Four reasons why Google might not use the anchor text in the links to your website

The text that is used in the links that point to your website has a major effect on the position of your website in Google's search results.

For example, if many people use the text "buy blue widgets" to link to your website, then it is very likely that the linked web page will get high rankings for the keyphrase "buy blue widgets" in Google's search results.

The link text (also called anchor text) is the text that is used in text links. Example:
this is the link text

Unfortunately, not all anchor texts will be used by Google. Check the following things to make sure that the links to your website pass the correct anchor tag:

1. The nofollow attribute
This is a no-brainer. Links to your website that use the rel="nofollow" attribute don't pass the link text to
Google. Example:
great keyword
 
You can use IBP to find out if the websites that link to you use the nofollow attribute: start IBP, click the "Links" button and click "Check links".

2. Invalid characters in the URL
If an URL contains invalid extra characters then chances are that search engines won't be able to index the link correctly. Example:
great keyword

In this example, there's a space at the end of the URL. Some webmasters found out that anchor text is not passed to Google if the link contains an extra space character.
Note that most browsers are able to correct this link and they will display the web page correctly. Unfortunately, search engine spiders seem to have more difficulty with malformed links (or they take them as a signal of low quality).

3. The links use 301 redirects
Google's Matt Cutts recently confirmed that Google won't consider all anchor texts that are used in 301 redirected links. Example:
great keyword

The web server redirects "http://www.example.com/page.htm" to "http://www.example.com" with a 301 redirect. In that case, it's likely that Google won't use the link text.

4. The first link passes the link text
If a page links twice to the same page then Google will use the first link text and discard the other link texts. Example:
This is an example. The link text great keyword will be ignored by Google.

The first and the second link go to the same URL. In this example, Google will use the link text of the first link, which is "This". The link text of the second link will be ignored by Google.
If the second link points to another page of the linked website, then both link texts will be used by Google:
This is an example. The link text great keyword will be ignored by Google.

Links are the most important factor when it comes to getting top 10 rankings on Google and other major search engines. Details about how to get links to your website can be found in the IBP manual (starting at page 91).

Article from Alexa.com

Are You Perfect?

Dr Wayne Dyer says in his book, The Sky’s the Limit that “you must allow yourself to think of yourself as perfect if you are ever going to achieve your full potential.” He then goes on to explain that thinking of yourself as perfect in no regard means that you are lacking motivation for future growth.

These words provide great truth. Many people “settle” with the status quo. Then there are notions that we associate with perfect as arrogant or a cop out to journey further in life. But the truth is you can grow, change and reinvent yourself and still be perfect.

It’s important that the essence of one’s perfection is evaluating themselves, accepting what they perceive as perfect in the present and growing from that.

When was the last time you marveled at your potential? Yesterday? Last week? Maybe you never have. Every single person should marvel at their potential each and everyday. The only way you can fully arrive into life is to view yourself with new eyes instead of meekly “going with the flow” because you don’t think you’re good enough to get into the big game.

Grant yourself permission today to grow and achieve further. Very few people give attention to the born capabilities in every human being to achieve greatness beyond the status quo.
There is no hard statistical data to measure greatness, so you don’t have to chart your data between normality and something worse.

If you feel that you are coping with life as well as the next person why not see yourself further, instead of seeing how you stack up against other people.

Begin to look at yourself in a new and exciting way.

Google uses page speed as a ranking factor

Last Friday, Google announced that they started to use site speed as one of the 200 signals that influence the position of a website in the search results:

"As part of that effort, today we're including a new signal in our search ranking algorithms: site speed. Site speed reflects how quickly a website responds to web requests. [...]

We've decided to take site speed into account in our search rankings. We use a variety of sources to determine the speed of a site relative to other sites."

Will your website rankings drop?

Google's Matt Cutts says that the change will affect only some websites:

"Fewer than 1% of search queries will change as a result of incorporating site speed into our ranking. That means that even fewer search results are affected, since the average search query is returning 10 or so search results on each page.

So please don?t worry that the effect of this change will be huge. In fact, I believe the official blog post mentioned that 'We launched this change a few weeks back after rigorous testing.'

The fact that not too many people noticed the change is another reason not to stress out disproportionately over this change."While 1% does not sound much, it can be a problem if your website belongs to the pages whose rankings will drop.

At this time, Google's new site speed signal only applies to visitors searching in English on Google.com.

How to keep your web pages listed in Google search results

There are several things that you can do to improve the speed of your web pages:

1.    Choose a fast and reliable web host with a good connection to the Internet. A "cheap" web host could cause problems.

2.    Combine external JavaScript code files into one file. The fewer files the server has to request, the faster your web pages will load.

3.    Compress your JavaScript code to make the JavaScript file smaller.

4.    Combine external CSS files into one file and compress your CSS files.

5.    If your web server supports it, enable gZip compression (your web host can do that for you).

6.    Use as few images as possible on your website and compress your images. Most graphic tools enable you to choose the compression rate when saving an image for the web.

7.    Put tracking codes and other JavaScript snippets at the end of your web pages.

The faster your web pages load, the more visitors of your website will be able to see the contents of your pages. Web surfers are impatient people. The average web surfer wants immediate results.

Page speed is not Google's most important ranking signal. The end of Google's page speed announcement contains a very important sentence: "While site speed is a new signal, it doesn't carry as much weight as the relevance of a page."

It is important to optimize the speed of your web pages but it's also important to optimize all other elements of your web pages if you want to be listed on Google's first result page. IBP's Top 10 Optimizer analyzes all important ranking elements/signals that lead to high rankings on Google, including page speed and many other factors.

   Article originally from  http://www.axandra.com/  

My experience with survey sites

When I first started working from home, one of the first places I turned to were survey sites, drawn by the prospect of earning money without selling items or even operating a website. And I will honestly tell you the first year I was highly disappointed! Unconvinced that it was a legitimate way to make money I didn’t take it seriously and looked for other options. However, something happened that changed my skepticism---I actually got a check in the mail.

Even though I wasn’t convinced that it would work, I continued to do the surveys and update my profile. I enjoyed doing the surveys for pass time sake. Some of the topics were relevant to me, and I wanted to share my opinion. Thus, without really trying I was starting to build an income with these survey sites and began learning some tips to make serious money in a not so serious way. Here are some of the things I learned.

Note:  I have never joined a paid survey program; all the groups I belong to are free, so this article focuses on free survey sites.

1. You have to join multiple sites. The first mistake I made is actually a very common one—thinking one or two survey sites was enough. In actuality, you need to be signed up with at least 6 different sites to increase your earnings. Many survey sites are connected or merged with other sites so having an account with several sites ups your chances of qualifying and completing more surveys.

2. The points matter. Most survey sites reward with points. When I first learned this, I rolled my eyes thinking it was a scam. However, I quickly learned the points add up and because the points are redeemable for cash it really adds up to the same thing. When I saw one day that my 1000 points added up to 50 dollars, I was not only surprised but happy. It wasn’t something I was paying attention to, so to receive a check in the mail for that amount made me want to do more surveys.

3. Don’t ignore surveys for draws. Another common mistake is deleting surveys that are for prizes. These don’t give points or cash value, but give you a chance(s) to win a grand prize of some sort. Again, when I first started I thought it was a stupid waste of my precious time. But then I learned two important things:

a) Not many people complete those surveys so your chances of winning are higher (and I actually have won before…an Amazon gift card for 50 dollars)

b) These surveys boost the amount of high paying surveys you're offered. Contest surveys are a way for these sites to weed people out.
If you complete a few you are then offered “better” survey opportunities such as, big point surveys, being invited to join focus groups which can pay 40-100 dollars and being able to test products.
In the years I have been doing surveys I’ve tested chips, pop, cheese, and makeup products all before they hit the shelves and was paid to do it. I’ve sat in on several focus groups; none were more than a couple hours.

4. Reply fast. When you get an invite don’t put it off like I used to. Surveys are becoming more popular as more people are learning they can make money with them, so quotas fill up faster than they used to. Try to complete the survey within the day it was sent.

5. Complete your profile. The more complete your profile, the more chances you’re given.


Now before you get too excited, understand that doing surveys will in no way give you a full time income, not unless it’s all you do, and you belong to over 50 survey groups. Most will find it a good way to add to your income. You can make money to buy those “want” items on your list, or even earn a part time income. If you enjoy giving your opinion or being the first to try things then taking surveys is good idea.

Do banner ads still work?

There have been some claims lately that banner ads as an internet marketing technique are ineffective. And in some respect I can see why.

Banner blindness is term used to describe a lack of notice when it comes to banner ads. A user may no longer see the ad because they’ve seen it so many times. They’re used to it. This is very much real and I’m sure we’ve all experience it.

You visit a website and the first couple times you notice a banner ad that may or may not be enticing. However, after a few more visits you no longer notice the ad. It’s still there; it’s still calling for your attention, but you’re indifferent to it. You’ve experienced this and so have your users.

If do affiliate marketing, you understand how damaging this can be to your business. Unless your visitor notices your merchant’s ad, they won’t click it to visit the site and take action, and all this translates to a loss of income.

Fortunately, there are some simple tricks to keep your visitors from suffering from banner blindness.

1. Rotate your banners. It’s such a simple thing, that many people don’t do. Every couple months change your banners. Use a different size, style, message, whichever but don’t have the same banner sitting for more than 5 months. Visitors become easily immune to sales pitches, especially in the affiliate marketing industry, since that same banner is on countless other sites. Changing your banners makes them aware of the ad again.

2. Create your own or use a unique one. There are a number of free tools to create individual banners or you can ask your merchant if they can create a unique one for you. This will help you stand apart from other affiliates in your niche.

3. Remind your merchant to update. If your merchant has not come out with new banners in a while, gently remind him to do so. By offering many different banner options, you will not only have several to rotate with, but it makes the business look fresh. Banners that hold the same style as those used in the 90’s are not as effective. Let your merchant know an update is in order.

It doesn’t take a lot to save your visitors from banner blindness, use the tips above to ensure that this marketing method continues to stay effective.

4 easy ways to get motivated for your work at home business

Working from home feels great in the beginning. The excitement is there and the hope of finally being able to conquer your financial future makes you feel motivated.  However, somewhere down the line things go astray. Your eagerness to get up and work starts fading and those sparks are barley a twinkle. But you can get back to the stage where you wanted a work at home business by considering the following.


1. Get organized. Clutter, whether it is directly in your office or on your computer, i.e. emails, exhausts the mind. You just can’t do your best work in an area that doesn’t promote productivity. Organize your paper files, make use of programs that help you organize your emails and online files and toss out/delete any old documents that are no longer adding to your business.   

2. Unsubscribe. Work at home business owners have a tendency to subscribe to every ezine. Some of these offer real value to you business, but others simply clutter your inbox. Take some time to look through you’re your emails to see who’s helping your business and subscribe from those that are simply taking space.

3. Blog. I don’t mean a business blog, but a personal blog or diary that allows you to take down all the good things your work at home business does for you and visa versa. Often times we’re so busy working we forget to acknowledge our success. Having a platform that allows you to write and recall your mile stones will encourage you and remind you of why you put in the many hours.

4. Take a day off. One study showed that home business owners work more hours than their office counter parts. This makes sense, especially when you consider all the things that go into building a successful business. However, all work and no play is a recipe for boredom and resentment. Set aside an actual day off for yourself. Do something simply for yourself. Relax and clear your head. You’ll come back to your business a little more refreshed and in control.

   Working from home doesn’t have to be a battle. Your work at home business should give a sense of satisfaction, but if it isn’t try the tips above to get re-motivated and become more productive.

Does your business give you pleasure

When you wake up in the morning are you excited to start the new day? Do you find a sense of excitement and joy with your work at home business? Or is it the opposite—do you feel tired of it, or even afraid of it?

They always say don’t mix business and pleasure, but in my opinion those dichotomies have to fuse together when you work from home.

Majority of people fall out of love with their work from home opportunity after 7 months. Many break up from the business long before then.

For some, expectations are too high and dedication is too low. But even those that work meticulously at their work at home business are not “in love” with it. It gives them an income, freedom but not a strong sense of pleasure.

When you first start to work from home, there is a thrill that electrifies you to. This is because it’s new, fresh and exciting. You’re hoping this opportunity will be the one. You’re excited about doing something interesting within your own home. You like the idea of the business and perhaps the business itself. But after a couple months you start to notice those brilliant sparks fade. You’re efforts aren’t panning out and you‘re losing your sense of motivation.

A few more months later and you’re browsing for another opportunity, starting a new blog, or looking in your local paper to go back to working outside the home. It’s over.

How do people so quickly go from “This is awesome,” to “You’re annoying and boring me?”

One of the reasons is people don’t take the time to choose a business that will in fact give them pleasure. They go for any niche, get excited about the hype on the sales page, and hope for the best.

They don’t carefully consider is this something I want to do, be known for, gives me satisfaction.

Apparently, only 20 percent of work at homers are satisfied with their business. The rest are still searching for “the one.”

But becoming part of the 20 percent isn’t a difficult task. It involves asking yourself one question.

“Would I do this if no one was willing to pay me?”

If you are willing to dedicate and commit to something when you’re not getting any rewards, you’re most likely going to do it if there is an incentive. People who do well, love what they do. They take pride in their work and they have a passion for it. This means they already know a little something about it and are always eager to learn more.

They also give themselves time to succeed. If you’re breaking up with your business after a few months you’ll never get to know what it’s capable of. The average business takes 3 years before it is a true success. Give yourself a good amount of time to really make things work out with your business.

So, is your work at home business giving you pleasure or a headache?