Free Mystery Gift & Notification of Major Database Server Upgrades

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My web host has rang me to inform me that they will be introducing new and more robust database servers over the next 48 hours.

The site should run as normal but don’t be alarmed if there are intermissions in service.

To keep you occupied I have a free Mystery Gift for you courtesy of Willie Crawford that I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading over the weekend.

Download your free gift.

Thanks again for your patience.

Nancy P Redford

Monetize Your Affiliate Programs Using Video Reviews Created By Qoof

A very interesting new affiliate video service has been launched called "Qoof".

"User generated videos combined with affiliate marketing."

Jonathan Stefansky
Qoof Vice President

The Qoof service aims to help affiliate marketers to increase sales using the power of video. No longer will affiliates be limited to using static text links and image ads as they can embed full motion video into a Qoof usermercial tagged with their affiliate code.

Users producing their own commercial videos and getting paid to do so by monetize their videos. Qoof encourages affiliate marketers to talk about a product or service they want to promote by creating videos and uploading them to their blogs, web sites and share amongst social networking sites.

You can view some actual “usermercials” at Qoof.com where affiliates are talking about the product and you can see the video format with the "Buy It Now" button.

Qoof is all about selling products and will no doubt prove to be another resourceful tool to help provide user content and traffic.

Not for the camera shy!

The team at Qoof have several more programs to launch and have mentioned that they will be including reviews in the pipeline so watch this space.

View the following video presentation to enlighten you to exactly what Qoof is all about.

Full credit goes to Linda Buquet for the scoop.

Important Notice: Hacker Pains & Gripes

Just a quick alert to let everyone know that I have experienced a major hack to my web space.

My web host informed me that a malicious hacker appeared to add content to my we space that was against my TOS.

After liasion with my web host and restoration of my sites I’m glad to be back online.

I am checking through email messages and will be answering questions as normal.

Hey, who would have thought I’d be targeted?

I guess there are a few out there with TOO much time on their hands and no friends to share it with!

Thank you all for your continued patience.

Best wishes,

Nancy P Redford

Download 19Pages Your Free Mini Site Creator Software

Free Mini Site Creator
Create up to 19 pages for your mini site. An essential tool for affiliate marketer’s and anyone who wants to make small web sites in easy to follow steps.

Have you come across the 19Pages free software?

You can create your mini sites without any programming knowledge or HTML skills and best of all no database is required to run the software. Just take a look at the online video demonstration to see for yourself how straight forward 19Pages is to use.

To receive your download link all you need to do is subscribe to the newsletter. By doing so you will ensure that you receive the most recent version via email notification.

I haven’t had a chance to use the software as yet but I will be testing it out very soon.

Good luck with your web page building!

Nancy P Redford

Guest Article: 7 Components of a Well-Rounded SEO Program

7 Components of a Well-Rounded SEO Program
By Brandon Cornett

How can you ensure the viability of your SEO program well into the future?

How can you reduce the impact of search engine algorithm changes and enjoy
long-term visibility and ranking?

The answer to both questíons involves having a well-rounded SEO program.

Website owners who put too much emphasis on a single element of SEO are
more vulnerable to changes in search engine algorithms. If you look at
the history of search engine optimization, you’ll see a pattern of this:
Back in the day, a lot of webmasters relied heavily on keyword tags to
drive their visibility and ranking. But the search engines demoted the
importance of the keyword tag, and many websites suffered as a result.

Link exchange networks are a more recent version of this scenario. Search
engines are now devaluing links that are part of link farms and obvious
reciprocation schemes. And once again, some websites are suffering from
it. But how is it that some websites coast right along, largely unaffected
by search engine updates? What’s the difference between these unaffected
websites and those that are negatively impacted?

Sure, the age of the domain plays a part. But another key difference is
the well-rounded nature of a website’s SEO program. Instead of focusing
on the hottest SEO "trend," websites with long-term SEO success focus on
a variety of strategies with equal emphasis.

In that sense, SEO is similar to financial investments. The more you
diversify, the less likely you are to suffer across the board when
uncontrollable factors fluctuate.

So how do you diversify your search engine optimization? By using a
variety of tactics in conjunction with each other. Here are some of
the tactics you might use.

7 Components of a Well-Rounded SEO Program:

1. Create quality content
2. Create web-based resources or tools
3. Start a blog
4. Publish press releases online
5. Publish articles online
6. Add your site to quality directories
7. Acquire links from relevant websites

1. Create Quality Content

Good, original content helps your SEO efforts in three ways. First,
quality content will make your link-building efforts much easier.

Think about the kinds of websites you would link to. I’m willing to
bet they all have one thing in common — relevant and useful content.

Quality content will also increase the number of page views you get
per visitor. Again, consider your own behavior for a moment. What
do you do when you come across a site that might be relevant to your
needs but offers very little content? You probably bail out, don’t you?

Well guess what.

Search engines can track that if you find the site through their results
pages. When you conduct a Google search and clíck through one of the
listings on the results page, Google can track your immediate actions
upon reaching the site. Did you immediately back out, or did you stay
a while? "Sticky" websites make your readers happy, increase your salës,
and improve your search engine perförmance.
The third way content helps you is by telling the search engine what
your site is about in the first place. The more content you have, the
more you can use titles, links and page copy to educate readers and
search engines alike.

2. Create Web-Based Resources or Tools

Web-based resources and tools are an extension of the last point, quality
content. But now we’re taking the content idea to a higher level. The goal
here is three-fold. We want to give our visitors useful information, we
want to increase our website’s "buzz" factor, and we want to pave the way
for our linking campaign (item 7 below).

Some SEO websites are really good at this strategy. Look at the variety
of useful tools located at WeBuildPages.com and see what I mean. Jim Boykin,
the owner of the site, knows quality content and useful tools will make
people more inclined to (A) stay on his site longer, (B) recommend it to
others, and (C) link to it from their own sites.

The key here is to create content and resources that are truly useful
(not just marginally useful). For instance, let’s consider a mörtgage-related
website. Having a mörtgage calculator onsite is helpful, but it’s not going
to generate much buzz or linking. Those calculators are everywhere. But if
the site builds a mörtgage learning center with step-by-step instructions
for first-time home buyers, it will more easily acquire links and retain
visitors.

3. Start a Blog

You may already know this, but if not here it goes. A blog is not a magical
SEO device like some people seem to think. Blogs are chronological content-
management tools that convert normal text into HTML.

That’s all.

With that said, blogs can play a major role in search engine optimization
because they make web publishing quick and easy. Because they’re so easy
to use, site owners are more likely to create new content on a regular basis.

Blogs also add an element of freshness to a website — always a good thing
for SEO.

Blogs also help your SEO program by social means. The most popular blogs
in a given industry usually have a strong sense of personality. Don’t use
your blog as another channel for dull corporate speak. Use it to have a
frank discussion with your audience. Share your true ideas in your true
voice, and other bloggers in your niche community will link to you soon
enough (especially if you’re an authority).

4. Publish Press Releases Online

Do you have news about your business? If so, publish it online through a
site like PRWeb.com. A good news release will go far online, often being
picked up by respectable news sites, RSS feeds, blogs and more. If you
upgrade your release, you’ll be able to hyerplink some of your key phrases.

Suddenly, all those sites and blogs are pointing toward you with key phrase
hyperlinks!

I’ve published press releases online for clients and had them picked up by
highly ranked authority sites. Sometimes, these sites will use the release
to write a story of their own (linking to the source website). In fact, I
had a press release spawn a story on a popular website that drove 30% of
my client’s website traffíc for that week! This direct traffíc is in addition
to the long-term SEO benefits of having the story archived.

5. Publish Articles Online

Ah yes, the power of articles. Now we’re getting to one of my favorite web
marketing strategies. The benefits of article marketing are so great that
I’ve written an entire book on the subject (and made it part of my real
estate SEO learning kit). But for now, let’s summarize these benefits.

By publishing articles over the web, you extend your communication reach and
increase your search engine ranking (by way of relevant backlinks to your website).
Using websites like EzineArticles.com and SearchWarp.com, you can tap into a
large distribution network. You can also find dozens of niche websites who
are hungry for quality content and would gladly publish your articles.

Here’s a shortcut to finding these niche websites. Do a search for your key
phrase plus the words "submit article." For me, this might be: "real estate
marketing +submit article." I can also find niche directories this way by
using "real estate marketing +add URL."

And speaking of directories…

6. Add Your Site to Quality Directories

As a matter of course, I always recommend to clients that they add their
websites to one or two general directories (like JoeAnt or Best of the Web)
and as many niche directories as they can find. Such directories strengthen
your link popularity and make you less susceptible to wild ranking fluctuations
caused by search engine updates.

For example, one of my websites is related to real estate marketing, so I would
do well to get it listed at Reals.com, IRED.com and similar sites. These sites
are high-ranked, well-trusted, and relevant to the topic of real estate.

7. Acquire Links From Relevant Websites

I saved link-building for last for a couple of reasons. First, you want to make
sure your website is worth linking to in the first place. That’s why quality
content, resources and blogs were steps 1, 2 and 3. Having a "link-worthy"
website will make your link-building efforts much easier. Trust me on this one.

Secondly, I put link-building last because I want you to think bígger than just
going out and harvesting links. By illustrating the benefits of press release,
articles and directories (all key components of a link-building campaign), I
hope to open your eyes to the broader benefits of web publishing in general.

Remember, it ’s not just about people finding your site. It’s about how they find
your site, and what they find when they get there. If somebody finds you through
a trusted source (like a news site), and they find quality content and interesting
resources when they arrive, you’ve earned their trust right from the start.

Don’t think of link-building as an isolated component of your SEO program. Think
of it as an inseparable part of everything you do online.

Conclusion

Each of these topics deserves an article of its own (and then some). But I hope
this prompts you to take the next step — learning about each facet of a well-
rounded search engine optimization program.

Does this approach work? I can say it does from firsthand experience. I have
sites that rank well for highly competitive phrases, and they have sailed smoothly
through all search engine updates over the last few years. They were all built
using well-rounded SEO practices.

About The Author
Brandon Cornett is a full-time SEO professional and the author of
"The Agent’s Guide to Search Engine Visibility." Through his books,
articles and blogs, Brandon teaches real estate agents how to optimize
their websites to attract more qualified traffíc.

Don’t forget to use the free traffic from free sources such as Web 2.0 sites
such as Squidoo, MySpace and the internet’s best Web 2.0 directory.

Best of luck,

Nancy P Redford

Recommended Resources:

Accept Credit Cards

Top 30 Online Scams

Why All Marketer’s Should Register For The eComXpo Virtual Trade Show

What is eComXpo?

"First online virtual tradeshow for eCommerce Marketers.
An easy, quick way to keep up with this rapidly evolving marketplace including email, search, affiliate, regulatory, branding, advertising, and technology trends and challenges.

All the benefits of a top tradeshow, without the costs, hassles or travel that make traditional tradeshows out of reach for 98% of participants".

John Grosshandler
Event Director
- eComXpo

That quote sums eComXpo well enough so if you love being online and want a chance to meet and greet your favorite affiliate networks, mingle with the search engine giants and more. All without having to remortgage your home to buy a ticket for traditional bricks and mortar trade show events then eComXpo is the perfect venue for you.

Plus you will discover new programs and affiliate opportunities and connect with other attendees and presenters in real-time via instant messaging, email and more.

Better still you will be open to 140 prize giveaways and a whopping 300 online exhibits and a wealth of educational presentations.

On the registration form there is a field to enter promo codes. I don’t have any for you but I do know that some companies are giving away free vouchers and PPC credits. Maybe an online search will bring up some handy promo codes that may interest you.

Click on the video image below to take the free tour.

I’m really looking forward to attending the eComXpo right from the comfort of my own home.

- No travelling
- No waiting for tickets
- No expensive entry charges
- No expensive entry fees

Just be ready for March 20th through to 22nd and be there online!

I’ll probably be scouting out the booths of LinkShare, MSN adCenter amongst a few others.

How about you?

Related Articles:

1. PPC Arbitrage Panel at eComXpo

2. Woods to explore shift in e-commerce with eComXpo session

New Affiliate Revenue Stream Using Auction Ad Units

Jeremy at ShoeMoney and Media Whizz have officially launched his Auction Ads and advertisers are rolling in to use them on their web sites and blogs.

Take a look at mine to the right of my blog sidebar.

Pretty cool!

No need for a separate affiliate referral link as this is automatically embedded into each ad unit for your convenience.

I’m on the lookout for a programmer who will add another great WordPress plugin so that we bloggers can integrate the code into our blogs quickly and easily!

I tried adding the code to a post which resulted in my blog virtually disappearing except for the Auction Ad unit.

Yikes!

The Auction Ads are exactly as described, ads linked to Ebay auctions according to the keywords you insert into the code set up process.

Just sign up and create campaign names for easy tracking and reporting. Then enter your desired keywords into the code set up page and select custom colors to blend into your pages.

Copy and paste the code and voila products show up instantly.

It’s all free to join and you can only do well to serve ads to your visitors.

Try Auction ads today.

Currently affiliate payments are via PayPal. You can sign up for a free PayPal account so you are ready to receive commission payments.

News: Viacom Will Sue YouTube For $1bn

I wrote an email to several official sites representing some popular children’s TV series web sites to get some feedback over whether it would be okay to add videos from sites such as YouTube and Google videos with content from the films and TV series.

I don’t know about you but I am a little concerned with the issue of copyright.

Besides I don’t want to end up in a cardboard box after some corporate giant files a lawsuit against me.

I’d rather they go head to head with the source [the video sharing site] after all they can afford the most devious lawyers. LOL

I’m still waiting for a response before I will let my kids go ahead and embed these videos on their web sites. Maybe I’m being over precautions here but the last thing I want to do is be ordered to remove all videos after my children have spent time and effort to do so.

That brings me to the recent news concerning copyright infringements.

Take a look at just one of many articles regarding Viacom’s lawsuit against YouTube.

Viacom will sue YouTube for $1bn

Viacom’s Control of Content–Slip Slidin’ Away

It is clear that the matter has been hotly debated for quite some time now as you will find from the following article published earlier this year.

Viacom terrorizes YouTube with bullshit DMCA notices

My main concerns are how we determine what we can and cannot use.

If you make a free video and add commercial soundtrack is that copyright infringement.

But more importantly can I be sued for adding the content to my site?.

All this comes at a time when I am preparing videos to submit to various video sharing sites.

I will probably use royalty free music or some original soundtracks from my friend’s band.

The only way to know for sure is to contact the source direct.

Although in my opinion it is far better to be safe than sorry and have to pay the price for our own ignorance.

This all comes as no immediate surprise to most of us who found the very idea of Google purchasing stocks in YouTube a step into dark waters.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this case and wonder whether the courts will go in favor of Google or Viacom.

What do you think?

How To Make Quality Web Videos On A Budget: Web Video Zone

As you already know online video is becoming an ever growing phenomenon. The market for video is huge.

Because of the low start up costs to create and produce videos even your great grandmother can make her own videos!

No longer are videos expensive to produce as more low cost digital cameras and software to convert your video files for the internet are more cheaper than ever.

With over 98% of users able to download and use the free Adobe Macromedia Flash Player it means that online videos can be viewed by all.

Of course for the best viewing quality a broadband internet connection is essential for uninterrupted video previews.

The Video Affiliate System from Joe Chapuis

[If you cannot view the above video go direct to the WebVideoZone.]

As you can see from the video the vast capabilities speak for themselves (excuse the pun);-)

When you update your video in real-time then all of your affiliate sites are instantly updated.

You can use this system to unleash a powerful viral marketing campaign.

If you do not have an affiliate program you can invite others to add free content to their web sites and in return receive free back links and free publicity.

All this while others are doing the work for you!

Site using the Web Video Zone affiliate system:

Ken Evoy’s Site Build It [SBI]
The new videos have been well publicized to existing SBI affiliates and are working incredibly well to attract new clients to the SBI network.

Matthew Scott’s Chinese Holistic Health Exercises
Take a look at how site owner, Matthew Scott uses to demonstrate the Chinese exercises for visitors to the site. Another proud SBI user!