Breaking: Microsoft is acquiring advertising network aQuantive, the parent company to Avenue A | Razorfish, Atlas and DRIVEpm, for roughly $6 billion in an all-cash transaction, the company said this morning.aQuantive is a public company (AQNT) and had a market cap of just $2.8 billion as of yesterday. The acquisition price of $6 billion is a roughly 2x premium on yesterday’s closing price, which is a reflection of the fact that this were competing bidders (see notes below). The acquisition comes after recent big acquisitions by Google and Yahoo in this space. Google bought Doubleclick for $3.1 billion in April. Later that same month, Yahoo acquired competitor RightMedia for $680 million. Just yesterday, WPP Group acquired yet another company in this space, 24/7 Real Media, for $649 million.

2006 revenues for aQuantive were $442 million. Net income as about $54 million.

aQuantive’s operating companies include both tools and ad agencies. The company is located in Seattle.

Microsoft is held a media call this morning to discuss the transaction. My notes are below. At about 7 am PST a recording of the call will be available at 1-800-774-9248.

Notes From Media Call:

(see CenterNetworks as well, Allen Stern has taken very complete notes)

Deal brings lots of new relationships with publishers and advertisers

Microsoft is now able to sell display ads on any website

Good tools for rich media ads, including IPTV

aQuantive was founded in 1997.

Microsoft says they are showing they are willing to aggressively grow strategically. Ad market is predicted to grow dramatically over the next few years. Lots of synergies between companies. Will be able to better monetize microsoft inventory, and will now be able to sell display ads on third party sites. Financial implications to MS: deal will close in FY 2008. They do not think it will have a significant impact on MS operating income.

MS expects an antitrust review in the U.S. and maybe in other countries. Probably not EU, but perhaps in Germany.

MS talking about privacy: says aQuantive has high degree of respect for privacy and fits well with Microsoft’s privacy policies.

Bear Stearns question: does this affect MS’s opinion on Google/doubleclick transaction. MS: no, not at all. Says this will promote competition and Google/doubleclick will hurt competition. Microsoft is in none of the businesses that aQuantive is in, whereas Google was already in direct competition with doubleclick and will give Google 80% market share in those markets.

question on how difficult integration will be with MS’s Adcenter platform? MS says online ad market is $40 billion annually and growing 20% per year. Says MS is committed to getting their share of the market, and this deal gives them a more complete end to end solution (paid search, display ads, CPA). MS says the deal will make their time to market much quicker. They are looking to consolidate their inventory from MS sites to create more scale for ad network. Talking about MS’s new software + services model, phones, games, IPTV, etc. and that advertising will drive these businesses.

MS has a long relationship with aQuantive, has been a customer for many years.

question on the size of the premium v. yesterdays closing price for aQuantive. MS says if they can drive growth through acquisition better than through internal growth they will do it. “we have the economic fire power to do more if we wish to”. MS says this was a competitive bidding situation, and “we are delighted to have won”

MS is saying that there is very little overlap between the two companies, the products are highly complementary.

this is largest MS acquisition to date, but this is only 2% of MS market cap, and they have $35 b in cash on had.

The number 13 has long been considered unlucky by superstitious people around the globe. How fitting, then, that Bill Gates‘ reign as the world’s richest person ends after his 13th year at the top.Despite being worth $58 billion, $2 billion more than last year, Gates is now just the world’s third-richest person, ceding the top spot ranking to his good friend and partner in philanthropy, Warren Buffett, whose net worth jumped $10 billion to $62 billion.  (All stock prices and net worth valuations were locked in on Feb. 11.) Ranked No. 2 is Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helú, whose fortune has doubled in just two years to $60 billion.

It is certainly a dawning of a new era. But not just because of Gates’ fall. The 22nd annual rankings of the World’s Billionaires reflects all sorts of upheavals in the list’s makeup. Two years ago, half of the world’s 20 richest were from the U.S. Now only four are. India wins bragging rights for having four among the top 10, more than any other country.

For the first time ever, the number of billionaires Forbes could identify crossed into four figures, reaching 1,125. The total net worth of the group is $4.4 trillion, up $900 billion from last year. Despite the turbulence in the U.S. markets, Americans account for 42% of the world’s billionaires and 37%, of the total wealth; those shares are down two and three percentage points, respectively, from last year.

Sixteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia, with 87 billionaires, is the new No. 2 country behind the U.S., easily overtaking Germany, with 59 billionaires, which held the honor for six years.

The rankings include 226 newcomers. Seventy-seven of the new faces come from the U.S., half of whom made their fortunes in finance and investments, including John Paulson and Philip Falcone, both of whom became wealthy shorting subprime debt. Another third of the new billionaires comes from Russia (35), China (28) and India (19). Two of the most noteworthy new entrants are South Africa’s Patrice Motsepe and Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote, the first black Africans to make their debut among the world’s richest. Dangote is also the first-ever Nigerian billionaire.

It is also a record-breaking year for young billionaires, with Forbes finding 50 under the age of 40, 25 of whom are new to the list. Sixty-eight percent of these under-age-40 tycoons built their 10-figure fortunes from scratch, including Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page; former Enron trader John Arnold, who now runs a hedge fund; India’s Sameer Gehlaut, who started online brokerage Indiabulls; and, last but not least, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who at age 23 might just be the youngest self-made billionaire in history.

Zuckerberg is probably destined to be the most talked about newcomer of the year because of his age and ingenious social-networking site, but there are fascinating entrepreneurs of all ages climbing into the ranks. Some of the more notable ones include China’s Gao Dekang, who is one of the world’s biggest makers of down jackets and vests; Portugal’s Americo Amorim, who turned his grandfather’s small cork operation into the world’s largest; and Brazil’s Eike Batista, who built and lost a gold mining fortune, before hitting it big in iron ore. He is now the world’s richest mining billionaire.

With all the rosy news of the past year and the overall gains, it is easy to lose sight of the volatility that has been wreaking havoc on these fortunes on a daily basis for months. For instance, Hong Kong’s richest person, Li Ka-shing, lost $5.5 billion of his net worth, all tied to publicly held stocks, in the 37 days between Jan. 4 and Feb. 11.

Meanwhile, mainland China’s richest person, 26-year-old Yang Huiyan, fell from $17.3 billion in September to $7.4 billion in the rankings. Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s fortune touched $25.5 billion in the past year but is now down to $18.7 billion. Others were hit much harder, falling off the list entirely, including Lehman Brothers chief Richard Fuld and Bear Stearns ex-chief James Cayne (he was sacked), both victims of the world’s credit crunch, and Pulte Homes‘ William Pulte, whose stock collapsed along with the housing market.

What will happen in the next 12 months as we continue our wealth watching? There will likely be some big losers, some big winners and a lot of ups and downs in between. The only certainty is change itself. by Luisa Kroll

provided by

1. Warren Buffett 2. Helú Slim & Family 3. William Gates III 4. Lakshmi Mittal 5. Mukesh Ambani 6. Anil Ambani 7. Ingvar Kamprad & Family 8. KP Singh 9. Oleg Deripaska 10. Karl Albrecht		11. Li Ka-shing 12. Sheldon Adelson 13. Bernard Arnault 14. Lawrence Ellison 15. Roman Abramovich 16. Theo Albrecht 17. Liliane Bettencourt 18. Alexei Mordashov 19. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud 20. Mikhail Fridman

Empire builders like Bill Gates and Sam Walton aren’t just great businessmen. They are bona fide revolutionaries.Self-made billionaires don’t dominate industries–they transform them and spawn new ones. That takes more than intelligence, courage and luck. It takes divine-like vision.

Billionaire entrepreneurs are “not working within the confines of the current market,” says Gerald Kraines, chief executive of the Levinson Institute, a business consulting firm in Jaffey, N.H. “They’re anticipating things much further afield. You have to see spaces that no one else sees.”

The world’s self-made billionaires certainly have vision in spades, spanning everything from how computers work to how people shop. But the ability to see around corners isn’t the only quality that separates the very accomplished from the stratospherically wealthy. To crack the $1 billion barrier, you need total, unwavering belief in your vision–and an immutable will to pull it off.

“[Billionaire entrepreneurs] need a deep passion and a point of view about the future,” says Peter Skarzynski, chief executive of Strategos, a Chicago-based consulting firm that advises global companies, including Nokia and Whirlpool. “They fundamentally believe that they have a better way to solve a set of problems than how they’re being solved now.”

Billionaires also have a seemingly ravenous appetite for risk. It’s hard enough for many of us to muster the courage to abandon our cubicles and start a small company, let alone build an empire. And while the risks pile up as businesses expand, billionaires have a confidence bordering on arrogance that checks their fear and doubt, says Skarzynski.

Are you a born billionaire? Before you tackle a serious growth strategy and all its attendant hassles, ask yourself some hard questions at the outset, says executive psychologist Debra Condren, who has worked with big names like 3M, Chevron and Hewlett-Packard.

The most important one: Why go big at all? Are you looking to cash out in a sale? Enamored of the thought of having your own stock ticker? Suffused with competitive desire? Whatever your reason, get a grip on it before you decide to kick your zealous pursuits into high gear.

Next, ask yourself if you are willing to make tough decisions for the growth of your company. If you have an intense loyalty to the small group who helped get things off the ground, understand that those folks may not be able to come along for the ride. If you’re not comfortable supplanting (or firing) them, stay small.

For entrepreneurs who prize their independence, ask yourselves how much of it you’re willing to give up. As the demands mount, both your schedule and decisions become less your own; worse, you may have investors and board members to appease.

“It becomes very hard for company founders to accept that they are no longer the real boss,” says Carl Robinson, a psychologist who works primarily with growing, middle-market companies.

Like holding forth in public? You’d better, because companies of any significant size need a public face. Entrepreneurs who thrive on public performances–weekly meetings, shareholder gripe sessions, even television interviews–have an easier time than those who shun the spotlight.

“You need to have the ability to fill a room and inspire people,” says Condren. If public speaking isn’t your forté, but you’re still hankering to grow, find a confident substitute who can sell your story.

Not only do you have to be able to communicate, you need a knack for building consensus. In most cases, the bigger your business, the more input you need from those around you–and that means being willing and able to marshal them to your cause. Have a my-way-or-the-highway mentality? Can your growth plans.

In the end, chasing billionaire status–and not crashing along the way–is as much about knowing who you are as it is about knowing how to nab new customers or manage inventory. Who knows? Maybe a modest $100 million might be a better fit.

by Maureen Farrell, Forbes.com
provided by

While economists debate whether the country is in a recession, consumers are being buffeted by skyrocketing prices, growing debt, layoffs, the subprime lending squeeze and a stock market roller coaster.While you may not be able to control the price of oil or the prime rate, there are some simple things you can do to shore up your finances, safeguard your future and ride out whatever the economy throws at you.

Here’s a list of ideas that hopefully will help you get through any hard times, plus tips if the hard times have already hit your household.

Dealing with hard times

1. Eliminate the nonessentials
2. Start a go-to fund for emergencies
3. Consider cutting back (rather than cutting out) for some expenses
4. Safeguard your current job
5. Be on the lookout for your next job
6. Keep your debt load light
7. Barring a complete personal financial meltdown, continue funding your retirement
8. Swap extraneous spending for smart long-term moves
9. Investigate refinancing
10. Re-examine your insurance
11. Adjust your withholding allowance
12. Reward yourself
13. Ask for an extension on your car loan
14. Get an extension on the mortgage
15. Talk to a mortgage counselor

1. Eliminate the nonessentials. One way to avoid putting spending on automatic pilot: Write down everything you buy and the price. Then go through the list and “be brutal,” says Nancy Register, associate director for the Consumer Federation of America.

Ric Edelman, Certified Financial Planner and author of “The Truth About Money,” agrees.

“You need to make sure you’re not spending any money that doesn’t absolutely, positively need to be spent,” he says. “A lot of people are spending money frivolously on wants they consider needs.”

If you have kids, “It’s a great time to explain wants versus needs,” says Linda Sherry, director of national priorities for Consumer Action.

2. Start a go-to fund for emergencies. The average family will face up to $2,000 a year in unexpected bills, says Register. For families already stretching to pay the bills, those surprises can trigger long-term financial problems. While you can’t plan what or when, you can have money set aside just in case.

“You need to really boost your cash reserves,” says Edelman.

His recommendation? Aim for one year’s living expenses in an assortment of liquid vehicles, like a bank account, money market account and short-term CDs.

One way to kick-start that fund: Shave off 10 percent of your take-home pay every time you get a check, says Gail Cunningham, spokeswoman for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.

Keep it liquid and make saving automatic. Look for a money market account that pays the highest rate you can find, says Register. Want to make sure you’re consistent? Arrange to have the money deposited electronically.

Deposit any “extra” money you receive, like that birthday check, bonus, tax refund or raise.

3. Consider cutting back (rather than cutting out) some expenses. Depending on your current situation and concerns, it might make more sense to just scale back.

“It’s much more effective if people cut back rather than cut out,” says Cunningham, “because it’s the change in behavior that’s so tough.”

Examine services you’re paying for and not fully using, like the cell phone plan with unlimited texting or the premium cable package. Are there less expensive options that would make you just as happy? Would bundling (buying several services from the same provider) save money?

Make it a family discussion, says Cunningham. “That way, everyone is pulling in the same direction.”

4. Safeguard your current job. Remain engaged and enthusiastic, keep a high profile and network, network, network.

Make yourself visible “as someone who wants to be part of the team,” says Martin Yate, executive employment coach and author of “Knock ‘Em Dead 2008: The Ultimate Job Search Guide.”

Three keys to making yourself invaluable: First, analyze how much you save or produce for the company. And don’t be afraid to let higher-ups know what a key role you’re playing in company success.

Second, stay current with the latest developments, continuing education and technology in your field.

Third, participate in at least one local professional organization. Not only will the connections help you in your current job, they can also make securing the next one much easier.

“It immediately gives you a relative, professional network for your search,” says Yate.

5. Be on the lookout for your next job. Just like a corporation, you have to ensure your own financial survival, says Yate. If you believe that your company or job is in jeopardy, update that resume, reach out to your network, hit the job boards (anonymously) and ignite your job search.

6. Keep your debt load light. Use credit only if you are paying off balances in full every month. Otherwise, switch to cash, checks or debit cards, says Cunningham. “That way when the money’s gone, the spending stops.”

7. Barring a complete personal financial meltdown, continue funding your retirement. “Retirement is going to come,” says Edelman. “You need to be ready for it.”

8. Swap extraneous spending for smart long-term moves. You can live another month without a new DVD player, but servicing your car or home heating system could net you a nice savings through fuel efficiency and keep you from having to shell out for expensive repairs later.

9. Investigate refinancing. If your credit is good and you’re planning to stay in your house for a few more years, refinancing could be a smart move.

Prime rate loans are the lowest they’ve been in two years, so investigate if a refinance could save you money every month, says Edelman.

Do the math and analyze what it could save you.

10. Re-examine your insurance. You don’t want to be underinsured or overinsured. The key is to have enough to cover you at the best rate you can find. Shop your policies, set your deductibles at the highest amount that you can comfortably pay out of pocket and make sure you’re getting credit for everything appropriate, like having car alarms, air bags and a good driving record, says Cunningham.

11. Adjust your withholding allowance. “The average refund is well over $2,000,” says Cunningham. And most people “could use an extra $200 every month,” she says.

The goal: Pay exactly what you owe. You can use the withholdings calculator at IRS.gov to determine what your withholding amounts should be. Then make the correction with your employer.

“You can do that at any time of year,” says Cunningham.

12. Reward yourself. Hold out a little discretionary money that you can use for fun.

If you have an unexpected windfall, like a raise, bonus or tax refund, “Treat yourself with some small part and save the rest,” says Cunningham.

Another trick for monthly family treats: At the end of the day everyone in the household puts their pocket change in a big jar. Says Cunningham, “At the end of the month, you’ll have $20 or $30, and you’ll never miss the money.”

And if things get really bad …

13. Ask for an extension on your car loan. “Typically, they will do this once or twice a year,” says Cunningham.

How it works: Instead of making your regular payment this month, the lender would tack an extra month onto the end of your loan period. But you won’t get off with a zero payment this month, warns Cunningham. You still have to cover the interest.

14. Get an extension on the mortgage. Some home lenders will let you do something similar for your mortgage, says Cunningham. The downside is, while it will help you if you’re trying to make up for a short-term problem, (like a large, unexpected bill), it’s not effective if you’ve got a long-running situation, like regular medical bills, a resetting interest rate you can’t handle or a long stretch of unemployment.

To work out such a deal, contact the loss mitigation unit in the mortgage department of the company servicing your loan, says Allen Fishbein, director of housing and credit policy for the Consumer Federation of America. Other typical department tags: home preservation or foreclosure avoidance.

15. Talk to a mortgage counselor. Just as you can get debt counseling help, you also can get mortgage counseling. What to look for: a nonprofit service with counselors who are HUD-certified.

They can examine your situation and offer some options like renegotiating your mortgage or getting a rate freeze on your loan that will help you keep your home. They can also negotiate with your lender on your behalf. You can search for counselors on the HUD Web site or call the Department of Housing and Urban Development at (800) 569-4287.

However, not all counselors can be trusted. “Beware of foreclosure rescue companies or organizations that bill themselves as counseling organizations” but are for-profit, says Fishbein.

There is actually some good news for homeowners as a result of the lending crisis, says Fishbein. If you’re willing to be pretty candid about your situation, “there may be more options” available than you realize, he says. “Lenders are doing things they traditionally haven’t done to keep people in their homes.” by Dana Dratch

This is a recently news online about the two giant search engine. Now Microsoft-yahoo want to chalenge google. read the news.

If you’re Microsoft Corporation, what do you do to challenge Google’s dominance in the online advertising industry?

You acquire another search engine, albeit struggling, company such as Yahoo!.

That seems to be Microsoft’s plan when it submitted an unsolicited takeover bid of $44.6 billion.

The offer of $31 per share is a 62% premium to Yahoo! stock’s closing price on Thursday. Yahoo climbed $10.40 a share, or 54%, to $29.58 in premarket trading after the announcement.

Microsoft said the booming online advertising market “is increasingly dominated by one player” — a reference to Google — and suggested that by acquiring Yahoo, it can be “better positioned to compete in the online services market,” said Microsoft’s chief executive officer Steve Ballmer.

Yahoo issued a statement saying it will “carefully and promptly” study Microsoft’s bid.

If the acquisition pushes through, Google will definitely see a new competitive threat in the form of Microsoft-Yahoo. Google’s dominance of the online advertising market will be challenged because an alternative will then exist.

What does it mean to local bloggers who rely on Google Adsense income?

They will most probably be negatively affected and their earnings lowered because advertisers will now choose to diversify their online advertising expenditure. If previously they only used Google, they will now think about using the Microsoft-Yahoo network for online advertising too. That shift will cause a blow to Google’s bottom line and, eventually, to the income of Adsense publishers as well.

The only way to beat this is to continue building one’s Adsense income (which is becoming more and more difficult to do these days) or be part of the new Microsoft-Yahoo Publisher network that will emerge.

Is the Microsoft-Yahoo merger soon to become a reality? Watch out.

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I read a nice post about traffic generation technic from aureliustjin.com blog. I post it here in hope that it can help us to get massive traffic in our site.

Struggling to get people to your site?

After mulling over the prospect, you finally made the decision to create a website. All in all, you are happy with the look, think the information is excellent, and think that anyone who visits the site will enjoy it so much that he or she will be back again regularly.

However, the next task is getting the word out and driving some traffic to your website. After all, having a fantastic website doesn’t do much unless people know about it.

You won’t find a list of traffic generation ideas, in this unique compilation, anywhere else.

So here they are, in an easy-to-read format: a hundred and ten tips to help you spread the good news about your site and generate some interest. I guarantee that you’ll find some of these tips don’t work for you. But I’m sure you’re intelligent enough to piece out the stuff that’ll give you that traffic boost you’ve always wanted…

Think Old School

1. Print up some business cards with your URL featured prominently. Leave them at restaurants, on the community bulletin board at the supermarket, in public restrooms, and hand them to the person sitting next to you on the plane. The word will get around.

2. Send out a postcard or two. Postcards announcing your new website can be sent to friends, relatives, business acquaintances, and old flames, even the ones you broke up with. A postcard is more likely to be read than a form letter. An online postcard service, you can use, is SendOutCards

3. Print up some flyers. Hand them out at public events. Check with local laws in your city to make sure this is okay.

4. Put an ad in the newspaper. Believe it or not, people still read the classifieds. You can pick up a visit or two that way.

5. Make an announcement in the local shopping weekly. Usually only costs a few dollars and will reach a market of folks who look for all sorts of things, maybe even stuff you have featured on your website.

6. Invest in some promotional materials. Pencils, note pads, golf tees, and other stuff with your URL can be distributed in all sorts of venues.

7. Hit the Chamber events. Membership in the local chamber of commerce will allow you to network with other business people in the area and generate some interest in what you do.

8. Print up a brochure. Make it a nice trifold that fits into a business envelope. Makes a nice follow up piece to the postcard.

9. Set up at career fairs. Take your business cards, flyers, and brochures and set up an information table. Your site will have several new hits the next day, with more to follow.

10. Use word of mouth. Get friends, relatives and acquaintances to spread the word about your web site. That cute waitress at the coffee shop might let you place some cards at the register if you leave her a decent tip next time.

11. Do some talking yourself. Find ways to work the name of your web site into casual conversation. Just try to do it with different people, not the same folks all the time.

12. Talk to the business editor at the local paper. If the subject matter of your web site catches his or her interest, you can get some great free publicity.

13. Sponsor a local event. Being on a list of sponsors for a competition or event that will pull in a lot of people is a good way to get your name in front of a broad range of people in the community.

14. Write letters to the local paper. Make sure to include your company name and URL in your signature. You will be surprised how many papers will print the web address right along with your company name.

15. Hire a public relations firm. It will be expensive, but they will take care of everything and provide you with a lot of name recognition in a short period of time.

Get The Most From The Search Engines

16. Ideally, your domain name should include your keywords. For instance, if you’re in the “Dog Training” niche, your domain could be something like www.DogTraining123.com. Search engines will position your domain closer to the top search results, despite your competitor’s site having a higher Pagerank. If their domain does not include the keywords, your site will win against their’s in the search results.

17. Make sure to include your keywords in your webpage title. Again, if your niche is “Dog Training”, in between your title tag () you would put something like “Dog Training Tips, News and Articles”.

18. Pepper your web content with keywords that will attract the attention of search engines. That will help your site to show up in a lot of searches and also help you show up higher on the results.

19. Use keyword research tools to find those relevant words. Chances are you will learn a few new ones that will make your site look even slicker.

20. Register with every search engine you can find, large and small. It may take some time, but the effort will pay off in the long run. Just go to Google and type in “site submission”.

21. Use every descriptive word and phrase you can think of when entering search words into the site description. No matter how remote the connection to your site, toss it in. People use all sorts of search phrases, some of them pretty wild. Capitalize on that.

22. Although it’s been said that services who offer SEO for your website, like getting you into the top 10 search results, may be too good to be true, experiment and test to see yourself. Some may actually deliver what they promise.

23. Add new content from time to time and update the search words in your site description to include some of the new verbiage. Search engine spiders will crawl your site more often when you regularly add new content.

24. Popular cities and states can become good keywords, no matter where you live. Mentioning New York City, Chicago, and London may seem odd when you live in Bent Fork Falls, but find a way to work them into the text.

25. Compare your products and services to a competitor. This will give you some useful search words for the engines to pick up on. Just make sure whatever you write is correct and current.

26. Drop popular celebrity names. You may not know much about Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake, but work a casual reference to them into the text on your website and the search engines will pick up on it.

27. Check major search engines that feature the most recent top ten searches conducted with their engine. This will give you some other great ideas of words or ideas to work into your site somehow.

28. If you don’t trust your own writing skill, find a freelance writer who can turn out some SEO articles for you to rotate on the web site.

29. Mention current events on your web site. Referring to a news item that is currently hot will help people to find your site and hopefully like what they see.

30. Check your rankings from time to time, so you have a handle on what type of searches are working best for you. This will help you come up with ways to improve the process.

31. Get some feedback from friends and fellow web site owners. They may have some ideas on how to get the most from search engines that have not occurred to you.

32. Be on the lookout for any changes that search engines make. In some cases, updates and changes will mean you will have to tweak a few things in order to keep appearing high on the search results.

Blogging Can Be Your Friend

33. Create a blog of your own. You can promote yourself as much as you like, as long as it is tasteful and doesn’t drive people away.

34. Look for blogs that have some connection to what your site is all about. You will not only get ideas for blog entries of your own, but also often can have a chance to comment and leave the URL for your site.

35. Ask questions in your blog entries. Publish some of the best responses. People like to see their words in published form and will come back again and again.

36. Use your blog to announce something new you are doing with your web site. People will want to click over and see what they think about the changes.

37. Have a guest blogger from time to time. His or her loyal audience will come over to take a look, and will likely want to find out more about your and your website.

38. Be a guest blogger yourself. You can expound on your view of the world and pitch your site at the same time.

39. Participate in blogs where you can answer questions and leave contact information. You will get a reputation of being knowledgeable and somebody worth doing business with.

40. Expound on holidays. The good thing about blogs is you can write about all sorts of things and manage to tie them back to your web site. Holiday thoughts and stories are always a good opportunity to promote your web site and its core business.

41. In like manner, don’t let a season go by without scrutinizing it at one time or another on your blog. Winter, spring, summer, and fall all offer a wealth of ideas you can use to capture attention and then redirect it to your web site.

42. Post new articles on your blog on a consistent basis. If people know they can depend on at least one new article by Thursday each week, they will get into the habit of checking your blog before leaving the office on Friday.

43. Be a little controversial. Pressing a hot button now and then will stir up interest, and make people come back to see what else you have to say.

44. At the same time, select your controversies carefully. Go for something that captures interest, but is something you can discuss without alienating a huge section of your target audience.

45. Don’t be afraid to admit you have changed your mind. If you take a stance and several readers come back with some great reasons to think otherwise, acknowledge them and admit you have rethought the issue. People will appreciate your honesty and will be confident to return.

46. Jazz up the look of the blog now and then. Just changing the basic colors and using a different font on the headers will help keep the look of your blog fresh.

47. Write about whatever you want, but always tie it back to your core business somehow. After all, that was the point of the blog in the first place.

How ’bout Online Classifieds Boards?

48. Find the free online classified ads and place a short and to the point ad. Make sure to include the URL for your web site. A good place to start is Craigslist.

49. Keep in mind many of these free classified sites are part of specialty sites. If they have a free membership and the customer base of the members is a good fit for something you offer on your site, then sign up and post the ad.

50. Keep up with which free classified sites you post, and when. You may need to go back periodically and place an updated ad if they purge ads every so often.

51. Once you exhaust the free classified sites, turn your attention to the ones that charge a fee. Look for paid classified sites that tend to cater to the clientele that you want to attract to your website.

52. Make sure the classified sites will allow you to ad a hot link to your website. People are much more likely to click on a link than they are to cut and paste the information into their search engine.

53. Check on the costs for adding graphics, such as a logo. This will give your ad a little more visual interest and make it harder to skim over.

54. If the cost for the paid classified is a flat rate, then use as many words as you need to make your point.

55. If the site charges a per word fee with a minimum word limit for the ad, then meet the minimum, but don’t go much beyond that.

56. Remember to use an opening that will catch the attention of the reader. Get them with the flash, keep them with the substance.

57. Check on the ability to post more than one classified at a time on the site. Ads in several different sections will increase your chances of grabbing some attention.

58. Don’t design one ad and use it forever. Adapt your ad a little for each classified site you post on. Even tweaking the header a little will make a nice change.

59. Along with general ads, toss in an ad that promotes a special of some sort, either a free download or some other trinket. It doesn’t have to be expensive to draw traffic to your site.

60. Always have a point to the ad. If there is an obvious reason for your ad, other than wanting business, it is more likely to catch attention and motivate people to check out your site.

61. Don’t be afraid to try something different. If you ad on one site is not getting a response, go back and rework it a bit. A few changes may turn the ad around and gain you some attention.

62. If at all possible, track the responses you get. Knowing how people found you will give you a good idea of what sites are worth continuing to use, and which ones need tweaking or replacing.

Use The Power of Message Boards

63. Join some Yahoo groups where interested people are likely to visit. Depending on the nature of the group, you can probably include a link to your website in your signature.

64. Scour the Internet for entrepreneur message boards, and join up. You can reach other people who have an interest is buying from and selling to other entrepreneurs. Plus, you might pick up some tips on traffic generation there.

65. Find message boards that are focused on subjects that touch on your core business in some manner. Even if the main subject is administrative assistants and you offer teleconference services, remember that admins often choose conference call carriers for their bosses.

66. Don’t just join message boards and hope somebody will check out your profile. Dig in and post some messages that are likely to generate some responses.

67. At the same time, don’t post only in topics you start. Participate in other conversations as well.

68. Balance promoting your site with participating in the discussions. Too much promotion will turn people off and they will begin to skip over your posts.

69. Offer constructive advice, citing an article you have on your website as a reference. People will want to link over and check it out.

70. Stay away from arguments on controversial issues. It is too easy to lose your temper and alienate readers.

71. Be professional at all times. It may seem like fun to craft responses using Internet abbreviations and slang, but remember what you write will be viewable for years. Use those words to enhance your reputation as being poised and knowledgeable, even in a casual atmosphere.

72. Always thank people for their responses to your comments, especially if you have asked a question. That little courtesy will help people think well of you and increase the chance they will visit your website.

Pick Up Traffic From Free Article Sites

73. Put your knowledge of doing things to work. Post short articles that tell how to do something. You get no pay, but you do get publicity and sometimes the ability to include a link to your website.

74. Find niche market article sites that will connect you with the right clients. For example, if you sell old records then posting a couple of articles on an article site devoted to pop starts of the 1960’s is a natural fit.

75. If the article allows a place to list references or sites of interest always include your URL. The easier it is to click something and get to your site, the better.

76. Pepper your articles with words and phrases that also happen to be the keywords and phrases that you used to describe your website to the search engines. It will increase the odds that somebody will use those phrases for a search and find your site right there in the top end of the results.

77. Make the articles interesting as well as logical. People will come back to read them again and recommend your articles to their friends, which means more exposure for you and your website.

78. Go with articles that are timely. If your topic is on a lot of people’s minds currently, it is likely to attract more attention and you will pick up a few more hits to your web site as a result.

79. At the same time, work in a few articles of enduring interest. While you are less likely to experience a quick spike in hits due to the piece, it will provide you with a consistent flow of visitors over time.

80. Always go with free article sites that allow you a byline. Stay away from any of them that will not allow you to use your name and post a link to your website. After all, the idea is to get people interested in visiting your online business.

81. Always respond to any email your articles generate. That is an opportunity to include your URL as part of the response.

82. Post new articles on a regular basis. People who visit the article site regularly will get into the habit of seeing what you have come up with recently, and might also be reminded they have not visited your website in a while.

How ’bout Some Video and Web 2.0?

83. Sign up for several of the online profile sites that allow members to upload homemade videos. Joining at least three sites of this type will allow you cover a wide range of the population. Some suggested video sites - YouTube, Google Video and MetaCafe.

84. Make a few short general advertising videos that get right to the meat of what you do. This will help to establish your name in the minds of people who visit your page.

85. Along with the basic video ads, think about a how to video. If possible, use the products or services you sell in the video.

86. Try a video presentation or two that show your products being used in different settings. Show them being used in an office, on the road, at the beach, or any other place they would work.

87. Keep the videos short. Thirty seconds will do the trick nicely and you will likely hold the attention of the viewer all the way to the end.

88. Also, configure the streaming so people on dial up connections can access and enjoy the videos. That will also enhance chances of viewers linking over to visit your website.

89. Always include your contact info at the end of the video, as well as having links to your website on your profile. The visual reinforcement will pay off over the long run.

90. Record and upload new videos on a regular basis. This gets people back each week to see what you have been up to.

91. Get social! Join sites like MySpace and Facebook and embed your links throughout your profile.

92. Just as you change up the look of your website from time to time, do the same with your profiles on these types of sites. It will keep things fresh and also give you the chance to do something a little different now and then.

93. Create a Squidoo lense. Besides how flexible and powerful this free service is, your lenses will get indexed quickly in search engines. Google just loves Squidoo lenses. You can create a Squidoo lense on just about any topic you’d like. To get more traffic to your Squidoo Lense: Digg, Stumble and Delicious your Squidoo Lenses. This is called “Social Bookmarking”

Random Ideas

94. Write an Ebook and offer it as a freebie with a minimum purchase, or as an incentive to visit your website. You can build trust and credibility if you present useful information in your ebook. This will get more attention from your readers the next time you recommend something to them.

95. Create a 10-30 page viral report and give it away for free. Make sure you note, inside your report, that the person reading it may pass it to their friends. You also want to make sure that you include links which go back to your site.

96. Consider banner ads as a way to publicize your site. It may cost a few dollars, but the return can be excellent, if you have the right advertising partner.

97. Participate in some of those quick answer sites that are relevant to what you do. Or, try some of the general question and answer sites, like Yahoo Answers. Your name will become more familiar and people will be more likely to look for your website if they have heard of you before.

98. Donate an item to a silent charity auction. You get a chance to pass along your URL, get a tax write-off, and do something good all at one time.

99. Print up tee shirts or sweatshirts with your URL prominently displayed across the back or chest. You can become a walking billboard for your web business. You start your own store at CafePress

100. Invite current readers and clients to participate in a contest. The current client who refers the most people to your site (based on verified data) over the course of a month gets a free good or service from your site. Remember to set a limit which items are eligible for selection.

101. Do an email campaign. But don’t use those worn out lists that have already been used a million times and are probably less than 40% accurate. Use only a qualified and current email listing for the campaign.

102. Put a signup page on your web site. This allows visitors to opt in to receive emails when you update the site or have something special going on. They can pass the notifications on to friends and family members as well.

103. Don’t overdo the promotional specials. Too much of a good thing will kill the excitement and make it easy for people to take a “so what” approach when you have a special every week or month. Pace yourself.

104. Watch for new technology or kinds of websites. Both can present opportunities to promote yourself and your site that may not have been possible or practical in the past.

105. Ask friends, associates, and other entrepreneurs about other ideas for generating traffic to your website. Chances are you will pick up at least a couple more great ideas you can use.

106. Consider hiring a cartoonist to draw “funny cartoons” that are related to your niche. Post it on your blog and let others share it. Make sure that they link back to your site if they’re using it.

107. Write or get someone to write a press release and submit it to press release sites, like www.PRWeb.com.

108. Submit to DMOZ.org. This large, human-edited directory is one of the fastest tickets into Google. Make sure you get listed here.

109. Start an affiliate program for your product/service. Find and recruit affiliates and JV partners to promote your website to their list and give at least 50% commission

110. Purchase a link on a high page rank site. This is an excellent way to both build links and increase traffic at the very same time.

Here’s some resources to help you with your traffic generation:

     Some great places and resources to get articles written:

     - www.Need-An-Article.com
     - How to get articles written for you for $4 - Great article
     - www.warriorforum.com/forum - request for a writer in the “Main” forum
     - DigitalPoint.com “Content Creation” section

    and, of course, there’s:

     - Elance.com
     - Guru.com
     - Scriptlance.com
     - RendACoder.com

Let’s Wrap it Up…

I’m glad you made it this far!

You don’t need to apply these tips all-at-once. But rather than sitting on this and waiting until you think you’re “ready”, do something TODAY to increase your site’s traffic and continually grow your business.

Did you enjoy this article? Let me know by posting your comments and feedback

Source

I  read recently a great post from Jonathan Ledger blog about how to boast ranking your sites through bookmarking. I post here in hope that this information can help you to get high ranking in google.

If you’re not submitting your blog posts, articles and web pages to social bookmarking sites, you’re missing out on a lot of link-love that Google looks fondly upon.

You see, my Search Engine Myths Exposed report makes it clear that you don’t have to get links from related sites to rank (known in the SEO world as “themed links”). As long as the links come from quality pages, Google will happily count them toward your ranking.

Social Bookmarking sites currently have a lot of value in Google’s eyes. Google seems to love sites that rely on democracy to decide what deserves the highest rank (thus their own link-based algorithm). By submitting your pages to these sites, the links will often get crawled and applied to your ranking very quickly — often within a few days.

I’ve been giving my pages an extra boost by submitting to a few dozen bookmarking sites myself, and I’ve seen rank increases to the tune of 3 to 5 ranking points on Google’s first page of results for my chosen keywords.

I can’t share the keywords with you because the sites are in the 3WayLinks.net network, and it’s against the terms to share that information. Suffice it to say that the keywords are competitive enough to provide hundreds of visitors per day with my current rankings. That’s one of the things I love about 3WayLinks.net — it provides a solid link base on which to build your rankings for tougher keywords.

A couple of great tools to use when submitting to SBMs are SocialMarker.com and OnlyWire.com. SocialMarker.com makes the process of submitting your sites semi-automated, whereas OnlyWire.com fully automates the submission. Both are good tools that are worth looking into (and both are free).

When submitting your pages to social bookmarking sites, set your title tag to the keywords that you want to rank for to get the most value from Google for your links. If you’re interested in generating traffic from the bookmarking sites themselves, you’ll want to modify your titles to be appealing to viewers as well.

For instance, if you want to rank for the phrase “old time radio”, just set your title to “old time radio.” But if you want to draw visitors, “Old time radio - Thousands of free MP3 shows!” would work much better. Keep in mind, though, that you sacrifice some link value when the link to your site is not your exact keywords.

If your site is brand new, vary your titles so that the links pointing to your site do not all contain the same keywords. If your site is already established with lots of links, a few dozen links with the same link text is not going to be a problem, and it’s safe to just use your main keywords as the titles.

If you’re hoping to draw visitors from social bookmarking sites to an AdSense revenue site, keep in mind that visitors at bookmarking sites are notorious for never clicking on your ads. If your only form of revenue on the site is AdSense, you might want to word your titles for maximum SEO value and forgo the visitors directly from the sites.

Let me close with another good social bookmarking experience. A friend of mine setup a site that he wanted to rank for a “low hanging fruit” set of keywords (razor targeted for great conversion rates, but without getting hundreds of visitors a day). He asked for my advice, and I offered to submit his site to the social bookmarking sites for him.

He agreed, and I did so. At the time of the submission his site was stuck on page 3 of Google’s results. A few days later he freaked out because his site disappeared from the rankings (this is typical when a new site gets a bunch of links quickly–your site will often disappear while Google recalculates your ranking). But about a week after that his site jumped onto page 2 of Google. Not long after that he was on page one. Now he’s one happy camper, and it was thanks to social bookmarking links!

So when you’re out looking for places to get links from, don’t forget about social bookmarking sites. They won’t perform miracles with your rankings, but they certainly give a solid boost. source.

Google offers Adsense Referrals again but with new conditions

Apparently, everything is not over yet for publishers outside Japan, North America and Latin America with regard to Google Adsense’s Referrals program.

Last week, Google announced that referrals to the Adsense program will be terminated for members located outside those three regions. Google backtracked yesterday and reported in their Adsense blog that instead of fully scrapping the program for members outside the allowed regions, it will again be available but commissions will only be earned if the referred users are from those regions.

The changes to referrals promoting AdSense will now depend on where your users are located, regardless of your location as a publisher. You’ll earn $100 for every user you refer to AdSense who is located in North America, Latin America or Japan when they generate $100 in AdSense revenue within 180 days and they remove all payment holds. You’ll no longer be paid for users you refer who are located elsewhere. These changes will go into effect the last week of January.

Starting the third week of February, Google will also implement a new bonus structure for referrals to Google Pack and Mozilla Firefox.

Google Pack: Currently, a publisher earns up to $2 when a referred user downloads and runs Google Pack for the first time. Starting the third week of February, each successful Pack referral will earn up to $1.
Firefox: Referral payments for Firefox referrals from China will also be decreased. This will only affect installations from users in China, but is independent of one’s location as a publisher.

If this change will make the Adsense program more profitable for Google and eventually for us publishers, then so be it.