==========================================================
Webmaster Tips Weekly * ISSN: 1526-2235
==========================================================

** Now Combined with AC Designer ***
* http://www.andersoncreations.com *
* Providing you with useful quick **
** tips to improve your Web Site ***

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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. Article - "Cross Linking" by Michael Campbell
2. Webmaster Tips Weekly Award - Web Source
3. January Special(s) - Free Web Hosting with Virtualis!
4. Tip(s) - "Get the Right Key Words" by Dr. Nunley
5. Webmaster Selections - Ezine Publishers Resources
6. Featured Ezines - you'll have to see these
7. Subscriber Link - Business Recorder
8. Discreet Classifieds
9. Who We Are - Contact Information


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>From the Editor...
==========================================================

Welcome to Webmaster Tips Weekly!

WOW ! What a week! I don't even know where to begin,
so I will skip ahead to an exciting piece of information
that I just MUST share with you.....

Virtualis, the high quality web host (and my personal
favorite) is offering free web hosting for the remaining
days of January and for all of February when you sign up
for web hosting with them. Also - they will transfer
your files FREE. More information below in the Monthly
Specials column.

Last week we had a wonderful article by Jennifer Stewart.
She provided us with a wonderful bio following her article,
but no link or email to reach her. After some searching,
I located her URL at http://www.write101.com/.

We will be looking at ways to determine a good web host
next week in our feature article. This week, I obtained
permission to reprint an excellent article on using pixels
in web site design and promotion.

Well...Til next week - y'all take care now

Deborah mailto:webmaster@...


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1. Article - "Cross Linking" by Michael Campbell
==========================================================

Cross Linking -->
(The when, how and why of using transparent gif graphics
to cross link pages)

Recently I wrote an article on how your web site can
generate over 25 times more buying customers in less than
a year. There seemed to be some confusion on how a
transparent gif graphic could be used to cross link pages.
Many of you asked for samples or downloads to look at.
Plus how big the gif should be and how many of them should
be used, so I'll try to explain it in detail here.

WHY CROSS LINKING IS IMPORTANT

What is on your web site is only part of the puzzle when
it comes to good search engine positioning. Search engines
are now employing various "off page" criteria. You've
probably heard terms like "link popularity, link density,
link relevancy". They all have slightly different meanings
but what it boils down to is that the links leading to and
from your web site, are being analyzed, assessed,
evaluated and then ranked, to determine where your site
should come up in search results.

There is also one major search engine company - that also
owns two other large engines - that has a real nasty habit
of binging and purging out pages. One month you'll have
100 pages in the indexes, and the next month it purges all
but three or four of your web pages. Now you either have
to scramble and resubmit the indexed pages with links to
all your other pages.

Or, if you used the cross linking technique, every single
page has links to all your other pages. So even if only
one page remains in the index, when the spider comes
crawling to update, all your other pages will be found
again, automatically.

If you want to beat the linking criteria of many the
search engines and stop the binging and purging of your
pages, then it's more important than ever, to get your
web sites cross linked together. Simply put, cross
linking means to link all your sites and pages together
using visible text links or invisible pixel links.

WHY USE INVISIBLE PIXELS

A regular web site might have 10 links to 10 internal
pages and a "links" page that leads to some other sites.
But what if, you've got say, 10 other web sites and want
to link to them all. Plus you have over 100 doorway or
hook pages, and you want to link to all of them too.
Well, that would create a big mess of visible links,
hundreds of links that would do nothing but confuse your
visitors....enter the invisible pixel technique.

HOW BIG IS A PIXEL

An invisible pixel is a transparent gif graphic, one
square pixel in size. Depending on the dots per inch or
dpi of your monitor, that may be 1/72 or 1/80 or even
1/96 of an inch. So you could have links to 70 pages and
it would occupy an area on your monitor screen less than
1 inch wide by 1/72 of an inch high. If you put this
string of pixels at the bottom of your web page, after a
couple of carriage returns, the likelihood of it being
discovered or clicked on by anyone is minimal. The search
engines will find it though, and many of them have spiders
or crawlers that will follow the links.

HOW MANY DO YOU NEED

Place as many gifs on your pages as you require. I have
provided a sample invisible pixel for your own use, you
can find it here....

http://www.1-internet-marketing.com/pixel/

I put the graphic (called follow.gif) in a directory, so
you can save the image to your hard drive. Note that if
you click on it, your browser will display nothing....
because it's invisible. I also made this sample 10 pixels
wide so it's a little easier to grab and work with. You
may want to reduce its width, once you paste it into
your html page.

You can copy and paste the graphic as many times as you
need, each time making the gif link to a different web
page. Some of my customers just make a stock footer that
goes on the bottom of every single web page they create.
This footer contains contact info, navigation panel,
copyright info and you guessed it, hundreds of invisible
pixel links. You can take a look at one such page here:

http://www.dynamicmedia.com

At the bottom of the page there are around fifty or so
links, can you see them? The search engine can. To see
the invisible links, just "View Source" in your browser
window, or save the page to your hard drive and open it
up with an html editor. Note that I have links leading
to home pages, internal pages and hook (doorway) pages.

THE TECHNICAL STUFF

Here is the actual html code that goes into making an
invisible pixel. First of all, there are two parts to a
hypertext link in html code. The first part is the url or
destination of the link that search engines follow. The
second is the part that people see on the web page as
the familiar blue underlined text.

<A HREF="http://www.1-internet-marketing.com">This is the
blue text that people will see.</A>

We can do the same thing with a picture or graphic. The
first part contains the destination.... where I want the
search engine to go. The second part calls up a gif
graphic called "follow.gif", that is 1 pixel by 1 pixel
in size.

<A HREF="http://www.1-internet-marketing.com/store.htm">
<B><IMG SRC="follow.gif" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1"
ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0">

WHAT MAKES IT INVISIBLE

There are two things we need to do, to make the graphic
invisible. First off we need to use image editing software
to make the gif transparent. In other words, it takes on
the same color as the background color of the web page,
which makes it appear invisible. The good news is, I've
already done this part for you with the sample you can
download. The second part is to make sure the BORDER="0"
in the html code. That will prevent a blue border or box
from being drawn around your invisible pixels.

CONCLUSION

Cross link all of your home pages, internal pages, and
hook pages to each other. When the search engine comes to
catalog your page it finds links to all your other pages.
If the engine is a spider it will crawl and add your other
pages to its index. Being cross linked gives your pages a
greater chance of being cataloged and having your pages
"stick" in the index. Some search engines even prefer this
method of "finding" your pages rather than having you
announce them to their submission areas.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Michael W. Campbell is the author of the new internet
marketing book "Nothing But 'Net: How I Generated
$750,000.00 in Internet Revenues in Less Than a Year
With Virtually No Advertising Costs."
< http://www.1-internet-marketing.com/nbn/ >
-----------------------------------------------------------


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2. Featured Webmaster Tips Weekly Award
==========================================================

This week's Webmaster Tips Weekly award goes to
Web-Source.net at http://web-source.net

The criteria used to determine award winners is grouped
into two categories:
° Content (including relevance, usefulness, etc.)
° Design (including ease of navigation, user-friendly,
etc.)

The name says it all - Web-Source.net provides free
resources for the Webmaster.

To give you an idea of what you will find at this
web site --> Directories for Webmasters, E-zines,
CGI Scripts, JavaScripts and more. You also have
access to Free Content, Promotion, and Services.

Ok, we've shown that Web-Source.net has content...
but design?

The home page of Web-Source.net clearly lays out
the web site and its contents without overwhelming
the viewer nor appearing too much like a site
navigation page instead of a home page.

Web-Source.net is worth visiting and worth the
vote for the Webmaster Tips Weekly Award!

==========================================================
3. Subscriber Special - 1/2 Price Media Kit & More!
==========================================================

1/2 Price on any and all Media Kit Prices for
Anderson Creations and Webmaster Tips Weekly.
To view the current media kit, send a blank
email to mailto:mediakit@...

Then, simply divide any price you see in half
and that is YOUR cost as a valued subscriber!

When you decide on a media package or ad, contact
me at mailto:webmaster@...

--------- A N D ---------

Virtualis W E B R E F U G E E Promotion
F R E E H O S T I N G T H R U F E B R U A R Y

Virtualis, the premier web hosting company (and the
Editor's personal choice) is offering free hosting
for the remainder of January and for the month of
February for those clients who are transferring
their accounts from another hosting company.

AndersonCreations.com has been hosting with Virtualis
for almost a year and we have never had our web site
"go down." The customer service compares to none -
only an email away - 24 hours 7 days a week. Now
who can compare to that?

Virtualis.com will transfer your files from your
former hosting company to Virtualis.com when you
sign up with Virtualis within the month of January.

To find out more information and/or to sign up for
your free hosting, go to...
http://www.virtualis.com/vr/danderso
and mention "Refugee Promotion - Anderson Creations"
when asked how you heard about Virtualis. This is
the way that you can claim your free hosting.


==========================================================
4. Tip(s) - "Get the Right Keywords" by Dr. Nunley
==========================================================

I read a lot of articles trashing search engine promotion.
Still, when I look closely at where a client is getting
most of their web site visitors, search engines are one
of their best friends.

Tweaking your site for search engines is still one of
the most effective ways to increase your web site hits.
Search engines send people to your site when the user
types a search word or phrase into the engine. If your
site contains that word or phrase, your site is listed
as one of the choices to visit.

Keywords can be tricky. Sites often discover that people
don't search for them with the keywords they expected.
Instead of searching for "sports equipment" they search
for "football supplies." Rather than typing in "CPA" they
type "bookkeeping help."

Think of all the different ways people describe what you
do. Use the same words and phrases you hear many of your
customers use.

Big companies buy access to a database of keywords
supplied by search engines. You can get similar results
with programs that check the effectiveness of your search
terms.

Check out http://WebPositionGold.com/,
AddWeb http://www.cyberspacehq.com/addweb/, and free
AgentWebRanking http://www.aadsoft.com /.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Read Kevin's new book "Marketing After Y2K-Sensible
strategies for staying profitable through thick and thin."
Now on-line at http://drnunley.com/
Reach Kevin at kevin@...
-----------------------------------------------------------


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5. Webmaster Selections - Ezine Resource Web Sites
==========================================================

The following are some of the Editor's favorite
resourceful web sites for Ezine Publishers...
This list may seem rudimentary to some of you, but needs
repeating for those of us that may be new to ezine
publishing. Also, this list is only a start, there are
so many more web sites, that we are unable to list all of
them here

EzineUniversity.com and all of Kate Schultz's web sites...
http://ezineuniversity.com http://ezinearticles.com
http://e-zinez.com http://ezinenewswire.com
Everything you need is provided in these web sites

List-Universe....
Especially http://www.ezine-tips.com and
http://www.list-tips.com See for yourself the quality
at this collection of web sites.

Sendfree
http://www.sendfree.com
Wonderful ad exchange autoresponders. Great for those
articles and ezine archives that you want to make
available to your subscribers and potential subscribers.

Idea Marketers
http://www.ideamarketers.com
The web site that marries the writer and the publisher.
Many useful publisher tools and writer exposure


==========================================================
6. Featured Ezines & Discussion Lists
==========================================================
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FREE Monthly ezine featuring news, tips, and information
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----------------------------2/5---------------------------
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To subscribe email promoteplus-subscribe@egroups.com
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----------------------------2/5---------------------------
The "Writers and Publishers Connection Newsletter" lists
many E-zine Publisher's Content Needs, and Articles are
announced! Say 'Subscribe Me' or get a sample 1st, from:
mailto:writin2@... or view online archives at
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----------------------------5/5---------------------------
BUSINESS JOKES WEEKLY
A humorous and insightful look at how to improve your
business and your career. This weekly joke list comes with
commentary on how the joke illustrates common business
mistakes, best practices, pitfalls, and successes.
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----------------------------1/5---------------------------


===========================================================
7. Featured Subscriber Link(s) - Business Recorder
===========================================================

Business Recorder
http://brecorder.com
Offers business, general and political news from Pakistan,
full Pakistan stocks coverage, FREE Classified Ads, FREE
Email Service, and more ...


===========================================================
8. Discreet Classifieds
===========================================================
Anderson Creations does not claim any responsibility for
any other companies, ads, or what is represented here.

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9. Who We Are
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Anderson Creations * Ezine Publishing
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Deborah Anderson, Editor
PO Box 393 * St. Francis, MN 55070
mailto:webmaster@...

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ISSN: 1526-2235 - Library Of Congress, Washington D.C., USA
© Copyright 1999 by Anderson Creations * All Rights Reserved
http://www.andersoncreations.com