Gabriel Harper's Blog

Here’s a comprehensive, recently updated list of good Webmaster forums to check out. Currently 46 active Webmaster related forums for discussing Web design, coding, online business, development, online marketing, and other stuff that Webmasters like to discuss.

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Improving your CTR is one of the best things you can do with your ads. You can earn more money for the same amount of traffic, and it’s totally free to improve your CTR with some basic techniques. If you’re getting paid for sending clicks with PPC ads like AdSense – every click really counts. Imagine how many visitors came to your website today who would have clicked an ad and who would have earned you cash… but didn’t. Find out how you can stop missing these opportunities, maximize your ad profits, and do it in a way that doesn’t drive away visitors.

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Speaking of Flippa, something is going on. Release? Not sure, but Sitepoint Marketplace is down for an upgrade at the same time as Flippa.com. According to SP it’ll last about three hours, which in terms of a top 1,000 site is quite a while.

If you use the Sitepoint Marketplace to buy and sell online, prepare for a big change. Sitepoint is flipping things upside-down soon, and moving the marketplace to Flippa.com. Many people are saying WTF to Flippa, and with good reasons. Is this too much at once?

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This huge list of 76 script directories took several hours to compile, but it’s a goldmine for anyone selling online software. This is one mega list of script directories that let you submit your PHP scripts, turnkey scripts, and other website scripts. Most are free, some are paid or offer paid options. Some of these script sites get tons of traffic. Getting your products listed on the right script directories pays off.

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I’ve been self-employed for six years and I’ll never turn back. Working online is a lucrative and legitimate career option. Making money online isn’t easy, but it offers greater potential than most jobs do.  Here are ten serious ways to make money online.

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Google’s Webmaster Guidelines no longer suggests having relevant sites link to yours. They also removed their suggestion of submitting your site to relevant directories. This was brought up in Google Groups recently, and subsequently on the big Webmaster forums Digital-Point and Sitepoint. However based on the logic of these threads, which get pretty heated over Google vs. directories, Google is also suggesting that we don’t have relevant sites link to us!

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Did you catch all that? When was the last time you dugg someone else’s digg? If you haven’t dugg a digg in a while and your digg’s just don’t get dugg, perhaps it’s time to digg some diggs.

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So, you’ve got this great web site. The whole world needs to know about it, but right now your only traffic is from localhost. You’ve got all this great content, nice and tidy HTML, super SEO’d links, the whole nine yards. So where is the onslaught of traffic you expected? Why doesn’t anybody care? Well, before people can care they need to know you exist.

1. Trade banners with complementary link partners. Lots of them.
2. Create a list of complimentary web sites that publish news and events for sites like the one you run. Send a link, summary, and polite note to every one of them when you publish new content.
3. Don’t act like your link back is some special privelege. Getting a few hundred hits a day does not make your web site significant, and nitpicking your own linkback requests will eventually hurt you by creating enemies, not partners. In other words, if you have a link request for a highly related article with good content and the site has a PR of 1, who cares. Don’t base all of your affiliate decisions on the numbers, think about what is going to be appealing from the perspective of your visitor and you will be investing in the future of your web site.
4. Create an opt-in newsletter, and send regular updates and links to new content to your subscribers.
5. Create a “Tell a friend” link on your content pages to encourage visitors to advertise your site for you.
6. Identify related link directories that follow good practices and submit your URL.
7. Apply for a link at DMOZ if applicable. Once. And never whine about not getting listed, just hope for the best.
8. Take advantage of any publicity, like press releases, to mention your site. But don’t abuse your boundaries.
9. Post a URL to your web site in the signature on any forums you are a member of.
10. Have some stickers made up with your domain name and give them out. Stick one on your car if you are truly serious about it!
11. Go into crowded public places and scream your URL at the top of your lungs. Then run.
12. Pick up a fabric printing kit for under $10 and make some t-shirts with your URL on them.
13. If you haven’t already, create a logo and name that are catchy, easy to remember, and highly related to the type of site you are running.