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A lot of webpublishers that are new to web publishing would see any traffic to one of their web sites as great regardless of quality. What I and many before me have to come to find is that the quality of traffic is key for any web site that is selling a product. If you are not selling tangible goods you are still selling advertisements to your visitors so in essence either way you look at it you are selling something that you audience has to be interested in.

If you are selling tangible goods or information that takes over 5 seconds to digest you just well could be wasting your time using stumbleupon as a promotional method. Users of stumbleupon use stumbleupon not when they can’t find what they are looking for but when they have ran out of things to look for.

With this in mind the best web sites to promote via stumbleupon are entertainment web sites. Web sites that can engage the visitor and keep them entertained will have a much better of keeping the visitor firstly and in time converting that visitor into a advert click or new registration (dependant on your model). Small widget sites such as that provide something quick and cool and end with an advert click are perfect.

The point is people are always going to revert their favorite search engine to find information that really matters to them, after which they may use stumbleupon to kill some time.

I tried the allcreative link exchange system amongst other things to see the promotional power of stumbleupon for a niche site that I have just started. The results were pretty poor. The site received around 200 unique visitors per day for a few days from stumbleupon and is still receiving them now in dribs and draps but with zero conversions (adverts or affiliates). This is down to the fact that the niche appeals to a large audience but needs visitors that are more targeted in order to complete conversions. The majority of stumbleupon users will not be sat with their credit card at the ready waiting to stumble over the web site that sells what they are looking for.

Just to sum up what has been said. If you have an entertainment web site that is light hearted and engaging then stumbleupon could be an absolute winner for you but if you have a site that is more involved you could well struggle to keep a stumbleupon visitor and struggle even further to get them to convert to sale.

Publishers are becoming increasingly frustrated with Google Adsense and what seems to be their decline into a sub par source of revenue. Yahoo Publisher Network and Microsoft’s ad center may be too late into the race by the time they are fully available for all publishers to use. In short people are moving away from contextual PPC adverts and looking for smarter ways of monetizing their web sites.

Step in booBox a fusion of affiliate programs and contextual advertising. The real beauty of booBox is the fact that the conversion all takes place in a lightbox that sits on top of your web site and can be closed any time, returning the visitor to where they were.

booBox is such a simple idea but in theory so effective. It is a sign that things are moving on from Google Adsense and the like which are now starting to look slightly dated and all too obvious inside content pages.

Whether or not booBox will be the service to turn the advertising game on its head is a big question and one I would be inclined to say no to. I think booBox will be a spring board for other companies and services to learn from and improve upon.

Make no mistake there is nothing revolutionary about the technology behind booBox but it is innovative to say the least and could certainly lead us in a new direction for contextual advertising.

What I am going to do is submit a short article that I whipped up in around 30 minutes to a few high end article directories and keep track of the response it gets from these sites.

I am looking to see if the traffic gains are worth spending an increased amount of time each month creating articles for submission to various directories and also if the ad revenue increases during the traffic increase (if any) to see the quality of the traffic.

What am I submitting ?

I am submitting an short (around 270 word) article about pushing domain names. I have created the article from scratch as I don’t want to republish any content from the site.

• domainpush.txt

Where it will appear …

I have submitted the article to five article directories hoping that it is just long enough to get into them all. These directories are the ones I have heard the best things about from various people.

• goarticles.com
• ezinearticles.com
• articlebiz.com
• articlecity.com
• easyarticles.com

More updates to come as and when we start seeing some movement.

Google’s section targeting as explained from this entry in their help section ;

“Section targeting allows you to suggest sections of your text and HTML content that you’d like us to emphasize or downplay when matching ads to your site’s content. By providing us with your suggestions, you can assist us in improving your ad targeting.”

What this means is that you can target certain content only from your web site and ignore everything else if you wish (requires the ignore tag). It isn’t a greatly publicized feature of adsense, I’m not sure why maybe to stop people miss using it ? who knows. It can greatly improve the targeting of your google adsense acording to google so we are giving it a try here.

We are highlighting our article content in order to bring up more webmaster related ads. Web publisher brings up printing services and general book publishing ads which are well paid words but are not relevant at all.

For more information on google section targeting head over to their help page on the subject.

As it turns out there is as of writing this only one other web site that offers the same stumbleon link exchange tool and all though it would seem to present more features than ours both systems have their merits which should allow both to prosper. We were lucky and had we researched we may have gone ahead and made the tool anyway. None the less it was a useful reminder that no matter how good your idea, web site or service is you have to research it probably before deciding to build it.

Types of ideas

Different types of ideas come about from different situations in the stumbleon example we felt as though there was a niche shaped void to be filled and it could be done quite easily, with allcreatives.net we felt as though we wanted to share our insights regardless of existing webmaster sites. Other ideas are born from people not finding what they are looking for and in turn building it themselves. Each situation requires different research but many basic principles stay the same.

Searching for future competitors

This is the first step. Can you find what you want you are planning to offer ? try google, directories and any other information source that has the potential to give you a url to any competition you may have. Don’t forget however that the web is bigger than google (only just!) and try social bookmarking and link sites like digg, reddit and the link. If you are contemplating building something that you can’t find then ask colleagues and friends if they have come across the service or web site you are looking for.

Sizing up the competition

At this point you may have found anywhere between none and one hundred potential competitors. The chances are that there will be a t least one service or web site offering what you want to. If there are hundreds of great web sites that offer the same content or service that you are planning then it may just be a case of giving up and waiting for the next idea, you have to think about whether you time you invest in getting ahead of those web sites is anywhere near the reward you are wanting. Alternatively you can take a saturated service and put a new twist on it again this all depends on the time invested vs the reward gained and is explored further below.

If there are only a few web sites that you can found or have been told about that offer the content or service you are planning then you could be finding yourself a nice niche. Something to consider here is how reputable the web site(s)or service(s) you are attempting to take on are. If they have the market share already then any attempt may be futile again this is all dependant on how much time you are willing to invest which is explained in the next paragraph.

Finding a hook

So you have established competition and have decided to go ahead and build your idea aferall. You have already decided that the time invested will be well worth the reward. If you have found that there isn’t a great amount of competition then you may not need to compete against the sites and services that already exist infact what you see as competition may compliment your web site or service and users will be happy to use both web sites and services as long as they stay relevant.

If you are going head to head with another service or web site and want to take their users then you will need to find a hook. Something that will better your competition and will make the difference when somebody decides who they are going to use. This is where you will need to spend a alot of time using your competitor’s web site or services and really get to know what they are missing. Do everything they are doing but build on it, give their users what they don’t get from your competitors and they will use your service.

“A midget standing on the shoulder of a giant can see much further than the giant”.

What next ?

Get on and build your service or web site and promote it as best you can. If your features live up to the competition and you manage to offer more then the users will come without doubt. Very few services or web sites have a rock solid brand loyalty and people will usually use the service or web site that makes their lives easier or packs a bigger punch (more features).

For more information on promotion see our Promotion articles.

About payperpost ?

Payperpost and a few other copycat web sites have established a business model whereby people can pay blog owners and content web sites for posting reviews and features on their web sites. Its as simple as that.

My thoughts

I actually signed up at payperpost to promote a niche site I had in the making when I starting having doubts over how good the service would be. I logged out and didn’t return until I received an email informing me that I had $100 credited to my account as a promotional gift and that I should use within a certain date. What caused me to log out and not return until I was given free credit and what will keep me away from spending any advertisement dollars there is the system which does not allow me to approve where my ads are placed and the quality of site that they are placed upon.

The system allows you to first fund your account, create an opportunity and then wait until members take your opportunity and blog about the web site as you have requested. This would be great if the quality of members was at a high level at but unfortunately it seems their entry requirement aren’t so high.

The results of my $100 spent was fairly poor, I received 30 clicks which amounts to around $3.00 per view. What’s more I have 11 backlinks from sites that ALL have 0 Pagerank and are well within their rights to delete said link within 30 days.

In closing

If I had spent $100 on payperpost from my own pocket I would have been extremely disappointed. If you have $100 spare to invest then make sure you do it somewhere better than payperpost. A good plan can make $100 across a lot more than 11 sites with a page rank of 0 and can bring a lot more traffic than 30 uniques.

The script itself is very simple and can be used by anybody. The reason I created it was to quicken up the process for webmasters who were trawling through pages and pages of posts over at digitalpoint to get their web sites stumbled on.

It is rough around the edges but should ease the load of those wanting to participate ten fold. Using this script you can keep track of those you have stumbled across and if they have returned the favour.

Stumbleupon has the potential to increase traffic by a few thousand uniques per day according the original poster so I will be interested to see how this works for people.

You see the original Digital Point post here and you can head over and start using the tool straight away here

First off it is important to define exactly what we are talking about here. The design of a web site is understood by the majority to be how good a web site looks, how easy it is on the eye. When you dig a bit deeper you will be exposed to the information architecture or the information design as I said in the heading. This is the area which many gloss over, don’t understood or just can’t be bothered to understand.

When you begin to publish sites and as you continue to publish web sites you begin to view web sites in a different way than regular visitors ie. you visit a web site notice the ads and instinctively pass them by for the information you are looking for where as a regular visitor may get stuck on the ad and click away from the site. In the same way that as a designer I can’t help visit a web site without examining the design a little bit closer than most.

This is where the importance of good information design comes in. If you can manage as a publisher to put yourself in the position of a regular visitor who knows nothing about design, google adsense or seo rankings and is just looking for the content they want then you can plan how to give this and other visitors the best of your web site. A long time before you start thinking of colors, bevels and drop shadows.

So does ugly sell

No more than beautiful does. The problem comes when people take too long making a site look beautiful and neglect what is really important which is, you guessed it, information design.

What’s the point

The point here is very simple. Before you sit down and design how your web site will look or brief somebody on how it should you look. You need to think about how the site will work. How people will get around the site, how they will interact with each element and ultimately how they will exit your web site through an ad or something purchased.

Resources to get you started …

• A simple design plan
• More site planning
• User Interaction, taking the good with the bad
• Grey Box Methodology
• Avoid Edge Cases
• Introducing the grid layout
• Why use a grid ?

So you’ve done a bit of research and decided to purchase your first domain. You’ve decided the extension you’ll be wanting and also have a general idea of what the domain name will actually be. All you need to know now is how to go and purchase that domain in simple straight forward english. Read on for our guide to buying your first domain ….

Buying a domain name for the first time can be daunting to say the least especially when being forced to buy privatley (Which we’ll discuss later). Buying direct from a domain registrar such as godaddy, enom or registerfly is always preferable as it eradicates the need to mess about with domain pushes, transfers or anyother involvement you may encounter buying from a private seller. The problem comes with finding that right domain that isn’t already registered. If your domain name is going to be your own name or a specific name of a personal project that you want to brand then this may not be a problem. But if your website is going to be based around a subject that is already established and fairly popular then the only option may be private buying. First we’ll look at systematicly ruling out buying privately …

Is my prefered domain name available ?

There is a simple way to check whether or not your prefered domain name is available. If you go to any domain registrar you will be able to search through the list of available domains simply by typing in your prefered domain to a pretty much standard text box every domain registrar has.You can use any registrar you want and searching on there site by no means you have to purchase from them.

My prefered domain name is registered ?

Too bad ! why not try some variations on the name ie. If you were trying to register domain.com why not try domainonline.com or edomain.com. Theres lots of combinations to be made but if the topic is very popular you may find many if not all of the extensions are taken. Still no luck ? then skip past the next paragraph it looks like your going to have to buy privately.

My prefered domain name is available ?

Great ! that means you can register it straight away all you need to do now is find a good registrar. Your’ll be spoilt for choice when registering a domain, your’ll also be faced with lots of offers but it’s best to stick with the tried and tested registrars. We recommend the following Domain companies that have great reputations and even better prices ;

• Godaddy
• Registerfly
• Enom
• Namecheap

Please note if you are based in the UK then registering a domain in us currency is alot cheaper than
registering your domain with an english company. Godaddy accept paypal as do namecheap so even having no credit card isn’t a problem.

When you have found a registrar you are happy to go ahead just do the regular search you performed before and then select the domain to buy from here you’ll be asked for various details as you normally would when buying online. After this your’ll have opened an account and all going well would have your first domain under your control.

So my domain name isn’t available …

Unlucky but chances are your’ll be able to pick up a similar domain or the very same one from a private domain seller.

What is a private domain name seller ?

A private domain name seller is an individual or company that registers domain names they see of high value in order to resell them later on. Private domain sellers can also be classified as domain buyers who bought a domain previously with intentions of developing the domain into a web site but due to circumstances never did so.

How do I buy from a private domain name seller ?

There are a few options for buying from a private domain seller that are listed below;

Domain Marketplaces. eg. Sedo.com , sell-my.com, pool.com etc.
Private sellers may choose to list there web site at a domain marketplace. Domain marketplaces allow domain owners to publicise there domains better by listing them along side other domains and setting a price that offers can be made on. In turn serious domain name buyers can browse the lists and make offers as they want.Only very popular and fairly valuable domains are listed at Marketplaces so it’s best to check your budget before making an offer but its always worth a look. Just goto one of the following web sites and search for a domain that interests you. From there you can register and make an offer if you wish to ;

• Pool.com
• Sedo.com
• Sell-my.com
• https://www.registerfly.com/market/

Something else to consider when buying through a domain marketplace is that the marketplace will hold your hand so to speak all the way from when the bid is accepted and can take alot of the stress away from buyers especially sedo.com who assign a physical person to each deal as a broker . With this is mind buying from a marketplace can be much more beneficial for first time buyers with decent size budgets.

Webmaster Forums
You can usually pick up good value domains on various webmaster forums. Private sellers regulaly sell domains in bulk on webmaster forums in specific threads by auction. This can be good way of registering a domain similar to what you wanted without breaking the bank. It also gives you a good scope as to what is available as well as choice and variety . To make bids on domains your’ll have to sign up as a member of the forum and then place a bid in the specific thread that is auctioning the domain you want to buy. This method has the potential to be the cheapest way of doing things but other factors such as rival bids could drive the price upwards. The following forums all have specific areas for auctioning domain names ;

• Sitepoint forums
• NamePros
• Digital point forums

Direct contact
Direct contact with a domain name owner is possible and maybe a shrewd way of landing a domain name if you can’t find one you want via the other methods mentioned in this article. Not all domain owners are open to direct contact but here’s a rundown of how to find out the contact details of any domain name owner if availiable.

There is a central database named the WHOIS database that contains owner details from every domain registered. It is possible for any member of the public to search the whois database and find out the owner of any domain. This is where you will be able to get contact details for the owner of the domain you want to enquire about. If you goto http://resellers.tucows.com/ you can use there onsite search box to search for the domain name you are intrerested in and from the results gather contact details such as the email address of the domain ownner. From here you can make a direct offer, chances are if the domain isn’t active a deal can be worked out. Please note that some domain owners ‘opt-out’ of the WHOIS databased and therefore your search may return no contact details.

I�ve come to a deal with the owner , what next ?

Well first you need to pay via whatever method suits both you and the buyer after this there are two ways for you to become the owner of the domain. Either way will require you to have an account with a domain registrar but the first way may help decided which one to sign up with. Signing up with 99.9% of domain registrars is free and won�t cost you a penny, all you have todo is goto there web site and sign up for a free account without registering a domain. There is also nothing to stop a domain owner having multiple accounts at various domain registrars which you may want to do after reading through the ways of receiving a domain.

Pushing a domain

Pushing a domain name is by far the easiest way of receiving a domain you have paid for. All that is required of you is to have an account at the registrar where the domain is currently registered. You should ask the current owner where the domain is registered (if he hasn�t already informed you) and open a free account at that domain registrar or use your current account if you have one. Once you have a username at the domain registrar where the domain is currently registered you can tell the current owner who you have just paid what your username is and he can push the domain into your account. The domain will show instantly in your account and you will have control over it. It�s as simple as that.

Transferring a domain

Transfering a domain can be a lot lengther process than pushing a domain but is useful if you have an account at one registrar and want to keep it or you want to sign up at one registrar and one only. This method of thinking keeps your domains under one roof and easier to manage but can incur extra costs and takes longer as already stated. Transfer policies differ from amongst the different registrars but will normally take between 7-10 days for the request to be reviewed and accepted then another 3 days for the transfer to be completed. In the mean time both parties involved in the transfer will have to confirm the transfer via the web and emails. Some registrars require physical documents to be send to them. Another thing to consider regarding transferring domains is that when transferring the domain into your current account the domain name will be automatically renewed for a set number of years depending on the registrar and you will be charged for it. Some registrars also charge to transfer away from them so buyers and sellers beware.

The domain is in my account what next ?

The domain is now yours to do with as you wish ! enjoy. Now you have the domain you can start building on it.