Beginning early this year, google made some changes to their search ranking,   in the name of providing more relevant search results for it’s users, according to their official blog, this change impacts 11.8% organic search results, in plain English, google thinks about 12% of it’s search results are really bad and need to manipulated. They planned and started the update about one year ago, maybe that’s why some of my ranks dropped out of first 10 pages, but almost all the ranks promoted by articles and blog posts were not affected, a few of these keywords ranked better than ever, it’s safe to say that old way of link building is doomed.

Now what on earth is plain link building and how do people do it? a large percentage of SEO firms will do this,  they will get links from any websites which accept adding links, these websites will only be updated when new links are being added, almost all of them are garbage, the name link spamming are just for these sites. The latest google update will definitely downgrade most if not all of these sites, the links on those spamming sites won’t work anymore.  

Examples will be great for explanation. It was quite some time ago, I started with this keyword, Lift Sling, it was old way of link building all the way, a lot of sites I used had too many links, and those sites had only links, no real content at all. This strategy worked in the beginning, finally the rank improved a lot, the party was over when google updated it’s algorithm. Something opposite happened to this keyword, chain pullers, most back links for this keyword are from articles and posts, not too many plain links have been built, the rank for this keyword is making me real happy. Now contextual links win the battle, then what? It all boils down to content, as long as you dole out high quality content, not only people will love to read your stuff, so do the search engines. You probably think there are already too many blogs out there, it’s not true, there will never be too many good blogs, take a look at this blog, best smartphones , in the beginning I just post to it casually, lately I added nice stuff left and right, now it can even rank the highly competitive keywords. As far as SEO concerned, article marketing with great content is the way to go. If you can build a group of your own blogs, for instance Traffic Cone, then you will have a powerful weapon in your SEO arsenal.

Bottom line is that you should create great content, get people to enjoy and share your stuff, promote your business with the content, your effort will reward you handsomely in the end. The virtues, persistence and patience, are essential for your success, long term strategy is required to improve anything of significance, be it your business or search rankings, now all we have to do is to give our love for creating and sharing nice content and not to worry about the search results every day. When publisinh articles, I prefer ezine, a new article will be indexed and cached in less than an hour, of course your posts on some blogs will be indexed real fast as well, I believe you should see for yourself,such as Roadside Emergency Kit, nice writing, good content, published on popular site, this article is a good example of article marketing. 

Last but not least, the social media is the must have channel for your marketing effort. One thing you can do for your blogs is to install twitter tools, then go ahead register a new twitter account and app, link your blog to twitter, then every new post on your blog will show up in your twitter page, it’s real easy and useful, no one should miss this tool out.

Technorati Tags: Lift Sling, Roadside Emergency Kit, Traffic Cone

Google made big changes to the ways their search results rank,   the reason cited is that google wanted to provide more relevant results, according to their official blog, this change impacts 11.8% organic search results, put it this way, almost 12% of google search results are useless or of low quality. Google started this change almost one year ago, no wonder I saw a few of my keywords’ ranks dropped like a rock, the good thing is that those keywords promoted by content rich links are not affected, and a few of them even gained a few positions, it’s almost a sure thing that plain link building loses all it’s attraction, at least in the eye of google.

So what exactly is linking campaign the old way? There are a lot of SEO company out there are doing this, they will get links from any websites which accept adding links, these websites will only be updated when new links are being added, almost all of them are garbage, the name link spamming are just for these sites. Now google algorithm probably will weed out these sites, all the links on those websites will have the same fate.  

A few real world examples will help to explain what I said. It was quite some time ago, I started with this keyword, Dog Tie Out, of course with old way of link building, almost all the sites I got link from had too many links, and those sites had only links, no real content at all. This strategy worked in the beginning, lately the keyword link stayed on the first page for a while, the party was over when google updated it’s algorithm. Something opposite happened to this keyword, chain pullers, we put the link in relevant context, with very few plain links, now we have really good ranking for this keyword. Now contextual links win the battle, then what? Actually this is all about content, so if you create great content, you will attract readers as well as search engines. You may think there are already too many blogs out there, it’s not true, there will never be too many good blogs, for instance let’s examine this one, top smartphone 2011 , I didn’t put too much effort into it from start, but I never stopped posting, the result? I got nice ranking for a few realy nice keywords now. Now you can see, blog marketing with great content is the way to go. Now imagine you have your own blog network, for instance Vehicle First Aid Kit, then it will be easier to do article marketing.

At the end of day all you need to do is to create quality content, get people to enjoy and share your stuff, and put your keywords in the context you’re good to go, this strategy will prevail in short or long term. The virtues, persistence and patience, are essential for your success, long term strategy is required to improve anything of significance, it doesn’t matter you’re doing SEO or advertising your business, keep doing what we have to do till the end of world. When publisinh articles, I prefer ezine, a new article will be indexed and cached in less than an hour, and some popular blogs will get your post indexed in minutes, there venues are ideal for promoting your site, I believe you should see for yourself, Axle Strap, explains some interesting concepts, quality content, nice presentation, indexed by google, this article is a good example of article marketing. 

By the way, if you don’t take social media account, you’re lost. For wordpress blogs, I recommend twitter tools, get a twitter account and API keys, set up API credentials in your twitter tools option, you should choose to post a tweet for every new post, it’s easy and really useful, if you don’t use this tool it’s just too bad.

Technorati Tags: Axle Strap, Dog Tie Out, Vehicle First Aid Kit

I’m planning migration of the data from my old Zen Cart store to a new one on Magento. While looking for some instructions in the internet, I found http://www.shopping-cart-migration.com/ that provides migration of data between different shopping carts. Has anyone used it? Is it good?

I haven’t really used it, but I tried their demo migration of 10 products. They did everything really well. The service not only transfers products, but also categories, orders, customers.
Like I said, I haven’t used it, but if everything is the same as in demo version then it’s quite a good migration instrument.

Visit us at http://www.picaflor-azul.com for hundreds of free, easy to use, step by step zen cart tutorials and to download our free zen cart templates. If you need help with your zen cart or need a great looking custom design, contact us at info@picaflor-azul.com. We welcome your project small or large. Ask questions on our facebook discussion threads http://www.facebook.com/Custom.Zen.Cart.Design

Duration : 0:2:38

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Technorati Tags: easy help, ecommerce, ecommerce web design, shopping cart, templates, tutorial, Web Design, zen cart expert, zen cart help, zen cart template, zen cart tutorial, Zen Cart Tutorials, zen-cart, zencart

This video tutorial teaches you how to configure sales tax in Zen Cart. For more info, please visit

http://blog.doteasy.com/

http://scripts.doteasy.com/

http://www.doteasy.com/

http://forums.doteasy.com/

Duration : 0:1:15

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Google made big changes to the ways their search results rank,   in the name of providing more relevant search results for it’s users, on official google blog it is estimated 11.8% search results will be affected by this update, in plain English, almost 12% of google search results are useless or of low quality. Google started this change almost one year ago, maybe that’s why some of my ranks dropped out of first 10 pages, the good thing is that those keywords promoted by content rich links are not affected, some of the keywords even ranked better than before, it’s obvious that link building the old way is the thing of past, probably due to links crammed sites being downgraded by google.

What is old way of link building any way? a large percentage of SEO firms will do this,  they will get links from any websites which accept adding links, the content on those sites will never be updated, and most of them are useless, the name link spamming are just for these sites. The latest google update will definitely downgrade most if not all of these sites, all the links on those websites will have the same fate.  

Let’s check out a few examples. It was quite some time ago, I started with this keyword, Wheel Strap, of course with old way of link building, almost all the sites I got link from had too many links, and those sites had only links, no real content at all. In the beginning, the ranking of the keyword in question rise pretty fast, lately the keyword link stayed on the first page for a while,   the honeymoon lasted until google changed it’s mind. Something opposite happened to this keyword, chain puller , most back links for this keyword are from articles and posts, almost no plain links, the rank for this keyword is making me real happy. Old and outdated linking campaign lost to content linking, what’s next? Actually this is all about content, as long as you dole out high quality content, your rank will improve over time, since search engines are another kind of readers. You probably think there are already too many blogs out there, it’s not true, there will never be too many good blogs, take a look at this blog, top smartphone 2011 , in the beginning I just post to it casually, lately I added nice stuff left and right, now it can even rank the highly competitive keywords. As far as SEO concerned, quality blog marketing is much better than plain link building. Say you’re building your own bogging network, for instance Dog Tie Out, then it will be easier to do article marketing.

Bottom line is that you should create great content, get people to enjoy and share your stuff, and put your keywords in the context you’re good to go, this strategy will prevail in short or long term. Persistence and patience are the keys to success, nothing will automatically improve overnight, it doesn’t matter you’re doing SEO or advertising your business, let’s keep building and maintaining our blogs until end of the day. When publisinh articles, I prefer ezine, new article will be indexed within an hour if not minutes, and some popular blogs will get your post indexed in minutes, there venues are ideal for promoting your site, let look at some aticles or posts which are published and indexed, like this Towing Chains , good writing, interesting content, indexed and cached, this article is a good example of article marketing. 

We’re not finished yet, please remeber, the social media is the must have channel for your marketing effort. The Twitter tools is a wordpress plugin, you can install it, sign up for a twitter account and create a new application, set up API credentials in your twitter tools option, you should choose to post a tweet for every new post, it’s real easy and useful, if you don’t use this tool it’s just too bad.

Technorati Tags: Dog Tie Out, Towing Chains, Wheel Strap

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How to configure your home page in ZenCart – Zencart Tutorial
zencart video tutorials, zencart, zencart video, how to, zencart tutorial, how to use zencart, video tutorials zencart, tutorials zencart tutorial, education, kvchosting

Duration : 0:1:41

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Technorati Tags: education, how to, how to use zencart, kvchosting, tutorials zencart tutorial, video tutorials zencart, zencart, zencart tutorial, zencart video, zencart video tutorials

I’ve got Zen Cart store, do I have to buy some additional software to work with it?

Well, Zen Cart is much easier to use than, for instance, Magento. But still, it may be quite tedious and troublesome to manage it without any additional progs. I know that people use zen cart store manager – seems to be very helpful: http://www.zencart-manager.com/

I basically need to find a piece for website software that will allow me to create pages for different things, and the allow users of the site to review and vote on that thing. Kind of like how online stores have reviews at the bottom for each item, and then there is a rating of "x out of 5 stars" or something.

Essentially, I need to set up something similar to the way angieslist.com works, but for a different subject. I create a page for a given event or business or whatever, and then users can review and rate it, but ALSO post pictures of it and add stories about it and contribute to the page. Kind of like a mix between angieslist and wikipedia.

I use Dreamhost for my web hosting, and they all these "one click installs", stuff like joomla, Zencart, PHPBB, Pligg, etc for things like forums, blogs, online shopping carts, galliers, and stuff like that. I need to find some software like that, that I can install on my web host, that will allow me to set up a site like Ive described.

Does anyone know any good ones? If at all possible, I would prefer something free, or at the very least not insanely expensive.

Joomla is a good choice, there are many Joomla extensions for ratings and voting.

WordPress is also a good choice, again, there are many WordPress plugins for doing this.

Source: We work on Joomla/WordPress websites at http://www.itoctopus.com

http://www.byobwebsite.com – How to Create an E-Commerce Website. – part 1 – This is part of the Build Your Own E-Commerce Website tutorial series. Our goal is to show you how to develop manage and maintain your own business web presence.

In this tutorial we do an overview of all of the elements of an E-Commerce Website based on WordPress, Thesis and WP eStore. http://www.byobwebsite.com/video-tutorials/how-to-make-an-ecommerce-website/

Hi, and welcome to Lesson 1 of the Build Your Own E-Commerce Web Site tutorial series. My name is Rick Anderson and I’ll be your instructor throughout the entire series. The goal of this tutorial series is to show you how to create a fully functional e-commerce Web site using WordPress, Thesis and WP EStore. This tutorial series assumes you have a hosting account with a domain name and WordPress installed on that domain. It also assumes that you have the Thesis theme installed and activated on that site. If this is not the case please review the material in our Start Building Your Web Site Here tutorial series first. There is a bunch of information in that series that we will not be repeating here.

In this lesson we’ll explore the organization of this e-commerce Web site and look at all the building blocks we’ll be using to create it. So in Part 1 of the lesson we’ll take a brief tour of the demonstration Web site that I’ve created for this purpose. In Part 2 of this lesson we’ll do an overview of the organization or of the information architecture of the new site and in Parts 3 through 6 we’ll look closely at the four major components of our new site. Those components are sales, information, marketing, and user experience.

Overview of Our New E-Commerce Site

Okay let’s go ahead and get started. In the first part of this lesson we’re going to view our desired outcome. I want you to open your browser and go to www.thesisestore.com. This is a Web site that I’ve created specifically for the purpose of demonstrating how to create such a Web site and in the course of this tutorial series we will learn step-by-step how to create every single element of this Web site. On this Web site we are selling a variety of products. We are selling physical books, ebooks, software and video instruction. The physical books obviously have to be mailed and the ebooks, software and video instruction all will have immediate secure download upon purchasing the product.

Conceptually we have four big elements to our site. The first is Sales, and then Information, Marketing and the User Experience. We’ll be talking about all those subjects around this e-commerce site organized into these four areas.

Sales Component

In terms of Sales we have our Home page with a call to action with a bunch of text describing why our product is great. We have a Catalog that essentially serves as a department page that shows each of the different types of products that we sell. And then we have individual product type pages. For example, this product is Books, another product might be Ebooks, and then finally we have the individual detailed views of the books where we have the full information about the product that we’re selling.

Information Component

Next we have our information component and that includes our Blog page where we have informative articles that draw people to our site and our Customer Support and About pages which tell people about our policies and contact and support information.

Marketing Component

Next we have our Marketing and the marketing portion of the site is focused on email marketing so we have a variety of way of capturing an email address. We have free downloads in exchange for email addresses; we have Customer Support requests in exchange for email addresses and we collect the email address upon sales. The purpose for collecting the email addresses in all of these cases is so that we can market additional products and services to the people that come to our site.

User Experience Component

And then finally we have the User Experience component of the site. This includes things like our navigation system here and the clarity of the information that’s contained on the page, the ability for our customers to interact with our Web site via product reviews and customer support requests. And finally the easy ability of our customers to make a purchase with a simple shopping cart that is clear and straight forward and with a Buy Now option that will take people directly from the page to a place where they can purchase the product.

Okay that wraps up the first part of Lesson 1 of the Build Your Own E-Commerce Web Site Tutorial Series. In the second part of this lesson we’ll take a look at how the site is organized in its information architecture.

Duration : 0:5:23

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Technorati Tags: building website, business website, e-commerce site overview, e-commerce website, information architecture, information component, marketing component, organizing website, sales component, Thesis E-Commerce, user experience component, WordPress E-Commerce, wordpress tutorial, WP eStore