What is NoFollow?

NoFollow is a HTML tag you can place on a link to tell search engines not to follow that link. The link will not pass any link juice to your site. The only benefit of the link will be the traffic it sends.

Note: Some larger sites such as wikipedia automatically make their links nofollow.

How to NoFollow Properly

Normal Link

<a href=”http://www.link.com”>Anchor Text</a>

NoFollow Link

<a href=”http://www.link.com” rel=”nofollow”>Anchor Text</a>

Aaron Wall, from SEOBook has a Firefox plugin called SEO for Firefox that will show you which links are nofollow when your browsing the Internet. This will stop the madness of viewing the source of every webpage your link is on.

Real Estate Agents – Making the most out of your downtime

Although the Real Estate market has gone downhill in Michigan, there are still a great number of experienced agents that don’t want to give up on their chosen career path. 5 year ago agents were busy on the phone, replying to emails, faxing, & driving all over town meeting buyers/sellers. I learned a lot about the Real Estate market from my Macomb County Realtor.

The market has since changed, but this doesn’t mean their won’t be a need for a Real Estate Agent. Squidoo has put together a website which allows realtors/brokers to establish themselves as local experts in the areas they service.

Real Estate agents are able to post information about the city/county they want to target most from a Real Estate standpoint. They can include information such as prime neighborhoods, school district information, other general information that would be informative to a current/future buyer.

This will establish a relationship with potential new clients. Whether buying, or selling people would much rather use a Real Estate agent they can trust.

Next steps if your a Real Estate agent or Broker.

• Become the online Mayor of your zip code
• Create website
• Create blog (host this on same domain as your website, i.e. contemedia.com/blog instead of contemedia.wordpress.com)
• If you already have a website, revamp it to meet the current markets needs
• Monetize your success after you’ve established yourself as an authority in your field

Use this downtime as an opportunity to use your knowledge in a field that is getting a lot of negative attention. People are still buying and selling houses, maybe not in the numbers they were once were. But, I think more effort needs to be put in, if you intend to be in the Real Estate business for the long haul.

Communicating more effectively with your website visitors!

Before website owners had to rely on older methods of communication such as phone, fax & email to communicate with website visitors. This made it difficult for website owners to take full advantage of what the Internet offers.The Internet offers a way to present your business to the world without restrictions of physical location, hours of operation & holiday breaks. Your e-commerce storefront is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Some newer methods of communicating with website visitors

• Live Chat
• Animated Speaking Characters
• Forums
• Blogs
• Chatrooms

In the past website visitors would place a phone call, or send an email to the storefront owner with their question. Next, after the phone call, or email was placed they would continue to move onto further comparison shopping. You now have the opportunity to immediately respond to a customer.

Providing livechat on your website is another tool for communicating with your customer.

Live Chat Software

• LivePerson – Cost $50 per month, per operator
• Dot Net Live Help – Cost $200, 1 time fee, unlimited operators

It’s easy to see if your competitors are already using this tool, the live help icon will be displayed prominently on their website.

5 Reasons to Implement Live Chat on your website

5 Reasons to Implement Live Chat on your website

1. Chat with customers instantly
2. Reduce shopping cart abandonment
3. Aid in navigating customers to desired areas of your site
4. See real-time data about your website visitors• where they are from,• which page they are on• how long they have been on• how they found your website (Google, Yahoo, MSN)
5. You Build Trust & Credibility when you are able to quickly and effectively resolve any type of customer inquiry, which will lead to increased sales.

Live Chat Software

• LivePerson – Cost $50 per month, per operator
• Dot Net Live Help – Cost $200, 1 time fee, unlimited operators
• Volusion – Cost FREE
• Google Talk Chatback- Cost FREE

Showing credibility & trust will equal more online sales!

Website security is often one of the most overlooked aspects of an e-commerce website. This is also true in the brick and mortar store environment. You are more likely to make a purchase from a store/company you feel safe shopping with. If you were purchasing a piece of clothing, but didn’t have time to try it on, you would be more likely to make that purchase at a store whose return policy is clearly displayed.

You must instantly provide that same credibility and trust to your potential website customers.

If you currently just have a brick and mortar business, you should consider making the move online. Online sales are at an all time high, and it’s continuing to grow a rapid pace. I don’t know any business that will turn down the opportunity to make a sale 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

What you can do to build trust & credibility

• Join BBB Online
  If your a current BBB member, you can sign up at a discounted rate.
  You will get a logo to display on your website, and if clicked will pull up your BBB profile.

• Join Your Local Chamber of Commerce
  Showing that your involved also in the community where your retail location is at is priceless.
  This will also help you network with other businesses

• Hackersafe
  You will display a HACKER SAFE certification mark on your website. Daily audits are performed on your site, and you are notified of any vulnerbilities. If these vulnerbilities are not corrected, your seal won’t be displayed.
  This will increase sales by increasing shopper confidence, & you build your brand with the security seal seen on more top sites than any other.

Implementing the items above will help your e-commerce website succeed, where most sites fail.

FREE Merchant Account Options

If your looking for a way to accept credit cards from customers without the fees that come with standard merchant accounts, I have 3 solutions.

Paypal

• Free Sign Up
• No Monthly Fees
• No Gateway Fees
• Low Transaction Fees
• Free Shopping Cart Tools

Google Checkout

• Free Sign Up
• No Monthly Fees
• No Gateway Fees
• Low Transaction Fees (FREE* Processing if you advertise on Google Adwords)
• Free Shopping Cart Tools

For every $1 you spend on AdWords each month, you can process $10 in sales the following month for free through Google Checkout.Sample Site: Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

Mal’s E-Commerce

• Free Sign Up
• No Monthly Fees
• Free Shopping Cart Tools
• Access to SSL Secure Server

This option allows for you to setup a shopping cart and either just collect the credit card information, or integrate the shopping cart with Paypal, Linkpoint, Authorizenet and many more.

Sample Site: Grant Me My Final Wish

Standard Merchant Accounts are also available for around $50/month and will give you the ability to run cards through an online terminal, or locally on a credit card machine.

Mac Tip – How to manually eject a cd

When the mac is booting up, hold down the left mouse key until the CD is ejected. 

Why the Ebay Strike shouldn’t have happened!

Brand yourself, not Ebay

In the beginning Ebay was used by the average person looking to get rid of that item that has been lingering around the house for a while. A nice fit, if you think about it. Ebay supplied a great tool allowing for the average computer user to post their products and start making money online from the comfort of their own home.

Next, online marketers and store owners caught on to the Ebay trend and started creating their own ebay stores. This is my eyes is where it all started to go wrong.

Yes, Ebay is very well known, and one of the most visited sites on the Internet, but all of these users are promoting Ebay’s brand instead of their own.

Some problems associated with Ebay’s online growth

• Inflated Shipping Charges
• High Risk Merchants
• Increased Fees
• Items Listed Above Retail Cost
• Ebay Product Sniping (Gixen, EZSniper, AuctionSniper)
• SPAM

What should current Ebay sellers do?

• Create a Website
• Perform SEO (search engine optimization) / SEM (search engine marketing)
• Invest in a PPC (pay per click) campaign
• Promote their own brand
• Learn from the mistakes Ebay has made
• Provide Excellent Customer Service

Performing the steps above will create an online presence for the Ebay sellers and help them to be less reliant on ebay. Should you still list your items on ebay? Yes, if your currently having a good ROI with Ebay I would continue to list my items, but start to promote your new website to your existing customer base. Offer promotions or special discounts to shoppers who purchase from your site rather than Ebay.

Ebay will be around for years to come, regardless of how many times they increase their fees, or make feedback changes. What’s going to change is how people & businesses use Ebay in the future.

 

Free Classified Sites

There are so many FREE classified sites online that want your listing.

Placing an ad on the sites listed below is a great tool. The traffic you will receive from the classified sites won’t be monumental, but the traffic they do send will be highly targeted. This will increase your chances for better conversion, depending on what type of listing you place.

Before you will able to start posting you should create an account on each of the free classified sites below. Creating your account will allow you to receive stats about your listing, as well as making it easier to stop/renew your classified listing. I recommend setting up a new email account for all of your online marketing ventures. This will keep your main email account inbox from being flooded with unimportant emails.

Real Life Scenario

I placed a help wanted ad on craigslist.org & backpage.com and within 3 hours I had to remove them. The client had already received an overwhelming number of phone calls/emails about the position. The best part was is the online classified listing was the only type of classified we could place in such short notice.

Free Classified Sites

adlandpro.com
adpost.com
backpage.com
bestadforum.com
caklassifieds.com
chooseyouritem.com
ClassifiedAds.com
classifieds.myspace.com
ClassifiedsForFree.com
craigslist.org
domesticsale.com
epage.com
ezilon.com
freeadpost.freeforums4u.com
freeads.biztop.com
FreeAdvertisingForum.com
freeadvertisingzone.com
google.com/base
hoobly.com
inetgiant.com
isell.com
itsmymarket.com
kijiji.com
livedeal.com
loot.com
morefreeadsforum.freeforums4u.com
olx.com
oodle.com
thefreeadforum.com
uscity.net
usfreeads.com

How to setup remote access on a Windows XP PC

What you need

• High Speed Internet
• Router w/port forwarding (Linksys WRT54G)
• DYNDNS Account
• Windows XP Professional
• 1 hour of complete silence, no interruptions

Step 1

Enable Remote Desktop on the computer you want to connect to remotely.

Make sure you have a password set on your windows user account. If not, set a password by clicking on user accounts located in the control panel.

• Right click my computer
• Click Properties
• Click Remote
• Check “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer”

Step 2

Create a DynDNS

Step 3

Set a Static IP Address

• Right click on My Network Places
• Click Properties
• Right click on Local Area Connection and choose status
• Click Support
• Select TCP/IP
• Click General
• Click Properties
• Select TCP/IP
• Click Properties
• Select Use the following IP address and enter the number
• Enter the IP address of the router in the Default Gateway & Preferred DNS server fields.
• Click OK

Step 4

Configure the router

• Log into your router (usually 192.168.1.1/admin)
• Setup port forwarding. The default port for Remote Desktop is 3389
• Click Applications & Gaming
• Enter Application Name (RDP), Ext Port (a # between 50,000 & 60,000), Int Port. (3389), Protocol (Both), IP Address (same address as static ip of computer, Check Enabled)
• Make sure you have changed the default user id/password of the router for security purposes
• Click the Setup Tab
• Click DDNS
• Enter your DynDNS account information

Step 5

Install DynDNS software locally on the computer your are connecting to.

Step 6

How to connect.

• Click Start, Programs, Accessories, Communications, Remote Desktop
• Enter your computer address from DynDNS
• Connect using the user id/pass you setup

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