Duplicate products were being displayed when using the productspage shortcode on a Page.

The Cause:

This tends to happen if you use the drag and drop sorting of products while viewing all categories. That’s right, you’ll get duplicate products and sometimes not all of the products will show up too.

Solution:

While this is annoying it’s quite easy to fix. Go into PHP MyAdmin and the wp_wpsc_product_order table and remove all products with a category id of 0. Refresh your site and it’s fixed.

If there is still an issue after removing the category id of 0, then remove any duplicate product_id rows in the wp_wpsc_product_order table too.

PLEASE NOTE: It’s always a good idea to take a backup before making any alterations.

PLEASE NOTE: You have the choice of using either the “flash uploader” or the “browser uploader” in wordpress. The methods described in this post work better using the flash uploading option. Also make sure you have the latest version of adobe flashplayer installed on your computer. You can get it FREE from http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

STEP 2. Choose the pictures you want, by clicking on each one while holding down the shift key or control key. You can also click on the first picture (while holding down the shift key) and the last picture and it will automatically select all the ones in between as well. Then press OPEN.

STEP 3. While your pictures are uploading you can press the SHOW link and add titles and descriptions. Press the SAVE CHANGES button when you have finished changing them all. (See STEP 6. below).

STEP 4. When all the pictures have uploaded, you can sort your images to be placed in a GALLERY or press the SHOW link to add one at a time to your page.

PLEASE NOTE: Placing your images individually on a page means they will appear one after each other. Placing your images into a gallery means they will be displayed in a column of thumbnails across and down the page.

STEP 5. You can sort your pictures in the gallery by choosing ascending or descending, by changing the numbers that appear on the right hand side or by placing your cursor over each image thumbnail on the left and dragging it either up or down. See the images below.

STEP 6. Save the changes.

STEP 7. Choose whether you want your picture to be attached to a page (good if you want people to comment on it) or attached to the actual file (useful if you want other people to be able to download it easily). Choose the number of columns in your gallery … usually 2, 3 or 4 works best.

Press INSERT GALLERY and the appropriate code will be inserted onto your page or post.

Make sure you press PUBLISH or SAVE CHANGES and it will appear in the preview or when you view the post/page itself.

1. Copy the pictures you want to use to a separate folder and place it in an easy place to find, usually on your desktop. (I like to name each image appropriately prior to uploading to make it easier in the following step 5 using a hyphen in between each word instead of spaces).

2. Login to your dashboard and create a post or page to add your picture gallery into.

3. Place your cursor on the page and click on the Upload/Insert link. You can choose to use the flash uploader (easier) or the browser uploader (available if your flash uploader is not working).

4. From there you will be asked to search for the images you want to upload. Navigate to the folder you created in step 1. and open it. Select the images you want to include in your gallery by using the SHIFT key and press OPEN.

5. While the pictures are uploading you can add titles or descriptions.

6. Once the pictures have all been uploaded, you can choose the way your gallery is SORTED at the top of the dialogue box by selecting the order, (ascending, descending), by ordering them numerically or by moving them with your cursor (the easiest way of all to move them).

7. You can choose the way your gallery is DISPLAYED at the bottom of the dialogue box by selecting the way you want the images ordered, (time uploaded, title or randomly etc) and the number of columns you’d like to use. I tend to find that 3 or 4 columns works the best but it really depends on the width of your page.

8. Make sure you press “INSERT GALLERY” and the appropriate code will be added to your page or post. PUBLISH the page or post and you’re done. Below you’ll find a gallery of my own photographs taken during a recent trip to ITALY.

1. Enlarge your edit box by pulling your cursor down on the bottom right hand side until the box is large enough for your screen. (PLEASE NOTE, this only works while you are using the visual editor.)

2. When you can see the picture you want to edit, click on it until the frame around the image appears. This should expose two icons on the top left hand side of the image itself. One is to delete, the other is to edit.

3. When you click on the “edit image” icon it will open up a new dialogue box where you can edit the alignment, title, alternate text, description and caption to be used.

4. Add your titles and captions to each picture making sure they are relevant to your website content and aptly descibe your image.

5. Use the Adding Titles And Captions To Pictures post as a guide to make them search engine and user friendly.

Title = (defaults to the name of the image file) This is generally the name given to the file before it’s uploaded, often something like IMG2400.jpg. I like to change my photo file names (prior to uploading them) to something that relates specifically to the actual picture itself, which then gives my website a greater change to be found in google image searches.

Alternate Text = (useful) you can add a short description of your picture here for people who are browsing the net without pictures AND to help google index the image properly.

Caption = (a good idea) Add the description you want shown on the page of your website here. It will be displayed underneath each picture.

Description = (optional) The description is usually only meant for search engines and will appear in the source code of your website. It may not be worth creating a description for your image as google tends to index by using a phrase from the page your pictures is embedded on OR the alternate text itself.

Link URL/File URL/Post URL – This is the link to the actual file in your website uploads folder or to the page it is embedded on. If I want it to be a downloadable file, I select File URL. If I want it to be attached to a page so people can comment on it, I choose Post URL. Most often I just choose NONE.

Alignment– None, Left, Center, Right. You choose. Sometimes this option doesn’t work in certain themes, but try it sand see how you go.

Size – The default of all images uploaded in wordpress are 150 X 150 thumbnail, 300 X 300 medium and 1024 X 1024 maximum. I usually change these to suit the page width in each website theme I’ve used. For example, the maximum embed size on this page is 520 pixels. See How To Change The Default Media Upload Size to find out how it’s done.

From there you can view each individual picture and edit to suit your needs. See image below.

When constructing a new site, I usually change these to suit the page width for each website theme I’ve used. For example, the maximum embed size on this page is 520 pixels.

To change these sizes to the ones which are appropriate for your site, simply log into your website dashboard and navigate to SETTINGS >> MEDIA. See image below.

1. To remove the words “Blog Archive”, do this:

LOOK FOR THIS PIECE OF CODE just a few lines from the top =

REMOVE THIS SECTION =

The remaining portion should look like this =

How To Make Permalinks More Search Engine Friendly

By default, a wordpress website names each post by number. There are several options you can choose to change it to be indexed by name, number, date or month. I recommend you change it simply to the postname so it is found more easily by people searching for what you have to offer.

2. To make your Permalinks more user and search engine friendly, do this:

If you live anywhere in South Gippsland including Foster, Fish Creek, Meeniyan, Koonwarra, Sandy Point, Yanakie, Leongatha, Korumburra, Mirboo North, Dumbalk, Welshpool, Yarram, Archies Creek, Kernot, Dalyston, Port Albert, Hedley, Wonthaggi, Agnes, Inverloch, Venus Bay, Tarwin Lower, Port Welshpool and Port Franklin, then I might be able to assist you.

Below, there are some links that will take you to local websites constructed for businesses, tourism industries, personal purposes, clubs or organisations, for you to check out…and there’s some very important advice that you need to consider before you even begin…along with a short list of what I can do for you!

How Much Is It Going To Cost? The prices of a complete business website generally starts from around $1500 AUD, a quality splash page with your most important information and a contact form can be set up properly for around $250, an e-commerce website with shopping cart and products is often estimated to start from approx. $2200, but a FREE consultation with a client generally allows greater flexibility and a much clearer quote. Check out the websites below and then phone 0459 675251 or use the contact form to find out more.

• Organic Cotton Shop Online – Organic Cotton Bedding, Clothing, Quilts, Linen and so much more.
• The Crash Course In Singing – Excellent vocal coach, musician and local celebrity doing fabulous singing workshops as well as private lessons.
• ‘lifegames’ Photography – a website that provides Stock Photographs of the local area.
• Zyink Mineral Make Up & Cosmetics – buy mineral makup and cosmetics online.
• Ormus – The Elixir Of Life – an online shop selling a potion of happiness in a bottle.
• Lals Haven Warmbloods – Horses for eventing, competition, breeding and sale.
• Organature – organic bedding, sheets, towels, mattress, futon, bed bases, clothing and much more…
• Insideout Clothing – providing clothing and accessories for the whole family, including online GIFT VOUCHERS.
• Phoenix Restorations – for antique and modern furniture restoration, unique kitchen design, paint stripping service and more.
• 7seas Estate Administration – Someone to help administer a deceased estate without the need of State Trustees.
• Foster Photography Club – a free site for a local camera club.
• Yarram Club Hotel – a friendly, country style pub with fantastic food, cheap accommodation and a great pub TAB.
• Stony Creek Go Karts – A new entertainment and function facility in South Gippsland.
• Four Corners Framing – (Leongatha) – a corporate site for a framing and photography business.
• Essential Body Basics – a local business providing a day spa, massage, hairdressing and other beauty services.
• Organic Cotton Mattress – Organic products for the bedroom, from cot mattresses, futons, slat bed bases, sheets, baby bedding, mattress covers, futon protectors an much more…

No matter what you decide to do, I wish you all the very best,

I can give you a head-start with your website by -

1. Arranging domain name registration and website hosting packages that cost you less than $100 AUD per year.
2. Providing a successful website and content management system that you can update by yourself from anywhere in the world without needing special software or programming skills. Free lesson generally included.
3. Optimising the website for search engines, so it will be indexed quickly and enthusiastic customers will find you easier.
4. Choosing, modifying, customizing or designing an appropriate theme for the website.
5. Creating a website that will grow with the rapidly changing speed of technological advances (ie an automated upgrade system for the internal website software).
6. Taking quality photographs to be used on your site and for other advertising.
7. Enhancing and optimising those photographs for the Internet.
8. Assisting with writing the content and marketing promotional script.
9. Registering the website with the major search engines…and installing software that automatically notifies these search engines when certain content has been updated or added.
10. Arranging an automated newsletter delivery system if needed.
11. Installing a system to monitor website traffic and determine where the existing traffic is coming from, thus enabling YOU to know what is working with your website and be able to capitalise on this knowledge.
12. Organising other software including flash picture galleries, shopping carts, countdown timers and almost anything else that might be needed.
13. FREE Internet advertising on The South Gippsland Website, South Gippsland Pictures and South Gippsland Information
14. Recommending ways to establish or launch your new Internet business with a ‘bang’.
15. Teaching you how to maintain your website and add content yourself. (A FREE lesson is generally included in each package or you might like to join the website building classes in Foster).
16. Getting the job done quickly, efficiently and professionally…usually within 2 weeks!

How Much Will All This Cost Me?

• A splash page (that’s a single page containing your most important information) including a contact form, will take an investment from only $250 (includes a FREE domain name and website hosting for 1 year).
• The price for a full business website generally starts from around $1500 AUD (which may or may not include a website photography package – see below).
• As the pictures displayed on a website tend to be the MOST important single element that distinguishes quality and professionalism, we also provide a website photography package for $600 which includes up to 2 professional on-site photo shoots and gives you a complete set of super high quality digital images that can be then used for other advertising, printing, billboards, business cards, websites, brochures and promotional material).
• An E-Commerce website (with products and a functional and safe shopping cart) starts around $2200,

…but a FREE consultation with a client generally allows greater flexibility and a much better estimate.

Website Maintenance

• If you have an existing website that needs attention, I can help you get it ranked higher in searches, make it look appropriately professional, add extra features, update your website technology and write some compelling website copy..and more…
• Maintenance is currently charged at $40 per hour or $300 per day. If you anticipate regular changes, a maintenance contract can also be negotiated.

Whatever decisions you make for your own website, you will find helpful articles, useful ideas and good advice here to help you along the way. Find out when new information is added by registering for our email newsletter and free E-Book …and I am always available for a chat via our contact page if you’d like something more specific.

All the best,

Just being an owner of a domain name doesn’t mean it is of any benefit to us. The days are long gone where people would pay large amounts of money for a domain containing a particular phrase, keyword or tag that they thought would be beneficial to their google ranking. Although utilizing the “right” domain might give a business owner a little more credibility, there are now a multitude of other ways that work even better to get noticed, to get increased traffic and to get higher in the search listings when people look for what we have to offer.

So a “Parked Domain” with no content on it, is of absolutely no use at all unless we have plans to use it in the future.

FIRST RECOMMENDATION …

… is to monetise your domain by using GOOGLE ADVERTISING.

If you have an undeveloped domain on which you’d like to display Google ads and earn revenue, you only need to setup an AdSense account and this guide will help walk you through the easy setup process.

There’s no need to pay for hosting at all … as long as you own the domain, you can go to into your domain registrars account and alter the DNS (domain name server) details to the ones that google specify during the setup process. Easy to do and the only cost is the price of your domain name.

SECOND RECOMMENDATION …

… is to get your domain hosted and then add some applicable and relevant written content to it so it has a good chance of being located in searches.

At the very least do a splash page with just your address and contact details and some well chosen words about what you have to offer, then make sure you add your domain name to your business stationery and any other advertising you do.

You might like to start a blog and write casually about your product or service, get other people to write for you and add the odd article here and there for variety. It is a documented fact that google ranks blogs highly … probably because they are more likely to have new content added regularly than what a static website would have.

A site like this can be easily monetized with google ads too. In fact it would be far more likely to attract better quality traffic and targeted visitors that want to click on your ads because of the content you are including.

THIRD RECOMMENDATION …

… is to get involve in affiliate programs. An affiliate program is when a person or company agrees to pay another person or company a fee for referring potential, or actual customers to their Website. Commissions are usually calculated in one of three ways: pay-per-click, pay-per-sale, or pay-per-lead.

There are thousands of different affiliate programs out there, and they sell just about everything imaginable and you can join most of them for free. Your job will be to find what’s right for you AND to attract interested traffic to your site to make it worth the time you spend adding banners and referral links … but when you have a passion for something, the time you spend will be done pleasurably and won’t feel like hard work at all.

Making use of your domain to generate money or get extra business is really the best way to get value from what is sitting there (your parked domain) waiting, poised to do what was intended in the first place.

ALL the hosting companies in Australia that I have researched have more expensive hosting plans than we can get offshore. Not only that, unfortunately our Australian web hosts have a dreadful reputation for poor customer service, more than usual downtime and lack of support.

I don’t always host my clients website websites … instead, I sign them up directly to some of the best hosting companies on the net. That way they only pay the minimum amount instead of the premium price that most resellers charge. There are two companies in particular that I recommend above all other for their excellent reputation, customer service, wide variety of options and very well priced plans.

HostMonster are an excellent company for a variety of website hosting requirements, but have particularly good plans for people who are just starting out small…

…At the moment, they have special prices for hosting your own websites that start from only $5.95 per month including your free domain name.

If you do a google search of satisfied customers or complaints and problems associated with web hosts, HostMonster usually has one of the BEST reputations.

Updated Information APRIL 2011: If you want to host only one domain with HOSTGATOR, at the moment they have a plan for only $3.96 US per month which would be perfectly suitable for a splash page or blog or do it yourself website by making use of their FREE SiteBuilder and SiteStudio Website Building Tools along with Free Website Templates. They are currently offering to transfer your existing Website and Domain Name FREE.

HOSTGATOR provide particularly good options if you intend to have more than one website, you want to be a reseller or you have an Internet related business.

Beside that, they have a wide variety of plans for all purposes and the live chat line will answer any questions you might have immediately. I may even be moving all my websites over to HOSTGATOR in the coming months.

After doing some study on the methods Stephen Pierce (who is a highly respected internet marketing multi-millionaire) I just wanted to put up this video as an introduction to the three basic ways money is generated online.

Hope this helps you understand the basics of how to make money on the net … and by the way … I highly recommend his training programs and books, some are even FREE … just go HERE to find out more.

Want A Crash Course In Web Design Instead?

I’m currently writing an online course to show you in a concise, EASY, step by step process, how to SAVE MONEY by building your own business website, just like this one you’re on.

A professional business website takes me, on average, 80 to 100 hours to produce from start to finish. If your intention is to save money and you also have lots of time, then using the information I’m preparing for you is GUARANTEED to work, BUT, it won’t get done unless you make a commitment to following the steps and putting the information into practice.

Let’s be honest, if you’re NOT an action taker…
…this course will NOT work for you!

My students pay $195 for a class that teaches this material in a total of 15 hours over a 5 week period. Sharing this valuable information is EASY … it is up to you to do the work and to use it!

In the meantime, take a look at this video. It might help you get started all by yourself, just like I did 3 years ago. You see, all the tools you need to build your own website are FREELY available on the internet right NOW, if you seek it out. Taking a shortcut by using a blueprint (that works) to design your own website without wasting time gathering all the information you require, will just help make it easier and much quicker.

If you haven’t already, make sure you sign up to receive advance notification to find out when the CRASH COURSE IN WEB DESIGN is ready to be released to the public.

Hope this helps to get you started…

Don’t Want to Pay A Web Designer To Do Something Your Could Do Yourself?

Want To Know How To Create Your Own Business Website?

Don’t Enjoy Your Job And Want A NEW Career?

Want To Make Some Money Building Websites For Others?

After teaching “Build Your Own FREE Website Classes” for the last year, I’ve seen first hand the huge need there is for business owners to have all the tools they need to BUILD THEIR OWN BUSINESS WEBSITE in the quickest, easiest and MOST professional way possible without having to hire an expensive website designer!

They want ALL the steps to be given to them in a concise, easy to follow format while retaining control of their own content and BE ABLE TO MAKE CHANGES whenever they want.

GREAT FOR THE SELF EMPLOYED – If you’re a BUSINESS OWNER, ”the crash course in web design” might be just what you need to take control of your online business future.

We KNOW that the internet is the way of the present and the future – I have never been so busy in my life – and the money that can be saved (or made) by being able to make your own website is often worth thousands of dollars. Let’s face it … the internet is a very lucrative industry.

Show me a web designer who is quiet and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t have a clue what they’re doing!!!

These days, I can pick and choose my clients according to various factors and even sack existing clients who don’t pay their accounts on time.

PERFECT IF YOU WANT TO LEARN WEBSITE DESIGNING – If YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A LUCRATIVE NEW CAREER, the ”the crash course in web design” will be just want you need to get started QUICKLY and EASILY – just like I did.

In fact, with this information at your fingertips, you’ll have your first professional website up much quicker AND BETTER than I ever did.

Just go to http://thecrashcourseinwebdesign.com.au/ to find out more.

If you can take professional quality photographs yourself then you already have a head-start. But, even then, you need to know how to work with those images to enhance them for use on the Internet…and change the file sizes so your web pages load quickly.

The websites below specialize in pictures for websites and other advertising material and this list might come in useful if you need to get some inspiration as well.

Stock Photography Websites – Paid

http://www.fotosearch.com/

http://us.fotolia.com/

http://creative.gettyimages.com/source/home/home.aspx

http://www.dreamstime.com/

http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php

http://www.stockxpert.com/?ref=bow

http://www.luckyoliver.com

Stock Photography Websites – Free

http://www.bigfoto.com/

http://www.picfindr.com/

http://www.inmagine.com/

http://www.everystockphoto.com/

http://yotophoto.com/

http://www.sxc.hu/

http://www.123rf.com/

http://www.imageafter.com/

Local Photographs From The Prom Country, Bass Coast and South Gippsland Regions Of Australia - you can find a great store of locally inspired pictures over at ‘lifegames’ Photography. Completlely FREE to use if you just keep the small watermark intact.

LATE EDIT: I’ve just come across this fantastic resource from Paige, with a huge list of places to find images online. Highly recommended!

A website will ‘work’ if five very important things occur -

1. You use appropriate keywords and phrases (the most likely ones people would search for to find you).
2. You get as many appropriate websites (related to your industry or location) to link to yours as possible.
3. You make sure that Google can index your website properly (don’t use flash based sites, iframes or excessive images, because search engines can’t read them).
4. The website is updated with fresh quality content and technological advances.
5. You promote your website and ‘drive traffic’ towards it.

Functionality, quick loading, ease of navigation, relevant and useful content and testimonials also add to the appeal of each site.

A website is almost useless and a waste of money if these things are not present.

If you already have a business, a product a service or just some good quality information to share with the world, the Internet could well be the place to expand your horizons.

Start with a well-structured website and quality content…if you can’t write your own marketing script, get a professional to do it for you…make it compelling and your site visitors will be keen to come back for more!

MOST IMPORTANT, make sure it contains the words that potential customers searching for what you have to offer, would type in a search box.

I wish you all the very best with your Internet Adventure,

As it is much better to keep a consistent theme in all advertising media including website, internet, business cards, brochures, flyers, product catalogues etc. I get more and more jobs doing …

… and my customers are delighted.

Make your enquiry on the contact form if you would like to know more.

As a web designer I often get asked what I think is the best way to get noticed on the internet, or how to get to number one spot in Google…good questions!

One of my clients today was approached by a company who claimed to be google…(that’s funny…if you ever want to get in touch with an actual Google rep, it’s quite difficult to find one…now google has phoned my client directly – I don’t think so!!!) and of couse they claimed to get my client to number one spot in both Yahoo and Google.

WHAT TO DO IF SOMEONE CLAIMS THEY CAN GET YOU TO NUMBER 1 – Be suspicious, be very, very suspicious….then ask, how much is this going to cost me? AND, do your research!

CASE STUDY

My client was emailed a Search Engine Marketing Proposal which was very well presented, used lots of graphs, comparison and flow charts and implements the use of google adwords…this company was called Yodel.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS – I checked out the Yodel website and my initial response left me feeling very impressed. Their website was also very well presented, the deal looked good on the surface with their commision charge at a seemingly affordable 5%. They also claimed to provide reports which could save most individuals or businesses a considerable amount of time.

OH DEAR! – As usual, I did a google search for complaints regarding any company I am considering dealing with and came up with these interesting customer reports.

I think you will find enough information on this page to make the same decision about Yodel that I did in the end.

YOU CAN DO IT YOURSELF

Seriously, the quickest and easiest way to get to the top of search listings has always been to purchase google adwords…but you don’t need another company to do it for you, you can easily do it yourself. You can read more about google adwords here…

I have heard of people in certain industries who ONLY use google adwords for their internet marketing and don’t spend on other forms of advertising at all. With a large percentage of people using the internet to make their day to day purchases, this method seems to be quite feasible and cost effective.

WHAT IS GOOGLE ADWORDS? – Well, do you see the advertisements below (there are lots of different formats both in text and image style, this is just one example), every time someone clicks on any of these ads, three things happen -

1. The advertiser gets billed for a particular amount of money (depending on the amount of money they agreed to pay every time someone clicks on one of their advertisements – called ‘pay per click’).

2. Google takes a percentage of that amount.

3. I get a percentage of that amount as the website owner.

HOW MUCH DO YOU PAY FOR GOOGLE ADWORDS – The amount an advertiser pays depends on the amount they bid for a particular keyword or keyword phrase they are targeting. The total amount can also be varied according to a set monthly limit for those on a budget or those who simply want to test the effectiveness of the adwords system.

HOW DO I KNOW WHAT KEYWORD/S TO TARGET – First of all, I recommend you think of all the words a potential customer might use to search for what you have to offer.

You can also use the keyword tool below to get an idea how many people search for the terms you are wanting to optimise your website for.

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

You can test all sorts of search terms and phrases and find other variations that might be even more appropriate and can see how many people locally or globally are searching with those particular words. I use this keyword tool regularly as part of my market research.

WHAT ABOUT OTHER INTERNET ADVERTISING – Check them out by all means. Perhaps different types of internet advertising works well in different niche markets, but I stand by the statement below…

GOOGLE IS THE BEST – When I check website statistics to see where my traffic has come from, google has generally sent in excess of 85%. I NEVER bother with yahoo, MSN or ask or bing or any of the others and you can see the stats from one of my websites as an example in the image below with the TOP 2 results both related to google.

GET TO NUMBER 1 WITHOUT PAYING A CENT

A website will generally find its’ way to number one in its’ targeted niche by having –

• a suitable domain name
• quality and relevant content
• appropriate use of keywords
• links to the site from other relevant higher profile websites
• updated, additional or changeable content.

For instance, my South Gippsland website employs most of the above methods with its’ domain name http://south-gippsland.com being pertinent to the region without even needing the .com.au extension. It contains quality and relevant information about the South Gippsland area in Victoria with good use of the most searched for keywords, some links from other relevant websites and the information and photographs are updated or added to every 6 weeks or so.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST – If you don’t have the time to write articles, get links from high profile sites and add extra content on a regular basis and your website is compelling enough, the easy and quick way to get noticed on the internet is to use google adwords – full stop!

YELLOW PAGES – Submit your free listing in the Yellow Pages who are probably one of the most recognized names in the industry. They have several different levels of advertising available but the basic listing is FREE.

YAHOO LOCAL BUSINESS DIRECTORY – Display your products, create press releases and articles and build your own free mini website with Yahoo Local Business Directory. People searching for your business or industry can generally find your free listing quite easily.

YAHOO REVIEWS – An important segment of the Yahoo Local listings are the reviews. Ask your good customers to write reviews for you on Yahoo local. Businesses with higher ratings apparently get preferential listings.

YAHOO ANSWERS – Have you ever searched for something and found it on ‘yahoo answers‘? I have. Here’s an idea. If you check out what questions remain unanswered (or open) and they relate to your business, you can answer them and leave a link back to the source…which could be your own website. Answers that get rated as the best (it’s pretty easy) get high preference in searches and could create extra traffic for years to come.

LINKWIZZ – Write your own business advertisement with Linkwizz - Australian Business Directory. They also have other tiers of advertising available, but as yet I’m unsure how effective it is.

GOOGLE LOCAL – Create an account on Google LocaL. Enter your company name, address, phone number and website. Verify the information with a post-a-card, SMS or telephone call. At the same time you can bring new customers into your business by using the free Google coupon tool that puts your advertisement on relevant local searches.

BLOGS – Start A Blog with WordPress, LiveJournal or Blogger and use the Freely available Blog Promotion Tools. Talk about topics on your new blog that relate to your business and help other people find out more about your industry. Websites like Technorati and mybloglog can help you gain exposure, visitors, readers, and subscribers, but it does need to be maintained with quality and interesting content.

SOUTH GIPPSLAND INFORMATION WEBSITE – If you live in South Gippsland, Victoria,  Australia, you can freely advertise your business, products, services, events, functions and any location relevant news or articles as many times as you like at the South Gippsland Information Website.

SQUIDOO – Create a lens at Squidoo that talks about the stuff you sell, then create another one for each product and link them all together.  Make a lens for your blog or website. For some other really creative ideas go to 49 Ideas For Awesome Lenses.

LINKEDIN – Join LinkedIn and invite some people you know to join you. Make new connections with people you don’t know through introductions or writing answers to peoples question on the new Questions & Answers page and be genuinely helpful.

FLYERS ON LOCAL NOTICEBOARDS – Putting up some flyers on noticeboards in your local area only costs some time and effort. Instead of doing a blatant business promotion like most people, offer to teach a free class on your chosen field of expertise, offer a free quote or run a competition. Find creative ways to get attention that are just slightly different to the ‘norm’.

A friend who is a computer expert received the following directly from a system administrator. It is an excellent message that ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send e-mails. Please read the short letter below, even if you’re sure you already follow proper procedures…

Do you really know how to forward e-mails?

50% of us do; 50% DO NOT.

Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it?

Every time you forward an e-mail there is information left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail addresses and; names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every e-mail address that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That’s right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel!

How do you stop it? Well, there are several easy steps:

(1) When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top). That’s right, DELETE them. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second You MUST click the “Forward” button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If you don’t click on “Forward” first, you won’t be able to edit the message at all.

(2) Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: fields for adding e-mail addresses. Always use the BCC: (blind carbon copy) field for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way the people you send to will only see their own e-mail address. If you don’t see your BCC: option click on where it says To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that’s it, it’s that easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say “Undisclosed Recipients” in the “TO:” field of the people who receive it.

(3) Remove any “FW :” in the subject line. You can re-name the subject if you wish or even fix spelling.

(4) ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual e-mail you are reading. Ever get those e-mails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information on it? By Forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view, you stop them from having to open many e-mails just to see what you sent.

(5) Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and email address on a petition. (Actually, if you think about it, who’s supposed to send the petition in to whatever cause it supports? And don ‘t believe the ones that say that the email is being traced, it just aint so!)

(6) One of the main ones I hate is the ones that say that something like, “Send this email to 10 people and you’ll see something great run across your screen.” Or, sometimes they’ll just tease you by saying something really cute will happen IT AINT GONNA HAPPEN!!!!! (Trust me, I’m still seeing some of the same ones that I waited on 10 years ago!) I don’t let the bad luck ones scare me either, they get trashed. (Could be why I haven’t won the lottery??)

(7) Before you forward an Amber Alert, or a Virus Alert, or some of the other ones floating around nowadays, check them out before you forward them. Most of them are junk mail that’s been circling the net for YEARS! Just about everything you receive in an email that is in question can be checked out at Snopes. Just go to http://www.snopes.com/

Its really easy to find out if an email that’s been sent to you is real or not. If it’s not, please don’t pass it on.

In the future, let’s stop the junk mail and the viruses.

Finally, here’s an idea!!! Let’s send this link (http://south-gippsland.net/forwarding-emails-the-right-way/)to everyone you know. This is something that SHOULD be forwarded.

Sourcing Local Photographs – It can be quite challenging to find appropriate photographs for websites, promotions and advertising unless of course you want to PAY for images through one of the major stock photography companies. But I have created an easy solution for people who live in South Gippsland, Prom Country or Bass Coast regions of Victoria Australia by providing beautiful Photo Galleries of pictures taken throughout the local area.

Not only that, I usually include a free photo shoot for people who are having websites constructed, which saves them hundreds of dollars as well as improving the quality and appeal of their website.

Solutions – So if you need some quality photographs to promote your region and your website, find a photographer who specializes in local landscapes and who is willing to give you access to their galleries. Offer to pay them a fee for the use of their pictures and get them to sign a permission form so you don’t get stuck in a legal battle further down the track.

South Gippsland, Bass Coast & Prom Country – Residents of these areas have it lucky. I give them permission to download and use the photographs from the lifegames Photography website in their current resolution FREE. They already have a watermark with my website address attached and if that stays intact then the pictures may be used anywhere without any further permissions needed.

Full Resolution And High Quality Images – Of course, if you want high quality images in large resolutions, I am happy to provide those at a small fee. Just make your enquiry over on the contact form. A complete album or the entire gallery can also be provided with full permissions via a CD…and you retain those images to use as you please.

Note: Full copyright always belongs to http://lifegames.com.au so you can never pass the images off as your own, but permission can be specially granted for their use in any form.

Well, there are ways to easily find out by doing a Whois Seach (pronounced “who is”).

The WHOIS system originated as a method that system administrators could use to look up information to contact other IP address or domain name administrators (almost like a “white pages”) according to Wikipedia.

On a forum I used to run, we had access to each persons IP address in real time through a control panel interface. We even knew which pages they were viewing and who they were sending private message to…in these cases, we are like the proverbial Big Brother watching to see what’s going on.

Rather than just being intrusive though, Whois Information can be very useful to -

• determine the availability of domain names,
• assist the security and stability of the Internet,
• investige crimes and enforcing national and international laws,
• combat illegal acts, violence, abuse, child pornography, drug rings, slave trading etc,
• assist with trademark and intellectual property enquiries and infringement,
• identify persons or entities responsible for content and services online.

So now YOU too can use the very useful link below and find out the owner of any domain you want along with their list of keywords, the percentage of relevant content and how well they have optimized their site for Search Engines!

While you’re at it, you might even want to chack out the details for YOUR OWN website.

http://whois.domaintools.com/

Best SEO Advce – Well, there are some very good answers to those questions. And the best man to tell you about the basic ingredients to make your website rank in the top section of a page when people are searching for what you have to offer, is the head of Google’s webspam team, Matt Cutts.

Make A Website Rank Well In Searches – In this video, Matt shows you the foundation of a search result, and gives some useful tips on how you can help improve how your site appears in our results pages. You’ll find out about everything there is in a search result, including page title, links and page description.

Other Things In Search Results – Matt also explains about the other things that can appear in search results, such as stock quotes, cached pages links, and even more…

Well, in some cases, you might want something to be private, like personal information, sensitive details like member numbers, or you’ve started getting spam because you left your details on a forum somewhere. The best way to stop these problems from occurring in the first place or to fix any problems you may have inadvertently created, is to remove your urls from google.

HOW TO FIND OUT WHAT PAGES HAVE BEEN INDEXED BY GOOGLE

You can do a google search of the indexed pages of your website by putting site:yoursite.com into a search box. On occassions I have seen some of the worpdress plugins or themes showing up in search results. Indexing these are of no benefit at all as most lead to a blank page. It’s good to prevent the search engines from indexing our login page too.

HOW TO STOP SEARCH ENGINES FROM CRAWLING CERTAIN PAGES OR AREAS OF YOUR WEBSITE

There are various way to stop google or other search bots from indexing pages on your site and these are listed below…

…and this following video recorded by Matt Cutts from google, talks about how to use the google webmaster tools and shows how each of these methods of url removal really work and describes in detail the effectiveness of each method.

South Gippsland – is a productive region in Victoria, on the South Eastern tip of Australia which attracts a large variety of tourists over the warmer months…so, many businesses rely on gaining the growing tourist trade by offering suitable accommodation, opening restaurants and creating tourist attractions.

The ugliest website in South Gippsland – The website I want to show you actually belongs to friends of mine (both wonderful people) who own a very beautiful accommodation place overlooking the picturesque harbour in Port Albert, (a delightful coastal town in South Gippsland). They know their website isn’t pretty and plan to have it rebuilt…but lets take a look at the ugliest website in South Gippsland and find out what lessons can be learned here!

This site at http://blithespiritportalbert.com.au/ is really a disaster which looks like it was built in the dark ages and would be without doubt, the ugliest website I have ever seen.

What mistakes do YOU notice first…? – Besides having an enormous amount of what is called ‘white space’ (useless areas of blank space without images or text), there is a mismatch of colours and images, the page takes forever to scroll to the bottom and the center aligned text makes it appear as if a child had created it!

Colours & Font Types – I counted at least 6 different colours and 6 different font types. The recommended number is no more than two or maybe three colours for text, and utilizing a web safe colour combination chart during the design process, enables aesthetically-ignorant people to choose a complete colour scheme that looks like it was meant to belong together.

Photographs – Most of the picture of local scenes on the page are actually OK, but keeping in mind that this property is probably worth somewhere in the vicinity of 1 million dollars, the picture with the crooked horizon at the very bottom of the page would have been better left off entirely (see below)…yet, a few simple enhancements like straightening, cropping, colour enhancing and adding a basic drop shadow make the world of difference.

Original Picture Source: http://blithespiritportalbert.com.au/

The Importance Of Simplicity – And WHY someone would make lilac the base colour of a web page, absolutely mystifies me! Most regular photographs show a marked improvement in appearance just by placing them on a black, dark grey or white background, and most web pages read better on white.

Take a look at some of the busiest and biggest money making sites on the Internet…Google, YouTube, Hostmonster and E-Bay. There’s a reason those sites are designed the way they are – simplicity, easy on the eye and easy to navigate.

Hidden Mistakes - There are a two other really large mistakes exhibited on the Blithe Spirit Website, that only a few people would be aware of… …you may have noticed the bright blue photograph of the sailing boat. It sort of sticks out, doesn’t it?….Well…that happens to be MY photograph.

It was taken from another website without my authorization. Not only that, the words describing the ‘sailing tours’ (to the right of that picture on the web page), were WRITTEN BY ME especially FOR the ‘sailing tours’ website.

Copyright Laws – Now those things in themselves aren’t a problem. My friends own both websites. I’m OK about my picture and words being used in this situation, and if they had asked me, of course I would have given my permission anyway. It’s just that many people seem to be quite ignorant of the copyright laws relating to photographs, pictures, images and words found on the Internet.

If you do steal something from the Internet, attributing it to the original author or photographer is paramount…and if you’ve got stolen stuff sitting on your website already, don’t worry, I made the same mistake once too. Either, get the required permission or get rid of it as soon as you can.

Website Content Problems – But besides the problems relating to copyright, which, in extreme situations could cost money in law suits, one of the worst things people can do to their own website, is to copy and paste content from other websites…no matter who owns them or if they have permission!

Googles Secret Policy – Well, it’s not really a secret -that’s just another provocative heading – but, Googles Duplicate Content Policy does explain fairly clearly that Google have the right to penalize website owners for malicious breach of their Duplicate Content Policy…

“Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar……as a result, the ranking of the site may suffer, or the site might be removed entirely from the Google index, in which case it will no longer appear in search results.”

(Source: googles webmaster guidelines )

Get Educated – It’s time to grasp the lessons to be learned from other people’s mistakes. The Internet is a fast moving arena, and if you intend to have a business with an Internet presence, it’s vital that you keep up with the changes in website technology, design preferences AND educate yourself about your legal responsibilities as a website owner too.

But, Do Ugly Websites Still Serve A Purpose? – My word they do! When I did a quick google search, I found the Blithe Spirit Website to be listed high in SOME searches. The length of time a domain has been registered has a bearing on it’s ranking…and there was also this great post to consider about UGLY websites too…

…but seriously, what sort of image does it portray to your customers when they land on a web page like the Blithe Spirit one? Its it a good reflection of a property worth around 1 million dollars? Hmmmm, we all know the answer to that one – don’t we!

Is Your Website A Good Reflection Of Your Business?

Adsense is probably the easiest way to make money online, especially if you don’t have a product, you can’t be bothered hunting around for appropriate affiliate links or you just want something REALLY EASY and QUICK to implement.

Now, in case you’ve landed on this page thinking we’re suggesting something illegal…that’s definitely not it!

But for people who already use (or are thinking of using) adsense on their websites, the really simple tricks shown here FREE, will significantly increase your chances of making the most of the adsense ‘money making’ system…try it and find out for yourself!

These magical tips to improve you search engine rankings and get more visitors to your website, are explained so clearly that you won’t have any more excuses for not getting the traffic you really want…but of course, realistically, these things take patience, knowledge and time in order to work effectively.