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Is Ad Blindness Affecting Your Website Conversions?

I’d bet money you aren’t. Nobody is, if they’re honest. Think about it:Higher conversions mean more money…and everybody wants to make more money, right? More money to spend on yourself and your family. More money to travel to exotic climes. More money to help you live the life you want. Whatever. Let’s just agree…earning more money is a good thing. After all, that’s probably why most of us got into online business to begin with. That and the freedom to be our own boss, working when and where we want. That’s the online business dream right?

The global economy is facing huge recession. If you thought you could rely on low-converting webpages to make your living, you’re wrong. Sorry if that offends you…but it’s true. If you think making money online is tough now, it’s about to get a whole lot tougher. And that’s not even the scary part. The scary part is thinking about how tough it’s going to be to find a job while the world’s in this mess. Listen, it would be embarrassing enough to have to quit your IM business just because your low conversions don’t bring in enough cash.

Can you imagine how much more embarrassing it’s going to be when you quit your business, then struggle to find a job? Of course, if you listen to all the “gurus”, they’ll tell you that it’s easy to sell your products or service online After all, even if it doesn’t sell like crazy from day 1, you can run some simple split tests and send the profits rocketing. And in a way, that’s true.

You can make huge leaps in profit with split testing. But unless you’re an expert with your own custom-written software (more on that in a minute), split testing can take months. Months of tracking, months of making notes and months of working on different experiments and variations. Funny how the gurus don’t mention that huh? But it gets worse…split testing problems are a walk in the park compared to what you’re about to discover. You see, there’s a huge, basic reason that stops your pages and ads from converting. And it’s something that affects everyone who’s spent more than about 5 minutes online in their life.

Scientists have proven the existence of Ad Blindness (also known as banner blindness) beyond a doubt - it means your web visitors are so used to ignoring advertising that they are mostly ignoring your ads and banners - even right now, as you read this. In independent Ad Blindness studies, subjects were asked to search webpages for certain words. And in most cases they failed totally. Why? Because even though the text they were looking for was written in huge letters on banners and footer ads on the page, they were so used to skipping ads that they totally missed the text they were looking for.even though it was right in front of their nose!

It may sound crazy, but I’d bet my next commission check that you have Ad Blindness too. Ever noticed how when you flick through a magazine or paper you’ll just skip over the ads without even thinking about it? How about when you watch TV ever surf the other channels when the commercials are on?

Sound familiar? That’s Ad Blindness, and we’ve all got it. Interesting huh? Imagine how that’s affecting your website right now - even as you read this, your site visitors are glossing over your ads and missing your calls to action. And every single one of them is costing you money.

Your expensive banner may look awesome, but it’s hard to get the click when your visitor hasn’t even noticed it! Let me tell you, this revelation about Ad Blindness came as quite a shock to me. But it certainly explained why so many of my banners and ads just weren’t working. It was about then that I decided we internet marketers needed to find a way to combat this. We needed to find a new form of advertising for the web…so one day I just sat at my computer and visited hundreds of different sites. I wanted to see what it was that really caught my eye…what pages really had the power to cut through my own Ad Blindness. And then it hit me like a bolt of lightning. I realised that we needed an evolution of internet advertising.

It dawned on me that the ideal internet eyecatcher would be something that combined the glossy looks of an expensive banner with the attention-grabbing movement of a popup. But without being annoying or obtrusive.

Internet marketing expert Bill Achola specializes in reviewing top profitable products online If you’d like to make truly staggering profits in the lucrative field of information marketing. To find out more on his best reviews,Visit Him at http://www.ebusinessreviews.net

Los Angeles Restaurant Takes Twitter by Storm

In Los Angeles, it’s not enough to buy space, hire a chef, call yourself a restaurant, and hope that the foodie masses will show up to eat whatever trendy fusion cuisine you’re offering up as the next best thing. Mix into this recipe, however, mobile-capabilities that make for citywide accessibility of said cuisine and the latest in viral technology with which to announce your ‘restaurant’s’ forever-changing location, and the resultant concoction might just be elusive and exclusive enough to capture the imagination of even the most jaded Angelenos.

With their Twittering Korean BBQ Taco Truck, Kogi has mastered this formula, redefining the food truck while creating buzz the likes of which hasn’t surrounded even the most celebrity-flooded, 5- star, stationary restaurants in recent memory. The Kogi menu is simple, though expanding, with a staple listing of Korean-Mexican hybrids such as the Korean Short Rib Taco, the Spicy BBQ Chicken Taco, the Spicy Pork Taco, the Tofu Taco, and a Breakfast Burrito composed of Korean barbecued meat, hash browns, scrambled eggs, and shredded jack & cheddar cheeses. Chef Roy Choi’s impressive resume, which includes stints as the Chef de Cuisine at the Beverly Hilton and Executive Chef at Trader Vic’s, evidences itself in the innovative flavor combinations that make Kogi’s tacos so much more than just fast finger foods.

Kogi is the brainchild of restaurateur Mark Manguera, an alcohol-induced 4am epiphany that still sounded like a good idea when he awoke the next morning. Though Manguera is Filipino, his wife Caroline Shin-Manguera, second-in-command at Kogi, is Korean and thus responsible for introducing Mark to the flavors that have now made Kogi locally famous. Caroline, who was a Food, Beverage, and Hospitality Specialist with the Four Seasons hotel, now manages Kogi’s books. Her brother, Eric Shin, serves as the official Kogi cross-country photographer while his best friend, Mike Prasad, handles the company’s social networking and branding. Rounding out the Kogi team are Caroline’s cousin and the truck’s promoter, Young Ho Yoo, and, of course, Chef Roy.

Though the Kogi trucks, of which there are two – one named Roja and the other Verde – have no set schedule, their whereabouts are traceable via their constantly updated Twitter feed. It’s Kogi’s early and innovative use of this now seemingly ubiquitous technology that inflamed the phenomenon of what could have been just another taco truck in the taco truck-seeped landscape of Los Angeles. By seeming simultaneously elusive and yet accessible, mysterious and yet popular, Kogi now manages to draw crowds that can sometimes lead to two hour wait times. As proof of Kogi’s position in the cultural zeitgeist, enter ‘Kogi,’ which means ‘meat’ in Korean, into the YouTube search box, and a video called “Chasing the Dragon (The Kogi BBQ Adventure)” pops up, courtesy of locally renowned Kogi fanatic DJ Akaider.

Recently, and after much courting by a diverse group of suitors including SBE founder Sam Nazarian, the Kogi team adopted The Alibi Room as a semi-permanent place to call home. Though the Kogi trucks still run full schedules, the Culver City watering hole now serves as a surefire destination for the daily abatement of Kogi cravings from 6pm to midnight. With a full menu that includes the standard-issue tacos as well as Kogi Sliders, Kimichi Sesame Quesadillas, Kogi Hot Dogs, Vegan Sesame Leaf Platters, and - the one thing veteran Kogi lovers know not to order from the trucks as they aren’t served truckside – Korean Spiced Fries, the Alibi Room is certain to soon be overrun by Kogi fanatics too lazy to Tweet or wait in 2 hour-long lines, those who would prefer to relax, have a drink, and let the Kogi come to them for a change.

Only in LA could a taco truck become a celebrity in its own right, and it’s not surprising that this particular truck serves up hybrid delicacies comprised of some of the best elements of two of LA’s most prominent sub-cultures. Kogi is thus a unique phenomenon, sure to inspire copycats hoping to capitalize on what has now become another craze in this trend-happy city. It’s unlikely, however, that any imposter could steal from Kogi what is now a fan base to rival that belonging to anyone found on the pages of US Weekly, let alone any place found on the pages of Zagat’s.

http://www.CaliFindIt.com

How To Use YouTube To Drive Massive Traffic To Your Site

Everybody’s talking about web 2.0 or how to use new traffic strategies to drive more people-rather, buyers to your web sites.

And today, I’m going to show you a very powerful to do just that, without spending a dime (well, maybe a few dollars).

What am I talking about?

YouTube.

Now you should know YouTube pretty well. But allow me give you some facts:

Fact #1: YouTube went from ZERO to 4,000,000,000 MONTHLY visitors within 3 months. And it’s still growing by a staggering rate each day.

Fact #2: In 2006, YouTube won Times Magazine’s “Invention of the Year.”

Fact #3: YouTube is in the Top 5 most valuable web properties in the world.

Fact #4: YouTube features videos from hundreds and thousands of members, and has made MANY people famous.

Fact #5: And get this-more than 75,000 new videos are uploaded every, single day (you see that right.)

Fact #6: Last but not least-YouTube serves up to two hundred MILLION clicks daily.

What does that mean to you as a marketer or an Internet entrepreneur?

Well, it only means there’s a HUGE amount of traffic ready to be tapped into if you know how to use YouTube to drive more visitors to your web sites.

We’ll discuss how you can use YouTube to drive massive views on your web sites in a while.

But first, “What makes a good YouTube video?”

If you notice, a lot of the videos on YouTube are made by amateurs.

They’re usually not professionally filmed videos.

But that’s what makes YouTube attractive, isn’t it?

These videos are not really professional, and most of the time “RAW”, but it’s realistic.

Sometimes, they are just THAT much more interesting because they’re not really perfect.

To answer our previous question, I’ll reveal some of my ideas here.

You see, I’m actually in the process of developing some of my videos to be uploaded on YouTube and use them to drive traffic to my web sites (there’s a ’science’ to it?K as some of my clients have proven time and again with their YouTube videos).

Here’s what I learned:

YouTube Strategy #1 - Your videos should be short. These shouldn’t be long movies, as people are busy and look for instant gratification most of the times. No more than 3 to 4 minutes.

YouTube Strategy #2 - Then, you’d want your web site URL at the bottom of your videos, so people can see it.

YouTube Strategy #3 - Next, this is IMPORTANT: Think of some ways to make your videos viral. See, people on YouTube are constantly on the mindset of: “If I like a video, I’ll like to pass it to my friends.”

So you want your videos to have some, one or ALL of these characteristics:

- Some of the videos I see pass around are usually FUNNY. Well people love to laugh. They love to make OTHER people laugh. So if your video’s funny, it’s got humor, people are more likely going to pass it on to their friends.

- Something really weird.

- Something really shocking.

- Something really gross.

- Something just, SHOCKING (again). People love to pass those around.

- Something really interesting.

- Curiosity is ALWAYS good.

- A demonstration is great (especially for targeted traffic). Let’s say you have a product, you can show people how it works with your video. Give them a peek at what’s in it for them inside.

- Something sexy (can you miss this?).

- Something personal, it could be your own story.

I mean?K there’s so much you can do!

There’s an incredibly huge potential with YouTube.

I suggest you open your mind and at least look into how you just MAKE SOMETHING (again, doesn’t have to be perfect) to feature on it.

Plus, a lot of these things are COMMON SENSE!

You don’t have to buy any products to learn how to make videos people talk about. You see, what do you think would make a good video YOU would want to pass on to your friends?

Write them down, choose one of them and be your own producer for the first time if you haven’t (trust me, it’s fun too).

If you have, can you figure out how to benefit from some of the strategies mentioned above?

Go on there, make a video for traffic purposes or simply for demonstration.

Of course we’re barely scratching the surface of what you can do with YouTube. If you can get a little creative, there’s a LOT more you can do on this amazing place.

A former college dropout, Dan The Man Lok transformed himself from a grocery bagger in a local supermarket to an internet multi-millionaire. Dan just created a 4-part video explaining exactly how he makes millions online, watch them here >> http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com

How to Monetize Internet Traffic From Greece

Sometimes refered to as one of the “Club Med” group of countries and now an adopter of the Euro, Greece made headlines recently after riots errupted in several cities after police shot dead a teenager its capital, Athens. The country was currently paralysed as Greek farmers demand compensation for low commodity prices.

Greece has historically been a country highly in favour of payments in cash. However, prior to the global credit crisis, the banking system went through significant development and growth, and encouraged consumers’ steady shift towards non-cash purchases and payments.

The increasing number of new products, intense competition between banks, which brought about extensive offers in the large credit cards range, the expansion of the network of accepting merchants and the recent technological developments aiming at secure transactions, all drove growth of cards.

In Greece, credit cards are almost synonymous with debit cards.

Furthermore, the use of the internet is becoming common - with 3.8m Greeks, or 35% of its 10.7m population, having access to the internet at this time. E-commerce is experiencing very promising growth, especially among young consumers. However, fraud - such as skimming and card cloning - remains concern in this market.

Greece has a developed pay-per-call market, with call tarifs ranging ? 1.42 to ?3.55/per Minute. OTE, the former state monopoly, is the main player in fixed-line telephony. Since the liberalization of the telecommunications market, OTE has been slowly been losing market share to other telecom operators, such as Vivodi, Q-Telecom, Tellas and Forthnet. Greece has four mobile telecom companies: Cosmote, Vodafone, TIM and Q-Telecom.

When it comes to the important part of paying you, remember to do this in the Greek language. Your phone billing provider should be able to provide you will geo-targeted script to help you to do this. If not, you should consider switching to one that does.

If you are a web marketer in the business of selling non-tangibles such as Ebooks, information, software, games, website subscriptions and so forth, then phone billing is a option worth considering, not least since the phone is so ubiquitous and effectively powers the internet.

Phone Billing for web content works as follows : The surfer sees an on-screen command inviting him or her to call a premium rate number which as the name suggests is charged at a higher rate that for most regular phone calls.

The ordering process creates revenue at the end of which the surfer is given a password which they then enter into the webpage in order to be granted access to the underlying content. Once they receive your product, the billing clock is no longer ticking.

Such billing is popular with surfers not least since they do not need to part with any personal information. To them, this is of growing importance in an era of increasing online identity theft and credit card fraud.

Since the tariffs and payouts for such pay-per-call numbers varies from country to country, so do the payouts.

As webmasters, we have all profited from globalization big time thanks to the web. With a little time and effort, we take our brands global relatively easily, and more importantly, make more money from Greece and elsewhere in the process. The world really is our oyster.

Marc has been a consultant in the pay-per-call industry since 1994 and was first-to-market with cellphone ringtones in 2000. http://www.passwordbycall.com. Money talks,in every language?

Spam Blocker Utility - Best Software Or Better Ones Out There?

Spam, especially email spam, is an extremely popular form of mass advertising since the television came about. With some spammers automating the operations to the point where millions of people can be emailed in a single day, form no singularity or point of origin, spamming has become a viable way to sell some of the ‘bite sized’ consumer products out there – from over the counter pharmaceuticals to unconventional enhancement products to even household goods and services. If even 0.01% of the population responds to the email, we are talking about more than a few thousand buyers everyday, which means that a concerted daily effort by companies will net them a large profit every month. And these spammers are mostly outsourced services in a dredged form of affiliate marketing. These spammers stand to make a few hundred thousand dollars every year with an operational cost of no less than a few hundred dollars.

This is why spamming is so popular nowadays and the line between their legalities and consumer complaints still sits within the gravity pull of the judiciary grey area. We need spam blocker utility software to ensure that spam doesn’t reach us, waste or time or frustrate us. It can be just a niggling, even amusing to read some of the spam emails that come to our inbox, or some of the pornographic efforts in out instant messengers like Yahoo or MSN, but the problem for people or businesses who hinge their operations or existence on digital communications, the problem of SPAM can be extremely frustrating and can reduce operational efficiency and even cost the business thousands of dollars a year at the minimum. Spam blocker software is the best at what it does, and for now there isn’t any better software that gives the focused effort to block spam from our systems. The way that these utilities work is that they add another level of security or another gateway into the network, or your personal network and they use a combination of web crawlers, worms and even security procedures to ensure that the communication’ that is trying to get in is from a legitimate source. This way, you wont waste your time, your inbox wont be chocked full and your ISP wont be full of emails that aren’t suppose to be there.

When you pay for the service, you expect a smooth operation from start to finish. Some email clients are unable to handle the load taken by spam emails and they crash, which means you are never able to get the messages that you need. A spam blocker utility is integral for anyone who uses email, blogs, internet messaging, online emails, anyone who deals with cyberspace advertising, website development or feedback communication. In fact those of us who use the internet for casual means should never have to deal with irritating pop ups or spam messages when we visit forums, use IRC, newsgroups or even receive digital fax. Spam blocker utility – there is no better one out there.

Don’t let spam control your life. Eliminate time wastage with this award winning Spam Blocker Utility System. Click here for your free trial today and stop junk mail in its tracks.

Affordable Fashion For Less

Everybody wants to look good and fashionable. For most, this means watching the designer’s up and coming collections for what is in style. Unfortunately, most ordinary people are limited to the chain boutiques and department stores. But you can get affordable fashion for less money IF you know where, and when, to look.

Every year, the industry’s biggest designers come up with a new line of clothing. These lines are showcased at fashion shows in major cities like Los Angeles or New York. Well that’s all great and good but the ordinary person (you or me) can’t even get in the door at those fashion shows. Even if we could, we wouldn’t be able to afford the designer price tags!

So what happens is boutiques and fashion stores across the country buy lots of the new line items. Sometimes they purchase too much and end up with a surplus at the end of the season.

What do you think these stores do with the surplus goods?

Answer: They sell them at a deeply discounted price to retail outlets or to online inventory liquidators.

In either case, the shopper ends up with a piece of high fashion at a retail store price. That can be a significant saving.

Where to look

Final stop stores as well as retail outlets in some cases. Some retail outlets have celebrities with their own line of clothing. For instance, Topshop has a line of Kate Moss clothing.

Don’t rule out the second hand stores either! These places can have new items on the rack at any time.

When to look

The best time to buy winter clothes is in the summer. The idea is to shop for your seasonal clothing or items out of season or at the end of each of the seasons.

For example, it is common to find winter coats at a deep discount in March each year.

Remember to shop out of the season you are in at the moment. The savings can be fantastic and you may be pleasantly surprised at what you can find available.

Adding to the possibilities is the advent of shopping online, which has its own sets of advantages. You can find deals on designer fashions that are only available online. There are no lines to contend with, cash to carry around (or lose!), no “stock outs” to deal with, no driving miles to the next store just to be disappointed and no parking problems, not to mention the fuel money savings.

Plus, you can shop online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year from the comfort of your home. Imagine trying to walk through those big superstores in your PJs!

The main point of the whole thing is this:

You can get great deals on BIG fashion by being smart and watching the calendar. If you visit the store, know when to go, what you are going for and where you can find it for the lowest price. If you shop online, the sky is the limit!

Vincent Norman is a freelance writer living in the UK. He regularly contributes fashion articles for The Online Shopping Centre, who offer the best range of online clothes shops.

Web Design – Four Crucial Elements of a Good Web Design

In 1999, a professor with the University of Saskatchewan conducted a survey to see which web design elements were the most important to viewers. The four elements that topped the list were site navigation, page layout, content and loading speed. While the internet has evolved beyond our wildest dreams at that time, these four web design elements have remained just as crucial to a good design today as they were a decade ago.

Site organization was the most crucial, according to the original survey, and this is still the most important factor in modern web design. To keep readers on your website for more than a few seconds you must offer a clear and consistent structure to your site. This includes a navigation system that is logically sequenced, with the same icons used throughout the site. You want to make it easy for the reader to find the information that they are looking for.

Page layout not only helps keep the site organization consistent, it is also the design element that makes the page pleasing to the eye. There are many parts to consider in good page layout. Things like color, location of graphics or images and white space composition are a large factor in whether a web design is visually appealing. Your page layout should be similar throughout the site to give your web design a cohesive, professional feel.

Content is king in the internet world – if anything, this is more important today then it was then as there are so many more sites competing for an audience. The content on your page is what keeps the reader on site longer and returning more often. A good web design includes solid, up-to-date information that is presented in a way that will engage the reader. Fresh content is also very important to keep readers coming back to your site. If the content hasn’t changed in years, why would anyone want to return?

The final element that people said was very important to them was in page loading speed. While more people do have high speed connections now compared to ten years ago, there is still a large number of internet surfers who are stuck in dial-up. The more graphics you add to your web design or other bandwidth-hogging elements, the slower the page will load. Most internet surfers don’t have the patience to wait for all those flash intros and java applets so guess what happens? They click the little “x” up in the corner of the page and they’re gone.

Some things never change and these four elements of web design are just as crucial today as they were years ago. A good web design allows the reader to find what they want quickly and easily. The page layout is pleasant to look at and has the same feel to it throughout the site. The content is engaging, informational and updated on a regular basis. All pages load quickly even if the viewer is not using broadband. All of these elements work together in giving the viewer the best experience possible. Isn’t that what good web design is all about?

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Google Changes and the Future of SEO

The imminent death of SEO has been a hot topic amongst SEO professionals for quite some time now. Some SEO professionals worry that their careers are in jeopardy since search engines are continually making improvements to their technologies. Search engines are in the process of completely revamping their ranking strategies to fight spammers and improve user experience. For example, Google is currently improving intent and behavior-based search in order to provide more relevant search results. So what does this all mean for the future of SEO? Is the death of SEO an inevitable outcome of the advancement of search engines?

People have been predicting the end of SEO since the very beginning. While it’s certain that things on the SEO front are always changing and that search engines are getting smarter, SEOs will continually adapt to these changes just as they have in the past. As long as search engines list websites without requiring the websites to pay a fee, SEO will exist.

Google’s Improvements and What They Mean for the Future of SEO

In the quest to fight spam and improve user experience, Google is in the process of implementing a series of changes in behavior and intent-based search. Every person who conducts a search for a particular term will have different results based on their location and search history. As a result of these changes, search engine optimization have to switch from only targeting keywords to focus more on increasing traffic and conversions. A possibility is that link building will become far less important in the future of SEO because Google will determine the value of a website based on how visitors engage with it. The ultimate goal of websites will be to provide compelling content that entices visitors to read, share, bookmark, and so on.

Social input through voting is another feature that search engines are tinkering with in order to provide user-controlled rankings. Search engine users might have the chance to vote for sites they like and sites will get ranked based on such votes. The model will be similar what’s seen on social voting sites like Digg and Reddit. Of course, search engines will have to find a way to ensure that votes are made naturally in order to prevent black hat SEOs from fooling the search engine bots.

Google and other search engines are raising the bar in SEO. Initially, this will make it harder for SEO professionals to do their job but the end result is positive. Spammers and black hat SEOs will have more difficulty succeeding in their unscrupulous efforts and search engine users will be provided with content that is more relevant.

Humans, Not Machines

As always, the aim of webmasters and SEO professionals should be to appeal to humans. People spend so much time trying to trick the search engines that they forget who they are ultimately serving: people! Your site should be optimized but your priority should always be to fulfill needs and provide solutions. Considering the direction that SEO is going, human actions and behavior will ultimately determine rankings. Your SEO success depends on your ability to engage people through great content and social media marketing.

I’m the head articles writer for SEOSapien.com Search Engine Optimization Company. For more on our company, Consulting Services, Prices and more Original Articles visit http://www.seosapien.com