs, > corresponding with friends, etc. - Allan Gardyne, LED 2011 Very smart approach. By doing this, you can determine where much unwanted email originates, and what address has been compromised. Your filtering solution should allow you to specify blacklisting using such compromised addresses. Best of success, Joe Halbrook Permission Technologies http://www.cleanmymailbox.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Steve Pronger Subject: Meta tags > ... no one is looking at meta tags anymore... - Trudy Levy, LED 2009 > I keep reading this on this forum that no one is looking at > meta tags. How do myths like this get started? This is > completely incorrect. I have the incontrovertible proof. - David Spahr LED 2010 David, I think you may have misinterpreted Trudy's post. I don't know anyone who practices SEO, either professionally or for their own site, who advises not to include any meta tags at all. Certainly the page title (is that what you mean by top text?) and meta description tags are very important on-page factors. They should always be included and contain your primary keywords. I think Trudy was referring to the generally held belief that the meta keywords tag is no longer as important as it once was. That's not to say that you shouldn't include them ( I do) but don't expect them alone to propel you to the top of the SERPs for competitive keywords. You offer your own site as "incontrovertible proof" that your site ranks #1 because of the meta tags. What it proves is that search engines do read the title and description tags. This is no secret. But there are many factors at play which determine your ranking. The keyword "stereoviews" isn't a competitive one. There were 248 searches on Overture last month and 58,100 page matches at Google. Your page is optimized well for that keyword and would probably rank quite well without any meta keywords. But you also have around 50 inbound links and 68% of those contain "stereoviews" in the anchor text. Don't be fooled into thinking that those links don't have an influence on where you rank. In any event you can easily put your proof to the test. Just remove stereoviews from your meta keywords and see what effect it has on your rankings. A cold Fosters says no difference at all. Cheers Steve Pronger http://www.stevepronger.com -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Reg Charie Subject: Ebooks > Is there any way to use a system such as Paypal > or Clickbank and still maintain some degree of > control over forwarding and downloads? - Brian Rotsztein, LED 2013 Brian, take a look at the CRELoaded version of the osCommerce shopping cart / system. www.creloaded.com CRE offers a shopping system which works with downloadable products and can tie into most payment gateways including PayPal and 2CheckOut. It also offers an associate sales system, if you wanted to go that route. CRELoaded is open source, (free), and has excellent support forums. I have it running on several sites, two of which offer digital products. www.virussnitch.com/store and www.topleveldomainicons.com/store Paying $100 a month for hosting and fees is not necessary. Hosting can be as low as $5.95 a month, (including cart), and monthly merchant account fees can be $0, outside of sales processing fees, if 2CheckOut is used as they do not charge a monthly fee, just their $49.00 setup. If you want to discuss this further, I can be contacted at led-digest (at) dotcom-productions (dot) com Thank You, Reg Charie ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Nancy Cardinali Subject: Ebooks Okay, one more time: Investigate Lightningsource.com for your ebook needs. I think you will find all your questions answered. Feel free to contact me for more info. I use their services, so perhaps I can offer that customer referral you want. I have no affiliation with this company other than as a customer. It seems you are making more work for yourself...I could be wrong - it happens! ;-} Nancy Cardinali nancy52, cwo.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Kathryn Martyn Subject: Ebooks > ... it seems that one of the best solutions is to have > the PDF document locked to the purchaser's computer. - Brian Rotsztein, LED 2013 That is the worst possible thing you could do. I own multiple computers at different locations. Some have lazer printers, some have color. Some have no printer. I use them all at various times, and if I move a file from one to another and then find it will not open it makes me very angry, to say the least. If I paid for a book, I expect to be able to take it wherever I want. I can carry my physical books where I want, I can even loan one to a friend, yet the book authors and distributors don't spend all their time trying to figure out how to chain the book to my wrist. I had one experience with an e-book that was tied to my computer and it was awful. I had to keep writing the author time and again requesting new codes for the different computers. In the future, if I ever come across someone who employs that method with an e-book I'll immediately request a refund. > These are unique children's books and we believe theft (via > forwarding e-books / e-mail attachments) will be an issue. Why on earth do you believe this? Most people who pay for a product don't immediately start gifting their friends with it. Why should I do all the purchasing? It doesn't make sense. They'll tell their friend (you want that, yes?) and their friend can go get their own copy. You'll be so much better off if you stop focusing on the fear or loss and instead look toward your honest clients (most of them are) and the kids you are working to help. Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP Ending Emotional Eating, One Bite at a Time http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Paul Baugher Subject: Open source I just wanted to clarify that the last bit of my comment [issue LED 2010] was meant as a joke and I'm sorry if any of you failed to see the humor in it (communist or not). I was providing it in the context of all the anti-Microsoft statements that I see all over the Internet. I do in fact have respect for many of the products of "open-source" and run a Debian-based firewall here in the office. I also utilize several FreeBSD servers in my day-to-day activities and often recommend open source applications to people that I do business with that also have a need to save money. I use many O-S Apps myself and found some that have even become essential to doing business. On the other hand, I've also found for the most part the O-S apps are usually years behind in usability. I believe in capitalism and that in the long run, making software for free hurts those that might profit from programming, whether it's Microsoft, Sun, or my own little web development shop. I'm fully aware that Microsoft is guilty of providing software for free and has killed off many would be competitors by doing so. They also over-charge for many of their products to compensate. So I'm not here to defend there business practices... but they have made what personal computing is today, like 'em or hate 'em they are here to stay. As a developer, I do have a vested interest in having people use a standard platform, and for the majority of developers, IE is and will continue to be that standard. People in general want what works, what's relevant, and what saves them time and money. Give them something for free and they will take and take until there is nothing left to take. Why become programmers at all if someone down the block is ready to give away for free what you intend to feed your family with? Money is not what got me in to computers, but it is what keeps me in business. Paul A. Baugher http://www.digitalskyline.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "You have to believe in yourself, that's the secret." - Charlie Chaplin |
