Site Promotion and Improvement

List your web site on ODP The Open Directory Project provides site information for SeekOn/General and many other major directory services. There is no charge, they accept anything reasonable, and their response is fast compared to certain unnamed directories. More Info

Get Enhanced SeekOn Listing If you are listed on SeekOn through direct submittal or ODP listing you can get a Bold, top-of-the-list position on SeekOn just by putting a simple text link to any SeekOn page from your site. This is a tremendous advantage especially on pages with many site listings. More Info watch free movies, visit viewster.

Learn about Search Engines The following are excellent resources to learn about the best ways to submit your site to search engines and optimize your site and page design to improve your site's ranking. Search engines are critical to the success of any public web site.

Search Engine Watch	How search engines work and how to get them to work for you - engine specific tips - Monthly newsletter - Highly recommended
Search Engine World	Tools, advice, and information -- Very good
Search Engine News	Search Engine News from 4 Research Help
Misc Web Stuff	More resources from ODP
Search Engine Colossus	World wide search engine list

There are basically three ways to make money through advertising on your web site as follows:

Sale of CPM (Cost per Thousand) banner advertising on a payment per impression basis is a very difficult market for smaller (under 2 million pageviews per month) web sites. Smaller sites can sometimes sell CPM or cost per month advertising if they have a very valuable and focused audience (such as Stock Market information). The "dot com crash" caused a major recession in the CPM market. There are networks that handle selling and serving ads for a commission but most have not been accepting new sites recently. See Adbility for more info.

Some advertising broker/networks handle Cost per Click (CPC) banner advertising for smaller web sites where the web site has no control over which ads are served. The problem with this approach is that the web site is giving CPC advertisers exposure for nothing. Advertisers signing up for CPC campaigns therefore tend to be more interested in exposure and design their banners to discourage clicking thus avoiding payment. Would you click on a banner that said "Drink Coke!"?

Affiliate Programs are relationships between web sites and specific advertising merchants such as Amazon.com (probably the most famous single affiliate program). Payment is on the basis of a sales commission, payment "per lead", or CPC. This CPC is not the same as the above "blind" CPC in that the site owner generally chooses the specific banner ads or text links to be shown from a selection offered by the merchant and can make his own judgment about "clickability". We expect that CPC and "lead" programs will become more refined and eventually offer things like "payment per click where the visitor looks at at least 5 pages". Programs use a "one pixel gif" (invisible on the viewer's page) served from the merchant's server in order to track impressions and help control fraud. Essentially real-time reporting of impressions, clicks, leads, and sales allow the site owner to quickly see what works and what doesn't. Be advised that a few very sleazy merchants disable the browser "back" button thus preventing someone who clicked to their site from backing up to your site.

Affiliate networks provide various functions for merchants desiring to run such a program including impression, click, and sales counting and providing on-line reporting to web site owners. Some handle payments and act as "trusted third party" to reduce the site owners risk of non-payment. Some provide capability for web sites to sign up with multiple merchants and provide unified reports. There is not much overlap in merchants between the major networks listed below. Many larger merchants run their own affiliate operation - some using BeFree reporting.net for reporting.

Commission Junction	Affiliate network with 1500+ merchants, pays monthly, one minimum applies to multiple merchants. Reports allow comparison of multiple merchant performance.
LinkShare	Affiliate network with 400+ merchants. Generally pays quarterly. Minimum on each merchant.
Microsoft Clicktrade	Affiliate network with thousands of (mostly smaller) merchants
ClickQuick	Reviews of pay-per-click programs
AffiliateMatch	Reviews and lists of affiliate programs
Cashpile.com	Reviews, discussions - 4500 programs listed
Associate-it.com	Affiliate program reviews and ratings

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