Self appointed Guru’s, black hat SEO, link exchanges, and other things that go bump on the internet

Written by James R. Sanders


If you have a web site and are looking for traffic, then I am sure you have done your fair share of research onrepparttar internet. With so much at stake and your web site’s success or failure hanging inrepparttar 131643 balance, there is a wealth of information to be had onrepparttar 131644 internet to fix whatever problem might be ailing your web site. But withrepparttar 131645 cut throat competition and everyone vying for your ear to give you that “silver bullet” to fix your internet web site woes, where do you turn and who can you really trust to help you with such a critical quest? You want web site success, increased traffic, a top 10 ranking withrepparttar 131646 search engines, and you want it now, but how do you findrepparttar 131647 right information to help you fix your problems and help you realize your web site goals?

Differentiating betweenrepparttar 131648 gurus andrepparttar 131649 self appointed gurus – If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quack’s like a duck, then it’s probably a duck, err guru.

In many ways,repparttar 131650 internet is still a sort of “wild wild west” of our present day era. Although some things are becoming regulated and standards are emerging, there are still many things left to fall throughrepparttar 131651 cracks. Anyone with some extra cash to throw around in marketing ads can put up shop onrepparttar 131652 internet and call himself or herself a guru. Many of these “good Samaritans” will part you from some of your hard earned cash and offer you a “silver bullet” to solve your internet marketing woes. The problem stems from those that are self-proclaimed, and just starting out, who leadrepparttar 131653 masses to believe they haverepparttar 131654 answers to almost any web site dilemma. With time being a precious commodity, many people buy into these self-proclaimed guru’s advice then wonder why their internet marketing woes still go unsolved. Very few people I have met online take any real time to research these “gurus” to find out if they are credible.

The problem I have always had with these types comes from repparttar 131655 “secrets” they speak of selling you. Many tout that they have made armored carloads of cash and now they want to give something back torepparttar 131656 world in exchange forrepparttar 131657 successes they have enjoyed, butrepparttar 131658 nature of people and business would dictate otherwise. Most business tends to guard such trade secrets to ensure their competition always stays three steps behind them. Why would they give these secrets away? Maybe it’s just a case of outdated information that no longer works, so there would be no need to safeguard such secrets. If those secrets work so well, then why is it they must sell them to us. Why not keep those secrets to themselves and continue reapingrepparttar 131659 rewards of high profits and sales? If they want to give back torepparttar 131660 world, then why not GIVE usrepparttar 131661 secrets instead of selling them? There’s just too much that doesn’t add up whenever I think of this topic. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I just can’t see why someone would want to give away or sellrepparttar 131662 secrets that have made them money unlessrepparttar 131663 secrets no longer work.

I will admit if someone in a very different field thanrepparttar 131664 guru is usingrepparttar 131665 information, then there is no competition, and there is no fear thatrepparttar 131666 information gatherer can use repparttar 131667 information to compete. In that case, there is nothing forrepparttar 131668 guru to loose and much more for them to gain through their sales. Say for instance, a guru imparting wisdom on marketing techniques. Unlessrepparttar 131669 information seeker is running a marketing business, there would be no competition, andrepparttar 131670 guru would be loosing nothing. But, ifrepparttar 131671 information seeker were running a marketing company, then repparttar 131672 gurus would be opening themselves up to possible competition.

Another danger torepparttar 131673 guru side of things comes when a couple people get together with large email lists and join forces. I’ve seen this one done before. They all cross-market each other to their lists and come off looking like experts in their field. Each individual builds credibility forrepparttar 131674 others and they look likerepparttar 131675 next big thing. The good ones catch email readers up in their hype cloudingrepparttar 131676 facts in obscurity and making bundles of cash inrepparttar 131677 process. They prey onrepparttar 131678 naivety ofrepparttar 131679 new web site designers and marketers, and wind up giving so little in return. I find that most of these types operate by getting you on all their friends’ lists, and then they bombard you daily with marketing email pitching their programs. They entice you by telling you they are running a newsletter on marketing tips and tricks, but dorepparttar 131680 old bait and switch by sending you email with links to their affiliate programs instead ofrepparttar 131681 marketing tips and tricks you thought you were signing up for. It’srepparttar 131682 grand daddy of marketing tricks. Promise them what they want and then try to sell them something to get it while making them think they were getting it free.

My point is simple. Take some time before you just buy into someone’s information and check to see if they are truly reliable. If more people did this online, there would be less people being ripped off byrepparttar 131683 hucksters peddling their garbage. The first stop would berepparttar 131684 Better Business Bureau. Check and see if they have any complaints on file and see how successful they have been in resolving them. A good and credible company will always bend over backwards to keep customers happy because they realize their value. The not so good and credible will playrepparttar 131685 numbers game and not care about complaint resolution. They takerepparttar 131686 money overrepparttar 131687 customer satisfaction every time. If it’s a guru touting search engine placement then do searches inrepparttar 131688 local search engines on their keywords to see if they rank well. Go to customer sites and look atrepparttar 131689 keyword tags, then do searches onrepparttar 131690 keywords and check them out. If they rank highly, then chances are they are credible gurus; if not, then you might want to take your business elsewhere. Just because you see their name frequently aroundrepparttar 131691 net, it doesn’t mean they know what they are talking about.

SEO practices and promises – Can they really deliver what they promise?

My next favorite isrepparttar 131692 SEO’s out there that will promise you top 10 rankings inrepparttar 131693 major search engines. These guys kill me. I am sure there are some that can do that, but I questionrepparttar 131694 methods they use to accomplish it. I’ve been doing SEO work for years now and have found that such top 10 placements are very difficult to accomplish especially in highly competitive search terms. Some will use ad words and PPC campaigns to accomplish this. That will cost you additional cash, usually above their service fees, and on an ongoing basis. Many of them leave that out of their marketing material though. Some will pay other websites to link to you as a means to accomplishrepparttar 131695 goal. I caution you that NONE of this isrepparttar 131696 way that search engines intended things, and as such, goes against most search engines rules. Links have become a commodity to be bought and sold.

How can you promise, to everyone essentially because you run it in your add and anyone can see it, that you can get them top 10 rankings? Take for instancerepparttar 131697 term web site design. The competition for that set of keywords is so staggering that to get a top 10 ranking for it is next to impossible. Even if you do get one,repparttar 131698 chances of tweaking your page to get it and then keeping that rank without ongoing maintenance is virtually impossible. SEO’s don’t put out there, up front, that ranking takes time, and there is no way to really guarantee a top 10 placement especially with highly competitive search terms, and especially if you are new torepparttar 131699 market. They might give you that information before they sign a contract with you, but they tend to leave it out of their marketing materials. You also have to ask yourself what happens if they have eleven or fifteen other customers in your market. Who wins in that situation? I can guarantee you that big SEO companies do have that many customers inrepparttar 131700 same market.

Colors for Your Website

Written by Francisco Aloy


Oh Yes ..Colors! There are hot ones, cool ones, earthy colors, spiritual colors and every other shade inrepparttar rainbow! What colors should you use for your website?

Though color combinations that would work for many decorating ideas are pleasing torepparttar 131640 eye, it doesn't mean they will work onrepparttar 131641 web.

The reason is thatrepparttar 131642 combinations you use have to serve a twofold purpose: They should impart a general theme to your website and, more importantly, make it easy for your visitors to see and read.

The very high contrast between white and black, having opposite locations onrepparttar 131643 chromatic scale, is good for standard paper books but not forrepparttar 131644 Web! A good choice of colors as a tool inrepparttar 131645 distribution of information, is something that should be given serious consideration.

The printed media's classical scheme of black lettering over a white background doesn't work well for Web content. Certain colors produced byrepparttar 131646 glowing phosphor of PC monitors are very intense and tend to assaultrepparttar 131647 eyes with their potency, such as when you look at snow in bright sunshine.

The above reason is why many folks will print an eBook to study it: They can't takerepparttar 131648 "white assault" from most monitors.

Application programmers and savvy web designers are discovering this harmful quality of monitors and are compensating by makingrepparttar 131649 backgrounds of their websites an off white/gray.

You can try this for yourself: read a page with an absolute white background and thenrepparttar 131650 same page with a very light gray or pastel background. Seerepparttar 131651 difference?

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