| LED Digest 2149: Revisiting the DMOZ Dilemma |
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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 28, 2006 Issue no. 2149 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Billing Your Time ==-- ~ Veronica Yuill "For ongoing maintenance we offer our clients a fixed monthly fee." ~ Mary Johnson "...the best advice I got...was to start increasing my residual income." --== Revisiting the DMOZ Dilemma ==-- ~ Anthony Kirlew "I am pretty fed up with DMOZ at this point..." --== Dealing with Shipping Costs ==-- ~ Robert Bass "Now we use the Post Office." ~ Kathy Wilson "I discovered that PayPal offers no options for shipping internationally." --== Shared IPs and SEO ==-- ~ Beth Earle "I read something slightly to the contrary..." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Hyphens in URLs? ==-- ~ Chris Nielsen ~ Claudiu Spulber ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Veronica Yuill Subject: Time and billing > I'm in the process of modifying my billing structure > and I was wondering how others do it. - Brett Atkin, LED 2148 Interesting questions from Brett -- these are concerns that many of us self-employed developers must share. - Billing - We normally give a fixed quote for a job, but of course behind the scenes this is based on how many hours we think it will take. Clients like this because they know exactly how much they will pay, but it takes skill and experience to estimate accurately so you don't end up out of pocket, and you need to provide a very clear statement of exactly what is included, so that out-of-scope work can be charged for. Some troublesome clients can take up a lot of time you didn't bargain for in lengthy phone calls, emails, repeated changes etc. After a recent bad experience of this nature, I am more inclined to go for billing by the hour -- not for everyone but for clients who seem like they might turn out this way! - The 5-minute Updates - For ongoing maintenance we offer our clients a fixed monthly fee. Again this is based on how much time we think we will spend on average every month, e.g. 2 hours, and covers only maintenance, not the addition of new features. Again, the client knows how much he will pay each month, and it saves us fiddly accounting. We do keep track of our time and as long as it averages out at or under the time budgeted, we are happy. - Weekend Work - Just don't do it! Certainly don't publicly commit yourself to doing it on a regular basis. Working from a home office already makes it difficult to separate work and play, and you owe it to yourself and your family to maintain a strict division. We keep (roughly) 8-6 working hours Monday to Friday, and the rest of the time we are not at work, not answering the phone, not checking emails. Our turnround times reflect that. Yes, occasionally in an emergency we might work at a weekend to meet a deadline, but it's not part of our normal working pattern. I think it's unreasonable of your client to suppose that you can be on hand every weekend to work on his newsletter (I bet your wife thinks so too <g>). - For Tracking Time - There are lots of software packages that can help you out. On Windows, I used Allnetic Working Time Tracker, which is a great little program from http://www.allnetic.com . It lets you set up projects and tasks, and stop and start the timer with a single click. At the end of the month you can extract the totals and use them for billing. On Linux I use KArm, which is less sophisticated but does the job. An online service I've used is called Voo2Doo. It's not intended for detailed time tracking, but it is a great way of keeping a to-do list and roughly logging the amount of time you've spent on each task: http://voo2do.com/ HTH! Veronica Yuill Archetype IT http://www.archetype-it.com/english/ -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Mary Johnson Subject: Time and billing I am going into my 5th year with my successful one-person web design / SEO business and have gone through the same experiences as you. Here is what works for me. Although the process is not automated, it is simple and works. I keep hardcopy timesheets for each project near my work area and record the actual start / stop times in 5 minute increments, along with a short summary of what I worked on during that time. This is great for going back to analyze how much time a task took for future quotes. I keep daily & weekly totals (recorded on the same timesheets), in 15 minute increments, rouding up or down for simplicity. I simply pull up past invoices, in MS Word (which already have their address and details filled in) and change the invoice #, date, and details. This minimizes the chance for typos. No, I don't charge extra for weekend work, mainly because if I do so, it is my choice. I love doing what I do and it is better than wasting time watching TV. I bill the same for whatever work I do. If you find that they don't see the value in it for certain tasks, then this frees you up for more tasks that are high dollar. Time is money. There is only so much you can do as one person and I have chosen to focus my efforts towards projects that increase my income and reduce my hours of work. Along those lines, the best advice I got for reducing my weekend hours was to start increasing my residual income. This has allowed me to work less hours without reducing my income. Mary Johnson Software Engineer - Web Site Helper www.websitehelper.com "Web It Up to the Next Level" -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Anthony Kirlew Subject: DMOZ > And can anyone get into DMOZ anymore? > Does it matter? - Mark Bishop, LED 2148 Well it's nice to see someone bringing us back the DMOZ dilemma. I am pretty fed up with DMOZ at this point, as are several others in the Internet community. Yes, I was once an editor (many years back), and I am no longer "in the circle of trust", as DeNiro would say ("Meet The Parents"). Aside from that prevailing attitudes of the "volunteer powers that be", two things I am most frustrated with are: 1. AOL's seeming unwillingness to address the issue (DMOZ is owned by AOL even though they keep the "Netscape" branding and "Netscape Communications Corporation" entity.). I imagine it is possible that they may not know the problem exists. However, someone has offered a way for folks to let them know: http://www.nmoz.com/contact.html 2. Google's use of DMOZ to impact their search results. I have even questioned them about it in the past and would think they since they "do everything else", they would be inclined to build their own directory and not be affiliated with a "now-questionable" entity, OR build a new parameter in Googlebot to alleviate the need. Is DMOZ questionable? I think so, but hear more from these DMOZ editors (one former, one of unknown status or validity) that seem to think so: http://www.nmoz.com/editor_speaks.html http://www.corruptdmozeditor.com/ I have spoken with two of my colleagues at other Search Marketing Firms who agree that something should be done. I think the question is, "who has the time to take on another free project?". My answer is "Nothing gets done if people just sit by with this response and complain about the problem", we all know this. Here are a few of my suggestions (and I am not the first to pose some of these): a. A boycott of DMOZ, which at this point would only hurt those not in DMOZ. (not highly recommended) b. A "petition" to AOL to correct the "problems". I won't mention them because I do not want to focus on the negative, but if you do a search online, you will see lots of stuff posted on several web forums. You can even find several parody sites. (perhaps it may get some action, but "negative press is free press", and they may not care unless it is picked up by the right publication - any WSJ journalists reading this?) c. A "petition" to Google to ask them to be responsible and work with a more reputable directory for their search results. It is "alleged" that some of the volunteer editors are "self-serving and exclusively promote anti-competitive tactics such as removing a competitors listing... combined with less than professional means of communication" (personal quote). - This may be the best course of action because in reality, people don't want DMOZ, they want Google. I am sincerely open to other suggestions, collaboration, and volunteering my (little free) time to align with others to correct what I see is a pretty big problem in the search world given Google's significance. I am not one prone to just ranting and negative tactics as they don't really accomplish anything. Back to the question of optimizing for Google. Make sure to continue to cover all other grounds with regards to site submissions, building "qualified link", directory submissions, and Internet Marketing; utilizing all other web marketing resources while you wait for your miracle listing at DMOZ. I welcome additional DMOZ feedback... Anthony Kirlew Web Traffic Team http://webtrafficteam.wordpress.com Visit our Internet Marketing Blog -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Robert Bass Subject: Shipping Charges > I had nothing but nightmares dealing with FedEx. - Mary Findley, LED 2147 FedEx?? Don't get me started.... We used them all, Fedex, UPS, DHL and had nothing but problems with all of them. When we took the packages to the store UPS charged us $1.50/ $100 insurance instead of the usual 35 cents they usually get. And as much as a 50% surcharge on the packages themselves, meaning a shipment that should have cost $10 had they picked it up they charged us $15. UPS bought out Mail Boxes Etc and converted all the stores over to UPS stores, BUT Mail Boxes Etc was a franchise and run by independent owners who were not too happy I guess about giving up the money they were making as shipping agents, so they quietly just tack on whatever they want to the actual shipping costs and most people, not being commercial shippers, do not know the difference. So much for UPS. We tried DHL. The salesman promised all sorts of "special discounts" for volume shipping. Does 400 packages a month constitute volume shipping? I would think so, yet they had the nerve to charge us $138 for a two pound shipment to Canada, $90 charges for domestic shipments were routine with them, it was absurd. I am talking here about packages never weighing more than 4 pounds, our products are very small. When we complained we were told it was "a computer error" and it would be credited. It never was. So much for DHL. They still call us soliciting business and when we tell them to lose our phone number and why, they are all "looking into it". Now we use the Post Office. They pick up from us every day, free. We use the flat rate box for heavier shipments and the Priority mail for small ones. The only complaint I have about them is that they do take a long time to pay off on lost packages, about three months, but not all that many get lost and we have never had any reports of pilferage. > Shipping charges should really be described > on your website as Shipping & Handling... > Packaging... can add up quickly if you aren't > careful. - R. Neilson, LED 2147 The customers never see it that way. We have it listed as Shipping & Handling charges and they still write and tell us that the postage was less than we charged them. I think the only way around it is to add a few bucks to every item and then still charge some minimal amount, like $5 or so, because people will accept that and it makes up for the occasional heavier ones. Robert Bass, Webmaster www.jewelex.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Kathy Wilson Subject: International Shipping Charges Hi Fellow LEDers, Although I've had shopping carts in the past, because of recent issues with my website host's shopping cart about malfunctions that could not be resolved, I've elected to use PayPal temporarily. As a result of an order I just received from New Zealand, I discovered that PayPal offers no options for shipping internationally. The cost of shipping the item to this customer is as much as the product itself costs, but PayPal only added the amount I had configured, which is configured for shipping within the US. Is there a shopping cart that either limits shipping to within a country or allows for additional fees to ship internationally? Thanks for any help you offer with this quandary. Love, Kathy Wilson http://www.under-one-roof.net Life Purpose Coaching ~ Spiritual Teaching ~ Vibrational Healing -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Beth Ann Earle Subject: IP and SEO > Do not be concerned about shared IP > addresses with respect to SEO. - Michael Martinez, LED 2148 Hi, guys. I read something slightly to the contrary several years ago, and it seemed sensible enough to still be valid today. Having a shared IP address, in and of itself, likely won't get you dinged on the search engines. The problem (as I remember it) is if you're sharing an IP address with a spammy site, sometimes instead of just banning the spammy domain name, a search engine would ban the entire IP address, justly punishing the spammy site but also ruining the search engine performance of the innocent, non-spammy site. So ... if you trust your web host, you should just be able to talk to them about what other sites you'd be sharing an IP address with. If you're comfortable with them vouching for the integrity of the sites, there wouldn't be a problem. We don't use shared IP addresses for any of the client sites we host -- some of our clients like editing their own sites, and we really don't want a potential misstep on their part to hurt (even in theory) the SEO work we do for the rest of our clients. Regards, Beth Earle www.pilotfishseo.com ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Chris Nielsen Subject: URL hyphens > I'd just like to tell you that I think I have the most hyphens > ever seen in a URL: red-hot-jazz-dance-bands-on-cd.com - John Green, LED 2148 Thank you John, I'm grinning ear-to-ear...! Domain snobs have long looked down their noses at domains with hyphens, much less long domain names with many hyphens. And the truth is that they don't look so great, but I think yours is fine. Much better than something like: www.jazz-bands-swing-bands-big-bands-band-leaders-cd-music-buy-cds.com Having a long domain with many hyphens may hurt traffic that comes from people typing in your domain, but how much is that anyway? Most people find links somewhere and create a bookmark to return later if they like the site. They click, not type. I think that where you lose in one area, you gain in another. There has been a real, although small, advantage to having a domain with hyphens, and that is because it allows the search engines that pay attention to it to consider your domain name keywords when indexing your site. In the past I would see some of my sites in the listings that had not been promoted, but could be found for some or all of the keywords in the domain. The hyphens are treated like spaces and allow each word to be recognized. Domains without spaces do not seem to have the same advantage because it would not be reasonable to expect a search engine to try and determine all possible words in a string of letters and to know which ones were "intended". For example, what would the keywords be in "SportsExchange.com"? Yes, it could also be "SportSexChange.com". However, it is not a bad idea to also register a second domain that is shorter as well. This can be used places like printed (off-line) materials where someone will have to enter in the domain to visit your site.This makes it easier for your potential customers, but can also be used to help track advertising campaigns. We registered www.best-free-search-engine-list.com which has two hyphens less than yours, and which even I dread typing in when I have to do so. So when I discovered that www.bfsel.com was available, I snapped it up! Now I have the best of both worlds, in my opinion. I see that rhjdbocd.com is currently available... Thank you, Chris Nielsen www.bizprolink-internet.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Claudiu Spulber Subject: URL hyphens I recommend reading this post from Matt Cutts' blog: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/ He's a Google employee and has good observations. Regards, Claudiu Spulber http://www.backup4all.com// http://www.novapdf.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. "It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself." - Thomas Jefferson |
