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By Bruno Auger On March 15, 2010
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It was inevitable. Along with mobile websites, comes mobile website SEO. But is it really so different from "regular" SEO?
Here are 10 tips to help your mobile website soar in the Search Engines…
1. Top of the list – make sure you create a mobile Site Map. This piece of XML code is directly from Google Webmaster Central, and Google recommends that, for once, you avoid Sitemap Creation tools.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
xmlns:mobile="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-mobile/1.0">
<url>
<loc>http://mobile.example.com/article100.html</loc>
<mobile:mobile/>
</url>
</urlset>
(Whatever you do, don’t omit the <mobile:mobile/> tag, or your mobile site won’t be crawled.
2. Each mobile Site Map must have a name that is unique – but "URLs serving multiple markup languages can be listed in a single Site Map".
3. If you use the Google Sitemap Generator to create your Site Map with, Google cautions that you will "need to create a separate config file for each Mobile Sitemap.
4. Don’t use huge titles. "21 Tips for Turning your Hamster into a Money-Making Machine While Helping Him Lose Weight" is just not gonna cut it, for a mobile site. Think "short blog post headline, instead. Keep it really, really simple.
5. Don’t forget to submit it to Google webmasters, just as you would with a regular Site Map.
6. When it comes to mobile blogs, if you’ve set them up properly with the right plug-ins, SEO isn’t such a problem. But do remember that if you don’t submit your blogs and websites to mobile directories – you’ll be invisible. All the SEO in the world won’t be able to help you, if you don’t seem to exist!
7. Keep an eye on SEO Principle.com, which reports all the latest SEO news from Google (specifically, from Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team. (Also check out the YouTube Google Webmaster Central channel for the latest SEO news.) Cutts is the guy with all the facts and figures: He reports more than 4 billion mobiles world-wide to only 1 billion PC’s. Says Cuts about the planned expansion of Google’s Search features: "…mobile is going to be a big part of it." (Again – get in on the leading edge!)
8. Drive traffic to your mobile website with a YouTube video – with your mobile site URL and a call to action prominently displayed. If you’ve ever used Google’s mobile web index, it should strike you that most of the results are YouTube pages. This may not be a sure-fire SEO strategy for ever – but it sure seems to be working, right now!
9. Check out the W3C Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 page, at http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/#d0e1099. You’ll find out all sorts of helpful data, including "keep your pages under 21k" and tips for SEO
10. Meet Googlebot-Mobile, a very special bot that looks for "mobile-friendly" sites, and includes them in Google’s mobile web index. So far he hasn’t been doing a very good job – but then again, maybe countless people aren’t bothering with those all important Site Maps.
Googlebot-Squarepants, er, I mean "Mobile", is a lot slower than other search bots, according to SEOprinciple.com, taking about 2 weeks to complete a "rotation".
When all is said and done, mobile SEO is still in its infancy. By all means follow the tips I’ve included here – but first and foremost, you need to concentrate on make your blog useful, interesting – and worth coming back to.
Recent Posts
By Bruno Auger On February 22, 2010
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Facebook and Twitter are two of the most user-friendly sites on the mobile web – and that’s great news for those who are going mobile with their websites, because it means people can right-click on bit.ly links in Twitter – and be automatically taken to a mobile version of your site, if they’re accessing it from Twitter.
The best way to accomplish this is to set up redirects, so that whenever a user is detected on a mobile, it goes straight to the mobile version of your site. There are several ways to do this, all based on detecting browser screen size.
The easiest method I’ve seen comes from justtechnika.com, and involves inserting a small piece of JavaScript code on your main website, "anywhere between <head> and </head>". (I’d recommend right at the bottom of your page, so as not to interfere with search engine bots and site SEO.) I tried the piece of code provided – and it worked! I don’t have permission to reproduce the code – I only found it today, and there’s been no time to contact the blog owner, but you can find the article with the code snippet at the following link: http://justtechnika.com/articles/find-mobile-visitors-to-your-website-and-redirect-them-to-your-mobile-site/
Treat Your Mobile Website like A Tweet
So you’ve successfully redirected them to the mobile version of your website – now what?
If you’re re-writing a shortened, condensed version of your main website, treat it like a Twitter tweet: Just hit the high points, and strip out all the filler. (One thing Twitter has done for us since its inception: Turned us into effective self-editors!) Think of your mobile site visitors like Twitter users, and you’ll increase your targeting automatically: You have about 2 seconds to get to the point, and half that again to show them where they want to go.
Don’t use bottom of the page or sidebar navigation – simple tabs at the top will do the best job (and people are becoming used to looking there for them.) Make sure your type fonts are large enough, and easy to read (Verdana and Arial are two of the most popular), and avoid "high tech" color combinations with dark backgrounds (unless your demographic is between 18 and 26): Most people find them hard on the eyes.
Make your site easy to bookmark – and remind people to do it (your "call to action".)
Above all, be consistent with every element. After all, you’d find even Twitter confusing, if the colors and layout changed every time you visited.
Don’t worry – you’ll soon get into the habit of "thinking mobile". But until then, remember this maxim:
Keep it short… and sweet.
Bruno
By Bruno Auger On January 29, 2010
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One of the simplest ways to attract more viewers lies in not ignoring a small but larger-than-you-likely-realize segment of your potential market: Namely, those who are still on dial-up. While admittedly a small segment of the global population, their business can boost your sales more than you might think possible.
One of the strongest reasons? You’ll be providing a service 98% of all other video marketers ignore – making your videos much easier to load and view for those to whom a 5-minute video load can often equal over an hour of waiting time.
“Get over it. Get high speed”, is something you hear on forums, if those on dial-up dare to complain about load in times. But the simple truth is, there are those in rural areas all across North America for whom dial-up is still the only available service. Perhaps a tower has not yet been built, or geographic conditions just don’t facilitate signal.
It’s not always about these viewers being “stubborn” or “cheap” – most of them would kill for high speed!
How can you make your videos accessible to those on dial-up?
1. You’ll speed up dial-up viewers’ load in times considerably, if you provide a simple “low fidelity” option. And your high speed viewers can still access your high fidelity version
2. Keep your video segments short. It’s much easier to load in a 3-minute video than an 8.27 minute one. In fact, 3.46 minutes seems to be the cut-off time at which video views drop by half (as you’ll quickly discover, if you spend a day browsing view rates and marketing video lengths on YouTube)
3. Allow purchasers to download video series you are selling in individual zip files, rather than one huge one. It can easily take 6 hours to download a 78 mb zipped video file containing 12 “lessons” for someone on dial-up… and chances are, they’ll sit through that (on the rare occasions they’re dedicated – or foolish – enough to try, only to find that their rural phone line couldn’t sustain the download… leaving them with a corrupt, inaccessible file to show for all that effort. (Nothing is more frustrating!)
4. Let them know your video files are “dial-up friendly”. Mention it in your sales pitch; on your web page; in your blog… or even in your signature! (What’s the use of creating short, low fidelity videos – if nobody knows you have them?)
Believe me, the sort of gratitude you’ll get may not propel you towards a six-figure income, but these dial-up viewers will get high speed eventually – and you’ll have earned their loyalty and dedication for life!
By Bruno Auger On January 20, 2010
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The easy answer to the question, “just how many video formats are there, anyway”, is a glib: “Probably more than either of us realize!”
However, that’s not exactly helpful to those new to video marketing and video making, so here are 5 YouTube compatible formats – with some clues to the differences between them…
.WMV
“WMV” stands for “Windows Media Format”, and is Microsoft’s standard video file format. It is highly versatile, with its main advantage lying in its video compression abilities, which allows it to function at varying bandwidths. If you use Windows Movie Maker, you can easily output your files as WMV files. (Notice, however, that among all the file types that YouTube accepts, the standard Windows Movie Maker .MSWMM file format is not one of those “on the list”).
.MOV
The MAC version of .WMV. Works best with QuickTime, if you’re going to download and play. You’ll find many .MOV files on YouTube.
MPEG 4 (MP4)
The advantages of the .MP4 file format lies in the way it discards any non-essential information, reducing file size to the minimum.
MP4 format is most often used with PSP’s and iPods.
.3GP
Yes, Virginia – you can upload this popular mobile phone format! But be aware that you can lose quality when transferring .3GP files to YouTube.
.FLV
Adobe Flash format. Flash movies work well on YouTube – but to play .FLV files, you’ll need a Flash Player such as Adobe or Applian installed on your computer. (Run your spyware program after downloading the latest Adobe Flash Player. The last two times I’ve upgraded, I’ve immediately been hit by an Adobe spyware program, according to my anti-virus.)
.MKV
Written in open-format Extensible Binary Meta Language, Matroska is quick to point out it is XML-based, and not a video compression codec. Free to use, it aims to become “the open source alternative to existing containers such as AVI, ASF, MOV, RM, MP4, MPG”.
You will need to be familiar with all these types of video file extensions, in order to make the most of your video marketing – but mercifully, of course, you don’t need to know how to use them all.
Just knowing what they are can make a difference to how you choose your hardware and software.
Bruno
By Bruno Auger On January 9, 2010
2 Comments
Oh come now: You didn’t really expect an example of the best passive income program unearthed from the depths of an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus in Sakkara, surely? Although we can take lots of wonderful lessons from ancient history, online passive income generation is not yet one of them.
But what are forensic digital archaeologists going to say about the subject in the far distant future. (Say, about 5 years from now…) Will they look back, and say “Information product creation turned out to be the most versatile passive income strategy!” – or will they take its other great rival, affiliate marketing, and create holographic brain chip shows about “The Fall of the Super Affiliates”?
Flippancy aside, it’s amazing what razor-sharp vision hindsight can bestow. But for now, all you can do is pick the passive income plan that works the best – and the most naturally – for you.
If one plan isn’t right, don’t be afraid to switch chariots, mid-race. For example, you may start out determined to be a niche blogger, with a small fortune invested in several domains and hosting packages (before somebody finally tells you about reseller sites). But several months and several hundred dollars into your experiment, you suddenly realize… you hate niche blogging. That free Special Report you created as a sign-up bribe to your “1,001 Liverwurst Recipes” blog did so well, you’re thinking of switching your passive income generation to original info products.
That’s perfectly alright. Most top entrepreneurs will tell you they had several “failed” experiments, before they finally hit on the perfect business model.
And don’t worry – all that work you put into learning niche blogging will come back to reward you, when you unearth and re-purpose all that content you wrote, a year or so from now.
By Bruno Auger On January 1, 2010
1 Comment
One way to keep your passive information products producing like little money machines… Keep them evergreen - that is, always relevant and timely. But it’s easier said than done, when you’re not quite sure which subjects fall into that category.
The easiest place to start is by focusing on the subjects you already know. Then narrow it down to your favorites – and sit down with a notepad.
Make two vertical columns by drawing a line down the page.
Now make your headings. One should be "Things That Can Change" and the other should be something like "Constants".
Now think of your subject and jot a point form listing of these facets into the appropriate columns.
This way, when you’re ready to write your information product, you can be sure to focus on the "Constants" column – and cut out as many of the "Change" column (unless a point is crucial, of course.)
`Evergreen’ Doesn’t Mean `Bland’
But there’s one danger to watch out for, when you take this approach – especially if you’re new, and overzealous about doing things “right”: In your zeal to cut out anything that’s limited by time, don’t cut out so much detail that you leave your product bland.
But you’re not caught between a rock and that proverbial hard place: There’s a powerful alternative to putting in time-relevant detail.
Instead, look for the juicy extra `twist’ – the fact about your subject no one knows yet, or talks about. (TIP: Your local library may be a particularly rich offline source.)
What I’ve described here is such a simple technique – but you’d be surprised how well it works, when it’s time to create reports or eBooks that will remain as fresh as the day you wrote them!
By Bruno Auger On December 21, 2009
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When it comes to passive income opportunities, you’ve already got your plan in place. You’re a new marketer, so you’re go with the most inexpensive option for your product – a digital eBook. You plan to pay Clickbank’s $50 one-time publisher’s fee, and place your product there. Clickbank provides your affiliate program management, as well as your payment processor, so you don’t have to manage either. And you’ve covered the last base by learning how to legally, effectively cloak your hoplink.
Let’s run over your checklist…
Domain name
Minisite
Sales Page
Affiliate banner ads and code
You’ve even paid for a professionally designed header and some graphics. And you’ve already started to publicize your new eBook on social networks and forums.
In fact, you’re all set, and ready to go!
Or Are You?
There is one more question you need to ask yourself:
Have I made the most of every opportunity to squeeze more passive income out of my subject?
Until you’ve considered every option, you’re leaving money behind that could be pouring into your bank account! You could easily upsell at check-out point by offering your eBook as a physical product. Companies like Kunaki can produce your CD or DVD on an “as-ordered” basis, shipped directly to the customer. Your base cost, at time of writing, is $1.75 per CD!
If your actual cost (including shipping) is $1.75, and you offer the CD version at checkout for $10.00 (including shipping), you could maximize your passive income from that one sale point by a profit of $8.25 per CD! (Kunaki can create videos and DVD’s too.)
There’s no good reason to leave unmined sources of income behind at every sale. Find out all the details at Kunaki – and decide if creating a physical upsell product is a viable idea for you.
By Bruno Auger On November 9, 2009
4 Comments
As a result of the recent downturn in the economy, we are forced to begin a personnel reduction program. Under the new plan, older employees will be asked to take an early retirement, thus permitting the retention of older people who represent our future. Therefor, a program to phase out older personnel by the end of the current fiscal year, via retirement, will be placed into effect immediately
This program will be known as SLAP (Sever Later-Aged Personnel). Employees who are SLAPPED will be given the opportunity to look for jobs outside the company. SLAPPED employees may also request a review of their employment records before actual retirement takes place. This review phase of the program is called SCREW(Survey Of Capabilities of Retired Early Workers). All employees who have been SLAPPED and SCREWED may file an appeal with upper management. This appeal is called SHAFT(Study Higher Authority Following Termination).Under the terms of the view policy may be SLAPPED once SCREWED twice and may be SHAFTED as many times as the company deems appropriate.
If an employee follows the above procedure he/she will be entitled to get HERPES(Half Earnings for Retired Personnel Early Severance) or CLAP(Combined Lump-Sum Assistance Payment) unless he/she always has AIDS(Additional Income from Dependents or Spouse). As HERPES and CLAP are considered benefit plans, any employee who has received HERPES or CLAP will no longer be SLAPPED or SCREWED by the company.
Management wishes to assure the younger employee’s who remain on board that the company will continue it’s program of employee development through our Special High Intensity Training(SHIT). We take pride in the amount of SHIT our employees receive. We have give our employees more SHIT than any company in this area. If any employee feels they do not receive enough SHIT on the job, see your immediate supervisor. Your supervisor is specially trained to make sure you receive all the SHIT you can stand.
Once again, thanks for all your ears of service with us.
Found this funny note on a friends Facebook , So decided to share it with you since I couldn’t direct link it
Bruno
By Bruno Auger On September 20, 2009
3 Comments
With the advancement of Internet, it has opened an array of newer opportunities to us. These days, making money using internet is not an impossible task. If you are new to the world of internet and would like to know how to make money on the internet, you are at the right place. We will be discussing a few ways to make money online.
Make Money by Parking Expired Domains
Building website with full of content can make you money, but parking expired domains can also make you a decent amount of money, yet offering the provision to do much lesser work at your end.
Tons of domain names get expired on a daily basis. You can buy the expired domains to setup it as a parked domain to make money. Or else, you can also buy domains and host parked page there. You must be careful about choosing the domain name (preferably a high targeted keyword), so that your domain can attract tons of traffic.
Make sure that your domain service provider offers you domain parking service. Quite obviously, they will provide you the necessary tools to setup the parking page for your domain. Load your parking page with top keywords and you are ready to attract your visitors to make money online.
Make Money by Designing Wordpress Theme
If you are good at designing and also have a good grasp over php, html and other related stuffs, you can make money on the internet by developing Wordpress theme. Though many free Wordpress themes are available online, but many people want to give a customized look to their theme, even when they opt for a free one. So you can offer your service here and make money on the internet.
Make Money by Doing Research Online
If you know how to make money on the internet, you can find out plenty of ways to do so. There is a latest trend of making money by doing online research. If you have a good marketing skill and know to do market research, you can make decent money by doing research, because people lack researching skills and time too.
Make Money by Offering Your Skill
If you have any specific skill, such as web designing, graphic designing or article writing, you can make money by offering your skill. In fact, the market is quite hot these days and there is an increasing demand for these services. So, if you have specific skills and know to market your skills, you are quite closer to your success.
Make Money Offering Service as Virtual Assistant
Administrative tasks take a lot of time and skills, so almost all business people need support in their administrative duties. These days many people are making money by working as virtual assistant.
The benefit of this type of service is both-ended. If you are offering service as a virtual assistant, you can work from the comfort of your home. On the other hand, your employers do not really need to invest on the tools or setup that you need to manage the administrative tasks.
So what are you waiting for? If you know how to make money on the internet, you can make fortune online, because internet is still a place that is an ocean of opportunities.
Bruno
By Bruno Auger On September 8, 2009
1 Comment
Who doesn’t want to make money? Probably, there is no one under the sky who doesn’t want to make money. There are virtually different ways to make money, so like anyone you must be interested to discover at least a few of them. In this article, you will be able to find out 3 uncommon but easy ways to make money.
Be a Sperm Donator
Yes, you can make money by donating your sperm. Sounds interesting? But this is one of the most unusual but easy ways to make money, if you don’t mind having your offspring around the world whom you don’t even know. However, it sounds a very easy job at the first place, but it is not in real. Let’s find out why.
You must be healthy without having any infectious or transmittable diseases. Also you must have a very good family history with decent academic background. Obviously, you must agree to sign in a non-disclosure form along with some other legal documents confirming that you don’t have any claim over the children produced from your donated sperms.
So, only about 20-50% of the applicants can successfully pass through the screening tests that occur in sperm donating center. People interested in sperm donation usually visit Cryos International, New York city. Be sure that you have fulfilled all the criteria. If so, it can be really one of the easy ways to make money fast.
Sell out Stuff You Don’t Need Any Longer
When you are at your teen age, you might have bought lots of things that you don’t want to keep with you during your adulthood. Instead of throwing them in your backyard garbage, you can sell them off at eBay and make money from the selling. If you browse through eBay, you will be surprised to see what people are selling and buying from this place. So, now it’s your turn to make some easy cash by selling your unused stuffs at eBay.
Build Online Leads for Businesses
Are you extremely good at marketing? Do you have an enormous power of networking? Do you understand the need of a business? If yes, you can generate leads for different business houses and sell it off against a good price. All you need to work on building up a good database of connection worthy for specific business type.
In fact, selling online leads can be a lucrative option for those who are seeking easy ways to make money. Lead generation is vitally important for any business. So if you are good at making business connection, why don’t you redeem your talent to handsome amount of money?
Here are only 3 easy ways to make money. Obviously, there are plenty more. All you need to analyze your own passion, desire and talent. Once analyzed properly, you will find your own unique way to make money.
By Bruno Auger On May 24, 2009
4 Comments
Very few people enjoy writing the privacy policy and the terms and conditions of any website, it seems like a thankless task because nobody really likes talking about legal issues unless they’re a lawyer and getting paid by the hour, and very few people will actually bother to read your privacy policy and terms and conditions.
So if nobody is going to read it, then why should you create one? People may not read it, but many will check for the existence of one. People know that many people won’t bother to create one, and so it can be seen as a measure of the professionalism of your site.
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