Internet Business Blog

While I sit here watching the US Stock Market tank nearly 400 points (so far) since the opening bell today, I can’t help but have concerned thoughts on my mind. One can make the statement that this is only the beginning, and thanks to sub-prime mortgages and the slew of other market related issues on the horizon – but it’s hard to say that we haven’t been warned. Yet still, all too often people throw their entire nest egg into a single basket and pray to whatever they happen to believe in that everything will work itself out. That my friend is no way to live, and if there’s one thing that I’ve learned (thanks market 1987, 2000) it’s that you should never throw all of your eggs into one basket.

The Internet is no different.

Websites and Internet Businesses will come and go. Some will be modestly successful, and some will be extremely successful – but most will never be a “success story” and will ultimately fail. I feel that it’s important to remember this because if you are an Internet Entrepreneur, you should never rely on one single website or income stream to put food on your table and shelter over your head. The internet is so fast paced that what works today might no longer work tomorrow, and what works tomorrow certainly will not work a few years from now!

If I sound as If I am bitter in this entry I am certainly not. I have done extremely well for myself via the internet and will continue to do so through hard work and multiple channels of income. In fact, I own 30 domain names. Of these 30 domain names, I have developed three of them and parked the other 27. I make a small income on each parked domain as well as a modest income from each of the three developed sites (including ePursuit.net). I also own a web development firm and participate in affiliate marketing programs.

Why am I telling you this?

Say that I have a bad month with my web development / consulting firm. Though this hasn’t happened yet (knock on wood), slow downs are inevitable in business. Even If I have a slow month with my firm, I am able to work extra on each of my other channels of income (domain parking, site revenue, affiliate marketing) to pick up the slack. If things get really ugly, I can also sell one of my websites.

I feel that it is very important that we all have other sources of income beyond our “main project” or business. Like I mentioned earlier, we work in a very fast paced industry and what is making millions today could be making next to nothing tomorrow.

Food for thought! Any comments?

Popularity: 12% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Google employee and search engine “Guru” Matt Cutts recently gave a presentation stating that underscores embedded in URLs are now officially considered word separators. Though many of us in the industry thought that this may have been the case for some time, it is nice to hear it confirmed.

Other highlights from Matt’s presentation that you may find interesting:
• Google treats URLs with a query string the same as static URLs.
• The number of slashes in your URL isn’t a factor in your Google rankings.
• The file extension in your URL won’t affect your rankings.
• To qualify your blog for Google News inclusion, your blog must have multiple authors.

Matt also mentioned that he will hopefully have an MS Powerpoint version of his presentation on his blog (assuming Google allows him to do so). I was unable to attend the presentation in person, so am hoping that this happens or a video is posted soon.

Popularity: 11% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Often times fellow web developers or hobbyists will come up to me and mention their brand new website, how nice it looks, and how no one can seem to find it through organic searches via Google, Yahoo, or MSN. Without even browsing their web site to see whether or not it is optimized, I begin the conversation like so:

Me: What keywords are you targeting visitors with?
Client: [insert extremely vague keywords here]
Me: That may be the problem.

Why might this be the problem you ask? Vague keywords, even when they relate to your niche subject, can be extremely difficult to rank well with. If you’re using a new, unoptimized site, the deck is already stacked against you – using such vague keywords is a recipe for doom.

Here’s an example. Let’s say this client runs a website centered on Internet Business. The keywords he has decided to focus on using are “Internet” and “Business”. He includes these keywords in his meta tags, title tags, and content as often as possible. This is bad.

Why is this bad?

My research shows that the word “internet” was searched for 387,165 times last month on Yahoo. This is only Yahoo mind you; you don’t even want to know the results on Google. Likewise, the word “business” was sought after over 1,000,000 times on Yahoo, Google was nearly 8 times that amount!

When search volumes are this high there will be so much competition for these vague keywords that you will never (and I mean never) rank on the first page of search results.

What do I do?

Get creative. Use the Overture Keyword Selector Tool and start researching. Instead of listing “Internet” and “Business” – use “Internet Business”, “Internet Based Business”, and “Internet Home Business”. It’s important when first starting out that you chase after keywords that are obtainable, so you will rank within the first couple pages of search engine results and pull in more organic traffic.

Popularity: 6% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!