Windows XP Users: We Still Love XP and Loathe Vista, But Windows 7 Looks Impressive

In a strictly logical sense, Windows 7 is an upgrade to the version of Windows that preceded it--which is, of course, Windows Vista.As a practical matter, however, most of the people who may buy Windows 7 as an upgrade or on a new PC are still using Windows XP.

This means that the biggest question about the latest version of Microsoft's OS is not whether it's an advance on Windows Vista but whether millions of XP users who opted out of the Vista upgrade will make the move to Windows 7.

Who better to ask than a whole bunch of Windows XP users? As part of the research for PC World's upcoming Windows 7 coverage, we conducted a survey of nearly 5,000 people who use XP as their primary OS, including readers of both PCWorld.com and my site, Technologizer. We asked them what they thought of Windows 7 (and whether they'd had a chance to try it). Ditto for Windows Vista. And we asked about their upgrade plans and general willingness to see Windows XP vanish from the scene.

A few highlights from their responses:

They like what they've seen and heard about Windows 7. Seventy percent who have tried it say their reaction is somewhat or very positive; 55 percent of those who have only read about it so far have the same reaction.

That doesn't mean they're all committed to upgrading just yet. Fifty-three percent of those who have tried Windows 7 say they'll upgrade; forty-four percent who have only read about it say so. In both cases, most plan to wait awhile before making the jump, presumably to sidestep initial installation headaches and compatibility surprises. And a meaningful minority of both respondents who have tried Win 7 and those who have only read about it say they plan to stay with XP indefinitely.

They still bristle at Vista. Fifty-nine percent who have tried it react negatively; eighty-two percent of those who know something about it but haven't used it do so. Only two percent (!) of the latter group have a positive reaction to Vista.

They don't want Microsoft to take XP away. XP may theoretically have been discontinued, but it's still widely available as a downgrade option on Vista PCs and on netbooks, among other places. The majority of survey respondents say they'll be extremely unhappy when Microsoft stops selling it, period, and eighty percent say they'll be at least somewhat ticked off. The imminent availability of Windows 7 doesn't appear to change that.

If you're Microsoft, the best news in these numbers is the fact that so many respondents who have tried Windows 7 like it. That kind of reaction is a must if Windows 7 is going to repair the whole Vista mess. And come to think of it, that's the best news for XP holdouts, too: When Windows 7 arrives in stores on October 22nd, it stands a strong chance of being the compelling upgrade to XP that so many people decided Vista was not.

Resources: http://www.pcworld.com/article/170291/windows_xp_users_we_still_love_xp_and_loathe_vista_but_windows

Fire Your SEO Company

Search engine algorithms are shrouded in total secrecy. So what works in SEO and what does not is merely the result of an analysis of sites that make it to page #1. Some times the keywords show up sooner than expected, at times they do not. It’s very difficult to measure the effectiveness of an SEO campaign because the time frame for results is prolonged. With the mushrooming of SEO companies and the vagueness of operations, finding the right company can be an issue.

True, SEO is no science, but it can have a scientific approach. The results are not instantaneous like PPC but results should be visible after 3 months into a program. Okay… give or take a few months for the vagaries of Search Engines that like to alter their algorithms just when your site is all set to take off!

The problem with SEO is that it is too vague a field. We can only guess what works and what does not. Broadly there are five factors that are said to do 70% of the work.

1. Well optimized code
2. Well Optimized Metatags
3. Header Tags, Alt tags
4. Keywords in the URL
5. Backlinks to the site

If your SEO company is smart enough to integrate all these together, chances are that by the fourth month your SERPs should be somewhere around rank 10-12 for moderately competitive keywords. Competitive keywords take much longer and the effort for increasing the positions in page 1 increases proportionally with every position.

There are two ways in which you can check if your company is really working on your website.

1. Set up Google Alert on your company’s name. Once an alert is set up, every time a directory picks up your link or a blog picks up your article or the company does a press release, Google will pick it up and deliver it into your mailbox. The larger the number of alerts the more your SEO company is working.

2. Use a tracking account. Google Analytics is free and is improving with feedback. Ask your SEO company to set up tracking in analytics and get your account id and password so that you can check occasionally.

SEO is unfortunately a long drawn out process. How long should one wait before deciding that the SEO company is taking you for a ride? When you are six months into an SEO program and you face any of the following scenarios it’s time to fire your SEO company.

1. Scenario #1: Six months into the campaign there is no improvement in search traffic.
2. Scenario #2: Your traffic has increased but you are not getting any conversions.
3. Scenario #3: You have not even made it to page 2 for your targeted keyword.
4. Scenario #4: The company’s report shows a lot of increased links but there is hardly any boost in rank.
5. Scenario #5: Your keywords are stagnated where they were.

Scenario #1: Six months into the campaign there is no improvement in search traffic Why is it so? Maybe they are not working at all OR Maybe they are targeting all the wrong keywords. Very competitive keywords may bring in more traffic volume but they take longer (read upto 12-24 months) to optimize. To maximize your ROI, professional SEO companies choose a mix and match of low competition, moderate competition and high competition keywords. If your SEO company did not take this approach, it’s time to fire them.

How to Check: Insist upon adding Google Analytics (a free tool) to your site and visit it regularly.

Scenario #2: Your traffic has increased but you are not getting conversions Maybe it’s a genuine mistake which can be rectified OR Maybe you are getting a lot of spam traffic because the company has posted the site at improper places just to show stats of increased traffic. Believe me this happens quite a lot with unprofessional companies who want to gain SEO credibility. The unknowledgeable client gets taken in.

How to Check: Visit analytics. Click on traffic sources. Check all the traffic types - Referral, search engine and direct. Check the type of sites the referral traffic is sending, check the type of keywords. If all of these are okay, then you need some serious website marketing not just SEO.

Scenario #3: You have not even made it to page 2 for your targeted keyword. Maybe the targeted keywords are too competitive OR Maybe all the aspects of SEO are not being covered by your company. This is a tricky issue. If you are satisfied with your keyword movement over the months maybe just a push is needed. Otherwise you need to check what the company is doing.

How to Check: Simply type your keyword in the search bar. Check page #1 for your URL. If it’s not on page #1 it should be on page #2 after 6 months of the campaign for at least some of the keywords. It should show up. If it isn’t there, call up the SEO company and demand an explanation.

Scenario #4: The company’s report shows a lot of increased links, but there is hardly any improvement in rank. Maybe the ranking will improve gradually OR Maybe the company is trying to impress upon you that it has increased your links. This is false reporting and not genuine SEO. In the long run these links will harm your site. Keep away from the company.

How to Check: Occasionally, in the Google toolbar type the following to see the number of links to your website - links:www.domainname.com. Analyze the relevancy of the site linking back to your website. If the links are from spam sites, fire the company.

Scenario #5: Your keywords are stagnated where they were. Suppose you were already on page #3 or page #2 for the keywords and approached a company to take you to page #1. But you haven’t moved. Maybe the company’s taking you for a ride

OR there is no other reason. Just fire the company. They are showing no results.

There may be other scenarios which have not been covered in this article. It’s very difficult to know if the company is working hard enough to get you on page #1. Keeping constant contact with the company is a good idea. Ask for a monthly comparative report and track the improvement in links, traffic and keyword positions. Get an action plan of the month by the company. Track the action plan. You will see results soon enough!

How to Properly Utilize Headings in SEO

So we all know that the title is the most important single element to optimize on a page, but it’s all to easy to forget the power of headings. Headings are like little titles that can be worked into a site’s content, and while no one heading can affect rankings as much as your title, having several keyword rich headings on your page can be an extremely powerful optimization strategy.

It is important to remember that there are actually six different kinds of headings ranging from H1 to H6. H1 tags have the most effect on your ranking followed by H2, and so on. To turn a piece of text into a heading you simply need to place it between and tags

A word of caution, however: it’s not a good idea to overuse headings on any one page as search engines might see this as spam. I n the vast majority of cases, you should be using only one H1 tag per page, and include at least two paragraphs of content for every H2 tag.

Overall, heading optimization is just a matter of common sense. Just write a good page of content, then spread a few relevant, keyword rich heading tags throughout your page, and your search engine ranking should be affected for the better.

Internet Marketing Elements That May Affect Your Home Based Business

At present, many people are choosing Internet Marketing to earn full time income. A lot of individuals who are working at home and managing their home based businesses whether partly or entirely dependant on Internet Marketing as an effective source to make money. Regardless it is individual or company, both need to fully understand the concept of Internet Marketing and keep in mind several factors that might really affect their business if not considered.

As any other profession, Internet Marketers are facing some challenges and obstacles which may eventually lead to reduce the chances of their success or in other words slow down the phase of their work. The main challenges are the language and culture barriers that may cause some problems for Internet Marketers while interacting with their customers and other partner websites.

Therefore, there is a pressing need to develop kind of programs that would help in translating any language to different languages that would be understandable to the customer. Not to forget the cultural differences like principles and customs that play a role in a lot of peoples lives and put that in consideration too.

May I also emphasize on the importance of a good management as well as a clear vision while marketing on the internet to cope up with the rapid changes in the market on both local and international levels. Also keep in mind that marketing is a difficult job to perform generally and it might not work if the people working in this field do not understand it very well.

So talking about the Arab World, this might be one of the main challenges that is facing Internet Marketing companies here, considering that what happens in most of the Arabic companies is only an attempt to market electronically but really without any supporting specialty.

Often, these companies fail to copy the means and methods shown in the different internet websites that in many cases do not succeed to communicate the message or to present the overall product to the end customer. Adding to that, according to some online marketing experts, these copied methods will not aim to more than either experimenting what might work and waiting for the reaction or applying the trick and seduce strategies similar to any other traditional marketing transaction.

Privacy and Confidentiality also considered among the obstacles that face people working in this field. In other words, the number of customers who adopt the idea of shopping and dealing through the internet will definitely affect its popularity, especially that most of the electronic transactions require getting some information from customers such as name, nationality, address and payment method. For this reason, there is a need to incorporate special security softwares and plug-ins to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of the commercial transactions and encrypting the electronic payment system to avoid suspicious and fraudulent activities.

Other concerns to the privacy factor include the necessity of introducing the laws and procedures to regulate the internet marketing operations and preserve copying and publishing rights on the web as well as develop the financial and commercial systems to facilitate online marketing activities.

It is also very important to educate and make individuals and organizations aware about the internet and its effects on our modern lives especially in those countries who are still behind in using the internet.

The good news though is in spite of the challenges facing Internet Marketing as discussed above, Information Technology experts are optimistic that Internet Marketing jobs are going to get better opportunities and seekers in the coming days with the wide spread of the internet and the huge circular of commercial and intellectual transactions already happening through it.

International Trade Organization for instance, has published a report that illustrates that number of internet users in the world have increased to more than 100 million users in 2005 which 1/3 were from the United States itself. The report has also stated that the expected business transactions that are taking place through the internet will constitute about 70% of the total global trade by 2010.

source: http://www.article-buzz.com/Article/Internet-Marketing-Elements-That-May-Affect-Your-Home-Based-Business/300779

There are some Internet marketing topics

Visit hundreds of internet marketing sites these days. They will tell you all the hundreds, if not thousands of ideas and ways they can sell you some product or service to have you making gazzilions of revenues through the internet. Half before lunch, ok, it’s tough, so it might take you until after lunch to get the other half of the gazzilion! Yeah, right!

What they won’t tell you is the cold hard truth. Being successful on the internet takes a special blend of many ingredients. Go to www.internet-marketing-world.com these include time, education, experience, luck, and yes–money.

Every day, I see more and more potential internet marketeers who have obviously cut corners, rushing to market a product hastlily put together, poor marketing techniques, you name it.

Aside from having a lot of money to begin with, experience shows that gaining experience and educationing yourself about internet marketing topics are the Number One areas that anyone wanting to get started needs to focus on. In reality the more one learns about marketing on the internet, the more they realize that you are just touching the surface! And with the continuing advances in technology, it’s changing every day!

Ok, admit — internet marketing is NOT EASY! It is not a piece of cake or the proverbial bed of roses. Now that we have admitted that part, what can be done then to advance or more accurately to accelerate the process? Here are a few tips that have helped mylearning curve:

Treat your growth to frequent “library time” on the internet. That is to say, just like going to a traditional library, you need to set aside some “quiet time” to surf the net with the express purpose of reading as much as possible about internet marketing topics. Simple searches on any of the major search engines will give you lots and lots of subjects that your can explore.

From the start, set up specific goals for yourself and your growth efforts. These should be short term, mid-range and longer term goals designed to continuously improve your knowledge. The quicker you become knowledgeable and fluent with internet marketing, the sooner you will be having customers anxious to by your latest products and advice.

Obtain as much written literature and information on these topics as possible. Ideally, FREE information whenever possible. One faboulous resource for the full range and breadth of IM topics is Dotcomology. I personally use it on a continuing basis as a reference guide. You can get your copy absolutely free at the InternetMarketingUSA website.

Find and locate programs that include websites (already designed or customized for you) as a part of the program. Getting your own website on a reputable website hosting service is imparative.

Outsource portions of your work to supplement your own knowledge or expertise. Don’t be afraid to use the expertise of others to excellerate your website capabilities. This is an ideal way to get your success on a fast track. Keep in mind you must shop around for reputable and low cost providers.

Get your very own newsletters and ezines going as soon as possible. The sooner you begin to share what you have learned, the sooner you will get your name and company “on the internet map”. There are a multitude of benefits for this approach. To say the least, this is a great investment of your limited time.

Join internet marketing forums related to your specific area of interest and developing expertise. Start making many contributions to the various topics and postings to keep your self current on issues, build a reputation among your peers, and get your name and company on the search engines as content sources for other websites.

source:http://www.article-buzz.com/Article/There-are-some-Internet-marketing-topics-/290469

The Top 3 Reasons Most Marketers Fail

There must be some reason why some internet marketers seem to be highly successful while others struggle to make their first sale. Said another way, what is the secret that these top producers know and how can I learn it? Actually, the answer may be simpler than you think. In my opinion, there are three top reasons why most marketers fail. Learn to avoid these traps and you will be on your way to becoming one of those top producers you read about. I call it ESP.

E ELIMINATE distractions and become organized.

Having a successful internet business is a job and takes work. If you are dreaming of having the money rolling in without having to do much of anything, it just simply is not going to happen. However, if you are smart about how you structure your business, once you have done something, then you will not have to do it again. The use of auto responders is a great example.

Most of us try and do too much when we are first getting started. We find ourselves on the email list of every marketer, download every free report, check out every new Make $10,000 this month offer, and look at so many options we never seem to get anything done. We spend so much time clicking on every email, answering every twitter, going to facebook, etc. throughout the day that we end up wondering where the day went and why nothing got done. Decide what the important things are that you need to do, develop a schedule, and then do them!

S SIMPLIFY your life and focus on what is important.

When you get right down to it, there are only three things you need to do in order to be successful with your internet marketing and have it become a career for you. Once you recognize that this is the key, eliminate all the extraneous things you are doing and spend your time concentrating on these three:

1. Develop an offer. You have to have something you are selling or promoting. It can be your own product or a product you are promoting as an affiliate. Many affiliates develop a great income without ever having their own product to promote. Other marketers develop their own product and sell it through a membership site, clickbank, or through other affiliates. Decide on your product and then move to step 2.

2. Develop a list to promote to. You have probably heard that the money is in the list. This is most definitely true. If you do not have a list of people to send your offers to, then you do not have anyone to buy your product. So many people work hard to develop a website and get it online, and then they cannot understand why the sales are not pouring in. The answer is simple as they have no list to promote to. If you are going to be successful in internet marketing, you must develop a list. There are no ifs, ands, or buts.

3. Promote to your list. Once you have a list, you have to continually promote your product or offer to your list. At some point, you will want to become an affiliate for others and seek out affiliates to help promote your product. Every wonder why every time a guru gets ready to launch a new product, you get tons of emails from different marketers promoting that very product. They are all in it together and are working together to help each other make money. In your marketing efforts, you want to be able to get to that point with your product promotion

P PARALYSIS by Analysis. Perhaps the biggest mistake most marketers succumb to is paralysis by analysis. They spend so much time analyzing every detail of what they are doing and trying so hard to get everything just right that they end up never getting anything accomplished. Whether it is a website, a blog, a marketing newsletter, a membership site, or any type of informational product, the key is to not wait until every detail is absolutely perfect. Do what you need to do in order to get started, get it online and making money, and refine it as you go.

Learn the pitfalls of ESP and how to avoid them and you will be on your way to success as an internet marketer. Make a plan for what you want to do and accomplish, identify the resources to help you achieve your goals, and then just go do it!

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