Archive for February, 2007

How to Successfully Evaluate Software Development Proposals

The First Impression

The first impression says a lot about a firm, especially about software development companies in a time like this when thousands of offshore firms fiercely compete against each other, and where professionalism has become a trade off for low prices.

When you first contact a prospective software development provider, ask yourself how they present themselves; how long does it take for the firm to get back to you on emailed questions? Does each representative have their phone number shown in their email signatures? Does the company phone you up to discuss your requirements? Does the company seem to grasp your requirements and is verbal communication flawless?

In today’s world of outsourcing, freelancers commonly use a company name of their own to lure their prospective clients into thinking that they have more experience than what they really have. In reality they might be one man shows who perhaps will not be able to provide you with sufficiently fast turn around times, nor a broad range of expertise. Always speak with a representative of your prospective partners and probe them on their company’s track record, location and number of employees. A company that refrains from having a phone conversation with you is a clear warning sign that something fishy is going on.

Software development companies should be able to present a lot of information on their operations and prior projects. Ask for case studies, coding conventions, testimonials, résumés of the staff that will be able to work on your project and all other information that can be used to judge the professionalism of your future software development partner.

Experience and References

Once you feel that the company evaluated has presented itself well in the first stage of evaluation, go ahead and ask for references and proof of prior experience such as case studies or perhaps even demos of applications similar to that you are going to develop. Once you’ve asserted that the company has the expertise required to take on your project you can proceed with asking for and analyzing the company’s proposal.

The Proposal

In the company’s proposal, cost and milestones should be clearly specified along with terms of payment. Other aspects worth noticing is whether or not the proposal stresses the benefits that the application will bring with it for your organization and if it includes suggestions on how to go beyond the initial goals outlined. What will the turn around time be for finishing the application, and more importantly what will happen if the deadline is not met?

In the final agreement you sign with your software development partner, make sure that a requirements specification is included and signed. The requirements specification should be as detailed as possible and all possible functionality that you require should be printed onto that specification. Without a clear requirements specification a software development agreement will do no good in case your partner decides to deliver an incomplete product.

Your project’s success or failure will be fully contingent on your choice of software development partner. Read on to learn about the most important aspects when it comes to analyzing a prospective software development partner and their software development proposal.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Claesson

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Article Traffic

Article traffic is my most effective method of developing genuinely good quality subscribers to my opt in email list. Article traffic of course is the method of driving traffic to your web site via the writing of articles, including a link to your squeeze page, and submitting those articles to the biggest article directories online in such a way that your web page goes to the top of the rankings in the search engines.

Why is article traffic so effective for me? I think the biggest reason that article traffic is so effective for me is that article traffic is highly targeted traffic.

Think about this. Some would say that natural search engine traffic is very high quality traffic. Actually, I agree. But what if you had a traffic source that is 33 times higher quality than natural search engine results?

In a big way, article traffic is, and here is why: when you write articles and submit them to the highest ranked article directories online, for well-targeted keywords, they can rush to the top of the search engine rankings. Many of my articles on ezinearticles.com occupy the #1 through #10 spots in the search engines, just because of the ranking power of that article directory.

Now, when your average surfer clicks through and reads that article, only an estimated 3% of the people who read it will be interested enough to click through to my web site. That means that I have eliminated just about all the tire-kickers – these people really want to learn more from me.

Article traffic is my strongest form of traffic generation, and I intend to continue using and improving my methods of generating article traffic for a long time to come.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide‘

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_Mize

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What Are Search Friendly URL’s?

They are one of the most important elements of web design, and one if the most overlooked.

Each of the major web crawler-based search engines (meaning Google, Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista. Excite and so on) relies on a unique algorithm, methodology or formula to settle on a given website’s relevance to keyword and key phase queries. Those relevance requirements are dynamic and they do evolve – dozens of new search positioning challenges pop up on a weekly basis. Achieving and maintaining a high ranking in the likes of Google, AltaVista or MSN is a difficult target to hit. That’s why you need a site that’s been optimized from the bottom up to appeal to search engine criteria.

To put things simply, having search-friendly URL’s will equal more indexed pages and ultimately result in more traffic from search engines. Even some of the most popular websites we visit everyday are only receiving a fraction of their potential search traffic because they weren’t designed and built with the issue of search-friendly URL’s in mind. To help you avoid that kind of unnecessary loss of income we’ll build your site from the ground up using a system that will ensure that it’s URL’s will be easy for search spiders to read and even easier for consumers to remember.

You can’t afford to take a “build it and they will come” approach to your presence online. That’s why we’ll employ solutions from content optimization and viral Blogging to database optimization and search-friendly URL to craft a profile that will draw customers to your website.

You Need a Site With URL’s That Keep Search Engines in Mind!

Remember, it won’t matter whether your target audience is the next continent or in the next office. To take advantage of the marketing side of the Internet revolution, you’ll need a dynamic and engaging website that’s been designed with both users and search engine results in mind. That’s right, having a site that’s as easy for consumers to navigate as it is for Google, Yahoo and MSN’s search spiders to find, cache and rank can make or break your online efforts.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dirk_Lester

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Google Just Loves Stepping Stones

Stepping Stones - is this a new band or a black hat Google trick?

One of the main obstacles for any internet marketer is getting traffic to his websites. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling your own product, selling an affiliate product, trying to make money with AdSense or making money with small 7 dollar reports - traffic is the main key to your success.

Even if you know all there is to know about search engine optimization it could take weeks or months before you can get any decent free traffic from the search engines to your website or blog.

You website might get indexed fast by Google, but you’re not going to appear in the top 10 search results for some time - if ever. If you’re on a limited budget, you don’t want to use Pay Per Click advertising like Google AdWords to drive traffic to your site. What can you do to get the attention from the search engines?

Is it really possible to get any significant free traffic from the search engines in 2007?

Yes it is - use the “Stepping Stones”!

What are “Stepping Stones”? - it’s websites that the search engines just loves to index. Anything that is put on these Stepping-Stone-websites will be picked up by the search engines fast. All you have to do is to find out where the popular websites are, do a little keyword research and submit your content.

When you search on Google look at the first 10 results. Any article directory sites, social networking sites like technorati.com or blogging sites? Often you’ll see f.ex. an article in the top results.

So what does Google really love?

Let’s take a look at some Google page ranks:

  • www.squidoo.com has PageRank 7/10.
  • ezinearticles.com has PageRank 6/10.
  • www.goarticles.com has PageRank 6/10.
  • www.articlecity.com has PageRank 6/10.
  • www.usfreeads.com has PageRank 5/10.
  • searchwarp.com has PageRank 5/10.
  • www.associatedcontent.com has PageRank 7/10.
  • www.ebay.com has PageRank 9/10.
  • www.blogger.com has PageRank 9/10.
  • wordpress.com has PageRank 9/10.
  • del.icio.us has PageRank 8/10.
  • www.digg.com has PageRank 8/10.
  • www.technorati.com has PageRank 8/10.

Google loves: - Article sites - Social networking sites like Squidoo, Technorati etc. - Auction sites like eBay - Google’s own Blogger.com and WordPress - Paid advertising like USFreeAds.comUse these stepping-stones to get traffic to your site. Write articles, use eBay, advertise on USFreeAds, build a blog and socialize on Technorati. Use Squidoo - Squidoo is hot right now. It’s like MySpace, but much more friendly to internet marketers … and it’s no. 997 out of 6 millions sites on Alexa !

It takes time to write articles, blogging etc. but some of these stepping-stones will give you free traffic for years. Don’t use just one stepping-stone, use several stepping-stones. Using the stepping stones is not a one-time effort and you must use some time to regularly “feed” these websites to keep the free traffic flowing - and get on the first page of the Google search results.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jan_Sepstrup

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9 Things About SEO That You’re Afraid To Believe

If you own your own work from home business then you may be in need of some clarification. Below are nine things about internet marketing that you need to know if you want to achieve success.

1. Speak up

It’s time to get heard, you may have been taught to stay in the foreground but this is the internet, and now’s not the time to hide behind pages and pages of text. Get an audio up. One of the easiest ways to deliver content that will be remembered is to use an audio. Let your website do the talking.

2. Get outside the box

Every site needs traffic but not all methods of traffic generation are suitable for every business. If your getting traffic in but their not staying long enough to find why they should be doing business with you and if your website is producing a “hi oh wait, goodbye” effect then you may need to adopt a different method of traffic generation instead of sticking with the conventional search engine optimization method.

3. Get a professional personality

Your website maybe focused on a hobby but it needs to have a professional voice. All the scripts, e-mails, seminars etc… should be presented in a professional and precise manner. Your presentation should always be compelling, memorable and unique.

4. Technology < Communication

It’s not about technology, it’s about communication. You use the internet as a means to develop your business but at the end of the day it’s how you communicate yourself that’s important. Your customers have to be able to understand you and feel connected. This is not done with an excessive use of fancy gadgets; it’s done with good solid communication skills.

5. Linking out of business

Would you ever invite people to leave your website? That’s what you are doing when you have a lot of outbound links on your website. Does it make sense to get a visitor simply to have them leave seconds later?

6. Turn on your visitors, not off

A lot of websites have boring text. You want to seduce your visitors with an entertaining, imaginative, informative and memorable content. You may be the one writing it but someone else has to read it so don’t waste their time with boring or self-prompting text.

7. Stop going keyword crazy

Content is one of the best ways to optimize with search engines. All your text gets indexed and search engines look for keywords. So what do people do? They repeat the same thing over and over again because they are so focused on search engine optimization. You got your message across to the search engines but your readers are probably confused and bored.

8. Avoid playing SEO catch up

Everyday it seems some tech wiz finds a new way to beat search engine algorithms. When search engines catch on they change their criteria. Good for the wiz kid, but not so good for you. You spend so much time playing SEO catch up that you lose focus on actually building your website.

There is such a thing as too much.

9. Did you get rid of all your images and multimedia and replace it with pages upon pages of text because you were worried about search engine optimization and load times. Did you stop and consider who is actually going to go through all that text.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_Casmer

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Why Promote Your Website?

If you are serious about the net, than you have to promote! In order to make money you need to spend money, so the answer is simple, go where you believe you can make money.

If you have unlimited budget - PPC (pay per click) is the best way. There are many programs such as Google, Yahoo and others as well.

If you have small budget - submission software or online companies are the way to go. With monthly submission and re-submission of your website will help your product/website stay indexed.

If you have no budget or do not want to spend at all. Remember there over 20 million .com’s, net’s, .org’s etc online.

Do your research and understand what it takes to succeed online.

Many website owners believe that just getting few inbound links to your site will solve all your problems. For example Yahoo’s inclusion request for $299/year, or just submit to Google or Yahoo yourself. I mean it is so easy..right? So why should you pay some service out there money if you can do it yourself?

This is correct and incorrect answer. Getting few of those links may help, but why stop there. Many search engine tools have close to 700 FFA link (free for all links) which helps you to build traffic.

Looking back at Yahoo directory which is comprised of human editors. I believe that Yahoo’s goal is to charge webmaster to pay for their services, and it made sense few years back. Nowadays, it is worthless. Why? Most of us use Yahoo search engine, Google search engines, etc.

The goal is to get listed on as many search engines and directories, FFA sites, etc as possible. The reason is that Google, Yahoo, MSN, the big search engines pick your links from those sites and more you have the faster you get listed.

But what makes some websites to be listed for keywords such as “mortgage”, how come some websites are in top 10 every single time? Most of these sites have build relevance on search engines over years and in some cases it is impossible to move them lower.

So what can you do? Creating variations of web-page keywords on your site will make you website more visible. Take a keyword “mortgage”. You can create a page about “online mortgages”, “mortgage lender” “home mortgage” etc.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Martin_Lukac

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How To Avoid Being Labeled a Spammer

If you’re running an online business, you know that your list is your most important asset. And regardless of whether you’re just starting out or not, if you lose a chunk of your subscribers because even just one of your emails gets flagged as spam, it’s going to hurt your business.

It’s vital to the ongoing success of your online business to make sure you know the difference between spam and opt-in email. Here are some tips on how to make sure you’re only sending email to people who have specifically asked for it.

1. Only Use Permission-Based Email Marketing

Simply put, opt-in email (also called ‘permission-based’) is email sent to people who have given you permission to contact them via email. So if someone hasn’t directly requested information from you, they should not be on your opt-in list.

2. Single or Double Opt-in?

Depending on the email list service you’re using in your business, you may have a choice between single or double opt-in email. With single opt-in, someone gives you their email address once and they are added to your list. With double opt-in (also know as confirmation opt-in), someone gives you their email address, to which they then receive an automated response from your list service asking them to click a specific URL to confirm that they do in fact want to be added to your list. Only once they click that link are they then added to your list.

So, which should you use? It depends, but for your main email list, I want to encourage you to use the double opt-in process. It means that you will lose a certain percentage of those people who signed up for your list because they then don’t confirm their subscription, but it protects you from being labeled as a spammer.

3. Post Your Privacy Policy

Wherever you give people the option to sign up for your list, make certain your privacy policy is clearly stated. Something like “We will never share your email address, period” should be fine.

4. Avoid Content Filter Triggers

In your subject line and message body, avoid common words that make your message look like spam. For example, don’t use words or phrases like FREE, guarantee, or increase income. Avoid using excessive punctuation or symbols, and phrases like “click here” as well.

5. Have a Clear Unsubscribe Link

In every email you send to your list, have a clear way for your reader to unsubscribe if they desire. Usually this is in the form of an unsubscribe URL at the bottom of the email. When someone clicks on the link, they should be taken to a page where they can remove their email address from your list. Just make sure your unsubscribe function works!

6. Get Whitelisted

Each ISP has their own rules that they use to determine if an email is spam or not. Do some research and start the process of getting whitelisted with the major ISPs, like AOL, Yahoo, HotMail/MSN, etc. Doing so is worth the time and effort required to protect your email from being considered spam.

At the very least, implement these 6 strategies in your online business today if you’re not already. Then check with your email list service provider about other ways to protect your email from being flagged as spam. Protecting your list like this acts as an insurance policy on your bottom line. You may not like making the ‘payments’ on that insurance but you won’t be sorry that you put it in place.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alicia_Forest

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Tips On How To Stop Junk Email

Anyone with an email address has had to worry about how to stop junk email, and they are probably not ready to admit defeat, even though it’s much like the Energizer Bunny. It just keeps going and going. How your email deals with junk depends on what service you use, and can also depend on what you have on your computer. There are a few things you can do to stop junk email before it even starts. Many have come up with some good solutions, but you may have to try them all to get any results.

One of the best ways to stop junk email is to keep your email address to yourself. If you have an email address through your website, there may be nothing you can do about that. However, you can keep a yahoo or hotmail account to yourself if you watch where you post it. Some people have two or even three emails in an attempt to stop junk email from coming into their personal account. They have one they use to sign up for things online and one that they give only to friends. When you sign up for websites, those sites might sell your address to spammers, even if they claim they don’t. Have a special account just for that purpose and keep your personal one to yourself.

You can also stop junk email by remembering that there are bots that scan the Internet looking for exposed email addresses. This means that if you post on a message board that you need help or want someone to contact you, and you list your email address, chances are good your address will be picked up and sold to spam mailers. In you want to stop junk email, you have to refrain from doing this, or use an email account just for that purpose. You should expect that it will fill up with junk after doing so, however.

You can also get a special program to help stop junk email. This software will return and email to sender and ask them to fill out a code to verify they are a real person. Though you may miss a few emails this way, anyone who wants to reach you will fill out the little box and the email will then be allowed to pass through. If you have a business email, you may not be able to find a way to stop junk email entirely while letting all important emails through. For the time being, you may just have to put up with it.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Davie_Beasley

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Sacramento Web Design

Sacramento Web Design providers: guess, which way the wheel is turning! With the advent of the Internet and rapid increase in the number of online business firms and viewer response to web advertising, it comes as no surprise that more and more website owners are looking to re-vamp their online appeal. In Sacramento, Web design providers like Wheel Medica.com are increasing finding their customer base growing with repeat business pouring in from satisfied clients having increased and targeted visitor response after signing them on for giving their old website a make-over or simply getting a creatively designed, strategically marketed one made by these leaders in Sacramento Web Design providing services.

What the company discloses about the secret behind its success in achieving mass appeal is that it is their ability to take time out to understand the minutest needs of a client and then offer effective, aesthetically appealing and marketable solutions in Sacramento Web Design that holds them in good stead with the most discerning of clients. It is the most effective and ancient of all marketing and customer service etiquette: to lend a friendly ear to the customer looking for quality solutions and provide him with more than one attractive option, which shows wider range of thinking and also paves the way for building upon the enthusiasm of the design firm towards being the best that Sacramento Web Design has to offer.

The idea behind any great Sacramento Web Design firm that is consistently in profit, in terms of providing both ROI (Return on Investment) and garnering extremely satisfying customer reviews and testimonials is to show steady, dedicated and updated results when providing appealing web site design to energize customers and grow revenues. For any online business solutions support firm today to stay in the running and be a leader in the field of Sacramento Web Design providers, it is necessary to understand that it is not only the experience, caliber, team spirit and technical expertise of a creative web design team that is important, but also have the combined efforts of professionals in the field of web site search engine marketing. This is the further back-up team for any online business owner looking to generate the right leads and get favorable results from targeted visitor traffic to a website since these experts supported the Sacramento Web Design professionals are the ones that can help drive prospects to the client’s web site.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shakir_A.

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Web Design Trends 2007

There is a permanent change in web design especially in times of web 2.0 with a rapid advancement of technologies and opportunities.

It was fancy, if websites where animated and flashy some years ago. Nowadays webdesign is turning back to the roots. Static, clearly arranged side lie fully in the trend again. This is on the one hand because of the user-supersaturation by animated sides. On the other hand the accessibility and usability of a website becomes more and more important.

The german internet agency TechDivision, located in Rosenheim, supplies state of the art web design since 1997. Thus we concern ourselves also constantly with trends in web design. For the year 2007, we have located some trends, which will be incorporated in our customer projects.

Driven by web 2.0 technologies and the corresponding trend of blogging, the blog optics will become more and more important. Some larger companies already took up this trend. This will continue in the coming year.

Interaction between white or grey surfaces with specific used colours will play a basic role in modern web layouts. Combinations of pictures, diagrams, colored and white surfaces will be used very often.

The mainly used background colour was white. We can recognize a trend in multicoloured or single coloured backgrounds in the year 2007. We also believe that specific textures could become more and more important. E.g. structured surfaces.

Special attention will have to be on slim, standard-conformable web pages with clearly structured and easy to read content.

The table Design of the past will be replaced by layer-based, table-less XHTML and CSS templates which offers more flexibility in design together with slim and clear source code.

Animations will be used only punctually and very specific. In former times the often used intro-site represents an absolute no go.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Josef_Willkommer

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