Domain Owl

Most new website customers or pickup webmasters will know how to use Wordpress and resist learning complex newer website applications. The use of an app like wpStoreCart is also a safe recommendation to make for any new or startup enterprise business user that had a catalogue or extant products to utilize the database plugins. This enables any Wordpress blog to become a shopping cart, with varying functionality on the back end.

The concept that a blog can be used as a sales tool is a common one, but many of those entrepreneurs who might most benefit from their domain hosting a blog based shopping cart. The website hosting account that has installation options for WordPress can also integrate its workings with the saved database information resident in the web hosting account. This transforms any historical blogsite into a content rich network on deep linked content that continues on to product listings. MarketPress,  RapidExpCart and QuickShop work too.

For diet-sized websites, the FatFreeCart allows instant creation of the “View Cart” and “Add to Cart” buttons right in your WordPress blog posts. This make affiliate reviews very readable content.

The Cf Shopping Cart application is an option for those who want a more customized look to their shopcart without sacrificing plug and play adaptability with Wordpress uses. Some Wordpress blogs can be started and compiled, publishing daily to garner new fans and new bookmarks.

These content rich posts can be historically embedded into the SEO machine online as soon as possible. Only later, when the fine tuning of the web catalogue and the more stringent social network strategy gels, can the website user become more proficient at administrating the more complicated functions within the shopping cart administration.

Many new vendors, Ebay  sellers and other online vendors believe they have to developed a full fledged custom website for a sales portal. This is neither true nor time efficient. A simple solution to how to sale items online with pictures, descriptions, shipping details and specifications is to install a shopping cart software application. But the unfamiliar names of these shopping cart applications will seem strange to the very people who need them.

Avactis, CF Shopping cart, MiniKart, Duka, and others provide options for Wordpress users to form an entire sales platform inside a Wordpress installation.

Beginner WordPress users will be looking for a shopping cart plugin that they can install and understand the use of easily. The complexity of the offerings of many shopping cart softwares aren’t even needed by most users. But the advanced know-how required to evaluate the Wordpress software is more than beginners can muster. They must know the ease of use values in relationship to the business uses the Wordpress shopping cart  is for, which only comes with the very experience that takes away the need for a cribbing.

Beginner uses looking to adapt a Wordpress into a shopping, or add shopping car functionality to an existing website have choice beyond Amazon.com and Ebay plugins. These work with custom fields in a database used currently by the business owner. Since any spreadsheet can be made into a database using Access, the import of the item number fields, inventory information, and financial transactions can be implemented into an existing WordPress blog.

MiniCart is another WordPress compatible shopping cart for integration with blog engines.
Allows embedding items into posts and can be used for donations. Avactis Shopping Cart uses sales affiliate widgets for discretionary application within WordPress. One basic tip when merging databases is to create a unique record identifier that will always the shopping cart administrator.

Using DukaPress is another way that Wordpress blog users can customize the way their cart looks when incorporated into a Wordpress. For more advanced users, the DukaPress plugin creates the backend inside the Wordpress architecture for those who don’t want to read a huge manual. If the domain name is also one with the word “store” in it, additional content can be quickly added to that site if it is installed as WordPress or has a wordpress directory on the file tree.

For hand on data users, posts mentioning certain products can also incorporate the post ID as the product code. This happens automatically with YAK, a funny word for a workhorse open source e-commerce plugin.  YAK is a WordPress Shopping Cart that supports posts and pages as products, allows multiple purchase options and supports item categories.This makes an excellent addon for xisting sites where the webmaster does not want to tinker with existing architecture too much.

FoxyShop is one option if the domainer is looking for something a little different. The application for FoxyShop is actually a  WordPress Shopping Cart owned plugin. The free Plugins can be easy to install or nightmares, depending on the template. FoxyShop is one that connects to the FoxyCart shopping cart service.  With FoxyShop you can user WordPress for inventory management. This plugin offers a full API that allows developers to create a custom ecommerce solution.

Wordpress Simple Cart is just what it sounds like. Items from a resident worksheet or online file app can be combined using the utility of a Wordpress interactive menu. If you or a domain owner, or website client want a massive utility for vending wares added or linked to from another site. A simple WordPress installation will also enable a shopping cart that supports WordPress Multisite and BuddyPress.

Continue Reading

If you read one book on Google this year, skip the business analysis junk and read Dave Gorman’s Google Whack Adventure. Published in 2004 by Overlook Press, the book relates the author’s “search” for the ungettable word combo. For normal people this may be a futile task. For domainers, who live and breathe by the rule of the search engine, it has an appealing quirk to it.

Gorman matches random nouns with other random nouns and creates a new term and then tries to find in in Google. Then he goes to the place where they do it and experiences it (The Google search term) for himself. This SERP laden wanderlust has some intriguing results. It all begins because Gorman is stuck in an airport with a nonrefundable ticket one day and randomly determines his flight destination.

Sound like an SEO experiment taken too far? Gorman isn’t the most entertaining writer around, but he does illustrate his point. By changing the game on the way Google is used, the results can be interesting. Dave Gorman actually gets out in the real world and covers ground to find his search results, instead of merely tasting them online via a web page. Few can match this claim.

Some of the combinations are strange indeed. But the fun while you read the book is that this guy allowed something as intangible as a search result to control his life vector and dictate his actual flight plan for living. Only someone willing to fully embrace the new age of the Internet in all its glory can claim such courage. From Holland to China, Berman racks up the frequent flier miles chasing his dream.

Dave Gorman’s Google Whack Adventure could not have been written unless the Internet was invented ad Google was universally known. This book does demonstrate fully how today’s random keywords can be tomorrow’s reality.  Gorman’s shtick is that he turns the Google premise upside down and looks for the most elusive and least common search result possible. And then he not only visits the website but hunts the operators down and has dinner with them.

Gorman uses Google to find some of the least searched terms in existence. This is SEO, inverted. Let’s look at some of the results. Hippocampi wallpaper, bibliophilic sandwiched, verandahs plectrums, and more lie behind door number Google. But who knew the diversity of niche could get so, well, niched?  Does everyone need to know what pomegranate filibusters are, and where they can be found?

The point, of course, is to showcase how ridiculous following the Google search engine as lord and master can be. One interesting social note is that author Dave Gorman seems to experience real live concrete social networking as a result of finding the geological reality of his random keyword hybrids. Who knows what kind of humanistic results this might show one day in Berman’s personal journey?

Buy Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure

Continue Reading

I have come to use a new system of measurement with my domainer peers and colleagues, one that reflects their concrete commitment to developing their domains versus the merely stated intent or practice of doing so. So many domain buyers pose as active promoters it is easy to see how some domain name buyers can get lost trying to figure the players without a scorecard.

I never judge another domainer based on whether they use the same tools as I do or whether they favor the same site estimators.  No two domainers are going to use the same system, even if they have the same vendor accounts and use the same site analytics. Based on how these tools have served each domainer in the past, they will come to their own conclusion about the relative worth of each.

It’s a habit for domain name buyers and sellers to hype their latest online app or website find to each other. It’s part of the game. But sometimes I don’t really have time to expend double digit hours per month (or week) evaluating new interfaces or plugging into new websites that claim heightened value for website marketing. You can take the opinion of a domaining peer, or you ca try it out for yourself.

It’s completely possible that a “power domainer” within your acquaintance may favor you with emails concerning the latest fad website or the newest website or domain evaluator which generates the most pleasing estimation responses. it’s wise to be wary of following any one domainers and their practices and viewpoints too closely. It is entirely possible they may be affiliated with the new site or service, or derive a signup credit or kickback.

By the same measure, qualified recommendations by senior experts in the domain world can save you time and put you on a footing with the best in the business.  Checking out their communications keeps you in the loop regarding where the domain herd is moving and how fast it is going. And signing up for a new service can keep you abreast with first hand opinion regarding the efficiency of a website and how prurient their abilities are.

I had one such recent experience lately. One of my clients wanted me to make some blog posts (blurbs) on a service called BuildMyRank.com. Before this gig I had never heard of BuildMyRank.com. This program had some kind of promotional public relations slash distribution channel for brief informational posts about the clients’ relative keywords. The individual client would input the blurb and link them with interconnected anchor links at the target site.

One of the requirements of this site is that your site be “developed”. It’s not clear from the BuildMyRank prose if this means a minisite will qualify, if a parking page disqualifies the url, or of forwarding does the trick. I know I was irritated with how long the BuildMyRank.com signup process took, and the installation of the original url had unrelated interface problems that reflected a beta launch software edition.But nobody wants to walk away from a free (or paid but worthwhile) SEO advancement instrument.

I had used proformatted links inside BuildMyRank.com with my client and so duly posted a website and put up content. (At this time I had no intention of publishing a review) When I resubmitted the information for the newly developed site, many of the key links did not align and the interface keep issuing error messages not in concordance with the posted content. The keywords fit into the linking convention but the “save” operation would plug the links into the software. So I emailed customer support about the problem.

Well, you learn a lot about a website (and their “SEO” services) by the customer service response. My frustration was met with bitchy and argumentative responses again and again. The operator from BuildMyRank.com never addressed the specific bugs. They assured me that “thousands of users worked just fine” and immediately decided to close my account rather than deal with the issue.

Not only had my first attempt to use this Buildmyrank.com service broken down, but my account had significant bugs. Email to BuildMyRank.com did not yield working fruit. The difference between my client and me getting anywhere was that his BuildMyRank.com items were from a paid account service, and I was still in “free trial” mode.Would the eventual SEO value diminish or disappear under similar circumstances? If it indeed ever appeared?

The emails from BuildMyRank.com are snotty and stupid. This told me a lot about how they approached getting things done. Knowing this so far in advance was a relief. I hadn’t recommended this site to anyone yet. They would never know how many referral clients they lost, domainers with huge portfolios looking for SEO results and only the assurance of a trained site operator to work with.

I don’t know the net benefit of is service to my client, but I do not recommend BuildMyRank.com. The argumentative and offensive stack of response emails form their “administrators” reveals a bunch of coffee drinking teenagers pretending to run a business. Risking your url’s white SEO hat on this company is a risk. If you get difference experience at BuildMyRank.com you have my heartfelt congratulations.

Continue Reading

Reading a book about Google was inevitable. This book was an eye opening primer in basic domain wisdom. But the knowledge inside the tome “What Would Google Do”‘ goes much further than any one online market segment. Written all the way back in 2009, much of the simplistic approaches to online business can be tooled especially to a domainer profit model.

Making smart mistakes, joining networks, and concentrating on delivering best product and nothing less is a welcome refresher. The concept that “life is  a beta” may be a soft sell to hard nosed domainers. References to the Google economy and the concept that middlemen are doomed may be up for debate or at least a half-hearted shrug.

The idea that “free is a business model” and that “nothing can compete with free” is being proven right now in realtime clicks and mortar stores with Panera bakeries. Neighboring eateries can’t compete with pay as you go prices. And Panera polishes its franchise with every chopped price. Google didn’t write the book (NPI) on business success but they do enjoy co-opting the brand.

Being collaborative is nothing new, neither is the concept of making mistakes well. Most industry advice books, especially in the tech related fields, emphasize trial and error. But this can be expensive for the everyday domainer. Thinking inside the gift economy, grabbing the freeware of the open source portal, and embracing the gift machine that is the Internet are all included.

Jeff Jarvis in “What Would Google Do” encapsulates and expands on his blog material from buzzmachine.com. If you are stranger to the blog this is all new news. Google and the Internet are indeed social media.And Jarvis explores several cases were the internet media is exploited incorrectly for public relations and profit motives. Jarvis preaches against being “evil”.

But somewhere the case is lacking that Google is guardian, the last bastion of a business seal of approval. The perception that a business operating outside the Google envelope needs to be “reformed’ may meet askance by several industry watchers. But Jarvis’ approach has brought new life to old company models. Is any business Google proof? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Domainers can best use this book as a tool to learn to think three dimensionally about to puncture and exploit captive domain traffic markets. Jarvis suggests giving control, respect and organization to customers, (which I seem to be alone in wishing more mobile customers of websites were on the receiving end of).  Information is power, but the idea that FaceBook is a “fake’ currency is intriguing.

Domainers can read this book and enjoy how Jarvis road maps certain domain markets and reveals potential domain name investment values to invest in. For a domain speculator to buy geo names or real estate names is nothing new, but it’s nice to hear a SEO expert say so too. Jarvis reports that the real estate market online is ripe for explosive development, and he’s right.

The application of Googlethink may not always heal. The case studies are contemporary, however, and deal with extremely relevant and updated business profit models such as airlines and “vanishing” newspapers are food for thought. Turning the customer experience around can make a domain (and its corresponding website) pay.

But a book spent evangelizing Googlification and Googlethink is not necessarily captivating reading. The success story wears thin because readers can’t start their own Google in the basement. Some readers may wonder how much of Jarvis’ advice can relate to markets where Google does not dominate, such as insurance and law. But maybe that’s for the next book.

Continue Reading

Domains are like horses, they take investment, nourishment, training, supervision, contact with people and an opportunity to shine on the track. The domain “racing” attitude can be seen in everything from the domain name buyer’s assessment of the domain name’s “points’ to the resale value and aging potential of the value of any domain name.

Horses need nutrition, exercise, rest, training, and the right jockey. Starved horses don’t succeed, they just drop dead. Horses need the right feed and the right care to grow into blue ribbon winners. These horse racing industry dynamics can translate to the world of domains as content, test launching, SEO optimization and site plan grooming, and bandwidth and hosting provisioning.

Horses that can run are like domains that can attract traffic, keep viewers interested, and make consumers interact with commercial or monetary offers or ads that bring the domain name owner revenue. Domains that can “run” are catchy names, clear indicators of the content awaiting them, original material and derived from strong stock. A sponsor name across the saddle doesn’t mar the ability of the horse to race.

The right combination of people to bring a winner to the starting gate is the envy of any domainer. Site jockeys can ride the rails of affiliate ads, link building, and site optimization with skill.  Competitors are always chomping at the bit. Domains need discipline, not to sit in pasture idling away their years in parked pages. Pages fat with unneeded ads and filler won’t race competitively at all. Sites need the right webmaster and domainers are savvy to pursue this wisdom.

Domain racing is a challenging sport but a costly one. Thoroughbred names, like premium auction winners, can cost a lot of money to groom into money earning entities. Experienced domainers always have an eye out for the ‘dark horse’ domain that could net them a fortune. Like many horse racing agents, they scout out young domain talent to see what can be done to bring a new domain name into the senior cup winning form.

Many horse racing fans eye the “pink sheet”, the track betting notes, before a big set of stakes races. Domainers do the same thing for domain names at auction, checking stats, earnings, and provenance of names as well as their past history “on the track”. The knowledge particular to domaining, like horse racing, can pay off with the right set of contacts, advisors, and consulting experts.

Domainers need to be wary of domainer “horse dealers”, domain sellers who go flogging names of little value with falsified stats or claims of affiliate earnings without proof. The SEO or keyword factors are very much like bloodlines, and the provenance of other legacy names performing in the Internet domain world support continued investment in domain grooming.

Sometimes a domainer just feels lucky. Sometimes they want to know what it feels like to be a winner so bad they spend too much money on the wrong horse. Typos names, names purchased and developed for accidental traffic form well known proper domains names, might be said to be stakes horses. These names are practically a secondary marketing domaining, like low cost breeder racing and track traditions.

For a winning formula in domaining, newby domainers could do worse than look to the horse racing world for inspiring ideas about how to succeed in an industry crowded with competitors, fraught with luck, and dependent on the animal nature of the Internet “beast” to perform well at the right time. Timing the right domain name entry into the internet stakes can be a neck-and-neck fight to the finish.

As always, in domaining, “the horses are on the track”.

Continue Reading

The criteria for assessing a domain name for purchase, resale, or development are fairly open to all.  The keyword value forms one value. Monetary resale is always a goal. Various sites online work to produce an estimation value, although few can claim to be conclusive. Auction sales for domains work well specifically for this reason. Domains can go to the highest bidder according to independent valuation.

While one community of domain name buyers and sellers may quote assorted values from estimation sites, those members are never committed to accept those values as indicative of any redeemable or legal citation. The general value of a domain name still remains the value for which it can, and is sold. Other domain values are as spurious as yesterday’s news.

Some domainers prize traffic statistics, and some domainers work from the original sale price.  Domain ratings systems can indicate the value of a domain, but cannot guarantee it will bring that price under the domain auction gavel. But an important component of many a domain names’ assessment is how the buyer or developer uses those metrics to go forward.

Typing a name into a category does not institute monetary value. Many keyword generics lie fallow in domain portfolios worldwide. The rationale for these to not be developed is that no development could renew the value the domainer has already invested and still reap the profit they have planned. These domainers are waiting for big-ticket auctions to vend their names.

Other names are still in the transitory period between acquisition and decision making. Maybe the domainer hasn’t had time to investigate the best of of “x” domain yet.  Or perhaps they are waiting for a spike in related content or keywords to vend the name in a private sale or escrow process. Parking is a time consuming challenge to manage and keep up to date with. And the lack of development attached to a parked name always make me leery of its traffic.

A topical forum post caught my attention debating this topic. Yahoo has a domain rating system which declaims a domain as:  Banned, Trademark,
Quality Control, Controversial, and Restricted are terms no domainer wants to see associated with their names. These names generally will little to no sale value. But one domainer’s name value authority can be another’s temporizing engine.

Where do the evaluation and assessment sites stand? Yahoo has a cloud over it (not a good one), and many domainers deride Alexa while still avidly utilizing it to assess their domain positoning ion te name marketplace. Valuate.com has many fans, and many banner ads. Estibot has some faithful fans, and assessment tools at Sedo, Pool, and Google Adsense can offer some additional metrics.

Since domainers are always looking to revalue and affirm their portfolio total, a trustworthy domain ratings site or evaluation destination tool is mush desired. A domainer cannot guarantee the originating site or evaluation engine for a domain name will still be in operation or still have the same integrity when the resale or auction decision is made.

Domainers need to avoid becoming emotional about their domain purchase choices. The most unsexy of domains can be the hardest workers, reaping affiliate revenues and growing traffic metrics while the big players spend a fortune promoting their varsity level urls. The traffic statistics going forward are what matter, and the business development the current domainer invests in the domain name is what cultivates domain value.

Domain names can be valued at one time ans the equally creditable estimation of that same domain name can be evaluated at another time and the value can be very different but extremely accurate. A domainer assumes risk when a big dollar domain purchase occurs and the lifetime of that value is not the same as the lifetime of the domain ownership. The joy of domaining is leveraged on what values the owner can bring to the name, and any other strategy sounds a lot like sour grapes.

Continue Reading

Owls Need Website Tools

The cycle of online domain evaluation tools can rise and fall with seasonal or economic changes. The data minions grubbing over their apps might be taking a Easter break or celebrating Kwanzaa when a webmaster visits their portal online and taps it for relevant domain SEO data.This is an ongoing part of domain name ownership, the red tape data that shows webmasters how effective certain programming aspects of their website really are.

But the data framesets revealed by these online instrument domain search portals can furnish some intriguing developments about where the site links and content end up. I found MyTracking.com (in the beta mode) to be an important study tool for researching online domain names, urls, links and sites of interest to me both inside and outside my portfolio.

I visited the MyTracking.com beta , and  enjoyed seeing the longitude and latitude of the domain displayed with a Google map. I now know that Godaddy has a wire hotel, co-location, or hosting NOC in Phoenix Arizona. Since I used to work at a company that was one circuit board away from the international backbone NOC in Phoenix, I feel like I’ve almost seen my own shared hosting server.

The “related pages” report at MyTracking.com was an eye opener. For one of my hosted domain sites, a website in Seoul was one of the five top seo linked pages. The domain was scanned as to having adult content or not, and the home page loading speed was clocked. I found this data item one I penciled in to check on all my sites. Shouldn’t a webmaster know how long the reference searches report the sites need to load?

The website for one of my ProBoards (also located in Phoenix, Arizona) was cited as a fast loading page, which I found interesting. This gave me pause as I always assumed the simple forwards to the community forum pages like ProBoards took longer to forward versus a natural hosted domain page url. I also espied one of my sites loading “slow”. I need to tweak that one to bring it into the “very fast” category.

Some sites I looked up has notations of “very fast” for the site loading procedure. I made a note to survey these sites and see how fast they loaded in my browser and find out where they were hosted. I liked being able to see which general areas loaded fast and which loaded very fast. I mean to look up the very fasts and see what website designs they are using.

What I really liked about the MyTracking.com beta research tool for domains was the instant in-record WHOIS link. That’s a nice touch that will take me to the detail of registrar right from thethe MyTracking result. This allows me to skip the (ahem) scratchy site design at my favorite registrar for WHOIS lookups. This data search link is especially handy when working with domains whose keyword combinations are very close together.

Also of extreme value to domainers using this website tool was the number of searchable pages at each url destination. One new site I had put up was searched at MyTracking.com, and the result showed no searchable pages.  That application build is coming down fast, I can tell you. As soon as the site map and new template is connected to the database I am checking it against MyTracking.com and getting the new metrics forthwith.

Continue Reading

Think you’ve got what it takes to be a domain name professional? A domainer starts the day early, or “urly” as the case may be. Yet the true domainer’s day is packed with conflicting needs and time traps. Evaluating media, reading blogs, writing content and designing sites is absorbing. The time seems infinite, yet by the end of the day, it’s all gone. It happens in the blink of an eye, every day.

The domainer day must be navigated with key efficiency for multiple tasks. Managing business plans for websites, building site plans, choosing domain name, and checking auction sites takes time. Domain site bookmarks and favorites are natural time savers. Anything that shortens a task completion cycle, like a domain auction service, data reporting tool, domain forum, or tips update form a domain industry source is valuable.

Domainers must always be referencing their chosen domain news platform, or reviewing their hosting functionality and related discounts and offers. Domains come up for sale every day. Keeping competitive while managing existing domains is tricky. Budgets and timelines are the religion of true domainers. Rapid execution of these domaining tasks  is key across many different domain name sale, promotion, marketing, and development objectives. The reward is the profit.

Here is a sample agenda schedule in the day of a domainer:

6:00 a.m. Conference call between domain name investment partners.

6:30 a.m. Check email and review pertinent notifications and messages.

7:00 a.m. Login blog #1 and administrate comments & build new blog entry.

7:45 a.m. Check domain forum #1. Read messages and respond.

8:00 a.m. Review daily Pool auction and aftermarket drop listings.

8: 45 Log best picks from drop and deletions lists. Make min and max offers.

9:00 a.m. Peruse Droplist keyword lists and budget 2nd and 3rd offer ceilings.

9:30 a.m. Take call from domainer contact with bulk portfolio sale.

10 a.m. Register for a new topical forum for new domain name. Post 10 threads and then establish link to url of domain name in signature.

10:30 a.m. Check domain auctions and drop list bids between forum posts.

11:00 a.m. Make 3 blog entries with url link and domain name trackbacks.

12 noon. Munch lunch while listening to domain radio shows. Watch domain SEO information videos from live streaming or attempt some halfhearted cardio exercises and stretching hardworking neck and back muscles.

1 p.m. Open domain portfolio report and check date files for tickler spreadsheet with passwords and user names and visit 5 domain keyword related forums and make three posts in each one. Mark date of visit and adjust spreadsheet to next “tickler” sites for the next online development domain link promotion session. Print out report for domain portfolio notebook update.

2 p.m. Brainstorm new domains to buy, forming potential domain names from keywords and terms from clipped media reports. Use the Network Solutions WHOIS,  Godaddy, and other resources to verify if domains already exist and how much they might cost. Scan for current Godaddy coupon codes and determine if a bulk buy is in order.

3 p.m. Collect text files of custom content ordered form members of online domain forums. Evaluate keywords in Textalyser, and verify originality using Copyscape.

4 p.m. Make custom logo for new domain minisite using Cooltext. Experiment with textures, colors, fonts and sizing.

5 p.m. Submit Google and Adsense data for a new domain. Compose the minisite file with text content files collected and test the new site appearance in your resident browser or HTML viewer.

6 p.m. Proof marketing email for key domain site and send to broadcast list from registrations at the site. Submit new articles and graphics to the open source application and jot in a notebook the most viewed recent articles.

7 p.m. Review domain expiration report in domain portfolio software. Submit two domain names “for sale” threads for BIN auctions in two domain forum auction categories.

8 p.m. Sign up for streaming video webinar from trusted consultant in the domain world. Download videos from archive to review offline. Log into domain forums and change signature link to newest domain venture.

9 p.m. Review email bids and counter offer for bid domains. make payments to content authors, domain owners, and graphic artists for custom logos and themes for new partnership site. Browse SEO blog for reminder tips.

9:30 Stream favorite TV show on one LCD screen while adding keywords and doing text searches on the other. Use commercials for ad hoc keyword and meta tag addition in window with open source application site login in the article editor administration interface.

10 p.m. Review Alexa ranking for each domain in the portfolio spreadsheets. . Perform domain name and website analysis & compose review charts. Determine priority tasks for the next day.

[Rinse, lather & repeat.]

Continue Reading

Some while back I blogged about how filling up a site can be simple with original content in the form of site reviews. But site reviews can be research for opinion pieces and commentaries as well. For many webmasters and site authors, however, the trick is knowing where to start. The below review template should work for just about any article. A very good tip for beginning content writers is to capture the essential web journalism inherent in a website, product, or movie review. The template below is only a beginning.

Sites featuring just reviews are now big websites and reviews of the quality of these reviews  are websites too. One of easiest ways to generate content is to react to content already up somewhere else. Reacting to other published material is web journalism. This content generation can be from newspaper websites, media portals, or even tech publications and customer trials. Links to original sources build trackbacks.

Here is a sample review and one bit of text that can be used as an interchangeable submitting beta model for your site reviews. The unique aspects of a review, the critical commentary, the perspective and experience the writer brings to the writing is what makes the reading of it interesting. This example is only meant as an original authoring tools for webmasters to use to craft their own text.

Be advised many review website portals will have their own interface designs and input formats. Sometimes the web sites the comments blog will accept an inset of pure text, and in other types of review sites a format for manual submission of  salient points is provided. But by reworking and repurposing much of your material, the reviews will spin into new content and furnish a website with anterior text lines to support an enhanced SEO footprint.

AssociatedContent.com likes a text block with snippets, a photo, and some links, while FastReviews.com likes text and ratings, as well as cost and vendor information for products. Even sites ratings reviews are hot online right now. The reworking of the below text featuring reference urls, source links, and destination urls can also be used for link directory submission abstracts.

These sites and their routines for submission can be very good training wheels for new bloggers or webmasters. Meta tags and introduction of relevant keywords is absolutely suggested and encouraged. A small generic photo can help promote your site, especially if the site credit allows the webmaster to put the idea name or the site name in the photo credit area.

Web link areas of websites should have mini-reviews already present for browsers to scan.  The ready made abstracts made form these types of basic reviews can be furnished to article directory and link directory submissions  services for enhance SEO optimization online. These text blocks can even be used for audio narration accompanying a video of the site or a slideshow of screenshots.

Copy the text and insert the appropriate keywords, content urls, and links as necessary. Quotes and a link from the original site or product text can also validate a review. (I have used DomainOwl as an example for obvious reasons). Edit as needed. Bracketed are areas where a choice or substitution is required. Underlined are substitution points for keywords or proper names.

Remember to spellcheck afterwards!

Review Template

Recently I bought/visited/clicked at (destinationsite.com). My experience was [ expected, awful, disappointing,  surprising, as expected] or [lackluster].

[Products/sites] such as (Domainowl.com) are highly relevant just now because of the [rise/increase/acceleration/noticeable trend in] the [technology/information/industry/marketplace] for [keyword/ subject/product type/site synonym, topical noun.]

I liked the way that (DomainOwl) used the various online references and useful links to show readers all about (blank).

I would have liked to know more about the [technical details, origin, research, history] or [background] of [main topic]. I found the [site/product/concept] of [main topic] using [search engine/link/type-in discovery].

But at [DomainOwl] there is [more than enough, not enough, just barely enough], or [the right amount of information] to get a clear view of the [product/site]idea]. This experience [promotes/detracts against] an interest for keyword/topic.  I would { suggest/advise against this site/product} as a [link or bookmark site/good buy] for people who [ fill in the blank.]

For more information check out the story at [source] or [additional information] at [news article ]or [link].

Continue Reading

The content part of any website has become the chore many webmasters like to deal with last. Importing flashy graphics, inserting complicated scripts, playing with logo designs and flirting between banner concepts can delay the text element decisions and work until very late in the game.

Many webmasters consider a site practically finished with a new template, an RSS feed, a banner a custom logo and host of plugins to wrap around the daily posting. But what’s missing is the product quality in the most important site element of all: the content.

After being hired by domainers and webmasters the world over for the last six years, I have some observations to make about the attempts to improve a website via original text infill. But so many webmasters attempt to fill their site with odds and ends that make a visitor simply shrug and click away. Then they follow up eagerly to see all the income they’ve accrued.

One tool I urge webmasters to use often is a mixed schedule of content which harvests news and information online about a given topic or set of keywords yet allows a savvy webmaster to render its content in a unique manner. This means surveying Google search results and news sources of updated reports about individuals or companies of interest, as well as notable milestones in related subject to the website.

Domains require an acknowledgement that the written word and the reading function imparts some value to the recipient audience. The tools used to analyze content can show metrics and functional uses text blocks can be put to. A tool such as Copyscape.com can show the originality of an article or feature story. Even to Google a few liens of content can locate content poachers effectively.

A site like Textalyser.net can reflect multiple attributes of a text contribution or text file. The density of the text and readability of the text can be examined. The repetition of keywords and key word phrases can be reviewed against traffic and search engine discoverability results. Free tools like this are golden.

The complex features of  the way the web looks at text is revealed at Textalyser. Lexical density and SEO values impart a high level analysis than grammar checkers and spell check scripts. But seeing where a few more instances of certain keywords might help can make the difference over about  a hundred articles and posts or so.

A bouquet of content is desired. but slapping articles from other sites and news makes a dull search result and a highly redundant page. But the first paragraph of any kited news story should be an abstract that can be furnished to the Excerpt field. Likewise, a custom encapsulation of the story as the excerpt field still yields unique content values.

When working with abstracts, summarize the content. Search result browser want to briefly scan what they are looking at. Shorter sentences work better, and these abstracts make excellent posts to links you place elsewhere on the web with links back yo your site. These can display in the text blurb portion of the Google search result and direct readers who want readable information t your site.

Product reviews can work well for a website if they are readable and impart some value to the reader. Product reviews can answer the following set of questions and voila,a hundred words of content just sprang into being. Was the device easy to use or hard? Were the directions difficult or simple to understand? Is the warranty or returns and exchange policy a dealbreaker? What rebates, coupons or savings are available and where is the best place to buy the product?

One of the best pieces of content a webmaster can add to a site is a site review of another site. Outbound links to the the pertinent features and attractions discussed kills two SEO birds with one linking stone. These types of features can generate spirited comment and debate. Opinion is one of the biggest gifts the Internet can offer, yet many webmasters structure their site content as though the New York Times was editorializing the content.

Making a website hum means adding new ingredients daily into the machine. Domain values hinges on readability, participation, and traffic. Stop making the content addition the heavy lifting of administrating your website and make manipulating the front page of your site the new turn of the river. The feedback and traffic statistics will surprise you.

Continue Reading