Real Estate Marketing 2.0

Revenue Share Model On Our Community Sites

2008-11-13T02:59:53Z

Revenue Share

This is an outline of how we give realtors the incentive to go out and sell websites for us while they are building their profile within the community

Simultaneously we offer incentives to graphic designers to contribute templates to the template engine as their designs will be used by multiple store in multiple cities, thereby encouraging them to contribute better and better templates.

We're hoping to create competition amongst the designers and stimulate more submissions as a result.

Visit YourFarmer.com To learn more and register for early launch spots in this limited access program.

5 Million Reasons To Read This Post

2008-10-30T21:43:57Z

The Knight News Challenge has re-opened for the third year, and is awarding $5 million in funding for innovative ideas using digital experiments to transform community news and information exchange. Winning entries must have three elements: 1) use of a digital media; 2) delivery of news or information on a shared basis to 3) a geographically defined community.

In case you have not been following we've been working on a website to help build community for you the realtor.

When I read the outline I thought to myself, does this ever describe our project to a T?

So here's the deal... I need you to VOTE FOR US

It would be such a boost for us to be able to continue to develop this software without the struggle to raise the money for development all the time. It's been a long haul building our own platform and I'd love the chance to be able to focus on it more fully and not have to worry about where the next round of payroll was coming from (especially in these difficult times)

I'm embeding a video here that tells you a little about the history of the project.

But Ya... please go vote for

Make your own TV show for clients or other Agents

2008-10-19T16:20:41Z

OK, you know I love the latest cutting edge stuff. So here it is. How about creating your own streaming TV show. We've all seen the YouTube video's, but this is a little different. This is a live broadcast (or recorded juke box style like I'm doing here) of you that you can use to create your own personal TV channel.

I'm impressed with how easy it is and can think of several ways that you could use it as an agent, and I cover some of them in my first attempt at a broadcast.

This is the link if you'd like to check it out: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/799549

Extra Revenue For Realtors

2008-10-12T20:00:55Z

Not to pat myself on the back too much, but I really think I'm on to something here.

Please read this report on how I think you can easily profit from our technology not just in the short term, but in the long term.

Download this free report. (**updated**)

Please have a look at this video and you'll get a bit of a history on what I'm talking about.

We have a couple of other screengrabs up if you'd like to know more about it, check out our hidden blog posts here:

Get Top Search Rankings With Community Sites

More than just a static website

With the grand finale... the sales pitch of all sales pitches (but without a price tag, it's just an optin folks... separates the men from the boys... but nothing from your wallet...

Passive Revenue Streams for Agents.

Tell me what you think please, I look forward to your comments.

Best mock up tool for websites

2008-10-06T17:06:50Z

As you know I'm always looking for ways to make my life easier, my work faster and my communications better.

I know many of you probably don't mock up websites as often as I do, but... when you want to communicate with someone that is a designer, programmer, (maybe even a freelancer that doesn't speak english as their first language?)

This is a really cool mockup tool that lets you quickly mock up the interface for your website or web app.

The really cool part is that it also will export XML code so the coders can get working on it right away.

I'm sure this will speed up our development cycle. In fact it has already landed me a client who was on the fence and after sending him the mockup he said "lets do it".

Check out the web demo or hell... just throw your money at the guy and get this thing, it's so worth the $79!

Get it here: Best mock up tool on the planet

(yes I did that for his google ranking ... I bet I can get him to the top of google for this keyword phrase)

Thanks Peldi, you rock!

Here's an example of what I did with it to create a mock up of our AgentXL application

Now I can design features myself, without having to go back and forth 3 times with my designers to get them to understand what I wanted.

Article Marketing Automation Tools

2008-10-02T03:15:00Z

There are a couple of websites that let you automate the process of doing your article marketing.

Writing good content articles and submitting them to free article sites is a very powerful way to get back links back to your website and to get your name and website out there. The better the article, the more people who will use it in their blog, their e-zine or other site.

Of course as with much of this stuff, it's time consuming to submit your articles around to all these sites, so when you want to get serious about boosting your backlinks and getting soe leverage out of what you're doing, you'll want to turn to some professional tools.

One is a desktop application that lets you submitt your article to a long list of websites, I've covered it before but it's something I use regularly so it's worth mentioning again.

Brad Callen's Article Submitter Software

The second one is a twist on the old "submit my articles" play and it combines some really nice features including a content spinner, a scheduled posting engine and a sort of "net effect" breadth of network. Very "one touch" sorta thing, it's pretty neat.

Talk about power tools, check out the video

Then have a look at:

Article Marketing Automation

I think they should call it "article marketing 2.0"

Steady Internet Traffic Tactics

2008-09-26T21:28:59Z

Ongoing Link exchanges

Exchanging links with other sites will be a benefit not only to you but also to your peer website owner. Although straight reciprocal links are still useful, it's best if you can get into 3 and 4 way linking, so that you're not linking straight from one link page to another. Links in content like articles are considered higher value, so when possible it's best to submit articles to peer sites for inclusion on their blogs or in article directories.

Submit articles that are interesting to read Which of course leads us into a great way to get traffic, which is by using well written article that are related to the intent of your website. You should a write a lot about the area in which you have the most expertise, the more valuable the information is and the better the article is written, the more likely you'll have people wanting to publish it on their site. Thereby increasing the number of times your link is put out into the community.

Proper keywords and key phrases are... Key.

Search engines are the starting place of the majority of the traffic on the web, they drive huge volumes of traffic and must be studied as part of a successful internet marketing strategy. The words people use to find things are called keywords and they are what end up driving the most traffic to your website. Researching search trends and understanding related terms an their search volume can be the difference between succeeding and failing online.

Offer a news letter on your website

Capturing peoples email address is one of the fundamentals online. It enables you to build a relationship with them and invite them back to the website regularly. It will also give you an opportunity to draw attention to specials or other news about your company.

Advertise with name brand networks

It pays to invest in good advertising. Yahoo and Google and Ad word are both great at helping to boost your traffic and your overall page rank. Both because you are paying for the traffic, but also due to the links back to your site from the ads you run it does result in better results.

Be an authority, join forums, communities and groups.

This is time consuming but it can pay off in spades. Over time you can leverage the content you've created in other networks to populate new communities and resources and all of the discussions create opportunities for long lasting inbound links.

Email marketing

While spam is a growing problem that renders email marketing less effective on a mass market side. Permission based email marketing and particularly if done with proper launch strategies will continue to be one of the most powerful tools of the information age. Never has there been a more effective way to consistently draw people back to your information than there is with email marketing.

Grow your business | Rich Shefren

2008-09-25T11:35:43Z

If you don't already know who Rich Shefren is, then go check out his stuff. He's got several really good reports on how to grow your business quickly. It's aimed somewhat at internet marketers (this is not a realty course) but the skills he teaches are very valid no matter what you choose to apply it to.

The reports are free and they are well worth the read, follow the banner and check them out.

SEO Tips You Should Know About To Increase Your Ranking On Search Engines

2008-09-15T23:40:30Z

Search engine optimization (SEO) is very important to any internet marketer (This includes Agents marketing on the internet.).

If your website has a high page rank on the search engines, you will get a lot more traffic to your website from natural searches on the search engines.

The more traffic you get, the more chances you have to land a client, a listing or a just a new relationship to start building. This article outlines some of the essential SEO tips that any internet marketer shold know about.

Many people try to do some SEO for their websites but fail to get results simply because they do not have effective SEO strategies.

Spend some time researching your keywords and phrases. Use keyword research tools such as Wordtracker to find the best key words and phrases for your niche.

Make sure that you use precise keywords which your potential customers would use while searching for real estate information on the internet.

Next, you must optimize your website for your target niche. Provide relevant and keyword-rich content on your website such that your website will appear on search engines when your potential customers type your keywords.

It is important that you use your keywords and phrases in designing and categorizing your website or blog. Whatever products or services that your offer on your website for your niche, use your best keywords as this will help you to make your website show up on search engines for these keywords.

It’s also important that you make sure that the design and layout of your website makes it easy for search engines to index your content. Make sure that your website is useful and attractive so that other webmasters will want to exchange links with you.

You will want to exchange links with other websites, but first you must make sure that your website is interesting and has good quality content so that other webmasters will be keen to exchange links with you.

Use your keywords in the internal text links on your websites because this can also help to increase your ranking on search engines.

All your web pages must have your keywords or phrases, make sure you use them in the page title and the article title also, because search engines will pick these up first.

These SEO tips can make your website rank high on search engines and also maintain that position for the long term.

6 ways to drive more traffic to your website.

2008-09-14T15:28:05Z

Although it is important to generate high volumes of traffic to a website, it is important for this traffic be targeted such that the people who visit your website are likely to buy the services and products you offer on your website.

Since promoting your website can take some effort and money, you don't want to just anyone to visit your site. Instead, you only want people who would be interested in what you have to offer.

This article outlines how you can build a steady stream of visitors to your website who are targeted and likely to bring you sales.

Know your target customers and make sure that all your advertising campaigns are targeted at these customers. This means that you must use all the necessary keywords which define your potential customers in all your advertising campaigns. If you are using Google Adwords, your advert must specify the targeted customers. If you are writing articles as a way of promoting your website, your articles must contain the keywords for your niche.
List your website with top search engines and directories in categories that suit your niche. If your website is about selling products or services that relate to making money online for example, get your website listed under this category on relevant websites. This means that people who are looking for this specific information that relate to your website will easily find your website.
Advertise your website in relevant forums and online groups. The more you know about your potential customers, the better you will know where to find them. This means you can go to the relevant forums or online groups where your customers are and you can advertise your website there through having your website URL in your signature when you make posts in these forums. People in forums that related to your niche are targeted customers who have high potential to buy from your website.
Write articles that are rich with your keywords. Your articles get picked up and published by many websites, e-zines and directories. You can therefore quickly have thousands of back links pointing to your website. It is therefore important that all your articles have several of your keywords so that when people type these keywords on search engines while looking for information, your website comes up and ranks high on these search engines. This drives targeted traffic to your website.
Use your own e-zine and other related e-zines to advertise your website. By publishing your own e-zine, you already have many prospects who are interested in what you have to offer. Make sure that your e-zine has new content and gives away some free report or e-books to your subscribers. Make sure that your website URL is added in all your e-zine publications. Identify other e-zines with a readership that matches your target niche market and advertise your website in these e-zines.
Research and look for other web sites where your target customers visit and inquire about advertising your website on these websites.

The six tools outlined above can help you generate targeted traffic to your website. If you want to increase your conversion rate and boost your sales, you need to have targeted visitors on your website.

Sold for $10K over asking | Client testimonial

2008-09-09T12:38:49Z

The following is sent to us by Rick Stonehouse, one of the first agents to be using our services.

Case Study: A recent sale in the Brix building, 3700 block of main.

My “talking signs” attract attention and provide ALL the information a buyer needs.

Recently I got a listing in "the brix" a building in Vancouver on Main street.

There were already 3 existing listings at $589,000/$588,000/$585,000 in the building that had been there for several weeks.

I listed mine at $579,000, with the talking sign, got competing offers after the first open, and sold for $10,000 more than asking.

That was last weekend.

My clients said, no questions that traffic was constant because of the sign and interest was high because of the hype.

Here's a little video testimonial with them where they talk about working with Rick, his superior technology and specifically their impressions of people's reaction to the SellFM sign.

SEO your WordPress Blogs

2008-09-06T19:39:31Z

There's no shortage of advice with regards to what one must do to better a WordPress blog's ranking in the search engines. It's easy to become confused when you devour everything that's available, because some folks agree with others while another group totally disagree and offer different advice.

Ignore it if anyone recommends that you engage Free For All (FFA), traffic exchanges, and submitting your site to search engines.

What is pertinent for excellent rankings was highlighted recently via a survey done by SEOmoz of a number of search engine optimization professionals.

In short, these are the four top search engine optimization ranking elements, according to the experts' consensus opinion.

The Keywords that Appear in the Title Tag

It is extremely important to use the correct keywords in the title tag of a WordPress post. Not only does it help with better rankings, it also helps with the click-through from the search engine listings to your page. It is of lesser value to be listed high in the search results and not receive that many clicks. The ultimate purpose should be to get as many visits to the pages as possible.

The SE highlights in bold the keywords that were entered by the searcher. If part of your title is highlighted, it stands an improved opportunity of being noticed and receiving a click. However, bolded keywords aren't the only element to take into consideration when crafting the page title tag.

A wisely written title, that tempts the web surfer to click through, can gain many extra clicks. It's more advantageous to gain 100 clicks from position number five through having an eye-catching title compared with fifty clicks from the third listing with a badly written title tag, correct?

Anchor Text that's Used for Inbound Links

The anchor text that's used in the hyperlink that points to your web site from another site counts a lot in the search engine algorithms to determine what your site is all about. In addition, what your site is focused on influences to a large extent what it will rank for in the search engine listing.

If you can exert any influence on the anchor text that other sites use when they link to you, then it is an extremely prudent investment of your time.

A larger number of external sites that link to your site employing a specific keyphrase, or variations of that keyphrase, will prompt the search engines to more eagerly compute that your site is all about that particular keyword.

It is far more advantageous when the content of the destination page on your site contains that particular keyphrase and its latent semantic equivalents.

Global Link Popularity of the Site

Search engines figure out the relative importance of a site from the volume of hyperlinks that are pointed to the web site. They include both quality of hyperlinks and quantity of links.

The importance of your site rises in the eyes of the search engines in accordance with the number of different sites that contain links to your web site.

Link building is an ongoing work in progress. There can never be enough backlinks pointing to your website. It's true that it's possible to build links too fast and that could trigger some alerts with the search engines. Notwithstanding, if it's done as an ongoing effort with a longer term view, every backlink is worth the resources spent in getting it. The links all add up to a higher perceived importance of your web site.

Link Popularity within the Site's Internal Link Structure

It's a fact that some of your pages will attract more links than others. The pages that do not obtain a lot of backlinks might be the real income generating pages that you would aim to rank well in the SE indexes.

The internal linking structure, as well as the anchor text utilized in the internal links, is how you disperse PageRank inside the perimeters of your site. The easiest approach to success is to install the plugin for professional SEO of WordPress that is expressly designed to accomplish that.

Some search engine optimization professionals believe that an internal link has the same value as an external link. That does not mean your web site will gain high rankings with nothing more than internal links. What it means is that you can cause a page to be ranked by having internal links pointing to it even though it does not have lots of external links, provided that the remainder of the site has gained adequate PageRank from external links.

In Closing

When looked at as a whole, SEO often looks to be a very intimidating assignment. However, when viewed as individual focus areas, there are a few comparatively uncomplicated areas one can focus on for the largest gains.

Find Clients by searching Twitter

2008-09-05T03:41:54Z

In this example, I'm using another industry, but I'm sure you can be creative and think of ways to use this for your marketing.

How about searching for people on twitter that are talking about your city, or buying a home.

Get creative, these are direct leads that you can engage with directly.

Keyword Strategies for Realtors | Advanced Traffic Strategies

2008-08-18T02:06:49Z

A few months ago, I spoke to a room of people about web strategy for Realtors.

For some of you, it will be more of my same old shtick, but it is good basic stuff to review. If you're new to the whole internet marketing thing, then there is some real gold here that could change your business very dramatically if you implement it successfully. Our clients typically derive between %50 and %70 of their traffic from our Search Engine Tactics and I give it ALL away here, nothing is held back,. you just have to follow the road map and you'll see the same types of results, I have no doubt.

Someone was good enough to captured it on video and after reviewing it, I thought it would be good to share it here.

Learn more about how to find out what keywords to use by reading this post on Keyword Research

Seo Optimized Website Tools and Strategies

2008-07-19T14:20:24Z

I'd like you to take a look at these tools and strategies carefully, we've taken a lot of time to create a custom system that embraces a lot of the principals I talk about here.

As a system capable of distributing your content over multiple domains, our system has proven itself effective for our marquii client, Rick Stonehouse.

As we roll it out now for more realtors, Karin Davidson, David Crawford, Toni Pohl, we are able to see the results that it's had on their business.

Consistently dominating the search engines due to our advanced strategy and built in functionality that enables you to claim top spots in the search engines while others simply don't give you access to the same tools.

Not all systems are created with the same focus, ours was made with search engine optimization in mind.

We are working towards offering a new real estate buying experience that embraces the life of the customer, not the deal.

Watch these screencasts to see how our system differs from others on the market.

Contact us early while we are still in pre release mode and help us to build a more versatile, powerful engine, we're looking for early adopters like you. Real Estate Marketing 2.0

Waterfalls of Traffic to your Website

2008-07-12T18:49:24Z

How many traffic sources do you have driving traffic to your website? We like to set up as many as possible, then track the traffic for you and start to really focus on the ones that are working.

Our traffic building programs start at $197/M and go up to $997 per month depending on how aggressive you'd like to be about building your inbound links.

Your Search Ranking on Multiple Google Data Centers

2008-07-09T11:27:47Z

This is a cool tool that let's you search your keyword relevance on not just "google" but each of their data centers.

This can give you a good idea of how you rank all over the world, as well as show you upcoming changes to your ranking (your page rank will migrate accross data centers).

Multiple Datacenter Keyword Position Check Tool © SEO Chat™ <form name="form" action="http://www.seochat.com/" method="get">

URL
Valid URL to check

Keyword
Enter keyword/phrase

Data Center
Select datacenter range.

Select Country/Language
Select Country/Language (optional).

Enter Captcha To Continue
To prevent spamming, please enter in the numbers and letters in the box below

Report Problem with Tool.

</form>

Traffic Secrets 2.0 - Now Launched

2008-07-04T15:18:16Z

John Reese is one of those mastermind guys that knows how to move a ton of web traffic on the web. The free info alone on this program is well worth your time to check out.

This is the link to his traffic secrets 2.0 course, this is good stuff that adds to anyone's bag of marketing tricks.

http://StrataXL.com/likes/trafficsecrets

John Reese to Release Traffic Secrets 2.0

2008-06-30T20:43:45Z

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm a web traffic nut. Well on July 15th, John Reese one of the internets best know marketers, will be releasing Traffic Secrets 2

I know I can't wait for it, I'll keep you guys posted when it goes live, I know you'll want to spend the money on this one, he's always got top notch information. See the screencast below for more info.

Some Videos on AgentXL

2008-06-24T01:26:12Z

I thought that I'd post a few videos about the back end of AgentXL

If any of you want to beta test it, simply type in http://yourname.agentxl.com

Still a little rough without some setup, but you can see from the videos that it's quite comprehensive on the back end.

10 things you can do to improve your search ranking.

2008-06-14T01:35:36Z

Looking for more traffic to your site?

These are 10 things you can do to make sure you're optimizing your site for the most traffic possible.

Domain age
Search engines always favor those sites which have been around on the internet for many years, so the domain age is a very important consideration.

Regular upgrade
Make sure that you update your website regularly, since the search engines always favor those sites which are always up-to-date.

Meta tags
Use Meta tags. They are the invisible tags and the search engines can identify them for categorization of content.

Heading tag
Always use a heading tag, and most importantly, make the heading tag a keyword which should be relevant to the base of the matter that you are writing.

Keywords
Use keywords in the articles and make them bold. But don’t overdo this; it is really a big put-off!

External links
Make sure that there are external links to almost all the pages of your website. If there are links to many pages of your website, then the search engines will feel that your site has a lot of good content to offer, and it will add value to your site. But if most of the external links head to your home page, then the conclusion will be that your site has nothing worthwhile to offer!

Multiple domains
You can have many domains if you have varied topics, and each of whom can warrant a website of its own. This is beneficial because the search engines generally target only one page per website, mostly the homepage, so if you have multiple domains, you can increase your exposure easily.

Keyword research
While starting a project, do a thorough research on the keyword. There are free versions of Word Tracker and Keyword Discovery, but they also have a paid version which is even better. So your budget permitting, opt for the paid one with many added features.

Scope for improvement
SEO is not an event which you can take up once and then forget. The algorithm of search engines change quite often, so what did well last year may not perform in the same manner this year. So you need to be committed to continuously strive for betterment. Be patient Results will not show overnight. If you are new to SEO, prepare yourself for at least a month’s outlook to see positive results.

SEO friendly URL
Make URL’s that are SEO-friendly. They should be short and any URL which has more than 3 hyphens is generally not taken to kindly by the users. Hyphens act as a purpose for giving a space in URL’s, but don’t use too many of them

Marketing with Social Networks - 10 tips

2008-06-05T19:22:14Z

This applies both to general marketing and for search engine optimization. All of these sites let you link back to your site which adds to your page rank and Search Engine Results.

In no particular order, here are 10 tips on how to use Social Networking sites in your marketing.

Go where the people are
This seems obvious but should be stated. Use a social network that is busy. You want to go where other people are going to get the most effect from your efforts.

Optimize for best results
Do everything you can on your page to make it stand out and be memorable. You want to optimize it to the max so you will get the most benefit.

Add friends carefully
On most networks you can choose to screen any friends before they are added. You should choose this option and make sure that you are friends with people who represent your values and support your overall message. Take the time to check out each request and just don’t approve everyone who asks.

Add content with care
Make sure that anything you put on your page represents you. Make sure it is professional and will not tarnish your image in any way.

Be aware of your audience
Make sure you understand that you are dealing with the general public. That may include children. You should always take the high road and never put anything questionable on your page.

State your purpose
Make it clear why you are on the site. You need to make sure people know you are there for business and not for finding a relationship. This is important or else you will be bombarded with offers from the opposite sex to chat and get to know each other which can be a he time waster.

Use photos
Have your photo on there. It has been shown that pages with photos get more traffic and interest than those without photos.

Customize
Customize your page to fit you. Add in backgrounds and other fun stuff to show off your personality. Remember these sites are for networking and getting to know others. People want to meet a friendly and fun person so be that.

Fill out your profile
Make sure you completely fill out your profile. You do not want blank space on your page. Plus filling it in gives people information about you and helps them get to know you.

Add target content
Make sure that you still think about your target market. Make sure that you stay targeted. You can still pick up search engine rankings through this page so think smart. Link your site Do not forget to put up your link. You can easily get caught up in meeting people and fixing up your page that you forget to add in your link.

Social Bookmarking Tool

I've found this tool that makes bookmarking on multiple sites a LOT easier.

Have a look at BookMarking Daemon, it'll save you a ton of time and is well worth the low cost for the software.

AgentXL Real Estate Software

2008-05-15T02:05:58Z

I did this almost as much to check out vidler and try recording directly from my webcam. It would make for a simple way to do video blogs. My webcam is pretty low end, so I'm sure the quality would come up with a better cam also, but I was happier with this than with the video record off either facebook or youtube so.. here it is, my elevator pitch :)

The link to the site is AgentXL.com

Here's Why Paying For Your Traffic Is A Smart Move

2008-05-08T04:37:28Z

There are tons of success stories you'll hear about businesses making it good on the internet. The troubling thing is, there are maybe a tenfold or even a hundredfold the number of contradictory stories . More than a few have unsuccessfully launched a business that is internet based. In the end, like most business, it's only the truly committed that will succeed.

Is this through luck? That's even more unlikely. It takes good business sense and a lot of help and good team effort. Most importantly, it is an eagerness to succeed, the determination to learn and the willingness to invest in a lot of hard work and probably some money as well.

The Very Basics

Like Neo, traffic is “The One”. Without traffic, all your effort would just go to waste. Every business needs customers, without them you wouldn’t have anyone to sell your products to. In the internet world traffic is the walk in customer. The more traffic you have the more people would be able to sell your products to.

But like any business that’s in the corner building or in the mall, not everyone that goes in will buy, but the greater of number that do come in to browse your merchandise, the greater number of people that will buy your products. It is a simple and known fact.

But, how do you get traffic, traffic large enough that could make a small percentage of eventual buyers enough to make a good profit. Many big companies generate traffic of tens of thousands a day and a measly ten to fifteen percent actually buys, but that small percentage is enough to provide them with good business.

Many of these success stories get their traffic from paying others. Yes that’s right; you have to spend money to make money. Advertising is the key. The more people that knows that your site exists; the more people would of course go to your site, that’s common sense.

While there are many ways that can get you advertising for free, this do not generate the same high volume as those methods that are getting paid. These paid advertisements include advertising schemes by Google and Yahoo.

The Value of Searches

The search and will be the easiest and fastest medium in finding what a person needs in the internet. Search engines have been very popular because they provide a vital service to many people. They are free and easy to use. With this popularity, they get many visitors and clicks that they are the most common sites that people go to. It is easy to understand why so many companies would pay to advertise with these search engines.

Search engines provide information to the millions of users that they have each day. They provide links to many sites that a user may be looking for. If your sites link pop up in the high ranks of the search results page, you get a great chance that they will go to your site. While search engine optimization is a cheaper and low cost way to get your site a high rank, paying for advertisements will ensure that you will be on the top ranks.

When you pay for your advertisements, it is like paying for your traffic. This may sound like not such a good idea, but the payoffs would tell a different story. When you pay for your traffic, you are guaranteed of a consistent traffic flow to your site. You will never go with an empty sales day.

Paying for your Traffic

Usually, you will be charged with the number of hits a link gets when your ads is clicked, this is called pay per click. For some search engines, you will be charged with the number of times your ad shows up when a certain keyword or keyword phrase is searched. It is imperative that you have good keyword content in your ad. There are many tools that aid you in using the right keyword for the right moment.

All the money you spend in paying for your traffic will not be for naught. You will get an impressive boost in traffic which will also result to a great boost in your sales figures. Paying for your traffic would be a really good idea and you will get all the benefits it has to offer.

Pros and Cons of Flash-based Sites

2008-05-08T04:32:49Z

Flash-based sites have been a craze since the past few years, and as Macromedia compiles more and more great features into Flash, we can only predict there will be more and more flash sites around the Internet. However, Flash based sites have been disputed to be bloated and unnecessary. Where exactly do we draw the line? Here's a simple breakdown.

The good:

Interactivity

Flash's Actionscript opens up a vast field of possibilities. Programmers and designers have used Flash to create interactve features ranging from very lively feedback forms to attractive Flash-based games. This whole new level of interactivity will always leave visitors coming back for more.

A standardized site

With Flash, you do not have to worry about cross-browser compatibility. No more woes over how a certain css code displays differently in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. When you position your site elements in Flash, they will always appear as they are as long as the user has Flash Player installed.

Better expression through animation

In Flash, one can make use of its animating features to convey a message in a much more efficient and effective way. Flash is a lightweight option for animation because it is vector based (and hence smaller file sizes) as opposed to real "movie files" that are raster based and hence much larger in size.

The bad and the ugly:

The Flash player

People have to download the Flash player in advance before they can view Flash movies, so by using Flash your visitor range will decrease considerably because not everyone will be willing to download the Flash player just to view your site. You'll also have to put in additional work in redirecting the user to the Flash download page if he or she doesn't have the player installed.

Site optimization

If your content was presented in Flash, most search engines wouldn't be able to index your content. Hence, you will not be able to rank well in search engines and there will be less traffic heading to your site.

Loading time

Users have to wait longer than usual to load Flash content compared to regular text and images, and some visitors might just lose their patience and click the Back button. The longer your Flash takes to load, the more you risk losing visitors.

The best way to go is to use Flash only when you absolutely need the interactivity and motion that comes with it. Otherwise, use a mixture of Flash and HTML or use pure text if your site is purely to present simple textual and graphical information.

Don't use it for navigation unless you have something that will trigger a text version of your nav bar when the flash fails to load - even then, I'd recommend staying away from flash in your nav elements.