Just imagine your irritation when you discover that the $97 product that you have sold 500 times has actually been downloaded 578 times (all from different IP addresses)… that constitutes a loss of $2716… Yipes, that’s one heck of a loss!

And how did it happen?

Well, there are plenty of ways that it can happen.

1. Search engines indexing your download page and people finding it
2. Individuals finding your download directory
3. Legitimate customers bookmarking your download page with online bookmarking services

I am going to handle these one by one.

Search engines indexing your download page

Because search engines often crawl your site, if you add a download page they are going to find it. However, how do you stop them from indexing that page? Aha, that is really simple… all you need is the tiny meta tag below added to the header section of your download page.

<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”>

This tag tells search engines to ignore your download page and not include it in their index. If it isn’t in their index then no unscrupulous rip-off artist can notice it and download your merchandise without authorization

People finding your download directory

Some unscrupulous folks will visit an ecommerce web site then add a simple /download or /downloads to the end of the URL and if the owner hasn’t been a little clever then the result can be a page containing hyperlinks directly to the downloadable files

The way to stop this is to add a simple index.htm or index.html file to the directory. Browsers automatically look for these files and load them if they’re present. That way, if somebody goes to the directory, whatever content you have put on that page will appear rather than the directory contents… mine has a blank page. It’s in all probability also a smart idea to name the directory something utterly obscure, you could give the directory some totally screwy name like ad9cy45jm or whatever that no-one would ever guess would be a download directory. A combination of those two is most likely a good idea just in case somebody has a method of working around the index page.

Note that the index.html page works even with a directory inside a blog… for instance, visit http://automatedblogpostingsoftware.com/downloads and a page with some stupid text meant as a joke will be generated… that is the index.html page on one of Julia’s blogs (Note: This is NOT her download directory, it is a complete decoy LOL)

Legitimate customers bookmarking your download page with on-line bookmarking services

This is the third means by which unauthorised people will access your product downloads. Unfortunately, this is also the toughest one to combat. Folks are allowed to bookmark their download page and it is a perfectly legitimate thing to try simply in case something goes wrong with the first download.

To beat this downside you need software that issues a temporary download link that is only active for a certain amount of time or a certain number of downloads. One such software program is Smartdd (short for ‘smart digital download’). Click here for additional info on SmartDD now!

I hope this post has helped you understand how unauthorized downloads occur and the way to guard your products from the strategies used by unscrupulous people to rip off your hard earned profits!

So how do you stop visitors leaving your website once they click a link? How do you create a link that will open in a new window or tab?

Fortunately, this is a relatively easy issue to resolve. If you have access to editing the html of your site then it’s just a matter of adding a target=”blank” to the html code for the link as in the instance below.

Example 1: Making a link attached to a graphic or banner open in a new tab or window

<a href=”http://www.mysite.com” target=”blank”> <img src=”http://www.mysite.com/images/banner.jpg”> </a>

This will create one thing like this

Example 2: Forcing text links to open in a new tab or window

<a href=”http://www.mysite.com” target=”blank”> my link here </a>

Will form a link like this:

Resources for Marketers

Whether these links open a new window or browser tab depends on the visitors browser settings. But whichever it does, your site will still be open in their browser for them to come back to.

It should be noted that Google does not allow the code in adsense units to be altered. Therefore it is unavoidable that people leave your site if they click a Google link. If you alter this code Google will disallow ALL clicks and probably shut your adsense account and ban you from ever signing up again.

Any other link could be opened in separate windows or tabs by following the instructions above.

If your site is an online shopping mall then you’d be best to use shoppingcart software. However, if you only sell a small range of products or individual things like downloadable info products then a paypal buy now button is perfect. Paypal buy now buttons are especially good for digital download products because once you set them up you will earn on autopilot. Simply imagine waking up in the morning to find you’ve sold ten $17 products throughout the night… and they are already delivered! NICE!!! The best thing is that people TRUST paypal, thus using paypal buttons truly will increase sales (particularly if the payment section of your page contains a paypal emblem and states that payments are via paypal and are therefore a hundred% secure).

Before you start, you will need a success or thank-you page for paypal to direct customers to after checkout completion. If you’re selling information products this page could contain the download link. Alternatively, you may harvest the buyers email address and send the download link to them via email. In that case your success page would contain an optin form. A smart way to keep people on that list is to offer some kind of instructional or bonus product that comes in instalments.

So how do you create a paypal buy now button?

You may notice that Paypal has the method set up in 3 steps; Button type and payment details, inventory tracking and customizing checkout pages. Simply follow the step-by-step instructions below to make a paypal buy now button. Once you’ve created your initial buy now button you can create additional buttons using the ‘create similar button’ function.

1. Log in to paypal and click ‘Merchant Services’ and ‘buy now buttons’ as per the image below
2. Step one: Creating Button type and payment details
• Specify the sort of product you’re selling. Choices include; Products, Services, Subscriptions/recurring billing, donations and gift vouchers. Once you’ve created your first paypal button you can click the ‘go to my saved buttons’ beneath this selection to edit an existing button or produce similar buttons. To create a similar button click the ‘action’ link beside the chosen button and choose ‘create similar button’.
• Select whether you wish an ‘add to cart’ button or a ‘buy now’ button. Add to cart buttons are for sites that supply multiple products whereas buy now buttons are for those that sell individual items.
• Specify the name of the product you are selling – Use something logical as this becomes the name the button is saved under for future reference. That way you’ll recognize it later. Beneath this option you can also add an item ID if you’re selling physical merchandise and wish to use Paypal’s inventory management system to trace your inventory
• Enter the item cost in the next field and which currency you would like to receive payment in (eg. US dollars)
• Next you customize the appearance of your paypal buy now button and the options associated with it. You’ll add drop down menus for size, color or any other option. You can customise the looks of the button. You can even specify your own button graphic.
• The next option is Postage. If you are selling a physical product that you can charge a flat postage rate on (i.e. small, lightweight things like CDs) then you’ll be able to fill this field in to specify the postage rate. To activate this option you will need to go to myaccount>profile>selling preferences>postage calculations and check the ‘override postage methods per transaction’ box.
• The last option under this section is the sort of Merchant identification you would like to use. You can use plain text where your email address is visible in the button code or you’ll choose to use ‘secure merchant account ID’ which replaces the plain text email with a merchant number that only paypal can connect with your email address. Using this selection stops spammers being able to harvest your email address, therefore it is an excellent option to choose.
3. Step Two: Inventory Tracking
• There are only a couple of choices underneath this section. The primary option is to save your buttons at paypal. This protects buttons from fraudulent changes (eg. switching your paypal account for someone elses), Saves buttons in your paypal profile. Allows you to easily produce similar buttons and lets you edit buttons with paypal tools
• Inventory tracking for physical merchandise – Allows you to specify item quantities and stop further sales of sold out items
4. Step three: Customizing checkout pages
• If you are selling physical products you’ll be able to choose whether to allow customers to update the order amount under this section.
• You can also add a field permitting customers to leave special instructions.
• Request customer address if needed for postage functions
• Specify a URL to forward to in the event of order cancellation.
• Specify a URL to forward to after successful payment – As mentioned earlier, if you’re selling downloadable products this page can contain your download link OR an optin form to harvest customer emails and send them the download link via email. The advantage of this being that you can add them to your sales funnel… just make sure you specify that they may be contacted later and make it ‘double opt in’.
• Ebay power users can also add other variables
5. Finally – simply click the ‘create button’ button and your paypal buy now button will be saved to your profile and you’ll be taken to a page containing the code to add to your webpage. You have 2 choices, either use the button or a link.

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If you’re publishing Adsense or any alternatives you ought to determine the best position that will get visitors clicking. Inappropriate placement will result in a significantly decreased number of clicks and could make or break your success as an adsense publisher.

Thankfully, when searching for the best Adsense placement, Google themselves are particularly ready to lend a hand… after all, it’s in their interests also that people click your ads since they obtain the lions share of the income raised. We don’t know precisely how much of course as they don’t reveal that information.

On the Adsense website you will find the two ‘heat maps’ included below demonstrating the best Adsense placement for your website, whether that website be a static site, blog or even a forum (though the forum heatmap isn’t included on this page). The first one is a heat map for blogs. The second is a heat map for static websites.

Best Adsense placement for Blogs

The image below indicates the best Adsense placement for optimal CTR (click through rate). Practice shows that the ad at the top of each blog post gets the most clicks. In the image this ad is a blue link unit. Other optimal positions include the bottom of each post and the lower right hand sidebar.

It ought to be noted that Google have meticulous guidelines concerning how many ads may be shown on each page. You are permitted to display three AD units, three LINK units and two search boxes. If your site is a blog you will most likely find that it will only display the maximum number then disregard the rest (particularly on the home page where multiple posts are shown)

For those who don’t understand what each of the adsense units are here is a small description.

1. Ad units – Units containing a clickable link AND a description
2. Link units – Units containing ONLY a clickable link
3. Search box – Unit that contains an insertion field and search button permitting visitors to perform a google search.

Best Adsense placement for static websites

In the image below the best Adsense placement is indicated by the darker colors. Therefore, the dark orange spot is the best place to display your advertising blocks. As you can see, the best placement is at the top of the primary content followed by just below the header, the top left hand side of the page, the left hand side of the core content and just below the core content. distinct to a blog there is no benefit to placing units on the right hand side.

So how do you know where to direct your SEO efforts?

The most important factor in gaining free traffic from search engines involves GETTING BACK TO BASICS!

Sure, all these fresh methods involving social media sites, video and audio possess a role in helping sites receive good rankings. But if a site is inadequately optimized to start with then the effectivness of these techniques will be limited. And the vast majority of sites are badly optimized. Most website owners don’t even bother to do keyword research, or perform only simple research (i.e. how many searches does the preferred keyword get?) Consequently they could end up targeting keywords that are too general or have too much opposition… then they wonder why they’re not receiving traffic from search engines… sheesh!

So what are the fundamentals? The essentials are:

1. Domain name:
2. Website Title:
3. Backlinks:

You might also say that keyword research is essential. But this article assumes that methodical keyword research has been undertaken and potentially profitable keywords selected.

Dealing with each aspect individually:

DOMAIN NAME: Every website page should target particular keywords. With the main domain it is critical to make use of the principal keyphrase within the domain name (unless the domain is used for branding). For example, if a man named Stinkbottom Fartworthy had a site about dog training he wouldn’t dub his site StinkbottomFartworthy.com since it has nothing to do with dog training (despite being unforgettable), unless he specifically wanted his name to be synonymous with dog training. To rank for the keyword ‘dog training’ it’s considerably better to use the domain name dogtrainingtips.com. Even though this keyword has enormous competition, if site content matched the domain it would ultimately obtain a reputation as a dog training site and rank well for the keyword.

You can use sub pages on your site to target much less competitive keywords like, ‘how to train small dogs’, ‘how to teach your dog tricks’ etc. These pages will create traffic for your site. As you draw in more ‘longtail’ keywords (keywords containing more than three words) the site will start to rank for the more competitive keyword in the domain name.

How do you include longtail keywords in URLs? Merely incorporate the keyword in the filename of the html file. So dogtrainingtips.com can have a subpage of how-to-teach-your-dog-tricks.html thus the direct entry url becomes dogtrainingtips.com/how-to-teach-your-dog-tricks.html. If your site is produced in wordpress you can set your permalinks (permanent links) to use the post title as the page id and use the keyword in the post title.

WEBSITE TITLE: Your website title is found in the header section of html code. The title is the text that appears in the colored bar across the top of the browser window. Many sites don’t optimize this section but correct optimization goes a LONG way to persuading search engines that your site ought to be ranked for the keywords contained in this tag… especially when page content matches.

BACKLINKS: Backlinks are the MOST IMPORTANT aspect of SEO. This is where social media sites etc come into play. By definition, a backlink is a link on a different site aiming at your website.

There are two very important things to keep in mind with backlinks.

1. Backlinks on associated sites are far more effective than those on unrelated sites. In the example of Mr Fartworthy’s dog training site. If he has backlinks on sites relating to dogs, those links will be much more valuable in increasing the search engine ranking of his site than having them on a site concerning trucks. In general, one link on a associated site is worth 5-10 links on totally unrelated sites. So don’t squander effort building links on unrelated sites!

2. If you desire your site to rank for a particular keyword, use that keyword as the anchor text for your backlinks. Anchor text is the wording that people click to visit your website. So to rank for the keyword ‘dog training tips’ you would employ that as the anchor text. It is important to note that not all backlinks should use this anchor text as it looks abnormal to search engines. So it’s important to use alternative anchor text as well, like your name or some other keyword.

Many newbies starting in web site marketing neglect keyword research completely or perform only basic research by guessing what keyword to rank for and checking how many searches per month are performed for it. This method is inadequate if you wish to be successful. Pursue the incorrect keyword and you’ll end up questioning why you have no traffic.

So how do you do keyword research?

The most accurate keyword research tool is https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal This tool is suggested because statistics are specific to google, the unquestionable search engine leader with 90% of overall searches.

Make a worksheet for your research. Label your columns: Searches, Keyword, Competition, Allintitle and Allinurl

Here is an explanation of each heading:
1. Searches: Monthly searches for the specified keyword/keyphrase
2. Keyword: The actual keyword or keyphrase
3. Competition: The number of pages targeting that precise keyword
4. Allintitle: The amount of sites targeting the keyword in their title.
5. Allinurl: The quantity of sites with the keyword in their domain name

The first two columns of information come directly from the Google tool. The other three columns are researched on google by performing the following searches.

To ascertain competition carry out a search for your keyword with quotation marks (“) around it (example. “Weight loss”). Google will return results from websites targeting the precise keyword/keyphrase. This filters out sites targeting ‘weight’ or ‘loss’ alone. Record the amount of results generated in the competition column beside the keyword. This number is found at the top right hand side of the browser window.

To determine how many websites include a keyword in their titles perform an allintitle search. The format for this is allintitle:your keyword. Exchange ‘your keyword’ with the keyword you would like statistics for. Record the number of results returned into the allintitle column next to the keyword.

To carry out an allinurl search use the format ‘allinurl:your keyword’ and insert the corresponding number of results in the allinurl column

Why search allintitle and allinurl? Because utilizing principal keywords in the title and URL is an extremely important factor in gaining good rankings with search engines for those keywords. Ultimately, you ought to use primary keywords in both. If our targeted keyword appears in the URL of 4000 sites then that is the greatest number of competitors we have to contend with. Utilizing the keyword in both URL and title puts your site ahead of many other sites in terms of on-page SEO.

Which Keywords should you Target?

It depends how much SEO practice you have which keywords you should target. It’s easier to rank for low competition keywords. Inexperienced marketers should seek out keywords with fewer than 20,000 results in the allinurl column. This makes it easier to outrank competitors. This might seem like a cop-out. However, sites that rank well for lower competition keywords will find it easier to rank for associated high competition keywords.

It’s crucial that traffic be laser targetted to improve conversion. For example: A site promoting GPS systems shouldn’t specifically target ‘GPS systems’ because it has considerable competition making it difficult to rank for. Additionally, a person searching for ‘GPS systems’ is most likely in research stage. A person searching for ‘Tom Tom GO 930 prices’ is considerably more targeted since it indicates that they are in purchasing stage. Of course, ‘buy Tom Tom GO 930′ is even better! Even though far less people will search for that term, those who do are in buying stage. It’s better to catch them in purchasing mode than in research mode!

Don’t target broad keywords that have more searches because that exposes you to additional competition. You need traffic that converts to sales. As you acquire SEO experience and your site gains status (i.e. Google pagerank) you can target high competition keywords. If you buy PPC (pay per click) traffic from search engines it’s essential to target converting keywords.

Two factors determine the best keywords to target:

1. The number of searches (higher is better)
2. The number of opposition (lower is better)

Try to obtain keywords with both of these factors. Balance is the essential factor here. Each webpage ought to target one principal keyword and contain several related keywords. Try to target combination keywords that contain more than one keyword like ‘online marketing techniques’ which targets three keywords including; online marketing techniques, online marketing and marketing techniques. While two word keyphrases have increased competition making them more challenging to rank for, using them means you won’t have to insert them later on when you do wish to rank for them.

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