Blog Entries for Jay

WidgetBucks Launches in Europe

Jay

The contextual ad network of shopping widgets Widgetbucks has just launched for the UK and European market.

So what’s so good about it?

Well a few things actually. First of all WidgetBucks gives bloggers and site owners another revenue stream via it’s widgets. What sets them apart fromother types of contextual advertising is that publishers can earn via both CPM (Cost-Per-Thousand Impressions) and CPC (Cost-Per-Click). The way it works is that when you serve a Widget [...]

Discount'd Launches!

Jay

Okay, it's 1 day late but we're finally there - Discount'd is live:-) Discount'd intends to provide the very best handpicked Deals, Offers, & Coupons from the worlds top stores.

We have developed two editions of the site, one for the US market

http://www.discountd.com

and one for the UK market

http://www.discountd.co.uk

As well as viewing the latest deals on the site it is also possible to sign up to receive what we call 'Deal Alerts [...]

1 Week Until Launch

Jay

Not much time left not until the launch of my new site. Most of the software now appears to be working with only the email system left to test out.

However, it's starting to dawn on me now how much work I have taken on with this. I started entering content onto the site over the weekend, and the process is taking considerably longer than I thought it would originally. What this means is that I am probably going to have to hire some people to help with the maintenance which is an add [...]

Dot Com, or Not Dot Com

Jay

It is widely accepted that having a .com top level domain name is critical to success. However, increasingly I am finding advertisers will pay more for sites that are more 'targeted'. So, a .co.uk domain for example being obviously aimed at UK users only can command more money than a more general 'International' .com domain.

In fact .com now seems to be becoming synonymouswith sites that target the US only.

As a result of this I have decided to produce two versio [...]

Creating Your Own Favicon

Jay

I managed to get a large amount of work done on the new site over the weekend and one of the tasks I completed was creating a favicon for the site.

For those who aren't familiar with this term, a favicon is the small icon that you see at the left of the location bar of your browser when you visit certain sites. Prior to version 7 of Internet Explorer these used to only appear if a userbookmarked a website page. However, now they appear automatically in the new version (Firefox has [...]

Google Cache - Protecting Your Users Privacy

Jay

Those who use Google, which according to reports is just about everybody;-) will know that they store a cached version of all the pages that they index. This can be useful if a site is down for any reason or the particular article or page has been moved.

However, it does cause a problem with privacy for web sites that offer private groups, or forum areas. I know of quite a few that have beencaught out by Google showing their members private messages, and in some cases business sensitive [...]

Hosting Your Site

Jay

Once you've decided on a name (and found that it is available) for your website you will need to register it. The intenet is based on a non centralised system of directories called name servers that direct a users browser to the correct address for a website based on it's name, or URL such as http://www.cyberneur.com. These names are aliased to a set of unique numbers, called the IP (internet protocol) address, made up of four sets of 3 digits such as 70.86.77.165 (which i [...]

What's In A Name?

Jay

So you've had the idea for your new company and you're pretty sure it'll work and be a success for you, you're just stuck on one thing. The name.

You could spend ages worrying about the name to use for your business. The following two approaches should get you started, think about whether you want –

1. Obvious association such as "British Airways"

2. Something completely different with no obvious association with your company such as & [...]

Kick Off Meeting

Jay

So, this is the start of my one month challenge to build and launch a brand new website.

I intend to make regular posts on my progress here and give you a run down of the steps I am taking to make it all happen.

You are probably wondering what the website will be about. Well, I'll be revealing that further down the line. However what I can tell you is that it will be a very differentproposition to Cyberneur.

I am not completely starting from scratch since I have alrea [...]

One Business - One Month

Jay

Since we are nearing September I thought it would be a good time to set a new goal for this coming month.

So, here it is:

One new business in one months time.

I am going to attempt to build a new company to launch October 1st 2007! This is quite an aggressive time line for what I have planned but there's nothing like a defined target to focus the mind;-)

The business will be based on the internet and be targetted specifically at internet users.

Forget About Using Link Exchanges

Jay

Since Google's search engine is based on their page ranking algorithm (which basically ranks your site higher depending on how many other sites are linking to you) it would seem to make sense to take advantage of link exchange programs. These offer to place links back to your site from thousands of other sites in exchange for you placing links to other sites on yours.

However, theysimply don't work. Firstly, Google takes into account the quality of the sites that are linking [...]

New Poll: How Did You Fund Your Business

Jay

I'm interested in finding out the most popular way of funding a company amongst our members. I've just posted a new poll on the front page with the following options:

Own MoneyFriends & FamilyBank LoanBusiness AngelVenture CapitalLet me know how you got started.

Richard Branson Most Admired Entrepreneur

Jay

Well, the results are in and according to you Richard Branson is the entrepreneur that you most admire, with almost 50% of the vote in our poll. Second with 20% of the vote is Bill Gates. Coming in third is Donald Trump on 16% and in joint final position Martha Stewart and Anita Roddick.

Tips To Start An eBay Business

Jay

Have you ever felt envious at all those reports of people making a living from eBay? Well, now it could be your turn. I've just heard from the Internet Marketing Center that they have put together a new 'success' system created by a team of eBay PowerSellers.

This same system has been already used to make students from $1000 to $10000 a month on eBay - within a matter of weeks!

This is the first time the system has been released to the general public, and they are keen [...]

Google Ad Formula Change

Jay

It seems as though Google are trying to increase their ad charges for those sponsored links in the top 1 and 2 position on their search results.

They have recently posted a message saying that in a few weeks they will change the formula that is used to calculate ad placement. Up until now this has been based on an auction against other bidders for the same keyword, and how good a match yourad is. However, in future you will be able to specify a 'maximum' bid for a search that w [...]

How Does Your Site Measure Up?

Jay

I've just come across a great new site that enables website owners to gather better demographic information about their users.

Quantcast can be found here http://www.quantcast.com and is described as follows:

"Quantcast is the world's first open internet ratings service. Advertisers can find reports on the audiences of millions of web sites. Publishers can [...]

Accelerating Your Website Performance

Jay

If you are using php as the development language for your site then you will be aware that php is an interpreted language. This means that every time a page is requested from your server the corresponding php file needs to be compiled first before being run. This obviously creates a performance overhead. However, what if you could compile these files only once and then execute just the compiled codewhen a user requests a page?

Well, you can. There are a couple of free products availab [...]

Adding Some Style to Your Sitemap

Jay

A sitemap file is a fantastic way to promote your site content to search engines. However, in its XML format it is not particularly useful for anything else.

I have just posted an article for members in which I show you how to customise your sitemap to be human readible and provide some useful features.

View the article

Make Money As An Affiliate

Jay

Those of you who are looking for ways to generate an income from a website would be wise to investigate becoming an affiliate.

Affiliates make money by encouraging users of their site to click through to sites of which they are affiliates and then get paid a commission for leads and sales generated from that link.

I have just uploaded a great ebook on becoming an Affiliate Master.

From this book you will learn how to create a Theme-Based Content Site... a site that is loa [...]

Internet Marketing Secrets

Jay

For those of you interested in building your own online business you might be interested in a new product I've come across that provides case studies of real people that have created successful online business that make a minimum of $100,000 a year.

Each month it focuses on two businesses and through intense 'question and answer' interviews dissect each business, exposing all the tools, tips and strategies they used to start, build and grow their companies to their current level of [...]