Emmaus Designs' Blog

As the popular proverb says, “We must keep up with the times to ensure excellence.” This saying can be readily applied to what we are experiencing nowadays. The modern technology we are now enjoying has really made our lives easier. Perhaps the most defining invention this century has is the birth of the World Wide Web, or simply put, the Internet. Born from the interconnected computers from a science laboratory, the Internet has made our world smaller and has opened us to the global community.

The Internet has opened the information super highway that provided us with quick details about something. The Internet also redefined how business and trade are done. Online shops are now mushrooming and businessman can now deal with their clients spanning thousands of miles of waters and land. To keep up with this technology, one would find it very necessary to create a new website. Whether it will be used for business, providing information, blogging, or simply for pleasure, having a website of your own can be very useful. The process of creating a website itself must be fun and hassle-free. If you want to create one in no time at all, then WordPress is the best way.

WordPress started in 2003 originally intended to help people build and write blogs. To cater to the growing demands of the consumer, it has evolved into a full content management system. It is the successor of the b2/cafelog. Their publishing system was built on PHP and MySQL and licensed under the GPL. Although WordPress may be considered young in the field of webmaking, they trace their roots and development as early as 2001. WordPress is also known for their stability and their capacity to deliver promising and competent results.

WordPress offers a lot more than any other website makers can offer you. It is a hundred percent Open Source, meaning hundreds of people are working and benefits from it because it’s free. It is also user-friendly. Even if you are a beginner and don’t know much about web making, WordPress will not drive you nuts with dense technical terminologies. Instead, they will provide you with concise and easy-to-follow step by step procedures. When you finally want to beautify your website, you can use their built-in visual editor that is also proven to be user-friendly. Not only that, you could include widgets on your page which could all be rearranged without having to edit the Php or HTML code. Templates are also easy to use here, and they can be customized to fit your taste. If you want to install themes and switch them sometimes, this is still very possible.

With WordPress, the content and layout of your webpage is guaranteed to be separated. It offers integrative link management, and with fast and accurate search engines. WordPress even provides you the freedom to assign multiple and interconnecting categories to the articles that your website may contain. WordPress also backs up the TrackBack and PingBack standards, in case you want to display links to other sites which are related or linked in an article. Finally, WordPress contains a rich plug in architecture that allows users, as well as the developers, to customize its functionality. This enables you to perform tasks that are needed by a certain webpage.

So if you are planning to create a webpage but aren’t sure how to do it. Don’t worry, because you can let WordPress do most of the work. With all of its amazing features, we are sure that your webpage will be something that you will be proud of.

As many of you already know SEO or search engine optimisation has become so important in recent years especially with the advances and improvements in how search engines rank sites in their searches. Web designers especially now have a larger responsibility in creating web pages that are coded to standards and are search engine friendly. Some however still dispute SEO but believe me it is definitely necessary to achieve website success in today’s competitive internet world. Well, on this subject there is so much to talk about but here I’m just going to concentrate on WordPress SEO (most of which applies to basic web design as well).

Right let’s start with the on site basic. WordPress is very good in itself at being SEO friendly right from word go without having to do much at all. However like most things there is always room for improvement.

Permalinks

As standard WordPress creates permalinks using “p=postid” which as you can see isn’t very search engine friendly (no one is going to search for page id’s). You can have far more success with you permalinks just like your domain name if you use topic related post names and category names for you permalinks. To change the format of the permalinks just enter your WordPress control panel and go to Settings -> Permalinks and under custom structure enter /%category%/%postname%/. Now your permalinks contain keywords that users may search for increasing your chance of success.

Another thing you may want to think about doing to your permalinks to increase your WordPress SEO, is install the SEO Slugs plugin, this automatically removes stop words from your slugs once you save a post, this will stop those really long URLs being created if you develop a long post title.

Optimise Your Titles

This is a really important SEO factor. Titles are key when it comes to searching keywords. If your title doesn’t contain the right keywords or they are arranged poorly then this can have a dramatic effect on where you rank. Your keyword rich post name should always be at the start of your title. Search engines put more importance on early words so putting them later not only puts less importance on them but in search engine results they also may be hidden from view of the user.
Check your header.php file, and make sure that the code for is like this: wp_title(”);. This gives you full control over your title.
I would also recommend installing All in One SEO Plugin by Michael Torbert of Semper Fi Web Design. This gives you full control over all the important header meta information such as page titles. It will allow you to format your page titles whatever way you wish and will also allow you to customise page descriptions and add keywords for each post or page as well.
For me I have found the following formats work well.:

Post Title: %post_title% | %blog_title%
Page Title: %page_title% | %blog_title%
Category Title: %category_title% | %blog_title%
And so on.

Create SEO Friendly Descriptions

In the categories section of your WordPress admin area use a decent and friendly keyword related description for you categories. This will not only entice people to click on a search result but can also be matched for your chosen keywords as well.
One important thing to remember when creating descriptions is not to allow for auto generation of descriptions. This is a poor technique and will not achieve the success you are looking for. Always manually add keyword related and post related description to all your posts, pages and categories for optimum success.

Image SEO

Many designers always overlook the importance of images to get some extra web traffic. It may not always be the traffic you want but any traffic is good traffic. By always making sure you add good alt tags and title tags to your images you are not only helping out yourself in terms of image search engine results, but it is also good practice to keep all your pages coded to web standards (another important topic) and help lesser able to make sense of your pages.

Navigational Breadcrumbs

You may want to consider adding a navigational breadcrumb to all your post pages. This isn’t really to help your search engine results but will really help your users understand where they are in your site and help search engine understand site structure. It may look like this:

HOME >> DESIGN >> SEO

All breadcrumbs should link back to the home page and indicate the category the post is in. There are numerous breadcrumb plugins out there for you to find to help with this.

Headings

You’re probably using a WordPress theme that is already doing this well but if not the use of H1, H2, H3, and effectively. H1 should be used for blog name on home page, category name on categories page and post name on posts. H1 should be used once on a page, maybe twice and more again.

Clean Limited Code

Less code is good practice. Don’t have code in pages that is not needed. This will not only help pages be rendered quicker but will also benefit yourself when editing the pages in the future. Remove javascript and css from pages and place in external files. Remove unnecessary php as the more calls to the server will slow down your page load times.

Load Times

I now know many of you reading this are now smiling as this isn’t always in our hands. There are however a certain few things we can do to help the process.

Like I said earlier remove unnecessary php and calls to the server which can slow down load times. If its not needed remove it.

Add a caching plugin to your site such as WP-Total-Cache or WP-Super-Cache. This will cache pages and return the user to visited pages quickly. Depending on which plugin you choose that may be in the form of a html created page, or some plugins will allow the use of a CDN (content delivery network) to quickly load images, external files etc.

Finally and probably the most important is choose your hosting provider wisely. The cheapest is never going to be the best or the quickest.

Links

Don’t fill your pages with unnecessary or unrelated links. I know sometimes we like to help others out by giving them links but one link on one page is more than enough. Giving anyone an unrelated or site wide link doesn’t help them or you anymore than one quality related link.

Duplicate Content and NoIndex

With WordPress as standard there can be a lot of duplicated content in your site as well as search engines. Using The All In One Plugin I mentioned earlier there are options to reduce a lot of this duplicated search engine pages. If you create a post you are placing it into a date archive, a category, a tag all of which can be indexed but all of which are essentially the same. Using the plugin settings you can use the noindex option allowing you not to index all the content. I personally choose just to index the tags as this is usually the most post related.

Page Numbers

If you want the search engine bot to be able to find all of your category posts or archive posts then it is necessary to have a direct link to them from every page. To do this simply add a pagination plugin and make a few tweaks to some of your template pages (index.php, archive.php etc) and hey presto all your posts can be easily sourced by the bot. To download a plugin either type into google wordpress pagination plugin or visit my site where you can find a plugin.

Remove Unnecessary links

Another simple little alteration you can make to make your pages more SEO friendly is to stop linking to your login, registration or RSS feeds on every page. There is no problem in a adding a link on your home page or a RSS feed link after each post asking users to sign up but it is not needed on all pages.

User Comments

Its funny that blogging is actually meant to be about interacting with user and other bloggers alike. However sometimes comments, especially a lot of comments, can actually ruin our posts in terms of seo rankings. Comments destroy our carefully constructed keyword density posts. Obviously if you want success with your blog comments are necessary however a few small alterations can help. First if you have important or successful posts then why not after the initial period of release turn them into pages with the same url. This will remove posted comments but why does this matter as you’ve already got your users discussing by posting it as a post. Another tip is to add a function to close comments after a short period of time. This allows our regular and loyal readers to add a comment but reduces the amount of comments which can destroy the carefully constructed keyword density. A simple function to close comments can also be found by searching on google or visiting my site.

Related Posts

To give search engines a hand and allow them to easily find older posts is to add a related posts feature. Again there are many plugins out there to add this feature so give it a go.

Comments

I hear you say how can comments affect my status. Well probably more than you think. If you invite people to comment and get people discussing ideas on your site then people will feel engaged and fulfilled when using your site. If people feel involved and welcome them they are much more likely to link to you therefore improving your page rank.

Off Site SEO

Now we get to the real heart of SEO. You can do all the onsite SEO and improve your rank but still you may not be where you want. The reason for this is although the search engines love you they may also love other sites more as they are seen as more important due to how many people are linking towards them.

Twitter and Facebook

Nowadays these two social media giants control so much of the web. They are probably two of the most used sites out there so why not use them to your advantage. You can source so many new visitors by getting people to link to you on twitter or facebook and people are usually more likely to comment on twitter than on blogs.

Follow Other Blogs

If people follow your blog then why not follow others. It’s so important to be part of the blogging community. If you comment on other people blogs and link to them in your posts it shows that you care and then they may just do the same for you.

Final Thought

Backlinks are important and we all know that so work hard and build them. The more you get, the easier it will be to get more. The more users you get, the easier it is to get more. But remember above all keep up the quality of your sites content and get people talking about you.

There’s a lot of discussion in the internet marketing community about choosing domain names. Some people think it’s very important. Some people think your overall marketing strategy is much more important. The truth is they’re both right.

Choosing a domain name should NOT be your first step when you decide to create an online presence. Your first step should be to research the market you’ll be entering and find keywords. Keywords are simply words or phrases that people type into search engines to find what they want.

Take a look at domain names from 3 different perspectives:

1. Search Engine Optimization
2. Branding
3. The Real World

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

SEO means doing things to your website, or for your website, to rank higher on search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing. When people go to Google and type in “buy your product,” you want to be the first website listed, so you get plenty of visitors, and in turn, more revenue.

Many people believe that having a domain name with your relevant keywords in the domain name can help you rank higher in search results. There is some truth to that but the real reason it helps you to rank higher is because it helps you focus on your keywords, your market and, ultimately, your customers.

Let me give you an example. You buy “yourproduct dot com” for your new online business. The title of your website becomes “Your Product.” When you write the meta description for your website, you include “Your Product” as keywords. When people on other websites link to you, they use “Your Product” as the anchor link. Now, when people go to Google to search for “Your Product,” your site will come up because it’s optimized for your relevant keywords.

Google has confirmed that using dashes (hyphens) can help search engines recognize specific words, such as “your-product.com.” Google treats dots and dashes as spaces, so when it sees “your-product.com,” it recognizes it as “your product com.”

However, Google can also recognize words that are typed together, such as “yourproduct.com.” If you have obscure words, or multiple words can be extracted from your domain name, then you might want to consider adding dashes. The classic example is “expertsexchange.com” (experts exchange v. expert sex change). You might get some unexpected traffic for that one. If you want to test your desired domain, just type it, without spaces, into Google and see if it recognizes the separate words.

BRANDING

Branding is essentially promoting a product or service by using a distinctive mark or other distinguishing features or qualities. Rolls off of the tongue, doesn’t it? Just think of a major brand name, such as Nike. They promote their brand by trying to be different. Nike doesn’t want you to buy tennis shoes, they want you to buy Nike tennis shoes, and they spend a lot of money to get that brand name, Nike, everywhere they can.

Well, things are a little different on the world wide web. Don’t get me wrong, Nike still rules, but they are an established brand with a major marketing budget. If you’re trying to build a significant online presence from scratch, think twice before you choose a unique brand identifier as your domain name.

Here’s an example. You’re ready to sell “widgets” on the internet, so you set up a company and you decide that it’s going to be named after you, “John Doe and Company.” You buy the domain name “johndoeandcompany.com” and you get to work.

Now, you’re domain is “johndoeandcompany.com.” The title of your webpage will probably be “John Doe and Company.” When other people link to your website, they’ll probably say check out “John Doe and Company.” Now, when someone goes to Google and types in “buy widgets,” your name won’t come up because your website is not optimized for your relevant keyword, “widgets.” It’s optimized for “John Doe and Company.”

I’m not saying it’s impossible to develop a brand name online, because it is. But, you have to stay focused on your market, your keywords, and your customers. Using the John Doe example above, a better name might be “Doe Widgets.” That has John Doe’s name in it AND the keyword that his customers will be looking for.

Now, when John Doe starts with a domain name, “doe-widgets.com,” and names his site “Doe Widgets,” people will link to him as “Doe Widgets.” With the new name, Google will recognize that his website is about widgets and will include his website in the search results when someone is looking to buy widgets. He builds his brand and optimizes his site to reach his customers.

THE REAL WORLD

Sometimes, when you run an internet business, you forget that there is an actual, real world out there. In other words, I could actually tell people, in person, about my website. You go to a party, the topic comes up, tell them about your website. You go to your wife’s Christmas party, hey, let’s talk about my internet business. Don’t forget about the real world when you start your business.

The real world presents different factors to take into consideration. People don’t care about keywords and optimization. They care about your product and the price of that product. And, they also care about simplicity. If you tell someone at a party to go to your website, ” buy dash john dash doe dash widgets dash and dash company.com,” you will be very lonely at this party.

Depending on what type of business you have, you might want a website domain that is simple and easy to tell people. “Doewidgets.com” Simple. “Doe dash widgets.com.” Not as simple.

An easy solution is to buy both domains and use the one without a dash on all of your business cards, promotional materials, and to tell people in person. Forward that domain to “doe-widgets.com,” and build your online presence using the “doe-widgets.com” domain.

Keep in mind, if you don’t buy both domain names, someone could buy the hyphenated or non-hyphenated version later, and try to use your success to promote their website. We won’t get into the legal issues involved with that, but whether something is legal or not will not matter to some people.

Many domain names aren’t available. The simple, short ones get snatched up pretty quick. If you can’t find the domain you want, you might be tempted to go with a name that includes a lot of dashes. Think before you do that.

Domain names with too many dashes have gained a bad reputation. They look like spam. They look like phishing websites. They look like trouble. How many dashes is too many? I’ll let you be the judge of that, but if you go beyond two hyphens in your domain name, do so at your own risk.

CONCLUSION

Before you decide on a domain name, take a look at the factors listed above. Think about your customers. Where will they come from? How will they find you? You can have the greatest product in the world, but if no one goes to your website, it doesn’t matter. Ultimately, choose a domain name that helps you build your own brand and helps attract customers on the internet. And, remember that a domain name is just one small part of any good marketing plan.

It can be said that most people do give careful attention to the naming of their domain, but it can also be said that many times they fail to consider the success value in their choice. One of the very basic principles of how to start an Internet business is to first determine what you are branding.

Branding is the essential core to your marketing campaign, it is the element that remains consistent throughout your many different types of marketing. Most of us do not have the resources to start an online business with massive amounts of advertising that would be needed to drive traffic to our new site therefore we must give careful attention to the branding, right down to the domain name.

It’s one thing to have a nice sounding domain name and it is another that to have a domain name that has a purpose, and in business that means making money. Let me explain by using an example of starting a business in the cooking niche.

John “Pizza” Doe loves to cook pizza and has a good idea about a website devoted to low calorie, healthy heart pizza recipes. He may even want to write a cookbook one day. So like most people he gives careful thought about a clever and catchy name for the site. He comes up with “DoeKnowsDough.com”. That’s not bad and it has a clever play on words.

The problem is that it is just the type that is going to take either a lot of advertising or great deal of effort over a long period of time to gain traffic. There a few ways to remedy this. One way is to choose multiple domain names with a redirect in place.

First, Keyword Research should be used to come up with a domain name related to web user searches, in this case those that are looking for healthy pizza recipes. Next, John should brand himself as well, after all he is thinking about a cookbook someday.

So after some Keyword research he finds that “healthy pizza recipes” is a phrase that gets over 200 searches per day and has very little competition. The.org and the.net domains are available for this exact phrase so he buys both “healthypizzarecipes.org and.net”. To brand himself he simply buys “johndoepizza.com”.

He is still going to buy the “doeknowsdough.com” domain in addition to the other three, but he will focus on “healthypizzarecipes.org” to drive traffic and have the other domains redirected to this site. He may even consider using one of them as a blog.

The main point here is if you are selling a product, use Keyword research to find a good domain name. If you are branding yourself you’ll obviously want to get a domain that includes your name. Then buy any other domains you like and use your hosting plan to redirect them.

Does linking out to other sites bring you any benefit, or is it a waste of time, even possibly detrimental to your own site?

The short answer is that it all depends. One of the main factors is the type of site you are linking out to. One that is spammy and of low quality is already in Google’s bad books, so you linking to it and giving it your ‘approval’ will not do you any favors. It isn’t necessarily because that other site probably won’t have any – or only a low – Page Rank, merely that it has little real value to the end user.

Google themselves tell webmasters to create their content based on visitors’ wants and needs, not on what will impress the search engines. So, if you link out to a site which your readers will benefit from looking at, then you have enhanced that user’s experience.

This doesn’t mean adding links for the sake of it, of course. The key is to use relevant outbound links in order to help your visitors. The reasons are twofold, to:-

* Provide your readers in-depth information about similar topics
* Offer readers your unique commentary on existing resources

It should go without saying that making such links is pointless, since you are then telling Google that you don’t trust that site, nor do you give it your approval. If that’s the case then why are you linking to it? “Nofollows” are more appropriately used on blogs or forums where links are user-generated which so often lend themselves to spam comments.

The use of outbound links, particularly authority sites, say much about you. You’ve researched your subject, a big positive. Visitors will want to return for more information on any future topics. It can also help you get seen by other websites within the same ‘field’ so there can be a viral effect over time.

And, don’t worry too much over the Page Rank of a site you are linking to. The key issue is whether visitors will benefit by following that link. Also, don’t concern yourself with losing your visitors. After they go to the other site many users will return to yours if it has good enough content to keep their interes

If you are thinking of opening any site which will allow people to shop for different items from there then you should try to make that web site as much user friendly and easy as possible. You can only do so with the help of getting the ecommerce solution from some reputed and experienced company. If you are residing in Hong Kong and are not familiar with many companies then you should search the Internet for this purpose. The online shop Hong Kong provides is not available in any other country. There are many great and dedicated companies who have made the task of shopping through the Internet quite easy. You do not have to move around or go to any shopping store instead you can just get all the items of your needs at a single place. You would be able to shop for the items of your choice with the help of a simple click.

These companies usually do not restrict themselves to providing the ecommerce solutions but they have the world of computers and technology quite simple and easier for everyone. The web development provided by these expert and professional companies allow you to have the web site for your business. This can be really helpful for your business and it would also make your task of managing different items easy. The web CMS or the content management system can also help your business greatly. With the help of this system you would be able to manage the contents of your business in a better and organized manner. You would be able to search for different items with great ease.

The company’s is very much important for the business. If you have a good and eye catching web site then you will be able to attract more visitors rather customers to your site. The web design is the first thing which gets the attention of the customers. One should pay a lot of attention on the designing of these sites. You would not have to do anything about the web site but the web design company will do everything for you. All you need to do is to find a good such company for your business and then you would be able to get great advantages. You should get the services from some professional design company in order to make your web site the most attractive and appealing one. You would not have to worry about the designing as it would be the whole responsibility of the company.

There are a number of ways that a website can be built and managed. My personal favorite is a free system that automatically builds your website with virtually one click. Not only does it instantly build your site for you, but you can easily login to update different parts of your site. This login area will let you change the design and create new pages of content just like you would in a word processor. Everything will be easy and straightforward with NO programming skills needed.

This program that I use is called WordPress. Here I want to introduce what it does and how it can help us as webmasters.

WordPress is known as a content management system (CMS) which is simply a fancy way of saying that it builds, manages and organizes everything for your website. Think of it like an automatic web programmer: you login and type a page of content, WordPress posts that content right to the site itself and keeps everything neat and organized.

Plus, it also manages the design and layout of your website. There are thousands of “themes” (designs) that you can use for your site. You simply pick which one you want and your site will change to match that design. Just like your site is changing it’s clothes. WordPress couldn’t be easier.

There are a few basic reasons why WordPress is my favorite system and why we will be using it for our sites:

It’s free and it works The learning-curve takes hours instead of months The login area (control panel) is so easy anyone can use it You can install, setup, and manage WordPress with ZERO programming skills There are thousands of pre-built designs that you can apply to your site with one click

Again, this is why I use WordPress for all of my websites and I believe that almost any website can be built through this system.

When a new blog or website is launched, it usually doesn’t get much traffic for the first three months. Even then, it can linger in the land of low traffic if it isn’t avidly promoted. This is actually why most new bloggers give up after just a couple of months.

It’s a fact that most new blogs and websites don’t succeed and are either taken down or abandoned. It’s a shame that something that was worked on so intensely doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.

Often the problem lies in the fact that the webmaster doesn’t have lots of money to invest in website promotion. What they often fail to realize is that it doesn’t cost a lot of money to effectively promote a website. In fact, it can often be done for nothing. Here are ten ways to promote your website or blog that won’t cost you a dime:

1. Link Building

One of your primary goals should be to rank well in all of the popular search engines. One way to do this is through link building. This can be done through trading links with other sites that are related to yours. You shouldn’t approach websites and blogs that are in direct competition with yours, however.

2. Bonuses

Free bonuses are a fantastic way to promote your site and it’s very effective. The way they work is simple. You entice your visitors with a free ebook or software program. The catch is, they have to refer 3 friends to your blog. You ask them to have their friends submit their email address to you with their name included. Once you get 3 emails from the same referral, you present them with a nice ebook. Not only are you building an email list, you are also getting new visitors to your site.

3. Write An Ebook Directory

This is a really great idea and it’s not hard to do. You compile a list of websites that are related to your niche, and include your site in the middle. You offer it as a free download to your visitors. You can even throw in a few affiliate links. Readers will love it because it’s a compilation of sites about a subject they are interested in. Encourage your readers to give it away on their sites as well.

4. Articles & Social Media

This method is most effective and is often overlooked. Write five articles that would be worthy of publication on your blog. Submit them to three of the most popular article directories with a link back to your site. Make sure you make them keyword rich and optimize them well. After they have been accepted by the directories, go ahead and submit them to a few social media sites. This will bring lots of traffic. If one of the articles really picks up speed on any of the social media sites, your traffic will explode!

5. Use Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a relatively new trend on the internet. It refers to sites where most, or all of the content is submitted by the public and is constantly updated. These sites are really becoming popular, and submitting a few well optimized articles here and there can work wonders for your traffic stats.

6. Contests

People love to get free things, and they also love to win. That’s why running contests and blogging is a winning combination. Keep it simple. For example, you could have a “comment contest”. Each time a reader leaves a good comment they get one entry. Set a time limit for the contest to run, and then assign a number to each entry. After the time limit expires, use a random number generator (available free on many websites) to pick the winning number. The prize could be just about anything. One of the best prizes to offer is a free ad on your blog. This will keep people coming back and interacting on your blog.

7. Offline Marketing

When I say “offline”, I mean entirely off the internet. This entails promoting your products in non-technological ways. Print up some bumper stickers with your website address and put them on your car. You can ask family members and friends to do the same. T-shirts with your web address and website slogan are also a great idea. You can have a low-cost magnetic sign made for your car. If you don’t want to spend any money, simply print up a few paper signs and put them in your rear window when your car is parked. The potential here is endless. Believe it or not, this type of marketing works extremely well.

8. Forums & Blogs

Commenting on blogs and posting in forums has long been an accepted method of promoting your website. That’s because it works. The key to success in this area is restraint and quality. Don’t go crazy. Comment on four or five blogs and forums every day. Make sure the comments are relevant and well written. That’s the right way to utilize this method. Spamming fifty blogs and forums every day will only hurt your search engine ranking and your reputation.

9. How To & Answer Sites

“Question & Answer” and “How To” sites are gaining popularity on the internet. Many people make it a habit to look to these sites for help. That’s where you come in. In order to make use of these sites, you’ll need to submit valuable content. Again, spamming is a no-no. Most of these sites allow you to leave a link to the source of your answer. Answer one or two questions per day and provide useful answers. If you answer too many questions at one time with your link, you’ll be suspected of spamming and your account will most likely be deleted. Exercise restraint here and these sites can be a valuable source of both backlinks and traffic.

10. Classified Ads

There are lots of classified sites on the internet, and many of them are free. There are a couple of ways to utilize these for your purpose. Many of them have a “free” section. You can give away an ebook with a link to your blog inside, or you can simply advertise it with a link back to your blog in the ad. Both ways should be effective. Some of them even have forums and sections where website advertisement is permitted. You may even be able to submit an article to some of them. Take advantage of these valuable free resources.

The ten methods listed above are just some of the many free ways to promote your website. Webmasters who are creative and work hard at promoting their sites are the ones who will enjoy success. Persistence and patience is key if you are a blogger. Above all, maintain a positive attitude and don’t give up.

Competition in e-commerce has become tighter and tighter as more and more people are engaging in this kind of entrepreneurship. To be competitive in this business and have an upper hand on your competitors, you have to take really good care of your customers. Develop rapport with them to ensure their continued patronage. Continue having good relationship with them while keeping them happy and satisfied with your products and services. If you are able to these, you will absolutely succeed in e-commerce. Some ways of achieving this are the following:

Your purchasing procedure must be easy.

Having to go through a complex process just to buy merchandise online would discourage a customer from continuing the purchase. A too complicated process would give a person reason to not go through it at all. Many hassles while doing the purchase is hated by customers so make that your buying method is simple and stress-free. A smooth ordering procedure would make the purchasing quickly and customers wouldn’t get irritated so they would surely buy your item.

Have an open communication with your clients.

Your contact details must be readily available to your customers so be sure to display them in you site. Being able to communicate with them is essential to conducting your transactions. Have as many ways to be conducted as possible and inform your customers that you could be reached through any of the contact methods that they prefer. Tell them that any concern that they have could be voiced out to you through getting in touch with you using any of the contact details that you have.

Fulfillment and return procedures should be explained to clients.

Have a detailed explanation on certain processes e-commerce. Tell them the procedures on getting the item and the dates that they could expect to receive their orders. Detailing to them the paying options is also important. Also, inform them of the return and exchange policy of your business when it comes to damaged items. Making them know and understand such details would lessen or even eliminate any complaints regarding your business and any conflict that might arise due to misunderstandings.

Follow these tips and you could be sure that you would have a great relationship with your customers which will result to the success of your online business.

CMS plays a very important role in determining the way that an organizations web content is managed. Below are some duties undertaken by a CMS system in an organizational set-up.

CMS fulfills the following roles:

* CMS upholds standardization rules

* CMS provides user friendly interface that removes the need for content owners to learn cumplex web authoring languages such as HTML & PHP.

* CMS enables for quicker updating of Web pages

* CMS provides fast access to content owners directly

* It creates accountability by enabling content managers to track logins and changes to various pages within a website.

CMS allows for faster updating of websites.

I’m a web administrator in my company and I’m responsible for developing and updating websites. People call me up whenever they want updates done to their websites, but if the updates has to do with the web content and not the technical stuff, then I’m required to forward the content to content owners; if the content owner deems the change necessary then they have to book it via our workorder system. With a CMS system then the content owner gets the ability to effect the changes thereby bypassing the workorder system.

The CMS tool enables the requester to place his request directly through the CMS tool from where it’s forwarded to the content owner for approval.

CMS brings Web Access to Content Owners

In many corporations, content development isn’t the work of web developers. All that they do is simply incorporate the content in a web-ready format. CMS enables the content owner to access and update parts or whole of their website. This is done directly through a staging server or the website in question.

CMS removes the need for HTML knowledge.

Most content managers work in a templated environment. So, if you were to add a link to a new press release, you would enter in the link title, URL, and description into different fields in the content manager form. The content manager would then build the link for you. For longer text blocks, such as a full press release, many content managers are smart enough to do things like add paragraph tags, make links clickable, and put in other formatting.

CMS Brings Accountability

Content management software can sometimes be set up with user accounts, and access rights. This means, that some pages may only be editable by specific accounts. And changes that are made to the Web site are tracked and often using change management tools, it is possible to back out of a change that was made in error.

CMS brings standardization

As I said above, most content managers work on a template type system. This means that there are certain areas of Web pages that cannot be changed by the content owner.

That is often necessary for the sake of standardization across the entire website. Making the whole website fully editable can cause some undesired results like in the case where a person in one part of the site makes changes that are not compatible with other users in other parts resulting to a conflict of sorts.

Emmaus Designs provides CMS packages starting at $1599 and include some of the more popular CMS platforms like Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress, and ModX