Is the Yahoo-Bing change relevant to your website?

According to the latest comScore data, Yahoo and Microsoft sites had a combined search market share of 31.6% in June 2010.

Yahoo sites had 3.2 billion search queries and Microsoft sites had 2.2 billion search queries in June 2010. That’s a total of 5.4 billion search queries in one month.

If your website is listed for the right keywords in the Bing results, you will get a lot of website visitors that are interested in what you have to offer.

Getting visitors from Bing will also make your website less dependent on Google.

How to optimize your web pages for Bing

Optimizing your web pages for Bing is not much different from optimizing your web pages for Google. Just like Google, Bing requires optimized web pages and good inbound links if you want to see your website on the first search result page.

The difference is the weight that Bing puts in the different ranking factors. Things that work well with Google might not have the same effect on Bing and vice-versa.

Here are some tips that will help you to get the best possible results for your website:

• Optimize some pages of your website for Google and other pages of your site for Bing. By targeting the exact algorithm of a search engine, you increase your changes of getting listed on the first result page.
• Do not optimize the same page for more than one keyphrase. It is much better that a web page is highly relevant to one keyphrase than somewhat relevant to many keyphrases.
• If possible, optimize each page of your website for a dedicated search engine/keyword combination. The more targeted the optimization, the more likely it is that the web page will be listed in the top results.

Check if your web pages are ready for Bing

You will lose a lot of traffic if your web page currently has high rankings on Yahoo but not on Bing. Yahoo’s own results will be dropped after the transition to the new Bing results. The sooner you start to optimize some of your web pages for Bing, the better.

What exactly has happened?

Many webmasters have seen a huge drop in traffic from Google for keyword phrases that are three or more keywords long (so called “long tail keywords”).

Some webmasters have lost 90% of their traffic from Google because they cannot be found anymore for the long keyword phrases.

The ranking drop did not happen to spammers. Among the affected websites was a 13 year old site with a Google PageRank of 7 and 400,000 backlinks.

Why did it happen?

It seems that this is not a penalty but a change in Google’s ranking algorithm. Google might now be able to index longer keyword phrases more accurately. There’s a new Google patent that deals with this topic.

Identifying phrases requires a lot of computing power and a lot of memory. A webmaster explained it in the discussion:

“For example, on the assumption that any five words could constitute a phrase, and that a large corpus would have at least 200,000 unique terms, there would be approximately 3.2.times.10.sup.26 possible phrases.

Clearly more than any existing system could store or otherwise programmatically manipulate.”

It seems that Google guessed the best pages for long keyword phrases until recently based on other signals and keywords on the indexed pages.

The new Google patent indicates that Google now has the computing power to index longer keyword phrases on web pages instead of guessing them.

Do you have to change your web pages now?

If you experienced a decline in traffic to your website from Google you might have to change your web pages. For example, if you want to be found for “personal injury lawyer london” then these words should appear in that order on your website.

If you use other variations such as “london lawyer personal injury” then you’ll probably get listings for that variation but not for other word combinations.

Search engine optimization is pointless if your website does not convert visitors into customers. You’ll actually lose a lot of money if you don’t take the time to optimize the conversion rate of your website.

Why is optimizing the conversion rate of your website important?

Suppose you sell a product for $50. If the conversion rate of your website is 1% then 1 out of 100 website visitors will buy your product. That means that you will sell 2 units if 200 people visit your website.

If you want to double your sales, you have to double the number of visitors that come to your website. That’s usually quite difficult.

If you optimize your web pages so that you have a conversion rate of 2% then you can double your sales without getting more visitors. Increasing the conversion rate of a website is usually easier than getting more customers.

What can you do to improve the conversion rate of your website?

There are several things that you can do to improve the conversion rate of your website:

1. Drive traffic to the most relevant pages on your website
   Your website visitors should come to the most relevant pages on your website. If you advertise on Google AdWords for the search term “buy blue suede shoes” then your landing page should be a page about blue suede shoes and it should be possible to buy these shoes right on the page. The same applies for visitors that you get through your regular search engine rankings.
2. Check your website statistics for your pages with a high bounce rate
   Analyze your website statistics to find pages on your site that have a high bounce rate. If too many people leave your website without fulfilling the desired task then you have to improve your pages and make them more relevant to the user’s query. Also check your statistics to find “404 not found” and other errors.
3. Add a call to action on all of your landing pages
   Every landing page should contain a call to action. Chances are that a website visitor will see only a single page of your website. That’s why all pages should contain a call to action so that your website visitors know what to do.

Here’s what you need to know…

1. If you are going to sell online you must have testimonials.

2. If you’re trying to sell online without much success and you’re not using testimonials… get some now and put them up! I guarantee you’ll be surprised by the results.

3. If you’re selling successfully — but not using any testimonials — if you put some on your site, you will sell MORE.

4. Increase the power of your testimonials by having them verified by an independent 3rd party (www.TrustedTestimonials.com)

Seriously, it’s that simple. More testimonials = more sales!

However, there is a catch. I’m going to be candid: at least 85% of the websites I visit (and I’m being generous here) completely screw up the way they present their testimonials.

So if you want to start using testimonials effectively, here are the top 4 testimonial “best practices” you need to start using yesterday:

1. Use testimonials that offer real MEASURABLE results

Avoid using “feel good” testimonials. They’re the ones from customers who gush about how great you are and how much they love you — but fail to mention what kinds of results they got from using your product!

Good testimonials describe how your product helped someone…
Make or save more money. (If so, how much — and how long did it take?)

Become more successful at something. (If so, how much more successful — and how long did it take to achieve that success?)

Improve their health. (If so, exactly how did their health — and life — improve after they used your product?)

Maybe your product doesn’t offer tangible results like these. Maybe you sell collectibles, like coins or model trains — or entertainment items, like CDs or DVDs. In that case, use testimonials that build your credibility as a seller.

They should answer questions like:
Was the quality of your product accurately represented on your website?

Were you responsive to your customer’s needs?

Was shipping and packaging good?

How did their shopping experience at your site compare to the competitors?

…. You can see what I am getting at here. Your customers don’t want to hear how nice you are. (I mean, I know lots of nice people I’d never buy from — because I don’t think their products offer any real value.)

Your customers want to know if your company keeps its promises and offers products that deliver results. Use testimonials that clearly show those results — in as specific a way as possible — and your customers will show YOU sales.

2. Keep your testimonials SHORT and POWERFUL

If your testimonials are longer than 4-5 lines, most potential customers will just skim them or skip right over them. Keep them short and get to what matters… Results!

3. Include as much PERSONAL information as possible

The majority of online testimonials I’ve seen include just the first initial and last name of the happy customer. That’s not enough information — it doesn’t fully establish the testimonial giver’s credibility. You want to present as much information as possible, including:

First name
Last name
City, State/Province
URL if they have a web site
Brief demographic or professional description:
Stay-at-home mom
Retired
Teacher
Doctor
Student
Etc.

… As well as any other relevant information your customers will allow you to publish on your site.

4. Use the most EFFECTIVE formats

Here are the different formats you can use on your web site to present your testimonials (from most effective to least effective):

1. Video testimonials
2. Audio testimonial with photo of customer.
3. Written testimonial with photo of customer.
4. Written testimonial

With technology today, anyone can sit down with a basic digital camera and give you a powerful video testimonial to use on your web site. If you limit yourself to written testimonials, then you’re limiting your results.

And remember… don’t be shy! Ask your customers for testimonials. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to convince a happy customer to record an audio or video testimonial for you.

In fact, many will volunteer on their own — but chances are you’ll get more quality testimonials sooner if you simply ask for them.

The most important thing you can do for your testimonials credibility is get them verified by an independent 3rd party.  A fantastic service to add credibility to your testimonials is offered by www.TrustedTestimonials.com.

Warren Houston
http://www.NetConneXion.com

Five Steps to Selling Online

• Step 1 – Pick a good market and research it very well
• Step 2 – Determine your site’s basic strategy. What will you offer?
• Step 3 – Be sure your site is collecting emails from large % of visitors (10%+)
• Step 4 – Be sure your site is profitably converting visitors to sales (visitor value $1.00+)
• Step 5 – Once steps 3 & 4 accomplished then and only then pour on as much qualified traffic as you can get at affordable prices

Possible goals of your web site:

• 1. Collect emails
• 2. Make sales
• 3. Make you look good to the media, potential clients & others
• 4. Attract lots of search engine traffic

To maximize individual results, in long run consider having separate sites.

Math you need to understand:
Opt-in Rate — % of unique visitors who give you their email address
        Example: 100 people visit and 15 give email = 15% opt-in rate
Conversion Rate — % of people who buy your initial offering
        Example: 100 people visit and 1 buys = 1% conversion rate
Value Per Visitor – What’s it worth to get a qualified visitor to your site?
        Example: 100 people visit and 1 buys product on which you make $50.00
That means $50 x .01 = 50 cents value per visitor

Lifetime value of a customer – When somebody becomes a customer how much are they ultimately worth to you over the length of the relationship?

100 people buy your $50 profit product. Of those, on average 10 will pay you at least $1,000 for consulting each year for an average of three years each.

Thus if we multiply $1,000 x .10 x 3 years = $300 average consulting revenue
Then add the $50 initial profit and we have a lifetime value of $350

An example of a successful money making web site:

• You can get 5,000 visitors a month at 50 cents each
• 20% of the web visitors opt-in to your email list
• On average each visitor is worth $2 within 30 days
• That means you spend $2,500/month on advertising, but generate gross profits of $10,000/month, net $7,500/month and your email list is growing at 1,000 names/month.

NetConneXion offers Internet Marketing.  Perfect for people looking to start or boost their business.

Warren Houston
http://www.NetConneXion.com

“What sort of web hosting package should I go with, one with a shopping cart or not?”

My answer to this question is simple: DON’T use a shopping cart that’s provided by your web host.

If you want to avoid serious hassles down the road, make sure you use a third-party or even a custom-built shopping cart service.

Here’s why I’m so adamant about this: If the same company acts as your web host and your shopping cart provider, your business will become too reliant on that company.

Just imagine what might happen if your relationship with that company sours… Not only will you have to get a new web host, you’ll also have to set up your entire business infrastructure and ordering system all over again!

Believe me, that’s a pain!

On the other hand if you use a third-party shopping cart or have installed your own custom-built cart, the move from one web host to another will be MUCH easier — since your business won’t be tied into the original web host’s technology.

Remember, web hosts are in the business of selling you as many of their services as possible. Many of these services will add value to your business, but you need to carefully pick and choose only the ones that make sense.

Finally, I thought I’d leave you with a short list of questions you need to ask before you pick a web host. Choosing a host is a very important decision, and before you make it you need to talk to the host — as well as people who have used that host — and find out the following:

• Do they offer secure server capabilities? This allows private information like credit card numbers to be sent through your site without fear of interception. Most people won’t purchase a thing online unless they know they’re ordering through a secure server.
• Do they have FAST servers? The quickest way to lose visitors — and therefore customers — is to make them wait too long for your web page to load! Your host should have at least a T3 connection to the major Internet backones.
• How much space do they provide? Make sure they provide enough space for you to grow your site over time. Ten gigabytes is a good target to shoot for (it might seem like a lot now, but if you build a complex site over time, you’ll be happy for the extra space.)Also, if you’re planning to offer downloads of eBooks, software, or other large files, make sure there aren’t any unreasonable restrictions on bandwidth.
• Do they offer a web-based adminstration interface? This allows you to manage your server easily via the Web.
• Do they give you access to your raw server logs? You need to access your logs in order to analyze your web site traffic — and that’s essential information you can’t live without!
• What’s their downtime? The answer needs to be as close to zero as possible.Your web host needs to be up and running 99.9% of the time. There’s nothing more frustrating than having your web site go down in the middle of a new marketing campaign. After all, every second it’s down means lost profits for you.
• Do they make you sign long-term contracts? If so, run away! Long-term contracts force you to give up a lot of flexibility — and if something ever happens, you might not be able to make the switch to a new web host when you need to.

All right, – I hope that my answer helps you out!

If you want to know more about setting up your website — or anything else about Internet Marketing, for that matter, I suggest you check out my Internet Marketing & Business Coaching Programs .  It’s the complete guide for everything you ever wanted to know about building and marketing a business on the Internet.

To learn more about my coaching programs, click here: http://www.netconnexion.com/internet-business-marketing-coaching.htm.

To building Internet Wealth!

Warren Houston
http://www.netconnexion.com

Valuation Factors

There are quite a few technical factors that go into determining what a domain name is worth, and there are differences of opinion as to the relative importance of the various factors. Here we will examine a number of commonly considered parameters in domain valuation. This collection is not necessarily meant to be all-inclusive, but is instead intended to give you a flavor of many of the fine points to consider.

One of the most important considerations in valuing a domain name is the “TLD,” or Top Level Domain. This is the extension that appears at the end of the domain name, such as .com, .net, .org, etc. All other things being equal, a .com name will generally sell for about four times the otherwise equivalent domain in one of the other common global extensions, such as .net, .org, and .info. The .mobi extension, utilized for content to be delivered to mobile devices, is rapidly gaining popularity and value, especially for domain names suitable for such devices. Some country specific domains, such as .co.uk and .de (Germany) are very prestigious, and can also command high prices in certain cases. The .tv extension, later to hopefully be used in connection with internet enabled TV, results only occasionally in high value sales at current (until hardware, distribution, and media companies resolve their mutual “cut of the pie” concerns, there is likely to be little content to drive this market).

An extremely important consideration in the value of a domain name is the number of words it contains. Single “real word” domains (no misspellings or abbreviations), especially in easily monetizable internet industries, can be enormously valuable, particularly in the .com extension. Two word domains, again without misspellings or abbreviations, can also be quite valuable, as long as the domain name can easily be monetized, and the TLD is of high quality. Values really plunge when you get to three words or more.

Domains containing misspellings, abbreviations, hyphens, characters not on a standard keyboard, and other oddities often have very little value. Also, domains containing phrases that are trademarked may be worth nothing, as the trademark owner may be able to summarily confiscate the domain.

The extent to which a domain can be monetized has a major impact on its value. Domains in the sex, financial, and health industries often top the list in terms of high value sales. Domains related to industries that cannot easily generate revenue on the web will usually have little value.

Generic domains tend to be more valuable than non-generic ones. A generic domain is one that contains only real words (ones you can find in a dictionary), and has no contribution from proper names (first or last). Generic .com domain names in highly monetizable industries can be immensely valuable, and are for the most part very hard to obtain (without spending a lot of money!).

The number of letters in a domain name also affects its value. Three letter .com names can be quite valuable, even if they mean nothing. Four letter .com names usually need to be pronounceable to have value, but they need not necessarily be real words in the dictionary (cool sounding four letter .com names can be very brandable, even if they are made up). When you get to five letters or more, value is driven by quality of the word or words (generic vs. non-generic, monetizable vs. non- monetizable, etc.). Once you start getting over 8-9 letters, value tends to decrease a lot, unless the name is highly monetizable.

The extent to which a domain can be branded may be very important in determining value. Domain names that are easy to say and remember, easy to type in, highly reflective of predictable monetizable content, and/or generate a lot of “type-in” traffic (people typing your domain name directly into the address box in their browser rather than finding your domain via a search engine) are highly sought after, and may transact for significant sums.

The size and profitability of the market to which the domain name applies is also important. This directly impacts how easily the domain name can be monetized. Needless to say, products and services that do not lend themselves to e-commerce (directly, or indirectly through selling ad space) will most often have little value.We could go on almost forever listing factors that impact the value of a domain, but the above gives you a sense of what to consider.

Where’s The Beef?

You’ll notice the discussion thus far has presented no magic formulas for computing the right price to pay for your new domain name. I would love to give you a cool formula with lots of neat math symbols, but sadly things aren’t that simple or elegant. In order to understand what you are going to have to pay, you need to learn a few things about the domain aftermarket.

First, there is way more supply than demand. This at first may sound encouraging, but unfortunately it isn’t. Most domain resellers are very inexperienced, and tend to price their domains way too high, and as a result drive buyers away. Haggling often results in little movement in the price.

Second, the really great names, one or two real word .com domains in high traffic, high margin internet sectors are essentially all bought up. They do sometimes become available for sale, but always at extravagant prices.

Third, you have to be very careful when buying non-generic domain names (domains containing words that are not in the dictionary, or domains containing words that are in the dictionary but combine to form an unusual phrase that the courts will not consider “public domain”). These domains may be protected by a trademark. In such cases, the trademark owner can sue for ownership in court, and quite possibly be able to confiscate your domain without remuneration.

The Bottom LineAt this point you’re probably wondering how much to pay for that domain on the aftermarket. As stated above, I can’t give you a precise formula. I can, however, give you some advice based on the above principles, via reference to contemporary sales history. The basic idea is that I can provide you with anticipated price ranges (rather broad ones) that seem to be well in sync with recent domain auction closings.

At the very top of the spectrum, you have one word, and very high quality two word, generic domains in easily monetizable internet sectors. These may sell for $100,000 USD or more, and will usually have .com extensions, although occasionally some will be in other high value TLD’s (such as .net, ,org, .info, .mobi, .co.uk, and .de). The very best of these domains may approach $10,000,000.

Global (non-country specific) TLD’s other than .com’s rarely sell for more than $100,000. The best of these, again one word and very high quality two word generic domains in easily monetizable internet sectors, usually sell for between $10,000 and $100,000, but sometimes may go as high as about $250,000. The best country specific extensions, mainly .co.uk and .de, lend themselves to the same kind of pricing as the global TLD’s ($10,000 – $100,000). Some excellent domains in the .eu, .se , .tv (Tuvalu), and .ch (Switzerland) extensions are starting to command these prices too.

Every week, there are several dozen sales of .com domains in the $10,000 to $100,000 range. These tend to be one to two word generics, but not as easily monetizable as the ones that sell for over $100,000. There is an active aftermarket in two to three word .com names that are long (10 letters or more) and sell for $2,000 to $10,000. These tend to be generic, although some non-generics may be found here as well. These domains will in general be harder to monetize than the more premium names, either due to industry (not a high profit internet sector) or scope (serve only a subset of a larger sector).

There is also a market in global TLD’s other than .com’s in the $2,500 to $10,000 range. .net’s and .mobi’s tend to dominate this space, although you will also find .org’s and .info’s here. These are generally one to two word generics that are less monetizable than their otherwise equivalent brethren that sell for more. Certain country specific domains tend to sell in the $1,000 to $10,000 range. These tend to be one word or short two word generics in the most attractive country extensions (especially .co.uk, .de, .eu, and .tv). Needless to say, these are not as monetizable as their more premium brethren.

If the domain you want does not fall into one of the above categories, you should think long and hard before spending more than $2,000 or so. Admittedly, there will be times when purchasing a particular non-generic name may be unavoidable ( e.g., you already have an offline business name which is not trademarked, and need the corresponding domain for your online presence). The key point here is that absent proof of pre-existing heavy traffic, and/or profits from an already deployed web site at the domain, these names are just not that valuable.

In Closing
My hope is that this article has helped you to become a more educated domain buyer. The main takeaway should be that unless you have a truly urgent need to obtain a specific domain, you should use common sense principles and not overpay. Remember, in spite of the fact that so many good names are taken, most domains just sit and wait at aftermarkets like Sedo and Afternic because of the vast supply overhang. If the owner of the domain you want will not sell for a reasonable price, try to be creative and find alternatives, like using a different TLD, pluralizing, reordering the phrase words, etc

The internet domain market will never lend itself to discounted cash flow pricing like financial securities, and the value of a domain is really nothing more than what the market will bear. Ultimately, values are determined by sale prices of similar domains. This article has hopefully armed you with that knowledge so you can negotiate with confidence.

Warren Houston
NetConneXion