Host Tracker – Is Your Website Working?

by Sian on August 19, 2010

A command prompt showing a server denying a pi...
Image via Wikipedia

Just because you can see your website, doesn’t automatically mean the whole world can.

You can check who can see it by using the free Host Tracker service.

For the more techie ones out there, you can also check out these fancy bits…

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Google Lego 50th Anniversary Inspiration
Image by manfrys via Flickr

This was a question recently raised at one of our Business Web Marketing Training events.  Basically, if you buy and register a domain name for 10 years will you get massive SEO benefits.

Fortunately the answer is no. You don’t need to lash out to buy a domain name for 10 years. The optimum length of time is 2 years, but if you can’t afford that straight off then just go for the 1 and renew every year.

The relationship between you and google only gets off the ground when you are blogging, using that domain name, geting traffic, activity, visitors and it’s dynamic.

Only then does google start to give preferential treatment – all other things being equal – to domain names with a longer renewal date.

Until you have your domain name to that point – you are spending money you may not have if you are just starting out in internet marketing.

Plus – you need to buy multiple domain names in the beginning – and you don’t want to keep laying out $100 for each one of them – unless money is not an issue.

You would be better off investing in 10 great domain names for 1 year that drive traffic as landing pages with different keywords than buying just the one domain name which is registered up front for 10 years.

To clarify, 2 years is ideal but if funds are tight then just the 1 year will do just fine. If you have loads of money then go for 5 years.

Your domain names are your real estate on the internet so go broad.

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Blogging For Business – Why Bother?

by Sian

If you’re new to the internet as a marketing tool for your business, then you might be forgiven for thinking that blogging’s only purpose was to publish the diary type musings of people who like to share their day to day stuff; or that blogging is just a way for people who know about blogging [...]

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Terrified Into Getting Clients Through Public Speaking

by Sian

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

I’m not going to bore you with the statistic about how many millions of people are more scared by public speaking than of dying…but isn’t that a bit extreme?
It’s also a bit of a shame, because public speaking is about the meanest marketing tool there is.  Public speaking can win [...]

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Get Your 136 Page Traffic Blueprint Free – Get It Before It’s Gone

by Sian

Image by joiseyshowaa via Flickr

I’ve not tried this one out yet but wanted to give you a chance to give it a go.  All you need to do is click on this link – 136 Page Traffic Blueprint
Enjoy

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How To Make A Website

by Sian

Image via Wikipedia

If we believe google, each month around the globe, 368,000 people tap ‘How To Make A Website’ into google.
What’s a bit scary however, is that 3,370,000 sites turn up in the results. A potential 3,370,000 answers!  I wonder if some of them are different.  Perhaps they even contradict each other.  Yep.
4 years ago [...]

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Personal Branding Isn’t Just For Nike

by Sian

Image by Secret Tenerife via Flickr

Just because you’re a one man band, or a solopreneur (which seems to be the cool term right now) doesn’t mean you can afford to neglect your personal branding.
Sure you can neglect it for a while, but leave it for too long, and you’re going to be throwing good business [...]

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Secrets Of The 4 (YES FOUR) Websites You Must Have

by Sian

Image by Jim Linwood via Flickr

Now, if the thought of needing FOUR websites is sending you off to find your place of Zen, then I reckon you have already spent a lot of time or money (or both) sorting out the website for your business. If you have just the one website, then I’m also [...]

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Limiting Beliefs – Who’s YOUR Secret Saboteur?

by Sian

Image by dahowlett via Flickr

Just the other day I was talking to a group of MLM entrepreneurs and one of the questions was, “What is the most important thing you can do to move your business forward?”
There wasn’t a single word answer to this one and I spent a few minutes outlining what I believed [...]

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Is Curiosity The Key To Selling?

by Sian

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I’ve recently got hooked on studying the opening lines from popular novels and you can see a few of them over on my blog sianscribbles.
Grand.  But what can we learn as copywriters and marketers about opening lines.  When I go to buy a book I look at the cover.  If that piques my [...]

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‘NLP At Work’ – Book Review

by Sian

This is the book that takes NLP, or Neuro-linguistic programming out of the realm of spooky nonsense into the real world of work and business.
What I particularly appreciate about this book, is that you don’t need to be an NLP practitioner or trainer to understand and apply the techniques and principles.  It also puts the [...]

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What Is NLP?

by Sian

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The human mind is the most fantastic bio-computer ever created.  We just don’t always understand our coding because it’s not user friendly.  The application of NLP is to our bio-computer what Windows is to the PC.  It gives us access to all the programmes and installs software updates.
When you understand the [...]

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How To Find The USP For Your Sales Copy.

by Sian
Thumbnail image for How To Find The USP For Your Sales Copy.

Because your Unique Selling Point (USP), or Proposal, is the competitive advantage which sets your product apart from the competition, it should be the cornerstone of your sales copy.
Perhaps you are familiar with these three famous USP’s…
Avis Rent A Car: “We’re number two. We try harder.”
FedEx: “When it absolutely, positively has to get there overnight.”
Domino’s [...]

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Do You Accept A Crap Job Just Because You Bonk Your Business Partner?

by Sian
Thumbnail image for Do You Accept A Crap Job Just Because You Bonk Your Business Partner?

Well Do You?

If you are part of a couple in business, do you run it as a business, or is it an extension of your relationship? By that I mean, do you put up with a bad job because your other half did it, and you don’t want to hurt their feelings? Does yesterday’s [...]

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Do You Make These 10 Style Gaffs In Your Sales Copy?

by Sian

Besides excellent copywriting technique, appropriate style is a prerequisite for producing winning sales copy and is what distinguishes it from a sales brochure or an article. These are the ten important style guidelines…
Long sentences can be boring and difficult to read and digest. Avoid them. When you read copy out loud to yourself, lengthy sentences [...]

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Is Achieving Perfection On Your To-Do List?

by Sian

How often have you decided to launch a project and by the time you’ve got everything you think you need in place and ‘just so,’ the unproductive days have turned into months. In seeking perfection are we really nursing our fear of failure?
And why does everything have to be perfect?
Last January Mark and I were [...]

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What You Must Know About The Features and Benefits Of A Product

by Sian

Twist Features Into Benefits With This Simple Copywriters Trick
When copywriters say that sales copy must focus on benefits and not features, what do we mean? Well, a feature is all ME ME ME, describing the product. For example, I have a squillion qualifications….but really, who cares?
A benefit on the other hand is all about YOU [...]

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How To Write Headlines That Sell

by Sian

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If you understand how to play ‘Pin The Tail On The Donkey’ then you will know when you have created the perfect headline, and how to write headlines that sell.   If your headlines need improving then you have a choice.  You can pay a copywriter a lot of money to make it [...]

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Web Copy – The Most Important Details Are What You Leave Out

by Sian

Most web copy exists to make profit by generating leads or sales. To capture attention and interest, build desire and induce action, it must be so readable that the benefits and the offer are obvious from an initial scan.
To get this effect, copywriters often focus on what to include in their copy, [...]

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How To Recruit The Most Important Asset Your Business Can Buy

by Sian

If you rely on sales copy to move your product from dusty shelves to the bank, then you probably appreciate that the copywriter is the most important person in your business.
Imagine sitting at your desk fretting as you pick which copywriter to invest in. Unless you’re a millionaire this could be a make or [...]

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Cash Won’t Always Buy You Winning Sales Copy

by Sian

The best copywriters have to be fussy about who they work with because they know that copywriting is not a do-to event. It is a process which the copywriter and the client do-with each other. Together. It’s a team.
So if you want sales copy that drills into the psyche of [...]

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Skyrocket Your Sales When You Ditch The Bi-Polar Business Attitude And Learn How To Sulk

by Sian

When the performance gurus talk about riding out the highs and the lows of business, what they mean is that when business is swinging, you act cool, and when it goes wrong – you still act cool.
It is not wrong to celebrate success, but if you are still partying a week after you land the [...]

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Presenting The BluePrint For Writers Block

by Sian

Have you ever settled down to write your web sales copy and no words come out? Or, you vomit all the information gathered over days of research onto the page so you end up with a voluminous tome needing weeks of pruning to reveal the lean sales copy.
Perhaps all that you are lacking is [...]

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How To Be Certain YOU Get The Sale Without Trusting To Luck

by Sian

Have you ever been so turned off by a salesperson that you left, but later bought the same item somewhere else? The first guy didn’t annoy you on purpose, but because it is human nature, he was probably selling to you using his own buying strategy, instead of working out what your buying strategy is.
Even [...]

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How To Write Conscious Copy

by Sian

Many behaviourists now believe the human brain is programmed to dutifully answer questions. We constantly bombard ourselves with questions and our answers directly affect our results. When you understand this concept then questions become a powerful copywriting tool.
Imagine you own a factory which makes handbags. If you ask yourself…
‘How can I make [...]

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MAKE sure YOU get the correct emphasis in YOUR headline

by Sian

When copywriters produce a long headline they often emphasise certain words by bolding, underlining or capitalising them.
But you have to know which words to pick.
Web readers generally scan pages and an emphasized word acts as a STOPPER. It literally stops the reader in their tracks.
But your STOPPER also [...]

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Is Logo Ego Sapping Your Business Brawn?

by Sian

Many business newbies lose momentum by fretting over the design of their logo. This is understandable when we see companies like Nike and Virgin whose name alone can sell a product, but that is the crux of it.
A logo identifies the name of the company selling the product. And that is all.
A strong logo becomes [...]

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Two Concepts You Must Get If You Want Motivating Copy

by Sian

When you understand what motivates and persuades your reader to act then you can write copy which communicates from inside their own perspective.
Motivation can be either Towards or Away-from. The goal of making money can explain this. If you want money to buy a bigger house or a Rolls Royce, then [...]

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3 Tips For Emotional Copywriting

by Sian

If you already have the skeleton outline for your web copy you should have…
* Described what is possible when the product is used
* Established why the reader’s problem has not been solved before
* Established what has changed now
* Suggested what action should now be taken by the reader such as opting in or buying
Some people [...]

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10 Style Pitfalls To Avoid In Your Sales Copy

by Sian

Besides excellent copywriting technique, appropriate style is a prerequisite for producing winning sales copy and is what distinguishes it from a sales brochure or an article. These are the ten important style guidelines…
1. Long sentences can be boring and difficult to read and digest. Avoid them. When you read copy out [...]

Read the full article →