| LED Digest 2148: Billing Your Time |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom 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 adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. April 27, 2006 Issue no. 2148 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== NEW ======================== --== Billing Your Time ==-- ~ Brett Atkin "Do you have a minimum billable time...?" --== Google and DMOZ ==-- ~ Mark Bishop "And can anyone get into DMOZ anymore? Does it matter?" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Shared IPs and SEO ==-- ~ Michael Martinez "This is a pervasive SEO myth that won't go away." --== How Does BuyHitsCheap Work? ==-- ~ Reg Charie "One of my clients bought into a similar situation." --== Dealing with Shipping Costs ==-- ~ David Spahr "I have had excellent service from US Postal Service over the years." ~ Douglas E. Bates "I have been using FedEx for five years with no problems..." ~ Kenny Lau "I'm a Canadian merchant and had problems with FedEx Canada." --== Hyphens in URLs? ==-- ~ Bev Hanna "Do the search engines look at domain names?" ~ John Green "I think I have the most hyphens ever seen in a URL." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Duplicate Content ==-- ~ Scott M. Stolz ======== NEW ===================================== From: Brett Atkin Subject: Billing Questions I'm in the process of modifying my billing structure and I was wondering how others do it. Do you bill down to the minute or in time increments, 5, 10, 15, etc..? Do you have a minimum billable time, say 15 minutes for example? Do you bill different amounts based on the task or the same for all? Do you bill extra for quicker delivery and/or weekend work? I have a client that sends me small updates that sometimes take less than 5 minutes. I have been billing to the minute with a minimum of 5 minutes but I'm feeling like I spend more time keeping track and tallying my time at the end of the month than actually doing the work. What software or web services are you using to keep track of your time? Finally, before I was married (I'm self-employed), I tended to work any day of the week. Now, the weekend thing doesn't go over well. One client I have delivers an HTML email every Monday, but has a difficult time getting me content before Friday, sometimes later. Through nobody's fault but my own, I managed it with weekend work. That needs to change. I've discussed it with the client, but they feel like they need to delivery as late as possible so that the newsletter can be current (the content is not time sensitive stuff). Minus "news" related content that is time sensitive, what is your general delivery time frame for making requested updates and additions? I started out with the mindset of "same day" turn around, but as my workload increases, that just isn't possible. In this 24/7 world, am I dreaming to think I shouldn't be working every weekend to meet the client needs? Am I the norm or the exception here? All suggestions and comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Brett Atkin http://www.brettatkin.com -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Mark Bishop Subject: Google & DMOZ My wife just started a home business doing translations and interpretation. The URL is www.wlstranslations.com and I am the IT department and SEO guy (as well as the occasional coffee maker, shoulder rubber and grocery shopper). My question: I've been trying to add good content, streamline the code, exchange links and all of the things you need to do to improve your rankings. We are coming up on the first page on MSN and Yahoo! for our top search term, "English Spanish translations." However, I haven't had luck with Google yet. Our site has been live since October. Are there any suggestions of what one can do to optimize for Google different from MSN or Yahoo!? And can anyone get into DMOZ anymore? Does it matter? Thanks for your suggestions. Mark Bishop ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Michael Martinez Subject: IP and SEO > Does having a "non shared" IP address > for your web site assist with SEO? - Paul Harris, LED 2147 No. This is a pervasive SEO myth that won't go away. There are a few technical papers and patent application which talk about discarding documents from search results sets for specialized function on the basis of IP addresses. However, Google representatives have publicly stated that Google doesn't do this and no one has openly suggested (that I am aware of) that Yahoo!, MSN, or Ask do it. Whenever you see clustered results, two or more documents from the same Web site, listed in search results, you see proof that shared IP addresses are not being used to filter out results. Many Web sites share IP addresses and they have no problem getting good rankings in search results. Do not be concerned about shared IP addresses with respect to SEO. Michael Martinez "Cuando Maria canta, canta para mi" http://www.michael-martinez.com/ http://michael-martinez.blogspot.com/ -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Reg Charie Subject: Cheap hits > How can someone promise to deliver 10,000 > "guaranteed unique visitors" to a website for > only $12.50? Most likely through pop-under ads... - Brad Waller, LED 2146 One of my clients bought into a similar situation. Paid $20 for 10,000 visitors. 2 out of the 10,000 stayed more than 2 seconds... This plan was fueled by people that get 1 hit to their own site for every x amount of sites they view. Most "visits" had a duration of 0 seconds. Thank You, Reg Charie www.dotcom-productions.com -------- new post - new topic -------- From: David Spahr Subject: Dealing with Shipping Costs > I am looking for some general suggestions as > to how other people are handing shipping charges. - Mark Roberts, LED 2146 I have had excellent service from US Postal Service over the years. First class is usually as fast as Priority (a P.O. secret) but sometimes the savings is minimal on larger items. Use UPS if you like your packages to arrive in a condition similar to being dropped off a 3 story building. I have had some experiences. Fedex is good but expensive and sometimes a hassle. The Postal Service has some flat rate priority boxes (around $9). I think they have 2 sizes. Will your items fit? In any case, priority is not that expensive. I have shipped thousands of packages and found it to be exceptionally reliable. David Spahr http://stereoviews.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Douglas E. Bates Subject: Shipping charges I have been using FedEx for five years with none of the problems Mary Findley describes [issue 2147]. Perhaps the package opening is a local problem with her Ground shipments. I have never been billed for shipments I have not made, but occasionally the shipping charge has been adjusted slightly when I goofed on estimating the weight. I ship handguns that I have repaired back to their owners. The only shipping options are UPS or FedEx as USPS can not ship handguns. Both UPS and FedEx require that all firearms be shipped Priority Overnight. Both UPS and FedEx will only accept firearm shipments through Daily Pickup accounts or at their company run Shipping Centers. Since I don't ship packages out daily I have to drop off packages when they are ready to ship. The FedEx Shipping Center is about 10 miles from me versus about 40 miles for the UPS Shipping Center. My customers have shipped their firearms to me to be repaired using both UPS and FedEx, again Priority Overnight, and I have never had opened packages or missing items from either company. Shipping Priority Overnight has eliminated the shipping time problems that R. Neilson spoke of in his post. I have been a subscriber to led-digest for about 5 years and look forward to every issue. There is always something interesting to consider. Douglas E. Bates Handgun Repair Shop www.handgunrepairshop.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Kenny Lau Subject: Shipping charges I'm a Canadian merchant and had problems with FedEx Canada. I tried to use their service about 3 or 4 years ago. Every week they charge a $6 pick up fee even though I'm only 2 minutes drive from their depot and I take all my packages there for shipping to save this unnecessary charge. Their response: They still have to charge this fee BUT I can call them, every time I receive a bill, to get the charge manually reversed. Their system is idiotic. I stopped using them and switched to Canada Post, which provided great service. My shipping volume: About 100 packages a month averaging US$15 per package (Amounting to about $18000 per year). As for shipping charge calculation, Canada Post provides an automatic shipping calculator which can be built onto web sites. I believe the US Postal Service has an equivalent calculator. This allows me to specify the weight and dimensions of the various products I sell, and calculate the shipping charge automatically. It also allows me to add a per-shipment handling charge on top of the postage needed. If there is a particular product which I feel I should charge an "extra" amount or undercharge, I can always "exaggerate" or "reduce" the weight of that particular item to achieve the desired variation I wish to charge for shipping. Kenny Lau www.ecopurewater.com -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Beverley Hanna Subject: URL hyphens > ... the URL you choose probably doesn't make > much difference in terms of the search engines. - Tom Anson, LED 2147 I read somewhere that you should hyphenate if you are using your primary keywords as part of your domain name, so that the search engines will see them more easily and accurately. Is this a valid concern? Do the search engines look at domain names? Bev Hanna, S.C.A. http://www.bevhanna.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: John Green Subject: Hyphens in URLS I'd just like to tell you that I think I have the most hyphens ever seen in a URL. When I created it a few years back now, I didn't know much about URLs and search engines etc., and don't know much more even now. Although the URL is very descriptive and tells exactly what is on offer, it is too long and has too many hyphens. The hyphens are there for easy readability, which would just be a jumble without them. I wish I had created something different now because I don't like it, in fact, I hate it, but it has become established with my customers and is on the CD covers that I've sold, so changing it now would not be the best thing to do. Apart from the fact that it is very unusual and no doubt laughable to some, as far as I'm aware, I have never had any trouble with people finding my site, because they will not usually have to type the URL, they just click on the link that they have seen somewhere and then save it. I just thought I had to share this with you all and wonder if anyone else has a similar URL to mine, although I would be very suprised! Let me know what you think. I have never posted on this site before but have been reading all the other postings for about 5 years. I have found a lot of helpful information in that time, and I'm sorry I'm unable to suppy any at this time but hopefully I was able to give some of you a little laugh. John Green (UK) www.red-hot-jazz-dance-bands-on-cd.com ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Scott M Stolz Subject: Duplicate Content > The consensus seems to be that there might > not be a duplicate content problem after all. - Our Moderator, LED 2145 Personally, I think that you do not have duplicate content. A digest and a individual post are not duplicate. They serve different purposes and are structured in a completely different way, even if they present some of the same content. Also, you put them there for a legitimate reason, to help users find what they need. Also, the pages are so different that they would not be confused as being the same thing. The same individual post posted more than once would be duplicate content, not what you are doing. I would say let Google index the whole site and let it pick the most relevant page based on the user's search query. If Google considers a page to be a duplicate of another, then it will only list one in their index. So its not a problem. On many of my sites, our forum software, because of the way it works, sometimes creates duplicate content (i.e. the URL is slightly different, but the user sees almost the exact same page). The reason why is because for announcements that appear in every forum section, a variable must be passed that tells the forum software which section the announcement is being displayed in so it can display the correct section title and links for that section. So you have the same post with 20 different URLs, and only the forum navigation links changes. In another situation, it passes additional variables in the URL when people do a search on the forum, because it highlights the keywords on the forum post when it is displayed when people do a search. Again, it changes the URL, but the content is the same (except for the keyword highlighting). Another example would be any page that allows the user to sort the same information. The variables telling it how to sort the page are passed in the URL. Duplicate content, but still useful to the user. In our experience, Google and others still index the pages, but they typically pick only one of them to show highly in their index. And these are pages that are almost completely identical. I think your digest and individual posts are so different that they would not be considered duplicates. I think Google and other search engines understand that there will be some duplicate content due to features that enhance the user's experience. (i.e. its not done to spam the index, but rather to display content in a useful manner to the user.) You won't get delisted for having duplicate content; at worst you will find that one version will be preferred over another. Scott M. Stolz http://www.wistex.com/ ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains © Copyright 1995-2006 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. "A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent." - William Blake |
