Posts by jay 11

Sounds like you found your solution Serj. Good stuff :)

Avinash Kaushik has a newer/more current book on analytics called "Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity." As a rather experienced user, I found it easy to get through and even gained some valuable insights.

Correction - a 404 doesn't help the user if it just displays an error. You *can actually customize your 404 pages to give the end user some options on where to go from there. For example, "we're sorry but this page no longer exists. Please visit our homepage to search for the information you are seeking."

You basically want to make sure you either 301 the page OR customize the 404 message to give the user (and robots) options to move on.

A 404 isn't helping the user. If it were me, I would 301 it to a relevant file page or back to the index. 301's are safe as long as you don't change them around all the time. Remember... 301 means "permanent redirect." If you plan on changing it in the future, consider using a 302 redirect.

If you do not know what robots.txt are, chances are you are better off not specifying them in your code. As you could get into trouble by not having your site pages crawled... and I mean EVERY page

SE's don't need to crawl every page. For example, do they need to crawl your website's terms of service or privacy policy? Or how about a co-branded promo page that you know is only going to be 'live' for an extended period of time?

Not every page needs to be indexed and crawled by the Search Engines. In fact, it would be great for the WWW if webmasters were more selective of the pages they allowed the SE's to access. There would be a lot less glut out there. Think of all the rack space Google and Bing could save! Everyone... Go Green.. Use Robots.txt! ;)

No google gives very little weight (if any) to signature links. Furthermore, I don't think they will penalize your site if you are self-promoting from within your forum signature.

Good question... i would probably go with the extension that best appeals to my audience. If most of your existing website visitors And targeted audience is from the UK.. it probably makes sense to move all your site's content to the .co.uk extension and 301 (permanent redirect) the .com. A 301 redirect is a safe way to tell the search engines that you intend to use the .co.uk extension going forward.

Does anyone know about the legalities of storing credit card information to use later? Specifically, we want to start accepting political donations but our Click and Pledge account is not set up yet. Can we create a database to store the credit cards and amounts and then, acting as the donor themselves, enter that information into our Click and Pledge site?

Not sure about the legaleze but I would NOT charge the donor on a date that is much later from when they originally authorized payment. This can cause a variety of problems, like the donor changing his/her mind, or insufficient funds when you finally go to charge the donor. It's pretty customary to bill the customer/donor on or very close to the time they authorize payment.

hope this helps! :)

The affiliate game is brutal. Commissions start off low and usually don't get much higher. My advice would be to pick a niche market where you see potential for growth. Also - find out commission percentages before you dive in, factor in your hosting costs and marketing budget. Expect to operate at small margins. At least at first...

If possible, try to avoid signing up through a network like Commission Junction (they are essentially a middle man) and instead try to partner directly with the merchant. You'll find that you'll get higher commissions and you will be able to operate at better margins. Then again... finding a merchant, in a niche market, that deals directly to affiliates And supports their own program ain't gonna be easy. Perhaps it's just better to start your own business... And while you're at it, offer you're own affiliate program. :P

no problem.. good luck selling online. Let us know how it works out for ya! ;)

Ping backs are essentially citations from other websites that show up in your comments section. They are not necessarily spam but they could be. As the author of your website, you get to determine.

hey friends ,
Recently I got few Pingbacks for few of my posts in my blog.
Are they spam?
I would also like to know if they do any good in increasing the traffic or do they negatively affect the page rank??

They could be spam. Is the person/blog pinging you legit? As the author of a blog, you can delete those comments if you feel the ping back is not worthy. They would still be linking to your blog but at least you aren't linking back to them in your comments section. Otherwise, if they are legit pings, leave them. It shows that others are reading and linking to your blog.

Hi Isaac, there is a very similar discussion already at DaniWeb that may help you determine what to charge for advertising. Check it out here - http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread230582.html

For most of these, you just need to visit the search engine and type the following into the search box:
link:yourwebsitehere.com

Could anyone provide insight into at what price point you would stop selling through an e-commerce site and move to a face to face, consultative sales model? I have a client who is eager to have an e-commerce offering but I am pretty certain their price points or their business model for implementing their products is conducive to an e-commerce application.

Good question. I think it mostly depends on the product or service and target audience. Would the client be selling a high-priced tangible item or are they looking to promote a service?

There's no reason they couldn't do both. But if your gut is telling you that they are probably not going to convert many online sales, than it might be better to just go with an online application. Maybe also look at what their competitors are doing?

Domain parking is for registered websites that are not developed or are in the process of being developed. Instead of displaying a blank page or a message that says "site under construction," you can have your hosting company (or a third party) display ads on the site. If anyone clicks on those ads, you get a portion of the revenue.

I've never really heard of "article parking," but it sounds like another way of saying "made for adsense." In other words, you can publish an article and display adsense around it. Does that sound close to what you are looking for?