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Google Co-op was announced by Google, along with other announcements, in May of 2006. Google Co-op represents Google’s efforts to embrace social web and social search concepts in a major way to help improve Google search results. Google Co-op will allow users to contribute context, knowledge, and expertise. In essence, Google Co-op allows users to tell Google what web content really is by providing labels (categories) for that content. Users will also get to “vote” on what content they find to be valuable by subscribing to the content of various web sites that they value. An additional benefit to end-users is that Google Co-op allows them, through their subscriptions, to alter their own Google search results so that the provided information better meets their needs. It further helps end-users to filter out spam content, or content of little or marginal value.

Google Co-op is currently in beta test. As with any new service that is being beta tested, there are still some things being “worked out”. The documentation is somewhat limited and lacking, making it a little difficult to understand and implement Google Co-op. The remainder of this paper will provide a high-level overview of Google Co-op to help individuals better understand what it is, how they can use it, and what they will see. Subsequent papers on the topic will delve more into the “nitty-gritty” of how to implement it.

At its most basic, “social web” (aka Web 2.0) is a process whereby users provide information and opinions, and share them with others. It is the sharing that provides the social aspect. Users can share information about what they find to be valuable. A good example of this is del.icio.us where users share links to their “favorite” information on the web (for example, favorite articles, or web sites about a topic etc.). Other examples of “user-vetted”, or user-contributed information, would include Wikipedia (the open, user contributed, encyclopedia), and DMOZ (the open directory). There are many other examples.

“Social search” is the same process of humans providing and sharing information to help improve the results that a search engine presents to various queries. Google Co-Op would appear to be a strong move by Google into the social search arena.

Google Co-Op Components

Google Co-op consists of two things:

Topics
Subscribed links

Topics

Topics is simply Google’s way of saying “area of interest”. Topics allow users a way to provide labels (or tags, or categories) for information on the web. A user does this by associating a URL with a label (for example, www.citytowninfo.com might get the label “destination_guide”). These labels simply tell Google what a particular URL is all about. Users may use labels for topics that Google already has under development, which include: health, destination guides, autos, computer & video games, photo & video equipment, and stereo & home theater. Users may also develop labels for their own topics (for example, if a user has an interest in “wine” they may develop labels for the topic wine, which may include “wine_regions”, “wine_types”, etc.).

The process of labeling content will benefit everyone in several ways. Labels will provide Google with a vast amount of information about what web sites are all about, potentially down to a very granular, or individual page level. In addition, by taking the time to label a site, users are essentially “voting” on what sites are valuable to them. As these votes accumulate over time, Google will have a clearer picture of what sites are authoritative on a topic or topics. It is not hard to come to the conclusion that with time, Google will start to use this data so that sites with a lot of votes will start to appear much higher in appropriate search results.

Subscribed Links

Subscribed links provide several very beneficial features to both users and web publishers. Subscribed links provide:

End users a means of altering or tailoring their search engine results so that they receive more relevant search results as well as results from sources that they “trust”
End users a potential means of saving time since the results that they need may actually appear in the search results, negating the need to click through to the site
End users another mechanism to “vote” on sites that they find to be valuable or authoritative by going through the process of subscribing to those sites
Publishers with another means to make content available to end users

With subscribed links, publishers can make a subset of their information available to end users by submitting their subscribed links via an XML file to Google, and letting users know how and where to subscribe. Users who value the content of particular publishers will subscribe to their subscribed links. In so doing, the content for subscribed sites will appear at the top of search results when the users searches on relevant terms. In essence, the user alters their own search results by subscribing, so that content that they find to be more valuable appears at the top of search results.

As a site gains more subscribers, Google will most likely, with time, come to see it as more authoritative. As has already been mentioned earlier in this article, it is not hard to jump to the conclusion that such a site will appear higher up in Google search results for relevant search terms over time.

Google Co-Op Will Improve the Content That Users See

The whole process of labeling and subscribing has the added benefit of being self-vetting. This means that spam sites, advertising sites, and sites that provide marginal or useless content will be pushed down in search results. Social web dynamics in action means that users simply will not bother to label or subscribe to poor quality sites in high enough volumes for them to be seen as authoritative and useful. The end result for all should be better and more useful search results.

What Users Will “See”

At this point you may be wondering how users actually see Google Co-op search results. Google Co-op content appears to the end user in one or more of three ways:

As “Refine Results”: Refine results are search refinements for the topic. This is a set of predetermined categories that can be used to refine a search for a given topic. For example, a search on “Boston” will yield a “Refine results for boston:” box at the top of their search results with the following categories: Dining guides, Lodging guides, Attractions, Shopping, Suggested itineraries, and Tours & day trips.
As “Subscribed Links”: A Subscribed Links results box that presents the results from one or more of the authoritative sources to which a user has subscribed at the top of Google’s search results. For example, if the user were subscribed to citytowninfo.com, and they searched on “Boston”, they would see an “About Boston, MA” subscribed links box at the top of their search below the “Refine results”.
“Labels”: Labels appear for result items within a search. A label is a tag that appears below a search result. For example, an item after the title and brief description might say “Labeled Dining guides”. These labeled sites show up below the subscribed links, but above Google’s organic search results.

Users who do nothing will see search refinements for the health and destination guides topics areas at the top of any relevant set of Google search results (try a quick Google search on “Boston” to see “Refine results for Boston”). This is because Google subscribes everyone to those topics by default. In fact, there does not appear to be any way to unsubscribe from these two topics. Users will also see relevant labels from these two topics below search results for sites that have been annotated by users or publishers.

Users who subscribe to the subscribed links of web sites and search on terms that are relevant to those authoritative sources will see items from those sources at the top of their search results. The end-user’s search results are altered from what they would “normally” see and they will see the “Refine Results”, “Subscribed Links Boxes”, and “Labels” for the sites with which they have subscriptions. By subscribing, the user alters their own search experience so that it is more relevant and tailored to their own needs.

To see this in action go to Google’s directory and subscribe to one or more of the listed subscribed links, or try subscribing to citytowninfo.com’s subscribed link. If you subscribe to citytowninfo.com, a quick search on “Boston” yields both the “Refine results” from Google as well as a “Subscribed Links” “About Boston, MA” box from citytowninfo.com.
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Conclusion

While still in its infancy, and going through the growing pains that are normal for services that are in beta test, Google Co-op clearly has a lot of promise to enable Google to provide much more powerful and relevant search results to users. As the volume of labels and subscribed links grows, as well as user “votes” by going through the process of labeling sites and subscribing to sites, Google Co-op will become a very powerful and important force impacting both how people go about searching, as well as what search results actually appear.

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As the diligent Chief of internet submission company, Submission Company, search engine Submission Company, I am constantly watching the evolution of the Google Maps protocol.
In recent weeks to months it seems that Google has begun taking some drastic measures to curb the use of their gmail service for the dissemination of spam. At first it merely appeared that Google was tightening its quality requirements for listings on the Google Maps, (Google’s Local Business Listing Center). Google is always anxious to provide its customers quality information about the products and services they are seeking.) While one can only speculate, it is likely they were concerned about people using tricks to get high rankings on their local business listings. Their thinking may have been that companies using various techniques to feature keywords in their listings, may have been moving ahead of businesses more qualified to provide the services the online shopper was looking for. Google laid down a number of guidelines as to how to fill out individual text fields on their applications, and made it clear that listings not compliant with these new guidelines might be removed from the local listings. Apparently, this trend is only one step in Google’s war against unethical Internet practices.
Once this listing was tentatively accepted for submission, I decided to experiment. I decided to add back single keywords to see which ones would be accepted by the Local Business Center, without triggered another flagging. I only added back “emergency mobile locksmith,” and the listing was again flagged. The idea that a listing should be flagged for such an innocuous keyword is extremely consternating. I looked on various discussion boards but couldn’t find anyone else with my experience. Until otherwise proven, I am convinced that Google is cracking down on the locksmith industry, because of spam, and may even be placing a quota on the number of times a keyword can be used in a given geographical area.
As more and more people register on the Google Maps, and as Google creates more and regulations to protect the quality of the local business listings, it is more and more of a challenge to get top listings. Google has created a number of helpful articles and videos for businesses wishing to list their company. But for business owners who do not have time to list themselves, or for owners and professionals alike who are looking for ways to be compliant with Google, and yet successful in getting high ranking on the maps, the additional guidelines create new challenges. For new up to date ideas on meeting this challenge, check out “4 Hours to a First Page Listing on Google Local” an e-Book with constantly updated suggestions as to how a business owner can be compliant and competitive in the ever changing Google Local Business Center Directory.

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Recipricol linking has been used by webmasters for many years. This is still an critical strategy and, when used right, will add to the link fame of your buisness program. There are some unethical recipricol linking strategies out there, but I would by no means recommend this approach. Do not let yourself be drawn into any quick fix approach to promoting your buisness site.

Recipricol linking is like a establishment project between two or more sites. The essential premise is that you commune with a different website owner and agree to give a link to his or her program, seeing that long as they agree to link back to yours. The philosophy here is that, if you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.

There are basically four ways for acquiring recipricol links.

1. The first strategy is the long way. With this first method, you send gmails to the webmasters of any buisness websites you are engrossed in linking with. The webmaster will either say yes or disagree to do the exchange (or they might just take no notice of your email altogether). If the webmaster agrees, then you just exchange links and you are finished.

2. Strategy 2 would involve using 1 of the numerous software buisnesses out there that basically semi-computerize the recipricol linking process. I surely recommend the software strategy as it will save you a enormous quantity of time. Also, the software should be able to check that the links coming back to you as of your partner sites stay active. If you had to continually look for lively links yourself, it would show to be extremely time consuming. If a partner website link becomes inactive for some reason, then there is no benefit for you to remain associated to them. Keep in mind that websites come and go, so you need to have a method to precisely check your exchanged links.

3. A third method involves purchasing recipricol links (By the way, you can as well purchase one way links). I would advise care with this strategy. The search engine crawlers are —————- very smart these days. Search engines such as Google be predisposed to frown upon purchased links.

4. A fourth strategy involves the many recipricol link swap services out there. These consist of networks of hundreds of webmasters with sites on a diversity of topics. Through these services, all of the buisness websites link to each other. The trouble here is that you will end up with a lot of unrelated recipricol links. The search engines actually don’t like these services and they have sophisticated ways of detecting them.

One especially crucial consideration when assembling recipricol links is that you simply want to hook up with sites that are linked to yours. For example, if your buisness website is centered around partner advertising programs and you exchange a link with a buisness website on cake baking styles, then that link swap is simply not relevant. If you begin connecting to unrelated sites, the search engines will consider this to be link spamming. Do not link spam, as this will wipe out your reliability in the long run and possibly get your program excluded.

In summary then, recipricol linking is still a great SEO method if completed properly. It ought to be carried out in conjunction with other SEO advertising strategy such as one way linking, key word optimization, blogging and article advertising, just to name a few. Great luck with your recipricol linking campaign.

Check out these links for more information on a Work From Home Opportunity and Google Small Business

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No Money for your Internet Marketing Business Promotion? Use Free and Low-Cost Marketing Alternatives

Starting an Internet marketing business is probably the best way of growing a residual income and at the same time achieving financial freedom. It really sounds easy and fun, yet there are several things that will cross your mind—things that will probably stop you in starting your own Internet marketing business.

Time and financial resources.

You need to accept the fact that in order to make money, you must have sufficient time allotment and financial resources. It is not advisable to start your online business if you feel that you do not have that financial capability of sustaining your own business in the long run.

Getting large web traffic to your online business site is your main priority in starting your Internet marketing business. You will be able to achieve it through advertising your site. However, when you found out that the cost is not within your reach, there is a slim chance that you will achieve success in getting traffic and converting them into long-term clients. Keep in mind that without a strong clientele base, it will mark the end of your Internet marketing career.

Is there any other way to escape expensive online business advertising?

Keep in mind that the word “free” still exists.

In other words, there are still low-cost alternatives and even free methods of advertising your Internet marketing business. You must be confident that such free or low-cost advertising alternatives will work, after all it is still a type of promotion that will help you get the targeted traffic that you need for your site. It does not necessarily follows that free or cheap advertising will not work effectively whereas expensive advertising mediums will always work. Invest confidence and a “clever thinking” on how you will be able to make it as effective as the expensive advertisement packages on the Internet.

As previously mentioned, there are many ways of advertising your online business without spending much of your fortune. The best idea that you must consider is writing original articles containing fresh and juicy information that will help your website visitors know about your business and the products and services that you are offering. Write your own original articles and sign with free or low-cost article distribution services that will distribute your articles to publishers around the Internet. If you want a wider distribution of your articles for increased awareness, you may pay for a small fee. Once your articles are distributed and published around the Internet with hyperlinks directing to your site, you will have your first set of new web visitors in no time. If you do not want to write the articles by yourself, you can hire different article writing services that will do the job in exchange of a small fee. Article writing and distribution is one of the best means of Internet marketing promotion.

Just like article writing, you may also use weblogs or simply blogs for your Internet marketing business promotion. This is completely free of charge and an ideal way of getting quality content on your website as well as getting repeated visitors who are interested in reading what you want to say. You can write your views about your business or include some photographs of the products you are offering. Do not forget to include your site’s link on your blogs so that your readers can visit your site if they want more information about what you have written on your blogs.

Posting to online forums is another free yet effective way of getting your hyperlinks noticed by majority of Internet users. There are thousands of online discussion forums out there that offers subjects related to the nature of your online business. You may also help other individuals by posting your comments or suggestions that you know with regards to a certain issue. The more assistance that you can offer, the more your name will stand out of the crowd as the authority on the subject, and the more likely forum readers will click on your website hyperlink to find out more about you and what you are into. It is one of the best ways of making sales without even selling actual products or services.

Why spend a lot if there are free and low-cost advertising alternatives for your Internet marketing promotion? With some careful planning and little spending, you will be able to earn a lot from your online business.

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New Internet Marketers have an incredible opportunity to make good money marketing on the internet but also first need to learn how to negotiate the twists and turns of successful online marketing.

With this in mind, this article will attempt to share 5 basic strategies to help new internet marketers get started launching their own successful internet marketing campaign.

We will look at various techniques like creating a website, placing banner ads, publishing ezines, orchestrating an email marketing campaign and optimizing your website for search engines.

Emails:

New Internet Marketers should always start with the basics and you can’t get more basic than marketing with emails.

Email marketing campaigns form the foundation of successful online marketing. Email marketing essentially

involves sending out emails to a group of individuals who may be interested in your products and services.

Care should be taken in sending out these emails to avoid sending emails which are unsolicited and will be viewed as spam. One precaution is to only email prospects who have requested to be updated concerning your products and services.

Another way to do this is to provide value in the emails as opposed to just including advertisements.

This can be done by offering relevant advice in your emails and other useful information which may be of interest to the recipients of the email.

Ezine Publishing:

For the new Internet Marketer another very effective marketing strategy is to publish an Ezine.

Publishing Ezines takes online marketing into a whole new realm.

Ezines (Electronic Magazines) are essentially emails containing useful information to the recipient, including tips, articles,

reports, surveys and relevant advertising focused on making life easier for the prospect.

The importance of these Ezines is that they can be used as marketing tools which are not viewed by the recipients as blatant advertising.

One way to do this is to incorporate links or other soft sale approaches into the copy of the Ezine.

However, care should be taken to keep these references minimal so the Ezine is not viewed as spam.

Banner Advertising:

Banner advertising is another popular marketing method which helps expose your

business to the Cyber Community. Banner ads are advertisements which typically appear along the top or bottom of a website but it may also include smaller ads in other locations.

Banner ads typically include graphics and text which entice Internet users to click on the advertisement. Once a user clicks on the ad, they are directed to your website.

These ads can be very effective when placed on popular websites where they’ll be view by lots of people who may have an interest in your product or service.

Creating a Website:

For new Internet Marketers one of the most basic steps for starting an Internet Marketing campaign is to create a website.If you don’t have a website or have a poorly designed website you should consider creating or re-designing a website to adequately market your products.

If you do not have experience in web design, there are a number of software packages which make it simple for those with no design experience to create a functional website.

However, you may

want to consider using a professional webmaster to design an effective website that’s suitable to your particular line of products and services. He can also help you include more advanced features on your website.

Optimizing Your Website:

Finally, using search engine optimization to enhance the effectiveness of your web presence is vital to your online marketing success.

Search engines rank websites according to quality and relevance for particular search terms.

Many Internet users appreciate the effort by search engines and use these search engines to find the best websites on a particular subject. This means the Internet users are likely to only visit websites which rank well with search engines.

So, if your website is not high ranking, you are not likely to generate a great deal of traffic from Internet users who use search engines to find relevant websites.

Top ranking websites are likely to obtain the most traffic from search engines and all websites falling on the first page of the search engine results will likely enjoy some degree of success in improving their traffic.

So, there it is, 5 essential methods of online marketing for new internet marketers.