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Remember when email seemed so quick and convenient? You could share your thoughts with a friend or group of friends within a period of a few minutes. Then the technology of instant messaging was developed, and with it, message boards. Website builders quickly picked up on the use of message boards, seeing how these boards allowed instant communication between everyone viewing their website.

A message board can be found in several different formats. Some websites require visitors to create an account, with a user name and password, before they can post a message on the board. Other websites have message boards that are open to anyone to post anonymously. Their post will show up instantly on the board. Sometimes, a message board will be watched over by an editor, or moderator, who can reject or delete posts based on whether the content of the post is appropriate for that website. On these boards, posts are often delayed for a brief period of time so that the moderator can read over the post. Some message boards are divided up by topic. These are also referred to as threads. Visitors to the message board can pick a topic, and when they post their message, it will appear under that topic.

So what is the benefit of a website having a message board

? Some websites are actually built around message boards. An example of this type of website might be a hobby website for people who like to paint scenery. The site would have a message board where artists could come to talk to other artists to get ideas or tips, or to find out about a specific topic related to painting, such as where to buy a certain type of paint or brush. Other websites have message boards to encourage traffic on their site. Think of a music group, for example. By providing message boards for their fans, they are encouraging their fans both to visit their site and to spread the word about their group, which would in turn increase album and merchandise sales.

If you are looking for information on any topic, a message board is a great place to visit. And, if you are building your own website, consider adding one; there are many benefits, and it will be appreciated by everyone who visits your site.

The Internet offers a large variety of payment systems used by thousands of people everyday: PayPal, E-Gold, 2Checkout…These powerful tools have to be used wisely because scams are everywhere and, unless you are aware of some basic rules, you risk loosing your money. If you don’t want to read an article or two and listen to advertising, the best thing is to become a member of a PayPal forum or an ePayment system forum. These are the places where you will find objectivity, discuss the best options and learn all about the available services.

Knowing what a PayPal account is, how to create one, using subscriptions, finding out about advantages and disadvantages are basics that you can easily discover by simply asking someone on a PayPal forum. Why bother reading many articles and finding out only half of the story when you can talk to real people and learn from their experience? The ePayment system forum can help persons make the right decisions regarding what method of online payment they should use, which is faster and safer, the dos and don’ ts when using online services.

It is very easy to receive clarifying answers to specific questions than to walk blind folded through a huge mass of information. The PayPal forum is very accessible and helpful to both beginners and experienced because sharing will open up your eyes to details you might not have noticed before. But, be careful! Not everything you hear or discuss on the PayPal forum is true. Check everything before and ask for second opinions.

The PayPal forum is full of interesting information. Discussions on the ePayment system forum don’t refer solely to signing up or using PayPal. People discuss their newest ideas on how to make money fast in a legal way, if what they heard was effective and how it worked for them, the news in the financial field and the impact it had on them. Many people use the PayPal forum just to keep in touch with what’s new. For example, a message someone left on the ePayment system forum regarding an investigative report of the Melbourne (Fla.) office of e-gold’s parent company, Gold & Silver Reserve Inc. created many interesting comments. The FBI pursuit was ironically disconsidered by the PayPal forum members who have opposite opinions. So, you see interesting subjects bring together a lot of people with common interests and enrich their horizon with the newest information available.

Another interesting aspect of the PayPal forum is that scamming is tried everywhere, especially on the Internet. The ePayment system forums are looking to avoid scams by discussion. There are all sorts of persons looking to scam or take advantage of your trustfulness. Some will try to convince with seemingly honest messages on the ePayment system forum, underlining the fact that their method is very legal. Don’t be fooled! And also don’t worry! These messages are on PayPal forums, so there will always be someone with the courage to contradict. However, it is up to you to decide who is wrong and who is right and do what ever it is best for yourself. That’s why the ePayment system forum is recommended: because various opinions help you make the best choice…

The Internet is a world full of possibilities that can make our life easier, but it is also dangerous because of speculation and scams. For the safety of the financial transactions it is better to investigate all possibilities and aspects of online transfers. The PayPal forum or the ePayment system forum can be very helpful for those who want to ask questions, discuss certain problems and find out information without special searches or loosing precious time.

You’ve finished building your web site. Now there’s all that invaluable traffic, just waiting to beat a path to your site. You’ve dotted all your i’s, crossed all your t’s and followed the standard to get the word out. You wear a path out in your carpet pacing back and forth, In between your pacing you check your server logs, hoping for a sudden increase in visitors. The reality is, unless your corporate America with a huge advertising budget, the days of staggering increases in traffic are way down the road. Isn’t there something I can be doing while I wait for the search engine traffic to come?

As a matter of fact there is. Yet this particular form of Free website promotion doesn’t make the headlines and requires no software to install, no backdoor tricks into the search engines, and it’s totally free. What is it?

Now, Before I reveal this technique, I want you to promise you won’t go near the delete button and you’ll give me a chance to lay this thing out to you. Promise? O.K. The Technique is “Posting to Forums.” In the first couple days of “Going Live,” you can hope to attract a couple of hundred visitors, at the least. This will be small in comparison to the knowledge you’ll attain, by allowing the members of these forums to critique your site. You’ll then be able to make whatever changes necessary before the search engines crawl your site. Having your site critiqued by experienced marketers, For Free, Well, Let’s just say, “You Can’t Beat The Price.”

If you’ve never visited or posted in a forum. Don’t be intimidated. These are people no different than you and I. Merely a group of like minded individuals seeking to get answers to their questions or providing answers to questions asked. Usually on a specific topic or topics.

Side Note: Before you Post make sure you read the rules for posting. Read some of the posts being made. Stay on Topic, You’ll get the hang of it in no time.

Once you get the hang of it you’ll want to make sure you don’t go announcing your new site to every other forum you come across. This is viewed as Board Spamming and is definitely a No No. There are boards that will accept this sort of post but on a whole you’ll have to remain on topic and wait for the opportunity to legitimately slide your announcement in. Sometimes outright and others in your signature.

Finding forums to fit your needs is easy. Just type “forums” into your favorite search box, you can then refine your search from there. Check to see if the list of sites meets your needs and go from there.

As a newcomer you’ll want to keep your initial posts simple. Remember to mind your manners. Be polite and friendly and always maintain the prescence of the Business Professional that you are. When the time is right, simply ask them to look at your site. You’ll recieve a pretty good cross section of positive and critical comments. Don’t go getting your shorts all in a knot because someone has posted, what appears to you to be, a negative comment. Keep in mind that you’ve enlisted them to critique your site. Be prepared for all the comments. On a whole, the folks in these forums want to help. However, from time to time you may run into those that seem to have nothing good to say about anything or anybody. Take all comments “Buffet Style.” Take what you want and leave the rest.

Initially you may want to go look at one or two other members sites and supply some feedback before asking to have yours looked at. This will give you valuable insight. What you may find wrong with someone elses site, you can apply it to your own and make the necessary changes. When looking for a site to be looked at, look for the post who has little or no responses to it. By responding to their post they’re likely to express their gratitude by visiting your site when you ask in your post. This technique may seem a bit sly but nonetheless effective.

Just don’t get in the habit of operating in this manner.

You’ll not get a ton of traffic from forums but you will have engaaged in an effective form of site promotion and all forms of site promotion need to be entered into the mix. As has been said by someone other than myself, “You don’t need to get it right, You just need to get it going.” By applying the above you will have “Indeed Got It Going!”

Forums are a great place to make new friends and interact with those that are trying to accomplish pretty much the same things we are. So keep things rolling right along by “Posting to Forums!”

Web 2.0 generally refers to a second generation of services available on the World Wide Web that lets people collaborate and share information online. Web 2.0 application often use a combination of techniques devised in the late 1990s, including public web service APIs, Ajax and web syndication. They often allow for mass publishing (web-based social software). The term may include blogs and wikis.

Lately, a new Web 2.0 application has launched called SayOutLoud. SayOutLoud is an interesting and new approach to your average discussion board site. It’s not a discussion system that you download and install on your site, but a one location where anyone can go and discuss anything at all. It uses tagging rather then using forums and threads to organize content. The system is extremely minimalist and is designed in a way that anyone can get in and start a discussion.

A tag is a keyword which acts like a subject or category.

A keyword is used to organize webpages and objects on the Internet. Each user “tags” a webpage or image using his/her own unique tag. An image or webpage may have multiple tags that identify it. Webpages and images with identical tags are then linked together and users may use the tag to search for similar webpages and images.

When you submit your story to SayOutLoud, it notifies several other Web 2.0 services including Del.icio.us and Technorati about your post. Because these systems also support tagging, hundreds of users watching a the tag(s) you posted to will immideately discover your post. You can have the experts reading whatever you had to say out loud in minutes.

SayOutLoud also features your average discussion board functionality where you can search posts and users, manage your profile, and post new threads. Although the main difference is that everything is organized with folksonomy so when searching for users and threads, you can search by tag. Because of this, it also makes it easy for me to find people with related interests and to follow their discussion simply by searching for users on a specific interest tag. I type in “AJAX” and I get a list of members that are interested in Ajax. Same applies to threads. Furthermore, you can also view a tag cloud so you can find new and popular discussions.

Do You Really Need a Website?

In today’s world, every business MUST have a web presence.  It is a fact that people searching for a particular product or service in their local marketplace, will search the internet first.  The Google search has most certainly replaced the telephone directory.  So having said that, you would think that if you don’t have a nice shiny website, you are doomed.

Not necessarily so.  Note I said every business MUST have a web presence.  I did not say they must have a website.

Not having a website, or not having a nice shiny one, should not prevent you from harnessing the power of this virtual world.  We can get our clients top placements in the major search engines even if they have no website, or a poorly optimized site.  Let’s say for example, that you had your nephew build you a website and it looks good, but its either buried somewhere below the third page on the search results, or it’s not showing up at all.  Another scenerio may be that you just plain don’t have a site.  No problem!

What buy Ampicillin we do is create highly optimized pages (not to be confused with a website), and we drive traffic to those pages using various techniques including video and article production.  We construct a “web” of backlinks to these pages.  For clients whose nephew created them a fancy unoptimized, unranked site, the page that gets ranked will link to their fancy website.  For those without a fancy site, our page will provide personalized content such as logo, images, address, telephone number, google map with directions, list of products and services etc.  So while it’s not a website, it can still generate heaps of new business for your business.

Caution: Do not start building your own website until you read this.  Knee jerk reactions cost time and money.  There are things you should consider before purchasing a site builder!

If You Build It, They Will Come…

Remember the movie “Field of Dreams”?

When it comes to website traffic, you are truly dreaming if you think that building the website is the key to gaining web traffic.  Naturally, without a website, there is no hope (that’s not entirely true either*) of being found online, but it takes far more than a fancy website to get visitors.

There are some very good website building programs on the internet.  My personal favorite is SiteBuildIt, but there are others that are almost as good.  With SBI, you can build your own website, and although they say you don’t need any knowledge, trust me when I tell you that there will be a learning curve.  There is no magic button, but for the business owner with the time, patience and desire to learn, SBI is one of the best do it yourself solutions  you’ll find.

The actual site building process is the easy part.  It’s the optimization that is the real challenge.  Again, SBI provides some SEO (search engine optimization) techniques, especially with regard to on page SEO.  On page SEO is just a fancy term for making sure you have the right code inserted in the source of your site so that the search engines can find your site.  Again, that is just a very small piece of the puzzle.

Search engines, like Google, Yahoo and Bing use what we refer to as algorithms to index websites submitted for inclusion in their index.  You can click on the word to get the wikipedia definition.  In short, the Search Engine Algorithms are the “rules” for getting a site ranked or even included at all in an index.  Those rules change frequently.  So if you are planning to do it yourself, keeping up with the changes is a must.  What is acceptable today could get you removed tomorrow.  All your hard work (and there is some hard work involved) can be gone in the wink of an eye.

Generally speaking, if you are not an “internet guy”, my recommendation is that you should go ahead and build your own site, if you like a challenge and are motivated.  But unless you are seriously motivated, have lots of extra time and aren’ t in a hurry to get your site to the top of  the search engines, you should consider getting an expert to market your new site for you.

*Read my short article on why you do not need a website to get top rank.