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Next Issue is supposed on 1st July 2007.

Today's Feature Article

How to Build Genuine SEO Skills that Will Impact Your Online Sales
John Alexander

A beautiful website with no traffic or visibility can’t survive in the business world. But a high ranking website that gets tons of traffic, but where no-one is compelled to make a purchase or take action, won’t work for you either. Think visibility PLUS a solid call to action.

In this article, I am going to outline a few options to help you build genuine SEO skills, but first it is important to think about what search engine marketing means. It is a fascinating topic, but it takes in much more than just the process of optimization alone. Search engine marketing is actually the process of optimization plus effective marketing. You need both of these elements for your website to be successful and to effectively make sales and convert that new traffic.

Here’s the thing to understand. Highly relevant pages that are easily found in top search results also need to be absolutely engaging and have a legitimate value to the visitor. They need to compel a response from the visitor - and this is where you can truly begin making money and increasing your sales. Visibility for quality content combined with the skill to compel your visitor to take action is what will make a nice pay check and make you happy.

Get that idea into your head and you will already be along the road to increasing your online sales.

Okay, just before we talk about options for building your SEO skills, here are a few other important considerations:

1. Accuracy of Information and Resources: It is extremely important to choose carefully where you get your training and the source that you put your trust in. If you are going to build your SEO skills, you need to understand where the information you are studying originates. After all, how can anyone possibly know exactly what the search engines are doing? Make it your goal to build the skills from those who can demonstrate long term accuracy. If someone cannot market their own services on the Web, how can they teach you anything?

2. The Secret of Accuracy: I’ll let you in our own secret for accuracy. I believe that the only way that you can understand what a search engine is doing, is to actually research it. We research everything that we teach our students in our courses and Workshops, because it is the only way to know for sure what is happening. Researching does not mean listening to someone else’s theories, it means actually testing and measuring the truth about how a search engine is behaving.

3. There is no value in searching for tricks or short cuts or cheats to try and fool the search engines. (The people who are selling you on these ideas do not make money in the SEO industry.) Don’t waste your time going on a hunt for some little trick or two that will not deliver any genuine value. Ultimately, the best approach is to grow your understanding and grow your SEO skills.

Let’s examine some real easy options for building genuine SEO skills.

There are a variety of ways to study and gain these advantages for your online business, but you may want to consider what your own objectives are with respect to the speed of learning and how important the turn around time is to you.

1. One of the first tips I’ll emphasize is simply to make a firm decision to get started. There are so many people that will buy a program or purchase a product, but for some reason have difficulty getting to know how to use it: as a result, they never do. So make up your mind right now that you are going to be one of them and that you’re determined to do what it takes to learn and succeed. Don’t be afraid that you’ll make a mistake or do something wrong. Think about it. It is far better to get started on your SEO journey of learning and make a couple mistakes, than it is to let months go by, never make a mistake and never get started.

2. Learn from the SEO community by visiting respected forums and discussions groups. You may not get leading edge stuff (that costs money!) but you will get a tremendous amount of good information. And you’ll also hear both sides of a story - pros and cons - from the debates that rage within the community.

3. Subscribe to good newsletters and learn about what the experts say. Many of them are free to sign up to and they can be a great place to start learning.

4. Gain personal confidence through experience and practice. Far too many people hesitate to test out their ideas. The sooner you build your confidence, the sooner you will realize the potential for what you can perform. In the beginning, start with a few of your own sites where you have full creative liberty without the demands or pressures that come from a client.

5. In the beginning, set some easy objectives to reach. As you get comfortable competing at a certain level, then you can progress to take on bigger challenges. It’s surprising how fast you can grow your skills with a little practice on a regular basis.

6. Another easy way to shape your early skills is to learn from the experts by doing a course in person or online. Good courses are worth their weight in gold. Even better, good courses give you unrivalled opportunities to network with your peers and with other experts in person. Relationships forged at these gatherings can last for years and bring you wonderful benefits.

7. Another tip for accelerated learning is to see if you can find an expert who will provide you with personal mentoring. Mentoring from an expert usually involves instruction combined with coaching and review work. The benefit is that there is nothing like having a coach or a mentor who is willing to teach you exact processes and strategies in person. It’s ultimately one of the quickest ways to learn.

In Conclusion:
Whether you choose to build your skills over a period of time or whether you want to gain those SEO skills more quickly right away, the single most important thing to remember is to make that all important first decision to Get Started. Then you can take your own websites, and eventually your client’s websites to a whole new level of success.

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John Alexander conducts 2, 3 and 5-Day SEO Workshops with partner Robin Nobles. He also is Co-director of Search Engine Academy and teaches at Online Web Training.

The Wordtracker Academy brings you everything you need to know about keyword research. You'll find top writers to challenge and inform, case studies to guide and inspire, and practical e-books to ensure that you get maximum return from your investment in keyword research. http://www.thecassiopeia.com/seoacademy.html PLUS a free keyword tool is here: http://www.thecassiopeia.com/freekeywordtool.html

Today's Motivational Reading

How Much Do You Procrastinate?
Michael Angier

We all do it at least some of the time. We put off doing things we need or want to get done.

Heck, I even wanted to put off writing this article.

As I write this, the sun's shining and the wind is a perfect 10-12 knots out of the south. My boat is tied up in her slip while I sit here banging on my keyboard. I also have a long list of other things to do.

How much do YOU procrastinate? Do you think you do it a lot or a little?

Here are 7 ideas that will help you to get more of the right things done.

1. First off, RECOGNIZE when you're procrastinating. All too often, we don’t even realize we're doing it. It's tempting to work on things that are more enjoyable. We can be busy, but we may be busy at things that are not the best use of our time. Hey, if you're going to procrastinate, at least enjoy it. CHOOSE to put something off and GOOF off.

2. Commit to doing the unpleasant or difficult task for a short period of time. I will sometimes tell myself that I will work on X for 30 minutes. Once I'm started I have momentum and it's not uncommon to find myself several hours into a project that I had only committed to working on for half an hour.

3. Make sure you really HAVE or WANT to do it. Our To-Do lists get longer all the time. Make sure you aren't just putting wishes on it. Does the item really HAVE to get done? Do you really want or need to get it done; or would it just be NICE to get it done? If not, dump it.

4. Delegate it. Are you sure YOU have to do this thing? We can often find someone else to do what we have been putting off. And they can often do it for less and will enjoy doing what we don’t enjoy.

5. Schedule a 'Get 'er Done Day' (or afternoon). Get a buddy to make a list of things they've put off and you make your own list. Call each other at the beginning of the agreed-upon time, share your lists and then go to work. Have a little celebration at the end of the time period--and maybe schedule another one.

6. Don't confuse the complicated with the difficult. Sometimes we put off doing something because we don’t know how or think we need more information. This can be the case, for sure. But many times we delude ourselves by thinking we need to know something when in actuality we are putting off doing the difficult. This could be a hard decision or an action that will likely be unpopular. If this is the case, acknowledge that you are indeed procrastinating (see item #1).

7. Schedule it. Instead of having a task or project on your To-Do List, put it in your schedule as an appointment. And keep your appointment. You can still choose to put it off, but at least you will be doing it consciously (And you can "snooze" it).

8. Make commitments--especially public ones. It's a lot harder to wiggle out of something when we've told someone we would do it. Your chances of overcoming procrastination are much better when you've stated what you will do. Part of the reason why I wrote this article is that I have a commitment to provide useful, challenging, inspiring and practical information to help you and your business grow.

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Get 101 Best Ways to Be Your Best by Michael Angier: Practical wisdom to help you live and work at your personal and professional best PLUS get your free special report 10 Keys to Personal Effectiveness with Your Free Subscription to Be Your Best! http://www.thecassiopeia.com/101bestways.html

Today's Subscriber Article

A Quiz: Test Your Podcasting Knowledge
Sharon Housley

How much do you know about podcasting? Take the podcast quiz and test your knowledge.

Question: Are there any size limitations to podcasts?

Answer: There are no maximums or minimums when it comes to podcast size. Obviously, the larger files might intimidate listeners with a slow connection. Podcasts can be successful at any size, generally wise podcasters balance the file size and the quality of their show.

Question: What are ID3 Tags?

Answer: ID3 tags consist of meta data that describe the contents of the audio file (typically ID3 tags relate to MP3 files). ID3 tags generally contain information related to the audio file, including things like title of the audio file, the artist, album, or other relevant information. There is speculation that podcasting search engines and directories will use the information contained in the ID3 tags to categorize, search, and group podcasts in the future.

Question: Are Podcasts are always in the RSS 2.0 format?

Answer: No, while RSS 2.0 was the first version to support enclosures, RSS version 1 also now includes an enclosure tag for podcasting. While the current RSS 1.0 supports podcasting, RSS 2.0 is by far the more popular format for those podcasting. This is not only because RSS 2.0 was the first standard to support enclosures, but also due to the fact that Apple iTunes uses RSS 2.0 for it's podcasts.

Question: Can podcasts be restricted to a specific group of listeners?

Answer: Yes, while there are no provisions in the RSS 2.0 specification for passwords or protecting files, as with any web documents, podcasts can be password protected by placing it in a subdirectory. You can use any security mechanism available on the http server to protect the entire feed or the actual audio file.

Question: Are there any fee based podcasts?

Answer: Yes, while the model has not yet been widely adopted, some publishers have experimented with providing fee based "commercial-free" podcasts. Rather than charging advertisers to advertise in the podcasts, the publishers have monetized the podcasts by charging listeners for the contents of the podcast. Typically the audio file is password protected and only subscribers are able to download or listen to the file. The model is similar to that which the cable shows HBO/Showtime use, where they charge a fee for premium content. It is likely that educational podcasts, or language lessons will adopt this model.

Question: What file formats are acceptable in a podcast?

Answer: It really depends on what your definition of a podcast is. Initially the term podcast referred to any RSS feed that contained an audio file as an enclosure. The usage of the term podcast has expanded and now many people consider any RSS feed that includes a file in the enclosure field to be a podcast. In other words, many people use the term podcast to refer to an RSS feed that has a video file, or power point presentation or other enclosure.

Technically you can put just about any type of file in the enclosure field. If you are referring to a traditional audio podcast, for the sake of compatibility, most podcasters use either MP3 or M4a. The added benefit of using an MP3 or M4a file is that both formats are also supported by iTunes, which allow people to expand their podcast with iTunes tags and include it in the iTunes Music Store.

Interested in additional RSS FAQs visit the RSS Knowledgebase http://www.feedforall.com/podcasting-knowledgebase.htm or subscribe to the RSS knowledgebase feed http://www.feedforall.com/podcasting-knowledgebase.php

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Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com podcast software for audio recording and editing.

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<%@ page import="java.net.*"%> <%@ page import="java.io.*"%> <%@ page import="javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory"%> <%@ page import="javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException"%> <%@ page import="org.xml.sax.SAXException"%> <%@ page import="org.w3c.dom.*"%> <%@ page import="java.util.*"%> <%! // The following code was graciously provided by Armond Avanes (http://www.armondavanes.com) private String tla_ads( HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response ) throws IOException, ParserConfigurationException, SAXException { // Number of seconds before connection to XML times out // (This can be left the way it is) int CONNECTION_TIMEOUT = 10; // Local file to store XML // This file MUST be writable by web server // You should create a blank file and CHMOD it to 666 String LOCAL_XML_FILENAME = "local_95577.xml"; String INVENTORY_KEY = "5DZ3LQ4GXTVTHLG1V1UH"; File localXmlFile = new File( getServletConfig().getServletContext().getRealPath(LOCAL_XML_FILENAME ) ); if( !localXmlFile.exists() ) { return( "Text Link Ads script error: " + localXmlFile.getName() + " does not exist. Please create a blank file named " + localXmlFile.getName() + "." ); } if( !localXmlFile.canWrite() ) { return( "Text Link Ads script error: " + localXmlFile.getName() + " is not writable. Please set write permissions on " + localXmlFile.getName() + "." ); } if( localXmlFile.lastModified()<(new Date().getTime() - 3600*1000) || localXmlFile.length()<20 ) { String request_uri = (request.getRequestURI()!=null) ? request.getRequestURI() : ""; String user_agent = (request.getHeader("User-Agent")!=null) ? request.getHeader("User-Agent") : ""; URL url = new URL("http://www.text-link-ads.com/xml.php?inventory_key=" + INVENTORY_KEY + "&referer=" + response.encodeURL( request_uri ) + "&user_agent=" + response.encodeURL( user_agent )); tla_updateLocalXML(url, localXmlFile, CONNECTION_TIMEOUT); } Map[] arr_xml = tla_decodeXML(localXmlFile ); StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer(); if( arr_xml!=null && arr_xml.length>0 ) { sb.append( "\n

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