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One of the first things I do when I begin implementing a site is to force the www (or no-www) in the domain name. Why would I want to do this? For search engine optimization of course. For example, programimi.com redirects to www.programimi.com. What this means for Google is that it gets crawled as one site. Sites that link to programimi.com will add to the pagerank of www.programimi.com. Theoretically, this could double your Pagerank score (but not necessarily your Pagerank rating).

Anyway, here is the code to add to your .htaccess file to force www, but make sure mod_rewrite apache module is turned on:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(.*)\.programimi\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.programimi.com/$1 [R=301,L]

And here is the code to force no-www (in spirit of no-www.org):

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.programimi\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://programimi.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Of course, replace programimi.com above with your own domain name. To edit your .htaccess file you may need to enable view hidden files, or if the file doesn’t exist, you’ll have to create it yourself. The best way is to do it through an SSH connection to your server.

If you don’t have access to .htaccess, you could also accomplish the same thing through php with a simple script at the top of every page that will try to find www in the URL and redirect if found. Not the most elegant solution, but it does what it needs to do for those who can’t edit .htaccess for some reason.

if(!substr($_SERVER[’HTTP_HOST’], ‘www’)) //check if www exists in URL
{ header(’Location: http://www.programimi.com/’); //redirect to www.programimi.com
}

Or for those using wordpress, you could simply install a plugin that does all this for you! One example plugin is WWW-Redirect.

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When Google first introduced Adsense, it was a virtually unknown element. The few webmasters who began using it made a lot of money in those first few months. However, now Adsense is so common, you see it repeated various times on every webpage!

Have we become immune to the lure of Adsense? Some webmaster say yes, others claim that they are still earning well using Google’s system. It all boils down to how you use this tool.

Making Adsense blend into your page is supposed to be the best way to earn with it, but now webmasters are discovering that this might not be ideal. People are accustomed to clicking on electric blue links. We all do it and now that everyone is so web-savvy, they automatically look for blue links. So if your webpage features pink or green links, you should consider keeping Adsense links blue. The rest of the ad can match your theme, just make sure that people realize the links are clickable.

Placing ads where they can’t be missed is another technique that is not always used to the best effect. For example, an Adsense banner at the top of your page might make sense since it is the first thing people see, but you also have to take into account how jaded folks are. We see these banners everywhere. We came to your site for specific information and the banner is in the way!

Instead, why not try putting a block of text ads or a vertical banner to the right hand side of the page where it draws the eye but doesn’t stop the reader from getting the information they came to get.

Another useful place to put your Adsense ads is at the bottom of your page as well as in the middle of an article. If you do place a block in the middle of an article, make sure people know that the information continues below and don’t make the block too big. A line of text ads or a small box are all you need.

Placing ads at the end of your article is a good way to get clicks from people who want to know more on the topic. If you have a decent article, seeded with relevant keywords, you should have ads that your readers will find useful at the bottom of the page.

Having well-written content that contains around 5-10% keyword frequency is often the best way to make sure you have relevant ads. Having relevant ads is the key to getting clicks!

Make sure you don’t use any techniques that Google deems inappropriate or you will lose your account and that will be the end of all earnings! This includes clicking on your own Adsense or asking others to. It is not a good idea to try and cheat, since Google has eyes everywhere. One hint that you might not be playing by the rules and “Adios, Adsense!” So stick to real techniques instead!

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Normally, if you want to have professional designers custom build your site, you must be prepared to dish out at least a few hundred dollars. All this can change if you know where to find the best deals, the best designs for the lowest price. Here’s a rough guide:

First, you must understand that it is a rip off to get companies to design websites for you. Have you ever seen those advertisements in newspaper classified ad sections that offer a 5-page website at $500? These companies are established companies with physical locations, therefore they have to increase the amount they charge to pay off some overheads: office rent, designer’s wages, advertising costs and so on.

Therefore, it would be wise to find freelance designers who work from home. These people are often working from home so they do not have a high operation cost like that of a company. On the other hand, they will be able to design images with quality similar to those of designers from big companies, so it’s a “no-brainer” choice.

However, choose freelancers with care. The best way to do this would be to go to elance.com. There, you can post the abstract of your project and get thousands of freelancers to bid on your project, so you will surely get the best deal. On top of that, you will be able to choose the designers based on their experience, past transactions and ratings, so your value for money is secured.

Another route you can take is to design your website yourself. Think about it, if you only need 5 simple pages to present some simple information, why waste hundreds of dollars for it? Just spend a little time to sit down and do it yourself. You’ll be able to design your own sites even if you do not know a single line of HTML code with the help of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs such as Microsoft Frontpage, Macromedia Dreamweaver and so on.

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Podcasting is a relatively new method of delivering radio to listeners with internet access. This free method of listening to your favorite radio show is becoming increasingly popular as more and more people learn about it. Podcasting is usually commercial free, which is another reason for its popularity.

Podcasting is also extremely popular because you choose when and where you want to listen to it. You can also decide which episode you want to hear and have a choice of listening to the podcasting episodes on an iPod (where this distribution form got its name from), a computer or any MP3. The flexibility of podcasting has catapulted it into the public’s attention.

In order to get started downloading podcasts, you need to download a podcatcher program. This allows your computer to automatically download podcasting episodes of your favorite radio shows which have been converted into digital audio files. There are several podcatchers, with the most popular being Apple’s iTunes which is also a searching device for new and interesting podcasting. You can use it to find more radio shows that you might be interested in listening to.

Other podcatchers that are free include Juice and Odeo. Both of these podcatchers also have podcasting search engines built in so you find new radio shows to download. Once you have a radio show that you wish to listen to, you can subscribe to the RSS feed so that your podcatcher can download the radio shows without you having to go to the radio website each time a new episode is released. This saves incredible amounts of time and is quite easy to use, as all the podcatchers have an easy to use interface that allows you to subscribe to the RSS feeds with just the click of a button.

Once you have set up your podcasting preferences, you don’t have to worry about anything except searching for new and more interesting podcasting feeds. It is very easy to discard or erase any shows that you no longer enjoy and since all the episodes of your favorite radio shows will be saved on your computer, they are able to be accessed or downloaded to your iPod or MP3 player for easy listening whenever you wish. Unsubscribing from any podcasting broadcast is quite easy as well and you can quickly find new shows to replace the ones you delete.

There are various websites dedicated to podcasting where you can find information and new podcasts as well as fellow radio fanatics who are more than willing to share their favorite radio show feeds with you. Among the more popular are Podcasting News and Podcast as well as Podcast Alley. You can find podcasting forums on all of these websites as well as featured radio shows, both popular and lesser known. It is a good opportunity to find something new and unique for your personal radio programming.

Podcasting is still growing in popularity as it is a fairly new technology. It has great potential though and will probably continue to improve and expand over the years to come, so go ahead and jump in now.

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If you have even a remote interest in earning money on the internet, you have probably come across those pay per click programs that promise fabulous amounts of money just by clicking on ads and completing free offers. Are these things for real? Let’s take a look at exactly how they work and why you should avoid them.

The reality is that these pay per click websites are earning quite a bit of money off of their users. Sure, they might pay you a sum of money for doing the offers on their site, but rest assured that they are earning far more than you are! Between paid ads and the payment they receive for sending you to collect all those special offers, the pay per click sites are raking it in! And they have even more techniques to make money off of their unsuspecting users.

For example, have you ever read the Terms and Conditions contract that is on the website of one of these pay per click programs? If not, you should. You are almost guaranteed to find that they are not protecting you against anything. Your private information will become public knowledge and not only that, but possibly sold for yet more profit by the pay per click company or its affiliates!

While many pay per click sites really do pay up, they often have a payout limit that takes forever to reach so many people give up before getting to their goal of $50 or whatever the amount is and the company never needs to actually pay up. And when you do reach the payout level, there are far too many pay per click sites that actually refuse to pay!

That is the downside of the actual pay per click company, but what about the offers that you are completing? There are assorted different offers that you can fill out. Anything from simply filling out a form with your email address and name to ordering a product or a quote that you pay for and are then reimbursed for (on top of which you receive a bonus from the pay per click company).

If you fill out a form on a pay per click site, you are probably signing up for an email newsletter from the company that is paying. These are the lowest paying pay per click actions, ranging from fifty cents to a dollar. You are guaranteed to receive heaps of ads and junk mail to your inbox after signing up for one of these offers, and just deleting them all takes so much time that the piddly sum isn’t worth it!

As for the major pay per click offers where you sign up for a free trial period or a quote or other item that requires you to enter your credit card, stay far, far away. Too many people have been cheated out of their money by these companies when they were unable to cancel their membership when the trial period came up. These sites are usually designed so that you can’t quit even if you want to and they just keep charging your credit card, month after month.

Pay per click programs sound great, but they are often a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It is better to look for a real online job rather than waste your time with these programs.

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For those of you who are new to the internet this whole online business thing might seem a little overwhelming. If you have never really surfed online, you might find yourself wondering how to find information on the things that interest you. Once you get the hang of things, you shouldn’t have any troubles at all. This article will explain the basics for you.

Search engines are the new to the internet surfer’s best friend. The most popular ones include Google, Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista, and Ask Jeeves. There are plenty of others, but as someone who is new to the internet, these will serve you just fine.

Since you are new to the internet, what a search engine does is take the important words that you type in and looks for the same words in millions of webpages around the world. It then throws back all those matching pages and they appear in front of you. This usually only takes a few seconds since all these pages and articles are already indexed. The most popular and most relevant (according to the main words) will appear at the top of the list.

For example, if you type in “craft supplies, wheat, felt, google eyes”, your first results on the search engine page will appear with all of these. Further down, or on the next page will come those that didn’t match all of the search terms. Perhaps they only had felt and craft supplies on the list. And so on and so forth until in the last pages you are looking at just one of any of the words that you entered, such as “eyes” or “craft”. For this reason, most people don’t bother looking further than those first two or three pages.

Once you have typed in the words or phrases that you are interested in and gotten back your results, you are ready to start looking at websites. This can get a bit confusing for those who are new to the internet. There is so much information crammed into a tiny space that it can be difficult to know what to look for. The first few results on the page, the ones that are separated by a colored box or a line, are sponsored links and they will generally lead you to a website that is trying to sell you something. Most new to the internet explorers fall for the appealing text of these ads, so stay away from them. Continue downwards until you find the real websites.

Each website has a title and a brief description. You can often tell from the few sentences that you can see whether or not this is something that you wish to look at. Many people who are new to the internet only read the titles and click, but these are not necessarily indicative of what there is on the page, so read the description, too. If the site is not what you thought, hit the back button at the top of your screen and try another site.

Just because you are new to the internet doesn’t mean you need to end up lost in cyberspace. Understanding how to use a search engine is the first step in getting to the sites you want to visit. After that, everything else is easy.

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You see banner advertising everywhere online. They are those wide picture bands that stream across the top of WebPages, or down the sides, claiming that you can change your life by clicking on the photo. The great thing about banner advertising is that you, the average webmaster, can earn money with them!

There are a few different ways to bring in the cash with banner advertising. The first is to take on paid advertisers. These are companies that pay you to have their banner on your webpage. They provide you with the code and you place the banner advertising on your website. The price often depends on the placement of the ad on your page. For example, the highest payment would come from a banner ad at the very top of your page since this is where most people look first. A banner at the bottom will not earn you as much.

Banner advertising from third parties pay in one of two manners, per click or per impression. Pay per click is slightly higher than per impression. This is due to the fact that you could have a million page hits and only three or four clicks on the banner ad. However, although higher in pay, the pay per click program requires that your visitors actually take an action upon seeing the ad, or you receive nothing. For this reason, some webmasters prefer the pay per impression. Every time the page loads with the ad on it, you receive a small amount of money.

The second method of earning money is to promote affiliate programs through banner advertising. This requires that you sign up for as an affiliate for a product that you want to promote. You will be given the necessary codes to place the banner you choose (there are often several options) on your WebPages.

Affiliate banner advertising can be very productive in the way of earning, but they are more difficult to earn with. To get your money from the average affiliate program, you must have visitors that not only click on the banner, but perform a specific action upon being transferred to the ads website. This usually means buying a product or signing up for more information or paying for a membership of some sort. Obviously, many people will click the banner, but never pay a dime, leaving you with nothing.

With affiliate banners, you can actually write a review on your website, directing people to the great offer within the banner ad. This will raise the possibilities of having your visitors actually complete the offer. If they do, you will earn far more than simple third party ads. Affiliates often pay up to hundreds of dollars, depending on the product they are selling.

The last type of banner advertising is from Google Adsense. These pay you per click, with the rate depending on the popularity of the keyword. Adsense is a rather complicated subject and it is best to research it before using.

Banner advertising is a great way to add a bit of extra income to your website and they are free to set up, so there is no reason why you shouldn’t start putting them on your site today!

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Link popularity is a common term that is used with internet marketing. It basically means how many links to your website from other sites on the internet there are. There are various ways to measure this and this article will help you make sense of them.

Link popularity is important to all webmasters. It determines where you rank on the search engine pages for your keywords and can be absolutely vital in getting that coveted number one space on Google! While other factors are included in the equation, link popularity definitely figures high on the list and you should do your best to increase your incoming link as much as possible.

First of all, if you just want to check and see how many other ranked sites are linked to you on any particular search engine, you can simply enter “link:” (minus quotation marks) followed by the URL of your website and hit Enter. This will quickly turn up a basic link popularity count for you and is a good indication of the number of links you have from other areas.

It is important to note that you will get different results from different search engines because each search engine ranks link popularity according the links that it personally knows about. So if a website that links to you has made it onto Yahoo’s list, but not Google’s, it will only appear as a link in your link popularity rating when you do a search on Yahoo. On Google, you will be at least one link down.

Also, there are filters that may prohibit backlinks from being counted toward your site. This can affect your link popularity rating as well, changing it from search engine to search engine. It can also change with time, as the search engines are constantly adjusting their filters and requisites for link popularity.

PageRank, by Google is a basic form of link popularity, ranking sites from 0 (no link popularity) to 6 (amazingly high link popularity) must be taken with a grain of salt because of the above. There are most likely many sites that link to you which are not yet listed on Google and have not been spidered. They will not show up on your PageRank number until Google has checked them and only then if they are not banned by the filtering system which is notoriously difficult to get through on Google.

There are special freeware and shareware programs such as Link Popularity Check 3.0.3. You can install these on your computer and check your link popularity at any point with the click of a mouse. Or, if you prefer not to download anything, you can find several link popularity counters online. Some can even be set up right on your website, to display your link popularity stats to the public. This is only recommended if you happen to have fairly high ratings, otherwise, you are simply advertising that you are not very popular!

Link popularity is fairly easy to check and it is worth keeping an eye on after any promotional campaign. This way, you can see which marketing techniques boost your ratings more and continue only with the successful ones.

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No matter how brilliant your website design is, if it is hard to reach the content of your site then your site is as useful as an empty shell. Here are some tips to improve the usability of your website to ensure it serves its functions optimally.

The first method is to make sure the typography of your content is suitable. If you have large blocks of text, make sure to use CSS to space out the lines accordingly. The longer a single line of text is, the greater the line-height of each line should be. Also, make sure the font size of your text is big enough to read easily. Some sites have 10-pixel-tall text in Verdana font; while that may look neat and tidy, you have to really strain your eyes to read the actual text.

Make it easy for visitors to find content that they want on your site. If you have thousands of articles on your site and a certain visitor wants to find one single article from that pile, you have to provide a feasible means to enable visitors to do that without hassle. Be it an SQL-driven database search engine or just a glossary or index of articles that you have, providing such a feature will make sure your visitors can use your site with ease.

Ensure that your site loads fast if you do not want to lose visitors. Most internet users will leave a website if it doesn’t load completely within 15 seconds, so make sure the crème de la crème of your website is delivered to the visitors as soon as possible to retain their attention.

Last of all, test each and every link on your site before it goes online. There is nothing more effective in tarnishing your professional image than broken links, so be very careful about that.

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