When Something is Free OnlineWritten by S. Housley
What are consumer expectations when something is free? Realistically, consumers subconsiously assume free means free, and while that might be initial intent rarely is it case. What Exactly Does Free Mean? Realistically, consumers subconsciously assume free means free, and while that might be initial intent, rarely is it truly case. Why do Companies Offer Things for Free? Companies or individuals may promote a free offer or service for any number of reasons. From branding to ad revenue, companies often use "free" to attract attention or interest. As a consumer, it is important to realize what "free" might really mean. Reasons Things Are Free: Linking Companies may offer something in exchange for a link back to their website. As web becomes increasingly more competitive, linking can effect more than just search engine placement, and providing a product, service or information free of charge in exchange for a link can be a good business decision. Often, publishers will create articles like this one and make it available for syndication, with stipulation being that author resource box that follows article remain intact, providing links back to author's website. Bottom line, authors often make content available for syndication in exchange for links back to their websites, which they benefit from. Ad Revenue Some companies provide a product or service free of charge and generate money from advertising. Perhaps they sell banner advertising on their website. A free product draws web traffic so that number of visitors seeing advertisement increases. The more visitors a site attracts, typically more revenue generated from ad space. Perhaps a software application is free of charge, but has embedded advertisements. When ads are clicked, software developer earns a percentage of revenue paid for serving advertisement. Goodwill Branding / Public Relations On occasion, companies will provide a product, service or information free of charge. If offering is extremely magnanimous or socially sensitive, they will often receive significant press exposure, generating free publicity for their brand. Pepsi Cola sponsors a number of athletic events and generates enormous amounts of brand loyalty and positive PR with their target audience. Contact Information Sometimes companies or individuals will provide something free in exchange for contact information. Ebooks are often provided free of charge if you provide an email address. The contact information may be sold at a later time or be used to market related products. It is important to check website privacy policies to determine how personal information can be used.
| | Building Websites with Directory GeneratorWritten by Peter Cullen
Directory Generator, a product from Armand Morin and Marc Quarles, builds directory-style websites for you in a matter of minutes. It is simple to use, it's reliable, it does what it claims to do. The tool is essentially a push-button site builder - all you really have to do is upload generated pages to your host system. There are no fancy technical skills involved.Directory Generator gives you control over finished product in a number of ways, one of which is that you can put a "classified"-style ad on each page. As I alluded to above, there is a form in Directory Generator that lets you paste your Adsense code into it, and out come your Adsense ads on your site. You can even control approach to your file directory structure on your host i.e. put all your generated pages in root, or in a sub-folder that you name. You will literally be building very professional looking sites within minutes of getting your hands on this tool. It is, of course, still up to you to decide what topic of site will be! :>> Yes, we all still have to think just a little bit. Here's an overview of how it works. The program interface is neat and clean and easy to use. There's a series of tabs across top of screen labeled Step 1 through Step 11. Step 1 asks you to enter URL of site you're building. No problem so far. You also enter a text string that describes site and gets used as "header" in header graphic. Still with me? Now just click on Step 2 tab, which shows you a form that let's you enter a classified-style ad. What a handy place to promote one of your own products. You enter an ad title, then URL you want reader sent to when they click, and then body of add itself. Still nothing complex, right? Step 3 is where you select HTML template that you will use for generated web pages. There are three fields to be filled in; one names location of template for your index page, second names location of template for you results page, and third gives location of header graphic that appears on each page. The nice part of this step is that two templates and a header graphic are included with software, so you can just go ahead and use them and get on with job. As you move along with site building, you'll probably customize these items, but you don't have to right away. Step 4 asks for location of your input keyword file. These are keywords that describe your site. You'll want to have a pretty large set of these. Directory Generator generates one web page per keyword. A keyword file of from 100 to a few thousand keywords is recommended. Where will you get such a set of good keywords? Well, one place is a tool called Good Keywords. You can download it for free at goodkeywords.com. It is very nicely done and very easy to use. Step 5 is form that lets you add in your Google Adsense code. If you're already using Adsense, all you really have to do is log in to Adsense and copy Adsense code you're already using into Directory Generator entry form. If you're not using Adsense yet, well, sign up and also use it on your Directory Generator sites. You can leave Adsense code forms in Step 5 empty if you choose to. You just won't be displaying Adsense ads on your generated site.
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