The spyware problem is out of control. There are companies making a fortune right now "monetizing" traffic at the expense of imbedding trojan viruses in PCs. Many forms of spyware and adware are now so insidious that you can't remove them unless you are an advanced "techie." Be especially wary of free downloadable "browser toolbars" from non-mainstream providers. There have been cases where PCs, and networks have been essentially disabled due to the invasion of hidden trojans. The ...

I have a new article about online marketing that was distributed via PR Web: http://www.prweb.com/releases/?86792

SEO Plan Getting Customer Feedback Rather than ask other marketers or copywriters to critique your site, why not ask your potentual customers? Provide an easy to complete form with no more than three questions and offer a thank you gift as an inducement for them to give you feedback. Not only do you learn about their likes and dislikes, you also get to make them an offer on a thank you page and get their email address! Courtesy of John Taylor via Daily Marketing Ace

By GEOFF CAPLAN Did you know that web linkage is responsible for a significant amount of web traffic? Search engines are still extremely important but many of the most successful e-commerce sites claim that linkage programs offer a tremendous source of web traffic. It makes sense. The nature of the World Wide Web encourages serious web surfers to navigate from site to site through the links to other related sites and resources "found" on the sites that are visited. Peop...

The temptation among internet marketers to SPAM is greater than ever. If you're new to the Net, be aware that SPAM isn't the popular food from Hormel but a pseudonym for "unsolicited commercial email," also known as UCE. SPAM is a definite no-no. It's also the quickest way to destroy your online reputation. Unlike conventional mail, unsolicited email can provoke a hostile, negative, and destructive reaction. There are individuals on the Web who will contact your Internet Service Provider, ...

This resource will help you to discover the right keywords! Wordtracker helps you find all keyword combinations that bear any relation to your business - many of which you probably never have considered. Wordtracker will also tell you how often people search for various keyword combinations, and how many competing sites use those keywords. Discovering the right keywords is an important step to effective online marketing.

Marketing is essential to your online presence. The tactics and strategies used to market your site are more important than ever. Uniqueness, innovation, creativity and targeted messaging must be present. It’s not enough to join the “dare to be different crowd” in today’s hypercompetitive online marketplace. Campaigns must be well designed for creativity and intelligently relate to the needs and interests of targeted markets. Offerings must be actionable and results-oriented. That’s wher...

Microsoft denies talks with Google, closes in on web search domination, Google customers rage about the latest AdWords change and further information about the effect of Flash elements on your web site.

LookSmart has entered the field of full-text article searching. They launched a service today that allows Internet users to search more than 700 publications to find 3.5 million articles. It replaces their former FindArticles publication database.

In an effort to tap into many of the estimated 10 million small businesses that focus on local customers, search engines are looking into ways to help them target localized consumers through their search results. Here are some of their recent activities: Google is beta testing its new Search By Location service . This service allows users to query across the entire web and retrieve results that match the key phrase and localized region that is specified. Results are shown with both a map ...

You've got a killer product and a state of the art website. "Now, how do you get your site noticed and generate the kind of traffic that converts to sales?" A professional ad agency or promotion company will get you noticed but their services cost money. If you are just starting out or have a limited budget, there are great ways to promote your website that cost you your time but little money. And the time you invest in learning what works will pay off even if you deci...

The recent shakeup in Google's search results, which set the SEO (search engine optimization) community buzzing and saw tens of thousands of webmasters watch their site ranking plummet, was in many ways inevitable. Almost all SEO companies and most savvy webmasters had a fairly good handle on what Google considered important. And since SEO, by definition, is the art of manipulating website ranking (not always with the best interests of searchers in mind), it was only a matter of tim...

A few years ago, it was a common practice to create separate pages for each search engine for each important keyword phrase, then use a robots.txt file to keep other engines out of the engine-specific pages. However, most of us have now changed our philosophy. After all, that "old" strategy was extremely time consuming! We can save an enormous amount of time and energy if we create a "generic" page to begin with. Why go to the trouble to create engine-specific pages when a generic page wil...

November 2003 might go down in history as the month that Google shook a lot of smug webmasters and search engine optimization (SEO) specialists from the apple tree. But more than likely, it was just a precursor of the BIG shakeup to come. Google touts highly its secret PageRank algorithm. Although PageRank is just one factor in choosing what sites appear on a specific search, it is the main way that Google determines the "importance" of a website. In recent months, SEO specia...

A major retailer recently discovered through its tracking and clickthrough performance data that its customer referrals from search engines was considerably lower than that of their direct competitors. As a result, the company decided to re- evaluate their search marketing strategy. Using the data, the major retailer was able to identify which competitors were optimizing search traffic, which search engines were the most effective partners for the retail industry, and the timing of comp...