Designing a site to be Search Engine Friendly

The basic idea of owning a site is to have people visit your site to purchase whatever you are selling, promoting, or whatever. The best way to accomplish this is to design your site to be Search Engine Friendly.

Basic Methods for Make a Site Search Engine Friendly

Lets start off with some basic methods of making your site both visitor and search engine friendly.

* The site needs to be easy to use, easy to navigate and have what your visitors are looking for. Do not promise something that you do not have.
* The site should be visually attractive, do not use overly bright colors or colors that do not go together.
* Have ways for your visitors to navigate through your site. Provide navigation links in a consistent way throughout your site. For example, if on the first 3 pages, the navigation links are on the left hand side, ensure that the navigation links are on the left hand side throughout the rest of the site.
* Identify what your site is about on your homepage. Be honest!
* Keep the home page simple. Limit navigation links on the home page to major ideas or areas of your site.
* Keep keywords to a limited level on the home page. Search engines take this seriously and will penalize your website for key word spamming.
* Use an opening paragraph to explain what your site is doing or about, keep this to around 250 words (this should be as close to your HTML code as possible). Within this paragraph, use keywords in a way that makes sense to your visitor. Do not over due the keywords. If you use them correctly, search engines will see your site as a subject matter expert and give you a higher page ranking.
* Each page of your site should have a page title with roughly 60- 80 characters. This helps search engines to see and identify each page separately.
* Give each page a page tag with roughly 20 to 25 characters; this helps both your visitor and search engines to see what your page is about.
* Use anchor text links with caution. We recommend that you use text links only if they are help or necessary to your visitor for navigation or to find useful information. Excessive use of text links can reduce your page rank.
* Underline, bold, highlight, and italic keywords; however, this should be done where it make sense. Do not overdue it.
* Optimize your site for keywords prior to submitting your site to the search engines. We will explain later what search engines require.
* Always use correct English and grammar within your site. Both your visitors and search engines always appreciate a website with good grammar and proper English.

Designing your site to be search engine friendly is not hard; however, it takes time and effort. As long as you use patience, be methodical, do keyword research, create unique content, provide what your visitors are looking for, then both your traffic and your search engine ranking will improve.

Warning Signs

As most of you in the PTC industry know, sites disappear at an alarming rate. Most sites disappear after only 2 to 3 months. Today we are going to look at three fairly large sites that have disappeared or gone off-line recently to see if we can discover some warning signs that would help us evaluate other sites that may be in trouble.

Lets first start off with CrewBux.com. This was a very large and honest site for a long time. However, about 2 months ago they stopped paying their members. At first, the payments were pushed back, then back again and again. Finally the site just stopped making payments to almost all of their members. They continued to have post about a few members being paid; however, most members were NOT getting paid. Reviews of their forum showed that members were complaining about payments and no support. So, the warning sign here is if a site is pushing its payment time back then they are not bringing in enough funds to cover the members payment requests. In addition, check a sites forum, if members are complaining that they are not being paid, BEWARE!

For the second site, we will take a brief look at Clickin.me. This site came online around late July 08 and had tons of ads all over the industry. They grew at a great rate and where up to 60,000 members in roughly 2 months. At first they paid everyone quickly. However, at about the 2 month point, they came up with wire transfer payments instead of using the industry standard of paypal or alertpay. This required members to submit their bank account information which most people did not feel comfortable with. A clear sign that they were trying to get people to just cancel their accounts. In addition, the length of time to set up the wire transfer was quoted as from 4 to 16 weeks. Another clear method of stalling payments. During this time, the sites stats for payments sent did not go up by any noticeable amount. Then in Sept. they disappeared. The warning sign here is that if a site comes up with some strange payment method or with a lengthly set up time, beware!

Last of all let's look at 07bux.net. This was another large site that clearly went scam. At first, this site went off line and then came back with a new script. They told everyone that they could not upgrade the old database into the new script, so everyone lost their earnings, referrals, and accounts. They just riped people off. Several sites have tried this approach lately, for example clickptc.us used this method of scamming people only a month ago. This is a clear sign that the site is riping you off and is in trouble. Thankfully, the members on 07bux sent in tons of disputes to Alertpay. Alertpay has since blocked their account. They lost their account with paypal a few months ago for the same reason, members complained that they were not getting what they paid for. This has made it very hard for 07bux to operate; so, the site is currently down. There are two warning signs here, the site losing the right to use either paypal or alertpay and trying the new script scam.

If any site you are working with shows any of these warning signs, you should not invest in that site until you are sure they are legit.

Warning signs:
1. Pushing payments back
2. New strange payment methods or lengthly setup times.
3. Losing Paypal or Alertpay
4. New script so you need to start a new account because we can not use the old database.

What is Black Hat SEO?

Before we get much further in this series, it is important that you understand what Black Hat SEO is. While these techniques can get you short term results, they come with a very high proability that your site will get banned from search engines and they should be avoided.

Most black hat SEO techniques used to be legal, but poeple went overboard. As a result, Black hat techniques are frowned upon. Black hat SEO is a short term method of getting visitors to your site without looking at how to get a large volume of visitors to your site on a regular basis. These techniques are often used by people promising great results in a short time. They do not care if you get banned down the road, so be careful of people offering traffic using these techniques.

Black Hat SEO Techniques:

* Keyword stuffing: Placing a large number of keywords into your site. This includes long lists of keywords and nothing else. Search engines will eventually pick up on this and penalize your site. We will show you the correct way on how to place keywords into your site that will be helpful.
* Invisible Keywords: This involves placing key words within the site that are the same color as the background (making them invisible to humans but not to search engine spiders). Of course, in the long run, search engines will figure this out and penalize your site.
* Doorway Pages: A doorway page is basically a “fake” page that the user will never see. It is purely for search engine spiders, and attempts to trick them into indexing the site higher.

Black Hat SEO techniques actually work in the short run; however, in time, sites using these techniques are banned for using unethical practices. It’s just not worth the risk.

What is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?

SEM is marketing a site with a search engine. Whether you are trying to improve page rank with organic listings, purchasing paid links or a combination of both then you are involved in search engine marketing. Search engine marketing can be very expensive. You will need to use paid to click programs and/or paid per impression programs.

So what does this really mean or work? Well, lets try an example, type in any group of words with lets say "money" in it. If you look at the list that the search engine gives you, the first section that you see is "sponsor results". They are up on top; and, they got there because they PAID for it. The list below these sponsored results are from organic traffic and are not based on paid links or ads.

All search engines now days have a way for you to purchase these sponsored slots, but they are expensive. Are they worth it? Only you can determine if the cost of these spots are worth the expense. Most people starting out in website marketing feel that SEM cost more per conversion than it is worth. However, SEM will get people to your site, but only your site can turn that traffic into a sale. A fact that you need to consider and remember when using SEM is that you pay for your ad no matter if you make a sale or not.

We have commissioned a large article series on SEO and will be posting an article every few days. To get an update automatically, subscribe to this blog.

Search engine optimization (SEO) introduction

Website optimization is the key to developing a long term profitable website. It does not matter what you are selling or what you are pushing. Every site wants to reach the customers looking for its products or services.
These customers come from various sources:

1. Search engines
2. Paid to click (PTC) programs
3. Traffic exchange sites or similar programs.
4. Word of mouth, printed ads and television ads.

Search Engine Result Page (SERP's) are the best for providing a cost effective and highier conversion rate than the other three by far. Not only are SERP's more productive, but they are FREE.

70 to 85% of people going to any site will get there through a search engine. With this in mind, don't you think you should consider how to get those search engines to send that traffic to you!

When people look for something on the web, they almost always go to some type of search engine and type in the key words. They will get the results listed on a page. Almost all of these people will pick a site from the first page that comes up. Sometimes, they will move to the 2nd or 3rd page. What does this tell you? Well, that if you are not on those first couple of pages, you are not going to get a big piece of the traffic pie. And why do you want the piece of the pie? Traffic means customers which equates to MONEY. This is where SEO or Search Engine Optimization comes into play.

We have commissioned a large article series on SEO and will be posting an article every few days. To get an update automatically, subscribe to this blog.

ThinkBux.com

Is this site a scam? I am not sure yet. This site used to be one of the few trusted and respected sites out there. However, since they were purchased by crewbux about 6 to 8 weeks ago, payments are taking longer and longer. Every few weeks, the payment time seems to be pushed back. In fact, I have been waiting for a payment for over a month and I am a premium member. Almost all of my referrals have left because they have not been paid or are still waiting. If you review their forum, there were some payments at the end of last month, but very few since then.

Let me here from you! What do you think of this site?? Have you been scammed or do you trust the site??

Have you been scammed by a PTC site? Post a comment and let others know about it! Warn others

SCAM ALERT

clickptc.us

Many people have emailed me asking for me to discuss PTC sites that are scams. So we will start off with one that went scam last month "clickptc.us". Last month the owner of this site switched to the new bux4 script and told all his members that they had to resign up and he would transfer their stats to the new script. He explained that it was not possible to transfer the old data base into the new script. Well, that was complete bull!!! He was using an old version of the bux script and it is very easy to upgrade the database into the new bux4 script. Well, as you may imagine, many members never had their stats transferred, and many more were not paid. People complained on the forum and the owner took the time to delete all negative post several times a day. This from an owner who was saying he was not able to get everyones stats transferred becasuse he was so busy and was swamped. I will admit, he did pay some people, just enough to have a few people post proof of payments. Well, guess what, he is switching his script yet again and the site is now currently offline. But he plans on coming back. When he does, do not join this site. This is a SCAM site.

HAVE YOU BEEN SCAMMED BY A PTC SITE? IF SO, POST AND LET US KNOW ABOUT IT! WARN OTHERS.

How to make money on a PTC site

You will never make good money on a PTC site unless you have referrals. If the only person adding money to your account is you, you will only make .05 to .15 per day; this is not even worth your time. However, each referral can add from .02 to .07 to your account every day (assuming you are only a standard member). Referrals are the keys to making real money on a PTC site and you should focus your efforts on getting referral instead of clicking the ads. You have two options on how to get referrals. One, you can buy them from the site. I never buy the referrals, they are simply to expensive and it is easy to get your own referrals. The other choice is to get your own.

How to get your own: Find several other PTC sites that are using the aurora script and that are large and active. Active users are the key to any successful PTC site. The reason I suggest aurora scripts is because most of the sites using this script have relatively cheap advertising cost and give you a great amount of control over your ad credits. Once you have found several good cheap active sites to advertise on, place your ads on as many sites as your budget allows. Start off small, and focus on one or two sites to promote. As you get paid from the PTC site, use part of your earnings to place more ads.

You will have to continue to place ads if you want to continue to make money on any PTC site. The reason for this is because your referrals will quit. 90% of people who join a PTC site never get referrals and they wind up quiting. After just a few days, people start to quit and the percentage increase every day by about 3% on average. This is what most of the PTC site owners are banking on; people quiting before they ever make it to payout and roughly 90% do. So, only roughly 10% of the people you get as referrals will stay active on the long term.

How to pick a PTC site for advertising

Remember, the key to making money on PTC sites is getting referrals to do the clicking for you. With this in mind, picking other PTC sites to advertise on is the best way to accomplish this. However, do your research before you purchase advertising credits (also know as ad credits). Before you ever spend a dime, consider the following items:

1) How active is the site?
2) What is the cost of each ad credit?
3) What flexibility do I have with my ad credits?

How active is the site: It is always a good idea to check out how active a site is before you spend any money there. Many sites fake their stats. If the site is a bux-clone site, it is very easy to cleck how active the site is; just make a note of how many clicks the ads have every few day. These numbers will give you a basic idea of how many people are clicking ads every day. On sites using the aurora scripts, it is a little harder. The easiest way is to buy the cheapest amount of ad credits and post an ad. You will know immediately how many clicks your ads are getting. By the next day, you will be able to see how many people are clicking every day. However, we would like to know this BEFORE we spend money. I would go to the sites forum and to simply ask the members there. They should and most likely will help you.

What is the cost of each ad credit? Well, this is an obvious one. Check around for different sites to find the best deal. Remember though, the more active a site is, usually the more expensive the ad credits are.

What flexibility do I have with my ad credits? This is a factor you really need to take into consideration. If you are promoting a PTC site, more than likely you are promoting more than one. You need to be able to change your ads around to take into consideration sites that are more popular than other, sites that disappear or go down, etc. Only sites using the aurora script allow advertisers to add and remove credits to ads, create ads on the spot, and make changes to ads. So, try to focus your advertising dollars to sites using the aurora script.

Paid To Click sites (PTCs)

So what are PTCs? They are sites that pay members to click on ads. Most pay $0.01 per ad and $0.005 for every ad your direct referral clicks. Almost all of these sites have a premium upgrade that gives you a highier rate of pay for your clicks and for that of your referrals. In addition, you can buy referrals from the sites instead of going out and getting them on your own. There are many variations of the theme, but they are all basically the same. However, there are tons of scams out there, so it is very advisable to check a site out before you invest any funds with them. Check to ensure that they pay (I would not invest until they pay me my first payout first), check out their forums to see what members are saying and more importantly, what they are complaining about.

Here are a few of the trusted sites that I have found:

ParadiseClicks.com: This is a great site with many ads and paypal/alertpay pay options. Payrates for ads range from .0025 to .02 depending on the ad and view time.

ParadiseClicks

TheBluesPTC.info: This is a new site that operates like a traffic exchange. Members are only allowed to cash out for ads. However, if you are trying to get referrals for your other programs, this is an excellent way to get advertising for free. There are always over 200 ads per day that range in value from $0.01 to $.05.

TheBluesPTC

Clickingbank.org: This is a great site with tons of payment proofs on their forum. They have 10 to 15 ads per day for standard members and 10 additional ads per day for premium members. Payrates for ads are .01/click and .005/referrals click.

Clickingbank

Clickersheaven.com: This is a site where you can earn big money. However, standard members can only cash out for ads. Premium members can cash out for ads or cash. Payrates are .02/click for standard members and .03/clicks for premium member.

Clickersheaven

IFW's: What are they and how do they work.

The biggest question out there is "How do I get something for free?". All incentive freebie sites work basically the same way:

1. You create an account at the Freebie site (for free).
2. You try an advertiser's offer (these are usually free trials).
3. You get a certain number of referrals (people who sign up under you) who also try an advertiser's offer. The number of referrals is usually from one to ten.
4. You get your freebie in the mail.

Does it work? Is it a scam? It does work and no it is not a scam. The freebie sites make an enormous amount of money doing this and are more than willing to give you your freebie.

Freebie companies get PAID by advertisers to get new customers to try their offers. Everyone that signs up on a freebie site must complete an offer. The companies that provide these offers will pay the freebie site for referring new customers. On average, the advertising offer pays $35 to $50 for a new signup. It is very expensive for companies to advertise; so if the company gets a new customer out of it, it is well worth the expense.

By now, most are saying "Thats great but how do I get referrals?". Trading forums have popped up that do nothing but trade referrals either for cash or referral for referral. There are several of them and these sites are growing all the time. You can make immediate money by doing offers for someone else; anywhere from $25 to $100 in one day. There is no up front cash requirement or cost. Let me repeat that, THERE IS NO COST TO START.

There are several ways to get started, you can go straight to a trading forum and jump in. Or, you can go to the premier training program, Project Payday. The only cost is to complete one trial offer to receive this valuable training. The freebie sites support this training program so that new users understand what is involved and how to go about completing offers and getting referrals. This site has very in depth lessons on everything from signing up on a trading forum to cashing out on a freebie site. There are also videos that explain everything in detail and walk you through the whole process.

Hit the link below to take a look at Project Payday

What is a Green?

It is important to understand the term "Green"; what it is and what it means. Almost everyonin the incentive freebie world uses this term.

Once a person or referral completes a sponsor offer, that is a "Green".

This is called a green because all IFWs color code a users status. When someone first signs up and has not completed an offer, they are color coded yellow. Once a user completes an offer and gets credit for doing so, their status changes to green. In addition, if a user breaks a IFWs term of service, their status changes to red.

The term "green" is used alot in relation to IFWs. You might hear "he went green for me". They are talking about a person that they referred to a IFW who completed their offer and got credit. Or in the trading forums, you will see "paying on green"; which means they are offering to pay people to signup on their referral link and complete an offer.