By Sharon Housley

Links from different directories have different values. A webmaster’s time is limited, and most webmasters want to get the biggest bang for their bucks. So where should they start when it comes to directory submissions? Search engines assign value to links from the various directories differently, so how do you spend your time where it matters most?

Yahoo

Yahoo is still, to some degree, the king of directories. Whether a Yahoo directory link is worth “paying for” is still a debatable question, but there is no doubt that a link from Yahoo is worth the effort. Do not leave a Yahoo link to automated submission software—take the time to manually submit your links to the Yahoo Directory.

Yahoo Directory -http://www.yahoo.com/

DMOZ

Amazingly, it appears that DMOZ is still relevant. While some webmasters complain that DMOZ is outdated, it is apparent that a DMOZ link still matters to the larger search engines. DMOZ is a human-edited directory with different editors for each category. As such, patience is critical to obtaining a listing. Editors can become annoyed when sites are submitted multiple times, and before they’ve had the opportunity to review the quality of the content. Some editors work quicker than others, so be patient and polite, and you may get lucky with a DMOZ listing.

DMOZ - http://www.dmoz.org/

Wikipedia

A legitimate link that stays in Wikipedia is very desirable. Wikipedia is a human-edited online encyclopedia. Wikipedia links are very difficult to obtain, and even more difficult to retain. But if you build a unique quality resource on a niche subject, you might find yourself linked on a page in Wikipedia.

Wikipedia – http://www.wikipedia.com/

Major Download Websites

The major software download websites are all capable of driving traffic, and can impact a websites popularity. Make sure to manually submit your software to these three major download websites:

Download.com – http://www.download.com/
Tucows.com – http://www.tucows.com/
Softonic.com – http://www.softonic.com/

Popular Directories

The more popular the directory, the better the link is considered to be. Link popularity matters, and a link from a webpage with a high page rank (as determined by the Google Toolbar) is desirable. You can assess the general popularity and value of a directory by viewing the page rank of the webpages on a website.

Related Niche Directories

Websites that are an authority on related subject material are great sources of web traffic. Conduct very specific searches to locate popular niche directories.

Where To Find Important Directories

There are a number of resources designed to assist webmasters in finding both free and paid directories that will accept submissions. Use the following resources to boost your directory listings:

Web Search Engines – http://www.web-search-engines.net/
One-Way Text Links – http://www.onewaytextlink.com/links.php?type=free&pagenum=1
Business Seek Business Directory – http://www.businessseek.biz/page.php?page=web-submit

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com audio recording and editing software.

By Sharon Housley

Web directories are an important component to search engine positioning. Directories come in all shapes and sizes, some are generic, while others are highly specialized. Directories, are defined as categorized topics or collections of information organized into a tree like structure where categories are used to define each groups association.

Large directories like Yahoo tend to have general themes and may charge for listings. While smaller niche directories like http://www.finance-investing.com offer free listings and profit from advertising revenue or pay per click models like Google AdSense.

Being listed in a directory not only brings in targeted traffic, it provides a one-way link from a website with similar content. Directories are generally highly ranked in search engines, and are considered well respected resources, two traits that are desirable in link partners.

While smaller directories that focus on a specific niche might generate less traffic, the quality of the traffic from a niche site is usually highly targeted and will be superior to that generated from general search engines.

If you are selling fire alarms, traffic from yahoo will be less qualified than traffic from Alarm Tools. Most visitors to Alarm Tools will have a genuine interest in alarms and alerting systems. The nature of highly specialized directories result in visitors who have a serious interest in the directories theme, or a at the very least an interest in a theme related to the directory.

As a result, web publishers need to make a conscience effort not to ignore the value of directory listings. Regardless of their size, a related niche directory listing can be extremely valuable.

Many directories offer sponsorship opportunities. Vendors can optionally purchase sponsorship to increased their exposure with a bold listing or top category listings.

Determining a Directories Value
It is difficult to assess the value of directory listing, as there is an obvious advantage to a listing of a closely related theme directory that is difficult to measure and quantify. In general, webmasters can use common web guidelines to determine the popularity of a directory and assess the directory link’s value.

To assess the value of a web directory, consider the PageRank of the webpage where the link placement of your site will occur. The PageRank is indicative of how important Google may find a specific page. Another reliable third party measuring tool is Alexa. The Alexa ranking provides insight into how popular a website is. In general, a link from a web page containing a PageRank of 5 or higher is considered very good. A link from a site in Alexa’s top 100,000 is also generally very desirable.

Compare the following two directories’ Monitoring Tools http://www.monitoring-tools.net and RSS Specifications http://www.rss-specifications.com . Monitoring Tools’ main page has a PageRank of 5 but most internal pages that contain links have low page ranks and the overall Alexa ranking of the site is over 650,000. While RSS Specification’s claims a main Google PageRank of 6 and subpages all contain a minimum of a 5 for PageRank, the overall site is ranked 32,000. Clearly if you are in the syndication business, RSS Specification’s would be a very desirable link partner, while you would have to weigh the cost benefit and position of a link from Monitoring Tools.

To determine a sites PageRank without downloading the Google Toolbar, use the following online tool from RustyBrick http://www.rustybrick.com/pagerank-prediction.php . A website’s Alexa ranking can be found by entering the URL into Alexa http://www.alexa.com .

It is recommended that PageRank and Alexa ranking be only used as a guide when determining a directories reputation. It is important not to get too caught up in either Google PageRank or Alexa Ranking as webmasters can use “tricks” to artificially inflate their numbers.

The bottom line, links from directories that are small but niche, can provide quality web traffic.

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for FeedForDev http://www.feedfordev.com an RSS component for developers.

By Alan Smith Smith

Web 2.0 applications are the latest and newest trend in website designing . Millions of Internet companies and users are turning to web 2.0 for its added benefits. This version has brought about a revolution in how sites are built and applied in practical usage, thus increasing its overall functionality.

Web 2.0 companies make the user enjoy blogging, join podcasts, download, email the RSS feeds, and so on. Such benefits give an excitement quotient to the online experience. Many companies claim to provide web 2.0 applications that have better interactivity, easy usability, and adjust better to changing trends.

The web 2.0 companies can be used to filter web traffic to your website. You can get many 2.0 websites links to your website. It has been seen that web 2.0 sites get higher rankings in search engines, especially in Google. Web 2.0 gives long term business advantages to its user, whether it’s a traditional business or a new business process. The success of web 2.0 is highly dependant on how efficient the site is in picking the newer forms of business models, new online communities, and joint processes.

The Web 2.0 benefits are explained here below. These are consistent for all types of websites.

• It provides a web platform that is highly functional in obtaining and implementing sales strategies.

• Web 2.0 development enables better use of the core enterprise application.

• You can make use of semantic tagging technology that can raise the navigation of internal and external web pages, thereby leading to increased sales of products/services.

• For greater employee satisfaction and collaboration within the organization web 2.0 can be utilized to its best, creating waves of networking achievement stories.

• It very well targets the marketing resources, hastens the product development life cycle, and gives apt feedback of the new products.

• Web 2.0 uses its users and bloggers for establishing a positive image and creating positive publicity among the masses.

• It makes the Internet marketing a compulsory process so that your marketing budget is used to its best.

• It improves the quality of social interaction for anyone across the globe. Here, views, experiences, recipes, thoughts, comments, etc are easily exchanged.

• You can post photos, guest books, albums, how-to guides, etc. Also maps for planning traveling that are interactive in nature.

The list for smaller benefits is endless, thus giving you full control over your online business activities while incorporating many additional features to it.

About the author:
SPINX - Website Design San Francisco offers services like Website Design Santa Clara Website design West Hollywood, Website Design Santa Monica & also across the world.

By R Murrell Johnson

There are many ways to market your business online. One of the easiest ways is to use Youtube to market your business. Youtube is considered web 2.0 marketing – using the latest technologies to market your business and services. It is quite easy to use Youtube to market your business or service.

Youtube is an online community of people who prefer to use videos as a way to communicate to the world. It is free to join and a lot of fun to use and to look at other videos! How you use Youtube is up to you. Here is an easy way to get started with Youtube:

1. Go to Youtube.com and sign up for a free account. Choose a name for your account that is easy to remember or reflects your business or service.
2. Set up your profile and let people know about you and your business. This is NOT a place to try and sell them in the description! That is the job of your videos.
3. Get a cheap web cam or use a camcorder. Even the ones that use tapes can be downloaded and then uploaded to your Youtube account. The Flip Cam is very cheap – about $129 and will upload directly to Youtube.
4. Make your first video! Don’t be shy! Tell people something about yourself, how you got where you are, and where you want to go. Again, don’t sell anything yet, only yourself.
5. Make the videos short. No more than 5 minutes. That way you will keep your viewers attention.
6. Try to do 2-3 videos a week.
7. Very important! Make sure your videos offer value! Don’t just sell! Help people learn how to do something – build a kite, fly a plane, market on the internet – whatever your specialty is. Give something before you expect to receive something.

Youtube can be a very powerful way to get yourself and your business exposure on the world wide web. Youtube marketing can be and should be fun! Present yourself well on Youtube and you can make customers…and friends…for life!

About the author:
R Murrell Johnson is an experienced internet marketer with over 5 years experience marketing products and programs both online and offline. Take a look at some of his other videos by clicking HERE!

By Expert Author: Eric Menzies

Do you realize that you can learn valuable lessons from the mistakes you have made running your business? If you research the mistakes you’ve made you could actually turn your knowledge into marketing wealth.It would be nice to know that we are giving good customer service to our consumers. We cannot please everyone, but, can learn from our marketing mistakes.

We all make mistakes, but what matters is what we do when it happens. Mistakes allow us to learn and improve how we do business, improving our relationships with our customers and becoming more successful as we move forward. The needs of your client were not met by some aspect of your marketing or customer service, and now you have the opportunity to learn and grow professionally from it.

Studies have found that up to 95% of people who have problems with businesses never actually complain to the company. Initially, this might appear to be a plus since you never have to deal with customers who are complaining. The bigger problem is this; not only are you unaware that you have an unhappy customer, that unhappy customer is never likely to return. Furthermore, while they do not complain to you directly, they will complain to anyone else who they know may want to do business with you.

In most businesses it is the case that you will have about 25 people who are dissatisfied with some aspect of your service and don’t complain for everyone that actually complains you. Consider that you lose about 25 times the number of customers who actually complain about your services. If you need more motivation, well over 90% of them may have continued to buy from you if you solved their complaint in a timely manner.

One of the smartest things you can do is set up a system that monitors customer feedback so that you can have important customer input into your business. The good news is that this is easy to do. You will need a system that will tell you who your customers are and how often they use your business. It is important that you have their contact information. Once you have accomplished this you can work on a system that asks customers for feedback so that you can hear whether they are satisfied with the services or products they received from you. It will take some work to lay this all out, but, it is not a difficult process. Unfortunately, most business owners don’t realize how important this is and don’t bother.

About the Author/Author Bio
You can get a free copy of my latest ebook by clicking here: The 7 Keys To Business Marketing Success. Eric Menzies writes about Marketing Your Business at http://www.BizRave.com