Popular internet marketing plans in Pakistan

nternet marketing in search engines is the most effective way of bringing traffic from the 3 million surfers surfing every hour. 92% traffic is generated from them, from which 85% comes on top 10 search engines. In Internet marketing, web sites are optimized for Top 30 search engine placements in those get 89% of clicks. Why not your website gets those top 30 search engine positions.

Search Engine Optimization is a technique to optimize sites as up to the requirement of search engines, it’s very cheap, most effective skill of marketing. More visits means more awareness, resulting more business. But attaining top search engine positioning is a specialized job, which requires dedication, research and lot of time to maintain top search engine ranking. We not only develop websites but market them in search engines, all and all we provide A to Z solutions to websites.

Traditional Mediums versus Search Engine Positioning

A webmaster looking for some quality traffic to the website, is many a times confronted with a lot of varied and sometimes confusing options. There is banner advertising, Pay per click, conventional media campaigns and finally search engine submission campaigns. So what is the best method? In this article I will try to being forth the merits & demerits of each form of marketing strategy.

Banner Advertising:
Paying $15 for a 1000 impressions on a high traffic website. Sounds like good exposure for a low price? It is! After all you will have a 1000 unique people view your banner. But how many actually end up clicking on it, and how many more actually end up buying stuff from you? According to most industry sources the average click through rate of a banner campaign is 0.38%. So you get 3.8 people to click on your banner for $15. And the rate of conversion is typically 1 to 5%. So how much do you actually spend before a person buys from you? You do the math. It appears quite a lot to me.

What about those popup ads? Or the ones that keep popping up and refuse to close? Wouldn’t that give you more exposure? Some banner sellers would love to make you believe that. Well its not the case. Ever had one very stubborn popup refusing to close? How irritating is that? I would never even buy anything from that kind of banner advertiser. Its downright irritating to have banner popup in the face when you are in the middle of surfing for some useful information.

Pay Per Click Search Engines:
The internet boom may be over, but for search engines the boom may have just begun. Many engines, the most famous being Overture and now Looksmart have turned to this model. Pay per click model makes you pay for the amount of actual clicks your site link receives and not for the number of exposures. Sounds good? It sometimes is very effective too. For starters, you get quality traffic, cause the people who click on your link would have searched for a term relevant to you. However it can be pretty expensive. Overture makes you bid on the term you want to rank high on, and trust me sometimes the bids get pretty high. Looksmart on the other hand charges you $0.15 for each click through you get. Pretty expensive, if you have a small budget.
However, if this scheme appeals to you, you are better off asking a SEO to implement it for you, instead of trying it yourself, since it can get pretty expensive for competitive terms.

Conventional Media Campaigns:
News paper advertisements, Posters, Television and Radio adverts, all come under traditional forms of advertising. However for most medium sized websites Television and Radio ad’s are way beyond budgets. And for an internet firm, it is of paramount importance that the newspaper or magazine reader who views his ad, remembers the website name. And as most experiences marketing guys will tell you, for that to happen you need to advertise regularly for a period of time. You add up the cost for an effective campaign and it will work out to be quite a sum.

Search Engine Submissions:
Search engine submissions include keyword analysis, study of competition, optimizing your website for the chosen keywords, submitting to search engines and directories and repeating the entire process and submissions over the period of time. Sounds quite a lot? It is. But is it expensive? Well, it varies for the kind of search engine optimization you require, but trust me, at the end of the day, it is cheaper than most of the methods we discussed above.

Can you do it yourself? Yes you can, if you have the time. Should you train somebody inhouse? No, I don’t think so. You will end up paying him a monthly salary which will definitely work out to be more than what you will pay a qualified SEO, and more often than not, he wont know all the tricks and methods a professional SEO would use.

What about those quite cheap off the shelf softwares that promise so much? Well, they don’t choose your keywords, they don’t optimize the website, they don’t study your traffic trends over the period of time, and finally they don’t change with the rapidly changing algorithms and guidelines of search engines.

How about the traffic quality? Is it inferior to the traffic generated by banner ads or newspaper adverts? On the contrary. People had to have searched for a keyword relevant to your website before clicking on the link. Hence the traffic generated, contrary to the myth, is highly targeted.

What is a dedicated web hosting?

A dedicated server is a single computer on a web-hosting network that is leased or rented, and dedicated to just one customer. A service provider monitors the computer’s hardware, network connectivity, and routing equipment, while the customer generally controls and maintains the server software. Dedicated servers are most often used by those who’ve outgrown typical hosting accounts and now require massive amounts of data space and bandwidth, those with mission critical web sites, web hosting companies, or those who have special needs. Dedicated servers are housed in data centers, where service providers can monitor them close-up and have hands-on access to them.

The primary advantage of using a dedicated server over a typical shared hosting account is the sheer amount of resources and control available to you, the customer. In many cases, the client is at liberty to install whatever software they desire, giving them greater flexibility and administrative options. Dedicated server clients do not share resources, as those with shared hosting plans do; but rather, are at liberty to use all the resources available to them.

Managed Servers vs. Unmanaged Servers

There are two types of dedicated servers available today: Managed Dedicated Servers and Unmanaged Dedicated Servers.

An Unmanaged Dedicated Server leaves nearly all the management duties of running a server in the purchaser’s control. The customer in this case, updates software on their own, applies necessary patches, performs kernel compiles and operating system restores, installs software, and monitors security. With this type of dedicated server, the consumer is solely responsible for day-to-day operations and maintenance. The service provider, in turn, monitors the network, repairs hardware problems, and troubleshoots connectivity issues. Additionally, some service providers offer partial management of services, such as network monitoring, software upgrades and other services, but leave the general upkeep of the server in the hands of the client. An unmanaged dedicated server is best for someone with server management experience.

A Managed Dedicated Server is generally more proactively monitored and maintained on the part of the service provider. When renting or leasing a managed server, the service provider or host carries out the responsibility of software updates and patches, putting security measures in place, performing hardware replacements, and also monitoring the network and its connection for trouble. In other words, when utilizing a managed dedicated server, the host provider will perform both hardware and software operations. A managed dedication server solution works well for the customer with limited server management experience or limited time in being able to perform the duties necessary to keep a server running and online.

Technical Aspects In Choosing A Server

When choosing a dedicated server, there are several things to consider: Operating System, Hardware options, Space and bandwidth.

The Operating System of a server is similar to that on your own personal computer; once installed, the operating system enables one to perform tasks more simply. There are a bevy of server operating systems available today including Linux-based and Windows-based software. The operating system you choose should be directly relational to what operations your server will be performing, which types of software you’ll need to install and also, what you’re more comfortable with.

Hardware Options are also something to consider when choosing a dedicated server. You’ll need to pick a processor that’s up to the task, the amount of memory you wish installed, firewall options, and the size of the hard drive.

A certain amount of bandwidth is generally included when renting or leasing a dedicated server. Once you ascertained how much bandwidth you will require, you can adjust that limit with your service provider. The space you’ll be given is generally directly relational to the size of your hard drive. Some hosts also give clients the choice of uplink port speed (usually 10Mbps/100Mbps).

Traditional Mediums versus Search Engine Positioning

A webmaster looking for some quality traffic to the website, is many a times confronted with a lot of varied and sometimes confusing options. There is banner advertising, Pay per click, conventional media campaigns and finally search engine submission campaigns.

So what is the best method? In this article I will try to being forth the merits & demerits of each form of marketing strategy.

Banner Advertising:

Paying $15 for a 1000 impressions on a high traffic website. Sounds like good exposure for a low price? It is! After all you will have a 1000 unique people view your banner. But how many actually end up clicking on it, and how many more actually end up buying stuff from you? According to most industry sources the average click through rate of a banner campaign is 0.38%. So you get 3.8 people to click on your banner for $15. And the rate of conversion is typically 1 to 5%. So how much do you actually spend before a person buys from you? You do the math. It appears quite a lot to me.

What about those popup ads? Or the ones that keep popping up and refuse to close? Wouldn’t that give you more exposure? Some banner sellers would love to make you believe that. Well its not the case. Ever had one very stubborn popup refusing to close? How irritating is that? I would never even buy anything from that kind of banner advertiser. Its downright irritating to have banner popup in the face when you are in the middle of surfing for some useful information.

Pay Per Click Search Engines:

The internet boom may be over, but for search engines the boom may have just begun. Many engines, the most famous being Overture and now Looksmart have turned to this model. Pay per click model makes you pay for the amount of actual clicks your site link receives and not for the number of exposures. Sounds good? It sometimes is very effective too. For starters, you get quality traffic, cause the people who click on your link would have searched for a term relevant to you. However it can be pretty expensive. Overture makes you bid on the term you want to rank high on, and trust me sometimes the bids get pretty high. Looksmart on the other hand charges you $0.15 for each click through you get. Pretty expensive, if you have a small budget.

However, if this scheme appeals to you, you are better off asking a SEO to implement it for you, instead of trying it yourself, since it can get pretty expensive for competitive terms.

Conventional Media Campaigns:

News paper advertisements, Posters, Television and Radio adverts, all come under traditional forms of advertising. However for most medium sized websites Television and Radio ad’s are way beyond budgets. And for an internet firm, it is of paramount importance that the newspaper or magazine reader who views his ad, remembers the website name. And as most experiences marketing guys will tell you, for that to happen you need to advertise regularly for a period of time. You add up the cost for an effective campaign and it will work out to be quite a sum.

Search Engine Submissions:

Search engine submissions include keyword analysis, study of competition, optimizing your website for the chosen keywords, submitting to search engines and directories and repeating the entire process and submissions over the period of time. Sounds quite a lot? It is. But is it expensive? Well, it varies for the kind of optimization you require, but trust me, at the end of the day, it is cheaper than most of the methods we discussed above.

Can you do it yourself? Yes you can, if you have the time. Should you train somebody inhouse? No, I don’t think so. You will end up paying him a monthly salary which will definitely work out to be more than what you will pay a qualified SEO, and more often than not, he wont know all the tricks and methods a professional SEO would use.

What about those quite cheap off the shelf softwares that promise so much? Well, they don’t choose your keywords, they don’t optimize the website, they don’t study your traffic trends over the period of time, and finally they don’t change with the rapidly changing algorithms and guidelines of search engines.

How about the traffic quality? Is it inferior to the traffic generated by banner ads or newspaper adverts? On the contrary. People had to have searched for a keyword relevant to your website before clicking on the link. Hence the traffic generated, contrary to the myth, is highly targeted.

And lastly, Are Search engine optimizers expensive? Not at all, especially in comparison to the other forms of marketing. And a good SEO, will help you drive much more quality and sustained traffic to your site than any of the other mediums would be able to...

Hope you enjoyed reading this article... Look forward to hearing from you. So until next time... Happy Surfing!!!

Web Design - A Perspective

Graphic design is not just about splashing a few colours, drawing geometrical figures etc. Though most of the websites do that, they just don't have it in them. Websites need to have that 'thought' in them, which will leave surfers impressed. There has to be a concept or a theme behind each and every part of the design. Designing is a gradual process. You cannot expect to finalise a design overnight. Right from colours, the layout, the pictures, placement of text to the final weight of the page, everything has to be taken into consideration beforehand. Here are some rules you could use while designing a website.

Rule 1: Think. Before starting off, think of a concept or a theme which is applicable and suitable to the website of which you desire to make.

Rule 2: Draw rough sketches. You need not be an expert artist. Take a piece of paper and draw what you have visualised.

Rule 3: Think of a good layout. The webpage should look balanced. Do not cram up a lot of things only in one part of the page. Spread the matter out evenly.

Rule 4: Make a first draft. Sleep over it. The next day, take a look at it again. Is it as appealing? As impressive? If yes, fantastic. If no, go back to Rule 1.

Rule 5: Do not just stick with one concept. Try out other themes too.

Rule 6: Once you are done with the paperwork, put it into practise i.e. try it out on your computer. The design should be feasible for the web programmer.

Rule 7: Try out the different designs that you have made on the computer using web programs. For graphics, Macromedia Flash (the latest hit), Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop are a few graphic oriented programs for the web.

Rule 8: Now you need to finalise a design which will pass the following questions: Looks good? Impressive?

Rule 9: Now for the finishing touches. Your website needs to have that finesse. That touch of class. Add a few things, probably a faded image in the background to make the look more impressive. But remember, do not make the website too heavy for loading. Nothing pisses off a surfer more than a slow loading and heavy website. (well, except p**n sites)

Rule 10: Public opinion. Ask the people around you what they think of your website. Be prepared for criticism. Learn to listen to their views and work on them. What you feel is excellent may not be as well received by others. Be prepared to work on the website. Remember, there is always room for improvisation.

Web Hosting Providers HostGator Offer The Best Web Hosting Plans

A recent survey conducted bring HostGator top for one of the best web hosting providers from the feedback from their web hosting packages. This is backed up by seven years success and a string of awards.

From only $4.95 a month you can get set up with one of the best web hosting providers on the Internet. Depending on your requirements you can go on to purchase dedicated and reseller hosting plans too. HostGator also give unlimited web space on most accounts aswell as many other features to make setting up your website as easy as possible.

Hosting over 2.5 million domains HostGator has fast become the preferred web space, this is down to their reliable service and 24/7 helpline. Because of their huge presence they are able to provide a service and price which undercut their competitors more or less every time.

Often they are running special offers and discount packages too. To view these various hosting plans and order your web space today visit HostGator.

Hostway Bundles Free Marketing Platforms Into Web Hosting Plans

In an effort to simplify life for small businesses, Hostway (News - Alert) recently bundled its Instant Business Broadcast, a service that submits a business profile to 10 of the most popular online directories plus Newsletter Broadcast, a “robust” e-mail marketing platform into its Web hosting plans.

The goal, as explained by Hostway’s John Lee, senior vice president of small business hosting, is to help SMBs attract new customers and keep them coming back.

“That’s why we’ve made Instant Business Broadcast and Newsletter Broadcast easy to use and free with our Web hosting plans,” Lee said. “Instant Business Broadcast attracts new customers by getting small businesses in front of more people when they’re searching online. Newsletter Broadcast lets a small business stay connected with its customers through newsletters and email marketing campaigns.”

Since 1998, Hostway has invested in building one of the “most advanced, industry-leading foundations” of Internet data centers around the world. By acquiring smaller companies and expanding its global footprint, Hostway now owns and operates 12 state-of-the-art data centers around the globe.

In a recent interview with Todd Benjamin (News - Alert), director of enterprise hosting at Hostway, he explained that cloud hosting solutions provide flexibility for businesses with less of an upfront capital outlay on hardware.

In fact, the cloud facilitates flexible integration of applications, anywhere delivery of services and significant cost savings, Benjamin said.

With Instant Business Broadcast, a customer enters his or her business information into one form. Hostway formats the profile and submits it to 10 of the most popular online directories, includingGoogle ( News - Alert) Maps, Yahoo! Local, Bing and Yellowpages.com. The profile can include a link to the business Web site or serve as a stand-alone Web presence with all of the information people need to buy from the business, according to Hostway officials.

Newsletter Broadcast is an interface for creating and managing e-mail marketing campaigns. Users can plug their information into a template or upload their own HTML code and send it to a list of subscribers and track its success using the application. While most Web hosting companies charge for their directory listing service, Hostway is offering it free with any Web hosting package, company officials said.